Speaker 1: The volume.
Speaker 2: This week on Prime Cuts, Jason timpf on ant can
Speaker 2: he become the face of the League? Nick right on
Speaker 2: a bunch of stuff and my top takes of the week.
Speaker 2: So I've been reading about NBC attacking NBA basketball negotiations
Speaker 2: and if they took them from TNT, what would they
Speaker 2: do with the inside the NBA crew. Well, first of all,
Speaker 2: the inside the NBA crew sometimes is better than the
Speaker 2: actual games, especially in the regular season. I think it
Speaker 2: would be a huge mistake to break him up. Now
Speaker 2: Ernie Johnson, who is the host, the affable host, the
Speaker 2: beloved host who you know, he just moves the pieces around,
Speaker 2: he gets out of the way. He is perfect. I
Speaker 2: do believe you could find another host. You never replace
Speaker 2: Ernie in terms of just how the players feel about Ernie.
Speaker 2: You'd have to get a host that the player voted on.
Speaker 2: You couldn't just insert somebody from another network and say
Speaker 2: make it work. Ernie has so much respect and admiration
Speaker 2: from the crew. Now, Barkley obviously drives the number, and
Speaker 2: Ernie Johnson will be the first to admit that Shack
Speaker 2: and Charles really have you know, some knights. They're feuding
Speaker 2: other Knights. They're hysterical laughing at each other. Kenny Smith
Speaker 2: more of the straight man. But it reminds me a
Speaker 2: little bit of the Fox broadcasting crew on Sundays, where
Speaker 2: you know Bradshaw was the funny guy. Howie's this straight man.
Speaker 2: Jimmy Johnson's the coach, and he really is a coach
Speaker 2: in real life and on the set he kind of
Speaker 2: runs it all. Then Kurt Man, if he knows when
Speaker 2: to jump in, push the buttons, poking the ribs, move out.
Speaker 2: Then you have Strahan Jay Glazer, but there are there's
Speaker 2: usually a star of a show, a straight man, and
Speaker 2: Ernie provides hosting capabilities that the respect and the admiration
Speaker 2: he has from the guys is kind of you won't
Speaker 2: find another Ernie, but it is led by Charles, and
Speaker 2: I think when you lose in Ernie, and that's losing something,
Speaker 2: then you have to take all of them. As great
Speaker 2: as Charles Barkley is. The chemistry is a big part
Speaker 2: of this. And in my years of doing radio and TV,
Speaker 2: and I've been doing this now thirty years, it's the
Speaker 2: one thing that the really good executives of olwa's understood
Speaker 2: and the average executives overlook is chemistry. I've had multiple
Speaker 2: partners radio TV, but yet I've had one or two
Speaker 2: shows that chemistry was outstanding. It's hard to explain, it's
Speaker 2: hard to foster. There's just like you know it, it
Speaker 2: just works. Maybe there's a mutual respect, you have something
Speaker 2: in common, somebody finishes your sentences. But if you're gonna
Speaker 2: lose Ernie, who has reportedly said, hey, I'm staying with
Speaker 2: TNT and your NBC, and you're going to bring that
Speaker 2: crew over if they did in fact win the rights,
Speaker 2: you've got to lean on that crew and they've got
Speaker 2: to make that higher. They've they've got to have run
Speaker 2: through after run through because the idea you can just
Speaker 2: insert an NBC guy in to that and it's gonna work.
Speaker 2: That would be an executive that doesn't understand fit. And
Speaker 2: I think a lot of times, you know the Fox
Speaker 2: crew or the inside the NBA crew, it's hard. Chemistry
Speaker 2: is hard on these shows. I mean Steven A. Smith
Speaker 2: at ESPN, you know he and Max Kellerman. At some
Speaker 2: point stephen A went public and said, yet this just
Speaker 2: doesn't work. Skipping Shannon worked for a while, then it
Speaker 2: didn't work. Mike and the band Dog in New York.
Speaker 2: I listened to them for years. I thought it was
Speaker 2: really good. I could tell on the air when they
Speaker 2: got tired of each other. They got real snippy at
Speaker 2: each other, very impatient with each other. You could just
Speaker 2: feel it. It was like you're driving in the car
Speaker 2: on the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut. I'm driving, you know,
Speaker 2: going to the city or coming out, and I'm listening
Speaker 2: for an hour and a half. I got a long
Speaker 2: listen and I'm like, I'm I'm not sure this sounds right,
Speaker 2: and I just I think. My overall point on this
Speaker 2: is inside. The NBA works. Yes, Charles is the star,
Speaker 2: but it works because of chemistry. It's terrific. They all
Speaker 2: like each other, they all respect each other. And it's
Speaker 2: like an NBA locker room. It takes one turd to
Speaker 2: ruin it because it's a you're flying together, you're eating together,
Speaker 2: you're hanging out. It's not like an NFL locker room.
Speaker 2: Offense goes here, defense goes there. Baseball, you know, during
Speaker 2: the game, a third of the roster is down in
Speaker 2: the bullpen. Man you get you get these crews. You
Speaker 2: got four or five guys, one bad fit blows it up,
Speaker 2: blows it up, and I think they've done such a
Speaker 2: good job. It is to me. During the regular season,
Speaker 2: I generally like the show more than the games. Now,
Speaker 2: once the playoffs start, I'm into the games. But I
Speaker 2: think you can't. People are gonna watch the NFL regardless
Speaker 2: of how good or bad the shows are. But the
Speaker 2: NBA is different. It's a long regular season. Even the players.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of apathy inside. The NBA, in my lifetime,
Speaker 2: is very unique. We're all stick around for that. I mean,
Speaker 2: I can think Fox does a great job at NBC
Speaker 2: in the NFL is not quite as good. But I'm
Speaker 2: watching the games. That's that's not the case inside the
Speaker 2: NBA gets me to a TV during the regular season
Speaker 2: when sometimes I'm not sure the players even care. All right,
Speaker 2: NBA playoffs in full swing. Jason Timp, host of Hoops Tonight,
Speaker 2: is joining us. If you look Jason that the face
Speaker 2: of the league right now is really Tatum's personality. He
Speaker 2: really is a giver. He's never a taker. You almost
Speaker 2: have to push him, nudge him to take, so he doesn't.
Speaker 2: He looks like to me, he loves being an All star,
Speaker 2: making good money and winning games. He doesn't have any
Speaker 2: real agenda to be the face of the league. Jokic
Speaker 2: mostly European guys are not interested. So like it's open
Speaker 2: for Ann Wenby's not there yet, Jokic isn't interested. You know,
Speaker 2: Giannis has never really moved the needle in terms of
Speaker 2: like ratings and beads. Not healthy. So as I'm watching
Speaker 2: him first half, he was insane, and then and then
Speaker 2: he was very quiet in the third. But as I'm
Speaker 2: watching him, I'm like, you know, Jordan had these dead quarters.
Speaker 2: I mean, Michael was classic for when his head would steam,
Speaker 2: You're like, okay, Michael's on one. And then Michael really
Speaker 2: got it. Was like a great baseball pitcher that he
Speaker 2: knew the twelve pitches he had to get people out,
Speaker 2: like Michael knew gearshift. Lebron's gotten very good at that.
Speaker 2: Like Lebron's always hoping his teammates get the game going,
Speaker 2: and if they don't, then he steps in and then
Speaker 2: at the seven minute mark they get him out. But
Speaker 2: I watched Aunt and I'm like, don't be too critical
Speaker 2: of him. Twenty five points in an NBA game and
Speaker 2: a half is a lot of work. That's a lot
Speaker 2: of energy and then in the second half you're like, uh,
Speaker 2: first of all, dumb tech talk about that all day.
Speaker 2: But my take was my take was kind of like,
Speaker 2: it's there for the taking. It feels like Denver's not
Speaker 2: equipped on the bench. You know, they could die to
Speaker 2: have a six man who could play twenty minutes of defense.
Speaker 2: This may be the moment. All these great stars have moments.
