April 9, 2018 • 23 mins
It's the Best of the Doug Gottlieb Show. Doug explains why Pat Riley's latest quotes about LeBron James should give some pause to any free agent suitors this summer, why Johnny Manziel's Spring League debut looks less like a reclamation project and more like the ending of a very sad story, and why he's cautiously optimistic (but still unwilling to predict greatness) about the future of Shohei Ohtani
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the best of the Done Dot Leap Show
on Fox Sports Radio. I'll tell you what is setting
things on fire is this new book in which it
uh it talks about pat Riley. Quotes pat Riley talking
about Lebron James. There's new there's excerpts from a from
(00:21):
a new book that I think are pretty telling. And
it does, by the way, kind of cast a little
bit of light into the workings of Uh. It does.
It's got cast a little bit the workings of Maverick Carter.
So I think this is it's really fun, really fascinating,
(00:41):
really fascinating stuff. All right, So again upcoming book. Pat
Riley is quoted in it, and um he also admits
that he he took he took Lebron James's exit really
really personally. And he also thought that, you know, quite frankly,
(01:03):
Lebron did the right thing in leaving. So there's some
fascinating quotes there, but maybe the most interesting quotes. And
Ian Thompson wrote the book. It's called The Soul of Basketball. Uh.
In it, pat Riley says that Lebron could have collected
five or six championships had the team stayed intact. He said,
(01:25):
quote I had two or three days of tremendous anger.
I was absolutely livid, which I expressed to myself and
my closest friends. My beautiful plan all of a sudden
came crashing down a team that in ten years could
have won five or six championships. But I get it.
I get the whole chronicle of Lebron's life. While there
may have been some carnage always left behind when he
made these kinds of moves in Cleveland, also in Miami,
(01:47):
he did the right thing. I just finally came to
accept the realization that he and his family said, you'll
never ever be accepted back in your hometown if you
don't go back and try and win entitle. Otherwise, someday
you'll go back there and have a scarlet letter across
your back. You'll be the greatest player in the history
of mankind. But back there, nobody's going to accept you. Look, Look,
(02:08):
there's what how many stages of grief are there? Robert
was there five stages of grief? And I do think
acceptance is the final one. And you know people will
sit there and go like man pat Riley is arrogant
for saying they would have won five or six. He
was there four years, they got the four titles. They
went to four championships and won two titles, Like, why
(02:30):
wouldn't they have been right there? I would now would
they have been evolved enough to catch up to the
Golden State Warriors and their style of basketball? Probably not,
but they would have adjusted. They would have absolutely adjusted.
And if you can take Cleveland to two finals, why
can't you take or two three straight finals? Why can't
you take Miami to final? But this part may be
(02:52):
more interesting. There's a lot of talk of where Lebron
James may play next season. The Soul of Basketball Again
Uh This is a book that is authored authored by
Ian Thompson, but quotes Pat Riley, and it talks about
Pete Riley. Riley revealed in the book that days after
(03:15):
the Heats lost to Dallas. This is in two thousand
and ten, he asked Lebron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris
Bosh to meet him in his office for ten minutes
to check out how the team felt the young season
was progressing. They just said, we're not feeling it or
something like that. Riley told Thompson. We talked about typical
(03:35):
things that we have to do have patients and all
that stuff. And I remember Lebron looking at me and
he said, do you ever get the itch? I said,
it's for what he said the itch to coach Again,
I said, no, I don't have the itch. He didn't
ask any more questions, and I didn't offer any more answers,
but I know what it meant. And I always go
(03:56):
back and wonder what he was thinking about that at
the time. He walked out scratching his leg like it
was itching. Amazing right now, Remember at pat Riley. He
may try and act like he's super loyal now, but
he had previously jettison stan Van Gundhi and taking over
(04:16):
himself and come back and won a championship. That was
his last championship. He won his first championship outside of
the Lakers. Couldn't win one with the Knicks, and so Lebron, look, Lebron,
is it's kind of interesting. You know, it's kind of
interesting here because you guys remember Jurassic Park. Remember how
(04:38):
in Jurassic Park they talked about the raptors being super smart.
And by the way, before Jurassic Park, had anyone ever
heard of a raptor? No one the Raptor in Jurassic
Park is like when somebody tells you about a new app,
like I had no idea that app actually existed, Like, oh, yeah,
it's an app that does this. Doesn't be like I
had no idea and you want to nod your head like,
(04:59):
no, no no, I knew about all the time I heard
about that app. Yeah, I totally heard about it. But
the reality of it is, yeah, you don't really know
that it exists, then you have no idea. It's clueless.
And so with that in mind, um um, look, this
(05:19):
had been done before, and Lebron is like a raptor
kind of testing out the Remember when they he said,
like they're smart, they test out they they test the
power wires every day, just different never the same spot twice.
That's Lebron. He's constantly test. That's what happens with intelligences.
You're so intelligent, you're just gonna test. What can I
(05:41):
get away with? Can I get you to switch coaches?
