September 16, 2020 • 40 mins
This was supposed to be the Clippers year and they completely collapsed
The road to the championship is wide open for LeBron James
It's not working for Odell Beckham Jr. in Cleveland
The Big 10 is coming back the right way
Guest: Nick Wright
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to
catch us live every weekday from twelve to three eastern,
nine to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS one.
Find your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports
Radio dot com, or stream us live every day on
the iHeartRadio app by searching Herd. You're listening to Fox
Sports Radio. Oh, here we go on an interesting Wednesday,
(00:28):
live in Los Angeles, still a Lakers town. This is
the Herd wherever you may be, and however you may
be listening Fox Sports Radio right here on FS one. Heh, boy, Clippers,
(00:50):
I'm not a I'm not a huge fan of the
word choke. Greg Norman at the Masters felt like a choke.
That was a choke. That was a choke. Can't lead
three one have big, big leads and wither away. Joey
Taylor's joining me. Well the Miami Heat one. You're happy?
(01:11):
Oh I'm I'm having a great morning. But I will
not front. I also picked the Clippers to win the championship.
So you're my partner. Can't leave you hanging out to dry.
I'll take this walk of shame with you. That was
something to watch. Okay, So this is the first time
watching the NBA in my life forty years where the
(01:32):
young teams went to the playoffs and rise Miami's young,
Boston young, Denver's young Hell, Dallas played great, a Phoenix
didn't make the playoffs. They were great. And the old
teams Milwaukee was awful and Houston was awful, and the
Clippers have older stars were awful. Only Lebron and the
(01:53):
Lakers as an old team are playing well. And that's
probably the power of Lebron and his greatness and leadership. Now,
I'd think for the next forty years that old teams
will get to the playoffs the veterans and they'll shrink
and the young teams will just flourish. No, no, no, no,
Do I think the bubble is part of kind of
his help younger players. Yeah, there's no crowds. Young players
(02:15):
shrink in the playoffs with a toxicity of crowds. And
the old players are married, they got kids. It's getting
in their head. That's some of it. But let's let's
not worry about that. Why did the Clippers lose? Okay
Kawai's overrated. Well, I saw him be the second youngest
guy to ever win a MVP in the finals, he
(02:35):
beat Lebron Wade in Bosh. I don't I don't think
he's overrated. I think he's great. Clippersn't no good. They
were overrated. Well, they were twelve and one pre bubble,
when they were healthy, and they gave Lebron An a
D and Lebron some problems. Let's make the complicated simple.
All of our lives are shaped by our choices. We
(02:56):
can blame our parents, we can blame the president. We
can blame our neighbor, we blame our brother in law.
Guys can blame their wives. Our lives are overwhelmingly shaped
by our choices. Kawai had three choices after winning in Toronto,
and I want you to just think about these. Number One,
stay in Toronto, great general manager, great head coach, very
(03:20):
good roster. Two emerging stars Van Vleet, Pascal Sayakam. There
would be no pressure. They want a title. There's no pressure.
It's in the East, which is easier than the West. Again,
the structure, the fans, the GM, the coach, the veterans,
emerging stars, no pressure. You already want a title. He
could have chosen that, he did not. His second choice was,
(03:44):
let's go to the Lakers massive brand join Lebron. Anthony
Davis was already there. They've got there's no there's no
brand pressure. They got. They got banners all over the place.
It's the biggest game in town. Lebron would be the star,
A d would be the two. And you could be
as you usually are, quiet, covert, nonverbal wind titles and
(04:06):
not and do your load management. Nobody would care. He
did not choose that our life is based on choices.
He chose the Clippers that have a history of losing,
basically rent the arena seemingly from the team that owns it.
It feels like even though the Lakers don't go to
a coach who has struggled in the postseason many times,
(04:28):
Doc Rivers, and with a teammate Paul George, who has
a history of shrinking, and a franchise the Clippers, who
have a history of shrinking, that was the choice, and
it should be noted san Antonio Kawhi wasn't responsible for
building chemistry because they had it before he got there.
Manu Tony tim Toronto, he wasn't responsible for building chemistry.
(04:51):
They'd been number one seed the previous year. They had
good chemistry, but in Los Angeles with the Clippers, Kawhi
was to a large degree. They had to give up
some pieces to get Paul and quiet. He was responsible
for building this chemistry. He's not a real talker, he's
not real communicative. He's not real verbal and isn't in
(05:12):
the end of it all a chemistry issue. I watched
last night bad Shots. The Clippers didn't have a lot
of good open looks. When they did, they didn't hit him.
Denver was fast and fluid, and oh, they just got
great open looks, lay ups and dunks and open looks.
It's like a young team that had been playing together
(05:32):
for a while and they were confident, and the Clippers
looked kind of static, and they were tight, and they
weren't loose, and they weren't getting open shots, and when
they did, they weren't hitting them. Maybe it's just as
simple as this. Kawai had three choices and he chose
the wrong one. A franchise and the Clippers that historically shrinks.
(05:55):
A teammate in Paul George that historically shrinks, And I
am a doc Rivers fans the Joe Tory of the NBA.
He's great with veteran players, wasn't a good series for him.
It was not a good series. He had bad second
halfs and bad fourth quarters. It was not a great
series for doc. And it happens. It happens. Maybe it's
(06:16):
just that simple. I don't think Kauai is overrated. I
don't think the Clippers lack talent. I do not believe
young teams will now from this point going forward, dominate
the playoffs and the veteran all stars will all shrink.
Is there a bubble component to some of this story
of young teams flourishing? Sure? This is about choices. By
(06:36):
the way, Kyrie left Lebron, bra How'd to work out?
Paul George stayed in OKC. Could have chosen Lebron. How'd
that work out? Ty Lou could have coached the Lakers?
Wanted more money, chose the Clippers? How that work out?
Sometimes it's as simple as this, stay with Lebron or
(06:58):
choose Lebron. All work out. He'll take all the pressure,
He'll take the big shots, He'll take the media criticism.
Lebron will just take it all. Put it on their shoulders.
Bro come on and join us. It's funny to think now,
right when I say this, this morning. It's so it
sounds so easy. Lebron and A D were already there.
(07:19):
We saw what Kevin Durant did. Just go join those guys,
and he chose the Clippers, and he chose Paul George.
And that's what it looks like. Here's Paul George after
the game. I think internally, we've we've always felt this
is not a championship or bust year four US. You know,
(07:41):
we can only get better the longer we stayed together,
and the more we're around each other, the more chemistry
for this group, the better. I think that's really the
tell of the tape of the season. We just didn't
have enough time together. I kind of think it was
championship bust and if it wasn't, because Lou Williams said
(08:04):
later he thought it was, and Doc Rivers thought it was,
and cou I thought he was, and Steve Balmer thought
it was. In the front office who I text off
and thought it was. Maybe this is part of the
communication issues. Paul George may not be around, Like if
you thought this was a we got a lot of
runway on the tarmac. Remember this this is a Laker town,
(08:26):
It is a Dodger town. It is a usc football town.
It's becoming an La ramtown. This is a fight. Steve
Ballmer just bought a bunch of land for a zillion
dollars to build his own arena because he's trying to
separate and create his own brand. So it's one thing
to lose, it's another to potentially watch the Lakers win
(08:50):
a title. That hurts. I mean, if the Lakers were
already out and the Clippers lose, and you're like, wow, Okay,
Denver nugget, it's the bubble. They win a championship, Now,
that's not what's going to happen. It's very possible. Now
the biggest roadblock for the Lakers is gone. The Lakers
win the championship, that's not gonna play well in the building.
(09:15):
Paul George may not be long if he's a we
got a lot of runway here. He didn't look at
it as a one yet a lot of people in
that building, they were already online looking at championship rings.
Let me segue to this, speaking of Lebron James and
(09:36):
Nick Wright in fifteen minutes will be obnoxious. If you
want to turn go ahead, he'll I'm sure it'll be
you know whatever, if you want to deal with watch
kind of that kind of nuns and whatever. Nick Rad'll
be joining us in fifteen minutes, and it's going to
be bad for me. The CEA is now opening up
for Lebron. It's now Lebron James with all sorts of
finals and championship experience. We'll be taking on den Ver
(10:01):
just took the binkie out of their mouth. Miami in Boston.
By the way, the old Lakers just got six days rest. Oh,
by the way, the Clippers a roster built to beat Lebron.
Four wing defenders gone. Lebron's career is actually, when you're
honest about it, has been a series of obstacles he's
(10:22):
had to overcome. Let's talk about him. He gets drafted
by Cleveland. They're awful. Everything's bad. Cleveland stinks. You like
to get drafted by great organizations, you know the Celtics
or you know, you know Packers No. Number two. He
walks right into a blizzard called the Big Three in Boston.
