First Things First - Luka and Lakers dominate March, Jalen Hurts & Eagles struggles, Tiger Woods arrested, Nick’s Tiers

Episode Date: April 1, 2026

(0:00) Luka Doncic ‘among the greats’, Jalen Hurts to blame for Eagles struggles? (28:10) Deshaun Watson ‘may start’ for Browns, Issue if Lamar Jackson misses workouts?  (40:41) Tiger Woods stepping away from Golf after DUI arrest (47:42) Nick’s Tiers (01:05:36) Italy will miss 2026 WC, Luka and SGA decline to make MVP comments (01:15:56) Cobi Jones joins (01:23:27) Packed Stats, Eagles & Jalen Hurts at “crossroads” (01:46:25) Dan Hurley bumps referee, How far can Luka carry the Lakers? (01:58:23) He Said We Said (02:04:21) Danny reacts to Tiger Woods stepping away from Golf Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Live from New York, it's a show that is back from a little mini hiatus. Yeah. And I brought some presents. Really? Yes. Because when we got nominated for the Emmy, Nick bought everyone Chick-fil-A. I said, oh, wow, that was nice.

That's not all I did, but that's- What else do you do? You can discuss that off the air, but go ahead. I brought some mixed nuts for you and brew a thing of Pringles. These aren't Pringles. These are nipples. April fools. Go ahead.

No, yours is real. This guy. This guy's in all time. Look, I said that Nick gives Gray gifts and you don't. I'm buying everybody lunch. When, bro. Either this week or next, I guess next week.

Hey, there's more hijinks coming up on the show. Wait to hear his takes. Get out of town. How much of the Eagles struggles are on Jalen Hurts? This is a joke. Although I did have some rough times supporting Jailen Hicks this year. Meanwhile, World Cup Wednesday, Kobe Jones joins the show to see if there's a reason for optimism after two losses for Team USA.

Your guys' due date theory is really going to be put to the test. Polisic. Christian Pulisic in the World Cup. He's due. He's definitely due. I mean, he hasn't scored. scored this year for club or country this year. Not great.

It's April. I didn't love the time. The timing isn't great. No. Time. Isn't great. A special fresh from the Bahamas edition of tears. What?

You went to the Bahamas? Yeah. Well, I did notice a little coloring. Thanks, buddy. Yeah. Well, go ahead. Not that I was going to get highlights. Oh, no.

Uh, he did that before. And I got to say, Brew. I told Wilds this already. I don't know that there is a 50 square mile radius in the world where people seem to be a bigger fan of yours, KW, and I suppose mine. He's like, oh, there's something about the cable. Really? I don't know. I don't know why.

But it is, it is the highest concentration of diehard first things first fans. I've seen anywhere in the world is in the Bahamas. He said there's something about maybe the cable system in the Bahamas. I said maybe it's because you go down there once every six weeks. They do have a great casino. They do have a great casino. They got a great casino. I get free rooms.

And they just build a podcast studio. It's pretty good. Podcast studio for you? Not for me, but I mean, I assume I could use it at some point. We star in LA. Luca put up 42 to close out in March with 600 points. LeBron had 14 set another record. 1,229 wins playoff in regular season.

Most ever. Lakers roll. Here's JJ on Luca post game. Luca has had a as good of a month as anybody I think that I can remember in modern NBA, at least since I've been part of it. You know, certainly LeBron has had those, Hardin has had those, Steph has had those, but he just played phenomenally this month. Didn't mention Wilts Chamberlain. This graphic never quite doesn't take justice. 600 points in a month.

Luca wilt 18 times. He did average. It's also a reminder. Jim Baylor. Yes. What a great player he was. He averaged 38. Yeah.

He was part-time in the militaries when he averaged 38. That's a true story. What's Luca approved you this month? Well, as the graphic shows, Luca Donchich, Nick, is one of the greatest one-on-one offensive players ever. The only one I can definitively, I'm not saying there aren't guys, you can argue. The only one I definitively put ahead of him is Jordan.

Just one-on-one office. Some people are going to argue Kobe and all. That's fine. But definitively better than him one-on-one, the only one I can say is Jordan. And when I covered the Knicks, Jeff Van Gundy was the coach, he didn't make this up, I don't think. But he would always say,

your greatest strength can also be your greatest weakness. Lucas' greatest strength is just that nobody can, stop him one-on-one. I don't think it's as great as weakness, obviously that would be his defense. But I think a weakness can be that because he's so great one-on-one,

that everything has to revolve around him. And he doesn't get his offense in the flow of a system. So I'm not saying he's a better offensive player to say Larry Bird or Steph Curry or you can throw in some others, because they got theirs within the flow of a

system that enabled the team to really have great success. But one-on-one is hard to find better. That said, because I'm going to bring it to the Lakers, as almost as important for their success recently when they've gone 15 and 2 as Lucas greatness is LeBron's basketball IQ. I think LeBron James over this past month and a half or two.

Since he came back from that injury. This is some of the smartest basketball. basketball he has played in his career. Because he has looked at the situation and said, okay, this is how I have to play to have success with Luca Donchich. And he's doing it. And so that, but look, what Luca's doing is incredibly impressive because Nick, it's not based on athleticism, jumping ability.

It's based on skill, strength, and size. And yes, his IQ and just this, his ability to just, his IQ. Yeah, I mean, listen, he's, you alluded to it, but you didn't specifically say it in that. He's one of the best passers ever, in my opinion. Yeah. Like, so like when we say one-on-one. Well, he's a great passer. Right.

When we say one-on-one, I think people correctly think of one-on-one scoring. But his ability to get to any place on the court one-on-one creates, You know. Well, a lot of his passing is one-on-one. Yes. That's why I'd say, I mean, he creates assist, but it's still a lot of this one-on-one. It's him doing it. And so, listen, I believe he has proven if he had not already.

I think he proved this a couple years ago. And then the trade and the first time in his career, he wasn't elite in the playoffs was last year, the short playoff run. All of that, you know, kind of his star dimmed. I think is very fair to say. But he deserves consideration as the best player alive. I think there is, I think that if we, I know smart people, Brew is, you know, among others, think Wimby at least either is that or deserves consideration.

No, I wouldn't say he's a head of Yolkish. The reason I bring up Wimby is because if Wimby is in consideration, then it no longer is you have to have won a title to be in the consideration for it. You know what I? And so I think that that is a, you can make. You think he's better than Yokic? No, I don't think he's the best player alive. He wants him to be in the conversation.

I think that there are four people you can make the argument for and be on stable ground. I think Yolk is the best player alive. I do think he's better than Shea. I understand Shea has a ring and an MVP. I think that guy's better. So you can't get Yonis out of the conversation? Yonis is no longer to me in that conversation. I think the-

been healthy. Right. And I mean, Janus won his MVP's five and six years ago, six and seven years ago. You know what I mean? So, and I think he deserves. LeBron hovers over all of it because he's LeBron and because he's had to change his role, all that stuff. But the Lakers have shattered, shattered expectations already this year.

And he's the driving reason. Here's the list of teams that were projected. to win more games in Los Angeles Lakers this year. A bunch of Western Conference teams, the Warriors, the Clippers, the Timberwolves, the Rockets, the Nuggets, who, by the way, those teams in large part, aside from the Warriors, and the Rockets number came after Van Blyte was already hurt. So that was knowing Van Blyte was hurt.

The Lakers have been less healthy than the Timberwolves or the Clippers the nuggets you could argue. Austin, and LeBron have missed 47 games, between the two of them. Both have missed around a third of the season. They have already, they are alongside Detroit,

the Spurs, and the Celtics for really good teams who already have hit their win total over this year. They were projected to win 46 and a half games. They're sitting at 50 with six games left. And- I was so low. I don't remember that being that low. No, I mean,

I mean, a lot of respected people thought they were going to miss the playoffs outright. They were, they had, you know, they had the ninth, the seventh best Western Conference playoff, you know, or odds. And it's because of Luka, primarily, not exclusively, but primarily. And what has bothered me about some of the Luka discussion or MVP discussion has been, it has been framed as if it's just this month. This month has been his best month, but he was Western Conference

Player of the Month in January. The Western Conference Player of the Months this year has gone, Joker, then Shea, then Luca, then Wimby, and we'll see who's going to win it from March slash April, but it would appear Luke is the frontrunner for it, I would imagine.

And so I just think that there has been he has been put in this box of great, great player but and none of the three other guys who I think are in the discussion for Best Player Alive

do we focus on the butt part of their game but we do with him more than I think we should maybe not we specifically but the general we I would say that's because Shay and Yokic have won championships and Wimby is still third year he's so young and Luca in his third year nobody was focusing

on the butts you see what I'm saying Like, Lucas got into that stage where it's like, all right, you got to start winning, win a championship at least. And I'm not saying he can't. I'm just saying that is why people are starting to focus on the butts. Go ahead, kiddo. No, that's it. You want to have a final word? I'm going to move on.

No, go ahead. If Wimby seven years in hadn't won yet, people start focusing on. But I, so can I, on that, just real quick, I guess I do want a final word on it. it doesn't, it doesn't it seem to you though, Brew, like a lot of the, I know he hasn't won a title, but he has, he has never lost a playoff series to a lower rank seat. He has multiple times upset, you know, he has three playoff series where his team was the underdog that they won. He made a finals at, he's 26 now, so 24, you know what? And so like, he made a Western average finals going through the one season.

defending Western Conference champion Phoenix Suns at 22. He's won Road Game 7s, done all those things. I understand he wasn't great in the finals against Boston, but we can't hang around him, and I'm not saying you are. Like, yeah, he's this great regular season player, but in the playoffs. And so like it just, it feels, I don't know why, it feels like the wheels spun and landed on him like, yeah, he's not,

he's great, And I just think he's great. Well, some of that might have been that, and this has happened to almost, it seems like every player this played with LeBron. And I'm not blaming LeBron for it. But when they went through that stretch where they're not winning, when LeBron's on the court, they're not playing well. It feels like he got maybe, like there maybe was an overreaction to that. Sure. And obviously LeBron got some criticism, but Luca got a lot too.

It's like, man, you can't fit with LeBron. So maybe that's some of it. Third youngest player with 15,000 career points. He's phenomenal. Head to Philadelphia for the latest chapter in the saga of Jalen Hertz and the Eagles. Today, Tim McManus and Jeremy Fowler dropped an article headline inside the Eagles 2025 friction as Jalen Hurts stands at a crossroads. A lot to digest. We'll start with just one poll quote here.

Close observers point to the lack of creativity and synergy in the Eagles attack. past game wasn't properly tied to the run. There's a level of predictability that allows opposing defenses to get a beat on what's coming. Though there's plenty of lame to spread, Hertz has had a hand in the offense becoming calcified. According to several team sources. That's an interesting pull quote. There was so much. What do you want me to take?

I don't, I, I, that was. That's a good one. Listen, you have editorial judgment particularly on the read. It's an absurd. But there was a lot in that. story that was maybe you think it was unfair but stinging indictments of Jalen

and that was more of the it was a group failure like there was I'm trying to be neutral but that story it wasn't a neutral story the story was 10 sources say he's not getting enough blame for what happened last year that's the elevator

pitch of the story that wasn't my pitch that wasn't my read on it did you feel that I felt there was a lot of sour grapes in the article, to be honest with you. I felt like, and it was a great article, Jeremy Fowler and I can't remember. McManus. Yeah, McManus. But I felt like they set out to see what was the problem with the offense last year. And then Jalen's name kept coming up.

