April 16, 2025 • 52 mins
Wednesday on 2 Pros and a Cup of Joe, Jimmy Butler and Steph Curry bring energy to the NBA Playoffs. The grass might not be greener for Nico Iamaleava. The Old P, Petros Papadakis talks about Jackie Rob-inson Day, red flags surrounding Nico Iamaleava and his transfer from Tennessee, the Lakers narrative focusing on Luka, retired numbers and more!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Is the best of two pros and a couple Joe
when Lamar Airings and Rady Win and Jonas Knox on Box.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Radio last night. The Eastern and Western Conference both had
the seventh and eight seed playing games last night, and
the NBA brought the drama all right, not so much
necessary for the Magic Hawks game because of the score,
more because of Trey Young, who at one point tried
to fake out a rep It looked like a punted
(00:30):
the ball either way. Orlando moves on to take on
the Boston Celtics. And in the West, you've got the
Golden State Warriors, who went a dramatic finish versus the Grizzlies,
kind of coming down the stretch led by Jimmy Butler.
Playoff Jimmy showed up along with Steph Curry. Those two
combined for US seventy five points in this one. Still
(00:51):
Golden State wins. They move on. They'll play Houston, the
number two seed in the West, and look, it's there's
still an opportunity for the Atlanta Hawks and the Memphis
Chrizzlies and the grenade throwing jab Iran. The reality is,
though they're gonna have to wait now to see who
wins between the nine and ten to play off for
that final eighth seed spot in each conference. Did you
(01:12):
have a chance to check out the games, LaVar, what
do you think of Trey Young's meltdown? I did watch
the games.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Atlanta seemed overmatched, outmatched, outclassed. Or Orlando is pretty They're
pretty good, but I don't know how much it's gonna matter.
I think they got to play the Celtics coming out
and going into the playoff first round, so I mean
(01:42):
I think, uh, was it be Ben Chiro? Ben Chorro
is a beast. I mean, he's their their star. But
the kid, what whether Black or Ben Carroll?
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Was it Black? Who was it?
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (01:56):
I'm trying to think who was the other leading leading guy?
There was like two other guys. They came off of
the bench, not great with their names. I'm not crazy
familiar with the roster of the Magic, but.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
They did.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Yeah, it might be Anthony Black. Uh, they did, They
did some. They did some pretty pretty good stuff.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
I just don't see them getting out of the first round.
But in terms of the recap of what Orlando did,
they just outclassed Atlanta. My my takeaway, my biggest takeaway
from the game was I feel like the Trey Young
experiment is over. It's it's done in Atlanta. I think
they need to, you know, they need to move on
(02:38):
from Trey Young and and probably try to figure out
how they can build rebuild for what it is that
they're going to try to do in the future. There's
going to be like I could see Trey Young being
in addition to the Lakers and that possibly, you know,
being an interesting deal because if they had a ball
(03:00):
handler like Trey Young, and Trey Young had some maybe guidance.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
I don't know. He he comes.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Across as like self absorbed and and and kind of
you know, I don't care about being arrogant too much,
but especially as a player on the on the court,
because I don't know how you are off of it.
But he just comes across as like he's not the
leader type. He doesn't seem like he brings a quality
(03:28):
that goes beyond whatever his talent is. And I think
if he were to have success, more success in the
in the NBA, I think it would be him being
on a team that has somebody that he could respect.
And that's why I brought up the Lakers. I think
that he would. I don't know his relationship with Lebron
James or anything like that, but even just seeing how
(03:49):
things are going with with Luca, I just think that
him having somebody who can kind of, you know, balance
him out in terms of just you know, it's okayk like,
just just be Tray Young, da da da, you know,
do what you do best. That here's the parameters, blase bla,
and he has a respect for it. I think we
(04:10):
would see better basketball out of Tree Young, and we've
seen some really really fine ball from him, but I
just think that he has this way about him.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
And I don't think that Atlanta is going.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
To get to the next that next plateau where they're
trying to go with with their current roster, and I
think that you start with blowing it up and Trey Young.
I just think that maybe that time has come to
an end. But that was kind of my biggest conclusion
from that game, in particular, that Orlando is not going
(04:42):
I don't think, well, they're gonna have to play yeah, yeah, yeah,
Orlando I believe has the cell whoever, yeah, yeah, whoever, whoever,
whoever Atlanta plays in the next round. I mean they win,
they get in, they don't. I'm not sure who plays.
I had the bracket, but I'm not looking at it
right now. But I just don't see Atlanta making a
(05:06):
real run. I don't see any of those two teams
making a real run. Now for the other game, I
said that I feel really confident about the Golden State
Warriors on yesterday show, and give.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Me a secondard, we'll just cap that conversation by the way,
so to one. Okay, Yeah, Cole Anthony and people up
by the way combined for forty two. Those are the
two guards coming off the bench for Landa. You're talking about, uh,
and look to me, the difference in that game is
three point shooting. I think to your point about Trey
Young when a shot stopped falling when they hit what four? Three?
Is the entire game for Atlanta, You're going to struggle,
(05:40):
you know, Cole Anthony and Anthony Black combined for seven
alone behind the three point arc. So, UH, last night
was an example of and this is one of the
reasons why I don't love one game sudden death scenarios,
which this is not that because Atlanta still has the
chance to play.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
The winner of Miami in Chicago who played tonight at
seven point thirty PM, but Eastern time. But it is
one of those one off kind of like the March
Madnis Tournament where you can catch a team that's got
a bad shooting night. Atlanta, it was kind of that
for them. Give Orlando credit for their defense, but at
(06:16):
the same time, you can have a bad shooting night
and a game can get away from you, and that's
what I felt like that game was. I kind of
felt like Trey Young and the rest of the team,
you just had a hard time really keeping pace, keeping
up and they couldn't hit a shot and that gets frustrated.
And I get that. I understand what you're saying about
Trey Young. I'm not saying blow it up yet. You
know they still will have a chance, even though I
(06:39):
don't know if I'm taking them over the heat maybe
the Bulls and how they match up. But still a
lot left I think for the Atlanta Hawks if they
can get through the winner of that Chicago Miami game.
In regards to the Golden State game or the win
last night, now slidifying himself as the seventh Sea, the
(07:00):
one thing I'd point out is just the addition of
Jimmy Butler. You know, Golden State needed to do something.
They did something. They went and got Jimmy Butler and
it's so far paying off dividends. We've a sound from
Steve Kerr talking about Jimmy Butler. Obviously playoff Jimmy and
his impact.
Speaker 5 (07:20):
In these big moments, these big games. He just settles
you down constantly. He just told me, I don't care
who guards me, you know, just give me, give me space,
give me the ball. I'll make something happen. And that's
the beauty of Jimmy. We have morphed into a different team.
We've got the movement and the flow of Steph, but
we've also become for half the game a great ISO team.
We've never been an ISO team here. There's great advantage
(07:42):
to that. Jimmy has completely changed everything for since he's
been here, and tonight was a great example of that.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
And he to show you too. When you've got a
player who can isoate like that, and especially when you've
got Steph Currey on that team as well, you really
can't do so many things. He Jimmy's either gonna win
the one one matchup, but if they try to bring
a double at some point it's gonna free up a shooter,
and that makes Golden State extremely dangerous and hard to
match up with, in particular going on in the next
round playing Houston.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
I mean, I thought it was a pretty interesting game.
It looked as though they were gonna run away with it.
By halftime. Jimmy was was just he was getting his man,
and it was it was going really, you know, really
well for them. Bain was doing pretty good to keep
them in it. I mean he was, he was doing
all right. I mean, he was kind of all they had.
(08:33):
And then I don't understand how Edie kept falling into
a position where he had to guard.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Jimmy Butler. I didn't.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
I didn't understand that. They made some adjustments. They did
well in the third quarter. They actually outscored Golden State
in the third quarter and and made it more of
a game. You know, joh Joy's Josh John Moran is
going to give you some some good moments. He he
put up twenty two. He did, he did what he
(09:05):
needed to do. I don't know, outside of him in Bain,
I just feel like they need one more. They're missing something.
They're missing a piece there in Memphis and I don't know.
I don't know what, I don't know if it was coaching,
maybe it could have been coaching in that game, but
(09:29):
I felt like they did adjust pretty well and made
it into a pretty decent end of a you know,
end of the game. But as far as Golden State,
I think that is the that's the story, that's the
biggest story coming out of it is what coach Steve
Kerr had to say is that having Jimmy Butler really
(09:49):
gives you the opportunity to do something they hadn't done before,
which is create isolations.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
To their opponents. And as long as.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
He can do that, if he can do that at
a high level, then all you need is for Draymond
Green to be that guy that's gonna facilitate that man
had ten assists last evening, and and and just find
that way of letting let Draymond be Draymond, let him
(10:19):
cook ass as the bully. But Butler is a bully too,
but he's a bully that can score Q and I
think that that's the difference. Like every once in a while,
Draymond can give you some some good points, but you
can't depend on him to be another source of generating points.
(10:41):
So when you get a guy like Jimmy Butler playing
the way that he does, it gives you two things. One,
it gives you again that guy that's tough and strong,
but he can.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Isolate like like Steve kurse It.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
The second thing that maybe people maybe didn't pay attention
to is it gives an opportunity to pull Steph Curry
off the floor, give him adequate rests so he can
continue to shoot them bombs the way that he does,
and you're still able to score while Steph Curry is
off the court.
Speaker 6 (11:10):
And I thought that that was pretty important.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
You saw him and John Moran off the court at
the same time, but you didn't see really Memphis take
take advantage or be able to take advantage of it.
In fact, that was when when Jimmy started really going
off and started being a little bit more aggressive going
to the hole and getting points. So I think that
(11:33):
they are a dangerous team now. If they come up
against a team that has a little bit more length,
it'll be interesting to see if Jimmy Butler is still
able to soften up the belly of that defense.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Que But outside of outside of those.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
Maybe the length and the strength of maybe like them
going up against a Lakers team, or even like I mean,
I guess you could say maybe the Nuggets. There are
a couple of teams. There's a couple teams out there,
I mean, Oklahoma, there's a couple teams out there. But
if they can continue to keep that balanced attack, I
(12:13):
think Golden State could be a dangerous team in this
playoff run. I mean, I mean, I'm saying a finals yeah, yeah,
but go ahead, we got that was my take from
that game.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Yeah, when you got Jimmy Butler and Steph Curry on
the same team, I mean, there's a lot of star power.
Steve Kurz ahell of a coach. They've got the role
players too, and guys like Draymond who can get it done.
So there's no doubt they could be a, you know,
one of those teams to look out for, despite the
fact they are a seven seed and they will have
to take on the number two seed, the Houston Rockets.
Now that's that's played well for Golden State though throughout
(12:43):
the course of the season. They're three and one in
the regular season. If you include the NBA Cup, they're
three and two versus but they still have this slight
edge over Houston during the course of the regular season,
so it should be as far as a Game of
seven matchup for Golden State, a favorable matchup, you know,
based on what they've been able to splay and do
so far. So we've still got a couple more games tonight,
(13:05):
as we talked about earlier. You've got a Chicago taken
on the Miami Heat for that nine to ten opportunity
to play into the loser of the seven eight game
like we had just talked about. And then obviously you've
got the uh the Dallas Mavericks taken on the Sacramento Kings.