Not great. Then he ends up facing the Warriors dynasty.
(10:45):
That's another obstacle. Oh, by the way, star teammates getting hurt.
Bosh was often hobbled d Wade in Miami, Kyrie and
Kevin Love get hurt. He has to go to a
finals with Matthew Dellavedova, and then he's had to deal
with Flakes j R. Smith forgot how to keep score
of a game, and Kyrie Irving just bailed because he's
Kyrie Irving in the world is flat according to him.
(11:07):
But now it's different. Seventeen years and the c is opening.
Now it's young teams. The Clippers are out of the way.
They got a break. Denver's a bunch of babies. Now.
Now Denver's gonna understand what the big difference between you know,
the second round in the Western Conference finals, there's a
(11:29):
lot of difference. That's the difference between the Sun Bowl
and the Rose Bowl. There's a big difference second round.
Who was in it last year? Who knows? Who remembers?
We remember conference finals, we remember finals and through all
those roadblocks with Lebron, the Flakes, guys don't know the score,
the injuries, Kyrie, Kevin Love, the Big Three, the bad ownership,
(11:53):
all those roadblocks, nine finals, three titles, and for the
first time I'm ever well rested. Lebron, who, by the way,
got hurt last year, didn't play a ton COVID this year.
Think about this. COVID was actually a break for Lebron's legs.
Jannis the Eastern Rim protector. Lebron can struggle with that out.
(12:17):
Kawhi and the Clippers built the stop Lebron out. Anthony Davis,
who has a history of being injured, is finally healthy.
D Wade and Bosh, you never got hurt before. Lebron
were all banged up, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love, they got hurt.
Now It's like Anthony Davis is mister brittle. He's not hurt.
(12:39):
The CEA is opening up for Lebron opponent's health, none
of it in his way. It's gonna be painful. You know,
I'm I'm I had the Clippers, but you know it's
good if Lebron wins for me, right like you know,
(12:59):
I'm I'm on that side. So that's where we are
this morning. Nick Wright, you know, some people win, Graciously
Nick's not one of them. He will be joining us.
Joel Klattop and next hour, Big Ten's gonna play football.
As we told you last week, it's coming, It's here.
They'll play on October twenty fourth. Joel Clatton out coming
(13:19):
up next, Cleveland trade OBJ. Do it now, it's the
best for everybody. Rumors he's on the trade market. Move
him now, I'll tell you why. Be sure to catch
live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Easter nine
a Empacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the
iHeart Radio app. All right, great to have you in.
(13:40):
There are rumors and reports now that OBJ for the
Cleveland Browns is on the market. We've been saying this now.
I've been saying this since early last year. It's better
for Baker, it's better for OBJ, It's better for Cleveland.
This feels like a forced relationship. It's not working. He's
been their seventeen games and in seventeen games he had
twenty three yards. It marked the fourth time in seventeen games.
(14:03):
Odell Beckham five years ago, best receiver in football. Fourth
time he had yardage in the twenties. Six times in
seventeen games he's had three catches or fewer. This guy
five years ago was the best wide receiver. We were
talking about Randy Moss like, it's not working. I've said
this before. Relationships can't be this hard. Amari Cooper and
(14:25):
Dak Prescott the minute he arrived worked, Randy Moss and
Brady the minute he arrived at work, I mean good God,
Kyler Murray and DeAndre Hopkins fifteen catches the minute he arrives,
Emmanuel Sanders and Garoppolo. Last year, it worked instantly. It
can't be this hard. Rip the band aid off. That's
(14:46):
what Arizona did with Josh Rosen. It's what Baltimore did
with Earl Thomas. Just rip the bandaid off, take the
heat for a day, Rip it off. Listen, the grass
isn't always greener. Eli and Obj. He average almost and
catches a game in ninety three yards. That's big production.
Bakery's averaging four and a half catches in sixty yards.
That's mediocre, and OBJ is not a mediocre player. The
(15:09):
issue here is Baker Mayfield is not as good as
everybody thinks, and OBJ can be at times a little needy.
That's okay, I was in my twenties. That's Baker's just
not as good as he thinks. Baker is not good
enough to be obsessed with getting one guy the ball o.
BJ's better with a better quarterback and a better organization
(15:32):
where he feels loved. He feels stability, he doesn't feel chaos.
He's not good in that spot. The more chaos New
York had, the worst he got when he got there.
Initially with Coughlin, there was no chaos, and he was great.
But he's a kid that doesn't work good in chaos.
But you just you know when you got a problem.
The first step in solving it is admitting you got
a problem. You got to admit you got a problem.
(15:54):
You can't solve it. Cleveland's got to be like seventeen games,
three catches, twenty three yards Odell Beckham, it ain't working.
There's a lot of teams that need a receiver. Baltimore
could probably use them. San Francisco right now is a
mess at wide receiver. Green Bay maybe not their style,
but they could use another guy. Wouldn't you think different
green Bay today if they had Odell Beckham? I would
(16:16):
see at all. There's plenty of takers out there, and
there's teams with the good God, the New York Jets.
If you want to go back to New York, there
there's plenty of spots for OBJ. But you gotta just
acknowledge it's it's not supposed to be that hard. I
say this all the time. If you're in a marriage
nine years and you still have to go to therapy
once a month, it shouldn't be that much work. You
should be able to sit in the couch, watch a
(16:37):
TV show, eat pizza, laugh and feel great together. Can't.
You can't be on a yet, you can't get along
only when you're in Paris on a vacation. You got
you gotta be able to sit in the couch and
laugh on a Tuesday when it's raining outside and there's
crappy television on. You sit there a poor glass of
wine talking it works. This thing ain't working. It's just
not working. So there's all sorts of rumors out there.
And by the way, ob J I say this, all
(16:59):
Pro athlete Antonio Brown wanted out. Ob J wanted out.
The grass ain't greener. Pittsburgh was a good spot. Giants
was a good spot. Listen. It's one thing if you're
Kevin Durant and can choose where you go. But if
you're not a free agent and you're demanding to be traded,
you can end up in Cleveland. You can end up,
(17:19):
you know, with Oakland. Antonio Brown and obj I understand
guys wanting out, but if you're not a free agent,
you're not going to dictate where you go. And the
grass in pro sports is not Owa's green. Even Kawhi,
when he had a choice, may have chosen the wrong place.
Joy with the news, No, no, this is the herd
(17:40):
line news. Heat is on Colin Wow. Wow, hey Ley
know what they're They're a little bit. They're a little
bit the Denver of the East. One star player and
a bunch of emerging young players. They're pretty goods wonderful.
They continued their stellar postseason run the Big Game one
(18:01):
win over the Celtics. I was stressed out the entire time.
I think it was going to be a really long series.
I think they're very even. Yes, so the highlight of
the night came with just seconds remaining in overtime of
showing it right now, huge block by Bam had a bio,
big boy stuff right there. Bam had a bio, had
the block of his life to nine Jason Tatum what
would have been the game tying dunk block of the
(18:23):
season in the NBA. It's pretty remarkable. Well that that
Kawhi dunk was pretty memorable just because it was like
one finger with his claw. But this is I mean,
that's just unbelievable clutch play right there. That's a dunk
of the season if he doesn't get it instead of
just the block of the season. Right right, one muscle
the wrong way and that highlight goes a very higder
way for the rest of BAM's life. The Heat held
(18:45):
on to win one seventeen one fourteen in overtime. Jimmy
Butler twenty points, five rebounds, five assists, Bam eighteen six
nine and two blocks, and Goren had a team high
twenty nine points. Jason Tatum had an incredible game thirty points,
fourteen rebounds, five assistant three steals. NBA's got about nine
ten eleven young players Jamal Murray, Jason Tatum this league.
(19:07):
I don't remember a time where I think there's a
dozen young players who could all be stars. There's so
much young talent in America right now. It feels like
we're seeing not the changing of the garden, sort of
in the way the quarterbacks. But yes, the young developing
players have an incredible amount of talent, and like our
quarterbacks in the NFL, beyond quarterbacks, they're better earlier than ever, Yes, absolutely,
(19:30):
there's a fun game. Obviously I enjoyed it. Busting fans
probably not so much. But I do think this will
be a long series. Great watch Yesterday. So Michael Thomas
is dealing with an injury worse than originally expected. He
suffered a high ankle sprain on Sunday, but he believes
he would be able to play through it. However, now
the Saints are expecting their star receiver to miss several weeks.
They've reportedly thought about putting him on IR, which would
(19:53):
sideline him for at least three weeks, but Thomas is
opposed to the idea. The next three weeks they have
they're at the Raiders, then they the Packards at home,
and then they're at the line. Is it me? I
thought Linemen may suffer with the injuries the Big Uglies
a lot of wide receivers San franchesso's whole wide receiving course.
Heard a lot of wide receiver. Mike Evans is hurt.