I didn't feel like, but let me give you my biggest takeaway. A lot of people in the locker room players. on the coaching staff and in the front office feel like A.J. Brown. Yes. And probably were not upset that he was putting it out there like that. Correct. And so I am starting to actually question, and I know there's a lot of stuff out there,

but whether A.J. Brown will be traded. because if a lot of people in the organization feel like he's right, then why would you trade such a great player? Now, I think, I didn't think the article was completely just a hit job on Jalen. I think it just talked about, it was pretty matter of fact. He doesn't, he's stubborn, and they didn't even say it all in a negative way. It's just he's stubborn, he has his way of doing things, he's obviously been successful. doing it. He's always got these new coordinators coming in and out. So maybe the article didn't

say this. I'm saying this. Maybe he doesn't trust them. Look, I know what I'm doing. I'm not trusting them the right to go these other ways. But it clearly, he doesn't like motion. He doesn't like shifts on the offense. He doesn't want to be under center. And so what I think, though, struggles against zone coverage. Right, right. And he has to look, look, this year wasn't successful. I think maybe he will look at it this year and be like, look, we didn't have success. They got a new coordinator coming in, Sean Manion, who's going to want him under center

with some play action and stuff like that and some motion and stuff. So I think he may be open to adjusting or changing some things. Because if he, look, he didn't, last year he had the career low in yards, rushing yards, and rushing a team. attempts. If he's not going to be able to be the runner he has been in the past, then he's going to have to become a better passer and do some of these things. So I thought it was a very good

article. I didn't think it was a hit job. I think it just pointed out he's our leader. He does have these deficiencies. And that's been part of our problem, but we think he can work through it. My biggest takeaway was, I don't know who runs the Eagles offense. I think if you look at the other successful offenses around the league, and Super Bowl winning quarterbacks, I think there's an element of shared responsibility. I think if you ask Patrick Mahomes, he's like, me and Andy,

and now Eric Bian and me, we all share it. And if you asked Andy Reed, he would say Patrick. And if you asked Stafford, you know, me and McVeigh. And I think if you ask Jalen Hertz, he would probably say, this is what I would say if I was Jalen Hurts. Let's have about this. There's been so much flux around me,

I kind of have to run it. So we've shown this graphic before and we updated every year. These are his play callers going back to college. He gets a new guy every year. So I didn't see anything outlandish in his reaction to having a new system every time. And it felt a little sour grapes. And it's always fun to do like, I wonder who that unnamed source is.

Well, there were 10. They talked to 10. 10 Eagles sources. So it's not just, it's not, you know, just guys who got fired. And, but go ahead. But that's, yeah. The idea that he wants to do what works for him and he doesn't want to have a brand new offensive wardrobe just because you come in.

I want to wear the clothes that I've been successful in. Maybe you want to add a tie? Sure. You want to add a lapel pin? That's fine. But I'm not doing something brand new every year. especially when I have a Super Bowl MVP. Right.

So, all right. Can I be wildly, I'm saying on the front end, wildly unfair to you, Kevin Wilde moment? Sure. I would love it. How did you do in your head and what was, did you make like a pros cons list when you were like, all right, I'm a Jalen Hertz guy. Yeah. I also am on the record. Nick Siriani, John Madden, John Madden, Nick Sirion.

That's just the facts. He's a great. He's a great coach. That it's enough. That you, that you, you love both of these guys. You have stake, you, you have gone to war. You have gone to war. I like winning.

In defense of both of these guys. So at any point, like, was it hard for you to decide? All right, I'm going to throw Siri on the bus. I didn't throw Siri on the bus. You just did. No, I didn't. You think he's in charge. He stated the fact.

You said, you said every other quarterback would say them and their, the guy, the guy hands off. All-in-head head coach. He's an off into my head. But he's not a claim. Yeah, he's hands off. Okay, so I just, hold on. Who's the one changing coordinators every year? Some guys get, like, Petulow could have stayed.

Brian Johnson could have stayed. I know two guys have left for head coaching jobs. That's one thing. It was bad. So it feels to me like, and I, by the way, don't disagree with this take if this is where you're going, that. Siriani has not done, did not do last year as good of a job as you would like, and this article is putting it at Jalen Hertz's feet, and that you think is unfair.

Maybe I'm misreading that, but it doesn't, if there was intense faith in the offensive-minded head coach, it's Sean McVeigh, coordinators change all the time too, because they get new head, they get jobs. Sean Mannion just came from there. But it's fine because it's his system. Nick Siriani is not his system. He's like a CEO. Right, his CEO type, even though he wasn't an offensive-minded guy. So I find, I think that for the coach and the quarterback next year is very, very important.

More so for the coach, but the idea that the Eagles won't make monumental moves at not just but also quarterback, we know they will. And we know that I think Bruce's point on the AJ Brown thing is one that I was kind of flirting with over the course of last year, which was if the locker room was as enraged by A.J. Brown's comments as we were, he wouldn't have still been so popular. His teammates, you know, and so there was there an element of, man, he might not be going about this the right way, but somebody's got to say something. Right.

And so, you know, we're glad. Christian Siriani or Petula would have said it, but they won't. I just, I think that the other point that Brew made is correct, which is, if Jalen Hertz, and this is where, you know, you guys know I have thought the Russell Wilson comp is the comp. They both went to multiple colleges. They both won everywhere they went. They both fell in the draft. They both went to two Super Bowls early, winning one, losing one. They both had odd relationships with their teammates, it would seem.

there was always a question of how much credit, how much is clutch, how much is this, but their winning percentage was crazy. But here is one thing Russell Wilson, to his credit, did do very well. At the tail end of his time in Seattle, when he was still excellent, when the running and scrambling stopped being such a weapon, he did become a better passer. That is what Jalen must do. He must become a better passer. If you're not going to have this truly dynamic dual threat,

then he's got to be able to throw over the middle of field better. He's got to be able to be more anticipatory with throwing. And that's not, that doesn't mean he stinks. It doesn't mean you can't win with him. They already won a Super Bowl with him. But he has to improve, including it would seem, from a leadership perspective. Because whatever his leadership style is, this article implies, it's not resonating the way it once did. I think that's very fair.

I think that his stoicism might work for him, but it might not be the best. best for the entire evil squad. That's hard, a hard thing to change. That's his personality. I don't even think, I mean, I'm not in the locker room, but he probably doesn't mean it in any negative way. It's just how he is. He's not, he's not shunning you and blowing you off.

It's just, no, but he can, I'm going about my own business. He can add to, like, his passing repertoire, he can add, and remember there was a, there was an anecdote in the article that Fox Sports first reported, and they denied it that Big Dom and Grant.

Or Brandon Graham went over there like, no. So that was true. I still believe in it. I'm not saying you shouldn't. Let's head to the pitch, shall we? Two friendlies for the U.S. turned ugly. Saturday we lost to Belgium five to two. Then we bounced back against Portugal.

We lost two nothing. Here's manager, Pochitino. Even if it's painful, it's the only way to improve. It's the only way to learn. It's the only way to see how these top players and teams compete Belgium, Portugal. I think for sure, Belgium and Portugal have in the top 100 players, few or some player playing in that top 100. I think we don't have – that is why it's good to play again this type of. of team.

They've got good players. We don't. Here's the thing. See, they're lying up. They've got players in the top 100. We don't. Here's the tail of the tape. We only had

eight total shots on target. Touches in the opponent's black 27, 11, fewer than Belgium than 18 against Portugal. The bright side, to be fair, both of these teams are top 10 FIFA rankings. That's not the bright side. That's not the bright side.

Guess what? They were supposed to beat us. The goal for this World Cup for the U.S. men's national team is for the second time in its real history, make the quarters. That is winning two knockout games. That is getting to the final eight. So you know who you're going to be playing in the round of 16, a top 10-ish team? You know who you might now play in the round of 32?

Belgium. because so the other thing that happened this week is Turkey A won its qualifier. So the U.S. went from massive favorite to win its group to slight favorite to win its group. And the first place team in group D, I'm not even going to open my eyes to the possibility that they're not getting out of group play. But if they play like this, they could. Of course. But the first place team in group D ends up playing one of the third place.

teams because they've expanded the field. But the second place team in Group D plays the second place team from Group G, which could be a rematch against Belgium in your first knockout round game. They have to be better. And I could not be more excited for this tournament.

I was streaming the Italy-Bosnia game on my way to the airport yesterday. But this is horrifying couple games to go along with Turkey A winning its little tournament to add themselves to our group. Well, look, the guy he

left out of the top 100, Christian Polisic, obviously, is just going to have to play better. This slump, and you mentioned Nick, he hasn't scored this calendar year since January, 15 straight games now in all the different competitions he's in, he

has not scored a goal. 15 straight. And so they are not good. It's going to be tough sledding if he doesn't get back to form. And, And I don't think Pocetino was like trying to embarrass him into playing better or trying to, you know, be smart and point him out.

Or when it, he's just looking at it like none of our guys right now are playing at a top 100 level. Yeah. And that's why we got beat handily. And so Policic is going to have to be much better for them to have a chance of doing what Nick suggested. We've got Kobe Jones coming up next hour. I'll leave you with this, Lynn and Donovan. quote. There's no question that conceding five goals at home three months before the World Cup is going to do psychological damage to the team and the players. Josh? Luckily, they responded

by only conceding two. You know what? Unfortunately, they scored six. Next game one against May 31st against Senegal. Germany. Shut out. Not great, man. That worked. Josh doesn't confident. Josh, got to believe it. This was a classic. Will Lamar be at voluntary practice next on FS1? The Fox Sports Show in Sirius X-South. Check out the podcast if you get a chance, and we have all new original content on YouTube,

including such smash-hit content ideas as, name some tall basketball. Wow. We just did. Wow. Wild's really upset, especially now that Brew is a little involved in trivia. Wilde looks. Why don't I get to participate in? Because the rule on.

I had a good one. The rule on trivia oddly is you have to at least once go on Colin Coward show. So meet Rudy Daniels. Afternoon headlines sponsored by Ram trucks. They're built to serve. Ravens new head coach Jesse Minter. Not sure if Lamar is going to be at voluntary practices, which start up next Monday, Brew. Last year there were nine.

Lamar went to one. Yeah. Here's the new Ravens coach. I think Lamar is really a good. excited about what we have going on. I think he's excited about opportunities in the off-season program. And again, we'll see on April 6th, you know, we'll see who all walks in the door. Something or nothing if Lamar is not there, bro.

Nothing. You just said it. He's hardly ever there. Okay. Contractor. Now, I know that when he doesn't show up or likely doesn't show up, people are going to point to, oh, he wants to contract. extension, which I'm sure he does. Yes.

But contractor, no, he's hardly ever shown up for offseason workouts. Even when he's got the contract in tow, he still generally doesn't show up for the voluntary workouts. Now, I think he should. I wish he would. You got a new OC. You got Obie's got a new head coach. You're coming off a tough season individually and as a team.

I think it'd be great to show leadership. It'd be great to show support for the new regime. all that. But if he doesn't show, which I tend to think he won't, I don't think it's going to be a huge deal because he's going to be with the Ravens this year. And he's going to, I think he'll get the extension because they have put everything into the Lamar Jackson bucket.

Getting rid of Harbaugh, having him involved in the interviews, obviously they restructured his contract. But like they've said we want to extend him. So he will be there. He'll be ready to go in training camp. I hope he shows up for these, but I'm not really expecting him to. Okay. So it's almost perfunctory at this point.

Here we go. But I have to say this on the front end. Father is a union guy. Thank you, KW. As a union guy, I hate that the owners were correct in figuring out if we, call things optional, the people who cover the league will treat them as if they're not, and guys will be shamed if they don't do the voluntary thing when during the last CBA negotiations, the players are like, we want more money, and the owner's like, how about less days of work,

then it's like more money per hour, kind of. Players said yes, and then they're like, well, you're going to have to work the same. So principally, I'd be fine if nobody showed up for any of these. You want me to come to work? Make it part of work. realistically, as much of a union guy as I am, I really feel like that applies for everyone except for starting quarterbacks. And I think starting quarterbacks who have an outsized salary, an outsized role, an outsize influence do have an outsized responsibility that other guys don't have. You then add to it that Bruce's right.

