July 30, 2024 • 32 mins
Doug riffs on Steve Kerr and the controversy from game one against Serbia. Doug welcomes The Athletic's Mike DeFabo onto the show to get the latest from Steeler's Training Camp. Doug reacts Chris Paul's take on Steve Kerr. Doug chooses among deserving candidates Jason Stewart deems as most annoying today. Plus, Keyshawn Johnson is featured on today's edition of "Because We Can".
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, this is the Doug gottl Show. Here's in
the bonus with Doug Gottli.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Gotteb Show Fan the Bonus Fox Sports Radio. I heart
ready app Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, welcome in. I hope
you're doing great. Okay, so we are depending on when
you download this pod. We're like twelve hours away from
(00:33):
Game two of Team USA basketball this year, right, And
what's interesting about it is there's just so so much
bullshit with his Jason Tatum stuff and I'm I'm fascinated
by it because this is where and Jase do I
can guarantee you're wondering this as well. We would all
(00:54):
agree that Steve Kerr is woke, right, that's fair woke, right.
And one of the things that being woke is about,
it's being aware of how things affect other people of
other cultures, you know, and obviously it delves what's taken on.
What's changed with this movement is it's it's taken on
(01:17):
all these ulterior meaning meanings and it is a progressive
slash liberal sort of way of looking at the world.
But it's also one of these like, hey, I understand
your feelings. We want to make you feel better. We
want to make everybody be happy. I got to tell you,
being a coach is not a This is not in
(01:38):
any way a democracy. It is a dictatorship. It is
a dictatorship. It doesn't work otherwise. Hey, guys, do you
wanna what do you think? I'm not sure that doesn't work,
not in that culture. And I think it's just fascinating
to see, Like I think Steve Kerr behind the closed doors, sneakily,
(02:03):
hell of a coach, hell of a leader, knows how
when to push buttons. Now he let the Draymond things
spin out of control. He has never been able to
reel that thing in. It's probably cost them a championship
or two in Golden State, it really has. Let's see
what he does tomorrow. Because if you play Jason Tam
(02:23):
twenty five minutes, you're admitting fault for doing nothing fucking wrong. Ever.
You played to win. You pushed all the right buttons,
You made the right decisions. That was your evaluation. You
told the player beforehand he might not play, He didn't play.
He didn't throw him in in garbage time to embarrass him.
He handled it perfectly. Now, how do you handle this one?
You cannot if you listen to the fans. This is
(02:45):
Jerry Sloan's famous stavement. If you listen to fans, soon
you become one of them. If he over corrects, it's
not just a sign of weakness, it's a sign of
pure poor coaching and a sign that he's listing way
too much the shit that doesn't matter. I am intrigued.
You should be too.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
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.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
App all Right Snug Gallimb Show on Fox Sports Radio.
Mike Defablo joins us, this is a dude. Who uh
If I remember reading correctly, Mike, you grew up in Latrobe, right,
so now all of a sudden you get to cover
the Steelers. Like that's like this is literally like boyhood
dream covering for the athletic.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Is it not.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Yeah, it's actually kind of funny because when I was
a kid, we would come up here and you stand
along the rope. And when I was a kid, I
was going Jerome Jerome Betts cause I get an autograph,
cause I get an autograph, And now here I am
as an adult basically seeing in the identical spot saying, Hey,
George Pickens, do you have a second for an interview.
So it's a pretty surreal experience for me and definitely
(03:53):
a dream come true to get for your hometown team.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Okay, so what is going on with George Pickens attitude wise,
with this with this new offense.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
Yeah, So with George Pickens, he's a supremely talented guy,
but he also knows that he's very talented, and there
were definitely times last season where some of his immaturity
showed and some of that youth manifested itself as immaturity.
So there was a bit of an exchange between him
and new wide receivers coach Zakazani. The two of them
(04:26):
just kind of exchanging words that got a little heated
for a minute. Now, we'll have to see how that progresses.
You know, I all eyes are kind of always on
George Pickens looking for these types of things in a way,
and so you know, it's tough to know whether this
is just typical competitors being competitors' stuff or if this
could turn into something else. But I think that that
relationship is interesting because George has all the talent in
(04:49):
the world, and Zakazani is a coach that loves to
coach guys hard, kind of prides himself on that. So
you know, is Zachazani going to be the guy that
gets the most out of George Pickens or could that
eventually turn into a situation where there's a bit of friction.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Roman Wilson got heart of today's practice, Is that right?
Speaker 4 (05:08):
Yeah? So to start to start out each practice, Mike
Tomlin likes to ramp up the energy and they call
it seven shots, which is seven opportunities from the two
yard line, basically a two point conversion. Roman Wilson was
running a jet sweep. He got brought down by one
of the corners from the Steelers, hobbled off. They took
off his shoe and we're looking at his foot for
a while, and he did get onto a cart and
(05:30):
left on a cart. Now, I will say this, it
might not be as severe as a typical quote unquote
carting off may seem because virtually every player leaves a
practice on a cart eventually because of the distance they
have to walk. So Mike Tomlin said after practice he
is being evaluated for an ankle injury. They don't get
know the severity of it, but you know that's especially
(05:50):
impactful for a Steelers wide receiver room. But even before this,
people were questioning if they had enough depth. You know,
if you look at that wide receiver corps in a
lot of ways, it can look like it George Pickens
and then a huge gap and then everybody else. And
they were already wondering with Deontay Johnson gone. You know,
there's been a lot of speculation could the Steelers or
should the Steelers trade for a wide out or pick
(06:11):
one up in some form or fashion. You know, now
after losing the rookie that you're counting on the work
the underneath portions of the field, the middle of the field.
You know, if this turns into something more than just
you know, a little camp injury, you know, it's another
question mark for what was already a position group that
was facing a number of them.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Okay, let's let's get to brass tacks. Where are we
with quarterbacks?
Speaker 4 (06:34):
Yeah, So it's been this quote unquote competition has been
interesting because Russell Wilson has been very limited through this
early portion. So he was injured in a very interesting
and somewhat controversial way. On Wednesday of last week during
the team's conditioning test, apparently he was pushing the sled
when he tweaked his ankle. So last week he was
(06:57):
pretty much held out. He participated a little bit in
individual well, today was the first day in pads Russell
was back out there. He did participate during seven on
seven periods, but he only took two handoffs or you know,
was only in for two handoffs during eleven or eleven periods.
So whatever competition has kind of been hard to see.