(20:13):
Now we've got well, I mean, I don't know. I
don't have an as it's I'd have to look. I
don't want to speak out of out of hand and
not do any research on it. If there are more
injuries early. But I mean we talked about all the
injuries yesterday around the league. There's a lot of injuries, yeah,
and a lot of star receivers are banged up. Yeah.
So he had three receptions on five targets or seventeen yards.
(20:34):
He set the single season reception record in twenty nineteen
with one hundred and forty nine and led the league
in receiving yards with thousand and seven hundred and twenty five.
And he's only missed one game in his career. He's
a very durable so this is this is tough for them,
but they do have some other pieces on the offensive side,
so hopefully they can get him healthy and back soon. Finally,
the Cowboys did not start the season the way they
(20:55):
hoped week one loss to the Rams, but Mike McCarthy
expects his team to be a will turn things around quickly.
I think overall, you know, just to give an overall
assessment of our football team, frankly, we looked like the
football team that played its first game last night in
some areas and then in other areas, I thought we'd
we did a lot of really good things. So you know,
(21:17):
we have a grading index that we put a lot
of time into and so we're closer than than you
may think we are. But at the end of the day,
you know, our honeymoon is over. It's time to win games.
And you know that's our focus. Grading index. What's that
nonsense analytical talk grading indent? He starts starting. He's trying
to sound like he's hipping cool and analytical. That's dude,
(21:39):
that's not what you are. You know, well, you know
you got to adapt, right. We like people that are flexible,
all right, And the Falcons next week, then they're at
the Seahawks and the Browns and Giants. I do want
to remind everyone though, because it kind of feels like
the Cowboys are being a lumped into the category because
we have some expectations of them, as we do every
single year. They do have a new coach. I know
(22:01):
they are in that group of teams. It's totally fair
that has new coach this year. But if they're on
two with Seattle coming up, joy, Oh no, it's not good.
It's not good. But that this is the NFL. That's
like we were talking about. This Thursday night game for
the Browns is everything. If you lose the Burrow you're
in big trouble. It's you've got to trade people. You've
got two division games down and that's and you're losing
(22:23):
to Joe Burrow in the Bengals. So yeah, the urgency
starts right away. But I do think we need to remember,
because we talked about this a lot teams that are
coming into this particular season with new coaches or new
quarterbacks and new coordinators, they're just gonna be up against it.
A little bit. Doesn't feel that way because the rest
of the Cowboys organization is still intact. They do have
a new head coach, joy change or good stuff with
the news, Well that's the news, and thanks for stopping
(22:45):
by the third line. You know, there's a point in
my life. I thought I was a mentor for Nick Ride.
It was a respectful relationship. Then it took an ugly
turn about a year ago, and he has so much
fun mocking me. It is sometimes now it's sometimes it's testy,
but I've got to be honest. He has called this
(23:05):
all year. He all year Nick Wright doubted the Clippers
and he and he kept saying chemistry is bad, load
management nonsense. Brought to you by Mercedes Ben's the best
or nothing. You cannot wipe the smile off Nick Wright's face.
I mean, look at him. I mean it's ridiculous. Fix
(23:26):
my hair. That was God. Hey, I'm not doing great.
Most days I have I wake up and there's rainbows
and birds. Today it's a big stink ball. But you
know what, So let's just start with this, colin. What
can I before we even start? Can I make you
feel better? Okay, let me make you feel better. Everyone
(23:47):
thinks I'm gonna come on here and I'm gonna hammer you.
Here's the deal. You were obviously wrong about the Lakers
Nugget series. Yeah, but so was every single prognosticator in America.
You were also wrong about the about the Clippers Nugod series.
I should say about the Clippers winning the title, But
so was about forty to fifty of the prognosticators in America.
(24:11):
You're just in a bad spot because the only person
who had the Clippers dead right all year you gotta
talk to every week, every week. I tried to tell you.
I warned you. They were all the warning signs the
doc's history, Kawhi being wildly overrated by folks that want
to say he could be top five all time way
(24:32):
off pe acting like he's been a great playoff performer
or anything other than a Gatorade commercial. All of it.
I tried to warn you, my friend, But now go ahead,
you can have your show back. Well, let's let's do this.
Let's do let's start with this. Um. You know, I
started my show saying, we all make choices in life.
He could have stayed in Toronto with the best GM coach,
Commo in the league. He could have gone to Lebron
(24:52):
and ad Is it as simple as he chose Paul
George in a losing franchise. He made a bad decision.
Is it that simple? Well, that didn't help, But I
would have say, I would say the choice that Kawhi
really should have made would have been to play better.
That's the first choice that we're gonna take the line.
Don't be awful in the second half of these games.
(25:16):
You disrespect the regular season in total, all year long,
so you are ramping up for the postseason. And in
the first round, while your offensive numbers were great, a
twenty one year old Slovenian kid was given your buckets
all day long, and then in round two and I
don't know if we can show it. I don't know
(25:36):
if I can use some of my graphics on your show.
It's kind of rude. But Kawhi Leonard's first half versus
second half is abysmal in this series. That's thirty percent shooting.
And oh wait, there's more. How about just the fourth
quarters for the clutch closer who can win another finals?
MVP show me as fourth quarters if we could. Oh,
(25:58):
that's horrifying. Three of the seven games in this series.
Kawhi with zero fourth quarter points last night, zero fourth
quarter points, one second half field goal. So yeah, should
he Option one go to La with Lebron win titles? Sure?
Option two stay in Toronto, a team that got just
(26:18):
as far as the Clippers this year in the postseason
and didn't suffer the embarrassment being blown out in their
Game seven Round two loss. That would have been a
good one. Option three go to the Clippers and not
make them trade everything for Paul George so you can
actually get a rim protector. Option four is the one
he did. But Option four was never gonna end in
a title. I told you that, but it could have
(26:39):
ended at least in the team's first conference finals appearance
if he wasn't awful in the second half of these games,
and I just missed it. You and the real upper
tier of broadcasters in America must be on a text
chain that I'm not included in yet. Maybe I never
will be, because evidently there was an embargo on Kawhi
(27:02):
Leonard criticism, Mark Jackson, Jeff and Gunny Mike Green last
night love them all? Were they aware Kawai was one
of eleven? Should have let the audience know. I don't know,
the fact that he melted down in the fourth quarters
of these games seems relevant for a guy I was
told is the closest thing we've seen to Jordan since Kobe.
But listen, what do I know. I'm just the guy
(27:22):
that called this all year, so who knows? Who knows? Okay,
So how about this? For years and years, the Red
Sox had as much talent as the Yankees, but there
was just they just couldn't get past it. Until you'll
win it. It's hard. Is some of this this sort
of institutional They've always been the shrinking franchise and they
(27:43):
don't get far enough. Is it fair to say? And
I hate this word the Clippers frankly choked? Is that fair.
Oh they Oh, the second part is definitely fair. I
don't know if we can put the juju of the
organization on him, but this is arguably the single biggest
gag job in NBA history. So we know the three
(28:08):
one comebacks of the contemporary ones that you think of
teams that could win the title who blew a three
one lead. At least when KD did it with the Thunder,
they were playing an all time Warriors team. At least
when the Warriors did it to Lebron, they were playing
the greatest player of all time. They're playing a team
(28:30):
who has zero on the roster finals appearances. Only one
guy has made a conference finals. That's Paul Millsap, a
coach who got fired in Sacramento, a twenty two year
old kid in Jamal Murray nicolea Yokich who's got a
lower vertical leap than Joy Taylor, and I listened, he
was great. But to blow that lead and then after
(28:53):
the game say, oh, it was chemistry. You were up
fifteen in Game five and gagged. You were up nineteen
to the second half of Game six and gagged. And
these front runners, these front runners that all year long,
if they got punched back. They were like, ah, why
try when you can just wait for tomorrow. We're up
seven in the second half last night, the Nuggets go
(29:16):
on an eight oh run, and everyone, including your patron
saint of basketball Kawhi Leonard, said, this moment's too much
for me. And I want to say one more thing
on Kawai because obviously he was unbelievable last year in
the postseason, but what we are seeing is this was
the first playoff run in his career where if his
(29:37):
team underachieved, he was going to get skewered, the exact
scenario Lebron's been living in for fifteen years. And guess
what happened. The weight of expectations held him down. Obviously
it crushed way off Pe the whole time, but he's
not in the conversation for best players life. Kawai shouldn't
(29:58):
have been anyway, But certainly now that's a rap. It's
Lebron Katie when he gets healthy, and we'll see what
happens with Jannis, but that story is now over for
one Kawhi Leonard for the time being. Well, Kawhi also
didn't have to create chemistry in San Antonio. An old
team had it when he arrived. He didn't have to
create it in Toronto. The old team had it when
he arrived. He was asked in LA to create chemistry,
(30:20):
and he's fairly nonverbal. You do bring up Paul George.
