July 3, 2024 • 50 mins
On a Wednesday edition of The Best Of The Doug Gottlieb Show: The crew peppers Doug with questions in this edition of "Hold On, Let's Ask The Coach".
Doug welcomes NBA Writer for The Athletic Joe Vardon onto the show to break down all of the week's activity in NBA free agency.
Doug talks about Rich Paul, Lebron James and the Lakers and counts how many lies we have been told about what their intentions were this off-season.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Thanks for listening to the best of the Doug Gottlieb
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday
three to five Eastern twelve two Pacific on Fox Sports Radio.
Find your local station for The Doug Gottlieb Show at
Foxsports Radio dot com, or stream us live every day
on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR It's Doug Gotleeb Show,
Fox Sports Radio. I just got a great tweet Chase
(00:25):
two that I think you would really appreciate. The same
people telling you Bronnie earned it to the same people
telling you there's nothing wrong with Joe Biden just as
a cold I thought you'd like that one.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
I actually I made the exact same connection in my hut.
We're getting lied to a lot here in southern California
by the people in the White House and by the Lakers.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Yes, yeah, I mean, like, look, you don't think the
guy who used to occupy the White House was lying
every time he opened his mouth as well, like literally lied.
Like that's the crazy part about it. Everybody's lying about
Joe Biden's cognitive health is pretty obvious, and Trump lied
every time he opened his mouth. And it's like we're
(01:07):
all just like going along. We're just all just going
along with it. And then JJ Reddick's like, yeah, he's
totally earned it, Like what like it? That one is
the point of being laughable.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Excuse me, Well, Lebron had nothing to do with the
hiring of JJ Reddick. We remember that one.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Lebron, Lebron, we gotta rank him. Lebron had nothing to
do with the hiring of jj Reddick. Bronni said he
never thought of playing with his dad.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
And uh Polinka said that Lebron had nothing to do
with them drafting Bronni.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Right, all these things just independently happened on themselves. M
and when at some point you go like, do you
think we're all idiots?
Speaker 3 (01:51):
M H.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
And I understand. Reality is you can't tell us the
entire truth, you know, can't tell us the entire truth,
which is probably something where along the lines of like,
look we said long ago when we met with Lebron
in the middle of the season, he was like, look,
you know, Darvinham's a dope. I'm not playing for him.
(02:15):
You're gonna draft Bronnie, I'm gonna get the Max. We're
gonna try and do this thing one more time. We're
gonna do it our way, you know, or I'll just retire.
We won't play right. The entirety of the truth will
probably never be told, or we'll never know, and we
probably don't really deserve to know, but we don't deserve
to be openly lied to. This one's not that hard,
(02:37):
not that hard. When he could just say, look, look,
did he get an opportunity because he's Lebron's son. Sure,
when you have that type of lineage, when you have
this type of work ethic, we want to see how
he develops. And we're willing. We know Bronni better than
everybody else, so we're willing to watch him and help
him develop. That's a better statement. That's not crazy telling
(02:59):
us that he earned it? Is it is just blatantly
what's the term gaslighting? Is that gaslighting?
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yes, that's exactly what it is.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
I hate when people use terms like that and they
and it makes me think, like and then all of
a sudden we start chasing terms like that. But at
HP gent one who is retired US Navy, was that
of a tweet? Same people told you Brownie earned it,
same people telling you that there's nothing wrong with Biden.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
He just does it cold?
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Everyone's gas lighting today. You are a correct sir, You
are correct, Like dude, what really? I mean? I just
I can't even conceptualize how JJ Reddick would say that
at the presser. Yes, but he did, but he clearly
(03:56):
clearly did. All right, we got to get to UH. Oh.
By the way, JJ hired Scotty Brooks, good friend of mine,
a former NBA head coach and star player. You SERVI
Nate McMillan. Those are the two assistants. There were some
other guys that had pulled out and that's who he
ended up with. So there's two veteran guys who have
(04:17):
been through it, and JJ and Nate McMillan, I mean, Scott,
excuse me, and Nate McMillan. Scotty. I know he has
a place in Orange County. He was with the Trailblazers
last year. Nate, of course, formerly the head coach of
the Trailblazers back then. These are life for NBA guys.
Let's let's get to Brian Finley with UH with some
news and then we'll play a little Let's ask coach
(04:40):
Brian what do you got?
Speaker 5 (04:41):
Yeah, Doug So, former Toronto Raptors player Johntay Porter, banned
for life of course, from the NBA, is going to
be charged, according to the Associated Press, with a federal
felony in relation to the betting transgressions. A court date
hasn't been announced, but Porter is accused of giving insider
information about his playing status to aid select gamblers, as
(05:02):
Doug was mentioning earlier. A multi year deal for lebron James' son,
Bronni James with the Lakers. Bronny just picked in the
second round, gets four years and seven point nine million dollars.
Lakers head coach JJ Reddick adding a list of proven
winners to his coaching staff that would be ex NBA
head coaches Nate McMillan and Scoonnie Brooks. Longtime NBA player
(05:24):
Keba Walker finds a seat on the Hornets staff as
a player enhancement coach, of course, Walker spending many years
in Charlotte as a player for the Hornets at Wimbledon
and Tennis American in twelve seat Tommy Paul winning in
five sets over Finland's Otto Virton and Tommy Paul coming
up with a key break of serve late in the
fifth set and he wins the match after serving it
(05:46):
out at five to four. Onto the third round, he
goes right now, the one seed, Yanick Sinner, who won
the Australian Open, is on serve against Mateo Barrettini's countryman
from Italy, second round of Wimbledon seven to six. Centner
won the first said it is now Berrettini four to
three in set number two. And lastly, Carlos Alcaazjan, a
street setter in the second round. We all know who
(06:09):
he is. And of course Daniel Medvedev moving on as well.
Heeded four sets to do so. And Coco Goff makes
the spot happen for herself into the third round at
the All England Club with her win in two sets.
With that, let's get it back to Doug Gottlieb.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Stuck gotlib show here on Fox Sports Radio. It's now
that time when guys get to ask the coach a question.
There's a question that needs an answer, and the answer
is if only there was someone with the authority and
the wisdom to give us that answer. The head coach.
I get to set the schedule.
Speaker 6 (06:44):
Hold on, let's ask the coach.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
All right, what do you got today? What's what's what's
the what's the questions for the coach?
Speaker 2 (06:51):
First of all, I just want to add again I
always say this, but that last part there the coaches
a whistle that's that makes the imaging like that, that.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
Just sells it.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
So the assistant coaches that were hired by JJ Reddick today.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
By the way, by the way, that whistle does make it,
but it is not a modern day whistle.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, you've said this before.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Will listen to that whistle one more time? Go ahead, Okay,
So that whistle has the little ball inside remember those? Okay,
here is here's an actual whistle, my actual practice whistle.
Did you hear how much sharper that was?
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Had that ready to go?
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Yeah? How much sharper that was? So that's a that's
a Fox forty whistle, which I believe a former college
and NBA ref NBA ref actually invented. I think his
last name is forty and anyway that's related to it's
not related to Pat forty. I think it's spelled different.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
I wonder if there's an FCC rule against doing a
whistle into a microphone. Like there are people in their
cars right now trying to get to their July fourth
weekends are like that just stop their cars because they
they're so used to whistle stopping play.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
You know.
Speaker 6 (08:08):
Yeah, I wonder so JJ.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Red a Kyrie and two assistance reminds me of something
that you have said, if not one hundred times a
million dollars.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Ron Foxcroft, by the way, invented it or he was
referee himself.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
Anyway, it's oh nice.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
So one thing that you've repeated since you took the
job at Green Bay, and I'm interested in this answer,
is you have said that hire assistants who know what
you don't know, so you've gone through the process. I'm
looking for a specifics here. You don't have to tell
me names or anything, but what was it that you
(08:44):
didn't quite know? And what did you hire people to
do that you don't know? I want to know the
specific things.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Well, I know how to communicate with people, recruit them,
paint a vision, try and get them to sign. I
Actually I have a story I want to tell you
real quick in relations to it. You want to know
the hardest thing I've had to do, yea, since I've
been Okay, there's a kid named Alexi. I won't say
his last name. He's Polish and we were recruiting him,
(09:14):
and I was trying to decide what I want to
do with a couple of my last scholarships, and I
wanted to point guard. He's a six foot six, six
foot seven Polish point guard. I love the kid, think
he's a tremendous player. Uh And I have another point
guard who he's committed to me. He hasn't signed, so
I can't mention his name whatever, and but I had
(09:37):
I've been on him for since I got the job.
I have a friend who reached out and is like, hey,
I got this kid. He's really really good. And I
kind of had to get the rest of the staff
to come around to agreeing with me on him. Meanwhile, Alexi,
it was like a week of recruiting him, and I
had to tell him yesterday, like, we're not going to
offer you a scholarship. It was so hard because I frankly,
(10:00):
if I had unlimited scholarships, I would, but I didn't
need I don't need another guy right now. I don't
need what he does as badly as I need some
other pieces. So anyway, that's the deal with That's the
hardest thing I've had to do. What did I not know?
(10:20):
I know how to teach overall defense, but in terms
of specific defensive breakdowns and handling the defense, I needed that.
You know, I obviously have to have somebody who works
with the big guys as I've worked with. I needed
somebody who's an expert. I do player development, but I
also in terms of the individual skill development I don't
(10:43):
do as much of I needed somebody who does that.
And then I needed help with administrative stuff, with all
of the little tasks that I It's like I tell
people all the time, I do all the fun stuff,
the performance stuff I can do, it's the it's all
the other little things that I'm not good at. So
I hired people who've done all those things.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
And you're satisfied with the people you've hired to do
those signs. Were you able to accomplish that?
