NBA, contracts, tampering, MLB, Aaron Rodgers, & Cam Newton

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to
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Find your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports
Radio dot com, or stream us live every day on
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Fox Sports Radio. This Suna Wednesday is The Herd Live

(00:27):
in Los Angeles. Wherever you may be and however you
may be listening. We're on iHeartRadio, We're on Fox Sports Radio.
We're on FS one. Today. I'm gonna talk some baseball,
some college football, some NFL. Joy Taylor is joining me,
and some NBA as well. Joy, how are you great?
Good morning, Good morning. We got a lot of stuff
to talk about today. We've kind of moved out of

(00:48):
the NBA free agency period and we're moving toward the
NFL baseball. That's kind of a segue day, but I
do think the NBA is an interesting lead today. Adam
Silver runs the NBA, and you know, as a commissioner,
generating commissioners are in their late forties, mid fifties when
they take the job, and then they're like seventy when

(01:09):
they get out of the job. And NBA players come
into the league at eighteen and then you hit their
prime by twenty seven, and then they lead by thirty two. Now,
obviously Adam Silver is not a parent to the players,
but in a weird way, you are sort of dictating
laws in the NBA house like a parent would do
for kids. And Adam Silver is complaining today about two things,

(01:34):
and complaining is the wrong word, but he's unhappy with
two things that happened during the free agency period that
we just all watched and enjoyed and was crazy time. Right.
He doesn't like the tampering, and he doesn't like players
demanding trades in the middle of contracts. As a parent,

(01:54):
I agree with him on the first. I don't set
rigid rules for my daughter. I said, careful how much
you drink in college. I didn't say, never have a drink.
She's going to college. It's not a rigid rule. Tampering's flirting.
The basketball culture in the world, especially in America, is
you collaborate with guys, You move around with players, you

(02:16):
pick guys you want to play with. Hey, let's go
to Duke, Let's go to Kentucky, Let's go to Kansas,
Let's go to Detroit Metro AAU. So that's the culture
of basketball in America. And having an unrealistic tampering rule.
What do you want to do? Seize their cell phone records?
By the way, leagues are hypocrites. Broadcast companies are hypocrites.

(02:36):
They're interviewing before contracts, her up with leagues. It's flirting.
It's harmless. And by the way, the reality is flirting
martini lunches. Talking has always been part of business. It's relationships.
Basketball is a relationship sport, high school, college, I mean,
every it's a very small community. Everybody knows everybody. So

(02:59):
in and what he said, Adam Silver came out and said,
it's pointless to have rules that I can enforce. I
totally agree. As a parent, I don't create rigid rules
that I can enforce. You're gonna drink in college, just
don't be an idiot, you know, don't go to a
third cocktail or a fifth beer. I don't I think

(03:20):
that's good parenting. Unrealistic parenting is don't do this, and
don't do this, and do do this, and do do this,
and they're not in the house they're at college with
a bunch of eighteen year olds. They're gonna make bad decisions.
You just hope they make few of them. So I
agree with Adam Silver. The tampering rule, you can enforce it.
It makes it look like the league has no integrity.
When you create a law and nobody follows it, it's

(03:41):
a bad look for the NBA. So as a parent
of the league, I totally agree with Adam Silver on this.
The second thing he's bothered with, and this is where
I have a problem. He says, I do not like
these players breaking contracts. He said, it's a bad it's disheartening. Yes,
yes it is. And here's Adam Silver talking about this.

(04:03):
Trade demands are disheartening. They're disheartening to the team, they're
disheartening to the community, and don't serve the player. Well,
that's an issue that needs to be addressed and there's
not a simple solution. There isn't a simple solution. But
as a parent, here's another rule. If you baby your kid,
they become a brat. If in psychology of parenting, don't

(04:26):
overcompliment your kid. You're the greatest kid, that's the greatest shot.
No give them appropriate comments so they're realistically understanding the
world they're going to grow up in. This is where
I think Adam Silver's made a mistake. Adam, I like tampering.
I'm for mobility. I'm pro Kevin Durant moving. I am

(04:46):
mister mobility in my career. I am pro mobility for players.
But when you coddle and baby employees, sometimes they're brats.
When I came to Fox, I signed a four year contract.
If it would have been a disaster ethic, I'm going
to serve my four year contract. That's the integrity of
the contract. Players are breaking contracts, Adam, because their every

(05:13):
whim is served by you. David Stern was pro player,
but he made moves without okaying everything. He introduced a
new ball, didn't tell the players they didn't like it,
but he didn't go around letting players labor control the
entire league. Listen these players right now. I just saw
a story this morning that Kawhi Leonard and Paul George
signed the exact same contract to two plus one with

(05:35):
a player options, So once again, in three years they'll
be able to move. This league is totally pro player,
and I'm for it. Baseball players get locked in for
eight ten years. NFL players can be caught. Hockey players
there's limited, a very low ceiling on what they can make,
and the NBA, you can make a ton, you can move.
Lebron did a one year deal. KD that a one

(05:57):
year deal. I have no problem with Lebraun bouncing around
the league on one year deals. I have no problem
with KDO. I wouldn't have done it, but moving to
Brooklyn on one year deals. I am so pro mobility,
and I am so pro giving my kids some compliments.
But I don't want to spoil them because I don't
want them to be brats. And I don't want to
overcompliment them because I don't want them to think everything

(06:19):
they do is amazing and sometimes they're not good at stuff.
And it's okay to have a real, authentic conversation with
your kids. This is where Adam Silver to me, has
made a mistake too many times. Lebron wants this. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.
I like getting rid of some back to backs. I
like embracing gambling. I like allowing players to freedom to

(06:42):
move basketball culture. I like flirting. Tamperings a stupid word,
but you ultimately get the kids that you help create.
And it's okay to hold players to contracts because, by
the way, if players in the NBA start to treat
contracts like they don't matter, ask yourself, who's gonna win

(07:07):
in a court of law, billionaires or millionaires. What if
owners after a while say, you know, players are breaking
these contracts, why should I have to pay them all
this money? Like, there has to be integrity for the
guy or the woman that run a franchise or own
a franchise. You've got to have league integrity. So yes,

(07:29):
good parenting on tampering. Don't create rules you can enforce
as a commissioner or a parent. But a lot of
the problems you're seeing right now with players breaking contracts.
When Paul George signed with Russell Westbrook, what did I say, Oh,
that's not gonna work long time. Paul George and his
agent have to eat that. Suck it up. Everybody in

(07:53):
the world knew that's a terrible move. Westbrook over Lebron,
Oklahoma City over your home state, California. Yeah, that's not
gonna last forever. Own it, deal with it. Integrity. This
one's on Adam Silver. Let me talk about this. The

(08:15):
whole Kevin Durant Kyrie Irving thing is at the heart
of what we're talking about players moving. I'm okay with it,
but I'm hearing a lot of this. Kevin Durant chose Brooklyn. No,
he didn't. Didn't choose Brooklyn. By the way, a story
comes out today, the general manager of Brooklyn never even
had a meeting with Kevin Durant. How did he find
out Kevin was coming on Kevin Durant's Instagram. Kevin Durant

(08:37):
didn't choose Brooklyn. Kevin Durant chose Kyrie Irving. That's the story.
They didn't talk to Brooklyn, didn't talk to the owners,
didn't talk to the GM didn't talk to the scouts,
didn't tell anybody. He just chose Kyrie Irving. And this
is why I have problems with it. We all know
there's some people you have flings with, and there's some
people you marry. Steph Curry's temperament is the kind that

(09:02):
lasts forever. Steph Curry and Clay Thompson will hang out forever.
That's a marriage. Their personalities, their temperaments. They're givers. Kyrie
Irving and Westbrook history tells you resumes tell you are flings.
It's hot, it's cold, the earth is flat. Confrontational with coaches,

(09:22):
confrontational with players. Kevin Durant chose Kyrie Irving's temperament and
personality over Steph currys. I believe Steph Curry, that's what
you marry. I believe Kyrie Irving that's the fling. And
those relationships are all based on personalities. Doesn't matter if

(09:45):
two rich people marry or two poor people are two
equally educated people. If you have two takers, it's tough.
If you have two givers, it's got a better chance.
When I look at Kevin Durant going to the nets,
what I see is Kevin Durant left a giver. Steph
Curry here, all space better you shoot, it's your team,

(10:06):
you win the title. All back off to a taker.
Lebron too much, Brad Stevens, I won't listen. Jason Tatum
confrontational to Choisia make I wouldn't make it. They'll win
a bunch of games. I don't doubt that they're super talented.
But you read the story today. Kevin Durant never talked
to Brooklyn. He didn't choose that coach. He didn't choose

(10:27):
that GM, he didn't choose that city. He chose that player.
That player's Kyrie Irving, Steph Curry's very Tom Brady just
look at him. Family, give support, relinquish. Kyrie Irving is
the opposite of that talented. Not disputing any of that,

(10:52):
But when again, when Paul George chose Westbrook, we all
knew this is a fling. This isn't the marriage. It
didn't last three full years. All right, good stuff today.
I was thinking about something watching the All Star Game
last night. I was thinking of a lot of things.
I love that they might players. I absolutely love them,
absolutely love in baseball when you might players and I

(11:14):
get inside and access. Also, in one hour from now,
I'm going to have my five college football bets of
the year over and under. I do this every year
in July early July. Vegas sets the lines on wind totals,
and I say, bet the over they'll win more than
Vegas says, or bet the ender. You know, listen, if
you don't want free money, don't take it. That's all

(11:34):
I'm saying. Joy Taylor is joining me. Cliff Avril of
the Seahawks also coming up next hour He's always a
great guest. Be sure to catch live editions of The
Herd weekdays in noon Easter nine am Pacific on Fox
Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app. Welcome back.
Like watching the All Star Game last night, you know
it made me think of something. I live twenty to

(11:56):
twenty five minutes from work. I live at the beach
in Los Angeles, and my work is or Inland, and
it is always more efficient for me to drive the freeway.
It's faster, and it's better gas mileage. But about half
the time when I drive home after the show, I
take the beach route takes me about seven minutes longer,

(12:18):
maybe nine, not as good gas mileage, more start and stop.
But as I drive home, I'm not worried about efficiency,
I'm worried about attractive. I watch surfers, I see the
palm trees, and it makes me remember why I moved
to California, what I believe to be the most beautiful state.
Puts me in a good mood, brings me down after

(12:38):
an intent show. Efficiency, my friends, is not always the
most attractive thing. Television is the attractive business. You see
very few unattractive anchors. It's why the Kardashians are zillionaires.
Attractive matters in sports. The right camera angles good looking
players Russell Wilson, Cam Joe, Montana, Brady often or more endorsable.

(13:03):
We like them right, Kobe's cool, Jordan's cool. Part of
it is they look cool. Baseball, in its zeal for analytics,
has gotten less attractive to the eyes. And let me
give you an example. You have to be careful about
analytics because commissioners can allow some and not others. Don't
allow them all in or give an example. If I

(13:23):
had told you thirty years ago NBA all three pointers,
no more mid range jumper, you would have said, it's right,
Dick Allos, that's the game. If I had told you
thirty years ago, hey, baseball strikeouts, nobody cares. Just hit
home runs, no line drives, no bunts, no stealing bases.
That is ridiculous. That's the current game. What if football

(13:46):
analytics over the next five years. As ridiculous as it sounds,
it was proven that if you just threw deep balls, bombs,
home runs over the top, a needed a running game.
No bubble screens, no screen plays, no intermediate routes, no
quarterback scrambling, just hike it and throw it deep on

(14:08):
every play, you'd have more touchdowns. Would it be as
much fun to watch? Yuck? I like running games. I
like screens. I like my quarterback running around. I like
intermediate throws. I like the structure, the nuance, the schematics
of it. What if in tennis analytics provided this gem

(14:30):
aces double faults are irrelevant. Just oways, serve gas, nobody
plays at the net, no long rallies. Just serve hard
as you can. Analytics will prove over the course of
a year. Double faults don't matter like strikeouts in baseball,
like the mid ranging back, just serve it as hard
as you can. Have no second, serve go as fat.