This sounds hyperbolic, perhaps, but I now have multiple histories
of Westbrook and Paul George and Harden, and you're not
gonna trade Harden. But would you consider going the Paul
George thing? We know what it is. Why just go
through this again? Kawhi has got an opt out ear
(30:41):
coming up fairly quick. Do you move off Paul George?
Do you move off him? Well? I think what might
be more likely is they move off the coach. Everyone
loves Doc Rivers as a man. He is a great leader,
and I think he's a great person. But he has
authored some really really awful playoff performances which favored teams.
(31:04):
Let's been his playoff resume when he doesn't have Kevin
Garnett with him is a really really tough one. Six
times he's been up three one or three two and
lost a series. The problem for trading Paul George is this,
he also has that opt out, So how much value
does Paul George have for a team that feels like
they're only gonna get him for one year. Like if
(31:24):
you called up OKC and we're like, hey, can we
have those six first round picks Sga and Gallinari for
Paul George? Can we just undo that? They would laugh
you off the phone, like I don't know what Paul
George trade is available out there. And listen, the Clippers
are gonna have the same issues next year they had
this year. It is an odd roster. That's the thing
(31:47):
America refused to acknowledge, partially because of your endless propaganda.
They had a bunch of dhs. You had Patrick Beverley,
who is a tremendous defensive player and stinks on often,
Lou Williams of Montrase Harold who are tremendous offensive players
and stink on defense. They have no rim protection, and
(32:07):
they have a coach who all of a sudden, it's
game seven, early second half, and he's so anxious. It's
like Reggie Jackson, go in the game even though you
haven't played in five days. So that's who they're gonna
have next year. They might lose Marcus Morris, they might
lose Montrase Harrold. They're gonna try to run it back.
I don't think it's good enough, and it clearly wasn't
good enough this year. Yeah, they also don't have a
(32:28):
true point guard. It feels like most of the time
on the floor, and you see that does matter engineering stuff. Okay,
finally a couple minutes here, Lebron's had to overcome Dan Gilbert,
the Big Three, A Dynasty, Flakey Jr. And Kyrie injuries
going into a final. Am I nuts, it's the sea
(32:49):
is finally opening up for him. A D's healthy, he's
rested because of COVID, he got time off, Kawi's gone,
Jannis has gone. Is he finally catching a break in
the postseason? Well, so here's the deal. Your points well taken. Listen,
Lebron under normal NBA circumstances has five or six rings already.
(33:14):
The last four NBA finals he's lost have come to
teams with four or five Hall of Fame players on them.
Like it's just been what he's been up against is
somewhat unpressed in it. Plus the Delavedova year, plus the
year after Kyrie when he had no help aside from
an injured Kevin Love. That's all well taken. I do think,
(33:34):
of course, the Bucks not living up to their potential
potentially helps them, and the Clippers doing exactly what I
thought they would potentially helps them. Should be noted that
in twenty twenty, like this calendar year, they beat the
Bucks before the restart, before the season paused, and they
beat the Clippers both times they played them. But we
(33:57):
knew this was going to happen, right the revisionist history
of Oh, look at the easy path Lebron had, As
if folks weren't not that I'm gonna name names, Colin
Coward picking Portland to beat him, and as if when
Houston was up one Oho, they weren't saying, you know,
hardened Westbrook three pointers, big team doesn't shoot well for
(34:18):
the Lakers, that could be tough. And so now the
narrative will flip because for most people, their basketball analysis
starts and ends with how can I discredit Lebron James?
So I don't know if you and I'll leave on
this colon. You can do those Google trends searches where
it's like, how often is something search for the word
asterisk was a big subject of conversation right when the
(34:40):
restart was getting going. Then when it looked like Lebron
might lose, no one discussed it at all. Get ready
for asterisk to come back into play here in the
next few days, people like, well, does it really count?
I mean, if Miami's on the other side of the bracket,
is this a real title? The thing is this, he
was always gonna win the title. This team was always
the best team. They showed it throughout the regular season
(35:01):
and they've shown it throughout the postseason. I think the
Nuggets are to be an interesting matchup. The Lakers will
clearly beat them, and if the Heat might beat the Celtics.
But I hope the Celtics win because Lebron the one
thing he's never done is sweep a team in the finals,
and he'd do that to Boston. So you're right, ring
number four on deck. That was happening anyway. He just
got there a little differently than a lot of people expect.
(35:23):
Remember when I was your mentor remember those days it
was a respectful relationship. Yeah, you used to have better takes.
All right, buddy, what do you want from it? You
see a joy? See you as well? By Nick. By
the way, I can touch the net and I'm five
foot two, so no more disrespect to my d. Alright, alright,
(35:46):
Nick right, Nick Wright, Ladies and gentlemen, Nick right, I'm
gonna take a break. Big ten Football's back. That makes
me happy. It's the Herd. Be sure to catch live
editions of The Herd week days and nun Easter nine
am Pacific. Raikon's new ay. Let's see twenty five earbuds
best one yet six hours of playtime more base Go
to buyrecon dot com slasher twenty five percent off. One
(36:07):
of the things I've always felt my job, whether I'm
right or wrong, is to add perspective. That's what we
work on for two hours, trying to offer perspective. Unfortunately,
many in the media use a different p word, often panic.
The Big Ten's going to play football, and there's all
sorts of panic from members of the media instead of
(36:29):
offering perspective. It's going to probably be bumpy for all
of college football because the players are on campuses. There's
a lot of different ways to face COVID as a league.
UFC Renteded Island Hockey in the NBA went into a bubble.
(36:50):
Baseball and the NFL are in a highly regulated non
bubble they've all worked. This is a story about the
Big Ten that spent weeks and months trying to get
their medical protocols right, and this morning they think they've
got it right. Not perfect, not flawless, but the most
(37:12):
right we've seen. It can be bumpy. Three Big Twelve
games were canceled last week. Virginia Virginia Tech was postponed.
This is going to be bumpy. You're on a college campus.
But the media should spend less time instilling panic and
more offering perspective. Here's mine. The Big Twelve, the Big Ten,
(37:35):
excuse me, wanted to get it right, not be first
or be right. They now get their testing on Friday,
they get the results fifteen minutes later. They feel the
most comfortable they have felt yet with it. The losers
in the battle against COVID in sports are the panic drivers.
(37:56):
There's a lot of different ways to go at it.
Rent an Island, go into a bubble, a highly regulated
non bubble. Some of this in college football is about resources.
I called two athletic directors two months ago, one from
a major school and one from a small school, and
(38:17):
the small school athletic director told me, we don't have
six million dollars a year to make this work. The
big school athletic director told me it'll be rough, but
we do have six million dollars to get through a
football season a lot of the times with COVID, and
we're seeing this all throughout America. More affluent Americans, they
(38:38):
have a second home. It's not multigenerational living. They've got
more space. Resources help a lot in this. And for
the major college football powers, I think it's much easier
than it is for some of the smaller, lower budget
schools and major conferences. And that's why I think it's
going to be a little bit bumpy here. But I'm
not going to throw panic out. I don't think this is,
(39:00):
you know, the worst day in the history of the
Big Ten. I think Jerry Sandusky topped it by a mile.
My takeaway is, I'm not sure how it looks. Joy
and I have said this from the beginning. We felt
all even the bubbles have worked, but they're hard on players.
I watched videos yesterday of little boys seeing their dad
for the first time in months, and they both break down.
(39:23):
This is hard. It's hard for teachers, it's hard for
college students, it's hard for parents. It's hard for schools,
it's hard for leagues, it's hard for universities. This is hard.
Twenty twenties a pain in the arts. This is hard.
A lot of people are comfortable in habits now you
can't have them. So it's just this is difficult. But
(39:43):
my job is to offer perspective. The Big Ten didn't
want to be first. It's a very academic leaning conference.
There's a lot of academics and presidents that push back
and push back and push back. But the parents and
the coaches and the players they were willing to play
go out there, potentially play of their teams who have
(40:05):
a player with COVID. That was their choice. And I'm
for I feel this way in America, if you want
to send your kids to school, do it. If you don't, don't.
If you want to send your college kid to college,
do if you don't, don't. There are choices we all
make with this. But you know my feeling this morning,
the Big Ten didn't want to be first. They wanted
to get it as close to right as they can,
(40:25):
and they feel this morning we're as close to right
as we can. But by the way, if we end
up with Bama Oklahoma, Clemson in Ohio State New Year's Day,
Who the hell cares how we got here. If that's
what it looks like in January, and I'm not saying
it's going to there's gonna be bumps and obstacles and cancelations.
