December 6, 2018 • 38 mins
Doug analyzes the Lakers win over the Spurs and why LeBron had something to prove in the 4th quarter. He also tells you why there’s one team in the NBA who’s better than you think. And Ric Bucher from Bleacher Report joins the show to discuss his latest article “Why Doesn’t Anyone Want To Play With LeBron Anymore?”
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of the Doug Gottlieb
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday
from three to six pm Eastern Time that's twelve to
three Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station
for The Doug Gottlieb Show at Fox Sports Radio dot Com,
or stream us live every day on the I Heart
Radio app by searching fs R. This is the best
(00:22):
of the Doug gotli Show on Fox Sports Radio. Boom,
What Up America, Doug Gottlieb Show, Fox Sports Radio. Man,
do we have a great show for you? I am
so fared up. Alc Ogletree not ogil torp ogil Tree
(00:42):
will join us. Upcoming in fifteen minutes, we'll talk about
the New York Giants as they continue to compete. I
want to ask him he's seen the film his teammate
Odell Beckham Jr. Chose the business decision on an on
side kick that could have cost them a game. That
up coming in fifteen minutes, we'll go and talk to
(01:02):
some Kyler Murray on why everybody just assumes that one
sport is better than another. For Kyler Murray and that assumption,
you know what happens when you assume Rick Buker is
gonna join us. He had the interview with Kevin Durant
and other quotes from other players. It was so good
and made its way around the league so much that
even Lebron James act asked about the context of the
(01:26):
question and the full answer from k D. Will get
it from Rick Buker. R. J. Bell will join us
straight at a Vegas getting ready for Thursday night football
and a huge Sunday of NFL games. Plus Joe Buck
will be our guest, who of course has tonight's call.
He'll call game this weekend, then next weekend Kansas City
(01:47):
and the Chargers should be good. Should be good. Doug
Golap Show here on Fox Sports Radio. Man, do we
have a ton to get to? Let's start with Lebron James,
shall we? He entered the game game with the Lakers
trailing three to the San Antonio Spurs last night at home.
Entered the game and the game comes in. Has nineteen points,
(02:12):
three rebounds, three assists, makes seven of eight field goals,
two of two from three both deep, one of deep
deep deep Steph Curry range three if there's a flaw,
only three of six from the free from line's kind
of Marquel Foltz. For Lebron James, he's a Marquelle Folts
from the free line and one steal. By comparison, during
that exact same time period, the rest of his teammates
(02:35):
only seventeen points combined, eight rebounds combined, three assists combined,
five of them from the field, two of five from
three point range. They did make five of six free throws.
In other words, Lebron James outscored his entire team the
final ten twelve of the game and carried the Lakers
to a win, their eleventh win in fourteen games. I
(03:00):
of all sports, I think they're all really really fascinating,
and the way in which they work is amazing to
me because, um though all team sports have a team
aspect to them, Football you truly do need all eleven
guys on the field working together. Baseball not really as much.
(03:22):
There's a lot more individual play to baseball, but there's
so much more time around each other that there is
a certain morale and a certain support, but you're still
out there by yourself. Basketball is the one sport that
has the f you button for the best player. Look,
I'm gonna win this game, f you try and stop me.
(03:44):
The NBA makes its rules as such. Right by the way,
we did see that f you game from Paul George
who at the game winner and an unbelievable game in Brooklyn.
But it's it's fascinating on a a where Lebron James
has to answer questions about whether or not people will
(04:05):
want to play with him because he does so much.
He waited three quarters to do what he did last night.
Here's Lebron James after the game when he was asked
about Katie's comments. Yeah, I believe that's probably not the
whole quote, so I'm not gonna comment. Man. Um, you know,
I I would love to see the whole transcript of
what was asked with him, all right, the context it
(04:27):
was asked with him, why I was asked, and the
whole the whole thing. So I'm not going to comment
on it because I'm not knowledge. I don't know the
whole thing. That's will be stupid on my com cart
Doug otliv Show, Fox Sports Radio. Look, Lebron James and
(04:49):
I had been waiting for it up until the last
couple of weeks. I've been waiting for that moment where
Lebron James is like, hey fellas, Hey guys, I'm the
best player on earth. We finally got it last night.
Finally got it last night. We'd had it a couple
(05:10):
other times this year, so I think three times now,
three forty point games, but they've all come within the
last two weeks. And while KB is not wrong, it
does take a sacrifice of ego and a sacrifice of
shots and the sacrifice of ball dominance. If you actually
pay attention to how Lebron James is playing, a lot
(05:31):
of what you see in the fourth quarter can be
taken out of context as well, because over the first
three quarters he let everybody else do their thing, and
the fourth quarter, as he said on the on like
two days ago, they knew who I am, they know
who you know. When they need me, I'm here to
close games out, you know. It's it's fascinating to me
(05:53):
how how we in the media are constantly critical of
the Lakers and the roster they put together. Now, some
of it is rightful critique, right, It's okay, it's okay
to be critical, it really is. But what we don't
realize is nothing really stays the same, especially in your
(06:15):
first five to seven years in the NBA, you don't
stay as the same player. The perfect example is brook
Lopez al Right. Brook Lopez didn't shoot threes his first
five years in the NBA. Now he does. Look around
the NBA and look at the numbers of guys in
terms of their three point shooting and how it's improved
(06:36):
over time. Everybody's gotten in on this thing. How about like,
I'll just pick out a guy here randomly, Mark Keith Morris. Right,
Markie Morris went from shooting he's always shot about thirty
five from three, but now he shoots four and a
half a game, shooting a super high volume of it.
You go around the NBA and you look at guys
(06:57):
in their first five years in the NBA, and they
usually progressively get better as shooters. In addition to the
Lakers needing Lebron to bail them out, they also need
the three point shot to bail out. Made fourteen of
thirty five, not a perfect percentage. It's not warrior level dominance.
But they're going to get better because in your first
five seven years the league, you don't stay stagnant. You
(07:18):
either improve or you get worse, and you get out
of the league. When you have one of the best
passing great players of all time and you have a
continuing reliance on the three point shot, generally like Kyle Kuzma,
you're going to get better over time. So this is
the plan. The plan is to let other guys develop
(07:39):
and to let Lebron close games out. And if you
don't like it, Lebron James has a couple of words
for you. A matter of fact, he had nineteen words
for you in the fourth quarter. That's the general game plan.
That's the gist of it. So guys will ab, guys
will flow with the three point shooting, and you're gonna
(08:01):
have plenty of time to be you to show your game,
to prove to him you deserve the ball, and if
you can't, then late in the game he'll come come
in and close the door. And remarkably, this is kind
of what's been missing from Lebron throughout time in his career,
or at least in the playoffs, which is sometimes you
(08:22):
just gotta take the ball and shove it with the sun,
don't shine the other team and say there's nothing you
can do about it. That's what Jordan did, That's what
Kobe did. It doesn't mean that Lebron doesn't possess other
skills that the other two did not. But what we
are trying to express that was missing, that you can't
(08:43):
express in statistics is just this sense of, hey, you
know what, I'm gonna take over this game. There's nothing
you can do about it. And last night is one
or three times so far in the season he shows
you to do that. You know, you you pull up
to a red light and there's a car sitting next
to you and pick whatever car you want, Lamborghini Ferrari,
(09:07):
you know, and you can rev your engine like hey,
let's go, and the green light strikes and they don't
really punch it, and all of a sudden you kind
of cut the guy off, just trying to be kind
of a jerk. Then they downshift and they fly by
you as if you were driving backwards. Every once in
a while, you just gotta say f you. Right, there's
(09:29):
the expression of the that's saying in the show Billions.
What's the point of having the F you money if
every once in a while you don't say f you
like Lebron. James got critiqued for oversleeping the night before
because he said he slept through his company's Christmas party,
and you know what he did nineteen in the fourth quarter,
(09:54):
two threes seven or eight from the from the field.
What's the point of having fu if you're not gonna
say f you. What's the point of driving a Ferrari
or a Bentley or a or a Lambo and somebody
cuts you off and not showing like, yeah, you know what,
you are going to sacrifice something to play with me.
