Speaker 1: Welcome in What's Dray with the great episode three hundred
Speaker 1: and ten potential finals preview in the NBA last night.
Speaker 1: We'll get to that. And you know, it's an odd
Speaker 1: spot because one half of this show is a big
Speaker 1: time Celtics fan. That was a game they wanted to win.
Speaker 1: The Thunder didn't have their second best player, so you know,
Speaker 1: I thought he might be a little down, a little
Speaker 1: nervous about his Celtics, who got beat by Oklahoma City
Speaker 1: when they played earlier this year, being held to twenty
Speaker 1: seven second half points. Then they lose again, and then
Speaker 1: I see Demonse and he's wearing an SGA jersey that
Speaker 1: he got by the way, like the year SGA was
Speaker 1: traded to the Thunder. So what is up with this
Speaker 1: front running nonsense that I'm looking at.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't call it from running nonsense. I'd just say
Speaker 2: that I'm not phased at all. I'm not worried about it.
Speaker 1: Oh, it's not that you're like now a Thunder guy.
Speaker 1: You're just so unbothered. You can even wrap your old SGAs.
Speaker 2: Seven game series where these aren't. You know, we're not
Speaker 2: just playing one games when it gets to the finals.
Speaker 2: We're not worried about it.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, fair enough, I mean, I I believe
Speaker 1: you kind of. I will also say this, the jersey
Speaker 1: over the hooded sweatshirt is a bold look.
Speaker 2: Well, I figured since I was approaching thirty and I
Speaker 2: can't do this anymore, that I should probably get those out.
Speaker 1: You know, thirty is strong. I mean he's twenty six.
Speaker 1: I mean, I understand what you're saying that. Oh, by
Speaker 1: the way, I don't know why this made me think
Speaker 1: of it real quick before we get to the actual show.
Speaker 1: Producers saying jersey and hoodie is a great look. Okay,
Speaker 1: all right, Maybe I don't know.
Speaker 3: As opposed to what me just coming in here with
Speaker 3: the bear jersey on.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know the right way to
Speaker 1: do it. You have the physique would allow you have
Speaker 1: a You have a good enough physique where you could
Speaker 1: wear just the jersey. I do remember when I was
Speaker 1: in middle school, my school didn't have a uniform, but
Speaker 1: had a dress code, and the dress code was you
Speaker 1: had to wear collared shirts. It had you had to
Speaker 1: wear collared shirts. And I was big on the like
Speaker 1: short sleeve polo with a jersey over it. Like that
Speaker 1: was my workaround.
Speaker 3: Okay, bad luck.
Speaker 1: I'm not like I'm not. I had liked the Charles
Speaker 1: Barkley Sons jersey and I would wear the school sometimes
Speaker 1: the full the Charles Barkley sneakers did, Charles Barkley Sons
Speaker 1: shorts did Charles Barkley Jersey over.
Speaker 3: H Polo and over here.
Speaker 1: I mean that old so that that all happened, By
Speaker 1: the way, I was kind of hinting at on Tuesday's
Speaker 1: show something going on with our family that was super positive,
Speaker 1: but I didn't say what it was because it wasn't
Speaker 1: really my news to share. I then maybe, actually, well, here,
Speaker 1: here's what it is. My sister, Demanday's aunt just had
Speaker 1: her third baby on Tuesday, right after our show. So
Speaker 1: congrats to my sister Joanna and her husband Dan, and
Speaker 1: to my niece and nephew Mia and Max for adding
Speaker 1: Francesca to their family. After being so careful demanse about
Speaker 1: not saying what it was on the pod, I got
Speaker 1: a picture from Dan at two fifty four pm Eastern
Speaker 1: of my sister holding the baby. The baby had just
Speaker 1: been born, and I showed it to wilds It's two
Speaker 1: fifty four right before it went on the air. And
Speaker 1: Wild starts the show and says, welcome. The first things first,
Speaker 1: where we're congratulating Nick's sister Joanna on the new basis,
Speaker 1: And I just rolled with it and even said her name.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if Dan's parents or my parents
Speaker 1: had found out. I don't know America to the world right,
Speaker 1: but America found out. But congrats to Joe and Dan.
Speaker 1: All right, here's what missed the cut today. The Bills
Speaker 1: signed Joey Bosa. I get it high upside, it's only
Speaker 1: a one year deal, but man, oh man, that guy
Speaker 1: can't stay healthy and so but you know, so that's
Speaker 1: the concern with him. His brother has been the far better,
Speaker 1: far more productive player for quite some time. Russell Wilson
Speaker 1: is visiting Cleveland and the Giants, which to me is
Speaker 1: actually more of a Shadoor Sanders story than a Russell
Speaker 1: Wilson story, because I don't know where Shadoor Sanders is
Speaker 1: gonna get drafted. And here's what I mean when the
Speaker 1: whoops that I just tried to I'm trying to get
Speaker 1: the draft order up and I went to the twenty
Speaker 1: fifteen NFL draft, So it seems like the Titans are
Speaker 1: taking cam Ward one. Cleveland is evidently interested in Russell Wilson.
Speaker 1: They you know, so they I don't think you try
Speaker 1: to sign Russell Wilson, you're trying to draft Cam or
Speaker 1: should or Sanders. And so even if they don't get
Speaker 1: Russell Wilson, to me, that signals they're not that interested
Speaker 1: in should Or. The Giants are desperately trying to get
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers or Russell Wilson. So I don't know if
Speaker 1: they're interested in Shoud or. You don't think the Patriots
Speaker 1: go ahead.
Speaker 3: Is a situation.
Speaker 2: How they how they did with Cousins and Pinnix, Like
Speaker 2: it's like a safety blinket type of thing.
Speaker 1: I mean, it could be, but I don't think so.
Speaker 1: I don't think that Cleveland is ready to yet fully
Speaker 1: admit that Deshaun Watson will never play there again. So
Speaker 1: I think they're just kind of looking for a bridge.
Speaker 1: So the Giants, though, have signaled by going after Rogers
Speaker 1: as hard as they have that maybe they're not in
Speaker 1: on Sudore. The Patriots are at four, they have Drake May.
Speaker 1: The Jags are at five, they have the Prince. The
Speaker 1: Raiders are at six they have Geno. Now the Jets
Speaker 1: are at seven. They just signed Justin Fields. The Panthers
Speaker 1: are at eight, they have Bryce. The Saints are at nine.
Speaker 1: They just redid Derek Carr's deal. The Bears are at
Speaker 1: ten they have they have Caleb. The Niners are at eleven.
Speaker 1: They have Mac Jones now and brock party William's name.
Speaker 3: For a second, there was Kenn.
Speaker 1: I know, it's crazy. I was looking at the It's
Speaker 1: because I was trying to go through the order in
Speaker 1: my head. Your twelve they have Dak Dolphins are at thirteen.
Speaker 1: They have Tua. The Culture at fourteen they have Daniel
Speaker 1: Jones and Anthony Richardson Falcons fifteen, Pennix Cardinals sixteen, Kyler
Speaker 1: Bengals seventeen Joe Burrow. See, I have to forget another
Speaker 1: great quarterbacks name, or for tend two that way, it's
Speaker 1: not a shot at Kale. The Bengals are seventy. Seattle's
Speaker 1: at eighteen. They just signed Darnold Bucks nineteen. They have
Speaker 1: Baker Broncos twenty, they have Nicks Steelers twenty one. Maybe
Speaker 1: like you know, but they're in. They're but they're going
Speaker 1: after Aaron Rodgers harder than anybody. So, like I think
Speaker 1: the Shador Sanders drop is very, very real. I think
Speaker 1: he is more likely to go after pick fifteen than
Speaker 1: he is to go in the top five. So that
Speaker 1: was not supposed to be something we were talking about,
Speaker 1: but we just talked about it and Aaron Rodgers getting
Speaker 1: exactly what he craves and thirsts and needs, which is
Speaker 1: our attention, and so shout out to him for everyone
Speaker 1: else can make this decision by now. He on the
Speaker 1: other hand, man, oh man, I just it's just so complicated.