(14:53):
Would tennis be as much fun to watch? Baseball right
now has an attractive problem. There's no base runners. Last night,
half of the National League batters got out because they
struck out. For the sixty percent of home runs in
baseball this year, sixty percent are solo home runs. It's
the highest in a hundred years. There's no base runners,

(15:13):
there's no singles. Don't hit doubles, it's home runs. Strikeouts
be damned. Last night, sixteen to the twenty seven National
League outs, Guy doesn't even get on base Baseball can
be fun, but it's got an action problem. It's got
an attractive problem. There are fewer engageable moments. The Lottery's

(15:35):
got it figured out. Nobody would play the lottery if
just one person won a billion dollars once a month.
The reason the lottery works in America is because they
give out a million little small prizes. Your neighbor wins
two hundred dollars, three hundred dollars, four hundred dollars, fifty dollars,
twenty five dollars, constant engagement. Not winning the big prize

(15:56):
brings you back and back and back and back. Don't
have to win five billion. A lot of people win
twelve hundred dollars. They pay their mortgage for the month,
they take a vacation with their wife or their husband.
Baseball now has an issue, and I hope football never
faces it. I don't want tennis to just be aces
in double faults. I don't want football to just be

(16:17):
deep routes over and over. And I think baseball's more
fun with stolen bases, first a third buns, situational baseball,
nuanced context. John Smoltz talked about it last night. The
current baseball doesn't give us what our eyes demand. There's
so many more three pointers in the NBA than ever before.

(16:38):
Is because there's so many more taken, and the applied
strategy for hitting is the same as it would be.
Taking more three pointers, Guys are trying to swing for
the fences more so, guys are bigger, they're stronger, bat
speeds faster, the ball velocity is higher. That's a contributing factor.
I'm not saying I don't like analytics, but last night
was a prime example. A zillion strikeouts and because a

(16:59):
defensive shifts, a couple of ropes that were caught that
should have been base hits. I like singles, I like
stolen bases, I like doubles. I get tired of home runs.
I'd get tired of strikeouts. Commissioners have a right to
step in and go no more defensive shifts. I want
to see base runners. I want activity, I want action.

(17:20):
Baseball is always gonna make a billion dollars, and I
watched the game last night. Baseball will always make a
billion dollars. There's so much volume of games, but it's
fascinating to think of what analytics has changed basketball and baseball.
I don't think the regular season of the NBA's is
much fun. I like the playoffs. When Kawhi Leonard said
I'm gonna mid range jump for us to a championship,
I really enjoyed it. I really liked it. And I

(17:40):
miss the cat and mouse base running game. I miss
bunt sacrificing singles, action base runners. I really do joy
with the news. No turn, this is the herd line news.
So Adam Silver held his annual Summer League press conference
in Las Vegas last night, and he addressed a number
of important topics facing the league right now, including trade

(18:01):
demands and free agency. You have a contract and it
needs to be meaningful on both sides. On one hand,
there's an expectation if you have a contract and it's
guaranteed that the team is going to meet the terms
of the contract, and the expectation on the other side
as the player is going to meet the terms of
the contract. So I will say, you know, without getting

(18:23):
into any specific circumstances, trade demands are disheartening. They're disheartening
to the team, they're disheartening to the community, and don't
serve the player well. The players care about their reputations
just as much, and so that's an issue that needs
to be addressed, I gotta say. I mean, we talked
a little bit about it earlier with the rules for tampering,

(18:44):
and they're kind of just silly, like there's no way
to enforce them. They don't really need to be changed.
NBA free agency has become the biggest soap opera in sports.
It keeps the NBA relevant every single day of our ratings.
In the last two weeks, Joy had been our highest
ratings since I've been here. People like it. It's incredible
for the league. So for them to be complaining about

(19:06):
any part of that is just silly because it, like
I said, it keeps im relevant every day of the year.
But trade demands have gone on forever. They don't always
happen with just the higher level players trying to change
where they are. This is a part of the game
to me. This is a reaction from a few owners
who are like, wait a minute, I think the players

(19:27):
actually might have more power than we do, that the
game has completely changed, And the reality is it has
and it should have always been this way. Nobody comes
the Madison Square Garden to see what kind of Blazer
James Dolan has on you can't buy one in the
team store. The players are the product. It sounds good,

(19:48):
we're providing the platform, we're providing the league. That all
sounds nice, But without the superstars, there is no league,
especially with the NBA. We've already seen well, but nobody
watches this network for our bosses. But good management and
corporate structure, but help. But people get out of contracts
all the time, including executives. They get bought out, something

(20:10):
comes up where they want to switch to another company.
People who have conversations, all right, well we have this
person that we've been wanting to move up. Maybe it's
good for everyone. It happens all the time in every business.
Contracts are contracts, and the teams don't have to trade
the player. They don't have to oblige these trade demands.
They can say no, we're keeping you and we will
figure it out. They don't do that because there's chemistry

(20:32):
issues and a whole lot of other things go along
with it. But a contract is a contract, and you
don't have to get out of it. Most of the
time people do because something has changed. They're just supposed
to protect people on both sides. The idea of loyalty
and sports again is something that is for fans. It's
a business and above all else, it's an entertainment business.

(20:53):
There's a ton of gray area there. Fans are supposed
to be loyal and that's it. The idea that a
player has some kind of obligation to a team who
we see all the time discard players as if they're
just pieces on the chessboard. To me, this is a
reaction from the owners and like it. It doesn't move me.
I understand what he's saying, and that you know, you

(21:14):
kind of wish that it didn't exist, but it does
and it exists in every single business. This is the
owners saying, ay, Adam Silver, you know you do work
for us. Like we feel like we're losing power here.
Let's go out and kind of make this seem like
it's it's not something that should be happening. So sticking
with layers free agency decisions. Anthony Davis was contractually owed
just over four million for being traded by the Pelicans

(21:37):
to the Lakers, and that numbers stood in the way
the Lakers potentially building their best team possible. He ended
up waiving it so that they could sign another player
with the salary cap space, and his agent Rich Paul
shared why. He said Anthony wanted to do what was
best for the team and they had to create cap space.
I asked, what's important to him. If it's important for
you to keep your money in your pocket, that's what
we'll do. But it's important for you to win, and

(21:58):
the more money you've available to go out and take talent,
then that's what you do. Really, it really wouldn't have
made any sense for Anthony Davis to keep this money
because the entire point of him asking for the trade
and coming to the Lakers was to win. It wasn't
about money. If it was about money, you would have
just stayed with the Pelicans, like you left money on

(22:18):
the table. So what really is four million dollars going
to make a difference that when you dealt with everything
that you dealt with to get to the Lakers, it
just wouldn't have made any sense to begin with. It's
really it's really a nice thing he did, because the
Lakers are the ones that messed that up. They were
the ones who were supposed to take care of that.
But I mean, he obviously made the right decision like
the whole purpose of you moving was because you want

(22:39):
to try and win championships, and keeping that money would
have kept them from doing that. Yet Anthony Davis, in
a strange way, actually reignited passion in New Orleans and
reignited passion and the Lakers generally, like when Shack left Orlando,
it felt like a big sucking sound coming out of
the state of Florida. This is a rare ad left
the Pelicans, and I think today fans are more engaged

(23:00):
in New Orleans and the Laker fans are more engaged.
It usually doesn't work that way. The Star left Milwaukee,
Kareem left Milwaukee, and you're like, oh, it's over. That's
what it generally feels like when you lose a transplant.
It felt like when Lebron left Citland. It's kind of
what it felt like when he left Miami a little bit,
even though there were a few other pieces there. Ad.
Actually it worked like. It was good for the league,

(23:20):
it was good for New Orleans, it was good for
David Griffin, it was good for raw plants work. Actually
everybody want I mean, and also to New Orleans credit
for them being an organization that nobody really considered to
be run very well. I thought they handled all of
it perfectly. I mean they the situation with the trade
disaster and the leaks and all of that. In the
middle of the season, they fired their GM. They brought
in a very well respected and clearly very good GM

(23:41):
and David Griffin. I mean they got obviously the ping
pong ball bounced their way and they got Zion. But
they've handled all that perfectly. Like they could have been
very upset about the trade rember requests, and clearly they were,
but they turned it all around like everyone is one
in that situation. Finally, good news for nine or Nation.
After suffering a torn acl last year, Jimmy Garoppolo is

(24:03):
ready to roll for training camp in the twenty nineteen season.
Here we go, he told Pro Football Talk. I'm good
to go. Finally, the rehab process has gone really well.
Knock on wood. We haven't had any setbacks. OTA's went
about as well as I could have hoped for, and
now training camp hopefully will be full go with team
drills and all that stuff. We've just got to keep
going day by day and keep stacking them together. It's

(24:23):
a long process, but we've come this far. So why
stop now? Now, it should be noted Michael Jordan had
an early injury, Tom Brady had an injury, John Stockton
had a major injury, and a lot of times it
doesn't A lot of great players have had an early
injury and it doesn't duplicate. The concern is is he
going to become Sam Bradford who had a couple or
injuries and he's just injury prone and he has the

(24:46):
five year, one hundred and thirty seven point five million
dollar contracts. Yes, and the ACL injury was three games
into the season. He only has ten career starts, right,
He's been really good and all of them. Reputation is
bigger than his actual resume. But he did spend the
summer working out with Tomhouse, who is the quarterback grou
that's worked with Brady and Breeze and Ryan and Stafford,

(25:07):
and they've also Kyle Shanahan's great and they've really done.
Whatever you think of John Lynch the GM, right because
he's a former player, I will say this offensively, they're
way better today than they were two years ago. Like
there's pieces here there. They're gonna be a fun watch
this year. Yeah, I don't know. If they'll stop anybody.
They're just secondaries, a mess, but they'll score a bunch
of points and you'll like when you watch the Niners

(25:28):
this year, they'll be like Cleveland last year. They'll be
a good watch. They'll be a fun team to watch.
A big year for Jimmy g a big proving himself. Here,
Ye job the news. Well that's the news, and thanks
for stopping by the herd. Lying all right, Bruce, Sorry
just about running for Chris. Bruce Sarry to go to
radio and take the summer off TV because his basketball
stuff's almost standing. We're very close to the end of it. Um. So,

(25:51):
Adam Silver said, I don't like tampering because I can't
enforce It makes us look stupid. I agree with that,
And Adam Silver says, I don't want any more demanding
trades and might take away. As you gas up the players,
you give them ultimate power. They're gonna flex out muscle
and show ultimate power. And that's the reality of it. Well,
like you said, it's hard. It's almost impossible to enforce

(26:12):
tampering rules. How are you going to stop players from
demanding trades? I think there's only two ways. Number One,
if you give them longer deals, seven year deals like
they used to. So if a player, if Paul George
demands a trade and he's got five or six years
left on his deal, it's like, dude, sit down, relax, okay,
And or you could just and I heard Skip Bayless

(26:35):
say this this morning or undisputed, which is kind of unrealistic.
But if you just said, once you sign a contract,
you can't be traded on both sides, so the team
can't trade you and the player can't demand a trade.
You can't ask to be traded because you can't be traded.
So and nobody I think wants that. So with shorter deals,

(26:55):
this is going to happen. And first of all, they're
only a handful of players that can demand trade. If
Julius Randall demands a trade, it's like, really, relax, okay,
just play. Second thing is this you don't have to
trade them. Paul George had three years left on his deal.
I know he had two years and an option. So

(27:17):
Paul George, I assume, wants to be a Hall of Famer.
Paul George wants to be All NBA All Star. Is
he gonna what's he gonna do if if the Thunder
had said, Paul, we think we got a good team.
We got Russ locked up for the next four years.
You're locked up for the next two, maybe three years.
We can go out and add shooting or whatever we

(27:38):
need to do, but we're not trading you. What is
Paul George gonna do. He's gonna go out there the
next season and play his tail off. He's not gonna
be a dog because it's you know, he's first of all,
he's competitive, he's got pride, and you know, all these
things are in play, so teams don't have to trade
you like this notion that, oh, it could have turned

(27:59):
into the Anthony Davis situation possibly, but you can also
avoid Anthony Davis had less time left on his deal,
and so Anthony was Anthony making you know, players get
caught in this, and I feel bad for him. So
Carmelo Anthony's like, I want out and made it public,
and then everybody crushed him. And then Lebron James didn't

(28:21):
tell anybody, and we crush him. So Anthony Davis went
a little bit in between. Anthony's like, all right, I
got a year left, make a move. And it was
ugly at first, and then three months later, it's all done.
As a star player, the transition out, it's rough. Like there.
I will say this for the star player because the NBA,

(28:41):
you know, let's be honest with you. You You get a
Kawhi Leonard, you have a chance to win a championship.
Like there's a handful like seven guys in the league
that change everything. If you're one of those seven guys,
I want to move out most guys. Most guys say
I want out. Nobody cared Julius Randalls as I want
in New York, and nobody's losing sleep. But all the
fans know, and everybody knows about seven guys in the world,
it maybe four that if they leave your franchise. Historically

(29:03):
your toast lu All Sinder leaves Milwaukee, you can't get
equal value. And I do think so. I think for
if I was a star player in the basketball, like
like a Kawhi Leonard guy, and I was gonna leave,
I've thought about this before. I could take three routes,
tell nobody, pack my bags and say I gonna plays
just buy. I probably wouldn't do that, right. I could
give my team all sorts of heads up and get