Lamar historically is one of the few franchise starting quarterbacks that skips a bunch of these. But there's a huge distinction between having, skipping them when it's the same coach you've always had your whole career and skipping them when it's a new head coach and you are coming off maybe your only season of your career where you had like a really down, you know, a slump within it. Or losing record and individually your own, like all of that. So I wasn't, I think, I'm not even focused on the contract part of it because Brew is totally correct that his attendance at this has not been correlated to the contract stuff. But the contract piece that does matter, at least in my mind, is particularly if you do want a new top of market contract, if I'm Steve Beshati, it's a good sign if in a month or, you know, that if you end up showing up for these. And so I don't think it would be good. And I also don't think it's unfair to say the quarterbacks, the two quarterbacks

who either see Lamar, eye to eye, or are above him, you know, as far as accolades and accomplishments in this league, Josh and Patrick, we'd be pretty stunned if either of those guys didn't show up, you know, whether you have new head coach or not. That part to me is a fair criticism.

And also, and here's the thing I would say to you, KW, just a question, it's hard to answer. Why do, it's not like Lamar's not a hard worker. You know what I mean? Like, it's weird to me that this is something he doesn't do. Like, the weather's good in Baltimore this time of year. It doesn't have to worry that it's going to be under 60. He's going to get the flu.

Like, I don't understand. I know he loves being in Florida, but it seems weird. for a guy who is a great teammate, a great leader, a great player, and a hard worker who has improved throughout his career that he doesn't think this is important. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe it was a hardball issue. I just float it out.

But except Jesse Minter doesn't seem like he thinks he's going to be there. I would think he has the attitude that you kind of said, like, if you want me to be there, make it mandatory. I mean, and I'm not saying that's right. I said I hope he goes. I think that it's very fair. It's like, it's an optional thing. I don't have to go on it.

It's not like our team dinners that you skip. But I do feel bad about that. Yeah, when I miss a dinner, I'm like, you know what? I'm not being paid to do this, but as a leader, I should be there. But Lamar, I don't go to me. Show me a contract after me at dinner. All right, moving on. Brown's owner, Jimmy Haslam, weighing in on their influx QB position, three QBs currently on the roster at Shador Sanders, Dylan Gabriel, and Deshawn Watson,

who the Browns are paying $46 million to this year. So yeah, he might start. Here's Haslam. Deshawn has a great chance, fresh start, offensive-minded coach, who has in his past been able to work with all kinds of different quarterbacks and make them successful. So Deshawn has a great chance to do that now. Let's see what Deshawn can do. We're all excited your reaction. Give him a shot. And you guys know how I feel about Shador. But I've paid this man all of this money.

Yeah. I'm still paying him. This is last year of his deal. He was at one time a tremendous quarterback. He's 30 years old. I'm the Browns. It's been bad here for decades. We actually do have a really good defense.

We actually do have some good running backs. Receivers, we need a little help, but maybe if he could become even close to what he used to be, then we might actually be able to have a decent season. Now, to me, the only downside I see of giving him a shot is, and this is, you'd sign up for this type of problem. If he really plays well, and then it's like, do we extend. this guy. Do we want to get in bed with him? He might not play well. But I'm just saying

I would give him a shot. Look, and I abhor what he's accused of doing and all that. You're talking about just the quarterback. Yeah, but I'm saying the skater. Like, I think it's very possible and even likely that that, what he was accused, you know, the whole scandal really screwed him up mentally. He was a guy with a pristine reputation, right? He wasn't just your average, okay, he's fine.

He had a great reputation as a person. And now that is all gone, you know, away. Now you're the opposite. That may have messed with him. And I think he has probably been able to move past that. It seems like people, again, we abhorred what he, what his cues of doing. But, you know, it's been a while.

People have probably moved on to Haslims, clearly. give him a shot. And maybe he'll play better. Maybe he's in a better mental space and he can actually go out there and perform. So look, if Shedur beats him out and training camp, so be it. But I would just let it be a competition and see who wins.

All right. I have a couple very quick thoughts. First one is, and I say this as respectfully as I can, Jimmy Haslam is a menace that just causes chaos on teams in which he has influence and ownership. We didn't talk about it on the show, but that Bucks article that came out a couple weeks ago, if he actually was a very long article about the Milwaukee Bucks and about Janus.

And you know his name is all throughout it and where it really started to go awry with the plan. Once Jimmy Haslam bought the, you know, got the other owner out, bought in, it's a Jimmy Haslam operation. Jimmy Haslam said this on, that quote we ran. He said it on March 31st yesterday. Here's what he said on March 31st a year ago yesterday. Literally a year?

A year to the day. We took a big swing and miss with Deshawn. We thought we had the quarterback. We didn't. He gave a lot of draft picks. So we got to dig ourselves out of that hole. Year later, zero games played. He's like, you know what?

Maybe the way to dig ourselves out of that hole is to keep digging. Because here is the deal. And this is where Brew and I, I think, just fundamentally disagree about his potential. Deshawn Watson, in the last five years, here are his ranks among NFL quarterbacks who have started as many games as him. 47 quarterbacks who started 19 games. He's basically the second or third worst in everything, except for touchdown and turnover where he's only the eighth worst.

He's somewhere from 39th to 46th. So I'm just asking. He's been horrible. There's no doubt. And so I don't think he has a great chance to be the starter. I don't think he's a good player anymore. I don't think all of a sudden he is going to be the answer. And I think that the Cleveland Browns not recognizing what the sunk cost fallacy is has cost them multiple seasons.

And if they if they asked Todd Munkin to flirt with this, in my opinion, insane idea that maybe Deshaun will be good, it'll cost them this season as well. But I'm just so you wouldn't, I get that he might not be good. good. If he goes to training camp, he's that same quarterback with those statistics, fine. But what if he looks good? Like, you wouldn't even give him a shot, though. No, I wouldn't even consider it. I would have taken my salary cap medicine and sent him home, is what I would have done.

Like we've seen around the league. I just don't think that they can officially turn the page on the single worst transaction in the history of the NFL while saying, but maybe we can salvage it this year. That's just what I think. I also think it hurts Chador's development. I don't think Chador can be at his best. It's competition. I'd rather you compete with a kid they draft this year or Kurt Cousins than Deshaun Watson.

Otani headlines weird and wonderful, pitches and hits and some more low lights from our soccer weekend. That's next. That's next one first thing for us right here on that best one. Oh, and a goalie plate. Turn our attention to a little bit more serious topic. Tiger Woods announced that he's stepping away from golf. stepping away from golf after flipping his car and being arrested for DUI. Reports are that two hydrocodone pills were found in his pocket.

Tiger released a statement that acknowledged, quote, the seriousness of the situation and added that stepping away to seek treatment is, quote, necessary in order for me to prioritize my well-being and work towards lasting recovery. We had hope that he was going to play the Masters. That's gone now. Your reaction. For people that, you know, don't know, Tiger is my third favorite athlete ever, one of my three favorite athletes ever. And I know this isn't a golf story, but I do just want to, I think for young people, it's been so long now, it's, it warrants mentioning the dominant player he was. There was a stretch of 11 majors early in his career that he won seven of them.

Then he remade his swing, and there was a stretch of 14 majors where he won six of them and came in second four other times. And that streak ended with him winning an 18-hole playoff on a broken leg. And then he obviously had the scandal with his wife, and he then had the one last moment of real glory, the 2019 Masters, which to this day, every time I go on YouTube, it's one of my top suggested things,

watch the full six hours, because I've watched it so many times in pieces. And just, I shouldn't say despite. So that's Tiger Woods, who at two years old was on the Ed Sullivan show, saying, I'm being the greatest golfer ever, making me to be this and did it. And despite all of that,

he is the foremost lesson for everyone out there that you can't achieve your way out of your demons or your addictions. There is no, if I just accomplish this, whatever pain, whatever issues, whatever stuff I'm dealing with is fixed. Because Tiger Woods, The other part of his story is, in 2017, he got a DUI, fell asleep at the wheel.

In 2021, he flipped his truck. In 26, he flipped his truck again. And I would, I think it's probably fair to say, if he's had two wrecks and one time he fell asleep at the wheel are the ones we know about. The guy appears to have a terrible, terrible painkiller addiction. Yeah. And it's devastating. as someone who, like so many of my core sports memories, are Tiger Woods wearing red, seeming invincible.

And I hate it so much, man. I hate it. Yeah, I would agree. It seems like, look, he mentioned to the officers, and you mentioned, first, the DUIs. The last two where he flipped the cars, he didn't, it was registered zero. Yeah, I don't think he's drinking.

So it's not drinking. But he mentioned to the officers, that he had seven back surgeries and more than 20 surgeries on his right leg, he's probably in immense pain. And I'm not making an excuse, but his addiction to painkillers is probably like, I got to take these to not being pain all day.

And so you hope that he can just get some type of physical rehab that helps him in that regard. I also wonder mentally, you mentioned two years old on the, You said the Ed Sullivan show. I think it was the Ed Sullivan. I don't even know. Was that around when he?

No, whatever. But whatever. He was on something. He was on a show putting. I've seen the video 100 times. His entire life, he was raised to be this golf superstar and he obviously became that. When that's no longer there, like what is his identity? That was his, not only his identity because he became so great, but from that, from two years old.

Yeah. That was his identity. identity. And so now that that's gone in addition to the scandal with his wife and the DUIs and the wrecks and just all of this, where is his mental state? So I think hopefully he can get some physical rehabilitation that maybe he can at least deal with the pain. And then if he needs the mental rehabilitation too, because it's got to be, you know, taxing on him mentally like, who am I because of this? the Masters released a statement saying, you know, they fully support Tiger, won't be joining us in person, but his presence will be felt here in Augusta. Do you think we ever see him play of the Masters again? It's incomprehensible that we don't. We thought we were going to see him in a couple weeks.

There is, it's not only, sometimes we say this is a better podcast topic, because you need a long time. This is a better book topic, to be totally honest. There is something very, it's almost an allegory for a lot of the ails of America the last half century, which is Tiger Woods to Brue's point for was prescribed painkillers by doctors for real medical reasons. And this is again speculation by me, but it would appear like they did for millions of people grabbed a hold of it. in a way that he hasn't been able to jostle free of. You then add to it, he was living one life publicly, another life privately,

and was flying through the world on this invincibility jet that he and his father had created. And man, oh man, it just seems like once that got pierced and it turned out, oh, like everybody else, he's human. Yeah. You know, and flawed and has issues and real things, the house just kept crumbling down. And you see him pop up and he has like a fun YouTube video a few years ago

with the barstool guys golfing. And you see him do these. You see him with the TGL thing. You're like, oh, could we get Tiger back? But even when you see him in those things, he looks a little funny. He looks a little shaky. And it's just, I don't know. Like I'm rambling.

I don't mean to. I love this athlete. Never met him. Never talked to him. I probably never will. And it just feels like he has a sad life right now. And that sucks so much. More first things first after the break.

Live from New York, the show is making sure you don't get tricked by any fake news accounts. Brew almost got fooled. My was accurate. Brew was looking at his phone. He said, this can't be true. And we're like, uh-oh. But it was. But it was just a Spurs Opta Sports stat.

I got nervous. It was a surprising. Road winning. Yeah, that's it. Second hour, first things first. Today, Luca and SGA respond to Wembe, or did they, we discuss. Meanwhile, Kobe Jones joins us for World Cup Wednesday. We break down our two friendly losses.

But right now, oh, we're headed to the hardwood that you caught up to speed on what's been going on last night while operating a Whitney Houston-thewson-themed slot machine in the Bahamas. That's great. An elite committee of experts, analysts, and people who love jelly beans. What? You love jelly beans? Who told you that? What are you talking? Look at me.

I knew you did. Oh, thanks, buddy. Oh, I am careful. Be careful. Be careful. Even funnier. He thought it was going to go. Thanks, buddy.

You know what song was playing? Stop messing around. What? I'm asking, I know what song was playing on that Whitney Houston. They played all over greatest hits. Yeah, when you hit a jackoff, over and over and over again. No, I want to dance with someone.