Speaker 2: It took Jordan years and years. The difference is Jordan
Speaker 2: had like iconic teams pissed and Celtics in front of him.
Speaker 2: Denver hasn't risen that. So as good as the is Jason,
Speaker 2: it feels like this is the moment to seize it.
Speaker 3: It's absolutely there for the taking. Again, I still think
Speaker 3: Denver is going to win this series. I certainly think
Speaker 3: it's way too early to just to bail on them entirely.
Speaker 3: An important element to that game too, as they spotted
Speaker 3: Minnesota in eighteen to four. Lead and Michael Molow talked
Speaker 3: after the game. Jamal Murray didn't practice all week because
Speaker 3: of his calf. Kcp's got a bad ankle, So like
Speaker 3: they are easing their way into the series in a.
Speaker 1: Lot of ways.
Speaker 3: Also generally just a little brief story, like, I play
Speaker 3: a lot of pick up basketball, but then during the summer,
Speaker 3: a lot of the college kids around town and the
Speaker 3: old guys who play overseas, they come home and I
Speaker 3: work out with them, And there's always like an adjustment
Speaker 3: for me going from lower level competition to higher level competition.
Speaker 3: And there's no doubt that Minnesota is a much higher
Speaker 3: level defense than the Lakers were. And so there's gonna
Speaker 3: be a little bit of like a oh, that pass,
Speaker 3: I need to put a little more on it. I
Speaker 3: need to be more accurate. I can't be as sloppy
Speaker 3: with my handle. This shot that I got off against Reeves,
Speaker 3: I won't be able to get off against Jade McDaniels.
Speaker 3: Like all these there's gonna be an adjustment period for
Speaker 3: Denver in this series to kind of get used to
Speaker 3: that offense. That said, as far as Aunt goes like it,
Speaker 3: it's there's still so much room for him to improve
Speaker 3: because that quiet third quarter ain't got tired. You could
Speaker 3: tell Ant got tired in that game. Yes, So there's
Speaker 3: gonna be an energy management piece that he figures out.
Speaker 3: There's gonna be like a reading the floor better piece
Speaker 3: that he figures out. There's like there's a little bully
Speaker 3: ball possession on Reggie Jackson where he just walked It
Speaker 3: was the play he got the tech. He walked him
Speaker 3: right underneath the rim and put it in. It was
Speaker 3: the easiest bucket he got all night. Like, there's gonna
Speaker 3: be a point where he realizes all these guards can't
Speaker 3: guard him and he starts destroying people even closer to
Speaker 3: the rim, and so this guy's the limit for him.
Speaker 3: I got in trouble with Celtics fans for comparing the
Speaker 3: two of them. It was a mail bag question. But
Speaker 3: then I started thinking about it and I'm like, no,
Speaker 3: this is a real thing here. This is who's the
Speaker 3: next great American player? Because there is something to be
Speaker 3: said about being the best American player in the NBA
Speaker 3: from a marketability standpoint, right sure, Like there's a reason
Speaker 3: why huge portion of my listeners are overseas. It's because
Speaker 3: the best players in the league are all from overseas,
Speaker 3: and so they've got these huge fan bases from Serbia
Speaker 3: and in the Philippines and things like that. There's all
Speaker 3: these guys that are that are supporting these players, and
Speaker 3: we need an American star that can come up and
Speaker 3: kind of take the mantle and to your point, like
Speaker 3: Jason Tatum has, he just doesn't quite have the personality
Speaker 3: for it. But the biggest piece and the main reason
Speaker 3: why I think Ant is better than him, has to
Speaker 3: do with the athleticism piece. Ant can have Bradley Beal
Speaker 3: on the wing and just utterly blow by him off
Speaker 3: the dribble and then dunk on Kevin Durant like he's
Speaker 3: not even there. And then it's not to say that
Speaker 3: Jason Tatum hasn't had big dunks in his career because
Speaker 3: he's got great size, but his first step is not
Speaker 3: nearly as dynamic as Anthony Edwards is, and so when
Speaker 3: he faces a really good defender in a late game situation,
Speaker 3: he can struggle to get to his spots. Sometimes. Aunt
Speaker 3: never struggles getting to his spot like he's gonna get
Speaker 3: a good look up. It's just a question of whether
Speaker 3: or not he can make it. And to his credit,
Speaker 3: the two big things that he's figured out that have
Speaker 3: been his inflection between the dominique and MJ kind of
Speaker 3: like fork in the road, the split for him has
Speaker 3: been he's been better at reading the floor. He was
Speaker 3: the guy who got Nasriy going last night. It was
Speaker 3: the banked in three that was a kickout from Ant
Speaker 3: when his man helped the driving, and one on the
Speaker 3: baseline that was the skip pass from Ant when he
Speaker 3: was reading a pick and roll coverage. And then the
Speaker 3: second piece of it is that jump shooting piece. He
Speaker 3: is deadly in that fourteen to eighteen foot range, and
Speaker 3: so he has a shot he can go to where
Speaker 3: it's like this is going to go in a majority
Speaker 3: of the time. It gives him like a certain level
Speaker 3: of resilience in the playoffs, and so I just think
Speaker 3: I think he's just better. I think he's the best
Speaker 3: American player in the league of that generation, and I
Speaker 3: think he has a chance to take that mantle well.
Speaker 2: To be the best player. It's like being the best
Speaker 2: country Western star. It's not just your songs are popular
Speaker 2: and easy to dance to. There's often something that really
Speaker 2: touches people. If you look at the faces of the league.
Speaker 2: I don't know if he was a face of a league,
Speaker 2: but the first player that caught my attention in the
Speaker 2: seventies was Doctor j Nobody played like that, right, Nobody
Speaker 2: played like that his hand size, and then after that
Speaker 2: was Magic Johnson, We'd never had a six eight and
Speaker 2: a half point guard. And then it was Larry Bird
Speaker 2: alongside Magic. We never had a forward easily be the
Speaker 2: best shooter and passer in the league. Like he didn't
Speaker 2: play he played like a two guard. And then you
Speaker 2: go into Shack. Okay, that's there's nothing been that powerful.
Speaker 2: Big guys don't run the floor. And then you know
Speaker 2: and before him, it's Michael the greatest player of all
Speaker 2: time with great flair. Kobe was never already the face
Speaker 2: of the league, but was like Michael Light. Then you
Speaker 2: go into Lebron, arguably the greatest player, the great Swiss
Speaker 2: army knife that does everything differently. So all those players
Speaker 2: were like to some degree, a little bit of unicorns athletically,
Speaker 2: or they had a dimension to their game. They still
Speaker 2: show Doctor Jay's dunk against Michael Cooper. It's still the
Speaker 2: greatest dunk in the history in a game. It's the seventies,
Speaker 2: it's fifty years ago with all these athletes. So with
Speaker 2: ant skit, I've watched Jason Tatum live three times. I've
Speaker 2: watched them a hundred times. He's very good. It's not
Speaker 2: historically unique looking. He's just really clever and really smooth,
Speaker 2: good two way player. Ant does stuff and you're like, okay,
Speaker 2: sorry to put the drink down. Let's I got to
Speaker 2: watch the replay on that, like whole Even NBA guys
Speaker 2: are like whoa, whoa. You see him come off the bench.
Speaker 2: So Wemby has some of that. Wemby could block eight
Speaker 2: blocks a game, you know, I mean, he could have
Speaker 2: a stretch like nobody looks like that. So I do
Speaker 2: think Ant's advantage is there's a lot of wow stuff.
Speaker 2: I mean, I remember when Shack came in the league,
Speaker 2: Jerry Tarkani and I covered him at YOUNLV. He told
Speaker 2: me when Shaq was a sophomore, I was at a
Speaker 2: place called the Late Jerry Tarkani and I covered him
Speaker 2: in Vegas at a place called Sharks or Tarks or Sharks,
Speaker 2: And we were sitting at a bar and me and
Speaker 2: a guy named John Henderson, a retired sports writer now
Speaker 2: in Italy, and he said, there's a kid named Shaquille
Speaker 2: O'Neil at Elshu and he goes, I know you've seen highlights.