(29:24):
boot at the Arena. I probably wouldn't do that. I
think what I would do is right before the I
would go to my front office and say, I'm not
gonna make this public. If you don't, I want out.
This is what Kareem did, right, and they worked together.
Let's work together for six months and make it happen.
By the way, That's what Paul George did, Chris, and

(29:46):
that's what That's what Anthony Davis they went. Remember they
went to Dale Dimps and talked about we would like
a trade to the Lakers, and then Dell went and
tried to talk directly to Anthony Davis and try to
convey and seem to stay around the agent rich Paul's back.
So that's how this kind of got messy. Here's the
other thing players need to consider. There are some players

(30:09):
that are in a great situation. Well, let me just
put it this way. It doesn't work out for all players.
Dwight Howard's career was ruined when he demanded a trade
out of Orlando. He's never been the same. I don't
think he's a Hall of Famer now. Now A lot
of people think what he did in Orlando makes him
a Hall of Famer. Yeah, I don't you know, so

(30:30):
he ruined his career. Chris Paul demanded his way out
of New Orleans. He's still a Hall of Fame player
and had a great individual career, but winning wise, it
hasn't helped he essentially. Essentially, he was a free agent
but kind of forced his way out of the Clippers,
and now he's not happy playing with James Harden in Houston.
You know, Carmelo goes from Denver, a Western conference less

(30:54):
to New York. It didn't work out for him basketball wise.
So a lot of these players need to look get
it too and say, okay, is this really the right
move for me? So I think it's fine the way
it is there. Everybody's not demanding trades, but just let it.
Let it go the way it is. By the way
Kawai we find this morning, let me read this three

(31:18):
year deal. Yeah, Kawai signed a three year deal with
a player option in the third year. It aligns with
Paul George. Both players have the ability. So if I'm
the clip, I see, I like this about the Clippers,
and I'm for this. The players signed two year deals guaranteed,
gotta stay for two third year player option, so the
bottom line, it puts pressure on the Clippers to make

(31:40):
sure it works. Got to treat the player well. But
you do get him for at least two years, and
probably I doubt they would leave if this team will
win a bunch of games. Well, remember two in his
tenth year, which would be two years from now, he's
eligible for a bump because he'd be in the teen
year the way the NBA salaries work in your tenth
year and get a larger contract, so that could play

(32:02):
a role as well. You know, people have already thrown out, wow,
with Lebron's contract ends you with the Lakers. You know, Kawhi,
you want to become the king of La. How about
if you win a ring or two with the Clippers
and then say Lebron doesn't deliver the Lakers a ring,
then you go to the Lakers into whatever a ring.

(32:23):
I mean, this is we're getting ahead of ourselves, but
all of that is in play. Kawhi is a shrewd operator. Yeah,
everybody's taking him for granted, you know, underestimated because he's
so quiet and people have thought he's just simple. But
in reality, you see this summer, he is cunning. I
mean he hardly talks. But obviously he's a heck of

(32:45):
a recruiter and he went after everybody, went after KD. Kyrie,
you know, Jimmy Butler, Paul George and now with this contract,
I mean he has handled things very well well, you know,
and I think this helps is this whole summer helps
his image? Well, it's funny. Years ago somebody said to me,
what do you make of all the hate mail? I said,

(33:05):
I don't worry about hate mail. I don't worry about
people who advertise they hate me. It's the quiet guy.
I worry about who jumps me on the corner after
a few beers, like I never worry about the loudmouth guy. Yeah,
I hate yeah, chase you death. It's the quiet people.
By the way, all these spies in the world, we
got them, Russia's got them. Everybody's got spies. You know

(33:26):
what they what's the first thing you do when you
hire a spy. They want them to look like the
public glasses, ruffled hair, not over you don't you never
find a spy that looks like Jazelle Bungeen Right. They
always look like an accountant in their miss none of
the movies. They always do well that's what they when
you hire spies, you want somebody that kind of moves
into the fabric of society. So Kawhi is like the

(33:48):
quiet guys moving around all the pieces. All right, stick
around Westbrook. What's he gonna do? Push your a football guy,
I gotta I got a theory on something. Chris Bruce Are,
don't go anywhere. It's a herd. Be sure to catch
live editions of the Herd week days of nun Eastern
ninety em Pacific. By the way, Chris Bruce Sardni are
fight fans, Joey Taylor, are you a fight fan? I am?
I'm very excited for this fight. So Saturday, Keith Thurman,

(34:09):
who's twenty nine and zero, is an underdog to Manny Pachyow.
It's Saturday in Vegas. It's this is the end of
Pakiow's career if he loses and Thurman is So it's
next Saturday. Next Saturday. Yeah, next Saturday, my bad. I
know we're not talking boxing here. That could be the
fight of the year. By the way, they were both
in the office when they walked by. Pakio was smaller

(34:31):
than you think. Thurman is taller and longer than you think,
I think it's gonna be the fight of the year,
and you I'm I'm a fight fan. I love two
or three time. My first job out of college was covering,
you know, boxing in Las Vegas. I was the luckiest
guy in the world. I walk into Vegas out of
college Sugar Ray, Leonard, Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns, Roberto durand
it was like, it was incredible. I would like to
see Thurman when I think that's better for boxing, so

(34:54):
because then you got Craft Tears, Crawford, Aerospis junior and
all that, Sean Porter, but pakiw has better skills. He's old. Well,
I mean, he's obviously more experienced, but this is going
to be He's not even faster, even at forty. I think,
I think pay when you walk by Pakio on the
hallway I did a month ago. It is shocking how

(35:15):
small he is. It is shot. You're like, well, I
remember he's a small he was fighting at the lower weights.
He's not true welterweight. Okay, let's go into this. We're
talking about Russell Westbrook. You know I've made you know,
you know where I stand on Westbrook. M I do
think there are teams that Detroit sell some tickets, right

(35:36):
I don't think everybody in the NBA is trying to
win game. Games are titles. I think Philadelphia thinks they can,
Boston thinks they can, the Clippers do, the Lakers do.
Utah is trying to win a championship? Denver is Portland?
Is there about eight teams no league? I think they
really have a shot. Milwaukee obviously is Toronto last year
and it's a bunch of teams. The owners are like, listen,
I got merchandise to sell. I spent two hundred I

(35:58):
spent seven hundred million to buy this team, and they
understand where they are and they and we can't win
the championship right now. What does it tell you that
Houston apparently likes Westbrook? What does that tell you? That
tells me that Houston there is some dysfunction in that
organization between pressure from the new owner down to the
GM down to the coach. Look, there is pressure from

(36:20):
the new owner for all the money he spent on
that team. He wants a championship and all the contracts.
I mean that Chris Paul deal. We talked about it
at the time. They really didn't want to do that deal.
But they had already you know, promised Chris that when
they got him to demand to trade, you know, from
the Clippers, so they kind of had to. So now
the owners like putting pressure on Morey. We got to

(36:40):
win the championship. But I don't think that's the root
of this. This is Daryl Morey. Daryl Morey is star struck.
He every big name he goes after. And the interesting
thing is Morey is the poster child for analytics, right
he is. I mean, he is the kind of viewed
as the analytics gym genius. He has a coach who

(37:02):
is totally in the analytics, Mike D'Antoni. All we do
is shoot threes or paint shots, and yet he keeps
bringing in guys who defy the analytics, all the way
back to Dwight Howard. You know, Chris Paul is a
mid range jump shooter, ball dominant mellow, I mean mid
range jump shooter. And now Jimmy Butler wouldn't have fit.

(37:22):
And now Westbrook and don't give me, oh, they played
together it okay, see it was fine. They were both
totally different. At that time. They were up and coming players.
You had Kevin Durant there as the star, the number
one star, and then west Or Westbrook wasn't what he
is now. He wasn't the triple double king at that time,
and Harden wasn't close. Harden was coming off the bench.

(37:44):
He was a playman. He's a different player now. He's
not giving this up now. If you traded Chris Paul
for Westbrook, it would be better than if you have
Chris Russell and hard But it still doesn't. It still
doesn't fit. Only better because Chris Paul's health, because I
think I agree, I think Paul and Harden are a

(38:06):
better fit when Paul's healthy. But just the but I'm
saying the three of them together has no chance of working.
If it's two of them, then it still wouldn't win
you a championship, but it'd be better. But no, this,
and here's the thing, Colin. If Houston they have led
all these leaks out, if none of the leaks came

(38:27):
out that Chris and James are really at odds and
that Daryl Morey was going after Jimmy Butler and we
gotta make moves with all that's happened, if people just thought, oh, Houston,
they didn't get it done this year, but they they
would be viewed as one of the teams that could
win the West. But now you might have so many
hurt feelings. Chris Paul's you know, he knows they were

(38:48):
interested in moving him. They were interested in getting Jimmy Butler.
So how's Eric Gordon and PJ. Tucker and these Clint
Capella field. So now you have to massage all of
that to just get this team to be the best
version of itself. I think the best version of itself
is one of the top teams in the league. You know,
it's funny. I had last couple of days, I've been
listening to local radio because I kind of want everybody's

(39:11):
feeling here in Los Angeles. If there was a big
baseball move when I lived out east, I would listen
to Boston, our New York local radio. Well, you know,
it's very tribal, one of the fans think. And it's
funny about it. Everybody now is moving toward the Lakers
over the Clippers because of all the pieces they put together,
and all the hosts are very much in on the Lakers.
Time out Frank Vogel and Doc Rivers if coaching matters

(39:33):
and I watched Nick Nurse take over a team, and
it matters if coaching manners in this league. I got
nothing against Frank Vogel, but the players know he just
got fired. Jason kidds sitting next to him, peering over
his shoulder, and they know it's Lebron's team. Kawhi and
Paul George chose the Clippers for Doc, thus empowering Doc

(39:55):
in the locker room, like Doc Rivers was empowered by
I'm choosing LA because of you. Paul George came out
and said what we like Doc, Like, I can't get
past this Frank Vogel. You go on to four game
losing streak, there'll be a rumor in this city that
he's in trouble. Look, I think between the Lakers and

(40:16):
the Clippers, it's very close now. I would I think
the Clippers are better. They're the better team right now because,
as you said, fit, chemistry, defense, Kawai and Paul George
are very coachable, especially for Doc Rivers. They're all bought in.
But the Lakers, I think the Clippers are the best
team in the league right now. Yeah, and I have

(40:36):
the Lakers as the second best team. I mean, people
are acting like they don't have Lebron James and Anthony
Davis and a decent cast around them. Now here are
the things. Okay, well, I got, I had ten minutes left.
But the Lakers, they're gonna be pretty good. They're second
best teamers one at that argument. I like our tude.

(41:00):
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. Oh,
here we go, favorite segment of the week. This is
the Herd live in Los Angeles, wherever you may be,
and however you may be listening I Heart Radio, Fox

(41:22):
Sports Radio Festival, and it's me be my favorite ten
minutes of the week. And I know you may just
be bored out in your mind. I don't think so.
I got audio, I got gambling, I got I just
brought my briefcase to work today. Oh I'm gonna give
you my five favorite over unders, four favorite four, five
favorite overrunners in college football. Basically, I'll tell you to
bet more winds or fewer wins than Vegas tells you

(41:43):
to bet. I do it every year at this time
early July, I love it. And now that gambling is
legal in America and more states are accepting it, I'm
very excited about this. Joy Taylor. Of course you hear
her voice. So last night was a Baseball All Star game,
Joy right, and a Fox As a network. The many
things we do well. What we do better than any
network ever is sound. Even our critics in the US

(42:06):
Open Golf, We're like, you, guys, do sound good. We
do sound good. NFL games on Fox feel bigger than
other networks, Super Bowls, playoff games. I don't know how
they do it. Our audio, we're a great audio company,
and so in Baseball the All Star Game, we mike
the players and you're always going to get pushed back.
But I learned something very early when I was a
broadcaster because I wanted to be a play by play guy.

(42:27):
And the first thing I learned was, if you're a
radio play by play guy, which is what I wanted
to be, you're the eyes of the audience. They can't see.
You're the artist, paint the picture, tell them every detail.
But if you're a television play by play guy, people
have eyes. Don't overtalk. You don't have to follow every ball,
every strike, don't treat your audience like idiots. They're not
three year olds like I'm an adult. I can see

(42:48):
that was a strike. You don't have to tell me
if you can engage in a conversation that's fascinating. I don't.
You don't have to walk me through every moment. I
got eyes. I can see Joe Buck's very good at this.
And the All Star Game with Johnson, they were great
at this. So they mic players and you're always gonna
get pushed back content trade on the game. Oh shit,
app you got eyes. Watch the game. It's baseball. It's

(43:09):
an All Star game. It doesn't even count. But here's
the reason I love this is that an NBA, you
see players talking all the time because they're next to
each other. In the NFL, guy, i'll tackle a guy,
they get up and they talk. I'd love to hear
what they say. I would love to hear what Andrew
Luck says the defensive guys who whack him. That's why
I watch NFL films. I like all the talking. It's
more access. But in baseball a little bit of a problem.