But I'm gonna sacrifice a little bit and then if
(10:14):
you need me, I'm here. Pretty incredible stuff. We saw
last night's Staples normally meaningless game, but in l a
or to the NBA world, pretty fantastic stuff. Be sure
to catch live editions of The Doug Dot Leaps Show
weekdays in noon eastern three pm Pacific on Fox Sports
Radio and the I Heart Radio app. Let's get alcoa
(10:37):
tree on here. New York Giants linebacker he joins in
the Doug Gotlip Show on Fox Sports Radio. Oh, thanks
so much for taking time. You went through. You went
through so much with the Rams, drafting St. Louis. You
never said a word when the offenses weren't good. You
didn't say a word when you moved to l A.
You got rewarded with the new contract and you played
(10:58):
great through it. Um, what's it to see your former
team have such success? Well, you're you know, you're kind
of put in here to change the culture with the Giants. Yeah,
I mean it's it's a tough business. I mean, you know,
things always work out the way you think they should.
But and all, you know, I'm happy to where I'm at. Um.
(11:18):
You know, I'm definitely happy to put the guy that
you know, I played with for so longer in l A.
To see them, you know, finally get on you know,
somewhat of a winning streak or you know, have a
chance to you know, play for the big trophy. And
you know, like I said, I'm happy for those guys. Um,
but you know, I definitely definitely wish we were in
that situation here at the Giants. How much has your
(11:40):
position changed during your time in the NFL? Has my position? Yeah?
Not you change, but in terms of what you do,
Like you're a top level linebacker. But the position of linebacker,
I feel like is is changing right Like it's it's
it's different. It's evolving right before our eyes, or at
least as fans. How much do you think it's changed
(12:00):
since their team? Um, I mean it's definitely changed on
you know with you know a lot of the rules
and stuff changed as well, so it kind of you know,
all that all that plays the party into you know,
how you pay the position. Um, you know, I've so
like got played every single linebacker position there is, you know,
since since I removed the linebacker. So you know, now
(12:24):
you know kind of settled in at a certain spot.
But you know, like I said, with how they how
they have the offense just basically running free. You know,
you have to be able to cover and you know,
not that's you still have to be physical, but it's
more so about being able to run side on the
sideline and cover backs and tight ends and stuff out
(12:45):
in okak hill and you know, so that's kind of
it's kind of the main thing that's really changed as
far it says the linebacker position. Yeah, I also think
I think it's I mean, obviously it's accurate from your
perspective and you play it like Look, you know, you
come in the league and you're like two fifty four,
and it almost feels like now that position is like, hey,
you're better off staying at two twenty or two thirty.
(13:06):
Right that. I talked to Josh Rosen, the Cardinals quarterback,
and he's like, look, all the body types are kind
of getting to be the same, even even your weight,
whereas before you needed to have, you know, a little
bit more girth, a little bit more strength to stop
the run game. The body types even if guys in
the league are starting to change, aren't they Yeah, it is,
I mean, he said, the linebackers that are like forty
(13:28):
and up, you know, they're starting to play the way
you pretty much to see about of guys that are
former safety that you know to thirty, well maybe two thirty,
you know, being that linebacker and you know the way
a gain Like I said, the way the game is
playing now, you know it's not more so you know
everybody's running down his pretty much played kind of sideways
(13:49):
for the most part. You know, you have your little
run passed options for a lot of teams, and you
know there's very few teams that just lines up and
just say you want to run the ball downhill. Let
you so, you know, except for the guys that are
you know, heavier, you know they're definitely they're definitely saying
the way what they're not moving you towards the you're
(14:09):
getting even closed to the vile scrimmage to go to
rest of the passes. So Alclgatrie of the Giants joining
us in the Doug Gotlip Show on Fox Sports Radio,
we mentioned that you were brought in and the Giants
even to this day and say, hey, we want him
to flip the culture there. Um, I know you've seen
the video of O. B J not going after the
on side kick as a guy who was brought in
(14:31):
to bring a toughness and a team mentality culture. What's
the reaction been like in the locker room to seeing
that video. I mean what he said, nobody, nobody questions
his heart, whether he fights for us or not. I
mean the play happened. Uh you know, I know everybody
(14:51):
want to makes the the the statement of saying he
didn't go for the ball, but you know everybody had
a job to do and a lot of people did
do that job on that Zack same play. So you know,
like I said, you wish, we wish we could have
got the ball back, but you know we didn't. We
just had to go out and keep playing. And you know,
he said he's got to give his all to the team,
(15:13):
and you know, we appreciate that. So, like I said,
it's his heart and toughness definitely not a question, you
know as far as that goes. How how hard is
it for you for you to Hey, look, I'm worried
about myself, my own future. You know, my own contract
was kind of frontloaded, and then people are like, look,
you gotta go fix things. You gotta get guys to
(15:33):
buy in. What is that like to kind of be
working not just on your own game, but on the
on the rest of the team as well. Um, I
mean that's something that you know, I kind of embraced,
you know, as as the season went on, and you know,
like I said, for me, you know, being in the
new city, you know, I just kind of filling our
way along throughout the season and just learning day by day.
(15:54):
You know, it just kind of trying to embrace the
coaches that you know, the risk tradition, history that the
Giants has, and you know, it's like I said, it
would eventually come back around. Um. You know, like I said,
of course, you want things to happen as fast as
you know I said I was in l av went
from worst to first in our division. But you know
(16:15):
it didn't work out the same here. But that doesn't mean, like,
you know, we we haven't done some good things this
year to help changer coaches. I mean, we gotta got
a pretty young group, and you know, we're getting a
lot of guys to you know, drive the field and
play and you know, it's just about learning to you know,
play together. And you know, like you said, you gotta
get everybody to buy in. And you know, we we
(16:38):
we we're shaping that up, you know here. I mean,
especially after the Bottle week. I mean went three and one,
you know, in the in the second part of the
first or four games, and you know, we got four
more left here to play. So we're gonna, you know, hopefully,
you know, take care of business this weekend. You know,
just keep pushing forward. You got a legit shot to
(16:58):
maybe even even run the table, albeit though although be
it against uh some playoff caliber teams with the Colts
and the Cowboys that the last two games of year.
Alcohola tree of the Giants joining us on the Doug
Gotlip Show on Fox Sports Radio, sa Kwan Barkley one
of the job. The job of a linebacker is, among
other things, to bring down in order to cover Sa
Kwan Barkley. He has this an amazing ability to be
(17:22):
a home run hitter, right like body shots, body shots,
body shots, and then a home run. When you see
Sa Kwan Barkley is a linebacker that's seen some of
the best in the history of this league. What do
you what do you see? I mean, he's definitely he
don't has a chance to be one of the great
linebacks to you know, play this game man. Like you said, um,
for him, he he's saying alone. He works hard, you know,
(17:45):
um all your even the first day he came in.
You mean, he doesn't he doesn't approach the game as
if you know, he's a rookie and like all rookies
had a rookie mistakes. But you know, for him, he's
a guy that came and he asked a lot of courstion.
It's just kind of you can tell he's really Uh
he has a high football I key for the game man,
and a guy who just loves football. I loves his
(18:06):
teammates and you know he loves competing. And you know
he said the way the game is now, it's definitely
something that um, you know I could have a hard
time dealing with you know, like you've got guys like
him that can run all over him and us to
mine up anywhere you used to be a receiver or
(18:28):
or just a plane running back and you do both.
So you're definitely uh guy that you know, I'm happy
to be on the team with. Um. How much you're
dying over what happened with your dogs this Saturday night? Definitely,
I'm definitely beat up about it a little bit. Um.
Of course, my wife went to Alabama, so she kind
of been on me a little bit. And you know,
(18:49):
I got your guys in locker rooms that that Obama
and you know, but it's still go dogs, you know,
always support them, man. You know one day we're gonna
get it down for sure. That's hard to watch them.
Like one of my best friends is that is he
and his wife are both both dogs, and like I
didn't even want to send the text when they're up fourteen,
then they missed the field once you missed the field goal.