If that's what it looks like on New Year's Day,
(40:46):
then and you all took different paths to get there,
and it was bumpy for all of you, it'll feel
somewhat normal. And isn't that what we're all seeking? Our
two Joel Latin next
Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to
catch us live every weekday from twelve to three eastern,
nine to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS one.
Find your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports
Radio dot com, or stream us live every day on
the iHeartRadio app by searching Herd. You're listening to Fox
Sports Radio. Oh, here we go on an interesting Wednesday,
(00:28):
live in Los Angeles, still a Lakers town. This is
the Herd wherever you may be, and however you may
be listening Fox Sports Radio right here on FS one. Heh, boy, Clippers,
(00:50):
I'm not a I'm not a huge fan of the
word choke. Greg Norman at the Masters felt like a choke.
That was a choke. That was a choke. Can't lead
three one have big, big leads and wither away. Joey
Taylor's joining me. Well the Miami Heat one. You're happy?
(01:11):
Oh I'm I'm having a great morning. But I will
not front. I also picked the Clippers to win the championship.
So you're my partner. Can't leave you hanging out to dry.
I'll take this walk of shame with you. That was
something to watch. Okay, So this is the first time
watching the NBA in my life forty years where the
(01:32):
young teams went to the playoffs and rise Miami's young,
Boston young, Denver's young Hell, Dallas played great, a Phoenix
didn't make the playoffs. They were great. And the old
teams Milwaukee was awful and Houston was awful, and the
Clippers have older stars were awful. Only Lebron and the
(01:53):
Lakers as an old team are playing well. And that's
probably the power of Lebron and his greatness and leadership. Now,
I'd think for the next forty years that old teams
will get to the playoffs the veterans and they'll shrink
and the young teams will just flourish. No, no, no, no,
Do I think the bubble is part of kind of
his help younger players. Yeah, there's no crowds. Young players
(02:15):
shrink in the playoffs with a toxicity of crowds. And
the old players are married, they got kids. It's getting
in their head. That's some of it. But let's let's
not worry about that. Why did the Clippers lose? Okay
Kawai's overrated. Well, I saw him be the second youngest
guy to ever win a MVP in the finals, he
(02:35):
beat Lebron Wade in Bosh. I don't I don't think
he's overrated. I think he's great. Clippersn't no good. They
were overrated. Well, they were twelve and one pre bubble,
when they were healthy, and they gave Lebron An a
D and Lebron some problems. Let's make the complicated simple.
All of our lives are shaped by our choices. We
(02:56):
can blame our parents, we can blame the president. We
can blame our neighbor, we blame our brother in law.
Guys can blame their wives. Our lives are overwhelmingly shaped
by our choices. Kawai had three choices after winning in Toronto,
and I want you to just think about these. Number One,
stay in Toronto, great general manager, great head coach, very
(03:20):
good roster. Two emerging stars Van Vleet, Pascal Sayakam. There
would be no pressure. They want a title. There's no pressure.
It's in the East, which is easier than the West. Again,
the structure, the fans, the GM, the coach, the veterans,
emerging stars, no pressure. You already want a title. He
could have chosen that, he did not. His second choice was,
(03:44):
let's go to the Lakers massive brand join Lebron. Anthony
Davis was already there. They've got there's no there's no
brand pressure. They got. They got banners all over the place.
It's the biggest game in town. Lebron would be the star,
A d would be the two. And you could be
as you usually are, quiet, covert, nonverbal wind titles and
(04:06):
not and do your load management. Nobody would care. He
did not choose that our life is based on choices.
He chose the Clippers that have a history of losing,
basically rent the arena seemingly from the team that owns it.
It feels like even though the Lakers don't go to
a coach who has struggled in the postseason many times,
(04:28):
Doc Rivers, and with a teammate Paul George, who has
a history of shrinking, and a franchise the Clippers, who
have a history of shrinking, that was the choice, and
it should be noted san Antonio Kawhi wasn't responsible for
building chemistry because they had it before he got there.
Manu Tony tim Toronto, he wasn't responsible for building chemistry.
(04:51):
They'd been number one seed the previous year. They had
good chemistry, but in Los Angeles with the Clippers, Kawhi
was to a large degree. They had to give up
some pieces to get Paul and quiet. He was responsible
for building this chemistry. He's not a real talker, he's
not real communicative. He's not real verbal and isn't in
(05:12):
the end of it all a chemistry issue. I watched
last night bad Shots. The Clippers didn't have a lot
of good open looks. When they did, they didn't hit him.
Denver was fast and fluid, and oh, they just got
great open looks, lay ups and dunks and open looks.
It's like a young team that had been playing together
(05:32):
for a while and they were confident, and the Clippers
looked kind of static, and they were tight, and they
weren't loose, and they weren't getting open shots, and when
they did, they weren't hitting them. Maybe it's just as
simple as this. Kawai had three choices and he chose
the wrong one. A franchise and the Clippers that historically shrinks.
(05:55):
A teammate in Paul George that historically shrinks, And I
am a doc Rivers fans the Joe Tory of the NBA.
He's great with veteran players, wasn't a good series for him.
It was not a good series. He had bad second
halfs and bad fourth quarters. It was not a great
series for doc. And it happens. It happens. Maybe it's
(06:16):
just that simple. I don't think Kauai is overrated. I
don't think the Clippers lack talent. I do not believe
young teams will now from this point going forward, dominate
the playoffs and the veteran all stars will all shrink.
Is there a bubble component to some of this story
of young teams flourishing? Sure? This is about choices. By
(06:36):
the way, Kyrie left Lebron, bra How'd to work out?
Paul George stayed in OKC. Could have chosen Lebron. How'd
that work out? Ty Lou could have coached the Lakers?
Wanted more money, chose the Clippers? How that work out?
Sometimes it's as simple as this, stay with Lebron or
(06:58):
choose Lebron. All work out. He'll take all the pressure,
He'll take the big shots, He'll take the media criticism.
Lebron will just take it all. Put it on their shoulders.
Bro come on and join us. It's funny to think now,
right when I say this, this morning. It's so it
sounds so easy. Lebron and A D were already there.
(07:19):
We saw what Kevin Durant did. Just go join those guys,
and he chose the Clippers, and he chose Paul George.
And that's what it looks like. Here's Paul George after
the game. I think internally, we've we've always felt this
is not a championship or bust year four US. You know,
(07:41):
we can only get better the longer we stayed together,
and the more we're around each other, the more chemistry
for this group, the better. I think that's really the
tell of the tape of the season. We just didn't
have enough time together. I kind of think it was
championship bust and if it wasn't, because Lou Williams said
(08:04):
later he thought it was, and Doc Rivers thought it was,
and cou I thought he was, and Steve Balmer thought
it was. In the front office who I text off
and thought it was. Maybe this is part of the
communication issues. Paul George may not be around, Like if
you thought this was a we got a lot of
runway on the tarmac. Remember this this is a Laker town,
(08:26):
It is a Dodger town. It is a usc football town.
It's becoming an La ramtown. This is a fight. Steve
Ballmer just bought a bunch of land for a zillion
dollars to build his own arena because he's trying to
separate and create his own brand. So it's one thing
to lose, it's another to potentially watch the Lakers win
(08:50):
a title. That hurts. I mean, if the Lakers were
already out and the Clippers lose, and you're like, wow, Okay,
Denver nugget, it's the bubble. They win a championship, Now,
that's not what's going to happen. It's very possible. Now
the biggest roadblock for the Lakers is gone. The Lakers
win the championship, that's not gonna play well in the building.
(09:15):
Paul George may not be long if he's a we
got a lot of runway here. He didn't look at
it as a one yet a lot of people in
that building, they were already online looking at championship rings.
Let me segue to this, speaking of Lebron James and
(09:36):
Nick Wright in fifteen minutes will be obnoxious. If you
want to turn go ahead, he'll I'm sure it'll be
you know whatever, if you want to deal with watch
kind of that kind of nuns and whatever. Nick Rad'll
be joining us in fifteen minutes, and it's going to
be bad for me. The CEA is now opening up
for Lebron. It's now Lebron James with all sorts of
finals and championship experience. We'll be taking on den Ver
(10:01):
just took the binkie out of their mouth. Miami in Boston.
By the way, the old Lakers just got six days rest. Oh,
by the way, the Clippers a roster built to beat Lebron.
Four wing defenders gone. Lebron's career is actually, when you're
honest about it, has been a series of obstacles he's
(10:22):
had to overcome. Let's talk about him. He gets drafted
by Cleveland. They're awful. Everything's bad. Cleveland stinks. You like
to get drafted by great organizations, you know the Celtics
or you know, you know Packers No. Number two. He
walks right into a blizzard called the Big Three in Boston.
Not great. Then he ends up facing the Warriors dynasty.
(10:45):
That's another obstacle. Oh, by the way, star teammates getting hurt.
