NBA Finals, Lakers, Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, and the Patriots

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to
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(00:27):
The Herd. Wherever you may be and however you may
be listening, We are live in Los Angeles on iHeartRadio
and Fox Sports Radio. I'm doing oldtime radio today. I
am in a radio studio that I am told Casey
Kasum used to do his shows in Rush. Limbotted shows

(00:47):
in romy started his like a radio career in the
iHeart Radio the Premiere Network hub just off Ventura Boulevard.
It's great to be here tonight Game six NBA Finals.
I like Toronto big. I want to start the show

(01:11):
with this. It is hard when you're a family. Forget
an individual, but when you're trying to corral a family,
coach of family. It's hard enough to individually get over grieving,
but if you're trying to coach twelve fifteen eighteen professionals
to simultaneously get over grieving. It's virtually impossible. It is

(01:35):
why I like Toronto Tonight. Big, more focused, more energized, healthier,
no emotional distractions. I don't think you're gonna ask Golden
State with the KD injury and how it transpired to
walk on stage tonight for three and a half hours
while they're grieving as a family and perform at the

(01:56):
highest level. Steve Kurt talked about it. Steve Kurt still
talking about it. Steve Kurt talked about Katie's injury yesterday.
Kevin checked all the boxes and he was cleared to
play by everybody involved. Now, would we go back and
do it over again? Damn right, But that's easy to
say after the results. When we gathered all the information,

(02:19):
our feeling was the worst thing that could happen would
be a re injury of the calf. I don't know
what else to add to that, other than had we
known that this was a possibility, that this was even
in the realm of possibility, There's no way we ever
would have allowed Kevin to come back. I'm not here
to point fingers. It happens, but this is a different

(02:41):
team with Kevin Durant, they scored thirty four points in
the first quarter on the road with him, forty four
points in the entire second half. Without him, they shot
fifty seven percent with him, they shot forty two percent
without him. Golden State is frankly too small without KD
and Cavon Looney tonight six to eleven and a half
six nine. They got no chance tonight to blow out Raptors. Win,

(03:04):
Golden State will look small, exhausted, and outmanned. My only
concern is do the Raptors get tight if it's close.
I think Nick Nurse knows that. I think they want
a comfortable lead late because if it's close, all bets
are off. Teams that haven't won titles tend to be
tight before they win their first. And I also think,

(03:26):
and I don't think this is exaggeration, the Warriors dynasty.
I think it ends tonight. It lasted five years, you
got five finals, you won three titles. This is about
how long they last. Boget's retiring, Boogie's not coming back,
Katie won't play next year, Sean Livingston probably quits basketball.

(03:49):
A lot of size, a lot of length leaving Oracle.
They're gonna look a lot like the Portland Trailblazers, but
a better version. A dynamic coach back court, two great guards,
and then not enough size and not enough scoring in
the front court. NBA dynasties five years is generally the norm.

(04:11):
What about the Spurs? What about them? Three titles five
years Tim Duncan's prime, then they didn't win for another
six All these dynasties have an expiration date. Players get old,
injured and tired of each other. That's what it really is.

(04:31):
The three tiers in the NBA that ended dynasty, age, injuries,
and bickering. Five years, five finals, three titles. This is
how it ends outside of New England. Same thing in
the NFL. Troy Aikman, Jimmy Johnson, Bill Walsh, Joe Montana Steelers.

(04:53):
You know it's five six year runs. Even New England's
dynasty had a ten year gap between titles, the Middle
Great Early Great now and it's running out. So I
don't think it's an exaggeration. I don't think it's hyperbolic.
I don't think it's over the top. Kevin Durant probably leaving,
if not, won't play a woe said yesterday. He does

(05:17):
not believe the injury changes anything. The Nicks still want him,
he still wants New York. The last thing he's going
to do is opt in for one year. That would
be the riskiest thing to do financially, and frankly, he'd
not playing next year. Katie's out for the year. So
I think tonight's the end of a dynasty. It's been great.
Suck it up when you can. The new arena will

(05:39):
be fantastic, and you'll be a very good basketball team.
But what you're going to see tonight is a team
that is long, focused, healthy, and I like the Raptors comfortably.
All right, let me shift to this. By the way,
props to whoever brought me an egg sandwich this morning
with bacon on a biscuit. Don't eat that much for breakfast. Fantastic.

(06:01):
So I'm reading the headline on this Lakers trade rumors.
Pelicans want Kyle Kuzma, also included in the Anthony Davis package,
and all I saw yesterday all over the internet, Yeah,
just do it, get it done. Yeah. I mean, he's
just an end table and a big furniture shuffle. No no, no, no, no, no,

(06:24):
no no no, He's a nineteen point of game twenty
three year old. You just don't throw in Kyle Kuzma.
It's real simple, it's basic math. The four best teams
in the league last year, Golden State, Milwaukee, Toronto and
Houston averaged about one hundred and sixteen points. Lebron plus
e D get you fifty five, where you're getting the

(06:47):
other sixty six. How are you in a cobble together
if you give up Ingram, Lonzo and Kuzma. Where the
points coming from? You gotta drive to the arena every
night with seventy points. Lebron twenty five, twenty six, a
D twenty six, Kuzma twenty He got seventy one, seventy

(07:11):
two points. Grocery stores can't restock ninety percent of the
shelves every morning. Do you have fresh produce daily? Yeah?
Do you have fresh baked goods daily? Yeah, But you
gotta have seventy five percent of the store. When you
open the doors in the shelves, you start throwing in.

(07:31):
Kyle Kuzma, a twenty three year old who averaged nineteen
a game for a dysfunctional team that lost the two
big distributors Lebron and Lonzo. So take Kuzma out put
him with the Pelicans. Here would be the Pelicans roster
after the trade, Lonzo Zion Kuzma, Drew Holiday, brandon Ingram.
That's better than lebron a d the team getting the star,

(07:54):
plus they want the number four pick. Don't give up
the farm where you become the Knicks. When they got mellow,
he got nutting around him. Just a ten million dollars
chandelier in an empty house. I also saw a story
where the Celtics are also in talks for Anthony Davis.
Oh please, I don't buy that for a second. That's

(08:17):
Danny Ainge simply driving up the price for the Lakers.
Celtics aren't going to take him. Danny Ainge is not
given up pieces for Anthony Davis, who's a one year rental.
In fact, Rich Paul, Anthony Davis's agent, has said publicly
he's not resigning there. Danny Ainge isn't gonna Why is
this story out? Danny Ainge keep secrets really well. Suddenly

(08:40):
this story is all over the papers, all over the internet.
You don't get anything out of Danny Ainge suddenly now, ah, yeah,
it's just leaking. Why he wants the Lakers to read
it and give away more to get Anthony Davis. Anthony
Davis has said, I'm playing for two people, Knicks Lakers,
preferably preferably Lakers. By the way, the Pelicans are all

(09:01):
also leaking this. Why because they know Laker chemistry took
a hit last year when all the young kids rather
name in the papers on the internet. They're getting traded.
So what are they doing it again? Putting all the
Laker players out there leaking the story, putting their names
out so if the trade isn't consummated in the next
week or two, Lakers have a massive chemistry issue going

(09:25):
into next year and they know it. So Angel is
leaking the Pelicans, David Griffin. They're all leaking this because
they know the Lakers have all the leverage. They don't
have to give away anything. Here's Lonzo, Here's Brandon, here's
a four pick, buy give us, Anthony Davis. People leak
stuff when they're trying to regain or gain leverage. Danny

(09:47):
Ainge's leaking stuff because he's got no leverage here. He
wants to punish the Lakers. He said before, I could
never work for that team. David Griffins got no leverage.
He's leaking stuff trying to get leverage. Boy, you better
make this deal. They're throwing all those young Laker players
out there to read it again, David Griffin and Danny Ainge.

(10:09):
This is all about trying to gain footing, hurt the Lakers,
Lonzo Brandon Ingram and a four pick is enough. This
is this idea. You just throw in. Kyle Kuzma, he's
twenty points to night, he's twenty three. He doesn't get
hurt much. You don't just throw that in. That's not

(10:29):
a throw in, that's a starter. In the NBA average
in nineteen twenty, how many guys no league average nineteen plus.
It's math. It's the grocery store analogy. When you walk
into a grocery store and open the door as a
general manager, seventy five eight percent of the shelves has
got to be stock. You can't restock the show store
every day. You can't restock it every day. Fresh bread yet,

(10:51):
fresh produce, yet fresh dairy. Yeah, rest of the stuff's
gotta be Perishable's gotta be on the shelves. When you
drive to an NBA arena every night, you gotta have
seventy point to the bank. The Golden State knows when
Kevin Durant giving you twenty eight, Steph twenty four, Clay nineteen,
Draymond sixty, I got eighty one points. Drive into the arena,
Iggy gives me twenty. We win by fifteen. You gotta

(11:14):
have stuff in the bank, so rob Polinka. Don't buy
the Celtics stuff. It's nonsense. Don't trust the Pelicans. They're
just gassing everybody up to make your chemistry worse. Don't
buy that stand firm. Never ever negotiate against yourself. It

(11:35):
is a bad way to operate. By the way, Vegas
this morning is telling you where all these free agents
are going. Forget reporters. Vegas is telling you that's next.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
in noun Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio

(11:55):
FS one and the iHeart Radio app. The former home
of Casey Kyson and Rush Limbaugh. A lot of radio
stars worked in this place. I'm I'm a private, a
covert military level, a location in a back room somewhere.
I just had an egg sandwich that was remarkable, and
it is great to be here. Don't forget I'm not

(12:16):
on FS one the next couple of days. But US
Open starts in about two and a half hours. Uh,
that's tomorrow, Or when is a coverage start on in
Fox Sports one today for the US Open? It starts
a few minutes it starts. Is that what's knocking me
off today on FS one is that if it wasn't that,
it would have been soccer. But okay, yeah, the US

(12:37):
Open this weekend is going to be absolutely crazy good.
This weekend. By the way, go further than ever with
the Discover at miles card. Thirty five thousand miles become
seventy thousand. They match automatically the miles you earn at
the end of your first year Discover dot com slash travel.
So everybody's trying to guess where all these guys go.
Some of us have sources, some of us don't, And

(12:58):
there's a lot of speculation on where guys go. And
you know, Kevin Durant's injury, you know, could be the
X factor in Houston this summer. Do they believe their
windows extending, They don't have to make as many moves
because Golden State will just be Steph Clay and Draymond
Boogie's going to be gone, Livingston retires, Iggy may retire.
Kd's not playing and could leave, So no KD equals

(13:21):
obviously much more league parody prime example, next year, Vegas
has eight teams at twelve to one odds are better
to win this year or this past year was half that,
only four. So it's interesting to what Vegas is telling you.
Vegas has to make they have to make bets on
this right so and they can't get burned. So the

(13:41):
one thing Vegas knows, we know and everybody knows, Kyrie
Irving is a strong, strong lean to Brooklyn. That of
all the rumors is the most formidable. And I believe
the truest in Vegas knows that. I know that. I've
been told that by two current NBA players, ky Re
Irving to Brooklyn seventy five percent Locke. So, knowing that,

(14:06):
what is Vegas, what are the Vegas odds? So the
Vegas odds have the Warriors as favorites, but not as
overwhelming favorites, meaning KD won't be there. Now you could
say Colin, of course he's hurt, he won't ah, But
the Knicks now have the ninth best odds to win

(14:29):
the championship, meaning Vegas is telling you Kevin Durant is
going to the Knicks. They won't be a championship team,
but they will be interesting. The Lakers now in Vegas
behind the Warriors as the number two pick to win
the championship. What does that tell you? They're landing Anthony

(14:49):
Davis and probably keeping either Brandon Ingram or Kyle Kuzma.
The Bucks are the third choice by Vegas, meaning they're
young and keeping everybody and still maintain their edge. The
Clippers now moved a fourth, telling you obviously they're getting
Kawhi Leonard. Vegas has the Celtics at fifth, meaning whither

(15:11):
or without Kyrie, they're on the outside looking in for
a championship, but still elite. The Raptors, if they win
tonight and I think they will, would only be the
sixth best team in the league according to Vegas next year,
meaning they're losing Kawai, but they are hedging their bet

(15:31):
a little because they think he may lean Clippers, but
hasn't made up his mind yet. The Rockets are seventh,
which is about what they should be given Chris Paul's
current physical state. The Sixers are eighth in Vegas, meaning
they keep Jimmy Butler, the Nicks, ninth meaning they add

(15:52):
k D and then it's a bunch of good teams, Nuggets,
thunder Blazer's Jazz that you know, not title teams, but
good the Nets. By the way, the Vegas is also
telling you they have the Nets as the thirteenth kind
of tied for twelfth or thirteenth best chance to win
a championship, knowing they're getting Kyrie because everybody knows that.