Speaker 1: I think Aaron Rodgers knows where he's going. Reminder everybody
Speaker 1: like rate, subscribe, review, check out the podcast. We've got
Speaker 1: to be the only podcast that spends a solid ten
Speaker 1: minutes on the things we're not talking about. To start
Speaker 1: the show, I don't, I promise. I wanted to be
Speaker 1: done talking about the stephen A. Lebron stuff, but his
Speaker 1: media tour will not end on it, and so we'll
Speaker 1: get to that in a moment. But first, some sad
Speaker 1: news for one of my favorite athletes ever. I do
Speaker 1: want to start there, and then we'll get to the
Speaker 1: other stuff.
Speaker 2: Go ahead, Yeah, Tiger was just unfortunately it underwent achilles
Speaker 2: erruptured achille surgery, so it's probably gonna be out for
Speaker 2: a while.
Speaker 3: And you said Tiger's your second favorite athlete ever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I said second favorite because I had always called him.
Speaker 1: If you had asked me for the you know, most
Speaker 1: of the last twenty years my two favorite athletes, I
Speaker 1: would have said Lebron won, Tiger two. And after I
Speaker 1: said it, I was like, oh, I kind of forgot
Speaker 1: Mahomes has, you know, supplanted some people. So he's Tiger's
Speaker 1: one of my three favorite athletes ever. And my story
Speaker 1: with Tiger is not the same as my story with Lebron,
Speaker 1: where like I started watching him Lebron when I was
Speaker 1: in high school and he was in high school. Tiger
Speaker 1: goes back further. I remember my late grandfather, who was
Speaker 1: a huge golf fan when I was ten to eleven
Speaker 1: years old, and man, I wish you could have met him, Demonse.
Speaker 1: He died when I was in college, but he would
Speaker 1: have loved you, and you would have loved him. But
Speaker 1: he called me, and he wasn't a big phone call guy,
Speaker 1: but he called me and told me, he's like, you've
Speaker 1: got to turn on the TV. There's this kid who's
Speaker 1: going to remake the golf world, remake it and he's
Speaker 1: trying to do something no one's ever done, which is
Speaker 1: when I think it's third straight Amateur and I turned
Speaker 1: it on. And that's exactly what he did in kind
Speaker 1: of a stirring comeback victory to win his third straight
Speaker 1: amateur title, and then shortly thereafter in the ninety seven Masters,
Speaker 1: he beat the world by one hundred strokes and remade
Speaker 1: golf as we knew it. And I just think because
Speaker 1: of what the last fifteen years have been, people and
Speaker 1: young people in particular, don't quite understand what two thousand
Speaker 1: really From that ninety seven Masters until the car accident
Speaker 1: in his driveway the night before Thanksgiving in two thousand
Speaker 1: and nine, what and who Tiger Woods was, or I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: and what and who Tiger Woods was was the greatest
Speaker 1: golf forever by such a wide margin. I'm sorry to
Speaker 1: the Jack Nicholas fans out there, but it can't be
Speaker 1: overstated what this man, how he changed a sport the
Speaker 1: likes of which no one's I don't think, ever changed
Speaker 1: another sport. So I'm just going to remind people of
Speaker 1: what he did. So nineties seven Masters he wins by
Speaker 1: a dozen strokes. The golf world is so terrified, they
Speaker 1: remake the Masters course, they say they're going to tiger
Speaker 1: proof it. And then over the next couple years he
Speaker 1: doesn't win any majors, and in fact he only comes
Speaker 1: close only a couple top fives. And then from the
Speaker 1: ninety nine PGA Championship through the two thousand and two
Speaker 1: season he has what will go down in history as
Speaker 1: either the greatest or the second greatest stretch in the
Speaker 1: history of professional golf. Here's what he did at the majors,
Speaker 1: at the tournaments that count. Ninety nine PGA first, two thousand,
Speaker 1: Masters fifth, two thousand, US Open first, two thousand, British
Speaker 1: Open first, two thousand, PGA first, two thousand and one
Speaker 1: Masters first. In a five major stretch, I'm sorry, a
Speaker 1: six major stretch, he won five, including four in a row,
Speaker 1: and the one he didn't win he came in fifth.
Speaker 1: He then the rest of two thousand and one, twelve,
Speaker 1: twenty fifth, twenty ninth in the majors, and then in
Speaker 1: two thousand and two won the Masters, won the US Open,
Speaker 1: second in the PGA, and in that moment, right there,
Speaker 1: he became the second greatest golfer in the history of
Speaker 1: the world. He had eight majors. He was in his
Speaker 1: early twenties. He had won the Masters by twelve strokes,
Speaker 1: the US Open at Pebble by fifteen strokes, the British
Speaker 1: Opened by eight strokes. He had completed the Career Grand
Speaker 1: Slam and was one more British Open championship away from
Speaker 1: completing the career Grand Slam twice and then three to
Speaker 1: oh four remade his swing. So think about that demonse.
Speaker 1: He had just had up to that point the greatest
Speaker 1: stretch in the history of professional golf. And he was like,
Speaker 1: you know what, I think I can be better. And
Speaker 1: in two thousand and three and two thousand and four
Speaker 1: he didn't win any majors, only had one top five
Speaker 1: and one other top ten, and people were like, oh,
Speaker 1: did he make a mistake. Should he not have done that?
Speaker 1: Like he was on such a roll. And then from
Speaker 1: the Masters in two thousand and five until the US
Speaker 1: Opened in two thousand and eight, there were fourteen majors.
Speaker 1: Here is what he did in those fourteen majors in order, first, second, first, fourth, third,
Speaker 1: missed the cut first, first, second and second, twelfth first second, first,
Speaker 1: fourteen majors, six wins, four seconds, a third, a fourth,
Speaker 1: a twelfth and one bad tournament, and in that US
Speaker 1: Open in two thousand and eight, he broke his leg
Speaker 1: in the final round, played on that hairline fracture, made
Speaker 1: one of the most iconic putts in golf history on
Speaker 1: that broken leg on the seventy second hole, just to
Speaker 1: force a playoff and have to come back the next
Speaker 1: day on the broken leg and play eighteen more and
Speaker 1: won it. And then he had the personal trouble, and
Speaker 1: he went away and from two thousand and nine to
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, zero firsts, just one second, almost ten times,
Speaker 1: he missed the cut, twelve times, he didn't even play
Speaker 1: because he was dealing with injuries, he was dealing with
Speaker 1: the embarrassment, he was dealing with all of it. And
Speaker 1: then that glorious early start because of weather Sunday afternoon
Speaker 1: in April twenty nineteen, when he put it all together
Speaker 1: one more time for one final great moment as all
Speaker 1: great athletes try to have, and he won the twenty
Speaker 1: nineteen Masters with Deanna at how old would Deanna have been?