Can I get you to fire this guy? How much
do you actually believe in erics? But it doesn't necessarily
even mean that he wanted spoilstra out as much as
one he knew Riley had done in the past. Two
he wasn't totally sold on on Spoilstra and three he
just wanted to test him. Let me just see what
this guy'll do. And Riley didn't blink, didn't flinch that
(06:05):
time when he did with stan Van Gundy, which which
leads me to believe that, like, look, this is the
type of power play Lebron James he's going to try
and execute if he goes somewhere else, It's one of
those things. Look, Mike D'Antoni has been in this long
enough that if they come up short and they go
for it with Lebron James, I think he probably is
(06:30):
uh strongly ingrained enough. On the other hand, remember d'antoni's
teams have never won a championship. If they can't get
there this year without him, why would Lebron believe in D'Antoni.
Then he got Luke Walton in l A with the Lakers.
Remember there was some talk about whether or not Maverick
Carter was was brought into the idea of Luke winning.
(06:51):
There's David Fizdale who's sitting out there. Just just for
the record, I thought David Fizdale was wrongly fired by
the Memphis Grizzlies, on the other hand, is probably the
greatest thing that ever happened to David Fizdale. He's gotten
to do TV and he's really good at it. People
got a chance to see. He's a super bright guy
who now he knows the game and knows the players,
(07:11):
but understand has a great relationship with seenter places, including Lebron,
who was assistant on this on this Miami Heat championship teams.
And more than anything, the Memphis Grizzlies have have been
tanking the last three months. There's a record he would
have killed his career record forever. Now it's fine ik
at another job because he deserves it. Had he held
on with the Memphis Grizzlies and he decided to tank,
(07:31):
I don't know how much out quickly get another job,
but wouldn't stun me at all. If this is how
Lebron rolls, right, He stopped listening to Paul Silas the
first time around. In Cleveland, he tried, He tried to
get them to dust off Eric Spoelstra. He did. They
(07:53):
have made a coaching change in Cleveland, and he is
like a raptor, going to constantly test to see what
can I get Away With Be sure to catch live
editions of The Doug Gottlieb Show weekdays at three pm
Eastern noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I
Heart Radio app. I like Aaron Nagler a great deal.
(08:15):
I've had him on a bunch um. He lives in
New York. He writes for Packers News dot Com. He
also happens to have a podcast, and there's this sense
that he has that there are people that are that well.
Is the national media pushing Johnny Menzel as opposed to
other out of ware quarterbacks who we don't push. I'm
(08:37):
not sure if you watched, but Johnny Manzel played in
something called the Spring League, and the Spring League is
exactly what the naming. Whoever decided to name the Spring
League essentially name my show, like, oh, you have radio show, Yes,
what's it? What's your name, Doug Gottlieb, what's the show
called the Doug Gottlieb Show. That's you know, let's just
call it what it is. The Spring League is actually
(08:59):
called the Spring League. There is the North, the East,
the West, and the South. And of course Johnny Monzel,
having been from and playing in Texas, plays for you
guessed it the South. Um, I don't look, I don't.
(09:20):
I don't think anybody intentionally pushes a narrative. I think
if if Colin Kaepernick played in the Spring League, I
think we would show video of it. If ray Rice
played in the Spring League, we show video of it.
Johnny Manzel is an interesting and polarizing figure. He's only
twenty five years old. He's, by his own accounts, gone
(09:41):
to some form of rehab. He's gotten married. He was
a first round draft pick that started and then has
been cut. He had a domestic incident to which we've
never really been able to figure out what happened. There's
talk of him playing in Cleveland, but when I watched
this tape, I mean in Cleveland and in Canada, uh,
which is kind of like Cleveland. And there's talking about
(10:03):
playing in Canada. But when I watched this tape, he
doesn't look like somebody who can hold a clipboard in
the NFL or play even in Canada. I love this assumption.
Radio guy. We do this all the time. This happens
with basketball, where there's lots of guys people who are like, well,
you know, he won't make in the NBA, but it'll
make it in Europe, like you realize there are really
(10:26):
really good players all over the world, and when you
get to Europe having played there, there's a bunch of
guys you've never heard of before in your entire life
who understand their first of all their professionals, second of all,
they've improved, they understand third of all, how to play
in the European game. And so there's plenty of guys
(10:46):
making a lot of money playing in Europe you've never
heard of before, whereas big school guys who declared for
the NBA Draft and think, you know, if I don't
wort make it, I'm just gonna go over season playing Europe.
It's completely different style of basketball's officiated differently, coach differently,
played and passed and shot differently. The rules are in
fact different, and they're interpreted. Even the same rules are
(11:06):
interpreted differently. So this idea that hey, if you don't
make it, you just go over to Europe, like that
sounds great, but they don't like young guys because they
want to they're not the end of developing players. College
basketball and junior teams are supposed to develop players. Lower
(11:27):
level of professional basketball should develop players. So this is
assumption that you're just gonna go over there and and
tear it up. I'm gonna go over there and tear
it up. And Johnny Manzel is gonna go to Canada
and tear it up. That's cheer from people. You know. Look,
if he doesn't make it, he'll just play in the
Canadian Football League and he'll tear it up and then
(11:51):
we'll see if he gets a shot back in the NFL.