(43:31):
In baseball, players are separated. Outfielders are fifty feet apart.
Bullpens way down that part of the stadium, and outside
of the pitcher and the catcher who have the symbiotic relationship.
It's a lot of guys in different places. Well, microphones
bring them all together. They're all talking. And so Fox
did it last night, Freddie Freeman of the Braves leading
off the game against Justin Verlander, and they dropped the microphone.

(43:53):
You hear the conversation. I can't take my eyes off
this stuff. All right, Freddy, Let's go get him him. Mark,
I can talk. I'm talking, and I know if they're
gonna throw me, they're gonna tell me first that bat. Ever,
with the thing in my ear, no, well throw strike.
Son't good to swing the bat. That was a good take, Freddie.

(44:17):
Thanks great, got him with a breaking ball. Freddie, you're
a prince for doing that. Do you feel more or
less connected to players? I feel more connected. They're like personalities.
I'm totally into this. The other thing with baseball is,
unlike the NBA, where Lebron has the ball at the

(44:37):
time or Kawai does, or like the NFL where Tom
Brady or Breez or Russell Wilson have the ball at
the time, in baseball, stars get four bats. They're they're
rarely able to connect with you viscerally as a consumer.
This allows me to connect with Christian Yellow to the Brewers,
who's the best young player arguably outside of Mike Trout.
In the game, he was miked up and caught a

(44:57):
fly ball? Oh, here's one lasted into Yellis Mike er
Fiani airpiece glove at all makes the catchall? Did you
think that was gone when he hit? Now? Come on,

(45:22):
are you kidding me? I am now a participant. Have
you ever gone to a concert? Of course you have.
And you go to a concert and at some point
during the concert, the lead singer goes over to the
guitarist and they have a conversation. Don't you ever wonder
what they're talking about? Like, what are they what are
they laughing about? What's so funny? They do this concert
every night in a different city. Why are they laughing
up there? What are they talking about all the time?

(45:42):
So here's Cody belliger or the Dodgers hitting Yelloch having
a conversation during the game. Again, I don't know how
we pull this stuff off. I don't know how the
communication works. I don't understand it. But it's perfect. We
heard Justin Verlander's opinion on the baseball. Do you guys
think the baseball is tighter as less drag is jumping
more in twenty nineteen. I think they're perfectly fine the

(46:05):
way they are. Yeah, I mean too. I'm not a scientist,
so I'm just trying to hit the thing and whatever
it does and does. I'm with Cody on that. When
I think all of us hitters are stronger, you're stronger.
Just say it, you're strong. We know what we're doing
our swings more. Now, just listen to the sound. It's
so alive. I'm so connected when Peyton Manning would yell omaha, omaha, omaha.

(46:27):
As a viewer, I'm activated. Oh he's changing the ball
to the line scrimmage, he's changing the play. Oh okay,
what's pay So now I'm connected to Peyton Manning. Omaha.
Now it's not the team's play, it's Peyton Manning's play.
He's personalized sports. Last night, you had three astros Mike
watch at the same time. He's not gonna get it.

(46:49):
It is off the wall, throw into second base is
too late, and it's a leadoff double for catell Marte
I'll do a haircutter. Guys. Sorry, hey, Mike weird George
missed the cutoff man, So what you say You threw
a cutter in a second base right there. I love it,

(47:16):
and and stop with the it gets it in the
way of the game. Stay on balls and strikes. Are
you an idiot? You can't you have eyes, You can't
watch balls and strikes. You have to be baby, sat down,
Give me noise, give me emotion, give me conversation. I
find it absolutely fascinating. I think baseball struggles because players

(47:37):
are far apart. We don't see them connect, we don't
see the conversations. We're in the stands. They're way down
Their NBA guys are right on top of hockey players.
They literally you can touch them like in baseball. They're
way down there and you're way over here. And I
feel like I'm involved in the game. I absolutely love that.
I think it's fantastic. And some of you are grumpy,
but I think it's amazing. All right, So, um, you know,

(48:01):
I just tend to bring my at Scha case to work.
Oh it is stuff with money. This is so much
money in there. You can't have that on the outside.
So I do this every year. Okay, I give you
it's called my uncle Colins over unders. So Vegas predicts
how many games teams will win. And some of these
have already come out and be bet down. USC. By

(48:23):
the way, started it like eight and a half. It's
down to seven. So these are random win totals. What
I do is I go through my phill Steel magazine.
I go through every bit of information I can, and
I give you the four or five. And by the way,
I do four to five every year. I've never had
a losing season. I always have a winning season. This
is my favorite bet of the year. They're over and

(48:45):
unders in college football, and the college football practice starts
in about fifteen days. So are you ready to go
on this? All? Right? Here we go over and under.
Let's start with an over Michigan State. So the guys
in Vegas have Michigan State. That's seven and a half wins.
Michigan State's gonna win more than seven and a half games.
Here's why. They return seventeen starters. That's fourth most in

(49:10):
the country. When you return a bunch of starters, you're
always great in the first month, right, because you bring
experienced players and colleges have limited practice time. They'll be
great in September. They return their entire defensive line, which
was number one in the country against the rush. They
return their entire offensive line. This is a program, by
the way, in the last eight years they have won

(49:30):
half the games. They've been an underdog. They win games
you don't think they will on paper. They return their lines.
They've got a very good player development program. Michigan State
over on seven and a half wins, Texas A and
m Vegas thinks they're gonna win seven and a half.
They're gonna win fewer than that. The SEC is just

(49:53):
two good right now. You can go seven to eight
deep in the SEC, unlike other conferences where there's two
three top teams and then it's week in the middle.
Jimbo Fisher can recruit. That's his strength. I don't think
he's a great schematic coach. The problem is most of
his recruits aren't playing yet. This will only be a
second year. He's only had two recruiting classes. The other
thing their schedules brutal at Clemson, Auburn, Alabama, at Old Miss,

(50:17):
at Georgia at LSU I got five losses, six losses
right there that would put him at seven and five
or six and six. They also have one starter on
offense that's a senior in the SEC. Are you kidding me?
They'll be good eventually with Jimbo. I think they're a
five hundred team this year. They've also been worse than
expected last three years at home in the SEC. Let's

(50:40):
go to Oregon. Vegas thinks Oregon's gonna win eight and
a half. I don't love this coaching staff. They recruit well,
I don't love their game management, but I'll take the
over very simply. Oregon under this coaching staff has struggled
on the road. This schedule is very, very easy on
the road. The Auburn game neutral, They go to Washington

(51:01):
and they'll lose it. But by the time they play
USC on the road in November, the Trojans will have
several wins. The coliseum will be half full. Also play
Arizona State in the road, but it's late in the
season when it's not hot. Oregon's returning offensive linemen have
started a hundred fifty three starts in college Now think

(51:21):
about that. That is the most in college football in
eight years. Four of their offensive linemen are already Honors players,
first second, third team NFL guys. They have the second
or third best college quarterback. The schedule is mostly comfortable,
with very little discomfort on the road. I don't love
the staff in close games are on the road. I

(51:42):
think there'll be a lot of blowout wins at home,
probably in nine games. Let's go Auburn again. I'm gonna
take the under Gus Malson will be fired after this season.
He's been a disappointment, mostly because he's an average recruiter
in a conference of great recruiters. Jarrett Stidham's gone at quarterback.
I thought he was a wildly underrated college quarterback. Their
schedule is the toughest in college football. Oregon A M

(52:05):
Mississippi State, Florida at Arkansas at LSU. The two games
they get at home Alabama and Georgia. The problem is
those may not be winnable games because Georgia and Alabama
have the best personnel in the SEC. I think by
mid season they're beat up. There's a lot of criticism
from gusmels On, and they have to beat Georgia and
Alabama late to save his job, and they won't. And finally,

(52:29):
I know you guys all bang on Jim Harball, but
I'm gonna take Michigan over nine and a half wins.
They're gonna be favored in twelve games this year. I
looked it up. They're favored in twelve games now. They
are one and eighteen on the road against ranked teams.
But they host Michigan State, they host Notre Dame, they
host Ohio State this year. He's got eight starters returning

(52:51):
on offense. I think it's his best offensive line. And
the Big Ten is very weak at the lower, middle
and bottom. Okayli the SEC which is very good top
excellent in the middle, Okay, in the bottom. There's a
lot of WS with that offensive line and that schedule,
just a lot of guaranteed WS against the middle and

(53:12):
bottom of the Big Ten. Michigan I think ends up.
I don't think they're a national championship winning team, but
they may end up in the playoff because of their returners,
their quarterback, and their schedule three toughest games all at home.
There you go, So in review? Can we do the
in review thing? I got Michigan State over Texas A

(53:34):
and m under Oregon over Auburn under Michigan over. By
the way, the SEC teams, the reason I have them
under is because of respect to the conference. It is
so good one through eight in the SEC. If you don't.
By the way, A and M's best player tight end
running back both gone a lot of the SEC elegant schedules.

(53:58):
So there you go, and congratulations. I don't know about you,
but when I go home today with my attach shacase,
you know that's what it. I can't even keep all
the money in there. This is ridiculous. Coming up next,
Cliff April of the Seahawks is around the corner, and
another person talked about Aaron Rodgers and it wasn't very nice.

(54:20):
That's coming up. Be sure to catch live editions of
The Herd weekdays in noon Easter nine a Empacific on
Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeart Radio app.
It is great to have you in today. By the way,
fifteen minutes, can you save you fifteen percent on Geico?
Go to Geico dot com to see how much you
could save. I have a very good deal on my insurance.

(54:41):
I feel like I got a good deal on my insurance.
You know a lot of you think I don't like
Aaron Rodgers. It's not true. I try to be fair
when he's great, I say it when he's not he's not.
I do think his personality rubs some people the wrong way.
Crazy take by me, unreasonable by me. But Aaron Rodgers
has had a lot of injuries over his career, and

(55:02):
his career should be about halfway done. He's had two
broken collar bones and MCL's brain concussions, a calf tear,
and a fractured foot, And not only has he missed
a lot of time, but Aaron's got some good pain
tolerance because he's played hurt a lot in his career.
Aaron's not a guy that wants to miss games. I'm
giving him credit here. He plays hurt more than people realize.

(55:23):
He is a total gamer. Cam Newton plays hurt a
lot more than people get, and Aaron Rodgers plays hurt
a lot more than people get. My sources in the
league have said for years some players have high pain tolerance.
Cam Newton's got it and Aaron Rodgers has it. So
Aaron deserves a lot of credit, but it should be
noted why is he hurt so often? Carl Lawson's a

(55:44):
very good football player for the Cincinnati Bengals, and he
talked about Aaron Rodgers and why he gets hit so much. Honestly,
I think it's easier to sack Aaron Rodgers than most quarterbacks.
You know, he says there, he pats the ball. He's
an easier quarterback to sack meet for me personally, because
he sits there. You know, he probably gets maybe like
eight and ten yards in the pocket. So he sits there,
he waits, he waits, get there. This is what Greg

(56:08):
Kosellis talked about. Aaron ad libs out of successful plays.
Now a lot of Packer fans. Green Bay's the smallest
NFL market, and Joy I've talked about this. The smaller
the market, the more the team means to the city, right,
like in green Bay, the Packers or everything. Right in
Los Angeles, I'm not sure the Rams are the most
popular NFL team. I think Dallas is more popular in

(56:29):
Los Angeles than the Rams. We got two of everything,
to baseball to NBA, through football, to MLS to hockey,
so green Bay fans get defensive. Well, it's our offensive line.
In the last since twenty ten, green Bay's had six
offensive linemen make the Pro Bowl. Six that's like double

(56:50):
the league average eight years total voted in the Pro Bowl.
By the way, right now, pro Football Focus rates their
offensive line is eight. In terms of pass blocking, the
Packers have the number one left tackle in the NFL,
the number nine pass blocking right tackle in the NFL,
and the number one pass blocking center in the NFL.