Speaker 2: He's going to be the greatest past ketball player you've
Speaker 2: ever seen when he plays. And you know, Jerry was
Speaker 2: a very good recruiter, and you know, and he just said,
Speaker 2: there's never been anything like him, and that's kind of
Speaker 2: the sentence for the faces of the league. There's never
Speaker 2: been anything like him. And my take is he's a
Speaker 2: little Dominique, a little Michael. I mean, what's his comp
Speaker 2: that feels like the right comps.
Speaker 3: He's bigger and stronger than the other two guards that
Speaker 3: came before him too, Like he's got a little bit
Speaker 3: of like the downhill force that you saw from Dwayne Wade,
Speaker 3: but he's bigger and a better shooter. Right, He's got
Speaker 3: a lot of He's got some of the like the
Speaker 3: footwork stuff from the mid to high post. But again,
Speaker 3: like he's he's got like a strength and a power
Speaker 3: element to his game that even MJ and Kobe didn't have.
Speaker 3: So like, in a weird way, this is the beautiful
Speaker 3: thing about basketball history is every player it's very rare
Speaker 3: to have a guy like Kobe who's like almost almost
Speaker 3: the spitting image of the guy he was trying to
Speaker 3: be like. Right, Like Kobe and MJ were so similar,
Speaker 3: Ant's kind of got his own unique flair on it.
Speaker 3: It's like it's like Dwayne Wade meets better jump shooting
Speaker 3: meets the body of a middle linebacker in the NFL. Like,
Speaker 3: it's it's it's it's hard, it's hard to describe, but like,
Speaker 3: and then again, the big piece of it is like
Speaker 3: this guy's going to Kevin Durant and he's like, yeah,
Speaker 3: you're my favorite player, but you know I'm busting your ass.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: It's like this weird like shit talking mixed with respectful
Speaker 3: mixed with like incredible aggression. But he's also just got
Speaker 3: this huge personality and that to me is a big
Speaker 3: part of the marketability element, where like I could see
Speaker 3: him being a superstar in the league for decades.
Speaker 2: All right, Caitlin Clark topic, So, and this is just
Speaker 2: off the top of my head, but if you look
Speaker 2: at players who have missed and I don't watch enough
Speaker 2: WNBA to have a strong opinion, but if you look
Speaker 2: at basketball in general, on players that miss college to
Speaker 2: pro h, it's a lot of bigs, a lot of
Speaker 2: injury issues. Sometimes biggs come into the league and they
Speaker 2: just they just they're a little old school. It's new school.
Speaker 2: They get pushed around, teammates, coaches, lose confidence, generally point guards.
Speaker 2: I mean, I mean, listen, if you're quick, if you distribute,
Speaker 2: you can shoot a little bit. It's hard to bust.
Speaker 2: You can find a space for a guy maybe in rotation.
Speaker 2: So and I always feel that way with shooters. If
Speaker 2: you're quick and you can get a good shot and
Speaker 2: you can shoot that, the leagues just need. It's not
Speaker 2: a lot of guys that can really shoot that have
Speaker 2: been busts. They'll find a way. Even if you're an
Speaker 2: awful defensive player, they'll bring you off the bench, they'll
Speaker 2: put you in patterns so you're not having to guard
Speaker 2: the best defensive players. So like Caitlin Clark, there's this
Speaker 2: sense is, oh, she's going to be a can't miss
Speaker 2: well even in the NFL, there is no camp miss
Speaker 2: there are no camp misses. My take on her though,
Speaker 2: is she is really quick, she has tremendous quart awareness,
Speaker 2: so players are going to like playing with her. Like
Speaker 2: in Iowa, you know, she makes great passes people can't
Speaker 2: finish like people now can finish in the WNBA. So
Speaker 2: and also she gets a shot and she's a devastating shooter.
Speaker 2: So I do see her transforming the league. I don't
Speaker 2: think we've seen a shooter like that in the league.
Speaker 2: And I also think again her court awareness. Playing with
Speaker 2: better finishers, people are gonna want to play with her.
Speaker 2: Even if she struggles, she'll get other people involved. Then
Speaker 2: she'll draw so much attention. What is your guess on
Speaker 2: what kind of player she is? Is she a first
Speaker 2: team All WNBA, because I just don't I don't have
Speaker 2: You know, the length is much different in the WNBA,
Speaker 2: like six six sixty seven is. Everybody's got those level players,
Speaker 2: so you don't get the freebies down bow. You know,
Speaker 2: in college you can get some real cheap baskets men's
Speaker 2: and women's. I think she's going to be a star,
Speaker 2: but I have no nothing to judge it on. I mean,
Speaker 2: you're I mean Cheryl Miller was bigger, taller. I mean
Speaker 2: there's certain times you don't get athletes and you just
Speaker 2: go Candas Parker. That's gonna work. But a shooting guard
Speaker 2: from Iowa, I don't know what do we.
Speaker 1: Make of it.
Speaker 3: So I actually view the college game as more challenging
Speaker 3: to score than people think. And there's a bunch of
Speaker 3: reasons for that one, Like look at that Iowa team.
Speaker 3: There are a lot of girls on that team that
Speaker 3: could shoot right. So like the spacing isn't as good.
Speaker 3: One of the things that's interesting to me about college
Speaker 3: hoops is the athleticism is always much further along than
Speaker 3: the offensive skill development, so like it's actually like a
Speaker 3: lot of and then the coaching is really good, and
Speaker 3: the level of intensity on a game to game basis
Speaker 3: is really really high. So it's actually really difficult to
Speaker 3: score at the college level. And to your actually one
Speaker 3: hundred percent agree with you on your take on like
Speaker 3: the safety of a player, like the the like an
Speaker 3: offensively skilled player being kind of bust proof in the
Speaker 3: sense that like the vast majority of players that demonstrated
Speaker 3: they could score at the college level get into the
Speaker 3: NBA and they're able to score, and it's because there's a.
Speaker 2: Gr for Debt was a very small player by NBA standard.
Speaker 2: She's not, I mean, so there are people that just
Speaker 2: can't defend at all. She's not small. She's not you know,
Speaker 2: Caitlin's got some size st her as well. You kind
Speaker 2: of push her around either. She's a feisty player.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, And like I thought that was one of
Speaker 3: the first things that first of all, such a statement
Speaker 3: to me about just the type of phenomenon that Caitlin
Speaker 3: Clark is that Like I was covering a game that day.
Speaker 3: I think it was I think it was the it
Speaker 3: might've been the the Nuggets Wolves game. I can't remember.
Speaker 3: I was watching a game for my job that day
Speaker 3: and I literally got my phone up and downloaded the
Speaker 3: WNBA app and I watched it. I was like, I
Speaker 3: texted my wife. My wife was at the airport flying
Speaker 3: home from Chicago, and I texted her and I was like, hey, like,
Speaker 3: Caitlin Clark's playing on the WNBA app right now. She
Speaker 3: stopped everything she was doing and she downloaded the app
Speaker 3: and she watched the game, which just goes to show
Speaker 3: you the like, the type of phenomenon that she is.
Speaker 3: But like, as I was watching, like she can get
Speaker 3: separation from these girls. And in addition to that, like
Speaker 3: everyone always focuses on like, oh, the athleticism goes up
Speaker 3: a level, all this gets more difficult. But basketball doesn't
Speaker 3: work like that. You're not just playing one on one
Speaker 3: all game long, Like you're running sets. You're doing things
Speaker 3: that are designed to generate openings, and she has the
Speaker 3: skill to make shots in those openings. And so there
Speaker 3: was it was such a I don't know what it
Speaker 3: is about Caitlin and maybe it is her fame, but
Speaker 3: there seems to be this like segment that's almost like
Speaker 3: rooting for her to fail. It's kind of it's kind
Speaker 3: of bizarre to me. I don't understand it. But the
Speaker 3: truth of the matter is is like she might have
Speaker 3: certain matchups, like she might run into specific defenders at
Speaker 3: the WNBA that give her some issues. She's gonna have
Speaker 3: off shooting nights. She's gonna have because she's new at this.
