Kevin Durant Injured Again Plus Ryen Russillo

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Doug Gotlieb Show podcast. Be
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are you're listening to Fox Sports Radio Boom, What Up America?

(00:26):
Doug Gottlieb Show, Fox Sports Radio. Coming to you from
the sunny City of Angels, Los Angeles, California, Hoping you
are having an outstanding day. What a crazy, crazy night
in the NBA Everything changed twelve minutes into the game.

(00:47):
Everything you know and thought. What happened this offseason change.
We'll get to that, but plus I will tell you
what what I am led to believe, and you haven't
heard this anywhere else. Lad to believe probably took place
before Kevin Durant took the floor and while he was playing,

(01:08):
up until the moment, that faithful moment where he planted
and we've by now you've probably seen the replay, something
ruptured in his calf. It looks it looks like a
torn achilles tendon. The Doug Gollup Show is brought to
you by Farmers. At Farmers, we've seen almost everything, so
we know how to cover almost anything. When it's game time,
have an experienced player help you stay here the game,

(01:28):
put their experience into play at Farmers dot com. Farmers.
So here's the here's the challenge, guys, and this is
what I I UM, I pride myself on every show
on sports radio should be different. Well, we don't do here.
I don't like to do is what you call survey radio, right,

(01:50):
which is like, all right, top five most impactful injuries
in a championship game or series. Go, Brandon Hooks from
the Super Bowl two years ago. Rob Gronkowski pick an
injury that he's had, like you kind of go through
the Isaiah Thomas rolling his ankle, Magic Johnson pulling is No,

(02:11):
we don't do that. And once you get to three
o'clock Eastern, twelve o'clock Pacific, you've heard a lot of
the details. So let me give you a different way
of looking at this. Um. Most everyone is pretty sure
that Kevin Durant tore his Achilles tenant, which means he'll

(02:33):
be out for nine months and potentially for twelve months.
After after all, rehab is done. But uh, the nine
months is interesting. And I'll get to the obvious part
of why in a second. And he was he was
out there planned last night and he had been cleared

(02:54):
to play, and the reports were that he was told
he could suffer no more severe injury. Okay, but even
that statement is loaded. So here's what I did. I
have three or four friends that are surgeons. Um, one
is that hand and wrist and hand wrist finger surgeon.

(03:15):
The other three are our knee and hip surgeons, and
one in fact is by my estimation like, look, I
don't grade these things because I've known him for my
almost my three quarters to seven eighths of my life.
I've known him. Um, he is a renowned surgeon. He

(03:39):
actually did my mom's knees, so he does Achilles tender repairs,
he does a c L repairs, l c L, all
that different stuff. And so instead of boring you with
the are why did the Canadian fans boo? You know why?
Because we don't have the market cornered on a hole's

(04:00):
currently there's a holes in Canada. Yeah, they saying, oh Canada,
And it was beautiful, and I was like, man, getting
kind of misty in here, Canada. But the idea of
them cheering is, and I'll get to this later, almost
almost a feeling of respect towards Kevin Durant, if you
really want to get down to it. And yeah, look
there's dbs everywhere, not just in Newport Beach, or in

(04:23):
Manhattan Beach, or in Greenwich, Connecticut, or in Miami Beach.
Like there's dbs up in Toronto quite obviously as well.
But you had to ask yourself, how does happen? Like
the Golden State Warriors, whatever you think of teams and
their desire to win, they would never want to put

(04:44):
Kevin Durant in a situation where this could happen. Take
a listen to Bob Myers after the game. I don't
believe there's anybody to blame, but I understand is this world,
and if you have to, you can blame me. And

(05:06):
let me tell you something about Kevin Durant. Kevin Durant
loves to play basketball, and the people that questioned whether
he wanted to get back to this team, we're wrong.
So my question it was, and this is what I
asked all my doctor friends, how could they how can
they not have seen this, like, how did this happen?
Did it have? I wondered did it happen? Because the

(05:28):
calf was weakened and that put extra stress and the
achilles tennant was he achilles tendant already torn? A couple
of NFL friends I know it texted me like, dude,
he had a partial tear and that thing just that
thing just blue, that's what happened. So my friend who
does these surgeons, who who is very well regarded, told
me that m r s can be difficult to interpret

(05:50):
sometimes that he doesn't even get them. And what he
relies on is the physical exam. You know, where they
pull in your foot and they try and find a
spot in the back of your foot to see where
the pressure is. What and what happened? And when Kevin
Durant first did it, he turned around real quick looking
for the guy who kicked him. And everyone who tears
their achilles said, it feels like somebody kicked them. And

(06:12):
the remember Reggie, Reggie Miller was doing the game and
he's like, man, that looked like an achilles tendon, right,
So I said, well, I can't achilles tend don't they
just tear? And if they don't tear. Can you do?
You not see him in an mri I S. Yeah,
they can cleanly tear if they were to chop like
a chopped rope in half. If that happens, it's easy
to see. On an m r I there's two free

(06:33):
edges and they're separated by fluid, he said, But that
kind that's uncommon. What happens more often is they tear
so that each end kind of looks like a mop.
In those situations, m r I s will show bridging
tissue with no apparent gap, and sometimes there's not much bleeding,
so it may look not as bad on as it

(06:56):
is on the m r I. It can heal in
those situations, but it takes much longer than he gave it. Also,
the calf muscle is not as strong, so if they
knew it was torn, they'd have likely done surgery. So
the idea was this, how does this happen? An underwhelming
MRI I and everyone's desire to please, don't let it

(07:20):
be the Achilles factor played into the diagnosis and decision
to treat it like it was a strain. Right it
it becomes um, you know, like you want to speak
it into existence. Gin thing, a self fulfilling prophecy. My
doctor friend said he thought this all along. Pictured the
poor doctor who was probably deep down new and sweating

(07:42):
bullets since it happened. He probably said he thought it
could be torn, but not certain options to explore and
repair surgically or to treat it like it's strain, see
if it gets better. Surgery, regardless of how badly it
was torn, would require him to be out for the season.
Wishful thinking and wishful judgment. Now it's black and white

(08:04):
back in nine months, teams will still line up. Because
of his body type and because of his skill set,
he actually should come back good as new in in
fifteen months, even if it's playing in nine months. That's
his prognosis. And it's fascinating because there there is a
There are people who say, how dare the warriors put

(08:26):
him out there when you can put him in harm's way,
and like, look, it's pretty obvious that by most people's
estimations professionals, he had torn it previous. He had already
torn it right, and the question is was how severely?
And those things really, honestly, unless it's a very very
very slight slight strain and strain, by the way, is

(08:49):
a there's some part of it as torn, like you're
gonna have to go in there and do surgery anyway,
and once you do surgery, you're going to be out
for the year. So I'm not sure they actually lied
to Kevin Durant. I don't believe they did. They probably said, look,
if it's torn, it's gonna tear anyway, and you're gonna
have to have surgery anyway, and if it's not, then

(09:12):
you're gonna be fine. Regardless of which. What an incredible
night like, Oh Canada was emotional. Kevin Durant was awesome.
They did have complete control. Then the air was let
out of the building after this weird he goes down
with an injury and all of a sudden, Canadian fans
are like cheering that he's hurt. It just was an

(09:35):
awful look. And then the game kind of lost a
lot of its feeling and its juice, and the Warriors
somehow maintained control. And then the Raptors had the thing
one and they called back to back timeouts and then
Golden State comes storming back, has the lead. There's a
weird calling to Marcus Cousins and then you know, they
double team Kawhi Leonard, Kyle Lowry gets a shot in
the corner, he gets blocked, bricochets out the backboard, and

(09:57):
now the Warriors are back in the series. They got
a court game, they one more game at least that
oracle and a chance to ride on the emotion of
not having Kevin Durant. And they continue to figure out
how to win games on the road without Kevin Durant.
And you just to sit there think yourself, Kawhi Leonard
might not be all that healthy. Meanwhile, the off season
thrown completely up into the air. You think Kevin Ran

(10:18):
probably opts into his deal to make thirty one point
nine million dollars, Does he come back at the end
of next season? Disease at the entire year free agency changes.
What an incredible thing, and all because of I guess
what would be wishful thinking, right, some sort of wishful

(10:40):
thinking and hopeful prognosis which may not be as deceptive
and devious as many in the media believe. Look, do
I think it was an f up? It feels like
way right. You send a guy out there and thought
he strained his calf. Everybody thought he tours Achilles and
now he did Terris Achilles. But the fact is that

(11:00):
had he previously torn as achilles, which it looked like
he had, he was gonna have to have surgery anyway.
This is Brian Windhorse after the game on what it
means to the NBA. The NBA just changed. Next year,
there's teams crawling all over themselves to get Durant. There's
gonna be this pecking order, there's teams making trades to
clear salary cap space. The thought was he was gonna
be available on the market. The in addition to this series,

(11:23):
the entire NBA just changed. I mean it was. I mean,
like again, I don't want to be I don't want
to be all. It's not that when the Challenger exploded.
It's not when Kennedy was shot. It's not when Reagan
was shot. It's not when September eleventh happened. But for

(11:46):
in sports, the whole offseason was going to change the NBA.
The Nicks had cleared out space for thinking they were
getting Kevin Durant, and now the Nets were players and
maybe maybe the Clippers, probably not the Lakers or would
he stay and now he stays? So does anybody go

(12:07):
to the Knicks. Is Kyrie alone with the Nets? What
I like? It? Just it's crazy. And guys that have
taken short term deals in the past, do they change
their mind and say, you know what, I'm gonna take
as many years, as much money as possible. Because if
it can happen to Kevin Durant, if it can happen
in de Marcus Cousins, it can happen to me. But

(12:28):
it feels like and again this is from a professional opinion,
a wishful, hopeful diagnosis and holding your fingers. God, I
just hope he keeps it together through the series. It
lasts eleven minutes and fifty seconds and change. And he
popped in achilles tendon, which is still the one injury
which is seemingly more debilitating than any other in sports.

(12:51):
Right now, Ryan Rosilla from The Ringer joins the show
up coming next? What does he think happened with Kevin Durant?
How did that happen? How did he get back on
the court and he doesn't even make it a half
and he pops his achilles tendant? Plus could the Warriors
actually come back and win this thing? And what is
what happened last night to Katie due to the upcoming

(13:13):
off season, we'll ask him next. Be sure to catch
live editions of The Doug dot Leap Show weekdays at
noon Eastern three pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and
the I Heart Radio app. More scoring in France between
the US Women and the Thai Women will get you
updated that match just underway on Big Fox. Doug gotlap

(13:34):
show rolls on Fox Sports Radio. Gave you um my
perspective based upon the people that I've talked to, doctors
that I've talked on, how how does that happen? Right?
How does it happen that Kevin Durant gets cleared to play?
And it's one of those you can't really see it
on the m R I And you probably should have

(13:56):
just gone with your kind of gut reaction and what
k D said, we're he felt like he got kicked,
and anytime you feel like you got kicked, it's usually
the Achilles tendon. But the truth is that had he
had a partially torn Achilles tendon, you could rest it,
but you're gonna have to have surgery anyway, and it
was gonna keep you out nine months. Maybe we just
saw it become black and white to which there was

(14:16):
no gray. Remarkable day though, and then of course the
Warriors come back late and steal the game and forced
game six, another game in Oracle. Ryan Rosilo works for
The Ringer and for ESPN. Check out his podcast A
Dual Threaten The Rosillo Show, plus you record a pod
after the game last night with with Bill Simmons. Okay,

(14:37):
so um, what do you think happened between? Like? Was
this durant pushing to play? Was that the team pushing
him too much? Like? How does it happen where a
guy plays? And clearly isn't red? Isn't there a lot
going on there? That was an incredible It wasn't just
a game. It was the dragic storylines in Boring Night.

