Lakers, Kawhi Leonard, Aaron Rodgers, and MLB

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to
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(00:28):
off Vaca. Wherever you may be and however you may
be listening live in Los Angeles iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio.
Joy Taylor is joining me this morning. We're on radio
today and tomorrow, and this is our roots. Actually I
started in radio in a small, uncomfortable, less than ideal studio,

(00:50):
and Joy Taylor similarly started in Miami. Right. Yeah, this
is vintage US radio boo. We don't have a ton
of space, but it is an iconic radio booth. What
I was telling everybody last couple of weeks ago, Casey
Cason did his show from here, Seacrest Rome started doing
a show here Rush Limbaugh. So it's this classic old

(01:13):
radio studio here in Sherman Oaks, California, USA. Ladies playing
Spain today. I will update you throughout the match giving
you an update. These are the matches. Now you lose,
you're done at the World Cup. So that's why we're
not on television. We will be Wednesday. But I was
off last week as you know, a Joy was as well.

(01:34):
I was in Utah, she was global, she was doing
Cabo and Kansas City and other stuff. Let me start
the show this morning with the whole mess. I worked
last Monday. I took my vacation starting Tuesday because of
the Anthony Davis neal. And since then there have been
a lot of rumors about who the Lakers want to
land to go alongside Lebron, Kyle Kuzma, and Anthony Davis.

(01:57):
One of them is D'Angelo Russell. They would, i'm told,
prefer Kawhi Leonard, but they can't afford Kawhi Leonard. They
can't afford D'Angelo Russell. He's not a max player in
my opinion. He's about a fifteen million a year guy.
Same with Thebias Harris. But he's gonna get max money
because listen, there's bad teams. Minnesota's desperate to want him.

(02:18):
They'd sign him, So he's gonna You're gonna have to
pay twenty five million large to get D'Angelo Russell. He's
not really a max talent. He's young, he's talented. That
should be the ad territory. Kawhi, Leonard, Kevin Durant, Steph Clay.
I mean, like great players. D'angelo's really really good, still
really really young, and the Lakers want him because you know,

(02:42):
obviously they're not well run, and there is a difference
between landing stars and being well run. This story doesn't
mean a ton. This D'Angelo Russell to the Lakers story
doesn't mean a ton because they can't afford him. They
can't afford him, and the reason they're, you know, several
million short, is because the way the Anthony Davis trade
went down. Now, let me just say this, it's very,

(03:04):
very complicated in terms of the mechanics of salary matching.
It's way too complicated to digest for most people driving
to work this morning. But the reality is when you
sign players, the day you sign them matters because it
frees up space. Years ago, the Cleveland Cavaliers did this
very well. They Lebron says, I'm going to Cleveland and

(03:27):
join Kyrie. They wanted another star. The only way to
afford it was to trade Andrew Wiggins and get Kevin Love.
The timing of it was essential, and so Andrew Wiggins
played in the summer League for the Calves just then
they did the deal. It wasn't consummated announced until August

(03:49):
twenty third. That allowed them the money to afford Lebraun, Kyrie,
Kevin Love, and they won titles. They weren't one of
those titles without all three. So the Lakers right now
should be able to afford de Angelo Russell. Now you
and I can argue whether or not he's worth the money.
I don't think he is. I think Anthony Davis, Lebron,

(04:09):
Kyle Kuzma, and a series of Darren Collison, Patrick Beverlely,
JJ Reddick. We just watched Toronto do this. NBA playoffs
are about veterans, they're about men. They're about twenty eight,
twenty nine, but in the weight room eight years. I
love Brandon Ingram. He's got a kid body. I mean,
he's like twenty two. This is why the NBA draft
is fun and joyful. And I cry watching Zion and

(04:30):
his mom and I love it. But outside of Zion,
none of those guys looked well. John Moran, none of
them physically looked like NBA players. They're kids. That's what
I look like at seventeen without like six to eleven.
And so it's a veteran league. I don't think you
need anything more than Lebron, A d Kuzma, and a
bunch of really savvy, smart veterans. Throw me at JJ
Reddick can shoot, Patrick Beverlely, Darren Collison, Brook Lopez, give

(04:54):
me guys can shoot threes veterans. That's what I would do.
The Lakers want to get another star, but they can't
afford him. And this is why I feel like the
Lakers have become a newspaper that like like the USA today,
where you get the big, great headlines and the splashy
colors and the front covers amazing, and then you open
it up and there's not really much information inside. The

(05:15):
details are a little light. Even when the Lakers consummated
the Lebron deal, did it feel ideal? Did it feel perfect? No?
Then they threw together this disparate, odd group of guys
that couldn't shoot. Michael Beasley can't shoot, Land Stevenson's goofy
and can't shoot. In Rondo's talented but can't shoot and
Jamale McGee. I like him, but he's not a shooter,

(05:37):
and Lebron's mostly worked with shooters. So even the Lebron deal,
in the end, you're like, Okay, we got Lebron. It's
sunny here, it's the Lakers. It's a great brand. It
didn't it didn't feel very tight when Lebron went to
Miami Bosch Wade Lebron. They have all this money to
give the Battier and Ray Allen and you, Donnis Haslem

(05:59):
and Joel Anthy. It's funny how it works. Why are
the Lakers all these years later with the cat moving
up broke because they don't have their details straight. Magic
admitted going into the Lakers. Yeah, I can't give you
twenty four seven on this. I'm busy. We all knew
that raw Polinka was a former agent. Wouldn't be shocking
if he was not a capologist. He's an attorney. He's

(06:20):
not a capologist. So when I look at the Lakers
in this Andrew Wiggan situation, the reason the Warriors can
win titles is because they have the stars, but they
also have Iggy, and they also draft well and you
it's all hands on deck. If you look at the
Miami Heat with Pat Riley, a super smart executive. It

(06:42):
wasn't just Lebron Wade. It was Battier and Mike Miller,
and you had all these smart veterans that you could afford.
You know, everybody's got a young guy, Mario Chalmers with
a Heat. Everybody's got one young guy. You know the
Warriors have who's a little guy, Quinn Cook now they
like a little bit or Cavon Looney. There's nothing wrong
with having a Kuzma, nothing wrong with having a a

(07:03):
Mario Chalmers in Miami. It's nothing wrong with having those guys.
But in the end, veterans win in this league. Veterans
are expensive and in order to make it work, you
gotta have the details down. For Pat Rider to make
that Miami thing work, every dollar mattered to salary cap league.
It's not baseball for the Warriors to have a dynasty.

(07:26):
Every penny matters to have a bench Toronto. The Mark
Gasal deal of the deadline, you got, they had a
lot of mouse to feat. Kyle Lowry's making a lot
of money. Becausal's making a lot of money. Sergea Bucca.
There were no discount contracts there that roster was expensive.
It was veterans. Details win in this league, and details

(07:49):
are your bench and your fifth starter. So and Rob
Polinka is and I guess my takeaway and the Lakers
is they become they become a big news the newspaper
with a flashy headline or you know the Twitter link
where the headline is great, and then you download the
link and there's no real information there. I just don't
see the details. I think the Lakers are going to
be very good. I would not give the extra money

(08:12):
to deliunt D'Angelo Russell or Tobias Harris. I think that's
desperate and reaching. You've got two stars, you've got an
emerging good player, it's all out in front of you.
Just go sign a bunch of smart KG veterans who
could hit three pointers, and you go in a championship.
But the D'Angelo Russell nonsense. I've been reading. You know,
Polinka's feeding certain media members to defend his back saying,

(08:32):
you know, listen, I am an attorney. I know what
I'm doing. There's good attorneys, bad attorneys. There's there's different
areas of law. You can major in litigation, corporate attorneys, divorce, attorneys.
Just because raw Polink is an attorney doesn't mean he
knows how to work the cap. But it's very clear
to me from people that I trust and have talked

(08:54):
to on my vacation that the rest of the league's
looking at the Lakers and saying, you, guys, screwed this up,
and you screwed it up on the date, and now
you can't afford the Agelo Russell and you're trying to
like wedge him in and he's not worth the money
and you should have about eight million more cap space
and you don't, and it's on you. So the Laker

(09:14):
brand's great, and Lebron's great, and A D's great, and
I love Kuzma, but let me just ask you, do
they feel well? Run Just go look at look at
the Miami team. They had Wade Bosh, Lebron and room
to afford seven other capable players. The Lakers are gonna
be down to A D, Lebron, Kuzma, and me I

(09:38):
maybe the third guy off the bench. Details matter in
these salary cap sports. Knowing the date on trades matters.
Lord Lord, Um, you know I read this story this morning.
That's interesting. A Kawhi Leonard is going to decla line

(10:00):
is option and be a free agent. And the Raptors,
now we looked us up in Vegas this morning, are
the favorite to land him. And you know I've predicted
Colin right, Colin wrong. In fifty minutes, we'll talk about this.
Canada has a history of not keeping their NBA stars.
That's just the history. Steve Nash said, No, Tamac left,
Boss left. I actually think Vince Carter, I actually think

(10:25):
I like the NBA lot. After the NFL to sport
I talk about a lot, I actually think it's best
for the NBA. If Kawhi Leonard stays. I saw another
story this morning, Jimmy Butler could go west. Houston's after
him hard. If Kawhi, Leonard and Jimmy Butler go west.
Al Horford leaving the Celtics. Rumor is he's going west
to Dallas or Los Angeles. The Clippers the Vegas Title

(10:47):
Lodge this morning are Lakers, Warriors, Rockets, Nuggets, Jazz, Portland, Raptors, Bucks.
If Kawhi leads the Raptors, Milwaukee's the only Eastern team
in there. Now. Katie's probably going east, but he's not
going to play for a year. Add to that that
Zion and John Morant are not only the two best
basketball players in college this year, they are so dinamic.

(11:09):
I mean, God, you watch that draft highlights, you can
argue yourself into RJ. Barrett, but when you watch Zion
and John Morant, you're like, oh, those r NBA players
in college. They are so dynamic. One's a better version
of Westbrook. The other one looks like a more in
shape version of Barkley or a better dribbling Karl Malone.

(11:31):
So now the West already has the most good teams.
And don't forget Dallas, Denver, Oklahoma City, Spurzo is viable,
Pelicans suddenly fascinating out of college. They just got Zion
and John Morant easily the two most dynamic and fun
to watch players. And it symmetry matters. I love college football,

(11:52):
but over the last I would say four or five years,
I have talked significantly less college football because it has
no geographical symmetry. This morning, the national title odds are Bama, Clemson, Georgia,
Ohio State, Oklahoma, LSU, Texas, Auburn, Florida. Oh wait, there's Oregon, Denver, West.
Nobody cares. It's two southern and by the way, love

(12:14):
the sport. Saturdays. I'll watch as much college as pro football.
But the reason I don't talk it as much is
because a huge part of my audience Denver West no
longer cares they can't compete for a national title. If
you look at the NFL map right now, the symmetry
is perfect. You've got a great team in the Pacific
Northwest Seattle two hour flight down. Silicon Valley's got the

(12:35):
Niners and the dysfunctional but fund Raiders, rams and charges
in La very good rosters. The Midwest is perfectly perfectly protected.
The Bears, the Packers, the Colts, the Chiefs, Dallas excellent.
Then you move into that Ohio region Cleveland Steelers, dynamic
and fun. Northeast Philly, New England could win the Super Bowl,
down South Atlanta, New Orleans super Bowl teams. You have

(12:59):
all this her faked symmetry. So the NFL. When I
talk to the NFL, everybody's in. We're all part of
the same club. I never feel like I'm alienating anybody
talking in NFL. When I talk college football, I feel
like I can hear Denver West car Radio's turning off.
I feel like Honestly, Phoenix is like, we don't care.
People out West don't even know where Clemson is on

(13:21):
a map, and so in the NBA, I do think
it's incredibly important. If you look at the NBA map now,
there's just way too many teams. Oklahoma City and never
forget this, Milwaukee could very easily be a Western team
if they wanted to realign the NBA. Chicago for years
is Chicago Blackhawks. They're in the West, so Milwaukee Milwaukee

(13:46):
as well, a little bit west of Chicago. Milwaukee could
easily be a Western team if Milwaukee was in the West.
The whole damn league's top half is in the West.
And then your best Eastern team. Now, if Kawhia stays
is in Canada, Boston's hemorrhaging players. Philadelphia, according to reports,
is gonna lose Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris. My thing
is stay East because I love the league and I

(14:08):
do think it matters. Right right now, the Dodgers are great,
Oh so are the Cubs in the Astros, and then
there's the Red Sox and the Yankees. The Braves are
coming on in the South. That stuff matters for a
guy like me. I like college football, I can't talk
it as much. I love the NBA. I don't want
all these players coming west. Kawhi Leonards better in Canada.

