May 24, 2024 • 49 mins
On today's Dan Patrick Show, DP talks to Chris Mannix about last night's Celtics-Pacers game. What would a Celtics Championship do for them? Yahoo's Pat Forde explains how schools paying college athletes will work, and Brian Windhorst discusses the Lakers coaching vacancy.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox
Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Today's Mercedes Benz Interview of the Day, brought to you
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You learn more nbusa dot com slash EQE. We'll get
phone calls coming up. Also settle on a poll question.
(00:26):
We welcome back our good friend Chris Mannix who joins
us from Boston. He was there for Game two last
night on loan from Sports Illustrated, their senior NBA writer,
how would you sum up last night?
Speaker 3 (00:40):
I don't know if.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
Dominant would be the word I'd used, but a pretty
convincing win overall by the Celtics.
Speaker 5 (00:47):
I mean that game one. I think they needed a
game like that.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
That was just the second game they played in these playoffs,
dam where they've had to play some clutch time minutes
like they did down the stretch of regulation and overtime.
Speaker 5 (00:59):
And it's kind of in the story.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
Of this Celtics season, like they have one of the
largest point differentials in NBA history. During the regular season,
they've largely cruised through a lot of these games. In
the playoffs, they needed some kind of you know, kind
of a sharpening game, if you will, and I think
they got that in Game one. Then they came out
in Game two when youah, Indiana had some moments you know,
(01:22):
where they played well, but really, from start to finish,
this was a game in the self that's completely controlled.
Speaker 5 (01:28):
Is it fair?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
This seems like it's almost a national pastime of the
national media and their opinion criticisms of the Boston Celtics
that they have been incredibly successful up to a point
and then they can't win that title. But they had
a historical season. What they've done since twenty seventeen should
(01:50):
be applauded, but they have to win. So the national
media's job role in all of this in kind of
piling on the Celtics. How does that feel to you?
Speaker 4 (02:04):
I think it's fair to a degree because they haven't
won that championship. I do think you have to look
at each of these seasons and you really go back to,
you know, the the twenty seventeen eighteen season, Jason Tatum's
first year in the NBA, and that's where it kind
of all begins, and you know they've been to a
lot of conference finals, but how many of them do
you think they should have won?
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Right?
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Like last year I think is the one year where
you can say this team underachieved to not be able
to beat Miami in a conference finals.
Speaker 5 (02:34):
You know, that was a letdown.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
This year, you know, looking at the rest of the field,
if they don't win a championship, it is a disappointment,
it is underachieving. So I understand the criticism to an extent.
But you know, last year unquestionably the one year that
they they should have done more. And this year, if
they can't win the whole thing, and it doesn't really
matter who they play out of the Western Conference, Dallas, Minnesota,
(02:58):
it will be viewed as a failure.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
And I think rightfully.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
So, yeah, just trying to figure this out that sometimes
I don't know if we looked at you know, the
Bulls with Michael Jordan and the degree of difficulty of
what they so call went through. You know, you went
through a banged up Lakers team, was Seattle a great
team with the Utah Jazz a great team. The Phoenix
Suns were an older team. But I don't think we
(03:23):
look back and go, well but Jordan, you know, but
we will do that to Lebron like way won in
the bubble. Well last I looked, everybody played in the bubble.
But it's we kind of pick and choose with, you know,
certain topics here. And I think the Celtics, what they've
done has been pretty incredible and if they don't win,
I mean, they're going to get a sigh of relief.
(03:44):
It feels like it's like when the Dodgers won the
World Series with Dave Roberts, Clayton Kerschwall. It's like it
feels that way for this Celtic team. And I don't
know if it's we're being fair to them.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
I think Dan, if the Celtics win a championship this year,
all the things that they've been kind of criticized for
up until this point will now almost become praiseworthy, right,
Like you know, it's like they've got the championship and
they've got the six trips to the conference finals, Like,
look at this unprecedented level of success. Look at how
(04:19):
this team has been able to win at or near
the highest level every year. You'll start talking about like
six conference finals, two trips to the NBA Finals one
championship like all of a sudden, the narrative they're getting
slapped around with that they're good enough to get to
a certain point but not good enough to win. That
Peydam and Brown are good enough to be a great
(04:40):
regular season team, but maybe not gooden to win a championship.
Speaker 5 (04:43):
All that will be gone.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
It will be part of a broader story where you know,
it's like this team has gone through the necessary steps
to get there, and now this could be the beginning
of a new Celtics dynasty.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Yeah, it's like the Braves in the nineties. They can
get to the World Series, but they can ever win.
Who is this Kyrie Irving? Where did he come from?
This version of Kyrie? How did this happen?
Speaker 4 (05:08):
You know, Dan we I didn't hear many of them,
but I did her a few chants at the garden
last night of we Want Kyrie. So if you're looking
for a good storyline in the NBA Finals, it's Dallas
Boston Kyrie making his return to the Guard Because I
promise you those fans there have not forgotten you know
(05:29):
that eighteen nineteen season in the Exit for Kyrie. To
Kyrie's credit, you talk to people in Dallas, and he
has been just a model citizen from day one. Now,
some of that, I'm sure for Kyrie was by necessity, right,
Like he forced his way out of three championship level
situations in Cleveland, Boston, Brooklyn, And if he didn't make
(05:53):
it work in Dallas, I'm not sure where he would
have wound up in what kind of contract he would
have wound up on. So there was certain pressure on
him to evolve and to be a good teammate, locker
room guy. But he has been that. He has been that,
you know, tenfold with that team. You see the postgame
press conferences that he has with Luka Doncic, and it's
(06:14):
clear they like, you know, playing together, they like being teammates.
And you just watch some of these games, Dan, I
had some coaches texting me during the last round. They
were saying to me, like, are you watching Kyrie Irving? Like, Yeah,
he's great, he's scoring, he's making improbable shots. They're like, no, Like,
he looks like he's trying on the defensive end much
more than they've ever seen him try in the past. Now,
(06:34):
he's never going to be a great defensive player, but
if he's giving you average the slightly above average defense.
His offense is so good and his shot making is
so good that there's very few players in the league,
at least guards, that are better than him. So this
has been a purposeful evolution of Kyrie Irving to get
him back to the point where once again we're talking
(06:56):
about him as being one of the great players in
the NBA and not one of the great distractions in
the NBA.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Is Chris Mannic Sports Illustrated NBA senior writer, what are
the Lakers waiting for hiring a coach?
Speaker 4 (07:10):
You know, whenever I talk to coaching agents and people
kind of that are staying abreast of the process, JJ Reddick.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
Seems to be the front runner here, and.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
Even those that have, you know, clients that have interviewed
there or have had discussions with them, they consistently say
to me like they think it's JJ's job to lose.
Now what they're waiting for, I'm not exactly sure. I
do think that the fact that Cleveland fired JB. Bickerstaff,
which we're gonna have a separate conversation about, but the
(07:42):
fact that the Calves let go of JB. Bickerstaff, I
think that will probably accelerate this process a little bit,
because I do think there could be and will be
some overlap with coaches the Calves are looking at and
coaches the Lakers are looking at. I'm talking about James Rego,
who you know is high on a lot of teams
(08:02):
list right now.
Speaker 5 (08:03):
I think Sam Cassell could.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
Have an opportunity in Cleveland as well, that that could
push the Lakers to make a decision sooner rapp later,
Because Dan, if you're looking at this in a vacuum,
Cleveland's a better job than La right now.
Speaker 5 (08:16):
It's kind of as simple as that.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
Not only is their younger talent there specifically Donovan Mitchell
and Evan Mobley and Darius Garland, but you're in the
Eastern Conference and you can have, as we saw in
the West, a great forty nine to fifty win season
and feel good about yourself and still wind up in
the playing tournament and not make the postseason overall. So
I do It's a long way of saying kind of
(08:38):
two ways. I do think JJ Reddick is the front
runner for this job, and I also think the Cavaliers,
now starting their coaching search, could push Cleveland, could push
the Lakers.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
To make a decision sooner rather than later.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
I just can't believe that when the reports say Lebron
is not involved in this. Okay, nobody has had a
more scripted, manicured career maybe in all of sports than Lebron.
He knows exactly what he's doing, how he's doing it,
where he's doing it, who he's doing it with, and
(09:12):
now at the end of his career he's all of
a sudden not involved in this.
Speaker 5 (09:17):
I find that really hard to believe.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
Yeah, I think Lebron's camp would tell you that by
and large, he's rarely been hands on when it comes
to hiring head coaches in whatever situation he's been in. Right, Like,
you know, there's no doubt that going back a few
years ago in what twenty nineteen, he wanted ty Loo
to be the head coach of the Lakers. That relationship
(09:42):
is well documented and you know it didn't work out
for different reasons, but that was the coach that he
certainly wanted.
Speaker 5 (09:48):
I think again, Lebron's.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
Camp will tell you that, you know, he's going to
get criticized for, you know, whatever issues he has with
a coach one way or the other, so it behooves
him to kind of stay above the frame and stay
out of Yeah, but if.
Speaker 5 (10:01):
You're going to get criticized, then be involved in it. Well,
I kind of agree with that.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
And I also think Dan, whether or not Lebron is
part of like a text chain with Rob Polenka and
Jennie Buss about who the next Lakers coach is going
to be. They're making these decisions in part with Lebron
and mind like, they're not hiring JJ Reddick if they
(10:26):
think he and Lebron are going to clash. They're not
considering James Barrego if they think he and Lebron cannot
don't don't share similar basketball philosophies, don't have similar basketball
mind So in a way, it's like a distinction without
a difference. Yes, Lebron might not be hands on with
the next head coach, but at the same time, no team,
(10:46):
including the Lakers, has ever hired a head coach without
taking Lebron's feelings into account.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Yeah, because he's in a podcast with the leading candidate
for the Lakers job.
Speaker 5 (10:57):
So that's a.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
Weird if if that comes to fruition, Dan, just to
you know, kind of expand on a little like that.
I just find that to be like, I think JJ
is a very smart basketball guy. But you know, you
saw the Eudonnis Haslem comments from last week, and look,
Haslin has skin in the game there, right. He's a
Chris Quinn guy. He wants to Chris Quinn get a
job his former assistant down in Miami. But he's not
(11:22):
wrong about some of these things. I do think there's
there's an element to you know, players in that locker
room potentially, you know, looking at JJ Funnier wondering certain
things about that relationship with Lebron James. When you can't
have that, you need to have you know, kind of
unflinching faith in your head coach or else it's just.
Speaker 5 (11:42):
Not going to work.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Yeah, but you none of those guys have status in
that Laker locker room.
Speaker 5 (11:47):
I mean maybe Anthony Davis.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
When Lebron's gone, a deal will be gone and you
know in two years sure now, the only thing I
could see with the Lakers is if I'm hiring JJ Reddick,
what kind of coach is he going to be two
years from now when he doesn't have Lebron and maybe
he doesn't have a d Is he the right guy?