(19:09):
When miss field go up fourteen, I was like, oh, oh,
here we go. I kind of I kind of seen
that movie before when I played against them in two
thousand and twelve, So you know, I wasn't too hype
and that was the one. That was the one where
you guys on the last drive, right, you lost on
the light, you have a chance in the last drive
fourth down. Ye man, that's a that's a tough that's
(19:31):
a tough one. What is what is it like to
have that mentality where you're like, man, we can't find
a way to beat these guys. I mean, I mean
just you know, to me, you know, for us, it's
just about, you know, continue to everything. Whenever you get
the opportunity to play against them or against whoever, you know,
you go out there to win. I mean, it definitely sucks,
(19:54):
you know that. You know, we haven't been able to
you know, get it done against the BA. But you know,
on yourself, definitely, I still always believe that we can
and you know one day we will. Just just wasn't
this this year or the year before that or when
I played there. So you know, he's gotta keep pushing
for it. You know it eventually, it eventually happened, you know,
(20:16):
and I I have something to do for sure. Alc
Ogil Tree, alec Man, great stuff, always a stand up dude.
Best of luck against the Skins and thanks for joining
us on the Doug got Leap Show. All right, thank you, dog.
I appreciate alc ogil Tree. Good dude, man. He's a
twin as well, um, and he's a dog dog for life.
That's the tough one, right, if you have there's always
(20:37):
that team that there's the rival, then there's the nemesis.
Auburn is their rival, Alabama's their nemesis. Be sure to
catch live editions of The Doug Dot Leap Show weekdays
in noon eastern three pm Pacific. I'm fascinated by this
Warriors thing on Uh, you know, some of it is
some of it is that they do appear board right,
(20:59):
they like literally of appear bored at times. And how
they don't have to compete there one of the things
about this team. And you know they're kind of like
the Pats and kind of not like the past, like
the difference between the Warriors and the Pats. The Pats
would never point out that point out that after Cleveland
had their Halloween celebration where they had the tombstones to
(21:21):
celebrate the comeback from three one, you know, Clay Thompson's like,
that's where pettiness gets you, right one and eight in
the finals. After that, the Pats just would not pour
salt in the wounds of the teams, of the of
the calves that they've beaten. It wouldn't talk trash to
the fans that they've beaten. Right, Tom Brady and Bill
(21:43):
Belichick have never ever once uttered the words, at least
with a microphone near them. Of three fans have, but
they have it. None of the players have. That's not
their style. Remember Wes Welker was was benched because he
made fun of Rob Ryan's foot fetish. You guys, remember
that little Laurant was hilarious. But that's not what the
(22:06):
Patriots do. But here's where there are similarities between the
Warriors and the past. Now there's fewer NFL games. It's
did I say Rob Ryan, I met Rex Ryan, I
apologize Rex Ryan was the coach of it. It's one
of the funniest things I've ever heard. Right where he
meant made all these foot references and everybody knew what
(22:28):
it was in reference too. But here's where they are similar.
Does the Durant pending free agency does it make does
it become curious? Yeah? And the fact that he doesn't
seem super comfortable with anything other than continually telling people
his own version of what he thinks the truth is.
(22:51):
That's a little little weird, little off pudding. And Clay
Thompson has had some wild swings where he started off
the year and he couldn't make a shot, and then
he went a couple of weeks where he couldn't miss
a shot, and he hasn't had a great year, although
nobody points that out. When they lose and Steph's not
playing and Draymond's not playing, DeMarcus Cousins not playing, no
(23:13):
one points out that, well, Clay Thompson hasn't had nearly
the same year that he was expected to have for
many parts of this year, like nobody says that. They
all say durant, durant, durant, durant, But if we take
a breath and we look at it, you know, so far,
Draymond's only played in thirteen games, steps only played in fifteen,
(23:34):
and we still haven't seen DeMarcus Cousins like they're gonna
figure it out by about March or April and barring
some sort of massive health scare, which apparently they have
with men meningitis scare last year, Just like you knew
the Patriots were going to be around. You know that
(23:54):
the Warriors are going to be around. Fox Sports Radio
has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch
all of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot com
and within the I Heart Radio app search f s
R to listen live. Rick Bucker joins us from Bleacher Report.
Here's how you know, Buke, you've done a great job. Right.
There's in radio somebody tells you that they couldn't get
(24:15):
out of your their car until the interview is over.
That's how you've done a great job. And in print journalism,
which I will call it print journalism, even though I
know you do radio and a pod, you've done radio,
you do a podcast, and your pieces in Bleacher Report
appear online. That's the closest thing we have to real
print journalism, right, is that literally everybody in the sport
is talking about it. Right. That's how like every arena
(24:37):
in the NBA last night, all the TV shows, and
even Lebron himself afterwards was being asked about it. That's
how you know you did a good job. So kudos
to you, well, thank you. I would say that Lebron
and Kevin Durant being part of the story also has
a big part a little bit has a big part,
big part in it, and that Lebron is now with
(24:58):
the Lakers, and it involves the Lakers and their prospects
of getting another superstar as well. But okay, so so
so so, the the idea is, why doesn't anyone want
to play with Lebron anymore? Right? That's the that's the
premise of the article. Uh no, the premise, well, the
premise of the article for me was to what what
(25:18):
is the yin and the yang of playing with Lebron?
What goes into deciding whether you want to or not?
Because there have been some guys that have had the
opportunity to go play with Lebron and for one reason
another they chose other options or they indicated that they
were choosing other options. And there's still some discovery on
(25:42):
that front. But it was okay, we always thought it
was Cleveland, and we thought it was short term contracts.
And this is what really first sparked this for me
was he's in l a, He's with the Lakers, he's
got a long term deal there. Why aren't you know,
Paul George and Kevin Durant to play Thompson and every
possible free agent on the market, Why aren't they all
(26:06):
clamoring to go play with him? And that's where I started,
and that's why I went around the league and talked
to as many guys as I could from various spectrums
in the league about that subject. And what did you find? So?
What was so Lebron's thing was he didn't want to
comment last night? Here, I'll play for people who in there.
Lebron had nineteen the fourth quarter, played great, They come
(26:28):
from nine eight down when he checks in with tennant
change to go to winning the game going away. Here's
Lebron after the game when asked about your article. I
believe that's probably not the whole quote. So I'm not
gonna comment him, and I would I would love to
see the whole transcripts for what was asked with him
in the context it was asked with him while I
was asked the whole thing. So I'm not going to
(26:50):
comment on him because I'm not I don't know that
the whole thing that we stupid on my parm my party.
Um okay, So what was the whole uh, what was
the whole question that was and why was it asked
of him? Well, Actually, the whole thing with Kevin with
with k D in the toxic environment was really unsolicited.
(27:11):
We were I was asking him about various players going there,
and uh, the one quo, the one executive who had
said to me, you know that that that Lebron kind
of sucks all the oxygen out of the room and
if you're going to be the next star on the team,
you have to be comfortable with that. And Katie kind
(27:33):
of went off on a tangent about fanboys in the media,
that there are fanboys in the media who hang on
every word that Lebron says and they fawn over him,
and it kind of insinuated that there's a lot of
questions ask they don't really have anything to do with basketball,
and that that he said toxic, I would think that
(27:54):
tiresome is probably a left volitles Yeah, unless it's a word.
But nonetheless, it was it was about the media, and
it wasn't and it wasn't about just the media. It
was about certain members or certain members of the media
(28:14):
who approached Lebron in a certain way and in an
idolatrous way, and that's what Katie was taking issue with
and kind of go back to your first thing about
why doesn't anyone want to play with with Lebron? I mean,
that's that is as misleading is the question last night
about uh, you know, what do you think about k
(28:35):
D saying that the media has created a toxic environment
around you. It's there are plenty of guys who want
to play with Lebron. They are role players. Is there
another star? What? What star player? I guess the search
is which star player would want to play with you?
Here's the question, Here's here's an honest question. Yeah, do
(28:56):
star players want to play with Kevin Durant in the future.
