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Speaker 2: Welcome in Fresh Off Vacation, Episode one seventy two, What's
Speaker 2: Right with Nick Wrighton. Before we pan out and show
Speaker 2: who our special guest is today, let me tell you
Speaker 2: about how this podcast usually works. We have done one
Speaker 2: hundred and seventy two episodes plus the tirty of our
Speaker 2: top fifty players of all time countdown, so we're at
Speaker 2: around two hundred episodes. There has been one person that
Speaker 2: is not either a blood relative or my wife who's
Speaker 2: an essential blood relative on this show, low Wayne, and
Speaker 2: so we kind of decided we don't We're not really
Speaker 2: gonna do guests. We're not a podcast that does guests. However,
Speaker 2: if it is a family only podcast, there is one
Speaker 2: person who you all know who is in the sports
Speaker 2: media space who just newly became able to do whatever
Speaker 2: he wants in the sports media space. While is not
Speaker 2: a blood relative, I've known for now ten years. He
Speaker 2: is my youngest child's favorite person in the world. He
Speaker 2: is essentially family and he joins us today on a
Speaker 2: special appearance. He is, of course Bamani Jones, but Bamoni
Speaker 2: Jones joining us on the pod. Good to see you both.
Speaker 3: And see man, I'm not gonna lie with you started
Speaker 3: saying that everybody had been blood I thought you were
Speaker 3: gonna say that they had been bloods and then you
Speaker 3: said a little waite, and I was like, I could
Speaker 3: be you know, you know what.
Speaker 2: So that's what it was, either blood relative or blood
Speaker 2: you know. That's how the podcast has worked so far.
Speaker 2: So today you today's show, we're just gonna run through.
Speaker 2: Uh will spend the first segment talking the NBA, the
Speaker 2: second segment talking in the NFL, and third segments we
Speaker 2: always do get to your listener questions. Bamani, how have
Speaker 2: you been good? To see you doing good.
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna lie. I was like actually prepared to
Speaker 3: come here and just read to your questions. You know
Speaker 3: what I'm saying, Sorry, job.
Speaker 2: I go.
Speaker 3: I can humble myself generally speak. You know that.
Speaker 2: You know what, when people hear Bomani Jones, I think
Speaker 2: the first thing they think is humble gentlemen. I think
Speaker 2: that's one of the first word association things. But that's
Speaker 2: not what we're gonna do. We're gonna do this kind
Speaker 2: of more like your pod, where we just throw things
Speaker 2: out there. And by the way, subscribe to the Right
Speaker 2: Time with Bomani Jones that is still and not only
Speaker 2: in existence, but that is now property of Bomani Jones,
Speaker 2: and we'll follow him wherever Jones goes. If I may
Speaker 2: say so, I hope I was the same.
Speaker 4: No, No, you can't.
Speaker 3: In fact, not only are you allowed to say so,
Speaker 3: it is almost imperative, okay, or by people like nah
Speaker 3: the pods still exists, like they don't understand how that worries,
Speaker 3: and I will blame him. I still got it. It's
Speaker 3: coming back in a few right, I'll let you know.
Speaker 2: So subscribe to the podcast the Right Time of the
Speaker 2: Bomani Jones that is still ongoing as Bomoni, you know,
Speaker 2: navigates the next few months and what the space will
Speaker 2: look like for him. We are going to talk about
Speaker 2: something that is very near and dear to my heart
Speaker 2: to start with, which is ranking NBA player.
Speaker 3: So Steph Curry was.
Speaker 2: Asked by Gilbert Arenas who the greatest point guard of
Speaker 2: all time is, and he understandably immediately said me himself,
Speaker 2: Steph Curry. And then if you watch the longer clip
Speaker 2: he did ninety second tribute to Magic Johnson, it was
Speaker 2: because he says me, He says, Steph's the best, and
Speaker 2: then kind of laughs, and if you just watch it
Speaker 2: there it seems like he's being disrespectful. He is not,
Speaker 2: but he advocates for himself. So here's where I am
Speaker 2: in a pickle. Bo. I believe both of these things
Speaker 2: to be true, and this is where I want your take.
Speaker 2: I believe, in the marrow of my bones, the greatest
Speaker 2: point guard of all time is Magic Johnson, and at
Speaker 2: present it is not particularly close. I say at present
Speaker 2: because Steph is still playing and he you know, see
Speaker 2: what he does, how long he extends this extended prime.
Speaker 2: But I believe that is currently written in stone. I
Speaker 2: also believe this Almost every time I am asked to
Speaker 2: do one of those exercises of create the best five
Speaker 2: man team possible, I choose Steph over Magic.
Speaker 4: That wait, see it.
Speaker 2: Whenever we are talking about like, all right, Jordan's you're two,
Speaker 2: Lebron's your three. You know, a Kareem or a chem
Speaker 2: or Shacky or five, it's like, all right, pick your
Speaker 2: point guard. I'm like, all right, so Magic's better, but
Speaker 2: this team is better with Steph. And so that's those
Speaker 2: two things seeming conflict. But I believe Magic is the
Speaker 2: best point guard ever. I believe Steph is the point
Speaker 2: guard you would most want on almost any team ever
Speaker 2: where you stand.
Speaker 3: All right, So where that Steph thing comes up to
Speaker 3: me is that now that we are in an era
Speaker 3: where a team that doesn't shoot a lot of threes
Speaker 3: shoots twenty something in a game, Steph Curry looks a
Speaker 3: lot better. Right like the game as it currently exists,
Speaker 3: it can be hard in your mind to think about
Speaker 3: how you put Magic into it, and you think about
Speaker 3: Steph as floor spacer, and so you think of him
Speaker 3: as better player on that team. Here's the why I
Speaker 3: think about Magic that people lose sight of he was
Speaker 3: actually held back for like five years because he was
Speaker 3: playing two guard until they got around to trading Norm
Speaker 3: Nixon away from Barbra Scott. Right, he averaged a borderline
Speaker 3: triple double. I want to say in year two, which
Speaker 3: is like nineteen nine and a half and nine and
Speaker 3: a half or something like that playing two guard. Yes,
Speaker 3: they went to the finals nine times in twelve years.
Speaker 3: And after not playing basketball for five years, Magic came
Speaker 3: back in average I want to call it.
Speaker 2: A fifteen six and seven is Listen, he missed four
Speaker 2: full years and in his first game back at thirty
Speaker 2: six years old overweight Magic what he did in that
Speaker 2: first game back, I've got it right here. Uh my apologies.
Speaker 2: I said I have it right here, but I don't. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I do. First game back, he goes nineteen eight and ten.
Speaker 2: In the first two games of the playoffs that year,
Speaker 2: averaged twenty three, ten and four against the defending champion Rockets.
Speaker 3: So Magics.
Speaker 2: Here's the other thing. If you brought up the beginning
Speaker 2: of the career, you also have to recognize Magic essentially
Speaker 2: at a career ending injury. We don't look at it
Speaker 2: that way because it was HIV. But Magic played twelve
Speaker 2: seasons pre HIV. Those twelve seasons Magic Johnson nine times
Speaker 2: First team All NBA, nine times first, second or third
Speaker 2: in MVP voting, nine times in the NBA Finals. So
Speaker 2: seventy five percent of Magic seasons he was first team
Speaker 2: All NBA, seventy five percent, he was Top three MVP
Speaker 2: seventy five percent he was in the NBA Finals. Steph
Speaker 2: as great as Steph is. Step has been first Team
Speaker 2: All NBA four times. Steph has been Top three MVP
Speaker 2: voting three times. Like there is there is a level,
Speaker 2: and the fact that Magic the last game he played
Speaker 2: pre HIV was the finals against Jordan. It's not now.
Speaker 2: Was he still peak apex Magic? No, but he was
Speaker 2: two years removed from an MVP, one year, one year
Speaker 2: removed from the league MVP correct, and had just led
Speaker 2: a team to the finals. So the idea he was
Speaker 2: still going as a top five player in the league league.
Speaker 2: I feel like Magic gets a little overlooked, or I
Speaker 2: don't want to say overlook because he's Magic Johnson, but
Speaker 2: I do. I am now starting to get to the
Speaker 2: age where and this happens with a Keeme a lot too,
Speaker 2: where people act as if a Keem's career started in
Speaker 2: the finals in the nineties, right, that was a post
Speaker 2: prime achem olage one. He was no longer at his apex.
Speaker 2: Now he was still the best player in the league
Speaker 2: those years. But like a Keeme in year two is
Speaker 2: in the finals, or year three in the finals putting
Speaker 2: up thirty in year three is in the playoffs, averaging
Speaker 2: thirty seven a game, like So there's some some of
Speaker 2: the eighties stuff gets glossed over. So I think Magic's
Speaker 2: the best ever? What do you do? You think there
Speaker 2: is a path for Steph in your mind becoming the
Speaker 2: best ever?
Speaker 3: I mean the path would be if Steph Curry winds
Speaker 3: up with five championships like Magic Johnson had five championships, right, Sure,
Speaker 3: then all of a sudden we're had being a bit
Speaker 3: of a different discussion. Like you and I have talked
Speaker 3: about this with the Steph Lebron thing. It gets weird
Speaker 3: if he gets to five and Lebron does not. Right,
Speaker 3: I still think Lebron is a better player. It just
Speaker 3: becomes harder to talk to people about it.
Speaker 2: Sure.
Speaker 3: The thing that I think is lost though about Elijah
Speaker 3: Wan in the eighties, and it is the same thing
Speaker 3: with Magic in those in the late eighties early nineties,
Speaker 3: loaj Bob was carrying bombs man like after eighty six
Speaker 3: a lot. It was a cheme elajahwan and eleven dudes
Speaker 3: in Houston, Right, They'd have been better off with eleven
Speaker 3: dudes from Houston, because then I would know they had
Speaker 3: some fight. Instead, it was just eleven dudes that happened
Speaker 3: to be in Houston. Magic. The eighty nine, ninety and
Speaker 3: ninety one teams are all on Magic's back.
Speaker 4: Those are not showtime Lakers.
Speaker 3: You go look at that ninety one roster that lost
Speaker 3: to Jordan, it's Magic and dudes.
Speaker 2: Well and so, there's and so, and there's two other points.
