OverDrive - OverDrive - September 3, 2026 - Hour 2 - Ricky Romero/Josh Lewenberg

Episode Date: September 3, 2026

Join Michael DiStefano and Dave Feschuk for Hour 2 on OverDrive! Blue Bird Territory Host and Former MLB Pitcher Ricky Romero joins to discuss the Blue Jays' playoff push, Dylan Cease's search for the Cy Young Award and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. improving with the bat. TSN Raptors Reporter Josh Lewenberg on the Clippers and Kawhi Leonard punishments in the investigation for cap circumvention and the FanDuel Best Bets.

There's no shortcut for saving time, but saving money is simple. Just combine your car and home insurance with Bel Air Direct and save. Get a quote at bellairdirect.com. Overdrive continues on TSN5, TSN1050, the TSN app, been live up on YouTube. Mike DiStefineau filling in for Brian Hayes, got Dave Feswick of the Toronto Star and with me, Overdrive, brought to you by Bandool, bring you more ways to play your game your way. The old, it was on two separate lines. I had to do the old flip to get the ad.

The two-sided lineup. Yeah, two-sided lineup where the reed is on opposite ends. That's my bet. I'm not going to throw JP. I sent in the lineup, but I didn't check to make sure that it was all on the same page. That's my bet. But you adjusted. You're a pro.

I did my best on the fly to adjust. And here we are. All right. Speaking of Fanduel, Felix O'SJale, was. a big time favorite today on Fandul to win his match against Kachanov in the second round of the U.S. Open didn't happen. You've been on Felix. You're a sorry fellow today.

He lost three sets to one, one, seven, six in the opening set, then lost six three, six two, six two. Tough day for Felix, man. Wow. Tough day for Felix for sure. I mean, he's the world number four. Yeah. He was the third-seated player in this tournament.

He went all the way last year, I was brother, to the semifinals of the U.S. Open. It felt like this was maybe the year, right? Like he'd been playing some of his best tennis of his career. If there was a season to make it happen where we see a Canadian finally get it done in the men's department, obviously Bianca a few years back did win it on the women's side. But if there was a year to see one of the men's singles players come through and win a U.S. title, it felt like Felix had a good chance this year. Yeah.

And to flame out in the second round, that's tough. Yeah. Up low. In part because obviously Yonick Sinner's not around, the guy that beat him in the semis last year, right? He's hurt. So that opens it up a little bit. You got Alcaraz still hanging around and looking pretty good. But, man, this is a huge disappointment for Felix.

I mean, to be where he is right now, he's the only guy in the world top five that's never been to a Grand Slam final. He's got to rectify that. He's got to get there one of these days. You know, you got to get to the final before you can. can win one. But to lose in the second round at the last major of the year, major disappointment. It's pretty tough to take.

Yeah, major disappointment. Elsewhere, I guess, in terms of disappointing Canadian content, to see the latest with the Canadian Open, RBC, who is obviously a major sponsor, the Canadian Open, announced that the RBC Heritage could be part of the championship series of the PGA tour in 2028 when they make all their changes. the RBC Canadian Open was not yet named as one of those elevated tournaments in the championship series. Kind of putting that in flux a little bit. Yeah, for sure.

It's a nervous time for Canadian golf. We had Nick Taylor on yesterday on this very show talking about that and what the implications could be for Canada's National Open in the new landscape of pro golf. And, you know, it's getting less and less likely as these Canada's, Series spots get gobbled up, that it'll be a championship series event, even though I'm sure they would love it to be one, because if you're a championship series event, I was brother, it means the 120 best players in the world, they're coming to your tournament no matter what.

Yeah, it's kind of a real dilemma that, like, Gulf Canada has on their hands, though, right, between being a championship series event and, you know, being a real true traditional open, right? where it's, do you want the best players or do you want a, you know, big field of Canadian? They want the best players. Well, they do, but is that, I don't know, it feels as though like maybe that's, that's ruining tradition. Maybe that's the traditionalist in me. I'm with you.

Look, I'm as, I'm as traditional as anybody. I love the traditional golf. A big part of what makes a open championship at that point, though, right? No, it wouldn't be. I agree. That's the thing. It wouldn't be, but it would be the, since it's the only PGA tour stop in Canada, I mean, it would be a marquee event, and that's what they need.

That's what they want. I'm with you, like, there's a compromise. You're losing something to get Scotty Sheffler and Rory McElroy, and anybody else that happens to be, you know, ascending the pro-golf ladder to get any of those guys to come to your tournament and guarantee them to come, which is what this championship series is all about. You're going to have to have one of the slots in the championship series. If you get one, then you're going to have some other problems.

