Steve Hartman and Rich Ohrnberger talk Nikola Jokic and Ja Morant!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Please don't listening to Fox Sports Radio Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
The dream once again here on a fabulous Sunday. This
is Fox Sports Sunday, and we are broadcasting live from
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We're gonna help get you there and on Matt's selection
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(00:24):
should be. Richie, how are you on this big Sunday.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
I'm good man, I'm good. We uh, we're finally here, guys.
We made it to Game two of the NBA Finals.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
And by the way, this series is really gonna drag out.
They don't have Game three until Wednesday.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
So yeah they are. And I believe, if I'm not mistaken,
if this series, by a miracle, would actually go seven games.
I believe it ends on the eighteenth. Wow. Yeah. So
the NBA is desperately trying to stretch this thing out.
But the only way they're gonna get people to actually
continue to watch is if we get competitive games. So
we're gonna have plenty on what's going on. As far

(01:04):
as Game two of the NBA Finals, which is gonna
be later on tonight in Denver. But before we get
starty here, Richie, I want to welcome a brand new affiliate, Peoria, Illinois,
Peoria's Sports Radio one oh one point one. Welcome to
the Fox Sports Radio family, their Chicago White Sox radio
network affiliate, and their program directors Scott hecka thorn. He

(01:27):
dropped another network and flipped a Fox Sports. Big win
for them, big win for us. Welcome to the Fox
Sports Radio Family, Peoria Sports Radio one oh one point one.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
That's awesome. Yeah, spent a lot of time in Illinois
during the course of my playing career, both at Penn State,
and you know, several teams in the NFL had a
lot of luck there, so no offense, but with my
visits to Champagne or Chicago, they were fruitful, to say
the very least. But nonetheless, welcome Peoria one on one

(02:03):
point one. We're glad to have you.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Absolutely, we're gonna have John Palm. Morosi's gonna be joining
us coming up. Well, talk about Game one of the
Stanley Cup Final. Is Las Vegas jumped all over Game one,
and then of course we'll get into some Major League
baseball with JP coming up here shortly We're gonna talk
a lot about this NBA Finals series here, Rich And
you know, the one thing I've been talking about all

(02:28):
weekend long in watching Nicola Jokic is always talk about
copycats in all sports. Right, Suddenly a team wins a championship,
All right, what are they doing? And this is how
three point shooting became such a main cog and the
whole offensive game plan for these NBA teams was the

(02:49):
Golden State Warriors winning all those championships. And I'm watching
Jokich and for so many people, this is really the
first time they've gotten to see this guy, right. I
mean with Denver doesn't get a lot of coverage. We
don't get to see a lot of Denver games. You
see the stats, you hear about the MVPs. But if
you haven't really watched Jokic, you're seeing him for the

(03:09):
first time and you're like, damn, this guy's good. And
why he's good is the fact that he understood his
limitations because he's not a very athletic guy, but he's
a big body and he has insane court awareness that
not only allows him to be one of the best
passing big men that we've seen, but also a guy

(03:32):
when he's around the basket because he's not a big
dunk guy, right, He's not gonna sky up there and dunk,
but he can make shots around the basket because he
has great court awareness. But this was a second round pick,
and no one's denying that the Scott report was accurate.
He wasn't athletic. He's just another big guy. And there's
a lot of the guys like that that we never

(03:54):
hear from they ride the bench. But this guy became
an MVP, and I just wonder moving forward, teams are
going to look around for someone like Jokic who had
a high basketball IQ, but he didn't have necessarily the
athleticism we associate with the most valuable player in the NBA.
He developed his game, and what they've done over these

(04:16):
years is develop his game, and then that's developed the
game of everyone on this Denver Nuggets team. And that's
where they're three wins away from a championship. So I'm
just wondering, if the Nuggets complete the job, which I
think they will, whether or not, other teams are going
to start looking at big guys in a different vein
instead of camping them out at the three point line,
how about a versatile guy that can do all the

(04:38):
things that we see Jokic do in seemingly every game.

Speaker 3 (04:41):
Well, it's just such a rare mix. Normally, when you
see a player, you know, who's six foot eleven seven
feet tall, like a Jokic or a Dirk Novitski or
Kevin Durant, you know who are all really tall guys,
they're not athletes and they can't ball handle. Jokic may

(05:05):
not have been an athlete when he was drafted, but
he's turned himself into one because he's not afraid to dribble,
he's not afraid to create and kick. And Kevin Durant,
while he's a great jump shooter, he's also good off
the dribble and dirt. And Novitzky he was never afraid
to to ball handle because he could. You know, it

(05:28):
takes a special skilled athlete at that height to be
able to do those sort of things. You know, and
when you when you have that rare collection of basketball
skill and gracefulness to put you know, to put a
word on it, and you can still be one of
those guys who can get down there in the low

(05:48):
post and you know, create when you're fed the rock
with you know, get get rebounds, you know, box people out,
and and then also to have the court vision in
that Jokich has like these are these are I don't
want to say once in a lifetime because we have
a couple examples who have played in close succession like him,

(06:12):
but he is, inarguably, and especially if he wins a
final here, one of the more special talents we've seen
in a very long time. And the fact that he's
been able to lead this team, a franchise who's never
been to an NBA finals, to the to the final,
and the fact that he's done it basically playing in
an offense that's created their entire offensive identity around him.

(06:38):
I mean, it speaks a lot to how the the
game has changed. It used to be all about the
big man, and then it went beyond the three point
line because the Golden State Warriors and Steph Curry really
renovated the game and gave it, you know, an update.
But now if you have a dominant big man, the
way the rules have changed, the fouls that he gets

(06:59):
called for, a who's good at the free throw line, well,
all of a sudden, you've got a real chance to
do some special things, and they never they never h
straight away from this formula. They they've they've trusted Jokic
and as a result, they're they're they're they're reaping the
benefits of it.

Speaker 2 (07:17):
Well, and they're both these teams are reaping the benefits
of stability. You know, once again, we've had five vacancies
in the NBA. Four of them have already been filled.
A couple filled by guys that just were fired. Uh,
it's amazing you have fired and then you get more money,
like Monty Williams did by Detroit. And but that's the
that's the you know, the constant carousel. Denver is stuck

(07:39):
with Malone. This is eighth year with Denver and he's
been able to stay there. And of course last year
it was tough because Murray was out for the year,
so they didn't have the season they were hoping to have.
But he's back with a vengeance. But they they allowed
Malone to develop as a head coach, to follow through
on his game plan and they're reaping the benefits. And

(08:01):
obviously the situation with the Miami Heat is well versed.
I mean, pat Riley runs that organization. Spolster was his
hand picked successor. Spolster obviously has had great success. He'll
be in the Hall of Fame some days, had six
trips to the NBA Finals. But there's a lot to
be said about just, you know, stability. We talk about
the Steelers constantly, you know, and that you know, Mike

(08:23):
Tomlin a year ago. You know, Roethlisberger retires and that's it.
You know, you're gonna have to break in a rookie quarterback.
It looked awful in mid season, but there's a certain
stability in an organization. By season's end, they're nine and eight,
It's like, how did he do that? Well? I think
a lot of it just has to do with organizational structure,

(08:44):
and both of these organizations, the Heat and Nuggets, have
a level of stability. And that's to me a big
reason why both these teams are in the NBA Finals.

Speaker 3 (08:54):
Well, I think it's I think it's a big piece
to it. I don't want to give too much credit
to coaching in the m b A because I don't
think normally we talk a lot about coaching in the NBA,
because I don't think it's as important in the NBA
as other sports. Look, I mean, let's face it. We
wouldn't be talking about Eric Spolstra or any coach you know,

(09:16):
Steve Kerr, Greg Popovich if they didn't have amazing superstar players.
I mean, this is a sport that you if you
don't have the goods. Like Greg Popovich, He's been relatively
anonymous lately, and the reason is because Monogenobili and Tim
Duncan and Tony Parker and Kawhi Leonard are no longer

(09:40):
San Antonio Spurs, you know. I mean one day too,
Steve Kerr and the Golden State Warriors will have to
hit the reset button. And unless they've filled refilled the
coffers with more talent that can carry them beyond this
era with Green and Thompson and Curry, it's there are

(10:00):
dark days ahead because they those three superstars have carried
that franchise for the past decade. And the same could
be said about Jimmy Butler and Miami, and the same
could be said about Jokichen Denver. If you don't have
the goods, you don't have anything. You need to have
the players to get the job done. There are times
in other sports where you can see game plan and

(10:21):
strategy bail you out. College basketball, you don't always need
a star. But if you have a better culture, a
better coach, sometimes you can find your way into the tournament.
And sometimes you could upset your way to a Sweet
sixteen or an Elite eight or a Final four berth.
You know, in college football in the NFL, sometimes you

(10:42):
know your army, you know, and you're going against Alabama,
but you could catch them sleeping. Or you could have
an offense with just enough talent but a strategy where
maybe one Sunday one Saturday rather the Crimson side can't
stop to triple option. I mean it happens sometimes in

(11:03):
sports other than the NBA, other than really Major League baseball.
You can catch a team. You can catch a team
who has a worse culture or better players who don't
play as well as yours, don't play as together as yours,
and benefit from it. But in the NBA, man, if
you don't have star power, you've got nothing. And the

(11:23):
Miami Heat, Jimmy Butler is an absolute stud, but he
may have taken this team as far as they can
because I just don't see how it's possible for what
the Miami Heat has in just personnel to go against
what Denver has. Because We've spent this whole time talking Yokic.
We haven't even mentioned Jamal Murray, who's also a killer.

(11:45):
I mean, these guys are amazing basketball players and they
play amazingly well together.

Speaker 2 (11:49):
All Right, we'll have much more on Game two of
the NBA Finals. Like on the flip side, We're gonna
catch up with our buddy John Paul Morosi, give us
the latest on the Major League baseball scene, and are
the Golden Knights as dominant in this Stanley Cup Final
as the Nuggets look in the NBA Finals. That's coming
up next.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
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Speaker 3 (12:19):
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Speaker 4 (12:20):
And you may know me for the world of football
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Well you don't know is for my entire life.

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Speaker 2 (12:50):
Steve Harban, Rich Ornberger. This is Fox Sports Sunday and
we are live from the tirerac dot com studios. John
Asry right now, Oh makes my Sunday, no question about that.
An opportunity to talk to a multifaceted individual that, among
other things, is our Fox Sports Radio MLB insider. He's

(13:14):
also mister Hockey. He is John Paul Morosi JP.

Speaker 5 (13:18):
How are you today, Good afternoon, Good morning to you
on the West coast. What a great weekend of sports.
We got the Stanley Cup Final going on in some
tremendous baseball matchups. Anytime that we get the Dodgers and
Yankees on the same field, that is a special occasion.

Speaker 2 (13:36):
Indeed, all right, so I want to jump on the
Stanley Cuff Final because it mirrors what's going on in
the NBA Finals. You have a team that was the
best team in the West, Las Vegas, going against a
team that nobody thought would come out of the East
in the Florida Panthers. Very similar to the Denver Nuggets
Miami Heat matchups. So Game one, and both these series

(13:57):
look eerily similar. So we're gonna be talking plenty about
what the Miami Heat can do to try to get
back in the series against the Nuggets. My question is
what can the Panthers do to try to get back
in the series against the Golden Knights.

Speaker 5 (14:11):
Well, I think we saw last night that the Panthers
are obviously a very good team, but they were made
to be a great team with the play of Bobrovski
through the Eastern Conference playoffs. And when Bobrovski is just
good as opposed to great, the Panthers are a much
more beatable team, and that was the case last night.

(14:34):
The Vegas Golden Knights have a lot more forward depth.
You look at Mark Stone and really compare it to
where the Golden Knights were a couple of years ago
when they lost to the Canadians and the Stanley Cup semifinal.
Stone was not very effective at all, Chandler Stevenson was injured,
Jack Eichel was not yet a member of the organization.

(14:55):
And now it's a very different forward picture for the
Vegas Golden Knights. They're a better team. I think their
defensive corps is better zach Wiklott had a huge goal
last night, So I think Florida has to get great
goaltending from Lebrovski, and then they've got to really play
their game. I don't think that they were out of
last night's game by any stretches till the very last

(15:17):
several minutes, where I think they got themselves pulled into
a little bit of too much extracurricular stuff late the
after the whistle stuff. I think Vegas did a very
good job of staying discipline and not getting pulled into that,
and as a result, I think Florida's gonna have to
beat them with a little bit of speed. I think
Barkov's going to have to be great. Kachuck is going

(15:39):
to have to be great because they don't quite have
the same amount of depth as Vegas does. So look
at the stars. The stars that they've got, Barkoff, Kachuk
and Bobrovski and net all have to be dynamic and
game changing for forward to the back of the series.
In Game two, all.

Speaker 3 (15:55):
Right, well we have you JP. We got to talk
about this MLB season, and I have to ask you
a question about Aaron Judge. So last year he puts up,
the sixty two homers, the AL record, signs, the giant contract.
We're all saying, well, you know that's the Yankees, right,
they pay for their stars. And Aaron Judge, I mean,

(16:15):
how could he really have an act too to that
kind of season. It's going to be something less than that.
He's on pace to potentially have a better season. I mean,
he's he's slugging. He has over one thousand ops. I
think he what's the number now on home runs? I
think it's nineteen, Yeah, nineteen on the year JP. Is

(16:38):
it possible? Is it possible that Aaron Judge can he
match what he did last year? Or dare I say
even have a better season?

Speaker 5 (16:47):
I think it is. And the reason why, and this
is why he was the MVP a year ago, is
it's not just the home runs. The whole runs are
part of it, but it's not just that. It's yes,
the run production, even when the ball is not going
over the fence, it is moments like the catch when
he goes through the fence, guys through the fence to

(17:10):
make a play on defense. And this he has never
been just a home run hitter, never, That has never
been his game. He's always been a well rounded player,
and I think whether he's been playing center field in
recent years, which when Vader's out of the lineup he
has to do. I compare it in some ways if
you recall Miguel Cabrero won the Triple Crown in twelve

(17:33):
and then in thirteen, even though he didn't win the
Triple Crown, in many ways it was a more valuable year.
And I think that's that's where Judge is that there's
if he hits fifty eight homers or fifty nine, no
one's going to be able to tell me that this
season was any less impressive because it's not just about
that final number. The number helps, and he might hit

(17:54):
sixty again, he might hit more. I mean, he's he
is that special of a talent. But remember one of
the he things that he's doing for this team that
I think is paramount and what his value is. Yeah,
there was that brief time when he was out due
to injury, but he plays almost every single day, and
that to me is the immense value of a superstar

(18:14):
player when you go to the post every day and
you're reliable for your team every day they've had Stanton
has been out and Donaldson's been out, LeMay you miss
time at the end of the last season. Judge has
been the metronome of this team. And when you've got
someone who is this talented and also this reliable, it
is extraordinary value. And why it's such a fun discussion

(18:37):
to go back and forth and say, well, who's the
more valuable player? Judge of Rotani. Judge in there every
single day and he plays great defense and will literally
go through a wall to make a catch for his team.
There are not many players as talented as Judge who
also work as hard as he does and are as
self less as he is. And that's why you're in.
Judge is so great.

Speaker 2 (18:58):
So we are talking a little bit earlier JP Rich
and I about stabilities and organizations. Rich is not a
big fan of coaches outside of NFL coaches. He insists
managers are completely worthless and NBA coaches are not far behind.
But I look at the Arizona Diamondbacks bounce back season

(19:18):
and they stuck with Tory Lavella. I mean, this is
a guy that two years ago lost one hundred and
ten games. Usually when that happens, a manager walks the plank.
Why didn't he and how much of a factor is
that stability at manager for this turnaround this year with Arizona.

Speaker 5 (19:35):
Well, that's some point. And I'm glad you mentioned Leavelo
because this team now that they're one of the top
two teams in the National League along with the Dodgers.
And it's amazing to say it. It's true. I think
that a couple of things have happened that have swung
things back in the d backs favor. You're right, Tory
is a very patient leader. He does love to teach

(19:56):
the game. There's a reason why, and I think it's
important for all of us, no matter what sport that
we're talking about. For a long time, Tory was the
hot name among managerial prospects. He had worked with John
Ferrell in Toronto and then Boston, and then the d
Backs hired him. Of course, he was known well by
the baseball ops there, Mike Hazen and Amiel Sade, who

(20:19):
was their GM, their second in command basically, and I
think that first of all, they know the person. Tory
is a very very strong person. He also is a
very patient teacher of the game who really loves it
and discusses the development of the full player, and I
think he is in lockstep with the with the developmental

(20:42):
philosophy of the front office. But this is one of
my biggest pet peeves in sports, and again this goes
beyond baseball. Toy was the bright young name when he
was hired by Arizona at the at the first place.
It's not as though when he lost a hundred games
that he became somehow deficient as baseball guy, or that
he forgot everything that he knew when the team was

(21:04):
having success. The talented management and coaches, they don't forget stuff,
you know. The amazing thing is when they give him
better players, he wins more games. Isn't that a remarkable phenomenon?
And it's true no matter what we're talking about. So
I think sometimes when the life cycle goes and listen

(21:25):
and rich you can speak to this, sometimes it's time
for a new voice to come into a locker room
or an organization. I get that well. With Toy, that
was never the problem. Basically, the organization had simply traded
away their talented players, and he was doing the best
to gore with what he had. And that is why
I think it's really important for the people who run

(21:48):
organizations a team president of GM to understand what a
reasonable expectation is. And I think that also goes to ownership.
Ownership can't say, well, I'm slashing the payroll, but we're
going to trade a bunch of guys and oh, by
the way, you got to win as many games as
you did before Russ, You're all going to get fired.
That's just not fair. And I think it is important
that the management of these teams understands and respects that.