(14:58):
And I felt like drained after watching it. If you
know Abob Myers, if you know Steve Kerr, if you
know the Warriors, the idea that they would force a
guy to play or lie to him about the diagnosis
to get him out there, then you just don't. You
just don't know that team, Like I knew everybody has
other Bob Meyers jokes, and I would get a text
with people who don't know him, being like, man, this
guy is really put on an act and you're like, no,
this is this is who he is. Of all those
things that I'm comfortable saying, you know, knowing not knowing people,

(15:20):
Bob Myers is the furthest thing from the phony. So
you're absolutely right by the ways we all try to
figure out the medical stuff here. If it's a partially
torn achilles, the thing was going to go anyway, and
he needed to get get work on it done anyway.
So you know, I don't know if they misdiagnosed it.
I don't know if they can into some agreement. But
Kevin Duran's a thirty year old man, and if he
wants to come back and play, like we know most
of these guys always want to do, and they feel

(15:41):
like he's cleared enough, then what happened last night is
the worst case scenario. It's incredibly important, unfortunate, but I
don't feel like there's this evil thing at play that
everybody wants to expose. It's a it's a great point
you make. I think. I think what we think of
is we think of like Bud Kilmer in the locker room,
inject him in the achilles tendon so he doesn't feel
anything or he's you know, he's Booby Biles out there

(16:02):
ruining his career when you know Kevin is a big boy.
Huh you want to play? Yes, well, but boo boo.
But the the differences, as you pointed out, Booby's a kid.
This is a grown ass man, right, He's control of
his own destiny. And you know, if he just says
that he ain't right, yeah, they'll be there there. There

(16:22):
would be some idiots that would that there might be
some heat, right, but the fact is that now we know, um,
you do. If an athlete says he's not right, he
probably isn't right. But he I'm sure he felt better.
He felt fine until he didn't. Um. It is crazy though, right,
Like the guy goes from the guy goes from yearning
for respect, finally gets the respect that he, uh, he

(16:47):
thought he deserved. Then he hurts himself. Reggie Reggie Miller
nailed it right. Everybody was like, whoa redge? I don't know,
but he's like everyone on Twitter and social media watching
thought he tores killed his tendant and they're like, no,
no, no no, it's a calf comes back. Turns out it
is an achilles and we see it blown on National TV, Like,
I know, you're right, there's a bunch of other stuff
within the game, but just that, just this story, the

(17:11):
mercurial storyline for Kevin Durant in the last two months
has been nuts. Yeah, what's about the evil side of it? Though? Like,
if somebody wants to believe this, do you really think
in two thousand nine and I know football players like
football players are all those plays on social media? It's like,
guess what you guys do? Get used up? You do?
You know, the non quarterbacks? None of yours important to
your team? Is Kevin Durant is to a basketball team

(17:32):
because of sheer numbers and the fact that we're talking about,
at worst, the second best player in the world. Okay,
but do you really think a Golden State team that
desperately wants to find any way to keep him would
lie to him about the diagnosis and rich Climate, who's
his guy, his manager and all of this stuff, would
sign off on Durant putting himself in a situation where

(17:54):
he absolutely shouldn't be playing. I don't. I don't. Maybe
I'm naive, you know, maybe I I just don't know
that I wake up every day trying to figure out
who's growing everybody out and I just can't fathom that
this is this is this do you think we're killing? Man?
They lied to me, you know, like everybody's out there
doing everybody. But there's a lot of people out there.

(18:17):
You know. Durant could lie too, he's exploring. Sam Acho
is out there going yeah and other people. This is
why you don't trust team doctors. Man, I'm so I'm sorry.
Manuel uh Acho, who's a football you know, a very
good perform pro football player, player of Texas, and and
he's out there and Kendrick Perkins is like, yeah, this
they lied to you, Like, well, you don't actually know

(18:38):
what was said to kill we don't. You have no
idea what was said to Kevin Durant, zero idea. So
unless you know that they said, and could even the
idea that they said he couldn't hurt him if they
said he couldn't hurt himself any worse, it's possibly said, hey,
it might be a partial tear. If it's partial tear,
you gotta have surgery anyway, dude, So just go play
and see what happens, because you're gonna have to go

(18:58):
get cut. If it's partialear, you can have you cutting
the offseason and miss a year anyway? And you know,
Bill Simmons and I were doing the podlest as you mentions.
Appreciate saying that, and he was of the opinion, you know,
how do you play him twelve? The first four team men?
I've seen trainers since you know, um, you know mirror
that appoint like, Hey, if you were going to do
what this is the way to do it. Maybe those

(19:20):
guys are all right. But I don't I don't know
how that's possible. I don't know how well if he's
playing the first six and in the last six of
the first half of the first six and then closed
and six, I don't. I don't know how the minute
staggering in a different way would have prevented this from happening.
I also think it's what I hate doing this as
a guy that didn't play in hating basketball game that
anyone ever gave a belief about. But I don't care

(19:43):
who you are. You can be hurt and once you
get that ball in your hands, you're like, I'm going,
I'm going and imagine being as good as Durant, Like
there was no version of him where he was gonna
say just set the screen to feel out the flow
of the game and top shoe, and then once he
starts hitting everything, he's like, all right, now, I'm gonna
put it on the floor. But you can't do that

(20:04):
after the fact. Thing that he should have play the
game differently because he's just the reason he is who
he is is because of the way he's wired. Most
basketball players are that way. Um. And again, I know
Ryan was solo join tomiche download is Dual Threat podcast
or that podcast to do with Simmons late last night
in the Ringer. Um. So I do want to get
to the rest of the game because a bunch of
other interesting stuff. But in terms of Durant, he's gotta

(20:28):
he's gotta opt in, right, I mean, he can't. You know,
he's not going on the market. I'm not sure about that,
I really am not. I mean the way the turn
through for this is he's thirty. Uh, he's come back
from another pretty severe injury where it looked like he
was gonna be out for that entire year when he
came back, and I want a title because he at
one point I thought he's done for the year. It

(20:49):
is so hard to get these free agents that you
can max out a guy in a much like you
can max out a healthier guy that'll like forget living
in Duran's neighborhood. He isn't even know the directions as
far as the kind of player he is, So I
would not be surprised if team so you can go
and we'll just get you for the three after this year.

(21:10):
M hmm. Look the surgeon and that's I basically uh
kind of quoted verbatim what he said. He's like, Look,
he'll be back in nine months. Teams will still be
lining up because you look at his body type, the
way he plays like I actually think he actually thinks
like it won't affect him like would affect Boogie because
Boogie is such a much bigger man. And though he's

(21:30):
and though he had he's an explosive guy, it's not
like he's a freak guy. So he's not losing a
major step like in in one calendar year, he should
be fine. And you know in a year and a half,
you know he when he'd be able to start what
would be his second season with the team. Uh, he
should be you know, now he'll have some he'll have
played some more, so he should be you know, I'm

(21:50):
ready to go, like almost back to where he is now.
I don't know. I think it's fast. So you you're
not sure that he stays with Golden stated, I mean,
I guess that's how we would know how he felt
like he was treated by the Warriors, would it like
if he felt like they did everything possible, why not
just stay and see if you can come back and
play in the playoffs lat next year? Um, I don't

(22:11):
know that you really think though, if he opts out
and then leaves a free agency that confirmed that he
doesn't like the way the whole and everything was handled
because most people I don't leave now He's already was
leaving anyway, So I don't know that you can connect
the two. I can't tell you you're wrong because there's
no way of really proving it. But I don't think
I would all say, I mean, he's out. I do
think that you're right about it opening the door for

(22:33):
other possibilities, like what E something I was talking about
that he was really smart, like ever since lebox id doing,
he's one of one. Everybody else just started doing. Not
everybody else, but a lot of other guys just started out.
Year ven was taking pay cuts the Warriors tens of
millions of dollars in luxury tax payments by taking pay
cuts or less than he could the last two years,
and it was like, I'll just be one to one.

(22:54):
I'll be one of one. Now he's had two major injuries,
But does he really want to do it? Opt in
for one? What if they're willing to offer him, does
that change something? Or maybe that seems insane? Uh? You
know guys like Kyrie, you had two major injuries south
of thirty years old, and you're gonna go, well, you've
gotta you've gotta figure out a way to get every
year you can get yourself. So I don't know if

(23:15):
it will change the approach on how long it wanted
do you feel to be I don't know if cool
takes more willing to try to do something where they
feel like they're making it right with him for what
he just went through and trying to come back and
help them win a title. So there's I've opened to
any of these options. But at this point, you know,
it's just all talk radio stuff. That's fun. But the
President Doug Gotlive show, You're on Fox Sport Trader that

(23:36):
that's the voice of Ryan Rissela. All right, I want
to get to the free agent stuff and what we think,
what you think happens, You're you're as tied as anybody
in the world. But I also want your take on
last night's game, because when he was playing, You're like,
the Warriors are going to win. I was sitting there, going,
they're gonna win this series. He commands so much attention
and free up the other guys, and they're gonna win

(23:56):
this series. Right, So then he gets hurt and they
still kind of hole done for a while, and then
the Raptors take the lead late. People being very critical
of the Nick nurse back to back time outs after
the twelve to run there they have a lead. The
places on fire. He's trying to rest Kauhi, get Kauai

(24:16):
a little bit of rest in the moment. What did
you think? I thought it was terrible. I thought it
was terrible in the moment, and I think you know
me well enough said a lot of the this guy
get out coached. This guy is terrible, Like like I
just always feel like there's so much going on with
the coach, especially like in football and baseball, where you're like,
you know, I don't know that we have all the
information and one days after football games like this guy

(24:36):
just kid how coached the whole time and you're like,
what specifically happened that told you that this guy couldn't
handle the coaching decisions of the other guy and almost
everyone ever amps And so having said all those things
in the moment, that time out was atrocious. The justification
for it was as bad like Nick Nurse needed a
lie and come up with something better than what we
didn't want to not use them? What the hell does that?

(24:58):
And if quite tired, you know this rest in the game.
Guys are quite paces himself in the course of games.
Lebron has been doing this now for a couple of years.
Find a way to ruin something else so you don't
stop the momentum that's going on in this building. I
thought it was believe it'll be one of those things

(25:18):
and no one will care. If Run wins this thing
in six or seven, they'll be like, oh, yeah, try
to call that time now. If Gold they were to
come back from the stag, that time now is going
to go down. It's one of the most absurd moved
by a coach who's done a job this year. But
I remember, yeah, I think it was a little bit.
I think it's a little bit over coaching, you know.
I I never and looked their colleague coaches who do that,

(25:41):
and Brad Stevens will do that now where you know,
they'll they'll go on a run and they'll set up
his defense and want to get everybody a quick and
you know, get everybody reassigned and what they want to do.
But that place was on fire, and it felt like
they were one state. They did feel like they were
one stop away. So like I'm with you, I generally
don't want to kill somebody. Generally don't for when you

(26:03):
call a time out when you don't, especially in the NBA,
because you knew there's like five time out still coming.
But in that particular case, like it's slammed on the
brakes of some incredible momentum and it felt, like I
tweeted at the time, feels over and then you like
call it time out, like what are you doing? And
it was the Warriors, Doug, And it's the Warriors. Why

(26:23):
all I have that team to regroup? Mentally, that's the
last thing you want to do. Do you want to
do that against the Bucks. You want to do it
against the Sixers, where all this stuff is kind of new,
not the team that's trying to three pet So I
didn't I didn't get it. I mean, this whole game,
this game is taken all of these different dramatic emotional swings,
and you're like, hey, you know what, We're on fire
right now. Kauai is about to clench this thing to

(26:45):
sit atop of the throne. Is the best player in
the world. Hey, why don't we just resett here mentally?
You guys want to just do that for a second.
Hey everyone, let's just calm down, reset mentally, and you know,
crack the door back open for a team. It's in
Golden State. I I just thought I thought it was
I thought it was over coaching. I've I've seen enough
to just it's just too too much coaching, all right.