Speaker 1: Five years old? Sitting on my lap watching all five
Speaker 1: hours of it, and and I just I feel, I know,
Speaker 1: this sounds like really really sappy and oddly emotional, but
Speaker 1: I love sports, I love him, and I feel so
Speaker 1: incredibly blessed to have watched what I believe in my
Speaker 1: bones is going to go down as the greatest decade
Speaker 1: run of any player in the history of that sport
Speaker 1: by a mile. And we every few years we hear
Speaker 1: about somebody who's going to who's gonna you know, Oh,
Speaker 1: could he be the next Tiger? What you know, could
Speaker 1: he challenge the records? And the answer is no, no
Speaker 1: one can, no one will. And I understand. Jack Nicholas
Speaker 1: won more, Jack one eighteen, Tiger won fifteen. I don't care.
Speaker 1: Golf was so much harder, with so much deeper fields,
Speaker 1: and Tiger's run of dominance was so compact and great.
Speaker 1: But it's the other guys who we hear about that
Speaker 1: are oh, like, I've had to listen to people tell
Speaker 1: me look out for Scotty Scheffler. And nothing against Scotty Scheffler,
Speaker 1: but here's Scotty Scheffler's glorious run. First, missed the cut, second, twenty, first, tenth, second, third, twenty, third, first, eighth, forty, first, seventh.
Speaker 1: That's great, man, it's really cool. You are a Hall
Speaker 1: of Fame golfer. You got two of them. I I thought, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, what, what's brooks Keepka gonna do? Because Kepka's
Speaker 1: run was special, but it was still first, sixth thirteenth,
Speaker 1: skip the tournament, first, thirty ninth, first, second, first, second, fourth.
Speaker 1: Uh oh, Since then, that was five years ago. He's
Speaker 1: won one. Rory was gonna take the golf world by storm.
Speaker 1: Rory when he blew up. This is what it looked like. First,
Speaker 1: then a year and a half of nothing, another first,
Speaker 1: then a year or nothing, then first first. That was
Speaker 1: in twenty fourteen. He is not one again. No one's
Speaker 1: gonna do it. And part of that is because Tiger
Speaker 1: made the sport so popular and so much bigger. The
Speaker 1: competition got so much harder. And now people's windows, their
Speaker 1: great windows are two years. And listen, I give Jack
Speaker 1: credit for having a legitimate twenty year run. If Tiger
Speaker 1: had twenty healthy years, he'd add twenty five majors. And
Speaker 1: I'm really bummed that he's not going to get. I mean,
Speaker 1: even without the Achilles, we probably knew it was over.
Speaker 1: It was over, but I still held on to hope.
Speaker 1: But five Masters, three US Opens, three British for PGA,
Speaker 1: the most intimidating player in the history of the sport
Speaker 1: and potential Mount Rushmore figure of sports of the last
Speaker 1: fifty years. Tiger woods Man, and he was doing it
Speaker 1: all while kind of living a double life. And I
Speaker 1: don't know if that, you know, I'm not sure that
Speaker 1: makes it more impressive or not. Why are you giving
Speaker 1: me that look, Demanse.
Speaker 3: I mean I just didn't know how to react.
Speaker 1: No, I mean it, he was so here's so here's
Speaker 1: my kind of maybe uncouth, but I believe in my
Speaker 1: bones Tiger take So, Tiger during his run felt like
Speaker 1: and the numbers almost backed this up. He never missed
Speaker 1: those six foot putts that guys miss all the time,
Speaker 1: and he did go years with literally never missing one
Speaker 1: inside of four feet. And I think him the double
Speaker 1: life thing was part of why he was so great
Speaker 1: at those And I know it sounds crazy, but follow
Speaker 1: me for a moment. That's all psychology, and it's all
Speaker 1: I'm not like, I'm not going to let the moment
Speaker 1: get to me. And I think Tiger felt invincible and
Speaker 1: he was like, man, the world thinks, I'm like, you know,
Speaker 1: the ultimate family man. I have this impeccable image meanwhile,
Speaker 1: I'm out here, you know, popping drugs and sleeping with
Speaker 1: the Tippings waitress and I, you know, flying on my
Speaker 1: plane and texting her and doing this and nobody knows.
Speaker 1: And I got all this and the moment that man
Speaker 1: and untouchable and that and that parlayed into I'm untouchable
Speaker 1: and untouchable everywhere. And then when that balloon popped, but
Speaker 1: not only popped, but he had to hold a press
Speaker 1: conference in front of his with his mother in the
Speaker 1: front row and the whole world watching, and him saying,
Speaker 1: I'm a sex addict and I'm you know, I feel
Speaker 1: terribly and really got got taken to the wood shed
Speaker 1: by his wife, which is they had a prenup. She said,
Speaker 1: I'm leaving you, but all consider staying if you do X,
Speaker 1: Y and Z. One of the one of those things
Speaker 1: was we rip up the prenup, go to the counsel
Speaker 1: and go to this, go to whatever. He said, yes,
Speaker 1: and then she left anyway, which again I don't blame
Speaker 1: her for that's her prerogative. But he really he he
Speaker 1: went from a guy who won everywhere to public humiliation,
Speaker 1: losing everywhere, and I think that invincibility went away and
Speaker 1: was never gonna come back, and so it was all that,
Speaker 1: plus all the injuries and so just a bummer, but
Speaker 1: doesn't change the fact that there's not three athletes that I,
Speaker 1: as a sports fan, have gotten more enjoyment from watching
Speaker 1: than I have with Tiger Woods. And so shout out
Speaker 1: to him. Hope the recovery goes well, and I hope
Speaker 1: that he can really enjoy watching Charlie try to chase
Speaker 1: his son up right, Yeah, and so you know, so
Speaker 1: rooting for Charlie, I think that would be really really cool. Okay, well,
Speaker 1: in that weird way, speaking of a different goat whose
Speaker 1: son is trying to follow somewhat in his footsteps, but
Speaker 1: in you know, much more controversial manners. Uh Lebron Bronni
Speaker 1: And now the third character in this movie, my buddy
Speaker 1: Stephen A.
Speaker 3: Smith. Go ahead, Yeah, So Steven A.
Speaker 2: Smith has been going around talking about his confrontation with
Speaker 2: Lebron James talked about on his show. I went and
Speaker 2: talked to talked about it with Gilbert Arenas and he said,
Speaker 2: I thought it was weak. I thought it was some bs. Yeah,
Speaker 2: what's your take on it?
Speaker 1: And then also he went on Sean Hannity's show last night,
Speaker 1: Yes and just and this got brought up in despite
Speaker 1: the all the awful things Hannity has said about Lebron.
Speaker 3: Over the years.
Speaker 1: So I have a lot of takes on this, and
Speaker 1: I was gonna leave this be, but the Gilbert Arenas
Speaker 1: show appearance was to me, it has to be responded to,
Speaker 1: and there's so many different tentacles to this, so I
Speaker 1: will first first, I want to make this point we
Speaker 1: in the media have to be willing to occasionally taken
Speaker 1: out everyone does, but particularly us, We in the media
Speaker 1: have to be willing to at times be like that
Speaker 1: was a miss. I was wrong. I didn't handle that perfectly.
Speaker 1: And we in the media also have to recognize and
Speaker 1: acknowledge that no matter how big or prominent, or wealthy
Speaker 1: or successful any of us ever get, we will never
Speaker 1: be from a fame or credibility to the audience standpoint,
Speaker 1: on par with the biggest athletes that we cover. It'll
Speaker 1: never Howard Cosell was not equal to Muhammad Ali. He
Speaker 1: was telling Ali's story. The audience was there for Ali.