Speaker 2: That one is eighty nine. They're going for the three peat,
Speaker 2: and Magic gets hurt and you know what I mean,
Speaker 2: it's not really able to compete the in the in
Speaker 2: sorry the Yeah, that's right, eighty nine gets hurt and
Speaker 2: Detroit ends up running away with it. In ninety Kareem
Speaker 2: is gone. And now all of a sudden, the scoring
Speaker 2: load which magic Magic experience, I gotta carry this team
Speaker 2: scoring as a rookie in Game six of the finals
Speaker 2: and dropped forty two and then a decade with Kareem,
Speaker 2: and then in nineteen ninety he all of a sudden
Speaker 2: has back to back forty point playoff games, which again
Speaker 2: validates the idea that if he had to fully carry
Speaker 2: scoring load, he could have, but was not because it
Speaker 2: wasn't what was needed or what was best for the team,
Speaker 2: which is also in a weird way, that run, even
Speaker 2: though he didn't have a championship, was similar to Steph's
Speaker 2: last championship, a validation of an already unimpeachably great career
Speaker 2: of Oh. When the circumstances changed dramatically, you can even
Speaker 2: up your game or change your game. Where I think
Speaker 2: this should be stated is I would have told you
Speaker 2: three years ago this will never be a discussion. And
Speaker 2: the fact that Steph extended the prime poster urrant, what
Speaker 2: he did in the playoffs in the championship run two
Speaker 2: years ago, and honestly what he did in the playoffs
Speaker 2: last year with a broken team that was not a
Speaker 2: very good team, the fifty point game seven, all of
Speaker 2: it to me, it has put Steph at the very
Speaker 2: least in that top ten conversation, and it makes the
Speaker 2: Steph versus Magic conversation legitimate. Even though I think it's
Speaker 2: still clearly magic.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like the magic thing that I think gets lost,
Speaker 3: and I understand why it's getting lost. This hole he's
Speaker 3: a six to nine point guard thing. I understand it.
Speaker 3: Right now. That doesn't seem like the craziest thing in
Speaker 3: the world to you, because you've grown up in an
Speaker 3: arab with Lebron James. Are all these switchables six '
Speaker 3: nine guys? However, to this day, other than Lebron, I
Speaker 3: can't think of how many.
Speaker 4: Guys magic size.
Speaker 3: We're not just running the break from the middle, but
Speaker 3: also pushing the pace from the middle. Because even when
Speaker 3: Lebron Lebron on the break at most dangerous is full
Speaker 3: head of steam running on the wing, what are you
Speaker 3: going to do on the three on two?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: Magic is accelerating the pace with the ball from the
Speaker 3: middle at six ' nine in an erow where that
Speaker 3: honestly would have made him a big power forward, like
Speaker 3: that was a time where power forwards are honestly not
Speaker 3: even any good, and this guy was doing that from there. So,
Speaker 3: like I think Steph has an argument, depending on a
Speaker 3: few like very technical sorts of characteristics, you can say, oh, well,
Speaker 3: you know, basically three is bigger than two. That's what
Speaker 3: gets us here, is the fact that three is bigger
Speaker 3: than two, and it's way bigger than two by percentage.
Speaker 3: But nah, I can't.
Speaker 2: I can't either.
Speaker 3: I can't see it. But again, if somehow, which is
Speaker 3: not gonna happen this year, though I should never say
Speaker 3: anything's not gonna happen with step because that guarantees the
Speaker 3: day gonna happen, they're not gonna win a championship this year.
Speaker 3: If somehow he said, jump on by back boys and
Speaker 3: carry them to a champions changes every day.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of math on a lot of things.
Speaker 2: And so the and the last thing. Your point about
Speaker 2: the pushing the pace is I think really interesting because
Speaker 2: when you're talking about six eight plus point guards, I
Speaker 2: was thinking, well, Luca, but Luca's not pushing the pace.
Speaker 2: Luca's not doing anything like what Magic is doing. It
Speaker 2: said totally, Lucas doing just a bigger Harden and a
Speaker 2: better hardened Speaking of Harden, that's where we're going now.
Speaker 3: Sorry I'm laughing already.
Speaker 2: So what do you what do you make of Harden
Speaker 2: doing everything he's done the last week?
Speaker 3: Okay, this is what I make of the hard thing.
Speaker 3: This is why I love this so much. Right, these
Speaker 3: are two guys, Darryl hard I mean Darryl Morey and
Speaker 3: James Harden, who know each other very well and importantly
Speaker 3: oh their successes to the other.
Speaker 2: Correct both of them.
Speaker 3: Neither of them have all the money they got, neither
Speaker 3: have all the prestige they have if not for the
Speaker 3: fact that they came across each other in the year
Speaker 3: twenty twelve, so that.
Speaker 2: The year Harden and Maury came together is actually same
Speaker 2: year you and I met in person. Yes, I was
Speaker 2: living in Houston before he traded for James Harden. Daryl's
Speaker 2: biggest moves in Houston were Jeremy Lynn and Omar Ashik,
Speaker 2: and it was known because he structured Ashik's contract in
Speaker 2: such a unique way. And I always thought he was sharp.
Speaker 2: I always liked Darryl, but he had no nothing to
Speaker 2: show for what I thought was a brilliant basketball mind.
Speaker 2: And then he trades for Harden. And I remember going
Speaker 2: on the radio in Houston because it happened in October.
Speaker 2: It was a light before the season, right before the season,
Speaker 2: and I said, I think James Harden can by the
Speaker 2: end of this year be one of the top ten
Speaker 2: guys in the league like Fringe top ten, and in Houston,
Speaker 2: it was universally accepted as that is crazy. Like what
Speaker 2: Darryl saw that Harden could be and what Harden could
Speaker 2: become under his system was we now look back on
Speaker 2: it and people are like, oh, obvious, It was not obvious.
Speaker 2: It was not obvious at all. And so to your
Speaker 2: you and obviously for Darryl, Daryl probably was without that
Speaker 2: trade gonna be out of the job and then not
Speaker 2: be Darryl Mory. So I'm just agreeing with you entirely
Speaker 2: that those two guys coming together is what turned Daryl
Speaker 2: Morey into one of the moment he leaves Houston, he's
Speaker 2: one of the highest paid gms in Philly, and Harden
Speaker 2: into one of the most statistically decorated players in NBA.
Speaker 3: And he's nearly made a billion dollars Yes, between basketball
Speaker 3: and Adidas. Yes, Like I would not be surprised if
Speaker 3: somebody added up all the James Harden money at this
Speaker 3: point and extactive to a billion dollars for a man
Speaker 3: who doesn't have a personality. But anyway, it was one
Speaker 3: of the most pressian trades ever though, but not just
Speaker 3: from the Rocket side. But also from the thunderside because
Speaker 3: the thunder got killed. Basically all they got was Kevin Martin,
Speaker 3: Jeremy Lamb, and cap space when Kevin Martin's deal expired.
Speaker 2: And the pick that turned into Steven Adams, which ended
Speaker 2: up being there's pace of the whole thing, right, very important, right,
Speaker 2: But it was pressient for Oklahoma City in a way
Speaker 2: that people didn't realize at the time because Presty understood
Speaker 2: something that none of these people who've dealt with hard
Speaker 2: and understood since, which was we got to get him
Speaker 2: out of here, like before the season, you think, so,
Speaker 2: you think that's what you think that he was already
Speaker 2: showing this.
Speaker 3: I think he knew. Okay, this is somewhat informed, not
Speaker 3: enough for me to say out loud, got it. He
Speaker 3: knew we got to get this dude out of here.
Speaker 3: I knew they had to get him out of here,
Speaker 3: just because that's the nature of things, right. He wouldn't
Speaker 3: be no six man right and still won his money.
Speaker 3: They had to get him out of here. So Mary
Speaker 3: saw something in Harden that nobody else saw, and Presty
Speaker 3: also saw something in Harden that nobody else has seen yet.
Speaker 3: So you fast forward to now and Harden, whatever lie
Speaker 3: he feels like he was told, it may have been
Speaker 3: a couple of lies, but whatever lie he felt like
Speaker 3: he was told, he felt like he was told. Darryl Mourray,
Speaker 3: on the other hand, felt like, I'm not giving James
Speaker 3: Harden away.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 4: Both of them knew that's how the other acts.
Speaker 3: Right. Everybody knows James Harden's gonna act up when it's
Speaker 3: time for him to go if you won't let him go.
Speaker 3: And everybody knows that Darryl Moury is not getting beat
Speaker 3: in a trade. But each of them looked at the
Speaker 3: other and said the same thing. Like I see it
Speaker 3: like a movie where you imagine they show one person
Speaker 3: talking and then they show the other person talking about
Speaker 3: the same thing, and then it comes together at the
Speaker 3: end and they both are saying the same line, and
Speaker 3: that line is but I know he ain't gonna do
Speaker 3: me like that, not after everything I did for him.
Speaker 4: And here we are, here we are.
Speaker 3: They both thought the other would not be the person
Speaker 3: that they were because he wouldn't do me like that.
Speaker 2: So so much of this is fascinating to me. I
Speaker 2: want to talk on the lie part for okay, So
Speaker 2: Harden and I don't think it is. I I think
Speaker 2: it should be mentioned. And I understand Harden has a
Speaker 2: massive economy in China that the that's really his only
Speaker 2: fan base left is China, but it also should be notes.
Speaker 2: So I and he has events there, him torching Maury
Speaker 2: in China. Yes, when if you remember Darryl's tweet supporting
Speaker 2: Hong Kong, it was something that almost it's it seemed
Speaker 2: like might cost.
Speaker 3: Daryl his career best every he cost the NBA about
Speaker 3: as much money as COVID. Correct, that's not an exaggeration,
Speaker 3: or at least that's what people say. And and so
Speaker 3: there's that kind of under tone to it.
Speaker 2: Then there is what is he saying you lied about?
Speaker 2: Because if he's saying you lied about you're gonna trade me,
Speaker 2: you're not trading me. There's no problem. If he is
Speaker 2: saying what I think he wanted people to believe. He
Speaker 2: was saying, you told me last year when I gave
Speaker 2: back the fourteen million, that there was a MAX deal
Speaker 2: waiting for me, like everyone speculated, and to be fair,
Speaker 2: like the NBA did launch an investigation last year about
Speaker 2: found that it was not true. And then the rockets
Speaker 2: or the Sixers got docked for early contact PJ and
Speaker 2: House the guys they were able to get with the
Speaker 2: money from the Harden thing. If that were true, it
Speaker 2: would be catastrophic for the Philadelphia seventy six ers, for
Speaker 2: Daryl Morey, for everybody. I do not believe that's true.
Speaker 2: I do not believe Daryl, and the NBA doesn't believe it.
Speaker 2: And now Harden is saying he didn't do it. But
Speaker 2: I know some people do believe that that's what happened here.
Speaker 2: There was a handshake deal. So let me ask this
Speaker 2: question to you, because I don't think this point's been
Speaker 2: made enough. Bill Simmons did his credit, tweeted about it
Speaker 2: when the story first broke. He and I are in
Speaker 2: somewhat lockstep about it. But well, I shouldn't say we're
Speaker 2: in lockstep because I'm not gonna say exactly. I don't
Speaker 2: want to say what Bill believes. But let's just say
Speaker 2: for a moment they did have a handshake deal. If
Speaker 2: you're and people are like, oh, well, if that's the case,
Speaker 2: Darryl broke his word. If I'm on the side of okay,
Speaker 2: take less money. You got a max contract waiting for
Speaker 2: you once you make clear to every NBA reporter in
Speaker 2: the world, you plan to go to Houston this offseason?
Speaker 2: Do I have right to say, well, I guess the
Speaker 2: deal's off. Do I have every right to say whatever
Speaker 2: handshake deal we had? If you are from Christmas Day
Speaker 2: through May telling everyone that'll listen you're going to Houston.