(16:13):
What does that tell you? Vegas and me don't think
much of Kyrie when it comes to winning basketball games.
He's no better than D'Angelo Hall in terms of producing WS.
He's just a more talented D'Angelo Hall. By the way,
the Pelicans, the power of Zion and adding several Lakers
in a trade improved the most in Vegas. Their odds

(16:37):
improved more than any other team that's losing a D
tells you they think Vegas Zion, Drew Holliday and two
or three Lakers. So that's what Vegas tells you. Katie's
gonna be a Nick, Anthony Davis going to be a Laker,
Kawhi gonna be a Clipper, Jimmy Butler staying with the Sixers,

(16:57):
Nick's getting kd nets have ir and it won't matter much.
In fact, the most improved team Zion and a few
Lakers losing a d to the Pelicans. Eight teams twelve
to one odds are better double this current NBA season.
Parent he's never really worked in the NBA because it
is a star driven league. Veteran newsman John Goulay no turns,

(17:24):
this is the herd line news. So Colin Kevin Durant
announced yesterday that he did in fact rupture his achilles
like we all thought, and he already had surgery on it.
He had that Wednesday morning. He posted a long statement
on Instagram that included mentioning how much he wanted to
be out there with his teammates because he loves basketball
and that's what he does. So Katie wanted to play.

(17:46):
The doctors cleared him. Warriors were told that the worst
that would happen is he was reaggravate his strain calf.
Can we finally put to bed the whole the Warriors
are evil and forced him to play against his will? Well,
he's an adult, you know. We were talking about this
this morning preparing for the show. People choose to climb
out Everest. They know the risk. They don't know the outcome,

(18:08):
but they know the risk. Kevin Durant didn't know the outcome,
but he was aware of the risk. He's an adult.
We make choices. Well. Plus, just because a doctor is
wrong doesn't mean he was being evil about it. You know,
the doctors thought he didn't think he could rupture. He
doesn't have an achilles injury. Why would he rupture his achilles?
Don't he could predict that? Okay, you're just talking about
Kyrie Irving, just a couple of weeks from becoming a

(18:30):
free agent for potentially the biggest deal he'll ever have
in his career, and he decided to switch agents. He
parted with longtime agent Jeff Weschler and he is expected
to sign with Rock Nation. I think it would have
been a lot more fun if he had signed with
Rich Paul, but whatever. Rock Nation of course, huge connection
to the Nets because jay Z had to sell his

(18:51):
ownership's sake of the Brooklyn Nets in order to start
an agency, because you can't do both. Kind of a
weird thing to do right before you become a free agent.
Right well, I think Kyrie's flakey so this is right,
this goes this is who he is. He's flaky. Hasn't
his agent done a great job? I mean the Uncle
Drew campaign. I remember he wanted out of Cleveland. He

(19:14):
listed a bunch of teams that were not competitive. They
got him to Boston a good programs. Like some listen,
I have an agent, not that I did because I
have to write like we have. Everybody that does what
I do for a living has an agent. Sure, I
always take pride in the fact I'm one of the
lowest maintenance people he has. I call my agent, talk
to him every five six weeks. Some clients are really

(19:34):
needy in our business, and Kyrie tends to be a
really needy client. And you know, I'm sure it was
no day at the beach dealing with Kyrie for the
last seven years. But I would say this, I'm in
radio TV, I've had multiple agents. There are needy people
out there in the entertainment business. Kyrie is just one
of them. I mean, obviously would be all speculation, but

(19:55):
you do wonder what was the if the agent was
maybe trying to prevent him, Like maybe the agents said, hey,
why are you going to the nets when you could
go join Lebron on the Lakers, and you know, maybe
his agent was trying to talk some sense into him.
Don't go play by yourself. I'm speculating, but I mean
it's not It sucks for the agent. Right, You're about
to get the biggest payday whatever percentage of two hundred
million dollars and you get axed three weeks ahead of time. Well,

(20:18):
this is the Rock Nations. Got a lot of agents
freaking out because they're really good in the entertainment space. So,
and finally, this is kind of a weird story. The
New England Patriots have filed tampering charges against the Houston Texans.
I didn't get that wrong. The Patriots are the one
who are not in trouble. The other team isn't. Oh,

(20:38):
come on, a chief shot. So the Texans are apparently
tried to hire Nick Cassario as their new GM. He
has been the Patriots Director of player Personnel for over
ten years now. So Houston fired their GM on June seventh,
the day after Robert Kraft had his Super Bowl ring
party that was attended by Cassario as well as Texans

(20:59):
Vice president of team Development Jack Easterby. Now that's because
he was part of the Patriots staff last year, so
he gets a ring. The Texans requested to interview Cassario,
and the Patriots had not given them permission yet. So
basically it's what it looks like is the Texans talk
to this guy illegally. He agreed probably to be their GM.

(21:21):
They fired their GM the next day to make space
for him, and then the Patriots said no, you can't
talk to him. Well, they they're trying to become Patriot South.
And I don't think it's a bad idea. I know
everybody wants to be an original, but I think invention
is tends to be overrated, and innovation tends to be underrated.
Takes something that already exists and refine it and sand

(21:44):
paper it instead of trying to invent a new product.
You know again, Facebook didn't invent the chair. They made
a better chair. So to me, if you're gonna copy
somebody New England, who you should copy? And by the way,
that Houston's fairly good nine win franchise. If Deshaun Watson's healthy,
they're probably battling for a playoff spot. I don't understand why.

(22:06):
I don't understand why more people don't copy the Patriots.
I've never understood this. Why don't more people do the
triangle offense? It seemed to work for Phil Well, But
why would you think you could pull one over on
Belichick like that and he wouldn't say anything. I mean,
nobody knows the rule book more than that guy, how
to abide by it or how to break well, they've
they've been hiring Belichick people for years. They've been they've
been nibbling at Belichick's Listen, New England owns them psychologically.

(22:32):
But I will defend the Houston Texans saying, you know
what those guys do up there, Let's do a lot
what they do. This is what a lot of baseball
people did with moneyball. It's like, you know what it
works analytics. Dodgers went all in, Astro's Red Sox, Cubs
went all in, Indians went all in. Veteran newsman John goolays, well,
that's the news, and stop the herdline news. Chris Haynes

(22:57):
is now joining us NBA and Cider for Yahoo's Sports.
Covered Lebron and the Calves at the Cleveland Playing Dealer
Warriors for ESPN, and now he's joining us here on
Fox Sports Radio yesterday, Steve Kirk came out and said, Chris,
you know, we're devastated. You know, we were talking about
this as a staff this morning. A lot of people
people die every year on Mount Everest. They know the risk,

(23:18):
they don't know the outcome. They think it's gonna be
a good outcome, or they wouldn't scale it. Katie's a
grown man. Katie's gonna play off. Katie wants to play.
I know we're gonna blame everybody, but Kevin Duransom man,
he is a brand. And if if he would have
played and they would have won that game and he
didn't get hurt, it would have cemented his legacy forever.

(23:42):
And this time it went belly up. Do you still
sense there's this finger pointing at the Warriors on this? Yeah?
I do call him because you know, look at Clay
Thompson desperly tried to play and was campaigning to guil
on the floorsa game three let him. They wouldn't clear him.
And so I understand what you're saying, but I really

(24:05):
do feel that, uh, you know, this was all up
to the Warriors and their doctors, and they they gave
him the green light to go. Obviously he wanted to go.
He's a player. You know, there's a tremendous amount of
pressure and stress that they're going on. And I touched
on that in my story for Yahoo Sports after that,
after his devastating injury, and they cleared him ultimately, he

(24:27):
wasn't ready. He was nowhere close to a hundred per cent,
but they felt like if he got to a certain
percentage recovery wise, that they felt like he can give
it a go. And Steve Kerr touched him on yesterday
that the worst they felt that could have came from
it is that he re entered his calf. Well, the
worst possible scenario occurred, and uh, you know, and I

(24:49):
think there's uh, there's room. Then there's right to have
some fingerpoint because there's still a lot of questions that
are left unanswered. But we love the flu game forever, Jay.
We love Kurt Gibson hobbling to the plate. We love
Tiger Woods pushing himself ill advised for six years into tournaments.

(25:09):
These are Kurt shelling, bloody sock. We love these moments.
These are iconic moments. Willis Reid listen, Finally one didn't
work like isn't this what makes sports is that you
play hurt. You play in the NFL, it's not even
called playing hurt. It's called playing because everybody's hurt. Isn't
that part of sports? That's part saying you're right, we

(25:32):
do love those moments, those who wrote most people are
coming back from an injury and trying to give it
all they have. But you know one thing that we
don't love. Uh, well, I say the fans and media
don't love, is that we don't love when a player
sits out and try to protect himself. Allah Kawen Leonard
and what he went through with the Spurs set out,

(25:55):
uh you know during the postseason, didn't get fat and
um I think you can look at his situation now
and then kind of understand why he did take that
path and at the end of the day call him.
We can talk about these moments, but you know there's
still human beings. I mean, the guy play eleven minutes
and if the eleven moments he's losing a whole season

(26:16):
based off of the pressure and people saying, you know,
is he really just hurt? Can he really get out there?
So at the end of the day, I look beyond
sports in this and I look beyond the moments and
historical context of a flu game, because even with Michael
Jordan the flute, that's not as significant as what Kevin
duran and Dorty. He's going to lose a whole entire
season of his prime in his thirties, all due to

(26:40):
the fact that pressure from wherever it was coming from
internally externally. He's going to lose the entire season to
get back on the court, to try to prove that
he can help the team and try to prove that
you know, he wasn't as hurt as he was, or
whatever the casement may be is. So it's a difficult situation.
That's why I said I'm saying that I still think

(27:01):
there's blame to go around. I think the dynasty ends tonight,
and I don't think I'm being too hyper. They're not resigning,
Boogie Boget's retiring, Livingston May two and Kevin Durant won't
play and probably leaves. They're just losing size. They're gonna
look a lot more like Portland and Dynasties last about
five years in this league, people get old, injured, and
tired of each other. I feel Toronto wins handsomely tonight,

(27:25):
and I'm okay saying Golden State will be really good,
but I do think quote the dynasty ends tonight your
thoughts that that could be the case call it appears though,
like I think, you know, without KD they fall the
into the pack when I mean to fall into the pack,
they fall into the higher as a lot teams out there,
there's still a championship continued team, but they're not. You know,