Speaker 1: Bob Costas was not equal to Michael Jordan. He's He's
Speaker 1: telling Michael Jordan's story go ahead.
Speaker 3: To monsen with that.
Speaker 2: With that point, don't you think it like because Steve
Speaker 2: Natesmith's saying it's weak, Lebron James obviously has all the
Speaker 2: leverage on the court. Do you do you not think
Speaker 2: that it's a little Uh, I don't know, it's I
Speaker 2: don't want to say it's weak, but because he obviously
Speaker 2: does have leverage, like, nobody's gonna be on Steven asa
Speaker 2: beside it.
Speaker 1: But you also you that's the thing. So that's the
Speaker 1: thing you have to know in the media that you
Speaker 1: at some point the actual stars are the people we're
Speaker 1: talking about. Sometimes we can be good enough or successful enough,
Speaker 1: or prominent enough or whatever where we become kind of
Speaker 1: supporting actors, but it's their movie. People are here. They
Speaker 1: care so much about them that we become important people
Speaker 1: because we talk about them. And so there is there
Speaker 1: will never be a White House courus or White House
Speaker 1: correspondent that is more important to the political discourse than
Speaker 1: the president. There will there, and there will there will
Speaker 1: never be a Stephen a Is and he has earned it,
Speaker 1: earned it. He he is the most prominent sports media member,
Speaker 1: which does make him bigger than some athletes, but he
Speaker 1: will never be bigger than the biggest athletes. Like here's
Speaker 1: a good kind of you know, back in the Napkin Math,
Speaker 1: do you remember demanse Uh, when I went after Patrick Beverly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that is I think two people on kind of equal footing.
Speaker 1: But think about why that is. You have me. I'm
Speaker 1: just saying we're about on equal footing. Me someone who's
Speaker 1: probably near the bottom of the top ten in my
Speaker 1: field and someone like him who's near the top of
Speaker 1: the bottom ten in his field. And that's where we meet.
Speaker 1: So you've got it, like so the and there was
Speaker 1: another jab at Patrick Beverley fit in there, but uh
Speaker 1: so it is so No, I don't think it's unfair
Speaker 1: for Lebron to respond. We all like the And here
Speaker 1: is the other thing. You gotta be prepared in the
Speaker 1: moment with how you're going to respond if they if
Speaker 1: you get checked. And this idea like I got, I
Speaker 1: told the story you know, confronted is too strong, but
Speaker 1: questioned by Jalen Hurt's mom night before the super Bowl,
Speaker 1: and she was totally within her rights. I've told the
Speaker 1: story for nothing but good thing to say about her.
Speaker 1: Uh And one of the only there are not many
Speaker 1: bright sides for me that came out of that Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: But I respected her in that interaction so much that
Speaker 1: I was part of me, the little part of me
Speaker 1: that wasn't heartbroken about the results of the game, was
Speaker 1: happy for her because she was so adamant or someone
Speaker 1: was gonna win and that he was gonna play great
Speaker 1: and all that happened. But in that moment, I had
Speaker 1: a choice to make do I snapfold my hand, or
Speaker 1: do I say, okay, we can actually talk about it.
Speaker 1: What I don't think is typically cool is to in
Speaker 1: the moment snapfold your hand and then after the fact
Speaker 1: talk and talk and talk and talk and talk about it.
Speaker 1: And here's the other pieces of it that I just
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go ahead and say I have a hard
Speaker 1: time fully buying. On Gilbert's show, stephen A said, essentially,
Speaker 1: my producers made me address it. I didn't want to.
Speaker 1: My producers made me address it. Bro, That's not how
Speaker 1: that works. We all we all know that, Like, that's
Speaker 1: it's not how that works on first things. First, I
Speaker 1: can't imagine that's how that works. On first take, I
Speaker 1: cannot imagine. And I do not think that anybody really
Speaker 1: believes like there is anything on that show that stephen
Speaker 1: A's like, I do not want to do this, and
Speaker 1: they're like, sorry, you have to come on, man, that's
Speaker 1: not like, that's not that's not a thing. Like maybe
Speaker 1: the day after a finals game if Steve, if someone
Speaker 1: was like, I don't want to talk about the basketball game,
Speaker 1: they might be like, well you have to and if not,
Speaker 1: we're gonna pay, like the but I, that's not a thing.
Speaker 1: And the other thing was this because on Gilbert Show,
Speaker 1: stephen A said, Oh, I I thought in the moment
Speaker 1: this was about Bronni. It wasn't until I saw what
Speaker 1: Lebron's conversation mouth somewhat covered mouth not with Richard Jefferson
Speaker 1: that I knew this was actually about what I had
Speaker 1: said about him as a father. Man. I knew it
Speaker 1: the next day. I was on here the next day
Speaker 1: and I told everyone that's what it was about. It
Speaker 1: was obvious that's what it was about. The everyone who's
Speaker 1: in these circles knows that's what it was about. When
Speaker 1: Lebron's people called you and you made fun of them,
Speaker 1: it was months ago. It was about that. It was
Speaker 1: about the I'm begging you as a father, So it's
Speaker 1: okay to say has caught off guard, has caught off guard,
Speaker 1: didn't really know, and then the other part of it,
Speaker 1: like again, and I say this every time, and I'll
Speaker 1: say it again, and it's so funny that I texted
Speaker 1: with stephen A the day this, the morning before this
Speaker 1: all happened, so like I think this happen a week
Speaker 1: ago today, I actually text with steven A that morning,
Speaker 1: so before it all happened. Obviously I have and I'm
Speaker 1: still using current present tense. I hope a good relationship
Speaker 1: with him. But I have to be I have to
Speaker 1: be fair here because I'm not hesitant ever on this
Speaker 1: platform or on the TV show really to criticize colleagues
Speaker 1: if I think they're dead wrong. I can't just have
Speaker 1: the guys that I really like or my friends or
Speaker 1: whatever be like a sacred cows here, especially when this
Speaker 1: this is the story that continues to be the story.
Speaker 1: The implication with Gilbert and company that listen, maybe I'd
Speaker 1: have handled that differently, but I worked for Walt Disney.
Speaker 3: Come on, man, ye about like the fighting or like
Speaker 3: I was gonna.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's what it seemed like was being implied.
Speaker 4: I thought the same like listen, Steven Ain't to his credit,
Speaker 4: has gotten in great shape and did like a real boxing.
Speaker 1: Thing and would be a even even you know at
Speaker 1: his at his you know, he's in great japer's age
Speaker 1: and is despite being a decade plus order than me.
Speaker 1: I'll say it would be a significant favorite over most
Speaker 1: other media members. You know what I mean in hand
Speaker 1: to hand combat. But the idea that it's like, well,
Speaker 1: you know, hands are a little tide because I work
Speaker 1: for the mouse. Otherwise, like, come on, man, like, what
Speaker 1: are we like that? Let's just go ahead.
Speaker 2: I don't play a Devil's advocate any longer, but this
Speaker 2: last time we'll do it. Do you like what is
Speaker 2: in like? Is are we saying that the only thing
Speaker 2: that Stephen A. Smith did wrong was call out Lebron
Speaker 2: James's father, because everything else like in bounds.
Speaker 3: What's out about it?
Speaker 1: Here's so here's what I think. That's a great follow
Speaker 1: up and a great question. The I think that I'm
Speaker 1: pleading with you as a father was out of line.