Speaker 2: Am I still supposed to then be like, well, if
Speaker 2: they don't want you, I've got you. Or does that
Speaker 2: nix whatever deal we had? Because I would Again, I
Speaker 2: don't think there was deal, but if there was, and
Speaker 2: I was in the Sixers case, I would be like, well,
Speaker 2: I guess he doesn't think there's a deal, so I
Speaker 2: guess we're off the hook. Isn't that legitimate?
Speaker 3: I think it would be legitimate. But I absolutely believe
Speaker 3: that there was a deal. And the reason that I
Speaker 3: believe that there was a deal is nothing about James
Speaker 3: Harden implies, Hey, I think he's willing to make some
Speaker 3: sacrifices to win, because I do think he wants to
Speaker 3: win very badly. I think that the poor behavior that
Speaker 3: he's demonstrated in all these moves lately, those weren't about money, right.
Speaker 3: If he wanted the money, he could have stayed in Houston,
Speaker 3: FURTIITA would have given him fifty million dollars a year
Speaker 3: for two more.
Speaker 2: And they and in Brooklyn, remember he turned down three
Speaker 2: for one sixty one before the second season there.
Speaker 3: Right, James Harden would be one of the greatest players
Speaker 3: of all time unequivocally with a championship. And I think
Speaker 3: he wants that like he does not. There's a rarefied
Speaker 3: air that we don't talk about.
Speaker 2: Also, I think how badly he wants to win is
Speaker 2: evidenced by how much the playoffs get to him.
Speaker 3: Yes, I think he gets nerdy. I think.
Speaker 2: I do think that is true. I do think he
Speaker 2: wants it so badly that it then manifests itself in fear. Yeah,
Speaker 2: during postseason games.
Speaker 3: Because we saw that to a degree with Jimmy Butler
Speaker 3: in the finals, where it's like, oh, was wrong with
Speaker 3: Jimmy Butler? Is he hurt? No, he's pressing right, like
Speaker 3: these things happen. I think he wants to win. Do
Speaker 3: I think he wants to win enough to give back
Speaker 3: thirteen million dollars and then everything else that came behind it. No,
Speaker 3: I don't. I don't think that man is wired like that.
Speaker 3: I think, for whatever reason, he thought he was going
Speaker 3: to be taken care of. Now, I do think you
Speaker 3: make an interesting point there that if he then says, well,
Speaker 3: I'm going to go to Houston, But Darryl knows James,
Speaker 3: James knows his number one weapon in negotiation is paining.
Speaker 3: I got to make these people feel pain in order
Speaker 3: to get what I want. So if i'm Darryl, I'm like, no,
Speaker 3: I'm probably still gonna give this to you. Because in
Speaker 3: the end, if they had given it to him, I
Speaker 3: think James would have taken it because James wants to
Speaker 3: win and James was not gonna go to what that
Speaker 3: clown show was looking like at the time in Houston.
Speaker 3: That's my thought on it. But somewhere along the way,
Speaker 3: after he gave back the money and everything else, whether
Speaker 3: Darryl Morey was gonna get a good deal on that
Speaker 3: trade and not, you had to take care of the dude.
Speaker 2: Man, Well, here's.
Speaker 4: The thing, and it's your guy. I think that's the
Speaker 4: other part too, It is your guy.
Speaker 2: It is your guy. But also that, I mean what
Speaker 2: I would argue, I would argue that Harden over the
Speaker 2: last week has mishandled this immense Yes, do you think
Speaker 2: Damian Lillard is gonna be on the Blazers this year? Yes,
Speaker 2: oh okay, all right, Well I wasn't even trying to
Speaker 2: have a Dame conversation. I don't. But the reason I
Speaker 2: bring it up is he hasn't been traded yet, and
Speaker 2: I think that it is fair, even if you disagree,
Speaker 2: a lot of people think, but he will be at
Speaker 2: some point.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I think at some point he'll be traded,
Speaker 3: but I think he'll be a Blazer.
Speaker 2: Okay, oh you think you'll start a Blazer and then
Speaker 2: be traded. So that's kind of my point, is Harden
Speaker 2: to me those comments, Harden, if you're gonna if you're
Speaker 2: gonna play that card, you almost gotta play it either
Speaker 2: days before the season starts or days before the deadline.
Speaker 2: But pulling that parachute when there is still plint where
Speaker 2: in August seems premature and seems hasty. I also think
Speaker 2: that what is undeniable is this if hardens right now,
Speaker 2: biggest upset is about the money. Does anybody think what
Speaker 2: he is doing right here is going to lead to
Speaker 2: more money? Or is this so the reason I thought
Speaker 2: he wanted the Clippers. Here's my theory. It was not
Speaker 2: Los Angeles, and it was not about ability to win.
Speaker 2: It was about if he were traded to the Clippers,
Speaker 2: they would be able to max him and them moving
Speaker 2: into a new arena with the uncertainty of Kawhi and
Speaker 2: Paul George, with that owner, that's one of the only
Speaker 2: people that would max him. But they can't if he's
Speaker 2: a free agent. He has to already have been on
Speaker 2: the team. So I think all of this was for
Speaker 2: James's purposes about how do I get I didn't take
Speaker 2: the extension in Houston, I didn't take the extension in Brooklyn.
Speaker 2: I dropped my salary fourteen million last offseason. We're now
Speaker 2: we're now up to maybe almost one hundred and fifty
Speaker 2: million dollars left on the table. And I think you
Speaker 2: saw the real anxiety in that by him picking up
Speaker 2: this option rather than just being a free agent. But
Speaker 2: I will tell you this, if he if they don't
Speaker 2: trade him and he dogs it, I think I think
Speaker 2: he could be looking at less than twenty million on
Speaker 2: a contract see that for one year.
Speaker 3: That's an interesting question. And I might have been inclined
Speaker 3: to agree with you if I didn't just see somebody
Speaker 3: give Kyrie Irving forty some million dollars a year for
Speaker 3: three years. That with the deal yeah Z plus yes, with.
Speaker 2: The player option on the The plus one is not team,
Speaker 2: it's player yes. But that team had to keep him
Speaker 2: because they couldn't let they had traded for him and
Speaker 2: they couldn't, you know, risk him walking out for nothing.
Speaker 2: And then Luca, which is what's so interesting about the
Speaker 2: Kyrie Harden thing is those are big stories. But the
Speaker 2: bigger story is what that domino will impact Luca and
Speaker 2: Embiid and whether or not those guys, either one of
Speaker 2: them is gonna say I'm sick of this the So
Speaker 2: where do you think the hardened thing lands? And then
Speaker 2: we'll wrap this part up.
Speaker 3: So it's when you mentioned that about Embiid, I wanted
Speaker 3: to get to that because that, to me is totally
Speaker 3: where this gets to be fun. Right. I think with
Speaker 3: healthy James Harden, healthy Kawhi Leonard whatever that is anymore right,
Speaker 3: and healthy Paul George, maybe the best team in the
Speaker 3: NBA in terms of your chances of winning a championship.
Speaker 3: And it's great for Hardon because Harden's problem, as we
Speaker 3: talked about pressing at the end, right, you ain't got
Speaker 3: to do.
Speaker 2: That, Kawhile take care of it. If he's playing, you've.
Speaker 3: Got maybe the best big game player in the NBA.
Speaker 3: Kawhi Leonard has a case for being the best big
Speaker 3: game player in the NBA. Paul George's your number two,
Speaker 3: and James Harden gets to be point guard, which, by
Speaker 3: the way, he's willing to do the problem with the Sixers,
Speaker 3: And this is where if I'm Darryl, I might play
Speaker 3: this a little different. You've got your chance to tear
Speaker 3: this whole thing down because I am now convinced that
Speaker 3: the ceiling on that team is the second round. And
Speaker 3: I've convinced the ceiling on that team is the second
Speaker 3: round because I don't think you can win with Joell,
Speaker 3: and I don't think you can win with Harden. The
Speaker 3: thing with Joell, to people loose sight of, he puts
Speaker 3: those big numbers up in the regular season because he's
Speaker 3: using thirty eight percent of the possessions. In the playoffs,
Speaker 3: he only uses twenty eight percent of the possessions, or I
Speaker 3: think that's what it was last year. He can't be
Speaker 3: the same dude. And if he can't beat that dude,
Speaker 3: he can't carry you. And if he can't carry you.
Speaker 3: That team's not good enough to win. Hardon is not
Speaker 3: the guy that could be your number two and then
Speaker 3: you win. Tobias Harris is your number three. It's now
Speaker 3: time to tear this thing down to the screws, and
Speaker 3: they could do that.
Speaker 4: If Joel Embiid.
Speaker 3: Gets up and says I'm sick of this, and I
Speaker 3: feel fairly confident he is infect sick of.
Speaker 2: It, well, I mean he certainly. Listen. It's hard to
Speaker 2: take anything Joel does on social seriously because he literally
Speaker 2: calls himself Troelle lebid so he wants but it if listen,
Speaker 2: Embiid's got aware the fact that his playoff resume is
Speaker 2: not impressive. Now, he has had some bad luck. He's
Speaker 2: been injured. He gets elbowed in the face, breaks his face,
Speaker 2: his knees hurt. He's had a lot of injuries. But
Speaker 2: he is a guy that for his career averages damn
Speaker 2: near thirty and in the playoffs averages around twenty three.
Speaker 2: He is the only MVP in the history of the
Speaker 2: league to not make Round three, the only one, the
Speaker 2: only Yeah. The only MVPs to not make a finals
Speaker 2: are him, Nash and Derek Rose and there might be
Speaker 2: one other from a long time ago, but I don't.
Speaker 2: I think that's it. I did this the other day,
Speaker 2: but he's never been made around three, which is wild
Speaker 2: when you know, Oh, the other one was Jokic, but
Speaker 2: Jokic obviously then made the finals. Your guy, those stats
Speaker 2: you're hating, that's right, by the way, it should be
Speaker 2: noted that, but I was one of the only people
Speaker 2: to be a multiple time guest on UH game theory
Speaker 2: is that correct?
Speaker 3: One time you and Steven A.
Speaker 2: Smith are the only multiple Yeah, and and one time
Speaker 2: was like a social only thing, and one time was
Speaker 2: on uh TV or maybe I do. It doesn't matter,
Speaker 2: but uh Bamani and I had a lot of really
Speaker 2: loud I was more loud than him arguments about Jokic,
Speaker 2: and if you go back and watch them, Bomani ended
Speaker 2: up being right on all heavily unfortunate, asked me, is Steph?
Speaker 3: I got terrified to say bad things about Steph.
Speaker 2: It's really unfortunate. Oh, speaking of step it's so funny.
Speaker 2: Uh So the Quarterback documentary comes out and pee, I haven't.
Speaker 2: People text me, They're like, you're in the first episode,
Speaker 2: You're all over it. I'm like, this is great for me.