And the interesting thing for me with the Mavericks is
(13:26):
if they can save face beat the Kings, which they're
four and a half point underdog, so they've got to
work cut out for them and somehow somehow find their
way of making it as the eid seed. When it's
all said and done, it is all forgiven for Nico Harrison,
like it's all gonna be forgiven for the Luca Dongets trade.
(13:46):
He's kind of doubled down say he likes the future,
he likes like where the MAVs are headed, But is
that what it's going to take for Mavericks fans to
basically forgive him, Like if there looks like there's a
promising future for this team without legit look at Donjacks,
or does it take the Mavericks getting further in the
playoffs if they can't again a big if, then the
(14:08):
La Lakers, a team that obviously look at Donjacks is on. Now.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
It's gonna take more than one season, and they would
have to win it, I think to ease the pain,
because that's always sitting there right Q, Like, I mean,
just if they were to lose at any point during
this playoff, this playoff run this year, you gotta believe
that they're gonna be like, well, we would have won if.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
We had Luca.
Speaker 6 (14:33):
We would have won that one if we had Luca.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
And I think so if they were to able to
win it all, you could quiet that down. And I
still think that the fans, that avid fans of the
team would find themselves saying the same exact thing the
following season. But at least you wouldn't be able to
kind of say, well, it didn't come without us having
the opportunity to win one. So I think they're gonna
(14:59):
have to with that one for a little while. I
don't think that one's going anywhere anytime soon.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
I don't think they need to win at all. I
do think in a world where they would get further
than the La Lakers, I think it does look better
for Nico if that was the case. So here's the
other hard part for the Dallas Mavericks. They went one
in three versus the Grizzlies, So even if they were
able to beat the Sacramento Kings, which I'm pretty sure
(15:26):
the King swept him this season during the regular season.
So not only are the it's an uphill battle not
having a star like Luca in this case, but also
the teams they have to play in a one off scenario.
In the Sacramento Kings as well as the Memphis Grizzlies
both got the better than this season, so it seems unlikely,
but I thought I'd toss it out there because there's
a chance. There's always a chance, and I feel for Nico.
(15:48):
He's getting a lot of flag. I think Mark Cuban
does too. Every time they show him when they start
chanting fire, Nico, he just puts his head in his
palms and it's a bit I don't know. It's rough there.
It's a rough life for Nico right now. Yeah, there
it is.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington, and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
We got a couple updates. The first one is the
Nico update, as apparently he has not found a home.
And for those of you who missed it, Nico Eo Maliava,
the quarterback who used to play for the Tennessee Volunteers,
decided to skip out on a spring game. This launched
into this whole chaotic scenario in which the University of
(16:42):
Tennessee decided to move on from Nico Eo Maliava and
his camp if you will. But apparently he reports service
that this has been going on for a while. This
actually the negotiations to get paid more than what he
was contracted to get paid for. We're actually going on
before the playoffs this past year, and I obviously came
to a head at some point before the spring game. Now,
(17:05):
Niko Iamaliava, who look not necessarily him himself, but his dad,
his family, his agent may have overplayed his hand as
he has not found a home. Similar to for example,
former California running back now Oklahoma running back Jade Not,
one of the better running backs in college football, hit
the transfer portal and immediately found a destination and a
(17:28):
home in the Oklahoma Sooner. So keep an eye for
Jade Not. He will be a guy we talk about
playing on Sundays at the NFL level. But back to Nico,
it appears that he's not even gonna be able to
find a suitor or a team that wants to pay
him four million. They'll forget four million, they don't want
to pay him two million. Reportedly, there's a number of
(17:49):
teams Ucla Tulane having to be the two named teams
that are waiting to see if the asking price for
Nico services will go down to that one million dollar mark.
And I would just quickly say this, LeVar, I think
this is actually good for college football. And unfortunately Niko
i Amaliava, his agent, his family has to take the
(18:10):
brunt of this. But this is also the other side
of trying to leave to go get paid more elsewhere
and trying to leverage whatever leverage you think you have
against some of these teams or against that collective or coach,
what have you. And this is the other side of it,
where the grass isn't always greener. This is sometimes how
it works out. And so as much as we look
(18:31):
at this and go, oh my gosh, college football it's
so chaotic, this is kind of also how free markets work.
Like he decided to hit the free market to basically
become a free agent, and he did it a way
that I think tarnish to hurt his reputation a little bit.
And now it's come to a place where he's realizing
what his market value is based on how he played
(18:52):
last year and how he's handled this. He's realized that
he probably should have stayed where he was and look,
we'll see how he could play, or whether it's for
UCLA or Telna, wherever he ends up. You know, we'll
see if he can resurrect his career and being one
of those top guys in college football, on the top
NFL draft prospect. But the reality is, as of right now,
(19:15):
he's still yet to find a home. And this is
a long departure from probably what him, his family, and
his agent was thinking a week ago as hard as
hell to be a starter at any position in a
Power five situation, and if you're at a top program,
an elite program, a blue blood program. You're talking about
(19:36):
a school where Peyton Manning started, you were the starter.
That's first and foremost.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Like you can't take for granted getting into a college
situation and having the opportunity to start like that.
Speaker 6 (19:48):
I think that gets lost in all of this. That's
first and foremost.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
Secondly, you asked me yesterday on the show, is this
good or bad for college football? I think it's good.
I think it's great for college football. I think it's
great for the student athlete as well. It is now
a reference point. You know, you hate for it to
be at the expense of any player in the wrong
way of the wrong direction. We'll see how it ultimately
(20:13):
plays out for Nico, but I mean.
Speaker 6 (20:16):
It's at his expense that you now have a.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
Situation that begins to give clarity on how the approach
should be the if the rules don't change as of
right now. You got to look at what just happened
with Nico, and you got to say to yourself, the
markets are starting to establish themselves in a way where
do you want to be on the wrong side of
(20:42):
a guestimation of thinking that your value is this because
of this player over here, this player over here, and
this player over here. Like Okay, you look at the
kid that leaves Georgia and goes to Miami and he
gets a pretty dog one good deal and you're like, well,
I'm as good as he is, and this.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
That and the other.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
I think you marry what took place just now with
Nico and how as you mentioned, it does give his
brand a hit. It gives him a hit, It makes
him almost radioactive. To be able to invest in him
to bring him to your school, especially depending on the
amount of money that you're going to spend, because your
(21:20):
market is going to speak to it and say, well,
Tennessee didn't feel like he was worth that, these other
schools didn't offer him that. Why are we the because
ultimately nil is going to pay him. Those markets aren't
be like, we don't need to invest that type of
money in him. We need to invest it in getting
overall good players for the entire program. But more to
(21:41):
this point, I had a business mentor when I was
in high school. His name happened to be and you
were like this. Jerome Bettis, you used to spend a
ton of time with him, and he taught me.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
We had the same barber.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
He would drive me around, we would have talks, and
he said one thing to me that I've read before
as well. He said, listen, you don't chase money with
what you do. You let your greatness be the catalyst
of money chasing you. The money chases greatness. You don't
be great by chasing money. And I didn't all the
way understand it, Q, But I still always focus myself
(22:21):
on trying to be the best that I could possibly be.
So the point of what I'm introducing that for is
Nico should have been so great on what he's doing
that the money's chasing him. The fact that we're sitting
here having a conversation that he doesn't have a clear
landing spot going into this scenario is beyond me to
(22:42):
actually think that if you're going to put chasing the
money ahead of being great, then you find yourself in
a situation like this. You don't have to question my greatness,
and you don't have to question why I'm leaving because
it's already laid out in front of me. There's this
school there's this school, there's this, and there's this school
that are actually contacting the people that represent me. Now, granted,
(23:05):
I know you brought up tampering and all those things.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Yesterday as well.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
I get all that, But all I'm gonna say is,
when the money chases you, you'll find a way to
know or you will know that that money is chasing you.
You will know that these opportunities are chasing you. If
you're chasing those opportunities, you could look around and you
can ultimately find yourself in the situation that Nico is in,
(23:31):
where it's like, oh wait.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Hold on.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
When the lights came on, there was nobody here. I
thought there'd be a whole bunch of people here with me.
There's no one here. And now he's left to scramble
those same people that are a part of his team,
trusted team to get him to where they're trying to
get him to. They're scrambling to try to figure out
where he's going to go to school. Those are some
decent names, U CLA makes sense. He's from around this way,
(23:55):
I mean, but who's going to be able to come
up with the type of money that he and now
that those numbers are going to be released when he
gets to a school, and you're going to see that
it wasn't what they thought it was going to be.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
He has no real leverage.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Now he's at the mercy of what people are willing
to offer him because he has no real leverage. I
think this is a cautionary.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Tale of the tape.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
You chase greatness, let the money chase you, as Jerome
Bettis said to me, and the rest will work out
for you. Keep it very simple, because once you get
out of keeping it simple, it gets very complicated and
you can become a victim of creating complications. There is
no blessings that can come within confusion. Now that came
from my dad, and that's a real thought. Do not
(24:40):
think that confusion blessings can come out of confusion, because
blessings do not happen in confusion. And this is a
confused state of situation that Nico and his team are
in right now.
Speaker 6 (24:52):
Preach, preach, figure out, give him a tad bit of church.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Just I'll see former Notre Dame legend in Tcherome bettis
always providing from some good insight talking to Jerome, so
we'll see. We'll keep everyone up to date on what
happens with Niko Iamliava. And and again just so people
don't confuse the messaging here, this young man's talented. He's
(25:17):
capable of being a guy that we talk about as
being a top ten pick. He has no doubt about it.
You look at his rankings coming from high school as
a five star. There's a reason why the University of
Tennessee wan to sign him to the contract they did. Now,
the tape last year some highs, some lows, and not
as much production as you had hoped in between, especially
for an offense that is conducive to putting up numbers.
(25:39):
And you know you mentioned earlier about the concern about
it not being an NFL offense. Well, they knew that
going into it, Like that's part of what the due
diligence you do when you're selecting different schools. So it's
kind of funny now they bring that up after a
few years of being there and saying, oh, it's not
an NFL offense. Well, okay, you knew that. You've known
that you've been there, I could have moved and done
(26:01):
this before. So to your point about not making about
the money, it feels like maybe it was all about
the money, and unfortunately the money eventually runs out in
this case, it looks like it's beginning.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
To be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros
and a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington,
and Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern, three am Pacific.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
And it's that time of the week Wednesdays, we're always
lucky to be joined by the one and only the
co host of The Petros and Money Show and an
analyst for Fox College Football. That's right, the old p Petros,
Papa Dacus. What's up? Petro? Good morning?
Speaker 4 (26:42):
Hello, Hello Brady, how are you go?
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Var?
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Hello On LeVar?
Speaker 6 (26:45):
Hello, good morning, sir, good morning, good morning.
Speaker 4 (26:48):
I'm here.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
You're here, You're ready to go. We're gonna start off
by asking you this. I wanted to mention this yesterday
and I saw you. I think I put something out
on social media about it. Jackie Robinson Day, big day
yesterday in Major League Baseball four fifteen. Talked to us
a little bit about the Dodgers with just the significance
of that day, in particular.