Didn't ask that question, but maybe that's my next story, right,
Like the k D thing is as interesting as Lebron
THI Rick Buker Bleacher Report joining us in the Doug
Gottlieb show. Like the k D thing where he's like,
you know what, I'm gonna be the real me. Now.
I've been to fake me before, but it seems to
(29:17):
me he's still trying to find out who the real
him is. I would I agree with that. I feel
as if what we're getting now with k D and
I certainly, and I've told him this, I appreciate this
k D more than the one that that was in
Oklahoma City, because I knew he had, you know, opinions
and feelings, and but he never expressed them publicly. He
(29:39):
and and now he's gone the other way. Now he
almost goes out of his way that to prove I
don't care what you think. I'm gonna say whatever is
on my mind. And you guys can go crazy with
the reaction. And so I think that he's got to
find some middle ground when it comes to that. And uh,
(30:03):
but he's not there yet. And I and I made
this point, Uh, you know earlier that k D is
years old. He's still single. As far as I know,
he's not in a committed relationship. He's still in that
mode of all I wanna do is I want to hoop.
That's what I want to do. And bigger picture things,
(30:25):
bigger picture concerns have to say that he's not aware
of them. He really doesn't want to focus there. And
so when, for example, like what I was talking about,
just the idea of moving your family, moving your family
to go play with Lebron in l A or someplace else,
and he was like, oh, you know what, we make
so much money, that's not a big deal. I was thinking,
(30:47):
that's somebody who is not married and doesn't have kids.
Because if you're either one of those things where you're
living and the city you're going to, and there's all
sorts of elements to that that that do matter in
terms of your decision making. And I think that the
big in the big picture when it just comes to
(31:07):
that question of playing with Lebron not playing with Lebron.
I think out there there was at least a somewhat
a perception that, of course you would. Of course everybody would,
no matter. I mean, maybe Cleveland was the turret, but
l A Lakers Lebron, and as I believe it was,
(31:27):
Tyson Chandler said, depends on and other guys kind of
echoed the same thing. It depends on where you are
in your career and your life. And there's much more
that goes into it, especially now that Lebron is at
this point in his career where if you're you're looking
(31:51):
at it and going, Okay, well, how much longer is
he gonna play? We're in the Western Conference? Are we
having gonna are we even gonna get to the finals,
And you start weighing the the the things you're going
to give up versus what you're gonna get and the
over are The overwhelming thing that you were always gonna
get was you're gonna play for a title. I don't
(32:13):
know that that's guaranteed now, and I think that that
kind of changes the dynamic too. I would say that
that was I think prevailing wisdom coming in. But now
you look and you go like, all right, they want
to leven out of fourteen and I don't think they're
playing for a title this year. But you know, the
ego of star players, they think like, look if he's
a playoff team this year and you add me, now
(32:34):
we've got a chance to get to the finals. Like
I kind of feel like I get the whole plan,
and it's worked. Like the whole plan seems to be
like Lebron plays, you know, ball mover. Hey, I'm just
gonna I'm gonna try and play your deal and do
it the first three quarters if I can, and if
you need me, then I'll try and take over late
if I have it. Some nights he just doesn't have it,
which is what happens with the age. Happens with most players,
even in their prime. Sometimes they don't don't have it.
(32:56):
It just happens more readily now, uh. And then you
know he's trying to prove he can be a good teammate,
that he can play in a different system than just
give me the ball and everybody space out and catch
and shoot it if I get it. And I kind
of feel like he's starting to get his sea legs
and they're starting to figure it out. There's no doubt
that they're starting to figure it out. And as you
(33:16):
would expect with Lebron, I mean, he's done this in
enough different places that he just by first of all,
being one of the it's a weird dynamic. And I
know you understand this, Doug. When it comes to you know, selfishness, unselfishness,
he is. He is unselfish in the sense that he
(33:37):
shares the ball, he moves the ball. He's selfish in
that the ball has to come through him, right, And
he wants to set up the shots for you, Like
he's okay with you taking shots, but he wants to
be the guy who delivers it first. See what I
gave you, I gave you that shot exactly. He's okay
with delegating responsibilities, but he wants he doesn't want any
(34:00):
out that he's the CEO, and so within that it's
a matter of Okay, he's that, And you just said, yeah,
I see the timeline, and I see how he's raising
the level of all these guys. Um, and probably the
work ethic and everything else, attention to detail general, I
(34:20):
Q a bunch of different things. Um, But if you're
looking at this from the outside coming in, you're not
signing up for next year. I mean that's kind of
been the That's that was the routine in Cleveland certainly,
is you come in for a year, you see what
you can get, maybe you sign for two. I mean
(34:41):
a superstar making the move to join him and go
to l A is looking at being there for what
the next four years, and they'd have to think how
much longer is Lebron going to be this Lebron? I
know everybody from the outside says he's gonna be you know,
it's it's never gonna fall off. No, it's watch him,
though it's kind of fallen off a little bit already. Yeah.
(35:03):
I think I think he doesn't move as well defensively,
he doesn't move as well offensively, but he's making up
for making He's become a better shot maker, a more
skill shop maker that then he's been. It's there's a
lot of Jordan's uh to how he's playing now. Jordan,
you know, mastered the fade away and the the ability
to push off late. And of course we're still good
in a great finisher and transition. Rick Buker, Bleacher Report
joining us, Doug Gottlieb Show. Let me quickly transition to
(35:25):
the to the Warriors. Um I thought, you know a
lot was made of their struggles without Steph. It did
seem like no one pointed out, hey, they also don't
have Draymond. It's Marcas Cousins And oh yeah, by the way,
the last three games where they got Steff back, k
D had forty and looked like the best player on Earth.
What's the status? What's the status of that team that
(35:46):
those relationships? Well, look, the number one thing is there
are two playmakers. There are two supreme playmakers on this team.
They're Steph Curry and Draymond Green. Kevin Durant is a
great score, play Thompson is a great stuper score. But
you take those two guys off that, you take steps
(36:07):
and Draymond off the team, and you have the two
quarterbacks that run their offense, and because of the way
they play, having that orchestrator is vital. They now they
went to playing a slightly different style. Katie kind of
stepped up how he played. I think the schedule helped
them a little bit, but uh, look it's it's my
(36:31):
contention still is they're not a title contender without Draymond Green.
Defensively they're not the same team. They'll they'll be a
tough out, not going to beat themselves, but defensively they
can't get to the same level, and you're gonna have
to have I mean, look, we for the same reason
(36:51):
that we look at the Lakers and we say, okay,
they're with fifteen and nine, whatever they are, it's the
beginning of the season. It's we still got a long
run here, and in some ways that may favor the Lakers,
it doesn't favor the Warriors. The Warriors got to figure
out how do we win games, how do we incorporate everybody,
but at the same time, how do we not take
(37:13):
any more tread off of our tires than we already have.
And the most interesting aspect is you get all these
guys back and then you get de Marcus Cousins and
you throw him right in the middle of the pool.