Speaker 1: It's also what Lebron was responding to that was very
Speaker 1: clear from the morning after the event. I again, I
Speaker 1: set it on this show on a little emergency pod
Speaker 1: that we did right after or over the weekend, but
Speaker 1: before the rj uh interaction with Lebron, and it was
Speaker 1: it was very clear that's what it was about. So
Speaker 1: that is you Now I talked to Vimani about that,
Speaker 1: Butmani says, we need to normalize judging other people's parenting,
Speaker 1: which is an interesting take, and like it's also you know,
Speaker 1: Butmoni's you know, glass house there, not glass house there.
Speaker 1: Bamoni ain't got no kids, so he doesn't know how
Speaker 1: hard you guys can be sometimes. But but the that is,
Speaker 1: that's what triggered Lebron. Okay, that's what it was now
Speaker 1: is the criticism of Bronni. Fair it. Let me, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna tweak how I word that.
Speaker 2: Go ahead, Well, I mean also like there's a while back,
Speaker 2: Lebron put out a tweet and I get it's not
Speaker 2: Bronni that tweeted, like it's just unfortunate that it's landing
Speaker 2: on Bronnie the kid when so.
Speaker 1: That tweet is I would argue, and this I think
Speaker 1: kind of speaks to how relatively well, not relatively well,
Speaker 1: but incredibly well Lebron James has handled twenty five years
Speaker 1: in the public eye. That tweets one of the five
Speaker 1: biggest missteps of his whole career, honest to God, like
Speaker 1: it really is. But the fact that everyone keeps pointing
Speaker 1: to this tweet from three years ago as evidence that, oh,
Speaker 1: Lebron has been building Bronnie up bigger than he was,
Speaker 1: I think speaks to the fact that after that tweet,
Speaker 1: Lebron pumped the brakes on it. Right, Like the that
Speaker 1: that tweet was it put a bigger target on Bronnie's back,
Speaker 1: and so that was that was a mistake that that's
Speaker 1: totally fair, and that's that would be criticizing Lebron. You
Speaker 1: know that a decision he made, Like, that's totally fair.
Speaker 1: But that's not what this was about, right, So the
Speaker 1: so but I but to get back to your other
Speaker 1: question is is Bronnie James a fair target for criticism?
Speaker 1: The answer to that is yes, he's an NBA player,
Speaker 1: He's a grown man NBA player. Is it also fair
Speaker 1: to say, if this is going to be the one
Speaker 1: and only second round pick in the entire draft in
Speaker 1: the last two drafts three drafts that we are going
Speaker 1: to occasionally criticize on national television, that if you have
Speaker 1: been one of the more vocal critics, whether it was
Speaker 1: his summer League performance or his opening few G League
Speaker 1: games or those awful minutes against the Sixers. Then if
Speaker 1: you really want to be fair, you've got to mix
Speaker 1: in the context and maybe include, oh, he's actually played
Speaker 1: really well since that moment. Now, I think it's probably like,
Speaker 1: does that make sense that if I'm that anybody that
Speaker 1: you are is you don't have to talk about, but
Speaker 1: you choose to talk about either super glowingly or super negatively,
Speaker 1: or it's you know that you insert in. It's probably
Speaker 1: fair to balance the scale to a degree you don't
Speaker 1: have to do. That's why I keep doing the you know,
Speaker 1: where he ranks amongst rookies, and he is somewhere between
Speaker 1: forty eighth and fifty eighth in every single minutes games, points, assists, steals,
Speaker 1: which is what you would hope for from the fifty
Speaker 1: to fifth pick. So that's the other piece of this
Speaker 1: that I think is a little bit of bullshit. If
Speaker 1: you were and this is not, I'm not talking about
Speaker 1: Stephen ah here, Okay, if you are to agree, I'm
Speaker 1: kind of talking about one of my dearest friends in
Speaker 1: the world, among others, but among other not among my
Speaker 1: other dearest friends, but Manni is one of my dearest
Speaker 1: friends in the world. He's one of many people who
Speaker 1: were very loud and skeptical about Bronni being drafted. I
Speaker 1: do think what's fair is if you were one of
Speaker 1: those people saying this is a farce of a pick
Speaker 1: to at some point mention he's acquitting himself pretty well
Speaker 1: in the G League, that he's averaging the exact same
Speaker 1: as the Lakers first round pick last year in the
Speaker 1: G League, that he, you know what, like that, because
Speaker 1: I think it's pretty clear that the people who said
Speaker 1: this is a farce of a pick, if Bronni in
Speaker 1: the G League was four points, couldn't you know? It
Speaker 1: is terrible to be like see, And so I just
Speaker 1: I do think though that stuff is well again, I
Speaker 1: just it's also not all that day to day relevant.
Speaker 1: I just what I don't. I just have a really
Speaker 1: hard time with the sequence of I didn't want to
Speaker 1: talk about this. I've now talked about it almost every
Speaker 1: single day on four different platforms since then. I didn't
Speaker 1: know what he was mad about when I got a
Speaker 1: call five weeks ago from his agent about the exact
Speaker 1: thing he's mad about. And anyone with kind of deductive
Speaker 1: reasoning knew that's what he's mad about, having been on
Speaker 1: the record for twenty years about how many games you
Speaker 1: go to and about how everyone you talk about is
Speaker 1: welcome to come up and talk to you about anything
Speaker 1: they say, and when that happens, to say it was
Speaker 1: weak and it was bullshit. And this is why I
Speaker 1: started with the we're not on equal playing field with
Speaker 1: these guys. Sometimes you don't get to respond like you
Speaker 1: can respond. That's let me don't that's I said that wrong.
Speaker 1: That's not what I meant. What I'm trying to say
Speaker 1: is in that moment, I think what he's saying is
Speaker 1: I wanted a phone call so I could give give
Speaker 1: my side of the story, and Lebron was saying, I
Speaker 1: don't give a shit about your side of the story.
Speaker 1: I didn't like what you said, and I wanted you
Speaker 1: to stop it and if we never speak again, no
Speaker 1: skin off my back. And that is a power and
Speaker 1: balance because like Lebron's like, I don't care about this relationship.
Speaker 1: You might, I don't, and that just kind of is
Speaker 1: that that that's why I used the Coseel Ali thing. Now,
Speaker 1: cosel actually was incredibly helpful to Ali because Ali had
Speaker 1: the US government working against him and a lot of things.
Speaker 1: So it's not a perfect example at all, but as
Speaker 1: helpful as Howard Cosel was to Muhammad Ali, Howard go
Speaker 1: Sel needed Muhammad Ali in that relationship more than Ali
Speaker 1: ever needed would need him. And no matter how wealthy
Speaker 1: or famous any of us get, we're not the actual stars.
Speaker 1: And then we also have to have the humility to
Speaker 1: at times just take an l. I don't know why
Speaker 1: that is so difficult for certain folks like and that's
Speaker 1: and I'm not just pointing out stephen A there at all.
Speaker 1: That is that is a lot of people again, well
Speaker 1: particularly people that in our business people and are there is.
Speaker 1: It's also why there's kind of this unspoken rule almost
Speaker 1: like oh, you know, I'm in the media, I'm not
Speaker 1: going to criticize other media that I obviously don't subscribe to. You.
Speaker 1: I just think that is somewhat hypocritical almost like we
Speaker 1: can't we we can't do what we do to these
Speaker 1: athletes and then act so wounded if somebody he does
Speaker 1: it to us.
Speaker 2: Exactly, it's like this guy needs to change this, like
Speaker 2: that needs to happen it's like I feel like, yeah
Speaker 2: in some fashion, and.
Speaker 1: So listen, I really hope this is the end that
Speaker 1: of this the and the handity thing.
Speaker 3: Made him do it.