But I will say this, like I would be very
(07:20):
surprised if Russell Wilson is not the starting quarterback Week one,
Mike Tomlin placed this quote unquote poll position label on
him and claim that there would be a competition, But
through OTAs and mandatory mini camps, Russell Wilson took virtually
every single first team rep, you know, and it seems
like that's going to be the way that it's going
(07:40):
to be. It seems the way that I read the situation,
justin field is going to have to really excite and
impress in the preseason games to turn this into a
competition or to make the team think twice about his
usage right if there needs to be an expanse of
Justin Field's package in their offense. But until that happens,
I really feel that this is Wilson's job to lose,
(08:01):
and I very much would expect him to be the
starting quarterback Week one in Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Yeah, I mean you me both, you know you and
me both again? You the amount they extended themselves to
Russell Wilson. To me, he tells you he's going to
get I mean, I don't know, did like Justin Fields
over and I become a guy who can throw football
and read a defense? Because I don't remember that happening
in Chicago, right.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
I mean it. It's interesting because both these quarterbacks were
acquired in low cost moves. But you know, Justin Field
to just get him for a fourth round pick, I
think that tells you what the thirty one other NFL
teams thought about Justin Fields right now too. And he's
interesting because there are times during practice where he keeps
the ball and a read option and shows off that
(08:45):
speed in that athleticism, or you know, he uncorks a
deep ball and he does have good arm, talent, great mobility.
There are reasons and tangible skills that made in the
eleventh overall pick a couple of years ago. But also,
you know, in that seven shots drill that I alluded
to when they're down by the goal line, some of
the challenges when it comes to processing the game quickly
(09:05):
going through your reads, that's where you see some of
the struggles and the other part is just some of
his accuracy and anticipations. So you know, my question is
just kind of like, will the Steelers be the team
that unlocks justin fields? Are they the team that gets
the most out of justin fields? And also is he
around long enough for that to happen? Because right now,
both quarterbacks are on one year contracts, So as a
(09:27):
Steelers face a bit of an uncertain situation going into
this season a quarterback. If they don't extend one of
these guys at some point, you know, there's definitely a
possibility they could be here in camp and Latrope next
season with many more quarterback questions.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Okay, the defense has always been kind of solid in
what they've built behind Where is the defense so far
this preseason?
Speaker 4 (09:53):
Yeah? I think that the defense really carried the Steelers
last year and kind of lugged in a ne mcoffense
into the post season, and they struggled last year when
it came to giving up big plays, and they did
give up a fair number of yards, but they were
six best in scoring. So the key thing is they're
producing timely turnovers and they were keeping the ball out
(10:13):
of the end zone. They they've made a couple of additions.
The biggest one would be Patrick Queen, and you know,
that position group an inside linebacker has been a bit
of a revolving door for the Steelers since Ryan Shaziers
suffered his unfortunate career ending injury, and they've been looking
for guys to fill that role, even trading up a
couple of years ago to get Devin Bush, who didn't
work out. So now that that room is looking a
(10:36):
lot better, you know, not only do they have Patrick Queen,
but they also have a young guy, rookie Peyton Wilson,
who has a lot of speed and should contribute a lot.
So it's like they're taking one of the biggest question
marks and beginning to turn that into a strength of
the defense. And then the other intriguing thing to me is,
you know, last year the safety position and dured a
lot of injuries, and because of that, Minka Fitzpatrick, who's
(10:58):
known as this ball hawking force, had to play much
more in the box. He often was, you know, the
point on tight ends, and because of that, he did
not have an interception, he did not force the fumble,
did not recover a fumble. So the Steelers have promised
this year to get to let Minka get back to
Dean Minca and what that means is playing in more
is that deep middlefield safety, and the hope is that
(11:20):
that helps them produce more turnovers. So you know, for me,
I think this defense once again will be the anchor
of this team. They'll be counting on them to keep
the score down in games close, and for me, one
of the biggest things is just can TJ. Watts stay
healthy to do that, because he's such an integral part
of this defense in so many ways. As long as TJ.
Watt is healthy, I would expect a better defense than
(11:41):
last year.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Awesome stuff. As always, listen, this obviously is a boyhood
dream of yours, but you're doing a great job of it.
Thanks so much for joining us on the Doug Gottlieb
Show on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
Yeah. Absolutely, I really appreciate you having me on.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
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 2 (12:07):
Let's Get to the Fox, says and now every day
this time that I got the show podcast. In the bonus,
we played for a portion of a previous show on
Fox Sports Radio Fox Sports One. Here's Colin Calherd and
Chris Paul yesterday have an exchange about Jason Tatum. What
do you make of Tatum not playing? Is it odd?
Speaker 1 (12:25):
How to other play? I mean, what's that like when
All Stars?
Speaker 5 (12:28):
There's always a guy that doesn't get into rotation in
the Olympics.
Speaker 6 (12:31):
Yeah, it's always tough. I was at my gym yesterday,
my CP three basketball academy here at home, when I
heard the results of the game and that JT didn't
get in. But I know JT. I know he's a competitor.
I know USA basketball. It's always tough, you know, because
you have, you know, some of the best players in
the world. And JT is obviously one of the best
(12:52):
players in the world. And I always speak about our
two thousand and eight Olympic team, and that was my
first time playing in the Olympics. And I always say
that the three most important players on that team are
great players that sometimes people leave out when they're naming
that team, and that's Michael red Tayshaun Prince and Carlos Boozer.
And I say that because those guys were just pros
day in and day out. But you know, it's just
(13:15):
a different landscape now where everyone's going to talk about
it on social and all this stuff.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
Man.
Speaker 6 (13:20):
But I just hope that JT knows who he is
and what he's capable of and just continues to get
ready for when his name is called.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Yeah, you want the translation of that, like, look, those
three guys he mentioned they didn't play you want to
play in USA basketball. Sometimes you're not going to get
as much run or any run, right, And he also
said that you know, he doesn't want it to he
doesn't want it to affect his basically his self confidence.
(13:51):
But none of that was and he said, basically, we're
reacting to social media again. All of you people who
are reacting on social media, you never coached played in
this sort of setting. It's very normal to only play
ten guys and just because he's all NBA doesn't mean
shit when he's got Kevin Durant and Lebron James ahead
of him. Okay, it's it, they're ahead of him. It's
(14:15):
like the same piece. Here's what's frustrating. The same people
who said, and I don't actually believe it to be
true that Lebron's the best player on this team. The
same people going like, why did you play Jason Tatum? Well, okay,
you noticed that Lebron's really effective, because this is a
lot more about brain and Bron than it is about
your ability to go one on one and get a shot. Right.
(14:38):
So if you admit that that Lebron is better on
this team than Jason Tatum is, and I think we
can all admit Kevin Rant is better and played great.
So you know, both those guys played twenty six minutes,
and those are the two spots. You do the math.
Now you got twenty eight minutes combined for everybody else.
(15:02):
It's a different sport. He fucking nailed it. As a coach.
Shut the fuck up. That's what I believe you should know. Truly.
Here's Dan Patrick at this exchange with coach k this morning.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
I was wondering about with all the Olympic teams that
you had, how do you divvy up playing time to
keep everybody happy.