No, it wasn't just that. It was multiple. I also took some pictures, some people, and I was like, hold on, I got to finish. Just crushing the national anthem. Yeah. All right. Fought in toilet for in the midnight oil.

To deliver the best segment in all of sports, it's an honor and a privilege. It's time for tiers, NBA style. Yeah. All right, first we show the eliminated tiers, which also could be called the tankers. Tom Haversstrow, an unbelievable stat as of a couple days ago.

The last 179 games, these 10 teams played against the 20 teams on the tiers. These 10 teams are 12 and 167. Would it take in the under. Yeah, I mean, unbelievable. Now to the teams, the 20 teams in the league that are still trying, could they beat the thunder if you combined all 14? If you put them all together, so you have Bam, Palo, Steph coming off an injury, you know what? I don't think so.

No. I don't think so. No. It's an interesting thought. They have a lot of names. Yeah, I don't think so. Spoh. Who coaches Spow or Kerr?

Can we be done, KW? No. Can we be done? Why? A few tough losses. Just beat the Nets last night. We didn't even go. Just beat the Nets.

Well. KW. No, no, not at all. I'm with KW on this. It's a little bit. It's a lot. We're young. It's inconsistent.

Are you fully confident they are actually even going to be in the playoffs? No, of course not. Okay. But if they get in, you don't want to see them. Killing time. And here's what I mean. Sun's clear. The Slippers are gonna play each other in the 7-8 playing,

and until then, these two teams are just kinda, they're not gonna climb to the six. I don't think either one of them's gonna fall behind Portland to the nine. So we're gonna get this matchup. The winner's going to play the Spurs, the loser's gonna play the Thunder, unless something crazy having to the top of the bracket,

killing time until then. Fight for the six. Now, the six is what Drake and others call Toronto. But what I'm, and this is the Toronto Raptors, I'm really strong about the sixth seed. I just like to exaggerate. Oh, that was like a 70-sixers thing. Oh, good.

That could have been good, too. I didn't think about that. No, there's, the six-seed in the east might be valuable real estate. One, you avoid the play in. Two, you probably get the all-of-a- sudden limping Knicks in round one. A Knicks-Six-Rown one with, again, potentially healthy and Bede. With the, yeah, with the, that's, that's. That would be a hell of a series and the Raptors.

I get, people got mad at me. I got some strays over the weekend. They're like, Scotty Barnes not on your pyramid? I'm like, geez Louise, I know he had a big game. Sorry. Truly hilarious potential. This right now would be the four or five. The Cavs were the preseason win total,

and we showed it earlier, I think it was 56 and a half. They were the favorites in the Easter, co-favorites along with the Knicks. They then tried to improve their team by trading James Harden, whatever. The Hawks, on the other hand, we're like, all right, time to, you know, we're going to move on from Trey, we're going to do things to, you know, kind of reboot, be excited about this New Orleans pick. The Hawks could beat the Cavs in the first round of the playoffs. They could. They have fought all the way up. This could be our four or five.

And in that series, I might pick the Hawks, which would be a catastrophe for the Cavs, obviously, and way out of schedule for the Hawks. different weeks, same seasons. So the Knicks, since the last time we did, the tiers haven't won. The Rockets is the last time we did the tiers haven't lost. They're both on three-game winning or losing streaks. So the weeks are very different, but the seasons very similar in that such high hopes going into the year, and now as we're a couple weeks from the playoffs, it feels like even with the Rockets winning streak,

nobody really believes in either of these teams. And I know they just played each other. And the Rockets are like, hey, what more do you want from us? I get it. I don't trust really anything about the Rockets right now. And I don't know what's going on. I don't know why the Knicks aren't better. They haven't suffered some major injury.

They maybe they really miss Tibbs. Maybe the glass quarter full ideas. Well, you know, under Tibbs, we kind of overachees regular season. I don't even know if they underachieving the playoffs, but like maybe we'll flip that script, But it's been disappointing. Would you agree you believe in the Knicks more than the Rockets?

I give the Rockets absolutely zero chance of doing anything. Yes, but I guess, yes, Brew, but I don't know, like if the Knicks, if there were no conferences, if the Knicks Rockets played in the playoff series, I don't need the, a lot of that is because of the conference, as opposed to the overall quality of the teams. But yes, I agree. Might show up in May. And by show up, I don't mean, like, play hard. I mean, late May is probably what we should have written.

That's my mistake. That's not on Marshall. These teams could make the conference finals. The Pistons are right now would be a favorite for me to make the conference finals. And the Timberwolves, if Ant comes back healthy, they can't be dismissed. With the continuity that they have, with what they've done. the last couple years in the playoffs. They're kind of flying.

The Pistons weren't flying under the radar, but Cade got hurt and, you know, stopped really, or dealt with the punctured lung. And they play well. Exactly right. And that's the, that's the silver lining for Detroit is, did they find, did they stumble into offense without Cade? You know what I mean?

So come to the playoffs, they can score when he's on the bench. But now we get to the five real contenders in the league. in my opinion. And this tier is the race for their second. And here's what I mean. Nobody in this generation

because we keep having new titles has gotten to ring number two. But Tatum could and Yokic could. And that would, you know, Tatum and Brown, I should say. But it would be a unique distinction because

you know, everybody, I shouldn't everybody. A lot of guys have the one at this point. Janus has one. Joker has one. Obviously, Tatum and we'll get to SGA in a minute have one. They're racing for their second. Meanwhile, the two teams ahead of them, their best players, are racing for their first. And that is the Lakers and Luca and Wimby and the Spurs. And I think right now, again, the conference part alignment and the fact that Tatum's only going to get better. I think come late May, the Celtics are going to be the most formidable team in the league. That's why I picked them win the title.

Right now this moment, I think the Lakers and the Spurs are better than them. And I think that the Spurs ability, and we might talk about this in a bit, they have the number two offense in the league this season and the number two offense this season in the games Wimby didn't play. Like, they can score no matter what. And obviously, when Wimby is playing, they might have the best defense in basketball. And had he played the whole year, I think they would have the best defense in basketball. And the Lakers, it took them not that long but a bit, but they have found the formula.

And LeBron, I think Brew made the point earlier. LeBron playing this role willingly while, to my eye, heading into this playoffs with more bounce than he's had since the damn pandemic. year is makes them really interesting and the fact that Austin hasn't even played his best ball as of late they're still winning these games and then atop the tiers Hollywood Hogan so folks that weren't a fan of wrestling or the WCW when Hulk Hogan left the WWF and went to the WCW became a villain during the NWO was the champion everybody knew he's Hulk Hogan he's an all-time great and everyone hated him and nobody liked him. And I thought that leg drop was never that cool actually anyway.

And the Thunder, this triple threat of, She gets all the calls, Andy can push off, and Dort can, much like Hollywood Hogan, Hogan, tackle you. It's, Mike Brown has reached his breaking point. J.B. Bickerstaff came close to his breaking point, And I think the fans across America are like, wait, Shea Maiden, how many shots did he make in his 47 point game? Oh, he shot 25 free throws.

They're the best. They are probably the rightful favorites. I don't know how many folks are loving watching them outside of T. Boone Pickens area. That's the latest tears, bro. Not bad. Not bad. But I am going to switch, though, the rivals, Boston and the Lakers. And I'm actually, as I switch them, I'm going to move the spurs over to the left side in Boston.

Because it's just, I know it's not left to right, but I feel like it feels better. Right? With the spurs there. First of all, look, L.A. is playing great. They are a legit contender. but I think a team like Boston, like Boston's, I think they'd have a ton of trouble stopping Boston

because of you got the two great one-on-one players in Jalen and Jason. And then you've got a bunch of shooters, you know. So I think with those two being able to either take it one-on-one, beat you to the cup and kick it out, either score or kick it out for three, I just think that would be tough for the Lakers because they don't have a ton of athleticism.

So I think Boston I would put above the Lakers. But also because Jason Tatum is starting around in the form. His last two games, he sat out, was it last night or two nights ago when they lost to Atlanta? He sat out. But his last two games, good victories over your Charlotte Hornets. And one of them without Jalen Brown. Yeah, yeah, right. And Atlanta.

And right, he's averaged 29 points, eight and a half board, six and a half assists. and his last game against Charlotte was the first game this season. He shot 50% or above. Now this little thing here, this is. Nick's Lakers bias is Celtic. Yeah, self-thinking me off. Not really, that's Dusty. I mean, I mean, I wouldn't call me a bias.

I actually, I like the Lakers too. So I, but, you know, hey, let Dusty have his fun. But anyway, the other thing, Jason Tatum's Eastern Conference player at a week. So he is starting to round in the form. They beat O KC, right? So they are playing some good basketball, and so I was just switched the Celtics. And they are, they're, I think they're going to win the title. I also think that what I expect we're going to see and what I don't think we have seen quite yet is the game.

And this one, we're probably a month from this, but the game where Tatum and Brown both really cook. You know what I mean? And that's when it's going to feel scary for everybody because they are so deep and they are so well-coached. I'll ask you a question about the Lakers defense. Yeah. Because you've been a Rob Polinka skeptic. Yeah. Didn't like the moves that they made around the edges, et cetera.

Do you think their defensive renaissance is real? I. Well, how much of it is just there's some stats there that say, that's a little bit of just make or miss league. So here's what I think is definitively real. I think putting Marcus smart in the lineup when he was healthy, obviously he's been hurt, was massive for them. I think that's the biggest piece.

I think the second biggest piece is, and folks might disagree with me, I believe LeBron James with energy and attention on defense where it is still not only not a bad defensive player, but a good defensive player. I don't think he's not a great defense player like he once was, but playing this role on offense has given him more on that on defense. And Bruce's point on Yokic a lot, which is the defensive rebounding is a piece of it.

That also applies to Luca and to a more locked in DeAndre Ait. So all of a sudden, you know what I mean? All of a sudden, like the Lakers, when they're, whether it's Aiton or Ruehant, Brewy in there because of Luca LeBron plus one of them. They're big. Mark is smart is giving them a fighting chance against the point of attack. And so yeah, I don't think they're the sixth best defense in basketball. But can they be the 12th best?

And Reddick guy, I got to give Reddit credit. He's come up with a lot of nice games. Since the from the athletic system. Brom, he's been good in his little minutes for real. All star game, they're defending the three or opponents are making 32% of the threes. It's the best three point defense. I'm like, I was just not falling. Is that just an odd month?

I'm getting back on the Denver Nuggets bandwagon. Not totally, but I'm hopping on seeing if my seat is still there. Might hop off. I might hop over to the Thunder bandwagon, but I'm trying it back on. For one reason, offense. And this is not, this is why I'm having a hard time. Because I'm not really an offense wins championships.

Like, all right? That being said, there are. better offensively than they were when they won the championship. So that's pretty good. Also, never a bad idea to go with, I don't know, the best player in the world. I also like that. The issue is the defense. Yeah. But Nuggets defensive rating, now that Aaron Gordon is back, on court would rank fourth when he was off court. These count all the games that he missed, right, Josh? So would be 22nd. So have we been seeing just a artificial Denver defense.

And now that Aaron Goren's back, like, oh, he, he helps. He's their best defensive player in Peyton Watson. He's back to, yes, exactly. He's their second best defensive player. So I do think, but I don't think that that fourth is. No, but there are some stats to say they're the worst defensive. They don't block shots. They don't force turnovers.

I don't like just when he's, is that on the court, off the court, even during the same game or games he, Yes. No, no, no. But that's the thing. He's going to play 30-something minutes. Listen, I think Denver is. They're live.

And Denver gave OKC all they could handle in the second round last year. That right now is what I think we're going to get in the second round this year. I think the second round of the playoffs, we're going to have at least two and maybe three. If we get OKC Denver, respect to Minnesota, Lakers, Spurs. And if the Knicks can get their act together, Celtics Knicks, the all outstanding. The playoffs are going to be phenomenal this year. Well, the first round in the West will be great. It's going to be great.