Speaker 3: She's gonna have stretches where it doesn't look as pretty.
Speaker 3: But to me, it's a pretty safe bet that she's
Speaker 3: gonna score a lot of baskets in the WNBA for
Speaker 3: a long time.
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Speaker 2: You live in Arizona, and we've talked about this is
Speaker 2: that you can get more for Booker. But remember Phoenix
Speaker 2: was not good pre Chris Paul, so he's not a
Speaker 2: leader guy and he can't carry a franchise, and then
Speaker 2: you disappointed this year with Durant and Beale around Booker.
Speaker 2: Booker's your classic, you know, cat shoot. I don't think
Speaker 2: he's a great athlete. He's just a he's a dependable
Speaker 2: twenty five twenty six a night. He can be really
Speaker 2: streaky and get into the thirty five for long stretches,
Speaker 2: like he's a crazy streak shooter. But I think you
Speaker 2: make the mistake if you like in Orlando, if Orlando
Speaker 2: made a move Boncaro's you're one to me, it feels
Speaker 2: like and Booker comes in is a really good two.
Speaker 2: But I want another score with the forward, you know,
Speaker 2: another some size, some length. So like if you're Phoenix
Speaker 2: now Biale and Kevin Durant, well, if you get rid
Speaker 2: of Booker, I got to get some young players over here,
Speaker 2: because those guys are going to miss some spots, although
Speaker 2: Durant played a ton this year. So my take is,
Speaker 2: your Phoenix, you can bring it all back, but there
Speaker 2: are issues. You don't have a classic point guard, you
Speaker 2: don't have much of a bench, so those are real issues.
Speaker 2: You can keep bringing stuff back, but it's like at
Speaker 2: some point you have holes. Right, we see like Milwaukee,
Speaker 2: you can bring it all back, and they may have
Speaker 2: to because they don't have they don't have a lot
Speaker 2: of assets, and this is an old roster. They're all
Speaker 2: locked up. I don't think that many people want I
Speaker 2: think Dame, you could move and you honest, but they
Speaker 2: don't want to move those two. So my takeaway is
Speaker 2: you watch a lot of Suns basketball, who would you move?
Speaker 2: Where would you move them? Because it feels like to me,
Speaker 2: people are gonna make They're going to get more phone
Speaker 2: calls than any team in the league because there's a
Speaker 2: lot of New York Knicks in Orlando's out there looking
Speaker 2: at Phoenix thinking.
Speaker 1: It ended poorly.
Speaker 2: You know, they they want to get out of stuff.
Speaker 2: They don't want to say it publicly. Phoenix is saying, hey,
Speaker 2: we're bringing the band back together, but it's a flawed team.
Speaker 2: Vocal likes bigs.
Speaker 1: They don't.
Speaker 2: It's not built for him. What would you do.
Speaker 3: You have to say that to You can't be like, yeah,
Speaker 3: oh yeah, fire sale this summer, you come and get them.
Speaker 3: But like the as far as far as I'm concerned,
Speaker 3: so much of this comes down to how you viewed Booker,
Speaker 3: and a lot of Suns fans view him as like
Speaker 3: a bona fide franchise cornerstone. And the point, the thing
Speaker 3: they point to there is the twenty twenty one season.
Speaker 3: But it's like, Okay, hold on a second, let's let's
Speaker 3: filter through that. The conference finalists out West was a
Speaker 3: team led by Paul George. Okay, without without Kawhi Leonard
Speaker 3: and uh Trey Young made the conference finals out East,
Speaker 3: like it was they won. The Bucks won that series
Speaker 3: with Gianni said in a hyper extended knee over the
Speaker 3: last couple of games. So like, really that was the
Speaker 3: weird COVID season where all the good teams got hurt.
Speaker 3: All the good teams got hurt, The Lakers got hurt,
Speaker 3: the Nuggets got hurt, the mime he got hurt, Like
Speaker 3: everyone was hurt yep in that season. So like it
Speaker 3: was kind of this gap year, totally legitimate championship for
Speaker 3: the Bucks, but like the Suns, getting to the finals,
Speaker 3: I think got them to believe in Devin Booker as
Speaker 3: this like franchise cornerstone. I look at Devin Booker more
Speaker 3: as like the Kyrie Irving type of archetype. If I
Speaker 3: could put him next to a real a franchise player
Speaker 3: and he can just focus on being a late game
Speaker 3: shot maker, slash guy that can spell your star for
Speaker 3: stretches and run the offense. That's the kind of fit
Speaker 3: that I like. And so when I look at the
Speaker 3: Sun situation, Bradley Beal, I think is a really good player,
Speaker 3: but his trade value is low because he's older, injury prone,
Speaker 3: and on a long term deal that pays him a
Speaker 3: shit ton of money. Right, Kevin Durant, really good player,
Speaker 3: but old and just in a situation where like he
Speaker 3: doesn't have as much value around the league. Devin Booker
Speaker 3: is a guy that you can trade and get a
Speaker 3: haul and so all yeah, And so what I was
Speaker 3: pitching is like, embrace, like have the self awareness to
Speaker 3: embrace the fact that Devin Booker's not going to be
Speaker 3: your franchise cornerstone and then be like Okay, well, how
Speaker 3: do we turn this situation into something more fun? I
Speaker 3: would call Orlando and I'd be like, Hey, you got
Speaker 3: dev you got Palo Bancaro, but you just lost a
Speaker 3: series to the Calves because nobody can create a shot
Speaker 3: other than Palo, and no one can make jumpers. So
Speaker 3: like you need somebody that can come in and just
Speaker 3: be like a skill guard next to Palamonkaro. And so
Speaker 3: if I would call them and I'd be like, I
Speaker 3: want Jalen Suggs, I want Jonathan Isaac, and I want
Speaker 3: Wendell Carter Junior.
Speaker 2: That's a lot.
Speaker 4: That is a haul.
Speaker 1: Those are three really good.
Speaker 2: Hey, Jus was viewed as a bust six months ago.
Speaker 3: Exactly into Suggs's credit, He's turned himself into one of
Speaker 3: the best permitter defenders in the league and a good
Speaker 3: three point shooter, right, Like, he's a very valuable archetype.
Speaker 3: So now if I'm the Suns, I'm looking at it.
Speaker 3: And by the way, you might be able to even
Speaker 3: coax Orlando and to throwing you a draft pick or
Speaker 3: two in that deal, who knows, depending on how that
Speaker 3: conversation would go. But then I look at it and
Speaker 3: I'm like, Okay, Now I've got I've got Jalen Suggs,
Speaker 3: an elite point of attack defender, something Phoenix did not
Speaker 3: have last year. I've got Bradley Beal Steele is still
Speaker 3: a high powered number two. I've got Kevin Durant Jonathan Isaac,
Speaker 3: two really rangy long wings that can do a lot defensively.
Speaker 3: And I'm going from Yusuf Nurkic an old, a slow
Speaker 3: footed big center, to Wendell Carter Junior, who is a big, strong,
Speaker 3: athletic young center who can shoot the three ball. And
Speaker 3: so it kind of creates like a more fun Phoenix
Speaker 3: Suns team. And it's just an acknowledgment of the reality
Speaker 3: that you weren't going to be able to rebuild around
Speaker 3: Booker and then go into these series with him as
Speaker 3: the best player, because like, if you go into a
Speaker 3: series Devin Booker is your best player, or into a
Speaker 3: playoff run, you're going to run into a lot of
Speaker 3: teams that are better players than Devin Booker. You just are.
Speaker 3: And so that's that problem is not going away. And
Speaker 3: if I'm Orlando, I'm looking at it like follow is
Speaker 3: a franchise cornerstone. But clearly, this clearly this build where
Speaker 3: it's like we're big and strong and athletic, but nobody
Speaker 3: can shoot.
Speaker 2: No one can dribble, no one can they can't shoot.