(14:31):
Jimmy Butler and Tobias Harris are better in Philadelphia. Al
Horford to me, should have stayed in Boston because I
can talk about him. So the Kawhi Leonard situations really interesting.
Do you think privately part of me really thinks Adam
Silver privately is saying LA is fine, Clippers are fun,
lebron A. LA's good because I think if I was

(14:53):
a commissioner, I would really worry about the overall macro
global view of my league. And so many things are
working for the NBA. This is becoming the SEC Like
you start the season and you know nine out of
your ten beats. And if people say, well Toronto won
the title, yes, because Golden State fell apart physically, But
there was a reason one of those teams was heavily favored.

(15:13):
And it's not just that they were heavily favored. They
had all the stars except Kauai. I don't think that's
great for leagues all right. Joey Taylor is joining me
on a Monday. Colin right, Colin wrong is forty five
minutes from now baseball had Baseball's had had a crazy week.
First of all, the Philadelphia Phillies spent all that money
on Bryce Harper. He's now batting leadoff. He just got

(15:36):
swept by the Marlins, who were awful. They're falling apart,
the Pots, Machado aren't winning, the Angels with Trout, and
you know who's winning Houston, and the Dodgers who refuse
to pay big money for any individual player and they
are crushing it. That's coming up. Be sure to catch
live editions of The Herd weekdayson non Easter nine am
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeart Radio.

(16:00):
United States women's national team is tied with Spain at
one one. Our ladies have had more opportunities to score,
probably should have a two one lead. By the way,
I like soccer a lot. I watch the United States
men's national team anytime they're on. I've been watching them
in the cope of Gold Cup. My only problem with
American soccer is the American soccer fan who has a
chip on his shoulder because it's the second most popular

(16:22):
football in America and because they've largely been mocked because
of their kind of inconsequential global standing, and so American
soccer fans whenever something goes wrong blame the coach. It's
always the coach, it's never the players. The reason watching
our women, which I have for years, the reason our
women are the best women's team this century, since the

(16:44):
turn of the century and before that, is because we
have more good players. Our women are a little faster.
We've got more quality women. They play with more confidence.
They're more aggressive because they know they're better. And when
you're more aggressive in any sport, you play downhill, and
our women played downhill. They don't leave anything. They leave
themselves vulnerable defensively all the time because they have such

(17:06):
great confidence in their skill level. It's not coaching. Nothing
against our coach. The reason our men can't beat England, Germany, Spain, Chilli,
Mexico we don't have as many good players. Christian Polisic
is unbelievable. He is our the first time in my
life I have watched an American player and thought, oh,
he's a global star. Why because he can literally do

(17:31):
more with the ball on his foot, and he can
win one on one matchups and this is what. By
the way, this is the way the NFL works, in
the NBA works. In the NBA, can you get your
own shot? There's about twelve guys in the NBA. Twelve
they can get their own shot. Durant Lebron Staff, Harden
right in the NFL back shoulder throws. The guy's not open,

(17:55):
catch yourself open. Soccer is the same thing. In a
soft match, you get about a half dozen really good
scoring opportunities. That's about it. Most of the game is
played not in the box. You get about six percide.
The great players score on those unique opportunities at a

(18:17):
higher level, and they happen to play for Brazil, Argentina
and England and Germany and Spain. And so when anybody
complains about soccer, just look at our American women and
our American men. Why are our American women so dominant?
We have better players. We just have more good athletes.
We go about twelve deep of people that can really play.

(18:38):
We substitute very little drop off in America. We got
one or two fascinating talents as a big drop off.
It's not the coaching. It's not the coaching. Mark Jackson
won with the Warriors Luke did, Mike Brown did, Steve
Kerr did? The players are really good. It's hard to
screw up the Warriors. Joy with the news. Turn on

(18:59):
the news. This is the herd Line News, all right.
So we're approaching the fury of free agency. Our own
Chris Haynes reported yesterday that the Raptors star Kawhi Leonard
will decline his twenty nineteen twenty twenty player option, which
is worth twenty one point three million, and will become
an unrestricted free agent, which we've expected now. The Raptor

(19:21):
is the only team that can offer Leonard a max
contract for five years and one hundred and ninety million,
which he's obviously seriously considering. But the Clippers are a
team that we talked about a lot during the season
as a likely landing spot for Kawai. And if you're
driving on the Interstate five, it's about ten miles southeast
of Staples, you can see two billboards up for Kawhi Leonard.

(19:43):
One is a California license plate that reads Kawai with
hashtag Clipper Nation, and the second one reads King of Sokow.
Remember they had the King of the North and the
New balance Point up it's King of Sokow. Did you
see those? Have you seen those yet? I haven't seen them.
That's a little shot at Lebron though, King of ing
of Soko and it says hashtag kawai to Lac Obviously Clippers.

(20:04):
The Clippers say they don't know anything about this, So
the Clippers themselves didn't necessarily put this up. But I'm
with you if I'm quite obviously you're going to go
around and listen to every pitch that's offered to you.
But at the end of the day, you can own
the East and own Canada, and I don't see the
point of coming to the west. There's no way I

(20:26):
could ever tell my child or myself. I mean, sometimes
I think we're crazy about this. Paul George told us
the roadmap. I'm not giving forty million dollars guaranteed backflips.
These are not attorneys or doctors or even sports radio
hosts that can do this into their sixties. You get
about two major contracts in this business. Most guys do

(20:48):
twenty six to thirty one and thirty one to thirty six,
and then you're sea crushed out of the league. I'm
not giving up guaranteed years it's too much money to
leave on the table, and it's too impactful to move
from the East to the West. Right now, we know
all the best teams are in the East right now.
On my vacation, Utah suddenly got better. Right, all the
stars are there. I mean, Lebron is not in the

(21:09):
East anymore. Boston's fallen apart. We don't know what the
sixers are. It's basically the Bucks and the Raptors an
easier path. It's just it doesn't make sense to leave
right now. You're making hard on yourself and you're leaving
millions on the table. So if I'm Kawhi, I'm staying there.
Although good, good effort, but you've ever run up to biboards.
So Chris Chris Paul tried to put an end to
the trade rumors. I was asked about his situation in Houston.

(21:30):
He said, I quote never asked for a trade. I
never demanded a trade. There was a lot of stories
last week, a lot of speculation about what's going on
Houston between him and James Harden. Summer reports that they
didn't speak for two months during the season and the
relationship couldn't be saved. But he's made it cleari as
no desire to go out anywhere else. He said, I'll
be in Houston. I'm happy about that. I'm very happy
about that. I'm good. Daryl Moury so last week that

(21:52):
neither Paul nor his reps requested a trade, and he
denied that there's some rift between Paul and Harden. I
called and a general manager in the NBA and asked
him about this, and he said, this story is way overblown.
He said, listen, Harden and Paul may not be besties,
but the idea that it's man overboard is way overstated.

(22:15):
Now I don't believe that it's it's man overboard. I
think when you're not accomplishing the goal that you set
out to achieve, and you have an incredible amount of
standards and expectations on you, and you keep failing, and
you had an opportunity with Golden State without durance and
you fail, frustrating, it's gonna be frustrating, and that's going
to bring out whatever underlying issues may or may have,

(22:35):
or something that's been festering and make it worse. But
if you're Houston, you do have to make some sort
of move. I love the butler Jimmy Bell, I love Houston.
Move They're gonna have to move some X factor pieces. Capella. Well,
now the Warriors are in a little bit of physical disarray.
I can. I would make the argument this morning, Houston's
no worse as the team's currently constructed than the second

(22:58):
best team in the West. But they haven't with that team,
they haven't been able to get hum regardless. Yeah, they
won one hundred and eighteen games. Greg said in the
last two years. They're not falling apart. No, it's just
we didn't look at Houston that way because they haven't
been able to beat the Warriors. Well, this is the
year the Warriors are vulnerable. But as you're currently constructor,
you haven't been able to do that. So you need

(23:19):
a piece. So I think moving Capella or Tucker, which
could very well happen. They're both very coveted pieces. It
hurts them defensively, but someone like Jimmy Butler, a free
agent like Jimmy Butler, would solve that to some degree
because he is a good defensive player. Yeah, so that's
what will happen there. Finally, Odell still has a few
more things to say about the Giants. He didn't interview
with Complex UK this week and said I just felt

(23:40):
with the Giants, I was just stuck in a place
that wasn't working for me anymore. I felt like I
wasn't going to be able to reach my full potential
there mentally, physically, spiritually. Everything I felt capable of doing,
I just couldn't see it happening there. So I think
allowing me to be an environment where I can be
myself and give it a different approach, I feel like
my football will benefit. I'm just excited to be able
to play football again and not have to deal with
all the other stuff and politics that came with my

(24:02):
previous role. He had some tweets about it, a little
more to say, of course, after the interview was posted
and people were responding to it. I don't know what
he's talking about with the other stuff in the politics
going away, because if anything that has escalated now. I
know it's different playing in New York and is playing
in Cleveland, but I mean the New York really, I
don't think that the Giants had the expectations that the

(24:22):
Browns have this year, the pressure that they have this year,
because nobody really believed in eli Odell's biggest problem. He's
gone to a quarterback who's a more accurate thrower? Is it?
And I talked to Odell about this. His big issue
is Eli's reeling. He's not the same quarterback. And in
the end, Odell's like, listen, I want to end up

(24:43):
with all time numbers. I mean, I think O'Dell's gonna
be much happier football O'Dell because I think they're gonna
feed him the rock. He's gonna be targeted nine times
a game. I think football Odell will flourish in Cleveland,
right I personally will Odell be in the same He's
a global superstar. He's a Paris, New York LA guy.

(25:03):
I don't think Cleveland is ever going to be who
he is. I agree with that, But I mean, he
does have Jarvis Langery there, and him and Baker seems
to be friends, or at least like they're they're playing
that teammate got each other back role. Right now, Once
the season starts and you're you're in that grind, I
don't think it there'll be any issues. It's more of
the off season stuff that I think O'Dell will struggle with.

(25:26):
But I mean, he doesn't have to stay there during
the off season, So I think it's the best place
for Odell right now. But I do think it's going
to be interesting as far as but politics and all
the other stuff, because they do have expectations. Joy with
the news. Well that's the news, and thanks for stopping by.
The herdliness Spain in the United States, women are tied
at one at the World Cup. Now these games, they're

(25:49):
elimination games. You lose your history, and our women are
favored Spains about anywhere between twelfth and fifteenth in the world.
We're number one. Is Chris there? Chris Bruce sard is
joining me. So, Chris, I was on vacation last week
and I was reading a lot about the significance of
July thirtieth in relation to the Anthony Davis deal with
the Pelicans. There's you know, the Lakers have twenty four

(26:12):
million in cap space at that point, if Davis receives
his traded bonus, you know, twenty eight million if he
agrees to waive it. It's a very complex and it's
very confusing. But this morning, do you believe Rob Polinka
was aware of it or he is now sort of
bailing water hoping somebody because it still can work, but

(26:34):
he needs favors. Where do you fall on this, Well,
I couldn't to think that they overlooked it. There's no
other way to think about it. There's no way they
knew about it. And we're just like, God, that's not
that big of a deal, Because it's a huge deal.
Number one, it gives you the opportunity to get a

(26:55):
Kawhi Leonard or Kyrie Irving or whoever, you know, one
of those big times Superstar Max players. But even if
you don't, you have to fill out a roster around
Lebron in ad And so that money from the four
million dollars for Anthony Davis to the potential Max cap room,

(27:16):
that is of the utmost importance. So I think it
was an oversight. And then and then once they realized it,
they scrambled and they tried to trade the other three
guys remaining on their roster, you know, Mobider and those
other two guys, and now they're you know, especially with
New Orleans making that trade, they now have absolutely no

(27:36):
control over it. And why in the world where the
team helped them, why would Atlanta help the Lakers and
just say well, we'll wait, we'll wait to sign, you know,
our fourth pick until July thirty. We'll we'll skip summer league.
We won't have it. No, and so it was a
tremendous oversight on the Lakers part. Look is the worst