Did SGA and Luca take a shot at Wembe? I got an answer for you. Lucas wildly polite when he's not on the court. That's true. He is. It's Appleton, Wisconsin native, Esmer Baraktarevich. the Milwaukee Messi, the New England Revolution homegrown player turned 21, two and a half weeks ago, can send Bosnia and Herzegovina to the World Cup.

Italy out via the Milwaukee Messi. I just, listen, I'm Italian. One of my first World Cup memories ever was the Italy-Brazil final in 94. for what has happened to Italy in the last 20 years in this tournament is incomprehensible. Just very, very quick Italian soccer history lesson. There were 10 World Cups, Brew, from 1970 to 2006. In those 10, Italy made the semifinals six times.

Four of those six, they made the final, and they won it twice, in addition to winning their first two World Cups ever back in the 30s. Only Brazil has more World Cups than Italy. In the five World Cups since then, they have won a total of one game in the group stage, twice failed to make it out of the group stage, and now three World Cups in a row didn't qualify.

Not great. They expanded the field from 32 to 48. No Confederation benefited from that more than Europe. Italy's in Europe. They still can't get it. Well, it's a tragedy. You still have baseball. It's a.

What a lot. I can't. My goodness. It would, brew, it would honestly have been similar to as if after, if instead of us having the redeem team after we finish third at the Olympics or whatever it was, we just started missing the Olympics. You can't even qualify. It just don't even qualify. Look, four years. Four more years.

Four. Wow. And in the midst. This they won the euros. I don't get it. I don't get it. Roberto Baja is not walking through that door as another great Italian. Rick Patino would say he also missed the loss because he missed the kick though too. So even that's true. Francesco Taddy is probably pretty tough last week.

Wemby laid out at three prong case for why he should be the MVP. And then one of his teammates like and here's why I should be sixth man. These spurs are getting to me. I thought I was going to young in precocious. Luca and SGA were. recently asked if they'd like to lay out their case. Bru, here were their responses. I never did that, so I'm not going to, I'm not the one voting.

So, you know, but I think I've been playing pretty good. We've been winning, so that's it. That's all I've got to say. No, I'm good. Thanks for asking, though. But, yeah, I'm good. I let my game do the talking. Oh, I like that, no.

Brew your reaction. I get it from SGA. He's cool, you know, cool personality. He's got his MVP. He's got his championship. I get it. Luca. Luca, you blew it.

Here's the deal, guys. It's worked. What Wimby said has worked without question. Now, I was on. him before, right? I had him second, still do. But the odds, Nick, you notice, he went from third to second and yeah,

and closer to second, or closer to first than he was. And Sean Powell, my, love Sean Powell, writer for NBA.com. He went on Sean's list, the latter on NBA.com, he went from third to first just after what he

said. That's a good point. Luca, here's Luca, and you were being polite, I get it, but you're missing. opportunity. It's what he should have said. Look, I'm no wimby defensively. You know, I mean, but I lead our team in defensive block box score plus minus. Yeah.

What? I lead the Lakers who are one of the top defensive teams in the league now. Yeah. Or, you know, have been for months. Okay. In defensive win shares. Yeah. That's of wind shares.

I have the best defensive rating. on our team. So again, I'm not Wimby, but I wouldn't say I'm not playing. I would say I'm better offensively, but I would say I'm having one of my better seasons defensively. I'm trying and we're starting to play good defense. So that's all I'm saying. Probably with a shot to number one.

Yeah, maybe throw in there. I've played 500 more minutes, which at Wimby's 29 minutes a game is the equivalent of 16 more games. The wimby minute stuff is a great reason to believe they can win the title because it's like he'll play more minutes there. It's a great reason to believe he's only scratching the surface of his statistical potential. It's a great reason to believe, Nick, you're an idiot for saying you want to see him to average 30. He obviously will once he's playing more minutes. All those things.

It's not a good MVP argument. It is, in my opinion. It could be a negative. It could be great. But it could definitely be a negative. The lack of playing should not, in my opinion, help your most valuable player case. I will also make a case for Luca that nobody, that I haven't heard anybody make. Last eight years, so player of the month has been the single biggest indicator of who's going to win MVP.

In the last eight years, the MVP has led the league, or 10. tied for the league lead in Player of the Month awards. There's only five awards given out every single time except for one guy who led the league and player of the month awards and didn't win MVP. Luca two years ago when Brew and three other people voted for him for MVP and everyone else is like, I forget that guy, 33 points of games. I like he could take the maps to the finals and then he did. If we show Luca's March stats, Dust, sorry, I'm throwing you off.

a bit. I think it's a fair guess that Luca has a very good chance of winning another player of the month award, which would put him at two. Joker has won, Shea has won, Wimby has won, Luca already has won, and

this is what he just did in March. They went 14 and 2. It's a bunch of games for a month, by the way. 38 a night, 8 rebound, 7 assists, and he missed one of them because he got suspended. on crazy efficiency and 37 minutes per game. The other thing that I would happen to say,

again, if I were making, I'm glad Luca didn't do this. I'm glad Luca didn't say, like, I'm going to go after Wembe, like Wimby went after Shea. What also is true is this, and this would be a terrible teammate thing to say, when I don't play, my team dies, and when he doesn't play, his team dies on defense and is the exact same one off.

This year, in 15 games, Wembe hasn't played. The Spurs, not only are 10 and 5, those 15 games, their offensive rating, would rank second in the league. Now, their defensive rating, which is top, you know, is great with them, falls off a clip. So the Lakers, on the other hand, they were six and six without Luca until they play,

who is it, the Wizards the game that he missed? They go from an elite offense to middle of the pack, And Luca, there's the worst defensive player anyone's ever seen. The games without them, their defense gets worse. And so I understand guys not making a case for themselves because historically that's been considered uncouth. But I think Luca has to advocate for himself because nobody else, I shouldn't say nobody, very few other people are.

and Wimby is in the opposite position where everybody seems to be, it's just different levels of. But to my point earlier, it's almost since he said that. Now, he was obviously in the discussion and on the ballot before,

you know, the top five ballot before he said it. But since then, his case has really taken off. He's had some statistical anomalies. He's been great, but he was great before. What I text you,

18 consecutive blocks have been recovered by the spurs, nothing out of bounds, nothing to an opponent. That's incredible. He had like the third fastest double, double in eight minutes and change. Like there's some outlier anecdotal stuff. He also has, there is an awe factor. Yes. For Wimby, because of his size and grace, that he is unlike any player we've ever seen. That, again, I don't know if that's supposed to.

Be part of people's MVP's match. That's a big part of Jordan's love for Jordan. What I'm curious about when I see the Spurs have the second best offense in the league in games he doesn't play, does that mean we're underrating Luke Cornett's role gravity? I don't know. Roll gravity is a real thing.

Somebody tell me. It's a real thing, bro, that we never heard of. I'd never heard of it, but I like it. Yeah. In fact, I'm a winner three. Listen, without Wimby, those three McDonald's All-American top five picks in their back court, I don't know if they'd be able to score. I just don't know.

I just don't know. I just don't know. Lucas should have made his case. He's still third or fourth, but he should have. Welcome back to first things first. Kobe Jones here to break down USA's two friendlies that turned ugly. We lost some balls. Five two to Belgium, two nothing to Portugal.

After the second loss, Christian Polisic remained optimistic. Take a listen. Obviously, we're disappointed with the results, but to be honest, I'm taking a lot of positives from it. I think we're a lot closer than it may seem. And a couple of things are go our way. And I still feel positive, and I have belief in this team. Okay, Kobe, thanks for joining us fresh from Atlanta. We're at the game.

Are you buying Christian Polisick's optimism? Well, to be honest, I mean, hearing that statement, I think he seems more hopeful, you know, than positive, you know, with the team. You know, just looking at the results there, you can't be happy with the two results, you know, regardless of who the opponent is, especially with the timing as you're leading into the World Cup. And, you know, as one of the leaders of the team, he has to be positive. He's got to find the ways to get this team moving in the right direction. Because, you know, two losses and you only got a couple of games left.

before the World Cup starts, you're kind of looking in every way, you know, to bring that team together to be that one unit to get the results that you're going to need on June 12th. After the 5-2 loss to Belgium, how can you explain or how would you explain them coming out and playing as flat as they did against Portugal? A Portugal team that, by the way, was not even at full strength. Well, I would say, to be fair, the U.S., it was kind of like the same way, trying to figure out, you know, which players are going to be in there. And I think that would probably lead into why you may have seen a little bit of flatness, players trying to really kind of figure each other out. Now, is that an issue? Yes. You know, at this point leading into the World Cup, you hope that you have an idea, that Portchino has an idea of exactly who he wants. I'm expecting that in the next game.

But because I think we all learn when you're going up against a team like Belgium or a team like Portugal, you know, having a good start for the first 15, 20 minutes, that's fantastic. But you cannot let down at all because they are so clinical as we've seen throughout the years. Kobe, you mentioned the head coach, Maricio Portitino for Team USA. After the second loss to Portugal, he said that we didn't have any top 100 players on our team. How did you read that as a slight to Polisic or as a fact or how'd you read that? Well, I wouldn't say it's a slight to politic specifically.

I think it's just saying, you know, and when we look at the world of soccer, you don't have a lot of American players considered to be in that top 100. You know, I would hope that he's not so negative with the team, you know, going into the world, I think he knew what he was getting into, or he should have known of what he was getting into coming to coach the U.S. team.

And now it's about figuring out a way with the players that you do have, that do have that potential to be special players. You can't, no one can tell me that Policic can't be that special player. No one can tell me that Weston McKinney can't be that special player, that Balogoon can't be that special player. They're continuing to get better and better. They've just got to find a way as a group, to have the best group rather than the best individuals necessarily out on the field to get the result they need.

Kobe, I want to show you Polisik's scoring drought. This includes his club squad, too. So August through December, he's on that tear, 10 goals, three assists and 19 games with ASEM Milan. And then January through March, 14 games, no goals, only one assists. Do you see something in his game? Is it something that we're tactically we're running or is it just bad luck? It's a slump.

You know, it happens in every sport. You know, we talk about it in a variety of different ways. But, you know, for me, it's about can Christian Felicit get ready at the right time. So I'm not too concerned about this that's happening now until these next series of games that are upcoming. Can he be a little bit more precise? He even mentioned it. can it be more sharper front of goal, but also on these games, it's all about the timing, you know, and I think Polific, you know, has those special capabilities.

I'm not too concerned about that right now because as we kind of mentioned, to score goals, you have to have the right people around you and you have to be in the right positions he was being experimented with on the left, in the center. You know, I think they've got to just figure out his best position, where he can be the most dangerous where I think he'd like to come in off of that wing and cut inside and have a go. I think that's probably the best position for him. Kobe, with, you know, it's an odd thing to say in a week where there were two losses by a combined score of seven to two, but I'm not sure if the worst thing that happened in the

U.S. international team this week was on the pitch. Turkey A winning its mini tournament to get into our group. The U.S. benefited from being one of the host countries, probably. you know, got that pot one seating, which our world ranking didn't necessarily earn us. But you take what you can get. And Paraguay and Australia being two of the other three teams in the group,

is a really good draw. Turkey, on the other hand, has an argument that they're now the best team in the group. How, you know, the, I don't know if deflating is the right word, but do you agree with me that there's an argument that at this moment, Turkey A could be the favorite in the group, even though we know multiple teams. from the group will advance? Yes, that's a fair argument.

Without a doubt, I think, you know, anyone that is really just a student of the game, and you look at where the U.S. is right now, where there seems to be some struggles, you know, over the last few games, and you look at what Turkey A is doing and what they've done. They are battle tested through the qualifying process,

you know, and that takes you to another level. They've gone through the, you know, winner go home over the last two games, you know, so there's just the constant pressure. So yes, you could say that they are in a better spot, you know, than the U.S. right now. Now, what does that mean, you know, when the World Cup comes around? I mean, for the U.S., that's going to be extremely, it could be a tough situation because that could be the game that you might need to get points,

and that's going to be your third game in the group stage. So that's going to be one of the games to watch within the World Cup for the U.S. for sure. All right, Kobe. Well, thank you very much for joining us on World Cup. Cup Wednesday. We'll see you all this summer. Hopefully we get some better results. Our next friendly May 31st versus Senegal. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you soon. Take care. Thank you, Kobe. Thanks, Kobe. He made me feel better. Listen, I'm not, you beat Senegal and this week feels like it went away.