(22:10):
And I think you've got to credit Derek Hall as
their team president for setting the right tone, and the
player development people and Derek Ladney or their scouting director.
Look at how many talented young outfitters they've got Corbyn
Carroll McCarthy, Lord of Scuriel, who they got into trade,
really good front office and an excellent manager. Congratulations and
Jory well deserved.

Speaker 3 (22:31):
Yeah. Yeah, I think that was perfectly said JP. I
really feel strongly that baseball got away from one of
the facets that made their sport so special. And this
is at all levels, well I should say all levels.
They can afford to bring an analyst, but trusting the
numbers and the numbers alone and using your manager as

(22:51):
just an armchair psychologist and somebody who you can blame
for the pitfalls of the analysts failing to get the
numbers right or the players getting too injured to mount
a great campaign on any given season. It's a shame
because baseball lost a little bit of that gut feel

(23:11):
luster that had had in the past. And I hope
we get back to that one day. I hope that
you know, decisions like we were just discussing, or you know,
or maybe a little bit more trust at the manager
level in baseball from the dugout as opposed from the
computers upstairs. Ushers in an era where we get to
see a little bit more of you know, managing from

(23:34):
the top step of the dieout as opposed to managing
from behind computer screens.

Speaker 5 (23:39):
Well, you're right not And here's one of the key points.
And this is again I'll make a point that transcends
baseball and goes honestly to other areas of sports and
other areas of life. Do we want to have success
or do we want to get credit? What are we
most concerned about? Are we most concerned about the ultimate goal?

(24:00):
The organization of the team, of our group and doing
right by what our mission statement is for us or
does it? Is my foremost concern that in the first article,
the first paragraph, they say, what a great job by
X person, this guy, and have that be me. That's
there's a lot of that that goes on in sports,

(24:22):
a lot of it that goes on in American life
written large about who's going to get the credit look
at the teams. And I love this point because it's
just it's so important to think about the twenty twenty
one World Series. Okay, those two teams that met in
that World Series, the Atlanta Braves the Houston Astros, were
led by the two oldest managers in the sports. And

(24:44):
then guess what, Brian Snicker won it with Atlanta in
twenty one, and who won it last year, Dusty Baker.
And so this old notion that if you're an order manager,
that all we've got a rush to get the new,
more age guy in and we've got to get this
new generation in that wants to do it by the
computers or whatever it is. And again, not all young

(25:06):
guys are like that. I should make clear on that.
But but what's the problem with the results of the
older managers? All I know is the last two World
series were won by those guys, so clearly they help.
Clearly there's value in what Brian Zicker does for the
experienced players and for the young players. Clearly there's value

(25:28):
in Dusty Baker. Okay, So I always push back whenever
anybody wants to suggest, and I think we're on the
same patre obviously that that there's that there's this need
to do the entire organizational work by by the computers.
In my in my opinion, there's enough of the data
and the analytics out there in the ether. Anyway, it's

(25:50):
on every iPad that's in every clubhouse, in every every
place in Major League Baseball. The manager, I think has
the greatest value off of the iPad. Close the door,
let's sit down and have a conversation, and let's have
let's talk about how you can be at your best
at seven ten pm when there's no computer in your
back pocket. Okay, because when you're standing in the batter's box,

(26:13):
you're not gonna have your high pad with you. You
got to get out there and perform. And I think
that there's enough technology around in technology is helpful. I
love it, Okay, it's part of part of our world.
But when it comes time to execute, the computer is
not going to help you. You need to do it
on your own, and you can be helped in that
endeavor by the wisdom of the person sitting across from

(26:33):
you in the manager's office. Period.

Speaker 2 (26:35):
Well, as a guy they grew up with Dodger baseball,
back to the Walter Alston day. He's went through Tommylosorda.
That old school mentality works for me and I love it. JP.
As always, you're the best of the best. We appreciate
your time on a Sunday, and we'll do it again
next week.

Speaker 5 (26:51):
There you go, went in doubt, you know, call the
oldest millennial in the world. That would be me, someone
who likes to read the newspaper in print and send
via handwritten notes. That's I mean. I'm I'm an old guy.
I'm the oldest millennial in the world. There you go,
I'm out of it.

Speaker 2 (27:06):
You're talking the same language. JP, are the best. We'll
talk to you next week. That's John Paul Morosi. All right,
we'll get much more into that. We got one hundred
things to take care of today. But first let's find
out what is trendy right now. Nick Cope finds himself
here on a Sunday, Nick, How did this happen?

Speaker 6 (27:26):
Well, Monsey usually works this shift with you guys. I
know she's got a full day over at Dodgers Stadium.
We got the Yankees in town, lots of fans taking
in these games this week, and so she's got a
lot of tours to give before the game. Tours, yes, switched.

Speaker 2 (27:43):
I mean, this is amazing stuff. So she does this often. Yeah,
obviously with the Yankees in town, it's huge. I think
she said like six tours over three.

Speaker 6 (27:52):
Years, and normally they they've added more tours than they.

Speaker 2 (27:57):
Usually do all these days.

Speaker 6 (27:58):
So she was here this morning and so but I'm
happy to hang out with you guys over the day.
And in terms of baseball, we got just one game
going on right now, a bunch that are about to start,
but Pirates currently leading the Cardinals two to one, that
one all the way into the eighth inning. We'll get
you updated throughout the show as these other games get going.

(28:19):
We've got Game two of the NBA Finals Heat Nuggets
tonight eight Eastern, slightly earlier than Game one. Nuggets with
the one zero series lead. Caleb Martin for Miami listed
as questionable due to illness. A report from ESPN says
the Suns are retaining associate head coach Kevin Young for
Frank Vogel staff. He's said to earn now more than
two million a year. That makes him the highest paid

(28:40):
assistant in the league. Guy was talking about the Stanley
Cup final five to two Golden Knights over the Panthers
in game one, Game two coming up on Monday night
French Open, Novak Djokovic won in straight sets. He's into
the quarterfinals at Roland Garros for a record seventeenth time.
There's one record that Rofenadal doesn't have. In Paris, top
seeded Carlos al KaAZ also won in straight sets into

(29:02):
the quarterfinals as well. Golf got the Memorial Tournament. Rory
mccroy part of a three way tie for first. He
and the rest of the leaders are teeing off right now.
Ricky Fowler Scotty Scheffler have had big days to move
up the leaderboard and into the top ten. Max for
Stapping won the Spanish Grand Prix in Formula one.

Speaker 2 (29:19):
And that's all we got going on right now. Guys.
Back to you, Hi, Nick, Thank you very much. Once again,
we're brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes bundling
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During a conversation with JP, Richie brought up Aaron Judge.

(29:40):
I guess we found out the answer of when a
guy who's six foot seven two and eighty two pounds
runs full speed into a wall, who's gonna win? Yeah, Judge,
Yeah he wins that. Do you see the surprise behind
the lay the like we've never seen that like open
unless some he actually opens it.

Speaker 3 (30:01):
Yeah, there were two. It looked like pitching coaches just
watching the game beyond the outfield walls in the bullpen.
And when Judge caught that baseball, he crashed through the gate.
And it's not supposed to open inwards. It's supposed to
open outward. So yeah, there was there were some faces

(30:23):
of surprise and shock. He nearly took the one guy out.
I mean the gate swung into his lap practically. Yeah,
I'll say this about Aaron Judge. Outside of that unbelievable moment,
just the play that he has now replicated this year.
And I don't want to I don't want to speak

(30:45):
too soon because look, it's the beginning of June. There's
a lot of baseball season last left. But if he
continues on this tear and we get toward the All
Star break, even missing ten games this season with the
the hip soreness, uh, he's on pace to equal or

(31:06):
or or better the not only the home runs, but
just the numbers, just the insane numbers he put up
last year during an MVP season. And look there, there's
there's something admirable about replicable success, right you know, you
just think about, Okay, there's a guy who just shows

(31:26):
up to work every day. He's he or she is
doing the job to the best of their ability, better
than most people, and you know, you tip your cap
to them. But when somebody can replicate like things that
we've never seen ever, ever before, that's when you start
pumping the brakes and saying, whoa like, what is what

(31:49):
is going on? And Aaron Judge, he's he's doing something
differently like and and when I watch when I watch him,
and I watch his swing, I watch his approach. I mean,
he is clabbering the baseball. But it's because he took
the whole conversation about launch angle very seriously. I mean,

(32:09):
he has basically now adopted a full uppercut swing. There
are times where he's swinging out of ball low in
the strike zone and I'm talking about a knee high
fastball something like that, and it legitimately looks like he's
completely inverted his bat and it looks like a golf swing.
It is one of the more sudden swings in baseball.

(32:30):
If I were if I were a hitting coach, or
if I were somebody who is training baseball and I
wanted to get a player to be able to hit
the ball opposite, be able to hit the ball out
of the park, be able to hit the ball for
extra base hits, I would turn on that tape and
I would try to teach any player just I mean,

(32:51):
the exact mechanics of Aaron Judge, because, to be honest
with you, the only person on the planet who I
think has done it similar And you know exactly where
I'm gonna turn to is Barry Bonds. And I'm not
just talking about the numbers. I'm talking about the way
they swing the bat. It is so eerily similar, the

(33:12):
same bat speed, the same bat path, the same mechanics.
It just looks identical. I don't understand why more coaches
or hitting coaches don't turn on that film and say, hey,
just do it like this guy does it, because it
appears to be the exact same formula.

Speaker 2 (33:30):
Well, and there was another guy that actually did that,
and that was Mark maguire.

Speaker 3 (33:32):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (33:33):
Of course, a little ladded juice. Well, yeah, makes the
ball travel a little further, but it's six seven and
eighty two pounds. I don't think Judge needs any help.
All right. On the other side, let's stay with baseball
for a moment. Here. It's decision time concerning the only
player that we can actually mention in the same breath. Yeah,
I wouldn't say, only one of the few players that

(33:55):
we can mention in the same breath as Aaron Judge.
Who is it? You'll find out. This is Fox Sports Sunday,
Steve Hartman and Rich Hornberger, Fox Sports Sunday. We're live
from the tai Iraq dot Com Studios show Hey Otani, Show,
Hey Otani. The Angels Right now, Rich are right at

(34:17):
the five hundred mark, thirty and thirty. It would appear
that even with Otani and Trout that once again there
are not in a position to seriously threaten for I mean,
maybe a wild card, but you know, not really doing
much damage beyond that. The trade deadline in baseball is

(34:37):
August first, so we still got a couple of months
to go here. But if you're the Angels, think about
this for a second. So if you were to trade
show hey Otani, I can't imagine the boatload of talent
you're going to get in return. And theoretically, unless he

(34:58):
were to immediately sign a contra I get extension with
the team he got traded too, he would still be
a free agent at the end of the year, and
if he really likes to be an Angel, he could
essentially rejoin the team. But the one thing the Angels
can't do is let this kind of talent walk away.

(35:18):
And we don't know, I mean, he may decide I
don't want to be an Angel anymore. I want to
you know, grow, Maybe I'll be a Dodger or Yank
and wherever he wants to be. So I think this
is going to be an interesting couple of months for
the Angels in terms of do we just hang on
to the hope that Otani wants to stay here even
though we haven't had a winning season since he's been here,

(35:41):
or do we unload him and just you know, can
you imagine what the bids would be for a talent
like Show Hey Otani? What would you do if you're
the Angels?

Speaker 3 (35:52):
Well, I mean, look, every every organization has their price.
I unfortunately think for anybody who's looking to trade for
a Show Hey, you would run the risk of the
reset taking too long for Show Heyotani to be interested
in re signing with you. That's what I would think

(36:15):
is the biggest problem here. I don't think sho Heotani
is tradable because I think you would have to strip
a team to its bear studs in order to get him.
And he's a twenty eight year old ballplayer, So what
sense does this make to show Heotani. I would refuse
the trade if I were him. I don't want to
go to a rebuild. I don't want to go to
a place where I'm the only star. That's what I'm

(36:37):
leaving if I'm leaving Anaheim. So I don't think it
makes any sense to me. Shoe Heotani is twenty eight
people forget this because he just got here a couple
of years ago and there were a couple of injuries
at first, so he's relatively anonymous before he exploded these
past two seasons. Shoe Heotani is a once in a
generation talent, not only as a hitter but a pitcher

(36:59):
as well, and as a result, he's going to when
he hits free agency, make a tremendous amount of money,
all of it deservedly so, but he's gonna make that money.
My guess with a franchise that as a future. The
Angels don't have a future the Angels. It doesn't matter
the star power they've had, for whatever reason, culturally or

(37:21):
from a player personnel complexion, they can't get out of
their own way. So very similar to I don't know,
name an American ballplayer like a Manny Machado who was
with the Baltimore Orioles for years and years and years
and was tired of losing and was interested in getting paid.
A huge amount of money was traded at the end
of his time there, not the same level of talent

(37:44):
as Sho heo Tani, and then spent you know, a
half season in LA before signing his Giant three hundred
million dollar contract with the San Diego Padres. He wanted
to join a team with the future.

Speaker 2 (37:56):
That's what I.

Speaker 3 (37:56):
Think show Heo Tani is going to be interested in doing,
because that is certain point. After you've proven to everybody
you can play at this level, after you've proven to
everybody that you're one of the greats of the game,
you start thinking about your legacy. When you're getting closer
to thirty, you start thinking about the World Series championships
and the playoff runs that you have. Zero. You've had

(38:17):
zero of those since playing in the major leagues with Anaheim.

Speaker 2 (38:21):
All right, well, let me ask you this though, because
the Dodgers right now, along with the Arizona Diamondbacks, had
the best recon in the National League, but their pitching
staff is in shambles. You know, I don't know how
else to put it. I mean, they've been able to
do it really with smoking mirrors. It's been crazy how
the Dodgers have maintained. But if you're the Dodgers and
you have an opportunity to make a deal to get

(38:44):
Sho hey O Tani and maybe give up a boatload
of prospect talent in order to get him, he could
help you in the right now. In other words, you
need that arm in that rotation that takes the Dodgers
to a whole different level. So I agree with you.
He's not going to go to some team that you
know is not in contention. But if the Yankees come calling,

(39:06):
or the Dodgers come calling, or a team of that level, uh,
saying we're interested in making a blockbuster deal for the
now and hopefully the future. I put it this way,
if I were the Dodgers, I would do it even
if he were to sign elsewhere after the season, because
this is a Dodger team desert of winning a World Series.
I don't know if he can help him get there,

(39:27):
but to me, it would be worth the roll of
the dice.

Speaker 3 (39:29):
Well that's the thing you better be You better be
sure you are Shohei o Tani away from winning a
World Series if you trade for him, because if you
misjudge that and you end up signing away basically your
franchise to get this guy, or the future of your
franchise to get this guy, and then he doesn't enter

(39:50):
contract negotiations, or you can't find a fair price for
his talents to stick around with the club that he's
only played for what weeks months before free agency. I mean,
it's just not a good equation. It's not a good plan.
So I don't see it happening. I don't think he's tradable.
I think he's too talented to be traded because whoever

(40:12):
trades for him, it's a hope and a prayer that
he's gonna sign long term and you're gonna have to
give up way too much for him. I mean, just
think about the amount of capital it took for the
Padres to get Sodo. It's not gonna happen.

Speaker 2 (40:26):
Well, they said Soda wasn't gonna get traded. He was
one thing we do know. Game two of the NBA
Finals to now we have the latest. This is Fox
Sports Sunday getting ready for Game two of the NBA
Finals between the Nuggets and the Heat. We are broadcasting
live from the tirag dot com studios tyraq dot com.
We're gonna help get you there an unmatched selection, fast

(40:47):
red shipping, free road as a protection, over ten thousand
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should be. And we have a lot of new listeners today,
rich As we welcome our new affiliate in Peoria, Illinois.
That's Peoria Sports Radio one to one point one. Welcome
to the Fox Sports Radio family. There are Chicago White

(41:08):
Sox Radio Network affiliate program directors. Scott Heca Thorn said, yeah,
we're dropping that other network. We're gonna flip the Fox Sports.
That's a big win for them, big win for us.
Welcome to the FSR family, Peoria Sports Radio one oh
one point one. By the way, Sam says that he
is a veteran of Peoria. You know, Peoria, Illinois.

Speaker 7 (41:31):
Been there a few times, driven through it. It's a
it's a nice town. It's got some nice bridges, it's
got a good look to it.

Speaker 2 (41:37):
And you found out the population was one hundred and
eleventh one.

Speaker 7 (41:40):
Hundred and eleven thousand, okay, size oka And yeah, I
used to cover Midwest League Baseball and so the Peoria
Chiefs were in that league and take on the Seed Rapids,
Kernels and some other teams.

Speaker 2 (41:51):
Now, are they Cubs fans or Cardinals fans there in Peoria?

Speaker 7 (41:55):
Yeah, Oh, they're definitely Cubs or White Sox fans. White
Sox fans, Yeah, well, well, I I know they're the
White Sox affiliate.

Speaker 2 (42:03):
But I'm saying from the nationally standpoint, I mean, if
you're a White Sox fan, of you a Cups fan.

Speaker 7 (42:08):
No, no, I'm saying, yeah, for National League Cubs, they're
definitely leaning towards.

Speaker 3 (42:11):
The Cubs there.