Speaker 7 (27:11):
The Jackie Robinson Day is always significant when it comes
to the Dodgers. Yesterday, they I mean, they built a
statue Jackie Robinson a few years back, and that was
cool and like kind of a place to gather for
Jackie Robinson day if the Dodgers are at home, and
(27:31):
then they kind of built this whole sort of beautiful
center field pavilion area around it, so it really is
kind of a great destination. So yesterday they had Kareem
Abdul Jabbar address the Rockies and the Dodgers, which is
really interesting connection because I mean, most of these players,
(27:52):
I mean they never saw Kareem play, of course, and
they made a lot of them maybe never even saw airplane,
but everybody knows who Kareem is and his records and
things like that, and there's a great connection because Kareem
is from New York Harlem and came out to LA.
Speaker 4 (28:09):
Probably because they paid him a whole bunch, but also.
Speaker 7 (28:12):
Because his father, who was a NYPD guy, grew up
loving the Brooklyn Dodgers and idolizing Jackie Robinson and they
and Jackie and Kareem both went to UCLA, where Jackie
lettered in like five hundred sports and so of course,
of course breaking the color barrier and all that and
(28:35):
We've had interviews with a lot of people that knew
Jackie Robinson really well over the years that we've been on.
Of course they've passed on Vin Scully and Don Newcombe
the great pitcher, but we got some perspective on him,
and we're able to kind of go back and play
some of those interviews and some of the sound bites
(28:57):
and things like that over the years, which is always gratifying. So, yeah,
it's a great it's a great day for baseball. Everybody
wears the number, you know, and it's a little confusing, right,
you know, if you if you just kind of check
the highlights, you know, everybody's wearing the number, and it's
a little it's a little odd. But there was a
(29:20):
complete and total reasoning behind that, which was the Brooklyn Dodgers,
you know, when they were executing breaking the color Barry
and baseball, and there was a lot of pushback that
some of the Brooklyn Dodgers suggested that they all wear
Jackie's number, so you know, no one could tell the
difference from far away while they were watching the game.
(29:41):
So that is a part of the significance of why
everybody wears the number forty two on the day, but
always very nice to remember and always something great to celebrate.
And it's good that the Dodgers and everybody kind of
take time out of the grind of the baseball season
to stop and listen to a and kind of tell
(30:01):
everybody what's what's happening and what's significant.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
I'm gonna switch gears and shots out in respect to
Jackie Robinson in the family clearly living in west Well,
Southern California, football levarc.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
I know it your field.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
I lived in in Alhambra, and I live i mean
right next to Pasadena. And if you live next to Pasadena,
one thing that you will be reminded of every day
pretty much, there's a Jackie Robinson Park. There's Jackie Robinson
things everywhere. People love the legacy and the memories of
(30:43):
Jackie Robinson and what he represented. So you see that
pretty much every day out here, which is super super cool,
the amount of love and admiration that he garnered for
the things that he did.
Speaker 6 (30:55):
I'm gonna switch gears and ask you about this, uh P.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
You know, for so many things that we talk about
with USC, I think this one time, and I'm not
saying this is the one time, but I'm just saying,
this is one time where you could look at USC
and the coaching staff when they brought in Lincoln Rally,
and you could say, man, like, maybe some things went wrong,
maybe some things could be better. But I'll say this,
(31:22):
with everything that's taking place with Tennessee, don't you kind
of look at Lincoln Rally now and be like, man,
he did an excellent job of being able to get
Caleb Williams, to get Addison guys like that, Yeah, into USC.
Because we're looking at a mess right now that's taking
place at Tennessee.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (31:42):
Well, in regards to Lincoln Riley and how it relates
to him, I mean, I think all these big time
coaches now, if you have a quarterback who's accomplished, it
looks like you're negotiating with that guy or you have
to negotiate with that guy all the time, or some
of these coaches are.
Speaker 4 (32:02):
And yeah, absolutely it's a mess.
Speaker 7 (32:03):
But I mean Lincoln Riley brought Caleb Williams in and
all those other transfers and us he is recruiting a
lot better, flipping a lot of guys from Oregon, doing
a great job with the new GM.
Speaker 4 (32:16):
Apparently, don't don't.
Speaker 7 (32:19):
I don't usually give a lot of weight to off
season parties, and oh my god, look who they recruited,
Look who they're who they're bringing in. And thus you
see it on the field. And Lincoln Riley's team has
been worse and worse and worse every year since the
very first year. After they lost to Utah the second
(32:40):
time in the Pac twelve Championship and did not go
to the College Football Playoff and ended up losing to
Tulane and the Sugar Bowl, Lincoln Riley said, this is
the worst will ever be rest assured, will never be
this bad again. And they have been exponentially worse every
year from now on. So you like, I agree with
(33:01):
you with you said, USC has their own problems hypel
handling this situation or what this was. I mean, you
live in high school football in this area. LeVar very
intensely over the last I don't know six years, and
the kid, Nico Iyamayava's had a lot of red flags
for that time. You know, I mean not I have
nothing against the kid. I have nothing against his family.
(33:25):
I only hear rumors about it, but I mean there's
enough rumors and enough there to say Okay, yeah, these
these are going to be a very difficult group of
people to deal with the more success or whatever that
this kid has. And it came to a head with
something we've never seen before, somebody trying to hold out
(33:47):
during spring practice. And you know I heard somebody make
the argument, well, this was exactly what coaches do. It's like, no, well,
you know, I've never seen spring practice start and everybody's like,
where's the head coach?
Speaker 4 (33:58):
He's holding out.
Speaker 7 (33:59):
I mean, it's one thing for Tommy Tubberville to leave
during like a recruiting dinner in February. It's a whole
other thing for a guy to hold out for spring practice.
What does it mean? What does it do to Nico
Amayava's are going to backfire on him? Kind of like
it did Mike Williams, the receiver in Maurice Claret, remember
(34:19):
that when they tried to buck the NFL's three year
thing and go right into the league. That really hurt
those guys. So I don't know. I mean, people keep
saying like North Carolina was in the mix, and it
was like I could kind of believe that people were saying,
tu Lanes in the mix. They're not even a power
for right the I mean, does Tulane have enough money.
(34:40):
They don't even have enough money for the right Marti
Gras colors for their team.
Speaker 4 (34:43):
That's why they're all.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Right.
Speaker 4 (34:46):
I mean, suh suh.
Speaker 7 (34:49):
Can you scrape the kaffers for this young quarterback to
come to the Garden District?
Speaker 4 (34:55):
I mean, that's not happening.
Speaker 7 (34:56):
I mean, and then you see LA four million dollars
or any two million, anything comparable to what he was
getting at Tennessee.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
That's not gonna happen either.
Speaker 7 (35:07):
So I think the market is kind of pushing back
against Nico I am Mayava. And you could say, like
if Nico Iam Mayava didn't have all these different red
flags and different stuff that had happened over the years
as far as leadership and stuff like that goes, maybe
they would pay him. Maybe we would never know this story.
But I think that they've had enough of it and
(35:29):
Tennessee just kind of took their ball and went home.
Speaker 4 (35:32):
What does it mean for the kid or the future,
It's a great question, Labar. I don't know.
Speaker 7 (35:36):
I mean, it's an absolute I think you described it
really well. It's a mess, but you can't I mean,
I don't care how good the player is, you can't
let him hold the whole team over the barrel for
spring practice.
Speaker 4 (35:47):
Dum.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
There's a part of you. I've got actually a couple
of questions on the topic. Does a part of you
look at though, how it's working out and think maybe
it's kind of a good thing, because it's like a
you know, for others that try to fall in the
footsteps of Niko. Know, it doesn't always mean that you're
going to find the offer or the opportunity you're looking for.
Speaker 7 (36:04):
Yeah, and it's going to be a lesson for others.
And we'll see where this kid ends up landing. I God,
I hope he goes back to Tennessee and figures it out.
Speaker 4 (36:13):
Maybe oh, no way, maybe that horse has left the barn.
Speaker 6 (36:15):
Yeah, that can't happen.
Speaker 7 (36:17):
But but I mean when when I saw the three
schools that were in the mix, I mean, there's none
of those schools. I mean UCLA would take two million
dollars that they're giving Nico Amayava and distribute it for
the rest of the football team. And that's probably the
same thing that would happen with with North Carolina and Tulane.
That the whole we're in the mix to bring in
(36:39):
this transfer quarterback kind of reminded me of like somebody
in like a school auction where you want people to
see you put your paddle up, but you don't want
to win the actual auction, right, You don't want to
spend ten thousand.
Speaker 6 (36:53):
You done that, You have done that in your life.
Speaker 4 (36:56):
I've seen people do it. Though it's like now you
end up spending fifteen thousand. You got to go to
the cook Islands, buddy.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
I literally had a bad experience doing that last year
at what did you tell you? Well? What what we
agreed to at one point was that me and another
guy were gonna split it. And then then they came
back and say no, no, no, no, you guys both can
do it. You both which which which raises more for
the charity. So I was like, yeah, both pay. Yeah
(37:26):
it was it wasn't that much. But then but when
they came back with that, I was like, oh, man, no,
I can't back out of this. So we we both
agreed to do it. And basically it's yet to come
to fruition. Like what what we were what we were
sold we were going to get exchange for the donation
has yet to come to fruition.
Speaker 7 (37:43):
So, I mean, I don't know how many times I've
sold to spend the day with Petros. You know, no
one ever like calls me and goes, hey, remember you
said you'd spend the day with me. It's like, no,
where can I bid on that? No one ever collects
on those. Where can I bid on that? I'll tell
you the next time.
Speaker 4 (37:59):
Any but he asked me please.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
I'm gonna do it, and I'm gonna tell my I'm
gonna tell my wife and my family. I'm going out
to cash in on an auction item and I'm hanging
out with Petres for a day.
Speaker 7 (38:10):
It is sad because I mean, you just kind of
feel like that was all those other teams were interested in.
I mean, if you listen to all of the message
boards and different things, people are really acting like this
kid is gonna come to UCLA.
Speaker 4 (38:23):
I don't.
Speaker 7 (38:25):
I don't see that, but but I wish the young
man good luck. I mean, I don't. I hate having
to criticize twenty year olds, but that's what I do
for a living.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
So there you go.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
Let me switch gears on you to the team that
everybody talks about outside of the Dallas Cowboys in the
off season.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
The Lakers.
Speaker 3 (38:47):
Oh well, that's a good one too. That's a good
one too. And I could have gone down that lane.
And you know what, I'm gonna stay away from it.
Speaker 4 (38:55):
Got Cornell Stewart coming on deck.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
Dang, I'm gonna use the topic the question that I
have prepared for you, because I prepare for this show
very very intensively. Petros, in fact, the most out of
any of the other guys that are on this show.
So yes, sir, so, I want to stay disciplined to
what I was going to ask you and.
Speaker 6 (39:19):
So and so I wanted to throw this one out
at you pee.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
The Lakers.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
Now, there's the whole playoffs debate that's going on right now,
and there seems to be so much optimism towards what
the Lakers can do in this year's playoffs.
Speaker 6 (39:39):
What's your what's.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
Your take on it?
Speaker 3 (39:41):
Do you think that they with the edition of Luca,
with the subtraction of Anthony, you know what Anthony did?
Speaker 2 (39:50):
What's his name?
Speaker 3 (39:51):
Tell me again, I'm looking at Davis. Do they have
a fear in your estimation? Do they have a fair
opportunity to make a run for the finals.
