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Speaker 2: We get all exhale now one of the greatest halbs
Speaker 2: fourth quarters of basketball that we've ever seen.
Speaker 3: We'll recap that coming up. We'll take you back to Paris.
Speaker 2: We'll talk to one of the writers who was there
Speaker 2: as we try to search for answers there of how
Speaker 2: do you get down seventeen to begin with, all right,
Speaker 2: it's a meat Friday. In case you're wondering, I know
Speaker 2: you are smoked BLT sandwiches. I think BLTs might be
Speaker 2: in the top five underrated sandwiches of all time. Smoked
Speaker 2: BLT sandwiches on the trigger also beer battered onion rings.
Speaker 2: Todd wanted onion rings because it's the Olympic onion rings.
Speaker 2: So we're going to have our own there. That's our
Speaker 2: meat Friday. Who has it better than we do? No,
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Speaker 2: Good morning if you're watching on Peacock. Thank you for
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Speaker 2: the country. iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio Poll question Play of
Speaker 2: the day, stat of the day coming up. Team USA
Speaker 2: escapes Serbia. And this is how it sounded at the
Speaker 2: end of the game.
Speaker 3: Bechuck, it's gotta have to hurry.
Speaker 4: Volkonovitch puts it up short of the United States trailing
Speaker 4: by as many as seventeen.
Speaker 5: Good.
Speaker 6: I just want the looker meet the game, to.
Speaker 7: Hit pass into the gold medal game ninety five ninety one.
Speaker 3: Your final scores is Steph Curry.
Speaker 8: Magnificent twenty six points and.
Speaker 6: Heart break for Serbia.
Speaker 2: Noah Eagle with the call on NBC with Dwayne Wade
Speaker 2: Team USA. Seven minutes ago. You're down eleven and you're
Speaker 2: searching for answers, and Dwayne Wade sent something really interesting.
Speaker 2: He said, forget your offense here, pick and roll. That's it.
Speaker 2: And there were times when Kevin Durant said, I don't
Speaker 2: even need the pick. I'm going to go, and that's
Speaker 2: probably a new way of saying I don't need the pick,
Speaker 2: but I'm going to roll, and he certainly did. Steph
Speaker 2: Curry was wonderful, but I was worried that he was
Speaker 2: great in the first half and they were getting blown
Speaker 2: out and then all of a sudden, Lebron became Lebron
Speaker 2: and KD hit some big buckets there. Devin Booker, Joe
Speaker 2: Ellenbiid played really well. I think the big difference was
Speaker 2: the defense in the second half, because the first half,
Speaker 2: Serbia was hitting shots. And if you're going to beat
Speaker 2: Team USA, we talked about this from the beginning, you
Speaker 2: have to hit threes. If you hit threes, you can
Speaker 2: stay in the game with them, and that's what Serbia did.
Speaker 2: Plus Joker got in foul trouble. He wasn't great yesterday day.
Speaker 2: And Lebron when he wants to get that full head
Speaker 2: of steam, there's nobody you can There's nobody who can
Speaker 2: stop him. Michael Jordan has even said, if Lebron gets
Speaker 2: going to the hoop going right, I couldn't stop him,
Speaker 2: and he's right. That's that's true. But Steph proving he's
Speaker 2: the best shooter who's ever played basketball, and KD is
Speaker 2: he just a sniper, He's just a bucket. But you're
Speaker 2: watching the game and I kept thinking, Okay, how did
Speaker 2: you get down seventeen? I know we can applaud them
Speaker 2: that they came back, and we thought at the beginning
Speaker 2: of the games, I said, if they're going to lose,
Speaker 2: it would probably be to France because it'd be a
Speaker 2: home court advantage of sorts. Now you got Rudy Gobert
Speaker 2: who's been benched, and Victor Winby Yama hasn't been really
Speaker 2: the star yet, but that's your gold medal game coming up.
Speaker 2: Here is Steph Curry after his historical performance.
Speaker 9: Is everything I imagine it to be. Obviously, this is
Speaker 9: my first go around in the Olympics. Know we were
Speaker 9: gonna get challenged by Gray Servia team and the half
Speaker 9: beat him three times. This summer was going to be tough.
Speaker 9: I just kind of got lost in the moment of
Speaker 9: understanding how big this stage is and what's a state
Speaker 9: for this team?
Speaker 6: And it was special.
Speaker 9: It was the most fun, you know, I've had a
Speaker 9: very long time, and you know, to dig deep like
Speaker 9: we did with this group and get a win special.
Speaker 9: So I'm kind of basking in that right now. And obviously, no,
Speaker 9: we got another tough challenge France on our home court.
Speaker 2: So Steph was nine to fourteen from three point range,
Speaker 2: finished with thirty six. That's one shy of Carmelo's US
Speaker 2: Olympic record set against Nigeria, and Melo was their court side.
Speaker 2: But Lebron had another triple double, the only player in
Speaker 2: Olympic men's basketball history with multiple triple doubles. When he
Speaker 2: wants to, he can still be the best player on
Speaker 2: the floor. It's just he can't be that consistently. And
Speaker 2: you saw that. You've seen that so far.
Speaker 4: But he won.
Speaker 3: When he wants to. He can still do what.