Speaker 2 (42:11):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Okay, it's Illinois. All right. Well, if
you're listening, I appreciate it. Thank you so much joining
us here on Fox Sports Radio. All right, Richie, we
get ready for a game two tonight of the NBA Finals,
the Nuggets and the Heat. You know, there were a
lot of theories going into Game one that well, first
of all, you had a Nuggets team that had been
off ten days. I mean wow, I mean nine days

(42:33):
full off, but ten days after the last appearance completing
that sweep against the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals.
Some of the Nuggets said, yeah, I will probably be
a little rusty at the start of the game, but
we'll shake things off. And that's pretty much what happened.
I mean, the Nuggets I never really felt were threatening
the game. But I wanted to get your thought on

(42:54):
Malones tacked as a coach, because he has been very
vocal with the media on how he has admonished his
team throughout and really turning the screws. And of course
you played with a guy like that in Belichick, who
I'm sure took full advantage of you guys, even more
so when he won than when he lost. So he's

(43:15):
going over all this stuff from game one is that
you know they had all these open threes, sixteen of
them account of the heat, they only made five. If
you think Struss is gonna be oh for from three
point land, you're in dreamland.

Speaker 3 (43:29):
I mean.

Speaker 2 (43:29):
And then he says, yeah, we didn't play any played
off on the fourth guard, didn't play any defense. How
does that, from a psychological standpoint sit with you? When
you know you've done well, but the coach is gonna
nitpick and say, yeah, get off your high horse, you
didn't play well, you need to be better. How does
that work on the psyche of a player?

Speaker 3 (43:51):
Well, yeah, you mentioned it. Playing for a coach like
Bill Belichick, that is how he views is the best
way to keep his team's mode by talking up the
opponents and talking down what accomplishments you've already accomplished. Now,
there's there's no doubt that credit is given where credit

(44:13):
is due, Right, you know, there's no doubt that when
you do it the right way, he wants to make
an example of you. From that standpoint, but I would
say the majority of the time, the criticisms and the
poor examples are the ones that a coach like Belichick
wants the team to learn from, because there's nothing like

(44:34):
a bad example, right, because if you can learn from
a bad example, you could actually learn in most cases
more because you can see how you can see. Look,
I mean, look, there are times where you get lucky
and you win. There's no question about it happens in
sports all the time. It happens, it happens in life
all the time. You know, people just luck into a

(44:56):
situation where shoot, you know, things just fell into place.
You win the lotto, So you know, whatever, whatever it
may be, you didn't deserve the job you got, but
you know the what you had an uncle who worked
at the businesses. People get lucky all the time. But
when you lose, when you lose, sometimes it's unlucky, but
many times it's traceable. Many times you could go back

(45:17):
to exactly what happened. And when you do that, when
you do that work, you can get much better. And
so that's Belichick's theory, and that's what I live through
in New England. With a coach like Malone in Denver,
the most important thing he has to keep in mind
is this strategy doesn't work unless there's buy in from

(45:39):
your top star or stars. He's very fortunate that Jokich
is the type of player that is willing to play
ball this way. The reason why Belichick had the ability
to roll with an iron fist for as long as
he did and have success for as long as he
did was as much as attributed to Tom Brady as
it was his coaching style, because Tom Brady inarguably was

(46:02):
the best or one of the best players in the
league the entire run during his time in New England.

Speaker 2 (46:07):
Tim Duncan same way in San Antonio.

Speaker 3 (46:10):
Greg Popovich is another example of a guy who rules
with an iron fist, and he had inarguably one of
the best players in the league or the best player
in the league in Tim Duncan during his reign of power.

Speaker 2 (46:21):
Who is an unselfish player, team guy all the way.
Steph Curry, Steve Kerr, Yeah, okay.

Speaker 3 (46:26):
Steve Kerr a little bit different of approach, but definitely
the overseer mug Well, it says you, I think Steve
Kerr is a nice guy. But look, here's the deal.
Steve Kerr has ultimate control over that team. And it's
because a player like Steph Curry again to use the
word you just used to describe Tim Duncan selfless cares

(46:47):
about the input from his coach. So Malone in Denver
is experiencing the same thing with Jokich. So where we
want to give attention in praise to coaches, you have
to go back to the people who empower these coaches
to do what they're doing. And it's the stars on
their roster who allow these coaches to talk down to them,

(47:09):
even though they make more money, even though they're more influential,
even though they if they wanted to. And this is
almost universal across the board. Every player we just discussed
could put their owner in a bind if he said
if he said, look, it's either him or me. You
got to choose between us, but one of us has

(47:30):
to go. Almost always you're going to see the player stay.
And in fact, that actually was tested in New England
when Bill Belichick, if you believe the reports from Seth Wickersham,
when Belichick wanted to trade Tom Brady to the San
Francisco forty nine ers, and the owner, Robert Kraft, got
in the way and said, no, it'll be a garoppolo instead,

(47:50):
or it'll be nobody, And so Bill was able to
make the trade with Jimmy G instead of Tom Brady,
but they were ready to move on to Jimmy G
back then. Look, having a star player who's selfless and
who is willing to listen to coaching is more important
than having a good coach in almost every facet because

(48:11):
you need to have buying. If it's gonna work, if
the message is gonna send, you need to have somebody
who's going to receive it and influence the locker room
when you're not around. And that's exactly what Denver has
and it's all because of Nikola Jokic.

Speaker 2 (48:26):
Yeah, Nikola Jokic is also potentially the worst nightmare for
the NBA because I don't see this Denver team going
away anytime soon. They have a young nucleus of players.
Jokicic is just entering the prime of his career. He's
a big man. It's not like he's gonna lose explosiveness
because that's not his game. He's just gonna get better
and better and better. So they have a window maybe

(48:48):
three four five years where they're gonna be right there
in contention. And this is similar to what happened to
San Antonio back in the day with Tim Duncan. Every
time the Spurs were in the NBA Finals, the NBA
Finals ratings with creter, I mean, absolute crater, nobody cared
and and so we were talking about this yesterday, Rich

(49:09):
and I know you have a very creative mind. So
we were trying to figure out if you're the NBA now,
you have to have a willing participant. And I don't
know how Jokic is when it comes to ideas of
marketing himself, which by the way, would also help market
the league. Tim Duncan he didn't engage in an of

(49:30):
that stuff. You know, Mike Trout for years in baseball,
really didn't want any part of it. So we had
Sam yesterday was talking about me Cola, me Colea. Now
let's let's get Sam back in here. He's been running
around all over the place. So now that we have
Rich here, Sam throws some of your ideas of actually

(49:53):
how to market Jokic, because, like I said, potentially this
Nuggets team, if they can stay healthy, could rattle off
a couple of NBA championships. And it's like they don't
want to go down the same path they did with
San Antonio Crater with finals ratings, when a certain team
that doesn't have a lot of personality ends up dominating.

Speaker 7 (50:12):
So how do you how do you market Jokic? So
yesterday I had two ideas. We bring back the uh
the the Swiss big tube tuba.

Speaker 2 (50:22):
Players whatever they were. You know, what are you going up?
But they just get Meka Okay. I could just put
he's yeah, make him weird.

Speaker 3 (50:32):
Of of of of mentholated uh loss.

Speaker 7 (50:36):
He soothes the itchy sore throat of the Denver Nuggets
fan base and NBA fans everywhere, or go the.

Speaker 3 (50:42):
You could see him in the Rockies. I could see him.

Speaker 7 (50:45):
Put him in some like later hose in or something,
you know, given one of those long uh serbians exactly
whatever that is, or go I don't know if he'd
buy into this idea because it's like a soft drink idea,
but go with a Nicola cola.

Speaker 2 (51:00):
Yeah. Well, first of all, it also happened because people
some people don't know it's Nicola, but some people say
Nicola and it's not. It's Nicola Jokic. Maybe maybe he
should go with joke and see everyone calls him the joker,
but he's really the yoker.

Speaker 3 (51:20):
Oh you mean like almost like eggs eggs. Maybe maybe
do Denny's commercials.

Speaker 2 (51:26):
Yes, he's not the joker, he's the yoker.

Speaker 3 (51:29):
Okay, how about this one?

Speaker 2 (51:30):
How about this one?

Speaker 3 (51:32):
Slightly different pronunciation. But you remember when John Madden the
boom tough acting to acting right, just call him jocketch
instead of yoking.

Speaker 2 (51:42):
I like that. See list the NBA is listening right
now because they're because what do we what do we
do with this guy? Because he's he's so many people
are just discovering him right now. I like the breakfast
yok Yo place. He's no joker, He's a yoki.

Speaker 3 (52:01):
I want I want this Serbian superstar to be associated
with your omelets or the rest of our day.

Speaker 8 (52:08):
Talking about breakfast. The most natural partnership for Jokic is
Taco Bell because he was drafted during a Taco Bell commercial.
If you guys remember that.

Speaker 3 (52:15):
Oh I do remember that. Yeah, it was such an
afterthought that.

Speaker 8 (52:18):
The second round at the end of the second round
that the NBA was running commercials on ESPN.

Speaker 2 (52:22):
I think it was local commercial all right, So there
are possiblies, but he has to be a willing participant.
Does he strike you as a guy that would mean
taco bell and making fun of yourself when you're a
superstar athlete usually works.

Speaker 3 (52:36):
I agree.

Speaker 2 (52:37):
I mean, obviously, it's worked for Shack for years, It's
worked for Charles Barkley for years. Self effacing humor. I mean,
I go all the way. Joe Nama just celebrated, by
the way, his eightieth birthday. Right, he did a panty
host commercial.

Speaker 3 (52:52):
Oh he did.

Speaker 2 (52:52):
Yeah, he did this panty where he is laying down
and they were going up his legs and there he
is with panty hosts on and he couldn't and he
was laughing. The thing that made the commercial was he
laughed like, I know, this is ridiculous. He's like, if
my legs could look good in these, imagine what your
legs are going to look like. And it was so
upseturd he couldn't. I had all these knee surgery scars

(53:13):
and everything else. So he was like, but it was
it was fun and it was highly effective advertising. So
I'm going to be interesting to see, Uh, if the
Nuggets complete the job, what they gonna do with Jokic
because now people know who he is? All right. On
the other side, can the Miami Heat change their game

(53:36):
plan and come up the winning game too? What do
they have to do? We're gonna tell you. This is
Fox Sports Sunday, Steve Harbin and Rich Hornberger Fox Sports
Sunday Live from the Tairac dot Com studios. And now,
one thing, the Denver Nuggets should be a very rested team.

(53:56):
They have played one game in thirteen days. That's not bad.
I mean one game. So tonight's they's second game in
thirteen days.

Speaker 3 (54:07):
Yeah, they're gonna They're gonna be fresh. They're gonna be rested.
And apparently, look, this isn't true with every squad. There
are certain teams that you know, roll better with momentum,
but apparently they have no problem taking extended amounts of
time off and coming back looking as good or better

(54:29):
than ever. Because that opening game against the Heat the final,
I mean, the game wasn't even even near what the finals.
I mean, they dominated basically from the opening tip off
really midway through the first quarter. All the way through
the rest of that game.

Speaker 2 (54:45):
All right, So let let's let's figure this out for
a second here, Let's let's try to make a serious because,
like I said, we're gonna at least have another week
of talking about this series and trying to make you know,
some sense of it. So you have two teams, teams
that are well coached. Okay, these are well coached teams.

(55:07):
The problem for the Miami Heat is this, Denver physically
is bigger than you across the board. You have a
team that you're facing that is bigger across the board
and just as skilled as you are. So sometimes you
know you can offset size because you're more skilled. That's

(55:30):
not the case here. Denver has as much skill, maybe
even more so than Miami, and they have a huge
size advantage. I mean when we see not only Jokic
but Gordon, I mean they're pounding Miami inside. I mean
the fact that the Heat only had two free throws
in that game, what was that? I mean you could say, well,

(55:53):
we rely in the three. Miami doesn't rely in the three.
They're not Boston, They're not one of those type of teams.
So Jimmy Butler played too soft, wet exminated. Okay, so
all right, So if it's the David versus Goliath thing,
so how does David beat Goliath in this series? Rich?

Speaker 3 (56:12):
Well, I think it starts in and ends really with
Jimmy Butler and the aggressiveness of his play. Look, Jimmy
is not going to be able to have too many
thirteen point nights because their their season will come to
an end very quickly. It's it's I mean it, Look
the Miami Heat. What's special about the Miami Heat? And

(56:34):
you could tell me, well, the development of Caleb Martin
and how about Bam out of Bay Bio, both offensively
and defensively, the progression we've seen there. You could talk
to me about Eric Spoulstra, You could talk to me
at the front office level with pat Riley. You could
you can tell you can tell me about all those things,
the veteran leadership of Kevin Love, I mean, go down

(56:55):
the list, Tyler hero potentially coming back all those things.
The truth and the secret sauce of Miami Heat is
very simple. It's Jimmy Butler. That is the whole show.
Miami Heat had a special season because they have a special,
special player who started in a big way showing up
during this postseason run. I mean, this was a team

(57:18):
that won in the playing round. This is a team
that just based off of confidence and the will and
the great and superior play of Jimmy Butler, has been
able to navigate at times a tumultuous postseason, but it's
gotten them to the finals. Now I don't know if
they have anything for the Denver Nuggets. This could be
a sweep and this could be over, you know, almost

(57:39):
before it started. But the only strategy is to somehow
empower Jimmy Butler to take over a game and then
try to repeat that success because if you don't, if
they stop Jimmy, the Miami Heat have literally next to
zero chance of winning this series.

Speaker 2 (58:02):
This was the lowest scoring team in the league, the
Miami Heat. Now we've been hearing about ty Tyler Herro.
You know, could he be coming back had that a
hand injury. They're sort of hinting he's practicing right now,
So I mean that that would at least give him
an added score. But when you just like I said,

(58:24):
I mean, the thing, the thing that always amazes me
about Jokic, and there aren't a lot of players like
this is that he always seems under control, like he's
never hurried. Maybe it's just because he moves so slowly
to begin with, but he just he just there's no

(58:46):
panic with him, you know. He just he goes about
his business, you know, even when he even when like
the first quarter of Game one, where he didn't even
take a shot, right, I mean, he was just passing
the ball. Everything seems very deliberate, slow moving, and yet
the end result is they're seemingly scoring on every possession.
This is a Denver team that can beat you so

(59:08):
many ways, especially at home. They only lost seven home
games the entire year, and they haven't lost any home
games during this postseason. So this is the heat in
their three series against the Knicks, the Bucks, and the Celtics,
one game one of all three of those series on
the road, and Malone you know, had a big, you know,
raw ross speech for Denver before Game one, citing the

(59:30):
fact that Miami to open all their previous series of
the road winning. He's like that, not in our house,
not in our house. Well, as it turnout, he he
doesn't have to tell this team they're gonna play their games.
So I agree with you. The only way and It
reminds me of two thousand and one. The Lakers are
playing the seventy six ers. I think they're gonna have
a special on that Sixers team. Larry Brown was the coach,

(59:51):
Alan Iverson was the league's MVP. The Lakers were just
way better, but Iverson had this unbelievable Game one at
Staples Center. I scored forty six, forty seven points. He
did the step over on tyl who was a backup guard.
Then oh yeah for the Lakers, and the Sixers won
the game.

Speaker 3 (01:00:08):
I know.

Speaker 2 (01:00:09):
I had a friend of mine who was a big
Laker hater, and he goes, this is just the beginning.
I said, the Lakers will not lose another game. And
by the way, the last three games of that series
were all in Philadelphia. They swept all three there. So
to me, if the Heat are gonna even win a
game in this series, I agree with you, it's gonna
have to be one of those Jimmy Butler just you know,

(01:00:31):
forty seven points just one off. He was unguardable and
he single handily beat him.

Speaker 3 (01:00:37):
Yeah, because you either have to do that, you have
to hope that somehow Jokic gets hurt, which obviously nobody's
rooting for an injury.

Speaker 2 (01:00:46):
Well you, but you could attack, see this thing, Rich,
here's the thing about attacking. Maybe maybe you could get
him a couple of quick fouls. If you could force
him to have to set out even half a quarter, right,
maybe he could do some damage when he's not on
the court. That's the big part about attacking the hoop.
Maybe you can get a couple of quick fouls and

(01:01:08):
Yo gets them force him to put him on the bench.

Speaker 3 (01:01:10):
It's the only chance you have. Yeah, I mean, and
that's exactly where he's going to go. You either hope
for him to get hurt or you hope for him
to get into foul trouble because when he's on the court,
and he helps on the defensive end as well. You know,
we talk about a lot of his offense, but he's
obviously a lumbering giant who's got swiftness to his game
enough so that he can help on the defensive side

(01:01:32):
of the court. It's just it's uh, Look, it's an
impossible task to beat the Nuggets if they have everybody
on the court and they're doing whatever they want to do.
But if you can somehow find a way to take
them out of their game, or encourage Jimmy to get
in his bag and be the Jimmy Butler who's led

(01:01:53):
the Miami Heat through the majority of this postseason and
be the be the guy. Well, then you have a chance,
I mean you have a you have a puncher's chance
to make this series interesting. I still give the overwhelming
advantage to the Nuggets. I don't think that the Heat,
even if they put together an incredible game plan with

(01:02:15):
all this time that they'll have in between games, because
the NBA is going to try to have this this
final series go until next Father's Day. But assuming you
can put together any sort of plan, you could at
least make this interesting. And if it gets to a
tie series, you know, one to one, two two. Look,

(01:02:35):
if you haven't completely exhausted yourself, then could could I
perceive giving Miami a chance? Well yeah, but we can't
have that conversation until a we see Jimmy show up
for one of these games, and hopefully it's tonight or
B they find a way to neutralize Jokic basically in
a way that no other team has been able to

(01:02:56):
do this entire postseason so far.

Speaker 2 (01:03:00):
I wonder if we'll be talking NBA Finals next Sunday,
Game four. By the way, they're actually gonna have said
they play games around Wednesday, then game four on Friday. Okay,
so we'll see there. All right, let's find out what's
trending right now. Nick Cope is standing by Nick. Do
you see any hope for the Miami Heat in this series?