Speaker 6 (40:01):
Do you think they should be favored it to win it?
Speaker 4 (40:03):
I don't know.
Speaker 7 (40:04):
I don't know if they should be the favorite because,
like you said, we haven't really seen this machination of
this Laker group in the playoffs. I think the one thing,
I mean, for all the offseason talk and most of
it was about Browne James, and we don't need to
go down that road as everybody sees how the year
ended up. But JJ Reddick was a huge success. I
(40:27):
mean JJ Redick and how JJ Reddick, I mean, nobody
likes to be condescended to or just you know, heavily
sighed throughout every postgame press conference. But he has done
a great job. And then they switched it up on him,
like you said, with Ad and he's done an even
better job adapting to the new roster and getting role
(40:49):
players going around Lebron James, which obviously is not easy
and that's been proven over the years. I don't know
how it translates into playoff basketball. Everybody talks about how
they don't have any bigs and now they're going to
take on the Minnesota Tea Wolves and they have Rudy
Gobert and he's going to be doing his his Frenchman
(41:10):
thing out there, so it'll be interesting to see how
it all translates. The one thing in this play in
era or whatever we're doing now in the NBA, this
is the first time in LA that we've had the
Clippers and the Lakers in recent memory really kind of
surging into the playoffs. Maybe it felt that way in
(41:34):
twenty twenty to a certain degree, and then the year
ended abruptly and they ended up in the double with
Rachel Nichols and all that. But this is the first
time that the Clippers are playing at a really high
level with Kawhi Leonard and Aviza Zubats and James Harden
playing really well, although he does end up disappearing in
(41:56):
pivotal games in the playoffs, at least he has recently.
And then you have the Lakers, and they both but
the other thing is they both have such an intense
matchup in the first round. I mean, the Clippers have
to take on the Denver Nuggets, who have had some
issues but and yeah they're volatile, but they're still the
Denver Nuggets and they have the toughest matchup in the NBA,
(42:17):
and Nikolajoki and the Lakers have Anthony Edwards who's got
four kids by.
Speaker 4 (42:23):
Four baby moms. Did you know that four for four?
Speaker 7 (42:27):
You mean, I know they were chanting about child support
and I was like, oh god, what does he have
a kid or something?
Speaker 4 (42:32):
It's like four by four like an in and out.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
I mean, here's the logic that I've got you. I've
got five. I've got five spread out over like eight
and a half years. I mean, if you could five,
well yes, yeah, but I'm saying if you could, if
you wouldn't have five kids, four kids, if you could
bold it up into like a year or two, you
(42:56):
kind of get through that wave of the baby phase
into like toddler, you know, toddler, and then into adolescents.
Like not the worst way of looking at it, right,
just trying to look at the positive of it.
Speaker 6 (43:07):
You could build a whole village if you do it.
Speaker 4 (43:09):
If you do it, about that probably positive?
Speaker 2 (43:11):
Okay, I thought you were co signed on that. Maybe not.
Speaker 4 (43:14):
I mean no, I'm just saying that.
Speaker 7 (43:16):
I mean they will both if the Lakers and Clippers,
and they don't share the same stadium anymore, so we
can't call it the Hallway series.
Speaker 6 (43:24):
Don't share the same yeah, I say the same hotels.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
Right.
Speaker 7 (43:27):
So, so the Lakers and Clippers, they're surging into the playoffs,
but it would be really cool if they they would
have to meet in the Western Conference finals, and that
probably won't happen, but it would be great to see
them both get out of the first round, even though
they have really intense matchups. But to be honest, LeVar,
I don't know how it translates to playoff basketball, but
(43:52):
they certainly have been impressive down the stretch. And you know,
the story really isn't Lebron anymore, and I think that
really bothers Lebron and his people. But the story is
Luka Doncicic, and Luka Doncicic is Jersey is number one
and all of those different things. And we'll see how
he performs. He was spectacular last year in the playoffs
(44:13):
and took him all the way to the finals of
Dallas Mavericks, so we'll see.
Speaker 3 (44:16):
He I want I want to follow up on a
question QS earlier, just super quickly, and he made the point,
is it a what does Dallas have to do in
order for the fans not to melt down over you know,
losing Luca to the Lakers. I would pose the same question,
what do the Lakers have to do in order for
(44:39):
Lakers fans to be appeased or happy or satisfied with
this season? Does has it already happened or does it
have to happen with this playoff run?
Speaker 7 (44:49):
Yeah, I think disappointment in the playoffs brings you right
back to whatever. But I don't think you're that back there.
No might disagree with the statement I just made. Laker
fans have a twenty what is he twenty six? They
have a twenty six year old superstar. Maybe he vapes
or hookahs there, likes vodka and beer, but he's still
(45:09):
one of the top three best players in the NBA
and he's twenty six. So the Lakers have a future
around Luka Doncic and that they did not have that
a month and a half ago, and or whatever. That
is what's changed.
Speaker 4 (45:24):
That is the.
Speaker 7 (45:26):
Seismic shift in the world of basketball on the West Coast.
So I think that regardless of what happens here with
the Lebron built team and the Lebron coach and Lebron
being Lebron and his doll, I think that the future
under Luka Doncic is really what people are looking to.
(45:47):
If they make a run and people start talking about
another championship, that'll change and God willing will be talking
between then and now.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
I actually want to go back to the topic of
kind of and not talk about him specifically, but more
how he got here. And I'm wondering because in the
state of California, you know, players can earn money off
their name, image and lights in high school. In fact,
like I wasn't even aware this many states had approved this,
but there's forty states in the US where that's the case.
(46:17):
And so I guess I'm just kind of going back
to maybe his parents' perspective, his perspective. How much of
a rule does that play.
Speaker 4 (46:27):
I don't know.
Speaker 7 (46:27):
I mean, it's such a foggy gray area, right, Brady,
because we all were raised Now, I didn't play quarterback,
which is a different thing. I mean, we all know that,
and uh and obviously LaVar is one of the great
players in his position in a generation. So maybe it
doesn't translate, you know, to you guys personally, but I
think it does. I mean, well we I mean, when
(46:49):
you play football, you know the message is big team,
little me, right, I mean, you know, you're supposed to
think about the team. You're supposed to think about your Teammates'
supposed to show your teammates that even though you're a
mega talented player like Brady quann or LeVar Arrington, that
we're all in this together. We're all at the same
(47:10):
training table, we all wear the same mess shorts. You know,
that's part of a football team. And individuals on a
football team were acting individually selfish normally does not translate
well to a team dynamic. Now we all know what
teams are like, and there's a pecking order and guys
(47:30):
that are more talented and higher recruits and maybe even
not more talented, but just bigger recruits that treated a
different way than maybe some guys that have to earn
it a little bit differently. We all know those stories,
and not everything is always equal, but we are all
raised to think about the team before you think about yourself.
And you throw the number next to everybody's name into
(47:54):
the mix, and you know, at the NFL level, when
you guys get up there, you get them that at
a certain point, everybody's mature enough to deal with the
fact that everybody's getting paid. Everybody's worth a certain amount
of money. Everybody's trying to stay in the league. But
in college football we get this weird gray area between
what are you willing to sacrifice for the team and Hey,
(48:16):
I'm a big time player, what is the team willing
to do for me? You know, this quarterback over here
is getting paid x amount of money. I'm not getting
as much. My deal happened earlier than his. You know,
the same stuff that happens in the NFL with less
mature and less qualified people who have less mature and
less qualified people advising them. So what LeVar said when
(48:40):
we started the conversation about this situation holds true. It's
a mess, and it is going to be really hard
to I mean, it's just really hard to moralize it
under the kind of football mentality that I grew up playing.
But at the same time I understand it. I mean,
how long is this guy going to play football? There's
money out there. The problem is, if you're playing college
(49:02):
football and you're a really big time play, you want
to be compensated comparable to how other guys like that
are playing like you are compensated around the country. But
you also don't want to cause so much trouble and
make so much of a stink to where the NFL
and people at that level hear the rumblings about you
(49:23):
and you get labeled as somebody who's not.
Speaker 4 (49:26):
Easy to work with or team.
Speaker 2 (49:28):
Orient I think I was more pointing out the perspective
that that's our perspective because we grew up in that,
our parents don't know any different. Nowadays, these kids in
junior high are looking at their high school destinations because
they can start becoming a household brand at least in
that local area in the state what have you, and
actually earn an i ol moneies at the high school
level now in forty states. So that perspective that we
(49:50):
share is just very different from I think maybe how parents,
not even players are looking now right, I.
Speaker 7 (49:55):
Think it is, but I still think you build a
football team in the same way.
Speaker 2 (49:59):
Without no and everyone believes that. But I just think again,
the perspective of that player, though, is changing at a
very rapid young age. So we could talk about this forever.
We're up against the break. I want to ask you
this though we didn't ask you about Shador Sanders, Travis Hunters,
Jersey's being retired of Colorado.
Speaker 7 (50:16):
I gotta get your take on this, well, Travis Hunter.
I mean, the guy won the Heisman Trophy. So I
mean it's but it's highly questionable. You can argue about like, look,
I look at how much they change the program and
all these different things. But I mean, just take Don Figures,
the cornerback who also wore the number two for CU
(50:37):
he won the championship in nineteen ninety. Jim Thorpe Award winner,
Jack Tatum Award, consensus All American Big Eight Defensive Player
of the Year, first round pick College.
Speaker 4 (50:48):
Football Hall of Fame not retired.
Speaker 7 (50:53):
I mean Rashaan Salam God rest his soul, who won
the Heisman, awaited a decade plus twenty.
Speaker 4 (51:00):
Years to have his number retired there.
Speaker 7 (51:03):
And I know numbers are retired for different reasons and
all that, but highly questionable. A true stretch to retire
Shador Sanders number after a ten and eight career at
Colorado from transferring in from Jackson. That's my opinion. I'm
sure there'll be a lot of debate about it. It's
I heard one reporter say at least they're not retiring
(51:26):
Shiloh's number, and I wouldn't be surprised if they tried.
Speaker 2 (51:31):
Oh, the one and only Petro's papa Daikish boy man.
I always enjoy the conversations. Appreciate you joining us early
this morning. And go Dodgers by the way, go yeah.
Speaker 7 (51:45):
Yeah, yeah, you know it's April. But they're in third.
That's bad.
Speaker 2 (51:50):
That's not good for them, not all the money they're
spending this appointment. Now, do you think Joe Davis is disappointed? No,
it's early.
Speaker 4 (52:00):
There's gonna be a Joe Davis bobblehead night, is there?
Speaker 2 (52:03):
Really?
Speaker 4 (52:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (52:03):
And they haven't revealed, like they've revealed everything, but they
haven't revealed what it's gonna look like.
Speaker 2 (52:09):
I think it's gonna be.
Speaker 7 (52:10):
Standing in front of a big green egg with a
spatula in his hand with a quizzical look on his face.
Speaker 4 (52:15):
Hey man, farbacue cost eight thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (52:21):
I've had some of his cooking, though. That guy can
throw it down, all right. Cook, Let srry on the grill.
Speaker 4 (52:33):
I'm over in the corner wall.