And maybe it's maybe it is accurate, maybe it is
simply that he's but I watched him run around back
there last, you know, in highlights, and you're like, I
don't know, if I see it, it doesn't mean do
you know who Mike Riley is. Mike Riley's a former
(12:15):
quarterback at Central Washington, all right. He's six three two
and thirty pounds. He threw for fifty eight hundred yards
with thirty touchdowns and thirteen receptions in the two he
was he led the league in uh in passing yards.
I remember at the end of what happens is we
(12:37):
all say, well, Doug Flutie made it, so of course
Johnny Menzel, he's small like Doug Flutie, he can make it.
Ricky Ray who was quarterback at Sacramento State six three
to four. He was second in the CFL in passing.
Uh Bo Mitchell was third in Now he's from Katie
(12:59):
Tech Sis. He played at Eastern Washington six to two
oh six. So all of these dudes. Trevor Harris who
played at Edinburgh Small School six three, fourth in the
league in passing. Matt Nichols another Eastern Washington gut. All
these dudes played at Eastern Washington played in the CFL.
(13:20):
He drew forty six hundred yards. And I look around
and the only name that I really recognized in in
the top fifteen passers, I recognized Jeremiah Massoli. Remember he
was at He was an Oregon. He split time in
with Hamilton in Hamilton's he and Zach Clarisa. Claris was
the backup at Cincinnati for Tony Pike, and he came
(13:40):
in and then Ryan Linley of course got a chance
to start some games with the Arizona Cardinals. Ryan literally
plays up. It doesn't mean that he won't get a shot,
that he can't play, but this idea that he's just
gonna go in there and set the world on fire.
I watch him move around he medicated Johnny Men's Johnny
(14:00):
Manzel out of the Texas Tech Texas A and M
Houston system. I'm not completely convinced it works, but I
don't think that any media member like I didn't get
Maybe I'm not a member of the media. Maybe I'm
the quasi media because I didn't get the memo that
says we're supposed to cheer for Johnny Manzel. I think
we're cheering anything. It's for Johnny Manzel the human being.
(14:22):
Like I don't really like seeing guys self destruct. I'm
really happy that he didn't do harm to himself. I'd
like to see him have a productive life. But also
point out last week he was on with Dan Patrick
and I didn't think he was close to all the
way back. Healed mentally, emotionally, like there's there's a lot
of scar tissue there. There's a lot of mental health
care he needs to go through. And even then he's
(14:44):
twenty five, he was I don't think it was a
locked up since that he was a great pro prospect.
And while you would think he could play in Canada
running around and just playing like a wild man with
his hair on fire, it'll work. It's a lot easier
to say when you never played in snow before, when
you've never been outside this country to play sports before,
(15:07):
when you when you played in the system in college,
which is not a pro ready system, and it may
well work. That may be closer to Canadian football. By
the way, just like when I went to Europe, you
learned about you learn to respect guys from lower levels
who might not have gotten a shot, might have matured late,
might have gotten better after college, might have lacked confidence
in college, or not got along with the coach, or
didn't have grades. Whatever. You go out there like, damn,
(15:29):
those guys are way better than the guys I played
against in college. The same thing had happened to Johnny Manzel,
So before you sit there and annoying him when I
was gonna play in the CFL, and then we'll see,
Like I watched him run around the other night. It
didn't look good. Now. Part of it was he was
playing with terrible, terrible, terrible, a terrible team and in
(15:52):
block for him, but he didn't move so great, and
he's got one more game to prove it, and I
don't think he gets into an NFL camp. It was
It was one of those goshious kind of looks sad
kind of things sad. Legitimately said, Fox Sports Radio has
the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all
(16:13):
of our shows at Fox sports radio dot com and
within the I Heart Radio app Two of the big
free agent prizes of the off season, and obviously looking
if you if you know John Carlos Stanton, he wasn't
a free agent, but the two biggest acquisitions in the
off season in Major League Baseball. This was a hot
stove league that wasn't particularly hot, right, This was the
(16:37):
story was basically, Hey, the Yankees are loading up. They're
gonna have the best lineup we've ever seen since maybe
murderers Row, I mean, just got a ridiculous embarrassment of riches.
And then there's Shohio Tani who comes over from Japan
and had his pick of any spot he wanted to
(16:58):
play in Major League based ball, and of all places,
he picks the Angels. Here's a guy who's who's dubbed
the Babe Ruth of Japan because he pitches and he hits,
and it was the Angels. Now, some of it is
about expectations, but some of us about location. And when
(17:23):
I say location. It doesn't just mean that he's in
Los Angeles, which is more chill than New York. It's
that he's with the Angels, as opposed to with the Yankees,
or with the Dodgers, or even with the San Francisco Giants,
or teams that the Boston Red Sox. Like. When you
get off to a rough start and you're with one
of those teams, it's like the sky is falling. Let
(17:44):
me tell the truth about Shohyotani, who had a perfect
game going to the seventh inning yesterday. He hit three
home run in the previous three games, which he played
three home runs and three at in three different games,
or home run and each in successive game. You guys
know what happened, Like, I don't need a well you
weren't clear. If I wasn't clear, then you know what.