And how how it amazes me people think it's just
gonna add de Marcus Cousins. Yeahs is completely different from
the rest of this team, right, and from how they've
(37:34):
always play. They've always played small, their death lineup, right,
their best lineup has always been without a center? Is
it one? Is DeMarcus Cousins? Okay? Like that? And too
are they good enough without DeMarcus Cousins, right? Igodala and
Livingston are not what they used to be. Yep, No,
exactly right, And so they've had these you know, they've
there's been the natural deterioration. It simply happens when you
(37:57):
play longer than everybody year after year after year. You know,
everybody but lebron uh takes a hit and and and
they deteriorate physically. And that's what you're seeing with the
most vulnerable players with the Warriors. But you thought at
the end of last year, to me, that was the
signal every single core player, even Clay iron Man. Clay
(38:22):
suffered an injury at the last at the end of
last season that caused him to misstime. I don't expect
this to go back the other way, without a short run,
without an early exit. At some point they need to
catch up on that rest and rehabilitation that they haven't
had an opportunity to have. Great stuff Rick Buker, Bleacher Report,
check out his work, follow him on Twitter. Also download
(38:44):
his podcast, It's Awesome Puke. Thanks for joining us, man,
you got the
Thanks for listening to the best of the Doug Gottlieb
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday
from three to six pm Eastern Time that's twelve to
three Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station
for The Doug Gottlieb Show at Fox Sports Radio dot Com,
or stream us live every day on the I Heart
Radio app by searching fs R. This is the best
(00:22):
of the Doug gotli Show on Fox Sports Radio. Boom,
What Up America, Doug Gottlieb Show, Fox Sports Radio. Man,
do we have a great show for you? I am
so fared up. Alc Ogletree not ogil torp ogil Tree
(00:42):
will join us. Upcoming in fifteen minutes, we'll talk about
the New York Giants as they continue to compete. I
want to ask him he's seen the film his teammate
Odell Beckham Jr. Chose the business decision on an on
side kick that could have cost them a game. That
up coming in fifteen minutes, we'll go and talk to
(01:02):
some Kyler Murray on why everybody just assumes that one
sport is better than another. For Kyler Murray and that assumption,
you know what happens when you assume Rick Buker is
gonna join us. He had the interview with Kevin Durant
and other quotes from other players. It was so good
and made its way around the league so much that
even Lebron James act asked about the context of the
(01:26):
question and the full answer from k D. Will get
it from Rick Buker. R. J. Bell will join us
straight at a Vegas getting ready for Thursday night football
and a huge Sunday of NFL games. Plus Joe Buck
will be our guest, who of course has tonight's call.
He'll call game this weekend, then next weekend Kansas City
(01:47):
and the Chargers should be good. Should be good. Doug
Golap Show here on Fox Sports Radio. Man, do we
have a ton to get to? Let's start with Lebron James,
shall we? He entered the game game with the Lakers
trailing three to the San Antonio Spurs last night at home.
Entered the game and the game comes in. Has nineteen points,
(02:12):
three rebounds, three assists, makes seven of eight field goals,
two of two from three both deep, one of deep
deep deep Steph Curry range three if there's a flaw,
only three of six from the free from line's kind
of Marquel Foltz. For Lebron James, he's a Marquelle Folts
from the free line and one steal. By comparison, during
that exact same time period, the rest of his teammates
(02:35):
only seventeen points combined, eight rebounds combined, three assists combined,
five of them from the field, two of five from
three point range. They did make five of six free throws.
In other words, Lebron James outscored his entire team the
final ten twelve of the game and carried the Lakers
to a win, their eleventh win in fourteen games. I
(03:00):
of all sports, I think they're all really really fascinating,
and the way in which they work is amazing to
me because, um though all team sports have a team
aspect to them, Football you truly do need all eleven
guys on the field working together. Baseball not really as much.
(03:22):
There's a lot more individual play to baseball, but there's
so much more time around each other that there is
a certain morale and a certain support, but you're still
out there by yourself. Basketball is the one sport that
has the f you button for the best player. Look,
I'm gonna win this game, f you try and stop me.
(03:44):
The NBA makes its rules as such. Right by the way,
we did see that f you game from Paul George
who at the game winner and an unbelievable game in Brooklyn.
But it's it's fascinating on a a where Lebron James
has to answer questions about whether or not people will
(04:05):
want to play with him because he does so much.
He waited three quarters to do what he did last night.
Here's Lebron James after the game when he was asked
about Katie's comments. Yeah, I believe that's probably not the
whole quote, so I'm not gonna comment. Man. Um, you know,
I I would love to see the whole transcript of
what was asked with him, all right, the context it
(04:27):
was asked with him, why I was asked, and the
whole the whole thing. So I'm not going to comment
on it because I'm not knowledge. I don't know the
whole thing. That's will be stupid on my com cart
Doug otliv Show, Fox Sports Radio. Look, Lebron James and
(04:49):
I had been waiting for it up until the last
couple of weeks. I've been waiting for that moment where
Lebron James is like, hey fellas, Hey guys, I'm the
best player on earth. We finally got it last night.
Finally got it last night. We'd had it a couple
(05:10):
other times this year, so I think three times now,
three forty point games, but they've all come within the
last two weeks. And while KB is not wrong, it
does take a sacrifice of ego and a sacrifice of
shots and the sacrifice of ball dominance. If you actually
pay attention to how Lebron James is playing, a lot
(05:31):
of what you see in the fourth quarter can be
taken out of context as well, because over the first
three quarters he let everybody else do their thing, and
the fourth quarter, as he said on the on like
two days ago, they knew who I am, they know
who you know. When they need me, I'm here to
close games out, you know. It's it's fascinating to me
(05:53):
how how we in the media are constantly critical of
the Lakers and the roster they put together. Now, some
of it is rightful critique, right, It's okay, it's okay
to be critical, it really is. But what we don't
realize is nothing really stays the same, especially in your
(06:15):
first five to seven years in the NBA, you don't
stay as the same player. The perfect example is brook
Lopez al Right. Brook Lopez didn't shoot threes his first
five years in the NBA. Now he does. Look around
the NBA and look at the numbers of guys in
terms of their three point shooting and how it's improved
(06:36):
over time. Everybody's gotten in on this thing. How about like,
I'll just pick out a guy here randomly, Mark Keith Morris. Right,
Markie Morris went from shooting he's always shot about thirty
five from three, but now he shoots four and a
half a game, shooting a super high volume of it.
You go around the NBA and you look at guys
(06:57):
in their first five years in the NBA, and they
usually progressively get better as shooters. In addition to the
Lakers needing Lebron to bail them out, they also need
the three point shot to bail out. Made fourteen of
thirty five, not a perfect percentage. It's not warrior level dominance.
But they're going to get better because in your first
five seven years the league, you don't stay stagnant. You
(07:18):
either improve or you get worse, and you get out
of the league. When you have one of the best
passing great players of all time and you have a
continuing reliance on the three point shot, generally like Kyle Kuzma,
you're going to get better over time. So this is
the plan. The plan is to let other guys develop
(07:39):
and to let Lebron close games out. And if you
don't like it, Lebron James has a couple of words
for you. A matter of fact, he had nineteen words
for you in the fourth quarter. That's the general game plan.
That's the gist of it. So guys will ab, guys
will flow with the three point shooting, and you're gonna
(08:01):
have plenty of time to be you to show your game,
to prove to him you deserve the ball, and if
you can't, then late in the game he'll come come
in and close the door. And remarkably, this is kind
of what's been missing from Lebron throughout time in his career,
or at least in the playoffs, which is sometimes you
(08:22):
just gotta take the ball and shove it with the sun,
don't shine the other team and say there's nothing you
can do about it. That's what Jordan did, That's what
Kobe did. It doesn't mean that Lebron doesn't possess other
skills that the other two did not. But what we
are trying to express that was missing, that you can't
(08:43):
express in statistics is just this sense of, hey, you
know what, I'm gonna take over this game. There's nothing
you can do about it. And last night is one
or three times so far in the season he shows
you to do that. You know, you you pull up
to a red light and there's a car sitting next
to you and pick whatever car you want, Lamborghini Ferrari,
(09:07):
you know, and you can rev your engine like hey,
let's go, and the green light strikes and they don't
really punch it, and all of a sudden you kind
of cut the guy off, just trying to be kind
of a jerk. Then they downshift and they fly by
you as if you were driving backwards. Every once in
a while, you just gotta say f you. Right, there's
(09:29):
the expression of the that's saying in the show Billions.
What's the point of having the F you money if
every once in a while you don't say f you
like Lebron. James got critiqued for oversleeping the night before
because he said he slept through his company's Christmas party,
and you know what he did nineteen in the fourth quarter,
(09:54):
two threes seven or eight from the from the field.
What's the point of having fu if you're not gonna
say f you. What's the point of driving a Ferrari
or a Bentley or a or a Lambo and somebody
cuts you off and not showing like, yeah, you know what,
you are going to sacrifice something to play with me.