Speaker 2 (52:36):
There we go, all right. Always appreciate it, Thank you, sir,
Is the best of two pros and a couple Joe
when Lamar Airings and Rady Win and Jonas Knox on Box.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Radio last night. The Eastern and Western Conference both had
the seventh and eight seed playing games last night, and
the NBA brought the drama all right, not so much
necessary for the Magic Hawks game because of the score,
more because of Trey Young, who at one point tried
to fake out a rep It looked like a punted
(00:30):
the ball either way. Orlando moves on to take on
the Boston Celtics. And in the West, you've got the
Golden State Warriors, who went a dramatic finish versus the Grizzlies,
kind of coming down the stretch led by Jimmy Butler.
Playoff Jimmy showed up along with Steph Curry. Those two
combined for US seventy five points in this one. Still
(00:51):
Golden State wins. They move on. They'll play Houston, the
number two seed in the West, and look, it's there's
still an opportunity for the Atlanta Hawks and the Memphis
Chrizzlies and the grenade throwing jab Iran. The reality is,
though they're gonna have to wait now to see who
wins between the nine and ten to play off for
that final eighth seed spot in each conference. Did you
(01:12):
have a chance to check out the games, LaVar, what
do you think of Trey Young's meltdown? I did watch
the games.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Atlanta seemed overmatched, outmatched, outclassed. Or Orlando is pretty They're
pretty good, but I don't know how much it's gonna matter.
I think they got to play the Celtics coming out
and going into the playoff first round, so I mean
(01:42):
I think, uh, was it be Ben Chiro? Ben Chorro
is a beast. I mean, he's their their star. But
the kid, what whether Black or Ben Carroll?
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Was it Black? Who was it?
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Uh?
Speaker 3 (01:56):
I'm trying to think who was the other leading leading guy?
There was like two other guys. They came off of
the bench, not great with their names. I'm not crazy
familiar with the roster of the Magic, but.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
They did.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
Yeah, it might be Anthony Black. Uh, they did, They
did some. They did some pretty pretty good stuff.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
I just don't see them getting out of the first round.
But in terms of the recap of what Orlando did,
they just outclassed Atlanta. My my takeaway, my biggest takeaway
from the game was I feel like the Trey Young
experiment is over. It's it's done in Atlanta. I think
they need to, you know, they need to move on
(02:38):
from Trey Young and and probably try to figure out
how they can build rebuild for what it is that
they're going to try to do in the future. There's
going to be like I could see Trey Young being
in addition to the Lakers and that possibly, you know,
being an interesting deal because if they had a ball
(03:00):
handler like Trey Young, and Trey Young had some maybe guidance.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
I don't know. He he comes.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
Across as like self absorbed and and and kind of
you know, I don't care about being arrogant too much,
but especially as a player on the on the court,
because I don't know how you are off of it.
But he just comes across as like he's not the
leader type. He doesn't seem like he brings a quality
(03:28):
that goes beyond whatever his talent is. And I think
if he were to have success, more success in the
in the NBA, I think it would be him being
on a team that has somebody that he could respect.
And that's why I brought up the Lakers. I think
that he would. I don't know his relationship with Lebron
James or anything like that, but even just seeing how
(03:49):
things are going with with Luca, I just think that
him having somebody who can kind of, you know, balance
him out in terms of just you know, it's okayk like,
just just be Tray Young, da da da, you know,
do what you do best. That here's the parameters, blase bla,
and he has a respect for it. I think we
(04:10):
would see better basketball out of Tree Young, and we've
seen some really really fine ball from him, but I
just think that he has this way about him.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
And I don't think that Atlanta is going.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
To get to the next that next plateau where they're
trying to go with with their current roster, and I
think that you start with blowing it up and Trey Young.
I just think that maybe that time has come to
an end. But that was kind of my biggest conclusion
from that game, in particular, that Orlando is not going
(04:42):
I don't think, well, they're gonna have to play yeah, yeah, yeah,
Orlando I believe has the cell whoever, yeah, yeah, whoever, whoever,
whoever Atlanta plays in the next round. I mean they win,
they get in, they don't. I'm not sure who plays.
I had the bracket, but I'm not looking at it
right now. But I just don't see Atlanta making a
(05:06):
real run. I don't see any of those two teams
making a real run. Now for the other game, I
said that I feel really confident about the Golden State
Warriors on yesterday show, and give.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Me a secondard, we'll just cap that conversation by the way,
so to one. Okay, Yeah, Cole Anthony and people up
by the way combined for forty two. Those are the
two guards coming off the bench for Landa. You're talking about, uh,
and look to me, the difference in that game is
three point shooting. I think to your point about Trey
Young when a shot stopped falling when they hit what four? Three?
Is the entire game for Atlanta, You're going to struggle,
(05:40):
you know, Cole Anthony and Anthony Black combined for seven
alone behind the three point arc. So, UH, last night
was an example of and this is one of the
reasons why I don't love one game sudden death scenarios,
which this is not that because Atlanta still has the
chance to play.
Speaker 4 (05:56):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
The winner of Miami in Chicago who played tonight at
seven point thirty PM, but Eastern time. But it is
one of those one off kind of like the March
Madnis Tournament where you can catch a team that's got
a bad shooting night. Atlanta, it was kind of that
for them. Give Orlando credit for their defense, but at
(06:16):
the same time, you can have a bad shooting night
and a game can get away from you, and that's
what I felt like that game was. I kind of
felt like Trey Young and the rest of the team,
you just had a hard time really keeping pace, keeping
up and they couldn't hit a shot and that gets frustrated.
And I get that. I understand what you're saying about
Trey Young. I'm not saying blow it up yet. You
know they still will have a chance, even though I
(06:39):
don't know if I'm taking them over the heat maybe
the Bulls and how they match up. But still a
lot left I think for the Atlanta Hawks if they
can get through the winner of that Chicago Miami game.
In regards to the Golden State game or the win
last night, now slidifying himself as the seventh Sea, the
(07:00):
one thing I'd point out is just the addition of
Jimmy Butler. You know, Golden State needed to do something.
They did something. They went and got Jimmy Butler and
it's so far paying off dividends. We've a sound from
Steve Kerr talking about Jimmy Butler. Obviously playoff Jimmy and
his impact.
Speaker 5 (07:20):
In these big moments, these big games. He just settles
you down constantly. He just told me, I don't care
who guards me, you know, just give me, give me space,
give me the ball. I'll make something happen. And that's
the beauty of Jimmy. We have morphed into a different team.
We've got the movement and the flow of Steph, but
we've also become for half the game a great ISO team.
We've never been an ISO team here. There's great advantage
(07:42):
to that. Jimmy has completely changed everything for since he's
been here, and tonight was a great example of that.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
And he to show you too. When you've got a
player who can isoate like that, and especially when you've
got Steph Currey on that team as well, you really
can't do so many things. He Jimmy's either gonna win
the one one matchup, but if they try to bring
a double at some point it's gonna free up a shooter,
and that makes Golden State extremely dangerous and hard to
match up with, in particular going on in the next
round playing Houston.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
I mean, I thought it was a pretty interesting game.
It looked as though they were gonna run away with it.
By halftime. Jimmy was was just he was getting his man,
and it was it was going really, you know, really
well for them. Bain was doing pretty good to keep
them in it. I mean he was, he was doing
all right. I mean, he was kind of all they had.
(08:33):
And then I don't understand how Edie kept falling into
a position where he had to guard.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Jimmy Butler. I didn't.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
I didn't understand that. They made some adjustments. They did
well in the third quarter. They actually outscored Golden State
in the third quarter and and made it more of
a game. You know, joh Joy's Josh John Moran is
going to give you some some good moments. He he
put up twenty two. He did, he did what he
(09:05):
needed to do. I don't know, outside of him in Bain,
I just feel like they need one more. They're missing something.
They're missing a piece there in Memphis and I don't know.
I don't know what, I don't know if it was coaching,
maybe it could have been coaching in that game, but
(09:29):
I felt like they did adjust pretty well and made
it into a pretty decent end of a you know,
end of the game. But as far as Golden State,
I think that is the that's the story, that's the
biggest story coming out of it is what coach Steve
Kerr had to say is that having Jimmy Butler really
(09:49):
gives you the opportunity to do something they hadn't done before,
which is create isolations.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
To their opponents. And as long as.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
He can do that, if he can do that at
a high level, then all you need is for Draymond
Green to be that guy that's gonna facilitate that man
had ten assists last evening, and and and just find
that way of letting let Draymond be Draymond, let him
(10:19):
cook ass as the bully. But Butler is a bully too,
but he's a bully that can score Q and I
think that that's the difference. Like every once in a while,
Draymond can give you some some good points, but you
can't depend on him to be another source of generating points.
(10:41):
So when you get a guy like Jimmy Butler playing
the way that he does, it gives you two things. One,
it gives you again that guy that's tough and strong,
but he can.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Isolate like like Steve kurse It.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
The second thing that maybe people maybe didn't pay attention
to is it gives an opportunity to pull Steph Curry
off the floor, give him adequate rests so he can
continue to shoot them bombs the way that he does,
and you're still able to score while Steph Curry is
off the court.
Speaker 6 (11:10):
And I thought that that was pretty important.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
You saw him and John Moran off the court at
the same time, but you didn't see really Memphis take
take advantage or be able to take advantage of it.
In fact, that was when when Jimmy started really going
off and started being a little bit more aggressive going
to the hole and getting points. So I think that
(11:33):
they are a dangerous team now. If they come up
against a team that has a little bit more length,
it'll be interesting to see if Jimmy Butler is still
able to soften up the belly of that defense.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Que But outside of outside of those.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
Maybe the length and the strength of maybe like them
going up against a Lakers team, or even like I mean,
I guess you could say maybe the Nuggets. There are
a couple of teams. There's a couple teams out there,
I mean, Oklahoma, there's a couple teams out there. But
if they can continue to keep that balanced attack, I
(12:13):
think Golden State could be a dangerous team in this
playoff run. I mean, I mean, I'm saying a finals yeah, yeah,
but go ahead, we got that was my take from
that game.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Yeah, when you got Jimmy Butler and Steph Curry on
the same team, I mean, there's a lot of star power.
Steve Kurz ahell of a coach. They've got the role
players too, and guys like Draymond who can get it done.
So there's no doubt they could be a, you know,
one of those teams to look out for, despite the
fact they are a seven seed and they will have
to take on the number two seed, the Houston Rockets.
Now that's that's played well for Golden State though throughout
(12:43):
the course of the season. They're three and one in
the regular season. If you include the NBA Cup, they're
three and two versus but they still have this slight
edge over Houston during the course of the regular season,
so it should be as far as a Game of
seven matchup for Golden State, a favorable matchup, you know,
based on what they've been able to splay and do
so far. So we've still got a couple more games tonight,
(13:05):
as we talked about earlier. You've got a Chicago taken
on the Miami Heat for that nine to ten opportunity
to play into the loser of the seven eight game
like we had just talked about. And then obviously you've
got the uh the Dallas Mavericks taken on the Sacramento Kings.
And the interesting thing for me with the Mavericks is
(13:26):
if they can save face beat the Kings, which they're
four and a half point underdog, so they've got to
work cut out for them and somehow somehow find their
way of making it as the eid seed. When it's
all said and done, it is all forgiven for Nico Harrison,
like it's all gonna be forgiven for the Luca Dongets trade.