Bosh was often hobbled d Wade in Miami, Kyrie and
Kevin Love get hurt. He has to go to a
finals with Matthew Dellavedova, and then he's had to deal
with Flakes j R. Smith forgot how to keep score
of a game, and Kyrie Irving just bailed because he's
Kyrie Irving in the world is flat according to him.
(11:07):
But now it's different. Seventeen years and the c is opening.
Now it's young teams. The Clippers are out of the way.
They got a break. Denver's a bunch of babies. Now.
Now Denver's gonna understand what the big difference between you know,
the second round in the Western Conference finals, there's a
(11:29):
lot of difference. That's the difference between the Sun Bowl
and the Rose Bowl. There's a big difference second round.
Who was in it last year? Who knows? Who remembers?
We remember conference finals, we remember finals and through all
those roadblocks with Lebron, the Flakes, guys don't know the score,
the injuries, Kyrie, Kevin Love, the Big Three, the bad ownership,
(11:53):
all those roadblocks, nine finals, three titles, and for the
first time I'm ever well rested. Lebron, who, by the way,
got hurt last year, didn't play a ton COVID this year.
Think about this. COVID was actually a break for Lebron's legs.
Jannis the Eastern Rim protector. Lebron can struggle with that out.
(12:17):
Kawhi and the Clippers built the stop Lebron out. Anthony Davis,
who has a history of being injured, is finally healthy.
D Wade and Bosh, you never got hurt before. Lebron
were all banged up, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love, they got hurt.
Now It's like Anthony Davis is mister brittle. He's not hurt.
(12:39):
The CEA is opening up for Lebron opponent's health, none
of it in his way. It's gonna be painful. You know,
I'm I'm I had the Clippers, but you know it's
good if Lebron wins for me, right like you know,
(12:59):
I'm I'm on that side. So that's where we are
this morning. Nick Wright, you know, some people win, Graciously
Nick's not one of them. He will be joining us.
Joel Klattop and next hour, Big Ten's gonna play football.
As we told you last week, it's coming, It's here.
They'll play on October twenty fourth. Joel Clatton out coming
(13:19):
up next, Cleveland trade OBJ. Do it now, it's the
best for everybody. Rumors he's on the trade market. Move
him now, I'll tell you why. Be sure to catch
live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Easter nine
a Empacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the
iHeart Radio app. All right, great to have you in.
(13:40):
There are rumors and reports now that OBJ for the
Cleveland Browns is on the market. We've been saying this now.
I've been saying this since early last year. It's better
for Baker, it's better for OBJ, It's better for Cleveland.
This feels like a forced relationship. It's not working. He's
been their seventeen games and in seventeen games he had
twenty three yards. It marked the fourth time in seventeen games.
(14:03):
Odell Beckham five years ago, best receiver in football. Fourth
time he had yardage in the twenties. Six times in
seventeen games he's had three catches or fewer. This guy
five years ago was the best wide receiver. We were
talking about Randy Moss like, it's not working. I've said
this before. Relationships can't be this hard. Amari Cooper and
(14:25):
Dak Prescott the minute he arrived worked, Randy Moss and
Brady the minute he arrived at work, I mean good God,
Kyler Murray and DeAndre Hopkins fifteen catches the minute he arrives,
Emmanuel Sanders and Garoppolo. Last year, it worked instantly. It
can't be this hard. Rip the band aid off. That's
(14:46):
what Arizona did with Josh Rosen. It's what Baltimore did
with Earl Thomas. Just rip the bandaid off, take the
heat for a day, Rip it off. Listen, the grass
isn't always greener. Eli and Obj. He average almost and
catches a game in ninety three yards. That's big production.
Bakery's averaging four and a half catches in sixty yards.
That's mediocre, and OBJ is not a mediocre player. The
(15:09):
issue here is Baker Mayfield is not as good as
everybody thinks, and OBJ can be at times a little needy.
That's okay, I was in my twenties. That's Baker's just
not as good as he thinks. Baker is not good
enough to be obsessed with getting one guy the ball o.
BJ's better with a better quarterback and a better organization
(15:32):
where he feels loved. He feels stability, he doesn't feel chaos.
He's not good in that spot. The more chaos New
York had, the worst he got when he got there.
Initially with Coughlin, there was no chaos, and he was great.
But he's a kid that doesn't work good in chaos.
But you just you know when you got a problem.
The first step in solving it is admitting you got
a problem. You got to admit you got a problem.
(15:54):
You can't solve it. Cleveland's got to be like seventeen games,
three catches, twenty three yards Odell Beckham, it ain't working.
There's a lot of teams that need a receiver. Baltimore
could probably use them. San Francisco right now is a
mess at wide receiver. Green Bay maybe not their style,
but they could use another guy. Wouldn't you think different
green Bay today if they had Odell Beckham? I would
(16:16):
see at all. There's plenty of takers out there, and
there's teams with the good God, the New York Jets.
If you want to go back to New York, there
there's plenty of spots for OBJ. But you gotta just
acknowledge it's it's not supposed to be that hard. I
say this all the time. If you're in a marriage
nine years and you still have to go to therapy
once a month, it shouldn't be that much work. You
should be able to sit in the couch, watch a
(16:37):
TV show, eat pizza, laugh and feel great together. Can't.
You can't be on a yet, you can't get along
only when you're in Paris on a vacation. You got
you gotta be able to sit in the couch and
laugh on a Tuesday when it's raining outside and there's
crappy television on. You sit there a poor glass of
wine talking it works. This thing ain't working. It's just
not working. So there's all sorts of rumors out there.
And by the way, ob J I say this, all
(16:59):
Pro athlete Antonio Brown wanted out. Ob J wanted out.
The grass ain't greener. Pittsburgh was a good spot. Giants
was a good spot. Listen. It's one thing if you're
Kevin Durant and can choose where you go. But if
you're not a free agent and you're demanding to be traded,
you can end up in Cleveland. You can end up,
(17:19):
you know, with Oakland. Antonio Brown and obj I understand
guys wanting out, but if you're not a free agent,
you're not going to dictate where you go. And the
grass in pro sports is not Owa's green. Even Kawhi,
when he had a choice, may have chosen the wrong place.
Joy with the news, No, no, this is the herd
(17:40):
line news. Heat is on Colin Wow. Wow, hey Ley
know what they're They're a little bit. They're a little
bit the Denver of the East. One star player and
a bunch of emerging young players. They're pretty goods wonderful.
They continued their stellar postseason run the Big Game one
(18:01):
win over the Celtics. I was stressed out the entire time.
I think it was going to be a really long series.
I think they're very even. Yes, so the highlight of
the night came with just seconds remaining in overtime of
showing it right now, huge block by Bam had a bio,
big boy stuff right there. Bam had a bio, had
the block of his life to nine Jason Tatum what
would have been the game tying dunk block of the
(18:23):
season in the NBA. It's pretty remarkable. Well that that
Kawhi dunk was pretty memorable just because it was like
one finger with his claw. But this is I mean,
that's just unbelievable clutch play right there. That's a dunk
of the season if he doesn't get it instead of
just the block of the season. Right right, one muscle
the wrong way and that highlight goes a very higder
way for the rest of BAM's life. The Heat held
(18:45):
on to win one seventeen one fourteen in overtime. Jimmy
Butler twenty points, five rebounds, five assists, Bam eighteen six
nine and two blocks, and Goren had a team high
twenty nine points. Jason Tatum had an incredible game thirty points,
fourteen rebounds, five assistant three steals. NBA's got about nine
ten eleven young players Jamal Murray, Jason Tatum this league.
(19:07):
I don't remember a time where I think there's a
dozen young players who could all be stars. There's so
much young talent in America right now. It feels like
we're seeing not the changing of the garden, sort of
in the way the quarterbacks. But yes, the young developing
players have an incredible amount of talent, and like our
quarterbacks in the NFL, beyond quarterbacks, they're better earlier than ever, Yes, absolutely,
(19:30):
there's a fun game. Obviously I enjoyed it. Busting fans
probably not so much. But I do think this will
be a long series. Great watch Yesterday. So Michael Thomas
is dealing with an injury worse than originally expected. He
suffered a high ankle sprain on Sunday, but he believes
he would be able to play through it. However, now
the Saints are expecting their star receiver to miss several weeks.
They've reportedly thought about putting him on IR, which would
(19:53):
sideline him for at least three weeks, but Thomas is
opposed to the idea. The next three weeks they have
they're at the Raiders, then they the Packards at home,
and then they're at the line. Is it me? I
thought Linemen may suffer with the injuries the Big Uglies
a lot of wide receivers San franchesso's whole wide receiving course.
Heard a lot of wide receiver. Mike Evans is hurt.