Grab a book, Go on the internet, look it up.
(18:05):
He had a home run in three consecutive games. What
I said at the time when he signed was exactly
how I feel now. Regardless of how this thing ends up.
He may be Jeremy Lynn Flash in the Pan. Great
story had that he had one week where he owned
baseball and never really lived up to the hype, you
(18:26):
may and Jeremy Lynn really never had hype. It was
that he far exceeded anybody's expectations for what he could do.
But he may not be a great player. It's baseball, man,
We've seen Dontrell Willis of course who um is works
for Fox the Major League base playlists. He'll join us
periodically throughout the season. Like Don Choles did not have
a great career, but he had a great kind of
welcome to baseball. They'll figure you out. It is a really,
(18:48):
really really hard game. I mean a really hard game.
I would I would say that, um, I would say
the baseball's really the hardest game, baseball and golf, just
incredibly humbling. Like I'll give you Dontroles. How good was Dontrollis?
(19:08):
He won twenty games one time. That was also one
of just two years in which he finished above five. Right, Yeah,
he had a four point one seven he alright, And
he pitched for nine years, but really it was he
pitched for six or seven years and you know, five
or six years in baseball, and like God bless him.
He's become a really good analyst, and he had a
(19:30):
great personality and he's used his success on a baseball time.
The point is that there's a chance people are gonna
figure you out. There's a chance you don't have that
next wave of stop. This is the first time we've
seen him like he's basically he's Eatro with a little
bit with less speed but more power. And then of
course his pitching style, he's you know, the first time
(19:51):
they see you is harder than the second to the third,
and they start to get a book on you, much
like playing quarterback in the National Football League. But but
the juxtaposition of look, he was struggling in spring training,
he wasn't great in his first start, to now of
a sudden he's got it going with John Carlos Stanton.
Some of this is how much money standing makes. So
much is some of the this is the hype of
(20:14):
the New York Yankees hype machine. But a lot of
it is the fact he plays for the Yankees, and look,
Yankee fans, they never booed Judge last year and he
was a windmill. He was striking out all the time.
He had an embarrassing beginning to the second half of
the season, embarrassing and so yeah, this is the second
(20:35):
time he struck out five times. And part of it
is people don't watch baseball anymore. They watch baseball highlights.
If you watch baseball, I don't know if you guys
know this. Percent of the time last year, no one
other than the picture that catcher, the hit her touched
the baseball, strike out, home run, or walk, that's it.
But when you watch it in person, boy does it
(20:57):
become tedious. Gosh, these guys strike out a lot. It
was not only the all time high for home runs
in the sport last year, all time high for strikeouts
in the sport last year. Analytics tell you it's smarter,
it's easier to score runs when you play that way,
and that's the way the game has gone. But because
of it, when you're sitting there watching, like dude, Gian
(21:18):
Carlos Stanton stinks he can't hit it all. Do I
think some of it's the pressure of New York Shore.
Do I think some of it is the fact that
that he doesn't have the book on the pictures because
the American League? Absolutely? But do I think some of
it is Yankee fans freaking out because they've never actually
(21:38):
seen John Carlos Stanton play a game outside of the
All Star Game. In the home run Derby, you better
damn believe it. But in the genius of the show,
Heyotani link into the Angels. Look, man, the Angels have
pool holes who makes way too much money considering his
skill set. Now they had the best player in Mike
Trodden baseball. And if he was bad, he wouldn't have
been booed. And if he's because he's been good, he's
(22:00):
telling out the stadium. He probably would have sold it
out anyway. Sometimes it's better to go somewhere where you
can just be just play. Now, I would also caution
you and tell you that because he he had a
perfect game going the seventh, because he's hit three home runs,
all of anyone who's programming baseball now at Fox or
(22:23):
at ESPN, who owns the rights to baseball, they're gonna
put him on every every time he pitches. It's going
to be on National TV. They're on Fox next weekend
against the Cancer Royals. But it really is remarkable to
me on how so much of so much of your expectations.
Some of it's on how much money you make. I'm
not gonna you know, John Carlos Stanton when he signed
(22:45):
with the Marlins with his new extension. It was one
of the biggest deals in the history of sport, and
it was a backload of deal. So he's making a
ton a ton of money. So some of it's about
how much he makes, but a lot of it is
about out location brings your expectations. And by location I
(23:05):
don't necessarily just mean l a versus New York. I
mean it's the Angels. They're not the Dodgers as opposed
to you know, I'm trying to think of a National
League team because the East. There would be a lot
of hyperbole that Gihn Carlos Stanton bidden with the Mets.