Speaker 5 (12:04):
Then? So that would be the holdup, Yeah, that's the thing.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
You don't You don't want to hire a coach just
for kind of this two year window. You know, you're
looking at, you know, the next five years. And look
you mentioned something there, like, you know, everybody's talking about
Anthony Davis outlasting Lebron with Los Angeles. I'm not so
convinced that's the the end game there, Like when Lebron
hangs hi up, I'm not sure ad is going to
have the stomach to kind of rebuild in LA during
(12:29):
the last prime years of his career. So I think
I'd be looking at a long term candidate. But Dan, like,
who is a long term coach in the NBA not
named spoilster in Papovich. It's it's getting insane out there
right now. I mean, this has been one of the
wildest years in coaching that I can remember in a while.
But Adrian Griffin gets fired when his team is the
(12:50):
number one seed halfway through the regular season. Frank Vogel,
you know, in one year with a team that nobody
could have won more with, I'm sorry you can you
could not have done better given the circumstances. Frank Vogel
was handed in Phoenix than what the Suns did this year,
and they got beaten the playoffs by a team that
looks pretty good right now now playing in.
Speaker 5 (13:11):
The conference finals.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
And JB.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
Bickerstaff we just mentioned, like JB.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Bickerstaff, all he did was clean up the disaster that
was the John Beeline era in Cleveland, got them into
the play got them into the playoffs, got them to
the second round of the playoffs where they took a
game off the Celtics before the entire team went on
the injury list for the second half of that series. Like,
I understand, it's a players league, but at some point
(13:35):
you got to back your coach, right and if you
think if you have any questions about how you know
whether that's the rights philosophy. Two of the most successful
teams in the NBA, you know, over the last couple
of decades are San Antonio and Miami, and they have
the longest tenured coaches.
Speaker 5 (13:50):
In the NBA. So I just get you know, these coaches.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
Need to have a longer runway to do their jobs
or else they're never going to be able to do them.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
I can't imagine a year and you probably find this
out the last time you had three coaches who took
their team to the playoffs and got fired that year
that they took their teams to the playoff.
Speaker 4 (14:11):
I mean, I mean Darvin Ham on that list too. Like,
what were we saying about Darvin Ham last year? Conference finals?
Speaker 5 (14:18):
Coach?
Speaker 4 (14:18):
Look at what he got out of this team. You know,
they brought the band back together and the team struggled.
The roster was the biggest problem, more problem than Darvin
Ham and he's gone after two years.
Speaker 5 (14:28):
Like what, you have to have some longevity here.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
You have to give coaches time to to you know, instill.
Speaker 5 (14:37):
Their philosophy and still what they want to do.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
When you can't just have the threat of them getting
fired every single year.
Speaker 5 (14:43):
It just doesn't work. It's proven to just not work.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Before I let you go, MAVs or Timberwolves. Who you
got to win this series?
Speaker 6 (14:50):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (14:51):
That game one was was was surprising, you know, I
although I mean I guess it shouldn't be, as Minnesota
won the last series taken three games on the road.
Speaker 5 (14:58):
I'm still gonna go tour Minnesota.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
I think they're the more overall talented team.
Speaker 5 (15:06):
I don't think that.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
I think again, the Edwards will be more aggressive in
Game two, as we've seen him in other games this series.
And I just think Minnesota and this might be the
same way if they play Boston, but they are uniquely
equipped to take on teams whose strength is on the perimeter, right,
I mean, they have got so many elite defenders from
Edwards to McDaniels to uh Nikhil Walker, Alexander, like, these
(15:30):
guys are are big time defenders. And I think ultimately
that defensive strength is going to make Kyrie and Luca
a little less efficient than they need to be, and
I think that's gonna help Minnesota pull it out in
about seven games.
Speaker 5 (15:44):
Would you think of the Barkley interview yesterday, Oh, you're
the best? Dan?
Speaker 4 (15:47):
That was great, Like I mean, I I you know,
we all kind of grumble at our bosses from time
to time, don't nate palmum like Charles did on that one.
Speaker 5 (15:58):
I do like your idea and he kind of went.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
Along with it of just doing the the independent route.
Like I'd watch that show on YouTube, I'd seek that out.
I'd watch it wherever it was, and you could certainly
sell it off to any number of outlets and make
a boatload of money for it. I don't know how
you feel, dam but I'm of the opinion this is
not the end of inside the NBA. You can't have,
(16:20):
you know, a bunch of guys who are you know,
even at their respective ages, still in their prime television wise, like, still.
Speaker 5 (16:27):
Elite at what they do. They're not gonna go away.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
So whether it's a Turner or Independent or somebody else,
I have a hard time believing the end of inside
the NBA is near.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Yeah, I'm with you. Great to talk to you, have
a great weekend. Thanks for joining us always.
Speaker 5 (16:40):
You got it, Damn.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
That's Chris Mannix, senior NBA writer Sports Illustrated. We'll take
a break or play the day is up next. Fox
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(17:02):
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We get tons and tons of fan mail every day.
Speaker 5 (17:07):
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Speaker 4 (17:07):
In fact, Tony, why don't you open up one of
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Speaker 5 (17:11):
Hey? Listen to this.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Dear Paulie and Tony, your sports takes the dumbest and
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Dear Paulie and Tony, you suck more than anyone.
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Speaker 5 (17:38):
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Speaker 2 (17:41):
I saw this story yesterday, five takeaways from the NC
DOUBLEA deciding that colleges can finally pay athletes. USA Today
went through the five and then I go, Okay, I'm
still trying to figure it out. An agreement between the
NC DOUBLEA and all five of the Power conferences settling
three federal antitrust cases pave the way for athletes to
(18:03):
be compensated for their contributions instead of being treated as amateurs,
being paid for their athletic work through scholarships and for
their education. So I'm reading through it and I immediately
thought of Pat Forty from Yahoo Sports. I'm gonna put
it on him. Pat, explain this to me as a
football fan. What's it mean?
Speaker 3 (18:25):
It is a new day in college athletics, Dan, but
you know, this is kind of another step along the
way to a bunch of new days. But what it
basically means is that schools can actually themselves pay athletes.
That's the news dynamic here, as opposed to trying to
farm it out to a collective or pretending you're not
(18:46):
involved in who's going to get paid what, or just
flat out boosters paying athletes under the table. So we
have an institutionalized form of compensation for athletes. It's a
ton of money. The settlement is in the billions and
will be tens of billions going forward for the next
ten years.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Okay, a few questions come to mind. Is there still
going to be nil?
Speaker 3 (19:13):
There will still be ANIL and some of this may
actually be considered nil money, but there will be most
likely be name, image and likeness opportunities for athletes above
and beyond whatever their quote unquote salary would be, which
would ostensibly be ANIL salary, but there will be more
available to them.
Speaker 5 (19:33):
Yeah, are they university employees.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Not at this point, And that's kind of been one
of the needles. The NCAA and college Athletics has been
trying to thread here of we don't want an employee
employer relationship. Let's see if we can find a way
to pay you guys without making it specifically that.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Kind of a deal compensation for what your sport, the
revenue that your sport. How do I divvy up the
starting quarterback or the star of the lacrosse team that
won a national title.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
To be determined, and that will probably get dribbled down
to be a institutional decision of how the money gets distributed.
The question there becomes, Okay, what's the title nine impact?
If you're going to pay the football team x, do
you also have to pay the women's basketball team this amount?
Or you know, a star women's volleyball player. So all
(20:30):
of those details have not been hashed out at all,
but it's probably going to be up to eat each institution.
Do you want to pay up to twenty two million
a year in salary basically to players or do you
want to pay less than that? And then who gets it?
Speaker 7 (20:45):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (20:45):
So the university, it's case by case of do you
want to spend all the money each year on your athletes?
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Yeah, that's at least the theory right now is that
this will be school by school decision, and some schools
going to look, your Ohio state's, your Michigan, your Alabama's,
et cetera. Will be able to ease Texas easily be
able to spend the full twenty two million, and then
some you know, via outside anil, if they want other schools,
(21:12):
the Mississippi States, the Iowa States, the Purdues may say, ah,
we're not going to go that far. And then the
big question is really how far down the scale do
you go for the schools outside of the Power five.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Does this make it more likely or less likely that
college football is going to maybe have forty or fifty
teams that each year compete for a national title.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
I think it's another step in that direction. You know
that this is a further economic thinning of the herd
if you will, and you know who can afford this
and who can't afford it. You know, there's only so
many players to go around. I mean, there's more players
than there is spots. So you should still theoretically be
able to have, you know, a Cincinnati or somebody from
(21:57):
outside of the Power five that can get players but yeah,
if you're going to the best players are going to
be the highest paid players, and they're going to go
to the schools with the most money. So this is
going to continue probably the trend that we've seen of
consolidating the sport into US fewer number of contenders.
Speaker 5 (22:14):
Athletes still get scholarships through this app.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
Yeah, athletes will still get scholarships. There's actually part of
this will probably be that there will be more scholarships,
more athletes on scholarship, but there will be roster limits.
Now everybody on the roster. If you cap a football
roster at ninety everybody can get a scholarship, whereas opposed
it used to be eighty five baseball scholarships would have
(22:38):
been in short. Short supply will go up, et cetera.
That'll probably be a school by school thing too of
how many scholarships you want to fund, but you can
now fund basically everybody who's on your roster.
Speaker 5 (22:51):
Why would the NCAA settle because.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
They were going to lose for the ninety seventh time
in court. You know, their record is the Washington Generals
in court, and so they were looking at the possibility
of another loss here and up to twenty billion dollars.
If you believe the lawyers in potential damages, then.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
How do you see this playing out with Alabama, Georgia, Michigan,
Ohio State? Like, are they going to be separating even
further from teams that are in their own conference?
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Probably? You know, I think so, we'll see, you know
that this will be an interesting kind of barrier. I
guess for schools to say, like, hey, Mississippi State, we
can we do this? Can we can we spend what
Alabama spends and try to get players. You know, they're
certainly have people who are willing to spend money, but
are you willing to spend the same amount or is
(23:47):
this a further area where they pull away? And then
ultimately the decision becomes is this just become a big
ten sec enterprise or even within those conferences is it?
You know, there's there's certain teams that don't want to
keep up or can't keep up. So this is a
real challenge for the ACC for the Big twelve, for
the what's left of the PAC twelve, and then within
(24:09):
those power conferences, you know, does it become survival of
the fittest?
Speaker 2 (24:14):
And I'm wondering about college basketball, maybe there's a chance
players stay in college an extra year depending on the compensation.
Speaker 5 (24:22):
Do you see that as a possibility here.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Sure, Well, I think we've already seen that. You know,
we've seen some players, you know, especially I can think
of North Carolina Kansas who have stayed in school longer
than you might have expected because there's money to be
had there in their draft status isn't as secure. And
I think this will continue that probably on the football
side as well. You look at Michigan's roster last year.
(24:45):
You had a number of guys who could have gone
to the NFL, but this they stuck around because they
were getting compensated. And I think this will probably only
reinforce that.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
You go back to when Johnny Manziel was on the
cover of Time magazine that was eleven years ago and
the title was time to Pay College Athletes.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
Yeah, no, I mean, look, this has been in the
works for a while, right. We have seen step by
step the NCAA's obstructionist viewpoint kind of just be whittled
away and eroded, and eventually it became indefensible. And then
they started losing in court, and everything is really snowballed.