Speaker 2: Very, very very few players can still do, even at
Speaker 2: his age of thirty nine. So now you got Team
Speaker 2: USA going against France for the gold. It was fun,
Speaker 2: but should it be that close? And I'll give credit
Speaker 2: to Serbia And Charles Barkley said it yesterday. He said,
Speaker 2: this worries me. This game worries me because he thought
Speaker 2: Serbia was mailing in the first two times they faced
Speaker 2: Team USA. And he was right because they're not going
Speaker 2: to show their hands. It didn't matter until you get
Speaker 2: to the knockout round. So what Charles was saying was true.
Speaker 2: Serbia was sort of going, yeah, let's go through the
Speaker 2: motions here, Oh we got beat okay, and then you
Speaker 2: get into that moment when the game really matters, and
Speaker 2: you could tell Serbia knew let's get him, get on
Speaker 2: top of them early and make them panic a little bit.
Speaker 2: And Team USA didn't panic.
Speaker 7: Yes, Marv, the first half was like watching the Denver
Speaker 7: Nuggets game where it's like, stop doubling him, Caldwell, Pope
Speaker 7: is killing you.
Speaker 3: Why would you leave him?
Speaker 7: That's exactly what it was like in the first I
Speaker 7: couldn't believe they kept doubling him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well you picked your poison with him. And guess
Speaker 2: who was guarding Joker down the stretch. In the fourth quarter,
Speaker 2: Lebron and Joker got in foul trouble once again. You
Speaker 2: get five foulsand international play. He didn't dominate the game
Speaker 2: at any point, but there's always that threat of he could.
Speaker 2: But they never allowed him to have one of those
Speaker 2: Joker like triple doubles where he's getting you know, thirty
Speaker 2: twenty and fifteen, but they hit big shots and I
Speaker 2: expect them to beat France. I'm curious though, the philosophy.
Speaker 2: I'd like to know what Steve Kerr is going to
Speaker 2: say to them right before the gold medal game. Hey, guys,
Speaker 2: how about we take the lead after the first quarter?
Speaker 2: How about we lead a halftime here?
Speaker 6: All right?
Speaker 2: Because there were a lot of people on social media
Speaker 2: they had already given the victory to Serbia and Steve
Speaker 2: Kerr getting out coach. I mean, it was everything Lebron's.
Speaker 2: They were calling him because if they were going to lose,
Speaker 2: that they were going to get the Bron. I was like, wow,
Speaker 2: boy that and then it and it changed quickly, James quickly, Yes, Pauling.
Speaker 10: I have kind of a two part question. When there's
Speaker 10: about eight nine minutes left, I didn't think it looked
Speaker 10: good for USA. It looked really bad clearly, and I
Speaker 10: was like, I don't think they're going to pull us off.
Speaker 10: And I started thinking about who's going to get the
Speaker 10: blame tomorrow on shows like ours, and it would have
Speaker 10: been the biggest topic in our country obviously. How what
Speaker 10: level of a career undoing would have been for Steve
Speaker 10: Kerr as a basketball coach.
Speaker 2: Pretty big because once again he benched Jason Tatum and
Speaker 2: oh my gosh, does he know what he's doing? And
Speaker 2: Joel Embiid and put him on the bench. And I
Speaker 2: think it would have been Steve Kerr, followed closely by
Speaker 2: Lebron James, because he would have been labeled Lebron's as
Speaker 2: he was was that two thousand and four that they
Speaker 2: got the bronze medal, and he his Lebron's James. But
Speaker 2: I would say Steve Kerr because I think a lot
Speaker 2: of people were very critical of his coaching, his rotations
Speaker 2: here and you saw that again yesterday. So seventeen point
Speaker 2: come back win over Serbia, you get Lebron at thirty
Speaker 2: nine years. Here's another thing. I've been around all these
Speaker 2: sports and Olympics for such a long period of time.
Speaker 2: At one point yesterday in the fourth quarter, I just realized,
Speaker 2: I've got three of the greatest players that I've ever
Speaker 2: seen on the floor together.
Speaker 3: It's Lebron, it's Steph and KD. That's awesome, awesome.
Speaker 2: And Steph even talked about how they're too unselfish, because hey,
Speaker 2: I got the ball, I could throw it over to
Speaker 2: KD or there's Lebron. It's not one of those where
Speaker 2: you go, I got to take this on my own.
Speaker 2: But I'm watching that and just kind of taken in
Speaker 2: savoring the moment of we're seeing three of let's say,
Speaker 2: top ten, top twelve, fifteen players of all time. Certainly
Speaker 2: with the Lebron, Steph KD they could all be in
Speaker 2: the top ten where they're all said and done. But
Speaker 2: when you're looking at that, and you're looking and it's
Speaker 2: a snapshot of the last fifteen years been treated to
Speaker 2: some great basketball. I mean, these are all timers and
Speaker 2: hitting big shots. That's what you want. But Steph Curry
Speaker 2: doing what he's doing, and there's nobody else on the
Speaker 2: planet like him. But then there's nobody like Katie, and
Speaker 2: there's nobody like Lebron. Those are three unicorns in a
Speaker 2: game that doesn't produce many unicorns. There's a lot of wannabes.
Speaker 2: They want to be like somebody else. Those three are
Speaker 2: all different than anybody else who's played the game. And
Speaker 2: I took that in as almost like a postcard from Paris.
Speaker 2: You're seeing those three on the floor and we won't
Speaker 2: see that again. And this is Steph's first Olympics, which
Speaker 2: people still go, No, that can't be true.
Speaker 6: It is.