You're not going to have problems selling tickets because you're going to have every great golfer on the planet coming to your town every year. But you're going to have problems justifying the loss of tradition. You're right. Because Open championships generally, they've got 156 players in them. And in Canada and other countries where they're trying to develop PJ Tour players and they're trying to actually decide a national champion,

you know, they have qualifiers that, you know, anybody can, you can join up. I can join up. Of course, we'd be stupid to do so, but good players can join up, qualify for the tournament. Your boy, good. Anybody can. Anybody that's got a game and thinks they're good can try and get in on the ladder and, you know, do the pre-qualifier and then the qualifier, and you can get into the Canadian Open. It still is, as it sits now, an open championship in the spirit of the tradition of the game. It wouldn't be that if it was 120 guys. So now they're sitting in a spot where it's getting expensive, for one. You know, we just saw this RBC heritage presented by Boeing. So they need two sponsors.

They need two title sponsors to afford the amount of money it's being forked over to run these things, which is getting into like their $20 million purses. They're getting into, it's going to cost you in the range of like $35 million or something in that neighborhood to run the tournament. One sponsor is probably not going to be able to do that unless it's really, I mean, we're talking, $35 million.

That's what the clippers are paying in fines here. That's a little more. They're playing 30, right? It's real money. So now the alternative, El's brother, is either the Challenger series, which isn't great. No. Rory called it a glorified corn fairy tour. Right.

They don't want that. Canada does not want that. No. If they can avoid it. And then there's the third alternative, which may be, it seems like maybe what's becoming the most logical conclusion here is to get involved in this fall series of elevated international events, which apparently is going to include maybe the Australian Open, possibly the Scottish Open.

We're not sure about that one. And, of course, it seems as though the Canadian Open could fit into that rotation, run the thing in early September. I was going to say fall. If it's fall, it's got to be early fall here in Canada. Yeah, and I don't know, like you're a little bit younger than me, but there was a time where the Canadian Open was in early fall back in the day. You know, when Tiger won it, it was, it was, it was,

a fall tournament, right? Way back in the day. So I was there. And so that could work too, you know? But that won't guarantee you the best players on the planet, but there's a chance you could get them. If the calendar falls, right, maybe it's a Ryder Cup tune-up in some years.

It's a President's Cup tune-up in some years. So who knows how it's all going to shake out. Yeah, it's a fascinating story. It's a fascinating story. And like you said, we'll see how it all kind of plays out. There's still a little bit of time to figure it out. These changes are happening until 2028. It's got to be figured out the next, you know, a couple of days.

But you've got to raise the money now. Well, you've got to prove you got the money. It's going to be expensive. Supply demand. There's only, what, a couple elevated events left. It's going to start getting real pricey for those out there. All right, we can continue this chat a little bit, but the Jay is coming off a big win in Cleveland, six, three.

They win the matinee, and they take the series in Cleveland, two games to one. They moved within half a game of the Cleveland Guardians. joining us now to chat about it is a former Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Ricky Romero. Ricky, how's it going? Welcome into Overdrive. Good. How are you guys? Yeah, a big win today.

It is a big win. And it did two things, brought them a little bit closer to the playoffs. It gave them the tie break as well. But we were kind of chatting a little earlier in the show. What was bigger? Kind of what it does for them in the playoff picture? Or the fact that we saw some signs of life from Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Yeah, I think it's a little bit of both, right?

I think it's been such a roller coaster of a season so far up to this date. You know, we've been waiting for them just to play 500 ball, and it seems like they're getting closer and closer. I think earlier in the season they were pretty close, and then they went on a losing streak. And, but right now they just seem to be playing Blue J baseball and what we're accustomed to watching. Well, we got accustomed to watching last season, right?

It was good pitching, good bullpen, and then timely hitting. And that's the biggest thing that I noticed right now. Obviously, Vladdy still hasn't been the Vladdy that we know. But hey, man, you got to tip your hat off to what he's been able to do on defense. He made some great defensive plays today to help save that game, too. I mean, it could have easily been broken open by the Cleveland Guardians. And Soriano kind of held him in check.

You know, he kind of held the line a little bit, you know, right there. And obviously, I wish he would have got in the win. That's the starter in me. I wish they would have let him face one more hitter. But in all, I think what you're seeing out of this Blue J team is just the team that's just going out there, putting the ball on play, getting timely hitting. I think Brett Bateman has been unbelievable at the top of the lineup. He's just brought a different dynamic to this lineup. And so good to see, man.