Speaker 6 (01:03:18):
I don't, but I mean, we'll see. They've proven us
wrong every step of the way.

Speaker 3 (01:03:23):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:03:24):
The thing I will say this, though Spolstra has maintained
he's basically been laughing through these entire playoffs, even when
they lost that crazy Game six of the Celtics. After
the game, he's like, eh, you know, you realize that
ball bounces three inches in any direction other than where
it landed. We're already in the NBA Finals. Yeah, exactly. So, yes, Sam,

(01:03:46):
he's seen enough crazy things.

Speaker 7 (01:03:48):
Quickly, I think. And I'm sorry to jump in your
update here, Nick. A bad omen for the Heat is
that they had not lost a game one in any
of the series right up to that point.

Speaker 5 (01:03:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:03:59):
Yeah, so yeah, that was the point that Malone said
before Game one with his team not in.

Speaker 7 (01:04:04):
Our house, right, So it's like, that's just a bad
indicator for the.

Speaker 2 (01:04:07):
Heat, and they were also coming off a seven game series.
They had to come from the road in Boston, you know,
three days later in Denver.

Speaker 7 (01:04:15):
So I think we're just determining now whether this is
a sweep or whether it's going to go.

Speaker 2 (01:04:19):
To I'm not taking any more time away from Nick.
I'm so sorry, sweet A sweep or a gentleman's sweep.

Speaker 6 (01:04:24):
I think that's what everyone is wondering to be that
you brought up Tyler Hero. He was listed as out
despite being on the practice court yesterday in Denver. However,
his status could still be changed prior to tonight's game, So
there's a slimmer of hope that Tyler Hero maybe something
allows him to get on the court tonight. Caleb Martin

(01:04:45):
he missed practice yesterday due to an illness, and he's
been listed as questionable for tonight's game. Baseball got a
bunch of games going on, one game already. Final Pirates
topped the Cardinals two to one, Brewers leading the Reds.
That is a three things score. On the fourth inning,
Andrew Monasterio homerd earlier his first career home run. Philly's

(01:05:06):
on top of the Nationals one Zip in the fourth
jt Real Mudo with a home run there. Blue Jays
have opened up a three to nothing lead on the Mets.
In the third inning at City Field, Vlatgerer Junior just
homered moments ago. Oakland A is with a five to
one lead on the Marlins. A five run third inning
for the Athletics, raised in Red Sox tied at one

(01:05:26):
in the fourth and a few games have just gotten
going Angels and Astros, the Guardians and the Twins and
then the Tigers in the White Sox. Those three games
no score just yet. In the early innings at the
French Open, Novak Djokovic and top seed Carlos Alcraz on
the men's side, each one in straight sets, both into
the quarterfinals. On the women's side, we'll keep an eye

(01:05:47):
on American Sloan Stevens. She's about to take on the
number two seed Arena Salablenka. In Golf Memorial Tournament, Roy
McElroy has taken the lead with an early birdie. He
has had seven under. Scottie Scheffler and Victor Hollind each
just one shot back, and then finally Formula one Max
for Stapping won the Spanish Grand prix earlier today.

Speaker 2 (01:06:08):
Guys, back to you all right, thank you very much, NiCl.
Check you with you a little bit later on. You
remember last week, Rich, we were talking about the possible
return of Tom Brady as Raiders quarterback.

Speaker 3 (01:06:22):
Yes, so yesterday listening to our show.

Speaker 2 (01:06:28):
Yeah, exactly. So he immediately said, I better squash this
idea before it goes any further. So yesterday I brought
it up again with Bucky, right, and it wasn't so
much the return of Brady because and again I don't know.
I guess they're confident that Jimmy Garoppoli is going to
come out from this foot surgery. But I mentioned in

(01:06:48):
fact again and then this is something that comes from
my Raider roots and the mentality of Al Davis back
in the day that he never forgets, right, he never
let go of the Imaca reception. Of course, years later
it was a similar situation with the tuck game. So
I went on and on again about this idea that
if Tom Brady wants to sign on as an owner,

(01:07:10):
even a small owner, some association of the Raiders, he's
got to come clean as far as what happened on
that tuck play. Admit that you know, you fumble the
ball and this guy send this on Twitter. This guy
said this, he goes could not last five minutes. Hartman
needs to stfu about TB twelve having to apologize. Bucky

(01:07:39):
deserves a better co host. Who can Stan Hartman? Well,
I've been getting that for years. I mean, Rich knows
better than anybody. But I understand the annoyance level. I
get that. But I love talking about this Raiders team
because there's so many components to the Raiders. First, let's
still recognize even though they haven't had a whole lot

(01:07:59):
of success over the last twenty years, there's still one
of the most valuable brands in the NFL. And one
of their sources of frustration in the NFL is that
you have ownership that just doesn't have the money. Now,
the interesting thing is, despite not having the money, they
spend the money. I don't know how they actually pull

(01:08:21):
this off. But I've always said this about Mark Davis.
Never underestimated the man with the bowl haircut. Okay, he's
a pretty smart guy. That being said, trying to get
Tom Brady into the mix, even if it's a very
small share of ownership of the Raiders, where are we
going with this, I mean, why the Raiders. I mean,

(01:08:44):
we've heard Tom you know, with the Dolphins, We've heard
a lot of But what do you think, because you
have a little insight having played with Tom Brady, where
is Tom Brady going with this in terms of buying
into ownership of the Raiders?

Speaker 3 (01:09:02):
Well, the only thing I could say is there are
no mistakes when it comes to Tom Brady. From a
public relations standpoint, I think that certain things over the
past couple of years have felt rushed, but I think
I think there have been reasons behind the scenes for them,

(01:09:25):
Like for example, in Tampa Bay, I think that there
was a lot more going on behind the scenes in
terms of a power struggle than people realize. And some
of that information I was able to share, and some
of the information I don't want to share because some
of it, frankly, I've only heard from one source.

Speaker 2 (01:09:46):
As opposed to multiple.

Speaker 3 (01:09:48):
But it didn't sound like that this was the you know,
the Arians left Wich situation with Tom Brady was one big,
happy family, you know. So the first retirement was then
followed by him unretiring and Arians immediately retiring from his
role and taking on a front office position where he

(01:10:10):
had no longer had power or control over the organization altogether. Right,
it was basically he said at his retirement press conference
that he was going to play a bunch of golf, Right,
I mean, was that coincidence? A lot of people seem
to believe it was, or I very least reported that
this was one big coincidence that he unretired basically at

(01:10:32):
the same time that Arians decided to retire. But to me,
from what I heard and from what I understand of
the situation, that wasn't a coincidence. There was animus and
that that was the reason for the retirement in the
first place. And then there was pressure put on ownership
to make a move, and so they allowed Bruce Arians

(01:10:54):
to save face and we saw the result. He came
back and led the team to a relatively underwhelming season.
But okay, say that's the last season. If that's the
last season, though, does he retire by putting out a
video on the beach and that's it? Like that's how

(01:11:14):
this whole story ends. Now, maybe there's more to this story.
I don't know now this I don't know. Maybe there's
more to this retirement story than I realize. And I'll
tell you what I know, and I tell you what
I don't know. I don't know the exact reasons why
he retired this time around. Maybe it's for good. Maybe
what he's saying now is one hundred percent true. But Steve,
if you remember, just a month ago, and I believe

(01:11:35):
we played the sound on this show, Tom Brady was
in Miami and he was answering questions at some financial
for him and somebody asked him, you know, hey, we're
here in Miami, would you ever consider playing for the Dolphins?
And he didn't say no, he just sort of avoided
answering the question directly by saying, well, haha, you know,
I have a lot of friends who play in Miami,

(01:11:57):
and Miami's a great place, and I've never said the
words no, I'm retired. So then for him to come
out after there's reports of him becoming a minority owner
of the Las Vegas Raiders, and by the way, at
the same exact time, we find out that Jimmy g
has had a pretty significant offseason surgery on his foot

(01:12:20):
and may or may not be available to start the season.
All of a sudden, now he's reiterating the fact that
he's retired to everybody. It just things aren't adding up.
So when things don't add up, obviously speculation occurs. And
when speculation occurs, you're going to have somebody try to
clean up the mess. And that's what he's trying to do.
But there is a reason why he's become the minority

(01:12:43):
owner of the Raiders or trying to get approval, and
maybe there's a reason why he's become so vocal about
the fact that he's actually retired, like, for example, because
he doesn't want the rest of the ownership groups to
box him out from being able to play for the Raiders.
If that's something he still chooses to do.

Speaker 2 (01:12:58):
By the way, I was just thinking about this. So
he also reiterated he's looking forward to next year twenty
twenty four, when he finally jumps into that thirty seven
million dollar a year job as an analyst for Fox Sports.
But if he has a minority stake in the Raiders,
how can he broadcast a Raiders game for Fox?

Speaker 3 (01:13:22):
Well, listen, I don't know if the end.

Speaker 2 (01:13:25):
I mean, it's different than let's say, being a former
coach or a former player for a team. If you
actually have an ownership stake in a franchise. Yeah, and
you're trying to broadcast the game of that franchise. I
don't think he can do that.

Speaker 3 (01:13:40):
Yeah, I don't know, I don't I don't know how.

Speaker 2 (01:13:42):
Many times the Raiders will be on you know Fox.
I mean, now it's an open season. If you don't know,
there really is no exclusivity anymore, AFC, NFC. They're going
to be jumping all over the place. But you know, again,
we've had former players, you know, coaches, you know, and
they're doing broadcasts of teams they coached or played for.
But that's full different than being an actual current owner

(01:14:02):
of a team. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:14:03):
I mean, let's let's face it. For example, production meetings
where you know, broadcasters who are trusted with pretty valuable
and sensitive information that they're supposed to keep under their
lid until game day. You know, production meetings happen all
the time where broadcaster walks into one facility and then
walks into the other facility and they get to sit

(01:14:24):
down with the coaches or get on conference called the
Fox and have discussions about scheme and even watch practices.
I mean, to your point, if Tom Brady is the
minority owner of the Raiders and you know, even if
he's calling a Chargers game for Fox, or if he's
calling a Denver Broncos game or a Chiefs game, do

(01:14:47):
the Chargers or the Broncos or the Chiefs want him
on their practice field to observe practice?

Speaker 2 (01:14:53):
I either want.

Speaker 3 (01:14:54):
Them talking to their players in production meetings.

Speaker 2 (01:14:57):
I mean, I'm trying to think of any broadcaster they
actually had an ownershi staking a team.

Speaker 3 (01:15:02):
It's a good point.

Speaker 2 (01:15:02):
I don't know how this is all going to play out,
but anyway, for those that under want to know why
I am so adamant about this, You know, Brady having
to come clean on the tuck roll if he's going
to jump in with the Raiders organization and understand it's
Al Davis screaming in my ear, which he did plenty
when I work for that man back in the day.
All right, on the other side, we got more NFL

(01:15:24):
news to get to. Could we see a big reunion
of two very close teammates of the past. Tell you
who they are. This is Fox Sports Sunday, Steve Harmon,
rich Ormburger, Fox Sports Sunday. We're back here in the
Fox Sports Red Zone, Radio tirerac dot Com Studios. So

(01:15:49):
I was thinking about this the other day with DeAndre Hopkins,
who and I think this is a smart decision on
his part, says he's in no hurry to make any
final decision on where he's going to go. He's got
plenty of offers out there. But a little twist in
the story was a former teammate of his, Deshaun Wattson,

(01:16:15):
and obviously they had a very special connection with the
Houston Texas. And I'm thinking to myself, all right, if
you're d hop and we you know, last week we
were talking about the Chiefs and the Bills and the
Ravens and the Jets. I mean, these are now that
the Jets have Aaron Rodgers, these are all teams, you know,
firmly in contention to make a deep run of the playoffs.

(01:16:38):
If the Cleveland Browns were to get d hop how
good are the Cleveland Browns in twenty twenty three does
he make Does he change the dynamic as far as
the potential outlook of the season. This assuming of course,
that Deshaun Watson can come back and get anywhere near
the level he was because he really has been out

(01:17:00):
for two years. I mean, he came back last year,
but obviously, you know, still trying to learn the offense.
But would de hop could he look at the Cleveland
Browns as a team that yeah, I could join that
team and they become what we call a serious playoff contender.

Speaker 3 (01:17:15):
Yeah. Well, I mean, look, Deshaun Watson, if he returns
to form, is one of the most dynamic quarterbacks in
the NFL.

Speaker 2 (01:17:27):
Absolutely.

Speaker 3 (01:17:29):
I mean, look, it's very easy to write him off
because of everything that happened off the field, with the
multiple sexual assault allegations, the fact that he had you know,
twenty plus pending civil cases against him for this similar behavior,

(01:17:51):
and then the way he played when he returned to
the field after his suspension. I mean, there's a lot
that's stacked up against Deshaun Watson him potentially even returning
to form. But if he does well, then yeah, the
Cleveland Brown's already with you know, Amari Cooper and David
and Joku and Nick Chubb, if they all have seasons

(01:18:13):
that they've portrayed in the past, you know they're good.
They're hemmed up pretty tight at a lot of these
skilled position skill positions anyways, So if you get a
lot out of Deshaun Watson, he's going to get a
lot out of the skill position players he has around him,
and this is going to be a good season and
potentially a playoff season for the Cleveland Browns, regardless of

(01:18:34):
whether DeAndre Hopkins signs as a free agent to their team.
If he does, and he's reunited with Deshaun Watson and
he has an automatic understanding of what DeShawn wants to do,
you know, in this in the scramble drill from their
work together in Houston, and maybe can add some things,
some wrinkles to the offensive playbook that worked for him

(01:18:57):
and Deshaun during their time together in I mean that
could only further benefit them. Look, the Cleveland Browns stand
a chance to be one of the better teams in
the AFC this year because again, but it all hinges
on Deshaun Watson. I don't think that's gonna be the case, though, Steve,
because I don't think you want if you're Hopkins, if

(01:19:18):
you could get somewhere else that has a more stable
culture in the front office or more stable starting quarterback,
why you would turn down that opportunity. So, if he's
able to play for the Bills, if he's able to
play for the Chiefs. If he's able to join a
team that has, you know, a superstar quarterback with a

(01:19:38):
firm culture in place, why would you go to the
Cleveland Browns.

Speaker 2 (01:19:42):
Well, I agree with you, but you know, we threw
all those teams out there last week, and from what
we're hearing from those that are at least pretending to
be in the know, there's not as much interest from
those teams as some people expect because of how much
it's going to cost them. In the case of several
of those teams, he becomes their number three option, number

(01:20:04):
four option. He would not be their number one guy.
So on the one day, I want on the other side,
I want to save a little this because we're running
up against the clock here at the top of the hour.
But there's some other teams out there that, to me,
would make a lot more sense. And again, when we
talk about DeAndre Hopkins, understanding he's thirty years old, he's

(01:20:24):
not a deep threat so to speak. He's a possession guy.
He still obviously has a lot of value. Deshaun Watson
remembers that because he knew he could throw the ball
anywhere near this guy, he's going to catch the ball.
But he's not your number one guy. I don't think
he's that kind of player. So there's still a couple
of teams I want to get to in the next
hour that I think maybe actually more realistic than the

(01:20:46):
bills of the Chiefs or even the Jets out there.
We got that, plus we got a lot more going on.
Is get ready for this NBA Finals and what about
all these CoA team changes. This is a Fox Sports Sunday. Yeah,
continue in our assault here on this Sunday, having a
good time as we always do. This is Fox Sports Sunday,

(01:21:07):
and we are broadcasting live from the ti rack dot
com studios tyrac dot com. We're gonna help get you
there on that match selection, fast re shipping, free roadhats,
some protection over ten thousand recommended installers, ti iraq dot com,
the way tire buying should be. And once again, Rich,
I want to call attention to a new affiliate that
has joined us here on the Fox Sports Radio Network.

(01:21:30):
That would be Peoria's Sports Radio one oh one point one.
There are Chicago White Sox radio network affiliate. The program
director Scott Heckathorne dropped another network to make sure that
they would flip to Fox Sports. That is a big
win for them, a big win for US. So Peoria, Illinois,

(01:21:52):
Peorias Sports Radio one oh one point one. Welcome to
the Fox Sports Radio family. Yeah, it's a big family.

Speaker 3 (01:21:59):
By the it's a big family. It's a very deranged
family here on the weekends. So anybody who's listening to
us for the first time in Peoria, Illinois, hit us
up at Ornberger, at Cannon Hartman on Twitter. Let us
know what you think, commons, questions, concerns. Use it like

(01:22:20):
a suggestion box, honestly, Like you know, sometimes you have
those in the break room at work. Anything you anything
you want to throw in there. You know, we're all ears.
We are all ears.