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Uh? Yeah, yeah, yes, I mean I still have potentially
two spots available. I just I don't have a ton
of money left, so I have to be able to
kind of balance all that stuff, right, Like, if I
could hire whoever I want to hire, yeah, I would
definitely have covered all of my But I've pretty much
(11:32):
covered all my basis and I didn't hire any coach
just to get a player, which I don't think is
smart because then the coach is way too close to
that player, way too tied to that player, and that's
not how you build an overall program.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Brian Finley, you have a question for Doug.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
Yeah, Doug, what is it you got build?
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Whistle?
Speaker 6 (11:49):
You a coach?
Speaker 4 (11:51):
Where's that whistle?
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Where's the whistle?
Speaker 6 (11:53):
I can't do the Phil.
Speaker 5 (11:54):
Jackson, by the way, where he he's able to do
it without a whistle. I can't do that. But Doug,
what is it like trying to connect with a gen
zer now? Right?
Speaker 4 (12:03):
Like in the recruits, had.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Four of them in my office as they're all going
home or somewhere else for I mean, honestly, that's the
part I'm really good at because remember, I've coached AU basketball,
so a lot of these guys I would have coached
in AAU over the last seven years that I've done it.
And then and then you know, I have high school
(12:26):
now college aged daughters of my own and a high
school age son. And oh yeah, by the way, like
what we do for a living. If you're a really
good radio host or you're actually a really good basketball
and you got to connect with people you got. They
have to understand you and you have to understand them.
So yeah, that part has actually been the best part.
Like I really feel like if I get in a
(12:49):
in a spot where it's anywhere close in recruiting, I
can get a kid because I think I understand how
they think and and and what they're looking for and
without promising them anything that's that's not accurate.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
I wonder, like another question here, when these guys get
into trouble. Okay, so it's an it's not a matter
of if it's a matter of when you're gonna have
to you're gonna have fires to put out. I'm just wondering, like,
you've been a player and you very much have uh
(13:27):
dealt with trouble in your past as well. I'm just wondering,
like you, where are you coming from from a from
being compassionate and understanding and needing the player on the
court to having to make send a message in it land.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
It's great, great, this is a great question. Okay, So
I don't have a lot of rules, you know, I
think some sometimes coaches have like set rules. Okay, the
rules I do have that don't lie, don't cheat, don't steal, right,
a bit basic ones, but the here's a couple big ones.
And I told them this they're going on this weekend.
If you drink and you get behind a wheel of
(14:05):
a car, these things like what happens to you is
out of my control. Same thing. If you smoke and
you get behind the wheel of a car, Okay, I
can't do it. Okay, So the rule is that if
you do, I would prefer you don't. I also know
you're human beings. You all have my number, You'll have
everybody in the staffs number. I don't care where in
(14:27):
the world you are. You tell me where you are
and I will either send a car or I'll go
pick you up myself. But again, you get behind a
wheel that car, like like, we're pretty much done here.
So that that's a hard and fast rule, because you're
not just taking your life, you're taking everybody else's life
in your hands. And again like, now now we get
to like I can't there's nothing I can do legally,
(14:48):
like you want to get yourself fired. Step in the
way of the legal process. That will get you fired
in a heartbeat. So there's there's that. And then I
tell them all, like, look, you all know the difference
between right and wrong. And if you don't and something's
like its might not be right, then is definitely not right.
Just don't do it. And then if you want to
(15:09):
be treated you all want to be treated like men,
you'll only be given space and freedom. Then you have
to act like it. And if you don't, there's repercussions
for it. So that's how I handled it. That's how
I handled that.
Speaker 6 (15:20):
Hold on, let's ask the coach another question.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
Yeah, they got there. Well this is not sports related,
but you did make it to uh Summerfest, correct, Doug, yep?
And you had your first lining, Googles, I did summer Shandy.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
What'd you think outstanding?
Speaker 4 (15:35):
It's good. It's not too sweet, like you know, it's
not like going into the MIC's hard lemonade department. It's
it's it's a good recipe to them. I'm sure they've
been doing for a long time. So you you enjoy
your your first lining, Googles as you read, and.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
I think we're gonna go to Summerfest on the fifth
is maroon five.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
So who'd you see this over the weekend?
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Did you?
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Tyler Childers was a didn't see over the weekend?
Speaker 4 (15:55):
It was Friday Friday. How long does this go for?
Speaker 1 (15:59):
This is the last week end, coming weekends, last weekend?
Speaker 4 (16:02):
All right, good turnout.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
The world's largest music festival and maybe longest music festival.
Speaker 4 (16:07):
Wow, so what it's the one down in Tennessee.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
It's I mean Bonnaroo.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
Yeah, so it's not as it's bigger than Bonnaroo, is
what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
I just again, I'm just ripping the last things. I
don't know if they're their facts. I don't know how
that is measured.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
Okay, good turnout. Good weather.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
It was great when I was there. Rain, little rain
when I was there, but then it was fine. Then
it cleared up and it was fine. And the weather
now is perfect. Just rained all day yesterday, all day yesterday,
but just absolutely perfect from now until through the weekend.
So Maroon five July fifth, I think Moon five July fifth.
They have like seven stages, but that's on the main stage.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
Okay, this is this is outside of the city of Milwaukee,
coming No.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
It's right on the It's Milwaukee, it's right. It's like downtown,
right on the.
Speaker 4 (16:53):
Water, right on the water. Okay, right in the water.
I've not spent a lot of time in Milwaukee. I've
spent a lot of time in the state of Wisconsin,
but not Milwaukee.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Okay, thank you for sharing the extra part there. I
men sure the coach wanted you to.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Think a coach question, go ahead and a play that
bridge there, Sam, I like that last one. All right,
go ahead it bron.
Speaker 6 (17:13):
Or don't hold on the coach.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
I gotta slice and dice a little bit.
Speaker 5 (17:17):
There you go, Doug, when do you decide when a
player needs like a motivating pick me up of a speech,
or when do you decide, like, hey, we just need
to get x's and o's down, and that's what they
need right now.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
What I've tried to do is have each again, I
have somebody who schedules it, and I try and have
one of them come in each day. Today we had
I had a bunch of them in, but one of
them come in each day and just kind of a
check in, like a fifteen minutes, how you doing, what
do you need, what do you need, how you feeling,
what's going on at home, what's going on with your folks, girlfriend, whatever,
(17:56):
and just kind of feel them out from there. But again,
we haven't been doing it long enough, and we've had
him going for three weeks now, so but it's just
more kind of figuring out is a lot. Look, they're
just like any other eighteen to twenty three year old, right,
many of them just as insecure as we are as adults,
(18:18):
and try not to trigger those insecurities, build them up
in self confidence, build them up, and you know, congratulate
them on the things they've done. Well. You know, we
have I have a player who really really talented, really
talented on offense. He's not good on defense. And two
days ago we met and I said, I said, look, guys,
we're just tall to my staff, I said, I think
(18:40):
we're being too hard on him on defense. It's like,
it's not that we don't want him to defend. He
wants to defend. He just hasn't ever done it, and
we're trying to fix it. So let's not be hyper
critical of every mistake, but let's really kind of support
every great thing he did. And especially one of my
coaches who's pretty intent, I was like, look, dude, you
(19:01):
kind of got to dial back on that kid because
he has no defensive confidence and I'd never really seen anything.
My son actually has kind of suffered through this defensive confidencely.
And today in a scrimmage he made a great defensive play.
So I blew the whistle and stopped it. And I said,
at ten ten am on July third, so and so
(19:21):
has decided to become a basketball player. And he knew
what I meant, which is, okay, now we're going to
get active defensively, because if he can just be decent defensively,
he can be awesome on offense. It really holds him back.
So anyway, that's how I go about, like a little
bit of a do better talk if you will, is
find ways in which they can be successful and support
those ways.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
Oh, I got one, I go one.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Okay, I want to say it was Joe Mazoua. I
read at some point in my content consuming over the
last month, I read that Missoula played the Gladiator for
a teammate or for a team or a player. Is
that something that you they you want to do? Are
you going to play movies for your guys?
Speaker 6 (20:02):
Yeah? And if so, what movies?
Speaker 1 (20:05):
That's a great question, I think, guys, I'll call on
your knowledge because one of the things is, like Jase Due,
we're kind of old and not all of them. I
so this is a real thing. So I took a
commitment from a point guard last night and I was
texting with him. He's in a different country, and I said, hey,
have you seen any of the Star Wars Is? And
(20:28):
he's like, no, coach, that hasn't gotten to my generation.
Because I said, I want to put you in Jedi training, right,
I consider myself a Jedi in regards to point guards.
And he's like, if you want me to coach, I'll
watch the Star Wars Is to know what you're talking about.
And I was like, yeah, I think we're good. So
(20:49):
we just you gotta be really careful with dating ourselves.
Can't have him go watch Caddyshack or Airplane or even
slap Shot. Maybe a couple of them. You can the
John Hughes Move movies. I love them, you love them.
I don't think they resonate, but I do think that
anything in the last ten years would be good.
Speaker 6 (21:07):
This is the best of the Don dot Leave Show
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
But you gotta leave show Fox Sports Radio Broadcast Lab
at the Tyreight dot Com Studios tyret dot Com. What
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That's the way tire buying should be. Usually on a Wednesday,
usually we do mid the Midway, the Midway right, We
(21:39):
do the midway, middle of the day, middle of the show,
middle of the week. But we just we got Joe
Varden who's going to join us momentarily, and he covers
the entire league for the Athletic and I thought he'd
be a great guy to get on considering all of
(22:00):
the movement. And Joe, of course is also clevered previously
that just to Cleveland Cavaliers. They're an interesting story, nonetheless,
But what I find to be fascinating is, you know,
no one shares the details of relationships or what's going
on in the thick of it. They don't. But when
the season is over or when a trade is consummated
(22:22):
or a guy leaves, now all bets are off and
things where little things become big things. Seeds that were planted.
And the more you hear about Clay Thompson's departure from
the Warriors, the more you understand that relationship was done.