Speaker 2: Hard Knocks comes out and people are like, you're in
Speaker 2: the first your Guys shows in the first episode the Jets,
Speaker 2: I'm like, that's awesome. Steph's documentary comes out, people text me,
Speaker 2: They're like, you're in the final episode. I'm like, that
Speaker 2: is a disaster. I was like, there's no chance that's good.
Speaker 2: I was like, the Mahomes thing, that's gonna be good.
Speaker 2: Me being hesitant about the Jets, I think that plays.
Speaker 2: But if I'm in the the culmination of the Steph
Speaker 2: Curry doc it's not because I'm like, the guy's amazing.
Speaker 3: You know, my god, Dominy Fotsworth who got on TV
Speaker 3: it did the the No Board Championships day and Steph
Speaker 3: did that at the victory parade and everything else so good.
Speaker 3: I'm so like, I have not seen Stephan years. I'm
Speaker 3: terrified of what will happen when I see him because
Speaker 3: he doesn't forget anything. And I mean, I was right
Speaker 3: until I was wrong. Fans how you feel about yok
Speaker 3: you were right until he.
Speaker 2: Was wrong, right until I was wrong. And by the way,
Speaker 2: I listen the the here's what I will say about
Speaker 2: the Yolks thing, and then we quickly move on. I
Speaker 2: do not tend to get bothered by things written about
Speaker 2: me or YouTube videos made about me or social media.
Speaker 3: Stuff assful all the time.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, you just gotta at some point you gotta decide,
Speaker 2: am I gonna allow this to occupy all my waking
Speaker 2: moments or just now. The downside to just being like
Speaker 2: I'm gonna ignore it is, as has happened over the
Speaker 2: last few months with a lot of the speculation about
Speaker 2: shows on FS one, is there a lot of flatly
Speaker 2: not only like kind of incorrect, but just like Marktaly
Speaker 2: wrong things written. You've dealt with this in a much
Speaker 2: more toxic extent. And the question the problem is if
Speaker 2: you once you respond to one, not responding in the
Speaker 2: future feels like it is an admission. So it's like,
Speaker 2: do I want to open the doors to responding to
Speaker 2: any of it because then I am almost required to
Speaker 2: respond to all of it, or am I just gonna
Speaker 2: let this bullet you know what I mean, float out
Speaker 2: there and ignore it. The reason I said all this
Speaker 2: with the yoga something, I'll let you respond to that.
Speaker 2: The only thing that bothers me like that I shouldn't say.
Speaker 2: The only thing that bothers with me. The thing that
Speaker 2: really bothers me is when people take things that I
Speaker 2: did say and video that does exist about Yokic from
Speaker 2: two years ago. Right, And it's fine if they say
Speaker 2: this is where Nick thought, but then cut the video
Speaker 2: and tweet out even after he won the title. Nick
Speaker 2: Wright won't give yo Ki Chenny love, and I'm.
Speaker 3: Like, I'm in my house doing that. It's coviing. How
Speaker 3: do you think I said this after he won the championship?
Speaker 2: That does bh?
Speaker 3: No, No, you showed up like It's kind of like
Speaker 3: with me and Josh Allen the day I looked up
Speaker 3: and realized I'm not gonna fight this anymore.
Speaker 4: Credit to you.
Speaker 3: You still got yeah, you still gottaving.
Speaker 2: It like I was.
Speaker 3: I'm ready to come back exactly, I'm ready to come
Speaker 3: back around, but I needed a break, you know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying. But you're one hundred percent correct that you
Speaker 3: say these things like the old takes exposed guy who
Speaker 3: I like generally as person, right, but I had to
Speaker 3: get on him at one point where I'm like, look, man,
Speaker 3: you pulling this tweet from Dabo's swingy and O nine
Speaker 3: when we all thought that he's stunk and then coming
Speaker 3: back after a miraculous turnaround and be like, oh, look
Speaker 3: at all these guys who thought Dabbo couldn't coach. You mean,
Speaker 3: every single person on earth right in that moment. All right,
Speaker 3: last one on basketball.
Speaker 2: And we'll get to the NFL. We'll do this very quickly.
Speaker 2: Anthony Edward's ceiling.
Speaker 3: You know what this ceiling gives me that even a
Speaker 3: basketball Sealy finally a player to love. Oh and this
Speaker 3: is what I was hanging out with my man, uh
Speaker 3: Trey Vaughn used to be black Tray on Twitter, a
Speaker 3: f the athletic and my brother and we were talking
Speaker 3: about I was watching online.
Speaker 4: Have you ever seen the.
Speaker 3: Clip of the first game of Adrian Dantley coming back
Speaker 3: against the Pistons after Isaiah got him traded or he
Speaker 3: believed Isaiah got him traded.
Speaker 2: Oh, when he was trade from merky wire. You know
Speaker 2: I haven't seen.
Speaker 3: Okay, So they go around right his pregame and is
Speaker 3: the DAP and it's a big deal because Ziah Thomas
Speaker 3: has comeing, Andrew Danely has coming back, and so Isaiah
Speaker 3: comes to get the DAP to h Dantley and Dany
Speaker 3: gets him and then pulls me okay, and keep it
Speaker 3: in mind that Dante is like eight years older than Isaiah,
Speaker 3: pulls them in and gets in his ear, and it's just.
Speaker 4: Blah blah blah.
Speaker 3: And you see Isaiah trying to laugh it up and
Speaker 3: walk away, and Dantly grabs his hand and pulls him
Speaker 3: back Oka and keeps going. It had Isaiah so thrown
Speaker 3: off he shot an air ball in the first shoted game.
Speaker 3: Now Isaiah came back and shot thirty. But I say
Speaker 3: that to say there was the time where this gang
Speaker 3: was much more human and much more personal, and it
Speaker 3: felt like people were playing as opposed to like statistical
Speaker 3: avatars or these guys that we built up since there
Speaker 3: were children to be wage earners. Like it was like
Speaker 3: watching people play at the playground. It had that sort
Speaker 3: of like visceral emotion. Anthony Edwards is the most real
Speaker 3: human being I feel like I've seen be a star
Speaker 3: basketball player in such a long time. And I was
Speaker 3: watching that game on Sunday because I was on the
Speaker 3: follow with my man Vite Goodwill, and he's like, Yo,
Speaker 3: you might want to turn on this Anthony everys thing.
Speaker 3: I didn't even know it was on TV, and I'm
Speaker 3: looking at him and the way he's doing it is like, oh,
Speaker 3: this is personal to him. This matters to him, not
Speaker 3: even as personal in the sense that Germany did something
Speaker 3: to me, but there's a level at which he cares
Speaker 3: that his throwback and the way that he carries himself
Speaker 3: and does all these things that his throwback. And so
Speaker 3: he's what twenty two years old mature in a way
Speaker 3: that he doesn't get nearly enough credit for it because
Speaker 3: he got to carry old Carl around because they all
Speaker 3: can't get this job.
Speaker 2: Good actor too, he's got going for him.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like, once they get Carl out of town, I
Speaker 3: think the sky's the limit.
Speaker 2: All right. So here's your your paal someone I don't
Speaker 2: know but I follow on Twitter, Miles Brown. Yes he's
Speaker 2: a Timberwolves fan. He lives there. Yes, he lives in Minnesota.
Speaker 2: He made the accurate point, which is, it is truly
Speaker 2: a shame that Minnesota made the mistake so many. We
Speaker 2: saw the Hornets make it with Anthony Davis, we saw
Speaker 2: the MAVs make it twice now with Luca. We saw
Speaker 2: the Calves make it with Lebron. You wish someone would
Speaker 2: learn from it, which is you get, you get this
Speaker 2: great young player, and because he's so good so early,
Speaker 2: you get overly excited and try to microwave everything. Because
Speaker 2: if right now Minnesota simply had all the assets from
Speaker 2: the go Bet trade, so you have Kesler, Walker Kessler,
Speaker 2: you have those four first round picks, you have all
Speaker 2: of that, and then Carl Towns as a trade chip,
Speaker 2: plus all those things. We would be saying, oh, they
Speaker 2: could get Embeid, they could get they would have sut.
Speaker 2: Instead they went all in on the go Bear piece.
Speaker 2: Now you still can trade Carl Towns, but you're instead
Speaker 2: of limitless optimism about what they could become, it is
Speaker 2: cap to a degree. I don't hate go Beart's fit
Speaker 2: with Anthony Edwards. I don't. I don't love his fit
Speaker 2: with Carl Towns, and I don't like Honestly, I don't
Speaker 2: like much of Carl Town's the basketball player like. I
Speaker 2: just don't the I think a lot of it's empty calories.
Speaker 2: And I think some of his comments this summer have
Speaker 2: just been so wildly delusional that I'm like, oh, I
Speaker 2: don't know if I could trust him to know what
Speaker 2: you know, what you need to have a real winning team.
Speaker 2: But Andy Edwards is thrilling. And the point that I've
Speaker 2: made to you privately and maybe publicly I don't know,
Speaker 2: is the spot for best American player is wide open.
Speaker 3: Oh oh yeah, it's it's him. It's I think it's
Speaker 3: gonna he's top two.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean I don't think it's him yet
Speaker 2: because Tatum obviously is there. But it looked like that
Speaker 2: was what Nike was betting on. JA. Yes, they had
Speaker 2: Jah and Zion like one of them is gonna be it.
Speaker 2: Zion will see, Jah will see. Tatum is to me
Speaker 2: a great player that we know. I think Tatum's, you know,
Speaker 2: destined to be a consistent all NBA great player that
Speaker 2: will never be the best player in the league. You know,
Speaker 2: that's just my opinion, but that best American born player,
Speaker 2: because the best player, your list of the best player
Speaker 2: is probably gonna have four or five foreign guys on
Speaker 2: it before you get to the best American. But Anthony
Speaker 2: Edwards could snatch that title and with that charisma, And
Speaker 2: again I don't want to sound like jingoistic, but there
Speaker 2: is something too being the best American that there is
Speaker 2: some marketing to it that is available that isn't typically
Speaker 2: available to the international players. He is making a strong
Speaker 2: case for.
Speaker 3: But this is where I talk about that human part
Speaker 3: about Edwards. If Jason Tatum was wired like Anthony Edwards
Speaker 3: is wired, Jason Tatum would be the best player in
Speaker 3: the NBA.
Speaker 2: That might be right.
Speaker 3: I don't think it matters to him in the same way.
Speaker 3: And that's not to say he doesn't care or anything
Speaker 3: like that. But the way that we watch those Celtics
Speaker 3: and the way that we watch them fall apart, in
Speaker 3: the way that he.
Speaker 2: Just doesn't ever seem to play angry.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's what I'm saying, right Like, there's not that
Speaker 3: I can turn this thing on and make it happen
Speaker 3: sort of thing. And that, to me is the thing
Speaker 3: with Edwards. Now.
Speaker 4: To me, where Minnesota messed up.
Speaker 3: Part of it is obviously all they gave up for
Speaker 3: the go Bear trade. They wanted to make a big,
Speaker 3: splashy move when they got in there, and they decided
Speaker 3: to let Carl And have to be careful when I
Speaker 3: talk about him, because it's hard for me to be
Speaker 3: honest and not sound really mean and I don't know
Speaker 3: that guy.