But when John Carlos Stanton was bad with the Marlins
last year, when he would go through bad stretches, would
anybody freak out? No, because nobody really cares. And that's
(23:30):
where Shohyotani is with the Angels.
This is the best of the Done Dot Leap Show
on Fox Sports Radio. I'll tell you what is setting
things on fire is this new book in which it
uh it talks about pat Riley. Quotes pat Riley talking
about Lebron James. There's new there's excerpts from a from
(00:21):
a new book that I think are pretty telling. And
it does, by the way, kind of cast a little
bit of light into the workings of Uh. It does.
It's got cast a little bit the workings of Maverick Carter.
So I think this is it's really fun, really fascinating,
(00:41):
really fascinating stuff. All right, So again upcoming book. Pat
Riley is quoted in it, and um he also admits
that he he took he took Lebron James's exit really
really personally. And he also thought that, you know, quite frankly,
(01:03):
Lebron did the right thing in leaving. So there's some
fascinating quotes there, but maybe the most interesting quotes. And
Ian Thompson wrote the book. It's called The Soul of Basketball. Uh.
In it, pat Riley says that Lebron could have collected
five or six championships had the team stayed intact. He said,
(01:25):
quote I had two or three days of tremendous anger.
I was absolutely livid, which I expressed to myself and
my closest friends. My beautiful plan all of a sudden
came crashing down a team that in ten years could
have won five or six championships. But I get it.
I get the whole chronicle of Lebron's life. While there
may have been some carnage always left behind when he
made these kinds of moves in Cleveland, also in Miami,
(01:47):
he did the right thing. I just finally came to
accept the realization that he and his family said, you'll
never ever be accepted back in your hometown if you
don't go back and try and win entitle. Otherwise, someday
you'll go back there and have a scarlet letter across
your back. You'll be the greatest player in the history
of mankind. But back there, nobody's going to accept you. Look, Look,
(02:08):
there's what how many stages of grief are there? Robert
was there five stages of grief? And I do think
acceptance is the final one. And you know people will
sit there and go like man pat Riley is arrogant
for saying they would have won five or six. He
was there four years, they got the four titles. They
went to four championships and won two titles, Like, why
(02:30):
wouldn't they have been right there? I would now would
they have been evolved enough to catch up to the
Golden State Warriors and their style of basketball? Probably not,
but they would have adjusted. They would have absolutely adjusted.
And if you can take Cleveland to two finals, why
can't you take or two three straight finals? Why can't
you take Miami to final? But this part may be
(02:52):
more interesting. There's a lot of talk of where Lebron
James may play next season. The Soul of Basketball Again
Uh This is a book that is authored authored by
Ian Thompson, but quotes Pat Riley, and it talks about
Pete Riley. Riley revealed in the book that days after
(03:15):
the Heats lost to Dallas. This is in two thousand
and ten, he asked Lebron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris
Bosh to meet him in his office for ten minutes
to check out how the team felt the young season
was progressing. They just said, we're not feeling it or
something like that. Riley told Thompson. We talked about typical
(03:35):
things that we have to do have patients and all
that stuff. And I remember Lebron looking at me and
he said, do you ever get the itch? I said,
it's for what he said the itch to coach Again,
I said, no, I don't have the itch. He didn't
ask any more questions, and I didn't offer any more answers,
but I know what it meant. And I always go
(03:56):
back and wonder what he was thinking about that at
the time. He walked out scratching his leg like it
was itching. Amazing right now, Remember at pat Riley. He
may try and act like he's super loyal now, but
he had previously jettison stan Van Gundhi and taking over
(04:16):
himself and come back and won a championship. That was
his last championship. He won his first championship outside of
the Lakers. Couldn't win one with the Knicks, and so Lebron, look, Lebron,
is it's kind of interesting. You know, it's kind of
interesting here because you guys remember Jurassic Park. Remember how
(04:38):
in Jurassic Park they talked about the raptors being super smart.
And by the way, before Jurassic Park, had anyone ever
heard of a raptor? No one the Raptor in Jurassic
Park is like when somebody tells you about a new app,
like I had no idea that app actually existed, Like, oh, yeah,
it's an app that does this. Doesn't be like I
had no idea and you want to nod your head like,
(04:59):
no, no no, I knew about all the time I heard
about that app. Yeah, I totally heard about it. But
the reality of it is, yeah, you don't really know
that it exists, then you have no idea. It's clueless.
And so with that in mind, um um, look, this
(05:19):
had been done before, and Lebron is like a raptor
kind of testing out the Remember when they he said,
like they're smart, they test out they they test the
power wires every day, just different never the same spot twice.
That's Lebron. He's constantly test. That's what happens with intelligences.
You're so intelligent, you're just gonna test. What can I
(05:41):
get away with? Can I get you to switch coaches?