(13:46):
He's kind of doubled down say he likes the future,
he likes like where the MAVs are headed, But is
that what it's going to take for Mavericks fans to
basically forgive him, Like if there looks like there's a
promising future for this team without legit look at Donjacks,
or does it take the Mavericks getting further in the
playoffs if they can't again a big if, then the
(14:08):
La Lakers, a team that obviously look at Donjacks is on. Now.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
It's gonna take more than one season, and they would
have to win it, I think to ease the pain,
because that's always sitting there right Q, Like, I mean,
just if they were to lose at any point during
this playoff, this playoff run this year, you gotta believe
that they're gonna be like, well, we would have won if.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
We had Luca.
Speaker 6 (14:33):
We would have won that one if we had Luca.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
And I think so if they were to able to
win it all, you could quiet that down. And I
still think that the fans, that avid fans of the
team would find themselves saying the same exact thing the
following season. But at least you wouldn't be able to
kind of say, well, it didn't come without us having
the opportunity to win one. So I think they're gonna
(14:59):
have to with that one for a little while. I
don't think that one's going anywhere anytime soon.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
I don't think they need to win at all. I
do think in a world where they would get further
than the La Lakers, I think it does look better
for Nico if that was the case. So here's the
other hard part for the Dallas Mavericks. They went one
in three versus the Grizzlies, So even if they were
able to beat the Sacramento Kings, which I'm pretty sure
(15:26):
the King swept him this season during the regular season.
So not only are the it's an uphill battle not
having a star like Luca in this case, but also
the teams they have to play in a one off scenario.
In the Sacramento Kings as well as the Memphis Grizzlies
both got the better than this season, so it seems unlikely,
but I thought I'd toss it out there because there's
a chance. There's always a chance, and I feel for Nico.
(15:48):
He's getting a lot of flag. I think Mark Cuban
does too. Every time they show him when they start
chanting fire, Nico, he just puts his head in his
palms and it's a bit I don't know. It's rough there.
It's a rough life for Nico right now. Yeah, there
it is.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros and
a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington, and
Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
We got a couple updates. The first one is the
Nico update, as apparently he has not found a home.
And for those of you who missed it, Nico Eo Maliava,
the quarterback who used to play for the Tennessee Volunteers,
decided to skip out on a spring game. This launched
into this whole chaotic scenario in which the University of
(16:42):
Tennessee decided to move on from Nico Eo Maliava and
his camp if you will. But apparently he reports service
that this has been going on for a while. This
actually the negotiations to get paid more than what he
was contracted to get paid for. We're actually going on
before the playoffs this past year, and I obviously came
to a head at some point before the spring game. Now,
(17:05):
Niko Iamaliava, who look not necessarily him himself, but his dad,
his family, his agent may have overplayed his hand as
he has not found a home. Similar to for example,
former California running back now Oklahoma running back Jade Not,
one of the better running backs in college football, hit
the transfer portal and immediately found a destination and a
(17:28):
home in the Oklahoma Sooner. So keep an eye for
Jade Not. He will be a guy we talk about
playing on Sundays at the NFL level. But back to Nico,
it appears that he's not even gonna be able to
find a suitor or a team that wants to pay
him four million. They'll forget four million, they don't want
to pay him two million. Reportedly, there's a number of
(17:49):
teams Ucla Tulane having to be the two named teams
that are waiting to see if the asking price for
Nico services will go down to that one million dollar mark.
And I would just quickly say this, LeVar, I think
this is actually good for college football. And unfortunately Niko
i Amaliava, his agent, his family has to take the
(18:10):
brunt of this. But this is also the other side
of trying to leave to go get paid more elsewhere
and trying to leverage whatever leverage you think you have
against some of these teams or against that collective or coach,
what have you. And this is the other side of it,
where the grass isn't always greener. This is sometimes how
it works out. And so as much as we look
(18:31):
at this and go, oh my gosh, college football it's
so chaotic, this is kind of also how free markets work.
Like he decided to hit the free market to basically
become a free agent, and he did it a way
that I think tarnish to hurt his reputation a little bit.
And now it's come to a place where he's realizing
what his market value is based on how he played
(18:52):
last year and how he's handled this. He's realized that
he probably should have stayed where he was and look,
we'll see how he could play, or whether it's for
UCLA or Telna, wherever he ends up. You know, we'll
see if he can resurrect his career and being one
of those top guys in college football, on the top
NFL draft prospect. But the reality is, as of right now,
(19:15):
he's still yet to find a home. And this is
a long departure from probably what him, his family, and
his agent was thinking a week ago as hard as
hell to be a starter at any position in a
Power five situation, and if you're at a top program,
an elite program, a blue blood program. You're talking about
(19:36):
a school where Peyton Manning started, you were the starter.
That's first and foremost.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Like you can't take for granted getting into a college
situation and having the opportunity to start like that.
Speaker 6 (19:48):
I think that gets lost in all of this. That's
first and foremost.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
Secondly, you asked me yesterday on the show, is this
good or bad for college football? I think it's good.
I think it's great for college football. I think it's
great for the student athlete as well. It is now
a reference point. You know, you hate for it to
be at the expense of any player in the wrong
way of the wrong direction. We'll see how it ultimately
(20:13):
plays out for Nico, but I mean.
Speaker 6 (20:16):
It's at his expense that you now have a.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
Situation that begins to give clarity on how the approach
should be the if the rules don't change as of
right now. You got to look at what just happened
with Nico, and you got to say to yourself, the
markets are starting to establish themselves in a way where
do you want to be on the wrong side of
(20:42):
a guestimation of thinking that your value is this because
of this player over here, this player over here, and
this player over here. Like Okay, you look at the
kid that leaves Georgia and goes to Miami and he
gets a pretty dog one good deal and you're like, well,
I'm as good as he is, and this.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
That and the other.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
I think you marry what took place just now with
Nico and how as you mentioned, it does give his
brand a hit. It gives him a hit, It makes
him almost radioactive. To be able to invest in him
to bring him to your school, especially depending on the
amount of money that you're going to spend, because your
(21:20):
market is going to speak to it and say, well,
Tennessee didn't feel like he was worth that, these other
schools didn't offer him that. Why are we the because
ultimately nil is going to pay him. Those markets aren't
be like, we don't need to invest that type of
money in him. We need to invest it in getting
overall good players for the entire program. But more to
(21:41):
this point, I had a business mentor when I was
in high school. His name happened to be and you
were like this. Jerome Bettis, you used to spend a
ton of time with him, and he taught me.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
We had the same barber.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
He would drive me around, we would have talks, and
he said one thing to me that I've read before
as well. He said, listen, you don't chase money with
what you do. You let your greatness be the catalyst
of money chasing you. The money chases greatness. You don't
be great by chasing money. And I didn't all the
way understand it, Q, But I still always focus myself
(22:21):
on trying to be the best that I could possibly be.
So the point of what I'm introducing that for is
Nico should have been so great on what he's doing
that the money's chasing him. The fact that we're sitting
here having a conversation that he doesn't have a clear
landing spot going into this scenario is beyond me to
(22:42):
actually think that if you're going to put chasing the
money ahead of being great, then you find yourself in
a situation like this. You don't have to question my greatness,
and you don't have to question why I'm leaving because
it's already laid out in front of me. There's this
school there's this school, there's this, and there's this school
that are actually contacting the people that represent me. Now, granted,
(23:05):
I know you brought up tampering and all those things.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Yesterday as well.
Speaker 3 (23:10):
I get all that, But all I'm gonna say is,
when the money chases you, you'll find a way to
know or you will know that that money is chasing you.
You will know that these opportunities are chasing you. If
you're chasing those opportunities, you could look around and you
can ultimately find yourself in the situation that Nico is in,
(23:31):
where it's like, oh wait.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Hold on.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
When the lights came on, there was nobody here. I
thought there'd be a whole bunch of people here with me.
There's no one here. And now he's left to scramble
those same people that are a part of his team,
trusted team to get him to where they're trying to
get him to. They're scrambling to try to figure out
where he's going to go to school. Those are some
decent names, U CLA makes sense. He's from around this way,
(23:55):
I mean, but who's going to be able to come
up with the type of money that he and now
that those numbers are going to be released when he
gets to a school, and you're going to see that
it wasn't what they thought it was going to be.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
He has no real leverage.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
Now he's at the mercy of what people are willing
to offer him because he has no real leverage. I
think this is a cautionary.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Tale of the tape.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
You chase greatness, let the money chase you, as Jerome
Bettis said to me, and the rest will work out
for you. Keep it very simple, because once you get
out of keeping it simple, it gets very complicated and
you can become a victim of creating complications. There is
no blessings that can come within confusion. Now that came
from my dad, and that's a real thought. Do not
(24:40):
think that confusion blessings can come out of confusion, because
blessings do not happen in confusion. And this is a
confused state of situation that Nico and his team are
in right now.
Speaker 6 (24:52):
Preach, preach, figure out, give him a tad bit of church.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Just I'll see former Notre Dame legend in Tcherome bettis
always providing from some good insight talking to Jerome, so
we'll see. We'll keep everyone up to date on what
happens with Niko Iamliava. And and again just so people
don't confuse the messaging here, this young man's talented. He's
(25:17):
capable of being a guy that we talk about as
being a top ten pick. He has no doubt about it.
You look at his rankings coming from high school as
a five star. There's a reason why the University of
Tennessee wan to sign him to the contract they did. Now,
the tape last year some highs, some lows, and not
as much production as you had hoped in between, especially
for an offense that is conducive to putting up numbers.
(25:39):
And you know you mentioned earlier about the concern about
it not being an NFL offense. Well, they knew that
going into it, Like that's part of what the due
diligence you do when you're selecting different schools. So it's
kind of funny now they bring that up after a
few years of being there and saying, oh, it's not
an NFL offense. Well, okay, you knew that. You've known
that you've been there, I could have moved and done
(26:01):
this before. So to your point about not making about
the money, it feels like maybe it was all about
the money, and unfortunately the money eventually runs out in
this case, it looks like it's beginning.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
To be sure to catch live editions of Two Pros
and a Cup of Joe with Brady Quinn, LeVar Errington,
and Jonas Knox weekdays at six am Eastern, three am Pacific.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
And it's that time of the week Wednesdays, we're always
lucky to be joined by the one and only the
co host of The Petros and Money Show and an
analyst for Fox College Football. That's right, the old p Petros,
Papa Dacus. What's up? Petro? Good morning?
Speaker 4 (26:42):
Hello, Hello Brady, how are you go?
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Var?
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Hello On LeVar?
Speaker 6 (26:45):
Hello, good morning, sir, good morning, good morning.
Speaker 4 (26:48):
I'm here.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
You're here, You're ready to go. We're gonna start off
by asking you this. I wanted to mention this yesterday
and I saw you. I think I put something out
on social media about it. Jackie Robinson Day, big day
yesterday in Major League Baseball four fifteen. Talked to us
a little bit about the Dodgers with just the significance
of that day, in particular.