(28:00):
thing in the world. They obviously still got Anthony Davis,
but it is a big mistake that could be very
costly for them. You know, I was talking to Joy
about this about Kawhi Leonard and college football has gotten
very southern. And I love college football, but a big
chunk of the country now the numbers are eroding because

(28:21):
they don't feel like they're in the club. Denver West,
the Pac twelve has fallen off. They can't really compete
for national titles. And I still watch college football, but
I talk less about it and give it less free
publicity because of that. I look at the NBA and
I could make an argument there's rumors now Jimmy Butler
would go to Houston, Al Horford would go to the
Clippers if Kawhi left. Man, it is lonely out there

(28:45):
Milwaukee and a bunch of stuff. I could make the
argument this morning, Kawhi staying in Canada's Actually, Chris is
great for the league. For some geographical symmetry. What are
your thoughts on that and what are you hearing on Kawhi? Well,
I agree it would help the league and that it
would balance out the conferences. This is the first year

(29:05):
in a while that we've had some symbolance of ballants.
But don't forget, you've got Philadelphia. So Philadelphia, Milwaukee in
the East. Boston won't be a contender anymore, but they'll
still be Okay, they'll be pretty good. Indiana's got cap room.
They may be able to get a player that elevates
them to another level. And then what if Kevin Durant

(29:27):
obviously hoofed out this year, but what if he goes
to Brooklyn or New York or he and Kyrie go
to Brooklyn or New York together. Now you've got another
juggernaut in the East next season, you know, after next season.
So it's not as bad. But as far as Kawhi,
here's a deal. Obviously he can stay in Toronto and
get fifty millions more extra dollars, so that is huge

(29:52):
and Toronto is very much alive in this thing. However,
I think this could very well be a if style
decision for Kawhi. Leonard and that is what I was
hearing all the way back to San Antonio and this
whole past year, and I've been told nothing's changed, you know,

(30:12):
leading into the playoffs, nothing's changed. Leading into the finals,
nothing's changed. So I think it's very possible Kawai makes
a lifestyle decision because I want to live in southern California,
and that ends up, you know, sending him to the Clippers.
Because here's the thing. Why, Like, if he's that heavy

(30:35):
on Toronto, why are you visiting with four or five
other teams? There's no reason like that. You Toronto, you
want a title there. They can give you fifty more
million dollars. You have a training staff and a medical
staff you trust and know it's good to you. They're
down with the low management. They let you sit out

(30:55):
twenty games, and so what else? You got chemistry with
your teammates, you have a great bonding experience. What other reason?
What do you need to hear from another team? And
Kawhi is not a personality where he just wants to
go out and get all this attention and have this
big tour and have all the attention on him. But

(31:16):
where's he going that he's visited the Clippers the other day,
visited the Lakers. That's not him. I believe the reason
he's visiting these other teams, particularly the Clippers, is to hear,
can you give me what Toronto did? And if the
Clippers can impress him with their medical staff, which I
believe they can, with their front office, which I believe

(31:39):
they can, with their basketball plan, which I believe they can,
then I think they got a great chance of getting him.
There's no other reason for him to meet with these
teams unless he wants to see can you give me
the low management plans, that routine, your medical routine, what's
that look like? And the Clippers have spent all year

(32:00):
colin studying Kawhi Leonard as much, if not more than
any of their franchise. Their play, their presentation to him,
basketball wise and personality wise, is going to be right
on the money. Can you imagine think about this. As
well run as the Clippers are, if they miss on Kauai,

(32:21):
and as dysfunctional as the Lakers are, they land a d.
I would be sitting there if I was Steve Balmer
and be like, what does it take? I mean, the
Clippers did everything right this year, great coach wonderful team,
good dudes, amazing chemistry, branding's great, and they go and
they whiff on Kauai and the Lakers were a tire

(32:42):
fire for six months. And I mean sometimes life is
not fair, right, Like if they don't get Kawhi the Clippers,
life is not fair. Well that's a great point because
if they don't get Kawai, who are they getting? That's right,
Al Horford. I mean, And and here's an interesting thing,
which talk about our horses. The Pelican. Now, I love

(33:06):
him in New Orleans with with those young kids. He's
a true professional. Yes, you know, defend, do the right thing,
play smart. I love him in New Orleans. That could
be interesting watch that. But yeah, the look that would
tell you the power of Lebron James right, that he's
just a d and the Clippers get nothing. So it

(33:27):
looked there has been talked and I've been told that
Kauai is looking do the Clippers have enough basketball wide
because he may not want to carry the burden. And
this is where all the talk about him potentially going
to the Lakers stems from that he doesn't necessarily want
to carry the burden year in and year out of

(33:49):
leaving the team to a title by himself with no
other superstars. Oh I get it, Yeah, I know, I
totally get that. By the way, Kobe used to you know,
Kobe wanted to be the man. He didn't want to
be the only man, right right right, you need that
other guy. And look, Kawhi is different. It's and I
don't think he'll go to the Lakers, but there is
that talk out there, and I've been told that by

(34:11):
some people. If he went to the Lakers, you could
not criticize him like people criticize Kevin Durant when he
went to the Ward No, because he already won essentially
as the go to guy exactly. And that's the difference.
I mean, he could coach the rest of his career
and he's gonna, you know, be a star in a
Hall of Famer and all that. So it's gonna really

(34:33):
be interesting. But like I look, and Toronto's a great city,
but it's tough for guys who grew up and have
we grew up in America to stay there. The type
of guys that they get to stay there are international
players or American guys who haven't really been able to

(34:54):
cut it elsewhere. Kyle Lowry goes all over the league,
gets to Toronto, it becomes an All Star and so
of course he'll stay there. But most other type of guys,
Tracy McGrady, Vis Carter, Chris Bock, they have not wanted
to stay there because as great a city as it is,
it isn't like being in America. Right, No, fair enough,

(35:18):
Chris Bruce, aren't good talking to you, Bud? All right,
my man? Later coming up. I just happen to have
a personal experience with this next city. A weird story
and it in baseball happened this weekend, and it goes
to what we talk about a lot. You should probably

(35:39):
eliminate outside of the NFL five teams, out of every league.
They're there simply because billionaires wanted an expansion fee. A weird,
stunning story at a baseball loaded today. Back in La
in a second, it's the Herd. Be sure to catch
live editions of the Herd weekdays and nun Easter nine amcific.

(36:00):
By the way, this new luggage used it this weekend,
aluminum carry on from Away luggage. Incredible. Joy Taylor used
yours as well, did you use It's very fancy, it's
very shiny, very shiny. People were saying, look at Joy
Taylor's luggage. Go to awaytravel dot com slash colin the
promo code colin c O L I N. It's absolutely gorgeous.

(36:24):
It's got little little extra, little private little cases. You
can put jewelry in, dirty clothes in. It's very very sturdy,
just like this show. We're sturdy, and we get lost sometimes,
just like luggage, but we're very sturdy. I used to
live in Tampa, and when I lived in Tampa, George
Steinbrenner was living and I met him a couple of times.

(36:45):
This weekend there was an interesting story. The Tampa Rays
are exploring splitting games with Montreal, so they'd play the
early games in Tampa and then when it gets really hot,
they'd give Montreal the team. And this, of course is ridiculous,
as players to have to live in two cities and executives,
it is of course ridiculous. But so was giving Tampa

(37:06):
a major League baseball team. I was there. Vince Namoli
owned the team. He and I argued on more than
one occasion. He owned Harvard Industries bought the team, and
I had said before, there's a reason Florida has never
had baseball for all these years. It's not really a
baseball state. Tampa's not corporate. But George Steinbrenner at the
time he lived in Tampa, and he knew if he

(37:29):
got a baseball team in the American League, it was
nine times he could watch the Yankees in Tampa and
he didn't have to fly up to New York because
as he aged, he liked spending more time in Tampa
and less in New York. And the second thing he
told Bud Selig, you owe me. At that time, baseball
was losing market share to the NBA in the NFL,
and the Yankees were really becoming the only nat because

(37:53):
the Cubs are at that time pathetic and the Dodgers
weren't as relevant. And so Tampa, I was there at
the time, had one fortune five hundred company in the
entire Tampa Saint Pete area, one Raymond James Financial Services. One.
You cannot have a major League baseball team with one
fortune five hundred company. You need about twelve so they

(38:15):
can buy all the suites. And then you need people
to make about on average sixty five thousand dollars a
year so you can get thirty two thousand season ticket holders.
Tampa is old, it is not wealthy. It had no
business getting a major Dague baseball team. I have lived
in Washington State, in Oregon, in Connecticut, in California, and
in Florida. In Tampa, Saint Pete was easily the least

(38:38):
corporate of all those areas. Easily. I mean Portland was tiny.
It had Adidas, it had Columbia Sportswear, it had Nike,
it had Textronics, it had Intel, it had tourism. Baseball's
not working in Florida, but it should work in Miami.
It doesn't work in Tampa. They're averaging. And remember this

(39:00):
is a well run franchise. They've been to a World Series.
They've had Joe Madden, they've had Andrew Friedman. They've planned
the division with the Yankees and the Red Sox, the
two biggest brands in the American League probably second and third.
Yankees number one Cubs to Red Sox third in terms
of domestic brands, and nobody goes to the games. Now,

(39:22):
just think about that. You've got the Yankees playing it
nine times a year, the Red Sox and all these
fans come down to watch the games, and you're getting
six thousand people a night in there. Now the announced
attendance is fourteen because that's tickets sold. That's not who's
going to the games on any night. If you live

(39:43):
in Tampa and you are listening to the show the
next home game, tweet to my Twitter account the crowd.
There are nights where I think they have twelve hundred
people there. This was doomed from the beginning. This is
the problem with professional sports. We blame the code, the athletes,
We blame the GMS. We blamed the scouts, we blamed

(40:04):
the We never look upstairs to the owners. The reason
Tampa's in because George Steinbrenner said, you owe me one.
Their presentation was weak. They didn't have any of the
data corporate wise or personal incomes to have a major
League baseball team. They're failing massively with the two biggest
draws in the American League in their division. They should

(40:30):
have never in. It's nothing against the people of Tampa.
The NFL works for Tampa. Why eight home games college
football works Florida Florida state, it's seven home games. Baseball's
eighty one times. You're asking people pay three hundred bucks
to night with your family and come to a baseball game.
It's math. If you don't have the numbers, the corporations,

(40:53):
the personal incomes, it doesn't work. And it doesn't work
in Tampa. Our two, next one More Herd. The Herd
streams twenty four hours a day, seven days a week
within the iHeart Radio app. Search her to listen live
or on demand whenever you like. This is the Herd,

(41:13):
wherever you may be and however you may be listening. Spain,
USA Tie one one World Cup, iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio.
We're on TV Wednesday. Joey Taylor is joining me. We
are radio veterans pulling off a radio show today. Joey,
how are you? You look magnificently radio like, cool, hip
camouflage jacket. You do look very very You like yourself affectually.