Speaker 1: Well, I just I don't. I I don't. Look, given
Speaker 1: all the things Sean Hannity has said about Lebron that
Speaker 1: I find to be in inaccurate on their face and
Speaker 1: wildly unfair, I think going on that turf and doing
Speaker 1: this was and now and again in steven A's defense there,
Speaker 1: it didn't look like he knew that question was coming,
Speaker 1: and he didn't spend a lot of time on it.
Speaker 1: You know, I think he was on there to give
Speaker 1: more political comment, which is a whole nother discussion. But whatever,
Speaker 1: all right, I guess while we're here to Monsey with
Speaker 1: you know, Nick Wright Media Corner, I mean, forty five
Speaker 1: minutes of the podcast, I've talked golf and you know,
Speaker 1: made people I really like and care about in my
Speaker 1: profession probably angry with me. Let's go ahead and finish
Speaker 1: it off.
Speaker 3: Go ahead?
Speaker 2: Uh? Yeah, So you called out NFL insiders for prioritizing
Speaker 2: who was going to make the deals or what was
Speaker 2: going on around the deals, as opposed to what actually happened.
Speaker 3: In the deals. I guess they were being messy going.
Speaker 1: On no, it's no, no, no, it's it's here's the deal.
Speaker 1: I don't know when this started, but in the last
Speaker 1: couple of years, during NFL free agency or during any
Speaker 1: contract negotiation, the last words of any tweet from our
Speaker 1: NFL insiders are as negotiated by and then Drew Rosenhaus
Speaker 1: athletes first, Dandy, Nicole Lynn, whatever the agents and it
Speaker 1: is that is I, here is my and I'll be
Speaker 1: quick on this. Here is my Cliff's notes. Take the
Speaker 1: reason you cultivate these relationships to get the information and
Speaker 1: the reason you will scratch somebody's back. Oh you you
Speaker 1: know you assistant general manager tipped me off about a trade.
Speaker 1: Well at the end of the year, when I'm on
Speaker 1: TV talking about potential hot general manager candidates might drop
Speaker 1: your name. Oh you agent gave me this contract detail,
Speaker 1: so I had it first, I, you know, will make
Speaker 1: you know I might share some info that I have
Speaker 1: with you. That is journalism very often is transactional in
Speaker 1: that way. I understand that I am not naive to that. However,
Speaker 1: what the journalist is supposed to get is accurate information
Speaker 1: to give to the public. Here kind of is the flow.
Speaker 1: The team front office and the agent do a deal.
Speaker 1: The journalist has a relationship with someone involved to where
Speaker 1: they are trusted to get the deal info. They give
Speaker 1: that deal info to the fans who really want to
Speaker 1: know the actual info. That's the where it's supposed to go.
Speaker 1: What it has kind of turned into is team and
Speaker 1: agent make a deal that the whole world is gonna
Speaker 1: find out about when the team announces it in a
Speaker 1: half hour. Journalist wants to be first by minutes, very
Speaker 1: often seconds on Twitter. Agent then says, I'll give it
Speaker 1: to you if you report it under these exact terms
Speaker 1: and this exact language. And then the consumer, who in
Speaker 1: theory is the person trying like that the journalist supposed
Speaker 1: to be servicing, gets fucking tricked. It's like, wait, we
Speaker 1: gave him, how much? What's the guarantee? How long is
Speaker 1: the contract? Is it the most in team history? Is
Speaker 1: he the highest paid? We don't know? And then we
Speaker 1: gotta wait days for like Florio to post the actual contract.
Speaker 1: The whole thing's been polluted, and there wasn't What set
Speaker 1: me off about it was And I'm not trying to
Speaker 1: protect anyone here, but I just don't. I don't want
Speaker 1: to get this wrong. And so I'm not gonna say
Speaker 1: the names because I don't actually remember which two reporters
Speaker 1: it was. But there was a pretty just nothing burger
Speaker 1: signing that from a couple days ago, that two reporters
Speaker 1: who worked for two different entities, not colleagues, not like
Speaker 1: Rapport and Pelasaro, who called themselves the insiders, like their
Speaker 1: partner or whatever. And very often sharin Fo posted word
Speaker 1: for word the exact same tweet simultaneously. And I'm like,
Speaker 1: so the agent is just writing the tweet for you
Speaker 1: to send, and you just copy pastings, putting it out
Speaker 1: there like that's that's not what this is and it's
Speaker 1: why so, and and you might say, what does it
Speaker 1: really matter? Well, there there is like here, I'll give
Speaker 1: you an older one, but a real impact of one
Speaker 1: of these DeVante Adams traded to the law to the
Speaker 1: Las Vegas Raiders. This is years ago, and the contract
Speaker 1: shatters the wide receiver record for salary. It's thirty million
Speaker 1: dollars per year. That is reported. Okay, tyreek Kill sees
Speaker 1: that tells the chiefs, I want thirty million a year,
Speaker 1: and the chiefs end up having to trade. DeVante adams
Speaker 1: deal was not thirty million a year because the final
Speaker 1: two years, which were thirty six and thirty eight million
Speaker 1: seventy four million of the deal were totally fake and
Speaker 1: that's why he just got cut. So but to the world,
Speaker 1: oh no, Devonte Adams reset the market. He didn't. That
Speaker 1: was not real info, or at least it was info
Speaker 1: with totally devoid of context. Now that's not me crying
Speaker 1: as chiefs and the Tyreek Kill trade end up being
Speaker 1: one of the greatest transactions the team's made. I don't
Speaker 1: think they win the next two Super Bowls if they
Speaker 1: don't do it. But it's just the job is to
Speaker 1: not be first, credit the agent and mislead the audience.
Speaker 1: None of that's the job.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: So at this point, say do you want to break
Speaker 2: it first? He was like, none, that's part of the job. Like,
Speaker 2: you probably still want to break it first, But ethically, well.
Speaker 1: What you what is first? First to actually have the
Speaker 1: true details, or first to just have a vague piece
Speaker 1: of it so that you know what I mean. So
Speaker 1: here's here's what I My request would be. Just don't
Speaker 1: include the numbers till you have the details on them,
Speaker 1: because here's the thing. What do fans care about? Where'd
Speaker 1: the player go? Team player? Right? Die hards really do
Speaker 1: care about the money because it impacts salary cap all
Speaker 1: that stuff. Well, then you're not servicing the die hards
Speaker 1: if you're giving the money. But it's not the real
Speaker 1: money and it's not fully accurate. So just team player,
Speaker 1: team player, team player. Try to be first. And if
Speaker 1: you're not going to be first with at like the
Speaker 1: agents aren't going to feed you the info unless you
Speaker 1: agree to include the you know, the most optimistic version
Speaker 1: of the money and credit the agent, well then then
Speaker 1: then maybe you need to find another way to get
Speaker 1: the info. It's hard job. I don't deny it, but
Speaker 1: we're really misleading the audience. I don't think that's great demand.
Speaker 1: Say I'm gonna have no friends left. Everybody's just gonna
Speaker 1: be mad at me. Thank god the super Bowl didn't
Speaker 1: come around for another eleven months.
Speaker 3: But I'm in a rough spot.
Speaker 1: Takes on takes Minefield.
Speaker 3: It's on minefield.