(20:13):
Now we've got well, I mean, I don't know. I
don't have an as it's I'd have to look. I
don't want to speak out of out of hand and
not do any research on it. If there are more
injuries early. But I mean we talked about all the
injuries yesterday around the league. There's a lot of injuries, yeah,
and a lot of star receivers are banged up. Yeah.
So he had three receptions on five targets or seventeen yards.
(20:34):
He set the single season reception record in twenty nineteen
with one hundred and forty nine and led the league
in receiving yards with thousand and seven hundred and twenty five.
And he's only missed one game in his career. He's
a very durable so this is this is tough for them,
but they do have some other pieces on the offensive side,
so hopefully they can get him healthy and back soon. Finally,
the Cowboys did not start the season the way they
(20:55):
hoped week one loss to the Rams, but Mike McCarthy
expects his team to be a will turn things around quickly.
I think overall, you know, just to give an overall
assessment of our football team, frankly, we looked like the
football team that played its first game last night in
some areas and then in other areas, I thought we'd
we did a lot of really good things. So you know,
(21:17):
we have a grading index that we put a lot
of time into and so we're closer than than you
may think we are. But at the end of the day,
you know, our honeymoon is over. It's time to win games.
And you know that's our focus. Grading index. What's that
nonsense analytical talk grading indent? He starts starting. He's trying
to sound like he's hipping cool and analytical. That's dude,
(21:39):
that's not what you are. You know, well, you know
you got to adapt, right. We like people that are flexible,
all right, And the Falcons next week, then they're at
the Seahawks and the Browns and Giants. I do want
to remind everyone though, because it kind of feels like
the Cowboys are being a lumped into the category because
we have some expectations of them, as we do every
single year. They do have a new coach. I know
(22:01):
they are in that group of teams. It's totally fair
that has new coach this year. But if they're on
two with Seattle coming up, joy, Oh no, it's not good.
It's not good. But that this is the NFL. That's
like we were talking about. This Thursday night game for
the Browns is everything. If you lose the Burrow you're
in big trouble. It's you've got to trade people. You've
got two division games down and that's and you're losing
(22:23):
to Joe Burrow in the Bengals. So yeah, the urgency
starts right away. But I do think we need to remember,
because we talked about this a lot teams that are
coming into this particular season with new coaches or new
quarterbacks and new coordinators, they're just gonna be up against it.
A little bit. Doesn't feel that way because the rest
of the Cowboys organization is still intact. They do have
a new head coach, joy change or good stuff with
the news, Well that's the news, and thanks for stopping
(22:45):
by the third line. You know, there's a point in
my life. I thought I was a mentor for Nick Ride.
It was a respectful relationship. Then it took an ugly
turn about a year ago, and he has so much
fun mocking me. It is sometimes now it's sometimes it's testy,
but I've got to be honest. He has called this
(23:05):
all year. He all year Nick Wright doubted the Clippers
and he and he kept saying chemistry is bad, load
management nonsense. Brought to you by Mercedes Ben's the best
or nothing. You cannot wipe the smile off Nick Wright's face.
I mean, look at him. I mean it's ridiculous. Fix
(23:26):
my hair. That was God. Hey, I'm not doing great.
Most days I have I wake up and there's rainbows
and birds. Today it's a big stink ball. But you
know what, So let's just start with this, colin. What
can I before we even start? Can I make you
feel better? Okay, let me make you feel better. Everyone
(23:47):
thinks I'm gonna come on here and I'm gonna hammer you.
Here's the deal. You were obviously wrong about the Lakers
Nugget series. Yeah, but so was every single prognosticator in America.
You were also wrong about the about the Clippers Nugod series.
I should say about the Clippers winning the title, But
so was about forty to fifty of the prognosticators in America.
(24:11):
You're just in a bad spot because the only person
who had the Clippers dead right all year you gotta
talk to every week, every week. I tried to tell you.
I warned you. They were all the warning signs the
doc's history, Kawhi being wildly overrated by folks that want
to say he could be top five all time way
(24:32):
off pe acting like he's been a great playoff performer
or anything other than a Gatorade commercial. All of it.
I tried to warn you, my friend, But now go ahead,
you can have your show back. Well, let's let's do this.
Let's do let's start with this. Um. You know, I
started my show saying, we all make choices in life.
He could have stayed in Toronto with the best GM coach,
Commo in the league. He could have gone to Lebron
(24:52):
and ad Is it as simple as he chose Paul
George in a losing franchise. He made a bad decision.
Is it that simple? Well, that didn't help, But I
would have say, I would say the choice that Kawhi
really should have made would have been to play better.
That's the first choice that we're gonna take the line.
Don't be awful in the second half of these games.
(25:16):
You disrespect the regular season in total, all year long,
so you are ramping up for the postseason. And in
the first round, while your offensive numbers were great, a
twenty one year old Slovenian kid was given your buckets
all day long, and then in round two and I
don't know if we can show it. I don't know
(25:36):
if I can use some of my graphics on your show.
It's kind of rude. But Kawhi Leonard's first half versus
second half is abysmal in this series. That's thirty percent shooting.
And oh wait, there's more. How about just the fourth
quarters for the clutch closer who can win another finals?
MVP show me as fourth quarters if we could. Oh,
(25:58):
that's horrifying. Three of the seven games in this series.
Kawhi with zero fourth quarter points last night, zero fourth
quarter points, one second half field goal. So yeah, should
he Option one go to La with Lebron win titles? Sure?
Option two stay in Toronto, a team that got just
(26:18):
as far as the Clippers this year in the postseason
and didn't suffer the embarrassment being blown out in their
Game seven Round two loss. That would have been a
good one. Option three go to the Clippers and not
make them trade everything for Paul George so you can
actually get a rim protector. Option four is the one
he did. But Option four was never gonna end in
a title. I told you that, but it could have
(26:39):
ended at least in the team's first conference finals appearance
if he wasn't awful in the second half of these games,
and I just missed it. You and the real upper
tier of broadcasters in America must be on a text
chain that I'm not included in yet. Maybe I never
will be, because evidently there was an embargo on Kawhi
(27:02):
Leonard criticism, Mark Jackson, Jeff and Gunny Mike Green last
night love them all? Were they aware Kawai was one
of eleven? Should have let the audience know. I don't know,
the fact that he melted down in the fourth quarters
of these games seems relevant for a guy I was
told is the closest thing we've seen to Jordan since Kobe.
But listen, what do I know. I'm just the guy
(27:22):
that called this all year, so who knows? Who knows? Okay,
So how about this? For years and years, the Red
Sox had as much talent as the Yankees, but there
was just they just couldn't get past it. Until you'll
win it. It's hard. Is some of this this sort
of institutional They've always been the shrinking franchise and they
(27:43):
don't get far enough. Is it fair to say? And
I hate this word the Clippers frankly choked? Is that fair.
Oh they Oh, the second part is definitely fair. I
don't know if we can put the juju of the
organization on him, but this is arguably the single biggest
gag job in NBA history. So we know the three
(28:08):
one comebacks of the contemporary ones that you think of
teams that could win the title who blew a three
one lead. At least when KD did it with the Thunder,
they were playing an all time Warriors team. At least
when the Warriors did it to Lebron, they were playing
the greatest player of all time. They're playing a team
(28:30):
who has zero on the roster finals appearances. Only one
guy has made a conference finals. That's Paul Millsap, a
coach who got fired in Sacramento, a twenty two year
old kid in Jamal Murray nicolea Yokich who's got a
lower vertical leap than Joy Taylor, and I listened, he
was great. But to blow that lead and then after
(28:53):
the game say, oh, it was chemistry. You were up
fifteen in Game five and gagged. You were up nineteen
to the second half of Game six and gagged. And
these front runners, these front runners that all year long,
if they got punched back. They were like, ah, why
try when you can just wait for tomorrow. We're up
seven in the second half last night, the Nuggets go
(29:16):
on an eight oh run, and everyone, including your patron
saint of basketball Kawhi Leonard, said, this moment's too much
for me. And I want to say one more thing
on Kawai because obviously he was unbelievable last year in
the postseason, but what we are seeing is this was
the first playoff run in his career where if his
(29:37):
team underachieved, he was going to get skewered, the exact
scenario Lebron's been living in for fifteen years. And guess
what happened. The weight of expectations held him down. Obviously
it crushed way off Pe the whole time, but he's
not in the conversation for best players life. Kawai shouldn't
(29:58):
have been anyway, But certainly now that's a rap. It's
Lebron Katie when he gets healthy, and we'll see what
happens with Jannis, but that story is now over for
one Kawhi Leonard for the time being. Well, Kawhi also
didn't have to create chemistry in San Antonio. An old
team had it when he arrived. He didn't have to
create it in Toronto. The old team had it when
he arrived. He was asked in LA to create chemistry,
(30:20):
and he's fairly nonverbal. You do bring up Paul George.