(41:35):
You still manage to get a caller in, even on
your sweatshirt. Yes, I did. We have a great hour.
John Smoltz is going to join us in fifteen minutes.
One of the really really interesting baseball dudes, former Braves,
great Fox broadcaster from with Joe Buck It's baseball now.
You get to a point with baseball now you're seeing
some trends. The Phillies are imploding. The Mets are imploding,

(41:55):
The Yankees are getting healthy, the Dodgers are fascinating. I've
never seen a team as deep as Los Angeles, a staff, position, players,
batting order. So but every Monday we do it at
this time. Colin right, Colin wrong. So here we go
where Colin was right. Well, Zion was not only drafted

(42:15):
number one, but he owned the night. I find this kid,
a rare nineteen year old American superstar crying with his mother, humble, relatable,
John Morantz talented, he is not Zion in terms of
a personality and dynamic, magnetic human being. Zion to me,

(42:37):
I watched Duke play fifteen to twenty times this year.
This is what Magic Johnson was like. And for a
lot of you college basketball fans who are in your twenties,
you just don't remember this. The sport used to have
great players come back for their junior senior year, so
Zion would have come back for several years. But he
is exactly the draft night summed up how I feel

(42:57):
about Zion. It's not just talent. He is so relatable
and so human and so vulnerable. I'm sitting on my
couch crying watching him talk about his mom. That is
what takes him from star to American superstar. And don't
tell me college basketball is all bad, because Duke is

(43:18):
the reason I know who he is. If he went
to Europe or he played G League, I wouldn't have
any connection to him emotionally. I was so in on Zion.
He has become exactly before playing a game what we
predicted where Colin was row. I like Chris Paul, I
have for years. He's smart and tough, my kind of guy.
But where there's smoke, there is some fire. There's another

(43:39):
story that he can't get along with James Harden and
we know Big Baby Davis didn't like him and blaked him,
and DeAndre Jordan didn't and Dockstroke. I can like a guy,
but I have to be honest with myself and acknowledge
he's difficult. By the way, when I watch Chris Paul,
he can be annoying. He's like Kyle Lowry more talent. Yeah,

(44:00):
you know, he's dramatic, he's Feisti's I love Chris Paul,
but I think it's you can no longer deny that
he can be tough to play with. Not everybody's magic.
Johnson not everybody. You know, some guys are tougher to
play with. He's tough to play with. Where Colin was right,
I said this about two years ago. Aaron Rodgers would
hate to hear this, but he's becoming Brett Farve. It's

(44:22):
like when you don't want to become your dad and
then at fifty five you're like, oh Christ, I'm my dad.
Aaron Rodgers has become Brett Farve. Remember Brett Farve at
the end, I don't want to learn a new offense.
He got kind of brittled and kind of rigid. I
just want to do the way I want to do it.
What do you know, Brett Farve came out this weekend
and said, you know, they should just let Aaron play

(44:44):
his game because Aaron has complaining the new coach wants
to coach him and he can't add lib constantly in
an offense, and essentially far of an Aaron Rodgers had
become the same guy. We didn't really watch him much
in college. They come into the game and after sitting
a while are the transcendent arm talent and sport. You

(45:07):
start hearing rumors that they're kind of rigid. They do
it their way they're tough to coach, but we love
their talent so much we forget the fact that they
don't win as many games as they should win. Brett
Farve should have won more big games. Aaron Rodgers should
win more big games. Aaron's become as we predicted Brett
Farve where Colin was row. I never thought Canada had

(45:31):
a shot to keep Kawhi. It's nothing against Canada, but
I just you know, I watched data, I look at history,
and they don't keep they don't keep their stars. The
stories this morning, though, is that Kawhi Leonard Raptors are
the favorite to land him. I actually think it's great
for the league. I think you need to have guys
on the East that I want to watch play. The
Raptors can offer five years in one hundred and ninety million.

(45:53):
There's no way in the world I would turn down
guaranteed money in the NBA. I wouldn't tell my kids
to I couldn't. But I didn't think this would happen.
I thought it would be he'd be exit stage right.
There was a story over the weekend he was at home,
depot or something, grabbing boxes, moving boxes, and people were
freaking out. Do you guys see that story on the
Internet of the stupidest thing I've ever seen, Like, you

(46:15):
can't you can't go to home depot. You're leaving a city.
But it looks like Toronto may keep him where Colin
was right. Joy knows this. I don't buy into these
massive contracts for baseball players. Phillies have lost seventh straight.
Spend all that money on Bryce the padres Manny Machado
fifteen and a half games out of first. By the way,
Brace Harper's now leading off, they can't figure out what

(46:37):
the hell to do with him. The Angels are in
fourth place with Mike Trout. By the way, the Dodgers
on fire, continue to pass on Zach Grinky. We don't
want to pay him the big money. Manny Machado will pass.
Bryce Harper will pass. And the Dodgers have maybe the
best chemistry in baseball, a bunch of young kids. They
had three straight rookie walk off home runs this weekend.
And when the Dodgers win, look at how they pour

(46:58):
out of the dugout Andrew Friedman. They got Queegue out
of the room because Puegold, I guess harder to play with.
He was driving people crazy, little dysfunctional. They got him
out of town, and the Dodgers chemistry has just been
unbelievable once again. The Phillies who went all in on
the massive ten twelve year free agent are now completely

(47:20):
reeling because you bring a star in. I think it
affects chemistry. And when you pay a home run hitter
thirty million a year, it puts enormous stress to oh,
we're not getting forty five jacks a year. In one
hundred and twenty. RBI didn't like the deal. It looks
bad now where Colin was right. Tell my kids your reactions,

(47:41):
not your actions, will end up shaping your life. Be
careful not to overreact. The NFL's passed a new rule
within the last two minutes first half, second half, overtime,
you can go to replays on pass interference wildly overreacting
to one play in one Saints Ram game. This is

(48:01):
a mistake. Dean Blandino, former head of Officials Rules Guy
Right said, quote in my experience, you don't create a
rule for one play, even as obvious as that play was,
you end up with bad rules. Yep, nobody wants to
see the Rams Saints. Everybody wants to fix it, but

(48:22):
I feel like you create a rule to fix that play,
we're gonna see a bunch of other plays that are impacted.
This is what we said sports tends to overreact. Bud
Selig did this. Remember they had a tie in the
All Star Game, and Bud's like, we can't have a tie.
Winner of the All Star Game gets home field advantage
in the World Series. What reaction not action will generally

(48:51):
beat you. Where Colin was right, Oh, LSU is getting
in trouble from the NCAA because I don't know they
pay football players. When I used to work at the
other place, I kept saying, there's two SEC teams that
pay people. You'll find out about them over time. One
was Old Miss Alabama coaches for years were complaining about

(49:12):
Old Miss paying players. The second one and now we're
seeing it. And I wouldn't say it until they got busted,
and they knew both would get busted. The other one
was LSU. It's a terribly kept secret in the SEC.
Old Miss and LSU bring a bag of money. Here's
the story. An LSU booster pled guilty to stealing more

(49:36):
than half a million bucks from a foundation and paying
one hundred and eighty grand to a star alignman. This
is just what you're hearing about. I got night listen.
I watched a lot of SEC football. It's the best
conference by a mile. But I've been banging on this
for it years. There are two schools with suitcases of
money for star players, and they've both been nabbed Old

(49:59):
Miss and La Shoe. There's one more, but they're not
as bad. That'll come out in the next two years.
Where Colin was wrong says here Kevin Durand's going to Brooklyn.
The Nets are gaining confidence they can sign him. According
to Brian Wyndhurst, I don't get a basketball wise. I
think the Nets roster is a mess their owners overseas.

(50:20):
I think Katie's not playing for a year. I think
Kyrie's hard to play with. I think it's a diva
time bomb. I'll just say it. I don't get it.
If I was Katie's agent, I would not recommend this.
But it looks like I'm gonna be wrong on that one.
Where Colin was right, all right, soccer experts. I saw
Christian Pulisic at seventeen and I said, I'm not a

(50:43):
soccer expert, but I've been doing this sports thing for
a long time and I can see talent. Anybody watched
Christian Polistic so far in the Gold Cup, Lord he
was he was filthy against Trinidad Tobago a goal and
to assists soccer fans, stop it. You don't have to play,

(51:07):
you don't have to be an expert. You can watch
baseball and watch Mike Trout for a weekend and go,
who's that guy? He's better than everybody else. Christian Pulistic,
who we said three years ago? Three years ago, I
went on the air at Fox and I said, there's
this kid, and he is the greatest soccer prodigy in
my life. And you're now seeing him developed, played over

(51:31):
in Germany. Now he's going to the English Premier League.
He is ridiculously gifted. He was. He put on a
clinic this weekend where Colin was right, Oh, Baker Mayfield
taking a shot at somebody. Yeah, Baker Mayfield is now
the poster boy obviously for the Brown's renaissance. He was

(51:51):
taken shots at the very talented quarterback Sam Ellinger for
the Texas Long Orange, who is front and center along
with Tom Herman, the coach bringing back the Longhorns to respectability.
They'll be a very good team this year. And Baker
Mayfield took multiple shots at him over the weekend. Mayfield
doesn't like Ellinger because Mayfield doesn't like the University of

(52:11):
Texas at Red River Shootout by the Ways, October twelfth,
Fox Sports in Dallas. So anyway, Baker Mayfield ripping him
over the weekend, saying, let me find the quote here.
He said, yeah, they say Texas football's back. They said
that when they beat Notre Dame a couple of years ago,
and they won like three games after that. He said,

(52:33):
I'm sick of their crap. That'll stir the pot. This
quarterback couldn't beat Lake Travis, so I don't care about
his opinion on winning. Lord Baker Mayfield. I gotta tell
you he's gonna have potholes all through his career, but
he will be interesting. A lot of potholes, but he's
gonna be fun. Well, we're in an interesting business. We

(52:53):
are Spain, USA tied at one. John Smoltz around the corner,
Etra Mess, did you hear that story? We're a reporter
called a manager a name, and which is dangerous in
a clubhouse for Newsday. He called some manager a name,
and then a player came to defend the manager, and
they almost came to blows. And I mean, the Mets

(53:15):
have been poorly run forever. The willpond so but John
Smoltzo joined us. The Dodgers are unbelievable, Bryce Harper and
the Phillies are a mess in Philadelphia. The Yankees now
get healthy, the Mets are in another spin, and Tampa
Bay playing half their games in Montreal. John Smoltz around

(53:37):
the corner all sorts of stuff. Be sure to catch
live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Easter nine
am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the
iHeart Radio app. Absolutely crazy weekend in baseball, It really was.
It was just nothing but headlines. The Dodgers have the
best record in baseball. I sort of got all their
young guys can play. I don't think I've ever seen

(53:57):
a team that hits on more young guys. And forget
Walker Bueller and Seeger and Cody Bellinger. They had three
straight walk off wins by three different rookies over the
course of the weekend. The Phillies are a mess. The
Rays want to leave Tampa part time to go to Montreal.
You have the Mets dysfunction, which I think tends to

(54:18):
start at the top. I don't blame the manager and
the players with the Mets, it always seems to be upstairs.
But with that had a great career. Now a tremendous broadcaster,
John Smolts Major League Baseball on Fox. Let me start
with the Dodgers because that's the team I get to
see in my talents on TV every night. It just
seems to me on the outside looking in, John, they
really hit on their young guys. Their chemistry is amazing.

(54:41):
They've said no to the Zach Grinky deal, the Machado,
the Bryce Harper. They've really built on analytics and talented
young players. They just don't seem to miss on their
young talent. Is that the secret sauce they're scouting? That's
a big part of it. You know, not every organization's
going to have the same philosophies, and I think with

(55:05):
resources that helps, obviously, but it's not the it's not
the soul source that gets it done. A lot of
teams have resources and myths. So part of it is
what you're talking about. In the other part is just
the kind of channel of which they funnel these guys through.
You know, they're they're fundamentally pretty sound on how they

(55:27):
get them ready to get to the big leagues. Forever
they had the rookie of the year locked up, you know,
eons ago, years and years, you seemed that every time
you looked up, it was a Dodger Rookie of the year.
And now their position players have really contributed at a
high level. They they have I don't want to say
mastered the regular season over the last three or four years,

(55:48):
but pretty close, you know. And it's funny because in
their own division you have San Francisco, which kind of
felt like after those World Series titles, John they owed
guy's money and then they got really old, and you know,
they didn't have a lot of financial flexibility. And you
wake up this morning and you look at the Giants
and you're like, oh, they went the opposite of the Dodgers.

(56:09):
The Dodgers are interesting. They could have had Harper Machado,
Zach Grinky. You know, I watched the Phillies, the Padres
and the Angels, and they sign these guys the twelve
year deals. Let's talk about the Phillies. What I don't
like about a twelve year deal. Is John, you ask
a home run hitter to come in, you spend that money,
and to me, it's like, if he doesn't hit forty
five jacks, he's a failure. I think that I would

(56:32):
spend big money on a pitcher and big money on
a contact hitter. But I think that kind of money.
I think it's hard for these home run hitters to
get these massive deals, and I wonder how it plays
in the locker room when you're paying a guy thirty
million a year. Well, what do you see as happening
to the Phillies. Well, I mean when you think about

(56:53):
the monster contracts since time and length of time, there
really hasn't been anyone that's been able to deliver or
a championship. Alex Rodriguez got removed from Texas to the Yankees.
Technically you can say he was in the midst of that.
The Yankees won a world championship with Alex. But when
Texas made the move, it was a real estate deal.