He was miserable there and like again, some of this
(22:46):
is psychology. We did it ask the coach. And I'll
just be honest that I knew this coming in, but
I didn't know it to this extent, like being a
basketball coach college and pro and even high school to
a certain extent. So much of it is psychology. Yet,
but you got you got to be dime store a psychologist,
you know, because the coaching guys one way and the
(23:08):
hard time of breaking the guy down and building back up,
like you just you don't have the time to do
that with all the guys you don't And yeah, you
just it becomes very very difficult, very difficult to see
that as uh see that as a way in which
you're always going to be successful. So you have to.
(23:30):
Jimmy Johnson says this. Remember Jimmy Johnson, I'm talking about
the Fox NFL analyst, former National Championship and NAST champiship
coach and coach of the Miami Dolphins. He always said,
you coach everybody the same different. But the more you
hear about Klay Thompson and his time at the end
with the Warriors, the more you're like, yeah, that, no
(23:51):
wonder that thing ended with that. Joe Varden joints this
course he covers the NBA for the athletic what do
what do you think Klay Thompson not just leaving the
Warriors for the MAVs, but the fact that he shunned
the Lakers.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Doug, I love coming on as always, and this is
as fascinating a topic as there is. I mean, I
just I've had some conversations with some of these some
of the people there in the last twenty four to
forty eight hours, and he just quaite wanted out, He
(24:27):
wanted to change. He didn't have to leave, you know,
the Warriors wanted him back, certainly like the people who
coached him and teammates, you know, wanted to continue being
his teammate. But he he was ready for a new scene.
And I don't I just don't think that there was
(24:48):
going to be anything that happened that changed his mind.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Why not the Lakers?
Speaker 3 (24:55):
You know what, Doug? That one I don't know as well.
It's hard to understand, you know, the mascinations with you know,
whether it's the money or you know, I mean fit wise,
like I guess you would you would think that playing
alongside of passing Lebron would be something that that Clay
(25:17):
would like. Other than I guess you get to play
with the long, the younger version of him with Luca
and and and then maybe you know, Clay may be
more comfortable playing for Jason kidds th and JJ Reddick.
That's a possibility as well. I mean he's not you know,
we know he's not breaking the bank in Dallas. So
(25:38):
I admit here that I am speculating. But if you
just think about Jason Kidd now has proven himself as
not only an NBA coach, but as a player's coach,
somebody who probably has a similar demeanor, maybe looks at
things in a way that's similar to Clay. So there's that.
(25:58):
And then you know, playing alongside Luca and Kyrie, I mean,
if you think about with Clay, like going back to
some of his time with Team USA, like he spent
some of those years with Kyrie, and Kyrie is a
lot better, you know, in a lot better place. Now
we've talked about that. But Luca, he actually for being
(26:19):
the league league sport, he actually also creates a ton
of opportunities for players. Uh and the Mavericks are desperate
for a spot up shooter. I think like their record
when Tim Hardaway Junior makes four threeson a game is
just some outrageous number. So Clay's going to feels like
he's going to get a lot of open shots there.
And so I just think, you know, and then he
(26:41):
could do that in a place where like he doesn't
have that family tie, like in Golden State, Like yes
he was a splash brother, Yes he helped build things there,
but if there was a shadow, it be sets, he'd
be playing kind of under step shadow. And then in
in LA you're talking about bron and ad sure, but
then also his death, you know, and there's that storyline.
(27:04):
So he can go to Dallas, he can get a
fresh start, he's gonna get a million open looks, and
he's playing, uh with you know, maybe maybe a coach
that that he can understand and and vibe with.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Joe Barton joining us, You're right to the athletic, he
joins to the Doug Outleab Show here on Fox Sports Radio. Okay,
how does the league view what the Lakers are doing?
Speaker 3 (27:34):
I think, you know, like if you if you, if
you go back, and if you can you can imagine
as this story has played out, not only not only
over the last few weeks, but really months in the
whole year when you start thinking about the speculation of
is Bronnie gonna come out? Okay he is? Is he worse? Like?
(27:56):
Is he worth the drast pick? And so there's been
a million conversations about this, and there there are from
there are talent evaluators who say, yeah, he's not he's
not bad like he's you know, he's young, he needs
more time, but he's not bad. So I think by
and large the league understands a few things. One from
(28:21):
the if you want to use the word nepotism or whatever, fine,
but like Lebron is, lebron wants this as maybe his
parting gifts for what he has done for the league.
He's earned this, So I don't think anybody's going to
have too big of a problem with it from that perspective.
But then the second thing is people get drafted on
(28:46):
flyers all the time, and you know this. You know
there are players from Europe that get stashed over there
and then they get brought over and and maybe they sink,
or maybe they never come over, or maybe they these
you know, somebody's playing in Australia and they come over
and they're they're bad, and they they're hardly ever in
(29:07):
the you know, like in the NBA, like this kind
of thing happens all the time. So if the Lakers
are taking a flyer on Bronnie James because because of
who his father is, that that's okay, that's fine. I
think the final point I would make is, you know,
Lebron has spent the last twenty one years empowering people
(29:30):
around him who are the closest to him. And there
are a few examples of this. There are three that
I want to mention, Rich Paul, he helps Rich start
that agency, Maverick Carter, his longtime business manager who now
runs you know, all of the Lebron media empires. And
(29:51):
there's the third guy who's really good, Brandon Wims, who's
an executive with the Cats. Grew up with Lebron and
certainly got his first job in Cleveland because of that time.
But all three of those guys has taken their opportunity
that they got by being so close to Lebron and
run with it.
Speaker 6 (30:12):
Run with it.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Rich Paul is arguably the most He's one of the
most powerful agents in sports. Maverick Carter is rich beyond
what you and I could sab them, and that's even
with your multiple jobs. But anyway, like Mattick, Carter's then
amazing and Brandon Wims is a respected NBA executive that
(30:36):
has nothing to do with lebron You know, you have
Ronnie Jane. He gets this opportunity with the Lakers. Who's
to say that he doesn't run with it?
Speaker 2 (30:45):
What if?
Speaker 3 (30:45):
What if he blossoms in the next couple of years
and become a guy that can come off the bench
and give you real NBA minutes, Like you know, That's
what I'm looking for. It's not well, how or why
does he have this opportunity? It is what the he
do with it?
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Yeah, I guess, I guess the issue with it is
like just the ridiculous levels to which they lie, right
JJ Redick with He's He's earned it with his hard work,
Like Dalton Connects, Dalton Connect. By the way we sit
on the other side, Dalon connect went to junior college,
to Northern Colorado to Tennessee and Dalt Connect earned it. Right.
I'm not saying that le BRONI doesn't work hard, but
(31:22):
like again, like what are we doing here? You know
you lose people with that stuff even when and so
if that's the sale if it's the Hey, look, he
had a set back with the hard issue. His best
basketball is still ahead of him. I've said this in
the past. I believe it. The way he plays in
which he doesn't really need the basketball, he plays out
(31:43):
the ball like and he's just kind of a role
player that sets him up potentially for a successful future.
But he's so far from being there that, yeah, you
need the you need the G League, which is where
he's going to be. But the rich Paul, we're not
doing a two way contract, the four year guaranteed contract
for a second round er like never done before. All
of these things are just kind of bordering on ridiculous
(32:04):
to where it makes most of us roll our eyes.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Yeah, yes, yes, and there, yes, I will, I will
agree to all of that. I don't think JJ needed
to quite go that far, you know. I think that
probably what he was referring to is that he's turned
himself into a player who is like, let me put
(32:28):
this on. I know the James family well enough to
say that if Brownie would get hurt or be embarrassed,
and we can discuss what we mean by embarrassed, but
embarrassed doing this, they wouldn't have done it. So he's worked.
He has worked, worked hard enough to put himself in
position to be considered. You know, would you have been
(32:52):
drafted if that was his last name with something else?
You know, we know that. But but he has put
in the work and he did overcome the heart thing
to one year later to be like okay and being
able to you know, go out there and compete. I
mean that that's fine. JJ went too far with that
the contract. I will, I will agree. You know they're
(33:14):
going you know, uh, they're going there, They're they're going
the full board here. He's got his four years. But
I just think, you know, I think that, like we
all know what it is, and so like we don't
like the Lakers, don't have to bend over backwards to
say that it isn't And let's all now just see
(33:35):
what he does with it.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
Yeah, Joe Barten joining us covers the entire NBA for
the athletic It's interesting we talk about Lakers, we'll talk
about the Knicks, talk about the Sixers. How much of
America is going to miss on with the thunder A
doing Yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
Know, and they are, I mean they yeah, they like Yeah,
the heart heartenstein, you know, is the latest thing, and
they were one of the best teams in the NBA
all year. They still have all just all this capital
to work with. They are, Yeah, there's something to behold,
you know. Like so like when you try to figure
(34:13):
out what the lake I get asked all the time, like,
you know, what does the Lebron contract mean? Now he's back?
Like can the Lakers do X Y or Z. Well,
they can't be in the discussion right now because of
what's going on in Oklahoma City in Minnesota. You know,
Denver is still really good. But yeah, I mean the
Thunder are going to be as fun of a team
(34:36):
to watch as we have in the league.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Yeah, they're there. They got something pretty special bruin there.
I ard some people talking today about the pressure now
on Jewel embiid. Is that fair? Does he have the
most pressure of anybody because he's the guy, the last
guy who hasn't won one?
Speaker 3 (34:52):
Yeah? I think I mean to the degree that these
guys still pressure, I don't know, and I don't know
if Joel like takes these kinds of things to heart.
But my take on the Paul George contract there is
it's it's lovely. It's it turns the Sixers into a
(35:15):
team that's gonna that can be in the conversation with
the Celtics and the Knicks. But they haven't gotten very
far in the playoffs because Joel Embiid is not healthy
in April and met and I have news. If Joel
Embiid is not healthy next April or next May, then
(35:38):
having Paul George there is not going to be the difference.