(27:48):
when we think of a pick and order, we think
of Golden State and we think to everybody else. So
if they can get to the finals again next year,
I think it will be the sixth or eight year.
If that happened, I think you could still continue to
call him a ynasty because they got there. But definitely, uh,
they're not. You know what the owner used to say, Well,
the owners said light years ahead of everybody else that

(28:09):
they're not in that situation anymore, and they're they're just
one of the one of the top teams in the
league and so if they can you know, advance to
the files again, I was still me personally, I was still, uh,
you know, consider them a dynasty team even if they fall,
but definitely you know they're they're vulnerable and they will
be vulnerable, you know, as they've ever been doing the

(28:31):
championship ground. Uh, it looks I'm looking at the Vegas
odds this morning and they have the Lakers number two
in the league, which tells you Vegas thinks they're getting
Anthony Davis. Um, it's seven days until the draft. You'd
rather get the deal consummated before the draft, because if
you use your own number four a pick, you may
draft somebody the Pelicans don't like. I feel like this
thing's gonna get I feel like Toronto wins tonight and

(28:53):
then the Lakers and Pelicans at a respect in the league.
You know, they'll give it twenty four hours. Then they'll
consummate the deal Friday afternoon. I think it's getting done soon.
Your thoughts, No, I thought that. I think I think
I came on your show last we can said as
well called you know, you think about all that, you know,
the dynamics of how everything's sacked out and happened in
January and February. And then you know David Griffin, he's

(29:15):
new at the him he wants to create a positive
environment around that franchise head. You know, you know, Anti
Damis doesn't want to be there, and so you want
to make sure that you know, when they when they
drafted Zion Willis, and they don't want any lingering negative effects.
Uh you know that's still going on with the ad
situation to still be in the house. They want to

(29:36):
present him with the best positive infrastructure franchise, you know,
in the league. And so that's why I think he
has a chance, had a very good chance of this
thing consummating pretty quickly. Because another thing too, David Griffin.
I was told he's been given them, you know, the
rains to do whatever he feels it is best for
this franchise, even if it does being trade them to
the Los Angeles Lakers. And you know, he doesn't have

(29:58):
any ill wheel or I us tied to what happened
four or five months ago. You know, he wasn't a
part of the franchise. So he's going to do it.
It's best for the organization to move on and put
Zion Williams in the best possible situation to succeed. So no,
I would intend to agree with you what I think
it can happen rather quickly. Kay, Reader Brooklyn feels like
the only guarantee today a D to the Lakers feels

(30:20):
like number one or two. Do you feel Kawhi? Do
you how do you feel this morning about Kawhi and
his choices? Oh? I don't know, Colin. If you would have,
if you would have asked me this before the finals,
I wouldn't say. I still think Kawhi is leaving. But
I don't know. I don't know how to feel. I'm
kind of just everything that's going on with the Toronto
Raptors and how they handled his situation. They built trust.

(30:46):
It's harder for me to but see him leaving. But
you know, I talk to my my co worker in
sirat Seeing, you know, who works with me Yahoo covers
the Raptors up there, and she told me, you know,
she can see a scenario to where Kauhi even if
he wears the if he wears the final, she could
still see him leaving because he's given the Raptors all

(31:07):
that they could ever ask for. Like how can he
be mad at that? That gives him free brain to leave?
And I've ever looked at it like that, And so
I'm a little bit more conflicted or what I think
is going to happen with him. I still think that
the ultimate destination in LA. But just what the Raptors
have been through and how much they've invested him and
how much they just handle his injury throughout the course

(31:29):
of the season, I just think they really have to
consider that. Chris Haines, good talking to you, Budden. Take
care of colint US Open, Pebble Beach. I'm watching it
right now. FS one, the USGA's US Open. It's gonna
be a great US Open this weekend. Women's World Cup
US Open coming up next. It's rubbing people the wrong way.

(31:55):
He's on the cover of Sports Illustrated and he's an agent,
and he's Lebron's friend and people don't like it. Next,
be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and noon Easter nine a Empacific. Is that some Snoop
nice bringing Snoop in today? This is yeah, we are.
I'm doing my show today in a radio studio, which

(32:17):
is takes me back to the old days, back to
Tampa and Portland when I was just a America's beloved
radio icon. Now you know, I'm TV and handsome and stuff.
But this is where Casey Cason did his show rushed.
Limbad did his show from here, and I can I
can sense the ghost of Casey Kasm very fired up.
Seacrest has done shows from here. Seacrest out very exciting.

(32:41):
So I'm reading the story Sports Illustrated. They used to
be a big deal. Not so much. But regardless, the
kingmaker why Rich Paul will own the NBA summer And
there's a picture of Rich Paul and the cover of
SI And he's an agent. He's an agent and nobody
likes this. I text Rich Paul last night. I'd love

(33:01):
to get him on the show today. I text him today.
What Rich Paul is is what many agents aren't. Honest.
Here's a quote that doesn't play well with people around
the NBA, but it's refreshingly and remarkably honest. He goes,
the Celtics can trade for Anthony Davis, but it'll be
for a year. I mean, we can go there. He said,

(33:22):
we'll abide by our contractual obligations and we would go
into free agency in twenty twenty. I've stated that to them.
But in the event that Danny Ainge decides to, you know,
make the deal, that's fine. You want to give away assets,
that's fine, but don't blame Rich Paul. He's incredibly honest.

(33:43):
He is Lebron's friend, met years ago and he's become
an agent, and Lebron was his first client. But now
he's got a stable of really good players. He also
says about the Lakers, quote, Lebron's thirty four years old,
Anthony Davis is twenty six someone Lebron's done playing the
Anthony Davis trade still rolling? What's a better place to

(34:04):
do it? From LA? That's LA? I never said LA.
No negative to that, though. Who gives a blank what
you're talking about about me trying to help Lebron out? No,
I'm not, but I'm trying to help Anthony Davis out now.
Of helping Anthony helps Lebron in the long run, So
be it. But my goal's Anthony Davis again. Rich Paul
came out and said he doesn't want to be in
New Orleans. Everybody freaked out. Rich Paul's saying Anthony Davis

(34:27):
wants to be in LA. People are uncomfortable Rich Paul
saying Boston isn't really gonna get him long term, and
nobody likes this. I would rather have bad news upfront.
People always thought Simon Cowell was mean an American idol.
I'm like, instead of wasting the next nine years in lounges,
Simon Cow's like, Nah, you're not really a professional singer.

(34:50):
You know you could do bad lounges, but you're never
gonna make any money. He just saved you a decade
of time. Go get a real job. You're not gonna
make it. You're not Whitney Houston. And I think Rich
Paul has no filter. Maybe that's why I like him.
And I think you just have to understand that basketball
players are international soccer players, and player movement in au

(35:13):
basketball college basketball in the NBA has always been controlled
by agents and shoe companies sometimes and sometimes or shoe companies,
and the basketball stars are commodities, and ninety nine percent
of them you can spot by the time they're seventeen
years old. That's why ninety five percent of the stars
in the NBA got picked in the top fifteen picks
in the first round, whereas half the NFL Hall of famers,

(35:35):
half the league is undrafted. You don't spot it. Slow developers,
guys don't get great until they're twenty seven. Been. Tom
Brady's so much better now than he wasn't his physical prime.
So on average, if you go back forty years, I've
done this before because I have no life. The NBA draft,
on average, gives you three All stars, that's it, and

(36:02):
those guys become corporations. In the NFL, it gives you
multiple Pro Bowlers a year. In fact, in just one year,
one year, the San Diego Chargers got Antonio Gates, a
Hall of Fame tight end talent, and Chris Steelman, a
Pro Bowler four times offensive lineman. In one draft. They

(36:23):
got both undrafted. They didn't draft him unrestricted free agents.
That doesn't happen in the NBA. Two guys don't get drafted.
One's a Hall of Famer, one's a Pro bowler, same draft.
So people are freaking out in the NBA because Rich
Paul is Lebron's buddy, and the old guard doesn't like it.

(36:46):
But the old guard feels like, you know, we're kind
of losing control. And here's the thing. Here's the thing.
The old guard is rich too. They're only rich because
this has been a player's league since the seventies and

(37:07):
it's made everybody rich. Now the old guys that are
rich are losing some control, but they're still rich. The
young guys are getting richer than ever and have more
control than ever. But that's the business model of the NBA.
That is not the business model of hockey, football baseball.

(37:30):
The business model of the NBA, which has made everybody
in the league rich, is star driven. Now as time
is evolved, the players now are getting richer and have
more control. Their buddies are now agents. But that was
just kind of the natural progression if you looked at
any business. So if a business is employee empowered, and

(37:52):
not many businesses are. The bosses have the power. But
if a business is employee powered, over time, they'll get
more power. I mean, couldn't you say over the last
hundred years, corporations have more power than ever over employees. Yes,
whoever's got power fifty years ago, like NBA players, corporations

(38:16):
has more power today. The money siphons up to the top.
People don't like seizing control and power. So rich Paul
Cover of SI just watching Dustin Johnson. Tiger's not teeing
off for about four hours. So Tiger Tiger is teeing
off at two something, so that's over four hours from now.

(38:39):
It's great to have you in today? It really is.
I love doing these radio shows only I just absolutely
love them. It's gonna be such a very relaxed well.
I don't have to wear makeup. I didn't shave this morning,
not wearing pants, It's no big deal. I love this.
We do have a camera in the studio. What is
this for Facebook? Oh? It's digital, all right? You know

(39:01):
who the hell cares? It doesn't even listen. The ghost
of Casey case I's hovering over me. I'm a radio
guy today. That's how I feel it. Fan. There's pictures
all over this building of radio icons. Rush George nor
does the Nori does the overnight UFO stuff. Then you

(39:22):
got Delilah, and then you got Seacrafts intimidating and it's
very intimidating. And then who's the other guy? Oh, Bobby
Bones is a big star down in Nashville. Yeah, he's huge.
And nothing to me. They got, they got. There's a
soda can. There's a frame picture of a soda can.
That's me. Nothing here for me, I tell you, just
drives me. It's what I mean. The pecking order, I'm

(39:43):
not even on I'm not even in the order. I'm
an old end Table hour or two next 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 demand whenever you like. Ah, this
is the Herd, wherever you may be and however you

(40:07):
may be listening. We are live in Los Angeles. iHeartRadio,
Fox Sports Radio will plaster stuff all over social media today.
No TV US Open is on right now. Dustin Johnson
is one under at the US Open at Pebble Beach,
USGA's US Open. Beautiful, overcast weather, not too hot, Tiger

(40:31):
tas off in four hours. It's a great weekend because
Rory's hot, Tiger's playing well, Dustin's playing well, Michelson's playing well,
and brooks Kepka is than host. He's destroying everybody. So
it's just it's a great us So this this has
the potential to be a great US Open. By the way,
I interviewed Brian Koppelman before the show today, writer, producer

(40:51):
of Billions That'll be on my Saturday morning podcast. It
was great, just it was the best Saturday podcast I've done.
Good to have you in. Let me just say this,
I watched the Stanley Cup last night, Game seven. It
was great. It was a great story. Saint Louis Blues, congratulations,
second worst team in the league in January, made a trade,
fire the coach. They were the worst team, they were

(41:13):
the Pits, they were awful, and then they fired their
coach and then they won the Stanley Cup. I mean,
I feel bad for the guy they fired. He's got
to be in like therapy. Now. It was great fun
and it got a six two rating, which is the
highest domestic rating for a NHL game in the history
of America. And so I watched that. It was great.