(57:13):
It was to boost the franchise value and all that.
And I think when you look at some of these moves,
Philadelphia's franchise value went up, their ticket sales went up,
I am all on board with what you're saying. It's
a lot to ask for one player to totally save
a franchise or take them to the next level based
on soul production. But typically, you know, over the course

(57:37):
of baseball, we haven't seen really a lengthy contract produce
a World Series championship. Now that will happen, obviously, because
there's more of them. We're seeing more of them than
ever before. But there is a lot to be worked
out in the first couple of years when a guy
comes over, from changing venues, to learning his teammates, to

(57:57):
obviously wanting to get off to a rates start, the
fan base pressure, all those things are contributing right now
to Philadelphia's I could say lack of success. Now, every
team was going to go through a stretch like this.
Philadelphia happens to be going through it right now at
the wrong time, leading into the All Star break. But
they're still a really, really good team. It's a matter

(58:17):
of can they put that noise behind them and the
expectation that all of a sudden got vaulted on them
and chased down the current leaders the Atlantic Raves. The
season's too long. I don't see why they can't turn
that around. But all the points you made are valid
in the sense that it just don't You just can't
snap your fingers. Anyone who knows anything about baseball could

(58:41):
not have predicted the New York Yankees to do what
they've done with all their injuries. So on the flip side,
they're having a special year, and on the opposite side, Philadelphia,
with all their expectations, yes they've had a lot of
injuries as well, has not been able to sustain that.
As a depth, the Yankees, as we know, have come
to know their depth has survived them and really saved

(59:03):
them to become an elite team this year. It's there's
been kind of a crazy home run spike in baseball.
And you know, in my life, football used to have huddles.
It doesn't basketball. You used to shoot mid range jumpers.
You don't Baseball. There used to be basse stealing and
moving runners along. Now it's strike out home run. I
like activity. I missed I miss Lou Brock, I miss

(59:24):
Ricky Henderson, I missed Joe Morgan. I like bass stealers.
But that you know, the sport analytically is changing. Everybody's
swinging up. I get it. I don't necessarily think it's bad.
What do you make of the spike in home runs?
Rob Manfrem this weekend talked about it with some pills
inside the ball. It's way over my head. What do

(59:44):
you make of the spike? As a former player and
a broadcaster? Good bad for baseball? Where do you land
on it? Well? It you know, whenever there's a shift
in a sport and how the game has played universally, right,
there's not really many many teams when everyone else is zagging.
There seems to be this conformed way of doing baseball

(01:00:06):
based on the way that the information is coming in
and the style of the game that we've We've created
hitters from youth baseball, pitchers now training to throw the
ball as hard as they can. Velocity as king, obviously
distance is king, and I think it's their form of
thinking that this is the best way to score runs.

(01:00:27):
When runs was at a premium and runs were down,
they've decided that because of all the shifts and all
the different analytical information that is giving teams access to
becoming better, the best version of it's going to be
hitting the ball over the fence, higher velocity swing approach,
training is all geared towards lifting the ball in the air.

(01:00:48):
You know, there are terminologies that people won't be used
to and will eventually get used to. Is the fact
that you know when the runners on first, they do
not even want the ball hit on the ground. Yeah,
so they're they're trying everything they can to get the
ball off the ground so that the shift doesn't come

(01:01:09):
into play, and obviously the stadium can't hold it. So
there's I don't think it's all about just the baseball.
I think a lot of contributing factors on the style.
It's same as what you mentioned in the NBA. I'm
a huge basketball fan, but there's no longer layoups. I
mean there's rarely layoups or mid raised jumpers. They're passing

(01:01:30):
them up to get the three point shot, which they
have to come to say that that's a better version.
The three point SHOT's a better version for the offense
and style of the big leagues today are for basketball today. Yeah. Finally,
I lived in Tampa and this is no shot at Tampa.
But I didn't think it fundamentally economically could support a

(01:01:52):
baseball team When I was there Tampa St. Pete, people
were not willing to drive the other across the bridge
to go to a sporting event. So the Buccaneer drew
from Tampa and the Rays mostly draw from Saint Pete.
There was only one fortune five hundred company, Raymond Jane
Financial Services. I didn't think the incomes if you looked
it up, they didn't match. I just didn't think Tampa

(01:02:12):
and I don't think Oakland. I don't think they worked
for the structure economically of what baseball demands eighty one
home games, thirty suites, twenty eight thousand season ticket holders.
So when I see this story that the Rays could
split with Montreal, my first take is a player has
to have two homes. That is rough on the players.

(01:02:32):
Just take me to your career again. You were in Atlanta.
You guys were always you didn't have half of these problems.
You had a great manager, Shureholts, you had a great ownership,
you had great GM. What would you do if you
played in the BIGS and it was decided John Atlanta
and North Dakota. I mean, what do you make of
that story? Well, you know, as a player, you could

(01:02:55):
complain all you want, but you'd have to conform. I
don't know that that's possibly going to happen. But you know,
the intrigue I gets more from a pr standpoint for
trying to figure out if the team back in Montreal,
you know, would work. Again. I just know that baseball players, athletes,
they're not all the same. But for me, the better

(01:03:17):
structure I would have the better chance I'm going to
be successful. Yeah, honestly, I would struggle. I would very much.
That's my personality. I would struggle knowing there's too many
pieces and you know, too many balls in the air.
It was it was part of why I stayed in
one city for twenty one years, as part of why
I stayed with one manager. I loved the structure of it.

(01:03:38):
And I think, you know, being able to adapt today
in the style of baseball the way it is, I
credit a lot of young players. They're young, so maybe
they're more more able to adapt, whereas I was more
used to the style that I played in. But I
just don't know if that could work and a team
be successful. But maybe, you know, maybe I could be wrong. No,

(01:04:00):
I listen to what you're saying is you're a creature
of habit and structure. For the record, so am I
completely it's a really great point, and I think baseball
tends to be. It's such a tough mental sport. It's
mentally fatiguing that if you add you juggle some balls
in the air for a baseball player, I think you
could work in football. Actually you could. You could play

(01:04:22):
six games in Buffalo, two or three in Toronto. You're
asking baseball guys to juggle all that stuff emotionally. Yikes.
I think it's a great point. Well, you really had
That's amazing. Have you ever sat back and thought to yourself,
you have one of the you may be a handful
you and Derek Jeter. You add one GM, one manager,

(01:04:42):
one city. That's just unheard of. God, that's unheard of.
It is And intentionally I made, you know, a lot
of choices to not take more money to go somewhere else.
Because of that. Ironically, my first gentle manager became my manager.
Bobby was the guy that got me over at them,
and then he became the real you know, I played

(01:05:03):
for Russ Nixon for a year, but Bobby was the
guy that I wanted to play the rest of my
career for almost almost accomplished it. And and really that
lifestyle is the reason. I think I played twenty one years.
Had I moved around and bounced around a lot, don't
know that I would have had that kind of career.
John Smoltz, major League Baseball on Fox. Great talking you.

(01:05:24):
I love your work. Thanks John, Thank you. You bet. Yeah,
that's incredible. It just didn't happen today. No, it's very rare.
I mean it's it's it's a special thing though, and
it's I mean, Jason obviously wanted to play in Miami
for that's just where you wanted to play there. Yeah,
I mean, it didn't happen that way. He ended up
going to Washington and to the Jets. But there's something

(01:05:48):
too being in one place for your entire career. You
go through the ups and downs, and you just become
a part of that community. And obviously sports is something
that is so up and down anyway. Not happy to
move your family, being able to get involved in business
in the community and not have to worry about you're
not being anywhere advantage joy with the news. This is

(01:06:09):
the herd Line News. So David Griffin, he's basically the
Thanos of the NBA right now. He's crushing it everywhere.
But he is trying to dial back the pressure on Zion.
Williamson good luck with that. By the way, he has
John some comparisons to Lebron James. Zion has, but he
might not be able to transform the franchise overnights. He

(01:06:29):
is only eighteen years old. David Griffin said, this is
Drew Holliday's team. Zion is going to be learning how
to win at a really high level at some point.
There is if there is, it's if there is a
time that the baton gets passed in terms of who
is expected to carry us to win games, it will
That is not now. Let Zion be that kid. Don't
write this like he is here to save this franchise.

(01:06:51):
He is not. He is here to join this family.
Well that all sounds very nice. Yes it does. That
it's very strategic, very special statement, but nobody is believing
that now. I don't think that Zion is coming into
the NBA with the same amount of pressure that Lebron
James had because Cleveland was in a different situation. Cleveland
was kind of known the entire city for losing, and

(01:07:16):
he just had a different kind of expectation on him.
I don't think that the league is in a space
where they're they're just dying for a star. There's so
many stars in so many different areas. I don't know
that he has the same pressure Lebron had. I don't
think so. I'll tell you, actually, I think this is
about I think Zion's going to have a better rookie

(01:07:37):
year than Lebron. And this is why I believe this.
Lebron statistically had a great rookie year. But Lebron for
about four years in Cleveland, like he was the whole
team the Pelicans. This David Griffin we knew was smart.
So he brings in Lonzo, He'll take Glare off. Yep,
he brings in. By the way, they got the two

(01:07:58):
guys in the draft I loved. They got both of them,
number one, Zion and then the center from Texas, Jackson,
who I loved, and Jackson Hayes, who my scouts are
all like, he's the sleeper in the draft. So they
bring in Lakers and Lonzo and you have Drew and
they're trying to engineer another trade. Al Horford man up there.
That's how you bring a rookie in. So Zion can

(01:08:20):
score his eighteen and he doesn't drive for the Arena
at night feeling like, oh my god, I like Lebron
for four years, was like, I've got us. US just scored,
by the way a USA just scored over Spain. I
have nothing against a Spain and the great culture, but
I am clearly rooting for America here and the United States.

(01:08:40):
Did Megan Rapino score that? She set it up? Oh?
Appenally k here? Oh it's Megan Boom beautiful two one USA.
Please continue on? Okay, um, sorry, yeah, not the same
not the same pressure that Lebron. Absolutely right, Lonzo being there.
Lonzo to me is the biggest factor coming into a
team that has Drew Aldy on. It's obviously very important,

(01:09:01):
and David's Griffin is right, He's going to learn how
to win, which is something that Lebron did not have
in Cleveland. But also having Lonzo being a facilitator, and
Lonzo's been through it now, like injuries, the trade, everything
that went on with the Lakers, so it's definitely a
better position to design than it was for Lebron. I
can't remember the last time a number one great pick
came into the league and I was like, God, they

(01:09:23):
set it up perfectly. He's got an all star veteran.
They may get it if he brought in Al Horford.
You got a couple of Lakers, young guys who have
been in the league. You got a veteran coach. I mean, like,
it's really a nice soft And by the way, expectations
in the West finished tenth. Everybody's like, oh, they won
thirty eight games, great year. And also the city of

(01:09:43):
New Orleans does not have the same feeling that that
Cleveland had, like you have the Saints there. He was
the savior. Lebron was the save the whole sit of
the state. So it's just a different situation. So you
just mentioned it a little bit ago. The past interference
review rule for twenty nineteen season is official. This was

(01:10:03):
really disappointing on vacation reading if this happened. I was
really hoping that they did not pass this, but they did.
The NFL Competition Committee unanimously recommended the role for instant
replay pass interference for this season only. So, according to
the final rule, pass interference reviews after the two minute
warning of each half and during overtime will be initiated
by the replay official and they will only be able

(01:10:26):
to stop the game when there is clear and obvious
of visual evidence that a pass interference penalty may or
may not have occurred. So under two minutes, coaches won't
be able to challenge past interference. It will only be
up to the booth and it will, according to the rule,
have to be an egregious thing that happens to make
them review it. Now we all know how this goes,
so none of us really believe that's how it's gonna

(01:10:47):
play out. The big concern for me aside from a
ridiculous amount of stoppages in the game, which like reviews
the worst and it's the best and the worst, like
it completely crushes the momentum of any game, but it
also is very important you want to get the call right,
so I do like like having reviews, but with discretion.