Speaker 2: Getting caught up on international play. Your first Olympics, you're
Speaker 2: down seventeen and he was the star until he needed
Speaker 2: help and he got help. But Steve Kerr talked about
Speaker 2: the win afterwards. Do we have Steve Kerr Kevin Durant, Okay,
Speaker 2: we'll take Kevin Durant.
Speaker 11: We dug deep then down fifteen that late in the game.
Speaker 11: I think we were down with fifteen with like eleven
Speaker 11: seconds to go in the third and the fourth quarter.
Speaker 11: Dominance that we showed. I think we won with thirty
Speaker 11: four to fifteen fourteen, and by our defense and getting
Speaker 11: out and running transition be barely called players. We just
Speaker 11: played off of each other. Well, Steph Curry, we talked
Speaker 11: about each game somebody, it might somebody have to step up.
Speaker 11: It might be a night. And he came and had
Speaker 11: the best night out of anybody the whole tournament. So
Speaker 11: incredible to watch him knockdown shots to keep US afloat
Speaker 11: bron playing extremely hard the whole game. It was incredible. Man,
Speaker 11: Joel was insane to night. I just love what everybody did.
Speaker 2: I like when somebody who's great compliments somebody who's great,
Speaker 2: when Katie is just saying, look at Steph, look at Lebron,
Speaker 2: look at Joel Embiid, while he also was great as well,
Speaker 2: but to be able to see something like that, the
Speaker 2: talent that's out there, but also produce as well. The
Speaker 2: women's basketball team is giving fifteen to Australia. If you're
Speaker 2: following that, I was curious Jason Tatum didn't play again.
Speaker 2: His MVP odds next season are far better than Steph Curry's,
Speaker 2: Kevin Durantz, Anthony Davis, Devin Booker and Lebron James. All
Speaker 2: these guys here, I mean crazy, but you're still looking
Speaker 2: at that rotation and I thought, boy, if they lose
Speaker 2: and Jason Tatum doesn't play, Steve Kerr is gonna get
Speaker 2: torn up again and it will be on Lebron as well.
Speaker 7: Yes, Mark, the over under for Jason Tatum against the
Speaker 7: Warriors this season is forty five and a half.
Speaker 3: No, it's not.
Speaker 7: He's about to go off against Golden State.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but what is Jalen Brown's over under? One hundred
Speaker 3: and fourteen and a half. He's going, yeah, seton.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 12: I feel like Steve Kerr is already getting it anyway
Speaker 12: just because the games are close.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's one of those where I think
Speaker 2: Steve's like, I need a gold to take back to
Speaker 2: Golden State.
Speaker 3: He done with this.
Speaker 2: Let somebody else take over as the coach of Team USA.
Speaker 3: What's the poll question today? Their Seaton.
Speaker 2: By the way, we'll talk to Joe Varden from the
Speaker 2: Athletic he was there watching the game in Paris. He'll
Speaker 2: join us coming up in about ten minutes. What do
Speaker 2: you have here, marv or Seaton.
Speaker 12: Let's see we could start with tougher result yesterday, Noah
Speaker 12: Lyles or Serbia.
Speaker 2: I would say Noah Lyles from the standpoint of he
Speaker 2: didn't have a chance because he was sick. Serbia had
Speaker 2: a chance. They were up seventeen. That'd be seventeen, yes,
Speaker 2: Noah Lyles. If he was head by ten meters and lost,
Speaker 2: that would be like Serbia. But he was sick and
Speaker 2: ended up with the bronze, so which is what Serbia
Speaker 2: is going to end up with as well.
Speaker 12: Which is actually pretty remarkable that he had COVID and
Speaker 12: still won bronze.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I would Serbia was leading, Noah Lyles was
Speaker 2: struggling the entire time, in the two hundred meters in
Speaker 2: an event that he was favored to win Serbia wasn't
Speaker 2: favored to win.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Paulie, I.
Speaker 10: Would love to hear a sports radio show in Serbia
Speaker 10: this morning. They just eviscerating their coat. They have to
Speaker 10: have it. It's a big country, right. But the thing
Speaker 10: with Noah Lyles though the COVID situation with him, there
Speaker 10: was about a fifteen minute window after the race where
Speaker 10: he was getting ripped up on social media and other people.
Speaker 10: He was boastful before the race. He said this race
Speaker 10: was going to be a joke and a laugher and
Speaker 10: things like this, and for about fifteen minutes before people
Speaker 10: found out he had COVID and he was disabled to
Speaker 10: some point for that race. He was taking a beating anyway,
Speaker 10: and then it got muted after they found out he
Speaker 10: was ill.
Speaker 2: Yeah, softened a little bit. What I love about the
Speaker 2: two hundred meters in all races is when they make
Speaker 2: the turn, where are you on the turn? And you'll
Speaker 2: hear some of the announcers, the analyst Auto Bolden, Hey,
Speaker 2: if you're not in front of the turn, you're going
Speaker 2: to get smoked. Because certain runners get out quick, get
Speaker 2: out early, and then you always have those runners that
Speaker 2: have the late kick, and I love watching that you
Speaker 2: make the turn and once again I go back and
Speaker 2: I know I'm on repeat here when I watch you,
Speaker 2: Saint Bolt make the turn in London and then you realized,
Speaker 2: oh my god, it is over.
Speaker 3: I even said that to my wife.