It's not enough. They Joel is what makes that team
a contender. So when they suit up on October eighteenth
or whatever, it's going to be really exciting and they're
going to be, you know them with the Celtics and
the Knicks, we're going to be We're just going to
(35:58):
be crossing, you know, over the possibilities. But the Sixers
are a legitimate contender if Joel Embiid can make it
through the regular season and be ready to go when
it really matters in the spring, and the last couple
of years he has been really banged up.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
At that point, Joe, we know that you you you've
covered Cleveland for for years. What, Yeah, it feels like
a bit of an overcreate a correction for when they
first lost Lebron. How they've given the keys to the kingdom,
you know, and now to a guy who's really really good,
(36:36):
but I don't know if he's to that level in
Donovan Mitchell. Is that fair that that he's had the key?
All these deals, all these moves that are made are
to keep him happy and then he re signs. Is
that is that what what you feel like has happened?
Speaker 3 (36:49):
Yeah, of course you're yes, Yes, that's that's precisely it.
That is the price of doing business in a small market.
And and probably the price of doing business in a
small market when you've been shunned twice by a megastar.
That's just how it is. And and yes JB. Bickerstaff
(37:11):
works in Detroit now, uh, in part because of Donovan.
And you know, Kenny Atkinson, like Dan Gilbert, had a
lot to do with with the hiring of the coach.
But but but Donovan gave his blessing there for sure,
and and so yeah, so he's under contract, you know,
my you know, at the athletic there's been some research
(37:35):
and some stories done about you know, teams don't typically
win when their best player is smaller, and right now,
Donovan is definitely their best player, so you know, they
become you know, Kobe Allman there, their president, said something
prescient when he made when he brought Donovan to Cleveland
(37:56):
from Utah. He said, they will actually be ready to
contend when Evan Mobley is ready to contend. And he's
still right with that. If Evan takes to jump that
he just everybody thought he might and he didn't take
the last couple of years, that changes them. And so
when you think about the future of the Cavs, like
(38:18):
yes yesterday, it was a huge deal to get Donovan
back and and he's going to be around.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
For a while.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
But for them to remain in the conversation with these
other three teams that you and I have been talking about,
they either need to change the roster, which I don't
know that they're going to do, or Evan Mobley needs
to be different from what from what he's been. And
that's that's the next story. You know, Donovan has the power,
he's got to hold up his end and and and
(38:49):
win in the playoffs for sure, but but he needs
Evan Mobley to take those steps forward for this team
to really be something.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
Joe Varden covers the NBA for the athletic and does
a hell of a job. Show you the best man.
Thanks for joining us. Have a happy fourth, I say.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
To you, Doug.
Speaker 6 (39:06):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Doug Gottlieb
Show weekdays at three pm Eastern noon Pacific on Fox
Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
Boompo. Doug Gottlieb Show, Fox Sports Radio, coming to you
from the tyrat dot com studios tyrat dot com. We'll
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It's the way tire buying should be welcome in. I
hope you are doing great, Jason. This opening rant is
(39:38):
brought to you by our good friends in Las Vegas.
No it's not. But as a card player, as a gambler,
I think you can appreciate this, right, I think you
can appreciate this. You ever play cards with somebody who's
the worst bluffer of all time and you're just like
you're just sitting there going this guy's really bad. All
(40:01):
of his tails are really easy. I don't know whether
the worst bluffer of all time is Lebron James and
Rich Paul. I don't think it is. I actually think
it's Rob Polinka and the Lakers. Whatever it is, this
is bordering on ridiculous. We've never discussed the idea that
(40:21):
lebron James was a free agent because he was never
leaving Los Angeles. We've never bought into the whole idea
of Bronny being selected by somebody else. As a matter
of fact, I don't believe Bronni James would be drafted
in the NBA had the Lakers not have drafted him,
(40:42):
not just because he didn't have a great year, or
he's only six to one and a half and he's
not really not a point guard, not close to a
point guard, or he hasn't had any kind of dynamic
season over the past three seasons. None of that, None
of that. He had a heart attack year ago, like
that's a medical red flag for anybody. And then but
now I feel insulted. I just I do. I feel
(41:06):
insulted because I've sat through Rob Polinka press conferences before
and I've been told that some players are was it
a gift from Hanna? Is that was that one of them? Right?
And remember, of course, like I bought into Lonzo Ball
thing that we're gonna put Lonzo Ball's name next to
Magic and Kobe and whatever. But this one is, this
(41:29):
one's nuts nuts because they made JJ Reddick or JJ
Redick made himself into a complete fabricator of anything that
could be provably true. Right, JJ Reddick yesterday had the hutzpa.
Do you guys know what hutspiz? It's like nerve bolts, right,
(41:53):
That's what it is, is that it's the gall There you go,
there's three different definitions nerve ball's goal to say that
Bronnie James had earned earned his spot on the Lakers. Look,
you can say a lot of things about Bronnie James
that his best basketball is still ahead of him. That's fair.
(42:17):
That he's a good player and a good human being,
and he's come out of a tough situation medically, and
you're just happy that he's alive and happy that he's basketball.
Also fair. You can even tell me that when he
gets to the NBA, the spacing and the ability to
play off the basketball and just be a guy who
(42:39):
guards the ball and shoots threes, it may fit his
game better. All fair. When you look America in the
eye and say, Bronnie James has earned being on the Lakers.
Anybody who has any sort of brain no longer takes
(43:01):
you seriously. And then the Lakers give him a four
year guaranteed contract today, which is virtually unheard of for
a second round draft pick, let alone a second round
draft pick who didn't have a particularly good year coming
off of a heart attack, didn't have a great senior year,
(43:23):
didn't have a great junior year. Like, what are we
actually doing here? And then Lebron James resigns and oh yeah,
by the way, he resigned for the MAX when we
had been told, hey, Lebron really wants to win for
the right player, he won't sign for the max. So
we can sit here and talk about you know, we
(43:45):
haven't spent a ton of time talking about what Rich
Paul said or this idea that Lebron or Bronny could
go elsewhere. But now I'm to the point where I'm
just like offended. Like, I get it. You want your
kid on the team. It's kind of a cool thing. Great,
he's gonna be on the team for four years. I
(44:05):
brought this up yesterday hosting the Herd. Amari Bailey was
a better high school prospect had a much better singular
season at UCLA than Bronnie did. Is a higher rated,
better overall prospect than Bronnie James. He was drafted forty
ninth overall in the draft, didn't play a ton this year,
(44:27):
and they chose not to pick up his contract. He's out.
He's out, so he got a one year contract Ronnie James,
who didn't do much of anything. That's four years. Lebron
was never leaving. They were always drafting Bronnie, and all
of this has to be at least a portion of
(44:49):
why they're seemingly unable to get anybody to come join
them in LA with the Through their own volition, Lebron
signs a two year deal with max money. Remember he said,
I might take a discount and Bronnie gets a guaranteed deal,
but we'll spend the majority of the season in the
G League. I mean, really, what Lebron James has done
(45:13):
is a less expensive way of what Dwayne Wade did.
Dwayne Wade Son never played in college, and he just
simply bought the G League team and then made them
play him on the G League team. And now he's
not even playing basketball. Bronnie James and his father lebron
James are expected to share the court with the LA
Lakers the first week of the upcoming NBA season. Adrian
(45:34):
Warznowski added, and there are no expectations that James will
be in the Lakers rotation. Instead, James expected to spend
the majority of his time with the Lakers in the
G League, the South Bay Lakers. Here's JJ Reddick at
the press conference yesterday.
Speaker 7 (45:51):
Rob and I did not give Bronnie anything. Bronnie has
earned this. Bronnie talks about his hard work. Bronnie has
earned this through hard work. And for us prioritizing player development,
we view Bronnie as like case study one because his
base level of feel, athleticism, point of attack, defender, shooting, passing,
(46:15):
There's a lot to like about his game. And as
we sort of build out our player development program holistically,
he's going to have a great opportunity to become an
excellent NBA player.
Speaker 1 (46:28):
All of that stuff is great, Okay, I agree, got
to build out your player development program. That part is
completely true, and they absolutely want to develop Bronnie James
smart right, smart, He's got develop But we didn't give
him anything. He earned it. How his art right come on, man,
(46:49):
what are we doing? What are we doing? So Bronnie
James works harder than anybody else, including more talented, better
prospect on everybody's board. No, and look, I just I've
got an opportunity. I got opportunities. My father did everything
he could in his power to create opportunities for me.
Like I sit here and act like I didn't. But again,
(47:12):
the actual awards of playing time in college came from
whether or not I earned it. You know, I practiced
and played as hard as anybody. I didn't get a
shot in the NBA. And there's no jealousy there of
Ronnie James. Just I don't need it to be to
be lied to directly and say specifically no, no, no,
we didn't give him this. Yes you did. You gave
(47:33):
him a great opportunity to grow and learn and play
mostly in the G League. He may play a little
bit with his dad. That's an honest answer. But the
biggest thing is we we sit here and go, dude,
what is actually going on that the Lakers tried to
(47:54):
do this song and a dance about Hey, we don't
know if he's coming back. Don't overdrafting Ronnie. At the
end of the day they acquiesced to everything and anything
Lebron can want. So if Lebron doesn't win yet again,
you can understand that he has no one to blame
but himself. He picked this coach, he's picked his teammates,
(48:17):
he picked his his son, and they're going to do
the best they can under those parameters. That's the reality
of the situation. It doesn't mean that it doesn't work,
but the fact is that when it doesn't work, Lebron
has never been somebody to accept blame, especially for the
composition of a roster, when he is directly to blame
for the composition of this roster. All right, coming up
(48:39):
next to the Doug Gottlieb show them. We're live at
the tyraq dot com studios. We got a little thing
called let's ask coach. We may change it two less ads, coach,
that's the difference in pronunciation. We'll get to that next,
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Thanks for listening to the best of the Doug Gottlieb
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday
three to five Eastern twelve two Pacific on Fox Sports Radio.