And they are right now the favorites over Turkey A. It's a rough six days. We lose to Senegal. It's panic time in the USA. First thing's first overtime. Welcome to First Things First Overtime. It's going to be a great show. There was an opus of an article dissing Jalen Hertz. I got radicalized after reading it. We discussed.

And a real bonus for the people that watch FS1 all day, as we hope everyone does. KW announced when we talked about the show to lead the regulation, he's going to do better than we did that time. Oh, yeah. That's what he said. He's been broiling with anger as the show is going on. It just slowly, it's grown.

It was like a sourdough take. It's right. Yeah, great. Meanwhile, how far can Luca carry the Lakers? He caught a dunk as well, Dan. Did he see that? Yeah. He did.

Best player in the world can dunk. An NBA player. Unbelievable. How if you see the best player in the world dunk? Joker doesn't dunk a lot, buddy. Wimby. He does. Yeah, Wimby. He does.

A couple times again. Finally, coolest stats in all sports. Maybe the world. Is there just sports world? The whole world. Wow. Why limit ourselves to the sports? Yeah, I can't wait.

It's a March Madness edition of Pax stats. Chris Bessard, Kevin Wilde. Nick Wright, fresh from the Bahamas. Started to get a, I think you're peeling a little bit. I didn't notice that. Danny Parkins, who worked last week. Thank you, Danny. Yeah.

Or this week. I worked Monday while you guys were off. I would appreciate that, holding it down. No problem. They want me to work on here. That's great. That's what I love. Let's head to Philadelphia.

Latest chapter in the saga, Jalen Hertz and the Eagles. Today, Tim McMahon is and Jeremy Fowler dropped an article headline inside the Eagles 2025. Friction is Jalen Hertz stands at the crossroads. Danny, there was a lot to digest. I took a poll quote that said the Eagles offense was calcified and it's partly Jalen Hurts's fault. And Nick said, you shouldn't write it. said that. I printed out of 17 pages.

He's like, that's the wrong character. I mean, there was a lot of stuff in there. That's the one I like. Yeah, of course that's the one you liked. What was your number one takeaway from this article? It's tough to condense it down to one thing. Thank you. No, you're right.

But my opinion on Jalen Hertz was middle of the road quarterback as a passer, like before the article, middle of the road passing talent, elite leader, and very clutch. Obviously, nothing in that article changed on the clutch front. We've seen him perform in the Super Bowls. I found myself after reading the article downgrading slightly how I view him as a leader, but actually upgrading how I view him as a player. And the player parts may be a little confusing. I'll get to it in just a second.

But like the leadership stuff, maybe the Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant leadership style doesn't work for NFL quarterback. Like you're supposed to be more galvanizing and open to ideas and you have to like be like the rising tide to build up everybody. It's like the ultimate team game.

And like you can't do that quiet, stoic force of nature type thing. It also might not work for Jalen Duren in the NBA. That leadership style might mean you must be truly like in the conversation. of an all-time great for other alpha athletes to follow that, you know, follow that.

So it might be sport. It also might be where he is in the hierarchy of the sport. Yeah, so I thought there was just like enough things that made sense of quiet, not open to new concepts, standoffish with teammates, not a lot of great relationships with a lot of guys on the team that was like, oh, maybe I have the leadership piece of it wrong. But I've talked about the coordinator turnover that he's undergone. And so Wild's, I'm going to borrow your graphic from earlier. Well, he just took it from you.

Yeah, he took it first time you were ever on this show filling in. I have been doing this for years. It was Danny filling in. Get out of track. You didn't have a watermark. It is such a staggering amount of names, like literally more play callers than years playing big time college football. There are more names on that list than the four years. in college and the six seasons in the NFL.

He's going on his 13th with Sean Mannion. And we talk about, I know in Chicago right now, a big talking point is year two of Ben Johnson. Just two years of continuity. We talk about it with Mahomes all the time. Like, what a blessing it is for him professionally to have Andy Reid the whole time. Talents had all those different head coaches to deal with.

No, but like, it is learning a new language. Players talk about that all the time in football. So maybe it is reasonable for a guy who has been Super Bowl MVP to be a little bit more hesitant to change and open to new concepts. When he's like, man, you're going to be gone in 11 months. And I'm going to be the guy who is here. So maybe the fact that he's gotten this far as a player with all of that turmoil, we actually underrate him as a football player. Look, I agree with the top. the point on the offensive coordinators and play callers.

I mean, that probably does have a lot to do with him. Like, look, I've been successful everywhere I've been. Even when they've downgraded me and benched me in Alabama, I go to Oklahoma and I do great. I take the job from Carson Wentz. I lead us to two Super Bowls, win one. And here's a guy coming in. In a lot of cases, not much experience.

Not a better resume than Jalen. I want to, this is what I do well, this is what I want to do. I get all that. My biggest takeaway, Danny, though, was obviously there are people within that locker room and in the front office and on the coaching staff that felt the same way AJ Brown felt. And probably we're glad somebody was saying it. Maybe Sireani's not going to say it to Jalen. Petula's not going to say it to Jalen. We're glad at least somebody.

is. And that leads me to wonder, will the Eagles trade A.J. Brown? Because he's obviously a great player. And if they understand where he was coming from, even if they might, might disagree with the way he did it, they probably appreciate it. And maybe we're hoping, you know, this will spark Jalen to change a little bit. And so that makes me question whether or not they're going going to trade A.J. Brown. K.W. Here's my big takeaway from the article now that I've had an hour to digest. it. Jalen Hertz is not a perfect player. I don't know who is. And his imperfections might be different than everyone else's imperfections. And maybe they're more glaring and laid out in this article.

He doesn't want to change. Okay. He doesn't want to go under center. Okay. So what? Here's what he can do. Win the Super Bowl. Let's look at the NFC East. I've seen Dak Prescott, who might be a better thrower of the ball. Okay. You fall apart in the playoffs Jalen Hertz doesn't Jaden Daniels has more maybe talent arm talent is faster well Jaden Daniels wasn't available and when they did play in the playoffs I think it was a close 40 something to 20 something 55 oh was it 55 my goodness 55 yeah then we got the giants who I guess Jackson Dart I feel like it's insulting to even talk about Jackson Dart comparing him to how about the major quarterbacks on the mountain

Rushmore. Joe Burrow, who's claimed to fame is throwing for a lot of yards, not getting to the playoffs. Jalen Hurts always gets the playoffs. He also beat Mahomes once. Is that right? Once. In the playoffs, yes. In the playoffs. Congratiress. Jalen Hertz did that in the Super Bowl and won Super Bowl MVP. Josh Allen doesn't can't beat Mahomes in the playoffs. Jalen Hertz can. Lamar shrinks in the playoffs. Jalen Hertz is bigger. Like, okay, the guy's not perfect. So, so hold on. But he's pretty good. So, but hold on, but so this is where I think you, you, I think, lose people on this. I will, yeah, go. Do you, those guys you just listed at the end there.

NFC East, I think, you know what? I think you won that battle. I think people, I think people might be more bullish on Jaden Daniels long term, but that's a separate. As a theory. Yeah, as NFC East. But those last four guys you mentioned, I guess you didn't. mentioned Patrick. Do you think like you're right, none of

them are perfect players, but do you think Jalen Hertz's flaw is less, less glaring, more glaring are the same as those three guys? Do you think Jalen Hertz is on Joe Burrow, Patrick Mahler, I'm sorry, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen's level as a quarterback

or does he have something none of those guys have? But he is not as complete of a quarterback as those guys. He's not as complete as a quarterback. He's not. But his resume can go up against these guys and go, you know, Trump card a lot of them.

But he doesn't have, you know, beautiful tape of throwing the ball, I guess, to like down the middle of the field he doesn't like to work. But I mean, I think at this, at this point, by that metric, I think so can Sam Darnold's resume. Sam D'Darnold's a Super Bowl champion. You're right. That's what I'm saying. So they should be in the Super Bowl champion club.

there's only five guys coming in and Aaron Rodgley. Oh, I got you had a marriage. And which I think speaks to my biggest takeaway on this article was that it exists. That's my biggest takeaway because this article flatly cannot exist in any of those cities you mentioned. You can't get 10 people with the Buffalo bills to talk to some reporters and explain all the problems the bills have. thanks to Josh Allen. We saw one from Lamar. We saw one from Lamar.

It was a hit job. No, no, no, no. Absolutely. And that ended with Lamar's coach being out. That's right. I think there's huge. The Mahomes isn't going to happen. It's a different organization

with different levels of success. That's right. And so this article was pointed and intentional. I'm not talking about by the writers. I think it was good by the writers. by the people talking to the writers. And what it did was it

rat, I think Siriani comes in under maximum pressure already. It does ratchet the pressure up on jail. And in that, I think this was a warning shot, if you will, of, hey, man, Sean Mannion

is going to want to do a lot of these things. Kellen Moore got you pushed and pulled to do it somewhat. You're going to need to do it. because unlike Post Moore, where you're coming off the halo of the great Super Bowl, winning it, you're coming off your worst year, the team's worst year, and what is real questions about how much of our struggles on the field and as a team are due to you.

And we are comfortable telling these writers from ESPN knowing you're going to be reading this. we are confirming a story that we at previous times, folks were denying. The Fox Sports story about Brandon Graham and Big Dom, my God, Big Dom. Big Dom shows up. And so, like, don't you agree, like, there is all of a sudden, like, it feels like his Super Bowl MVP grace period went very quick. Like, very quick. That happens in Philly. Look, Mannion needs to be comfortable telling Jalen, because that was another part of the article, when coaches have come in and,

to lay down the law. This is how we're going to do it. Jalen has responded to that. But if you got yes, man, then he's going to do it his way. So if I'm manning it, I'm like, okay, this is how we're doing it. And I'm going to tell that to Jail. And he doesn't have a ton of guaranteed money left on his deal. That was included in it. He says, one source said that Jalen does crave consistency with coaching. So I would be very interested in seeing Jalen Hertz with one offensive coordinator for three years. And like that part in terms of fair to put the struggles on Hertz, Nick Siriani is supposed to be an offensive coach.

We don't get. But I'm just saying like that amount of turnover of play caller, offensive mind, different, we need motions, we need back to the defense, we need under center, we need play action. Like the offensive head coach is supposed to offer stability for offensive foundational principles, and that has not been there.

He's clearly just a CEO. type coach. And it feels like this real CEO is big dumb. And so here would be my concern on that. I know we have to get to peck stets. They're cool. Cool stance.

I don't know that he'll ever have consistency at coordinator. Because fair or not, I think we have proof of concept that the league as a whole views Jalen Hertz as somewhat limited. And because of that,

when he's excellent, they give the credit to the coordinator and that guy gets a job. Yeah. And so, and the Eagles view their team is awesome and the roster is awesome. So when they're not excellent, they fire the coordinator. When they are excellent, he gets another job. How he rules on is this, like, epic genius, get a guy for three years. Well, but, but so here's the, the, I don't know how you do it if it's, like,

if, if Jalen Hertz is awesome this year, Sean Mannion, he'll get a guy. head coach you got to figure it out. So like you somehow need for him to get stability, they need to be like 12 and 5 with a divisional round loss and he has good passing numbers. Like the it was a 60 year old career offensive coordinator who can't be a head coach. Yeah, like a modern day Norv Turner type. Yeah. It's like I mean spags. Spags and for the chiefs and defense.

There's just not many of those guys on the office. Exactly. Josh McIles in New England. Yes, that correct. It works. That's a tough example though. This works. Yeah.