Speaker 2: So they're probably one hundred meters in and I say
Speaker 2: it's over, and she goes, wait, they're done. I go, no,
Speaker 2: the race is over because where Usain Bolt was on
Speaker 2: the turn, you just knew. And that's what's amazing. Some
Speaker 2: of these runners know if I don't get out and
Speaker 2: if I can see them, I'm in trouble. And that
Speaker 2: was the case with you, Saint Bolt. All right, let
Speaker 2: me take a break. Phone calls always welcome. Operator Tyler
Speaker 2: sitting by eight seven seven three DP show. And I
Speaker 2: didn't even get to the guest list here JJ what well,
Speaker 2: John is coming up top a next hour, Bob Costas
Speaker 2: will stop by as well, back from Paris, and we'll
Speaker 2: talk about the NFL rankings, the top one hundred players
Speaker 2: and why some of those rankings are just flat out silly.
Speaker 3: So take a break. We're back after this Dan Patrick Show.
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Speaker 2: Eight seven to seven three DP show Settle on a
Speaker 2: poll question is well, JJ Watt top of the hour
Speaker 2: and Bob Constius will stop by a little bit later
Speaker 2: on as well. He's Joe Varden from the Athletic He's
Speaker 2: been covering Team USA over in Paris during the Summer Olympics. Joe,
Speaker 2: if I was sitting next to you with seven minutes
Speaker 2: to go and Team USA was down eleven, what would
Speaker 2: you be saying.
Speaker 5: Well, I wouldn't be saying anything because I had my
Speaker 5: head buried in the laptop writing about how this collection
Speaker 5: of all time legendary NBA greats players and coaches had
Speaker 5: collectively failed and that USA basketball was heading into a
Speaker 5: extended period of soul searching with the LA Olympics coming
Speaker 5: up and them not being defending champions. That was the scenario, guys.
Speaker 5: They were dominated. Even when they made that little push
Speaker 5: there in the third quarter to cut it to six,
Speaker 5: it was right back up to fifteen with thirty seconds left.
Speaker 5: Ridiculous four point play. So what happened from the seven
Speaker 5: minute mark in was once in a lifetime type stuff.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's what I wonder.
Speaker 2: It's nice to applaud them that they did come back,
Speaker 2: but how do they get down seventeen in the first place?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think it's it's a lesson. How don't mean
Speaker 5: to go on too long here, but I do think
Speaker 5: what happened last night is a lesson for anyone who's
Speaker 5: not paying attention about how much the game has changed.
Speaker 5: And it answered a question that we didn't have an
Speaker 5: answer to coming into these Olympics, which is can the
Speaker 5: USA continue to just flood the talent or the court
Speaker 5: with talent and guarantee themselves a gold medal. The answer
Speaker 5: is no, they can't do that anymore.
Speaker 6: Now.
Speaker 5: They may very well win tomorrow night, But what we
Speaker 5: learned is that a team built around just one superstar,
Speaker 5: with one competent shooter and in Bogie Bogdanovic, and then
Speaker 5: role players who are who are solid EuroLeague role players,
Speaker 5: they can dictate the pace of play against anybody. And
Speaker 5: so what we saw last night, I believe was awesome
Speaker 5: and I think you were alluding to it at the top,
Speaker 5: because you see these four, these four former MVPs, they're
Speaker 5: on the court together and they had to do this.
Speaker 5: They they all had to play as well as they
Speaker 5: could possibly play to beat Serbia, and I think that
Speaker 5: is af I think that that is a positive, defining
Speaker 5: moment for them and for the game at large, because
Speaker 5: it does speak to how far the rest of the
Speaker 5: world has come.
Speaker 3: Who was going to take the heat if Team USA
Speaker 3: had lost.
Speaker 5: You you hit it. You were right on the money there.
Speaker 5: I mean, Kurr gets ripped every day, he gets ripped
Speaker 5: for not playing Tatum, which that one kind of is.
Speaker 5: I'm bewildered by it. But Steve gets ripped all the time.
Speaker 5: They didn't win at the World Cup last year either,
Speaker 5: so his path is very similar to Popovich's. You know,
Speaker 5: great all time NBA coach had it hard with Team USA.
Speaker 5: And then you said Lebron, I mean yeah, like I
Speaker 5: had it in the story. You know, he was headed
Speaker 5: for two bronze medals. That is just that's not a
Speaker 5: thing for USA basketball and that was going to be
Speaker 5: hung on him. And now he's got a chance for
Speaker 5: three goals, which is more than Michael you know, it's
Speaker 5: all time legendary stuff. And it was this close to
Speaker 5: going going the other way.
Speaker 3: And you look at these three players.
Speaker 2: I'm not putting em beat in there, but like we can,
Speaker 2: but I'm talking, you know what Lebron does. He's a unicorn.
Speaker 2: Nobody's been like KD and nobody's like Steph Curry. And
Speaker 2: you're seeing this unfold, but you're also seeing it unfold
Speaker 2: and you're going they have to be who they are
Speaker 2: to knock off Serbia, which to you know, what you're
Speaker 2: saying is a credit to basketball around the world. And
Speaker 2: I always worry about these guys who are fringe NBA
Speaker 2: players or maybe couldn't get into the NBA. This is
Speaker 2: their moment to show that they can play and I
Speaker 2: don't know, you know, the French team, like how dangerous
Speaker 2: are they going into this game after we just saw
Speaker 2: this close game?