But I'm gonna sacrifice a little bit and then if
(10:14):
you need me, I'm here. Pretty incredible stuff. We saw
last night's Staples normally meaningless game, but in l a
or to the NBA world, pretty fantastic stuff. Be sure
to catch live editions of The Doug Dot Leaps Show
weekdays in noon eastern three pm Pacific on Fox Sports
Radio and the I Heart Radio app. Let's get alcoa
(10:37):
tree on here. New York Giants linebacker he joins in
the Doug Gotlip Show on Fox Sports Radio. Oh, thanks
so much for taking time. You went through. You went
through so much with the Rams, drafting St. Louis. You
never said a word when the offenses weren't good. You
didn't say a word when you moved to l A.
You got rewarded with the new contract and you played
(10:58):
great through it. Um, what's it to see your former
team have such success? Well, you're you know, you're kind
of put in here to change the culture with the Giants. Yeah,
I mean it's it's a tough business. I mean, you know,
things always work out the way you think they should.
But and all, you know, I'm happy to where I'm at. Um.
(11:18):
You know, I'm definitely happy to put the guy that
you know, I played with for so longer in l A.
To see them, you know, finally get on you know,
somewhat of a winning streak or you know, have a
chance to you know, play for the big trophy. And
you know, like I said, I'm happy for those guys. Um,
but you know, I definitely definitely wish we were in
that situation here at the Giants. How much has your
(11:40):
position changed during your time in the NFL? Has my position? Yeah?
Not you change, but in terms of what you do,
Like you're a top level linebacker. But the position of linebacker,
I feel like is is changing right Like it's it's
it's different. It's evolving right before our eyes, or at
least as fans. How much do you think it's changed
(12:00):
since their team? Um, I mean it's definitely changed on
you know with you know a lot of the rules
and stuff changed as well, so it kind of you know,
all that all that plays the party into you know,
how you pay the position. Um, you know, I've so
like got played every single linebacker position there is, you know,
since since I removed the linebacker. So you know, now
(12:24):
you know kind of settled in at a certain spot.
But you know, like I said, with how they how
they have the offense just basically running free. You know,
you have to be able to cover and you know,
not that's you still have to be physical, but it's
more so about being able to run side on the
sideline and cover backs and tight ends and stuff out
(12:45):
in okak hill and you know, so that's kind of
it's kind of the main thing that's really changed as
far it says the linebacker position. Yeah, I also think
I think it's I mean, obviously it's accurate from your
perspective and you play it like Look, you know, you
come in the league and you're like two fifty four,
and it almost feels like now that position is like, hey,
you're better off staying at two twenty or two thirty.
(13:06):
Right that. I talked to Josh Rosen, the Cardinals quarterback,
and he's like, look, all the body types are kind
of getting to be the same, even even your weight,
whereas before you needed to have, you know, a little
bit more girth, a little bit more strength to stop
the run game. The body types even if guys in
the league are starting to change, aren't they Yeah, it is,
I mean, he said, the linebackers that are like forty
(13:28):
and up, you know, they're starting to play the way
you pretty much to see about of guys that are
former safety that you know to thirty, well maybe two thirty,
you know, being that linebacker and you know the way
a gain Like I said, the way the game is
playing now, you know it's not more so you know
everybody's running down his pretty much played kind of sideways
(13:49):
for the most part. You know, you have your little
run passed options for a lot of teams, and you
know there's very few teams that just lines up and
just say you want to run the ball downhill. Let
you so, you know, except for the guys that are
you know, heavier, you know they're definitely they're definitely saying
the way what they're not moving you towards the you're
(14:09):
getting even closed to the vile scrimmage to go to
rest of the passes. So Alclgatrie of the Giants joining
us in the Doug Gotlip Show on Fox Sports Radio,
we mentioned that you were brought in and the Giants
even to this day and say, hey, we want him
to flip the culture there. Um, I know you've seen
the video of O. B J not going after the
on side kick as a guy who was brought in
(14:31):
to bring a toughness and a team mentality culture. What's
the reaction been like in the locker room to seeing
that video. I mean what he said, nobody, nobody questions
his heart, whether he fights for us or not. I
mean the play happened. Uh you know, I know everybody
(14:51):
want to makes the the the statement of saying he
didn't go for the ball, but you know everybody had
a job to do and a lot of people did
do that job on that Zack same play. So you know,
like I said, you wish, we wish we could have
got the ball back, but you know we didn't. We
just had to go out and keep playing. And you know,
he said he's got to give his all to the team,
(15:13):
and you know, we appreciate that. So, like I said,
it's his heart and toughness definitely not a question, you
know as far as that goes. How how hard is
it for you for you to Hey, look, I'm worried
about myself, my own future. You know, my own contract
was kind of frontloaded, and then people are like, look,
you gotta go fix things. You gotta get guys to
(15:33):
buy in. What is that like to kind of be
working not just on your own game, but on the
on the rest of the team as well. Um, I
mean that's something that you know, I kind of embraced,
you know, as as the season went on, and you know,
like I said, for me, you know, being in the
new city, you know, I just kind of filling our
way along throughout the season and just learning day by day.
(15:54):
You know, it just kind of trying to embrace the
coaches that you know, the risk tradition, history that the
Giants has, and you know, it's like I said, it
would eventually come back around. Um. You know, like I said,
of course, you want things to happen as fast as
you know I said I was in l av went
from worst to first in our division. But you know
(16:15):
it didn't work out the same here. But that doesn't mean, like,
you know, we we haven't done some good things this
year to help changer coaches. I mean, we gotta got
a pretty young group, and you know, we're getting a
lot of guys to you know, drive the field and
play and you know, it's just about learning to you know,
play together. And you know, like you said, you gotta
get everybody to buy in. And you know, we we
(16:38):
we we're shaping that up, you know here. I mean,
especially after the Bottle week. I mean went three and one,
you know, in the in the second part of the
first or four games, and you know, we got four
more left here to play. So we're gonna, you know, hopefully,
you know, take care of business this weekend. You know,
just keep pushing forward. You got a legit shot to
(16:58):
maybe even even run the table, albeit though although be
it against uh some playoff caliber teams with the Colts
and the Cowboys that the last two games of year.
Alcohola tree of the Giants joining us on the Doug
Gotlip Show on Fox Sports Radio, sa Kwan Barkley one
of the job. The job of a linebacker is, among
other things, to bring down in order to cover Sa
Kwan Barkley. He has this an amazing ability to be
(17:22):
a home run hitter, right like body shots, body shots,
body shots, and then a home run. When you see
Sa Kwan Barkley is a linebacker that's seen some of
the best in the history of this league. What do
you what do you see? I mean, he's definitely he
don't has a chance to be one of the great
linebacks to you know, play this game man. Like you said, um,
for him, he he's saying alone. He works hard, you know,
(17:45):
um all your even the first day he came in.
You mean, he doesn't he doesn't approach the game as
if you know, he's a rookie and like all rookies
had a rookie mistakes. But you know, for him, he's
a guy that came and he asked a lot of courstion.
It's just kind of you can tell he's really Uh
he has a high football I key for the game man,
and a guy who just loves football. I loves his
(18:06):
teammates and you know he loves competing. And you know
he said the way the game is now, it's definitely
something that um, you know I could have a hard
time dealing with you know, like you've got guys like
him that can run all over him and us to
mine up anywhere you used to be a receiver or
(18:28):
or just a plane running back and you do both.
So you're definitely uh guy that you know, I'm happy
to be on the team with. Um. How much you're
dying over what happened with your dogs this Saturday night? Definitely,
I'm definitely beat up about it a little bit. Um.
Of course, my wife went to Alabama, so she kind
of been on me a little bit. And you know,
(18:49):
I got your guys in locker rooms that that Obama
and you know, but it's still go dogs, you know,
always support them, man. You know one day we're gonna
get it down for sure. That's hard to watch them.
Like one of my best friends is that is he
and his wife are both both dogs, and like I
didn't even want to send the text when they're up fourteen,
then they missed the field once you missed the field goal.