We got a real treat for you. And although it's April Fool's, I am not joking around about this. Danny has been on March Madness all month, all March, honestly. Danny, how are you doing on the office pool? I'm crushing it. He did have Michigan. I had three of the four final four teams, crushing it with bets, have Yukon futures alive. And I think March is the best time to get involved in March Madness personally.

That's a great case. Crazy because it's April. It's, you believe that. That's right. It's a good one. All right, time now for packs that. It's a cool segment. Damn you, Nick.

All right, cool is that number one. Yeah, you know what else is cool? What? Glad you asked. Pyramids, as in the pyramid of success. Oh, John Wooden. Nick, very good. Brew covered.

And Rick should be. Yeah, who approved it cover him. Dan Hurley has passed Coach K and now only trails the great John Wooden for the best NCAA tournament win percentage of all time. This is wild. With a sample of at least 20 games. Obviously they are 4 and 0 to get to this point.

Before this tournament, he was behind Coach K. Now he is in front of him. He's got a shot to be the first coach since John Wooden to win three titles in four years. John Wooden, Dan Hurley, Coach K. Unlike some of these graphics that we we put up where it's like guy who's quite good right now actually is you know one of the greatest of all time yeah this one I buy I think the I think Dan even if his style it

sometimes to me brew is grading you think I mean that this is sometimes that's in all time we thought he was going to get a chest bump uh we're talking about that later in the OT is the ridiculous thing he I mean KW this is your team but his You cheated on him. I was on Duke for months. His resume is unimpeachable. There's just no like, yeah, yeah, but it just doesn't exist. He's a phenomenal coach.

Look, if he wins three and four years in this era where your best players play one year, he has to find counsel. Where your best players play one year or even if they're not that good, they transfer into other schools. Like, that would be incredible. I don't necessarily say. them winning this, but hey, you got to give them a shot at this point. And so that would be an incredible achievement. Do we have an early take on Illinois versus Yukon, Danny? I think Illinois

is the better team, but I saw Yukon blow out Illinois at the garden this year. It was way back in November. Illinois was a bunch of new guys and older players, but trying to figure it out together. But Hurley in the tournament, it's tough to bet against them. Tough to bet against them. I'm not willing We're not making our picks right now. You know, I'm from Connecticut. I was rooting for Chris Smith in 1988. So that being said, Illinois, very tall. Very tall.

You guys know what else is cool? What? Thanks for asking. Tables for two. Why? Dates. I like, romance, romantic. A little table for two.

Table for two. Arizona can be an all-time champion if they win two more games. 38 or more wins and a title, D1Henstein. title D1 history. I mean, this is one of if not the most dominant title teams of my lifetime watching college basketball, Anthony Davis's Kentucky team. Arizona can get to 38 wins and a title if they finish the job. And the teams that immediately come to mind as the best single season college basketball teams, unlike Arizona, they all had, whether he turned to a great pro or not, like an iconic college player.

Yes. And I, no disrespect to Arizona. It doesn't feel like they have that. And so, but they've been the best team in the, I know Michigan's your pick and Michigan's the favorite. I thought Arizona's been the best team and they had the best resume of any team in the nation all year long. And I mean, they're obviously, you know, a lot, super live to win the whole thing.

So I don't know. Do you think they are would be one of the greatest teams ever? Their statistical profile would say that they are, both with their win, like the win loss record, the point differential, the advanced rating. Like, I don't know why they wouldn't be other than not having a top five. Their achievement would be. But no, they're not.

I mean, it's just a different, let's just keep it real. It's just a different error. None of these teams are all times. Oh, I think everybody agrees with that. You can't, like, compare it to. But the achievement, they would be right up there. But Jaylin, I don't know if you have a Michigan stack coming up. I don't want to do you have it?

Well, for the game. Okay. But Jaylin was talking about this Michigan team being. Well, they think they're the best. But Jaylin was very, he's like, hey, if they win it. No, the achievement's cool. Hold on. I mean, I got, bonus what's cool.

Setting up your partner. That was, hold on. What I was going to say is, Goliath v. Goliath. Oh. We go David. life. Arizona, Michigan, arguably greatest final four matchup. Ken Palm made the show. Ken Palm made the show.

I don't care if everyone doesn't know what it is. Any college basketball fan knows about Ken Palm's ratings. These are the two highest rated Ken Palm teams to ever meet in the final four. It's never happened before. And we can go deeper into it. Michigan, the number one point differential team in the country this year, Arizona, the third point differential team in the country. third most wins ever to meet in a final four.

It is, this game to me feels like what you and I said, Nick, about the NFC championship game. Last year, that is the title. It's the title. It's very hard for me to see the Illinois-Ucon winner beating the Michigan-Arizona winner other than, well, it's single elimination basketball. Sure. And it turns out the-

Whoever wins this game is a four-point favorite in the final? I'd say a little more. But yeah. Yeah. I do think these are the two best teams remaining, not just because they're the two one seeds. Like, that's an easy take. I also tell you this much.

Even if Illinois is better than Yukon, I think because this is the late game. Yes, this is the late game. I think both coaches who are people involved for these two teams that are watching Illinois, Yukon. I think they're rooting for Illinois. I don't think they want to see. I don't think you want to see.

I don't think you want to see. after that comeback and then they win the game. And I just think even if Illinois is better, I don't think you want to play Yukon for the title. You kind of hasn't played a dominant game start, well, start to finish these last. No, and they finished the, the St. John's game was tournament getting annihilated.

They can't, they haven't been shooting well, but Terrace Reed has been dominant for you guys. He's really, if they got hot from three in Indianapolis, we're waiting for that's the solo ball to break out. Caravan had. had one good game. Caravan had one game. And Mullins has been terrible all March shooting the three.

If that shot unlocked him, because he's an NBA prospect. He's their best shooter. I think it will. If he gets hot, he's from Indiana. Final four is in Indianapolis. And I'm happy for you, Danny, that you got that for you come. Danny's nephew goes to you con. He watched the game with him.

They're doing it, unlike Wilde's who was there, you know, like, Go Duke, go you go. I would never said go Duke, but I have been on Duke for months. Every time you can play at the garden, me and my nephew go. Once at three games this year. That's wonderful. Yeah. That's another edition of Pack stats.

Cool segment in all of sports. Thanks. Coming up next, how far can Luca carry the Lakers? Well, I mean, Danny's got. They just annihilated Danny's pick to play in the finals. That was bad. I know you want that big back. The college basketball crown is back.

A premier postseason tournament featuring major conference teams, the crown quarterfinals tip off tonight. It's Oklahoma, Colorado, Baylor, Baylor, Minnesota. You catch it all. right here on FS1. Real cool concept, and I can't get enough college basketball this time of year. Okay. So, you know, squeeze it in.

And they're playing for NIL money. It's in Vegas. Good vibe around the crown. Who doesn't like a big bag of money? I like that. Yeah, exactly. And remember, Nebraska shipped this last year. Right.

And then there are four seed this year. Well, watch out for two weeks, Francis out of Rutgers. I followed him a little bit this year. He's averaging 16 points. Big time score out of Pittsburgh. I'm going to look forward to seeing him light it up in his tournament. Okay, a little crown height from Willie Cologne. I like it.

Check out all the games here on FS1. Now to the NBA, the Lakers stayed hot. 42 from Luca will do that. Scored 600 points in the month of March. That's a bit above average. Head coach JJ Redick was asked about Luca's dominance and his month. Take a listen. Luca has had as good of a month as anybody that I can remember in modern.

NBA, at least since I've been part of it. You know, certainly LeBron has had those. Hardin has had those. Steph has had those. But he just played phenomenally this month. All right, Willie. How, I have been a skeptic.

Yeah. But now this thing just keeps going and going and going. How far do you believe Luca can carry this version of the Lakers? At least to the Western Conference finals. I really believe so. And you also got to understand like they've beaten some prominent teams does for you're talking about the rockets the nuggets

they beat the pistons and obviously they had the big win against the Cavs when Luke would drop 42 but you also got what's significant about that game is early in the season the Cavs beat the Lakers by 31 points right and so what you're starting to see is this team really come together and that's

not talked about and I think what's great about the Lakers right now and if you're a Lakers fan you have to be excited about is that even even though Luka can drop 40 plus they're not dependent on him dropping 40 plus right because they have D.A. who's playing better on both ends of the court. You have LeBron who's showing up.

He had 14. You have Rory. He had 14. Austin Reeves have been up and down, but he's been steady as of late. Nevertheless, man, they're coming together as a team when if you look at the Lakers prior to this month or maybe earlier in the city, you're like, man, I don't know who they are and where they stand. They look like a legit outfit that can make a run.

So Luca right now is scary and he's putting up some big time numbers. So it's three straight 40 plus point games, right? He is one of, if not the best offensive players in basketball. He's a short list. It's him, it's Joker, it's Shea, end of list. Right? Like that is your list. And he is playing at the peak of his offensive powers.

And so I was thinking about, like, a couple of years ago when we saw Luca drag that Mavericks team to the finals, it was like kind of an out of nowhere situation. Like, Kyrie, Daniel Gafford, PJ Washington, lively, Derek Jones Jr., Josh Green. Those were the guys who played the most minutes alongside Luca for that Mavs team that got to the finals as a five-seat. Is that that different than LeBron, Reeves, Aiton, Smart, Rui, and Kinnard? Like, would you say that Mavericks team? They were more athletic. They were maybe a little bit better defensively with rebounds, although the Lakers have been really good defensively for the last month.

I just, I have to at least be open to the possibility that Luca can carry a supporting cast that is flawed. to the finals because I have seen Luca carry a supporting cast that is flawed to the finals. But that goes back to what I just said, D.P. They, he doesn't have to, right? Even though he's capable of, to your point of what you're saying, the fact that you can win a game with

LeBron scoring 14 points, Rue's scoring 14 and him giving you 40 and on another night, LeBron can give you a triple double and give you 30 and you're still able to win games against tough off. But Luca is scoring 30 every game. Yeah, I mean, I have a stat right here. He's scoring 30 every game.

I do think he needs to carry you there. Yes, he does. But there's one thing that, like, for the Knicks, for instance, like if Jalen Brunson doesn't give you a certain amount of points a game, you're not winning that game. Like, Luca doesn't have to give you 40 for you to win the game. That's where I'm at. I do think the Lakers right now have found the groove,

and they have found their identity, which is important this time of year because if you're a, if you're a Lakers team, you know, you're running out a runway, right? Like at this point, you are who you are, right? There's no trying to figure out what you can be, in another month. This is the team that's going to be showing up in the playoffs, and you have to believe they've beaten

playoff contenders as of right now that you feel like they can make a run down the stretch. Aiton's playing hard too, and Marcus Smart is engaged on defense. He is playing a lot better. It helps. Yeah, it helps when you give a little bit of effort and you catch the alley-oops. It's a good thing. All right, I cannot wait to talk about this story with you. Let's get back to the tournament.

All right, so we all remember the moment. Mullins hits the shot. Yukon goes crazy. They complete the comeback. Stunning win. And then Dan Hurley, does he headbutter referee? Does he get up in his face? What's going on?

It's a very weird situation. It feels like a misfire. It's a very odd situation. So Dan Hurley goes on the Triple Option podcast, and that ref is Roger Errors. He says, we have a great relationship. And this is Dan Hurley's version of events. Take a listen.

Really, at that point in the game, we had it won. And he's such an easy guy to work with during the game that I thought he was coming over to chest bump me to celebrate the shot. You know, because it's not like that for me with him, you know, like my experience with him has been, you know, we haven't won every game. I haven't agreed on every call, but his, like, so that was in no way was that like me and a ref that I had been at their throat the whole game.

That was more like the emotion of the shot. And this is a cool-ass rap, that, you know, I just like was. Were you guys sharing the moment together? No, he was just coming up to tell me, yo, it was point three. Oh. I think there's going to be point three or point four on the clock is what he's saying to me. I have a lot of thoughts on this, so you can go first or I can go first, but are you buying it? We know he's an ultra-passionate coach.