Speaker 5: So there's a lot to discuss with this, and I
Speaker 5: want to start with it. I was here in January
Speaker 5: for ten days. I did a bunch of stuff. The
Speaker 5: Cavs and Nets were here and they like I. Since
Speaker 5: I knew I would be cover the Olympics and knew
Speaker 5: I was working on some international stories, I thought i'd
Speaker 5: come out here with them. And so in the process
Speaker 5: of all the reporting, I got a chance to sit
Speaker 5: down with Vincent Collette, who is the head coach for France,
Speaker 5: and he was Wembenya Thomas coach here with the Paris
Speaker 5: Metropolitans for that year before he was drafted in the NBA,
Speaker 5: and by French rule, if you're coaching the national team
Speaker 5: at the Olympics, you can't coach that year in the
Speaker 5: French league. So coach Collette was off for a year.
Speaker 5: And he said he'd been watching the NBA every night
Speaker 5: because of Wemby and then before those games, because they're
Speaker 5: on so late here, he was watching the EuroLeague and
Speaker 5: he said that he thinks there are at least four
Speaker 5: EuroLeague teams that could beat the Detroit Pistons and the
Speaker 5: Washington Wizards. His point is that that's how far the
Speaker 5: talent has come here in Europe to where it's getting
Speaker 5: a lot closer to soccer. We're like, yes, we have
Speaker 5: the Premier League, but then there's also great leagues in
Speaker 5: France and in Spain and whatever the case. Like, there
Speaker 5: are teams and there are players outside of the main
Speaker 5: sport playing country that can really compete. And so that's
Speaker 5: what happened with Serbia. And now you get to France
Speaker 5: and you look at their roster and it's got Wemby
Speaker 5: and so you think, okay, like he's their guy. Well
Speaker 5: they're two best players, and I'm sorry, Like the one
Speaker 5: I know because he used to play for the Celtics.
Speaker 5: The other guy his name, his name escapes me. He
Speaker 5: looks like in the face, kind of like our Darren Williams,
Speaker 5: but he's you know, he's a guard and he's physical
Speaker 5: and he's a EuroLeague player. But that doesn't mean what
Speaker 5: it used to. So like, the French do not have
Speaker 5: the talent that the United States has there they should
Speaker 5: be especially weak at the guard positions, but they have
Speaker 5: dictated the pace of play against two teams that are
Speaker 5: loaded with NBA talent, and they beat them both. Canada,
Speaker 5: to me, was always the team that could really scare
Speaker 5: the US because they have Shay Gilgess Alexander, who's as
Speaker 5: good as any player in the NBA, and then they
Speaker 5: had a bunch of role players who are all NBA
Speaker 5: level guys. They took care of They took care of Canada,
Speaker 5: and then you got Germany, defending World Cup champ. Dennis
Speaker 5: Shrewder dictates the pace of play in Foeba. He's got
Speaker 5: the Wagner brothers, Tice, a couple other guys. They France
Speaker 5: just out physicaled them. They shouldn't be able to do
Speaker 5: that to the US. They shouldn't be able to keep
Speaker 5: up with the pace that Lebron and Steph set. But
Speaker 5: if they do, then the crowd gets involved and it
Speaker 5: becomes another nervy moment. So we'll see if the US
Speaker 5: can avoid getting into France's style of play.
Speaker 2: We're talking to Joe Varden, joining us from Paris. He's
Speaker 2: NBA senior writer for The Athletic covering the Summer Olympics.
Speaker 2: How entertaining is the Joe ellenb versus France story to you.
Speaker 5: I mean I've written it, I don't know five times now.
Speaker 5: My reporting on this Dan goes all the way back
Speaker 5: to I was telling you in January. One of the
Speaker 5: stories I came back with is that the French federation
Speaker 5: on the record and they they had like receipts. They
Speaker 5: said that they helped him get a French passport because
Speaker 5: he told them to, because he wanted to play for them,
Speaker 5: and they were explicit about this. So it goes back
Speaker 5: at least that far that like the French, you know,
Speaker 5: the basketball Federation, the government, you know, President mccron called
Speaker 5: EMBIID to try to recruit him after the passport had
Speaker 5: been granted, and then the fans at large, like they
Speaker 5: know all this stuff, and so it's been fascinating to
Speaker 5: me to see their reaction to him, but then watch
Speaker 5: sort of the evolution of Joelle through this. He was
Speaker 5: he was startled the first game. He was also like
Speaker 5: really sick, which we didn't know until recently. You know,
Speaker 5: Grant Hill had told me that that Joel was so
Speaker 5: sick that day that he had to drive up the
Speaker 5: day of the game from Paris to Lele separately. But
Speaker 5: he was he seemed to be taken back by the booze,
Speaker 5: and then his teammates got his back and started waving
Speaker 5: the boos on with him, and then he started to
Speaker 5: shift his his commentary about what was going on. At
Speaker 5: one point he said he doesn't care if they boo.
Speaker 5: Then he said, well, I'm an American, uh, And I
Speaker 5: was always going to play for team USA. And then
Speaker 5: he said he hinted strongly that the USA players wanted
Speaker 5: him and the French players didn't. And now he said, well,
Speaker 5: you know, I love France, and I was always going
Speaker 5: to play for Cameroon if they if they qualified for
Speaker 5: the Olympics, but since they didn't, I picked the US.
Speaker 5: So it's to me what's been fun has been the
Speaker 5: evolution of the saga instead of just like, you know,
Speaker 5: Joel making the one inappropriate gesture and you know, fans
Speaker 5: yelling back like I don't care as much about that,
Speaker 5: but I've been intrigued to watch him bead handle all this.