Speaker 3: That's not working either, And so I look at that
Speaker 3: as like, we'll figure out the rest later. Give me
Speaker 3: Devin Booker at age twenty seven. Yeah, next to next
Speaker 3: to my young star who just averaged twenty seven points
Speaker 3: per game in a seven game series against an elite
Speaker 3: defense when no one else on his team could make
Speaker 3: anything and he had to do everything. It was a
Speaker 3: really impressive series from Pallad. He's got a lot of that,
Speaker 3: like physical imposition on the game that is super valuable.
Speaker 2: We bring in my buddy Nick, right, we chop it
Speaker 2: up on a variety of topics. I mus as well
Speaker 2: start with a very serious topic, which is near and
Speaker 2: dear to me.
Speaker 1: How do you feel about this, that this is what
Speaker 1: you're going to be known for, honest to god, how
Speaker 1: do you feel about it? I mean, it's now gotten
Speaker 1: to you know Lebron and shout out, Well, I'll let
Speaker 1: you set it up at your podcast. You set it up,
Speaker 1: but go ahead.
Speaker 2: Well Lebron reacted to it, and JJ Reddick reacted to it.
Speaker 2: So This started years ago. I think it was Tony Romo.
Speaker 2: I was at the other place, ESPN, and Tony Romo
Speaker 2: was doing something at the podium. And it's always been
Speaker 2: about the weekly Wednesday podium. When you're a franchise quarterback,
Speaker 2: I don't care if you're any other position. I don't
Speaker 2: care about offseason. I care about the quarterback face of
Speaker 2: the franchise on a Wednesday podium, looking like you know,
Speaker 2: you're the face of the franchise because you are the
Speaker 2: coach on the field and the highest paid player usually.
Speaker 2: And so I said something about it. And Steve Spurrier
Speaker 2: was the college coach at South Carolina, and in his
Speaker 2: weekly media session he literally said, in his southern voice,
Speaker 2: Now I was listening to a radio host, Colin Coward,
Speaker 2: say something here, Dan. I really agreed with him, and
Speaker 2: you know, he went on about it. He said, I
Speaker 2: kind of liked it, and I kind of agreed with it,
Speaker 2: and so I thought, see, I'm not that crazy. That's
Speaker 2: not a bad idea. So and I did it a
Speaker 2: couple more times. Now it's gotten a life of its own,
Speaker 2: and I think most people now, well, I shouldn't say that.
Speaker 2: I think a big chunk of people sort of get
Speaker 2: I'm being theatrical and my outrage is somewhat manufactured.
Speaker 1: I don't, but but it comes from a real opinion. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you have, you have. The further along it's gone, the more,
Speaker 1: I don't want to say ridiculous, but you you, it's
Speaker 1: become a thing I'm totally here for. But the and
Speaker 1: we we've talked with this once before, and I'm going
Speaker 1: to reiterate the point and actually tie it back to
Speaker 1: today's thing, which is, even if people vehement disagree with
Speaker 1: you on the specifics of backwards hat for forwards hat, everyone,
Speaker 1: if they're being honest, should be able to admit we
Speaker 1: all have a backwards hat thing that makes us judge
Speaker 1: people like there is there. So it can be as
Speaker 1: simple as, oh that person who I thought was like
Speaker 1: a big time, you know, powerbroker, Oh he doesn't match
Speaker 1: his belt to his shoes, like, oh, he's not as
Speaker 1: sophisticated as I thought. Or again, I'm just making that up.
Speaker 1: So here's what I found so funny about today. I
Speaker 1: don't really give a shit that JJ Reddick was wearing
Speaker 1: a backwards hat at all. You know what, you know
Speaker 1: what happened today though, that gave me another piece of
Speaker 1: evidence that said I would not hire JJ Reddick right
Speaker 1: now to be the head coach of Los Angeles. That
Speaker 1: he responded to the clip that to me was far
Speaker 1: more damning than his hat. It's like, buddy, you can't
Speaker 1: Three days ago I saw you on the Internet arguing
Speaker 1: with a San Francisco radio producer. Now you're watching clips
Speaker 1: of Howard talking about you loling it like I just
Speaker 1: I don't think you're going to go from that level
Speaker 1: of internet engagement, maybe even searching your own name all
Speaker 1: that stuff that people do, by the way, and I'm
Speaker 1: not judging them for it, but I don't think it'd
Speaker 1: be healthy to do as the head coach of the
Speaker 1: Los Angeles Lakers. And I don't think you'd turn it
Speaker 1: off in a week. So I don't care about the hat.
Speaker 1: I care that he reacted to the clip, like I
Speaker 1: really do, and by the way, I wouldn't care at
Speaker 1: all if it was like a broadcaster like just in
Speaker 1: his current job react to whatever you want, but a
Speaker 1: different job we're talking about now, which again, I don't
Speaker 1: think you would care about the backwards hat if it's
Speaker 1: just he he's the NBA announcer. But if it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: you're gonna be the head coach of my team, So
Speaker 1: I get it. I actually get it.
Speaker 2: Well. I mean, if you don't think appearance matters, your
Speaker 2: daughter's on the emergency table in a hospital and a
Speaker 2: surgeon came in in a suit and they put his
Speaker 2: white or a blue robe over it, or a backwards hat,
Speaker 2: what would you prefer? Or your pilot on a plane
Speaker 2: came in or he has hat backwards, which would I prefer?
Speaker 2: A turbulent night?
Speaker 1: Well and so, and I also think, you know, Lebron
Speaker 1: responded with two pictures and I wasn't sure who the
Speaker 1: first guy was because the second guy's Jason Kid, and
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, he's done a great job, and it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: but Jason Kidd also JJ has this going for him
Speaker 1: as well, like you know, former athlete, former athlete turned
Speaker 1: coaches a little different, which is where I think JJ
Speaker 1: probably has more of a you know, margin Ferrera here.
Speaker 1: But the other guy, I was like, who is that?
Speaker 1: And then we figured it out it's the guy who
Speaker 1: owns the Jazz. Well. At some point, you like you
Speaker 1: succeed out of like now, all of a sudden, you
Speaker 1: never have to wear a suit. Like I don't know
Speaker 1: if you watched the show Billions, but the may I
Speaker 1: know it's fictional, but the main character Bobby Axelrod, who
Speaker 1: was the billionaire he'd go to work, everyone's wearing a suit.
Speaker 1: He's wearing a Metallica T shirt. Because it's like, eh,
Speaker 1: I own the place. I kind of can like, yes,
Speaker 1: there is that element to it, but but I love it.
Speaker 1: I think it is my I mean, it is so
Speaker 1: funny that four times a year, I know, I'm like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: half of Colin's show is taking care of for no reason.
Speaker 1: And because there's always new people in the ecosystem, there
Speaker 1: are people who this is their first experience with you
Speaker 1: and backwards hat and so they don't get any of that,
Speaker 1: not that it's a joke, but that this has been
Speaker 1: a twenty year thing. And those people replying are the best.
Speaker 1: They're like this guy you got, I mean, it is
Speaker 1: the best, and you don't have to explain the joke.
Speaker 1: Just let him go. It's it's the best.
Speaker 2: I do think one more injury and the Bengals have
Speaker 2: to draft another quarterback near the top first, second, third round.
Speaker 2: I think that's becoming a reality. This is why I
Speaker 2: defended I said this today about Michael Pennix. Last year,
Speaker 2: the Falcons had no good quarterbacks and couldn't win a
Speaker 2: bad division. This year, they'll have the two best quarterbacks,
Speaker 2: and you're complaining about it, like sixty six quarterbacks played.
Speaker 2: We're getting to it. We're getting to a point with
Speaker 2: Burrow that it's a real discussion you've got to have
Speaker 2: at least a b backup. Now, Brady didn't like it
Speaker 2: because he never got hurt with Garoppolo and big Ben. Similarly, Hey,
Speaker 2: I'm still I can still chug along. My injuries are fine.