Speaker 4: The move was to get in immediately.
Speaker 3: If you're Tim Connley, the new GM part owner, all
Speaker 3: of that stuff and.
Speaker 4: Get Carl out of there.
Speaker 3: Like at some point you got to look up and realize, yes,
Speaker 3: he's really tall and he can shoot threes. But the
Speaker 3: fact that he brags about being the best shooting big
Speaker 3: man of all time, that's like saying, ain't no accounting
Speaker 3: that can dance like me. I'm sure that's really good
Speaker 3: at the Christmas party and everybody likes it. But I
Speaker 3: just got audited, right, Like they just they come in
Speaker 3: and they taking my cars, and you're supposed to stop
Speaker 3: there from taking the cars. And people take cars all
Speaker 3: the time, right that that was the move they needed
Speaker 3: to make, was to get him out of there. But
Speaker 3: now they made the trade with Gobert, which completely changed
Speaker 3: the trade market, and now you can't trade a player
Speaker 3: like Carl Towns unless you get like eight first round
Speaker 3: pick because everybody thinks that you got got.
Speaker 2: The correct and so the but the bright side is
Speaker 2: if you're a Timberwolves fan, who I believe they have won,
Speaker 2: they have one season that they want to play off
Speaker 2: series team's history the conference finals, Ron Cassell KG obviously
Speaker 2: and Spree well, so they've won two playoff series in
Speaker 2: their franchise history. You have Anthony Edwards, which will be
Speaker 2: wildly exciting. All right, Jonathan Taylor's trade some Bamani and
Speaker 2: I being the only people in the world that seem
Speaker 2: to find the Trey Lance situation as absurd as actually is.
Speaker 2: And I would argue, and this might surprise some of
Speaker 2: some folks, I would argue that there are not five
Speaker 2: people in the world that know more about college football
Speaker 2: than Bomani Jones. And I don't think anybody. I shouldn't
Speaker 2: say anybody. I think the casual sports media viewer doesn't
Speaker 2: associate you with college football. I want to talk to
Speaker 2: you about the only college football player that matters to
Speaker 2: me this year. We will do all of that next
Speaker 2: What's Right Episode one something Chip.
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Speaker 2: All right, welcome back in episode one seventy two. What's
Speaker 2: right with think great Bomani Jones in today, bo thank
Speaker 2: you for being here with us, by the way, in
Speaker 2: the C block. Willing answer your listener questions. Uh, if
Speaker 2: you guys want to ask, since you know, questions directly
Speaker 2: to Bomani, if you feel free to that. It doesn't
Speaker 2: have to be necessarily just.
Speaker 3: Sitting you guys, because I still call them all listeners
Speaker 3: sitting here on YouTube whatever it is. They're all listeners.
Speaker 2: To me, that's true. And the people who are just
Speaker 2: listeners on the podcast, they are listening to it after
Speaker 2: we do it and literally cannot participate in the YouTube.
Speaker 2: Yet everyone that could respond to that listener inquiry, our viewers,
Speaker 2: you are correct on that. All right, we did forty
Speaker 2: minutes on the NBA. There Now to the NFL. Jonathan Taylor,
Speaker 2: the Colts have now said he can seek out a trade.
Speaker 2: Just got to find a team that's willing to give
Speaker 2: them a first round pick. It is I think going
Speaker 2: to be an impossible standard. Yes, I also think the
Speaker 2: cult are saying, we don't value, we don't look at
Speaker 2: you as a prime asset, but we are demanding a
Speaker 2: prime asset in return for you, which seems incongruous. I
Speaker 2: also think that teams are there are certain teams that
Speaker 2: should never invest heavily in a running back. I think
Speaker 2: the I think one of the few miss significant mistakes
Speaker 2: the Chiefs have made under Brettviach was the first round
Speaker 2: pick on Clyde Edwards Hilaire. Now. I liked it at
Speaker 2: the time, I was excited about it, but you look
Speaker 2: back and you're like, could have you know that for
Speaker 2: a team like that, the position is fungible and you
Speaker 2: can find a check on the seventh round, whatever it is.
Speaker 2: I also think there are certain teams whose best and
Speaker 2: most respected player in the locker room happens to be
Speaker 2: a running back, and treating that player like he is
Speaker 2: just a cog in the wheel has obvious, clear downstream
Speaker 2: effects on your ability to change a culture. Have your
Speaker 2: players buy in all of it. I thought the Giants
Speaker 2: were playing a very risky game with Saquon. He is
Speaker 2: the universally respected best player on the team, one of
Speaker 2: the longest tenured guys, and you're just telling him basically
Speaker 2: at bleep you figure it out. Now. He ended up
Speaker 2: accepting the money, So maybe it's okay if I am
Speaker 2: the Colts and I have drafted one of the raws
Speaker 2: quarterback prospects in the last decade with the fourth overall
Speaker 2: pick in your is it not worth it to slightly
Speaker 2: overpay for Jonathan Taylor? So A, Anthony Richardson as Jonathan Taylor,
Speaker 2: and the ball off to and so B. You can
Speaker 2: go into this season all pushing in one direction, trying
Speaker 2: to build something for this young quarterback, even if in
Speaker 2: two years that's a bad contract for Jonathan Taylor.
Speaker 4: That's how I would view it in.
Speaker 2: This specific situation. How do you view it? Well?
Speaker 3: I think the Colts also need to think about it
Speaker 3: like this. Saquon Barkley seemed to be just a little
Speaker 3: bit offended by the way that it was all going.
Speaker 3: Jonathan Taylor is hot, yes, like he is furious, Like
Speaker 3: they needed if.
Speaker 4: Your playing was yo, you're gonna come back.
Speaker 3: You needed to do something with this because what I
Speaker 3: think people lose sight over Jonathan Taylor. This will sound
Speaker 3: crazy to people. Jonathan Taylor might be the most underrated
Speaker 3: football player of his generation. Okay, and this is what
Speaker 3: I mean. Jonathan Taylor was at Wisconsin for three years
Speaker 3: and ran for.
Speaker 4: Six thousand yards.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's pretty good.
Speaker 3: Never even got to be a Heisman Trophy finalist. Like
Speaker 3: never was on that level. There was a time where
Speaker 3: Jonathan Taylor would have walked into the NFL as one
Speaker 3: of the most famous people in America just on the
Speaker 3: strength of being such a great college football running back,
Speaker 3: like two thousand yards with some wild stuff.
Speaker 4: He did that two times.
Speaker 3: And overall has six thousand yards. He feels slighted at
Speaker 3: every turn, if I had to guess, And apparently he
Speaker 3: got an agent that put battery in his back. Has
Speaker 3: got them all charged up about this. But I think
Speaker 3: you're right if you're the Colts, especially since you're dealing
Speaker 3: with a rookie quarterback that's not throwing the budget up
Speaker 3: that high, except that you have the money right ahead
Speaker 3: to do this. You remember, because you were heavily involved
Speaker 3: in the story. But Adrian Peterson got in trouble with
Speaker 3: the situation with his son. The Vikings were still like, oh, well,
Speaker 3: when he comes back, we're gonna keep him because he's
Speaker 3: our guy, and we built this around him. And he's
Speaker 3: taking two U or something carries a year, and you
Speaker 3: got to tell everybody else here, we will reward you
Speaker 3: for making this sort of contribution. If I'm the cult
Speaker 3: and by the way, if it works with Anthony Richardson,
Speaker 3: well that I.
Speaker 2: Love that pick, because if you're in the AFC, you
Speaker 2: have to shoot the moon at quarterback. And I don't
Speaker 2: Bryce Young. I just I don't believe because of the size.
Speaker 2: I just he's just going out herene at the minimum.
Speaker 2: C J. Stroud I think has very very low chance
Speaker 2: of being great. Right, not saying he's not gonna be fine,
Speaker 2: but in the AFC, fine gets you nowhere, be fine
Speaker 2: and be the twelfth best quarterback in the conference. But
Speaker 2: Anthony Richardson could be awesome.
Speaker 3: But if you're gonna play him this year, and I
Speaker 3: don't see any way in the world he is ready
Speaker 3: to play NFL four, you have to have it that
Speaker 3: you gotta have Taylor and by.
Speaker 2: The way, both said the thing about Jonathan Taylor's college stats.
Speaker 2: His freshman year, he had nineteen hundred and seven twenty
Speaker 2: seven rushing yards, his sophomore year he had twenty one
Speaker 2: ninety four, and his junior year at two thousand and three.
Speaker 4: That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2: He had sixty one seventy four and three years. You
Speaker 2: still remember ron Daan to this day.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and ron Daane got famous off a freshman year
Speaker 3: like that that stayed around and to win at the
Speaker 3: same college.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel like Melvin Gordon was a little more
Speaker 2: like well known at the same time.
Speaker 3: Melvin Gordon, who should have won the Heisman that year
Speaker 3: at least, was this runner up for the Heisman that year.
Speaker 2: All right, so let me let's go to the trade
Speaker 2: market just for a moment, because with everything I just
Speaker 2: said about running backs, here's the one thing that I
Speaker 2: think people have slightly wrong about this story. When they're like, well,
Speaker 2: he definitely won't be traded, because no one's gonna give
Speaker 2: up a premium draft pick just to have the privilege
Speaker 2: of having to give him the contract. I would argue,
Speaker 2: if you trade for him, you don't have to give
Speaker 2: him the contract because I think you, Jonathan Taylor can
Speaker 2: play this card, which is a totally fair and legitimate
Speaker 2: card to play. I've done all this for you at
Speaker 2: the Colts. You guys have undervalued me. You're not extending me.