Find your local station for The Doug Gottlieb Show at
Foxsports Radio dot com, or stream us live every day
on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR It's Doug Gotleeb Show,
Fox Sports Radio. I just got a great tweet Chase
(00:25):
two that I think you would really appreciate. The same
people telling you Bronnie earned it to the same people
telling you there's nothing wrong with Joe Biden just as
a cold I thought you'd like that one.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
I actually I made the exact same connection in my hut.
We're getting lied to a lot here in southern California
by the people in the White House and by the Lakers.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Yes, yeah, I mean, like, look, you don't think the
guy who used to occupy the White House was lying
every time he opened his mouth as well, like literally lied.
Like that's the crazy part about it. Everybody's lying about
Joe Biden's cognitive health is pretty obvious, and Trump lied
every time he opened his mouth. And it's like we're
(01:07):
all just like going along. We're just all just going
along with it. And then JJ Reddick's like, yeah, he's
totally earned it, Like what like it? That one is
the point of being laughable.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Excuse me, Well, Lebron had nothing to do with the
hiring of JJ Reddick. We remember that one.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Lebron, Lebron, we gotta rank him. Lebron had nothing to
do with the hiring of jj Reddick. Bronni said he
never thought of playing with his dad.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
And uh Polinka said that Lebron had nothing to do
with them drafting Bronni.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Right, all these things just independently happened on themselves. M
and when at some point you go like, do you
think we're all idiots?
Speaker 3 (01:51):
M H.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
And I understand. Reality is you can't tell us the
entire truth, you know, can't tell us the entire truth,
which is probably something where along the lines of like,
look we said long ago when we met with Lebron
in the middle of the season, he was like, look,
you know, Darvinham's a dope. I'm not playing for him.
(02:15):
You're gonna draft Bronnie, I'm gonna get the Max. We're
gonna try and do this thing one more time. We're
gonna do it our way, you know, or I'll just retire.
We won't play right. The entirety of the truth will
probably never be told, or we'll never know, and we
probably don't really deserve to know, but we don't deserve
to be openly lied to. This one's not that hard,
(02:37):
not that hard. When he could just say, look, look,
did he get an opportunity because he's Lebron's son. Sure,
when you have that type of lineage, when you have
this type of work ethic, we want to see how
he develops. And we're willing. We know Bronni better than
everybody else, so we're willing to watch him and help
him develop. That's a better statement. That's not crazy telling
(02:59):
us that he earned it? Is it is just blatantly
what's the term gaslighting? Is that gaslighting?
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yes, that's exactly what it is.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
I hate when people use terms like that and they
and it makes me think, like and then all of
a sudden we start chasing terms like that. But at
HP gent one who is retired US Navy, was that
of a tweet? Same people told you Brownie earned it,
same people telling you that there's nothing wrong with Biden.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
He just does it cold?
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Everyone's gas lighting today. You are a correct sir, You
are correct, Like dude, what really? I mean? I just
I can't even conceptualize how JJ Reddick would say that
at the presser. Yes, but he did, but he clearly
(03:56):
clearly did. All right, we got to get to UH. Oh.
By the way, JJ hired Scotty Brooks, good friend of mine,
a former NBA head coach and star player. You SERVI
Nate McMillan. Those are the two assistants. There were some
other guys that had pulled out and that's who he
ended up with. So there's two veteran guys who have
(04:17):
been through it, and JJ and Nate McMillan, I mean, Scott,
excuse me, and Nate McMillan. Scotty. I know he has
a place in Orange County. He was with the Trailblazers
last year. Nate, of course, formerly the head coach of
the Trailblazers back then. These are life for NBA guys.
Let's let's get to Brian Finley with UH with some
news and then we'll play a little Let's ask coach
(04:40):
Brian what do you got?
Speaker 5 (04:41):
Yeah, Doug So, former Toronto Raptors player Johntay Porter, banned
for life of course, from the NBA, is going to
be charged, according to the Associated Press, with a federal
felony in relation to the betting transgressions. A court date
hasn't been announced, but Porter is accused of giving insider
information about his playing status to aid select gamblers, as
(05:02):
Doug was mentioning earlier. A multi year deal for lebron James' son,
Bronni James with the Lakers. Bronny just picked in the
second round, gets four years and seven point nine million dollars.
Lakers head coach JJ Reddick adding a list of proven
winners to his coaching staff that would be ex NBA
head coaches Nate McMillan and Scoonnie Brooks. Longtime NBA player
(05:24):
Keba Walker finds a seat on the Hornets staff as
a player enhancement coach, of course, Walker spending many years
in Charlotte as a player for the Hornets at Wimbledon
and Tennis American in twelve seat Tommy Paul winning in
five sets over Finland's Otto Virton and Tommy Paul coming
up with a key break of serve late in the
fifth set and he wins the match after serving it
(05:46):
out at five to four. Onto the third round, he
goes right now, the one seed, Yanick Sinner, who won
the Australian Open, is on serve against Mateo Barrettini's countryman
from Italy, second round of Wimbledon seven to six. Centner
won the first said it is now Berrettini four to
three in set number two. And lastly, Carlos Alcaazjan, a
street setter in the second round. We all know who
(06:09):
he is. And of course Daniel Medvedev moving on as well.
Heeded four sets to do so. And Coco Goff makes
the spot happen for herself into the third round at
the All England Club with her win in two sets.
With that, let's get it back to Doug Gottlieb.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
Stuck gotlib show here on Fox Sports Radio. It's now
that time when guys get to ask the coach a question.
There's a question that needs an answer, and the answer
is if only there was someone with the authority and
the wisdom to give us that answer. The head coach.
I get to set the schedule.
Speaker 6 (06:44):
Hold on, let's ask the coach.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
All right, what do you got today? What's what's what's
the what's the questions for the coach?
Speaker 2 (06:51):
First of all, I just want to add again I
always say this, but that last part there the coaches
a whistle that's that makes the imaging like that, that.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
Just sells it.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
So the assistant coaches that were hired by JJ Reddick today.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
By the way, by the way, that whistle does make it,
but it is not a modern day whistle.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Yeah, you've said this before.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Will listen to that whistle one more time? Go ahead, Okay,
So that whistle has the little ball inside remember those? Okay,
here is here's an actual whistle, my actual practice whistle.
Did you hear how much sharper that was?
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Had that ready to go?
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Yeah? How much sharper that was? So that's a that's
a Fox forty whistle, which I believe a former college
and NBA ref NBA ref actually invented. I think his
last name is forty and anyway that's related to it's
not related to Pat forty. I think it's spelled different.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
I wonder if there's an FCC rule against doing a
whistle into a microphone. Like there are people in their
cars right now trying to get to their July fourth
weekends are like that just stop their cars because they
they're so used to whistle stopping play.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
You know.
Speaker 6 (08:08):
Yeah, I wonder so JJ.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
Red a Kyrie and two assistance reminds me of something
that you have said, if not one hundred times a
million dollars.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Ron Foxcroft, by the way, invented it or he was
referee himself.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
Anyway, it's oh nice.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
So one thing that you've repeated since you took the
job at Green Bay, and I'm interested in this answer,
is you have said that hire assistants who know what
you don't know, so you've gone through the process. I'm
looking for a specifics here. You don't have to tell
me names or anything, but what was it that you
(08:44):
didn't quite know? And what did you hire people to
do that you don't know? I want to know the
specific things.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Well, I know how to communicate with people, recruit them,
paint a vision, try and get them to sign. I
Actually I have a story I want to tell you
real quick in relations to it. You want to know
the hardest thing I've had to do, yea, since I've
been Okay, there's a kid named Alexi. I won't say
his last name. He's Polish and we were recruiting him,
(09:14):
and I was trying to decide what I want to
do with a couple of my last scholarships, and I
wanted to point guard. He's a six foot six, six
foot seven Polish point guard. I love the kid, think
he's a tremendous player. Uh And I have another point
guard who he's committed to me. He hasn't signed, so
I can't mention his name whatever, and but I had
(09:37):
I've been on him for since I got the job.
I have a friend who reached out and is like, hey,
I got this kid. He's really really good. And I
kind of had to get the rest of the staff
to come around to agreeing with me on him. Meanwhile, Alexi,
it was like a week of recruiting him, and I
had to tell him yesterday, like, we're not going to
offer you a scholarship. It was so hard because I frankly,
(10:00):
if I had unlimited scholarships, I would, but I didn't
need I don't need another guy right now. I don't
need what he does as badly as I need some
other pieces. So anyway, that's the deal with That's the
hardest thing I've had to do. What did I not know?
(10:20):
I know how to teach overall defense, but in terms
of specific defensive breakdowns and handling the defense, I needed that.
You know, I obviously have to have somebody who works
with the big guys as I've worked with. I needed
somebody who's an expert. I do player development, but I
also in terms of the individual skill development I don't
(10:43):
do as much of I needed somebody who does that.
And then I needed help with administrative stuff, with all
of the little tasks that I It's like I tell
people all the time, I do all the fun stuff,
the performance stuff I can do, it's the it's all
the other little things that I'm not good at. So
I hired people who've done all those things.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
And you're satisfied with the people you've hired to do
those signs. Were you able to accomplish that?
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Uh? Yeah, yeah, yes, I mean I still have potentially
two spots available. I just I don't have a ton
of money left, so I have to be able to
kind of balance all that stuff, right, Like, if I
could hire whoever I want to hire, yeah, I would
definitely have covered all of my But I've pretty much
(11:32):
covered all my basis and I didn't hire any coach
just to get a player, which I don't think is
smart because then the coach is way too close to
that player, way too tied to that player, and that's
not how you build an overall program.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Brian Finley, you have a question for Doug.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
Yeah, Doug, what is it you got build?