Speaker 1: Now. I will tell you this is just last thing
Speaker 1: before you move on. I'm I'm going to Lakers Grizzlies
Speaker 1: in Memphis. I don't know if Lebron will be playing
Speaker 1: or not, but it's at the end of this month,
Speaker 1: and I not the just say it. I took some
Speaker 1: of those winnings from the poker this week and bought
Speaker 1: two true court side seats. And I do wonder is
Speaker 1: there a chance that there's just the bizarro version of
Speaker 1: the Lebron Stephen of the interaction of me and just
Speaker 1: caught on camera, just a big tap hug. What's going on?
Speaker 1: How's the family ole thing? Like, I do think it's
Speaker 1: I think it's on the board. I'm saying it's a favorite.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying it's on the board.
Speaker 3: I'd say likely.
Speaker 2: I think that at the very least interaction like he'll
Speaker 2: he'll see you and you guys have a.
Speaker 1: We have a relationship. We'll see. But but it's also
Speaker 1: so funny. So you know your mom's dear friend Jessica obviously,
Speaker 1: and Jessica and Nicole are in Memphis. So Jessica has
Speaker 1: really good season tickets to the Grizzlies, And when we
Speaker 1: said we were going, she was going to give me
Speaker 1: and your mom her two seats, and I I was
Speaker 1: like telling him Nicole, she and Nicole should keep those seats.
Speaker 1: You know they I don't want them to not.
Speaker 3: Court side.
Speaker 1: All fine tickets for you and me, baby, So this
Speaker 1: is how it's gonna go, because your sisters are going
Speaker 1: on the trip. So it's going to be me and
Speaker 1: your mom literal court side. What oh, Nicole and Jessica
Speaker 1: in their really good lower bowl seats, DOORA, Deanna and
Speaker 1: Jason up in the rafters. That's that's that's how, that's
Speaker 1: how this what's gonna go. Yeah, and so there, So
Speaker 1: we're gonna have, We're gonna have.
Speaker 3: Uh is gonna be a meeting point.
Speaker 1: I have a sight from all different all different areas.
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Speaker 1: see DKNG dot co slash b ball. All right, demanse,
Speaker 1: let's go to Aaron Rodgers. Then I do want to
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about the basketball from last night,
Speaker 1: and then a really cool throwback clip that I found.
Speaker 1: We don't have a ton of time here, but we'll
Speaker 1: we'll get it together, all right, Go ahead, Demanse.
Speaker 3: Uh, yeah, So for the first time in his career.
Speaker 3: Rogers is a free agent.
Speaker 2: Pittsburgh, the Giants, and maybe a little bit of Minnesota.
Speaker 2: Those are the teams that seem to be a hawk
Speaker 2: him down. What are your thoughts?
Speaker 1: So here's what I think. I think that Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: knows exactly where he's going and exactly what he's doing,
Speaker 1: and Aaron Rodgers wants the attention, and I don't think
Speaker 1: that they are still negotiating. I think that he is
Speaker 1: the main character in his story and in every story,
Speaker 1: it would seem, and he, you know, likes that. Well,
Speaker 1: there's three teams right now, kind of in a bit
Speaker 1: of a two definitely in the Steelers and the Giants,
Speaker 1: and one may be in the Vikings that are waiting
Speaker 1: on him. I I don't understand the Vikings piece of it, Demonse.
Speaker 1: And here's why it doesn't make sense to me that
Speaker 1: they were like Daniel Jones, we'd like to give you
Speaker 1: around ten million dollars to back up JJ McCarthy, and
Speaker 1: then Daniel Jones went to Indianapolis and they're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers, we'd like to give you forty million dollars
Speaker 1: to start in front of JJ McCarthy, Like those you
Speaker 1: know that it doesn't seem like if you were if
Speaker 1: they had tried to retain Sam Darnold and lost him
Speaker 1: and then they pivoted Darren Rodgers to be like, okay,
Speaker 1: that makes you know that's cogent thought, so to speak.
Speaker 1: This one doesn't make sense to me. And does you
Speaker 1: understand what I mean?
Speaker 2: Like, I don't I understand what you're saying, Like it's.
Speaker 1: It just seems like I'm looking for a car. I'm
Speaker 1: either gonna get a Miata Tutor or a Mini van.
Speaker 1: It's like, well, wait a minute, what are you trying
Speaker 1: to get out of this thing? Like the and so
Speaker 1: I just don't I don't follow it in that way,
Speaker 1: that's all. And so I don't know that he'll pick today.
Speaker 1: I really don't. I also will say this, the folks
Speaker 1: that believe the Steelers could be anything close to contenders
Speaker 1: with Aaron Rodgers, they weren't contenders last year with Russell Wilson.
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers at diappoint in his career is not better
Speaker 1: than Russell Wilson. I'm not saying he's worse. They're about
Speaker 1: the same. Like, and I know they added George Pickens,
Speaker 1: but man, that feels so combustible. Pickens and Metcalf and
Speaker 1: Rogers like, I don't, I don't. I don't love that
Speaker 1: at all. All right, let's do OKAC Boston.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so the two conference favorites they faced off last
Speaker 2: night and Tatum cooked. He had thirty three, eight and eight.
Speaker 2: Boston also shot sixty three threes. I think it was
Speaker 2: like thirty six at the at the halftime or something
Speaker 2: like that. Yeah, but yeah, what enough Sga the flopper?
Speaker 2: He yeah, he had thirty four points and ten having
Speaker 2: free throws. Yeah, what are your thoughts?
Speaker 1: So listen, okay sees awesome. Yeah, and there is no
Speaker 1: denying listen with respect to Cleveland, I think okay se
Speaker 1: has been the best team in the league so far
Speaker 1: this year, and they're now too. And oh against Boston,
Speaker 1: they have incredible depth. You remember when we were in
Speaker 1: LA for Thanksgiving, we went you didn't go, but we
Speaker 1: went to Lakers Thunder and I came back after that
Speaker 1: and said, man, they just said wave after wave after
Speaker 1: wave of defender at you. And Shay has just been
Speaker 1: better and better and better ice and yesterday we still
Speaker 1: they did that without Jalen Williams. And so you have
Speaker 1: to be wildly impressed by what they did there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Jalen Brown also had a freaking stinker. I don't
Speaker 2: know what was going on with JV, but.
Speaker 1: So he did. But that also speaks to the point
Speaker 1: that I made, which is the sweet spot of NBA
Speaker 1: superstardom is the Jalen Brown Devin Booker tier where you
Speaker 1: get paid as much as anybody. When you're awesome and
Speaker 1: you shut the slow down Luca and you have a
Speaker 1: sweet donk, people are like, man, that guy's great, and
Speaker 1: when you have ten points in this game, nobody cares.
Speaker 3: Oh so yeah, listen. I was just telling him. I
Speaker 3: honestly think Derek White is the second best player on
Speaker 3: the team.
Speaker 2: I trust the ball and Derick White's hands so much
Speaker 2: better than I trusted in Jalen Brown.
Speaker 3: Like I get nervous.
Speaker 2: I don't want to say I'm like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 2: he's gonna do something stupid. But I'm just like, when
Speaker 2: Derek White has the ball, I noticed that he makes
Speaker 2: the better He just always makes the right decision, and
Speaker 2: I don't think he gets caught up in is dribbling.
Speaker 2: I love Derek White, but I don't think he gets
Speaker 2: enough credit.
Speaker 1: But Listen, that's the that's a hell of a take.
Speaker 1: I'd have to like, he doesn't seem to ever make mistakes.
Speaker 1: I do. I do think that's right. I don't think
Speaker 1: he has the responsibility Jalen Brown has. But for the Thunder,
Speaker 1: it is still fair to be like, until they do it,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna question if they can do it. And you
Speaker 1: called Shaye the flopper, Listen, Shae can really really manipulate
Speaker 1: the refs in a way that is super effective and
Speaker 1: super beneficial, and it is a skill and more power
Speaker 1: to them are.