Speaker 2: But this isn't quid pro quo that France will get
Speaker 2: you a passport, but will get you a passport but
Speaker 2: you must play for it.
Speaker 3: Is that what you think happened here?
Speaker 5: No, it was more like I mean, the recruitment goes
Speaker 5: back years by Boris Diao, you know, we know him
Speaker 5: well in the US, and the French Federation president, who
Speaker 5: we would not know in the US. But they were
Speaker 5: taking meetings with Joel, like in twenty twenty one, even
Speaker 5: to gauge his interest. And the reason why is for
Speaker 5: years before that he had stated in several French publications
Speaker 5: that he had interest in doing this. So they recruit him,
Speaker 5: and they recruit him, and according to them, they had
Speaker 5: gotten him to the point where he said, okay, I
Speaker 5: am going to play and they said, well, you need
Speaker 5: you need to be a French citizen to be on
Speaker 5: the team, and according to them, he said, okay, get
Speaker 5: me a passport. You know, Joel, through a spokesman, has
Speaker 5: denied this, has denied the quid pro quo. But it's
Speaker 5: it's it's hard to it's hard to believe that this
Speaker 5: isn't at least very close to true, especially because they're
Speaker 5: explicit the French Federation guys, they're explicit in that like
Speaker 5: this is not done in France. They are always playing
Speaker 5: guys who just are from this country period. Joel has
Speaker 5: never lived there. That they were making an exception for
Speaker 5: a truly great player who had at the time wanted
Speaker 5: to do it. So I think that's all real I do.
Speaker 5: And I think that you know, Joel's evolution from where
Speaker 5: he was and wanting to play for them and then
Speaker 5: ultimately picking the US, you know, is a fascinating saga too.
Speaker 2: Finished this sentence. If a team USA loses to France
Speaker 2: this weekend, do dot don.
Speaker 5: It's a failure, and it's a it's a it's a
Speaker 5: total reset and that is unfortunately. You know, I just
Speaker 5: got through talking to you this beautiful state of where
Speaker 5: we are as a basketball playing universe, and I believe
Speaker 5: all that I do. But at the same time, we
Speaker 5: haven't cleared that bar yet where anything other than gold
Speaker 5: is acceptable for USA. And the fact remains, Dan, this
Speaker 5: is a team with eleven All Stars on it. They've
Speaker 5: never done that before, and it is Lebron and it
Speaker 5: is KD and Steph altogether with MBT this this team
Speaker 5: has to win. Uh the twenty eight team. With the
Speaker 5: Olympics being in LA, the world's going to be even
Speaker 5: better France, like as we know, you know, we had
Speaker 5: Victor and kolbally drafted two years ago or last year,
Speaker 5: and then this summer we had four French guys picked
Speaker 5: in the top round of the NBA draft and none
Speaker 5: of them are on this team. So France is going
Speaker 5: to be great for a while, but the pressure will
Speaker 5: still be there in La. I think once we get
Speaker 5: past own La, it's going to be a different discussion,
Speaker 5: and we're going to look at it the way we
Speaker 5: do like a soccer World Cup or soccer Olympics, where
Speaker 5: there are a number of countries that can win regardless
Speaker 5: of who sent. But for now, all that stuff aside,
Speaker 5: the US has to get it done tomorrow.
Speaker 2: Great stuff, Joe, thanks for joining us. We appreciate your
Speaker 2: time anytime. Dan.
Speaker 3: You know that that's Joe.
Speaker 2: Varden, senior NBA writer for the athletic covering team USA.
Speaker 2: At the Summer Olympics. We may have to give back
Speaker 2: to the Statue of Liberty if we lose. I think
Speaker 2: that's only fair. Just get a boat and take it
Speaker 2: back and give it back to them.
Speaker 3: If we lose, just strap it on top.
Speaker 10: Yeah, like a like a mattress on top of an SUV.
Speaker 3: Twenty twenty eight is going to be interesting.
Speaker 2: As Joe pointed out, well, because you know is Lebron
Speaker 2: is going to be what forty three? Is he going
Speaker 2: to try to play? Steph Curry is going to be
Speaker 2: forty kd is he going to be forty one? You
Speaker 2: know this Baton exchange didn't happen because it was going
Speaker 2: to be like, you know, Anthony Edward's going to be there,
Speaker 2: and Devin Booker is going to be there, Jason Tatum
Speaker 2: and you know there is some young talent.
Speaker 3: We just it still comes back to game on the line.
Speaker 2: Steve Kerr goes, let me put these guys in and
Speaker 2: in four years He's right, France is going to be
Speaker 2: a monster. In four years they are Germany as well,
Speaker 2: and they'll be you know, Canada as well. So Team
Speaker 2: USA right now as opposed to in four years or
Speaker 2: eight years, m'd be a whole different landscape when it
Speaker 2: comes to playing for a gold medal.
Speaker 3: Yes, Paul, I don't know.
Speaker 10: About you, guys, but sounds like a guy who wants
Speaker 10: to be in the chair for that Olympics right here
Speaker 10: me four years from now? Or is this our last Olympics?
Speaker 3: This is our last Summer Games.
Speaker 2: I'm kind of like Lebron, I mean, I don't know,
Speaker 2: I'm holding on for Dear Life here.
Speaker 10: Never say never. Are we gonna have a closing ceremonies today?
Speaker 3: I'm holding on for Dear Life table. Yeah. I mean
Speaker 3: it's amazing. I show up every single day. It surprises
Speaker 3: me sometimes. Play of the Day up next.