Can I get you to fire this guy? How much
do you actually believe in erics? But it doesn't necessarily
even mean that he wanted spoilstra out as much as
one he knew Riley had done in the past. Two
he wasn't totally sold on on Spoilstra and three he
just wanted to test him. Let me just see what
this guy'll do. And Riley didn't blink, didn't flinch that
(06:05):
time when he did with stan Van Gundy, which which
leads me to believe that, like, look, this is the
type of power play Lebron James he's going to try
and execute if he goes somewhere else, It's one of
those things. Look, Mike D'Antoni has been in this long
enough that if they come up short and they go
for it with Lebron James, I think he probably is
(06:30):
uh strongly ingrained enough. On the other hand, remember d'antoni's
teams have never won a championship. If they can't get
there this year without him, why would Lebron believe in D'Antoni.
Then he got Luke Walton in l A with the Lakers.
Remember there was some talk about whether or not Maverick
Carter was was brought into the idea of Luke winning.
(06:51):
There's David Fizdale who's sitting out there. Just just for
the record, I thought David Fizdale was wrongly fired by
the Memphis Grizzlies, on the other hand, is probably the
greatest thing that ever happened to David Fizdale. He's gotten
to do TV and he's really good at it. People
got a chance to see. He's a super bright guy
who now he knows the game and knows the players,
(07:11):
but understand has a great relationship with seenter places, including Lebron,
who was assistant on this on this Miami Heat championship teams.
And more than anything, the Memphis Grizzlies have have been
tanking the last three months. There's a record he would
have killed his career record forever. Now it's fine ik
at another job because he deserves it. Had he held
on with the Memphis Grizzlies and he decided to tank,
(07:31):
I don't know how much out quickly get another job,
but wouldn't stun me at all. If this is how
Lebron rolls, right, He stopped listening to Paul Silas the
first time around. In Cleveland, he tried, He tried to
get them to dust off Eric Spoelstra. He did. They
(07:53):
have made a coaching change in Cleveland, and he is
like a raptor, going to constantly test to see what
can I get Away With Be sure to catch live
editions of The Doug Gottlieb Show weekdays at three pm
Eastern noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I
Heart Radio app. I like Aaron Nagler a great deal.
(08:15):
I've had him on a bunch um. He lives in
New York. He writes for Packers News dot Com. He
also happens to have a podcast, and there's this sense
that he has that there are people that are that well.
Is the national media pushing Johnny Menzel as opposed to
other out of ware quarterbacks who we don't push. I'm
(08:37):
not sure if you watched, but Johnny Manzel played in
something called the Spring League, and the Spring League is
exactly what the naming. Whoever decided to name the Spring
League essentially name my show, like, oh, you have radio show, Yes,
what's it? What's your name, Doug Gottlieb, what's the show
called the Doug Gottlieb Show. That's you know, let's just
call it what it is. The Spring League is actually
(08:59):
called the Spring League. There is the North, the East,
the West, and the South. And of course Johnny Monzel,
having been from and playing in Texas, plays for you
guessed it the South. Um, I don't look, I don't.
(09:20):
I don't think anybody intentionally pushes a narrative. I think
if if Colin Kaepernick played in the Spring League, I
think we would show video of it. If ray Rice
played in the Spring League, we show video of it.
Johnny Manzel is an interesting and polarizing figure. He's only
twenty five years old. He's, by his own accounts, gone
(09:41):
to some form of rehab. He's gotten married. He was
a first round draft pick that started and then has
been cut. He had a domestic incident to which we've
never really been able to figure out what happened. There's
talk of him playing in Cleveland, but when I watched
this tape, I mean in Cleveland and in Canada, uh,
which is kind of like Cleveland. And there's talking about
(10:03):
playing in Canada. But when I watched this tape, he
doesn't look like somebody who can hold a clipboard in
the NFL or play even in Canada. I love this assumption.
Radio guy. We do this all the time. This happens
with basketball, where there's lots of guys people who are like, well,
you know, he won't make in the NBA, but it'll
make it in Europe, like you realize there are really
(10:26):
really good players all over the world, and when you
get to Europe having played there, there's a bunch of
guys you've never heard of before in your entire life
who understand their first of all their professionals, second of all,
they've improved, they understand third of all, how to play
in the European game. And so there's plenty of guys
(10:46):
making a lot of money playing in Europe you've never
heard of before, whereas big school guys who declared for
the NBA Draft and think, you know, if I don't
wort make it, I'm just gonna go over season playing Europe.
It's completely different style of basketball's officiated differently, coach differently,
played and passed and shot differently. The rules are in
fact different, and they're interpreted. Even the same rules are
(11:06):
interpreted differently. So this idea that hey, if you don't
make it, you just go over to Europe, like that
sounds great, but they don't like young guys because they
want to they're not the end of developing players. College
basketball and junior teams are supposed to develop players. Lower
(11:27):
level of professional basketball should develop players. So this is
assumption that you're just gonna go over there and and
tear it up. I'm gonna go over there and tear
it up. And Johnny Manzel is gonna go to Canada
and tear it up. That's cheer from people. You know. Look,
if he doesn't make it, he'll just play in the
Canadian Football League and he'll tear it up and then
(11:51):
we'll see if he gets a shot back in the NFL.