(01:11:08):
It's just like, this is just not a It can
be a past interference either way on almost every single play,
and it's terrifying for me. And the only thing is
that maybe coaches will be afraid of losing their time
out so if it doesn't go their way, so I
don't think they're gonna get crazy with it. But it's
just another reason to stop the game. And I liked
that this wasn't a reviewable play. And then it also
changes hail mary's because there's always interference on hail mary's

(01:11:31):
at the end of the game, and it's supposed to
be reviewed consistent with the guidelines for officiating during the
rest of the game. So hail mary's now will be reviewed.
And by the way, are you gonna tell me now
on a hail mary win? The way a hail mary
is taught is coached is positioning right, almost a rebound
in basketball. Yeah, get your arms out, get your butt out,
get your space. Well, that's all past interference, right, I mean,

(01:11:54):
so again, this is a classic wildly overreacting to a
crappy call, and it was a rappy call. I just
I don't get it. I don't understand it, because obviously
it was a terrible call, but it is what it is.
It happens. I don't understand why you would change the
rule over that it's happened so many times before. Why
this particular play, why this particular game is going to

(01:12:14):
change it? I don't know. Finally, Lincoln Riley said he
wasn't tempted to leave Oklahoma for an NFL job this offseason.
He said It's hard to see myself leaving Oklahoma, not
even for the Browns or Baker. Well, it's been reported
that Riley has a four point six a million dollar
buyout if he leaves Oklahoma for any job, including the
NFL after the twenty nineteen seasons. So after this season,

(01:12:36):
if he wants to leave, someone's gonna have to pay
quite a bit of money to get him to leave Oklahoma. Now,
after that, the buyout drops a million every year until
twenty twenty two, and then oh, you will waive the buyout.
So basically you're gonna have to pay a lot of
money for Lincoln Riley. He may be the best coach
in college football, and that's no shot at DABBO. But

(01:12:57):
he's only had this head coaching job a couple of years.
If football is becoming more offensive minded, which it is, right,
he's the best offensive coach I think in college football
by a long shot. I wouldn't leave. I think he's
he's like thirty eight through. I would just twenty four
and four record and two Big Twelve championships and two
Highs and Trophy winners in his two season. He's really sharp,

(01:13:17):
and you know what, I gotta be honest with you,
I'm not so sure of the way I see outside
of Belichick, the way they treat these NFL coaches. College
football pays now mostly what NFL does, It pays. You
get to run your own program. Now you do have
to deal with you know, there's there's there's pros and
cons on either side. You know, you probably have to
deal with more executives and suits boosters, as you said,

(01:13:41):
and you know you have to recruit, which you don't
have to do in the NFL. So there are some
extra responsibilities that you have to deal with in college,
but you don't have you don't You're not looking at
getting fired after a year because your quarterback got injured
in the you know, the owner panic. There's a lot
more flexibility as far as that goes, and he gets
to stay in one place. As we just mentioned earlier,
it's super important to be joy with the news. Well

(01:14:02):
that's the news, and thanks for stopping the Herd Line
news Dan Wokee, Brian Scalabrini on deck. Be sure to
catch live editions of the Herd weekdays and noon Easter
nine am Pacific. Great news. Quick way you could save
money go to Geico fifteen minutes, say fifteen percent. Geico
dot Com Brian Scalabrini serious XMNBA host played within Celtics

(01:14:22):
for years and years now does some of their games.
And I want to talk about this Kyrie stuff being
a diva, because you've got insight on this stuff. I've
always thought the NBA has always got a great player
who's flaky, Dwight Howard, World b Free, Steph Marberry, There's
always a great player in the league. He's a little different,
little bit of a diva, not easy to play with.
Give me the insight on how bad it was with
Kyrie and that staff and that team. Well, I don't

(01:14:45):
know if it was. I don't know if it's like that.
I just look at a lot of times that he
was really good at times throughout the year, and he
was hard on the young guys like Lebron was on him.
But I think the differences. The problem is hard on
Kyrie when he was in Cleveland because he hasn't won anything.
It gets convoluted when you look at what the team

(01:15:07):
was able to accomplish last year and all of a
sudden and no I'm not running away from the police,
and all of a sudden, you got Kyrie calling out
the young guys for not doing a good job last year,
for you have to do more than that if we're
ever going to go anywhere. And I think a lot
of those guys look at him like, well, if we
had Lebron on our team, we would have won an
NBA championship too. So I don't know if he's hard

(01:15:29):
to work with or he's a diva, but there sometimes
he probably is a little outspoken where maybe he probably
should just kept his thoughts to himself. Okay, So now
Al Horford leaves, and there is this feeling that Boston
they accumulate all these draft picks. They're very, very smart,
they're ahead of the curve. They don't have a catchy
nickname like the Process, but they've really figured out the

(01:15:52):
rebuild without the tank. And now I look up and
Kyrie's gone, and Al Horford's gone, and Gordon Hayward's overpaid,
And my question is is the run over? Well? I
don't think, I don't want to. What do you mean
by the run? They didn't win a championship? Doy're not
even They're not Milwaukee. If Kalli stays they're not Toronto.
I mean they feel like the third best team in

(01:16:12):
the East. Now, well, remember this team without Gordon Hayward
and without Kyrie was one game away or maybe three
possessions away from the NBA Finals. So Jaylen Brown will improve.
Jason Tatum has to get better. He has to take
his game to a whole new level. He can't just
be eight points one game, twenty four points the next game.
And he had some pretty good games when Kyrie was

(01:16:33):
sitting out. If you move on from there, they have
assets like Memphis stake top six protected and will be
unprotected in the future. I think it's more like a
retooling this year, and don't do not count them out.
They could move some things around. They have thirty three
million dollars of space, and if I was them, I
would be going to Kemba Walker's agent and saying, Kemba,

(01:16:54):
it's great that you were in Charlotte. You had a
good year. You had some ups and downs. But Brad
Stevens has had a track record of ticking small guys
like Isaiah Thomas. Isaiah was ranked fifth in the NBA
and MVP voting. Why can't they convince kim Mert Walker
to do the same thing with that thirty three million
dollars salary side. Now, I'm not saying that's what they're

(01:17:14):
gonna do, but if I were them, that's what i'd
be looking for. And if I'm Brad Stevens or if
I'm Kim mcwalker, I think that'd be a nice little
combination because he reminds me a lot of Isaiah Thomas
with the athleticism and his ability to score. Lakers ad
Lebron Kuzma. How good is that team? How limited does that?
I mean, yeah, they need another guy because if you

(01:17:35):
saw this year, Kwhi Leonard played what did he sit out?
Twenty two games? So and they went seventeen and five
during that time, I don't think Lebron could play eighty two.
They got to figure out a way to be relevant
in the West without Lebron playing. Let's just say he
played sixty five games. So I don't know what they
can be a seventh seed or a sixth seed if

(01:17:55):
Lebron is missing those amount of games. It's Anthony Davis
is missing those amount of games. I think they really
messed up with that whole salary thing and not being
able to get a max player out there. But we'll
see what they end up doing. I think they need
one more guy to convince to come come in just
to help an aging Lebron when he takes games off.
Do you think that Lebron a d though will attract
a guy like a Reddick or a Darren Collison that

(01:18:18):
may be willing to take a little bit of a
pace life. Yeah, I think so. That's actually a really
good call by you. I think I think I think
you still need a big time player. I'd be targeting
like a Tobias Harris or a Chris Middleton type of guy.
But you definitely you need to try to get a
guy taking a discount, and maybe that is a JJ Reddick.

(01:18:40):
You know, maybe he can get fifteen million or ten
millions somewhere else and you can get him playing for five.
But that's gonna be an important signing whatever they use
their mid level exception on. Could you, if you're Kawhi Leonard,
could you give up a guaranteed fifth year? I mean
I couldn't. I couldn't recommend it to my son. If
I was an agent, I couldn't recommend it to my client.

(01:19:00):
I'd have him stay in Canada, would you? Yeah? But
so So Colin, right now, if you play two more years,
and let's just say he's still at the same level
he's at right now, once you're ten years in the NBA,
you can get like thirty five percent of the cap,
so his number is exponentially more in what it is
if you're nine years in the league. So yeah, i'd

(01:19:21):
be convincing Kwaide Leonard to sign for two more years
or do a two plus one, and then after that
you can go wherever you want. You can really get
big money thirty five thirty seven million dollars depending on
what the cap is. So once you're ten years in
the NBA and you could still go out there and
sign a max contract, that's big money. Colin. Yeah, I
have a feeling he's gonna stay. I really do, for

(01:19:42):
at least the time being too. I think he's gonna
sign a two plus one. That's what I would do
if I were him. That team is still good, and
I don't know how good they'll be in three years.
I don't know how good they'll be in five, So
two plus one and then we'll be doing this all
over again in two years. Good seeing you, a good
talking to you, scal My man, see you see you.
By the way, USA lead Spain two to one. United
States Women's World Cup, And it feels like about ninety

(01:20:04):
percent of this game it's been in deep in Spain's end,
trying to defend themselves. The reason our women are, sir, great,
is the reason our men aren't. We've got more good players. Sorry,
it's not coaching. Go further than ever. Discover at miles card.
They match the miles you earn at the end of
your first year. Go to Discover dot com slash travel.

(01:20:26):
Discover dot com slash travel. Learn more there our three. Next,
it's the Herd. One more Herd. The Herd streams twenty
four hours a day, seven days a week within the
iHeartRadio app. Search Herd to listen live or on demand
whenever you like. Ah, here we go our three in
the Monday. This is the Herd. Wherever you may be

(01:20:46):
and however you may be listening iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio.
I'm just glancing up. The United States Women have beaten
Spain two to one. We will play France Friday. We
because it is my team. Yes, I am not in
the least objective about the United States Men's and Women's
National team. I am not only a growing soccer fan,

(01:21:10):
I'm a teason ticket holder to LAFC. It's the only
season tickets in LA I have. But my only problem
with soccers, I've said, is soccer fans in America who
constantly want to blame the coach. And the reason our
women win is not because of coaching. It's because we
have more power, more depth, more talent, more confidence, and
we go about nine ten players deep and we win

(01:21:31):
a lot of one on one battles because we have
more talent. And we have been very much promoting women's
sports in America more so than other countries perhaps have ten, fifteen,
twenty thirty years ago. And that's why we're so powerful.
We're ahead of the curve. And that's sort of like
Brazil and Argentina and Germany are ahead of our men
in soccer because soccer has been heavily promoted in those countries,
and we always feel like we're a little behind in soccer. Sure,

(01:21:53):
but you know, we don't make excuses. Those are reasons. Yeah,
we don't make excuses. But just like in any sport,
you can have a great system, a great owner, great facilities,
you need great coach. The day at one point or another.
You need the talent you and our women have the talent.
Many of the top players in the world are American women,
and we don't have a We don't have a pipeline

(01:22:17):
that's nourishing our men's program with world class talent. I
do think Christian Pulisic is amazing, defender, John Brooks is
very good. Weston McKinney is super talented. But we don't
have the pipeline yet. We have played very well in
the Gold Cup. So congratulations to our women. By the way,
this story over the weekend. I want to address a
couple of things here. First of all, the Mets are

(01:22:38):
a mess, and mostly because every city, every team in
New York now is a mess. The Knicks aren't well run.
The Jets and the Giants aren't well run. The Mets
aren't well run. The Yankees have made mistakes, but have
so much money they can flush out their mistakes. Like
Jacoby Ellsbury's contract or John Carlos Stanton's deal, I think
over time will not look like a good deal. Although

(01:22:59):
he was productive last year. They already had a John
Carlos Stanton. It was called Aaron Judge and he was homegrown,
and he was cheap and he still is and they
paid for his duplicate which I never got. But you know,
it's the Mets. Basically, over the weekend, a reporter taunted
the manager. A player came in, threatening to deck the reporter.

(01:23:20):
Mickey Callaway's the manager. I don't follow the Mets day
in and day out like a beat reporter, obviously, but
enough to know over the course of the last fifteen
years they're poorly owned and therefore poorly run. It is
amazing what I'm seeing on a macro level, and I've
been on this for a couple of years. New York
sports teams are poorly run. The Mets, the next, the Jets,

(01:23:40):
the Giants, and I think there's a reason for it now.
Now Conversely, in Boston, which tends to be an academic
leaning city, it's not the rich city. It's the academic
leaning city. The Celtics, the Patriots, the Bruins, and the
Red Sox are all well run. In Los Angeles, the Rams,
the Dodgers, the Clippers, the Chargers, laf Seat, they're all
well run. In America, the three cities of note, New

(01:24:04):
York's the money city, LA's the glamour city in DC's
the power city. And money is a quick fix in sports,
it's almost never the solution long term. And New York
has exponentially more money than ninety percent of American cities.
And money creates power, and it creates vanity, and it
creates ego. And I think the Los Angeles teams that

(01:24:28):
have succeeded because LA is the second biggest city in
the country and probably the second richest city. But the
team's in Los Angeles that work, the Clippers, the Dodgers,
the Rams, the Chargers have avoided the big splashy move.
You can't find Jared Goff in Los Angeles. You can't
find Aaron Donald. They hide clippers. They're a chemistry play.