In the last five years and yeah, the Johnny Manziel.
(25:22):
Oh gosh, I had to get paid under the table.
Days are long gone.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Good to talk to you, Pat, have a good weekend.
Thanks for joining us. Thank you Dan, Pat forty Yeah,
who's sports College football senior writer.
Speaker 5 (25:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
I'm not sure about it either now, trying to figure
it out short term. Long term still feels like the
haves and the have nots. That makes me nervous. But
if we're going to get to what I've said for
I don't know how many years now, maybe forty fifty schools,
you make it like the Premier League? Can you have relegation?
Can you make it like the NFL? Can you keep
(25:58):
schools in their area and then you play one another
and then each year you change it up. So this team,
you know, in this part of the Big Ten is
going to play these teams and this part of the SEC.
So you know, there's a lot here and I think
we're going there. I'm just not sure when we get there,
(26:18):
how we get there.
Speaker 8 (26:19):
Yeah, it feels a little bit like the historic nature
of the agreement is being lost in the confusion of
the details. Yeah, that's fair, you know where it's like, wow,
they agreed to do this. But how the hell are
they going to do this? I don't know, and they
don't know yet. But they agreed to do it, which
is a massive step forward or a massive step in
(26:41):
a new direction for sure. Whether you agree it's the
right thing or the you think it's the wrong thing.
Speaker 5 (26:46):
It's a massive step. But they had to do it.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
It's not one of those where they go, you know what,
for the betterment of athletes, you know, college sports, let's
pay them.
Speaker 5 (26:55):
It's like we're gonna get sued. I think we will all.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
I think we need to correct, you know what we're
We're gonna right or wrong here what we're gonna do.
Speaker 9 (27:03):
Yeah, Paul, I think scene's right. It doesn't feel real yet.
It feels court real and headline real. But I always
think to myself when there so the NCA and these
big schools will find a way to kick this down
the road a couple more years where it's gonna be like,
we're going to start this in twenty twenty seven.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Yeah, but there's money to be made. That's why schools
went to the Big ten. That's why schools went to
the SEC. There's so much money to be divvied up.
You want to make sure. That's why you got schools
trying to get out of the ACC. Everybody is you know,
it's ten for yourself. And I think that's what college
football is going to become. I think college basketball will
(27:40):
probably still be able to stay with March madness.
Speaker 5 (27:42):
Now.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
I think they're going to expand more money, more schools,
more revenue.
Speaker 5 (27:49):
You got more.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Content for TV partners. It just feels that that's where
we're headed. A couple of phone calls in here Paul
in North Carolina. Hi, Paul, what's on your mind today?
Speaker 7 (28:01):
Hey, good morning, Dan, Thanks for reaching out. Hey, I
know my time is short, so I've got a quick question.
I want to tell you a great story. My question
is about the NBA media rights. Maybe you can address
this alf for my story is if there's companies wanting
to pay billions of dollars, why would the NBA just
not accept all of them and not eliminate canty. That's
my question. He can address that later. My story, Dan,
(28:23):
is that I want to tell you your voice has legal poll.
I'm in the restaurant business where I listen to your
show at all different times during the day. I was
coming home other night on the interstate, go a little fast,
and I probably should have got pulled over, shuffled in
my glove compartment looking for my stuff, But as the
CoP's going to need he gets up to me super quick.
I've got your podcast on. He introduces himself, and then
(28:45):
he stops and he says, is that the Dan Patrick Show?
He said, yeah it is. He says, Wow, that's my
favorite show or radio show. So yeah, mine too. He says, Okay,
a couple quick tests for you. He says, six three,
two fifteen, I said, Dan. He says, uh, who's your favorite?
Who's your favorite?
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Day Net?
Speaker 7 (29:04):
I said, man, I love them all, but Fritty, I
really He says, okay, watch your hands shirts not exactly
I said, not exactly shirre, but probably bigger than Martin's.
And he says to me, he says, well, I caught
your speeding, but I've never caught anybody listen to my
favorite show. So have you ever talked to Dan? Let
him know? His voice says legal poll and they let
(29:26):
me go. So thank you to.
Speaker 5 (29:27):
Thank you, Paul, Thank you, Paul. Awesome. Let's go past
the test. I like that. I'm not sure about the TNT.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
You know why the NBA, I mean, there's no loyalty
and they want to have more partners and streaming service.
I mean I get it. It's unfortunate, but it's what
can you do for me?
Speaker 7 (29:50):
Now?
Speaker 2 (29:50):
It's not what you did for me, it's as we
move forward. Hey, NBC is willing to spend this? Are
you willing to spend that?
Speaker 5 (29:58):
Oh you're not? Well, thanks for the memories here.
Speaker 8 (30:01):
Yeah yeah, I mean if everybody's willing to give them billions,
why don't they just take them all? Well, you're just
paying billions for some exclusivity. Once it keeps the more
you divvy up the pie, well, now that's the less
I want to pay. I don't want to pay that
much more.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Yeah, And if you're TNT, you don't want to have
like the third tier amount of games there. I mean,
you guys should get the best. And now you're gonna
be like, well, NBC took this, and ESPN took this,
Amazon took this. Here you go, TNT, you get this
game these games?
Speaker 9 (30:31):
Yeah, Paul, And that's what the NFL is gambling on
right now. You're gonna have to have five different subscriptions
next year to watch every NFL game. Three years ago,
you needed one subscription to watch every NFL game.
Speaker 5 (30:44):
And there may be one of them is going to lose.
Speaker 9 (30:47):
One of those places is gonna get left out and
people I can't subscribe to five things to watch all
the games when someone who's gonna pay a lot of
money is not gonna get Yeah, but.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
It's different with the NFL because of gambling and fantasy.
You don't have that in other sports. It's you know,
not as prohibitive that you've got to watch a game
and gotta have a bet on it. And I got
fantasy players playing in the game. So you will be
more than likely getting a streaming service subscription because you
have to because you want to watch your team, you
(31:17):
want to bet on the game, your fantasy team. I
get it. The other sports that's not the case. It's
not like I go man, I got to go out
and get an Amazon subscription for Thursday night football or
for the NBA. Now, I'll figure it out. I don't
need to have to watch every NBA game, But with
(31:37):
the NFL, you feel like you have to because these
are standalone games. There, Dorsey in North Carolina High Doris,
what's on your mind is good, good, good.
Speaker 10 (31:50):
I've been watching baseball all my life, and I'm really
tired of I'm tired calling.
Speaker 5 (31:57):
Horribly okay.
Speaker 10 (32:00):
For about forty years. And if I had did done,
i'd never had a job. I turned on the game
and the first pitch I see is three three inches
outside and they call it a strike. Well, I just
read that mands. Manfred said he's not going to do
anything about making it happen in eighty five that they
get to automatic robot untie.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Well, we're going to get there. In fact, I'm going
to take a break door see and we're going to
talk about this because we're going to get to and
it's not robotic umpires. The umpire will still be behind
the plate. It's you'll have a just like tennis. You'll
have a strike zone and they'll say the ball was
in the strike zone or it wasn't. Then they'll let
(32:39):
the umpire know. The empire will say that's a strike
or that's the ball. You have to have the umpire
there in case there's a play at the plate. It's
not like we're gonna have robots out there on you know,
first base, second base, third base, or at home although
it would.
Speaker 5 (32:52):
Be kind of cool.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
You're out of here, I'm going to run your leap,
all right, let me take a break, we'll come back.
We'll talk about that more phone calls as well. Brian
Windhorst will join us coming up in a little bit
as well. Back after this, be sure to catch the
live edition of The Dan Patrick Show weekdays at nine
am Eastern six am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and
(33:14):
the iHeartRadio w APP Game two tonight, MAVs at the Timberwolves,
MAVs getting five and a half Panthers at the Rangers
Game two. Always a treat to have Brian Windhorst or
the Mothership ESPN Senior NBA writer, A couple of random
things here. Thanks for joining us, Brian. When do you
think we'll see the first one hundred million dollar a
(33:36):
year player in the NBA?
Speaker 5 (33:37):
How long are we out?
Speaker 11 (33:40):
Six sevenish years? The uh, the new deal, it's going
to be about seventy five billion dollars And I don't
want to get into the weeds of the collective Bargain Agreement,
but they've they don't. They're not going to allow it
to spike up like it did the last time this happened.
They have a gradual so it can only go up
(34:00):
so fast. But there's going to be contracts signed this
summer where the back end of it, and it's like
twenty thirty, twenty thirty one. There will be years, there
will will there will be over eighty million, and so yeah,
when the guy actually gets paid one hundred million, it
will be into the next decade. But when he actually
(34:20):
signs for the hundred million will be I believe, within
this decade.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
And this is sustainable. This is is this streaming money.
That's kind of you know, the backdrop on this.
Speaker 5 (34:37):
Did I lose you?
Speaker 11 (34:40):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (34:40):
I hope him, hope.
Speaker 11 (34:41):
I'm not frozen.
Speaker 5 (34:42):
Oh yeah, you're unfrozen.
Speaker 11 (34:46):
So the TV money in two thousand, Am I frozen?
Speaker 3 (34:51):
No?
Speaker 5 (34:52):
No, you're good, You're good, You're good.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
Good.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
What let's take a break then we'll come back. Why
don't we see if we can re establish there, Brian.
Now he's frozen, we'll try to get him back here.
Speaker 5 (35:10):
At the moment, well, he looked like he was contemplsed.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
You No, I thought, damn good question. Yeah, just sitting
there once again, look at that. Wendy's stumped. But the
one hundred million dollar contract. It's right around the corner though,
because you're going to have Shay gilgis Alexander. He's going
to get eighty one million dollars. I think on the
last year of his deal that he'll sign.
Speaker 9 (35:32):
Yeah, Paul, you know you and Barkley were talking about
that thing yesterday about the international thing in the All
Star Game where it's the World versus USA. Yeah, and
both of you said like, well, maybe Adam Silver wouldn't
want that because then it's like, oh, USA loss to
be bad, wouldn't it be the opposite effect if the
world won, maybe be better for global expansion.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
I just want to see something that's entertaining, interesting, So
I don't think if I'm the commissioner, i'd be like, oh,
I'm going to run the risk of oh what happened
to USA basketball? I know when it comes to the Olympics,
we're still the favorite. But I wouldn't be worried about
an All Star Game. I would want to showcase the
players from another country.
Speaker 5 (36:13):
I would want to.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Elevate that, be proud of that, let them be proud
of that as well. But I wouldn't be worried that,
oh my gosh, look at what has happened to USA basketball.
The world is dominating US. So I don't think that's happening.
Let me bring back Brian. So Wendy we were talking
about the one hundred million dollars and then I said,
(36:35):
is this streaming money that's kind of elevating salaries are
going to be?
Speaker 6 (36:42):
Yes? And no. No, I still think it's mostly I
think it's actually broadcast money. I know that sounds crazy,
but if it's NBC and you know ABC are primarily
spending money, I mean it's it's a full sort of package.
Speaker 7 (37:00):
You know.