Speaker 2: But I think Burrow is gonna have to own Hey,
Speaker 2: this team needs a backup and not a sixth rounder,
Speaker 2: maybe a third rounder when we have other needs. So
Speaker 2: I think that's a real discussion that Joe and the
Speaker 2: Bengals have to have.
Speaker 1: For sure that you mentioned Pinnix. So I'm glad you
Speaker 1: mentioned that because I want to talk about both those
Speaker 1: quarterbacks for a moment. I have not understood the tiny
Speaker 1: violins for Kirk Cousins that have been out. Yeah or
Speaker 1: do I here's the deal, man, And this is gonna
Speaker 1: sound shitty, and I don't mean it too. But it's honest,
Speaker 1: Kirk Cousins is not good enough to get everything he wants.
Speaker 1: That's the thing. If Kirk Cousins is good, he is
Speaker 1: not good enough to get so do I. I want
Speaker 1: to play in the worst division in football, no problem.
Speaker 1: I want to play in a dome. We can do that.
Speaker 1: I want to have another massive payday with one hundred
Speaker 1: million guaranteed. Okay, we can do that too. I want
Speaker 1: to have a lot of weapons. You know what We've
Speaker 1: got that. I don't want to have any competition whatsoever. Sorry,
Speaker 1: can't give you that one. That's like you don't like
Speaker 1: the He is good enough to get a lot, but
Speaker 1: not everything. And when you are something of a football mercenary,
Speaker 1: if you will, you have taken the money and moved whatever.
Speaker 1: And to his credit, there's a trade off and everything
Speaker 1: in life. One of those things is you haven't built
Speaker 1: up the equity within the organization for them to be like,
Speaker 1: oh man, he's gonna hate this. They just met you
Speaker 1: like sorry, like the there's and the person I feel
Speaker 1: for in this is Pinnix. That like the the if
Speaker 1: if if sports broadcasting worked the way the NFL does,
Speaker 1: And I'm coming out of Syracuse and I'm considered one
Speaker 1: of the three or four best in the world. And
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh man, there's this spot in this radio
Speaker 1: station in Las Vegas that might pick me, that has
Speaker 1: openings all over the place. There's a radio station in
Speaker 1: Denver that might pick me, that has openings all over
Speaker 1: the place. And then all of a sudden, I get
Speaker 1: picked by a radio station in Atlanta and they're like, Buddy,
Speaker 1: all our shows are filled up, but we think in
Speaker 1: two years maybe you'll have one. Be like, you gotta
Speaker 1: be kidding me. All these other places wanted me to play,
Speaker 1: like I'm by the way, I went to grad school,
Speaker 1: I'm old, Like you're talking about me, like I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna get on the air till I'm twenty six. Like
Speaker 1: this sucks. And so I everyone was like, oh man,
Speaker 1: Kirk so disappointed. And I was sitting there thinking, like
Speaker 1: I get that he gets the money or whatever, but
Speaker 1: pinnis that differge for me to being the eighth pick
Speaker 1: and the thirteenth pick is not a ton of money.
Speaker 1: He was gonna be getting first round guaranteed money no
Speaker 1: matter what, and now he's gotta sit so and again,
Speaker 1: maybe it ends up being good for him, and he's
Speaker 1: in a dome and he has the weapons. But if
Speaker 1: we're gonna feel badly for either of these two quarterbacks,
Speaker 1: it's not the guy who just left his team got
Speaker 1: a hundred million bucks coming off in Achilles. It's not
Speaker 1: him that I feel badly for.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I would say Kirk Cousins, and there's
Speaker 2: people like this in every industry, has monetized his position
Speaker 2: to the highest possible level. Yes, Brady took pay cuts,
Speaker 2: Tim Duncan took pay cuts. Yeah, in the history of football,
Speaker 2: Kirk Cousins has monetized his talent to the greatest level
Speaker 2: and deserves great respect for that. But to your point, Kirk,
Speaker 2: there's a trading. Yeah. Tom Brady can say Bruce arians
Speaker 2: go upstairs. Yeah, Kirk Cousins isn't going to say that
Speaker 2: to a coach, right.
Speaker 1: That's the thing is, you don't. If you the only
Speaker 1: people who get everything they want in their work life
Speaker 1: are the absolute apex best, And if you are the
Speaker 1: if you are the very best in your field, you
Speaker 1: can kind of write the contract. If you are, that's
Speaker 1: still super valuable. But there's seven or eight people better
Speaker 1: than you, then you're gonna get most of what you want,
Speaker 1: but not all of it. And I just think that's normal,
Speaker 1: Like I it doesn't. I didn't. And I'm an empathetic person.
Speaker 1: I can I can cry at the good enough tweet,
Speaker 1: you know. I don't know if somebody put out a
Speaker 1: tweet the other day. It was like my dad wrote
Speaker 1: me these letters every morning before school growing up. I
Speaker 1: read it. I teared up. I'm like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: Like I really think I'm an empathetic person, but I
Speaker 1: didn't feel a moment where I'm like, oh, poor Kirk Cousins.
Speaker 1: It's like, what because you don't want to, because you
Speaker 1: deserve to not have to compete, and you're not even
Speaker 1: really competing, Like it's your job. You're really gonna have
Speaker 1: to screw up to not have it be your job.
Speaker 1: I don't get it. I just don't get it.
Speaker 3: Hey everyone, it's Jason Timp, host of Hoops Tonight. Make
Speaker 3: sure you check us out live after games on the
Speaker 3: Hoops Tonight YouTube channel as we provide instant reaction and
Speaker 3: analysis of all the big NBA playoff games. Again, that's
Speaker 3: the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel and wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2: So I'm divorced and my ex wife and I have
Speaker 2: a fine relationship. We don't talk much anymore, but it
Speaker 2: was always very or respectful.
Speaker 1: Sure, so.
Speaker 2: I totally get that it's a roast. I totally get it,
Speaker 2: but I do hear the Giselle jokes and I think,
Speaker 2: to myself, that's a little rough for me.
Speaker 1: Like I thought about this, I couldn't believe we signed
Speaker 1: up for it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I thought if somebody wanted to roast me, the
Speaker 2: first thing I would think about is I got to
Speaker 2: protect my kids. Right, That's the first thing I would say.
Speaker 2: That's almost the first thing I think about always is
Speaker 2: how is this going to land for my kids? And
Speaker 2: when I listened to the jokes, I thought a lot
Speaker 2: of it was hilarious. But I think I would have said, hey, don't,
Speaker 2: I don't want you going after my kids.
Speaker 1: But then right, but that's but that's so here's the
Speaker 1: thing that but it's a roast. So I don't watch
Speaker 1: this is a I'm sure there's a word for it.
Speaker 1: I I don't watch roasts because there's a level of
Speaker 1: like that secondhand embarrassment thing is like something I really
Speaker 1: don't deal with. Well, Like there are certain times like
Speaker 1: that we were talking about Curb earlier. There would be
Speaker 1: certain moments in Curb where like I literally like I
Speaker 1: turn away, like I'm like, oh, I feel so even
Speaker 1: though it's make believe and it's someone else, I get
Speaker 1: something internally. I feel uncomfortable with so a roast where
Speaker 1: And it's not that I don't watch roast because I'm
Speaker 1: offended by the jokes. It's because there are certain things
Speaker 1: where I feel so badly for the person involved that
Speaker 1: it makes me feel uncomfortable. It's why I was shocked
Speaker 1: it existed. It's I just was shot. Like I get
Speaker 1: why comedians do it to comedians, and I get why
Speaker 1: fringe I don't want to be rude. I get why
Speaker 1: Pete Rose would sign up for long like yeah, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, I'm in the spotlight. It's a check,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like, I get those things
Speaker 1: I don't under like I was shocked that Tom signed
Speaker 1: up for it because it just feels like there's so
Speaker 1: many landmines and so much like you were saying, I didn't,
Speaker 1: I thought, yeah, there were a lot of people that
Speaker 1: seems like and I'm not really an expert to talk
Speaker 1: about this because again, like I didn't. I've seen some clips,
Speaker 1: so I didn't watch it because I just don't enjoy that.