And maybe it's maybe it is accurate, maybe it is
simply that he's but I watched him run around back
there last, you know, in highlights, and you're like, I
don't know, if I see it, it doesn't mean do
you know who Mike Riley is. Mike Riley's a former
(12:15):
quarterback at Central Washington, all right. He's six three two
and thirty pounds. He threw for fifty eight hundred yards
with thirty touchdowns and thirteen receptions in the two he
was he led the league in uh in passing yards.
I remember at the end of what happens is we
(12:37):
all say, well, Doug Flutie made it, so of course
Johnny Menzel, he's small like Doug Flutie, he can make it.
Ricky Ray who was quarterback at Sacramento State six three
to four. He was second in the CFL in passing.
Uh Bo Mitchell was third in Now he's from Katie
(12:59):
Tech Sis. He played at Eastern Washington six to two
oh six. So all of these dudes. Trevor Harris who
played at Edinburgh Small School six three, fourth in the
league in passing. Matt Nichols another Eastern Washington gut. All
these dudes played at Eastern Washington played in the CFL.
(13:20):
He drew forty six hundred yards. And I look around
and the only name that I really recognized in in
the top fifteen passers, I recognized Jeremiah Massoli. Remember he
was at He was an Oregon. He split time in
with Hamilton in Hamilton's he and Zach Clarisa. Claris was
the backup at Cincinnati for Tony Pike, and he came
(13:40):
in and then Ryan Linley of course got a chance
to start some games with the Arizona Cardinals. Ryan literally
plays up. It doesn't mean that he won't get a shot,
that he can't play, but this idea that he's just
gonna go in there and set the world on fire.
I watch him move around he medicated Johnny Men's Johnny
(14:00):
Manzel out of the Texas Tech Texas A and M
Houston system. I'm not completely convinced it works, but I
don't think that any media member like I didn't get
Maybe I'm not a member of the media. Maybe I'm
the quasi media because I didn't get the memo that
says we're supposed to cheer for Johnny Manzel. I think
we're cheering anything. It's for Johnny Manzel the human being.
(14:22):
Like I don't really like seeing guys self destruct. I'm
really happy that he didn't do harm to himself. I'd
like to see him have a productive life. But also
point out last week he was on with Dan Patrick
and I didn't think he was close to all the
way back. Healed mentally, emotionally, like there's there's a lot
of scar tissue there. There's a lot of mental health
care he needs to go through. And even then he's
(14:44):
twenty five, he was I don't think it was a
locked up since that he was a great pro prospect.
And while you would think he could play in Canada
running around and just playing like a wild man with
his hair on fire, it'll work. It's a lot easier
to say when you never played in snow before, when
you've never been outside this country to play sports before,
(15:07):
when you when you played in the system in college,
which is not a pro ready system, and it may
well work. That may be closer to Canadian football. By
the way, just like when I went to Europe, you
learned about you learn to respect guys from lower levels
who might not have gotten a shot, might have matured late,
might have gotten better after college, might have lacked confidence
in college, or not got along with the coach, or
didn't have grades. Whatever. You go out there like, damn,
(15:29):
those guys are way better than the guys I played
against in college. The same thing had happened to Johnny Manzel,
So before you sit there and annoying him when I
was gonna play in the CFL, and then we'll see,
Like I watched him run around the other night. It
didn't look good. Now. Part of it was he was
playing with terrible, terrible, terrible, a terrible team and in
(15:52):
block for him, but he didn't move so great, and
he's got one more game to prove it, and I
don't think he gets into an NFL camp. It was
It was one of those goshious kind of looks sad
kind of things sad. Legitimately said, Fox Sports Radio has
the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all
(16:13):
of our shows at Fox sports radio dot com and
within the I Heart Radio app Two of the big
free agent prizes of the off season, and obviously looking
if you if you know John Carlos Stanton, he wasn't
a free agent, but the two biggest acquisitions in the
off season in Major League Baseball. This was a hot
stove league that wasn't particularly hot, right, This was the
(16:37):
story was basically, Hey, the Yankees are loading up. They're
gonna have the best lineup we've ever seen since maybe
murderers Row, I mean, just got a ridiculous embarrassment of riches.
And then there's Shohio Tani who comes over from Japan
and had his pick of any spot he wanted to
(16:58):
play in Major League based ball, and of all places,
he picks the Angels. Here's a guy who's who's dubbed
the Babe Ruth of Japan because he pitches and he hits,
and it was the Angels. Now, some of it is
about expectations, but some of us about location. And when
(17:23):
I say location. It doesn't just mean that he's in
Los Angeles, which is more chill than New York. It's
that he's with the Angels, as opposed to with the Yankees,
or with the Dodgers, or even with the San Francisco Giants,
or teams that the Boston Red Sox. Like. When you
get off to a rough start and you're with one
of those teams, it's like the sky is falling. Let
(17:44):
me tell the truth about Shohyotani, who had a perfect
game going to the seventh inning yesterday. He hit three
home run in the previous three games, which he played
three home runs and three at in three different games,
or home run and each in successive game. You guys
know what happened, Like, I don't need a well you
weren't clear. If I wasn't clear, then you know what.