Speaker 2 (01:22:35):
One of the things I wanted to get to was
what's been going on with these NBA coaching firings and hirings.
Two in particular, are just mind bloggling to me. It's
not about the Philadelphia seventy six ers, all right. So
you know that I've never been a huge Doc Rivers guy.
I like him on a personal level. Everyone loves Doc,

(01:22:56):
especially in the media because he's one of those guys
that in ages of the media. So he's always been very,
very popular with media members. Yeah, but then you start
looking at his record, and he's lost more game sevens
than any coach in history. His recording closed out games
is horrific. He's the only coach only eight times, I believe,

(01:23:19):
ever has there been a team that has blown a
three to one series lead. And he's done it three times.
I mean, think about that. I mean almost like a
third of the time. Was not thirteen times, I'm sorry,
thirteen times that's happened in three like a quarter of them.
He was the coach. Another coach has ever done it
more than once. So you know, he's just not a
big game coach. But the idea of the Philadelphia seventy

(01:23:42):
six ers firing him to hire Nick Nurse. I'm trying
to figure this one out. So Nick Nurse was the
coach of the Raptors when they won the championship. That
was his first year. When a certain guy fell in
his lap named Kawhi Leonard. You remember that that played out.
San Antonio wanted a jettison him, so he ends up

(01:24:04):
in Toronto. He was on a mission and mission accomplished.
Since then, nothing, Yeah, so I had I mean the idea.
I've always said this about coaching firings or managerial firings.
That's the easy part. The idea is, if you're going
to fire somebody, you're looking for an upgrade, right, you know,

(01:24:29):
sometimes you see it. Okay, that makes sense, Like UCLA basketball, right,
Steve Alford out McK cronin in. That is a step up. Yeah,
but hang on, how is replacing Doc Rivers with Nick
Nurse a step up for the Philadelphia seventy six ers.

Speaker 3 (01:24:47):
But comparing college basketball to the pros is to me,
it's it's like comparing the little league team that your
son plays on or your daughter is on to college baseball.
I mean, look, I not to completely undermine what NBA

(01:25:09):
coaches do or their importance, but they are basically political figures.
You know, They're basically all they are is they are
the leison from the front office to the locker room,
from the locker room to the general public. They are
the mouthpiece for the team. I was talking about this
yesterday in Fox Sports Radio. You have we all have

(01:25:30):
this impression of head coaches being this ultimately really important
position because over the years it really has been. But
that time has passed in the NBA. I mean that
time is gone you know they're there. This is this
is no longer what it is. Players ultimately have control
of these teams. In many cases, players have control of

(01:25:51):
the rosters because they can choose where they want to go,
They can choose what players they want to play with.
They can tamper openly. No player has ever been suspended
for tampering. You know, this is one of those things
where the NBA has kind of lost control of the
league to its players, and it's still working because these

(01:26:14):
rights deals, by the way, are still billions of dollars.
So the NBA is, you know, they're not running out
of advertisers who are flocking to these live broadcasts. They're
not running out of networks who want to buy the
rights to these live broadcasts. So everybody's still making money. Steve,
But the reality of the league from a coaching standpoint
is these coaches are figureheads. Doc Rivers, what has he

(01:26:36):
done since the early two thousands other than choking the playoffs?

Speaker 2 (01:26:41):
Right?

Speaker 3 (01:26:41):
I mean, am I gonna blame Doc for that?

Speaker 2 (01:26:44):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:26:45):
Doc was actually coaching back then. Now, he was fortunate
enough to have Kevin excuse me, KG, Kevin Garnett, Ray
Allen and Paul Pierce. So I mean that team, that
team had enough dogs on the court to get the
job done. But I mean he's had opportunities in the
most recent of past with stars all over the court

(01:27:06):
and hasn't been able to do it. Why does he
get recycled? Because Doc is a great figurehead. Doc knows
how to handle the media. Doc has been doing this
for a long time. His name still has recognition to
help a team deal with crisis or deal with the
good times with the bad times. But Doc isn't sitting

(01:27:26):
there coaching guys up anymore. That time has passed. That
time has passed. So why do these guys like Nick
Nurse or Frank Vogel or Doc Rivers or you name it.
Why did they get you know, recycled and scoop up
new head coaching to Monty Williams.

Speaker 2 (01:27:44):
Well MANNI, let's stop there with Monty Williams. So Monty
Williams didn't just get another job, He got a seventy
eight and a half million dollar contract seventy eight and
a half million dollar contract over six years in the
Detroit Pistons. By the way, the Pistons have one a
playoff series since two thousand and eight. Yeah, I mean
this is real after you know. I mean, they had

(01:28:05):
a tremendous run for many years.

Speaker 3 (01:28:07):
Why did he get all that money?

Speaker 2 (01:28:08):
Well, he got that money because he asked for all
that money. In other words, why would he be interested
in the business job? They contact him and he's like, okay,
well make it worth my while. We will seventy eight
and a half million dollars over six years for a coach.

Speaker 3 (01:28:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:28:22):
Is he going to upgrade that roster? That's going to
be interesting. I mean, I don't know what the Pistons
are hoping for. This was a team that was seventeen
and sixty five this year, seventeen and sixty five and
they didn't get the number one overall pick in the draft.
So lot. No, I mean, I don't know anything what

(01:28:43):
they're hoping for here. But my guess is they're not
going to get their return on that kind of money.

Speaker 3 (01:28:49):
Well, well here's the deal. The amount of money. I
think that's kind of an arbitrary debate because the amount
of money that they're making off of these these rights deals.
It's not like the ownership in and Detroit is throwing
a going out of business sale. I mean, they still
sell concessions. They still sell gate for forty plus games

(01:29:10):
a year. They still get their share of the revenue
pie from these broadcast network deals like the Detroit Pistons
ownership group, they can spend that money because they make
boatloads of cash back. The reason why they had to
pay money Williams that amount of money is because Money
Williams now no offense to the city of Detroit. He
has to go live in Detroit. Like there's not a

(01:29:32):
lot of free agents who want to sign in Detroit.
There's not a lot of coaches who want to play
in Detroit. When you can play in Miami South Beach,
when you can play in New York in multiple spots
Brooklyn or Madison Square Garden, where you can go to
LA multiple spots in LA. The Clippers are building a
new arena Staples or now Crypto dot Com Arena. You

(01:29:54):
know there are other places that are better and more
traditionally well established in bigger cities like Chicago. The reason
why Monty Williams got that contract is because he's going
to coach in Detroit. Now, they could have gotten some
also ram, but they wanted a playoff coach. They wanted
somebody who maybe could help them lure some free agents,

(01:30:14):
and coaching is a part of the conversation. Who's gonna
be your coach when you sign with the Destination if
they're looking to rebuild here with Monty Williams. Okay, I
get it, but it is a figurehead position. It's not
like he's rolling up his sleeves and he's getting the
you know, the half court whiteboard out and he's still
gonna be the reason why the Pistons have success. Like

(01:30:35):
you just said, Steve, the only way the Pistons have success.
It almost has nothing to do with who their head coaches.
It's if they can lure good enough players or draft
good enough players to come to their program.

Speaker 2 (01:30:46):
All right. On the other side, I want to get
back to a couple other NBA stories, sort of a
crossroads for two NBA All Stars. What is their future
look like? I'll tell you who they are. This is
Fox Sports Sunday, Steve Harvey, Rich Harnberger, Fox Sports Sunday.

(01:31:07):
We're live from the Tiraq dot Com studios, getting ready
for Game two of the NBA Finals and now between
the Nuggets and the Heat. Heat looking for some answers,
trying to figure out how they can knock down. And
I'm reminded again we got a one seed versus an eight,
So one versus an eight, all right, So on paper
it didn't look good going in Game one. Didn't change

(01:31:30):
anybody's mind, But there are other big NBA stories that
are lurking right now. I'm going to get to two
All Stars and what their immediate future is. Adam Silver,
commissioner of the NBAS said a decision of discipline of
Jah Morant will come after the NBA Finals. So this

(01:31:51):
is the second time now that he has been on
tape brandishing a weapon a gun, and first time he
was suspended for eight games. A lot of people thought
that was a little light. I'm hearing rich that the
NBA is really going to drop the hammer now again.

(01:32:12):
The Union will come after them with everything they got.
But the number I'm hearing fifty fifty five to zero
fifty game suspension. That doesn't mean he's going to serve
a fifty game suspension. But the NBA has got to
figure out a way because he hasn't been arrested for anything.

(01:32:33):
He hasn't been arrested for anything, right, but this is
under that conduct detrimental to the league clause that's in
everybody's contract in every sport. Does that seem a little
harsh or how do you stop this? Because again we're
talking about a young player. You and I have Bengaga
all over Ja Morant the last few years. You see

(01:32:56):
this guy in the court and he brings that level
of excitement that honestly, he doesn't have a lot of
peers currently in the NBA that bring that kind of
game to the court. Yeah, so he's a very valuable
piece to the NBA, But if he can't correct his
behavior off the court, well you're going to have to

(01:33:17):
do something harsh tough. Love fifty games too much?

Speaker 3 (01:33:22):
No, it's not too much, but I don't think it's
I don't think it's enough, but not in terms of
how many games he gets suspended for. I think he
needs to, and I've said this many times over the
past month, get in front of the people who are
most affected by his behavior. I think there's a disattachment

(01:33:42):
that a lot of especially young superstars have with who
exactly they're impacting, because you know, you become an adult
and you lose sight of what it means and what
it is to be a kid. I remember when I
was a kid, And I have a lot easier time
remembering when I was a kid because I'm seeing the

(01:34:03):
world through the eyes of my young children now looking
up to sports stars and loving you know, Michael Jordan.
I didn't even know Michael Jordan personally. I didn't need to.
I just saw how passionate and how great he was
about basketball, and I wanted to I wanted to do that.
You know, I looked up. I mean, I'm there. I'm
sure there were times during my childhood where I looked

(01:34:25):
up to Michael Jordan more than I looked up to
my own father, because your dad can't do that. That
man can fly, you know. So there's something to it, man,
about connecting a person who's struggling in his own life
with bad decisions back to who he's impacting the most.
I think this, I think this guy should be forced

(01:34:47):
to speak in front of kids about the dangers of
of of guns. I think I think I think he
should become a poster child for gun safety. I think
he should become you know, the reason why teenagers turn
away from you know, gang life or or or messing

(01:35:09):
with messing with with gun violence, because because then it's
going to connect him back to the problem here, which
is his influence over another generation, a next generation. Suspension
is great, and like I'm all for him being penalized.
I think that's appropriate. Whatever length of suspension ends up being,

(01:35:32):
I think it's I mean, the NBA will legislate it.
I mean, unless it's something absurd, like I don't. I
don't necessarily know if a full season if if that's
something that they should investigate. But but the most important thing,
I think the biggest learning lesson would be to somehow
connect him back to the people who he's most influential

(01:35:52):
to well.

Speaker 2 (01:35:53):
And again, after the first suspension, he came back remorseful, right,
I mean, he admitted he had done something he should
not have done. And then of course no help of
his friend who was rolling the camera when he still
had a gun in his lap. You know, maybe maybe
he should change the group of people you're hanging around with.
But again, he hasn't broken any laws. He hasn't been

(01:36:17):
arreested for anything. But that is going to be a
big thing because the NBA knows Jean Moran's a valuable
piece of the puzzle. That is a guy that is
marketable to this league. But he's not markable. If he's
only known for brandishing a gun, that's we want. We
want the focus on what he does on the court
and what he's not doing off the court. All right,

(01:36:38):
Another All Star I want to get to, Yeah, Jaylen Brown?

Speaker 3 (01:36:43):
All right?

Speaker 2 (01:36:44):
So the Boston Celtics built their current team really around
two center pieces. Ironically, back to back years they had
the third overall pick in the draft. One year they
take Jalen Brown and the next year they take Jason Tatum,
and they build around these two guys the six years
they have been together. Jalen Brown came in a year before,

(01:37:05):
but the six years they've been together, they've been to
the Eastern Conference Finals five times, but they've only made
it to the finals once, and they have yet to
win a championship. Jalen Brown is twenty six, Jason Tatum
is twenty five. But there are a lot of people
rumbling rich that say it's not working. We got to

(01:37:26):
separate these two. This duo is not the duo that
can take you all the way to win a championship.
Jalen Brown, obviously, if you were to trade him, would
have tremendous market value, no question, he is. First of all,
Jalen Brown is not just a really good player, He's
an impressive individual. Like this is the guy that when

(01:37:47):
he was a col that one and done year talking
about learning five languages by the time he's twenty five.
He's impressive, very impressive. So Jalen Brown is sort of
a cross and then you feel the frustration. Now, look,
you can go back to game seven this recent series
against the Heat right and there goes Jason tatumy rolls

(01:38:10):
his ankle right at the start of the game. So
this was a golden opportunity for Jalen Brown to say,
you know what, Jason, I got it and he didn't deliver. Yeah,
so maybe he's not a one, maybe he's a two.
Nothing wrong with that. A lot of all NBA players
that are twos and not ones. But if you're the
Boston Celtics right now, do you pull the chord on

(01:38:32):
this one? I mean, you can obviously get great market
value for a guy like Jalen Brown. Do you pull
the cord and say we're going to try something new
or do you just say, look, it's just a matter
of time before this team ends up winning a championship.

Speaker 3 (01:38:49):
It's the only way you do that is if it's
completely untenable, right, you know, the only way you break
up this group is if like they can't p possibly
play with each other another single second, Like if this
is I mean, think about how long Shaq and Kobe
could not stand each other and they kept it together

(01:39:12):
to win championships, right, you just have to. So whether
you're Brad Stevens, who's the president of basketball operations, or
you're Joe Mizzoula, or you're the owner of the Celtics,
or anybody in this organization a teammate of theirs. That's
something that a lot of people don't think about when
they think about some of these these great teams, Like

(01:39:35):
i'm I'm if you've ever heard, you know, Chris Bosh
talk about his time in Miami. You know, he really
had to be third wheel to Wade and Lebron, and
you know, he understood the importance of serving a role.
He understood the importance of keeping these two superstars together.
He himself was a superstar, but you know, there's only

(01:39:57):
one basketball and somebody had to take the l somebody
had to take the back seat a little bit, and
that became his role. So these other teammates of Brown
and Tatum are equally important to try to keep the
band together because this could be their ticket, you know,
to going to the finals every year. Now, you'll win
one eventually, you gotta, I mean, the percentage of odds
are in your favor that you're gonna get to the finals,

(01:40:19):
enough for the Eastern Conference finals enough, eventually you're gonna
net a championship here. At some point, You've got to
find a way to keep this band together. So whether
or not Brown and Tatum like each other is almost
beside the point. They play unbelievable basketball together. They're both superstars. Now, however,

(01:40:39):
you got to balance it out, whether Tatum's one or
Brown's one or you know, I mean, look what they
both equally have had off nights and good nights throughout
this postseason run. They're both I think equally guilty as
well as Joe Mizzula and the rest of the Celtics
cast of characters. You know, they bear equal blame. I
don't see anyone really out there thinking out loud or

(01:41:01):
dominating while the other one really struggled throughout the more
majority of this postseason. I both think I think they
both shined I think they both struggled at times. But
the last thing you should do is hit the reset
button and blow this thing up or trade one of
them away until you're absolutely positive you must well don't
think they're there yet.

Speaker 2 (01:41:19):
Well here's the deal though, because he has an expiring
contract and because he made second team All NBA, he's
in line to get a super Max deal.

Speaker 3 (01:41:28):
Supermax deal, Yeah, cost money to win championship, three hundred
million dollar deal.

Speaker 2 (01:41:34):
And it's funny because as good as he is, and
he's been getting better now, I mean he's on an
upward trajectory in terms of his numbers. There's a lot
of people in Boston. I'm reading all over the place saying,
don't do it, Boston, don't give him a Supermax deal,
which is crazy to me, right, I mean, why not?
But there's there's just this, there's a frustration in Boston

(01:41:57):
because they're about winning championships that the Lakers anything less
than a championship is considered a failure. So the idea
that you've been to the Eastern Conference finals five times
in these six years means nothing. Yeah, you know, where
are the championships? So it's gonna be a very interesting deal.
But that's that's where they are because after next year
he has an expiring contract and he could just walk

(01:42:20):
and if you give him a super max deal and
then he's not going anywhere. So uh some interesting, uh
you know, interesting side notes around the NBA, especially with
Jalen Brown and as we mentioned earlier, with a jap
More Ramp. By the way, we're brought to you by
Progressive Insurance. Progressive makes bundling easy and affordable. Get a
multi policy discount by combining your motorcycle, RV, boat, ATV

(01:42:41):
and more all your protection in one place. Bundle and
save at Progressive dot com. Let's bring on a man
that knows what's trending right now. That would be Nick Cope.
And Nick, by the way, uh you know Nick is
a big UCLA broadcaster, rich you know that? Oh, yes,
of course, So I love to catch up a mice

(01:43:02):
school with Nick. Yes, yes, And we are talking about
all these international recruits at the basketball team, which pretty
much gutted the entire team although a den Bona didn't
come back. Yeah, yeah, that was huge getting a den
Bona back. Imagine what kind of nil deal they got
him to make sure he came back Yeah, I wonder
if what's going on in U C.

Speaker 3 (01:43:23):
L A.

Speaker 6 (01:43:24):
You're gonna see maybe a trend here over these next
few years as NIL does take over and become a
big thing. If you have access to the international market
for recruits, you got a lot less to deal with
with all the NIL stuff in the international Well, how
does L you here in the state?

Speaker 2 (01:43:42):
So you we were talking about this rich about these
NIL deals for these international players. Oh yeah, is it
the same or Nick? Did you get any how does
that work with NI? L?

Speaker 3 (01:43:53):
Well? I mean the clarity of the situation is coming
in the in the years to follow. Like it's really
ran state to state. So depending on the state you
live in, there are different rules. So whether you're in
Alabama versus Californiafornia, they're going to be different NIL rules.

(01:44:14):
There's not a tremendous amount of federal regulation and the
guardrails really haven't been put up yet, So I don't
think outside of maybe the governing or the government from
the country an international player comes from. There's many restrictions
placed on or different restrictions placed on loring an international

(01:44:35):
player via NIL money.

Speaker 2 (01:44:37):
To a school. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:44:38):
I just pulled this up from Sports Business Journal back
in January. Nil activity is not explicitly permitted or prohibited
by law or by you know, an F one student.
That's the visa that most of these kids have. So
how much will eleemb.