(57:10):
And the organization in Aaron's time has done a great
job to take third, fourth, and fifth round offensive linemen
and make them Pro Bowlers. The Packers don't do anything
better than developing offensive lineman. They're tremendous out at the
Patriots and the Packers are great at that, and not
everybody is. Houston's not so. Aaron's an ad libber. Farv

(57:32):
was an ad libber. The difference is Brett was a
little thicker. Brett didn't get hurt as much. It's just
kind of the body composition. Aaron's a smaller quarterback, despite
having an unbelievable cannon for an arm. He's about my height,
the six two. He's about two fifteen to eighteen, maybe
two twenty. But he's not that thick, and he ad

(57:52):
libs a lot. This explains it. No blaming, no finger pointing.
It is the downsides. Why I don't think Aaron has
aged as well as Drew Brees or aged as well
as Brady add libbing equals more hits, joy of the news. No, no,
this is the herd Line News. So any discussions about

(58:16):
the la Rams twenty nineteen outlook probably starts with questions
about Todd Gurley's knee. The injury kept Girly out of
several games late in the season, including a playoff game,
and whether Gurley can return to the level of dominance
that he's had in past seasons will continue to be
up in the air as training camp opens, but in
an interview with Sirius XM NFL Radio, Girley didn't have

(58:38):
he didn't get much thought to the notion that the
knee injuries will slow him down. I don't have nothing
to prove, give. That's the thing. I've been doing this
my whole life. So it's like this same stuff for
me over and over, you know, the same old stuff,
and I keep doing the same old thing, and I
just played my game. Honestly, Oh, will worry about it
too much? You know. I just try to be it

(58:58):
because as a teammate as I can and just help
martine Win. Honestly, now, it might not be fair, but
when you are an athlete that's coming back from injury,
you do have something to prove. You have to prove
that you can get back to the level that you
were before the injury. Yeah, and it also might not
be fair, But when you have a contract like Todd
Gurley has, which is four years, sixty million with forty

(59:18):
five million guaranteed, you also have a little something to prove.
I mean, he had an ACL in college inn ACL
injury in college in Georgia, and he has arthritis in
his knee that's lingered throughout the year. It might continue
to be an issue in the future. Now, I'm not
I can't remember who we talked to, but they said
that pretty much everyone, every running back has arthritis in

(59:40):
their knees. Like to some degree, the Rams did draft
a running back with one of their fairly early picks.
I think Gurly's fine if you ask him to carry
it thirteen times, not twenty six, Right, how many carriers
he gets is going to be a big factor in that. Now,
I don't get caught up too much in the contract stuff,
because you got to pay a guy what he's worth.

(01:00:00):
And sometimes you pay for past production. That's just the
way that it goes down. So the contract thing doesn't
bother me so much, but that is going to put
added pressure on the situation. That said, I think that
the Rams are smart enough to know what you just said,
which is just because we're paying this guy that much,
doesn't mean that we need to give Gurley all the carries.
Balance maybe better for the team in the long run.

(01:00:21):
He has his contract, no matter what he has, is
guaranteed money, no matter what. So there's no sense in
getting caught up in that. I think sometimes, you know,
you get into a situation where you're paying a guy
so much, I mean Antonio Brown with the Steelers, like
or someone's demanding something so much because they are that
player that you feel like you have to throw it
to them or you have to give them those carries
in order to make the contracts scene worth it. And

(01:00:41):
that's that's not how you show Jared Godlin his first
two years in the league, he really needed Todd Gurley.
And I've said this, there's two things that really help
a young quarterback. One a great running back or two
Deshaun Watson Russell Wilson. You're able to buy time and
pick up yards with your legs. Goff doesn't in your

(01:01:03):
first two years, and then year three for all these guys,
Oh the light goes on. Okay, I can read everything.
The game becomes low motion, so Goff's not gonna make
plays with his legs. What he needed for two years
was I can turn and hand the ball off. I
think one thing not being discussed is Goff is now
more ready to carry a bigger burden offensively. And I
don't think he was last year, and I don't think

(01:01:24):
he was his rookie year, but this will be his
third off season, second with McVeigh. So I think Girley's
less important this morning than a year ago. At this time,
he's still important though. Yeah. So. Danny Green was the
first free agent signed the Lakers made after Kauai went
to the Clippers, and he's also being paid the third
most on the team behind Lebron. In ad after signing

(01:01:44):
his two year, thirty million dollar deal, and on his
Inside the Green Room podcast, he spoke about the efforts
of Kyle Kuzman Lebron to get him up to speed.
Kus has been taken actually kind of a leadership role
for a young guy and putting us together a little
group chat together and make sure everybody knows whose numbers
is who. Okay, I'm reaching out, letting them I know
where're gonna be out in the summer or broun let

(01:02:06):
us know when this has happening, when that's happening. But
Brown was it was really good with the process. Man.
We talked about this yesterday. I think that Kuzma is
going to be a huge part of this team. And
just you were talking about listening to local radio and
kind of seeing what everyone's pulses around the city when
it comes to the Clippers and the Lakers. And I
think that Lakers fans are you know, Lakers fans. They

(01:02:28):
don't really feel bothered by the Clippers in general, and
for good reason. For most for many years, they are
a big brother. But I do think they are a
little bit stunned by Kawai's choice to go to the
Clippers and Paul George, you know, all the conversation about
him definitely going to the Lakers or picking you know,
Westbrook over the Lakers before and now going to the Clippers.

(01:02:49):
I do think there is a level of animosity even
though the Lakers are big brother, like, how dare you
choose the Clippers over us? So it's it's kind of
an interesting thing that like moving forward. You know, Lebron
doesn't have that many years left in the league we imagined,
you know, so they're going to go into another phase
of the NBA eventually. And this kind of even though

(01:03:09):
it's not really a rivalry when you look at the
championships and success, kind of a little bit of bitterness
there now. And I like that moving forward building that
with Kuzma and young guys on the Lakers, like that
that new wave of the MBS. Listen if you go look.
I read a story Joy and it said, it's really
interesting why they made this move. Jerry West didn't want
to give all these picks up. But Jerry West and

(01:03:31):
Michael Winger and Lawrence Frank felt by getting a D
if they didn't get Kauai, they were done in this town,
Like they would not get any coverage. How often have
we taught Clippers before the last seventy two hours, like
the whole few times in the playoffs, So there was
a fear based component, like the Clippers were like, listen,
this has been a Laker town forever. We can stop

(01:03:52):
that this morning. And that's why sometimes I mean, I
don't think Jerry West want to give up all those picks,
but Jerry West looked at it. If if a d
doesn't come to the Lakers, Jerry maybe doesn't give up
nine five picks and pick swaps. But no, that's a
real rivalry. Now, this is this happened about how many
years ago when the Mets and the Yankees, like they
were trying to fight for the back page of the

(01:04:13):
tabloids in New York because the Mets were fascinating and
the Yankees had they were the big brother Giants and Jets.
They may not be historic equals, but joy they fight
for free press covery. Yeah, there's there's a little bit
of animosity there. So finally, the US women's national team
is celebrating their World Cup championship this morning with a
ticker tape parade in New York City. They are Yeah,

(01:04:33):
thousands of fans pac Manhattan's famed Canyon of Heroes to
greet the squad, which was led by Megan Rapino, and
the ceremony moved to City Hall, where the players received
the key to the city. Quite a scene going through
Manhattan and The loudest cheers were for Rapino, who is
no strangers who great speeches. This crew is so resilient,

(01:04:55):
is so tough, has such a sense of humor. It's
just so badass. We're chilling. We got tea sipping, we
got celebrations. We have pink hair and purple hair, we
have tattoos, dread laws. We got white girls and that

(01:05:17):
girls and everything in between, straight girls, gay girls. Hey,
they just they have all the bravado and personality that
I want my national teams to have. Yeah, they are
exactly they are so America. They are and that's what

(01:05:38):
she's saying. You know, they are really actually a great representation,
and they're they're so they're so America and so in
your face, and I love it, and they're getting a
great response. And I really think that this team, we're
going to look back and this is a team that's
really going to this particular group. I mean, obviously the
women's scene has had a great level of success, but
this particular team, and led by Megan Pine, is going

(01:06:00):
to have a really lasting impact. You know, America gets blasted.
You know, we're arrogant a little bit. Yeah, so if
you're representing America, you can have a little swagger. We
don't really do things the shy ways how we get
not in Canada, they're so nice. We're not always that.
We're a little over the top, but it's who we are.

(01:06:22):
We're the best, Like we're just the best. So it's
just when you're the best, you get to do what
you want to do. And if you don't like it,
then make us not the best, beat us in your face.
People who are not the best. Sorry, they just are that.
They're a great team though. It's it's been so fun
to watch. They're living their best life right now. They
are living. That's a great By the way, she's a
rock star. Yes, absolute, that's what a rock star looks

(01:06:45):
like in American sports. That we haven't known her, you
know she's not. She has arrived. Yes, it's great. Joey
with the news. Well that's the news, and thanks for
stopping back. You know, it's funny about that team. Everybody's like,
I don't like, oh like what they're saying about President.
In a way, they represent the country. Folks are President's outspoken,

(01:07:07):
they're outspoken. They're both Americans. This is who we are.
We talk. We're not subtle, we're outspoken, and yes, it
would be nice. Sometimes I love the way Toronto handled
with dignity and grace Kawhi Leonard Leaving, I love it.
That's but Canada. Sometimes, to a fault, Canada is not
aggressive enough. Sometimes we're too aggressive. But I love it.

(01:07:32):
I defend politicians that are outspoken, and I defend teams
that are outspoken. I know that are a great representation
of America hyper aggressive. Which, by the way, if you're
a fan of the United States men's national team, let
me guess what you complain about. What I complain about.
Why aren't we more aggressive offensively? Why aren't we always retreating?

(01:07:52):
Why aren't we more aggressive? Why do we flop so much? Oh?
That's what I say. So what you want is the
woman's version. They don't flop. They're aggressive to a fault.
They can get burned on the back end. They're exactly
what I wish our guys were. Hyper aggressive. I would
rather have an aggressive team. Enjoy We talked about this
all the time. Aggressive wins in sports, Yes, it just wins.

(01:08:13):
It wins in the NFL. Belichick's aggressive to a fault,
pushing the amblam. I mean the Raptors were aggressive. Aggressive
when they won, and they won, they went they they
went on Canadian they went Gasol, they fired a coach
of the Year, They traded their most popular major incredible
risks and all paid off aggressive wins, even though sometimes
it's a little obnoxious. All right, Uh okay, Cliff Avril

(01:08:37):
Super Bowl Chat with the Seahawks. Now broadcaster RJ. Hampton,
Next Hour, Jim Jackson. RJ. Hampson's a fascinating story. He
is the high school kid. They can't go straight to
the NBA. He's not gonna go to the G League,
and he's not going to go to college. He's gonna
go to New Zealand and play in their pro league,
which is not a terrible league. We're gonna have him
last hour to talk about his decision. It took courage.

(01:08:58):
He was gonna go to Duke said no, I'm going
to New Zealand. A little bit of a pioneer in basketball.
We'll talk about that coming up. Also, so I saw
this story this morning. Nate Brulson, Fine Broadcast or another
network came out and he said, you know, Cam Newton,
Cam Newton can return to MVP form if Cam Newton

(01:09:19):
can adjust his game. It's like Jordan late in his career,
not dunking all the time. Turn around jumper. Yeah, if
he can adjust his career and be more of a
passer than he is a physical threat, he can get
back into MVP mode. Here's where he disagree. I've always
compared Cam to Russell Westbrook. Beyond the flare, the athleticism,

(01:09:41):
the mobility, and the wardrobe, they're really independent people. They
think differently, they see the world differently. The problem is,
sometimes your profession moves toward you, and sometimes it moves
away from you. I think it's moved away from Westbrook
and Cam Newton. Westbrook is hyper athletic, never been a
great shoe. The league's all about shooting. That's who he is.