Speaker 6 (37:00):
You look at NBC, and you look at Disney, they
have all three. They have a cable network which will
be I don't know for sure. I'm not negotiating the deal,
but I guess USA they have NBC and they have Peacock,
and ESPN has ABC, ESPN Networks and ESPN Plus. And
(37:21):
it's the deal that the NBA is making. It sounds
like it's going to be about over five billion dollars
a year with just those two and the current deals
it's under three billion dollars a year. So it's the
deal before you even get into the streaming partner, which
reportedly is going to be Amazon, you're doubling the deal.
And so look in two thousand and fifteen sixteen, which
(37:46):
was the last year of the last deal, it was
I believe, less than a billion dollars a year, or
I don't know, maybe it averaged out right around. I
think it was about several eight hundred million dollars a
year that the NBA was making from its TV partners.
And this new deal, I believe will average in the
neighborhood of seven billion. And the games are not on
(38:07):
mostly not on streaming, They're mostly going to be on
over the air and over cable. So it's just the
value of media rites and the competition in the industry,
and the value of live sports. I know that there's
this big belief that it's all dying, but we keep
continuing to see evidence. So that's not true in live
sports and in the in the NBA, where there are
(38:29):
only fifteen players on the roster, the jumps there are
going to be most evident. And so you know, Dan,
we went between Michael Jordan, who was paid thirty million
dollars those two seasons at the end of his career,
at the end of his Bulls career, I should say
in like ninety seven, ninety eight. I think he put
over thirty million twice. We didn't see another thirty million
(38:52):
dollar player in the NBA because they put the max
contract in shortly there after they had the lockout. For
that there was not a thirty million dollar a year
player again almost twenty years. Think about how that happened.
And now there's dozens of thirty million dollars a year players, dozens.
That's in some cases that's considered a bargain contract, a
(39:13):
thirty million dollar contract now. So we've seen a huge
difference in the last decade and that's going to continue.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
The Cavaliers said goodbye to their head coach, and I
was wondering what that vacancy does, if anything, to the
timeframe of the Lakers if they're going to hire JJ
Reddick or whoever it is are that Are they connected
at all these these openings, Well, it.
Speaker 6 (39:38):
Depends on who the Lakers' top choice is. Yes, the Lakers'
top choice is indeed JJ Reddick, and I don't know
that it is. I think that he's a strong candidate
there their competition. He finals on ABC, because you know
JJ is calling the finals on ABC, and you know
I would think that if he's hired as the coach
(40:00):
of in any team, it would be difficult to call
the finals, and that's his job right now. So that's
an interesting by product that we don't always get. There
are other candidates. I think, you know, James Warrego is
a name that I feel like I'm the only one
bringing up. James Warrego is a very accomplished coach who
is who got a raw deal when he got fired,
in my opinion, got a raw deal when he got
(40:21):
fired in Charlotte, and is a strong candidate, especially for
a team like Cleveland the needs offensive intervention. And I
think he's a strong candidate in LA because if nothing else,
he's got a very good relationship as far as I know,
but or he's got a good a relationship with Anthony Davis.
So but in theory, yes, they are competing a little
(40:42):
bit the same type of coach. The Cleveland situation is
more tied to Donovan Mitchell than anything because this move
is at least in part related to Donovan Mitchell, and
I think that'll make the Calves potentially more aggressive, and frankly,
the Calves have demonstrated a more goings to spend in
the Lakers, so that I don't know if that'll be
(41:03):
a factor. I don't know if it'll come down to
a coach deciding between the two. But the last time
the Lakers were in a bidding war for head coaches,
they lost them. So I don't know if that'll happen,
but it's interesting. It's interesting history to know.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
Yeah, you bring up the valid point of it's not
normal when you go this guy would get the job,
or they'd announce the job, or have you know, an
introductory press conference. You're the new head coach of the Lakers.
But JJ Reddick is going to be working for the
next couple of weeks, which may be the hold up.
And then the stories that come out, the reporting that
Lebron's not involved, Why wouldn't Lebron be in be involved
(41:42):
for maybe the last two years of his career on
who's going to coach him? Like it almost seems even
more important that he wants to know who's going to
be here, and you know, how how do I get
along with this guy?
Speaker 6 (41:55):
All right? So this is one of these things where
the only thing I can do as a reporter is
ask the consumer for nuance. I can't guarantee the nuance.
In this world of aggregation, something that I say in
the next two minutes can be taken out, taken out,
and my phone will explode. I can just beg you
for nuance. Star players typically, as you know, Dan, I'm
(42:19):
not talking to you directly. I'm talking to your viewers
and listeners. Star players typically do not make yes and
no choices on coaches. It is unusual, not unheard of,
but unusual for a star player to speak to a
team and say, I want this individual fire today, you know,
to come into the office and pound your fifth or
(42:41):
I want this player hired. Star players make their feelings
about their coaches known, not in one meeting, but in
six months, and the executives who are with the team
watch how a star player interacts with his coach for
six months, and so yes, I'm sure that there are
discussions that happened, and there might even be a heads
(43:02):
up given you know, hey, we're thinking about going this direction.
Star players don't want Typically, again, you can find instances
it's not true, but typically star players do not want
it on their hands that they're picking their coach, even
if they helped do that. Over the course of the season.
So Lebron learned very early in his career he didn't
(43:26):
want to get involved in that, and so he is
never as far as I know. I think maybe the
one time where I think he played more of a
direct role was when David Blatt was fired and Tyler
was hired. But I honestly don't think he played a
direct role in hiring of any of the coaches he's had.
(43:46):
But then you could say, has he influenced the hiring
and firing of coaches? Of course he has. So this
is the this is the thing. It's not simple to say.
So when Lebron himself from the hiring of JJ Reddick,
it doesn't mean that he's not influencing the hire. But
he's not going in there and saying hire him. And
(44:09):
you know what part of the influencing of the hire
is You think the Lakers haven't watched the podcast or
listening to the podcast. You think they haven't watched JJ
Reddick on and listening to his podcast with other guests
and watch how he's interacted with other players. Is JJ
Redick being hired because Lebron said hire him? Or you know,
if if he's hired, you know, I don't know if
(44:29):
he's going to be hired. If JJ got hired as
a coach of the Lakers, if if, if, Okay, would
it be because of one moment? No, But would the
Lakers be influenced by the many hours that they have
watched and listened to his podcasts and watching players?
Speaker 10 (44:45):
Yes?
Speaker 6 (44:46):
So does that mean the players want him as a
head coach? Maybe? Does that mean they're going in and saying,
get me as head coach? Now?
Speaker 2 (44:53):
No?
Speaker 6 (44:53):
And I hate to be beating uh, beating this up,
but I mean I run into this every day during
this time, and I know as soon as people listen
to this, they'll say, yeah, well Lebron still make a decision,
And I can't. I could only tell you what I
experienced and actually talking to the primary sources here. If
you choose not to believe that you can do that,
it's it's your choice.
Speaker 2 (45:14):
We're talking to Brian Winnhorst, ESPN, senior NBA writer. We've
talked about this with the All Star Game, the international
players versus the American players, and it feels like it's
top heavy with the international players, where my starting five
is going to be really, really good. We were just
talking would the commissioner want to risk if the international
players happen to beat players born in the United States,
(45:37):
like it would it be a negative at all on
the NBA if you had an All Star game with
those two signs.
Speaker 6 (45:44):
Well, the thing about it is an all Star game
doesn't have practice. It's you know, it's not a referendum
on who's better. I mean again, this goes into nuance,
Like if the international players have beat the American players,
could you easily say the international players are yes, of
course you could say that, did they have a shoot
around and go over three plays?
Speaker 7 (46:04):
Are they?
Speaker 6 (46:05):
You know what I'm saying, Like, it's hard. By the way,
international teams and the international teams have been regularly beating
Team USA in international competitions. For the last five six years,
tam USA did not lose in any not just the Olympics,
but in any competition. They didn't lose between two thousand
and four, which was in sorry, two thousand and six,
(46:25):
all the way up to twenty nineteen thirteen years they
didn't lose one time, and they've lost like seven six
or seven eight times in the last few years in
the international competitions and with our frontline players by the
way sometimes they were second, our second best team, but
frontline players there. This summer in Paris will be the
highest level, highest most competitive basketball competition in the history
(46:48):
of the sport being staged in Paris. I say that
without qualification, and it's very possible the Team USA for
the first time to the two thousand and four will
not win the Goald. And it won't be because because
there they're not you know, interested or care or well
coached or whatever. They may just get beat. And when
(47:08):
it comes to All Star Weekend, Dan, we're headed for
a major change fall Star Weekend. I don't know if
you talked about this, you probably did, but I think
Roger Goodell recently went on the record saying that he
wants to extend this the NFL season by a week.
Speaker 7 (47:21):
Is that correct?
Speaker 6 (47:22):
Yeah, okay, that would push the Super Bowl into President's
Day weekend. President's Day weekend is where the NBA has
this All Star Game. And you could make a couple
of jokes here about how the NFL has moved in
on Christmas and now they're about to potentially move in
on President's Day, and both would be correct. So the
NBA is gonna have to make a change with All
Star Game. They can't if you know, they can't play
(47:43):
on Super Bowl weekend. And they have this other event,
the n Season Tournament, which is now called the Emirates Cup.
Please please make a note of that. And I suspect
that the NBA will consider merging those those those events
into one weekend and potentially doing away with the Shenanigans
(48:07):
of Saturday and the NBA Saturday Night and making it
three nights and having the semi finals, All Star Game
and uh and the Finals all in one. And now
now there's obviously a ton of logistics, namely since they
have named the All Star sites for like the next
five or four or five years. And I mean this
(48:31):
is my speculation from talking to people. I'm not saying
this is absolutely going to happen, but I think this
is something that's been discussed. And uh, that way you
would potentially get this uh you know, mega event where
people could actually plan to go to it, and you
would actually have competition over the weekend while also having
an All Star Game. And if you look at the calendar.
(48:53):
Now again, Adam Silver hasn't told me this, but I
am not a fool. I can look at the calendar,
And you say, well, where on the calendar there without
having the All Star Game in April, where on the
calendar can you avoid college or NFL playoff games? And
the answer is the week in between the championship weekend
the Super Bowl, that weekend where you know they put
(49:15):
the Pro Bowl, which actually is something that nobody actually
takes them in from the NFL. And so I speculate, speculate, Okay,
I'm not reporting this. I do not want to see
aggregation that says report holing. Okay, I am speculating this
based on conversations that I've had that we're going to
see a change to the All Star Game and then
possibly uh you know that. And so if you're going
(49:38):
to make a change like bringing the international first US
in there, that would be a time where you could,
you know, make a change when you're doing that, that
whole changeover.
Speaker 2 (49:49):
The great speculator, Brian windhorst Wen, do you have a
great weekend.
Speaker 5 (49:53):
Thank you again for joining us.
Speaker 6 (49:54):
You too,
You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox
Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Today's Mercedes Benz Interview of the Day, brought to you
by the utterly inspired All Electric EQE sat in from
Mercedes Benz, and you'll find out the vehicle all electric,
but the feeling is all Mercedes, the ev that recharges
You learn more nbusa dot com slash EQE. We'll get
phone calls coming up. Also settle on a poll question.