Speaker 3: The refs watching the games back on TV.
Speaker 1: In real time. The same thing people said with Harden
Speaker 1: and all that stuff. But here's the thing about that guy.
Speaker 1: Those players usually struggle a bit in the playoffs because
Speaker 1: you don't get all those calls and you've gotten used
Speaker 1: to it. One of the reasons, sorry to turn everything
Speaker 1: to Lebron, but one of the reasons Lebron is one
Speaker 1: of the rare players. Lebron, Jordan, Luca, Shack, there's you know,
Speaker 1: a few, but Kobe wasn't one of them. Durants now, Durant,
Speaker 1: Durant probably close steph though, is not one of these
Speaker 1: guys who have unbelievable regular season numbers and their playoff
Speaker 1: numbers across the board get a little bit better. One
Speaker 1: of the reasons that's the case for Lebron is Lebron
Speaker 1: gets such a shitty whistle in the regular season, the
Speaker 1: playoff whistle doesn't impact him negatively. He's used to it,
Speaker 1: like and so the harden Embiid will see about Shay
Speaker 1: guys who get this unbelievable regular season whistle. So listen,
Speaker 1: the Thunder deserve all the credit in the world, but
Speaker 1: it's allowed to be a little skeptical of them. Boston.
Speaker 1: I know everyone's going to be like, Boston shoots too
Speaker 1: many threes, and I don't love it. Stylistically, they're they're
Speaker 1: defending champs and they're the favorites to win the title.
Speaker 1: Like it, it does seem to be effective. Sixty three is,
Speaker 1: you know, the most they've ever shot. So that's that's
Speaker 1: not even that's not standard even for them.
Speaker 2: I mean, we were down in the entire time, were
Speaker 2: trying to shoot threes to get out of that.
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, but you are getting blown out or
Speaker 1: out and so I would not be shocked if this
Speaker 1: is a finals preview. I do think though, that if
Speaker 1: the Lakers are healthy, they can clip Okay, Sae, and
Speaker 1: it's really looking like that's a likely second round matchup. No, man,
Speaker 1: if we could get somehow this second round Eastern Conference
Speaker 1: Calves Bucks, Celtics Knicks that just need the bracket to
Speaker 1: hold Western Conference thunder Lakers, and we need one upset
Speaker 1: for this next thing, and then Nuggets Warriors that'd be
Speaker 1: an all time second round man all the time. What
Speaker 1: are you shaking your head about going through those?
Speaker 2: I don't know, that's oh, I was shaking my head
Speaker 2: because it was a Celtics, No Celtics Knicks. I would
Speaker 2: love that, I mean because we.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you guys crush them. But I just think it'd
Speaker 1: be a good be a good matchup. All right. I there,
Speaker 1: I was sent a truly unbelievable clip that I hope
Speaker 1: demand is not yet heard because I want to see
Speaker 1: his real reaction, real time reaction. Have you heard this yet, Demanse, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I listened to it. Okay, all right, Well
Speaker 1: that's fine. We'll do that in just a second. But first,
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Speaker 1: we're going to wrap the show on this. This was
Speaker 1: sent to me. I had forgotten about this before the
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen NFL Draft, before First Things First Yet existed.
Speaker 1: Chris Carter and I filled in for Colin Cowherd and
Speaker 1: we interviewed a few of the draft prospects. One of
Speaker 1: them was a potential first round pick out of Texas
Speaker 1: Tech named Patrick mahomes I. And here is one of
Speaker 1: the questions I asked him. Listen to his answer, Patrick,
Speaker 1: I've got a son who's around your age, just a
Speaker 1: little bit younger than you, and I did something with
Speaker 1: him that I want to do with you. Right now,
Speaker 1: you're not driving.
Speaker 3: Are you no, sir?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 3: All right?
Speaker 1: Ten years from now, close your eyes. Think about it.
Speaker 1: In a perfect world, everything goes great. You are doing
Speaker 1: exactly what you want to do. Take me ten years
Speaker 1: from now. Describe where you are and what you don't
Speaker 1: have to tell me a city, but describe what your
Speaker 1: life is ten years from this moment.
Speaker 3: Ten years from now, I hope to have a family,
Speaker 3: a wife and a kid, or maybe two and I'm
Speaker 3: playing in the NFL, one of the best quarterbacks in
Speaker 3: the NFL and have a couple of Super Bowl championships
Speaker 3: with me.
Speaker 1: Well, there you go, so like that, So you already
Speaker 1: know your endpoint. Man. So now that you know your endpoint,
Speaker 1: every fork in the road, every decision you make, just
Speaker 1: keep in mind that's the end point you're trying to
Speaker 1: get to. Where people screw up, at least my sec
Speaker 1: is they don't know where they're trying to get to.
Speaker 1: So you get to fork in the road and you
Speaker 1: don't know do I go left right? But Patrick just
Speaker 1: said it's got a wife and kids, So I guess
Speaker 1: that means he's got to, you know, be hitting the
Speaker 1: dating scene in the off season a little bit, I guess.
Speaker 1: And he got a couple quarters and got a couple
Speaker 1: Super Bowl championship, still playing in the league. He already
Speaker 1: knows where he's going. He's got to figure out how
Speaker 1: to get there.
Speaker 3: Step one, download Tinder.
Speaker 1: So that is remarkable by Patrick that he set the
Speaker 1: goals that high and exceeded all of them. He said
Speaker 1: one or two kids, he's at three. I didn't know
Speaker 1: obviously when I was saying hit the dating scene that
Speaker 1: he was in a serious relationship. Yeah, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean that he had the woman in mind. He
Speaker 1: had the woman in mind, and he said one of
Speaker 1: the best quarterbacks in the league with a couple championships,
Speaker 1: he's the best quarterback in the league and has three.
Speaker 1: I mean, that is a really really cool thing. And
Speaker 1: then the also him. Yeah, right, so that was eight
Speaker 1: years ago. It was eight years ago, So that was, Uh,
Speaker 1: that was I had no recollection of that. Isn't that amazing?
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's truly awesome. I got it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so that that was really cool. So I
Speaker 1: don't know if he I'm gonna I'm gonna send if
Speaker 1: we put out that clip right there, a little throwback Thursday.
Speaker 1: Also again, folks who accuse me of hair plugs or anything,
Speaker 1: look closely at that video. You see I have a
Speaker 1: full hairline. I just have a shaved head. I don't
Speaker 1: look like a guy who lost his hair. Look, this
Speaker 1: idea is everywhere you can see doesn't matter. Point is
Speaker 1: uh Yeah, I mean that's not a guy who's bald,
Speaker 1: that's a guy who shaved his head. Wasn't the greatest look.
Speaker 3: I would say he could lose that one. Probably don't
Speaker 3: ever want to get back to that one unless you
Speaker 3: have to.
Speaker 1: The but regardless, I don't know. My guess is Patrick
Speaker 1: doesn't remember that either. But if we put out that clip,
Speaker 1: I'll send it to him. That was really cool. Good
Speaker 1: for him, all right, good job demands, Good job everybody.
Speaker 1: Thank you to Blue Duck, thank you to the folks
Speaker 1: at the volume, thank you, DraftKings, thank you to the listeners.
Speaker 1: I don't think any emergency pods this weekend. I need
Speaker 1: to actually catch up and sleep at some point. TV
Speaker 1: show in three hours. See you guys there. What's right