Speaker 1: But it seems like there were a lot of people
Speaker 1: that were not there that feel like that was not
Speaker 1: fun for me or my family, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: all of it, and so I don't. I also was
Speaker 1: kind of shocks. I was like, did Tom admit to
Speaker 1: to flategate in this thing? Was that? Like, like what,
Speaker 1: I didn't understand a lot of it, but he listen,
Speaker 1: he I mean he the What didn't surprise me from
Speaker 1: the coverage of it was that Belichick came off great.
Speaker 1: What didn't surprise me is that people said, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, that he came off great and did
Speaker 1: a great job. That that sound that checks out to me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I'm not I'm not blaming anybody for the
Speaker 2: Gazelle jokes. I just thought, ooh that I would.
Speaker 1: I would. Yeah.
Speaker 2: That was the one where I was like, eh, God,
Speaker 2: I don't. And I'm like you, I think Jeffrey Ross
Speaker 2: and Nikki Glazer are great at what they do. I
Speaker 2: I can't believe you have secondhand embarrassment. I suffer from
Speaker 2: the same thing. Like I don't like to see people
Speaker 2: bullied or hugely embarrassed.
Speaker 1: I would rather. I know this sounds absurd. I so
Speaker 1: I take the subway every day, and you from when
Speaker 1: I pick up my daughter from school, I take subway home,
Speaker 1: and the subway platform you go downstairs busy platform. As
Speaker 1: insane as this sounds, I would rather slip and fall
Speaker 1: on the subway stairs then have the person in front
Speaker 1: of me slip and fall on the subway stairs, because
Speaker 1: like when I like, I don't really care, like I
Speaker 1: don't like I'm I'm not embarrassed easily for myself, Like
Speaker 1: that's okay, Like people saw me fall, I don't care.
Speaker 1: But for some reason the thing of like, oh that
Speaker 1: person now thinks I was looking at him. They are embarrassed.
Speaker 1: I really really it makes me feel super uncomfortable. The
Speaker 1: second had embarrassment thing, and so it's just yeah, so
Speaker 1: I just don't enjoy I appreciate that. Now. I will
Speaker 1: tell you this, this is an unbelievable anecdote that I'm
Speaker 1: about to give you. So Jamal Charles, who's gonna end
Speaker 1: up being one of the greatest running backs ever to
Speaker 1: not make the Hall of Fame. So you got totally
Speaker 1: screwed by the Chiefs while he was there. It's just
Speaker 1: an all time player. He's from Port Arthur, Texas and
Speaker 1: was my favorite player when I was covering the Chiefs
Speaker 1: in the early twenty tens, and I was really associated
Speaker 1: with him because basically every time the Chiefs lost, I'd
Speaker 1: be like, I don't know about you guys. I would
Speaker 1: have given the ball to Jamal Drells, Moore, Brody Froyle
Speaker 1: is the quarterback, handed off to the guy who's getting
Speaker 1: seven yards of carry you idiots. So when I was
Speaker 1: in Houston after Kansas City, Jamal was being inducted to
Speaker 1: the Port Arthur Sports Hall of Fame and they said, hey, Nick,
Speaker 1: will you host it? Will you be the host of
Speaker 1: the event? Like, yeah, of course, and be honest, this
Speaker 1: is great. And the guy put it on, He's like,
Speaker 1: it's a roast. I'm like, it's a roast. They're like, yes,
Speaker 1: it's a roast. But again I'm even though I said
Speaker 1: I don't watch them, this is I'm like, Okay, there's
Speaker 1: no comedians here, but Andy Reid is there. Earl Thomas
Speaker 1: from Texas is there. So his teammates are there. Whatever
Speaker 1: it is, and they're like, yes, it's a roast, like, okay,
Speaker 1: so I'll, you know, write eight minutes of jokes is unbelievable.
Speaker 1: I don't think I've ever told the story publicly. There's
Speaker 1: a video somewhere. So I get up there and I am,
Speaker 1: I think telling great jokes, like one of them was
Speaker 1: God damn man, don't you I'm telling you this. Do
Speaker 1: not isolate this and put this on social media, I said.
Speaker 1: I turned to Andy Reid and I said something about
Speaker 1: how I'm not going to tell the exact joke, but
Speaker 1: how his clock management style reminded me of my sex
Speaker 1: life in college. There was something. There was a joke there.
Speaker 1: You people can figure it out. It was a good joke.
Speaker 1: He didn't like it. I said something about Earl Thomas
Speaker 1: and the Legion of Boom whatever it is, and nobody's
Speaker 1: really laughing that much, but these are good jokes. And
Speaker 1: then every other person that came up there did not
Speaker 1: get the memo this was a roast. They got the
Speaker 1: memo that this was a toast, and no one told
Speaker 1: me jokes and everyone just talked about it, right Carl,
Speaker 1: So I just looked like the biggest asshole in the world.
Speaker 1: I started the thing. I'm just I'm just killing everybody.
Speaker 1: Then everyone's like, here's how Jamal's changed my life. If
Speaker 1: no joke's nothing, I'm like, you've gotta be kidding me.
Speaker 1: You have got to be kidding me. And the guy
Speaker 1: who did it, the guy who set it up, I'm like,
Speaker 1: I didn't get like misread the email, was like no, man,
Speaker 1: He's like, I'm sorry, Like I told everyone it was
Speaker 1: a roast, but whatever, they didn't go with it. So
Speaker 1: I just looked like the worst guy ever. Like Andy
Speaker 1: I think was legitimately Matt because Andy's and Andy and
Speaker 1: I are really cool now. But Andy, when I then
Speaker 1: introduced him after the joke, he came over and maybe
Speaker 1: it's just how he shakes hands and he is a
Speaker 1: big guy, but it was not like a firm handshake.
Speaker 1: It was like, I'm gonna hurt your hand with this handshake,
Speaker 1: you smart ass kid making fun of my clock management.
Speaker 1: So maybe that's why I don't like roasts, because one
Speaker 1: of the most embarrassing nights of my life was me
Speaker 1: thinking I was at a roast and it was actually
Speaker 1: a toast and I just looked like a bad guy.
Speaker 2: That is an all time story.
Speaker 1: You can include that. See I know, I said, don't
Speaker 1: put it on social media. You can do whatever you want.
Speaker 1: Just maybe try to clip out the sex life in
Speaker 1: college thing. I have an image to uphold. But go ahead,
Speaker 1: But yeah, that is a real story. That's a true story.
Speaker 2: Austin Rivers came out and said I could pick thirty
Speaker 2: NBA players and play in the NFL. JJ Watt fired back,
Speaker 2: and I said, today there are sports, and the NBA
Speaker 2: is included in this. Tennis, golf, baseball, basketball. There is
Speaker 2: a skill level that erodes very quickly if you don't
Speaker 2: stay on it. Don't If you don't hit a baseball
Speaker 2: for two months, you're cooked. You're cooked. Basketball. When I
Speaker 2: was playing high school basketball in the college every day.
Speaker 2: If I took a week off, my ball handling wasn't
Speaker 2: quite as good. And NFL is the one sport where
Speaker 2: you don't have to play college and you can be
Speaker 2: a Hall of Famer Antonio Gates. It's not a repetitive sport.
Speaker 2: Some some instances mechanics for quarterback yes, sure, kicking yes,
Speaker 2: But a lot of it is strength, brutality, physicality, instincts
Speaker 2: at raw more yea more than any other sport football,
Speaker 2: which is why so many of us play high school football,
Speaker 2: and so many people participate. You can be big, you
Speaker 2: don't have to be fast. You can be a guard.
Speaker 2: You can only be able to kick. You can be
Speaker 2: a punter, right, Like, there's a bunch of different stuff
Speaker 2: that said, I don't think basketball players have any idea
Speaker 2: how much getting tackled hurts. If you ever go to
Speaker 2: the sideline of an NFL game and watch Christian McCaffrey
Speaker 2: get hit, you cannot believe he can get up. You
Speaker 2: cannot believe he's not severely injured. It is a car
Speaker 2: wreck on every tackle.