(01:10:04):
Cam's always been about size, arm, home runs, mobility, athleticism.
The game has moved into a precision era. This is
why Brady and Breeze are two of the top three
quarterbacks in the league in their forties. This is why
Baker Mayfield is going to succeed in this league. Baker's
not big, he's not fast, he's not super athletic. He

(01:10:25):
walked on in college. But he's accurate. The NFL, like
the NBA, it is a shooters league. So Derreck Rose,
John Wall, Westbrook are not shooters. They're hyper athletic. The
league moves away from their skill set. They've not aged well. Similarly,
the low percentage big play over the top quarterback unless

(01:10:47):
he's in his prime physically, and I don't think Cam
due to injuries is. It's not built for him. You
can't ask Cam now to be a seventy percent completion guy.
That's not his skill set. He's a huge arm let.
It red his mechanics have never been great because since
he was a kid, he could throw off his front foot,
he could throw off balance. To who he is, he's
never gonna be breezed that way, or Matt Ryan. So

(01:11:10):
I think at this point Cam will be good and
Cam will be inconsistent, and Cam will have good weeks
in bad. I think Cam and Westbrook are very similar.
The industry, due to analytics, has moved away from what
they their DNA, what they're really born to do. Doesn't
mean he can't win, doesn't mean they can't win a division,

(01:11:30):
doesn't mean he can't have successful weeks. But I do
think the sport has moved. It's really moved if. By
the way, what did the Colts do last year with
Andrew Luck? Deep? Less, more completions, get rid of the ball?
Best year for Andrew Luck? What does Andy Reid talk
Patrick Mahomes, Let go of it sooner, not as much
ad libbing, less over the top, get your completions. That's

(01:11:52):
the league, That's what the best coaches, Sean Payton, Bill Belichick,
and Andy Reid are asking. Cliff Avril coming up next
to Herd. Be sure to catch live edition of The
Herd week dayson noon Easter nine am Pacific. Former NFL
defensive end played for the Lions and the Seahawks for
a decade and made a Pro Bowl and was a
Super Bowl Chat with the Seahawks. Now he's a broadcaster
in Seattle and a damn good one. Cliff Avril super

(01:12:13):
Bowl chant with my Seahawks. How are you? I am
will Well? How about yourself? I am really really good.
I hear great things about how you're doing in Seattle,
and it sits where I as a kid, I wanted
to be a broadcaster in Seattle and they never wanted
to hire me, so I ended up here. It's been fine.
We're talking about Cam Newton, by the way, you faced
him more than once. My takeaway is the league's becoming
more of a precision league. Not that he doesn't have gifts.

(01:12:35):
Russell Wilson can run around, so can Mitch Droubisky. But
I don't think you can ask him in the year ten,
all right, be a precision guy. Hits that's not to me,
that's not his game. You faced him, What did you
make of him? So I heard, I heard some of
the comments about him being precise, and even Nate Burrows's
comments about him getting back to MVP form. Right, I
actually believe he can do that. And and the reason

(01:12:57):
I say that is because one Cam is is elite
in a different way. Um he's big, he's fast, and
he throws the ball fairly well. Um now, might not
be as efficient as you need him to be, but
he makes up for it with the speed and how
big he is. And I think about Cam, there's there's
one particular playing for for for example, that I know
no other quarterback can do in the NFL. I'm we're

(01:13:20):
playing them in Charlotte and beat my guy easy clean,
and I'm chasing Cam down and he's running towards our sideline,
and in the midst of him running towards our sideline
to get up field, he's looking back at me and
laughing and smiling as if he knows I can't catch them,
not to like. He's probably the only quarterback in the
NFL that can actually do that to d lineman, to linebackers,

(01:13:42):
with the speed and how fast he is. So that's
where I think he separates himself from other quarterbacks. When
you faced him in that week leading up to the game,
what was Pete Carroll saying on this is what you
want to make Cam do? Of course you want to
you want you hopefully can keep him in the pocket
that I think that's your best bet. But in keeping
him in thet you kind of have to chasee up
your defense. You have to have a linebacker that probably

(01:14:03):
is spying on him, or you have to you drop
a d line in that spine on him to make
sure he doesn't run. But when you do that, you
have holes in your defense. You have you have pockets
where he can probably pick you apart. You know. So again,
when you try to contain him in a sense, it
puts holes on your defense and it puts more stress
on other guys. So Aaron Rodgers, Carl Lawson said, listen,

(01:14:24):
he's easier to hit because he runs around more now
he has had Aaron Rodgers has had a lot of injuries.
Some of that is because he's not a huge guy,
and he does he has been over his career. He
pounds the rock a little bit. He sits there and
pounds it. And I also think he's had good offensive lineman.
Six Packers have been Pro Bowlers up front since he's
been there in twenty ten to today, So it's not

(01:14:45):
like they don't develop all lines in Green Bay. They
actually do it as well as anybody in the league
not named New England. What do you make those of
the comments that because he is a little more patient
and he ad libs more, you get more shots at him. Yeah,
you probably. You probably do get more shot at him
because he doesn't add a live a little bit. But
I also think what what people are forgetting um And
I don't think he's one of the highest sacked quarterbacks

(01:15:07):
in the NFL. I think Russell had more sacks than
him last year. But I think one the old lineman
do a great job of holding and I know firsthand.
But two, I think Aaron Rodgers actually studies the pass
rush who's who's he's facing that week. And I say
that because he understands what gaps will be open depending
on the type of pass rusher he's getting. So for me,

(01:15:28):
for example, he knows I'm a speed rusher, so I'm
most likely going to beat my guy off the edge.
He knows that B gap or that a gap is
gonna be wide open, so as the play develops, he
steps into those gaps to make those deep balls. Um,
So I think he's he's actually extremely good at that.
From from that standpoint. As far as the sacks, I
think quarterbacks is just gonna get sacked regardless. But for him,
I think he gets out of sacks because he reads

(01:15:49):
the defense. So Russell Wilson gotta he got a big
old contrast, huge shouts out to rush and yeah, he's
one of my favorite guys in the NFL. And you know,
there was a lot of pushback, but my takeaway defending
him was listening. So he comes into Seattle and saves
Pete Carroll's bacon. They were seven to nine, seven and
nine with Matt Flynn and Pete had been fired twice

(01:16:11):
in the NFL. He saved us Bacon. Secondly, the defense
got credit. Marshawn Lynch got credit. It's almost like dak
and Dallas. Russell didn't make much for years. Not only
that he didn't get any credit. He was like the
third It was almost like, listen, the defense carries him,
and I do felt. I feel over time Russ is like,
all right, not only gonna pay me, You're gonna have

(01:16:32):
to pay me enough that you're gonna have to build
around me. Yes, like I support players like dak I
don't love dak Ye, but come on, and he's been
making like six hundred thousand a year. He saved the franchise.
How did it play in Seattle when Russell signed a
contract which many think is prohibitive to the team's success
going forward. Well, let's let's think about Let's take a

(01:16:54):
step back first, right, you talk about the early years
of Russ and how people viewed him and puts icular
he didn't have to he didn't have to be this
elite quarterback at the time. He had a heck of
a defense. I mean, the defense was probably one of
the top top ever. He had one of the best
running backs ever right behind him. So he didn't necessarily
have to perform at a say, a Tom Brady level.

(01:17:14):
We're still winning a lot of ball games. We're still
going to Super Bowls and different things like that. Now
people are complaining that, oh, he's making too much money.
I think he deserves it, and he proved it last
year with basically what was around him, right, he didn't
have that elite defense. You lose all of Llob, you
lose you know myself, you lose Mike b you lose
so many different players that supposedly was the well was

(01:17:36):
the foundation of that team. And the running back position
now it's kind of a journey It's kind of running
back by committee. It's been a journeyman position. Now they're
figuring it out now with Carson and Penney. But I
say that to say with Russell, though, is last year.
He proved it right last year. The only the only
consistent factor in say, you know, five years prior to
what Russ has now is kJ Wright and Bobby Wagner.

(01:17:58):
That's coach Carroll. That's it. And they still went out
and won ten games last year. You know. And I
mentioned on your show last time I was on, was, Hey,
the Seahawks are gonna surprise people this year because of
Russell and Bobby Wagner on the other side of the ball.
They still have that going moving forward. They're they're putting
some pieces together, they're figuring it out, and I think
Russell definitely deserves all the money he's getting, specially with

(01:18:19):
how efficient and how he performed last year. What do
you make I saw the story the other day Brady's
playing football with Gronk. He ran a forty yard dash
the other day that was faster than his combine forty
How do players view Tom at this point in his career,
clearly obsessed with football. I think you have to be
obsessed with football if you want to play football at
the age of forty forty plus years old, right, But

(01:18:40):
that's also what makes him probably the best ever to
do it. You know, he's he's constantly trying to find
ways to stay relevant in this game, keep up with
all these youngsters that are coming. He's dealing with twenty
two year olds, twenty three year olds, and he's forty
and he's he's forty one, forty two, whatever it is,
and yet still in Super Bowls every year, yet still

(01:19:00):
very efficient and still winning a lot of ball games.
So he's clearly obsessed with the game of football, and
it's pretty cool to see from a distance and playing
against him, you see why he's so great. He does
these type of thing. He's still running forty Like I
wouldn't run a forty to save my life right now,
you know what I'm saying. And this guy is doing
it at forty years old. So he's obsessed with the
game of football, and he's gonna continue keep being great
until he wants to be on. Now, you played for

(01:19:21):
a decade, you were pro bowler. How obsessed were you
with football? Oh? I was extremely obsessed. Um, you know,
wake up. You're trying to find ways to get better.
You know, you're changing up your diet, especially as you
get older. I mean you hear about the crazy diet
that Tim's on. You know he's eating avocado ice cream
and different things like that. You know. So, so as
as a professional, to get to that next level, you

(01:19:42):
have to be somewhat obsessed with the game. You have
to live and breathe it because one, it can end
in the heartbeat. But then two, you know, in order
to be great and to be successful in this whole process,
you have to always be thinking about different ways of
getting better. When you you know, Seattle had what we
thought was going to be a dynasty, then it kind
of closed. They've still been very good this year. It's

(01:20:02):
interesting they lost Frank Clark, who's really really good. Where
are the Seahawks in your opinion? In their history in there?
We still have a Hall of Fame coach. Uh, you
have the best linebacker maybe in the game. You still
have a Hall of Fame quarterback, but now you lose
Doug Baldwin. Yes, um, well they had. They took some

(01:20:22):
risks in the draft, they took some big swings. Where
Seattle at today in your opinion, I think they're still
gonna surprise people, you know, because a lot of people
are doubting them. But what you just mentioned, right, you
have a Hall of Fame coach, you have a Hall
of Fame quarterback. And then Bobby Wagner to me is
a no brainer. He's a Hall of Famer as well. Right,
So you have the and and I think I just

(01:20:43):
read somewhere he's ranked top three best players in the NFL.
Now Bobby Wagner's it's literally it's almost like when Erlacker
came in the league. Yes, he's in on every play,
every single play, no matter who's around them, no matter
how good the d line, maybe, no matter how how
how sorry they maybe Bobby is making plays. So with
with just those two guys, the quarterback on the offense,
the quarterback on the defense, and both of those are

(01:21:04):
top five, top three best at their position, they have
a fighting chance. They have a fighting chance to do
some great things this season. And as far as for
the window being close, I don't think the window. The
window is closed for what we had five years ago,
four years ago, three years ago. This is a completely
different team. It really is completely different. Defense is young, young, young, hungry.

(01:21:25):
I mean, you know, but losing Frank Clark is gonna
be the big question mark for me. Is you know,
he had thirteen sacks last year. Where do you make
that up? And I think you make that up collectively
with all the young players, the Quintin Jeffersons who had
two sacks last year and needs to get five six sacks,
This shy Jerry Reid who had ten, which which was
great number. He probably has to up that, you know,
two more sex So I just think, you know, they

(01:21:45):
have to keep building all right, Cliff Avril Our three,
coming up great seeing you and the air in Seattle
and doing great things to Herd one more Herd. The
Herd streams twenty four hours a day, seven days a
week within the iHeart Radio app. Search Herd to listen
live or on the man whenever you like. Jim Jackson
played fourteen years in the NBA. Certainly handsome enough to

(01:22:05):
be an actor. Joey Taylor is certainly stunning enough to
be an actress. I, of course am not. Neither has
done any acting. Although you've been on a set, and
you've been on a set and it's Tom hanks sixty
third birthday yesterday. You did one or two lines. That
was it. Yeah, it was like a little I played
a radio host to a show and it myself and
Mike Hugh. So we had some lines. But you know,

(01:22:25):
it's like we'll try to act now to I'm like really,
I mean, I mean, okay, I could do it, but
it's like you cut do it again, do it? Let
me get this angle. I'm just like, geez, some we're
only reading like three or four lines. I mean, take
all your show is like you had to buy like
some hot sauce. Or something. Yeah, I had a scene
and it took all day and it was one line.

(01:22:46):
I'm like, forget the acting. Who has the patience for
this nonsense? Who can do it? You've been on a
movie set before. It takes forever to shoot one line.
It is a tremendous undertaking. Oh yeah, exhausting, all right.
NBA's I actually like what Adam Silver said. He goes, listen,
I can't enforce tampering, So these rules are stupid. I
kind of buy that it is because I was listening

(01:23:08):
to you earlier and I was a lot of different
talk shows like how do you how do you enforce
friends talking? I mean, this has been going on for
years in regards to teams doing it during the season.
You know, general managers may call each other up and say, hey, listen,
I know this contract situation of these teams. You know,
if you're interested in moving this guy, let's have a conversation.
They may check back in. They do it all the time.