Speaker 1: Be sure to catch the live edition of The Dan
Speaker 1: Patrick Show weekdays at nine a m. Eastern six a m.
Speaker 1: Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio wap oh
Speaker 1: My God.
Speaker 3: Of the Day, the Play of the Day, check the showtime.
Speaker 2: That's courtesy NBC. Lee Diffey struggled in the men's one
Speaker 2: hundred meter final. He has not struggled in his calls
Speaker 2: with some of these other events.
Speaker 3: He has been awesome.
Speaker 2: This is the sixth time she's broken her own world record.
Speaker 2: It almost looked like her hurdles were shorter than everybody else,
Speaker 2: Like it wasn't fair she was she was so far
Speaker 2: ahead of everybody. It's like, hey, you guys got to
Speaker 2: jump over hurdles that are this high. I get to
Speaker 2: jump over these little ones.
Speaker 3: Here.
Speaker 2: That's your Play of the Day, brought to you by
Speaker 2: King Sawaii, and they want you to get together with
Speaker 2: family and friends and enjoy the weekend. Making every Sunday
Speaker 2: A Slider Sunday Buddha in San Francisco.
Speaker 3: Good to have you back, Buddha. What's on your mind?
Speaker 6: Nobody?
Speaker 8: Happy to meet Friday boys, DP. I'm attacking this call
Speaker 8: with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind. Let's go, minister, if
Speaker 8: you were, Let's go baby.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 2: Dan, I got a.
Speaker 8: Little derailed by listening to the Jenny Batchie ballad and
Speaker 8: the archive looking like that is damn good.
Speaker 4: But I digress.
Speaker 8: Dan Usa survived the huge scare in the Ropodope Tactics
Speaker 8: from Serbia with some home cooking from Steph Curry wet
Speaker 8: Chef and Dan. The interviews this week were fire, I mean,
Speaker 8: Mike McDaniel's aka Napoleon Dynamite, you have, baby sweetness, I
Speaker 8: am ego In d Wade, who I loved when I
Speaker 8: first heard him, the Hall of Fame busmaker himself, and
Speaker 8: the National Treasure Charles Barkley. Great work to Fritzie or
Speaker 8: should we call.
Speaker 3: Him T book?
Speaker 2: Thank you, Buddha, so d book your T book?
Speaker 3: Huh, I'll take it.
Speaker 2: Okay, thank you, thank you, Todd Uh Justin and Idaho, Hi, Justin?
Speaker 3: What's on your mind today?
Speaker 6: Hey?
Speaker 3: Good morning, Good morning.
Speaker 6: So I got a baseball name fact for you and
Speaker 6: a baseball trivia question for you. Okay, in honor of
Speaker 6: my pick for Rookie of the Year, Jackson Merrill, this
Speaker 6: is the first major League baseball season in history that
Speaker 6: has more players with the first name of Jackson than
Speaker 6: the last name of Jackson.
Speaker 2: All right, that's that's a very niche trivia question there,
Speaker 2: or fact?
Speaker 3: Thank you? What else?
Speaker 6: And then in honor of the Padres kind of keeping
Speaker 6: that going getting their second no hitter in franchise history
Speaker 6: a couple of weeks ago, there are three major league
Speaker 6: teams with only one no hitter to their name. Can
Speaker 6: you name them?
Speaker 3: Okay? The New York Mets they have two, Paulie Minnesota Twins.
Speaker 6: Uh, the Twins have seven?
Speaker 3: Was close?
Speaker 10: The first one though, was special?
Speaker 3: So special? Yeah? The one? Yeah, yes, Marvin.
Speaker 7: The Diamondbacks.
Speaker 6: The Diamondbacks have three.
Speaker 2: Okay, the Blue Jays, correct, because Dave Steve lost two
Speaker 2: no hitters in the ninth inning, Yes, PAULI was that?
Speaker 10: Ri Dickey?
Speaker 3: Ari Dicky?
Speaker 2: I believe, yes, Justin.
Speaker 6: You have then the Rockies and the Raids.
Speaker 2: All right, well, thank you, Justin? Yeah, I think Ari
Speaker 2: Dickey the knuckleballer threw a no hitter with Toronto. I
Speaker 2: remember Dave Steve had I think two no hitters broken
Speaker 2: up in the ninth inning.
Speaker 3: Bob in Montana, I know it is Dave Steve.
Speaker 10: He had two broken up and then got one on
Speaker 10: the road in the nineteen ninety season, was dasty.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, Hey, Bob, oh, hey, dp Hey.
Speaker 4: Two quick things. First and foremost, thanks for the recommendation
Speaker 4: of going to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Speaker 4: and seeing the Green Day exit. But I was just
Speaker 4: there on Monday for the first time ever. You got
Speaker 4: the doors, and then right next door to the doors
Speaker 4: is Green Day and then right around the corner of
Speaker 4: the Elvis is Elvis. So I had a really good time.
Speaker 4: So thanks for that recommendation. And then secondly, when did
Speaker 4: you guys have your big summer vacation? Here another one
Speaker 4: one of it that's coming up. I didn't know if
Speaker 4: anybody brought up your boat christening, because that's like the
Speaker 4: next big important thing after naming your boat. So obviously
Speaker 4: the first person you want to have to do it
Speaker 4: is your beautiful and gracious wife, Susan. But I was
Speaker 4: going to encourage you maybe to think outside the box
Speaker 4: and have some famous ladies sports athlete like maybe Anakornakova
Speaker 4: or Ronda Rousey or the hottest w NBA player out
Speaker 4: there right now, Angel Reese come up and Chris and
Speaker 4: your boat all welcome.