(27:07):
That said, you know, look, Golden States still has the
issues of spacing and scoring and and containing Kauai, although
Kauai is gas because he's carrying this team. Um, we've
got another game in Oakland where last time they think
closed up in Oaka, like this thing is over, you know,
blow this thing up, blow this building up, and let's
let's start anew what do you think happens now? Can

(27:31):
I just ask about the Kauai being gas? How is
he gas? Like? If he's gassed, what are we doing?
They let him? It's a quarter of the season they
have at all times for other people on the floor
they can get a bucket. Which is kind of the
overlooked thing about the way that Toronto roster is constructed.
You know, I wish I had I wish I had
pointed it out earlier. But when you see it contrasted
with what Golden State has to put out there, where
you feel like, at any time there's three guys who

(27:52):
don't have to guard, Like, why would Kauai I get
the exertion in these games? The anxiety and high stakes,
all these different things. But you know, for all of
these rest warriors out there, how the hell is quite
hired if you're telling me that your missic a quarter
of the season the reason he's playing as well, But yeah,
it is count of it is It's counterintuitive. I would
say this like, I think and this is the thing

(28:13):
that the Warriors understood about Kevin Durant, And then I
think the Rockets missed on and frankly, I think Toronto
missrs on, which is like look Kawaylon is already hitting
mid range shots. Kwyler has a post game right. He
started out his life as he was a basically a
big guy as center up until he got really untill
a sophomore year at San Diego State. He can handle

(28:35):
the ball some, but he can really score down there.
And though he's not he's you know, he's not Lebron
as a passer, he's not as bad and he's improved
in terms of his reputation. Like having him handle the
ball every time down the court and bring it up
and beat his man like, you can actually get a
lot more out of him because you're gonna have to
double him in the post. You got to pressure him

(28:55):
and you know, do something the same way that Golden
State places where you play in the post, but you're
not necessarily trying to score out of that post. I
think that would be less exhausting. But I do think
he's exerting himself. And whether or not he doesn't have
the natural conditioning of other guys, um he has. He
has shown that he is. He is getting tired, uh

(29:17):
I again, but then then then all just goes back like,
I'm not saying you're wrong, but I just think it's
worth pointing out that, like we have, we have a
bunch of people out there that are convinced that no
one should put over two thousand minutes, that no one
would play over sixty games, because I guarantee if they
cut it this seventy games, then three years later somebody
come up with some paper from some college scientists could

(29:37):
be like, actually, like, hey, how how about we do this.
How about we just we just start the playoffs and
we just see what happens to make sure everybody has
enough rest. I mean they have. By the way, Achilles
achilles tendons are not tires. They're not tired, So we
we operate like their tires. You're like, well, you know
the treads down to you know, you know, a quarter

(29:58):
of an inch, and that you gotta get new tires.
We we act like there's this minute thing where all
of a sudden you get a certain amount of minutes.
And they're like, no, that that's not how it works
with an achilles tendon. It's just not um. It has
to do with the size of the athlete, how the
guy builds his muscle, how he grows. You know, certain
guys are at how their feet are as much more

(30:19):
than than You're right that how many minutes they have.
And I agree with you, like, oh, the only reason
why is healthy now is because he's he sat out, Like,
actually he's not that healthy. It doesn't have any of that.
There's not necessarily a correlation there, all right, let me
let me get to this. Okay, So we don't know
with k D what do we know? Like we started
off the year thinking Kyrie was staying. Now the only

(30:41):
thing everybody seems to think they know is Kyrie is
going to Brooklyn. Do we know anything else? Um? We
we I don't think we do. Only like okay, what
do we think we do before? Okay, I don't know that.
So just because Ire and Katie were talking a Hallway

(31:01):
All Star weekend and they follow each other on Instagram,
which I need a translator for Kyrie's posts, But I
you know, we just started going, okay, well, those guys
are there and that's that's fine. Like we were also
doing the real estate thing, like did co I get
a nice two bedroom town house in Toronto? That's amazing?
Must be staying and they're like now, and he's like,
I don't even know how to use zillo, So I
don't know what you guys are talking about. Uh, if

(31:25):
we did, if we did this game, like, I think
Philly has to keep Butler more than they have to
keep the Bias Harris. They want to keep both. Okay,
Like for all us talk about the super Max works,
doesn't work on all the unintended consequences, which there happens. Now,
maybe we just look back and say, hey, the super
Max works, but it works differently for different people. Russell
Westbrook got the extra money, stayed in the town and
nobody does. He's gonna stay and boom done. Other guys
that said I don't care about the super Max. I

(31:45):
want to go where Fitt is. Okay, cool, that's good
for you. If the Bias Harris is the fourth guy
for the Philly for the Philadelphi's only six ers after Butler,
who I think kind of has that that onion quality
to him that you're gonna need in the playoffs that
Sinis certainly doesn't have. Now, Bead has trouble kind of
scoring in some of the late game situations when he
gets up gets doubled. As great as he is like
I think they needed his toughness. So if you're Device Harris,

(32:09):
there's whatever version of four year acts work for you.
Doing that, you very well could be traded next February.
Well maybe it's worth the team to get that extra money,
or maybe you go, I don't need the extra money
because I don't want to sit here and be some asset.
I'd rather go somewhere else. So I think it's working
differently for all these different people. So now when we
kick that forward, like Anthony Davis saying I don't want
to or a fifty million next month, I'm good. I
want to move on. I think writing off the Lakers

(32:31):
is a mistake. There's a pass to the getting enough
assets to pull this thing off. I also think with
the success of Paul George and co I potentially stating
staying just to success the Raptors have had that it
is going to open the market to other teams and
especially owners that go, well, why don't we just try
Anthony Davis for a year. And it still includes the
box of Celtics, which surprises the hell out of me.
But I think the Celtics are still gonna be pretty

(32:52):
proactive about trying to find a way to load up
to get Davis, and I think they can put together
the best package because all the other teams so depending
on the David's movement. I think that's connected to some
of these other things. Kyrie's gone, I think Butler has
to stay. I don't know about Kauai. I think the
Durant thing changed last night, but most people had impacted
his bags. But I don't know that anybody, like, for

(33:15):
all these players were about their brand, and you know
how much credit am I getting and all these different
things did any superstar still, even coming off of that injury,
wanted to end up in New York with that roster
without another number two guy? Like, why would anyone sign
up for that just because of the location. I don't
get that one at all. I don't I don't know
the last thing who wins the series now. I just

(33:37):
don't think there's any way that God see defense has
been consistent enough. And I hate ever doubting those guys.
I've I've made a living of being right by not
doubting them at any turn. But I I didn't even
want to do this because I don't want to root
against them. But I I don't like Toronto knows who
they're gonna be every single night, and they have shown

(33:57):
the toughness despite of what we saw last night that
is really impressive for a do you get together? Uh,
Gold State has not been able to defend these guys
consistently and they just lost alone to who's their best center?
So I just don't they're running out of bodies the
worst time. Yeah, I mean it really is a mass unit.
I I actually and and we gotta go. But I
think the those of us who will say we still

(34:19):
think Toronto winning and say, oh, you're doubting them, Like, well, yeah,
we're doubting because look at all the guys they don't
have like they We're not doubting them in full strength.
We're just saying at some point, they just have more
healthy bodies than you do, and they're also pretty damn
good and the difference isn't that close. And when you
have those that litany of injuries, Yeah, we doubt you

(34:40):
can complete a task because of health as the major factor.
That's a fair way to put it in. I know
we're gonna leave, but we're both being guilty of that thing.
We're talking about Twitter responses, We already are going to
be there. Toronto is really good, but it is very
hard when it is due to annoy. Something is great
before it actually happens. And yeah, there's there's. The weird
challenge is for gold to take the reality if the

(35:02):
rants there. I don't think any of us think that
Toronto would be but they don't. And Gold Stake can
have issues, but Toronto still can also be really good.
And that's what's happening. Ryan Risseillo. You can see his
stuff listen to his stuff Excuse Me on The Ringer
the Dual Threat podcast, as well as when he recorded
right after the game last night with Bill Simmons Downloaded. Ryan,
thanks so much for joining us. Thanks dog. What's the

(35:24):
most likely place for Kevin Durant to play next season?
Find out next. Be sure to catch live editions of
The Doug dot Leap Show weekdays at noon Eastern three
pm Pacific Doug Got Leave Show Fox Sports Radio every day.
This time we get you updated on stories the day,
themes of the night. We do so by playing a
game time. This is game time side on the Doug

(35:48):
gott Leap Show. Dan Bye, what's the game today? Doug?
The game today is Rank them All? Right, Doug rank
the likely destinations for Kevin Durants this offseason. I think
Golden State one, Golden State one. I think the Knicks
are two. I think the Clippers are three. And that's
what the odds save. Right now, bet Online saying that

(36:10):
the both the Knicks and Warriors three to two favorites
to land Durant, Clippers three to one. Right now, Lakers
and Nets would be ten to one shots, Doug. A
lot of inner league rivalries taking place in Major League Baseball.
What are the three best Major League Baseball interer league ravelries.
We've got Mets Yankees going on right now Freeway Series

(36:31):
here in southern California. The three top three best Major
League Baseball inter league ravelries? Uh, I would say A's Giants, Yankees, Mets,
and uh yeah, I mean I maybe Cubs, White Sox, Royals, Cardinals,

(36:54):
ose Nance, Royals, Cardinals. Probably the Royals are so bad now,
but because they played into each other in the World
Series and kanc does have good fans, I would put
that three. Doug, rank your top three favorites for the
US Open at Pebble Beach this week is We'll be
broadcasting live there Thursday and Friday. Um, all right, I'm

(37:14):
gonna go with Rory because he's coming off of a win.
I'm gonna go with Tiger because he's won there before.
And I'm gonna go with Dustin Johnson. This is amazing
because I was debating on what I thought and do
you put Brooks kept on that list? For as dominant
as he's been, he can make good arguments for everyone else.

(37:36):
And uh, finally, Doug, rank your favorite every four year events.
Women's World Cup is going on now. Of course, there's
the Men's World Cup, Winter Olympics, Summer Olympics, heck, the
European Soccer Championship. Your favorite every four year events? Rank them? Huh,
I'll do. I mean there's just I'll do Olympics one,

(38:00):
summer and Winter Summer. I winner, Olympics almost don't even
exist to me. World Cup two and uh yeah, that's it.
This is game time. On the Duck Gotlieb Show, Nick

(38:21):
Nurse is taking a lot of heat for a time
out he called last night it seemed to kill their momentum.
I'll give you my perspective on what went wrong for
the Raptors down the stretch. Next on the Doug Godlip show.
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. What Up Doug

(38:43):
Gottlieb Show, Fox Sports Radio? M hmm comment you from
the City of Angels where I even think you made
the case that things change for the Lakers last night? Right?
Doug Out shows brought to you by Farmers and Farmers
We've seen almost everything to want to cover almost anything

(39:03):
when it's game time. Haven't experienced play? How do you
keep stay ahead of the game? Put their experience in
the play at Farmers dot Com. Three minutes to go
in the game, Raptors have a six point Later on
a twelve to two run, the places on fire and
Nick Nurse promptly calls the time out. Take a listen
to what Nick Nurse said was the thinking behind it.

(39:24):
Let's see that you lose under the three minute mark,
and uh, we just came across and just decided to
give those guys a rest. And we had went back
to back ones there that we would have lost under
the three minute mark and just thought we could use
the extra energy push. Yeah, look, I don't think it
was as sinister critical would I have taken it? Like no,

(39:48):
I understand the use it or lose it time out,
but somebody was going to use or lose the time
out and it felt like you had them. Did anybody
else feel that way? I'm watching the game like this
thing is almost this is one basket away, one stop
in a bucket away from it being over, just finished, done,

(40:09):
And instead, instead Nick Nurse calls the time out and
he actually used back to back time out because he
had too that he was gonna use to give his
team extra rest. There is the problem with the extra
rest is that you're not the only one. And I
say this all the time in sports, like we do this, well,
you know you give Nick Saban two weeks prepare, Okay,
give tables we need to do two weeks prepairs. I'm

(40:31):
like they're not allowed to prepare during that time. Here's
Charles Barkley defending Nick Nurse on Get Up. I had
no problem with the time out. Kaal look gassed. He
looked gassed, and I think that it was really he
was giving him a playout of the time model. But anybody,
I do I think anybody who think that was bad.