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Whistle?
Speaker 6 (11:49):
You a coach?
Speaker 4 (11:51):
Where's that whistle?
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Where's the whistle?
Speaker 6 (11:53):
I can't do the Phil.
Speaker 5 (11:54):
Jackson, by the way, where he he's able to do
it without a whistle. I can't do that. But Doug,
what is it like trying to connect with a gen
zer now? Right?
Speaker 4 (12:03):
Like in the recruits, had.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Four of them in my office as they're all going
home or somewhere else for I mean, honestly, that's the
part I'm really good at because remember, I've coached AU basketball,
so a lot of these guys I would have coached
in AAU over the last seven years that I've done it.
And then and then you know, I have high school
(12:26):
now college aged daughters of my own and a high
school age son. And oh yeah, by the way, like
what we do for a living. If you're a really
good radio host or you're actually a really good basketball
and you got to connect with people you got. They
have to understand you and you have to understand them.
So yeah, that part has actually been the best part.
Like I really feel like if I get in a
(12:49):
in a spot where it's anywhere close in recruiting, I
can get a kid because I think I understand how
they think and and and what they're looking for and
without promising them anything that's that's not accurate.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
I wonder, like another question here, when these guys get
into trouble. Okay, so it's an it's not a matter
of if it's a matter of when you're gonna have
to you're gonna have fires to put out. I'm just wondering, like,
you've been a player and you very much have uh
(13:27):
dealt with trouble in your past as well. I'm just wondering,
like you, where are you coming from from a from
being compassionate and understanding and needing the player on the
court to having to make send a message in it land.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
It's great, great, this is a great question. Okay, So
I don't have a lot of rules, you know, I
think some sometimes coaches have like set rules. Okay, the
rules I do have that don't lie, don't cheat, don't steal, right,
a bit basic ones, but the here's a couple big ones.
And I told them this they're going on this weekend.
If you drink and you get behind a wheel of
(14:05):
a car, these things like what happens to you is
out of my control. Same thing. If you smoke and
you get behind the wheel of a car, Okay, I
can't do it. Okay, So the rule is that if
you do, I would prefer you don't. I also know
you're human beings. You all have my number, You'll have
everybody in the staffs number. I don't care where in
(14:27):
the world you are. You tell me where you are
and I will either send a car or I'll go
pick you up myself. But again, you get behind a
wheel that car, like like, we're pretty much done here.
So that that's a hard and fast rule, because you're
not just taking your life, you're taking everybody else's life
in your hands. And again like, now now we get
to like I can't there's nothing I can do legally,
(14:48):
like you want to get yourself fired. Step in the
way of the legal process. That will get you fired
in a heartbeat. So there's there's that. And then I
tell them all, like, look, you all know the difference
between right and wrong. And if you don't and something's
like its might not be right, then is definitely not right.
Just don't do it. And then if you want to
(15:09):
be treated you all want to be treated like men,
you'll only be given space and freedom. Then you have
to act like it. And if you don't, there's repercussions
for it. So that's how I handled it. That's how
I handled that.
Speaker 6 (15:20):
Hold on, let's ask the coach another question.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
Yeah, they got there. Well this is not sports related,
but you did make it to uh Summerfest, correct, Doug, yep?
And you had your first lining, Googles, I did summer Shandy.
Speaker 1 (15:33):
What'd you think outstanding?
Speaker 4 (15:35):
It's good. It's not too sweet, like you know, it's
not like going into the MIC's hard lemonade department. It's
it's it's a good recipe to them. I'm sure they've
been doing for a long time. So you you enjoy
your your first lining, Googles as you read, and.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
I think we're gonna go to Summerfest on the fifth
is maroon five.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
So who'd you see this over the weekend?
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Did you?
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Tyler Childers was a didn't see over the weekend?
Speaker 4 (15:55):
It was Friday Friday. How long does this go for?
Speaker 1 (15:59):
This is the last week end, coming weekends, last weekend?
Speaker 4 (16:02):
All right, good turnout.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
The world's largest music festival and maybe longest music festival.
Speaker 4 (16:07):
Wow, so what it's the one down in Tennessee.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
It's I mean Bonnaroo.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
Yeah, so it's not as it's bigger than Bonnaroo, is
what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
I just again, I'm just ripping the last things. I
don't know if they're their facts. I don't know how
that is measured.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
Okay, good turnout. Good weather.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
It was great when I was there. Rain, little rain
when I was there, but then it was fine. Then
it cleared up and it was fine. And the weather
now is perfect. Just rained all day yesterday, all day yesterday,
but just absolutely perfect from now until through the weekend.
So Maroon five July fifth, I think Moon five July fifth.
They have like seven stages, but that's on the main stage.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
Okay, this is this is outside of the city of Milwaukee,
coming No.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
It's right on the It's Milwaukee, it's right. It's like downtown,
right on the.
Speaker 4 (16:53):
Water, right on the water. Okay, right in the water.
I've not spent a lot of time in Milwaukee. I've
spent a lot of time in the state of Wisconsin,
but not Milwaukee.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
Okay, thank you for sharing the extra part there. I
men sure the coach wanted you to.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Think a coach question, go ahead and a play that
bridge there, Sam, I like that last one. All right,
go ahead it bron.
Speaker 6 (17:13):
Or don't hold on the coach.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
I gotta slice and dice a little bit.
Speaker 5 (17:17):
There you go, Doug, when do you decide when a
player needs like a motivating pick me up of a speech,
or when do you decide, like, hey, we just need
to get x's and o's down, and that's what they
need right now.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
What I've tried to do is have each again, I
have somebody who schedules it, and I try and have
one of them come in each day. Today we had
I had a bunch of them in, but one of
them come in each day and just kind of a
check in, like a fifteen minutes, how you doing, what
do you need, what do you need, how you feeling,
what's going on at home, what's going on with your folks, girlfriend, whatever,
(17:56):
and just kind of feel them out from there. But again,
we haven't been doing it long enough, and we've had
him going for three weeks now, so but it's just
more kind of figuring out is a lot. Look, they're
just like any other eighteen to twenty three year old, right,
many of them just as insecure as we are as adults,
(18:18):
and try not to trigger those insecurities, build them up
in self confidence, build them up, and you know, congratulate
them on the things they've done. Well. You know, we
have I have a player who really really talented, really
talented on offense. He's not good on defense. And two
days ago we met and I said, I said, look, guys,
we're just tall to my staff, I said, I think
(18:40):
we're being too hard on him on defense. It's like,
it's not that we don't want him to defend. He
wants to defend. He just hasn't ever done it, and
we're trying to fix it. So let's not be hyper
critical of every mistake, but let's really kind of support
every great thing he did. And especially one of my
coaches who's pretty intent, I was like, look, dude, you
(19:01):
kind of got to dial back on that kid because
he has no defensive confidence and I'd never really seen anything.
My son actually has kind of suffered through this defensive confidencely.
And today in a scrimmage he made a great defensive play.
So I blew the whistle and stopped it. And I said,
at ten ten am on July third, so and so
(19:21):
has decided to become a basketball player. And he knew
what I meant, which is, okay, now we're going to
get active defensively, because if he can just be decent defensively,
he can be awesome on offense. It really holds him back.
So anyway, that's how I go about, like a little
bit of a do better talk if you will, is
find ways in which they can be successful and support
those ways.
Speaker 4 (19:41):
Oh, I got one, I go one.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Okay, I want to say it was Joe Mazoua. I
read at some point in my content consuming over the
last month, I read that Missoula played the Gladiator for
a teammate or for a team or a player. Is
that something that you they you want to do? Are
you going to play movies for your guys?
Speaker 6 (20:02):
Yeah? And if so, what movies?
Speaker 1 (20:05):
That's a great question, I think, guys, I'll call on
your knowledge because one of the things is, like Jase Due,
we're kind of old and not all of them. I
so this is a real thing. So I took a
commitment from a point guard last night and I was
texting with him. He's in a different country, and I said, hey,
have you seen any of the Star Wars Is? And
(20:28):
he's like, no, coach, that hasn't gotten to my generation.
Because I said, I want to put you in Jedi training, right,
I consider myself a Jedi in regards to point guards.
And he's like, if you want me to coach, I'll
watch the Star Wars Is to know what you're talking about.
And I was like, yeah, I think we're good. So
(20:49):
we just you gotta be really careful with dating ourselves.
Can't have him go watch Caddyshack or Airplane or even
slap Shot. Maybe a couple of them. You can the
John Hughes Move movies. I love them, you love them.
I don't think they resonate, but I do think that
anything in the last ten years would be good.
Speaker 6 (21:07):
This is the best of the Don dot Leave Show
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
But you gotta leave show Fox Sports Radio Broadcast Lab
at the Tyreight dot Com Studios tyret dot Com. What
do we get there? Unmatched election, fast free shipping, free
road aster protection, over ten thousand recommending Stallars tyreright dot com.
That's the way tire buying should be. Usually on a Wednesday,
usually we do mid the Midway, the Midway right, We
(21:39):
do the midway, middle of the day, middle of the show,
middle of the week. But we just we got Joe
Varden who's going to join us momentarily, and he covers
the entire league for the Athletic and I thought he'd
be a great guy to get on considering all of
(22:00):
the movement. And Joe, of course is also clevered previously
that just to Cleveland Cavaliers. They're an interesting story, nonetheless,
But what I find to be fascinating is, you know,
no one shares the details of relationships or what's going
on in the thick of it. They don't. But when
the season is over or when a trade is consummated
(22:22):
or a guy leaves, now all bets are off and
things where little things become big things. Seeds that were planted.
And the more you hear about Clay Thompson's departure from
the Warriors, the more you understand that relationship was done.