(41:34):
It was great fun. It wasn't that close. The Blues
were dominating, but hockey tends to be a blur of
Olympic level skaters going a thousand miles an hour in
helmets and Forbes magazine came out two days ago with
the top athletes in the world in terms of endorsements.
I'm going to read you the sports and tell me

(41:56):
if you can see a trend. Tennis, golf, basketball, soccer, basketball, golf, basketball, soccer, tennis, golf, tennis, soccer, golf, tennis, tennis, basketball, cricket, basketball, basketball, basketball,
twenty first Drew Brees the five richest athletes golfers, tennis,

(42:21):
NBA fighters, soccer stars. Nobody wears a helmet, wear a helmet,
not making the money NHL, NFL. Tom Brady couple years
ago went really big into Instagram. Why why not Twitter?

(42:42):
Because Instagram shows your face. Face equals money, face equals personal.
I can see you, I can connect with you. Soccer
and NBA guys have separated kind of from the world.
NBA players separated from every other team sport athlete in America.

(43:03):
NBA guys, NBA stars are on a level now of
international stars and individual athletes. Damian Lillard makes more endorsement
money than Tom Brady. Carmelo Anthony, a shot fighter, made
more endorsement money last year than O b J in
his prime. It's why Rich Paul's aggressive. Kad even injured,

(43:25):
even out for a year, no impact on his value.
It's why I support Kadie playing. He has a right
to say I'm playing. I heard the doctors. But you
can't have it both ways. You can't want these guys
to be the highest paid people in the world, be
a brand, have power, and then if they don't listen

(43:45):
to doctors and Katie was told listen, you could reaggravate stuff.
Kadi himself is directly by the way. Did you notice
where Kad delivered the news of the surgery Instagram. He
delivered it, not the team, not the league. So this
is not a shot at hockey. It was a fun
It was fun, but a six two is the greatest

(44:08):
rating in the history helmets. Now the NFL overcomes it,
but only one group of players in the NFL make
any money, quarterbacks. They're the only ones that get endorsements.
And that's easily the most popular sport in America, and
they're not close globally or domestically to the NBA money.
If I can't see you, if you've got a helmet,

(44:28):
it's tough. I think it's always been one of hockey's challenges.
Most of us don't play. At his kids and watching it.
It's guys in helmets going a thousand miles an hour
and outside of a great goalie, and Bennington was certainly that.
You know, when I was a kid, I grew up
with Bernie Parrant It was the great goalie. He was
the great goalie in the NHL for the and that
was Patrick Waugh and he was the great goalie. There's

(44:50):
always been like a great goalie. Bennington's now the new guy,
like he's the wall. Let me shift of this. This
is funny. I think invention is overrated. I think invention.
McDonald's did not invent the hamburger. I think innovation is underrated.

(45:14):
And I'll give you an example. Wouldn't you consider And
I know some of you are as I say that
you're such a sellout Cafila. I am a creative. I
would never sell out. So for anybody listening that considers
themselves pious, I am a creative. I am an artist.

(45:40):
The most artistic community in America demographically is Hollywood. Right,
that's just a community of Holly. That's writers and producers
and actors. I drive through Hollywood twice a year. I
feel more creative. I want to sing a nance, Right,
that's what it is. Even Hollywood superhero movies. In another

(46:00):
episode of Law and Order, they eventually get into repetition.
I don't understand why more people don't copy the New
England Patriots. What was the big movie in America this year?
Star Is Born? What it was at the seventh three?
Make it should have been called Star Is reborn. Innovation

(46:22):
is better than invention. Find something that is done well
and do it better. So the New England Patriots are
filing filing tampering charges against the Houston Texans because the
Houston Texans have been for the last several years trying
to become the Patriot South. They hired Bill O'Brien, former

(46:44):
Patriot offensive coordinator. They hired Romeo Crenell, former New England
defensive coordinator. They hired George Godsey, the former New England
offensive coordinator. They hired Mike Vrabel, former Patriot player. They
hired Vince Wilfork, signed him as a free agent. He

(47:04):
was the rock of the Patriots front. They went and
got Wes Welker Jack Easterby, who was a Belichick assist
that now he's the Texans executive vice president of team Development.
So they were trying to get Nick Sassario, who is
the GM of the Patriots. The Patriots file tampering charges.
I completely respect what Houston's doing. Facebook just made a

(47:31):
better chair that didn't create the chair. I never understand,
you know, you do realize the palm pilot is the
predecessor for everything we use today. Now, the palm pilot,
to my point, is at a business. I think they
run steakhouses. Now, I don't know, that's a bad joke.

(47:52):
The palm pilot's dead. It's dead, but it's the predecessor
of everything we do today. So why wouldn't you this idea.
I'm gonna I'm gonna invent this. I mean, I was
reading a story and I'm not a musically inclined years
ago about music, and somebody was talking, some producer, it

(48:12):
could have been Quincy Jones, like saying, you know, there's
like there's only like four or five six different you
know melodies. It all you're you're kind of looking for
the same. Everybody's stealing something from somebody, and if you
steal too much, you get sued. And again some musicians
listening to me and we'll say, I don't know what
I'm talking about, which I don't. But the point being
was every sitcom, I mean, they all look the same.

(48:35):
The bar in Sheers is the table and Cosby. The
kitchen table you know, is the room and friends. The
loft and friends is the coffee house and friends. So
you know this, this this pride in invention. I watched Billions,
It's my favorite show on TV. Well, Billions has a

(48:55):
little sopranos feel to it. It's got some midlife crist
This a family. You know, they're they're stealing from stealing
from real life. There's I'm not saying it's just borrowing.
They're just you know, Brian Koppelman his favorite show all
time with sopranos. So does it have an influence on Billions?
I can sense a little bit, not a ton, but

(49:17):
a little bit. That's you know, Goole just had a
good point. Uh, you know Steve Jobs. Didn't Microsoft steal
from Steve Jobs? I mean they went back and forth.
Now Apple did a much better job with a phone
than Microsoft did. But no, it's I don't understand why

(49:39):
more people there's just so much ego and vanity. I'm
not taking from you should I mean I when I
was coming up through my career, there were all sorts
of influences. I'm like, I'm gonna take a little of this,
a little of that, a little cost us, a little Michael's,
a little this. You just got a suppressure ego of course, mmmmm. Interesting.

(50:03):
I'm going to a party to night, by the way,
very big deal, big Hollywood party, I know, it's a
Manhattan beach party. So it's like sweaters. You know, it's
not that fancy sweaters to a party. It's pretty fancy.
Well it's it's it's on the it's you know, it's
June gloom on the beach. So I'm going to a party.
My buddy Mark Willard is a radio guy in San Francisco.
He's officially leaving and moving his family up to San Francisco.

(50:24):
So we're going to a big shindig tonight, big deal,
a lot of drinks, Uber to Uber night. So tomorrow,
if I'm a little foggy, that's why, because mostly I
go home. Like last night, I was in bed by
eight fifteen and I didn't go to sleep till nine fifteen.
But I just turned the TV on eight fifteen. Well, plus,
you got the game tonight, so you're gonna be I
gotta watch that. Yeah, I'm gonna just watch the game.

(50:46):
So I'm gonna say hi, Mark, good to see you,
best of luck with your family. I gotta go home
and watch the game. I can't be there. I can't,
you know. That's why I have no friends. I don't
have time for friends. I gotta watch games by the way.
Kyrie apparently now is firing his agent. I have some
thoughts on that, and I'll keep you updated as you
drive around and you can't watch the US Open. Dustin

(51:08):
Johnson's one under. I'll give you the big names and
where they're at. Pebble Beach looks glorious today, Pebble Beach
looks glorious every day. Scott Pearcy leads at four under
Ricky Fowler's one back at three under Gary Woodland, John
ram Hideki mantze Yama's two under, Jason Days two under,
Rory McElroy's one under Dustin Johnson, Sergio one under. All right,

(51:32):
there you go. Be sure to catch live editions of
The Herd weekdays and noon Easter nine am Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app. You know,
people actually can be when they're not violent vulgar, it
can be actually very amusing. On Twitter, first things first,
this morning had the funniest bit with Nick Wright and
Chris Carter. Nick's growing his hair out. It looks, it

(51:53):
looks good, it makes it look younger, softer, and Chris
Carter's given him nothing but crap and it's just stare.
I retweeted it, Oh too good, dude, It's very funny.
Antonio Daniels is the television analyst Fox Sports Oklahoma, and
I may criticize an occasional Oklahoma, but I always bring

(52:15):
on you know, you're Jim Trabers, You're Antonio Daniels. To
box me around and get me straight in. Antonio's a
former NBA champ, Blazer, Spurs, Sonics, Wizards. First of all,
Antonio were in the summer months. Now, how are you?
I am good? I will tell you I think the
Rafters win going away tonight. I don't think it's hyperbolic.

(52:39):
I think the dynasty ends tonight. They last about five
six years. I think Boogie's going to not be resigned.
Kevin Durant leaves, Sean Livingston retires, Boget's done. I don't
think I'm being crazy. I think the Raftors win the
dynasty sort of. They're good from this point forward, not dynamic.
What do you make of that? I can understand your
thought process, but I think Kevin Durant's injury may have

(53:03):
changed a lot. I'm not sure you know. Up to
up to three days ago, I had Kevin Durant leaving.
That's that entire time, but after what happened a couple
of nights ago, now my thought process is a little different.
So if you're Kevin Durant, what's best for you to
do being thirty years old? Do you sign a two
year deal or do you take a five year supermax

(53:23):
deal and lock down that money because you don't know
what the future holds as far as your success is concerned.
You know, as far as your future is concerned. So
that's tough, man. I don't think. I do think they
lose today. I will say that I agree with you.
I think they lose, but I don't think the dynasty
ends today. You know it's a guard wing driven league.
But I think Toronto's secret sauce beyond Kawai Antonio is

(53:47):
their length. Gasol Abaca Kawai is long, Pascal Siakam, they
look so much longer, so many easy baskets. Uh, they
dv They make you deviate your shots. I don't think
it's gonna change the league. I feel though Toronto's length
has put this whole three point world we live in
on hold for a year. How do you view this

(54:09):
series now? Well, you know, I think the length is
I agree because I think this is the best defensive
team that Golden State has faced in their run. What
I mean by that is this Collins. You have two
guys that were defensive Players of the Year and Martin
Desol and Kawhi Leonard. You have Sergeonbaca, who led the

(54:30):
NBA and blocks. Kyle Lowry's a really good individual defender.
Danny Green's a really good individual defender. Pascal Siakam is
a really good individual defender. So across the board. Van
Bleich is doing a great job on Steph Curry, so
across the board. When you talk about their top eight
or nine guys, they're all really good defenders, and they're
all long and athletic and lengthy. So I get it.

(54:54):
I agree with you, but I think once you remove
Kevin Durant from that equation, that's why I'm not that
guy that's on board with the whole Oh, this team
is better with no Kevin Durant. Against teams like Toronto,
you need Kevin Durant. Yeah, maybe against Houston for forty
eight minutes, you didn't need them. Maybe against Portland for
that series you didn't need them. But when you're playing
teams like the Toronto raptors with their left and athleticism.