Speaker 2 (01:44:58):
I love that?

Speaker 6 (01:44:59):
That's a French kid coming to UCLA for everybody A
name probably the UCLA's got three international guys and there's
a fourth one out there, the two B name that
it sounds like the Bruins are going to bring in
as well. That's that's a big turn for UCLA. But
they brought in an assistant coach who is from Serbia Originally.

(01:45:21):
He's got ties to all sorts of international players in
Europe and they've dipped into that market.

Speaker 2 (01:45:28):
Now it's gonna be interesting. They're gonna have like eight
new players next year after that. Speaking English? Ye right,
all right.

Speaker 6 (01:45:35):
Game two of the NBA Finals tonight, the Heat and
the Nuggets eight Eastern Denver with the one to zero
series lead Miami's Caleb Martin. He is questionable to play
due to illness. Lots of baseball going on right now.
One final already, with the Pirates beating the Cardinals earlier.
That was a game that started. They got eleven am
local time in Pittsburgh. Games going on right now. Brewers

(01:45:56):
have been in command throughout against the Reds five to one.

Speaker 3 (01:45:58):
The lead there.

Speaker 6 (01:45:59):
Andrew montic Stereo hit his first career home run back
in the first inning. Kyle Schwarber just hit a three
run homer for Philly. They've got a five to one
lead on the Nationals in the seventh. Blue Jays continuing
to lead the Mets. That one is now four to two.
In the sixth inning. Vlad Guerrero Junior has homer today.
A's and Marlins tied at five at the seventh inning stretch,

(01:46:20):
raised the best team in baseball on top of the
Red Sox six to two. Other games, Angels and Astros
tied to one in the six, Guardians and Twins still scoreless.
They're all the way into the sixth inning. Royals leading
the Rockies one to nothing in the top of the six.
They have just entered a rain delay in Kansas City.
Tigers two to one on top of the White Sox
in the sixth inning in Chicago, and so far the

(01:46:41):
Rangers are shutting out the Mariners four to nothing. That
one is in the third French Open. Novak Djokovic and
Carlos Alcarez each won their matches in straight sets. Both
guys now into the quarterfinals. If they can reach in
the semis, that is going to set up a huge
matchup there at Roland Garros Golf at the Memorial Tournament.

(01:47:01):
It is Denny McCarthy who is leading at eight under.
He's got a two shot lead on Scotti Scheffler, who
is now in the clubhouse. McCarthy still has more than
half his round to go and a Formula one max
for Staffan won the Spanish Grand Prix.

Speaker 2 (01:47:15):
Back to you guys, Hi, Nick, Thank you very much.
Check in with you a little bit later on Oh
by the way, Rich, Yeah, Hard Knocks the Lions were
a hit. Yeah, I mean that that was I'll be
honest with you. That was the last, well the first
time in quite a while that I actually got into

(01:47:35):
watching Hard Knocks. Maybe know when the series first came out,
of course, like I was like everybody watching everybody, but eh,
you know, they had several years where things were just
nothing was happening. There is a formula in which they
go about choosing teams and apparently there are four eligible
teams for Hard Knocks. Yeah, so these are the four teams,

(01:47:59):
and they haven't chosen yet. So here are your four choices.
The obvious choice is the Jets, right, that would be
your That would be your number one. The other teams
are the Bears, the Saints, and the Commanders. Okay, so

(01:48:19):
the Jets, the Bears, the Saints, and the Commanders. Now
the Bears have pretty much told them we're not interested.

Speaker 3 (01:48:27):
Right, so they're out, which thank goodness.

Speaker 2 (01:48:30):
Okay, all right, the Jets are the obvious choice. So
if you're the Jets organism. And by the way, speaking
of hard knocks, I told you the only time I
ever went on the road to cover a hard knocks
team was the Jets, way back in the day when
Rex Ryan was still the coach. I went out there

(01:48:51):
with my buddy Victor Brick. I told you Joe Namath
came by to sit with us. We were out at
in the middle of nowhere. You know what was that?
That was the name of the junior college wherever they trained,
middle of New York, near Cornell, And Joe Namath came
to our table to do an interview, okay, and he

(01:49:12):
was wearing his Super Bowl three ring, so he actually
had the Super Bowl ring on and I don't know
of all of our listeners are familiar with Vic the Brick.
If you're not look him up you'll know him anyway.
H Vic who is a big Jets fan growing up
New York kid. I mean, I mean he's sitting with
God literally yeah, with Joe Namath and Joe couldn't be nice.

(01:49:36):
He's just freaking out. And he grabs Joe's hand, the
one with the ring on it, and he starts to
pull it toward him, like I need to kiss the ring. No,
and Joe jerked his hand away like all right, who
are you and why are you grabbing my hand? And

(01:49:56):
I'm sitting there like okay, could you make things anymore uncomfortable?
But if you were trying to sell the Jets on, well,
if you're the Jets, yeah, with the Aaron Rodgers commotion
and everything else, do you want the cameras rolling with
hard knocks?

Speaker 3 (01:50:11):
Well, if I'm the Jets, probably not, Although I will
say this what it did for the lines, it'll do
occasionally for a team like Actually, the Jets had this
when Rex Ryan was a head coach. They had a
really interesting offseason that year, if you remember, I believe
Lombardi was their general manager, and it was Rex Ryan

(01:50:34):
as a head coach, and they had the Darrell Reevas
negotiations going on where he was refusing to appear on
camera and they had that upstate New York diner meeting
with the agent. And Rex Ryan was a character because
he's trying to he's trying to lose weight, and you know,
the whole coaching staff is you know talking, I mean

(01:50:58):
like it. There were Dan Woodhead made his appearance and
I think maybe even solidified his his his his name
as a you know, potential free agent signing after he
was cut by the Jets. You know, there were a
lot of interesting things that happened on that show this
that year that I think we're actually beneficial for the

(01:51:20):
New York Jets, Mark Sanchez and the rest Courtland New York.
By the way, that's yeah, I think it actually was helpful.
I think it was helpful. I think for the Detroit
Lions it was helpful. I think, you know, there are
plenty of teams where it's not like I think the
Los Angeles Rams it wasn't helpful because I think it
may I think there were a lot there are a

(01:51:40):
lot of people who are teasing Jared Goff. It did
him though favors because they made him seem or appear
like a like completely brain dead. I mean, I don't
think it was favorable for that coach either. I think
there are times where it's good in times where it's bad.
Now here's what I will say. If you're gonna have
Aaron Rodgers in front of a film crew, you can't

(01:52:05):
control Aaron Rodgers. You can't control what he's gonna say.
You can't control how much he's gonna how much time
he's gonna spend with them. There's nobody in that organization
who's gonna be able to tell Aaron how to handle
himself on hard knocks. I'm just very curious if they
are the selected team for this year's.

Speaker 2 (01:52:25):
I don't think they are, in fact. And let's can
we eliminate the Commanders as well? Yeah, because you have
no ownership? Yeah, I mean that that that place is
a mess. I can only imagine Ron Rivera sayt uh
uh well yeah, which would leave you with the Saints. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:52:43):
I don't know. I think that's it's either the Jets
or nothing. I really, honestly, I mean, I'm not saying
that I won't watch a single episode every year. I
give it a shot. Last year I watched all of
them because, like you said, and I think like a
lot of people felt the Detroit Lion they were interesting.

Speaker 2 (01:53:01):
Yeah, well, Dan Campbell made him interesting.

Speaker 3 (01:53:03):
Yeah. Well, and that's the thing you need to have
somebody who's Dennis all Well not really. Have you ever
heard him to speak at the press conferences? Yeah, he's
kind of like, you know, what he reminds me of
is like a strict history teacher. You know, he's very
matter of fact. He's going to talk to talk your

(01:53:23):
ear off about, you know, maybe some of the more
boring stuff. He's going to play his hand close to
his vest on all the other stuff, which I mean, granted,
that's what you're paying a head coach to do is
talk ball. And he is highly respected in the field.
And you know they're I mean clearly they've they've seen
something in him. He's been with this franchise now for

(01:53:44):
a while and they've elevated him to head coach and
they could have gone after somebody else, but they like
what he's doing. So he's going to remain in the chair.
And I would assume it's going to be very dependent
on what happens this year with Derek Carr with a
top five defense. We'll see. But but yeah, no, the Saints. Look,
the draw is Robert Sala, who is a charismatic guy.

(01:54:08):
He's got riz. It's Aaron Rodgers.

Speaker 2 (01:54:11):
No, it's an obvious choice of the Jets. I mean,
you guys don't want to see how this is going
to come together with Aaron Rodgers.

Speaker 3 (01:54:19):
Yeah, it's it's it's gotta be the Jets. And if
it isn't, I mean, good luck HBO, good luck NFL
for hard knocks, because I just don't see it being
of those four teams. If you're just giving me those
four choices, it's got to be the Jets.

Speaker 2 (01:54:35):
By the way, this offseason for the NFL, and it's
a constantly evolving league. It's like constantly evolving world. Some
changes are being made in preparation for a new season.
We'll explain what's going on around the NFL. By the way, Personally,

(01:54:55):
I think it's a great idea. We'll see what you
have to think. This is Fox Sports, Steve Harmon, rich Ornberger.
This is Fox Sports Sunday, and we are live from
the Tire Rack dot Com Studios. I'm just sharing a
story with Nick Cope. I've been known to share stories.

Speaker 3 (01:55:19):
Yeah, that's shocking. I can't believe the gentleman who you
know is new to the cast of characters here on
a Sunday morning, you you wandered into and shared a
story with That's that shocking.

Speaker 2 (01:55:33):
Yes, I mean, of all the stories I've shared with you,
how many are you actually interested in?

Speaker 3 (01:55:39):
I mean, I don't have a tricentage, you know, I
mean book, I mean zero. It's higher than zero. It's
higher than zero. I can't say it's more than twelve percent.
I don't mean.

Speaker 2 (01:55:54):
I mean if I'm gonna I try, I try. I
try to tell a good story. I'm decent with telling stories.
I want to ask you about this. So we were
talking yesterday to Adam Kaplan about this offseason. You know,
you got the OTA's going on right now and that,
but he was telling us that he's got a lot
of these you know, during training camp many times you

(01:56:17):
have where you have these controlled joint practices, right or
scrimmages as we often have. And apparently the game plan
now as eventually we're going to see the complete abolition
of preseason football games. That is definitely coming down the road,
the idea of these scrimmages that could actually start happening

(01:56:42):
in July, because nowadays, you know, you think about training
camp unless you're in the Hall of Fame game, you
really aren't going to camp until like the beginning of August.
Right now, they're minimizing it as much as they can.
But when we talk about these, you know, these controlled
scrimmages which we've obviously seen and you participated in, can

(01:57:03):
you get as much or even more out of them
than participation in preseason football games.

Speaker 3 (01:57:10):
Yeah, I mean, participating in a scrimmage allows you to
work on specific situations that you want to get to
that may not come up in preseason games. Like over
the course of the preseason, how many opportunities are you
going to be able to work on your goal line packages? Well,
if you're working against a opponent wearing different color jersey,

(01:57:34):
you know, say the Thursday before or you know, usually
preseason games are played on Thursdays, but'd say like the
Monday before Thursday preseason game, maybe you could take six
or seven live goal line reps where you're protecting your
quarterback so he's not going to get hit by you know,
some over eager defensive end or linebacker or something like that,

(01:57:58):
you know, wearing the red jersey where you could get
six or seven, Like real live goal line looks to
really work on some stuff. You know, how about this,
Like there are certain special teams moments that may come
up over the course of the season that practicing against
your own team, maybe you're not getting as much out

(01:58:18):
of it as if you're able to, you know, set
up a special team's scenario during uh, during a practice
scrimmage that you want to see live. You want to
see how your players react live. Like, there's a lot
you can get out of a practice that you can't
necessarily get out of a game. And there's a lot
of ways that you can protect your players from injury

(01:58:38):
during a practice that you can't get out of a game.
Because again, remember these season ticket holders, they have to
buy the preseason too, so if they're going to go
to a preseason game, they're not going to see a scrimmage,
They're going to see an actual game. And so you
gotta you gotta tackle, You got to allow quarterbacks to
be sacked. And you know, like we know a lot

(01:58:59):
of teams they won't even allow their starting quarterback to
play in a single preseason game anymore, because what you
potentially risk versus what you're potentially rewarded with.

Speaker 2 (01:59:10):
Yeah, I again, I've never understood preseason football never. I mean,
how many preseason football games did you play in high school?

Speaker 3 (01:59:19):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:59:20):
Zero? How about at Penn State? How many preseason games
did you play at Penn State?

Speaker 3 (01:59:24):
Well, I guess in high school and at Penn State,
I'm also discounting, you know, scrimmages that we had.

Speaker 2 (01:59:31):
Like okay, but that's my point in other words, that
look at now, And it just came out with an
announcement the Colts are going to be welcoming the Bears
in and they're going to travel to Philadelphia to take
on the Eagles. At the very least, it breaks up
the monotony of you know, hitting your own teammates in practice.
You know, you can level off against somebody else. But this,

(01:59:52):
this is where we're evolving to. And once we go
to an eighteen game schedule, which will be soon, folks,
and believing they're gonna spread eighteen games over twenty weeks,
not nineteen weeks. It'll be twenty weeks. Two buys for
everybody else that'll be in the end of it. Maybe
you'll have the ceremonial Hall of Fame game. Two teams

(02:00:13):
play one game. That'll be the extent of it.

Speaker 3 (02:00:15):
Well, the pandemic, I mean we learn that the preseason
is an ass. Sorry to have a regular season.

Speaker 2 (02:00:21):
Yeah, didn't look a whole lot different did and once
the season began really didn't. I mean he didn't miss much.
I mean teams that usually struggles struggled, those that didn't didn't.
And so yeah, and that's good news. I mean the
idea of the fans have been able to or have
been forced to fork over money for those games. We
get ready for Game two of the NBA Finals coming
up next, Yes, four hours away tip off Game two

(02:00:45):
of the NBA Finals. Denver Nuggets looking to go up too.
Oh remember they haven't lost a home game yet in
this postseason. The Miami Heat looking for answers to even
up this series once again. We're broadcasting live from the
Tirak dot com studios tyrag dot com. We're gonna help
get you there and unmatched selection fastree shipping free Road
has a protection over ten thousand recommending installers tire rag

(02:01:08):
dot com the way tire buying should be. And once
again in this I want to acknowledge a new affiliate
here on Fox Sports Radio out of Peoria, Illinois. That
would be Peoria's Sports Radio one oh one point one.
Welcome to the FSR family. They're Chicago White Sox Radio
Network affiliate program director Scott Heckethorne. He said, dump that

(02:01:31):
other network. We want to go to Fox Sports. Smart move.
Big win for them, big win for us. So welcome
to the FSR family, Peorias Sports Radio one oh one
point one. By the way, Rich on your Saturday show,
Yeah uh, you guys hit the road quite a bit
this past year, did you not.

Speaker 3 (02:01:51):
Yeah, we got around. We're in Cincinnati. We went down
to Louisiana, different sports books around the United States, getting
to sample both the local markets that we broadcast in,
but also check out some of the budding sports betting

(02:02:12):
culture that has now escaped the Vegas over the past
couple of years and come to states and cities around
the US.

Speaker 2 (02:02:20):
It's pretty cool, Oh, very cool. One thing I love
about this country of ours, which is a sports crazy country.
I mean, we love our sports fans are just you know,
passionate about it. Remember during the shutdown in two and
twenty twenty, you and I rich occasionally with something we
rarely do, would open up the phone lines just to

(02:02:42):
sort of, you know, help people because they were in
total misery. I mean they were like, what do I do?
I sort of felt that last night, no knock on
the NHL game one of the Stanley Cup Final wasn't
a huge draw for me. I felt like I should
be watching an NBA game last night. That's what I
felt like I should be doing, and there was none.

Speaker 3 (02:03:05):
Well, yeah, because the last NBA game that was played
and we are in the finals was Thursday last week.

Speaker 2 (02:03:13):
Yeah, like, what, how on earth.

Speaker 3 (02:03:16):
Do you give both of these teams a four day
respite before they have to play again? Well, and all
of the finals.

Speaker 2 (02:03:26):
And you think, all right, so from Thursday to Sunday,
and then it's going to be Sunday to Wednesday.

Speaker 3 (02:03:34):
So it's just too much time.

Speaker 2 (02:03:36):
It just it's too much time. But the good news
is we do have a game tonight. Now I'm trying
to get myself excited about it. You remember we were
talking before the conference finals, and I was convinced that
when you got the Lakers and the Celtics sitting there
in the conference finals. You're going to find a way

(02:03:56):
to make sure those are the two teams matched up, right,
the two most historic franchises and lee history matched up
for the first time in the NBA Finals since twenty ten,
and then you lose both of them. It was so
funny before Game one, they were trying to cite some
kind of you know, history between the Heat and the Nuggets.

(02:04:20):
By the way, the Nuggets have won nine actually, including Thursday,
they now won ten of their last eleven games against
the Heat.

Speaker 3 (02:04:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:04:27):
Yeah, so we okay, it's up to us. We got
we got to figure out a way to get people
revveed up for the tip off of Game two of
the NBA Final.

Speaker 3 (02:04:36):
The Lakers got knocked out so long ago that I
forgot they were in the postseason altogether, exactly. I mean,
we have been waiting for ever to see who the
Nuggets were going to play coming out of the East
in the first place, because that was the series, you know,
the comeback from Miami Boston finally finishing out or being

(02:04:59):
or I should say the come from Boston Miami finally
finishing off the Celtics. I mean, this was an interesting
Eastern Conference final. If I were going to find a
way to sell to everybody how to watch this game tonight,
here's what I would do. Look if to be perfectly

(02:05:19):
honest with you, I haven't placed the bet on this
because I don't live in a state that allows me to.
But I if I lived in a state where I
could hop on an app and I could put money
on anything tonight, what I would put my money on
is And I'm curious if the line has moved, I
haven't checked. I would put my money on Jimmy Butler

(02:05:40):
hitting the over. I think last night was the last
time I looked at the line and it was still
hovering at twenty five and a half on most books.