Speaker 2: I'm not playing you know or not that he said
Speaker 2: he's not playing, but this kind of soft hold out thing,
Speaker 2: I think that's legitimate if he is traded. I do
Speaker 2: not think he can go to the new place and
Speaker 2: be like, I'm not playing unless you pay me. I
Speaker 2: think the card can get you out of Indy, or
Speaker 2: it can get you paid in Indy. I don't think
Speaker 2: he has enough juice to have the card get him
Speaker 2: out of Indy and a new contract somewhere else. So
Speaker 2: if I am a team that is close, would I
Speaker 2: trade a first round pick? Probably not what I consider
Speaker 2: what I say. If I were the Buffalo Bills and
Speaker 2: I know they've spent multiple second round picks on running backs,
Speaker 2: they haven't seemed to hit. If I were the Cincinnati Bengals,
Speaker 2: who I think Joe Mixon's on the wrong side. If
Speaker 2: I were trying to think of a team in the
Speaker 2: NFC that is arguably close, it's not. The Lions just
Speaker 2: drafted running back. The Seahawks draft for running back. But
Speaker 2: if I were in that close tier, would I say,
Speaker 2: is it worth three million this year plus a running
Speaker 2: back franchise tag next year for the second round pick
Speaker 2: for Jonathan Taylor? I think it would be and I
Speaker 2: think that wherever he goes, he's just gonna I don't
Speaker 2: think he's going to get that contract extension, Like I
Speaker 2: just think it's unfortunate, but I don't think he's gonna
Speaker 2: have the leverage of the juice for it. And so
Speaker 2: I think there are a handful of teams that should
Speaker 2: be having meetings of is he worth a premium pick
Speaker 2: because he is going to be cheap. I don't think
Speaker 2: they got to give him the long term.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think you raise an interesting point when
Speaker 3: you bring up Buffalo, because they have kept trying to
Speaker 3: do this. Yes, with the James Cooks of the world,
Speaker 3: Devin Singletary's and everything else. Look, man, a special running
Speaker 3: back is a special running back. And going into the
Speaker 3: draft this year, I understood everything that everybody was saying,
Speaker 3: but I was terrified more than anything else. And I
Speaker 3: don't have a rooting interest in this. I was terrified
Speaker 3: just because it would be this scary if Philadelphia had
Speaker 3: taken Bijon. I don't know how anybody ever would have
Speaker 3: stopped him last year. They could have come out here,
Speaker 3: run to vere, they could have run to bone, they
Speaker 3: could have run to run and shoot. They could have
Speaker 3: run anything that they had Bejar Robinson because Bejar Robinson
Speaker 3: is that special. San Francisco didn't lose a game, as
Speaker 3: I recall, after they got Christian.
Speaker 2: Mcca lost the first game to the Chiefs. Thank you, okay,
Speaker 2: but that once. Remember he was traded for like midweek
Speaker 2: that week. They didn't lose a game with him until.
Speaker 4: The end because he mattered. He was that special.
Speaker 3: Now, if you don't think Taylor is necessarily that special,
Speaker 3: because we're talking about these Swiss Army Knife guys. They
Speaker 3: could do Marshall Falk stuff, then maybe not. But a
Speaker 3: special running back still matters. You can replace certain running
Speaker 3: backs with the Isaiah Pachecos of the world and get
Speaker 3: in and do it functionally.
Speaker 4: But if you got a great one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like Tennessee Dereck Henry becomes another example.
Speaker 2: So one hundred percent. And what I the team that
Speaker 2: I think should call the Colts and say, hey, we
Speaker 2: spent the fifty second pick of the draft on running
Speaker 2: back Zach Charboney so people liked him. We will give
Speaker 2: you him and a fifth next year. You get to
Speaker 2: reset the clock on your running back salary. Still have
Speaker 2: a ready to go running back, We'll take Jonathan Taylor.
Speaker 2: If you're Seattle and you think in the NFC, if
Speaker 2: Gino can keep this up, that to me makes a
Speaker 2: lot of sense. Man Like, now, Seattle might say we've
Speaker 2: you know, because they drafted Kenneth Walker in the second
Speaker 2: round last year. They spent back to back second round
Speaker 2: picks on running backs. But that's why Seattle doesn't make
Speaker 2: sense trading a draft pick for him. But if you
Speaker 2: trade one of those guys as an asset for him,
Speaker 2: that to me is is worth discussing.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: The flip side is if people think Jonathan Taylor, who
Speaker 2: was injured last year, you know what I mean, that
Speaker 2: he got used up at Wisconsin, had eighteen hundred yards
Speaker 2: in year two and now he's declining player. That's different.
Speaker 2: But if you think last year was the aberration, I
Speaker 2: still think he has real value, all right, the Trey
Speaker 2: Lance thing. So here's the deal. I want to shout out,
Speaker 2: you know Danny Parkins, Yes you don't, I think know
Speaker 2: Andrew Philippony. Andrew does radio in Pittsburgh. Danny is radio
Speaker 2: in Chicago. I went to college both of them, two
Speaker 2: of my best friends. They do a podcast called First
Speaker 2: In Pod. It's an NFL only podcast comes out twice
Speaker 2: a week people in addition subscribeing to the right time
Speaker 2: with Bilani Jones that if you're just now joining us,
Speaker 2: still exists and is coming to your podcast feed shortly.
Speaker 2: By shortly, I mean soon. Yeah. I just didn't want
Speaker 2: them to think it's coming out like the day after this,
Speaker 2: but very soon, coming shortly first in POD's a great
Speaker 2: NFL podcast. To their credit, they are two of only
Speaker 2: maybe five people and we or two of the other
Speaker 2: five that find the Trey Lance situation baffling and galling.
Speaker 2: And I want to make this very clear, I am
Speaker 2: not arguing that Trey Lance is awesome. I have no clue.
Speaker 2: I am stating the fact that the biggest quarterback busts
Speaker 2: ever all got three times, four times, five times the
Speaker 2: opportunity to show whether or not they could play JaMarcus Russell,
Speaker 2: Tim Couch, Ryan Leaf, Zach Wilson. Trey Lance has started
Speaker 2: four games, one of them by the way, he broke
Speaker 2: his leg three plays in. Another one was in a monsoon.
Speaker 2: The week before he the San Francisco forty nine ers
Speaker 2: took a player who barely played D two college football,
Speaker 2: traded three first round picks for him, then after they
Speaker 2: got to an NFC championship game with their quarterback said
Speaker 2: you can't play for us anymore. We're locking you out
Speaker 2: of the building. Had Brock Purdy on the team said,
Speaker 2: Trey A. Lance is our unquestioned Week one starter. He
Speaker 2: played a game in the monsoon, played three plays in
Speaker 2: another game, broke his leg, and now they have said
Speaker 2: he is out, maybe not even the backup. And Brock Purdy,
Speaker 2: the final pick of the draft we passed on seven
Speaker 2: times for drafting him, is our unquestioned starter. It is
Speaker 2: coming off Tommy John come here right coming a guy
Speaker 2: who was physically limited coming into the NFL, coming off
Speaker 2: surgery on his throwing arm. He is our unquestioned starter.
Speaker 2: It is one of the most indefensible processes I've ever seen.
Speaker 2: And I cannot believe everyone is just pretending to believe. Oh, well,
Speaker 2: it's because brock Purdy's awesome. Brock Purty is not awesome.
Speaker 2: And I don't I don't think it has been given
Speaker 2: enough attention. How they have mismanaged this situation.
Speaker 3: You go, yo, So the black quarterback level of this
Speaker 3: is the lack of patience. And I don't necessarily mean
Speaker 3: that from Shanahan. I mean from fans just.
Speaker 4: The hey, Lance stinks, You'll see them play like three games.
Speaker 3: Like, I am amazed at how certain they are that
Speaker 3: he stinks after seeing them play three games, and how
Speaker 3: certain they are that Purdy is awesome after seeing a seven.
Speaker 3: By the way, a similar sample size to which you
Speaker 3: had before you said Jimmy Garoppolo was awesome, before you
Speaker 3: ultimately understood that Jimmy Garoppolo was simply Jimmy Garoppolo.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: That's the part for Lance that is frustrating in the discourse,
Speaker 3: is that just how quickly people are to dismiss him. Now,
Speaker 3: I watched some of them clips from the last game
Speaker 3: he played. He did look like red ass. I don't
Speaker 3: wuld to pretend is though I don't.
Speaker 2: I think it looks bad, but I don't think that's
Speaker 2: but I think that's almost independent of it.
Speaker 3: That's the secondary point, right. What confuses me about this
Speaker 3: They traded all those picks to get him, and I
Speaker 3: don't think that this is a sunk cost fallacy, right,
Speaker 3: because I get the argument that, well, you shouldn't lean
Speaker 3: in on him just because you traded all those picks
Speaker 3: for them. No, that is exactly why you should lean
Speaker 3: on him. Right what you decide we're gonna trade three
Speaker 3: first round picks to go get this guy. You're not
Speaker 3: saying and we're gonna see how this works out.
Speaker 4: We're gonna make this work.
Speaker 3: We go show up every day, there's gonna be somebody
Speaker 3: with trade on the phone, going through the playbook, whatever
Speaker 3: it is. And maybe they're doing these things, but I've
Speaker 3: seen no investment from the team to make sure that
Speaker 3: this trade that, by the way, could cripple them for
Speaker 3: the next five years, just because of what they're not
Speaker 3: getting back in terms of personnel, the fact that they're
Speaker 3: not like, nah, baby, we're going to one way or
Speaker 3: another make this work. And to me, the first step
Speaker 3: in we're gonna make this work is you're the backup.
Speaker 3: Even if you decide brock Perty's our started this year,
Speaker 3: we're not intertaing this safe.
Speaker 2: Is the part to me that that made this an
Speaker 2: even bigger story was if they want to say brock
Speaker 2: Purdy earned it, we believe in him. We found it.
Speaker 2: And the absolute diamond in the rough, his elbow is
Speaker 2: gonna be fine. He's the starter, so be it. We
Speaker 2: know what Sam Darnold is to not then say trade.
Speaker 2: Not only is Trey Lance our backup, He's gonna have
Speaker 2: a package. He's gonna have a package because he does
Speaker 2: things mobility wise perty can't do. So that to me
Speaker 2: is where I was like, this trains off the tracks.
Speaker 2: And here's the other part of it. Their quarterback evaluation
Speaker 2: process was by just the awt the historical record. We
Speaker 2: love this player so much, we're trading three first round
Speaker 2: picks to get him. We see him for one year
Speaker 2: in our building, in our practice, in our camp. We
Speaker 2: believe in him enough. We are telling Jimmy Garoppolo, you can't.
Speaker 2: Your keys to the building are revoked. Try to trade
Speaker 2: you to Washington. You have a surprise surgery. So we can't,
Speaker 2: but we wanted to. He's our guy, he is our
Speaker 2: week one starter. He then breaks his leg and is
Speaker 2: not able to play for months. So he went from
Speaker 2: deposing Garoppolo week one unquestioned starter, two potential third string
Speaker 2: in OTAs when was it? It wasn't. It's not like,
Speaker 2: oh he had terrible practices. The guy wasn't practicing. The
Speaker 2: guy had a broken leg last year. He wasn't practicing.
Speaker 2: None of it. And the trade part of it is
Speaker 2: that I the Niners when they did it. I believe
Speaker 2: the thought process was, with the Shanahan system, we can
Speaker 2: be pretty damn good with just see le pardon me
Speaker 2: sea level quarterbacking. If we were to get a level quarterbacking,
Speaker 2: we will be the best team in the league by far.
Speaker 2: And by the way, I agree with that. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: think the Niners with that roster and that offense and
Speaker 2: that defense, now the defensive brain drain of losing solid
Speaker 2: and losing Demico will see all it works. That team,
Speaker 2: if they had a difference maker a quarterback, would be
Speaker 2: the best team in football, better than the Chiefs. So
Speaker 2: I get why they tried to do it. But if
Speaker 2: now they were pivoting back to just anybody is plug
Speaker 2: and play, then do you know who was drafted with
Speaker 2: the first first round pick San Francisco traded away for
Speaker 2: Trey Lance Because I'm looking at it right.
Speaker 3: Now, all right, So they made I can't even remember
Speaker 3: who they made the trade with.