(40:53):
They don't know, we didn't think about basketball. Well, I
would have played it out. I would have played out
the momentum and and and the coach knows, like he
looks as his best player, and that's who they're going through,
and they do. Torontoes do an excellent job of let's
let's go go through him. I also understand that. And

(41:13):
Ryan Rosili came on and said, well, look they've got
five guys that can score, like they have five guys
that can make shots. They don't necessarily have five guys
that can get their own shot. Like Fred van Bleet
is a playoff of penetration guy. Kyle Lowry has a
playoff penetration guy. I'm h Serge Ibaka, same thing. The
reason you have Kauai is he's your closer. He's your
guy that can go get a bucket for you by

(41:36):
himself or by somebody else through the past. And I
just I do think sometimes they get flawed, they get
sped up, and they you know, when you rush the shot,
and I understand what he's thinking, like, hey, we come down,
we take a bad shot, that's a three. The other way,
when you get tired, that's when you foul. When you
get tired, that's when you take bad shots and you

(41:57):
miss shots you should make when you get tough. Fatigue
has in fact made cowards of us all. But I'm
also somebody that even if I said, like, look, I
understand the time outs, but in hindsight, I think we
can all admit it was a mistake, right, Like, even
if the thinking behind it was sound, hey he's tired,
will you said there and go? You had a lead
and then you completely win Stale and they regrouped. So

(42:21):
I'm somewhere in the middle. Like Rossillo joined us and
he's like, man, those are terrible time outs. Charles Barker
is like everybody's an idiot. He should he can call
as many time outs. I'm god, I'm one of those.
I know the timeouts are coming once you get under
two anyway. You know, each team gets two le's up
to four time outs, and there's also a media time out.

(42:42):
So I do think you could have played it out.
I think you could have played another possession or two.
I'm just not that. I'm not the kind of guy
that would call a time out while you're on a
twelve of the two run. I would go for the jugular.
I would try and get the dagger shot in because
I'm a big momentum guy. I think momentum is hard
to carry over from first quarter to second quarter, or

(43:03):
first half the second half, and it's even hard to
carry over from first game to second game, or from
fifth game to sixth game. But I would also tell
you that I do think momentum late in a game,
when it feels like they got him. That was my
thinking when I was watching the game. So I disagree

(43:27):
with the time out, But I also think that all
these people that are, you know, being hyper critical and
this really just kind of supports Charles Barkley's point of view.
You're not wrong because he did call time out, and
he did lose momentum and they did lose the game,
But it doesn't necessarily make it make you right. You

(43:48):
get tired, you played through Kauai. What's to say he
doesn't turn it over and you get a run out
in an easy lap and then you call a time
out and then they regrouped themselves even more like you
can be right year or not wrong here and not
still not be right. Ryan Music, what do you think
isn't this one of those situations. You always talk about

(44:10):
it where we get two results oriented like simply because
they ended up losing the game. That's my that's really
my point. Now again, I wouldn't have called time out.
I just want to do it, done it like I
I like, you know that, that's my process is. You know,
there's a last possible scenarios like I want my team

(44:33):
because you can rest on the court. But but we
are like he they still had a shot to win
the game, and Golden States still had to make two
massive threes down the stretch to win the game. And
it isn't the problem with the idea that you can
rest on the court kind of difficult for a player
like Kauhi Leonard, especially that late in the game. Yes,

(44:54):
and they and of course the way Golden State plays offensively,
you can't really hide anybody anymore. You could rest on
the court unless you're the the best player on their
offense and their best player on defense and you're trying
to close out a game to win the NBA Finals
and there's only three minutes. Like sure, a random regular
season game in the second quarter against the team that's

(45:14):
trying to tank, you can rest all you want while
you're on the court. That situation seems a little difficult
to pick your spots. What um another goal for the
U S women, that's gonna be four? So for nil,
do you guys go nil? Or for nothing? Do we
have to go nil? Do we have to say pitch? Yeah?
Only during the World Cup, though, if it's any other

(45:35):
if it's any other event, well, it's kind of like
the it's not the British Open, it's the Open Championship,
it's not the Masters. That's they're the patriots, they're not fans, correct.
I guess I don't understand what we call it a pitch.
We don't use British terminology for anything else. What are

(45:55):
you talking about? We we call everything everything's meters and leaders.
We don't know, we don't do. We don't do lifts.
Elevators are not lifts. We don't stay in flats. We
we have an apartment or a condo or a house.
We don't stay in flats. Like I just I don't.
I don't really understand the level we now all of
a sudden for this one sport. We have to change

(46:16):
the basic terminology that we use as American sidencry. That's
what I don't get so you heard Nick nurse and
he was explaining, and I do buy it again, I
wouldn't have called time out, but I don't think it's
the end of the world. You know, play better, get stops,

(46:38):
don't go flying by on that. Claig Thompson shot fake
contained the basketball. Know who's out there. And as much
as we think we think of conditioning as well, he'd
be too tired to make a shot. You just when
you get tired, it everything changes. Think think about when
you're tired as a human being, or when a kid,
if you have a if you have a small kid,

(46:59):
when they're tired, what happens. They get cranky, you know,
they little kids fall down more, they hurt themselves, which
leads even more crying. They're just off. But within the
context of a game, when you get super super super
exhausted because of the energy and emotion and and when
your quiet, you're guarding the other team's best player as

(47:20):
well as handling the ball far more so than you
ever have for more possessions, with more on the line,
you're gonna get tired. And when you do reach a
point of fatigue where everything you do goes wrong. And
I think that he was protecting Kauai from I frankly
would have turned it over to somebody else or thrown
into quining a low post and play off of that,

(47:40):
but they chose not to. What the Pelicans are telling
you about the Anthony Davis situation is in fact the truth,
and we'll find out where we stand after yesterday's news
and what happens with Kevin Durant that's next. Be sure
to catch live at issue and so the Doug dot

(48:00):
Leap Show week days at noon eastern three pm Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app
Doug gott Leap Show here on Fox Sports Radio. Rick
b Girl join us in about ten minutes or so.
We had his thoughts on last night. I haven't asked
you guys, uh romos, did you watch the game? You
know what, Doug? I had a t OC game last

(48:22):
night for my daughter's softball team, so I was unable
to watch the game. For those of you don't know,
t o C is Tournament of Champions, right, Tournament of Champions.
How did you guys? Do we play again tonight? We
did lose? Yeah, music, did you watch the game last time?
I did? Indeed, would you think. I honestly couldn't believe.

(48:45):
I know, we're not supposed to doubt the Warriors because
they're like the defending champs and they're in the middle
of a dynasty. But after Kevin Durant went down and
the lead that they had late, I was pretty shocked
that they came back in one. And I really thought
throughout the entirety of that game, once the Raptors got
the lead, Yeah, I thought it was over me too.

(49:07):
Did you think right away he tore his achilles tendon
or do you think it was just his calfe? I
thought it was his calf again. And then when they
saw that up close super slow mo video, I was
kind of in awe. I feel like, really it was
kind of I can't get enough of watching it. It It
was kind of cool. It was kind of cool because
it wasn't grotesque like when a knee buckles. It's like

(49:28):
grotesque when the when the leg or the arm bends
a direction that you know it's not supposed to bend.
I can't handle that. But the the pop and sort
of ripple effects of what we can assume was his
achilles was kind of mesmerizing. Yes, it was. It was
it was amazing, amazing camera work. That That was my

(49:49):
thing was I was like, I can't believe I just
saw that on TV and I can go watch it
again on my on my social media feed. Well, sham
Sharani had a bunch of it. He was the first
one to break Katie was playing last night. He worked
for Stadium Sports and and he tweeted this out yesterday
that the the Pelicans um that the Lakers and the

(50:11):
Knicks are led to believe the two desired long term
destinations for Anthony Davis. Now Ian Bagley Bigley who worked
for s n Y. That's in New York, that's the
Mets station, but they also do news. The Pelicans, according
to an ESPN report, weren't enamored by any of the
Knicks or any other suitors offers that have been made

(50:34):
for Davis. So the Knicks had to engage in some
dialogue with other teams in an effort to improve their
offer for Davis. Per s n Y sources, it's unclear
how far along, if at all, any of that dialogue was,
but some people in the organization were uncomfortable with the
idea of trading way significant assets for Davis. Citing the
way things played out for New York in the wake

(50:54):
of the Carmelo Anthony trade, per s n Y sources,
that that's very smart. And we've said this before, like,
don't trade up all your like Even if I'm the Lakers,
I know that we operate in this belief that if
you get Lebron and a d you automatically have a team.
I don't think they're that far away, and they have
the calf space if they can attract it free agent,
why do they have to trade away a bunch of guys?

(51:17):
And then David Griffin, the VP of basketball operations with
the Hornets, said this with the Pelican excuse me, said,
I don't anticipate anything a major significance before the draft,
other than meeting with Zion and his family. I never
anticipate that. I'm open minded. I think we all are.
There's a point in which we act. I think of
blah blah blah blah blah. Look, if you're gonna trade anything,

(51:39):
Davis should do so before the draft. Has it been
done after the draft? Yes, that Kevin Love trade um
for Andrew Wiggins was after the draft. But you have
to wait a certain amount of time. I had to
wait a certain amount of time. I don't believe that
stories leaked for a reason. When we heard yesterday that

(52:01):
is the Knicks and the Lakers, we heard what you know,
what David Griffin said he wanted. Like, when all these
stories are starting to get out, you realize that the
Pelicans aren't getting the offers they wanted. And I'm guessing
the Lakers have probably offered up brandon Ingram the fourth pick.
You know, Josh Hart, I don't think they want to

(52:21):
offer a Lonzo Ball. I think they want to hold
on they because a Lonzo Ball and Kyle Kuzma fit
fit best with UH, with Lebron James. And if they
trade away Alonzo now a sudden, they gotta patch that
hole behind him. It's kind of fascinating, right You go
from the Lakers being willing to give up every asset

(52:43):
and we told you this would happen. I told you
this would happen music. Did I not say, like, hey,
there's a chance, are now granted? This is not This
is not the fault of David Griffin. This is the
fault of of the Pelicans. Their best chance of getting
a deal was when the Lakers were super super desperate,

(53:05):
and I'm not sure they are that desperate. Now, that's correct,
you said. For some reason, Magic Johnson was bidding against
himself and the price kept going up and it turned
into a herschel Walker type trade, and for some reason,
the Pelicans just did not pull the trigger. They were
too jaded and emotional by the entire situation of what

(53:25):
seemed to be a power play by Rich Paul and
Clutched Sports that they were just unwilling to do business
and strictess just business, like I don't even understand that
this idea any You can't trade him in the West,
you can't treat it like why who care? Trade him
wherever you're gonna get the best offer. You're not legitimately
competing with the Lakers right now, Like right now, you're
just trying to build your own team. If I'm the

(53:46):
Pelicans and I can get a Lonzo Ball with Drew Holiday,
Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson, and then I have the
number four pick, the Lakers number four pick, like I
do that in a heartbeat. That's a great defensive lineup,
great defensive lineup. You know you can you can draft

(54:07):
a future big guy in Jackson Hayes. You can draft
a camera as you can really shoot, who's got a
ton of upside, Like there's other guys you can draft
with that four spot, and and then you get veterans
and like, look, you got three guys in a rookie
you know, you had two guys in a rookie or
three guys in a rookie contracts in that in that scenario,
So the the story of what they wanted wouldn't have

(54:30):
gotten out unless they wanted it out, and that's why
it got out. This is getting out of control with
the U S women taking on Thailand. What's the worst
blowout in the history of the Women's World Cup? All right,
I'll give you my you know, like there's a real
quick theory on why we're so good, right because women
have been allowed to play sports for a whole lot

(54:51):
longer here than they have in most countries. So we're
just way more invested in women's sports, women's team sports
like soccer then there are in other countries, and we
shoot with every time I see this, I believe we
should be better at men's soccer as well. Be sure
to catch live editions of the Doug Dot Leap show

(55:13):
week days at noon eastern three pm Pacific. All right,
let's start to Rick Buker from Bleacher Report and Fox
Sports one um obviously on social media, the Warriors are
bad because they lied to Kevin Durant and team doctors
are the worst. I talked to some doctors later today,

(55:33):
and several of them said, like, probably probably thought it
was torn, but didn't know. I couldn't, and so they
treated like it's a sprain and just kept their fingers crossed.
I guess my question, Buke, is what did they tell
Kevin Durant, Like he's thirty years old, could be if
it could be a free agent. What did they tell
him was going on in his leg? I honestly, I don't.