He was miserable there and like again, some of this
(22:46):
is psychology. We did it ask the coach. And I'll
just be honest that I knew this coming in, but
I didn't know it to this extent, like being a
basketball coach college and pro and even high school to
a certain extent. So much of it is psychology. Yet,
but you got you got to be dime store a psychologist,
you know, because the coaching guys one way and the
(23:08):
hard time of breaking the guy down and building back up,
like you just you don't have the time to do
that with all the guys you don't And yeah, you
just it becomes very very difficult, very difficult to see
that as uh see that as a way in which
you're always going to be successful. So you have to.
(23:30):
Jimmy Johnson says this. Remember Jimmy Johnson, I'm talking about
the Fox NFL analyst, former National Championship and NAST champiship
coach and coach of the Miami Dolphins. He always said,
you coach everybody the same different. But the more you
hear about Klay Thompson and his time at the end
with the Warriors, the more you're like, yeah, that, no
(23:51):
wonder that thing ended with that. Joe Varden joints this
course he covers the NBA for the athletic what do
what do you think Klay Thompson not just leaving the
Warriors for the MAVs, but the fact that he shunned
the Lakers.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Doug, I love coming on as always, and this is
as fascinating a topic as there is. I mean, I
just I've had some conversations with some of these some
of the people there in the last twenty four to
forty eight hours, and he just quaite wanted out, He
(24:27):
wanted to change. He didn't have to leave, you know,
the Warriors wanted him back, certainly like the people who
coached him and teammates, you know, wanted to continue being
his teammate. But he he was ready for a new scene.
And I don't I just don't think that there was
(24:48):
going to be anything that happened that changed his mind.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Why not the Lakers?
Speaker 3 (24:55):
You know what, Doug? That one I don't know as well.
It's hard to understand, you know, the mascinations with you know,
whether it's the money or you know, I mean fit wise,
like I guess you would you would think that playing
alongside of passing Lebron would be something that that Clay
(25:17):
would like. Other than I guess you get to play
with the long, the younger version of him with Luca
and and and then maybe you know, Clay may be
more comfortable playing for Jason kidds th and JJ Reddick.
That's a possibility as well. I mean he's not you know,
we know he's not breaking the bank in Dallas. So
(25:38):
I admit here that I am speculating. But if you
just think about Jason Kidd now has proven himself as
not only an NBA coach, but as a player's coach,
somebody who probably has a similar demeanor, maybe looks at
things in a way that's similar to Clay. So there's that.
(25:58):
And then you know, playing alongside Luca and Kyrie, I mean,
if you think about with Clay, like going back to
some of his time with Team USA, like he spent
some of those years with Kyrie, and Kyrie is a
lot better, you know, in a lot better place. Now
we've talked about that. But Luca, he actually for being
(26:19):
the league league sport, he actually also creates a ton
of opportunities for players. Uh and the Mavericks are desperate
for a spot up shooter. I think like their record
when Tim Hardaway Junior makes four threeson a game is
just some outrageous number. So Clay's going to feels like
he's going to get a lot of open shots there.
And so I just think, you know, and then he
(26:41):
could do that in a place where like he doesn't
have that family tie, like in Golden State, Like yes
he was a splash brother, Yes he helped build things there,
but if there was a shadow, it be sets, he'd
be playing kind of under step shadow. And then in
in LA you're talking about bron and ad sure, but
then also his death, you know, and there's that storyline.
(27:04):
So he can go to Dallas, he can get a
fresh start, he's gonna get a million open looks, and
he's playing, uh with you know, maybe maybe a coach
that that he can understand and and vibe with.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Joe Barton joining us, You're right to the athletic, he
joins to the Doug Outleab Show here on Fox Sports Radio. Okay,
how does the league view what the Lakers are doing?
Speaker 3 (27:34):
I think, you know, like if you if you, if
you go back, and if you can you can imagine
as this story has played out, not only not only
over the last few weeks, but really months in the
whole year when you start thinking about the speculation of
is Bronnie gonna come out? Okay he is? Is he worse? Like?
(27:56):
Is he worth the drast pick? And so there's been
a million conversations about this, and there there are from
there are talent evaluators who say, yeah, he's not he's
not bad like he's you know, he's young, he needs
more time, but he's not bad. So I think by
and large the league understands a few things. One from
(28:21):
the if you want to use the word nepotism or whatever, fine,
but like Lebron is, lebron wants this as maybe his
parting gifts for what he has done for the league.
He's earned this, So I don't think anybody's going to
have too big of a problem with it from that perspective.
But then the second thing is people get drafted on
(28:46):
flyers all the time, and you know this. You know
there are players from Europe that get stashed over there
and then they get brought over and and maybe they sink,
or maybe they never come over, or maybe they these
you know, somebody's playing in Australia and they come over
and they're they're bad, and they they're hardly ever in
(29:07):
the you know, like in the NBA, like this kind
of thing happens all the time. So if the Lakers
are taking a flyer on Bronnie James because because of
who his father is, that that's okay, that's fine. I
think the final point I would make is, you know,
Lebron has spent the last twenty one years empowering people
(29:30):
around him who are the closest to him. And there
are a few examples of this. There are three that
I want to mention, Rich Paul, he helps Rich start
that agency, Maverick Carter, his longtime business manager who now
runs you know, all of the Lebron media empires. And
(29:51):
there's the third guy who's really good, Brandon Wims, who's
an executive with the Cats. Grew up with Lebron and
certainly got his first job in Cleveland because of that time.
But all three of those guys has taken their opportunity
that they got by being so close to Lebron and
run with it.
Speaker 6 (30:12):
Run with it.
Speaker 3 (30:14):
Rich Paul is arguably the most He's one of the
most powerful agents in sports. Maverick Carter is rich beyond
what you and I could sab them, and that's even
with your multiple jobs. But anyway, like Mattick, Carter's then
amazing and Brandon Wims is a respected NBA executive that
(30:36):
has nothing to do with lebron You know, you have
Ronnie Jane. He gets this opportunity with the Lakers. Who's
to say that he doesn't run with it?
Speaker 2 (30:45):
What if?
Speaker 3 (30:45):
What if he blossoms in the next couple of years
and become a guy that can come off the bench
and give you real NBA minutes, Like you know, That's
what I'm looking for. It's not well, how or why
does he have this opportunity? It is what the he
do with it?
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Yeah, I guess, I guess the issue with it is
like just the ridiculous levels to which they lie, right
JJ Redick with He's He's earned it with his hard work,
Like Dalton Connects, Dalton Connect. By the way we sit
on the other side, Dalon connect went to junior college,
to Northern Colorado to Tennessee and Dalt Connect earned it. Right.
I'm not saying that le BRONI doesn't work hard, but
(31:22):
like again, like what are we doing here? You know
you lose people with that stuff even when and so
if that's the sale if it's the Hey, look, he
had a set back with the hard issue. His best
basketball is still ahead of him. I've said this in
the past. I believe it. The way he plays in
which he doesn't really need the basketball, he plays out
(31:43):
the ball like and he's just kind of a role
player that sets him up potentially for a successful future.
But he's so far from being there that, yeah, you
need the you need the G League, which is where
he's going to be. But the rich Paul, we're not
doing a two way contract, the four year guaranteed contract
for a second round er like never done before. All
of these things are just kind of bordering on ridiculous
(32:04):
to where it makes most of us roll our eyes.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Yeah, yes, yes, and there, yes, I will, I will
agree to all of that. I don't think JJ needed
to quite go that far, you know. I think that
probably what he was referring to is that he's turned
himself into a player who is like, let me put
(32:28):
this on. I know the James family well enough to
say that if Brownie would get hurt or be embarrassed,
and we can discuss what we mean by embarrassed, but
embarrassed doing this, they wouldn't have done it. So he's worked.
He has worked, worked hard enough to put himself in
position to be considered. You know, would you have been
(32:52):
drafted if that was his last name with something else?
You know, we know that. But but he has put
in the work and he did overcome the heart thing
to one year later to be like okay and being
able to you know, go out there and compete. I
mean that that's fine. JJ went too far with that
the contract. I will, I will agree. You know they're
(33:14):
going you know, uh, they're going there, They're they're going
the full board here. He's got his four years. But
I just think, you know, I think that, like we
all know what it is, and so like we don't
like the Lakers, don't have to bend over backwards to
say that it isn't And let's all now just see
(33:35):
what he does with it.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
Yeah, Joe Barten joining us covers the entire NBA for
the athletic It's interesting we talk about Lakers, we'll talk
about the Knicks, talk about the Sixers. How much of
America is going to miss on with the thunder A
doing Yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
Know, and they are, I mean they yeah, they like Yeah,
the heart heartenstein, you know, is the latest thing, and
they were one of the best teams in the NBA
all year. They still have all just all this capital
to work with. They are, Yeah, there's something to behold,
you know. Like so like when you try to figure
(34:13):
out what the lake I get asked all the time, like,
you know, what does the Lebron contract mean? Now he's back?
Like can the Lakers do X Y or Z. Well,
they can't be in the discussion right now because of
what's going on in Oklahoma City in Minnesota. You know,
Denver is still really good. But yeah, I mean the
Thunder are going to be as fun of a team
(34:36):
to watch as we have in the league.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Yeah, they're there. They got something pretty special bruin there.
I ard some people talking today about the pressure now
on Jewel embiid. Is that fair? Does he have the
most pressure of anybody because he's the guy, the last
guy who hasn't won one?
Speaker 3 (34:52):
Yeah? I think I mean to the degree that these
guys still pressure, I don't know, and I don't know
if Joel like takes these kinds of things to heart.
But my take on the Paul George contract there is
it's it's lovely. It's it turns the Sixers into a
(35:15):
team that's gonna that can be in the conversation with
the Celtics and the Knicks. But they haven't gotten very
far in the playoffs because Joel Embiid is not healthy
in April and met and I have news. If Joel
Embiid is not healthy next April or next May, then
(35:38):
having Paul George there is not going to be the difference.