Speaker 7 (15:24):
Well, the only way everyone's going to be happy is
if we win. And that's what I would tell each team.
The only thing anyone will ask ask you, did you win?
And so don't get caught up in minutes, shots or whatever.
Just be consumed with winning. And we actually had each
guy pledged that they would do anything that we wanted
(15:48):
them to do to win. And then I tried to
get into like a nine man rotation, sometimes ten, and
I pretty much had a starting unit the whole time
and four of the five championships, and then another unit,
not a complete unit. I never subb five for five,
(16:11):
and Dan I thought, I think a big thing is
for the really tough games, you have to have a
closing unit that would be a combination of the two
and that formula will work really well. And I mean
guys like Tayshaun Prince, Michael Red, Carlos Boozer, even Anthony Davis.
They didn't play that much Anthony when he was a
(16:33):
young player. And they're going to be two or three
guys who either won't play or will not play that
that much. But I think you got to get to
that quick.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Yeah. I think there isn't any question in anyone's mind,
any question in anyone's mind that what coach k is
saying is he completely agrees with it. He just had
a lot of words Solad to get to and all
of the people who are discussing otherwise it's all about
ego and bravado and nothing to do with actually winning
(17:09):
basketball games. To quote Mike Skryzhevski, who is considered the
greatest coach of this and maybe any generation, the only
thing that's important is did you win? And the answer
is yes, handily. Here's LaVar Arrington talking about Aaron Rodgers
getting tested with his Jets teammates at practice yesterday.
Speaker 5 (17:29):
Let me get you out some perspective on why Aaron
was so spicy in practice. Yeah, has caused Jordan Love
got that contract, okay, and he's feeling a certain type
of way. How to hell? How to hell? Is Green
(17:50):
Bay going to give Jordan Love that type of money,
that type of contract and let me walk away and
come here to New York. That's what happened. Gon Cones
stuck it to him. I think the man is dealing
with now emotional duress from the fallout of the breakup
(18:15):
of his lover, and now his lover has found a
new person and paid him.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Hmmm, yeah, I mean, I don't know. He got a
gigantic contract from Brian Gooding Kuntz going back two years
ago as well. I think this is just Aaron being Aaron.
He holds people to a super high standard. He gets frustrated,
he goes off, not even understanding that not showing up
(18:43):
to some of their other workouts is probably part of
why there is some some form of confusion. That's what
the Fox said.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
What the fuck say, Let's.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Find out who were what is annoying Jason Stewart.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
And now you're annoying Doug.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
It's been twenty four hours since Sports Talk started going
off on Steve Kerr for not playing Jason Tatum, Like,
I didn't know that your take that Tatum could sit
and it's no problem and the goals to win the game,
and Steve Kerr owed nothing to Jason Tatum. I didn't
(19:28):
know that would be the contrarian take. But all the
loud mouthse in our business seemed to be taken up
for Jason Tatum. I'm annoyed by one thing, one aspect
of this. Steve Kerr after the game made one one
statement that I think led to all this, and he says,
I feel like an idiot for not playing him. I
(19:50):
thought that was like a that showed like a sign
of weakness, Like if he never says that, I don't
know if all this snowball happens and you having to
defend them and all this, and I really wish you
wouldn't have said it. And if we could have go
back with on a racer, I think he would have
not said it as well, because the last forty eight
hours of sports talk had been filled with this topic.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Listen, here's the thing. Okay, I agree with you. I
also think of you if you play the entirety of
the cut, which we did yesterday. It was in it's
like again, if you just say I feel like any
if not playing him, period stop if that was the
only statement, but what he said was but like, look,
but we had discussed the ten in rotation. We said
this could happen. You know, all of this is complete bullshit.
(20:36):
This is why nobody wants to coach USA. This is
why they don't select guys, this is the fucking problem,
And the biggest issue is you have people talking about
something they don't actually understand. Even Charles Barkley, who I love,
Charles never coached to day in his life, and Charles
has never dealt with the fact that, like I guarantee,
(20:57):
if you go back and look, they didn't have any
close games with the Dream Team. It was not a
twenty six point game. It was a tie game that
slowly but surely got away from them. And if you
just ask guys contextually, like, hey, should he have played? Yeah,
well you can break up minutes blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah. Okay, sure, so do you put him
(21:18):
in the fourth quarter with five minutes to go when
you're up twenty points? Well, no, that embarrasses him. What
actually satisfies your fucking desire to have Jason Tatum play?
It's every coach I have talked to is just sitting here, like,
here's the problem with the NBA. These guys are such
fucking bitches they can't actually handle it. And you have
all of these Sikkaphans who are in the media who
(21:39):
just suck up to players when the reality is the
guy won the fucking game and they want to buy
twenty six points because of the substitution rotation, and oh yeah,
by the way he had planned for it. He told
him like, look, we don't know what kat gives us,
but if Katie's playing, well, probably don't play this game.
That's the way you do it. Not one guy who's
commenting on it has coached in the scenario except for me.
(22:01):
So yes, I do know more than all these motherfuckers combined.
And I'm telling you, Steve Kerr was right one hundred
percent of the time. And as we said on the
radio show, I agree with you if in that small
if that was just a sentence, I think when you
contextualize it the way he did, it's not what he meant.
But I get it as long as he doesn't overcorrect.
(22:21):
But like, look, I had this exact same scenario where
you have twelve guys like, yeah, I gotta get guys
in whatever, and just hey, my goal is to win
the game, because you know what, no matter how unhappy
Jason Tatum might have been, if we lose that game,
everybody's fucking pissed at me. So that's the balance you
have to have. You got to have really, really thick skin.
And again, this is why Jalen Brown wasn't selected, because
(22:44):
Jalen Brown that if he did that, he'd be a problem,
and he'd claim it's because he's not a warrior. He'd
claim because he's not Nike. And I'm sure there'd be
some people that claim because Steve Kerr is a white coach,
he didn't want to play him because he's a political activist.
That's the reality to it. I actually think this is
the best thing ever, and this is this is the
(23:05):
reason they didn't want to select Kaitlin Clark. Wrongly so right,
because I don't think Kayln Clark would have been an
issue at all. But this is the reason nobody wants
to say it because no, the fucking pain they asked
to be the eleventh guy, And yes, you can be
an all NBA player and be the eleventh guy on
a team against Serbia because it's a completely different fucking
sport than the NBA. Jason Tatum, what he does is
(23:28):
get the ball and go one on one. Right, this
is not the place for it. They already have a
guy who does that. His name's Anthony Edwards, and Anthony
Edwards has really bought in. And my guess is that
Steve Curse sit there and go like, you know, Indi
Edwards is more bought in on what we want to do.
He's a little bit deader defender, he's a little bit
more active a rebounder, and yeah, it works better, you know.