(55:19):
You need a Kevin Durant to all set what they
bring defensively Antonio. I've said this. If I was an agent,
there is no way I could look at my twenty
seven year old client and go, you know what, don't
take the guaranteed money in Toronto. Don't take the guaranteed
money in Oklahoma City. I could never do that as
an agent. I could not sleep at night. There's part

(55:41):
of me that thinks all these guys, Jimmy Butler and Kawhi,
they're all gonna stay put like Paul George, and I
totally get it. What say you, I agree with you
because you're leaving a lot of money on the table,
and I'm here in San Antonio. So Kawhi len Or
left thirty or forty million dollars on the table to
get out of San Antonio, and now in that if

(56:02):
he leaves Toronto and goes elsewhere, he's leaving another forty
or fifty million dollars on the table. So that means
in the last two years he may have left seventy
to eighty million dollars on the table. And you know,
if you're here all the time. Well, you know what,
Kawhi Leonard is not that guy. He's not built that way.
Seventy million dollars and seventy million dollars, I don't care
how you get built. I am right there with you.

(56:24):
I would not surprise me one bit if Kawhi Leonard stayed,
it WoT surprise me one bit if Jimmy Butler stayed. Yeah,
you know, it's funny you know Kawhi because you know,
you know San Antonio well, and you've been around this league.
You know Kawhi is a fascinating guy. But you know
brooks Kaepka doesn't talk much, Mike Trout and baseball doesn't
talk much. Right, we got we have a Kawhi Leonard

(56:46):
in every major sport in the country. You know, Alex
English didn't talk much. He just gave you twenty five
a night. Like I find myself. I kind of love Kawhi.
I kind of love what he is. Right in a
star driven league, he's the silent movie star, right right,
He's an anomaly in the NBA and a era that
is about social media and how many followers you have

(57:10):
and you know, building your brand, and like, think about
this Colin he left San Antonio, which is one of
the most storied organizations in history. Didn't know where he
was going, but he was okay leaving. He left Jordan brand,
Jordan's brand for New Ballots, like with all due respect,
and I'm not mad at him for that. I'm sending

(57:31):
if you grab a hundred guys off the street and
you say, do you want these Barrett Jordan's or do
you want this Barrett New Ballots, not one guy will
say I want those New Ballots except Kawhi Leonard. So
he is. He's different. He's different than everybody else, and
I'm with you. I like that thought process. I like
the way he thinks. I like how when the game

(57:51):
is over, he's not celebrating, he's not pumping his chest.
He's all about winning this series and winning the NBA
Finals and moving on. I love that. And the raptors
and essence have they are a reflection of him, because
if you watch these games, when these games are over
and the three wins that Toronto has and no celebrating,
there is no celebrating. They're walking off the game as

(58:14):
if it's business as usual. Well, I mean, you know,
when you were on the Spurs team, there wasn't a
lot of flair. You guys were a business as usual.
I remember being in the tunnel in Portland and watching
you guys get off a bus and go out. You
guys were all grown ups. That wasn't a lot of
flair with those teams, right, But the NBA's not that
way anymore. The league has gotten younger. So now you

(58:36):
have so many guys that are you know, you won't
say one and really one and done, one and done,
and they're coming into the league And that is the
way the league has gone now. Though. So when I
went to San Antonio, we had David Robinson, we had
Mario Ellie, we had Steve Kerr, we had Karen Jackson,
Avery Johnson, Sean Elliott. We were full of veterans that
were proven, and they had one that had been there

(58:58):
a lot of times. When these young guys are getting
drafted now, they're going into situations where they have to
be the face of the franchise and that culture upon
that organization is being built around them. Yeah, what are
you doing off seasons, Antonio? What do you do? What
do you what do you kind of hang out? Where
do you go? Oh, we'll do a lot of NBA Radio,
and I'm still in San Antonio. My family. I'm gonna

(59:19):
see in the middle of my basketball camp right now.
It's starting on Monday. It's from Monday through Friday. So
that's why my voice is the way it is now.
All I've been doing all week has been streaming for
the last four days. I love having you on. You're
such an authentic dude, Antonio. Daniel's absolute pleasure having you
and Buddy appreciate Sclin and anton Brother all right, it's

(59:41):
a good dude, you know. It's one of the things
I love about covering the NBA. I get some criticism
that I'm very pro NBA. Almost all our guests have
big personalities. Even the guys that are seen as tough
guys like Kendrick Perkins make me laugh. Like you know,
I said this whole time. Nothing gainst baseball. Baseball guys
tending to be kind of enslern quiet. That's just kind

(01:00:03):
of the sport, the history. Basketball guys are talkers, they are,
you know. One time I was telling Jalen Rose, I said,
you ever get into a fight when I used to
work over at the Airplace, And he looked at his
face and he pointed, he goes, that's my moneymaker. You
don't mess with a moneymaker. And you know, Antonio is
just great. He just literally explodes. He's just a talker

(01:00:23):
and it matters. Okay, Phil Mickelson's even Phil Mickelson's the
only guy. Because I've interviewed Tiger twice. I had Charles
Barkley this week. Do you know Phil Mickelson's the only
person in the history of my career I've never interviewed
and want to. I'd give Phil Mickelson an hour. I'd
give him an hour. I find him fascinating. He's got

(01:00:44):
enough controversy. I love him. He's smart. You know, he
loves betting on football. Super smart guy, family guy, fun guy,
cocky but relatable guy. It's the only guy. It's it's it.
I've interviewed, I interviewed Tyson and Barkley, Tiger, Um, I've

(01:01:05):
seen Lebron. I've had Obama twice. Lebron's like somebody I
could interview, but like somebody that like Tiger. I feel
like I know a lot of Lebron because he's lived
such a public life. I've interviewed Trump, I've interviewed almost everybody.
I want to interview. I really there's there's not that
many people out there. Matt Damon would be fun. Um,

(01:01:27):
Jamie Fox would be fun. I've met him. I've met
I met Matt at the UFC fight. You know those guys,
they all listen and watch they love sports. Ye, Jamie
Fox would be interested. Oh, I'd love Brady. But you know,
Tom's very protective of Tom's brand. So Tom wouldn't give
me what I'm mad. Be great. I think I could
make Tom laugh and think, but he wouldn't give me.

(01:01:48):
He wouldn't get it. He's kind of protected at this point.
Now when he retires, he may talk more. But NBA
guys will give you everything right now. Like NBA guys
are like, hey, I got a zillion dollars in the bank.
I'm not. I don't care. They don't feel like they
have to protect anything because they are the league. So
basketball players are just great talkers. They don't give a rip.
They just they don't they just talk. They just they

(01:02:10):
don't even care how it lands. So why I put
some money on? They're so good. A pebble beach is
a painting. It's not even a golf course when you
put it on a television set. It's a it's framed up,
it's a painting. So beautiful. Yeah, you're just looking over
the cliffs NorCal so beautiful. Veteran French newsman John Goulet. No, no,

(01:02:42):
this is the herd Line News. Have you been up
to pebble before time? Oh yeah, it's Carmel. They literally
charge you to drive on the road. Oh, Carmel, California.
Four million dollars for eight hundred square feet without without
a view of the water. It's like the most expensive
real estate outside of Dubai in the world. So a
video was posted online after Game five of the finals

(01:03:06):
of a bunch of Raptors fans yelling and cursing at
Steph Curry's parents. I hated that, who, by the way,
are two of the most likable people you could ever see.
This comes a few days after a Raptors fan was
arrested for making vulgar comments at Steph Curry's wife. They
asked Steph yesterday about the incidents. It's hard to avoid
those interactions with fans. They want to make their imprint

(01:03:28):
on the series somehow, in some way, especially with social
media these days. So I think it's kind of stupid
to be honest in terms of people camping outside our
hotel just to yell exuitives that either us are our
family members or whatever the case is. But we handle
all that stuff with class and try to ignore it
the best we can. There's idiots in every country. First

(01:03:50):
of all, yes, St Steph handles the stuff better than anyone.
It doesn't seem to ever really bother him. But has
a fan base ever done a one eighty like Canada
has since like Pregame five, we thought Canadians were the
nicest people. I forgot which late night show it was,
but a late night show did a bit about how
the Canadian fans won't even talk trash about the Warriors,
and then all of a sudden they boo or they

(01:04:11):
cheered Kevin Durant's injury, or they're yelling at this is
a tiny, tiny group of seven idiots, like like Canadians
as a I travel to Vancouver, BC. It did last summer.
I do you know every third summer Canadians are incredibly civil,
incredibly I mean you can sense it. There's a regal,
sort of dignified sense of purpose. But there's idiots everywhere.

(01:04:35):
You know, here's what I don't understand. You're a young guy,
so speak to me here. All right. This will sound
really elitist, but when I was twenty years old, thirty
years old, I never wanted to do anything that would
screw up my career because I always felt like I'm
gonna make a lot of money and have a great career. Yeah,
I work hard, so I would never do anything in
my twenties and thirties. You know, do math, do drugs.
I wouldn't get a picture taken with alcohol because I thought,

(01:04:56):
I just don't want some corporate boss come to me
twenty years from now and go, oh, you're an idiot.
Any fan that does this stuff gets into a fight
in the stands. You do realize now with phones everything,
any remark, any hat is on for life. What you're
basically telling me is you're admitting you're kind of a

(01:05:17):
loser with no future because if you're in your twenties,
what you don't want to do is something damaging on
your Twitter or Instagram that a guy comes up to
you and says, you know, I can't pay it two
fifty a year because you're an idiot, And I got
a guy who's no smarter than you, but as a
non idiot. So like when you're a young person and
you're doing these things, you do get bosses are looking

(01:05:39):
at Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Tender, they're everything and all these images.
I saw a Raptor fan flipping the bird off. Everybody
in America and Canada knows who that guy. I guarantee
you that's made. That's made Facebook all over the country. Like, guys,
young men, you're idiots. Now is captured on film and

(01:06:03):
freeze framed in eternity. You're killing yourself. Don't be an idiot,
have one less beer. Did I sound like a jerk there? Right?
I think when I was a kid, we didn't have
all these platforms, and I was still worried about somebody
saying something. You know. I saw Coward six years ago
at a bar and he was a jerk and he
said something being to a woman. I was worried about

(01:06:24):
it when you couldn't freeze frame my actions there. Nowadays
they tell people that, right, They tell you like, don't
put anything out you wouldn't want to have brought up
in a job interview. But there's a gap there of
when like people first started using Twitter and Facebook, where
nobody thought of that now. But now you can't have
an excuse two times in the four years I've been
at Fox, because it was almost four years ago this

(01:06:45):
week that I agreed to come to Fox. I was
still working at the other place, but I agreed to
come here four years. There's two people that I've considered
hiring didn't based on their Twitter. I'm like, I went
to a boss and said, you could get out of
this space. Are you kidding me? Like these these fans
doing this stuff. I wanted to watch that stuff, curry stuff.
I got a guy's face, he's dear old, he's like

(01:07:07):
twenty five years old. It's over. You can't hire him.
We have paid a lot of attention this year to
the Cowboys contract negotiations with quarterback John Prescott, obviously, but
we've kind of been overlooking that they have another important
player in the final year of his deal, Amari Cooper.
They picked up his option, but this is the last
year of that contract. He talked about his contract situation

(01:07:30):
yesterday and what he has been talking to his agent about.
I haven't talked to him in a minute. I would
like talking about the contracts with them. I feel like
it's a thing It's one of those things that are
just naturally happened. Yeah, I just had abos. I'm more
anxious about camp and actually playing football. So obviously you

(01:07:51):
wouldn't normally worry about receiver as much. I know you're
not a big pro receiver guy. But last year three
and four, before seven and two with him, one of
those losses was his first game where he barely knew
what the playboat. This is the issue with the Cowboys.
They've drafted really well. They have two great linebackers and
a great pass rusher in a great corner, and they're