(55:57):
I don't know, And that is the question, Doug. And
and not only what did they tell him, but how
did they frame it? Did they frame it worst case scenario? Hey, Katie,
we know you want to play, but you have to
know that there's a possibility that you could tear your
achilles if you do or what do they said? It's

(56:18):
it's it's it might already be torn. So it's already torn.
You're gonna have to have surgery anyway, it's not torn,
it's not gonna go. Right. If it's partially torn, it's
gonna go, and you're gonna have to have surgery right again.
Well yeah, if they put it in those terms, Hey, look,
it's uh, you know that it was described whether it
was Bob Myers or someone else, and I can't recall
off the top of my head that, um he was told, well,

(56:40):
you can't make it any worse. Well, obviously that's not true.
And a lot of this just stems from the fact
that there was just so much mystery around it, some
of it contributed by Katie, and that he was very
his access was very or access to him was very
limited what he was saying about it, other than it

(57:00):
much more serious than the ones I've had before. And
then the Warriors, with the back and forth. He's he's
gonna test it, he's gonna play in a three on three.
Then he doesn't play on the three on three, but
there's no explanation as to why he didn't, and then
he's out. Then two days later he's going to practice,
and then he's good to go. I mean, it's just
it was wildly swinging from one one position to another

(57:25):
without a whole lot of information, and so if he
was getting the same kind of mixed messages or there was,
and I don't know that he was or he wasn't,
but there was the all the uncertainty around the gravity
of the injury. So it's one of two things. Either
they told him the wrong thing or they diagnosed it
incorrectly in terms of the severity of it. In either case,

(57:49):
he took a risk that just based on everybody that
I talked to, they were telling Katie, look, it's a
this the risk is too great. You shouldn't be playing.
You shouldn't try to play. We know you want to play.
But he had plenty of people that were advising him
not to and over the last week I'm told that
he basically went dark on on the people that we're

(58:11):
saying it's a bad idea, and he was hearing what
he wanted to hear because he wanted to play. My
position simply is the Warriors should understand that Katie wants
to play his He's not going to make the prudent
decision that it was incumbent upon them to make that
prudent decision for him, whether that's the doctors or the

(58:33):
organization as a whole. So what now for Katie? Well, like,
we still need to find out exactly what the uh,
you know, the extent of the injury is. I honestly,
I don't know that this really changes a whole lot.
I don't believe that it's an opt in for a year.

(58:56):
I don't think that makes sense for either the Warriors
or for k D, because it means that he's going
to rehab for a year on their dime, and then
what he's going to face free agency. Again, if you're
gonna if you're deciding that the Warriors is where you
want to be, then the Warriors should be tearing up
the the the extra year and signing him to a
max deal right now and making that commitment. Or if

(59:20):
Katie is looking to go elsewhere, then he should he
should do that and take a red shirt year wherever
he goes. I can tell you that the market is
still going to be the same that if there's one
team that I would wonder if they will fall out
of the market for k D, it would be the Clippers,

(59:40):
simply because that would put them back a year in
terms of winning exactly exactly. They could utilize their resources
right now and and go for it right now. But
if I'm the New York Knicks, Um, I don't know
that this changes anything. It gives me another year to
develop my guys. Who knows we get another quality uh

(01:00:00):
draft pick out of the equation. You've got money where
you can. You can spend it on on on veterans,
to mold the young players that you have, make sure
that you've got the proper leadership in the locker room,
and then uh, when Katie, you know you've got Katie
locked in for the future. You can build your team

(01:00:21):
going over the course of this year moving forward. You
can build it knowing that you're building it for Kevin Durant,
who's gonna show up a year from now. What about
the rest of the landscape of free agency doesn't Doesn't
it change? You know? Like I mean, do you think
Brooklyn is still in on him? Like? That doesn't feel
like that one fits either. This for Brooklyn it does

(01:00:41):
feel a lot like the Darren Williams thing right where
they always wanted Dwight Howard and Darren Williams we talked
about this last week and then you know, Dwight Howard
was like never healthy again. They never got him again
they got Darren Williams but never got much out of it. Yeah. Uh,
some of this depends on Look, Katie and Kyrie. Uh,
we we're planning to play together now, whether that was

(01:01:04):
ultimately going to come to fruition, the fact that Kyrie
seems to be all in on Brooklyn at the stage
from everything that I'm hearing, I had my reservations that
that Katie was actually gonna pull the trigger and wind
up there. But if what I don't know is how
much Brooklyn the Nets in their front office. Shawn Marks,

(01:01:26):
We're party to the plan that Katie and Kyrie had. Now,
obviously they were creating the possibility for those two to
come together and play there. The real question is going
to be are the Nets and go mode right now?
Do they think that they can take that money and
they go get a Tobias Harris or they go get
a again. I wouldn't add Jimmy Butler to that equation,

(01:01:49):
but uh, can can they go get somebody else? Obviously
Kemba Walker is not a fit. Tobias Harris is probably
the next Uh the next option? Do we go we
get him instead and think that we can make a
run a deeper run than we did last year. That's
the question that the Nets are gonna have to face,
or do we stay the course. We're bringing Kyrie, We

(01:02:10):
allow this team to continue to develop, and we'll have
kad for next year. Doug gotlive show here on Fox
Sports Radio. That's the voice of Rick Buker from Bleacher
Report and Fox Sports One. What about the game last night?
That was a fascinating game, considering it felt when when
Katie was healthy, You're like, oh, the Warriors go in

(01:02:30):
this series. Then he gets hurt, You're like, well, as
soon as the Raptors get the lead, they're gonna win
this game. And then the Warriors find a way, so
we do get one more game. An oracle, But do
we still have it? Do we actually have a series?
I don't feel as if we do. I believe as
if the Raptors, the Raptors have demonstrated that they are

(01:02:51):
the better team for more minutes in this series then
than the Warriors have. And I actually, going into yesterday's game,
I felt and even early on, I still felt as
if there was a chance for the Raptors to win
Game five. Because for me, it's not about the offense
when it comes to the Warriors, it's their defense. And yes,

(01:03:15):
if they're lightening it up from three point range, the
Raptors can't compete with them there. But if the Warriors
are any short of that, the things that the Raptors
are going to get around the rim, the ease with
which they can score. They've demonstrated that they can score
from the inside or get second chance points, and then
their ability to ratchet up their defense when need be.

(01:03:37):
They've demonstrated that, and they've demonstrated it an oracle. So
I mean, I look at everything and the boost and
the bump that the Warriors got from last night, and
by all rights, the Raptors were an absolute position to
win that game last night. It was some extraordinary shooting
by Clay Thompson and stuff. Even though we've come and
come up, we've we've become accustomed to it. The reality

(01:04:02):
is they needed to make every shot down the stretch,
and they did and they were ultimately able to pull
it out. I just don't see them being able to
sustain that for two more wins, especially without Kevin durant
Uh And then where are we on Kauai? Right? Like,
it felt like that was his chance, that was his moment.

(01:04:23):
This was his series and they call it time out
because he's tired and he gets doubled. And you know,
I know Kyle Lowry's shot was blocked, but it it
did look a lot like Carlton Banks's shot in Fresh
Prince bel Air. Um, do do we have any more
clarity on Kauai as far as where he's going to go?

(01:04:44):
The latest that I've heard is that he's going to
be elsewhere that hell would like to win a championship.
We'll give that to the Toronto Raptors as a parting gift.
But ultimately, this wasn't his decision to go there. Appreciates
what they've done to get him through this season. But

(01:05:05):
as long as he can be assured that he is
going to be treated the same way the next place
that he goes, as far as the proverbial load management
and how they handle him physically, then I would expect
from from what I'm being told right now, that he's
he He'll be playing elsewhere next year. If you had

(01:05:27):
to bet, we're just We're just kept. What is who
does Kevin? What does Kep Dendrand do in the off season?
We started with this, let's end with this if you had,
because I don't know. Like again, if he feels like
he was lied to by the Golden State doctors, then
any chance they he had of resigning goes out the door.
And my inclination is that he's going to get to

(01:05:48):
a point where as he sits with this and as
he looks as the arduous return and he thinks about
the pressure that was created because let's face it, that
there was a piece written I think it was by
Tim Calcami of The Athletic that insinuated that there was
frustration with with with Kevin, the fact that he wasn't

(01:06:08):
playing and that that was coming from the locker room.
And now it's we're going to win one for him.
But I just the more he thinks about how he
got to the point where he was goaded into making
this decision. And he's a big boy, Ultimately it's his choice,

(01:06:29):
but the fact that he had people around him telling
him that he could do this and or that he
should do this, or that he needed to do this,
and now he finds himself where he is, I'm I'm
with you. I can't help but think that that's going
to have a negative impact on the Warrior's chances of
retaining him. Next Thursday, Fox Sports Trade will be live

(01:06:50):
throughout the first round the NBA Draft with pick by
pick analysis by Chris Broussard, Rick Buker, and Jason McIntyre.
The action starts at seven o'clock Eastern time next Thursday,
right here on Fox Sports Radio. What did I What
did I say? I don't know what I said. Whatever
I said, I hope whatever I said. Let's uh. I've
worked for enough companies now I get I lose my
mind at Fox Sports Radio. There you go. That's next Thursday.

(01:07:12):
Should Kawhi Leonard have taken the final shot? Last nime
we discussed next be sure to catch live editions of
The Doug dot Leap Show week days at noon Eastern
three pm Pacific. I mean, this has to be some
kind of record, right, do we know if it's some
kind of record? It feels like it's some kind of record.
It's twelve nothing, now, twelve nothing. The US women's national

(01:07:36):
team is leading the the ladies from Thailand. That's so
wow wow wow wow wow wow. Um reminder, Next Thursday,
Fox Sports Radio will be live throughout the first round
the NBA Draft, Picked by pick analysis hosted by Chris Brussard,
Rick Buker and Jason McIntyre. The action starts at seven
o'clock Eastern Time. The largest margin of victory before today

(01:07:59):
was eleven nil Germany over Argentine, and the Women's World
Cup that was in two thousand seven is now twelve
nil and when the seven minute, so it's probably over.
I would guess the ladies knew that. And we're going
for the record, and I think we've kind of called
off the dogs every day. This time we play for
you a portion of a previous show on Fox Sports

(01:08:21):
One or Fox Sports Trading. We call it Fox Say Here.
Was Nick right on why Kawhi Leonard made the right
play last night? No, not when you're double team by
andre Iguadala. People glorified Kobe would have taken that shot. Okay, maybe,
but there's a reason why Kobe is six of twenty

(01:08:41):
three on those shots, a shooting percentage right over because
he took a lot of terrible ones. We glorified guts
over smarts far too often in sports. Kawhi Leonard had
a chance to have arguably the single greatest moment in
NBA history. We've never had a buzzer beater to win
a championship, and he turned it down because it was

(01:09:02):
the smart play. It didn't work out, but it was
the right play for the Raptors. Michael Jordan's shot wasn't
a buzzer beater. I had to go back and look
Jordan's last shot. Utah. I for some reason, I thought
of that one was the last second shot. I could
be wrong, but I thought it was. Um. But now

(01:09:25):
there's six point six seconds remaining in the game when
he shot the basketball, so that was not technically a
buzzer beater. It would have been about the same a
little bit. It would been about the same the one thing,
and I generally agree. You know, he had two guys
on him, and that's where you have to trust your teammates.
And there was an ext and pass me by Van Bleet.
I'm not sure if the shot would have counted, but
it's a great recovery play from from from Draymond Green

(01:09:48):
to block the shot, and that's why it went so erratic.
But um, the the one argument for shooting over a
double team, and there's two actually, like right, the one
is the one that I make when I'm playing pickup ball.
Me taking a bad shot is better than you taking
a good shot, and he might be right. Additionally, when

(01:10:11):
you have two guys on the ball help coming, you
jump up and shoot, that means you have an advantaged
situation on the boards. So and there was time to
to to shoot it early, catch and get get a rebound.
Do I think that Kawai Leonard made the right play?
I do? I do. When we've been critical of Lebron