(00:26):
We welcome back our good friend Chris Mannix who joins
us from Boston. He was there for Game two last
night on loan from Sports Illustrated, their senior NBA writer,
how would you sum up last night?
Speaker 3 (00:40):
I don't know if.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
Dominant would be the word I'd used, but a pretty
convincing win overall by the Celtics.
Speaker 5 (00:47):
I mean that game one. I think they needed a
game like that.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
That was just the second game they played in these playoffs,
dam where they've had to play some clutch time minutes
like they did down the stretch of regulation and overtime.
Speaker 5 (00:59):
And it's kind of in the story.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
Of this Celtics season, like they have one of the
largest point differentials in NBA history. During the regular season,
they've largely cruised through a lot of these games. In
the playoffs, they needed some kind of you know, kind
of a sharpening game, if you will, and I think
they got that in Game one. Then they came out
in Game two when youah, Indiana had some moments you know,
(01:22):
where they played well, but really, from start to finish,
this was a game in the self that's completely controlled.
Speaker 5 (01:28):
Is it fair?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
This seems like it's almost a national pastime of the
national media and their opinion criticisms of the Boston Celtics
that they have been incredibly successful up to a point
and then they can't win that title. But they had
a historical season. What they've done since twenty seventeen should
(01:50):
be applauded, but they have to win. So the national
media's job role in all of this in kind of
piling on the Celtics. How does that feel to you?
Speaker 4 (02:04):
I think it's fair to a degree because they haven't
won that championship. I do think you have to look
at each of these seasons and you really go back to,
you know, the the twenty seventeen eighteen season, Jason Tatum's
first year in the NBA, and that's where it kind
of all begins, and you know they've been to a
lot of conference finals, but how many of them do
you think they should have won?
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Right?
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Like last year I think is the one year where
you can say this team underachieved to not be able
to beat Miami in a conference finals.
Speaker 5 (02:34):
You know, that was a letdown.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
This year, you know, looking at the rest of the field,
if they don't win a championship, it is a disappointment,
it is underachieving. So I understand the criticism to an extent.
But you know, last year unquestionably the one year that
they they should have done more. And this year, if
they can't win the whole thing, and it doesn't really
matter who they play out of the Western Conference, Dallas, Minnesota,
(02:58):
it will be viewed as a failure.
Speaker 5 (03:00):
And I think rightfully.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
So, yeah, just trying to figure this out that sometimes
I don't know if we looked at you know, the
Bulls with Michael Jordan and the degree of difficulty of
what they so call went through. You know, you went
through a banged up Lakers team, was Seattle a great
team with the Utah Jazz a great team. The Phoenix
Suns were an older team. But I don't think we
(03:23):
look back and go, well but Jordan, you know, but
we will do that to Lebron like way won in
the bubble. Well last I looked, everybody played in the bubble.
But it's we kind of pick and choose with, you know,
certain topics here. And I think the Celtics, what they've
done has been pretty incredible and if they don't win,
I mean, they're going to get a sigh of relief.
(03:44):
It feels like it's like when the Dodgers won the
World Series with Dave Roberts, Clayton Kerschwall. It's like it
feels that way for this Celtic team. And I don't
know if it's we're being fair to them.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
I think Dan, if the Celtics win a championship this year,
all the things that they've been kind of criticized for
up until this point will now almost become praiseworthy, right,
Like you know, it's like they've got the championship and
they've got the six trips to the conference finals, Like,
look at this unprecedented level of success. Look at how
(04:19):
this team has been able to win at or near
the highest level every year. You'll start talking about like
six conference finals, two trips to the NBA Finals one
championship like all of a sudden, the narrative they're getting
slapped around with that they're good enough to get to
a certain point but not good enough to win. That
Peydam and Brown are good enough to be a great
(04:40):
regular season team, but maybe not gooden to win a championship.
Speaker 5 (04:43):
All that will be gone.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
It will be part of a broader story where you know,
it's like this team has gone through the necessary steps
to get there, and now this could be the beginning
of a new Celtics dynasty.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Yeah, it's like the Braves in the nineties. They can
get to the World Series, but they can ever win.
Who is this Kyrie Irving? Where did he come from?
This version of Kyrie? How did this happen?
Speaker 4 (05:08):
You know, Dan we I didn't hear many of them,
but I did her a few chants at the garden
last night of we Want Kyrie. So if you're looking
for a good storyline in the NBA Finals, it's Dallas
Boston Kyrie making his return to the Guard Because I
promise you those fans there have not forgotten you know
(05:29):
that eighteen nineteen season in the Exit for Kyrie. To
Kyrie's credit, you talk to people in Dallas, and he
has been just a model citizen from day one. Now,
some of that, I'm sure for Kyrie was by necessity, right,
Like he forced his way out of three championship level
situations in Cleveland, Boston, Brooklyn, And if he didn't make
(05:53):
it work in Dallas, I'm not sure where he would
have wound up in what kind of contract he would
have wound up on. So there was certain pressure on
him to evolve and to be a good teammate, locker
room guy. But he has been that. He has been that,
you know, tenfold with that team. You see the postgame
press conferences that he has with Luka Doncic, and it's
(06:14):
clear they like, you know, playing together, they like being teammates.
And you just watch some of these games, Dan, I
had some coaches texting me during the last round. They
were saying to me, like, are you watching Kyrie Irving? Like, Yeah,
he's great, he's scoring, he's making improbable shots. They're like, no, Like,
he looks like he's trying on the defensive end much
more than they've ever seen him try in the past. Now,
(06:34):
he's never going to be a great defensive player, but
if he's giving you average the slightly above average defense.
His offense is so good and his shot making is
so good that there's very few players in the league,
at least guards, that are better than him. So this
has been a purposeful evolution of Kyrie Irving to get
him back to the point where once again we're talking
(06:56):
about him as being one of the great players in
the NBA and not one of the great distractions in
the NBA.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Is Chris Mannic Sports Illustrated NBA senior writer, what are
the Lakers waiting for hiring a coach?
Speaker 4 (07:10):
You know, whenever I talk to coaching agents and people
kind of that are staying abreast of the process, JJ Reddick.
Speaker 5 (07:18):
Seems to be the front runner here, and.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
Even those that have, you know, clients that have interviewed
there or have had discussions with them, they consistently say
to me like they think it's JJ's job to lose.
Now what they're waiting for, I'm not exactly sure. I
do think that the fact that Cleveland fired JB. Bickerstaff,
which we're gonna have a separate conversation about, but the
(07:42):
fact that the Calves let go of JB. Bickerstaff, I
think that will probably accelerate this process a little bit,
because I do think there could be and will be
some overlap with coaches the Calves are looking at and
coaches the Lakers are looking at. I'm talking about James Rego,
who you know is high on a lot of teams
(08:02):
list right now.
Speaker 5 (08:03):
I think Sam Cassell could.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
Have an opportunity in Cleveland as well, that that could
push the Lakers to make a decision sooner rapp later,
Because Dan, if you're looking at this in a vacuum,
Cleveland's a better job than La right now.
Speaker 5 (08:16):
It's kind of as simple as that.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
Not only is their younger talent there specifically Donovan Mitchell
and Evan Mobley and Darius Garland, but you're in the
Eastern Conference and you can have, as we saw in
the West, a great forty nine to fifty win season
and feel good about yourself and still wind up in
the playing tournament and not make the postseason overall. So
I do It's a long way of saying kind of
(08:38):
two ways. I do think JJ Reddick is the front
runner for this job, and I also think the Cavaliers,
now starting their coaching search, could push Cleveland, could push
the Lakers.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
To make a decision sooner rather than later.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
I just can't believe that when the reports say Lebron
is not involved in this. Okay, nobody has had a
more scripted, manicured career maybe in all of sports than Lebron.
He knows exactly what he's doing, how he's doing it,
where he's doing it, who he's doing it with, and
(09:12):
now at the end of his career he's all of
a sudden not involved in this.
Speaker 5 (09:17):
I find that really hard to believe.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
Yeah, I think Lebron's camp would tell you that by
and large, he's rarely been hands on when it comes
to hiring head coaches in whatever situation he's been in. Right, Like,
you know, there's no doubt that going back a few
years ago in what twenty nineteen, he wanted ty Loo
to be the head coach of the Lakers. That relationship
(09:42):
is well documented and you know it didn't work out
for different reasons, but that was the coach that he
certainly wanted.
Speaker 5 (09:48):
I think again, Lebron's.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
Camp will tell you that, you know, he's going to
get criticized for, you know, whatever issues he has with
a coach one way or the other, so it behooves
him to kind of stay above the frame and stay
out of Yeah, but if.
Speaker 5 (10:01):
You're going to get criticized, then be involved in it. Well,
I kind of agree with that.
Speaker 4 (10:05):
And I also think Dan, whether or not Lebron is
part of like a text chain with Rob Polenka and
Jennie Buss about who the next Lakers coach is going
to be. They're making these decisions in part with Lebron
and mind like, they're not hiring JJ Reddick if they
(10:26):
think he and Lebron are going to clash. They're not
considering James Barrego if they think he and Lebron cannot
don't don't share similar basketball philosophies, don't have similar basketball
mind So in a way, it's like a distinction without
a difference. Yes, Lebron might not be hands on with
the next head coach, but at the same time, no team,
(10:46):
including the Lakers, has ever hired a head coach without
taking Lebron's feelings into account.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Yeah, because he's in a podcast with the leading candidate
for the Lakers job.
Speaker 5 (10:57):
So that's a.
Speaker 4 (10:59):
Weird if if that comes to fruition, Dan, just to
you know, kind of expand on a little like that.
I just find that to be like, I think JJ
is a very smart basketball guy. But you know, you
saw the Eudonnis Haslem comments from last week, and look,
Haslin has skin in the game there, right. He's a
Chris Quinn guy. He wants to Chris Quinn get a
job his former assistant down in Miami. But he's not
(11:22):
wrong about some of these things. I do think there's
there's an element to you know, players in that locker
room potentially, you know, looking at JJ Funnier wondering certain
things about that relationship with Lebron James. When you can't
have that, you need to have you know, kind of
unflinching faith in your head coach or else it's just.
Speaker 5 (11:42):
Not going to work.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Yeah, but you none of those guys have status in
that Laker locker room.
Speaker 5 (11:47):
I mean maybe Anthony Davis.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
When Lebron's gone, a deal will be gone and you
know in two years sure now, the only thing I
could see with the Lakers is if I'm hiring JJ Reddick,
what kind of coach is he going to be two
years from now when he doesn't have Lebron and maybe
he doesn't have a d Is he the right guy?
Speaker 5 (12:04):
Then? So that would be the holdup, Yeah, that's the thing.