(01:08:12):
gonna pay all these guys. They can't pay both with
those linebackers, they can't pay Jones at corner. You at
least have a couple of years for vander esh because
he's on a rookie deal as a first round pick.
But you have this is the last year of Amar's contract,
and you could argue he had more impact on the
offense than Dak did. No, I think the Cowboy This
is why the Eagles, by the way, are signing everybody
early and getting everybody locked in. This is exactly why

(01:08:33):
right here they know Carson Wentz is one hundred and
twenty eight million. That's two hundred and fifteen million in
two years because Patrick Mahomes is going to break the bank.
And finally, I know you mentioned you watched Game seven
of the Stanley Cup finals last night. Wasn't the best game,
but whatever. Did you see the story of Scott Barry. Yes,
that's incredible. He put four hundred dollars down at the

(01:08:56):
Paris Las Vegas hotel on the Blues, who were in
place at the time to win the Stanley Cup, which
would profit him one hundred thousand dollars. When I didn't
know is this He went to another hotel and only
got one hundred and fifty to one, so he actually
searched around for the biggest payout. The thing I thought
was the most interesting about him. And I don't think
you would have done this. He didn't hedge. You would

(01:09:19):
have hedged. I would heed. I was screaming at him.
I don't know him, but I'm yelling at the TV
when I see him. How do you not hedge that
bet when you could potentially you have one hundred thousand
dollars on the line. Why wouldn't you guarantee yourself a
big profit? But he didn't do it. He's a Blues fan,
and he ended up winning a one hundred grand on
a four hundred dollar bet. I would have been the
guy in Vegas telling his friend, you're flushing money down

(01:09:40):
the toilet. Don't do that. But that I guess I'm
not as imaginative. I'm guessing you're not a big futures better,
are you? Oh? I think one of my favorite things
to do. I do it every summer is the Vegas
I give you three college football teams. By the way,
I got my fill Steel book yesterday, so I went
through that for two hours. Yesterday. There was no I
watched the Stanley Cup finals and read a still Phil

(01:10:00):
Steel college football book. I was quite a pleasure to
be around last night. Give me another Molson and uh
there's I've already have two of my three teams picked
out that Vegas over under. So I do bet I've
won a little bit. I'm not substantial. I'll bet you know,
twenty thirty thousand dollars per team. Nothing big. That's what
you have on the raptors side, right, I have a
grand on the raptors and I'm freaking out. I'm not joking.

(01:10:23):
I gotta that's as much as I bet I got
a grand on the Raptors. I believe you have them
winning by twenty. I think it's gonna be a blow.
What's the stress? I mean, well, I mean that's here
we go, money Line. I think they're gonna win. Going
away betteran newsman John Goulet, Well, that's the news, and
thanks for stopping by the Herd Line News. Be sure

(01:10:43):
to catch live editions of The Herd week dayson noon
Easter ninety Empacific. This still counts as Los Angeles. Right
where we're at in the studio, it's not Burbank. It's
like close to Sherman Oaks, which means nothing to our
national audience. Is Sherman Oaks. It is Sherman Oaks. I'm
in Sherman Oaks right now. Where are the oaks? I
saw nothing but buildings. I didn't see an oak once
when I took the exit. We're in the we're in

(01:11:05):
the valley, so we're we're next to the oaks in
the valley. I didn't see a valley. I didn't see
any oaks. This is Los Angeles. I saw buildings. Good
to have you in. UM. We've all heard the term
risk and reward right, we all know what that means.
And the Katy situation. You know what it is. All

(01:11:29):
the Kady backers, even my buddy Chris Haynes, they want
the reward. They don't want the risk. Does everybody get
if Katy would have come back, and this is what
Katy was thinking about, this is why Katie tuned out people.
If Katie comes back and they overcome a three one deficit,
it changes his legacy forever. He is in the Lebron pantheon.

(01:11:53):
Like like there was a reward for this move. This
was not leading three to one. I don't think Katie
comes back lead three to one. I don't. I wouldn't
have advised it. Trailing three to one. Risk is your
reinjure it reward is nobody can ever say you're not
needed in Golden State. Don't invest if you're afraid lose

(01:12:14):
your money. That's why there's a there's a rule in
investing everybody. Never invest with somebody that doesn't have skin
in the game, like the rich kids. Like the rich
kid whose dad is rich, so he's just using his
dad's money in an investment. Never invest with that guy.
Gotta have skin in the game. If it's if it's
your dad's money, I'm not going into business with you.
Is it your money, You're like, that's that's because as

(01:12:36):
an investor, I want you to know that you and
I both could lose our own money. So if we
have the fear of losing our money, Oh that's scary,
you're gonna work the extra hours. Yeah, you're losing dad's money.
That's not trust fund kids don't invest with them. And
this whole situation is what we want with NBA players,

(01:13:00):
and we just we don't do this with NFL players.
There is no term playing hurt in the NFL. It's
just playing everybody's hurt all the time. Week two, everybody's hurt.
Baseball guys, I mean one hundred and sixty two games.
Are you kidding? You think they're feeling great in June?
Hockey guys, Honestly, they're checking each other into the boards
the game nine NHL season, you wake up soar just

(01:13:25):
the way it is, you're pulling stuff. So the world's
greatest hockey players, they're no, you're not healthy at the
at the all Star break in any sport. And so
there's a lot of coddling of NBA players. I think
it's patronizing. They're they're grown ups. They're smart guys. They
know their brand, they know the risk. Don't don't insinuate

(01:13:45):
Kevin Durant can't figure out the risk. Kevin Durant smart,
He knew the risk. John Wall has been going out
on the floor for the last several years, not one
hundred percent. He knew the risk. Once he signed the
big fat contract, he was willing to play hurt and
then he got really got hurt. John Wall, he'd sit
out games. Once John got the money, John's like, I'm
gonna go for it. And Kevin Duran's gone one hundred

(01:14:07):
and fift two hundred million dollars net worth, He's made
six or seven massive Silicon Valley investments. Kevin doesn't need
the money. Kevin set for the rest of his life.
But you know, I think a lot of the NBA
there is the media in the NBA tends to pander,
and I think a lot of it is because they
don't want to lose access. There's like seven stars in
the NBA, you gotta have their phone number. And in

(01:14:29):
the NFL, you know, you can get information from anybody.
But in the NBA media, people you gotta have Jimmy
Butler's number. You gotta have Lebron or Rich Paul. I'm
lucky I got rich. You gotta have like certain access
to people or you don't get information. But the reality
is it's called risk and reward. There was a huge
reward for Kevin Durant here playing massive Massive, just as

(01:14:53):
big a reward in Silicon Valley when he puts four
million down on an ipo. There's a big by the
way YouTube or now it was uber uber ipo bombed
and a lot of money on the uber ipo bombed.
Most ipeos don't bomb, some do. Generally, stars come back,
Kurt Gibson, Tiger Woods, they don't reinjure themselves. Sometimes they do.

(01:15:17):
But you know this is there was a reward with
the risk. If Kevin would have come back three one lead,
I would have said and got hurt. I would have said,
that's just stupid, that's dumb, Like Kevin was wrong and
the Warriors should have just said you can't, We're not
giving you an uniform. But I get coming back three
one trailing because when I watched that first quarter and

(01:15:38):
Kevin was the best player on the floor, and I'm like,
Oh yeah, I mean, didn't you think after watching that
first quarter? Oh this changes everything, changes the whole series.
Marc Gasol is now got to go out and defend.
They go from a great, invulnerable defensive team to a
massive problem. Kevin spaces the floor, So you know, you
just this. I think it's my biggest complaint with this

(01:16:01):
whole thing. The only thing that really has bothered me.
It's that Steve Kerr has an opinion about everything, politics, life, Trump, everything,
and then after the injury go talk to about Myers.
It doesn't work that way. You can't go silent on me.
You talk about everything all the time. And by the way,
I like your politics, I like your Twitter, I like
all of it. I like Steve. I don't know him great,

(01:16:22):
but I like him and I tend to kind of
align with him politically, which is always you know, you
kind of curry favor with people you agree with. But
the point is Steve's got an opinion on everything, and
then with Kevin Durant, the world's biggest star, I got
not thought, I got go over there. That guy's talking now.
Steve Kerr did talk yesterday about Kevin Durant's injury. Kevin
checked all the boxes and he was cleared to play

(01:16:44):
by everybody involved. Now, would we go back and do
it over again? Damn right, But that's easy to say
after the results. When we gathered all the information, our
feeling was the worst thing that could happen would be
a re injury of the calf. I don't know what
else to add to that, other than had we known
that this was a possibility, that this was even in

(01:17:06):
the realm of possibility, there's no way we ever would
have allowed Kevin to come back. Listen, it's just the
whole thing stinks. But like I said yesterday, you're a
hypocrite if you say I get goosebumps with Kurt Gibson,
and then simultaneous you say, simultaneously you say Kevin Durant
shouldn't be out there, and wrong, you can do it.

(01:17:29):
You're getting goosebumps on Michael Jordan's flu game. I go
to YouTube and watch Kurt Gibson's home run five times
a year. You know we are we love By the way,
I got incredibly emotional watching Tiger Woods win the Masters.
Why because I knew what he was overcoming. I'd watch
Tiger for four years. Come back to tournaments fall apart physically.
So why am I getting emotional sitting there, you know,

(01:17:52):
watching Tiger at the Masters because of the injuries. So
don't be a hypocrite and say you love those which
I do, and then say Kevin shouldn't have played. If
Kevin would have stayed the rest of this series and
won it, this would be an all timer. We would
be talking about is thirty years from now, the Kevin
Durant series. This was a game changer to his legacy.
So you can't have it both ways. And I'm and

(01:18:12):
I'm consistent on this. I like my athletes to come
back injured. I've done a show with a hangover. You
know what. That's life. It's not called play and hurt.
It's called yeah tomorrow. I'm gonna be bomb tonight with
Mark Willard. I got I gotta listen. Last night was
just hockey and Phil Steele college football magazine. That was

(01:18:35):
Team Tonight. It is no Coasters. It is a rooftop
Manhattan Beach. Crazy town is what it is? Just crazy town?
All right? How much thirty seconds? So I don't have
time to do anything interesting here? Okay, Final hour is
coming up in a small studio near Oak Trees in
a valley in California. That is where we are. This

(01:18:58):
is the former home of the Casey Kasum grew up
listening to Casey Kaysum in college and he used to
do a show from here. Kind of cool. Our three
on a Thursday. Love the Raptors tonight coming up. This
is the Herd. One more Herd. The Herd streams twenty
four hours a day, seven days a week within the
iHeartRadio app Search Herd to listen live or on demand

(01:19:21):
whenever you'd like, Oh, this is the Herd, wherever you
may be. Our three in Sherman Oaks. That sounds different,
wherever you may be, and however you may be listening.
Ron is that Facebook right there? Facebook Digital. We've got
a camera and everything. A lot of gray hair and

(01:19:44):
a gray shirt. I'm like fog just moving into your Facebook.
My wife said that the other day. She's like you
just you're just gray, gray hair, gray shirt. I'm like
a cool front just moving into your community. You know.
It's it's interesting how many Laker fans. And I know

(01:20:07):
we're doing a national show and I don't want to
make it just a Laker show, but there's a sense
the ad Lebron thing is gonna happen here really quick.
How many Laker fans are like, yeah, just throw in
Kyle Kuzma. Are you people out of your mind? He
averaged nineteen points a game as a twenty three year old.
You don't just throw in Kyle Kuzman. Who a deal.
He's not an end table. He's closer to a coffee table.
You just don't throw him in. I mean, it's like

(01:20:30):
when you're negotiating a house, you know how sometimes you
can sell a house and sell furniture with it. The
furniture has value, right like you just don't house is furnished,
it's twelve thousand more whatever. There's value to furniture, which,
by the way, you can go buy anywhere. You can't
go buy Kyle Kuzman anywhere. He's a twenty three year
old average in nineteen a game and not a lot
of those in the NBA. Ah, we just want Anthony Davis.