(01:10:31):
fred times doing it. The difference Lebron is oftentimes he
passes when he's not double teamed. This was a clear
double team, and because of the spacing and because of
the recovery or lack thereof, and they're recovering from Draymond Green,
he didn't actually have an open shooter by the time
Kyle Lowry got the ball, and Kyle is either too
small or too slow getting it off, and the shot

(01:10:52):
was blocked. But by anyone's estimation, that was the right play.
It wouldn't have been necessarily the wrong play to shoot it.
It just would have been a lower percentage shot. There
are some higher percentage parts to it. Take a listen
to what Kauai Leonard said when he was asked about
why he didn't shoot that last shot. A lot of
people on social media especially, and a lot of us

(01:11:13):
watching and wondering why you didn't take that final shot.
I mean, two guys came up on me, you know.
I mean, I don't know if I could have got
a shot off. It's hard. I mean, if you've got
two guys on top of you, if you have to
try to find the right play. Now we end up
getting a shot in a corner, but just then go

(01:11:34):
off quick enough. Yeah. So, um, I think they had
spacing issues. I don't think he made the wrong decision.
I think he could have been helped out by the
coaching staff and in terms of where they were spatially
on the court. Do I think he could have gotten off? Yes,
I think you would have made it. Probably not. Do
I think that also could have created some offensive rebound opportunities?
I do? I do. Um, it is now thirteen nothing,

(01:12:02):
thirteen nothing. That's what the fox said, go ahead of music,
aren't we also somewhat giving a pass to Kauai Leonard
on this situation deservedly because literally last round in Game
seven he hit two was the two rounds ago. Oh

(01:12:23):
that's right, because it was against the but that was
against the seventy six years. But yeah, I mean he
literally did take the shot and made the shot earlier
in the playoffs. So it's not as if he has
some sort of long standing streak where he's known to
pass at the end of games. Right now, he has
a reputation of not being scared to take and make
the big shot. And in this particular instance, the Golden

(01:12:45):
State did what you're supposed to do, which is make
somebody else teat you. Let's make somebody else beat us.
Let's take away his right hand, let's double team him,
let's make one of the other guys. And Kyle Lowry
is a good shooter. Um, but he's small and he
didn't get it off quick enough and it was blocked.
But make somebody else beat us. So you're right. Had
he not had the equity from having hit the game

(01:13:07):
winner against the Philadelphia seventy six years, that's when you're
talking about correct. That is correct. Yes, yeah, that was
game seven of the second round. Remember they beat the
Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference finals. So um so,
had he not had that equity, and he's been a
finals MVP before, I think this would have been a

(01:13:29):
different discussion I would have been. It would have been
a very different discussion. So the women's national team wins
thirteen nil and it wasn't even as close as thirteen nothing.
Worst loss you've ever suffered, most embarrassing. Oh, I'll tell

(01:13:51):
you mine real quick. My freshman year of volleyball, we
lost to a team five to nine, and my coach
was embarras us because he's never had a team that
didn't score double digit. Yeah, it was pretty bad. Um.
We took some beatings in Notre Dame my my freshman year,
but they were they were really they were good teams,

(01:14:14):
not like not like this. Honestly, it's probably been more coaching.
When we played a game Saturday, we were down eleven
nothing to start the game and the other team nice
kind of took it easy. Honestly, I think we lost
by twelve, but it was twenty three to four to
start the game, where you could even blink, and they
were just they were just getting wide open layups. Our
kids was our kids were younger, and they were a
little bit overwhelmed, and they put in some of their

(01:14:35):
backups and it got to be where it was it
was fine. Um, I don't know what thirteen Neil translates into.
You know, uh, in baseball, you know my son's team
got run ruled twice in the same day. You know
that one that's in back to back games. Didn't make
it out of the fourth inning both days, both games.

(01:14:58):
You're like, there's a that's the only thing is that
at least it was done quickly. And uh, those are
brutal days. I think once we I don't think we
should have scored the thirteenth goal, Like you're of twelve nothing,
you want to go for the record? Fine, got the record?
Did need the thirteenth goal? Do I think this is

(01:15:20):
the end of and you know something? Is it? Is it?
Something nasty? Like? No? But that was a terror they
were Tyland was terrible at soccer. They were terrible. That's
everything you used to think about some of these countries
in terms of the product they can put out there.
That was really bad, really bad, worst loss I've ever suffered.

(01:15:44):
I mean, I've told the story before on the All
Ball podcast of playing against Indiana when I'm at Notre Dame.
Were down four to fourteen and a half and the
home crowd of IU was channing, don't come out and
I'm thinking to myself, do we have to like there's
any rule that says we have do that. This is
just not fun. That was a bad one. We took
some we took some beatings my freshman year, and now

(01:16:05):
today that we played a really good schedule, we gotta
be we gotta run off the court by u c
l A. On our home floor. They had offered me
a scholarship. I was up long time U c l
A fan. My sister was a cheerlier there and that one,
that one hurt because I was on our own home floor.
So many things changed with just one plant of a
right foot last night. I'll tell you what they were next.

(01:16:27):
On The Doug Gotlip Show, Fox Sports Radio. 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. What if Doug Godleave Show
Fox Sports Radio brought to you Buy Farmers and Farmers

(01:16:49):
We've seen almost everything soon how to do almost anything
when it's game time. Having experienced player help you stay
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Farmers dot Com. Are Farmers one the plant of one
right foot changed so many things right changed so many
different things, really crazy. I I felt, I felt so

(01:17:15):
good about myself. You guys know, I hate doing like predictions,
not necessarily I don't mind lines, but like predictions of
how I think things are gonna go. Like it's really hard, foul, trouble.
Guys make shots, miss shots. There's a lot of things
you don't know matchups sometimes you don't. But I felt
that if Kevin Rant was coming back, he had to

(01:17:35):
feel good about where he was physically. And if Kevin
Rant plays, you'd have to think that even if he
doesn't make shots, he commands he demands your respect, and
that allows Clay and stuff to kind of be playing
staff a little more and sets their defense changes everything
when at you play. But heck, he's hitting his shots.

(01:17:57):
He looks like he's feeling good. I gotta be honest.
With about ten and a half minutes in that game,
I felt like the smartest person on earth. You ever
do that, Ryan, You ever go like, man, I am
so smart, so smart? I had There was a dinner
I had with a company that I've done some work
with at a place in Santa Monica. They had this

(01:18:20):
is the most amazing thing. The place is called herring Bone,
and it was all seafood. They had octopus like octopotty
where it's it's not like Colamari, It's not not breaded
and fried, but it was kind of it's batter if
you will. Before it was cooked was buffalo sauce. So combined.

(01:18:44):
If you like octopus and you like hot wings, combine
the two together, and between the texture and the absorbance,
it was amazing. It's one of the twenty best things
I've ever eaten in my life. There was other apps
that they had they were really good as well, but
that thing. And I'm sitting there and everybody was coming
to essing, like what do think happens on What do
you think happen? Hey? What do they happens? Comping to
what do it happens to? Our guy was gonna be

(01:19:05):
on the Knicks. What do you think happens? I'm like, well,
I don't know. He's kind of the best player in
the game, and he makes him better, and we stopped
this nonsense that he doesn't make him better. I think
they win the series. If he's healthy, they win the series.
That was my feeling ten and a half minutes in,

(01:19:28):
I felt like the smartest human being on earth. Then
k D plants his right foot and his calf or
achilles looks like it ruptures as you watch his legs
shake and and something that you know, some camera work
that just wasn't available ten year ten years ago, we
never would have seen the injury. We've seen him go

(01:19:48):
down and we didn't wouldn't really notice the ripple because
now everybody has HD and four K and super SlowMo
and everything is amazing. We saw it. It's terrible. Here's
Bob Myers after the game discussing Durant's injury. I don't
believe there's anybody to blame, but I understand is this world,

(01:20:11):
and if you have to, you can blame me. And
let me tell you something about Kevin Durant. Kevin Durant
loves to play basketball, and the people that questioned whether
he wanted to get back to this team, we're wrong.

(01:20:31):
So now now we're left with this really weird What
did he know? Like, what did he know and when
did he know? We obviously know what he did about it,
what they tell him because I talked to several doctors,
including surgeons, guys that do achilles tendon uh surgeries today
and a guy who I've known him for how am

(01:20:53):
I so for thirty years is a extremely well regard
its surgeon. And he said m ryes are hard to interpret,
so he doesn't even use them. He realizes in the
examine exam and what happened And when Kad first did
he turn around like he got kicked. And everyone who
tears their achilles says it feels like someone you kicked

(01:21:16):
them achilles. They can tear clearly and you get two
free edges and you see it's separated by fluid, but
that's uncommon. More common they tear such that each looks
like a mop. In these situations, m r I s
show bridging tissue with no apparent gap, and sometimes there's

(01:21:36):
not much bleeding, so it may look like it's not
as bad on the m r I. It can heal
in those situations, but it takes a lot longer than
he gave it. Also, the calf muscle is not as strong,
so they knew it was torn. If they knew it
was torn, they likely would have done surgery. Um so
my certain, my my surgeon buddy said he thinks he

(01:21:57):
was an underwhelming our m r I, plus the please
don't let it be the Achilles factor played into the
diagnosis and the decision to treat it like a strain.
But he thought it all along and pictured a poor
doctor who probably deep deep down knew that it was
probably already torn and he's been sweating bullets since it happened.

(01:22:19):
He probably said he thought it could be torn, but
not certain, and so he had two options, which are
to explore and repair, which is a surgical procedure and
keeps you out for the same amount of time, or
to treat it like a strain and see if it
gets better. And that's what they did. They treated like
a strain. And my guess is that what's going to

(01:22:40):
come out is the doctors were very upfront and probably
honest with k D and said, hey, we think it's
a strain. It could be. If it's torn, you're gonna
have to have surgery anyway. Literally, there's no more damage
that you can do to it if it's our. If
it's torn, it's gonna pop even more and then you're
gonna have to surgery. Had just become more obvious. And

(01:23:03):
if you and and if it's not, then it's just
a strain and you're fine because you've gone through the
process of what should heal it? And they held their
fingers and of course, you know, eleven minutes in the game,
I think pops. So many things change though, I mean,
I guess the Knicks still go after him, but should they? Right?

(01:23:26):
Remember mari stotomy. Are they he had the bum knee
when they got him? Like the Knicks have been here
and done that before with taking on players with injuries.
So you're gonna take a guy with a four year
contract and eat one year and have him sit out? Like? Okay,
do the Golden State Warriors tear that deal up and

(01:23:47):
offer him a new deal? I would say they probably do,
because in truth, Katy could be back next year for
the playoffs. It's nine months off. Here's Brian Windhorst from
me ESPN explaining what last night means the rest of
the NBA. The NBA just changed Next year. There's teams
crawling all over themselves to get Durant. There's gonna be

(01:24:08):
this pecking order. There's teams making trades to clear salary
cap space. The thought was he was going to be
available on the market. The In addition to this series,
the entire NBA just changed. And the other part that
changes with the NBA is no matter what the truth
is about Durant, what he knew, how how risky he

(01:24:28):
thought it actually was. Um, you're going to get this
air on the side of caution. I didn't say that's
a bad thing, but I'm just telling you, I think
that's what's gonna happen. You're gonna get this incredible error
on the side of caution because remember what happened with
k D. Now, there are plenty of guys that have

(01:24:49):
played banged up and played quite fine and reap some
benefits from it. But because Kevin Durant um towards achilles tendon,
even if the truth is it was already torn and
they would have had to have surgery anyway, because that happened,
You're you're gonna get air on the side of caution. Guy.

(01:25:09):
That's the Joe Gett and Um, I think I think
you know, Look, obviously it may not change for the Knicks,
but the Nets are out because the Nets wouldn't. They
don't want to sign him for another year later. Right,
you already have Kyrie who has had major injuries. You're
only gonna have the two of them together for four
years like that one doesn't work, And then you got

(01:25:34):
the whole idea of okay, well what about the Clippers?
That one doesn't work? The Lakers don't really work. So
now it kind of becomes does does he stay loyal
and do they stay little to him with Golden State,
or does he go to the to the Knicks? And
I also brings it back to what I've always thought,
which is why was he gonna leave to begin with?