Speaker 7 (27:11):
The Jackie Robinson Day is always significant when it comes
to the Dodgers. Yesterday, they I mean, they built a
statue Jackie Robinson a few years back, and that was
cool and like kind of a place to gather for
Jackie Robinson day if the Dodgers are at home, and
(27:31):
then they kind of built this whole sort of beautiful
center field pavilion area around it, so it really is
kind of a great destination. So yesterday they had Kareem
Abdul Jabbar address the Rockies and the Dodgers, which is
really interesting connection because I mean, most of these players,
(27:52):
I mean they never saw Kareem play, of course, and
they made a lot of them maybe never even saw airplane,
but everybody knows who Kareem is and his records and
things like that, and there's a great connection because Kareem
is from New York Harlem and came out to LA.
Speaker 4 (28:09):
Probably because they paid him a whole bunch, but also.
Speaker 7 (28:12):
Because his father, who was a NYPD guy, grew up
loving the Brooklyn Dodgers and idolizing Jackie Robinson and they
and Jackie and Kareem both went to UCLA, where Jackie
lettered in like five hundred sports and so of course,
of course breaking the color barrier and all that and
(28:35):
We've had interviews with a lot of people that knew
Jackie Robinson really well over the years that we've been on.
Of course they've passed on Vin Scully and Don Newcombe
the great pitcher, but we got some perspective on him,
and we're able to kind of go back and play
some of those interviews and some of the sound bites
(28:57):
and things like that over the years, which is always gratifying. So, yeah,
it's a great it's a great day for baseball. Everybody
wears the number, you know, and it's a little confusing, right,
you know, if you if you just kind of check
the highlights, you know, everybody's wearing the number, and it's
a little it's a little odd. But there was a
(29:20):
complete and total reasoning behind that, which was the Brooklyn Dodgers,
you know, when they were executing breaking the color Barry
and baseball, and there was a lot of pushback that
some of the Brooklyn Dodgers suggested that they all wear
Jackie's number, so you know, no one could tell the
difference from far away while they were watching the game.
(29:41):
So that is a part of the significance of why
everybody wears the number forty two on the day, but
always very nice to remember and always something great to celebrate.
And it's good that the Dodgers and everybody kind of
take time out of the grind of the baseball season
to stop and listen to a and kind of tell
(30:01):
everybody what's what's happening and what's significant.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
I'm gonna switch gears and shots out in respect to
Jackie Robinson in the family clearly living in west Well,
Southern California, football levarc.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
I know it your field.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
I lived in in Alhambra, and I live i mean
right next to Pasadena. And if you live next to Pasadena,
one thing that you will be reminded of every day
pretty much, there's a Jackie Robinson Park. There's Jackie Robinson
things everywhere. People love the legacy and the memories of
(30:43):
Jackie Robinson and what he represented. So you see that
pretty much every day out here, which is super super cool,
the amount of love and admiration that he garnered for
the things that he did.
Speaker 6 (30:55):
I'm gonna switch gears and ask you about this, uh P.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
You know, for so many things that we talk about
with USC, I think this one time, and I'm not
saying this is the one time, but I'm just saying,
this is one time where you could look at USC
and the coaching staff when they brought in Lincoln Rally,
and you could say, man, like, maybe some things went wrong,
maybe some things could be better. But I'll say this,
(31:22):
with everything that's taking place with Tennessee, don't you kind
of look at Lincoln Rally now and be like, man,
he did an excellent job of being able to get
Caleb Williams, to get Addison guys like that, Yeah, into USC.
Because we're looking at a mess right now that's taking
place at Tennessee.
Speaker 4 (31:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (31:42):
Well, in regards to Lincoln Riley and how it relates
to him, I mean, I think all these big time
coaches now, if you have a quarterback who's accomplished, it
looks like you're negotiating with that guy or you have
to negotiate with that guy all the time, or some
of these coaches are.
Speaker 4 (32:02):
And yeah, absolutely it's a mess.
Speaker 7 (32:03):
But I mean Lincoln Riley brought Caleb Williams in and
all those other transfers and us he is recruiting a
lot better, flipping a lot of guys from Oregon, doing
a great job with the new GM.
Speaker 4 (32:16):
Apparently, don't don't.
Speaker 7 (32:19):
I don't usually give a lot of weight to off
season parties, and oh my god, look who they recruited,
Look who they're who they're bringing in. And thus you
see it on the field. And Lincoln Riley's team has
been worse and worse and worse every year since the
very first year. After they lost to Utah the second
(32:40):
time in the Pac twelve Championship and did not go
to the College Football Playoff and ended up losing to
Tulane and the Sugar Bowl, Lincoln Riley said, this is
the worst will ever be rest assured, will never be
this bad again. And they have been exponentially worse every
year from now on. So you like, I agree with
(33:01):
you with you said, USC has their own problems hypel
handling this situation or what this was. I mean, you
live in high school football in this area. LeVar very
intensely over the last I don't know six years, and
the kid, Nico Iyamayava's had a lot of red flags
for that time. You know, I mean not I have
nothing against the kid. I have nothing against his family.
(33:25):
I only hear rumors about it, but I mean there's
enough rumors and enough there to say Okay, yeah, these
these are going to be a very difficult group of
people to deal with the more success or whatever that
this kid has. And it came to a head with
something we've never seen before, somebody trying to hold out
(33:47):
during spring practice. And you know I heard somebody make
the argument, well, this was exactly what coaches do. It's like, no, well,
you know, I've never seen spring practice start and everybody's like,
where's the head coach?
Speaker 4 (33:58):
He's holding out.
Speaker 7 (33:59):
I mean, it's one thing for Tommy Tubberville to leave
during like a recruiting dinner in February. It's a whole
other thing for a guy to hold out for spring practice.
What does it mean? What does it do to Nico
Amayava's are going to backfire on him? Kind of like
it did Mike Williams, the receiver in Maurice Claret, remember
(34:19):
that when they tried to buck the NFL's three year
thing and go right into the league. That really hurt
those guys. So I don't know. I mean, people keep
saying like North Carolina was in the mix, and it
was like I could kind of believe that people were saying,
tu Lanes in the mix. They're not even a power
for right the I mean, does Tulane have enough money.
(34:40):
They don't even have enough money for the right Marti
Gras colors for their team.
Speaker 4 (34:43):
That's why they're all.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Right.
Speaker 4 (34:46):
I mean, suh suh.
Speaker 7 (34:49):
Can you scrape the kaffers for this young quarterback to
come to the Garden District?
Speaker 4 (34:55):
I mean, that's not happening.
Speaker 7 (34:56):
I mean, and then you see LA four million dollars
or any two million, anything comparable to what he was
getting at Tennessee.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
That's not gonna happen either.
Speaker 7 (35:07):
So I think the market is kind of pushing back
against Nico I am Mayava. And you could say, like
if Nico Iam Mayava didn't have all these different red
flags and different stuff that had happened over the years
as far as leadership and stuff like that goes, maybe
they would pay him. Maybe we would never know this story.
But I think that they've had enough of it and
(35:29):
Tennessee just kind of took their ball and went home.
Speaker 4 (35:32):
What does it mean for the kid or the future,
It's a great question, Labar. I don't know.
Speaker 7 (35:36):
I mean, it's an absolute I think you described it
really well. It's a mess, but you can't I mean,
I don't care how good the player is, you can't
let him hold the whole team over the barrel for
spring practice.
Speaker 4 (35:47):
Dum.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
There's a part of you. I've got actually a couple
of questions on the topic. Does a part of you
look at though, how it's working out and think maybe
it's kind of a good thing, because it's like a
you know, for others that try to fall in the
footsteps of Niko. Know, it doesn't always mean that you're
going to find the offer or the opportunity you're looking for.
Speaker 7 (36:04):
Yeah, and it's going to be a lesson for others.
And we'll see where this kid ends up landing. I God,
I hope he goes back to Tennessee and figures it out.
Speaker 4 (36:13):
Maybe oh, no way, maybe that horse has left the barn.
Speaker 6 (36:15):
Yeah, that can't happen.
Speaker 7 (36:17):
But but I mean when when I saw the three
schools that were in the mix, I mean, there's none
of those schools. I mean UCLA would take two million
dollars that they're giving Nico Amayava and distribute it for
the rest of the football team. And that's probably the
same thing that would happen with with North Carolina and Tulane.
That the whole we're in the mix to bring in
(36:39):
this transfer quarterback kind of reminded me of like somebody
in like a school auction where you want people to
see you put your paddle up, but you don't want
to win the actual auction, right, You don't want to
spend ten thousand.
Speaker 6 (36:53):
You done that, You have done that in your life.
Speaker 4 (36:56):
I've seen people do it. Though it's like now you
end up spending fifteen thousand. You got to go to
the cook Islands, buddy.
Speaker 2 (37:02):
I literally had a bad experience doing that last year
at what did you tell you? Well? What what we
agreed to at one point was that me and another
guy were gonna split it. And then then they came
back and say no, no, no, no, you guys both can
do it. You both which which which raises more for
the charity. So I was like, yeah, both pay. Yeah
(37:26):
it was it wasn't that much. But then but when
they came back with that, I was like, oh, man, no,
I can't back out of this. So we we both
agreed to do it. And basically it's yet to come
to fruition. Like what what we were what we were
sold we were going to get exchange for the donation
has yet to come to fruition.
Speaker 7 (37:43):
So, I mean, I don't know how many times I've
sold to spend the day with Petros. You know, no
one ever like calls me and goes, hey, remember you
said you'd spend the day with me. It's like, no,
where can I bid on that? No one ever collects
on those. Where can I bid on that? I'll tell
you the next time.
Speaker 4 (37:59):
Any but he asked me please.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
I'm gonna do it, and I'm gonna tell my I'm
gonna tell my wife and my family. I'm going out
to cash in on an auction item and I'm hanging
out with Petres for a day.
Speaker 7 (38:10):
It is sad because I mean, you just kind of
feel like that was all those other teams were interested in.
I mean, if you listen to all of the message
boards and different things, people are really acting like this
kid is gonna come to UCLA.
Speaker 4 (38:23):
I don't.
Speaker 7 (38:25):
I don't see that, but but I wish the young
man good luck. I mean, I don't. I hate having
to criticize twenty year olds, but that's what I do
for a living.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
So there you go.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
Let me switch gears on you to the team that
everybody talks about outside of the Dallas Cowboys in the
off season.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
The Lakers.
Speaker 3 (38:47):
Oh well, that's a good one too. That's a good
one too. And I could have gone down that lane.
And you know what, I'm gonna stay away from it.
Speaker 4 (38:55):
Got Cornell Stewart coming on deck.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
Dang, I'm gonna use the topic the question that I
have prepared for you, because I prepare for this show
very very intensively. Petros, in fact, the most out of
any of the other guys that are on this show.
So yes, sir, so, I want to stay disciplined to
what I was going to ask you and.
Speaker 6 (39:19):
So and so I wanted to throw this one out
at you pee.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
The Lakers.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
Now, there's the whole playoffs debate that's going on right now,
and there seems to be so much optimism towards what
the Lakers can do in this year's playoffs.
Speaker 6 (39:39):
What's your what's.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
Your take on it?
Speaker 3 (39:41):
Do you think that they with the edition of Luca,
with the subtraction of Anthony, you know what Anthony did?
Speaker 2 (39:50):
What's his name?
Speaker 3 (39:51):
Tell me again, I'm looking at Davis. Do they have
a fear in your estimation? Do they have a fair
opportunity to make a run for the finals.
Speaker 6 (40:01):
Do you think they should be favored it to win it?