(01:24:50):
Dodgers have said no to big contracts in New York.
It's like parenting. Big money can give you better education,
better quality hell healthcare. But big money can also mean
big entitlement and braddy kids. And you have to be
very careful if you grow up in money as a parent,
how it's afforded on your kids. Pay for experiences, pay

(01:25:12):
for education, pay for healthcare, be careful about paying for
big sixteenth birthday parties. And when I look at New York.
I think there is less efficiency. I think they fall
in love with themselves. I think there's a lot of ego.
And I don't see grinders in New York City. In sports,
I don't I know all the gms, I know the owners.

(01:25:33):
I don't see the grinders. That's why I love Sam
Donald of the Jets. I said he's a blue collar kid.
He's a complete utter grinder. Baker Mayfield in New York
would implode O b J and New York imploded. If
you look at what has worked in New York City,
it's been grinders, Jeter. I mean Jeter was a grinder, Passada,
Bernie Williams. It's not been Canoe flashy. It's not been

(01:25:58):
a rod as much flashy. It's not Pincarmelo. What has
worked in New York City is when you get a
grinding work ethic personality in a city with a lot
of distractions, and they're not distracted by it, Jeter Eli,
Sam Darnold. But Silicon Valleys had this where they had

(01:26:18):
so much money they didn't know exactly what to do
with it, and they eventually Silicon Valley companies have to
bring in business people to correlate their massive amounts of commerce.
And I think the Yankees are the one organization in
New York that appears well run. And I think much
of their success is because Judge, Gary Sanchez, Torres, Andrew

(01:26:40):
har are homegrown talents. They've gone to the farm system.
I didn't like jacobe El'sbray signing. I didn't like the
John Carlos Danton signing. They went for the big, splashy headline.
That's not how you went in baseball. What you're seeing
in baseball that's working the Dodgers, the Astros, a lot
of the Red Sox, and a lot of this Yankee
success is on their home grown guys. New York is

(01:27:03):
a city of money and power and vanity and distractions,
and the Mets are just symptomatic of what it's producing
bad sports. That you can't find a city in the
country that's got more poorly owned, poorly run franchises than
New York. They can't. Yankees are at everything else a mess.
And again that's why I think Sam Darnold was a huge,

(01:27:27):
huge mistake by the Giants. You had your guy, you
had your next ELI head down. Sam Darnold's not on
Twitter Baker Mayfield can't stop talking. Darnold's not even on Twitter.
He didn't drink it his birthday. Just the Mets have
become what New York is for sports. A mess. It's
just a mess. I also, I think that story is interesting.

(01:27:48):
Bret Farr was asked this week. I don't know if
we have the sound for this, but Brett Farr was
asked about Aaron Rodgers about a week ago. I was
on vacation. There's a little story about Aaron Rodgers has
a new coach, and Aaron's come out and said, listen,
this coach has a style in a system, and it's
pretty rigid. And I'm not necessarily a quarterback who works
well in a rigid offense. I tend to be an

(01:28:11):
ad lib and far defended Aaron Rodgers. Aaron will be fine,
you know. I think that's the thing is he needs
to remain the same and I don't have to give
him any advice. He'll handle it well. I think you'll
let him play his game and not disturbed that very much.
And it's going to be interesting to see if that happens.

(01:28:31):
Here's the thing. Tom Brady and Joe Montana were incredibly
coachable stars, ten super Bowls, incredibly coachable. Far Big Ben
and Aaron Rodgers are talented, not as coachable. Now, yippie,
they've got five MVPs, but far big Ben and Rodgers
only have four super Bowls. And I think when I
say far big Ben and Rodgers, we tend to think

(01:28:53):
talented but left a lot on the table, is what
you're hearing about Aaron Rodgers. Is what Greg Kosell said
on our show three years ago. And I've played this
at least ten times, maybe more. Aaron Rodgers is not
that coachable. The reality is when you watch Aaron Rodgers,

(01:29:13):
and it takes nothing away from his performances over the years,
but he's not truly a rhythm player, Colin. He's kind
of an off beat player, an off rhythm player. He's
more like a jazz beat. He's a second reaction player.
And very often there are throws that are there within
the rhythm of the play and the timing of the play,
and he doesn't make those throws. Now, he might move

(01:29:33):
around and then make another throw, but there are times
against really good defenses where that doesn't work. It's tough
to be consistent that way against higher level defenses. Translation,
he's not very coachable. Like you have to make a
choice as a talented quarterback, and really, any athlete, do
you want to be coachable Tim Duncan, Tom Brady Andrew Luck?

(01:29:54):
Or do you want to just do what works for you?
Aaron Rodgers, Brett fa a little bit of cam What
do you want to do? And I'll give you an
amazing stat. Aaron Rodgers owns a shockingly bad stat and
it's hard to wrap your brain around, but it's data
and you can't argue it. Aaron Rodgers has fewer come

(01:30:14):
from behind wins than Andy Dalton, Ryan Tannehill and Joe Flacco.
Don't blame the defense. That doesn't make any sense. Oh
but yes it does, because to win come from behind games,
coaching converges with quarterback play. So who are the two

(01:30:36):
best guys in the league statistically it come from behind wins?
Brady and Luck the two most coachable stars. The Ringer
did an article. It was last football season and they
were talking about how Brady and Luck over fifty percent
when they can come from behind and win. They do
because they're coachable. Aaron Rodgers and his unwillingness to become

(01:31:00):
coach is at twenty five percent half of Luck and Brady,
And so I think Aaron Rodgers could get away with
this when Chicago had a bad GM, a bad coach
and no quarterback, and when Detroit and Minnesota were dysfunctional,
and there was a long streak when the Bears, the
Lions and the Vikings didn't have a franchise quarterback. But
Chicago and Minnesota now are loaded rosters. They have their

(01:31:22):
quarterbacks for the future, and the closer the talent details
in all sports matter more, and Aaron Rodgers is becoming far.
None of us want to become our dad's right, and
you look up at forty five and we're all our dads,
And my wife and I joke about that all the time.
We don't want to be our parents, right, They're not
cool that I didn't do this, and you look at
at forty five and you're like, oh, I'm a parents.

(01:31:43):
Is that Rogers is becoming far A certain rigidity, a
certain level of talent, not willing to always be coachable,
ad libbing out of called successful plays, and I just
you cannot get past that. Come from behind. Staff, don't
make excuses. The Packers haven't had great defenses, but they
haven't been garbage. He's got fewer come from behind winds

(01:32:03):
than Dalton, Flacco and Tannehill. Have they always had great defenses?
Did Tannehill always have great defenses? Did Annie Dalton always
have great defenses? Statistically? Cincinnati's defense was the worst in
NFL history last year. So at some point Aaron Rodgers
has to make a choice. Do I want to be
more coachable or just do what I do. I think

(01:32:25):
it's hurt Cam. I think it's hurt Ben. I think
it's hurt Far and I think it's hurt Aaron Rodgers.
How about I cannot I feel bad for the Clippers.
There's a real possibility they did everything right this year
and they're not gonna land. Kauai and the Lakers did

(01:32:47):
everything wrong and yet they landed. Anthony Davis got some
thoughts on that coming up. Be sure to catch live
editions of The Herd weekdays and noon Easter nine am
Pacific on Fox Sports Radios one and the iHeartRadio app.
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(01:33:08):
Limited time first customers use the code Herd twenty soilent
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first case craziness. Craziness happening wild Baseball weekend. USA soccer
is rolling in the Gold Cup in the World Cup.
By the way, I saw a stat the other day
like between the men and women's United States national teams,

(01:33:29):
we're like six and ozero and have like forty thirty
five goals. It's like we're in the Golden era for
our soccer. Of course gold Cup we're not in the
toughest group. But Dan Woiki, La Times National NBA reporter
had him on the Herd in our studio a couple
of weeks ago and Dan joining us again. So when

(01:33:50):
I was on vacation, I worked last Monday for the
Anthony Davis deal, and then I took vacation and then
the stories start coming out Dan about the July thirtieth
of the significance of that date in relation to the
ad deal. You know, the bottom line is days matter,
dates matter when you're signing a free agent. Is it
of your opinion, Dan that Rob Polenka and the Lakers

(01:34:14):
weren't buttoned up and gave away about eight million in
cap space. I don't think so. Um. I think obviously
the timing of it was a little bizarre, and there
was some kind of initial confusion as to how the
deal was going to be consummated. But I think Colin,
when you agree to add the number four pick to

(01:34:35):
a trade like this and then that number four pick
is kind of being moved to under the assumption that
it might be moved a second time, you know, teams
want want those guys in um. You know they want
those guys playing in Summer League. You want those guys
in your system. And if the deal was going to
wait till the thirtieth, you know, the Lakers would have
had DeAndre Hunter just sitting around doing nothing. You know,

(01:34:59):
probably kept him, i think, in some sort of plastic
level to make sure he didn't get hurt or anything.
It would have been a very uncomfortable, awkward situation. The League,
generally speaking, is kind of against trades being constructed like
this for reasons like that, you don't want to wait
thirty days on stuff like if the deal is done,
ideally you could have done as quickly as you can.

(01:35:20):
And so I think maybe some of that sort of
like the rob didn't know what he was doing. Part
of this was overblown. I think. Would they have liked
to have figured out a way to do this where
they could get max space, certainly, but that wasn't the
goal here, right. The goal here was to get Anthony Davis,
and they accomplished that. Yeah. I mean, you know with

(01:35:41):
the Lakers, you know when Miami was winning titles, not
only did you have Bosh, Wade and Lebron, but you
had a series of really not cheap veterans ray Al
and Batty a Mike Miller. And when Golden State's winning,
they've got Iggy off the bench. Details matter in this league.
Toronto just want to title Livingston, yes kind in terms

(01:36:04):
of this Warriors sort of dynasty. Right, and you look
at Toronto, Lowry's expensive, Kauai is expensive, Gasol is expensive,
Ibaka's expensive, Danny Green's not cheap. The idea in this
league is to not only get stars, but they have
a little money, some crumbs left over, so you can
get really smart veteran players, perhaps on a discount, but
they're not cheap. When I look at this Lakers situation,

(01:36:25):
now Kuzma's nothing but Lebron a d What can they
really afford to add to this. Can they get a
couple of Patrick Beverley's Darren Collinson J J. Ruddicks, Yeah,
I mean I think it can only be a couple, right,
They're gonna have to be really smart um with sort
of the money that they have. I do think that

(01:36:45):
in sort of my vision, if I were running the Lakers,
I think it's almost preferable if I'd had a max
slot to kind of use it on two or three
guys that can play thirty minutes a night versus say,
Kemba Walker. I think the only guy that I would
have maxed out in sort of the Lakers situation would
be Kyrie Irving, just kind of a guy who understands

(01:37:07):
what it's like to play with Lebron, who understands what
it's like to not be a first option. I think,
you know, when you start talking about um Kemba Walkers
of the world, like this is a guy who's been
the man on his team for half a decade and
going from that to being sort of the third the
third prong on an offense, I think would be a
huge adjustment. We've seen guys struggle with this in the past,

(01:37:30):
particularly as point guards, right, we saw, and granted he
was a much older player, but you know how ineffective
Steve Nash was as just a spot up shooter after
spending you know, a decade plus with the ball in
his hands, and I think it would have been a
real challenge. That's why you mentioned Patrick Beverley. I think
he's a really interesting sit. I know, he loves Los Angeles.
You know, he's a guy who knows how to play

(01:37:51):
without the basketball's hands. He has some sort of you know,
he does have some sort of injury history, which would
make me a little nervous. I really like Malcolm Brogden.
But if you start talking about Malcolm Brogden, that's a
really expensive player. Can you figure out a way to get, say,
Marcus Morrison Malcolm Brogden with twenty three million dollars? I
would say probably not. I think we're looking at a
tier below here, and it's hard shopping around. You know,

(01:38:15):
kind of the six to seven million dollars range for
players in this league is really difficulty you look at. Honestly.
I mean, Milwaukee doesn't have the year they have unless
kind of Brook Lopez falls into the last you know
what I mean. And so you have to kind of
find these guys around the fringes. It's gonna be Colin.
I think a really interesting market when I when I talk,

(01:38:35):
you know, and I think that this actually might benefit
the Lakers. Might I talk to some executives around the
league and stuff like that. Um, I hear from teams
that have cap space that you know, everybody's thing right now,
like they're not gonna panic. No one's gonna get caught
in sort of the team of fame Osgov Rual dang
type deals and Mitch cup Check got stuck in a
few years ago when he whipped on LaMarcus Aldridge and
they didn't get Cameron Anton. You know, they're they're not