(01:20:53):
If you give up Ingram Lonzo a four pick in
Kyle Kuzma for Anthony Davis, you are a forty four
win team doing nothing in the playoffs. You got no shooters,
you got no depth, you got no bench. What are
you doing? You gotta fight like mad on this deal.
I gotta tell you this. I would fight to keep

(01:21:15):
my number four pick. I'd give you Brandon and Lonzo
and say try to do better. I'd give you Brandon,
Lonzo and next year's number one. I'd fight for the
four pick. Sounds like the Lakers are gonna give him
the four pick and Kuzma, what are you doing? There's
a built in advantage in the NBA. When you get
a star, you win the trade. Lakers got a bunch

(01:21:37):
of stuff. Miami Heat got shocked. They won the trade.
That's the way it is. If you give up Kuzma, Ingram,
four pick, Lonzo, you lost the trade with Drew Holliday,
with Zion, they'll be better than you. That's impossible. In
the NBA, the team that gets the star always wins
the trade. I mean Cleveland. Kevin Love was a star

(01:22:01):
for Andrew Wiggins, who won the trade Cleveland. They got
a title out of it. You always when you get
the star, generates because the star wants to Kareem wanted
to go from Milwaukee to Los Angeles. Shack wanted to
go to Los Angeles. Well, Anthony Davis wants to go
to Los Angeles, Why are you gonna give up the farm?
Doesn't make any sense. Like Carmelo wanted to go to
New York. Why don't you give everybody up? He got

(01:22:23):
there and he was a ten million dollars chandelier in
a one million dollar house. He just said, you walked in,
Oh you're a little beautiful chandelier. You got nothing else.
You couldn't afford anything else. So this this just just
get it done. No, no to salary cap league. It's
not baseball where the big market to have an advantage.
Just go buy more good players, negotiate every last penny.

(01:22:50):
You know, you know what It reminds me of a
little bit. It reminds me a little bit of like
you know, when you're when you're financing your house and
you know, is it gonna be three and a quarter
or three and you think it's just a quarter of percentage.
Do you understand over the course of a thirty year mortgage,
you will save maybe depending on the price of your house,
a million dollars on that quarter percent over thirty years.

(01:23:14):
You fight when you refinance a home. You fight for
every eighth you fight for. That's why these cable companies.
Why are the Dodgers not on TV in Los Angeles?
Because they're fighting over a nickel. That's what they're fighting over,
and they should fight over it. Because when you have
six hundred thousand people into your cable company that nickel

(01:23:35):
times six hundred thousand a month. You do the math.
That's why the Dodgers are not on television. They're fighting
over pennies. You have to fight over pennies in that scale.
So this idea is just just give Kyle Kuzma up.
What Dude's a twenty three year old average in nineteen,
an average nineteen and a team where he always had

(01:23:58):
somebody on him. I mean, like like their best player.
Lebron got hurt, Lonzo was hurt, so a lot of
times he was the best guy on the floor. I
mean they like, you know, all right, it's Kuzma, Lebron's out,
Brandon out. I mean those are good numbers, good numbers.
The smartest people in this in these leagues. Bill Belichick

(01:24:18):
doesn't give you anything for anything. Bill Belichick is trying
to get value on every single trade. He's fighting you
on every single trade. Yeah, like the yeah, the tampering
So the Patriots are filing tampering charges on the Houston
Texans for talking to their general manager. That is just

(01:24:39):
to get a draft pick, a sixth rounder. It doesn't matter.
They don't have two sixes. He can make that a
four and they've already got you know, he's already got
his legacy. Some people just don't want to fight. Some
people don't want to negotiate. Then you can't be a
football coach. It can't be. Nick Saban is fighting over
every recruit he's not given Texas and m one of them.

(01:25:01):
That's what you gotta be. If you want to be great,
you gotta Kobe Bryant. You're not beating me in practice ever.
I'm never letting you think you can beat me. You
fight for everything. And I know, I know Colin is
so aggressive. Yes, aggressive people win. I've been saying this
for years. Smartest people don't win in this country. They
don't the people that win in this country. Trump's not

(01:25:24):
our smartest president, he's our most aggressive. The most aggressive
agents win, the most aggressive actors win, the most aggressive
media people win, the most aggressive athletes agents. Nick Saban's
the most aggressive football coach was making eight million a
year lost to Auburn. Somebody complained. He told his wife
to go to Austin, Texas, look for a house, lead

(01:25:45):
it to the press, and then get another two million
a year from Alabama just to put him in their place.
Don't you ever question my coaching. That's what you know.
The old Andy Grove was a guy that created a
company called Intel, and you know he wrote a book,
Be Paranoid. They do want your job be paranoid. It's okay,
it's not unhealthy. You know. It doesn't need to become

(01:26:05):
a minute by minute obsession. But you should fight every
day for everything, every single day. That's the fun of
living the fight, the argument that you know resolution, Okay,
I'm looking for the next battle. That's what it's all about.
For competitive alphas, For competitive people, they liked, they like
the fight, they like the fun. They don't get their

(01:26:26):
feelings hurt when they lose. That that's part of investing
and risking and playing. And Kevin Durant knew the risks.
It was all for it. That's that's part of sports now.
Chris Haynes came on earlier today. He and I disagree
on this. He does play some blame on the Warriors
for Kd's injury. Look at Clay Thompson definitely tried to

(01:26:47):
play and was campaigning to gild the floors for Game three.
The Warriors wouldn't let them. I really do feel that
this was all up to the Warriors and their doctors,
and they they gave him the green light to go.
Obviously he wanted to go. He's a player, you know,
there's a distremendous amount of pressure. They cleared him. Ultimately,
he wasn't ready, but they felt like if he got

(01:27:07):
to a certain percentage recovery wise, that he can give
it a go. And Steve Kurt Tessaman yesterday that the
worst they felt that could have came from it is
that he reinswered his calf. Well, the worst possible scenario occurred,
and there's room and his right to have some fingerpoint
because there's still a lot of questions that are left unanswered.
I disagree because I don't think doctors can predict Achilles tears.

(01:27:30):
He didn't reinjure his calf. I've said this before. I've
probably had three injuries in my life, none of them,
you know, as bad as Kevin's. But I've had three
injuries in my life. I came back early for all
of them, and I'm not an athlete, but I came
back because I got tired of sitting on the couch
and I wanted to work out, and I reinjured myself
and everyone. So I mean, it's just that's just if
you you like to work out and you like to

(01:27:52):
be involved. I think professional athletes. I can't imagine being
a pro athlete watching my team go for a championship
and I'm detached and not playing. I couldn't do it.
I just would feel like such, you know, maybe my
vanities to my egos too big. I couldn't do it.
Just I You're competing for a championship and I'm watching now.

(01:28:15):
If I'm executive, that's my job. But as a player,
my job is to be out there. My job is
to be out there. And for the record, we all
rip j Cutler and Danian Tomlinson when they weren't out there,
they weren't hurt enough. So we have a history in
this country, media and fans ripping athletes who don't plan
big games and watch it. We rip them. Got some

(01:28:37):
thoughts on Kyrie, which is he's dumping his agent. That
sounds so harsh. People change agents all the time, but
if you say dumping an agent, it just sounds terrible.
Rory McElroy is playing very well to us GA US
Open at Pebble Beach. He's playing very well. I'll give

(01:28:57):
you updates as we watch here live and FS one
beautiful course, nice overcast day, looks sixty five ish cool. God,
this is beautiful. It's just absolutely so beautiful. Can you
imagine living on that course and just you wake up
every day and that's what you see having coffee? Yeah,

(01:29:21):
Jim Nan, Yeah, Nance has a place there. I'm not
sure where it is, but Charles Schwab they say as
the nicest house in Pebble Beach. But they're showing aerials now. God,
it's gorgeous. Be sure to catch live editions of The
Herd week days and noon Easter Naughty, impacific, Greatavian FS
one and Fox all weekend US UP and Women's World
Cups fantastic. By the way, there's a great picture of

(01:29:41):
Wanda Durant, Kevin Durant's mom and Kevin Durant standing, you know,
after the surgery with his mom, and it is Wanda
Pratt my bad. Yeah, it's a neat picture. She's talking about.
You know, you don't know my son how much he
loves playing. It's neat, It's it's you know, the sun mom.

(01:30:02):
Really cool. Mark Medina, you know him, Warriors writer and
Mercury News former Laker writer La Daily News is now
joining us. What a crazy series, Mark, I said. I
think it's virtually impossible when a family is grieving to
ask them to perform for three and a half hours
on the highest stage. I feel like the Warriors emotionally,

(01:30:23):
the KD thing is really hard to overcome. Everybody's still
talking about it. I like the Raptors tonight. I just
don't know how much we can ask of the Warriors.
Clays out, clays In, Katie's in Clay Dykad's out Boogie's.
Can we just keep asking hurt Warriors to give us more?
And it feels like to me the series is over.
How does all this Katie stuff land for you? Cole?

(01:30:46):
I'm very conflicted. I mean, I think when you weigh
all those things, I could see the Warriors winning Game
six because of the home crowd and kind of like
give the initial adrenaline rush. You may recall that happened
in Game five against Houston when the originally went down,
and then they carried over to Game six. But if
this goes into a Game seven in Toronto, I don't

(01:31:07):
know if they can really sustain that because the Raptors
are really good. They obviously have open court advantage, and
then there's only so much they can do to compensate
without Kevin Durant. But yeah, I mean there's definitely a
scenario that the way the Warriors and to Oracle arenas,
it's with a loss and then they say goodbye. So
it's captivating to say the lazy Well, I think length

(01:31:27):
and size. I mean, we saw Kevin Durant's one quarter
when he played he all of a sudden, Martin Gasol
a strength, became a huge liability. He changes everything. Everybody
got better looks. It's funny when I said this earlier today,
I feel like the dynasty's officially ending. They'll be like
the Spurs. They win a bunch of titles. This will
be your fifth final. You know you've got three titles
in this. But I feel like next year, Okay Boogie

(01:31:50):
is not resigning Length, Katie's hurt or leaving length, Livingston
retires Length. There's almost you know, Milwaukee's big, Toronto's big.
I kind of feel like tonight this is it. If
they lose this, not that they won't be good, there'll
be a better version of Portland, but I feel like
the dynasty could end tonight. Is that hyper ventilating, No,

(01:32:12):
I don't think it is at all. I mean, here's
another wrinkle you have to keep in mind, Like, say
Kevin Durant decides, you know what, I do want to
stay with the Warriors. I especially like their support that
they gave me over this injury. And you know, especially
when you're talking about an injury that is potentially careered
ability and suddenly that five extra fifth year might be
too good to pass up. But the reality is, we

(01:32:34):
don't know the exact timeline, but it's safe to say
that he's out for at least the first half of
the season. He could be missing the entire season. So
even if the Warriors somehow, somehow are able to keep
Kevin Durant, they could almost kind of be dealing with
the same set of cards where they're having to play
without them. They're trying to see to what extent they
can just maximize Steph clay a Draymond and you know,

(01:32:57):
hit on the draft and develop some of these young guys.
So in some respects, it's almost the same challenge they're
going to have to overcome, even if Kevin winds up
being back with the team. Warriors writer than Mercury News,
our friend Mark Medina, you know, it's I didn't want
to play the blame game. Kevin's an adult. He made
a choice, but I did think it was odd. Steve
Kerr's got an opinion on everything, and he's usually very

(01:33:17):
funny in glib and then after the injury, he said,
go talk to Bob. That didn't land well for me.
What do you make of that? Well, I think he
was more deferring to that because they knew that Bob
wanted to have that emotional press converence. He felt very awful.
I don't know where to put the blame on this,
because I know Rick Silberne's track record. He's the guy

(01:33:38):
that salad Steve Nash's career, and you know, when I
had talked with people on the team, you know, earlier
this season, his whole m was he's the guy who
protects you from yourself. He's very conservative. Sometimes that frustrates
the players because they want to come back early, but
their respect that you know, he's looking out for them,
and it seemed like they try to check all the boxes.