(23:51):
And you're also like, you're not gonna take out Lebron
because he's Lebron. I canna take Kevin Rant because he
was fucking humming. So you got to take out just people.
We're stupid anyway, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
So again on Undisputed this morning, I saw they were
arguing about Dream Team versus this team, and you know,
Pierce was the latest to say that this team would
kick the Dream Team's ass. And okay, first and foremost,
I hate the topic, but I did want to say
this about that when you compare you know, generation to
(24:22):
generation stuff, The Dream Team, almost by name, the Dream
Team was an amazing part of our sports history because
professionals were allowed to play in the Olympics and we
could combine these great players from the eighties. Dream Team.
This was It wasn't like they were all these players
in their professional primes. They were It was a dream
(24:44):
Team of a collection of greats from the past. It
was like, so, I don't know why we have this
argument of who what team would beat who? It's the
Dream Team was just an iconic team made of superstars
playing in the Olympics for the first time. I don't
know why we have to pin this thing where this
team would beat.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
The Yes, you do, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Of course, you know, of course you know. Listen, all
of these, all of today's athletes, okay, all is today's
athletes are way more openly insecure about where there standing
is than anybody would ever let lead you to believe.
They just are, you know, and no matter how much
(25:23):
you tell them the comparison is the thief of joy.
It doesn't matter. They want to be told they're there great.
They don't want feedback. Okay, they don't want feedback. They
want to be told they're awesome, they're the greatest ever.
You know. That's why we do all this shit to
make these guys. It's the same reason Lebron annoying himself
the greatest ever. Remember the sound from from the shop, right,
(25:47):
Remember he anointed himself the greatest of all time. That's
what he did, because that's what these guys think like,
that's not actually how it works. But to them, they've
always been told they're great. It's a completely different like
it's yeah, it's just it's a completely different generation of
people and how they've been handled and how they've been coddled.
(26:09):
And I don't know who would win. All I can
tell you is that Larry Bird and Magic Johnson are
two of the five greatest players to ever play. Michael
Jordan is the greatest player to ever play. So they
had three of the top five players in my lifetime
to play basketball on the same team. Larry Bird was
in fact over the hill. But part of how European
(26:30):
basketball is played, foreign basketball's played is you can be
slower as long as you're physical. Hey, John Stockton is
arguably or inarguably the second greatest point guard of all time. Like,
what are we actually talking about? Who would win? I mean,
this team's a nice team. If you think for one
fucking second they're going to stay on the court with
(26:50):
the fucking dream team when Charles Barkley is like their
sixth option, get the fuck out of here. It's dumb,
dumb talk.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
So Dan lovet Card I think he worked with him
over to his pan. I don't know if you have
a relationship with the guy, but he he said this,
Now I kind of agree with ninety percent of this,
but he said he makes one one big mistake in
this go ahead.
Speaker 8 (27:15):
I don't think we understand how unfair we've been to
excellence during an era over the last twenty years, social.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Media, mocking people.
Speaker 8 (27:23):
He was always chasing Michael, always chasing Michael to see
him holding that American flag. And that flag means something
different than it did twenty years ago. But the thing
holding it doesn't. It's still excellence for twenty years. Today's
a league and you know how hard it is to
type of tackle Michael Jordan as America's ultimate winner. Not
even Brady could do it because he wasn't first. We
have watched for twenty years somebody who holds that American
(27:47):
flag in the middle of the Olympics and once upon
a time, right because we don't treat Team USA this way,
We don't treat anymore what it is that we're watching
of this team and make it feel like it did
when it was Jordan and bar But imagine Michael Jordan
at the end of everything, not shooting jumpers for the Wizards,
older than any athlete out there, and still deserving of
(28:07):
holding the flag. How emotional you would have been watching
it because you're so much nicer to him.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
I think that there's a lot of truth of that,
and I do like the angle that even with all
the praise that Lebron has gotten over the years, I
don't know if he's gotten enough and I don't know
if he's appreciated enough for being as good as he
is at this age. Okay, that's a good take. The
problem is is that he said he's today's Muhammad Ali
by carrying the flag, and I don't know if he
meant this, but it it's a really bad comparison, and
(28:37):
that Muhammad Ali sacrificed years in his prime. Muhammad Ali
faced a whole lot of adversity conflict. Has Lebron James
ever sat down and answered like hard questions about social
injustice or does he just kind of go on Twitter
every once in a while and do what's very popular
(28:57):
in the moment, which doesn't take bravery at all. You're
just playing to this base of people that that think
there's a lot of social injustice out there. He hasn't
sacrificed one thing for the cause. So I I just
I don't like the comparison.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
I agree with you. I don't because when when I
think Muhammad Ali, you know, I think of I think
of the sacrifice that he made for his religious beliefs,
and that that that Trump's all. I don't know. I
just that that's that's the way in which I view it.
(29:32):
Is Uh. He absolutely positively, He's like he lost three
years the prime of his career for for his religious beliefs.
And I don't think Lebron James would sacrifice that, Like
he hasn't been willing to sacrifice anything for Nike and
China and all the other stuff. Why why would he
do anything kind of stateside? So I'm with you. That
(29:53):
doesn't take away from his from for me, for his
basketball dominance, But I do think it takes away from
any sort of comparison to somebody like, you know, somebody
like Muhammad Ali. I think that's massively disingenuous.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
So we got the dream team argument, the LeBatard angle there,
and then Steve Kerr saying that he's he was an
idiot for not plant Tatum. Sounds like you took most issue.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Does I think the dream team. I think the dream
team argument, it's just again, what are we doing. We're
comparing something from thirty years ago. It's just dumb. It's dumb, And.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Why are we doing this?
Speaker 5 (30:40):
I do.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Because we can.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
Kishawn Johnson said this on Live TV yesterday.
Speaker 8 (30:51):
Paul Pierce on the Golden State Warriors where Kay Thompson
and Dreamer and Steph Curry.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
You don't think he can do the same shit.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
I mean he's really good. You know, like talk about this.
Speaker 7 (31:04):
My fing is, Yeah, he's really good.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
You can do the same thing. That's awesome. I said,
Keyshan forgot he had a microphone on. That's amazing. You know,
it was amazing. I mean, like, look, I know it's
sucking up to Paul Pierce. I love Paul Peers. I
think Paul Pierce is going to be he is better
than he will be remembered. But comparing him to Kevin
(31:28):
Durant is fucking stupid. No One who watches basketball, who
played basketball, who loves basketball will go, you know who's
really close to Kevin Durant skill set wise? Paul Pierce.
They would alls agree with that. I said, like, Paul
Pierce is an amazing player. It's not Kevin Rhant. Why
(31:50):
can we play that for you? Because we can. All Right,
that's it for the end of the moon this podcast.