(19:09):
When miss field go up fourteen, I was like, oh, oh,
here we go. I kind of I kind of seen
that movie before when I played against them in two
thousand and twelve, So you know, I wasn't too hype
and that was the one. That was the one where
you guys on the last drive, right, you lost on
the light, you have a chance in the last drive
fourth down. Ye man, that's a that's a tough that's
(19:31):
a tough one. What is what is it like to
have that mentality where you're like, man, we can't find
a way to beat these guys. I mean, I mean
just you know, to me, you know, for us, it's
just about, you know, continue to everything. Whenever you get
the opportunity to play against them or against whoever, you know,
you go out there to win. I mean, it definitely sucks,
(19:54):
you know that. You know, we haven't been able to
you know, get it done against the BA. But you know,
on yourself, definitely, I still always believe that we can
and you know one day we will. Just just wasn't
this this year or the year before that or when
I played there. So you know, he's gotta keep pushing
for it. You know it eventually, it eventually happened, you know,
(20:16):
and I I have something to do for sure. Alc
Ogil Tree, alec Man, great stuff, always a stand up dude.
Best of luck against the Skins and thanks for joining
us on the Doug got Leap Show. All right, thank you, dog.
I appreciate alc ogil Tree. Good dude, man. He's a
twin as well, um, and he's a dog dog for life.
That's the tough one, right, if you have there's always
(20:37):
that team that there's the rival, then there's the nemesis.
Auburn is their rival, Alabama's their nemesis. Be sure to
catch live editions of The Doug Dot Leap Show weekdays
in noon eastern three pm Pacific. I'm fascinated by this
Warriors thing on Uh, you know, some of it is
some of it is that they do appear board right,
(20:59):
they like literally of appear bored at times. And how
they don't have to compete there one of the things
about this team. And you know they're kind of like
the Pats and kind of not like the past, like
the difference between the Warriors and the Pats. The Pats
would never point out that point out that after Cleveland
had their Halloween celebration where they had the tombstones to
(21:21):
celebrate the comeback from three one, you know, Clay Thompson's like,
that's where pettiness gets you, right one and eight in
the finals. After that, the Pats just would not pour
salt in the wounds of the teams, of the of
the calves that they've beaten. It wouldn't talk trash to
the fans that they've beaten. Right, Tom Brady and Bill
(21:43):
Belichick have never ever once uttered the words, at least
with a microphone near them. Of three fans have, but
they have it. None of the players have. That's not
their style. Remember Wes Welker was was benched because he
made fun of Rob Ryan's foot fetish. You guys, remember
that little Laurant was hilarious. But that's not what the
(22:06):
Patriots do. But here's where there are similarities between the
Warriors and the past. Now there's fewer NFL games. It's
did I say Rob Ryan, I met Rex Ryan, I
apologize Rex Ryan was the coach of it. It's one
of the funniest things I've ever heard. Right where he
meant made all these foot references and everybody knew what
(22:28):
it was in reference too. But here's where they are similar.
Does the Durant pending free agency does it make does
it become curious? Yeah? And the fact that he doesn't
seem super comfortable with anything other than continually telling people
his own version of what he thinks the truth is.
(22:51):
That's a little little weird, little off pudding. And Clay
Thompson has had some wild swings where he started off
the year and he couldn't make a shot, and then
he went a couple of weeks where he couldn't miss
a shot, and he hasn't had a great year, although
nobody points that out. When they lose and Steph's not
playing and Draymond's not playing, DeMarcus Cousins not playing, no
(23:13):
one points out that, well, Clay Thompson hasn't had nearly
the same year that he was expected to have for
many parts of this year, like nobody says that. They
all say durant, durant, durant, durant, But if we take
a breath and we look at it, you know, so far,
Draymond's only played in thirteen games, steps only played in fifteen,
(23:34):
and we still haven't seen DeMarcus Cousins like they're gonna
figure it out by about March or April and barring
some sort of massive health scare, which apparently they have
with men meningitis scare last year, Just like you knew
the Patriots were going to be around. You know that
(23:54):
the Warriors are going to be around. Fox Sports Radio
has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch
all of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot com
and within the I Heart Radio app search f s
R to listen live. Rick Bucker joins us from Bleacher Report.
Here's how you know, Buke, you've done a great job. Right.
There's in radio somebody tells you that they couldn't get
(24:15):
out of your their car until the interview is over.
That's how you've done a great job. And in print journalism,
which I will call it print journalism, even though I
know you do radio and a pod, you've done radio,
you do a podcast, and your pieces in Bleacher Report
appear online. That's the closest thing we have to real
print journalism, right, is that literally everybody in the sport
is talking about it. Right. That's how like every arena
(24:37):
in the NBA last night, all the TV shows, and
even Lebron himself afterwards was being asked about it. That's
how you know you did a good job. So kudos
to you, well, thank you. I would say that Lebron
and Kevin Durant being part of the story also has
a big part a little bit has a big part,
big part in it, and that Lebron is now with
(24:58):
the Lakers, and it involves the Lakers and their prospects
of getting another superstar as well. But okay, so so
so so, the the idea is, why doesn't anyone want
to play with Lebron anymore? Right? That's the that's the
premise of the article. Uh no, the premise, well, the
premise of the article for me was to what what
(25:18):
is the yin and the yang of playing with Lebron?
What goes into deciding whether you want to or not?
Because there have been some guys that have had the
opportunity to go play with Lebron and for one reason
another they chose other options or they indicated that they
were choosing other options. And there's still some discovery on
(25:42):
that front. But it was okay, we always thought it
was Cleveland, and we thought it was short term contracts.
And this is what really first sparked this for me
was he's in l a, He's with the Lakers, he's
got a long term deal there. Why aren't you know,
Paul George and Kevin Durant to play Thompson and every
possible free agent on the market, Why aren't they all
(26:06):
clamoring to go play with him? And that's where I started,
and that's why I went around the league and talked
to as many guys as I could from various spectrums
in the league about that subject. And what did you find? So?
What was so Lebron's thing was he didn't want to
comment last night? Here, I'll play for people who in there.
Lebron had nineteen the fourth quarter, played great, They come
(26:28):
from nine eight down when he checks in with tennant
change to go to winning the game going away. Here's
Lebron after the game when asked about your article. I
believe that's probably not the whole quote. So I'm not
gonna comment him, and I would I would love to
see the whole transcripts for what was asked with him
in the context it was asked with him while I
was asked the whole thing. So I'm not going to
(26:50):
comment on him because I'm not I don't know that
the whole thing that we stupid on my parm my party.
Um okay, So what was the whole uh, what was
the whole question that was and why was it asked
of him? Well, Actually, the whole thing with Kevin with
with k D in the toxic environment was really unsolicited.
(27:11):
We were I was asking him about various players going there,
and uh, the one quo, the one executive who had
said to me, you know that that that Lebron kind
of sucks all the oxygen out of the room and
if you're going to be the next star on the team,
you have to be comfortable with that. And Katie kind
(27:33):
of went off on a tangent about fanboys in the media,
that there are fanboys in the media who hang on
every word that Lebron says and they fawn over him,
and it kind of insinuated that there's a lot of
questions ask they don't really have anything to do with basketball,
and that that he said toxic, I would think that
(27:54):
tiresome is probably a left volitles Yeah, unless it's a word.
But nonetheless, it was it was about the media, and
it wasn't and it wasn't about just the media. It
was about certain members or certain members of the media
(28:14):
who approached Lebron in a certain way and in an
idolatrous way, and that's what Katie was taking issue with
and kind of go back to your first thing about
why doesn't anyone want to play with with Lebron? I mean,
that's that is as misleading is the question last night
about uh, you know, what do you think about k
(28:35):
D saying that the media has created a toxic environment
around you. It's there are plenty of guys who want
to play with Lebron. They are role players. Is there
another star? What? What star player? I guess the search
is which star player would want to play with you?
Here's the question, Here's here's an honest question. Yeah, do
(28:56):
star players want to play with Kevin Durant in the future.
Didn't ask that question, but maybe that's my next story, right,
Like the k D thing is as interesting as Lebron
THI Rick Buker Bleacher Report joining us in the Doug
Gottlieb show. Like the k D thing where he's like,
you know what, I'm gonna be the real me. Now.