Speaker 2 (02:05:51):
But if he.

Speaker 3 (02:05:53):
Has I would be shocked. Let's put it that way.

Speaker 2 (02:05:57):
If he by the way, I've listened to you plenty
on Saturday, So when you come up with that line,
I'll be shocked. Yeah, you have been shocked.

Speaker 3 (02:06:04):
I have been shocked in the past, Steve.

Speaker 2 (02:06:07):
But I mean this comes from the worst prognosticator in
the history of SPORTSTOC radio.

Speaker 3 (02:06:12):
Yeah, that is I've learned from the legendary Steve Hartman.
If there's one thing. It's the reverse jinks. Yeah, if
there's one thing you should do, if people would beg me,
please lock the game, lock it. I want to hear
the word lock. If you locked this game, I got
money coming to me. But but let me the other way.
So Jimmy Butler. Jimmy Butler scores thirteen in the opening

(02:06:33):
game of this series. He literally the only words that
really cut through made sense to me from Jimmy Butler
when they asked him, like, hey, you know, what were
the problems? He just said I wasn't aggressive enough.

Speaker 2 (02:06:44):
Right, But why wasn't he agree? It's the NBA Finals,
But this is the team that really built your resume
to get to the finals. On coming out and jumping
on your opponent in game one, they did not do that.

Speaker 3 (02:06:57):
You put a little scratch, you put a little deray
me on Jimmy Butler in the over because there is
no way Jimmy Butler comes out in game two flat.
He's gonna come out roaring. This is a guy who
wants to be known as playoff Jimmy. He wants to
be known as a guy who can carry a team
on his back. There's going to be there there. I

(02:07:18):
mean it would I would put it next to him
possible for him to have another thirteen point game in
game two. I think he's gonna go off. I that's
the only chance to Miami he'd have is if you
get Jimmy Butler going.

Speaker 2 (02:07:33):
So, whether it's volume or.

Speaker 3 (02:07:35):
It's just key makes I think he's going to have
one of the bigger games of his post side.

Speaker 2 (02:07:41):
So you're saying over twenty five and a half, there
you go. I like that. That makes that makes sense
to me.

Speaker 3 (02:07:47):
I agree with you.

Speaker 2 (02:07:47):
I mean the idea that he's gonna have one dud
after another Disston. He's too good of a player.

Speaker 3 (02:07:53):
He's too good of a player, and it's and this series.
Unless you want to bet on the favorite, right because.

Speaker 2 (02:08:00):
A point favorites tonight the Nuggets, that's a huge number.

Speaker 3 (02:08:02):
It's a huge number, and I don't feel comfortable putting
that kind of money on a number, or any kind
of money on a number like that in a final.
So I think you gotta you gotta break this down
into you know, player props to really find a way
to enjoy this game, because if you if you don't,
I think you're gonna be disappointed. Because I don't see

(02:08:23):
I don't see a way for the Heat to win
more than one game. I could very easily see the
Nuggets sweeping this series. This is and you know, to
reference something that I said yesterday morning and Sam reminded
us of this morning already or this afternoon, depending on
where you're listening, is the fact that the Heat one
of the things that they've been able to do is

(02:08:44):
establish themselves early in the series. They're three to zero
in opening games of series throughout this postseason, and they
weren't able to do that to Nuggets, and it wasn't
even particularly close. And so I just and they were
riding off of some moment them after Game seven winning
over the Celtics, and Jimmy Butler, you know, he turned

(02:09:06):
down an opportunity to even put his hands on the
Eastern Conference Championship trophy. He said, I'll hold the next one.
And they still got embarrassed against the Nuggets in Game
one on Thursday night. So so yeah, that's the way
if I'm going to sell this game, I would say,
watch Jimmy, watch him go off, and if I could,
I would sprinkle a little uh maybe maybe a unit,

(02:09:29):
maybe a half unit on Jimmy Butler having a night.

Speaker 2 (02:09:33):
By the way, can we eliminate the trophy ceremony after
the conference finals? This is ridiculous. Yeah. I remember the
first time I ever saw it happen was back when
the Lakers. It was eight nine, twenty ten. They were
in the NBA Finals three straight years and they clinched

(02:09:54):
the Western Conference Final at home. And I was at
this game, and there was and there's Phil lamar Odom.
You know, they're all standing there, and commissioner was on
it was at the game, and he's trying to present
this trophy. You know, the Lakers are like, great, thanks,

(02:10:18):
And the best thing was so because I stayed all
the way to the end. So they finished the ceremony
and they walk off the court and they didn't take
the trophy. And by the way, I don't even know
where those trophies are.

Speaker 3 (02:10:33):
I mean, they're probably somewhere in the LA Lakers building
under shroud of glass.

Speaker 2 (02:10:40):
Shroud of glass. No, the Lakers at their practice facility
have all their championship trophies lined up. They're Larry O'Brien's.
There's no sight of any of those conference championships. And
by the way, them naming these trophies, the championship Trophy
as the team and after former players. It's it's overkill.

(02:11:03):
I'm losing sight. I know I did. Which one is
the Oscar Robertson Award? Which one is the Jerry West Award?
There's a Kobe Bryant.

Speaker 3 (02:11:12):
I mean.

Speaker 2 (02:11:14):
Too much, too much, too much? And because let me
ask you this, Yes, yeah, so you you were part
of some playoff wins, that's right. So when you guys
made the run to the super Bowl, did you guys
pop the champagne after every playoff game win? No? I mean,
but did you pop the champagne after winning the conference title?

Speaker 3 (02:11:38):
You do hats and T shirts. That's how you celebrate.

Speaker 2 (02:11:41):
And I mean when you guys won the conference championship,
all right, I'll.

Speaker 3 (02:11:44):
Tell you the story about that. It was unique. I've
never experienced anything before or since. And so you know,
the confetti's coming down on the field, and you know,
you got the commissioner lumbering out there and shaking hands
with Craft, owner of the Patriots. We had just beaten
the Baltimore Ravens on our home field. We're going to

(02:12:05):
the Super Bowl, and there's a lot of excitement obviously,
because you know, for many of us this was the
first time. For many of the players who have been
there before, this is their next And so they're setting
up the stage and I remember at one point I've
told this story to you before, Steve, but I backed
into this old lady and I almost knocked her over,

(02:12:27):
and I felt terrible. She's wearing this big like fur coade.

Speaker 2 (02:12:31):
What was she doing on the field. Well, I don't know,
I mean, but he like, you know, Robert Kraft's I think, yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:12:37):
I mean, my my assumption was she was somebody's grandma
who had access to the sideline and came out to
celebrate with the team, or maybe she was with you know,
the ownership group in the suite. I nearly knocked her over,
and so as I backed into her, I kind of
got shoved by one of my teammates. We're all hugging
and celebrating. She goes, that's all right, because I was like, oh,

(02:12:58):
I'm so sorry. So I turn around moments later, I mean,
maybe less than a minute later, to face the stage,
and this same old lady wearing the fur code had
already ascended onto the platform and was standing near Robert
Kraft and I was like, that's not his wife.

Speaker 2 (02:13:14):
Who is that?

Speaker 3 (02:13:15):
And then upon closer review, it was Steven Tyler from Aerosmith.

Speaker 2 (02:13:20):
I love it. It was not an old lady.

Speaker 3 (02:13:22):
Wow, he was Stephen Tyler, who obviously, I mean the
roots of Arrowsmith is in Boston, so he was back
celebrating it. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:13:34):
So I mean he's eliminate these. I mean there's one
trophy in every sort. You know, it's like the participation trophies.

Speaker 3 (02:13:42):
Well, yeah, I'll give you another story.

Speaker 2 (02:13:44):
Wait till your boys really get into their sports, they're
going to pile up so many of these participation trophies.
You're gonna be sick and tired of it.

Speaker 5 (02:13:52):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (02:13:52):
I already got one with boxes and boxes and boxes
of these things for my three kids.

Speaker 3 (02:13:56):
I'll tell you this quick story and then I'll tell
you about a participation trop which both of these kind
of are. But so, after this season with the Patriots
ends and we lose to the Giants, the second loss
to the Giants that the Patriots had recently in the
Super Bowl, Right, we lose to the Giants, we all
go home, everybody's bummed out. Obviously, that next season I'm

(02:14:17):
playing for the Arizona Cardinals. And this is probably sometime
around September. If I'm remembering it correctly, it was during
the fall. I'm pretty sure. I get this box from
the New England Patriots from one Foxborough away. I'm like,
what the heck is this? So I'm opening the box.
It was my AFC Championship ring. I had no idea

(02:14:41):
the even made AFC Championship rings when they gave it
to me. When I opened the box, originally, I'm like,
did they think we won the Super Bowl?

Speaker 5 (02:14:48):
Like?

Speaker 3 (02:14:48):
It's got diamonds all over, It's got the New England
Patriots logo on it.

Speaker 2 (02:14:53):
It's it looks like it had the score of the
game that you lost. I Super Bowls of the Giants.
I mean, is you know it doesn't? I think it
has the big L on the side. I get, Yeah,
you win a championship, then you get the trophy, then
you get the ring, you get the consolation prize.

Speaker 3 (02:15:17):
Ask me how.

Speaker 2 (02:15:18):
Many times I put it on in my life. Can
you imagine like they give the Heisman trophy and the
guy that finished the second we give you a mini trophy,
like like you weren't first. You don't get the big one.
We're gonna give you a little one.

Speaker 3 (02:15:28):
Yeah, yeah, we're gonna give you instead of hitting.

Speaker 2 (02:15:31):
The trophy for seconds.

Speaker 3 (02:15:34):
And the guy getting tackled, I didn't get hit.

Speaker 2 (02:15:37):
My kids were like, where are your trophies?

Speaker 5 (02:15:39):
Dad?

Speaker 2 (02:15:39):
I go, I wasn't. We only got stuff.

Speaker 3 (02:15:41):
When we won.

Speaker 2 (02:15:43):
There was one team, one one, not everybody loser looser.
I got nothing coming up on the other side, somebody
is about to make a whole lot of money. The
question is is he wore it? Tell you who it is?
This is Fox Sports Sunday. Well that's what Bridge thought.

Speaker 3 (02:16:08):
Yeah, this makes sense.

Speaker 2 (02:16:09):
And Tyler looking like a lady.

Speaker 3 (02:16:14):
I listen in a in a flash instance with this
this older woman looking over her shoulder. I was convinced
I had I had it pinned. I almost knocked over
over a lady. It was not it was it was
Steven Tyler ver look like a lady, And I apologize.

Speaker 2 (02:16:34):
Here it is once a the end. We are live
from the ti rag dot Com studios.

Speaker 7 (02:16:39):
Yes, Sam, Steve, is that more of an insult to
the woman or to Steven Tyler?

Speaker 2 (02:16:44):
Steven Tyler, It's not an insult to Stephen Tyler because
he is he created his look a long time ago,
just saying though he's obviously very but didn't age. Well, no,
I look, here's the deal.

Speaker 3 (02:16:55):
Like, I mean, there can be very attractive.

Speaker 2 (02:16:57):
You've seen Mick Jagger womanly or how about when you
watch when you watch, didn't he just have another kid?

Speaker 3 (02:17:04):
Maybe?

Speaker 2 (02:17:05):
I don't know last year, you know, I mean when
I saw Al Patino's picture year old girlfriend, he's eighty three. Yeah,
most rock stars when they start getting into their seventies,
I love I love watching old interviews with like the
Beatles and the Rolling Stones and you know those sixties bands,

(02:17:25):
and they were asked, you know, what do you think
five years or they're like that sounds like a long time.
I mean, I don't know, a couple of years, maybe
we'll be at this and do something else. The idea
that you know, sixty years later, that they would still
be on a stage and people would be paying to
see them. Not in a million years could they have
believed that was possible. You got seventy five year old

(02:17:48):
eighty year old guys on stage rocking.

Speaker 7 (02:17:51):
Hey, I love it, man, that's some good music. I'm
a fan of Airsmith too. I just you know, I
just thought it was funny.

Speaker 3 (02:17:57):
No, I mean, it is no shame because again, if
if I were going again, it was the quickest of
glances when I again, if anybody missed the story, after
the AFC Championship game, I backed into who I thought
was an elderly woman wearing a fur coat, and it
turned out to be Steven Tyler.

Speaker 2 (02:18:17):
It's a man, babe.

Speaker 3 (02:18:19):
I thought I thought that she was very attractive.

Speaker 2 (02:18:24):
There you go, he he wears it.

Speaker 3 (02:18:27):
Well, they would make a very beautiful older woman.

Speaker 2 (02:18:31):
All right, Well, I'm going to tell you somebody that's
going to be uh affording and anything he wants very shortly,
and that is Austin Reeves, the formerly undrafted Laker. The
Lakers are now putting it out there that they will
match any offer up to one hundred million dollars. The

(02:18:54):
word is is that he's going to get a four year,
one hundred million dollar coigh track. That's twenty five million
a year for a guy who at the start of
this I mean to show you how out of left
field this is from where he started. So again, he

(02:19:15):
was not drafted. He didn't look particularly great in his
initial summer league action with the Lakers. There were some
people that were surprised when he actually even made the
very first cut, like okay, why is he still around?
Type of thing, And like two years later, he's about
to get one hundred million dollar deal. Now what's interesting

(02:19:37):
is the Lakers. The word is the Lakers will match
and he offer he gets up to one hundred million dollars.
So what if somebody offers him one hundred and twenty
million dollars? Yeah, I'm not gonna offer you, not gonna
but we're talking about twenty five million dollars a year
for Austin Reeves. He had a good season, yeah, I mean,

(02:19:59):
well he had it was most impressive was his postseason.

Speaker 3 (02:20:02):
Yeah, and that's what I was gonna say. And more
impressive than his season is regular season, was how much
he showed up after the deadline and how much he
factored in the postseason. If Austin Reeves doesn't perform the
way he did in the starting starting five through this postseason,
the Lakers don't make it to the Western Conference Final,

(02:20:23):
and there's no arguing with that. Now, do I think
they need another star? Yeah? Who will manifest to become
that third star in the Lakers? I don't know yet,
but Reeves I think is an important part of the formula,
and I think that I think that, Yeah, to your point,
you know, if all of a sudden you have a

(02:20:44):
team another team interested in signing him, and you know
we're talking about five million dollars more per year, is
that going to break the bank for the Lakers? I mean,
is it going to destroy their cap to go twenty
million dollars over their or initial bargaining price. I don't

(02:21:04):
think so. But I mean that's up to the general
manager and the capologists and the people who are keeping
their eyes on the business side of this team to
figure out. I think he's worth it. I think that
what we saw from him was not only he can
be a role player, but he can take over games
from an offensive standpoint. There were games where you know,

(02:21:28):
Anthony Davis or Lebron James or both of them kind
of had off nights and he scored twenty or twenty
five plus and factored on the defensive side. And that's
you could point to him as the reason why the
Lakers won postseason games. And how often can we say
that about Lebron James led teams? Not very often, so

(02:21:50):
it's worth it.

Speaker 2 (02:21:51):
I look at his numbers. And again this is you
gotta give the Lakers credit. Somebody saw something in this kid.
I mean, if you go back over his college career,
he had a couple of completely forgettable years at Wichita State.
He sits out of here, he transfers to Oklahoma. His
numbers were good. Nothing that jumps out at you, nothing

(02:22:11):
that really jumps out at you. And you look at
his postseason numbers this year. In sixteen postseason games this year,
by the way, averaging over thirty six minutes a night,
averaging he averaged seventeen points, four and a half rebounds,
four and a half assist, shooting forty four percent threes,

(02:22:31):
ninety percent from the free throw line. I mean, those
are big time numbers.

Speaker 3 (02:22:36):
Yeah, no kidding.

Speaker 2 (02:22:37):
So yeah, this is a no brainer for the Lakers.
Whatever it takes, You've got to keep Austin Reeves on
this roster. And he's just a good teammate, just a
good teammate.

Speaker 8 (02:22:47):
Can Can I throw something out to you?

Speaker 3 (02:22:49):
Yes?

Speaker 8 (02:22:49):
But you know, I think the Lakers might be putting
out these these rumors that they'll match any offer for
Reeves simply to discourage teams from even offering him a
contract In the first place.

Speaker 2 (02:23:00):
Yeah, but if you're another team and you want to
No one wants to do the Lakers any favors.

Speaker 8 (02:23:04):
No, but they don't want to tie up their cap
room for you know, how many days you get to match,
you get.

Speaker 2 (02:23:08):
Like, well, this is what we talked about last week though,
is like if you if you were to offer him
a four year, one hundred million dollar contract and then
the Lakers say, we were just kidding. We wish him
all the best. Now you have Austin Reeves and you
just used up all that money.

Speaker 8 (02:23:24):
I think they're going to keep him, but I I
do think they're going to get him cheaper because they
could also just agree on a contract before free agency
even begins or any.

Speaker 2 (02:23:32):
I wouldn't do that if I were Austin Reeves.

Speaker 8 (02:23:34):
I wouldn't either. But he seems to.

Speaker 2 (02:23:37):
Yeah well I mean, yes, he seems to enjoy being
a Laker. Yeah. Well, I mean, and they give him
an opportunity when no one else did you do you guys?
You're not going to walk away from money? No, do
you do you? Guys?