Check out the radio show every day three to five Eastern,
twelve two Pacific, Fox Sports Radio, iHeartRadio app. I'm Doug Gotleib.
All right, this is the Doug gottl Show. Here's in
the bonus with Doug Gottli.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Gotteb Show Fan the Bonus Fox Sports Radio. I heart
ready app Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, welcome in. I hope
you're doing great. Okay, so we are depending on when
you download this pod. We're like twelve hours away from
(00:33):
Game two of Team USA basketball this year, right, And
what's interesting about it is there's just so so much
bullshit with his Jason Tatum stuff and I'm I'm fascinated
by it because this is where and Jase do I
can guarantee you're wondering this as well. We would all
(00:54):
agree that Steve Kerr is woke, right, that's fair woke, right.
And one of the things that being woke is about,
it's being aware of how things affect other people of
other cultures, you know, and obviously it delves what's taken on.
What's changed with this movement is it's it's taken on
(01:17):
all these ulterior meaning meanings and it is a progressive
slash liberal sort of way of looking at the world.
But it's also one of these like, hey, I understand
your feelings. We want to make you feel better. We
want to make everybody be happy. I got to tell you,
being a coach is not a This is not in
(01:38):
any way a democracy. It is a dictatorship. It is
a dictatorship. It doesn't work otherwise. Hey, guys, do you
wanna what do you think? I'm not sure that doesn't work,
not in that culture. And I think it's just fascinating
to see, Like I think Steve Kerr behind the closed doors, sneakily,
(02:03):
hell of a coach, hell of a leader, knows how
when to push buttons. Now he let the Draymond things
spin out of control. He has never been able to
reel that thing in. It's probably cost them a championship
or two in Golden State, it really has. Let's see
what he does tomorrow. Because if you play Jason Tam
(02:23):
twenty five minutes, you're admitting fault for doing nothing fucking wrong. Ever.
You played to win. You pushed all the right buttons,
You made the right decisions. That was your evaluation. You
told the player beforehand he might not play, He didn't play.
He didn't throw him in in garbage time to embarrass him.
He handled it perfectly. Now, how do you handle this one?
You cannot if you listen to the fans. This is
(02:45):
Jerry Sloan's famous stavement. If you listen to fans, soon
you become one of them. If he over corrects, it's
not just a sign of weakness, it's a sign of
pure poor coaching and a sign that he's listing way
too much the shit that doesn't matter. I am intrigued.
You should be too.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
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.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
App all Right Snug Gallimb Show on Fox Sports Radio.
Mike Defablo joins us, this is a dude. Who uh
If I remember reading correctly, Mike, you grew up in Latrobe, right,
so now all of a sudden you get to cover
the Steelers. Like that's like this is literally like boyhood
dream covering for the athletic.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Is it not.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Yeah, it's actually kind of funny because when I was
a kid, we would come up here and you stand
along the rope. And when I was a kid, I
was going Jerome Jerome Betts cause I get an autograph,
cause I get an autograph, And now here I am
as an adult basically seeing in the identical spot saying, Hey,
George Pickens, do you have a second for an interview.
So it's a pretty surreal experience for me and definitely
(03:53):
a dream come true to get for your hometown team.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Okay, so what is going on with George Pickens attitude wise,
with this with this new offense.
Speaker 4 (04:06):
Yeah, So with George Pickens, he's a supremely talented guy,
but he also knows that he's very talented, and there
were definitely times last season where some of his immaturity
showed and some of that youth manifested itself as immaturity.
So there was a bit of an exchange between him
and new wide receivers coach Zakazani. The two of them
(04:26):
just kind of exchanging words that got a little heated
for a minute. Now, we'll have to see how that progresses.
You know, I all eyes are kind of always on
George Pickens looking for these types of things in a way,
and so you know, it's tough to know whether this
is just typical competitors being competitors' stuff or if this
could turn into something else. But I think that that
relationship is interesting because George has all the talent in
(04:49):
the world, and Zakazani is a coach that loves to
coach guys hard, kind of prides himself on that. So
you know, is Zachazani going to be the guy that
gets the most out of George Pickens or could that
eventually turn into a situation where there's a bit of friction.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
Roman Wilson got heart of today's practice, Is that right?
Speaker 4 (05:08):
Yeah? So to start to start out each practice, Mike
Tomlin likes to ramp up the energy and they call
it seven shots, which is seven opportunities from the two
yard line, basically a two point conversion. Roman Wilson was
running a jet sweep. He got brought down by one
of the corners from the Steelers, hobbled off. They took
off his shoe and we're looking at his foot for
a while, and he did get onto a cart and
(05:30):
left on a cart. Now, I will say this, it
might not be as severe as a typical quote unquote
carting off may seem because virtually every player leaves a
practice on a cart eventually because of the distance they
have to walk. So Mike Tomlin said after practice he
is being evaluated for an ankle injury. They don't get
know the severity of it, but you know that's especially
(05:50):
impactful for a Steelers wide receiver room. But even before this,
people were questioning if they had enough depth. You know,
if you look at that wide receiver corps in a
lot of ways, it can look like it George Pickens
and then a huge gap and then everybody else. And
they were already wondering with Deontay Johnson gone. You know,
there's been a lot of speculation could the Steelers or
should the Steelers trade for a wide out or pick
(06:11):
one up in some form or fashion. You know, now
after losing the rookie that you're counting on the work
the underneath portions of the field, the middle of the field.
You know, if this turns into something more than just
you know, a little camp injury, you know, it's another
question mark for what was already a position group that
was facing a number of them.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Okay, let's let's get to brass tacks. Where are we
with quarterbacks?
Speaker 4 (06:34):
Yeah, So it's been this quote unquote competition has been
interesting because Russell Wilson has been very limited through this
early portion. So he was injured in a very interesting
and somewhat controversial way. On Wednesday of last week during
the team's conditioning test, apparently he was pushing the sled
when he tweaked his ankle. So last week he was
(06:57):
pretty much held out. He participated a little bit in
individual well, today was the first day in pads Russell
was back out there. He did participate during seven on
seven periods, but he only took two handoffs or you know,
was only in for two handoffs during eleven or eleven periods.
So whatever competition has kind of been hard to see.
But I will say this, like I would be very
(07:20):
surprised if Russell Wilson is not the starting quarterback Week one,
Mike Tomlin placed this quote unquote poll position label on
him and claim that there would be a competition, But
through OTAs and mandatory mini camps, Russell Wilson took virtually
every single first team rep, you know, and it seems
like that's going to be the way that it's going
(07:40):
to be. It seems the way that I read the situation,
justin field is going to have to really excite and
impress in the preseason games to turn this into a
competition or to make the team think twice about his
usage right if there needs to be an expanse of
Justin Field's package in their offense. But until that happens,
I really feel that this is Wilson's job to lose,
(08:01):
and I very much would expect him to be the
starting quarterback Week one in Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Yeah, I mean you me both, you know you and
me both again? You the amount they extended themselves to
Russell Wilson. To me, he tells you he's going to
get I mean, I don't know, did like Justin Fields
over and I become a guy who can throw football
and read a defense? Because I don't remember that happening
in Chicago, right.