I've been to fake me before, but it seems to
(29:17):
me he's still trying to find out who the real
him is. I would I agree with that. I feel
as if what we're getting now with k D and
I certainly, and I've told him this, I appreciate this
k D more than the one that that was in
Oklahoma City, because I knew he had, you know, opinions
and feelings, and but he never expressed them publicly. He
(29:39):
and and now he's gone the other way. Now he
almost goes out of his way that to prove I
don't care what you think. I'm gonna say whatever is
on my mind. And you guys can go crazy with
the reaction. And so I think that he's got to
find some middle ground when it comes to that. And uh,
(30:03):
but he's not there yet. And I and I made
this point, Uh, you know earlier that k D is
years old. He's still single. As far as I know,
he's not in a committed relationship. He's still in that
mode of all I wanna do is I want to hoop.
That's what I want to do. And bigger picture things,
(30:25):
bigger picture concerns have to say that he's not aware
of them. He really doesn't want to focus there. And
so when, for example, like what I was talking about,
just the idea of moving your family, moving your family
to go play with Lebron in l A or someplace else,
and he was like, oh, you know what, we make
so much money, that's not a big deal. I was thinking,
(30:47):
that's somebody who is not married and doesn't have kids.
Because if you're either one of those things where you're
living and the city you're going to, and there's all
sorts of elements to that that that do matter in
terms of your decision making. And I think that the
big in the big picture when it just comes to
(31:07):
that question of playing with Lebron not playing with Lebron.
I think out there there was at least a somewhat
a perception that, of course you would. Of course everybody would,
no matter. I mean, maybe Cleveland was the turret, but
l A Lakers Lebron, and as I believe it was,
(31:27):
Tyson Chandler said, depends on and other guys kind of
echoed the same thing. It depends on where you are
in your career and your life. And there's much more
that goes into it, especially now that Lebron is at
this point in his career where if you're you're looking
(31:51):
at it and going, Okay, well, how much longer is
he gonna play? We're in the Western Conference? Are we
having gonna are we even gonna get to the finals,
And you start weighing the the the things you're going
to give up versus what you're gonna get and the
over are The overwhelming thing that you were always gonna
get was you're gonna play for a title. I don't
(32:13):
know that that's guaranteed now, and I think that that
kind of changes the dynamic too. I would say that
that was I think prevailing wisdom coming in. But now
you look and you go like, all right, they want
to leven out of fourteen and I don't think they're
playing for a title this year. But you know, the
ego of star players, they think like, look if he's
a playoff team this year and you add me, now
(32:34):
we've got a chance to get to the finals. Like
I kind of feel like I get the whole plan,
and it's worked. Like the whole plan seems to be
like Lebron plays, you know, ball mover. Hey, I'm just
gonna I'm gonna try and play your deal and do
it the first three quarters if I can, and if
you need me, then I'll try and take over late
if I have it. Some nights he just doesn't have it,
which is what happens with the age. Happens with most players,
even in their prime. Sometimes they don't don't have it.
(32:56):
It just happens more readily now, uh. And then you
know he's trying to prove he can be a good teammate,
that he can play in a different system than just
give me the ball and everybody space out and catch
and shoot it if I get it. And I kind
of feel like he's starting to get his sea legs
and they're starting to figure it out. There's no doubt
that they're starting to figure it out. And as you
(33:16):
would expect with Lebron, I mean, he's done this in
enough different places that he just by first of all,
being one of the it's a weird dynamic. And I
know you understand this, Doug. When it comes to you know, selfishness, unselfishness,
he is. He is unselfish in the sense that he
(33:37):
shares the ball, he moves the ball. He's selfish in
that the ball has to come through him, right, And
he wants to set up the shots for you, Like
he's okay with you taking shots, but he wants to
be the guy who delivers it first. See what I
gave you, I gave you that shot exactly. He's okay
with delegating responsibilities, but he wants he doesn't want any
(34:00):
out that he's the CEO, and so within that it's
a matter of Okay, he's that, And you just said, yeah,
I see the timeline, and I see how he's raising
the level of all these guys. Um, and probably the
work ethic and everything else, attention to detail general, I
(34:20):
Q a bunch of different things. Um, But if you're
looking at this from the outside coming in, you're not
signing up for next year. I mean that's kind of
been the That's that was the routine in Cleveland certainly,
is you come in for a year, you see what
you can get, maybe you sign for two. I mean
(34:41):
a superstar making the move to join him and go
to l A is looking at being there for what
the next four years, and they'd have to think how
much longer is Lebron going to be this Lebron? I
know everybody from the outside says he's gonna be you know,
it's it's never gonna fall off. No, it's watch him,
though it's kind of fallen off a little bit already. Yeah.
(35:03):
I think I think he doesn't move as well defensively,
he doesn't move as well offensively, but he's making up
for making He's become a better shot maker, a more
skill shop maker that then he's been. It's there's a
lot of Jordan's uh to how he's playing now. Jordan,
you know, mastered the fade away and the the ability
to push off late. And of course we're still good
in a great finisher and transition. Rick Buker, Bleacher Report
joining us, Doug Gottlieb Show. Let me quickly transition to
(35:25):
the to the Warriors. Um I thought, you know a
lot was made of their struggles without Steph. It did
seem like no one pointed out, hey, they also don't
have Draymond. It's Marcas Cousins And oh yeah, by the way,
the last three games where they got Steff back, k
D had forty and looked like the best player on Earth.
What's the status? What's the status of that team that
(35:46):
those relationships? Well, look, the number one thing is there
are two playmakers. There are two supreme playmakers on this team.
They're Steph Curry and Draymond Green. Kevin Durant is a
great score, play Thompson is a great stuper score. But
you take those two guys off that, you take steps
(36:07):
and Draymond off the team, and you have the two
quarterbacks that run their offense, and because of the way
they play, having that orchestrator is vital. They now they
went to playing a slightly different style. Katie kind of
stepped up how he played. I think the schedule helped
them a little bit, but uh, look it's it's my
(36:31):
contention still is they're not a title contender without Draymond Green.
Defensively they're not the same team. They'll they'll be a
tough out, not going to beat themselves, but defensively they
can't get to the same level, and you're gonna have
to have I mean, look, we for the same reason
(36:51):
that we look at the Lakers and we say, okay,
they're with fifteen and nine, whatever they are, it's the
beginning of the season. It's we still got a long
run here, and in some ways that may favor the Lakers,
it doesn't favor the Warriors. The Warriors got to figure
out how do we win games, how do we incorporate everybody,
but at the same time, how do we not take
(37:13):
any more tread off of our tires than we already have.
And the most interesting aspect is you get all these
guys back and then you get de Marcus Cousins and
you throw him right in the middle of the pool.
And how how it amazes me people think it's just
gonna add de Marcus Cousins. Yeahs is completely different from
the rest of this team, right, and from how they've
(37:34):
always play. They've always played small, their death lineup, right,
their best lineup has always been without a center? Is
it one? Is DeMarcus Cousins? Okay? Like that? And too
are they good enough without DeMarcus Cousins, right? Igodala and
Livingston are not what they used to be. Yep, No,
exactly right, And so they've had these you know, they've
there's been the natural deterioration. It simply happens when you
(37:57):
play longer than everybody year after year after year. You know,
everybody but lebron uh takes a hit and and and
they deteriorate physically. And that's what you're seeing with the
most vulnerable players with the Warriors. But you thought at
the end of last year, to me, that was the
signal every single core player, even Clay iron Man. Clay
(38:22):
suffered an injury at the last at the end of
last season that caused him to misstime. I don't expect
this to go back the other way, without a short run,
without an early exit. At some point they need to
catch up on that rest and rehabilitation that they haven't
had an opportunity to have. Great stuff Rick Buker, Bleacher Report,
check out his work, follow him on Twitter. Also download
(38:44):
his podcast, It's Awesome Puke. Thanks for joining us, man,
you got the
Host
Doug Gottlieb
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