(01:34:00):
I think where there is a little bit of a
gray area is they only required Kevin to play in
one practice and usually when he compared that to some
of the other guys, to Marcus Cousins, for example, there
was a lot of practices building up to that. But
I think where that differentiates where the Warriors are with

(01:34:21):
whether they rush Kevin or not. First, he and rich
Climate signed off on a number one outside medical guys
also signed off on it. But the way Steve had
explained it was the worst case scenario that they were
getting from the medical staff is hey, maybe he aggravates
the calf injury again. Hey, you know what, he gave
it a shot in the finals, but it's not careered abilitating.

(01:34:42):
There was never any talk that an achilles injury might happen,
and when he had gotten his calf injured earlier in Houston,
that was the initial fear. Everyone thought on the team, hey,
this is an achilles, and the training staff had done
all these tests and said, no, he's not having achilles.
It's just a calf, so they I have done all
these kind of checks and balances before Kevin wound up

(01:35:04):
in Game five. Yeah, it's you've covered this team now
and it's such a weird night tonight last game part
well it is last game at Oracle, Kevin Durant's injury,
this sort of Paul hanging over the team because of
everything it Um, I make the argument that you know,

(01:35:24):
five years are about how these dynasties in you know,
covering the Lakers, Shack and Kobe got three, they played
together five or six del Harris first, then into Phil
as they matured as a team and the guys but
usually age, injuries and guys get tired of each other.
Is sort of how it ends. Um, you know, I
mean covering this team just talk about you specifically. It

(01:35:45):
is a rock tour, It is a mayor, it is
the Global Basketball Rock Tour. Is it exhausting to cover it?
Is it different than covering uncompetitive Laker teams previously for
four years? Yeah? You know what, like one of them
young and two I don't know any better, Like I
only know what it's like to cover the NBA with
the Lakers and the Warriors, where there's always something going on.

(01:36:07):
And yeah, there's a big difference between covering the Lakers
and the Warriors because I was only there for one
playoff run. Incidentally, that was the season when Kobe tours Achiller,
So I've witnessed and covered two star players injuring their achilles.
But with the Lakers, there was you know, Kobe's farewells
for all these coaching changes, all the build up leading
a free agency. So sure it might be exhausted, but

(01:36:29):
I know what I signed up for, and it's exhilarating
to say the least. By the way Lakers a D.
I was scolding Laker fans who keep saying, just throw
in Kyle Kuzma, the four pick, Lonzo Ingram, and I said,
you're gonna become the Knicks When they got Mellow, then
Mellow was just an expensive chandelier in the middle of
a house with no furniture. I mean, that's what you

(01:36:49):
become when you just know you just throw in a
guy averaging nineteen a game. What is your guests, I mean,
you still have a lot of Laker sources. What is
kind of your guess on what happens with a D.
I have a feeling the draft is in seven days.
Did the Lakers have more leverage making a deal before
the draft and after because that number four pick could
be a lot of things to a lot of different people. Yeah.

(01:37:09):
So I don't know how this is going to play out.
And here's why I'm not trying to take the easy
way up. But you have to look at it through
two things. They have another asset in the number four picks,
so they do have leverage. But the way that everything
was handled leading into last year's trade deadline, where they
basically said everyone except for Lebron James is up for sale,
that not only did not sit well with guys in

(01:37:31):
the locker room, but in a way, it also diminished
those guys trade value because people around the NBA know
that you're putting up for sale sign and all of
a sudden, there's a reason why they think that there's
not clarity or uncertainty that these guys are going to
really amount to being any star player. The thing that's
very interesting is there seems to be a fork in

(01:37:54):
the road of as much as they're dangling everyone, do
they let go a Kyle Kuzma. Right, He's an intriguing
young guy. He seems to fit well with Lebron James.
He's going to be part of a team USA this
summer with the Feeble World Cup. So I think in
one respect, because of that fourth pick, they do have leverage.
But I think the Lakers are also running the risk

(01:38:15):
of kind of retreading the tires and going through what
they have already gone through earlier this season, where they're
trying to go for a d they're selling everyone and
then it wounds up not turning into anything at all.
Mark Medina, Well, enjoy tonight. I think it's the end
of a dynasty. And I like Toronto comfortably, and you're
feeling you're a reporter, but you're feeling as they play well.

(01:38:38):
You think the Warriors play well. I think they play well,
and if I had a guest, like, I'll put money
on the Warriors winning Game six, but I could be
wrong with that. I think Game seven, if it gets
to that point, it's going to just be too much
to ask for the Warriors, no matter how much equity
and experience they have, losing Katie and going up against
this Raptors team that not only has Hawaii Leonard, but

(01:39:00):
has so much length, so much depth. At some point
they can only ride that adrenaline rush, high of strength
and numbers. At some point it will come to an end.
I think it'll be either tonight or Game seven on Sunday.
Good stuff, Good talking to you. Mark Hey likewise, appreciate it.
Phil Michelson, par four. He is even, by the way,

(01:39:25):
Rory McElroy is tied for second at the US Open,
two shots off the pace at three under. Greens are
not giving anybody any help here. Nobody's hitting long potts.
And as I say that, somebody almost did. Ricky Fowler
is minus three with Rory McElroy. There's Ricky Fowler right there.

(01:39:48):
Got ourselves a tournament here, US Open, USGA's US Open
at Pebble Beach. Veteran newsman John Gouley, No, no, this
is the herd line news. I don't know if this
would classify his breaking news, but it is new news.
This morning, Kemba Walker was talking about his future. I

(01:40:10):
remember he is eligible for these Supermax with the Hornets
because he made third Team All NBA, which is a
two hundred and twenty one million dollar deal. However, he
said he is willing to work with the Hornets and
would take less than that to stay in Charlotte, he said,
I would take less for sure. Asked if he's confident
he'll be back with Charlotte, he said, I have no clue.

(01:40:31):
This is where I want to be, and if it
doesn't work out, or it just doesn't, I'm prepared. One
of our producers brought up a very good point that
he did say this at a kid's basketball Yeah. Yeah,
no kidding. He's kind of the consolation prize for a
lot of teams. He's a good player, but he's not
on the level of a KD or Kauhi. He's kind

(01:40:52):
of the consolation prize. What if Charlotte just decides, you
know what, we're never going to get anyone else to
come here. Why don't we just give this guy the
super he's a good guy, he's a good team leader. Well,
I think again, you fight for every penny if you
don't have to pay him the max, don't you know
it's a salary cap league. So I don't think he's
a max player. But if you're not, if you don't
care about the money as much, why not take less

(01:41:13):
money by just signing somewhere else. Yeah, I mean, Kim
is an East Coast guy, right, So he may just
New York. Yeah, he may like he may like the weather.
I mean it's it's Charlotte's one of those East Coast
teams that doesn't have brutal winners. He may just like
playing there, I you know, I mean some of these guys,
you know, does everybody listening to me? How many people
listening to me? Do you like to move? I mean,

(01:41:34):
it doesn't matter how rich you are. Who wants to move?
I mean, he's played at Yukon New York City. He
may just like the East Coast. Well. That It's what
gets interesting is does he want to go play for
a Knicks, you know, go play where he's from or
pretty sure. I don't think he'd go to Brooklyn. They
already have enough point guards who shoot a lot. But
it's an interesting it's interesting. I'm confused as to why
he would stay in Charlotte. For the only appeal of

(01:41:56):
Charlotte is they can give you sixty million dollars or
more than anybody else. If he's going to take less
than that, why not just go somewhere else. Vikings quarterback
Kirk Cousins is looking to make the next step in
twenty nineteen, which in his mind is solely about winning.
Take a listen. I think the next level really is
all about winning. I'm pretty much a five hundred quarterback

(01:42:17):
in my career so far, and I don't think that's
where you want to be. And that's not you know,
why you are brought in or people are excited about you.
So if I don't play well, if I don't have
body statistics, but we win multiple playoff games this year,
the narrative will be I went to the next level.
And I may not walk off the field every day
feeling like I did, but if we win. That's the
life of a quarterback is as you are at the
next level. And if I have my best year yet

(01:42:39):
in twenty nineteen but we're eight and eight, I didn't
go to the next level. So that's the reality of it.
It's he's brutally honest about himself. Yes, that's exactly what.
He's a five hunder quarterback who's been awful in big games,
and so that's his reputation right now. Yeah, he's he's
got a lot of hollow stats. You've been fairly critical
of Church Cousin over the years. He's fine, but he's

(01:43:01):
not fine at that He's fine at twenty million a year,
he's not fine at thirty two. That's three more players
I can get. They were your big step back. The Vikings,
you know, obviously went to the NFC Championship. You said
they would take a step back. They did. They're one
of the better overs this year in the NFL. There's
like four teams. They have a great roster top to
box and by the way, Kirk Cousins second year in
an offense, they got a good head coach. I think

(01:43:24):
Minnesota is one of the division now suddenly between the Bears, Packers, Vikings.
That's a real I don't think anybody's winning twelve games
in that division. There's just too many tough road games.
And finally, the New England Patriots have filed tampering charges
against the Houston Texans for their attempt to hire Nick
Casserio as their new GM. Basically, one of the Vikings

(01:43:46):
vps was at the Super Bowl ring party with the Patriots.
Because he had been with the Patriots, he talks to Cassario.
All of a sudden, the next day the Texans fire
their GM. They never asked the Patriots for permission to
talk to him, so the Patriots are filing tampering charges. Um,
here's the thing, Rappapords. We mentioned this earlier and Rappapord
basically confirmed it. I think this is a we don't

(01:44:09):
We don't want to they don't don't think they want
to stop the guy from becoming the Texans GM. But
like you said, Bill Belichick wants to maximize everything. He
wants compensation for this. Oh absolutely, and Ian Rappaport said,
this is all about getting a draft pick. Well, the
NFL compensate you when you lose a free agent, they
give you a draft pick. And he's like, I'm losing
my GM. I want to get a draft I don't
think they want to stop a guy from becoming at

(01:44:30):
you And apparently reportedly the Texans still want this guy
really bad and obviously the tampering charges could get in
the way of that. But if they said, all right,
we'll give the Patriots our fourth round draft pick, I
think that's what Bill is looking for, is he not?
That's who That's what Bill does that he's a grinder
a film room draft picks. He's a grinder. Good stuff.

(01:44:51):
Well that's the news and thirdline news. So this is uh,
I've never done a show from here before it's in
Sherman Oaks and this is kind of a legendary studio.
Jim Rome started his career here, Rush Limbaugh's done shows here.
This was where Casey Casum for years and years did

(01:45:11):
his countdown. I'm told I hope you enjoyed us. Back
tomorrow

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}NBA Finals, Lakers, Anthony Davis, Kyrie Irving, and the Patriots