Speaker 4 (08:24):
I mean it. It's interesting because both these quarterbacks were
acquired in low cost moves. But you know, Justin Field
to just get him for a fourth round pick, I
think that tells you what the thirty one other NFL
teams thought about Justin Fields right now too. And he's
interesting because there are times during practice where he keeps
the ball and a read option and shows off that
(08:45):
speed in that athleticism, or you know, he uncorks a
deep ball and he does have good arm, talent, great mobility.
There are reasons and tangible skills that made in the
eleventh overall pick a couple of years ago. But also,
you know, in that seven shots drill that I alluded
to when they're down by the goal line, some of
the challenges when it comes to processing the game quickly
(09:05):
going through your reads, that's where you see some of
the struggles and the other part is just some of
his accuracy and anticipations. So you know, my question is
just kind of like, will the Steelers be the team
that unlocks justin fields? Are they the team that gets
the most out of justin fields? And also is he
around long enough for that to happen? Because right now,
both quarterbacks are on one year contracts, So as a
(09:27):
Steelers face a bit of an uncertain situation going into
this season a quarterback. If they don't extend one of
these guys at some point, you know, there's definitely a
possibility they could be here in camp and Latrope next
season with many more quarterback questions.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Okay, the defense has always been kind of solid in
what they've built behind Where is the defense so far
this preseason?
Speaker 4 (09:53):
Yeah? I think that the defense really carried the Steelers
last year and kind of lugged in a ne mcoffense
into the post season, and they struggled last year when
it came to giving up big plays, and they did
give up a fair number of yards, but they were
six best in scoring. So the key thing is they're
producing timely turnovers and they were keeping the ball out
(10:13):
of the end zone. They they've made a couple of additions.
The biggest one would be Patrick Queen, and you know,
that position group an inside linebacker has been a bit
of a revolving door for the Steelers since Ryan Shaziers
suffered his unfortunate career ending injury, and they've been looking
for guys to fill that role, even trading up a
couple of years ago to get Devin Bush, who didn't
work out. So now that that room is looking a
(10:36):
lot better, you know, not only do they have Patrick Queen,
but they also have a young guy, rookie Peyton Wilson,
who has a lot of speed and should contribute a lot.
So it's like they're taking one of the biggest question
marks and beginning to turn that into a strength of
the defense. And then the other intriguing thing to me is,
you know, last year the safety position and dured a
lot of injuries, and because of that, Minka Fitzpatrick, who's
(10:58):
known as this ball hawking force, had to play much
more in the box. He often was, you know, the
point on tight ends, and because of that, he did
not have an interception, he did not force the fumble,
did not recover a fumble. So the Steelers have promised
this year to get to let Minka get back to
Dean Minca and what that means is playing in more
is that deep middlefield safety, and the hope is that
(11:20):
that helps them produce more turnovers. So you know, for me,
I think this defense once again will be the anchor
of this team. They'll be counting on them to keep
the score down in games close, and for me, one
of the biggest things is just can TJ. Watts stay
healthy to do that, because he's such an integral part
of this defense in so many ways. As long as TJ.
Watt is healthy, I would expect a better defense than
(11:41):
last year.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Awesome stuff. As always, listen, this obviously is a boyhood
dream of yours, but you're doing a great job of it.
Thanks so much for joining us on the Doug Gottlieb
Show on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
Yeah. Absolutely, I really appreciate you having me on.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
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 2 (12:07):
Let's Get to the Fox, says and now every day
this time that I got the show podcast. In the bonus,
we played for a portion of a previous show on
Fox Sports Radio Fox Sports One. Here's Colin Calherd and
Chris Paul yesterday have an exchange about Jason Tatum. What
do you make of Tatum not playing? Is it odd?
Speaker 1 (12:25):
How to other play? I mean, what's that like when
All Stars?
Speaker 5 (12:28):
There's always a guy that doesn't get into rotation in
the Olympics.
Speaker 6 (12:31):
Yeah, it's always tough. I was at my gym yesterday,
my CP three basketball academy here at home, when I
heard the results of the game and that JT didn't
get in. But I know JT. I know he's a competitor.
I know USA basketball. It's always tough, you know, because
you have, you know, some of the best players in
the world. And JT is obviously one of the best
(12:52):
players in the world. And I always speak about our
two thousand and eight Olympic team, and that was my
first time playing in the Olympics. And I always say
that the three most important players on that team are
great players that sometimes people leave out when they're naming
that team, and that's Michael red Tayshaun Prince and Carlos Boozer.
And I say that because those guys were just pros
day in and day out. But you know, it's just
(13:15):
a different landscape now where everyone's going to talk about
it on social and all this stuff.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
Man.
Speaker 6 (13:20):
But I just hope that JT knows who he is
and what he's capable of and just continues to get
ready for when his name is called.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Yeah, you want the translation of that, like, look, those
three guys he mentioned they didn't play you want to
play in USA basketball. Sometimes you're not going to get
as much run or any run, right, And he also
said that you know, he doesn't want it to he
doesn't want it to affect his basically his self confidence.
(13:51):
But none of that was and he said, basically, we're
reacting to social media again. All of you people who
are reacting on social media, you never coached played in
this sort of setting. It's very normal to only play
ten guys and just because he's all NBA doesn't mean
shit when he's got Kevin Durant and Lebron James ahead
of him. Okay, it's it, they're ahead of him. It's
(14:15):
like the same piece. Here's what's frustrating. The same people
who said, and I don't actually believe it to be
true that Lebron's the best player on this team. The
same people going like, why did you play Jason Tatum? Well, okay,
you noticed that Lebron's really effective, because this is a
lot more about brain and Bron than it is about
your ability to go one on one and get a shot. Right.
(14:38):
So if you admit that that Lebron is better on
this team than Jason Tatum is, and I think we
can all admit Kevin Rant is better and played great.
So you know, both those guys played twenty six minutes,
and those are the two spots. You do the math.
Now you got twenty eight minutes combined for everybody else.
(15:02):
It's a different sport. He fucking nailed it. As a coach.
Shut the fuck up. That's what I believe you should know. Truly.
Here's Dan Patrick at this exchange with coach k this morning.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
I was wondering about with all the Olympic teams that
you had, how do you divvy up playing time to
keep everybody happy.
Speaker 7 (15:24):
Well, the only way everyone's going to be happy is
if we win. And that's what I would tell each team.
The only thing anyone will ask ask you, did you win?
And so don't get caught up in minutes, shots or whatever.