Speaker 2: Well, it was it was like the It was Miami,
Speaker 2: but it was like a three. It was they had
Speaker 2: someone else's pick. Point is this they were drafting at
Speaker 2: number twelve? Okay, I'm just going to tell you who
Speaker 2: went how that top twelve of the draft went. It
Speaker 2: went Trevor Lawrence obvious, Zach Wilson, who everyone locked in
Speaker 2: stone immediately.
Speaker 3: That was strange too.
Speaker 2: I knew that there was gonna be no discussion about
Speaker 2: the number one pick. They're like, obviously the number two pick,
Speaker 2: Zach Wilson, whatever. Number three, Trey Lance, okay, Number four
Speaker 2: Kyle Pitts, who I still think could be awesome. Number
Speaker 2: five Jamar Chase, who unquestionably is awesome. Number six Jayleen Waddle,
Speaker 2: who is fantastic. Number seven pen A Sewel. Number eight
Speaker 2: j C. Horn guy popped his achilles hasn't worked out.
Speaker 2: Number nine patz Or Tan the second, who somebody thinks
Speaker 2: the best corner in football. Number ten Devonte Smith, Number
Speaker 2: eleven Justin Fields, who I think could have been dynamic
Speaker 2: in this offense if you wanted to trade up for
Speaker 2: three and draft him. And number twelve sitting there at
Speaker 2: the pick the Niners traded away is Micah Parsons. Micah
Speaker 2: Parsons and Nicky Bosa on that defense is what they
Speaker 2: traded away.
Speaker 3: Well, well with red Water by the way, right, oh yeah,
Speaker 3: with red Water with ours did But so think about
Speaker 3: this if you just wanted a.
Speaker 4: Plug and play quarterback.
Speaker 3: You could have stayed there and got.
Speaker 2: Corkle, yes correct, mac Jones exactly.
Speaker 3: They tricked us into thinking they were trading up to
Speaker 3: get Corkle, Yeah, exactly right.
Speaker 2: And the or you could have stayed there and if
Speaker 2: you wanted a dual threat, traded up a few spots
Speaker 2: and gotten justin Fields when you see he's not going
Speaker 2: top five. And then, by the way, they didn't have
Speaker 2: this is to your point, the twenty ninth pick of
Speaker 2: the draft the next year would have been theirs, and
Speaker 2: they didn't have that. Now that ended up being cold strange,
Speaker 2: but you we'll see. And then this year the draft
Speaker 2: pick they didn't have was what pick was that, I'll
Speaker 2: find it. It's from San Francisco, the twenty ninth pick again,
Speaker 2: so it's the twelfth pick, the twenty ninth pick, and
Speaker 2: the twenty ninth pick for a guy you're not gonna
Speaker 2: who is getting less rope than any first forget people
Speaker 2: to drop about any top five quarterback, any the only
Speaker 2: first round quarterbacks to get this. It's the lest it's
Speaker 2: the least since Jim Drunken Miller and Andre Ware Yeah,
Speaker 2: and Andre Ware at least got years, but he's just
Speaker 2: never got on the field, never got an opportunity.
Speaker 3: But think about this, as we mentioned Sam Darnald here,
Speaker 3: you're telling me we saw Sam Darnald play here, right,
Speaker 3: we know what time it was, we know what time
Speaker 3: it wasn't but you're telling me that Sam Darnald still
Speaker 3: has a chance to get better and Trey Lance does not.
Speaker 3: And Sam Darnald, at his words, who got all the opportunities,
Speaker 3: simply did not look like an NFL quarterback. But people
Speaker 3: are still willing to bet on the idea of Sam
Speaker 3: Darnald as the backup.
Speaker 4: Here, then Trey.
Speaker 2: Lance at go ahead and a number.
Speaker 3: This is another big one, and this is Kyle Shanahan
Speaker 3: has to answer for this because he skated on it
Speaker 3: the last time. This will be the second time that
Speaker 3: you've had a top three quarterback and you broke them.
Speaker 3: And we blamed it the last time on the other guy.
Speaker 3: We blamed it on Andrewes Robert Griffin, right like we
Speaker 3: blamed it on injuries and everything else.
Speaker 4: But what was so wild about Griffin?
Speaker 3: By the time you got to year three, really and
Speaker 3: Shanahan was gone by him. But by the time you
Speaker 3: got to year three, he looked like he forgot how
Speaker 3: to do stuff that he knew how to do before
Speaker 3: correct And now I'm looking at Trey Lance and he
Speaker 3: looks utterly confounded in the preseason.
Speaker 4: So genius, man, what are you doing?
Speaker 2: Well, what I'm looking at with Trey Lance? And this
Speaker 2: is to me what matters is the guy played sixteen
Speaker 2: games as the starter at North Dakota State in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2: He then played one game in twenty twenty, did not
Speaker 2: play in twenty twenty one for the nine. Well, no,
Speaker 2: that's not true. Played two games in twenty twenty one
Speaker 2: for the Niners, and a game and a couple snaps
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty two. You drafted him knowing all these plays,
Speaker 2: he played almost no college football and was playing at
Speaker 2: the D two level. To not assume it was that
Speaker 2: he was going to need some game action. It's just
Speaker 2: baffling to me. All right, let's move on.
Speaker 3: But I was saying one last thing on that that's
Speaker 3: what happens when your boss didn't want you in the
Speaker 3: first place. I lived that like Shanahan didn't want But
Speaker 3: that's what That's exactly what I was about to say.
Speaker 3: But it doesn't make sense because Kyle Shanahan's completely in charge.
Speaker 2: You think he has more power than Lynch. Yeah, okay, yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean he hired Lynch. Yeah that's fair. So the
Speaker 2: it's baffling. All right, I'm gonna skip the Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 2: thing because we've been going on so long. I just
Speaker 2: want to go to college football here quickly. So I
Speaker 2: did a quarterback pyramid, otherwise known as Mahomes Mountain, and
Speaker 2: people got very mad at me because I had at
Speaker 2: the top of Mahomes Mountain is shocking Ley Patrick Mahomes.
Speaker 2: The second level was Joe Burrow and the Prince who
Speaker 2: was promised Trevor Lawrence, and then on the third level
Speaker 2: was Jalen Hurts, Josh Allen and Sandwich. In between them
Speaker 2: was Caleb Williams. And people said, Nick is ridiculous. He's
Speaker 2: a college player. What are you doing. It's disrespectful. And
Speaker 2: I said, yeah, I think that. I watched Joe Burrow
Speaker 2: and I say, oh, I know who he reminds me of.
Speaker 2: He reminds me of Tom Brady. I'm not saying he's
Speaker 2: Tom Brady, but a lot of it reminds me of it.
Speaker 2: I watched Trevor and I say, oh, he reminds me
Speaker 2: of Peyton Manning. I'm not saying he's gonna be Peyton Manning.
Speaker 2: I watched Josh Allen and people get mad at this,
Speaker 2: but I stand by it. He reminds me of pre
Speaker 2: injury Dante Calpepper.
Speaker 3: Yes, that's the one.
Speaker 2: I go to a super high ceiling a little erectly.
Speaker 3: They have forgotten.
Speaker 2: People forgot how good Dante was. People think I'm being
Speaker 2: wildly disrespectful to him. Pre injury Dante Culpepper was unbelievable,
Speaker 2: a little erratic, all of it. I watched Caleb Williams
Speaker 2: and I say he reminds me of Patrick Mahomes. I'm
Speaker 2: not saying he is Patrick Mahomes. How good do you
Speaker 2: think Caleb Williams is?
Speaker 3: I think the ceiling is incredibly high. The trick bag,
Speaker 3: of course, is we've seen him Lincoln Riley. Dudes be
Speaker 3: so good in college and then somewhat mixed results in
Speaker 3: the NFL. But oh no, no, no, no, no no.
Speaker 3: You know back when I used to root for a
Speaker 3: Texas football a little bit, well.
Speaker 2: That's the first game of his career.
Speaker 3: Yes, that's that was exactly what I was about to say.
Speaker 2: Go ahead.
Speaker 3: He just brought him off the bench and then it
Speaker 3: was just like, oh, fellas, don't worry, we got this one.
Speaker 2: Twenty eight to seven Texas in the Red River shootout,
Speaker 2: Cale Williams comes in off the bench and they win
Speaker 2: the game, like fifty eight fifty five or something.
Speaker 3: Yes, no, no, no, this is that's the number one
Speaker 3: pick next year. I don't know who else it is that.
Speaker 3: You know, you could talk about Drake may or all
Speaker 3: these other dudes. No, no, no, no, no, that guy
Speaker 3: right there is the number one pick.
Speaker 4: And that guy is franchise player personality.
Speaker 3: It is all of those things like when I saw
Speaker 3: you put them on the pyramid like that, I'm like, oh, no,
Speaker 3: you're not wrong. Like they lost that Who did they play?
Speaker 3: Was it too lane that they lost that ball game too?
Speaker 2: They played the.
Speaker 3: Ball game against somebody they were supposed to play. Yeah,
Speaker 3: they lost, but it wasn't about him, No, And.
Speaker 2: They lost to Utah during the regular season. Then in
Speaker 2: the PAC twelve championship game, he's injured and damn near
Speaker 2: leads him to a victory our. You know, fearless leader
Speaker 2: gave good ones here from La. He's a usc guy. Listen,
Speaker 2: I do not pretend to be a college football expert.
Speaker 2: What the here like? I try to just be always
Speaker 2: honest with the audience. There is there is a divide
Speaker 2: between the guys in our field married with kids and
Speaker 2: not yes, and the married with kids guy. The divide
Speaker 2: comes in during football season, which is essentially are you
Speaker 2: going to be? You have a choice. You can be
Speaker 2: an expert on the NFL and the NBA, I'm sorry,
Speaker 2: the NFL and college football and not really be married
Speaker 2: that much you married, or you can be an expert
Speaker 2: on one of them and stay married. Yes, but the
Speaker 2: whole idea of hey, honey, from September through February, I
Speaker 2: am unavailable for twelve hours a day Saturday and Sunday.
Speaker 2: It's just not gonna fly. And so I have sacrificed.
Speaker 2: I shouldn't even say sacrifice. I just I am not
Speaker 2: locked in every you know, twelve hours college football. However,
Speaker 2: I obviously I try to, you know, I obviously watch it,
Speaker 2: and the West Coast games are the ones that are
Speaker 2: the easiest to watch because they're on late, and I
Speaker 2: watched the biggest games. So I remember watching the Red
Speaker 2: River shootout and that was was that one Spencer Rattler
Speaker 2: was their quarterback and he was supposed to be great,
Speaker 2: and they're getting rolled and I'm thinking of Boumani because
Speaker 2: I don't know why Bomani says he's not Texas fan anymore.
Speaker 3: His love Okay, So like the problem way it is
Speaker 3: when they do well, the problem is Blair through the speaker.
Speaker 2: All right, that's fair. It's a part I didn't realize.