Speaker 8 (02:23:48):
See his his billboard ads driving around Los Angeles at all?

Speaker 3 (02:23:51):
Yes?

Speaker 8 (02:23:52):
Yeah, I believe he has partnered with lemon Daddy dot Com.
I'm not sure what he is. I believe it's an
automobile service.

Speaker 3 (02:23:59):
So well, well it's it's one of those towns LA
New York. You know, there's there's other large markets Miami
where players love to play, where you have exposure, you
have exposure to if you sign with the right marketing person,
agents to local car dealerships and local businesses or even

(02:24:20):
national advertisers who want to break breakway into a larger
market and want to do it on more of a budget.
So yeah, maybe you can't afford Lebron James or Anthony Davis,
you know, but you could get or Russell Westbrook when
he was still playing, But you can get you can
get an Austin Reeves.

Speaker 2 (02:24:41):
You know.

Speaker 3 (02:24:41):
Maybe you can't afford a Kawhi or Paul George, but
you can get a Rui Hatchamora. Like, there are benefits
to playing in these larger markets you know where you know,
obviously La with two teams, I was naming players from
both the Lakers and the Clippers. Where you have your
bigger name, your bigger draw players. But if you're a
lesser brand, or if you have a lesser marketing dollar,

(02:25:04):
and you want to try to get into those markets,
you could use Austin Reeves and Austin Reaves. Was you
gonna turn down free money? I mean outside of it
being you know, some deplorable business like Yeah, I mean, shoot,
money's green, let's do it. Throw me on a billboard
with lemon daddy. I mean, that's not happening in Milwaukee.
My guess. You know, the fourth best player on the

(02:25:25):
box isn't gonna be on a billboard. But in La, Yeah,
that stuff happens.

Speaker 2 (02:25:30):
He's worth it. He's worth it. It's gonna be good. It's
gonna be good. So we'll see. Of course, Hatchamur is
another guy. They got to figure out what they're gonna
do with him. Let's find out what is trending right now,
Nick Kobe is sitting there. Is Reeves worth all that money?

Speaker 3 (02:25:44):
Nick?

Speaker 2 (02:25:44):
What do you think? Heck?

Speaker 3 (02:25:47):
I don't know, man?

Speaker 2 (02:25:49):
Why not? I like the way he played in the playoffs,
sid oh, he played great.

Speaker 3 (02:25:54):
I guess.

Speaker 2 (02:25:54):
I guess when you look at a guy like Austin
Reeves and what he did in this postse and down
the stretch with this team, is it gonna get better?
I mean, is that his plateau, which is good. Yeah,
but does he go another step? Does he get to
All Star level? Is that?

Speaker 3 (02:26:15):
Aye?

Speaker 6 (02:26:16):
Possible potentially, But I feel like guys in the NBA
for years, guys have been getting contracts where you you
fur your brown You're like, really they got that much
and you're kind of surprised about it.

Speaker 2 (02:26:26):
So Jordan Poole is the prime example.

Speaker 6 (02:26:28):
Yeah, So I think Reeves is gonna get paid by
the Lakers. He's gonna stay there and he'll keep playing
in his role quite well.

Speaker 2 (02:26:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (02:26:37):
Game two of the NBA Finals today, by the way,
Heaton Nuggets eight Eastern, So we got about three and
a half hours until that tips off Denver leading one
nothing in the series. Miami's Caleb Martin is questionable to
play due to illness. Baseball bunch of games have just gone.
Final Rays are now a big league best forty two
and nineteen. They beat the Red Sox six to two.

(02:26:57):
Blue Jays have won six out of seven, six to
four of the final over the Mets. Today, teams combined
for six home runs. Brandon Belt hit a go ahead
shot in the seventh for Toronto. Brewers won their third
straight against the Reds five to one. The final. Pirates
top the Cardinals two to one. Guardians hung on for
two to one win over the Twins. Phillies blew out
the Nationals eleven to three. Kyle Schwarber homer twice. He's

(02:27:20):
now got fifteen big flies on the season. Marlins, they
overcame a four run deficit for a seven to five
win over the A's and the Angels. They got a
go ahead Bays knock at double off the wall from
sho hey Otani earlier in the ballgame, and that would
stand up as the game winning play for the Los
Angeles Angels. Two to one. They take down the Astros.

(02:27:43):
Some games going on Texas. The Rangers just blowing out
the Mariners twelve nothing in the sixth two to nothing
the lead for the Royals on.

Speaker 2 (02:27:51):
Top of the Rockies.

Speaker 6 (02:27:52):
The Colorado Rockies now down to their final three outs.
Two to two ball game between the Tigers and the
White Sox in Chicago.

Speaker 2 (02:27:59):
That one is in the ninth in and could be
heading for extras.

Speaker 6 (02:28:02):
Although Chicago has a couple men on and then a
couple games have just been getting going here. We got
the Braves and the d Backs as well as the
Orioles and the Giants both those games in the second inning,
no score quickly to the French Open, no fact, Djokovic
and Tom seed Carlos soundcraz each one in straight sets,
both into the quarterfinals on the women's side of competitive
match for American Sloan Stevens, but she ultimately comes up

(02:28:25):
short to two seed Arena Sabolenka at the Memorial Tournament,
and they're now onto the back nine, and it has
been Danny McCarthy who's been leading for much of this tournament.
He's at eight under, a two shot lead on both
Scottie Scheffler who is in the clubhouse, and Seewu Kim
is also at minus six.

Speaker 2 (02:28:43):
Guys. Back to you, all right, Nick, thank you very much.
By the way, we don't talk a lot of tennis
or golf. I mean we talk golf, you know, during
the majors. By the way, we're a couple of weeks
away from the US Open, Rich which will be a
Los Angeles. I had a country club that is so
exclusive that nobody knows it exists in the city of

(02:29:05):
Los Angeles, like literally knowing. They're like, where's the LA
country Club. It's been around for one hundred years. I
always tell them, have you ever driven on Wilsher Boulevard. Yeah,
I'm like, yeah, well, then you drive by it every
time you're on Wilshire. My no one knows where it is.
And by the way, they've never Actually they had the
Walker Cup, which is like the amateur version of the
Ryder Cup a few years ago. But outside of that,

(02:29:26):
the only time they ever had any tournament golf there
was the US at the LA Open, like in the
late thirties early forties. So you talk about a mystery course,
I mean, they never played tournament golf there. Ever.

Speaker 3 (02:29:39):
The couple things I can tell you about La Country
Club because my wife's parents have been members there forever. Yeah,
is they have an unbelievable Easter egg hunt for the kids.

Speaker 2 (02:29:54):
Huh.

Speaker 3 (02:29:54):
They have a really cool Christmas display because they get
this architectural engine near to do their gingerbread house, which
is like twenty or thirty feet long. So we go
there most most Christmas is to take a look at that.

Speaker 2 (02:30:08):
It's a beautiful course.

Speaker 3 (02:30:10):
Gorgeous course. It's perfectly manicured. They've done a lot of
work to it to get ready for the Open.

Speaker 2 (02:30:15):
There's a problem, what's the problem parking. There is no parking.

Speaker 3 (02:30:18):
There is no parking.

Speaker 2 (02:30:19):
There is absolutely no parking. And by the way, they're
going to have a limited crowd. There's only so many
people that can be on that course. I mean some
of these majors you have unlimited, seemingly patrons there. That
will not be the case with this course. So it's well,
what's going to be pretty exclusive. As far as the

(02:30:41):
gallery is concerned.

Speaker 3 (02:30:42):
What they'll do for the US Open, I guarantee it
is they'll have they will have shuttles, because they do
this for all of the golf events to a certain extent.
There's obviously clubhouse parking, which is for you know, the
pros and the caddies and you know, the mission critical staff,
support staff. And you also have to make room for

(02:31:05):
the manufacturers, so tailor made, Cowway, titleists, all these different
manufacturers who want to have trucks, especially at majors, so
you have last minute equipment situations with the pros. They
can go into the truck, they can get fitted for
a new club, they can be on their way, stuff
like that. So you have to make room for all that,
plus the television trucks and all those things as well,

(02:31:28):
so there's gonna be limited parking on site. What they
do is they just sort of take over different parking
garages around these cities where they host these events, and
then they shuttle players in. So it'll be an early
day for a lot of players getting over the course,
like it always is in golf, but even earlier still
because Los Angeles. Man, that's one thing about the city

(02:31:48):
of Los Angeles, and we know this from covering Super
Bowls there, Steve and you know, other big events around
that city, even just regular primetime games, is nobody else
cares what's happening on the road they're traveling. Oh, it's
not like the city stops because there's a US Open.
So you gotta fight traffic too.

Speaker 2 (02:32:07):
By the way, I saw a stat here since we
were going off the rails here, Djokovic getting to the
quarterfinals of the French Open. That's the second most quarterfinals
in a career. Only Federer had morey at fifty eight
if you count all the different Grand Slam tournaments. Serena
had fifty four, and also Chris Evertt had fifty four.
What makes Chris Everts number so incredible about fifty four quarterfinals?

(02:32:31):
She only competed in fifty six Grand Slam tournaments. Oh wow,
in her entire career she got at least to the
semis fifty two of the fifty six that she played in.

Speaker 3 (02:32:43):
Not bad. But she ever did she ever crash into
Steven Tyler?

Speaker 2 (02:32:47):
She never? Well, I can't say that. Yeah, she did
hook up with Greg Norman for a while. I wonder
if she follows the Live Tour or by the way,
the Live Tour ratings are not good.

Speaker 3 (02:32:59):
No, oh no, no, as expected.

Speaker 2 (02:33:02):
But just the other day, somebody played three rounds of
golf and made four million dollars. Oh it was Harold Varner,
the third. He hadn't won a tournament in forever, and
you remember.

Speaker 3 (02:33:13):
All the winning Harold Varner did on the prod Varner
And in three days of golf he collected a paycheck
for four million dollars. It's not bad for a tournament that.

Speaker 2 (02:33:24):
Nobody watched, all right, So what is going to happen tonight?
Game two of these NBA finals will give you our thoughts.
Coming up, This is Fox Sports Sunday, Thattius Ward. Ready,
here's the pitch swung on hit of the air left field.
This one's got a chance going back.

Speaker 9 (02:33:40):
Is Garrett to the track, to the wall, looking up,
it's gone and it's the second three run home run
of the day for mister June. Kyle Schwarmer and the
Phillies now leading eleven to one.

Speaker 2 (02:33:54):
Well, that's good news that he's mister June, because even
with his two for five six rbi d still hitting
one seventy two betting lead off Kyle Schwarber doesn't really
look like a leadoff guy. But that's where the Phillies
are using him right now. Phillies Fenny Nationally Champs, trying
to get out of a hole that they dug the
first two months of the season. By the way, that's

(02:34:14):
the Phillies Radio network on. That is our Progressive play
of the day, brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Progressive
makes bundling easy and affordable, getting multi policy discount by
combining your motorcycle, RV, boat, a TV, and more all
your protection one place, bundle and save apt Progressive dot Com.
Steve Hartman, Rich Ornberger, this is Fox Sports Sunday and
we are live from the tirerack dot com studios. We

(02:34:38):
welcome back to Iowa Sam this weekend. Sam, are you
already sitting around with his London cup. Rich, Yes, my mug, Yeah,
his mug. That's not a bug. That's a cup. A
cup's a mini cup. It's a cup like a souvenir
cup that actually isn't meant to actually have any liquid
in it, you know the difference between a souvenir cup
and one the actually drink out of. His is a

(02:35:01):
souvenir cup. It's gotta handle. I can drink out of it.
That's a souvenir if I have well sam having yet. Yeah,
I'm drinking out of it right now.

Speaker 3 (02:35:08):
What do you got in there?

Speaker 2 (02:35:09):
Coffee? No, it's it's a souvenir cup, like something you
put on display.

Speaker 3 (02:35:13):
Second, it's not can you hand wash it? Or is it?
I mean, is this something that is supposed to be displayed.

Speaker 2 (02:35:20):
I think you can throw it in the dishwasher. But
you know it's you know, if you want to race
the London on it, yeah, go right ahead.

Speaker 7 (02:35:27):
Yeah, I'll probably hand wash it for a while, you know.
And in England, in London they call regular just coffee
like drip coffee. They call it an Americano. I think
an Americano here is something different. It's like, yeah, hot water,
it's like espresso, and yeah, it's it's intense. But over
there that's just what how close do.

Speaker 2 (02:35:42):
We come to losing you and and you being a
permanent resident? Zero percent? Zero percent?

Speaker 7 (02:35:48):
Yeah, yeah, it's England and London is more expensive than
la So he actually said it's it's like California.

Speaker 2 (02:35:55):
With bad weather.

Speaker 7 (02:35:56):
That's right, right, or actually the weather when I was there,
the weather in in London was better than the weather's
been here.

Speaker 2 (02:36:01):
It's been very gloomy here, very gloomy.

Speaker 3 (02:36:04):
You Uh did you did you find that you you
fit in while you're in London? Uh?

Speaker 2 (02:36:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (02:36:10):
Everyone kept calling me Ed Sheeran, so that was nice. Yeah,
so yeah it worked out well.

Speaker 3 (02:36:15):
Yeah, and the standards are different.

Speaker 2 (02:36:17):
He is very he told me the first time he
was there, he was really popular with the girls. No,
that was in Japan, Oh, Japan, that's right. Japan.

Speaker 7 (02:36:24):
I saw probably five men who looked like King Charles
and they could have just been Hallness really residents. Well,
when I was in Japan, i was fifteen. I was
already like five foot something, had really light blonde hair.
But I was taller than most of the full grown
men there, so I was like five four.

Speaker 2 (02:36:40):
Probably excellent. Nick doesn't have that problem. Nick is doing
it wherever he's at. Nick's like you, Well, it's my
point is what does that mean?

Speaker 3 (02:36:52):
Well? Nick doing it all the time.

Speaker 2 (02:36:56):
Ever, he's like that silver fox guy. You know, he's
like you. I mean, he's got that great hair I
started getting.

Speaker 6 (02:37:03):
I found my first gray hair as a sophomore in college,
right in the front.

Speaker 3 (02:37:07):
It got me.

Speaker 2 (02:37:09):
Sophomore in high school. But I mean, you have great hair,
and it looks good. It looks great. It's kind of
a touch of gray.

Speaker 7 (02:37:14):
Guy like Riches is like white white hair, and it
was kind.

Speaker 2 (02:37:18):
Of a gray, peppery Greg things it's working. And then
there's Bo, who apparently is not a Phillies fan, but
he doesn't hate the films. Yeah, I'm trying to figure
this out. Do you actually have a firm allegiance in baseball?

Speaker 8 (02:37:31):
Yeah, I'm a Dodgers fan all the way. I host
a Dodgers podcast with the old friend Ryan Berschinger. Been
going to Dodger games my entire life.

Speaker 2 (02:37:40):
I went to the Dodger game on Tuesday. It was
the Arias Jersey Night.

Speaker 3 (02:37:46):
And did you get one?

Speaker 2 (02:37:48):
So here's what happened. This is a classic. So I
went there with Denise, that's my ex and my three kids.
So you know again kids are there in their twenties, right, Yeah,
So the five of us go down to the game
and Denise is walking. We're walking from the parking lot,
and she has a purse. I go that purse is
too big. She goes, no, they'll let me in. No,

(02:38:12):
So Garrett had all the tickets on his phone. All right,
So we got in the four of us because we
want to make sure because they were gonna out like
forty thousand of these jerseys. And then Garrett walked all
the way back to the car to put back the
purse and then re entered. So there were forty six
thousand people forty thousand jerseys. Do the math, right. So

(02:38:35):
I had the jersey in the wrapper underneath my seat,
and I'm in the midst of all of us, right.
I only left my seat once and Denise and my
daughter were still sitting there. So it's not now. Towards
like the ninth inning, I reached underneath my seat, gone,
somebody stole. Now I'm thinking about why would they do that?
Like they gave away I know exactly yeah, yep, they'll

(02:38:57):
do this. And then I turned around and I didn't.
There was no one's seated directly behind me the entire game. Yeah,
and still they got it. Unbelievable.

Speaker 3 (02:39:06):
I remember one time I got a game baseball, set
it down at the concession stand to reach into my
pocket for my phone or wallet or whatever, turn my
back for a second to go to leave with the
stuff I had paid for. Forgot that I left my
baseball there. The guy behind me in line had already
jammed it in his pocket. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:39:26):
Gone.

Speaker 3 (02:39:27):
I literally walked back up. I was just like, hey, buddy,
I had this ball sitting right there. I said it.
All of a sudden, you have like a ball shaped
area in your front pocket. I was like, I have
my ball back, and he goes, oh, this was yours.

Speaker 2 (02:39:42):
He's like, yeah, as a matter of fact, it was.
It's not like I was gonna wear the jersey. I mean,
I love going to Dodger Staff've already been to like
three games this Year's been fine. I got to get
down to peck.

Speaker 8 (02:39:51):
Oversus eighty five dollars on eBay right now for one
of those jerseys.

Speaker 2 (02:39:54):
Eighty five dollars. Yeah, he got it. For free. So
there it is. He made some money. I think it was.

Speaker 3 (02:39:59):
By the way, that's your jersey on the EBA that
Bo just looked up.

Speaker 2 (02:40:02):
All right over under let's forget that. These points spreads
eight and a half. Who you taking tonight Nuggets to
cover the eight and a half? Yeow? Would you say
go over twenty five and a half with Jimmy Butler? Yeah,
I think I'm gonna I'm always wrong, folks. Here it is,
I'll lock it, take the heat, we'll cover the spread.

(02:40:22):
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