Just be consumed with winning. And we actually had each
guy pledged that they would do anything that we wanted
(15:48):
them to do to win. And then I tried to
get into like a nine man rotation, sometimes ten, and
I pretty much had a starting unit the whole time
and four of the five championships, and then another unit,
not a complete unit. I never subb five for five,
(16:11):
and Dan I thought, I think a big thing is
for the really tough games, you have to have a
closing unit that would be a combination of the two
and that formula will work really well. And I mean
guys like Tayshaun Prince, Michael Red, Carlos Boozer, even Anthony Davis.
They didn't play that much Anthony when he was a
(16:33):
young player. And they're going to be two or three
guys who either won't play or will not play that
that much. But I think you got to get to
that quick.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Yeah. I think there isn't any question in anyone's mind,
any question in anyone's mind that what coach k is
saying is he completely agrees with it. He just had
a lot of words Solad to get to and all
of the people who are discussing otherwise it's all about
ego and bravado and nothing to do with actually winning
(17:09):
basketball games. To quote Mike Skryzhevski, who is considered the
greatest coach of this and maybe any generation, the only
thing that's important is did you win? And the answer
is yes, handily. Here's LaVar Arrington talking about Aaron Rodgers
getting tested with his Jets teammates at practice yesterday.
Speaker 5 (17:29):
Let me get you out some perspective on why Aaron
was so spicy in practice. Yeah, has caused Jordan Love
got that contract, okay, and he's feeling a certain type
of way. How to hell? How to hell? Is Green
(17:50):
Bay going to give Jordan Love that type of money,
that type of contract and let me walk away and
come here to New York. That's what happened. Gon Cones
stuck it to him. I think the man is dealing
with now emotional duress from the fallout of the breakup
(18:15):
of his lover, and now his lover has found a
new person and paid him.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Hmmm, yeah, I mean, I don't know. He got a
gigantic contract from Brian Gooding Kuntz going back two years
ago as well. I think this is just Aaron being Aaron.
He holds people to a super high standard. He gets frustrated,
he goes off, not even understanding that not showing up
(18:43):
to some of their other workouts is probably part of
why there is some some form of confusion. That's what
the Fox said.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
What the fuck say, Let's.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Find out who were what is annoying Jason Stewart.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
And now you're annoying Doug.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
It's been twenty four hours since Sports Talk started going
off on Steve Kerr for not playing Jason Tatum, Like,
I didn't know that your take that Tatum could sit
and it's no problem and the goals to win the game,
and Steve Kerr owed nothing to Jason Tatum. I didn't
(19:28):
know that would be the contrarian take. But all the
loud mouthse in our business seemed to be taken up
for Jason Tatum. I'm annoyed by one thing, one aspect
of this. Steve Kerr after the game made one one
statement that I think led to all this, and he says,
I feel like an idiot for not playing him. I
(19:50):
thought that was like a that showed like a sign
of weakness, Like if he never says that, I don't
know if all this snowball happens and you having to
defend them and all this, and I really wish you
wouldn't have said it. And if we could have go
back with on a racer, I think he would have
not said it as well, because the last forty eight
hours of sports talk had been filled with this topic.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Listen, here's the thing. Okay, I agree with you. I
also think of you if you play the entirety of
the cut, which we did yesterday. It was in it's
like again, if you just say I feel like any
if not playing him, period stop if that was the
only statement, but what he said was but like, look,
but we had discussed the ten in rotation. We said
this could happen. You know, all of this is complete bullshit.
(20:36):
This is why nobody wants to coach USA. This is
why they don't select guys, this is the fucking problem,
And the biggest issue is you have people talking about
something they don't actually understand. Even Charles Barkley, who I love,
Charles never coached to day in his life, and Charles
has never dealt with the fact that, like I guarantee,
(20:57):
if you go back and look, they didn't have any
close games with the Dream Team. It was not a
twenty six point game. It was a tie game that
slowly but surely got away from them. And if you
just ask guys contextually, like, hey, should he have played? Yeah,
well you can break up minutes blah blah blah blah
blah blah blah. Okay, sure, so do you put him
(21:18):
in the fourth quarter with five minutes to go when
you're up twenty points? Well, no, that embarrasses him. What
actually satisfies your fucking desire to have Jason Tatum play?
It's every coach I have talked to is just sitting here, like,
here's the problem with the NBA. These guys are such
fucking bitches they can't actually handle it. And you have
all of these Sikkaphans who are in the media who
(21:39):
just suck up to players when the reality is the
guy won the fucking game and they want to buy
twenty six points because of the substitution rotation, and oh yeah,
by the way he had planned for it. He told
him like, look, we don't know what kat gives us,
but if Katie's playing, well, probably don't play this game.
That's the way you do it. Not one guy who's
commenting on it has coached in the scenario except for me.
(22:01):
So yes, I do know more than all these motherfuckers combined.
And I'm telling you, Steve Kerr was right one hundred
percent of the time. And as we said on the
radio show, I agree with you if in that small
if that was just a sentence, I think when you
contextualize it the way he did, it's not what he meant.
But I get it as long as he doesn't overcorrect.
(22:21):
But like, look, I had this exact same scenario where
you have twelve guys like, yeah, I gotta get guys
in whatever, and just hey, my goal is to win
the game, because you know what, no matter how unhappy
Jason Tatum might have been, if we lose that game,
everybody's fucking pissed at me. So that's the balance you
have to have. You got to have really, really thick skin.
And again, this is why Jalen Brown wasn't selected, because
(22:44):
Jalen Brown that if he did that, he'd be a problem,
and he'd claim it's because he's not a warrior. He'd
claim because he's not Nike. And I'm sure there'd be
some people that claim because Steve Kerr is a white coach,
he didn't want to play him because he's a political activist.
That's the reality to it. I actually think this is
the best thing ever, and this is this is the
(23:05):
reason they didn't want to select Kaitlin Clark. Wrongly so right,
because I don't think Kayln Clark would have been an
issue at all. But this is the reason nobody wants
to say it because no, the fucking pain they asked
to be the eleventh guy, And yes, you can be
an all NBA player and be the eleventh guy on
a team against Serbia because it's a completely different fucking
sport than the NBA. Jason Tatum, what he does is
(23:28):
get the ball and go one on one. Right, this
is not the place for it. They already have a
guy who does that. His name's Anthony Edwards, and Anthony
Edwards has really bought in. And my guess is that
Steve Curse sit there and go like, you know, Indi
Edwards is more bought in on what we want to do.
He's a little bit deader defender, he's a little bit
more active a rebounder, and yeah, it works better, you know.
(23:51):
And you're also like, you're not gonna take out Lebron
because he's Lebron. I canna take Kevin Rant because he
was fucking humming. So you got to take out just people.