(01:23:30):
So tampering within organizations, but also now more players are like, hey, bro,
what you think about next year. By the way, I'm
not blaming any company or any league, but let's just
take the NBA and it's current broadcasters, t n T
and ESPN. Right, there are dates windows when networks like
Fox can bid on the NBA. Do you know what

(01:23:53):
those guys do, the NBA and those companies do before
the window opens. They have lunch, see if you want
to extend the contract with those networks exactly, So they're tampering.
You're not supposed You're supposed to have a window so
everybody can bid on the Super Bowl, in the World Cup.
And I was like, hey, company has been doing this
for years. They want to get it all done as
the window opened, so another company doesn't grab the right.

(01:24:13):
So anyway, that's kind of confusing for the audience. But
I don't buy tampering now, I will say Joe and
I disagree. I think NBA players have more mobility than anybody.
They don't get cut, they don't get locked into long contracts.
I do think there's a certain integrity that if Paul
George chooses Westbrook bro not just for you, but for Westbrook,

(01:24:33):
the GM, the city. We thought it was a bad move,
you figured out it was a bad move, you gotta
own it for a couple more years. I don't I'm
not a big fan of breaking contracts, and no, I
agree with you on that because I was raised too
that you make when you make the commitment, you go
through it. I remember my son was having some issues
at Wisconsin and he wanted to transfer. I was like,
what do you mean? I said, you want to transfer

(01:24:55):
because it's not working the way you want it. You
knew the situation when you went in there. Figure out
a way to deal with it. I think some circumstances
it is warranted if some things internally are not working.
But in Paul George's case, he had an opportunity to
leave and he chose to stay. He knew deep probably
deep down inside, he probably wasn't as happy, but he

(01:25:17):
chose to stay. What prompted him to leave all of
a sudden now and break the contract I would never
know unless he comes out and says it. But it
had to be something there. And I agree with you
from this aspect that breaking the contract is tough. It's
tough for me as a player. I try to look
at the player side of it, and I trying to
look at management side, because at one point is it
a tilting point towards the negative where it hurts the league?

(01:25:40):
Too many guys are doing it, you know what I mean.
So I'm still trying to figure this whole thing out.
What makes sense for the league, what makes sense for
a player, and what makes sense for ownership. Well, if
you look at the Kahi situation, it's classic tampering and
contract break big time. I mean, essentially Kawai caught on
the phone and tapering. Well here's the thing though, they
talk about tampering being more so during the season as well. Okay,

(01:26:02):
all see not Paul George is not a free agent,
so that is considered tampering because he's under contract, right,
you know what I mean. But players have gotten smart
because over the years, like when I played, it was
all kinds of stuff going on behind the scenes, okay,
and players had no control, but it was never addressed
because the owners ran the league. It wasn't an issue

(01:26:23):
when owners did it. It wasn't an issue when agents
were able to talk about this and get things done.
The players are always at the whim of somebody else.
Now it's become more of an issue because players got
control and owners don't like that. Right, That's that's let's
address that part of it. It's now players are able
to dictate the terms in which they want to operate,

(01:26:45):
whereas before that never was the case. Yeah, I mean
that's why I've always been for I'm for player movement.
I am also for he got short contracts, one off deals,
honor the contract. But you know, listen, it's some of
these when you were in the league, Like when Westbrook
and Paul George signed, I just I knew innately. I'm like,
that's not gonna last forever. He's gonna dripe Paul George Nutts.

(01:27:09):
Was there ever a deal in the NBA, a trade
or a player was a free agent in your day
and you knew it would not work? And it I mean,
because it's not like there wasn't any free agent in
your day. It didn't happen as mind, and it didn't
happen as much, you know. And also too, I think
you'd be careful too as a free agent to depending
on your situation, on where you're at. The grass is
not always greener, you know. I remember when Houston traded Um,

(01:27:32):
Steve Francis and Katino Mobile to Orlando. I don't think
it was gonna work. I thought Steve was so ingrained
into Houston and who he was that I don't think
he ever made that transition over that. He wasn't Stevie
franchise anymore. That's right, you see what I'm saying. And
then he ended up going to New York and it
just kind of went downhill. So it's it's I tell
you when I thought that help. When Tracy McGrady left Toronto,

(01:27:54):
he needed to be able to grow okay, and Orlando
allowed him to prosper and grow his game. So sometimes
it works. Sometimes it does it when a free agent
to um you know, chooses to leave somewhere you think
is better on the other side. But a look at
Dwight Howard. Dwight Howard wanted to get out of Orlando
and then nobody loved him like that. By the way,

(01:28:16):
Ken Griffy left Seattle, nobody loved Ken Griffy more than Seattle.
They always say the team in baseball that drafts you, yea,
they know the odometer, They dealt with your crap, They
have nurtured you, they put all that time in. You
can make more money in Cincinnati, but you were Seattle. Yeah,
you know. And again I'll go back to the play.
Sometimes change is needed in some situations. But if it's

(01:28:41):
a situation where you're fortunate now because internally you're probably
not happy. Okay, it maybe have nothing to do with
the city or the team. Internally, something's bothering you, and
you think over there is better. Like again, Dwight Howard,
I need to get out of Orlanto where you had everything. Okay,
you go into the Lakers, Houston and Washington. Now you
get waived. I mean, so you gotta be careful a

(01:29:01):
lot of times as the players a kind of sit
back at times and say, okay, let me weigh what's
really important. You know what's really interesting. Adam Silver came
out this year and he addressed something and he said,
a lot of my players are unhappy. Yeah, and this
is something I go back. I talk to my wife
about this all the time. Choices equal anxiety. Depression is

(01:29:22):
up in America significantly, and the economy has never been better.
Healthcare has never been better, travel has never been easier
the economy. But why is depression up? Because we have
more choices, and choices create anxiety. You don't hear that
baseball players are unhappy or NFL players are unhappy. Basketball
players have more choices and it creates stress. You're sitting
going home every night thinking, I don't like my coach,

(01:29:44):
but I like the city I don't like and I
think Kawhi Leonard, I think it was really hard. What
was hard for him because of his original attempt to
kind of get to la at the beginning, and then
he had to settle and make do of what it
was in Toronto. Okay, but if you circle back to
your point, we always talk about the money issue in

(01:30:05):
the NBA, and the money solved all problems. Your point
right there about depression and guy's not being happy. Let
me tell you something. You're making millions of dollars even
for the average player, you make it eight nineteen million dollars.
You travel on the best planes, you eat the best foods,
you stay in the best hotels. So all of that
can't solve an issue you have internally when you're not

(01:30:28):
happy or you have to deal with this. We always
talk about the money solves. No, here's a prime example.
It's no better time to be an NBA player, But
it's no worse time to be an NBA player from
a mental perspective, because things right now where guys are
very unhappy in their situation. Yeah, social media, the talk everything.
And also the NBA is getting younger and the younger

(01:30:49):
generation is more into devices. So guys coming to the
NBA at eighteen years old, well, my son's thirteen years old,
my daughter's nineteen. They're on the devices. So you have
this culture of basketball. Nobody, no sport has younger players
than the NBA, and younger people like electronics. You go on.
I'm telling man, you go on electronics, and if you're
not ready mentally, people just eat you alive. Listen. And

(01:31:10):
here's the thing too. I remember when if you talk
to a basketball player who played it for a long time,
the thing you miss when you retire. For us was
the games or one thing. The competition was one thing,
but it was a camaraderie. Is the things we did
on the plane, on the bus, at practice, after practice,
go out to eat. As I started leaving, you know,

(01:31:32):
my career, but I started to see this trend where
now it was like this all the time on the phone,
really no conversation on the bus or realty guys hanging
like that. So you miss all of that because of
this technology. Now you just look now, just look around
when you travel, everybody's like this. No communication. It used
to be poker games on the play poker, you play

(01:31:53):
car I'm not saying that they don't do it, but
it's still this with the younger generation. Again, things change
and I get it, but losing that connection, that communication,
you know, that interaction causes a lot of this stuff too,
because you don't have the cambaraderie used to have. And
when things go on in your life, you're not as
comfortable talking to Somebody's really a good point, you know,

(01:32:17):
because you don't talk anyway. This is what you do.
You send a text, so emotionally you're not tapped into
a lot of your teammates as they as they once
were because of you know, social media. You should go
in acting. You know what your first role should be,
should be therapist. Jim Jackson, Hey, I could be pretty good.
I deal with a lot of stuff I can tell you.

(01:32:38):
Isn't that too many issues? I haven't dealt with? His
basketball Jim Jackson? Good, No, No, turn on the news.
This is the Herdline News. Speaking of being on the
phones and texting. Danny Green was the first free agent
signing the Lakers maid after Kawhi went to the Clippers,
and he's also the third highest paid on the team
behind Lebron Nady after signing is two year a thirty

(01:33:00):
million dollar deal, and on his Inside the Green Room podcast,
he spoke about the efforts of Kyle Kuzma and Lebron
in getting him up to speed. Kuz has been taken
actually kind of a leadership role for a young guy
and putting us together. You know, he put a little
group chat together and make sure everybody knows whose numbers
is who. Okay, I'm reached out. Let him Burn know
where we can be out in the summer or Braun,
let us know when this has happening, when that's happening.

(01:33:22):
But Broun was it was really good with the process. Man.
He was a much bigger signing than people think. Well,
he's a shooter and that's what they needed, and he's
a champion and a VET and he's a very big
piece for them. I just like that Kuzma is. I
like the Lebron as. We saw a little bit of
this with him and Zoe before Zoe was sent to

(01:33:44):
the Pelicans. But now he's kind of taking Kuzma, it
seems like, under his wing and is kind of bringing
him up, which is which is important for the Lakers
because they're in win now mode. So what are they
going to do three or four years from now when
this particular group of players it's maybe no longer here.
What is that young core gonna look like? Do you
know what I was told by a person inside the

(01:34:05):
Laker organization The reason many people like Kuzma over Ingram
was not the game. They felt that because Kuzma had
spent more time in college, he kind of came into
the league as a leader, and they really felt they
liked Ingram, but they didn't sense he was great in
the room, not bad, but from the very beginning, they
felt like Josh Hart and Kuzma, who spent more time

(01:34:26):
in college, were more adult, more comfortable going to twenty
eight year old players. This is exactly what the Lakers
liked about Kuzma behind the scenes. They thought he was
a galvanizer, could confront issues, could talk to players, and
he's doing I mean, communication is a big part. We
were just talking about that that this is what the
Lakers really need because Lebron is in this position where

(01:34:49):
he's got a first year coach and there could be
some situations there. Everybody kind of has to really buy
into their role and own its And they have a
bunch of pieces that have bend together and played together
in big important pieces. He and Ad haven't played together,
so the chemistry and communication is gonna be really important.
So having the youngest guys on the team buying into

(01:35:10):
that all the way up is going to be going
to be crucial for them. So, Colin, we know how
you feel about lists. We love discussing love lists. Well,
this one, I think you might have some opinions on this.
NFL dot Com named their top ten NFL teams of
the decade. Yeah, now, an argument can be made the
twenty thirteen Seahawks are worthy of the top spot. I

(01:35:31):
think the rest of the list is pretty debatable. Yeah, wait,
time about how can you be best? Carolina is number two?
They lost the Super Bowl. The Denver Broncos got crushed
in the Super Bowl that one year. The Packers, by
the way, I went fifteen and one in twenty eleven,
but they lost in the playoffs two Jacksonville. Come on,
these teams couldn't win the super Bowl, they couldn't win
playoff games. I agree. I don't think that you should

(01:35:52):
be on this list. That you didn't win the Super
Thank you. Patriots are only on here once. They won
three Super Bowls this decade, so they most certainly should
be on the list three times in my opinion. And
I don't even know if that team that beat the
Falcons was the best of those three teams. I don't
think so either. I actually think the Denver team in
twenty thirteen, that's when Peyton Manning had fifty five touchdowns.

(01:36:15):
They had a great defense, but they went to the
Super Bowl and laid a complete egg. So you can't
be a great team for the decade when in the
biggest game you stink. I mean, it's no disrespect any
of these teams. They were all great teams. But if
you don't win, I mean, even if you lose in
the Super Bowl, like the Chiefs this year were an
incredible team, but they didn't make the Super Bowl, So
you can be on this list not even making the
super Bowl. There twenty eleven Packers lost in the divisional rounds.

(01:36:39):
You know, the Panthers were funny because they didn't start
the year great and then they got red hot for
about two and a half months and then it was
a stinker. Later in the year. They were one of
those teams that peaked in like Week thirteen. I think
the Seahawks are. And I don't say that because I'm
from the Pacific Northwest. That was a great it was
a great all around team. I don't know this. You

(01:37:00):
may have to examine this a little more closely. I
think we all agree Jacksonville should not be on there,
not just because we're bias against Jacksonville. But I don't
understand how you can't have all three of the Patriots
championships on here. I mean, I'm a Dolphins fan. I
just don't I think you can't be on here if
you didn't win a Super Bowl, Like it should just
be a discussion of which Super Bowl winning teams were
the best ones, or at least just you have to

(01:37:21):
make the Super Bowl to be in this discussion. But yeah,
so people are debating that one right now. So finally,
good news for Niners fans. After suffering a torn aco
last year, Jimmy Garoppolo is ready to roll for training
camp in the twenty nineteenth season. He told Pro Football Talk,
I'm good to go. Finally, the rehab process has gone
really well. Knock on wood. We haven't had any setbacks.