(01:25:54):
And now he's getting the respect from all these other guys.
They haven't been able to win without him, They do
in act need him. He wouldn't have to move. I
almost feel like now we're to the place where if
Kevin Durant chooses to go to the New York Knicks,
he's telling you, and it probably will tell us anyway,
either he'll tell us or tell us in a burner

(01:26:16):
account that they weren't upfront and honest with him and
he was blindsided by the possibility of tearing his Achilles tendant.
I don't think that's the case, but I think it's
definitely a possibility that that's assuming the worst instead of
assuming the best. And I just don't like I don't
love that music. What do you think ultimately comes out?

(01:26:37):
Mm hmm yeah, man, it's tough. I really, I honestly
don't know, no, no clue, yeah, I just what makes sense? Right?
It is weird that we all thought, like everyone thought
it was an achilles and like no, no, no, no,
no no, it's a calf and then it ends up

(01:26:59):
being a Lillie's And wait, so we knew all along?
Did he know all along? That's the part that's nuts,
absolutely nuts, all right? A lot to get to this
hour here in The Doug Gotlip Show, Chris Brusar joins
the show. What does he think k D knew before
he took the floor last night? Plus with the Pelicans trade,
Anthony Davis before the draft, and if so to where

(01:27:22):
how did the NBA changed last night? Find out next.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Doug dot
Leap Show week days at noon Eastern three pm Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app.
The Doug Gotlip Show rolls on here on Fox Sports Radio.
I Am you know Rama's I'm gonna go do some
local radio after this. In Los Angeles getting ready for
Dodgers Angels Halo's got a big win yesterday. Uh, this

(01:27:47):
is that there's some good interleague play taking place now. Um,
it's not all interleague though, right, I mean, it's just
it is a weird schedule. Right. You have you have
the Subway Series. You got Battle of Ohio taking place. Uh,
you have uh this series obviously between the Angels of
the Freeway Series as it's called. And I think that's

(01:28:09):
it in terms of inter league play. Now there's a
Milwaukee in Houston. Houston used to be in the National League,
now they're in the American Milwaukee used to be in
the American League. Down there in the National you have
the White Sox and the Nationals, which is a weird
in league series to begin with. Um, but the inter
league plays is I just I liked it. Maybe they

(01:28:32):
need to add two more teams. I think they're gonna
add teams. I think, frankly and the NFL is gonna
add teams as well. It's a way to get more revenue.
Whether waters down the product or not, it doesn't matter.
But baseball, especially considering so much of the revenue is
regionally based, I would guess they're gonna add more teams.
Let's welcome in, Chris Brucear from Fox Sports One and
the Odd Couple. Odd Couples are great radio show that

(01:28:55):
is uh uh. There's an hour in between my show
and their show. Jonas Knox and r J Bell have
Straight out of Vegas. It's an hour show, gets your
sets the lines for the night and then Rob Parker
Chris Broussard, Odd Couple. You can listen to it on
satellite radio. Listen to it in your Fox Sport radio affiliate.
You can download it as well. It's outstanding. Chris, what

(01:29:17):
are you led to believe that Kevin Durant was told
about his kaff for Achilles before he played last night? Well,
you know, we saw Rachel Nichols of ESPN report that
she was talking when she walked out of the building
last night with Steve Kerr and that he told her.

(01:29:39):
And I have no reason to doubt her report that
Kerk kept saying the doctors told us he couldn't hurt
it anymore. He you know, he couldn't further damage the injury.
And you know, you hear that a lot. You can't
hurt it any worse. And so if that's the case,
then I have to you know, everybody's wondering what way,

(01:30:00):
if there's any blame, where should it go. I would
have to look at their medical staff and question that
diagnosis because obviously that was in case and and I
can't buy and I know they're saying it's a totally
separate injury. One was the calf one was and that
that that Maybe I don't know if that's true or not,
but I know there's no way you can tell me

(01:30:22):
that wasn't related to his prior injury. Here's the other thing,
quickly about the medical situation. You know how it goes. Usually,
before you're cleared after being out for a long time,
a team will have you practice hard or whatever and
then wait to see how your recovery is the next day.

(01:30:47):
You you didn't he didn't get a chance to do that. Obviously,
it's the NBA Finals, no team is going hard. But
there was also really no no time given for him
to recover and let's see how he, you know, how
he respond the next day. And so there are a
lot of things pointing to the medical staff really messing
this up. Um. I talked to a surgeon today and

(01:31:10):
he said, look, the m r s can be inconclusive
but that a doctor probably thought probably like you know,
like he said, like, look, you can't really go by
an m R. I you go by UM by you know,
your your own evaluation, and then by what the guy says.
And you know, Kevin Durant said, he said he felt

(01:31:31):
like he got kicked. That's almost always the sign of
achilles tendon. So there's at least the chance that they said, hey,
look we think it's a strain, but it might be
partially torn. I it's partially torn, You're gonna have to
get it fixed anyways. You can't do it. If it's torn,
it's gonna pop. You can't do any more damage any
You're gonna have to have surgery at the end of
the year to anyway. Is that is that? Have you
been heard that that's a possibility at all? I have

(01:31:54):
not heard that. In Kevin Durant's case. I know, Isaiah
town is the legendary I the time, if you know,
he's his career was essentially ended by an achilles injury.
Um he said that doctors didn't tell him that. And
it's slightly torn, and it's gonna tear anyway, you know,
like it's gonna be get fluy tor and if you

(01:32:15):
play on it and there's if you're rested, it's not
gonna heal. So you know, he played and eventually it
did tear. I I mean, I guess it's possibly. So
you're you're saying that in that case, Durant would have
known he had a torn achilles or slightly torn achilles,
and they're just letting it be put out there that

(01:32:37):
it was a calf injury. I've known or at least
that it's a possibility, right that it's just very hard
to determine that that's a it's a possibility and is
an achilles injury that difficult to detect. Well, okay, so
I'll read this to you. This is this is my
buddy who's a surgeon who actually fixes them. And I've

(01:32:59):
done this earlier on air Stuck Gotic Show here on
Fox Sports Radio. He said, m R. I s can
be hard to interpret. Sometimes he doesn't even get them.
He realized in the examine what happened when Durant first
did it. He turned around real quick looking for the
guy who kicked him. Everyone who tears their achilles says
it felt like to kicked him. They can be you know, clear,
like chopping a rope where there's two free edges, but

(01:33:20):
more commonly they tear such that each end looks like
a mop. In these situations, m r s might show
bridging tissue with no apparent gap, and sometimes they'll they'll
be not much bleeding, so it may not look as
bad as it is on m R I. Uh. In
those situations, it can take longer to heal, but the
calf's not as strong, so if they they knew it

(01:33:42):
was torn, they would have done They would have likely
done surgery. He thinks it was an underwhelming m R
I plus the please don't let it be the Achilles
factor played in the diagnosis and decision to treat it
like it's a strain. But he's thought it all along.
Picture the doctor just sweating bullets hoping it it wouldn't tear.
He probably uh said he thought it could be torn,

(01:34:03):
but not certain yet. Two options explore options explore surgery,
which would be repaired that's out for the season, or
treated like it's a strain and see if it gets better.
And of course they treat like it's a strain, cleared
him to play and end up being a teror it
sounds very probable. And it also sounds like kind of

(01:34:24):
like I was saying early, just more evidence of a misdiagnosis, malpractice,
whatever you want to call it, on the part of
the training staff. You know, And this is why I
mean people have compared it to the Kauai Leonard situation.
I didn't see any reports. Did you think Kevin Durant
got a second opinion? I think he should have gotten

(01:34:47):
the second opinion, No question, you should have. Now Now,
Bob Meyer said yesterday that there were multiple doctors and
multiple m r I s right. He said, this is
a collaborative decision. I agree with you on a on
a second opinion. I just don't know who the who
who the opinions were and if they if they got
a second opinion. But he did say multiple doctors. I
don't know if they worked together. I don't know how

(01:35:08):
that how that goes. I agree with the impression. I
got the impression from his comment that they were all
kind of part of the Warriors medical team. Now maybe
I'm reading into that incorrectly, but that's kind of how
I took it. Um Okay, So what does this due
to Kevin Durant's future? Man that's the million dollar question.

(01:35:32):
I know this. It's actually cut more million than that.
It's like million dollars question. Uh. Look, A very likely
possibility is that he just opts into his contract. People
forget he doesn't have to be a free agent. You
got thirty one point five million dollar opt in. He

(01:35:52):
could do that probably, you know, were assuming we're all
assuming this tour and he'll be out next season rehab
with the Warriors. Then you can decide, Okay, do I
want to stay here? You get to see how next
season goes for the Warriors? Do they win it without you? Uh?
Do they struggle without you? Whatever? You know, then you
can make a decision do I want to stay here

(01:36:14):
or do I want to go elsewhere as a healthy player?
Or there's what about the possible I think there's still
the possibility the Warriors could, especially if they feel and
what you a lot of people I thought to do
a few people around the league. Some people feel like
Bob Myers. We all know Bob is a great guy,
but that maybe some of those heres in addition to

(01:36:36):
feeling for KD was was also guilt, you know, um,
and what if the Warriors offer him the five year,
two hundred twenty one million dollar max right now? Does
he take that? Now? What the questions some have with
that is he's not sure he wants to stay in
Golden State for the next five years, so that would

(01:36:59):
be then it's not for turning that down. But obviously
he could accept that just for security, even though he
doesn't need the money. And then I know a team
like the Knicks will still offer him the four year,
one D sixty four million dollar I believe it is
max roughly won sixty max. Even if he's you know
he's gonna be out of year. But if you're the Knicks, look,

(01:37:24):
I'm gonna give you two different scenarios, Doug, because the
Clippers dream scenario has been Kauai and k D. If
I'm the Clippers right now and I get Kauai Leonard,
I'm not going after k D. Not question, no, no question.
But the Nets, the Nets shouldn't either. Like both those
teams are in win now mode and you're a year

(01:37:45):
away from getting k D back. That that's a two
year plan that doesn't fit. Like to me, what happened
last night was the Warriors became a bigger possibility and
the Nets and the Clippers and probably the Lakers out
the the Lakers were, but the Lakers are the all
three of them around, right. I think that that makes

(01:38:05):
a lot of sense. And I think the Knicks now,
I think his desire to go to the Knicks will
lesson because of this. But the Knicks will still offer
him the MAX, and like you said, they're not you know,
they're not in win Mow mode. They wait a year
and you know they get him next year. They'd be
fine with that, and I and I would if I
were running the Knicks, I would still offer Kevin Durant

(01:38:28):
to the MAX and be willing to wait on him.
Chris Brussard from Fox Sports One and The Odd Couple,
which the show seven o'clock Eastern, four o'clock Pacific with
Rob Parker here on Fox Sports Radio. Um, okay, what
about the Anthony Davis stuff. He wants long term deals,
only thinking Knicks or Lakers, right, So I mean that

(01:38:51):
that changed, and then you had R. J. Barrett saying like,
I don't really want to play anywhere else, So he
had all this other stuff. Here's here's the deal with
all that. Even though Anthony Davis is saying Knicks or Lakers.
They're not going to fully one commit to anybody. Now

(01:39:12):
most of the Lakers, you got Lebron there. So the
likelihood of Anthony Davis resigning there is is virtually with
the Knicks. They they will be like, look, because you
know how it works, the Knicks will get to talk
to Anthony Davis before they would make any deal. Anthony

(01:39:33):
Davis is gonna be like, look, we love it here.
This is definitely one of our prime destinations, but we
can't one commit to resigning here. And if he goes
there by himself, if he gets traded there this year
by himself, they're not gonna have They're gonna be a
contender in the East. You know, they might not even
make the playoffs, depending what else they added around it,

(01:39:54):
which wouldn't be another likely another superstar. So the like
the Knicks would be giving up the you know, the
number three pick and whatever other young asthlets and players
they have for a guy that might not stay when
you go thirty seven and you know, fifty or forty
forty two or whatever it would be, you know, when

(01:40:16):
you win thirty seven games next year, So that's an
element um and I if they're not getting k d
or Kyrie Irving. If I were the Knicks, I would
not go all in to get Anthony Davis on what
could even be a one year really so I would. Uh.