Speaker 4 (12:08):
You don't You don't want to hire a coach just
for kind of this two year window. You know, you're
looking at, you know, the next five years. And look
you mentioned something there, like, you know, everybody's talking about
Anthony Davis outlasting Lebron with Los Angeles. I'm not so
convinced that's the the end game there, Like when Lebron
hangs hi up, I'm not sure ad is going to
have the stomach to kind of rebuild in LA during
(12:29):
the last prime years of his career. So I think
I'd be looking at a long term candidate. But Dan, like,
who is a long term coach in the NBA not
named spoilster in Papovich. It's it's getting insane out there
right now. I mean, this has been one of the
wildest years in coaching that I can remember in a while.
But Adrian Griffin gets fired when his team is the
(12:50):
number one seed halfway through the regular season. Frank Vogel,
you know, in one year with a team that nobody
could have won more with, I'm sorry you can you
could not have done better given the circumstances. Frank Vogel
was handed in Phoenix than what the Suns did this year,
and they got beaten the playoffs by a team that
looks pretty good right now now playing in.
Speaker 5 (13:11):
The conference finals.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
And JB.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
Bickerstaff we just mentioned, like JB.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Bickerstaff, all he did was clean up the disaster that
was the John Beeline era in Cleveland, got them into
the play got them into the playoffs, got them to
the second round of the playoffs where they took a
game off the Celtics before the entire team went on
the injury list for the second half of that series. Like,
I understand, it's a players league, but at some point
(13:35):
you got to back your coach, right and if you
think if you have any questions about how you know
whether that's the rights philosophy. Two of the most successful
teams in the NBA, you know, over the last couple
of decades are San Antonio and Miami, and they have
the longest tenured coaches.
Speaker 5 (13:50):
In the NBA. So I just get you know, these coaches.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
Need to have a longer runway to do their jobs
or else they're never going to be able to do them.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
I can't imagine a year and you probably find this
out the last time you had three coaches who took
their team to the playoffs and got fired that year
that they took their teams to the playoff.
Speaker 4 (14:11):
I mean, I mean Darvin Ham on that list too. Like,
what were we saying about Darvin Ham last year? Conference finals?
Speaker 5 (14:18):
Coach?
Speaker 4 (14:18):
Look at what he got out of this team. You know,
they brought the band back together and the team struggled.
The roster was the biggest problem, more problem than Darvin
Ham and he's gone after two years.
Speaker 5 (14:28):
Like what, you have to have some longevity here.
Speaker 4 (14:33):
You have to give coaches time to to you know, instill.
Speaker 5 (14:37):
Their philosophy and still what they want to do.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
When you can't just have the threat of them getting
fired every single year.
Speaker 5 (14:43):
It just doesn't work. It's proven to just not work.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Before I let you go, MAVs or Timberwolves. Who you
got to win this series?
Speaker 6 (14:50):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (14:51):
That game one was was was surprising, you know, I
although I mean I guess it shouldn't be, as Minnesota
won the last series taken three games on the road.
Speaker 5 (14:58):
I'm still gonna go tour Minnesota.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
I think they're the more overall talented team.
Speaker 5 (15:06):
I don't think that.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
I think again, the Edwards will be more aggressive in
Game two, as we've seen him in other games this series.
And I just think Minnesota and this might be the
same way if they play Boston, but they are uniquely
equipped to take on teams whose strength is on the perimeter, right,
I mean, they have got so many elite defenders from
Edwards to McDaniels to uh Nikhil Walker, Alexander, like, these
(15:30):
guys are are big time defenders. And I think ultimately
that defensive strength is going to make Kyrie and Luca
a little less efficient than they need to be, and
I think that's gonna help Minnesota pull it out in
about seven games.
Speaker 5 (15:44):
Would you think of the Barkley interview yesterday, Oh, you're
the best? Dan?
Speaker 4 (15:47):
That was great, Like I mean, I I you know,
we all kind of grumble at our bosses from time
to time, don't nate palmum like Charles did on that one.
Speaker 5 (15:58):
I do like your idea and he kind of went.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
Along with it of just doing the the independent route.
Like I'd watch that show on YouTube, I'd seek that out.
I'd watch it wherever it was, and you could certainly
sell it off to any number of outlets and make
a boatload of money for it. I don't know how
you feel, dam but I'm of the opinion this is
not the end of inside the NBA. You can't have,
(16:20):
you know, a bunch of guys who are you know,
even at their respective ages, still in their prime television wise, like, still.
Speaker 5 (16:27):
Elite at what they do. They're not gonna go away.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
So whether it's a Turner or Independent or somebody else,
I have a hard time believing the end of inside
the NBA is near.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Yeah, I'm with you. Great to talk to you, have
a great weekend. Thanks for joining us always.
Speaker 5 (16:40):
You got it, Damn.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
That's Chris Mannix, senior NBA writer Sports Illustrated. We'll take
a break or play the day is up next. Fox
Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
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(17:02):
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We get tons and tons of fan mail every day.
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Piles of it.
Speaker 4 (17:07):
In fact, Tony, why don't you open up one of
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Hey? Listen to this.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Dear Paulie and Tony, your sports takes the dumbest and
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Wait, why open this other one?
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Dear Paulie and Tony, you suck more than anyone.
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Wait, try this one.
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Speaker 5 (17:38):
YEA, more phone calls coming up.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
I saw this story yesterday, five takeaways from the NC
DOUBLEA deciding that colleges can finally pay athletes. USA Today
went through the five and then I go, Okay, I'm
still trying to figure it out. An agreement between the
NC DOUBLEA and all five of the Power conferences settling
three federal antitrust cases pave the way for athletes to
(18:03):
be compensated for their contributions instead of being treated as amateurs,
being paid for their athletic work through scholarships and for
their education. So I'm reading through it and I immediately
thought of Pat Forty from Yahoo Sports. I'm gonna put
it on him. Pat, explain this to me as a
football fan. What's it mean?
Speaker 3 (18:25):
It is a new day in college athletics, Dan, but
you know, this is kind of another step along the
way to a bunch of new days. But what it
basically means is that schools can actually themselves pay athletes.
That's the news dynamic here, as opposed to trying to
farm it out to a collective or pretending you're not
(18:46):
involved in who's going to get paid what, or just
flat out boosters paying athletes under the table. So we
have an institutionalized form of compensation for athletes. It's a
ton of money. The settlement is in the billions and
will be tens of billions going forward for the next
ten years.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Okay, a few questions come to mind. Is there still
going to be nil?
Speaker 3 (19:13):
There will still be ANIL and some of this may
actually be considered nil money, but there will be most
likely be name, image and likeness opportunities for athletes above
and beyond whatever their quote unquote salary would be, which
would ostensibly be ANIL salary, but there will be more
available to them.
Speaker 5 (19:33):
Yeah, are they university employees.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Not at this point, And that's kind of been one
of the needles. The NCAA and college Athletics has been
trying to thread here of we don't want an employee
employer relationship. Let's see if we can find a way
to pay you guys without making it specifically that.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Kind of a deal compensation for what your sport, the
revenue that your sport. How do I divvy up the
starting quarterback or the star of the lacrosse team that
won a national title.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
To be determined, and that will probably get dribbled down
to be a institutional decision of how the money gets distributed.
The question there becomes, Okay, what's the title nine impact?
If you're going to pay the football team x, do
you also have to pay the women's basketball team this amount?
Or you know, a star women's volleyball player. So all
(20:30):
of those details have not been hashed out at all,
but it's probably going to be up to eat each institution.
Do you want to pay up to twenty two million
a year in salary basically to players or do you
want to pay less than that? And then who gets it?
Speaker 7 (20:45):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (20:45):
So the university, it's case by case of do you
want to spend all the money each year on your athletes?
Speaker 3 (20:52):
Yeah, that's at least the theory right now is that
this will be school by school decision, and some schools
going to look, your Ohio state's, your Michigan, your Alabama's,
et cetera. Will be able to ease Texas easily be
able to spend the full twenty two million, and then
some you know, via outside anil, if they want other schools,
(21:12):
the Mississippi States, the Iowa States, the Purdues may say, ah,
we're not going to go that far. And then the
big question is really how far down the scale do
you go for the schools outside of the Power five.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Does this make it more likely or less likely that
college football is going to maybe have forty or fifty
teams that each year compete for a national title.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
I think it's another step in that direction. You know
that this is a further economic thinning of the herd
if you will, and you know who can afford this
and who can't afford it. You know, there's only so
many players to go around. I mean, there's more players
than there is spots. So you should still theoretically be
able to have, you know, a Cincinnati or somebody from
(21:57):
outside of the Power five that can get players but yeah,
if you're going to the best players are going to
be the highest paid players, and they're going to go
to the schools with the most money. So this is
going to continue probably the trend that we've seen of
consolidating the sport into US fewer number of contenders.
Speaker 5 (22:14):
Athletes still get scholarships through this app.
Speaker 3 (22:17):
Yeah, athletes will still get scholarships. There's actually part of
this will probably be that there will be more scholarships,
more athletes on scholarship, but there will be roster limits.
Now everybody on the roster. If you cap a football
roster at ninety everybody can get a scholarship, whereas opposed
it used to be eighty five baseball scholarships would have
(22:38):
been in short. Short supply will go up, et cetera.
That'll probably be a school by school thing too of
how many scholarships you want to fund, but you can
now fund basically everybody who's on your roster.
Speaker 5 (22:51):
Why would the NCAA settle because.
Speaker 3 (22:54):
They were going to lose for the ninety seventh time
in court. You know, their record is the Washington Generals
in court, and so they were looking at the possibility
of another loss here and up to twenty billion dollars.
If you believe the lawyers in potential damages, then.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
How do you see this playing out with Alabama, Georgia, Michigan,
Ohio State? Like, are they going to be separating even
further from teams that are in their own conference?
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Probably? You know, I think so, we'll see, you know
that this will be an interesting kind of barrier. I
guess for schools to say, like, hey, Mississippi State, we
can we do this? Can we can we spend what
Alabama spends and try to get players. You know, they're
certainly have people who are willing to spend money, but
are you willing to spend the same amount or is
(23:47):
this a further area where they pull away? And then
ultimately the decision becomes is this just become a big
ten sec enterprise or even within those conferences is it?
You know, there's there's certain teams that don't want to
keep up or can't keep up. So this is a
real challenge for the ACC for the Big twelve, for
the what's left of the PAC twelve, and then within
(24:09):
those power conferences, you know, does it become survival of
the fittest?
Speaker 2 (24:14):
And I'm wondering about college basketball, maybe there's a chance
players stay in college an extra year depending on the compensation.
Speaker 5 (24:22):
Do you see that as a possibility here.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Sure, Well, I think we've already seen that. You know,
we've seen some players, you know, especially I can think
of North Carolina Kansas who have stayed in school longer
than you might have expected because there's money to be
had there in their draft status isn't as secure. And
I think this will continue that probably on the football
side as well. You look at Michigan's roster last year.
(24:45):
You had a number of guys who could have gone
to the NFL, but this they stuck around because they
were getting compensated. And I think this will probably only
reinforce that.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
You go back to when Johnny Manziel was on the
cover of Time magazine that was eleven years ago and
the title was time to Pay College Athletes.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
Yeah, no, I mean, look, this has been in the
works for a while, right. We have seen step by
step the NCAA's obstructionist viewpoint kind of just be whittled
away and eroded, and eventually it became indefensible. And then
they started losing in court, and everything is really snowballed.