(01:37:41):
OTAs went about as well as I could have hoped for.
And now for training camp, hopefully we'll be fool go
with team drills and all that stuff. We've just got
to keep going day by day and keep stacking them together.
It's a long process, but we've come this far, so
why stop right now? Love their offense, do not like
the back end of their defense at all, and everything
is Seattle's good in that division and Rams are good

(01:38:02):
in that that that division's tough. Well, it's kind of
a prove it year, at least to me. For Jimmy
g he did sign a five year, one hundred and
thirty seven million dollars deal February of last year, but
he's only played in three games before tearing his ACL,
and he's only had ten career starts. But he did
spend the summer working with Tomhouse, who's the quarterback guru,
and he say he's feeling good coming off as ACL.

(01:38:24):
I to me that injury, it's such a common injury
in football, it's not. It doesn't scare me necessarily because
I don't think of him as like a mobile quarterback anyway.
It's just kind of one of those things you have
to get comfortable with again. But I just it's just
a prove it year to me for Jimmy g What
bothers me is he got hurt last year not getting
hit and he got hurt in New England just rolling

(01:38:46):
out on a light hit. That feels Bradford. Yeah, I
mean one more and it's a we have a problem. Yeah,
Joy with the news. Well that's the news, and thanks
for stopping by. Well he was gonna be a two
three pick in next year's NBA draft. He could have
gone anywhere in college and RJ. Hampton said, I'm gonna

(01:39:07):
go and play in New Zealand. Bit of a basketball pioneer.
I want to talk to him. Interesting story, gutty move
that's coming up. Car shopping can be confusing. There's a
lot of terms. There's dealer price, there's list price, there's invoice.
True car shows you what other people paid for the
car you want, new or used. Have a more confident
car buying experience. Be sure to catch live editions of
The Herd weekdays in noon Easter ninety em Pacific. I

(01:39:31):
want to introduce you to RJ. Hampton six five, one
hundred and eighty five pound. He was the Texas High
School Basketball Gatorade Player of the Year, the number two
score in the nation of point guard. Could have gone anywhere,
including Kansas and Memphis. I want to bring him on
the show because he's going to be a very interesting
case study. RJ. Hampton said, I'm not going to college,

(01:39:52):
I'm not going to the G League. I'm gonna go
play with guys in New Zealand for the New Zealand Breakers.
First of all, it's an absolute pleasure to meet you. No,
it's a pleasure to me too. Thanks for having me.
Let's start with this. Why the decision. Let's start without why.
I just thought it was the best decision for me,
me and my family. We kind of talked it over,
and I've never really dreamed about just being a college

(01:40:13):
basketball player. I've always dreamed about being an NBA player.
So I felt like going to New Zealand and playing
overseas out of high school with preparing me best to
go to the NBA. Zion made a name for himself
in college. I think going to Duke helped him. Yea,
the shoe explosion probably got him a huge shoe deal.
Is there any part of you that thinks, man, I
go to Kansas for a couple of years. I'm in

(01:40:33):
the final four. Is there any regret at all? Oh,
there's no regret. I mean, Kansas a great program, and
all the programs are recruited me are great programs. But
at the end of the day, I felt like the
NBA was my main goal, and to play at the
NBA at the high at the highest level possible. I
felt like the path for me was gonna be overseas
and planning against grown men every day and getting better.

(01:40:53):
By the way, you have a beautiful shot, you're a
good ball handler, and you're long, So this is oh boy,
you're gonna you could be a good player. You're you're long,
and you've got a beautiful looking jumper. Now are you
concerned at all? Out of sight? Are j out of mind?
New Zealand's way over there. Yeah, I'm not really concerned
because I think in like the last month, we've gotten

(01:41:17):
we've gotten LaMelo ball, we've gotten Terry Armstrong. So obviously
there's some attractiveness with us three players going over there,
and I know NBA scouts and teams and especially how
the way social media is growing, people are gonna be
checking in on us in the NBA while I'm in
New Zealand and they're in Australia but same league. But
I feel like I'm not worried about outside out of mind,
I feel like it'll be good. College players are eighteen nineteen.

(01:41:39):
Give us a little breakdown on the quality of New Zealand. Now,
these are obviously guys are older rights like GE League,
you're dealing with men, yes, And is the quality of
play pretty good? Do you think? I think the quality
of play is really good. Honestly, I feel like I'm
gonna go over there. I'm gonna be on a team
where everyone's gonna want to succeed and gonna want to win.
So I know my teammate Corey Webster. I watched some

(01:42:00):
film of him. He's scoring. I watched him against Phoenix
Suns last year when the Breakers came and played the
Phoenix Suns. He's scoring twenty twenty five points. I feel
like the competition is really good. I feel like it's
better than most people think it is. Well, clearly a
professional team, a Canadian Football League team would be to
college football team. A New Zealand team would be to
college basketball team. They would I mean very few exceptions,

(01:42:23):
you know, when you it got a lot of pushback.
I like it because I think you're a little bit
of a pioneer and I think anybody that does something
differently gets heat initially. And I think if you work,
everybody will do what you do. I think it's a
very I like my basketball players to have options. Were
you surprised at the attention all of it? The good,
the bat it was? I mean, you're on this show,
it's talked about. It's surprised by that? Oh yeah, I'm

(01:42:44):
really surprised by I didn't think it was gonna blow
up this big. I think it was just kind of boh,
like he's just going overseas. We'll see him in a year.
But I feel like I kind of sparked a conversation
and sparked a couple of people's thought processes of getting
to the NBA into the next level. And I'm and
I'm really glad I because I've had a lot of
people reach out to me and like, hey, how'd you
do this? How'd you do that? Or there's been people

(01:43:05):
that say that's a bad decision. But at the end
of the day, I think it's what I wanted to do.
And no one else has to do. It's what I
wanted to do. I just sent my daughter to South
Africa for Leadership Council. And the reason I did it
I thought she was mature enough to handle it. My
initial impressions of your father and your mother and you,
you all make eye contact, you're good communicators. I would
feel comfortable. I felt comfortable letting my daughter at eighteen

(01:43:27):
go overseas. I would feel comfortable in my brief meeting
with you. You feel like to me, your parents have
done a good job of you had real discussions. Really, yeah,
you're not You're not. You look like you'd be okay
going to another country. No, for sure, I feel like
what really prepared me for going in another country? I
played you sixteen U seventeen national team. So we went

(01:43:49):
to Argentina and we went to Formosa and Buenos Airis
and Foremosa wasn't the best city. But I hear Auckland,
New Zealand, it's probably like I mean, kind of like La.
It's just it's super were nice. Uh So, I mean,
I'm not really scared to go overseas, and my whole
family's going with me. It's my mom, my dad, and
my little brother. That's great, so I'll have that support
system too. Oh that's fantastic now. But by the way,

(01:44:11):
when you had to tell the college coaches who are
really competitive, hey love you, but I'm going to New Zealand,
did anybody try to talk you out of it? I
feel like there was some college I'm not gonna say
any names, but there are some college coaches my bad.
I'm the some college coaches like um, leading up the decision,
they kind of got word that I that's what I
was gonna do and kind of try to text me
out of it, talking me out of it. But I mean,

(01:44:33):
I was just dead set on what I wanted to do.
What have other players said, you're peers, Yeah, my peers
everyone it was. It was a tremendous feedback. All my
peers were just saying, like, um, be you be yourself.
They know, like my peers know I'm like myself, and
they know that I'm gonna do it my way and
that's the way I wanted to do it. So, I mean,
I don't know if they'll do the same route as me.

(01:44:54):
I mean, I hope they do. They'd be great, But um,
I think they liked it. A lot. So do you
remember the moment and the day mom, dad and you
were sitting down and maybe your little brother. Do you
remember the moment that you just looked at mom and
dad and said, I'm gonna go to New Zealand? Where
were you? What was the what was the game change
with the moment a car ride? You're in the living room.
When did it happen? Um? Usually a lot of our talks,

(01:45:17):
like I would be like walking up the stairs and
I'll say something and they'll be like stop, and like
they'll talk about it. And I will be sitting on
the stairs while they're in the living room. The living
rooms right next to the stairs, And I remember us
talking and we were just going over like the pros
and the cons about the New Zealand and the NC
double A. And I was sitting there for like an hour,
just on the stairs. Oh you to talk to your
parents for an hour. I was sitting there on the

(01:45:38):
stairs for like an hour. And then that's when I
that's when I finally was just like, yeah, they're gonna
go to New Zealand. You gotta get in your ig.
Help me. Mom, Dad won't stop talking. Get me out
of here. So you sat there for an hour and
it was it emotional? What was it like? Was it
like were they were talking you into it or out
of it or what they were just asking me what?
They were just giving me the pros and the cons
and telling me and now you decide what you want

(01:46:00):
to do. And that's what I liked. Buy that they
weren't pressuring me in and doing anything. I love that.
That's good pairenting. By the way, I always felt like
my daughter wanted to go to a college. Maybe I
wouldn't have picked it, but I didn't want my daughter
to resent me. I'm like, I'll give you all the information.
It's your life now at eighteen years old. Now are there.
Now you're gonna go from high school basketball and you
played very good AU basketball. Now you're going up against
men and you're they're gonna look at you and go, oh,

(01:46:21):
a little skinny guy over your little American guy, a
little high school guy. Do you worry that you're gonna
be come over there and you're gonna be the prize
recruiting a little bit of a target. I mean not necessarily,
because I've always been the target and anything I've any
basketball I've played, but what I've really been doing, Like
this summer, I've been working with the French national guys
and the guys in the EUROA League. They all come

(01:46:43):
down to Dallas and they train and they do pro runs.
So I've been playing with them just to get used
to physicality and all that kind of stuff. You ever
see Alan Houston play? Hey, Dad, you ever see Alan
Houston play for the Knicks? You got a little Alan
Houston in your game? He was good by the way
Alan Houston is good, you know, Alan Houston was good?
Got the Allan Houston in your game? Is there a
player I mean, everybody mimics somebody, right, Is there a

(01:47:04):
player two that you have that crossover, that pause move? Like? Who?
What guys do you kind of follow? Um? I mean
I kind of just taking bits and piece from everybody's game,
but probably like Steph Curry, but not the shooting Steph,
not three point shooting Steph Curry. The way he moves
without the ball, the way he's great at that, by

(01:47:24):
the way, the way he moves about the ball, the
way he sets up other teammates, just because he is
who he is. I like the way he does that.
And then whoever really just started to try to just
like watch all the times Paul George because he's a
two way player. You like to play defense, Yeah, you
got to play defense. I hated defense so hard. I
just like shooting. You know what, RJ. This this kind

(01:47:45):
of story is fun for me because it is I
think it takes a lot of guts, Like like when
you made that decision on the stairs with mom and dad. No,
you've never looked back. You've never woken up a dot man.
I like I was at Texas Tech Wanta me and
Memphis King never had you never look back? No, never
one time? One time have you been in New Zealand?
Yet I haven't supposed to be have you. It's supposed
to be amazing over there. Hey, looks beautiful. It looks unbelievable,

(01:48:08):
really really really far. It is It is really far. Yeah,
So like you know, when you go over there, you're
gonna have a couple of meals on the flight and
this is a this is a big time for you now.
So you're all going over there together. We're all going
there together. And how long is this season last? Um?
So I'll get over there probably like August fifteenth, um,
somewhere in the middle of August and the season starts.

(01:48:29):
We play the Oklahoma City Thunder, and we play the
Memphis Grizzlies. Oh lord, October like seventh and the tenth
here in the States, and then our actual NBL season
starts think October eighteenth, and the last regular season game
is February fourteenth, so it's not a very long season.
So your first games were against NBA teams. Yeah, my
first games against the Thunder I want to say, just

(01:48:49):
hopefully Westbrook's out of town. Wouldn't that be the worst? Guy? Hey,
you gotta guard Russell tonight that first game. R J.
Very best to luck to you. I appreciate you've got
a great head in your shoulders. You have an incredibly
formidable family here, and I love stuff like this. You're
a pioneer. Go for it, kick butt. We'll have you
back as soon as we possibly can, Yes, sir, all right? RJ.

(01:49:11):
Hampton The New Zealand Breakers, great story, U s f
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