It's not enough. They Joel is what makes that team
a contender. So when they suit up on October eighteenth
or whatever, it's going to be really exciting and they're
going to be, you know them with the Celtics and
the Knicks, we're going to be We're just going to
(35:58):
be crossing, you know, over the possibilities. But the Sixers
are a legitimate contender if Joel Embiid can make it
through the regular season and be ready to go when
it really matters in the spring, and the last couple
of years he has been really banged up.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
At that point, Joe, we know that you you you've
covered Cleveland for for years. What, Yeah, it feels like
a bit of an overcreate a correction for when they
first lost Lebron. How they've given the keys to the kingdom,
you know, and now to a guy who's really really good,
(36:36):
but I don't know if he's to that level in
Donovan Mitchell. Is that fair that that he's had the key?
All these deals, all these moves that are made are
to keep him happy and then he re signs. Is
that is that what what you feel like has happened?
Speaker 3 (36:49):
Yeah, of course you're yes, Yes, that's that's precisely it.
That is the price of doing business in a small market.
And and probably the price of doing business in a
small market when you've been shunned twice by a megastar.
That's just how it is. And and yes JB. Bickerstaff
(37:11):
works in Detroit now, uh, in part because of Donovan.
And you know, Kenny Atkinson, like Dan Gilbert, had a
lot to do with with the hiring of the coach.
But but but Donovan gave his blessing there for sure,
and and so yeah, so he's under contract, you know,
my you know, at the athletic there's been some research
(37:35):
and some stories done about you know, teams don't typically
win when their best player is smaller, and right now,
Donovan is definitely their best player, so you know, they
become you know, Kobe Allman there, their president, said something
prescient when he made when he brought Donovan to Cleveland
(37:56):
from Utah. He said, they will actually be ready to
contend when Evan Mobley is ready to contend. And he's
still right with that. If Evan takes to jump that
he just everybody thought he might and he didn't take
the last couple of years, that changes them. And so
when you think about the future of the Cavs, like
(38:18):
yes yesterday, it was a huge deal to get Donovan
back and and he's going to be around.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
For a while.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
But for them to remain in the conversation with these
other three teams that you and I have been talking about,
they either need to change the roster, which I don't
know that they're going to do, or Evan Mobley needs
to be different from what from what he's been. And
that's that's the next story. You know, Donovan has the power,
he's got to hold up his end and and and
(38:49):
win in the playoffs for sure, but but he needs
Evan Mobley to take those steps forward for this team
to really be something.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
Joe Varden covers the NBA for the athletic and does
a hell of a job. Show you the best man.
Thanks for joining us. Have a happy fourth, I say.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
To you, Doug.
Speaker 6 (39:06):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Doug Gottlieb
Show weekdays at three pm Eastern noon Pacific on Fox
Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
Boompo. Doug Gottlieb Show, Fox Sports Radio, coming to you
from the tyrat dot com studios tyrat dot com. We'll
we get there. Unmatched election, fast free shipping, free road
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It's the way tire buying should be welcome in. I
hope you are doing great, Jason. This opening rant is
(39:38):
brought to you by our good friends in Las Vegas.
No it's not. But as a card player, as a gambler,
I think you can appreciate this, right, I think you
can appreciate this. You ever play cards with somebody who's
the worst bluffer of all time and you're just like
you're just sitting there going this guy's really bad. All
(40:01):
of his tails are really easy. I don't know whether
the worst bluffer of all time is Lebron James and
Rich Paul. I don't think it is. I actually think
it's Rob Polinka and the Lakers. Whatever it is, this
is bordering on ridiculous. We've never discussed the idea that
(40:21):
lebron James was a free agent because he was never
leaving Los Angeles. We've never bought into the whole idea
of Bronny being selected by somebody else. As a matter
of fact, I don't believe Bronni James would be drafted
in the NBA had the Lakers not have drafted him,
(40:42):
not just because he didn't have a great year, or
he's only six to one and a half and he's
not really not a point guard, not close to a
point guard, or he hasn't had any kind of dynamic
season over the past three seasons. None of that, None
of that. He had a heart attack year ago, like
that's a medical red flag for anybody. And then but
now I feel insulted. I just I do. I feel
(41:06):
insulted because I've sat through Rob Polinka press conferences before
and I've been told that some players are was it
a gift from Hanna? Is that was that one of them? Right?
And remember, of course, like I bought into Lonzo Ball
thing that we're gonna put Lonzo Ball's name next to
Magic and Kobe and whatever. But this one is, this
(41:29):
one's nuts nuts because they made JJ Reddick or JJ
Redick made himself into a complete fabricator of anything that
could be provably true. Right, JJ Reddick yesterday had the hutzpa.
Do you guys know what hutspiz? It's like nerve bolts, right,
(41:53):
That's what it is, is that it's the gall There you go,
there's three different definitions nerve ball's goal to say that
Bronnie James had earned earned his spot on the Lakers. Look,
you can say a lot of things about Bronnie James
that his best basketball is still ahead of him. That's fair.
(42:17):
That he's a good player and a good human being,
and he's come out of a tough situation medically, and
you're just happy that he's alive and happy that he's basketball.
Also fair. You can even tell me that when he
gets to the NBA, the spacing and the ability to
play off the basketball and just be a guy who
(42:39):
guards the ball and shoots threes, it may fit his
game better. All fair. When you look America in the
eye and say, Bronnie James has earned being on the Lakers.
Anybody who has any sort of brain no longer takes
(43:01):
you seriously. And then the Lakers give him a four
year guaranteed contract today, which is virtually unheard of for
a second round draft pick, let alone a second round
draft pick who didn't have a particularly good year coming
off of a heart attack, didn't have a great senior year,
(43:23):
didn't have a great junior year. Like, what are we
actually doing here? And then Lebron James resigns and oh yeah,
by the way, he resigned for the MAX when we
had been told, hey, Lebron really wants to win for
the right player, he won't sign for the max. So
we can sit here and talk about you know, we
(43:45):
haven't spent a ton of time talking about what Rich
Paul said or this idea that Lebron or Bronny could
go elsewhere. But now I'm to the point where I'm
just like offended. Like, I get it. You want your
kid on the team. It's kind of a cool thing. Great,
he's gonna be on the team for four years. I
(44:05):
brought this up yesterday hosting the Herd. Amari Bailey was
a better high school prospect had a much better singular
season at UCLA than Bronnie did. Is a higher rated,
better overall prospect than Bronnie James. He was drafted forty
ninth overall in the draft, didn't play a ton this year,
(44:27):
and they chose not to pick up his contract. He's out.
He's out, so he got a one year contract Ronnie James,
who didn't do much of anything. That's four years. Lebron
was never leaving. They were always drafting Bronnie, and all
of this has to be at least a portion of
(44:49):
why they're seemingly unable to get anybody to come join
them in LA with the Through their own volition, Lebron
signs a two year deal with max money. Remember he said,
I might take a discount and Bronnie gets a guaranteed deal,
but we'll spend the majority of the season in the
G League. I mean, really, what Lebron James has done
(45:13):
is a less expensive way of what Dwayne Wade did.
Dwayne Wade Son never played in college, and he just
simply bought the G League team and then made them
play him on the G League team. And now he's
not even playing basketball. Bronnie James and his father lebron
James are expected to share the court with the LA
Lakers the first week of the upcoming NBA season. Adrian
(45:34):
Warznowski added, and there are no expectations that James will
be in the Lakers rotation. Instead, James expected to spend
the majority of his time with the Lakers in the
G League, the South Bay Lakers. Here's JJ Reddick at
the press conference yesterday.
Speaker 7 (45:51):
Rob and I did not give Bronnie anything. Bronnie has
earned this. Bronnie talks about his hard work. Bronnie has
earned this through hard work. And for us prioritizing player development,
we view Bronnie as like case study one because his
base level of feel, athleticism, point of attack, defender, shooting, passing,
(46:15):
There's a lot to like about his game. And as
we sort of build out our player development program holistically,
he's going to have a great opportunity to become an
excellent NBA player.
Speaker 1 (46:28):
All of that stuff is great, Okay, I agree, got
to build out your player development program. That part is
completely true, and they absolutely want to develop Bronnie James
smart right, smart, He's got develop But we didn't give
him anything. He earned it. How his art right come on, man,
(46:49):
what are we doing? What are we doing? So Bronnie
James works harder than anybody else, including more talented, better
prospect on everybody's board. No, and look, I just I've
got an opportunity. I got opportunities. My father did everything
he could in his power to create opportunities for me.
Like I sit here and act like I didn't. But again,
(47:12):
the actual awards of playing time in college came from
whether or not I earned it. You know, I practiced
and played as hard as anybody. I didn't get a
shot in the NBA. And there's no jealousy there of
Ronnie James. Just I don't need it to be to
be lied to directly and say specifically no, no, no,
we didn't give him this. Yes you did. You gave
(47:33):
him a great opportunity to grow and learn and play
mostly in the G League. He may play a little
bit with his dad. That's an honest answer. But the
biggest thing is we we sit here and go, dude,
what is actually going on that the Lakers tried to
(47:54):
do this song and a dance about Hey, we don't
know if he's coming back. Don't overdrafting Ronnie. At the
end of the day they acquiesced to everything and anything
Lebron can want. So if Lebron doesn't win yet again,
you can understand that he has no one to blame
but himself. He picked this coach, he's picked his teammates,
(48:17):
he picked his his son, and they're going to do
the best they can under those parameters. That's the reality
of the situation. It doesn't mean that it doesn't work,
but the fact is that when it doesn't work, Lebron
has never been somebody to accept blame, especially for the
composition of a roster, when he is directly to blame
for the composition of this roster. All right, coming up
(48:39):
next to the Doug Gottlieb show them. We're live at
the tyraq dot com studios. We got a little thing
called let's ask coach. We may change it two less ads, coach,
that's the difference in pronunciation. We'll get to that next,
but first you put it off long enough. It's time
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Host
Doug Gottlieb
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