(01:38:58):
going to be pressured into sort of making these marginal
deals to make your team, you know, maybe three to
four wins better over the course of the season. That
teams I think are getting smarter about their money. We've
seen this in baseball. You know, this was a huge
issue in baseball. Um the season. I think it'll bleed
over a little bit to the NBA where sort of
the second and third tier free agents, you know, maybe

(01:39:18):
even the fourth tier free agents, it might be kind
of hard to find a team you know, say like
the Clippers. If the Clippers don't get Kawhi Leonards. Yeah,
I don't think they're gonna go out and spend a
bunch of money. I'm the guys that only make them
marginally better. That doesn't feel like sort of their trajectory
as an organization. Um. You know, Brooklyn, I think isn't
a really interesting spot. Um they have new ownership and

(01:39:42):
ownership watch to make a splash. Well, that's that tends
to not be a really good thing. You know. They've
got Sean Marks is a really smart guy in their
front office, and they got the kind of roster they
can afford to be patient with. It'll be interesting to
see if they miss on Kyrie, if they miss on
Kevin Durant, do they talk themselves in to a situation
where they max Kemba Walker and they throw a bunch

(01:40:02):
of money at Saint Nikola Usevic. Um. You know, I
don't know that that's really good for the long term
health of an organization to kind of give yourself a
roster that sort of caps at the three seed in
the East. How devastating would it be if the dysfunctional
Lakers are able to land a d and the competent, smart,
detail oriented clippers Whift. How devastating would that be? I mean,

(01:40:26):
it's really almost unfair. How devastating do you think that
would be to the organization if they just don't land Kauai?
I think I think it doesn't really deter them a ton.
I think obviously it would be a setback, and they're
in a very good position to get Kawhi Leonard. You know,
they've they've done everything that they possibly can do to

(01:40:47):
be an attractive destination. It's probably some bad luck that
you know with Kawhi season Toronto. You know, how different
is it if that ball takes one extra bouts on
the rim again? So it els it falls out right.
That's the difference between him having the parade and him
having these amazing sort of career to finding iconic moments
in the city versus him just being done, you know,

(01:41:08):
in early May and you know, out being out in
the West Coast and enjoying California for next month. I think, um, yeah,
it would be a blow, But but I still think
that what they did with the debias Airstrade Colin is
they set themselves up for virtually any scenario, right like
they're they're in a position where they have the cap
space to make a move on a guy like Kawhi Leonard. Um,

(01:41:30):
you know, and a guy like Kevin Durant or whoeverages
that they want to shop it at the top of
the market. They're in that position, right But if they miss,
they still have draft assets, they still have future flexibility.
They're in the conversation for the next time a guy
like an Anthony Davis hits the market. Right, Um, they
can make a move for one of those guys. They
can do it via trade. The reality of these situations

(01:41:52):
is that I think they understand that guys of Kawhi
Leonards will traditionally don't hit the market. It's a weird
year in the sense there's a handful of them that
are on the market, and um, we'll see how much
movement there actually is. But I think they're certainly prepared
to not get him. They understand kind of the uphill
battle that they're in and I think, you know, I
don't know if their favorites or their underdogs at this point.

(01:42:14):
I know that they're very aware that Toronto made a
super compelling offer to keep a Coila or they can
sign him to more money. If he wants to accept
a long term deal, you can also probably even more
likely take sort of a one plus one type contract
and do this again next year. I don't think the
Clippers are going to freak out if that happens. Is

(01:42:35):
it cruel that the Lakers haven't really done anything to
deserve sort of the free agents that they've gotten and
to be the trade destination that they are over the
last five years. Yeah, that's a little cruel, But I
think it's the reality of the league, right It's that
sort of no matter what happens, the Lakers are still
sort of the star quarterback. Doesn't matter if they've got

(01:42:55):
a lousy personality or they're not getting good grades. They're
the most popular guys school. And it's gonna be that
way for a very long time, and for as much
as we'd like to, I think, um, you know, the
league would like to reward sort of competence in a
lot of ways that that doesn't always work like that.
Geography matters, legacy matters, history matters, and Colin, you live

(01:43:18):
in Los Angeles, like there's you can be famous and
then you can be a famous Laker, and those are
two different things. There's nothing quite like being a famous Laker.
I remember seeing you know, lousy Laker teams um, you know,
you know, over the last five years, and then watching
all summers Dick Youngwood drives the zamboni during playoff games
and throughout first pitches at Dodger stadiums, while Chris Paul

(01:43:39):
would be on a winning Clippers even be getting booed um.
It's just just sort of the reality of it. Yeah, Dan,
woikee La times good talking to you, Bud, all right,
Colin be good? Yeah, No, I mean, it's like he said,
it'd be great if competency was rewarded, but it's not.
Sports has never been fair. Alabama gets better players in

(01:44:00):
a bad recruiting year than Purdue gets grooded players in
a great recruiting year. Is that If you look at
college baseball, Michigan Vanner built start the College World Series,
Michigan's rare a cold weather college baseball national champion potential.
Oregon State's done it a couple of times, but generally
warm weather really helps in college football. Georgia, Mississippi, Florida, Texas,

(01:44:22):
California got way more players than North Dakota, and it's
I think it's hurt the Big ten. And again I
think Urban Meyer Jim Harbaugh can deflect some of those obstacles.
It is just easier. I think about this Oregon and Mississippi.
At three million people, Oregon gives you about five Division

(01:44:43):
One players a year. Mississippi gives you thirty eight. So
in the southern footprint, there's just more good high school
football players. It is much easier to get good players
even at like the second best school in Alabama, Auburn,
than the state school Oregon or Wyoming or Nevada. That's
just the reality. Joy with the news. This is the

(01:45:08):
Herdline news. Well, let's stick with that story. Free agency
is approaching and Kawhi Leonard will reportedly, according to Christains,
applying his two thousand, nineteen two thousand and twenty player
option of twenty one point three million and become an
undrestricted free agent. The Raptors, as Dandy says, is the
only team that can offer Leonard a max contract for

(01:45:29):
five years, one hundred and ninety million, and yes, he
is reportedly seriously considering resigning. And the Clippers are a
team that, as you mentioned, set themselves up to be
a landing spot for Kawhi. He is a southern California
kid and they're trying to recruit him, or maybe some
Clippers fans took some some some dollars together and figure

(01:45:52):
that they would try and add to the recruiting pitch.
They got some billboards. Um, they are about ten minutes
ten miles piece of staples. These billboards on the I
five ones is a California license plate that reads Kauai
with hashtag Clipper Nation and the second one reads King
of Socow, which is a play on the new balance

(01:46:12):
billboard that said King of the North. Yes and also
kind of a job at Lebron being the King with
hashtag Kawai to LAC, I think that Kawai would be
crazy to leave the Raptors. Now, there was a point
in the season where I thought he's definitely going to
go to the Clippers because he was just carrying the Raptors.
And although I did pick the Raptors all season, I

(01:46:35):
will admit I was a little iffy on if they
were going to be able to do it because it
was just a lot on Kawai to carry the team.
But after seeing the way that the season ended and
the championship and when you look at the money and
the fact that he would be the most famous athlete
in all of Canada, free condo, penthouse, free everything for

(01:46:55):
the rest of his life. And he's in the East.
I mean, you got be honest. Yes, you can make
an argument for the Sixers, but can you really I'm
still picking the Raptors against the Sixers in a playoffs
scenario right now as they're currently constructed. I'm staying in
the East. I mean, it's just a better situation for Kauai. Well,

(01:47:15):
not even just money aside. I always think if you
work at a company that gets you, it just makes
life easier, right, Like Toronto gets Kawhi. We'll give you
twenty two games off a year, right, and it didn't
hurt us last year. If you go to the Clippers
and that they're a big chemistry culture and you're like,
I'm gonna take twenty five games off, like, I'm not
sure if that plays great, because their whole thing now

(01:47:37):
is we're all one, we're all tied together, we're all one.
Toronto is like, no, there's our best player and we're
gonna give him a bunch of games off, and everybody
was okay with it. I kind of think Toronto gets Kawhi.
I think it kind of works. I don't think that
it wouldn't work with the Clippers, but it's just a
lot to start over again. And the two plus one

(01:47:59):
signing a two year deal with an option to the third.
That makes more sense because a five year contract is
a long time and the team could be completely different.
He's already a Hall of Famer, he already has two championships,
he already has two finals MVPs. At this point more
to me. Yeah, man, at this point, be selfish. Take
them all's money. So Chris Paul is putting an end

(01:48:19):
to the trade rumors lease on his ends. He was
asked about the situation in Houston and said, quote, I
never asked for a trade. I never demanded a trade.
There's been a lot of speculation about what's going on
between him in Houston and with James Harden. Some reports
that they didn't speak for two months during the season
that same on. I think that's a little overblown. I
think when you are done in season, you're on the

(01:48:41):
floor together. We didn't talk well off the court, like
obviously when they're in the facility they have to speak.
But I'm saying like, personally, I think is with more
to what that report was leaning to, although I don't
buy it. They didn't talk for two months as a
long time, but he said I'll be in Houston. I'm
happy about that. I'm very happy about that. I'm good.
Daryl Morey said last week that neither Paul Paul nors
Rips requested a trade and there isn't a rift between

(01:49:02):
Paul and Harden. I think there was something, a little
something there, as you said earlier, After a while it's like, Okay,
maybe he's not the easiest to deal with. Like after
all of these teammates come out and say it they
had issues or there's reports of issues, it starts to
become a thing. However, I don't think that Houston should
blow it up. They just need to make a move.
They they're going to move an X factor piece Cappella, Tucker,

(01:49:26):
possibly pick up Jimmy Butler. Now, if you lose someone
like Capella or Tucker, you're you're taking a hit on defense,
which Houston isn't necessarily known for. But if you get
someone like Butler, he is a defensive player as well,
and that, you know, is a improvement on their offense
was which they need. If the Warriors are hurt this year,
they're vulnerable, and that was the hunt that they couldn't
get over. They had an opportunity to do it with

(01:49:48):
Durant going down in Game five, and they weren't able
to capitalize on it. I do think this is a
very important year for the for the Rockets. I don't
think after this year it's going to be a Bible situation.
CP thres have about a year or left right and
his contract has more than that. Yeah. So finally, Odell
has a few more things to say about the Giants.
He didn't interview with Complex UK this week and said

(01:50:09):
I just felt the giant. With the Giants, I was
second a place that wasn't working for me anywhere anymore.
I feel like I wasn't going to be able to
reach my full potential. They're mentally, physically, spiritually. Everything I
felt capable of doing, I just couldn't see it happening
there there. So I think allowing me to be in
an environment where I can be myself and give it
a different approach, I feel like my football will benefit.
I'm just excited about being able to play football again

(01:50:30):
and not have to deal with all the other stuff
and politics that came with my previous role. Now it
sounds nice. I don't think the other stuff in politics
is going anywhere. Because Cleveland Browns, as we know, are
a very noisy team. Yep, and they're a very young team.
They have a lot of expectations. They're playing with expectations
for the first time maybe that I can ever remember
in my lifetime. The Browns have actual expectations on them. Yeah.

(01:50:55):
I'm trying to think Bernie Kosar teams were good, they
weren't great. I would say it's the most hyped Cleveland
team of my life. Yeah, I mean, I really can't
think of another time. Do you know, Joe Thomas, I
just read this the great left tackle. Ye never won
a season opening game in Cleveland, and they opened this year.
By the way, it's the most dangerous opener. They open

(01:51:17):
at home. There's five and a half point favorites against Tennessee,
and Tennessee is the quirkiest, weirdest team in this league. Oh,
they'll Tennessee will show up and go. I'll play on
the road and just dominate teams. Remember didn't they like
thumb New England last year? Like Tennessee, like for Yeah
and the Cowboys. I mean, let's steamrolled him Tennessee about
four times a year. We'll just walk into your place

(01:51:39):
and roll you over. And I just cannot wait. Potentially,
what if Tennessee steamrolls the Browns in week one? Oh,
it'll just be fun. It'll be fun, but their whole
season is gonna be fun. Joy with the news. Well
that's the news, and thanks for the herd line. One
more Herd. The Herds dreams twenty four hours a day,

(01:52:01):
seven days a week. Within the iHeartRadio app, search her
to listen live or on demand whenever you like

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