Speaker 1: So you should watch. You. I mean, well, you obviously
Speaker 1: know these guys, Howie Long's kids. You know, Chris and
Speaker 1: Jake Long. You know, so they have a podcast green Light,
Speaker 1: and you, by the way, you own a podcast business
Speaker 1: or an audio business. Like, I think I think they
Speaker 1: are great. I think Chris is Chris did He tweeted,
Speaker 1: he said, emergency rant coming on Austin Rivers and Colin.
Speaker 1: When I tell you this is some of my favorite
Speaker 1: ten minutes of media in the last month. You have
Speaker 1: to listen to it because his entire take is that
Speaker 1: not that guys couldn't do it, but like because they're
Speaker 1: not good enough at football, but I mean and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna not do it justice. He's like, Oh, okay, Austin Rivers.
Speaker 1: You think you guys can come play football. Well, here's
Speaker 1: the deal. We got fifty three guys on the team.
Speaker 1: There's three massage therapists. Oh your body hurts well, the
Speaker 1: massuse available at four o'clock. Why don't you get a
Speaker 1: lift in and shut up? Like you're used to that
Speaker 1: in the NBA. He's like, Oh, in the NBA, your
Speaker 1: coach is how do they talk to you? Because my
Speaker 1: coaches mf me and then tell me to go lay
Speaker 1: in a queen size bedit training camp with another guy
Speaker 1: in my room. He's like, he does a whole thing.
Speaker 1: He's like, what's your flights like? Because for forty of us,
Speaker 1: we're in the coach seats on a plane. When's the
Speaker 1: last time you His whole take was not you wouldn't
Speaker 1: be good enough, but that our lives are just different.
Speaker 1: Our coaches coach us, Our practices are hard. He was like,
Speaker 1: what happens in the NBA when somebody gets hurt? Do
Speaker 1: they cancel shoot around? Because in the NFL they move
Speaker 1: the drill. They just move they're like guys getting carted off.
Speaker 1: It is a great rant. With that said, I came
Speaker 1: up with eight guys. I want to know. I didn't
Speaker 1: know you're going to talk about this. I came up
Speaker 1: with eight guys and their position. I guess it's seven guys,
Speaker 1: all right. So Anthony Edwards could play running backer safety.
Speaker 1: I am certain of it. I am certain Anthony Edwards
Speaker 1: could do it. Young Lebron would be the greatest tight
Speaker 1: end in NFL history. I know, I know it's true.
Speaker 1: Westbrook could play in the NFL. I'm not sure the position.
Speaker 1: Maybe ad drusher, maybe safety. Josh Hart I think can
Speaker 1: be a wide receiver, just based on his rebound. Unding
Speaker 1: this playoffs, Chris Long said he I'm just gonna trust
Speaker 1: him on this because I never would have thought of it,
Speaker 1: but he played the position. He was like, I've been
Speaker 1: watching the playoffs. I could make Jalen Brown a pass rusher.
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, I believe you. He was like, he
Speaker 1: was like he has great bend. He seems a little mean.
Speaker 1: He's like, I could do it. And then and this
Speaker 1: is gonna sound mean, and I am not being mean.
Speaker 1: I am simply saying he would have to put on weight,
Speaker 1: which I think he can, and then all of a
Speaker 1: sudden it would be a benefit. He has great feet,
Speaker 1: great athleticism. I think Zion could potentially be an a
Speaker 1: an awesome lineman. He's six ' six, he obvious, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, can carry it big like Jason
Speaker 1: Peters was a tight end that went to it. So
Speaker 1: I do think where I think Austin Rivers had a
Speaker 1: kernel of accuracy is there are certainly more NBA guys
Speaker 1: that the There are probably five NBA guys that could
Speaker 1: be good NFL players, like good, like hey, give me
Speaker 1: a year to train be a good NFL player. And
Speaker 1: I don't know that there's any NFL guys that could
Speaker 1: be really good NBA players because, like you said, your
Speaker 1: skill has atrophied and if you're not over six ' six,
Speaker 1: it's all about skill, it's you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And there's nobody that's six ' ten in the NFL
Speaker 1: to begin with.
Speaker 2: So I think the list you made would be shorter.
Speaker 2: But to give you an example, I think because football
Speaker 2: players are so thick, we forget how big they are.
Speaker 2: Go look at the video of Micah Parsons without his
Speaker 2: shirt on this week. He makes Aunt Edwards look like me.
Speaker 2: He is so big. I'll give you an example. There's
Speaker 2: an old photo of Michael Jordan standing next to Barry Bombs.
Speaker 2: He looks like a straw. Is that Remember Michael playing baseball?
Speaker 2: He looked like he was so stimciated.
Speaker 1: Now that's that. That part's fair, that part. Yeah, These
Speaker 1: NFL guys they regularly leg press five hundred and fifty pounds.
Speaker 1: That is when you watch Micah Parsons without a shirt on.
Speaker 1: My take is and there are times he is engulfed
Speaker 1: by Trent Williams, just engulfed by it. No, that so
Speaker 1: that part, So people do we all have a like
Speaker 1: our brain doesn't process how big NFL guys are and
Speaker 1: how tall NBA guys are. Our brain doesn't accept it. Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean you see around the office occasionally, I assume
Speaker 1: my son because he works on the lot. You've seen
Speaker 1: him there. He is almost always the biggest guy in
Speaker 1: the room. He's you know, he's six three and a half,
Speaker 1: you know, probably two hundred pounds, maybe one ninety and
Speaker 1: in a room of regular people, he's an imposing cuts,
Speaker 1: an imposing figure. He is the exact same height and
Speaker 1: about ten pounds lighter than Steph Curry, and Steph Curry
Speaker 1: in the NBA looks like a little guy, and it's like, no, actually,
Speaker 1: Steph Curry's the size of a bouncer at a decent nightclub.
Speaker 1: It's like, you know what I mean, Like the and
Speaker 1: so everybody forgets how tall NBA guys actually are. That
Speaker 1: the guys in the when you're watching the basketball game
Speaker 1: and a guy looks like he's average height, he's six
Speaker 1: seven and if you worked with someone who was six ' seven,
Speaker 1: you would gawk at them. And you're right about how
Speaker 1: just the raw strength of the average NFL player, that
Speaker 1: part is unquestioned.
Speaker 2: When just the and of the Long Brothers pointed out
Speaker 2: the physical and mental toughness to just get tackled by
Speaker 2: the strongest people in the country over and.
Speaker 1: Over and over, well that what he said. He said,
Speaker 1: he was just talking about guys who because who would
Speaker 1: just get folded he said, he was naming NBA guys.
Speaker 1: He's like, you get folded up by like one of
Speaker 1: those camping tables, like, oh, you're seven feet tall, well
Speaker 1: to you're four feet tall now because he just got
Speaker 1: folded in half. It's a great rant it is shout
Speaker 1: out to him. Man. I know you and I are
Speaker 1: two people, two of the ten people in the world
Speaker 1: who appreciate a great rant as much as anybody. And
Speaker 1: this was a great rant by Chris Long. I highly
Speaker 1: enjoyed it. I do think there are a few though.
Speaker 1: I think there are a few guys who could do it.
Speaker 1: I think I do think Anthony Awards could play safety
Speaker 1: because I don't think safeties are at the size of MICHAEH.
Speaker 1: Parsons is flying around like a missile. I think he
Speaker 1: could do He's twenty two years old. I think you
Speaker 1: play safety. The Chiefs just drafted a get in the
Speaker 1: first roundway its one hundred and sixty pounds. That guy
Speaker 1: don't see Anthony Edwards coming over the middle. Just doesn't.
Speaker 2: I'll give you Lebron. We'll stop right there, Okay, Nick Wright,
Speaker 2: as always, buddy, it's great.
Speaker 1: Absolutely talk to you soon. Conby the volume.
Speaker 2: Thanks so much for listening. If you've enjoyed the podcast,
Speaker 2: take a moment, rate and review