Speaker 4 (40:03):
I don't know.
Speaker 7 (40:04):
I don't know if they should be the favorite because,
like you said, we haven't really seen this machination of
this Laker group in the playoffs. I think the one thing,
I mean, for all the offseason talk and most of
it was about Browne James, and we don't need to
go down that road as everybody sees how the year
ended up. But JJ Reddick was a huge success. I
(40:27):
mean JJ Redick and how JJ Reddick, I mean, nobody
likes to be condescended to or just you know, heavily
sighed throughout every postgame press conference. But he has done
a great job. And then they switched it up on him,
like you said, with Ad and he's done an even
better job adapting to the new roster and getting role
(40:49):
players going around Lebron James, which obviously is not easy
and that's been proven over the years. I don't know
how it translates into playoff basketball. Everybody talks about how
they don't have any bigs and now they're going to
take on the Minnesota Tea Wolves and they have Rudy
Gobert and he's going to be doing his his Frenchman
(41:10):
thing out there, so it'll be interesting to see how
it all translates. The one thing in this play in
era or whatever we're doing now in the NBA, this
is the first time in LA that we've had the
Clippers and the Lakers in recent memory really kind of
surging into the playoffs. Maybe it felt that way in
(41:34):
twenty twenty to a certain degree, and then the year
ended abruptly and they ended up in the double with
Rachel Nichols and all that. But this is the first
time that the Clippers are playing at a really high
level with Kawhi Leonard and Aviza Zubats and James Harden
playing really well, although he does end up disappearing in
(41:56):
pivotal games in the playoffs, at least he has recently.
And then you have the Lakers, and they both but
the other thing is they both have such an intense
matchup in the first round. I mean, the Clippers have
to take on the Denver Nuggets, who have had some
issues but and yeah they're volatile, but they're still the
Denver Nuggets and they have the toughest matchup in the NBA,
(42:17):
and Nikolajoki and the Lakers have Anthony Edwards who's got
four kids by.
Speaker 4 (42:23):
Four baby moms. Did you know that four for four?
Speaker 7 (42:27):
You mean, I know they were chanting about child support
and I was like, oh god, what does he have
a kid or something?
Speaker 4 (42:32):
It's like four by four like an in and out.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
I mean, here's the logic that I've got you. I've
got five. I've got five spread out over like eight
and a half years. I mean, if you could five,
well yes, yeah, but I'm saying if you could, if
you wouldn't have five kids, four kids, if you could
bold it up into like a year or two, you
(42:56):
kind of get through that wave of the baby phase
into like toddler, you know, toddler, and then into adolescents.
Like not the worst way of looking at it, right,
just trying to look at the positive of it.
Speaker 6 (43:07):
You could build a whole village if you do it.
Speaker 4 (43:09):
If you do it, about that probably positive?
Speaker 2 (43:11):
Okay, I thought you were co signed on that. Maybe not.
Speaker 4 (43:14):
I mean no, I'm just saying that.
Speaker 7 (43:16):
I mean they will both if the Lakers and Clippers,
and they don't share the same stadium anymore, so we
can't call it the Hallway series.
Speaker 6 (43:24):
Don't share the same yeah, I say the same hotels.
Speaker 2 (43:26):
Right.
Speaker 7 (43:27):
So, so the Lakers and Clippers, they're surging into the playoffs,
but it would be really cool if they they would
have to meet in the Western Conference finals, and that
probably won't happen, but it would be great to see
them both get out of the first round, even though
they have really intense matchups. But to be honest, LeVar,
I don't know how it translates to playoff basketball, but
(43:52):
they certainly have been impressive down the stretch. And you know,
the story really isn't Lebron anymore, and I think that
really bothers Lebron and his people. But the story is
Luka Doncicic, and Luka Doncicic is Jersey is number one
and all of those different things. And we'll see how
he performs. He was spectacular last year in the playoffs
(44:13):
and took him all the way to the finals of
Dallas Mavericks, so we'll see.
Speaker 3 (44:16):
He I want I want to follow up on a
question QS earlier, just super quickly, and he made the point,
is it a what does Dallas have to do in
order for the fans not to melt down over you know,
losing Luca to the Lakers. I would pose the same question,
what do the Lakers have to do in order for
(44:39):
Lakers fans to be appeased or happy or satisfied with
this season? Does has it already happened or does it
have to happen with this playoff run?
Speaker 7 (44:49):
Yeah, I think disappointment in the playoffs brings you right
back to whatever. But I don't think you're that back there.
No might disagree with the statement I just made. Laker
fans have a twenty what is he twenty six? They
have a twenty six year old superstar. Maybe he vapes
or hookahs there, likes vodka and beer, but he's still
(45:09):
one of the top three best players in the NBA
and he's twenty six. So the Lakers have a future
around Luka Doncic and that they did not have that
a month and a half ago, and or whatever. That
is what's changed.
Speaker 4 (45:24):
That is the.
Speaker 7 (45:26):
Seismic shift in the world of basketball on the West Coast.
So I think that regardless of what happens here with
the Lebron built team and the Lebron coach and Lebron
being Lebron and his doll, I think that the future
under Luka Doncic is really what people are looking to.
(45:47):
If they make a run and people start talking about
another championship, that'll change and God willing will be talking
between then and now.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
I actually want to go back to the topic of
kind of and not talk about him specifically, but more
how he got here. And I'm wondering because in the
state of California, you know, players can earn money off
their name, image and lights in high school. In fact,
like I wasn't even aware this many states had approved this,
but there's forty states in the US where that's the case.
(46:17):
And so I guess I'm just kind of going back
to maybe his parents' perspective, his perspective. How much of
a rule does that play.
Speaker 4 (46:27):
I don't know.
Speaker 7 (46:27):
I mean, it's such a foggy gray area, right, Brady,
because we all were raised Now, I didn't play quarterback,
which is a different thing. I mean, we all know that,
and uh and obviously LaVar is one of the great
players in his position in a generation. So maybe it
doesn't translate, you know, to you guys personally, but I
think it does. I mean, well we I mean, when
(46:49):
you play football, you know the message is big team,
little me, right, I mean, you know, you're supposed to
think about the team. You're supposed to think about your Teammates'
supposed to show your teammates that even though you're a
mega talented player like Brady quann or LeVar Arrington, that
we're all in this together. We're all at the same
(47:10):
training table, we all wear the same mess shorts. You know,
that's part of a football team. And individuals on a
football team were acting individually selfish normally does not translate
well to a team dynamic. Now we all know what
teams are like, and there's a pecking order and guys
(47:30):
that are more talented and higher recruits and maybe even
not more talented, but just bigger recruits that treated a
different way than maybe some guys that have to earn
it a little bit differently. We all know those stories,
and not everything is always equal, but we are all
raised to think about the team before you think about yourself.
And you throw the number next to everybody's name into
(47:54):
the mix, and you know, at the NFL level, when
you guys get up there, you get them that at
a certain point, everybody's mature enough to deal with the
fact that everybody's getting paid. Everybody's worth a certain amount
of money. Everybody's trying to stay in the league. But
in college football we get this weird gray area between
what are you willing to sacrifice for the team and Hey,
(48:16):
I'm a big time player, what is the team willing
to do for me? You know, this quarterback over here
is getting paid x amount of money. I'm not getting
as much. My deal happened earlier than his. You know,
the same stuff that happens in the NFL with less
mature and less qualified people who have less mature and
less qualified people advising them. So what LeVar said when
(48:40):
we started the conversation about this situation holds true. It's
a mess, and it is going to be really hard
to I mean, it's just really hard to moralize it
under the kind of football mentality that I grew up playing.
But at the same time I understand it. I mean,
how long is this guy going to play football? There's
money out there. The problem is, if you're playing college
(49:02):
football and you're a really big time play, you want
to be compensated comparable to how other guys like that
are playing like you are compensated around the country. But
you also don't want to cause so much trouble and
make so much of a stink to where the NFL
and people at that level hear the rumblings about you
(49:23):
and you get labeled as somebody who's not.
Speaker 4 (49:26):
Easy to work with or team.
Speaker 2 (49:28):
Orient I think I was more pointing out the perspective
that that's our perspective because we grew up in that,
our parents don't know any different. Nowadays, these kids in
junior high are looking at their high school destinations because
they can start becoming a household brand at least in
that local area in the state what have you, and
actually earn an i ol moneies at the high school
level now in forty states. So that perspective that we
(49:50):
share is just very different from I think maybe how parents,
not even players are looking now right, I.
Speaker 7 (49:55):
Think it is, but I still think you build a
football team in the same way.
Speaker 2 (49:59):
Without no and everyone believes that. But I just think again,
the perspective of that player, though, is changing at a
very rapid young age. So we could talk about this forever.
We're up against the break. I want to ask you
this though we didn't ask you about Shador Sanders, Travis Hunters,
Jersey's being retired of Colorado.
Speaker 7 (50:16):
I gotta get your take on this, well, Travis Hunter.
I mean, the guy won the Heisman Trophy. So I
mean it's but it's highly questionable. You can argue about like, look,
I look at how much they change the program and
all these different things. But I mean, just take Don Figures,
the cornerback who also wore the number two for CU
(50:37):
he won the championship in nineteen ninety. Jim Thorpe Award winner,
Jack Tatum Award, consensus All American Big Eight Defensive Player
of the Year, first round pick College.
Speaker 4 (50:48):
Football Hall of Fame not retired.
Speaker 7 (50:53):
I mean Rashaan Salam God rest his soul, who won
the Heisman, awaited a decade plus twenty.
Speaker 4 (51:00):
Years to have his number retired there.
Speaker 7 (51:03):
And I know numbers are retired for different reasons and
all that, but highly questionable. A true stretch to retire
Shador Sanders number after a ten and eight career at
Colorado from transferring in from Jackson. That's my opinion. I'm
sure there'll be a lot of debate about it. It's
I heard one reporter say at least they're not retiring
(51:26):
Shiloh's number, and I wouldn't be surprised if they tried.
Speaker 2 (51:31):
Oh, the one and only Petro's papa Daikish boy man.
I always enjoy the conversations. Appreciate you joining us early
this morning. And go Dodgers by the way, go yeah.
Speaker 7 (51:45):
Yeah, yeah, you know it's April. But they're in third.
That's bad.
Speaker 2 (51:50):
That's not good for them, not all the money they're
spending this appointment. Now, do you think Joe Davis is disappointed? No,
it's early.
Speaker 4 (52:00):
There's gonna be a Joe Davis bobblehead night, is there?
Speaker 2 (52:03):
Really?
Speaker 4 (52:03):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (52:03):
And they haven't revealed, like they've revealed everything, but they
haven't revealed what it's gonna look like.
Speaker 2 (52:09):
I think it's gonna be.
Speaker 7 (52:10):
Standing in front of a big green egg with a
spatula in his hand with a quizzical look on his face.
Speaker 4 (52:15):
Hey man, farbacue cost eight thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (52:21):
I've had some of his cooking, though. That guy can
throw it down, all right. Cook, Let srry on the grill.
Speaker 4 (52:33):
I'm over in the corner wall.
Speaker 2 (52:36):
There we go, all right. Always appreciate it, Thank you, sir,
Hosts And Creators
Brady Quinn
LaVar Arrington
Jonas Knox
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