In the last five years and yeah, the Johnny Manziel.
(25:22):
Oh gosh, I had to get paid under the table.
Days are long gone.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Good to talk to you, Pat, have a good weekend.
Thanks for joining us. Thank you Dan, Pat forty Yeah,
who's sports College football senior writer.
Speaker 5 (25:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
I'm not sure about it either now, trying to figure
it out short term. Long term still feels like the
haves and the have nots. That makes me nervous. But
if we're going to get to what I've said for
I don't know how many years now, maybe forty fifty schools,
you make it like the Premier League? Can you have relegation?
Can you make it like the NFL? Can you keep
(25:58):
schools in their area and then you play one another
and then each year you change it up. So this team,
you know, in this part of the Big Ten is
going to play these teams and this part of the SEC.
So you know, there's a lot here and I think
we're going there. I'm just not sure when we get there,
(26:18):
how we get there.
Speaker 8 (26:19):
Yeah, it feels a little bit like the historic nature
of the agreement is being lost in the confusion of
the details. Yeah, that's fair, you know where it's like, wow,
they agreed to do this. But how the hell are
they going to do this? I don't know, and they
don't know yet. But they agreed to do it, which
is a massive step forward or a massive step in
(26:41):
a new direction for sure. Whether you agree it's the
right thing or the you think it's the wrong thing.
Speaker 5 (26:46):
It's a massive step. But they had to do it.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
It's not one of those where they go, you know what,
for the betterment of athletes, you know, college sports, let's
pay them.
Speaker 5 (26:55):
It's like we're gonna get sued. I think we will all.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
I think we need to correct, you know what we're
We're gonna right or wrong here what we're gonna do.
Speaker 9 (27:03):
Yeah, Paul, I think scene's right. It doesn't feel real yet.
It feels court real and headline real. But I always
think to myself when there so the NCA and these
big schools will find a way to kick this down
the road a couple more years where it's gonna be like,
we're going to start this in twenty twenty seven.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Yeah, but there's money to be made. That's why schools
went to the Big ten. That's why schools went to
the SEC. There's so much money to be divvied up.
You want to make sure. That's why you got schools
trying to get out of the ACC. Everybody is you know,
it's ten for yourself. And I think that's what college
football is going to become. I think college basketball will
(27:40):
probably still be able to stay with March madness.
Speaker 5 (27:42):
Now.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
I think they're going to expand more money, more schools,
more revenue.
Speaker 5 (27:49):
You got more.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Content for TV partners. It just feels that that's where
we're headed. A couple of phone calls in here Paul
in North Carolina. Hi, Paul, what's on your mind today?
Speaker 7 (28:01):
Hey, good morning, Dan, Thanks for reaching out. Hey, I
know my time is short, so I've got a quick question.
I want to tell you a great story. My question
is about the NBA media rights. Maybe you can address
this alf for my story is if there's companies wanting
to pay billions of dollars, why would the NBA just
not accept all of them and not eliminate canty. That's
my question. He can address that later. My story, Dan,
(28:23):
is that I want to tell you your voice has legal poll.
I'm in the restaurant business where I listen to your
show at all different times during the day. I was
coming home other night on the interstate, go a little fast,
and I probably should have got pulled over, shuffled in
my glove compartment looking for my stuff, But as the
CoP's going to need he gets up to me super quick.
I've got your podcast on. He introduces himself, and then
(28:45):
he stops and he says, is that the Dan Patrick Show?
He said, yeah it is. He says, Wow, that's my
favorite show or radio show. So yeah, mine too. He says, Okay,
a couple quick tests for you. He says, six three,
two fifteen, I said, Dan. He says, uh, who's your favorite?
Who's your favorite?
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Day Net?
Speaker 7 (29:04):
I said, man, I love them all, but Fritty, I
really He says, okay, watch your hands shirts not exactly
I said, not exactly shirre, but probably bigger than Martin's.
And he says to me, he says, well, I caught
your speeding, but I've never caught anybody listen to my
favorite show. So have you ever talked to Dan? Let
him know? His voice says legal poll and they let
(29:26):
me go. So thank you to.
Speaker 5 (29:27):
Thank you, Paul, Thank you, Paul. Awesome. Let's go past
the test. I like that. I'm not sure about the TNT.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
You know why the NBA, I mean, there's no loyalty
and they want to have more partners and streaming service.
I mean I get it. It's unfortunate, but it's what
can you do for me?
Speaker 7 (29:50):
Now?
Speaker 2 (29:50):
It's not what you did for me, it's as we
move forward. Hey, NBC is willing to spend this? Are
you willing to spend that?
Speaker 5 (29:58):
Oh you're not? Well, thanks for the memories here.
Speaker 8 (30:01):
Yeah yeah, I mean if everybody's willing to give them billions,
why don't they just take them all? Well, you're just
paying billions for some exclusivity. Once it keeps the more
you divvy up the pie, well, now that's the less
I want to pay. I don't want to pay that
much more.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
Yeah, And if you're TNT, you don't want to have
like the third tier amount of games there. I mean,
you guys should get the best. And now you're gonna
be like, well, NBC took this, and ESPN took this,
Amazon took this. Here you go, TNT, you get this
game these games?
Speaker 9 (30:31):
Yeah, Paul, And that's what the NFL is gambling on
right now. You're gonna have to have five different subscriptions
next year to watch every NFL game. Three years ago,
you needed one subscription to watch every NFL game.
Speaker 5 (30:44):
And there may be one of them is going to lose.
Speaker 9 (30:47):
One of those places is gonna get left out and
people I can't subscribe to five things to watch all
the games when someone who's gonna pay a lot of
money is not gonna get Yeah, but.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
It's different with the NFL because of gambling and fantasy.
You don't have that in other sports. It's you know,
not as prohibitive that you've got to watch a game
and gotta have a bet on it. And I got
fantasy players playing in the game. So you will be
more than likely getting a streaming service subscription because you
have to because you want to watch your team, you
(31:17):
want to bet on the game, your fantasy team. I
get it. The other sports that's not the case. It's
not like I go man, I got to go out
and get an Amazon subscription for Thursday night football or
for the NBA. Now, I'll figure it out. I don't
need to have to watch every NBA game, But with
(31:37):
the NFL, you feel like you have to because these
are standalone games. There, Dorsey in North Carolina High Doris,
what's on your mind is good, good, good.
Speaker 10 (31:50):
I've been watching baseball all my life, and I'm really
tired of I'm tired calling.
Speaker 5 (31:57):
Horribly okay.
Speaker 10 (32:00):
For about forty years. And if I had did done,
i'd never had a job. I turned on the game
and the first pitch I see is three three inches
outside and they call it a strike. Well, I just
read that mands. Manfred said he's not going to do
anything about making it happen in eighty five that they
get to automatic robot untie.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Well, we're going to get there. In fact, I'm going
to take a break door see and we're going to
talk about this because we're going to get to and
it's not robotic umpires. The umpire will still be behind
the plate. It's you'll have a just like tennis. You'll
have a strike zone and they'll say the ball was
in the strike zone or it wasn't. Then they'll let
(32:39):
the umpire know. The empire will say that's a strike
or that's the ball. You have to have the umpire
there in case there's a play at the plate. It's
not like we're gonna have robots out there on you know,
first base, second base, third base, or at home although
it would.
Speaker 5 (32:52):
Be kind of cool.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
You're out of here, I'm going to run your leap,
all right, let me take a break, we'll come back.
We'll talk about that more phone calls as well. Brian
Windhorst will join us coming up in a little bit
as well. Back after this, be sure to catch the
live edition of The Dan Patrick Show weekdays at nine
am Eastern six am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and
(33:14):
the iHeartRadio w APP Game two tonight, MAVs at the Timberwolves,
MAVs getting five and a half Panthers at the Rangers
Game two. Always a treat to have Brian Windhorst or
the Mothership ESPN Senior NBA writer, A couple of random
things here. Thanks for joining us, Brian. When do you
think we'll see the first one hundred million dollar a
(33:36):
year player in the NBA?
Speaker 5 (33:37):
How long are we out?
Speaker 11 (33:40):
Six sevenish years? The uh, the new deal, it's going
to be about seventy five billion dollars And I don't
want to get into the weeds of the collective Bargain Agreement,
but they've they don't. They're not going to allow it
to spike up like it did the last time this happened.
They have a gradual so it can only go up
(34:00):
so fast. But there's going to be contracts signed this
summer where the back end of it, and it's like
twenty thirty, twenty thirty one. There will be years, there
will will there will be over eighty million, and so yeah,
when the guy actually gets paid one hundred million, it
will be into the next decade. But when he actually
(34:20):
signs for the hundred million will be I believe, within
this decade.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
And this is sustainable. This is is this streaming money.
That's kind of you know, the backdrop on this.
Speaker 5 (34:37):
Did I lose you?
Speaker 11 (34:40):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (34:40):
I hope him, hope.
Speaker 11 (34:41):
I'm not frozen.
Speaker 5 (34:42):
Oh yeah, you're unfrozen.
Speaker 11 (34:46):
So the TV money in two thousand, Am I frozen?
Speaker 3 (34:51):
No?
Speaker 5 (34:52):
No, you're good, You're good, You're good.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
Good.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
What let's take a break then we'll come back. Why
don't we see if we can re establish there, Brian.
Now he's frozen, we'll try to get him back here.
Speaker 5 (35:10):
At the moment, well, he looked like he was contemplsed.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
You No, I thought, damn good question. Yeah, just sitting
there once again, look at that. Wendy's stumped. But the
one hundred million dollar contract. It's right around the corner though,
because you're going to have Shay gilgis Alexander. He's going
to get eighty one million dollars. I think on the
last year of his deal that he'll sign.
Speaker 9 (35:32):
Yeah, Paul, you know you and Barkley were talking about
that thing yesterday about the international thing in the All
Star Game where it's the World versus USA. Yeah, and
both of you said like, well, maybe Adam Silver wouldn't
want that because then it's like, oh, USA loss to
be bad, wouldn't it be the opposite effect if the
world won, maybe be better for global expansion.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
I just want to see something that's entertaining, interesting, So
I don't think if I'm the commissioner, i'd be like, oh,
I'm going to run the risk of oh what happened
to USA basketball? I know when it comes to the Olympics,
we're still the favorite. But I wouldn't be worried about
an All Star Game. I would want to showcase the
players from another country.
Speaker 5 (36:13):
I would want to.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Elevate that, be proud of that, let them be proud
of that as well. But I wouldn't be worried that,
oh my gosh, look at what has happened to USA basketball.
The world is dominating US. So I don't think that's happening.
Let me bring back Brian. So Wendy we were talking
about the one hundred million dollars and then I said,
(36:35):
is this streaming money that's kind of elevating salaries are
going to be?
Speaker 6 (36:42):
Yes? And no. No, I still think it's mostly I
think it's actually broadcast money. I know that sounds crazy,
but if it's NBC and you know ABC are primarily
spending money, I mean it's it's a full sort of package.
Speaker 7 (37:00):
You know.