(01:40:37):
I think the Lakers chances of getting him have improved.
I think they were good anyway. David Griffin is not
opposed to dealing with the Lakers. I'm told it's not
a situation of I out of spite, I'm not trading
him there. Uh, they like LIONSO Ball. They're like brandon
Ingram best Lions O Ball second and Kyle who's a

(01:41:00):
third among the Lakers players. Uh, the old They do
have questions about brandon Ingram and his health with the
blood clots, and you know, if that doesn't get cleared up,
then that's the problem. But Griffin, you know, it's hoping
to get a third team involved with the trades. We
can get a get an All Star in his package
as well, So that's kind of I think the Lakers

(01:41:23):
are the front runners. Fanthony Davis, what about what about
the series? Well, look, I think you have to give
Toronto the edge. Obviously they're up three too, Obviously they've
got games seven at home. If it if it goes
that far. And if you look at the situation, I mean,

(01:41:44):
the Warriors made twenty three pointers, second most in Finals history.
The Raptors made eight. The Raptors missed you know, six
or seven eight percent they had shot from the line
in the first four games. As you know, a lot
of those shots yesterday were wide open that they just missed.
So and they got nothing really from Kawhi Leonard except

(01:42:07):
for that two point first, which was tremendous. You know,
near the end of the game. Seam didn't play well
and so they've got to be feeling like, look, if
we just play a solid game, we're going to beat
this team. And so I think the advantage goes to Toronto.
I picked the Warriors in six. Obviously that's not happening.

(01:42:28):
But as a guy that picked the Warriors, and you
know how this is, we want our picks to be right.
I do feel like they have a pretty good chance
of winning this series. But I think the edge clearly
has to be with the Raptors. Yeah, I think it
does too, But you know, it's something about this team
and finding way. I just think they just out of
out of bodies, They just you know, because Cavon Looney.

(01:42:50):
I mean, the reports are that he thinks he's going
to play, he feels like he's gonna play. But that's
another and and Ken, you count on boogie. If Looney
doesn't play, can you count on looking to give you
another pretty good performance like he did last night? Yeah,
I'm not sure. I'm not sure either, but we wait
and we'll see. And it's been a uh, it's been

(01:43:12):
a it's been a it's been a crazy series and
now all of a sudden we get ready for a
crazy post season, I mean crazy um offseason as well. Yeah,
I mean another thing, here's another thing. If I'm Kyrie
Irving and I go and I'm I want to go
to Brooklyn, but I'm not getting Anthony Davis, who you know,

(01:43:33):
they're not gonna have a lot of assets to trade
for him now that they made that move, you know
last week. Uh, And I'm not getting Kevin Durant. I'm
not going to Brooklyn. I would stay in Boston if
I were Kyrie. And you know, if they got issues
with some of the younger players who want to be stars,
I mean those might be those guys might be right.

(01:43:57):
So personal decisions are up to the player. If you
want to live near home, whatever, but basketball lives. To me,
it makes no sense to go to Brooklyn, leave Boston
for Brooklyn if you're not getting K D R A D.
Has there ever been a one eight on our judgment
of fans than what happened last night in Toronto, Because

(01:44:18):
at the start of the game, it was look at
these fans, they've been out in the rain all day
and then they're all singing, oh Canada. Right the guy
was supposed saying, he just he turned it into like
open mic night and holding out and the whole place,
and you're like, what an unbelieved webster And then there's
some of them are cheering when Kad goes down. Now, look,
I would say that's the ultimate respect, right when when

(01:44:40):
they think the second you get hurt, that there's no
chance that you can win, that's the ultimate respect. On
the other hand, you don't do that. Everybody knows you
don't do that. Um. I can't think of a more
a bigger one eighty than that. No, it was a
bad look. I mean, like you said, fans, some us
do what fans do. And we've seen, you know, some

(01:45:03):
bad behavior from fans before, not just in Toronto. Uh.
And then fortunately it doesn't make up for it all
the way. But obviously they cheered him when he was
walking out and they began channing k D. Right, So
did they, you know, not grasp the seriousness of it initially?

(01:45:24):
You know, when he goes down, you're thinking, Okay, he
just fell, you know, we got the basket or did
they really think, Okay, k D got injured again and
this time it's serious. I think I think they probably
just had an initial reaction that, you know, on second thought,

(01:45:44):
oh wow, it's just serious, and especially with the players
helping them understand that, and I think that that so
I'm not gonna kill him for it. But it was
like he fell down in a heap and was yelling
and screaming. And that was interesting about it is KD
just kind of sat down and he was like he
knew he was done. I'm sure he felt it pop.

(01:46:05):
He didn't look like he was in a ton of pain,
and I'm not like it wasn't It wasn't even like
Kobe where he couldn't lift up his foot like he
did put some pressure on so you you you probably
thought like, all right, he just restrained his his calf
and that's gonna be it. So, I mean, I and
I hate to give I'm not giving a complete pass,
but I do understand. And like we're all watching on TV, right,

(01:46:28):
we all saw that replay. You're in the arena. You
don't see or hear anything. You don't except for Kevin
Durance laying down, sitting down the court and you got
a dunk. Yea yeah, So yeah, I'm with you. I mean, look,
it's it was wrong, it was unfortunate, but I'm not
gonna fully kill him. You know, like they were just

(01:46:48):
you know, totally consciously buoying a guy that's got a
serious injury. Yeah, it wasn't like it was the Roman
Colosseum and they were, you know, putting their thumbs down
so that he had to he had to die, he
had to go. That's actually how the loser of your
arguments on the odd couple, that's actually what happens the
Wolves for about thirty seconds or so, Chris buss A

(01:47:08):
check them out with Rob Parker four o'clock Pacific Coast time,
four o'clock Pacific Coast time, seven o'clock Eastern time, or
next Thursday, Chris is gonna host the first round the
NBA Draft, picked by Pick Analysis by Chris Brustard, Rick
Buker and Jason McIntyre. The action starts at seven o'clock
Eastern Time next Thursday, right here on Fox Sports Radio. Chris,

(01:47:29):
keep up the great work. Look forward to hearing you
in about an hour and a half. All right, thanks man, Hey,
head scratching higher in the NBA? Who is it? Find
out next? Be sure to catch live editions of the
Doug Dot Leaps Show week days at noon Eastern three
pm Pacific Doug Got Leave Show, Fox Sports Radio. Do

(01:47:49):
Do Do Do Do? Do Do? Do? Do? Do Do So
tomorrow Radio show fired up Thursday. We will be in
Pebble Beach Friday. Same thing, same thing. Hey, when's the
next game? I don't even know when the next game is?
Thursday night. Oh, that's not a terrible drive. Your boy

(01:48:10):
might go get tickets. I'd be an expensive ticket, though
not a terrible drive. Golden State is favored by three
in that game. It feels like a gift, doesn't it? Music?
It really does. I'm back on the games three and

(01:48:31):
four seemed like they were just giving away money. Um,
and now this one again with no Durant because you
got to imagine, I mean, unless Curry's going for like
fifty five, I mean, it's this feels like a rap.
It does feel like a rap. Speaking of raps, not

(01:48:53):
a rap yet on the show. Let's get to the press,
the press. M damn bye what he got. John Ramos
just said it's not a rap, it's a rap tour.
So not bad for John Ramos on that one. Playing
some word games. No update on Kevin Durant as of yet,

(01:49:14):
but again, m RI I schedule today go into New
York for that evaluation, Mark Padino of the San Josian
Mercury News saying tonight or tomorrow we're likely to find
out those m r R results. Memphis Grizzlies today found
a new head coach. They hired Bucks assistant Taylor Jenkins
to lead the team in the future. Taylor Jenkins, who
was kind of an unknown assistant. He g league head

(01:49:36):
coach for one year and he's followed Mike Budenhols around
like from San Antonio G League Boonenholzer with Atlanta, Budenholzer
with Mount Milwaukee. Uh. That's a weird one though, right,
And I guess because he's been in developmental coach. You're
gonna have John Morant. I just I don't know if
that's the way I would have gone. But you know,
Memphis is not in wind Mountain now mode. They're in.

(01:49:57):
They're gonna have Jaren Jackson from last year and John
Rant from this year, and that's the new young core
that they'll have to build around. Interesting higher. The NFL
is investigating the situation involving Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott,
where the running back running back pushed over a security
guard at a music festival in Las Vegas last month.
The Dallas Morning News says the league reached out to

(01:50:19):
the Las Vegas Police Department just a day after the incident.
I didn't think he pushed him over. I think he
did with known as big boying him, which is what
Ramos did to me yesterday. I was like, what what? What? What?
Stand up? I was like, I listen. I like the Angels.

(01:50:41):
I'm not that big a fan. He's like, you don't
like the Dodgers. You know, like the Dodgers. You want
to go? I go. Look, I'm not a Giants fan.
I don't want to go. I don't want to go.
Ramos there was also like a steel fence divider that
he was pushing him up against that tipped over. It
was It's not a good move, lost his balance, giant
said coach petch Irmer says the team will play their

(01:51:01):
best player at quarterback to start the season, as Eli
Manning isn't the sure bet to start over rookie Daniel Jones.
Schermer was asked today and if there will be a
quarterback competition, and that was his answer. They're gonna play
the best guy when week one comes around. Hmm, do
do do do do do um the best guy. I

(01:51:22):
love that We're gonna start the best guy. We're not
gonna sit Eli Manning right away because that's not gonna happen.
We're gonna why don't you say, We're gonna let it
organically take place. Eventually we'll start, We'll start the kid,
but right now, let's go with Eli until we're out
of the playoffs and then we won't start Elie anymore.
Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers made a seven figure donation to

(01:51:42):
the CALF Football program to help renovate the locker rooms
and also established the Erin Rodgers Football Scholarship. This has
been a good ye aside from the inability to chug
a beer like a normal uh, god fearing American. Has
been a pretty good offseason here for Aaron Rodgers, right,
Happily dating got has the biggest contract in the NFL.

(01:52:05):
I think still maybe he's been sped Russell Wilson surpassed
and and he hates that. Right, but now he's given back, like, yeah,
he's doing all the right things. Let's see how they
can play. He wanted to give the players more room
to relax at Cal. Dodgers outfielder Cody Bellinger leads all
players in the first returns of voting for next month's

(01:52:26):
Major League Baseball All Star Game in Cleveland. One point
one eight million votes so far for Cody Bellinger. What
a great year he's had. Huh hey, how about the
leadoff kid for for the Angels, Tommy Lostella. Yeah, he's
got fifteen home runs already home runs. We have a

(01:52:47):
studio divided with the Freeway Series by the six oh five,
Ryan Music and Doug gott Leeb on one side, John
Ramos on the other. As the two games set in
the Big A wraps up tonight. Oh, there was some
pidgeon tease though, right, like, oh, it's a big thing.
Let's do a two game set. Like a two game
set is yeah on a Monday on Tuesday, on a

(01:53:10):
Monday and Tuesday in l A. That is terrible planning majually,
like Major League Baseball. What are you doing? That's a
Saturday Sunday, dude, there's a double header today. Swung high
and there goes eat roped us high that us far
us gone over the grandstand up in the bleachers, the sanchino.

(01:53:33):
He has a two run home run. Oh that Gary
is scary. That's a two run blaster rou and then
Yankee say a twelve five league. He sends that text
message for the right bo seats that we're just playing
any Danny john Sterling Jan was amazing. Network is amazing.

(01:53:56):
Did you know Season Walman has been nominated for the
Radio All of Fame? Can can? Yes? But can can?
That was terrible, terrible time Thyland thirteen mill and the
most lopsided World Cup match ever. Alex Morgan five goals

(01:54:17):
in the American victory. Backing out there and pressed. That
was the press. I don't know what the best soccer
match I've ever seen is. That was the worst. That
was the worst that I mean, like John Ramos is
like I've been on the beating end of they the
Thai women did not get a shot on goal, didn't

(01:54:37):
get a shot. That was bad, bad bad bad bad bad.
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