We're stupid anyway, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
So again on Undisputed this morning, I saw they were
arguing about Dream Team versus this team, and you know,
Pierce was the latest to say that this team would
kick the Dream Team's ass. And okay, first and foremost,
I hate the topic, but I did want to say
this about that when you compare you know, generation to
(24:22):
generation stuff, The Dream Team, almost by name, the Dream
Team was an amazing part of our sports history because
professionals were allowed to play in the Olympics and we
could combine these great players from the eighties. Dream Team.
This was It wasn't like they were all these players
in their professional primes. They were It was a dream
(24:44):
Team of a collection of greats from the past. It
was like, so, I don't know why we have this
argument of who what team would beat who? It's the
Dream Team was just an iconic team made of superstars
playing in the Olympics for the first time. I don't
know why we have to pin this thing where this
team would beat.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
The Yes, you do, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Of course, you know, of course you know. Listen, all
of these, all of today's athletes, okay, all is today's
athletes are way more openly insecure about where there standing
is than anybody would ever let lead you to believe.
They just are, you know, and no matter how much
(25:23):
you tell them the comparison is the thief of joy.
It doesn't matter. They want to be told they're there great.
They don't want feedback. Okay, they don't want feedback. They
want to be told they're awesome, they're the greatest ever.
You know. That's why we do all this shit to
make these guys. It's the same reason Lebron annoying himself
the greatest ever. Remember the sound from from the shop, right,
(25:47):
Remember he anointed himself the greatest of all time. That's
what he did, because that's what these guys think like,
that's not actually how it works. But to them, they've
always been told they're great. It's a completely different like
it's yeah, it's just it's a completely different generation of
people and how they've been handled and how they've been coddled.
(26:09):
And I don't know who would win. All I can
tell you is that Larry Bird and Magic Johnson are
two of the five greatest players to ever play. Michael
Jordan is the greatest player to ever play. So they
had three of the top five players in my lifetime
to play basketball on the same team. Larry Bird was
in fact over the hill. But part of how European
(26:30):
basketball is played, foreign basketball's played is you can be
slower as long as you're physical. Hey, John Stockton is
arguably or inarguably the second greatest point guard of all time. Like,
what are we actually talking about? Who would win? I mean,
this team's a nice team. If you think for one
fucking second they're going to stay on the court with
(26:50):
the fucking dream team when Charles Barkley is like their
sixth option, get the fuck out of here. It's dumb,
dumb talk.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
So Dan lovet Card I think he worked with him
over to his pan. I don't know if you have
a relationship with the guy, but he he said this,
Now I kind of agree with ninety percent of this,
but he said he makes one one big mistake in
this go ahead.
Speaker 8 (27:15):
I don't think we understand how unfair we've been to
excellence during an era over the last twenty years, social.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Media, mocking people.
Speaker 8 (27:23):
He was always chasing Michael, always chasing Michael to see
him holding that American flag. And that flag means something
different than it did twenty years ago. But the thing
holding it doesn't. It's still excellence for twenty years. Today's
a league and you know how hard it is to
type of tackle Michael Jordan as America's ultimate winner. Not
even Brady could do it because he wasn't first. We
have watched for twenty years somebody who holds that American
(27:47):
flag in the middle of the Olympics and once upon
a time, right because we don't treat Team USA this way,
We don't treat anymore what it is that we're watching
of this team and make it feel like it did
when it was Jordan and bar But imagine Michael Jordan
at the end of everything, not shooting jumpers for the Wizards,
older than any athlete out there, and still deserving of
(28:07):
holding the flag. How emotional you would have been watching
it because you're so much nicer to him.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
I think that there's a lot of truth of that,
and I do like the angle that even with all
the praise that Lebron has gotten over the years, I
don't know if he's gotten enough and I don't know
if he's appreciated enough for being as good as he
is at this age. Okay, that's a good take. The
problem is is that he said he's today's Muhammad Ali
by carrying the flag, and I don't know if he
meant this, but it it's a really bad comparison, and
(28:37):
that Muhammad Ali sacrificed years in his prime. Muhammad Ali
faced a whole lot of adversity conflict. Has Lebron James
ever sat down and answered like hard questions about social
injustice or does he just kind of go on Twitter
every once in a while and do what's very popular
(28:57):
in the moment, which doesn't take bravery at all. You're
just playing to this base of people that that think
there's a lot of social injustice out there. He hasn't
sacrificed one thing for the cause. So I I just
I don't like the comparison.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
I agree with you. I don't because when when I
think Muhammad Ali, you know, I think of I think
of the sacrifice that he made for his religious beliefs,
and that that that Trump's all. I don't know. I
just that that's that's the way in which I view it.
(29:32):
Is Uh. He absolutely positively, He's like he lost three
years the prime of his career for for his religious beliefs.
And I don't think Lebron James would sacrifice that, Like
he hasn't been willing to sacrifice anything for Nike and
China and all the other stuff. Why why would he
do anything kind of stateside? So I'm with you. That
(29:53):
doesn't take away from his from for me, for his
basketball dominance, But I do think it takes away from
any sort of comparison to somebody like, you know, somebody
like Muhammad Ali. I think that's massively disingenuous.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
So we got the dream team argument, the LeBatard angle there,
and then Steve Kerr saying that he's he was an
idiot for not plant Tatum. Sounds like you took most issue.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Does I think the dream team. I think the dream
team argument, it's just again, what are we doing. We're
comparing something from thirty years ago. It's just dumb. It's dumb, And.
Speaker 1 (30:39):
Why are we doing this?
Speaker 5 (30:40):
I do.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Because we can.
Speaker 3 (30:46):
Kishawn Johnson said this on Live TV yesterday.
Speaker 8 (30:51):
Paul Pierce on the Golden State Warriors where Kay Thompson
and Dreamer and Steph Curry.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
You don't think he can do the same shit.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
I mean he's really good. You know, like talk about this.
Speaker 7 (31:04):
My fing is, Yeah, he's really good.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
You can do the same thing. That's awesome. I said,
Keyshan forgot he had a microphone on. That's amazing. You know,
it was amazing. I mean, like, look, I know it's
sucking up to Paul Pierce. I love Paul Peers. I
think Paul Pierce is going to be he is better
than he will be remembered. But comparing him to Kevin
(31:28):
Durant is fucking stupid. No One who watches basketball, who
played basketball, who loves basketball will go, you know who's
really close to Kevin Durant skill set wise? Paul Pierce.
They would alls agree with that. I said, like, Paul
Pierce is an amazing player. It's not Kevin Rhant. Why
(31:50):
can we play that for you? Because we can. All Right,
that's it for the end of the moon this podcast.
Check out the radio show every day three to five Eastern,
twelve two Pacific, Fox Sports Radio, iHeartRadio app. I'm Doug Gotleib.
Host
Doug Gottlieb
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.