You know he's a fiery human being. We know about the legacy in his family. You know, by the way, I played against his dad. His dad was a monster. Yeah, so it was famous. But I'll say this. The big East find on March 7th for $25,000 for unsportsman-like conduct. So this is in his wheelhouse, right?

To put it in my opinion. So this is also, to your point, as you stated, that this is coming after Mullins' big shot. I don't think this was intentional. I don't think this was like him having some back and forth with the ref. Rob airs earlier in the game. And then now he's like, oh, look at us when. I'm coming to get you.

I don't think this is just him being fired up and, you know, just being a rowdy head coach. It's completely absurd. Come on, DP. I know I'll get crushed for this on the internet. I do not care. It is completely absurd. How?

Let me tell you how, Willie. Timing matters, by the way. No, I agree. And I even believe... This didn't happen in a first quarter because a file wasn't called. Which, okay, I... Hold on a second.

I believe that he wasn't mad. I believe that he has a good relationship with Ayers the ref. I believe that he was outside of his mind and he's a little bit of a crazy person and he's celebrating in the moment. I'll concede all of those points. Okay.

Would you concede this one point? Come on out. There was at least a 1% chance. Come on out, DP. At least 1% that he could have gotten a technical file for that. 1%. Could he have? Yeah, that's all I'm asking.

He could have. Then it's completely unacceptable. No! Willie. The timing matters. Yeah, his timing makes it worse. How? It's after the big shot.

No. Yeah. Willie. If the guy hits a shot to complete the largest comeback or second largest comeback in Elite 8 history, you are up now by one. Correct. The penalty for a technical foul is a free throw in the ball. Imagine the 1% comes in.

The technical foul happens. Duke hits the free throw and then you lose an overtime. It is the worst coaching blunder in the history of the sport. You are the coach. You are the adult in the room. You can't do it. You can't run the risk because your reputation, maybe not with this ref, does precede you.

I ask the guys, the producing staff, to put together, this is who Dan Hurley is. Correct. It is a, but like, who he's always been. I know. So reps know that going into games. And he led every coach coming into this year. No coach in college basketball had more technical fouls than Dan Hurley.

Not Tom Izzo, who's 20 years older than him. That's correct. Not Bill Self, who's a decade older than him, not Kelvin Samson. Not any coach who's been doing it way longer than him. He is a maniac with refs. And I know before the Sweet 16, he was like, oh, this is just about people thinking that society's going soft. I don't care if you coach your players hard. I don't care if you yell at your players.

It's necessary. I don't care if you yell at your players. I got it. You're making it about you. In what way? Look at this B-roll. He has to be held back. I have been at games where Dan Hurley does that coach his team in the huddle in a media time.

out and he spends the time out just mean mugging refs outside the huddle trying to intimidate them. It is just a, it is a showman. It is a look at me thing. And the fact that there was even a 1% chance that Dan Hurley was going to get a technical foul after Braylon's shot, all this should have just been about Braylin Mullins's shot and Alex Caraband's pass. It should not have been. If you're trying to sell me. Did Dan Hurley headbut that referee? It's crazy.

And I can't believe everybody that's defending it. Dan Hurley stole the spotlight from Mullins on the big one of the biggest shots of franchise histories you're you're bugging like first of all it's why why did this happen this happened because he's a passionate man and the ref control yourself control yourself what look at the rest of the building people are naked in the stance every's controlling themselves everybody else is celebrating with people who are celebrating he's celebrating with a staff Willie, he literally is forehead with the referee. Every other person is celebrating.

You know who fault is it? It's Rob Ayers. Oh my God. You can't get too close. You get to, with this pandemonium like that, you would have to think a head coach that, by the way, we losing by losing by 19 in this game was a little beside himself. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. Everybody agrees with you, apparently. It's like, oh, it was just a complete nothing burger of a story. Well, he said himself.

He went for a chest butt and didn't land, so he went with the forehead. Oh, I'm sorry. Classic wrestling move. I'm sorry, is that a thing that happens, chest bumping referees? I do it all the time with my six-year-old. Yeah. It's not a thing that happens. You don't chest bump referees.

Head coaches and referees, don't chest bump. I was coached by the great Rex Ryan. I've seen him do worse. And keep his job. That's not fine. It's part of sports there, D.P. Listen, he might be the best coach in the sport and his antics with referees are completely out of line and absurd. I can have both thoughts in my head at the same time.

He's an amazing coach, and he's even better in March. The fact that it was even possible that you could have gotten a technical foul and cost your team that game after that shot is totally indefensible. And I'm floored and disappointed in everybody who defends down early. I don't think we celebrate the ref for having a little self-control. Fine. It should be in that spot. Celebrate the rough. He needs more. Time now for some he said we said, listening to some of the best sound from the league meetings.

We give you our analysis. There was a lot to choose from. But we begin with Jets head coach Aaron Glenn, and he was asked a very simple question. Why Gino Smith? It's something about a quarterback, and I'm going to say a quarterback with a chip on his shoulder. I just feel like he's the guy that's going to lead us to the promise land.

He's the guy that's going to touch the ball more than anybody else on offense. And listen, I know he had his struggles, and I think a lot of quarterbacks, you know, they have their struggles. Can we define promise? Westland, please. Because it's not like there were a ton of options for the Jets at quarterback. It's not like we could pick from 20 starters in the league and we just chose Gino Smith. He was kind of what you had to choose from.

And they are expected, Willie. They're over under in Vegas is five and a half wins this year. Really? Only the Cardinals and the Dolphins expected to win fewer games than the Jets. So I'm just not much of a believer in Gino at this stage of his career, but also bringing the Jets to any sort of success. Like he's not going to a team where he is built to have success. No, listen, I think the Jets will be better on defense.

I think offensively, they will, I think they're going to roll up on some people. I can give them seven. I think they can win seven or eight games next year. I really believe that. Wow. The problem with Aaron Glenn right now, what I've learned about him, is that he talks big and bold, right? And he does, and sometimes he doesn't understand that you're in New York where you've sold. countless quarterbacks to the fan base to be the part of the guy to deliver and it has it happen.

This last year he sold this Justin Field that he was going to be the guy that's going to get us over the hump. We're going to land in a wild card. That didn't happen. So nevertheless, man, we know why Gino Smith is here. He's here to quiet the chaos, stabilize the offense, and this looks like a competent NFL outfit. So that's the goal for the New York Jets. Seven or eight wins would be a massive. I'm serious. It'd be a massive success. The defense is going to carry this team. Yeah. Well, and then you'll just be out when just Just enough games to not draft high enough to get a great quarterback in next year's time.

He was 3 and 14 last season. Yeah. We need some hope in that building. Seven or eight wins brings hope. Enjoy the seven wins. And the ninth pick. Next up, the Chargers. Jim Harbaugh, he was asked about how it's going early with the new relationship with him

and offensive coordinator. Mike McDaniel, take a listen. Awesome. Awesome with the capital A. And it is what I really thought it was. Just a perfect combination of Mike McDaniel and Justin Herbert. It's going to bode really well for the Chargers. Obviously, I'm a Herbert guy.

I've been a Mike McDaniel guy. There's no way this doesn't work. I honestly don't see a world where it doesn't want. Like, Jim Harbaugh is an excellent leader. Old school. Old school. Mike McDaniel, the questions about him as a head coach were, are you too new school?

Well, he's soft parenting. Perfect way to say it. Right. But he doesn't have to do that part. Like, Jim Harbaugh can do that part. But Mike McDaniel, it's like, oh, wow, your league led the offense. You led the league in offense with Tua. You were able to be a productive offense when you had to just keep throwing the ball behind the line of scrimmage.

You run really creative plays and different types of things. But you give him Justin Herbert and that offensive line, and Omari and Han and some of the blockers that they've brought in and the fullback and the interior of the offensive line to give Justin Herbert a legit top flight running game because you know Jim Harbaugh wants to be committed to run into the ball. It's like modern concepts with an old school coach. I see no way it doesn't work. There's no doubt he raises a ceiling. I think what's interesting about Mike McDaniels is that even with the successor to it, we still, I still feel like we didn't see the best of it because you got to understand he couldn't really expand the playbook because he couldn't allow Tua to sit in the pocket. the concussion problems, right? And you went to also wasn't a guy who could run the ball, scramble or improvise with his legs because it's concussions. Now you have a quarterback who has the arm talent, who's tough,

who can sit in there and deliver the football anywhere all over the field. I feel like we're about to see Mike McDaniels really going to evil genius mode with Justin Herbert. So and I still think the charge still needed out for one receiver, whoever that is. Maybe it's AJ Brown. I would love to see that. If not, you have to sit back and think like this is, this is going to be this is going to be sweet in LA for the charges. Yeah, it was just such an interesting hire.

And the things that I've said about Herbert, the argument against it is playoff performance and he hasn't won the big game. Okay, fine, conceded. And he hasn't played well in those playoff games. But Mike McDaniel turned down head coaching interviews and other offensive coordinator offers to go here. Jim Harbaugh was at Michigan and won a title

and he had been in the NFL and teams had kept calling, and he made the jump to go there. These are some of the brightest offensive minds and just brightest minds in coaching. And they both chose with a ton of it. They could have gone anywhere. Jim Harbaugh could have gone anywhere. Mike McDaniel could have gone to 10 different places.

And they both chose to go with Justin Herbert. It shows how special he is as a talent. I give you one more. I don't think he gets enough credit for the job he did in San Fran with Mike Shanahan. Kyle Shanahan, excuse me. So I think we underestimate how good of a coach he is. And I think sometimes that's taken away because when he's seen him at his pressers, he's all over the place he's saying whimsical things.

I think he's going to have a hell of a year with the charges. I like when he says the whimsical things. And I got to be honest, I kind of like the soft parenting. I'm kind of soft. I'm a little old. Yeah, you're very old school. I address Tiger Woods stepping away from golf in First Things Last. Time now for First Things Last.

Tiger Woods changed my life, and I don't say that lightly. I don't pick up a golf club, I don't fall in love with the game, and I don't dream about one day sharing the sport with my two young sons without Tiger Woods. He didn't just dominate golf. He made it matter. He made it cool. He forged a personal connection for millions of people and the sport. And that's what makes this so hard, because here we are yet again,

another arrest, another incident behind the wheel, another reminder that for all the brilliance we've witnessed inside the ropes, there's been real struggle outside them. And parsing the details hardly seems to matter, that no alcohol was involved. And that's good, I guess. But let's not kid ourselves. This is a pattern. Car accidents, DUIs, pain management issues, and an abuse of prescription medication. And I'll admit, there's part of this that hits a little closer to home for me. I've had five back surgeries, including a full spinal fusion. I know what it's like to live with chronic back pain and to try to swing a golf club when your body just doesn't want to cooperate. Now to be very clear, I'm operating at about 1%

of Tiger's level on my absolute best day, but I do understand the frustration and the temptation when you just want your body to feel normal again. But understanding it doesn't excuse it. At some point, the conversation has to shift from surprise to accountability. Tiger is 50 years old. He's a father. He's someone who people still look up to whether he wants that responsibility or not. And while it's fair to have empathy for what his body has endured, it can't excuse repeated dangerous decisions that endanger his life and those around him on the road. But here's the complicated truth. The PGA Tour and the golf world at large is never turning its back on Tiger Woods.

Not because they condone this, but because they can't. His impact is too massive. If he's at Augusta, it's the biggest story. If he's the Ryder Cup captain one day, it's the biggest story. If he joins the Champions Tour, they'll set ratings records. Over a million people tune in to watch him play in the golf league and take some swings on a simulator. Tiger isn't just a golfer. He is the gravitational force for the entire sport.

So here we are holding two truths at once. Tiger Woods, the reason so many of us love this game, and Tiger Woods, the cautionary tale. And maybe the only thing left to root for now isn't another comeback. It's that he finally gets some help. That's all I've got. for hanging out with us on the OT. We're back tomorrow with more First Things First.