This sounds hyperbolic, perhaps, but I now have multiple histories
of Westbrook and Paul George and Harden, and you're not
gonna trade Harden. But would you consider going the Paul
George thing? We know what it is. Why just go
through this again? Kawhi has got an opt out ear
(30:41):
coming up fairly quick. Do you move off Paul George?
Do you move off him? Well? I think what might
be more likely is they move off the coach. Everyone
loves Doc Rivers as a man. He is a great leader,
and I think he's a great person. But he has
authored some really really awful playoff performances which favored teams.
(31:04):
Let's been his playoff resume when he doesn't have Kevin
Garnett with him is a really really tough one. Six
times he's been up three one or three two and
lost a series. The problem for trading Paul George is this,
he also has that opt out, So how much value
does Paul George have for a team that feels like
they're only gonna get him for one year. Like if
(31:24):
you called up OKC and we're like, hey, can we
have those six first round picks Sga and Gallinari for
Paul George? Can we just undo that? They would laugh
you off the phone, like I don't know what Paul
George trade is available out there. And listen, the Clippers
are gonna have the same issues next year they had
this year. It is an odd roster. That's the thing
(31:47):
America refused to acknowledge, partially because of your endless propaganda.
They had a bunch of dhs. You had Patrick Beverley,
who is a tremendous defensive player and stinks on often,
Lou Williams of Montrase Harold who are tremendous offensive players
and stink on defense. They have no rim protection, and
(32:07):
they have a coach who all of a sudden, it's
game seven, early second half, and he's so anxious. It's
like Reggie Jackson, go in the game even though you
haven't played in five days. So that's who they're gonna
have next year. They might lose Marcus Morris, they might
lose Montrase Harrold. They're gonna try to run it back.
I don't think it's good enough, and it clearly wasn't
good enough this year. Yeah, they also don't have a
(32:28):
true point guard. It feels like most of the time
on the floor, and you see that does matter engineering stuff. Okay,
finally a couple minutes here, Lebron's had to overcome Dan Gilbert,
the Big Three, A Dynasty, Flakey Jr. And Kyrie injuries
going into a final. Am I nuts, it's the sea
(32:49):
is finally opening up for him. A D's healthy, he's
rested because of COVID, he got time off, Kawi's gone,
Jannis has gone. Is he finally catching a break in
the postseason? Well, so here's the deal. Your points well taken. Listen,
Lebron under normal NBA circumstances has five or six rings already.
(33:14):
The last four NBA finals he's lost have come to
teams with four or five Hall of Fame players on them.
Like it's just been what he's been up against is
somewhat unpressed in it. Plus the Delavedova year, plus the
year after Kyrie when he had no help aside from
an injured Kevin Love. That's all well taken. I do think,
(33:34):
of course, the Bucks not living up to their potential
potentially helps them, and the Clippers doing exactly what I
thought they would potentially helps them. Should be noted that
in twenty twenty, like this calendar year, they beat the
Bucks before the restart, before the season paused, and they
beat the Clippers both times they played them. But we
(33:57):
knew this was going to happen, right the revisionist history
of Oh, look at the easy path Lebron had, As
if folks weren't not that I'm gonna name names, Colin
Coward picking Portland to beat him, and as if when
Houston was up one Oho, they weren't saying, you know,
hardened Westbrook three pointers, big team doesn't shoot well for
(34:18):
the Lakers, that could be tough. And so now the
narrative will flip because for most people, their basketball analysis
starts and ends with how can I discredit Lebron James?
So I don't know if you and I'll leave on
this colon. You can do those Google trends searches where
it's like, how often is something search for the word
asterisk was a big subject of conversation right when the
(34:40):
restart was getting going. Then when it looked like Lebron
might lose, no one discussed it at all. Get ready
for asterisk to come back into play here in the
next few days, people like, well, does it really count?
I mean, if Miami's on the other side of the bracket,
is this a real title? The thing is this, he
was always gonna win the title. This team was always
the best team. They showed it throughout the regular season
(35:01):
and they've shown it throughout the postseason. I think the
Nuggets are to be an interesting matchup. The Lakers will
clearly beat them, and if the Heat might beat the Celtics.
But I hope the Celtics win because Lebron the one
thing he's never done is sweep a team in the finals,
and he'd do that to Boston. So you're right, ring
number four on deck. That was happening anyway. He just
got there a little differently than a lot of people expect.
(35:23):
Remember when I was your mentor remember those days it
was a respectful relationship. Yeah, you used to have better takes.
All right, buddy, what do you want from it? You
see a joy? See you as well? By Nick. By
the way, I can touch the net and I'm five
foot two, so no more disrespect to my d. Alright, alright,
(35:46):
Nick right, Nick Wright, Ladies and gentlemen, Nick right, I'm
gonna take a break. Big ten Football's back. That makes
me happy. It's the Herd. Be sure to catch live
editions of The Herd week days and nun Easter nine
am Pacific. Raikon's new ay. Let's see twenty five earbuds
best one yet six hours of playtime more base Go
to buyrecon dot com slasher twenty five percent off. One
(36:07):
of the things I've always felt my job, whether I'm
right or wrong, is to add perspective. That's what we
work on for two hours, trying to offer perspective. Unfortunately,
many in the media use a different p word, often panic.
The Big Ten's going to play football, and there's all
sorts of panic from members of the media instead of
(36:29):
offering perspective. It's going to probably be bumpy for all
of college football because the players are on campuses. There's
a lot of different ways to face COVID as a league.
UFC Renteded Island Hockey in the NBA went into a bubble.
(36:50):
Baseball and the NFL are in a highly regulated non
bubble they've all worked. This is a story about the
Big Ten that spent weeks and months trying to get
their medical protocols right, and this morning they think they've
got it right. Not perfect, not flawless, but the most
(37:12):
right we've seen. It can be bumpy. Three Big Twelve
games were canceled last week. Virginia Virginia Tech was postponed.
This is going to be bumpy. You're on a college campus.
But the media should spend less time instilling panic and
more offering perspective. Here's mine. The Big Twelve, the Big Ten,
(37:35):
excuse me, wanted to get it right, not be first
or be right. They now get their testing on Friday,
they get the results fifteen minutes later. They feel the
most comfortable they have felt yet with it. The losers
in the battle against COVID in sports are the panic drivers.
(37:56):
There's a lot of different ways to go at it.
Rent an Island, go into a bubble, a highly regulated
non bubble. Some of this in college football is about resources.
I called two athletic directors two months ago, one from
a major school and one from a small school, and
(38:17):
the small school athletic director told me, we don't have
six million dollars a year to make this work. The
big school athletic director told me it'll be rough, but
we do have six million dollars to get through a
football season a lot of the times with COVID, and
we're seeing this all throughout America. More affluent Americans, they
(38:38):
have a second home. It's not multigenerational living. They've got
more space. Resources help a lot in this. And for
the major college football powers, I think it's much easier
than it is for some of the smaller, lower budget
schools and major conferences. And that's why I think it's
going to be a little bit bumpy here. But I'm
not going to throw panic out. I don't think this is,
(39:00):
you know, the worst day in the history of the
Big Ten. I think Jerry Sandusky topped it by a mile.
My takeaway is, I'm not sure how it looks. Joy
and I have said this from the beginning. We felt
all even the bubbles have worked, but they're hard on players.
I watched videos yesterday of little boys seeing their dad
for the first time in months, and they both break down.
(39:23):
This is hard. It's hard for teachers, it's hard for
college students, it's hard for parents. It's hard for schools,
it's hard for leagues, it's hard for universities. This is hard.
Twenty twenties a pain in the arts. This is hard.
A lot of people are comfortable in habits now you
can't have them. So it's just this is difficult. But
(39:43):
my job is to offer perspective. The Big Ten didn't
want to be first. It's a very academic leaning conference.
There's a lot of academics and presidents that push back
and push back and push back. But the parents and
the coaches and the players they were willing to play
go out there, potentially play of their teams who have
(40:05):
a player with COVID. That was their choice. And I'm
for I feel this way in America, if you want
to send your kids to school, do it. If you don't, don't.
If you want to send your college kid to college,
do if you don't, don't. There are choices we all
make with this. But you know my feeling this morning,
the Big Ten didn't want to be first. They wanted
to get it as close to right as they can,
(40:25):
and they feel this morning we're as close to right
as we can. But by the way, if we end
up with Bama Oklahoma, Clemson in Ohio State New Year's Day,
Who the hell cares how we got here. If that's
what it looks like in January, and I'm not saying
it's going to there's gonna be bumps and obstacles and cancelations.
If that's what it looks like on New Year's Day,
(40:46):
then and you all took different paths to get there,
and it was bumpy for all of you, it'll feel
somewhat normal. And isn't that what we're all seeking? Our
two Joel Latin next
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