Speaker 2: I thought it was more like a Atlanta Falcons thing
Speaker 2: with them. Because of that, this is on like you're
Speaker 2: a conscientious objectives. That's fair. Uh. But I remember watching
Speaker 2: that game and then seeing this kid come off the bench.
Speaker 2: I was like, he is unbelievable. And then he gets
Speaker 2: to USC and it's just so cle literally better than everybody.
Speaker 2: Do you think he can win back to back?
Speaker 3: Heisman's yes, it's just going to require USC to go
Speaker 3: something like eleven and one.
Speaker 2: Why can't they go twelve and H. I'm not saying
Speaker 2: that win the national championship. That's a different story. But
Speaker 2: I don't know why they don't go twelve.
Speaker 3: And H because Lincoln Riley in defense, they're not necessarily
Speaker 3: the most complimentary concepts, right, Like that was what the
Speaker 3: hold up was last year was whether or not they
Speaker 3: could play enough defense. But in terms of being that guy,
Speaker 3: oh man, he is the best quarterback in USC history.
Speaker 3: I feel confidence saying that already. Oh wow, I mean
Speaker 3: you won't be able to think of somebody that's close
Speaker 3: like high sight on Matt Leer, who watch me hand
Speaker 3: the bal to Reggie Bush?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: Look how good I am?
Speaker 2: All right? One other thing on him. I don't believe
Speaker 2: pro sports are rigged. I don't believe the fixes, and
Speaker 2: I think there's too much money. I think people that
Speaker 2: are like, oh, the games are rigged whatever understand really
Speaker 2: how gambling works. That I do believe this. The NFL
Speaker 2: needs to put their finger on the scale, get somebody
Speaker 2: of the NFC and make sure Caleb Williams is in
Speaker 2: the NFC because if the damn Raiders come out and
Speaker 2: he ends up in the AFC West or they have
Speaker 2: to do realignment, they have to do a quarterback based realignment.
Speaker 2: But they didn't do this for this reason. People forget
Speaker 2: Tom Brady's rookie year when he wasn't playing. You know
Speaker 2: who won the AFC East that year, the Indianapolis Colts
Speaker 2: because they were in the division and the Colt and
Speaker 2: Patriots would have been in the same division forever, and
Speaker 2: then they did realignment. That's also one of my favorite
Speaker 2: stats is that the Indianapolis Cults have won the AFC
Speaker 2: East more recently than the New York Jets. Yes, well,
Speaker 2: even though they don't play in the AFCASTLE, Which is
Speaker 2: why sidebar to the take teams whose fans should be
Speaker 2: most excited about the next ten years. Number one draft
Speaker 2: pick the Kansadity Chiefs. Number two draft pick might be
Speaker 2: the Arizona Cardinals. They have they're gonna be terrible. They
Speaker 2: have their pick, the Texans pick. They also have whatever
Speaker 2: pick they get for trading Kyler after they draft Caleb. Yes,
Speaker 2: it's either gonna They're gonna go one in sixteen draft Caleb,
Speaker 2: have the Texans pick, which they might be able to
Speaker 2: use on Marvin Harrison Junior, and then trade Kyler for
Speaker 2: like the twelfth pick and do whatever they want. So
Speaker 2: all right, so we're on the same page there.
Speaker 3: But but this is what's funny about what you mentioned
Speaker 3: that though needing to go to the NFC, there's a
Speaker 3: counterpoint on this that since all those quarterbacks in the AFC,
Speaker 3: it makes it more likely that the terrible teams are
Speaker 3: going to.
Speaker 4: Be also for the AI because they player the murderers.
Speaker 2: It's endless cycle. They're gonna have to figure it out.
Speaker 2: All right, This this we I told them might just
Speaker 2: be an hour fifteen. Good.
Speaker 3: I ain't got no job.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, we'll take a quick break. Answer your
Speaker 2: questions from YouTube next, what's right? All right, welcome back
Speaker 2: in We'll Driving the Right Episode one seventy two. Answering
Speaker 2: your viewer questions. Now, me and Bomani Jones. Anastasio's Marcapulos asked, Nick,
Speaker 2: what topic do you and Bamani most strongly disagree on?
Speaker 3: Sorry, now that this jokes thig has been settled.
Speaker 2: I think it's probably Luca. Now, I don't even think
Speaker 2: we disagree that much. Well, it was Jo Kitchen Bamani won.
Speaker 3: We only disagree so much just because you have already
Speaker 3: built a statue of him in Springfield, not simply a plaque,
Speaker 3: not simply a bust in spring Fields, four.
Speaker 2: Time first team all with the statue in front of
Speaker 2: the whole literally, he's literally party a Hall of Fame. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: I think that's the second most all time playoff points
Speaker 2: per game. Seems goods He has as many First team
Speaker 2: All NBA's as Steph curt It's just us. I mean, yeah, no.
Speaker 3: That's it. We've got to the bottom of it. That's it.
Speaker 3: But I think he's a very good player. Like I
Speaker 3: have to be careful when I talk to you about
Speaker 3: him because I don't want it to go too far
Speaker 3: people misunderstanding. I'll tell you this, that's what I think
Speaker 3: about Luca. If you tell me, hey, one guy on
Speaker 3: a team and you ain't got nothing else. He's my
Speaker 3: number one draft pick.
Speaker 2: That's yeah. Yeah, I'd like to see him play with
Speaker 2: great players and see what he does. But we'll we
Speaker 2: don't have that's the answer. I don't want to.
Speaker 4: Actually, we'd had a white James Harden before.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying, So I want to Here's the.
Speaker 2: Thing though, let me say this, James Harden's game works.
Speaker 2: The problem is he melts down in the playoffs. Luca
Speaker 2: gets better in the playoffs. So if you people are like, oh,
Speaker 2: it didn't work for James Harden because you weren't getting
Speaker 2: James Harden in the playoffs, Luke average is thirty two,
Speaker 2: nine and nine in the playoffs. All right. For Bomani,
Speaker 2: who's the biggest threat to USC And why is it Washington?
Speaker 2: That's from Jeremy Wayne Scott.
Speaker 4: I mean the answer why is Washington?
Speaker 2: Did?
Speaker 3: Is Michael Pennix?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: Like like they they got the other like that quarterback
Speaker 3: guy that's up there. But as I don't pay that
Speaker 3: much attention to the pack for question mark, question mark,
Speaker 3: question mark, the pack no need to be like a
Speaker 3: slot machine joint.
Speaker 4: They just run all the time.
Speaker 3: Dan Lanning is keeping up what Chrystal Baul was doing
Speaker 3: and recruiting at Oregon, and I don't know how they
Speaker 3: keep getting players to go there like that Nike stuff
Speaker 3: just must be incredible.
Speaker 4: But that's where I look at.
Speaker 3: Then there's always Utah because Kyle Whittingham is quietly a
Speaker 3: Hall of Fame coach.
Speaker 2: UH Devontae Mason says, who do you think wins the
Speaker 2: National championship this year?
Speaker 3: Georgia?
Speaker 2: Three P?
Speaker 4: Because why not?
Speaker 3: Like the only thing about Georgia is once again another
Speaker 3: quarterback with two last names, Carson Beck they like Holly
Speaker 3: edis the dispense. Always make this point if you if
Speaker 3: your first name can't be a last name, you can't
Speaker 3: play quarterback at Georgia. But I just can't figure out
Speaker 3: when somebody's got to explain this to me how exactly
Speaker 3: this happens, because there's nothing like they're doing anything schematically
Speaker 3: that's so far ahead of the rest of the world.
Speaker 3: They just keep rattling off boys in a way that
Speaker 3: even Alabama's not doing.
Speaker 2: Do you do you think those guys are going because
Speaker 2: Alabama the this one knock on Alabama. It's just the
Speaker 2: reality of it. They're great defensive players, didn't turn typically
Speaker 2: into great pros. Do you see something similar happening with Georgia? Yeah,
Speaker 2: I think that.
Speaker 3: I think that happens with just about everybody because great
Speaker 3: defensive players are really so difficult to get. But like
Speaker 3: by comparison, in the last we'll call it twenty years,
Speaker 3: Pitt has produced Aaron Donald and Duill Reeves, and I
Speaker 3: don't think you can say that about Alabama, like Sirtad
Speaker 3: is turning into that dude.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it looks like.
Speaker 3: But it is very interesting though, when you look back
Speaker 3: at these college machines outside of Miami, when.
Speaker 4: You really look for, okay, so, who were the great pros,
Speaker 4: it doesn't really turn out that way.
Speaker 2: It's a death game, which is why I still think
Speaker 2: that either whether it was two thousand or two thousand
Speaker 2: and one, Miami is the greatest college team ever. I
Speaker 2: know it's actually not the greatest college team emver, but
Speaker 2: it was the greatest collection of talent of any team
Speaker 2: in college football history. Donnie Allen has a hot take
Speaker 2: that there's never been a great quarterback that's bald or
Speaker 2: Balding and Trey Lance's bolding. What are your thoughts? I
Speaker 2: gotta invest hit that I've never thought of it.
Speaker 3: I'm just going to make the point that that feels
Speaker 3: like it's more about than just quarterbacks, and that you're
Speaker 3: speaking on a whole like demographical people. Oh whoever, whoever?
Speaker 3: That was his name? What was his name? Davanta? He said,
Speaker 3: Donnie is Donn Allen? Yeah, hold on, I don't.
Speaker 2: Think he meant Oh, okay, I see what you're saying.
Speaker 3: But MONI, is you at hair great out here in
Speaker 3: these streets? You know what I'm saying. We out here,
Speaker 3: we out here making things happen. Ain't been no, ain't
Speaker 3: been no great quarterback. You know, it ain't been no
Speaker 3: great quarterback. Honestly, it's because they spend so much time
Speaker 3: keeping the black man out. And this is important because
Speaker 3: The ultimate example of white privilege is the white man
Speaker 3: ain't never got to cut his hair off just because
Speaker 3: he bald and right, he can come out here looking
Speaker 3: like uh, looking looking like a wizard or a genie
Speaker 3: or some other shit. You always get to do that, man, brother,
Speaker 3: always got to do that. And by the way, it's
Speaker 3: not the white man's fault. It be your own people.
Speaker 3: They the ones that wind up plying to you. But
Speaker 3: as we start allowing for what black people to be
Speaker 3: out here, you go wind up with more black ball
Speaker 3: people because we can do this a little bit more easily.
Speaker 3: And then you don't see damn it, he's trying to
Speaker 3: say redheads is better than us, and it's only been
Speaker 3: one of them. Soundy Jergens is the only one I
Speaker 3: can think of.
Speaker 2: Andy Dalton exactly today's show. We'll try to episode one
Speaker 2: seventy two. Subscribe to the right time with Bomani Jones
Speaker 2: back on your RSS feed shortly. Bo I love you Sho.
Speaker 3: This is, by the way, is why I don't need
Speaker 3: to do a YouTube show, because they are like, oh,
Speaker 3: you gotta acknowledge people's questions. That's how I acknowledge people's questions.
Speaker 3: Right there, I'm not nice enough for real time feedback.
Speaker 2: See you guys later.