Speaker 6 (37:00):
You look at NBC, and you look at Disney, they
have all three. They have a cable network which will
be I don't know for sure. I'm not negotiating the deal,
but I guess USA they have NBC and they have Peacock,
and ESPN has ABC, ESPN Networks and ESPN Plus. And
(37:21):
it's the deal that the NBA is making. It sounds
like it's going to be about over five billion dollars
a year with just those two and the current deals
it's under three billion dollars a year. So it's the
deal before you even get into the streaming partner, which
reportedly is going to be Amazon, you're doubling the deal.
And so look in two thousand and fifteen sixteen, which
(37:46):
was the last year of the last deal, it was
I believe, less than a billion dollars a year, or
I don't know, maybe it averaged out right around. I
think it was about several eight hundred million dollars a
year that the NBA was making from its TV partners.
And this new deal, I believe will average in the
neighborhood of seven billion. And the games are not on
(38:07):
mostly not on streaming, They're mostly going to be on
over the air and over cable. So it's just the
value of media rites and the competition in the industry,
and the value of live sports. I know that there's
this big belief that it's all dying, but we keep
continuing to see evidence. So that's not true in live
sports and in the in the NBA, where there are
(38:29):
only fifteen players on the roster, the jumps there are
going to be most evident. And so you know, Dan,
we went between Michael Jordan, who was paid thirty million
dollars those two seasons at the end of his career,
at the end of his Bulls career, I should say
in like ninety seven, ninety eight. I think he put
over thirty million twice. We didn't see another thirty million
(38:52):
dollar player in the NBA because they put the max
contract in shortly there after they had the lockout. For
that there was not a thirty million dollar a year
player again almost twenty years. Think about how that happened.
And now there's dozens of thirty million dollars a year players, dozens.
That's in some cases that's considered a bargain contract, a
(39:13):
thirty million dollar contract now. So we've seen a huge
difference in the last decade and that's going to continue.
Speaker 2 (39:20):
The Cavaliers said goodbye to their head coach, and I
was wondering what that vacancy does, if anything, to the
timeframe of the Lakers if they're going to hire JJ
Reddick or whoever it is are that Are they connected
at all these these openings, Well, it.
Speaker 6 (39:38):
Depends on who the Lakers' top choice is. Yes, the Lakers'
top choice is indeed JJ Reddick, and I don't know
that it is. I think that he's a strong candidate
there their competition. He finals on ABC, because you know
JJ is calling the finals on ABC, and you know
I would think that if he's hired as the coach
(40:00):
of in any team, it would be difficult to call
the finals, and that's his job right now. So that's
an interesting by product that we don't always get. There
are other candidates. I think, you know, James Warrego is
a name that I feel like I'm the only one
bringing up. James Warrego is a very accomplished coach who
is who got a raw deal when he got fired,
in my opinion, got a raw deal when he got
(40:21):
fired in Charlotte, and is a strong candidate, especially for
a team like Cleveland the needs offensive intervention. And I
think he's a strong candidate in LA because if nothing else,
he's got a very good relationship as far as I know,
but or he's got a good a relationship with Anthony Davis.
So but in theory, yes, they are competing a little
(40:42):
bit the same type of coach. The Cleveland situation is
more tied to Donovan Mitchell than anything because this move
is at least in part related to Donovan Mitchell, and
I think that'll make the Calves potentially more aggressive, and frankly,
the Calves have demonstrated a more goings to spend in
the Lakers, so that I don't know if that'll be
(41:03):
a factor. I don't know if it'll come down to
a coach deciding between the two. But the last time
the Lakers were in a bidding war for head coaches,
they lost them. So I don't know if that'll happen,
but it's interesting. It's interesting history to know.
Speaker 2 (41:18):
Yeah, you bring up the valid point of it's not
normal when you go this guy would get the job,
or they'd announce the job, or have you know, an
introductory press conference. You're the new head coach of the Lakers.
But JJ Reddick is going to be working for the
next couple of weeks, which may be the hold up.
And then the stories that come out, the reporting that
Lebron's not involved, Why wouldn't Lebron be in be involved
(41:42):
for maybe the last two years of his career on
who's going to coach him? Like it almost seems even
more important that he wants to know who's going to
be here, and you know, how how do I get
along with this guy?
Speaker 6 (41:55):
All right? So this is one of these things where
the only thing I can do as a reporter is
ask the consumer for nuance. I can't guarantee the nuance.
In this world of aggregation, something that I say in
the next two minutes can be taken out, taken out,
and my phone will explode. I can just beg you
for nuance. Star players typically, as you know, Dan, I'm
(42:19):
not talking to you directly. I'm talking to your viewers
and listeners. Star players typically do not make yes and
no choices on coaches. It is unusual, not unheard of,
but unusual for a star player to speak to a
team and say, I want this individual fire today, you know,
to come into the office and pound your fifth or
(42:41):
I want this player hired. Star players make their feelings
about their coaches known, not in one meeting, but in
six months, and the executives who are with the team
watch how a star player interacts with his coach for
six months, and so yes, I'm sure that there are
discussions that happened, and there might even be a heads
(43:02):
up given you know, hey, we're thinking about going this direction.
Star players don't want Typically, again, you can find instances
it's not true, but typically star players do not want
it on their hands that they're picking their coach, even
if they helped do that. Over the course of the season.
So Lebron learned very early in his career he didn't
(43:26):
want to get involved in that, and so he is
never as far as I know. I think maybe the
one time where I think he played more of a
direct role was when David Blatt was fired and Tyler
was hired. But I honestly don't think he played a
direct role in hiring of any of the coaches he's had.
(43:46):
But then you could say, has he influenced the hiring
and firing of coaches? Of course he has. So this
is the this is the thing. It's not simple to say.
So when Lebron himself from the hiring of JJ Reddick,
it doesn't mean that he's not influencing the hire. But
he's not going in there and saying hire him. And
(44:09):
you know what part of the influencing of the hire
is You think the Lakers haven't watched the podcast or
listening to the podcast. You think they haven't watched JJ
Reddick on and listening to his podcast with other guests
and watch how he's interacted with other players. Is JJ
Redick being hired because Lebron said hire him? Or you know,
if if he's hired, you know, I don't know if
(44:29):
he's going to be hired. If JJ got hired as
a coach of the Lakers, if if, if, Okay, would
it be because of one moment? No, But would the
Lakers be influenced by the many hours that they have
watched and listened to his podcasts and watching players?
Speaker 10 (44:45):
Yes?
Speaker 6 (44:46):
So does that mean the players want him as a
head coach? Maybe? Does that mean they're going in and saying,
get me as head coach? Now?
Speaker 2 (44:53):
No?
Speaker 6 (44:53):
And I hate to be beating uh, beating this up,
but I mean I run into this every day during
this time, and I know as soon as people listen
to this, they'll say, yeah, well Lebron still make a decision,
And I can't. I could only tell you what I
experienced and actually talking to the primary sources here. If
you choose not to believe that you can do that,
it's it's your choice.
Speaker 2 (45:14):
We're talking to Brian Winnhorst, ESPN, senior NBA writer. We've
talked about this with the All Star Game, the international
players versus the American players, and it feels like it's
top heavy with the international players, where my starting five
is going to be really, really good. We were just
talking would the commissioner want to risk if the international
players happen to beat players born in the United States,
(45:37):
like it would it be a negative at all on
the NBA if you had an All Star game with
those two signs.
Speaker 6 (45:44):
Well, the thing about it is an all Star game
doesn't have practice. It's you know, it's not a referendum
on who's better. I mean again, this goes into nuance,
Like if the international players have beat the American players,
could you easily say the international players are yes, of
course you could say that, did they have a shoot
around and go over three plays?
Speaker 7 (46:04):
Are they?
Speaker 6 (46:05):
You know what I'm saying, Like, it's hard. By the way,
international teams and the international teams have been regularly beating
Team USA in international competitions. For the last five six years,
tam USA did not lose in any not just the Olympics,
but in any competition. They didn't lose between two thousand
and four, which was in sorry, two thousand and six,
(46:25):
all the way up to twenty nineteen thirteen years they
didn't lose one time, and they've lost like seven six
or seven eight times in the last few years in
the international competitions and with our frontline players by the
way sometimes they were second, our second best team, but
frontline players there. This summer in Paris will be the
highest level, highest most competitive basketball competition in the history
(46:48):
of the sport being staged in Paris. I say that
without qualification, and it's very possible the Team USA for
the first time to the two thousand and four will
not win the Goald. And it won't be because because
there they're not you know, interested or care or well
coached or whatever. They may just get beat. And when
(47:08):
it comes to All Star Weekend, Dan, we're headed for
a major change fall Star Weekend. I don't know if
you talked about this, you probably did, but I think
Roger Goodell recently went on the record saying that he
wants to extend this the NFL season by a week.
Speaker 7 (47:21):
Is that correct?
Speaker 6 (47:22):
Yeah, okay, that would push the Super Bowl into President's
Day weekend. President's Day weekend is where the NBA has
this All Star Game. And you could make a couple
of jokes here about how the NFL has moved in
on Christmas and now they're about to potentially move in
on President's Day, and both would be correct. So the
NBA is gonna have to make a change with All
Star Game. They can't if you know, they can't play
(47:43):
on Super Bowl weekend. And they have this other event,
the n Season Tournament, which is now called the Emirates Cup.
Please please make a note of that. And I suspect
that the NBA will consider merging those those those events
into one weekend and potentially doing away with the Shenanigans
(48:07):
of Saturday and the NBA Saturday Night and making it
three nights and having the semi finals, All Star Game
and uh and the Finals all in one. And now
now there's obviously a ton of logistics, namely since they
have named the All Star sites for like the next
five or four or five years. And I mean this
(48:31):
is my speculation from talking to people. I'm not saying
this is absolutely going to happen, but I think this
is something that's been discussed. And uh, that way you
would potentially get this uh you know, mega event where
people could actually plan to go to it, and you
would actually have competition over the weekend while also having
an All Star Game. And if you look at the calendar.
(48:53):
Now again, Adam Silver hasn't told me this, but I
am not a fool. I can look at the calendar,
And you say, well, where on the calendar there without
having the All Star Game in April, where on the
calendar can you avoid college or NFL playoff games? And
the answer is the week in between the championship weekend
the Super Bowl, that weekend where you know they put
(49:15):
the Pro Bowl, which actually is something that nobody actually
takes them in from the NFL. And so I speculate, speculate, Okay,
I'm not reporting this. I do not want to see
aggregation that says report holing. Okay, I am speculating this
based on conversations that I've had that we're going to
see a change to the All Star Game and then
possibly uh you know that. And so if you're going
(49:38):
to make a change like bringing the international first US
in there, that would be a time where you could,
you know, make a change when you're doing that, that
whole changeover.
Speaker 2 (49:49):
The great speculator, Brian windhorst Wen, do you have a
great weekend.
Speaker 5 (49:53):
Thank you again for joining us.
Speaker 6 (49:54):
You too,
Hosts And Creators
Todd "Fritzy" Fritz
Dan Patrick
Patrick "Seton" O'Connor
Paul Pabst
Marvin Prince
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