Speaker 3: They're all welcome.
Speaker 2: It's probably just going to be me with a beer
Speaker 2: and that's about it and my dog Winnie.
Speaker 12: Just like you're in the basement watching TV.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you and your dog. Yeah, christening the boat.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it didn't take long to call Roll when I'm
Speaker 2: you know, by myself, because it's usually just me by myself.
Speaker 2: I have drive bys, I have stragglers that they always
Speaker 2: come by and then they'll say, what are you watching?
Speaker 2: And then I have to say I'm watching Bourne Supremacy
Speaker 2: and they go, don't you watch that every other night?
Speaker 2: And I say I try to because last night I
Speaker 2: picked up Bourne Supremacy at the very end stayed there,
Speaker 2: doesn't matter where it is in that movie.
Speaker 11: Uh.
Speaker 2: Jason in Florida, Good morning, Jason. What's on your mind today?
Speaker 4: Good morning?
Speaker 14: A couple of things. First, Lead Diffy has been absolutely
Speaker 14: crushing it with the track and Field.
Speaker 6: I'm a big.
Speaker 14: IndyCar fan and he's been calling IndyCar Racers. But wow,
Speaker 14: his all the last lap of the Indy five hundred
Speaker 14: this year was absolutely spectacular. Secondly, was there a pie
Speaker 14: of the face bet with the Dante about the point
Speaker 14: spread with USA basketball?
Speaker 2: I think, uh, yes, that's a good call. Jason Paulie's
Speaker 2: got his hand raised.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 10: I was giving five and a half for the duration
Speaker 10: of the tournament Day four, whom.
Speaker 6: I know.
Speaker 10: It looked like they were gonna lose. Wow, but then
Speaker 10: they were. I think they're up by five.
Speaker 3: I don't know what m could have been a push.
Speaker 10: Should I double down on France USA?
Speaker 3: Okay, but I'd have to know what the point spread is.
Speaker 6: I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't have the point spread yet, checking because if
Speaker 2: you want to double down, I'll let you do the
Speaker 2: point spread. Well, no, I'm going to have to confer
Speaker 2: with the other Danuts.
Speaker 10: Yeah, because I think I bet Marvin on the point
Speaker 10: spread for the tournament.
Speaker 3: Oh, for the entire thing. Oh, I think.
Speaker 2: Okay, So that's different. So that's that's you against paul Yes, Mark.
Speaker 7: No, it's me and Seaton against.
Speaker 3: Oh that's even better.
Speaker 2: No, there's no other Yeah, it was this side versus
Speaker 2: that side. Yeah, Toddler. You you jumped on you jumped
Speaker 2: on Polly's back.
Speaker 3: Yeah, if you have said anything. If Marvin didn't bring
Speaker 3: that up, it was not top of mind.
Speaker 7: It was during the game yesterday that I was watching,
Speaker 7: but not this by.
Speaker 2: We got two Pais shakour bonus cover. I love it, Marvin,
Speaker 2: good call there. It was this side of the Dan
Speaker 2: Ance versus that side instead of front row back row.
Speaker 3: Yes, we all win. We all win.
Speaker 2: Though we'll talk about Jim Harbaugh shaking off questions yesterday.
Speaker 2: This was a lot different than the question that he
Speaker 2: was answering a couple of days ago, where he was
Speaker 2: pretty defiant, don't cheat, don't lie, don't steal, don't do anything.
Speaker 2: This one was why can't we just let the kids benefit?
Speaker 2: You know this is all about the kids? Well it is, yes,
Speaker 2: but the grown ups tend to screw it up. Jim.
Speaker 2: That's the problem. So that's why you sat out for
Speaker 2: a couple of games this past season. But look, if
Speaker 2: I'm a Michigan fan, Michigan alum, I probably go all right,
Speaker 2: So what we we won a national title. If you
Speaker 2: if you don't lose the national title, if they don't
Speaker 2: make you vacate anything, then you go big deal.
Speaker 3: Everybody else cheats.
Speaker 2: So what now the Connors Stallions thing that's going to
Speaker 2: stay awhile and this documentary coming out where he is interviewed.
Speaker 2: I'm really curious of how they portray this documentary, but
Speaker 2: I think that's coming out during the football season. At
Speaker 2: least that would make the most sense. All right, seatan
Speaker 2: the results from the poll question for first hour, JJ Watt,
Speaker 2: who's going to join us in a ten minutes from now.
Speaker 3: Let's see we've got up there. Would you rather blow
Speaker 3: a lead or have no chance?
Speaker 12: Right now?
Speaker 3: Seventy four percent.
Speaker 12: Of the audio would rather have no chance. I don't
Speaker 12: get that at No, I don't get that at all.
Speaker 12: You don't want to be I mean, blowing the lead stings.
Speaker 12: But at least you could say like you were competitive.
Speaker 12: Having no chance, You're like, well I got there, but
Speaker 12: it was terrible.
Speaker 2: No, you want a chance. Yes, you blew a seventeen
Speaker 2: point lead. You were at least up seventeen on maybe
Speaker 2: the greatest collection of basketball talent ever put together. Doesn't
Speaker 2: sound like a consolation prize, Well you get a bronze medal,
Speaker 2: JJ Watbill join is coming up