Grab a book, Go on the internet, look it up.
(18:05):
He had a home run in three consecutive games. What
I said at the time when he signed was exactly
how I feel now. Regardless of how this thing ends up.
He may be Jeremy Lynn Flash in the Pan. Great
story had that he had one week where he owned
baseball and never really lived up to the hype, you
(18:26):
may and Jeremy Lynn really never had hype. It was
that he far exceeded anybody's expectations for what he could do.
But he may not be a great player. It's baseball, man,
We've seen Dontrell Willis of course who um is works
for Fox the Major League base playlists. He'll join us
periodically throughout the season. Like Don Choles did not have
a great career, but he had a great kind of
welcome to baseball. They'll figure you out. It is a really,
(18:48):
really really hard game. I mean a really hard game.
I would I would say that, um, I would say
the baseball's really the hardest game, baseball and golf, just
incredibly humbling. Like I'll give you Dontroles. How good was Dontrollis?
(19:08):
He won twenty games one time. That was also one
of just two years in which he finished above five. Right, Yeah,
he had a four point one seven he alright, And
he pitched for nine years, but really it was he
pitched for six or seven years and you know, five
or six years in baseball, and like God bless him.
He's become a really good analyst, and he had a
(19:30):
great personality and he's used his success on a baseball time.
The point is that there's a chance people are gonna
figure you out. There's a chance you don't have that
next wave of stop. This is the first time we've
seen him like he's basically he's Eatro with a little
bit with less speed but more power. And then of
course his pitching style, he's you know, the first time
(19:51):
they see you is harder than the second to the third,
and they start to get a book on you, much
like playing quarterback in the National Football League. But but
the juxtaposition of look, he was struggling in spring training,
he wasn't great in his first start, to now of
a sudden he's got it going with John Carlos Stanton.
Some of this is how much money standing makes. So
much is some of the this is the hype of
(20:14):
the New York Yankees hype machine. But a lot of
it is the fact he plays for the Yankees, and look,
Yankee fans, they never booed Judge last year and he
was a windmill. He was striking out all the time.
He had an embarrassing beginning to the second half of
the season, embarrassing and so yeah, this is the second
(20:35):
time he struck out five times. And part of it
is people don't watch baseball anymore. They watch baseball highlights.
If you watch baseball, I don't know if you guys
know this. Percent of the time last year, no one
other than the picture that catcher, the hit her touched
the baseball, strike out, home run, or walk, that's it.
But when you watch it in person, boy does it
(20:57):
become tedious. Gosh, these guys strike out a lot. It
was not only the all time high for home runs
in the sport last year, all time high for strikeouts
in the sport last year. Analytics tell you it's smarter,
it's easier to score runs when you play that way,
and that's the way the game has gone. But because
of it, when you're sitting there watching, like dude, Gian
(21:18):
Carlos Stanton stinks he can't hit it all. Do I
think some of it's the pressure of New York Shore.
Do I think some of it is the fact that
that he doesn't have the book on the pictures because
the American League? Absolutely? But do I think some of
it is Yankee fans freaking out because they've never actually
(21:38):
seen John Carlos Stanton play a game outside of the
All Star Game. In the home run Derby, you better
damn believe it. But in the genius of the show,
Heyotani link into the Angels. Look, man, the Angels have
pool holes who makes way too much money considering his
skill set. Now they had the best player in Mike
Trodden baseball. And if he was bad, he wouldn't have
been booed. And if he's because he's been good, he's
(22:00):
telling out the stadium. He probably would have sold it
out anyway. Sometimes it's better to go somewhere where you
can just be just play. Now, I would also caution
you and tell you that because he he had a
perfect game going the seventh, because he's hit three home runs,
all of anyone who's programming baseball now at Fox or
(22:23):
at ESPN, who owns the rights to baseball, they're gonna
put him on every every time he pitches. It's going
to be on National TV. They're on Fox next weekend
against the Cancer Royals. But it really is remarkable to
me on how so much of so much of your expectations.
Some of it's on how much money you make. I'm
not gonna you know, John Carlos Stanton when he signed
(22:45):
with the Marlins with his new extension. It was one
of the biggest deals in the history of sport, and
it was a backload of deal. So he's making a
ton a ton of money. So some of it's about
how much he makes, but a lot of it is
about out location brings your expectations. And by location I
(23:05):
don't necessarily just mean l a versus New York. I
mean it's the Angels. They're not the Dodgers as opposed
to you know, I'm trying to think of a National
League team because the East. There would be a lot
of hyperbole that Gihn Carlos Stanton bidden with the Mets.
But when John Carlos Stanton was bad with the Marlins
last year, when he would go through bad stretches, would
anybody freak out? No, because nobody really cares. And that's
(23:30):
where Shohyotani is with the Angels.
Host
Doug Gottlieb
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