I mean, obviously, we know what Dylan C's has done all season long. He's probably the front runner for the Cy Young right now. But, you know, the rest of the guys, it just seems like they're just, you know, going out there, playing with nothing to lose. So, Ricky, they're playing with nothing to lose. There's been some great surprises in the likes of Bateman. There's also hope that they may be getting some of their key arms back with Trey U Savage on the rehab trail from his meniscus surgery and maybe Shane Bieber,

a little more of a question mark dealing with that terrorist major injury. I mean, you've been in MLB clubhouses for years and years. pitchers overcome these types of injuries. What do you think the likelihood of either one of these guys coming back and being effective given, you know, the challenge that's in front of them? Yeah, the one that's most concerning is obviously Shane Bieber. I think anytime you have that, you know, nagging shoulder injury and you're messing with the arm, I think it's a little bit tougher.

Obviously, he's a guy that's had a history of arm injuries. And that one just, you know, it's hard for me to think that he's going to. to be back this season, especially as a starter. I mean, it takes time to rebuild back up and all that stuff. And I think right now they're just running out of time for trade. On the other hand, obviously, it just seems like all the reports are positive on him. The only thing, too, it's, you know, he was built up to be a starter. If he comes back, it's kind of hard to just, you know, maybe you piggyback him with somebody else in that rotation as of now. But, you know, the biggest thing is, I think it's getting trade back. I think,

And, you know, he proved what he could do last October. It's been a little bit of an up and down season for him, but it was expected. I'd said it from the beginning. Trey is going to go through some growing pains. Nobody knew him last season. This season, he comes in. There's more video on him. There's a bigger scouting report on him.

And he's going to have to be able to make adjustments. And he has, as the season has gone on, I think at times, he's fought his delivery at times. And that was always the biggest question mark. Can he repeat this delivery for 30 plus starts? And, you know, it continues to be somewhat of a, question, but he's a guy that's obviously has nasty stuff. And when he's in the zone, he's pretty much unhittable. So it's just that unique armango that he comes from. And getting him back would be huge, huge. Again, this is a team that's fighting for a wild card spot right now. And in a three-game

series, you run out Dylan C's and Jose Soriano, your odds are pretty good. Yeah, I mean, especially if Dylan C's going to pitch the way that he has recently. I saw a stat earlier, today after yesterday's six innings of shutout baseball, he's got a 0.18 ERA in his last seven road starts, a sub-100 batting average against him. Like, how impressive is that, you know, for a guy who pitched many years in the big leagues, that that stat line exists in Major League Baseball?

It's crazy. And you know what's awesome about watching Dillon Seas to season? It's the evolution of Dillen Seas, the growth. You know, I think early in the season, Um, everyone was like questioning, oh man, did they overpay this guy? That's still not a proven guy. You know, yes, he does strike out a lot. But can he be a Cy Young type of contender?

And I remember texting Pete Walker right away when they signed them. I was like, you have to be ecstatic about this sign. And he goes, we see some stuff and he's going to make some adjustment. If he's able to make these adjustments, he's going to be pretty unhittable. Not in those words, but like, you know, something along those lines. And you just saw it. I've always seen it. We've all seen Dillon C's be dominant and then next start not so dominant.

And I think that's been the key this season. The consistency that he's brought every fifth day has just, you know, he's given the team a chance to win pretty much every time he goes out there. And it's like early in the season, you know, he was going five and dive. He was fighting himself a lot. You know, he was at 100 pitches in five innings. Lately, he's just been so consistent, effective. And that's the key, man.

I mean, when you have that much of a repertoire that's pretty nasty, it's being in the zone and learning how to expand within the zone. And I think that's the biggest key I've seen with him, the growth I've seen out of him. He's not trying to strike every hitter out. Yes, the strikeouts do happen. But at the same time, he's still within the zone. And when he does get hitters to chase, he gets him to chase because he's in the zone so much. Ricky, I saw you on Twitter the other day. you had a funny post about being in L.A., and I guess you were at a restaurant where you were put into a corner where there was a very famous picture of a very famous catch from a very recent World Series that broke the hearts of people here in Toronto.

Of course, the Andy Paez catch. What did you make at that moment and what did you make of that picture and having to stare at it for your entire meal? Oh, man, yeah, we walked in. And it was like a French restaurant here at Manhattan Beach in the South Bay. And I sat down. It was my wife and a couple of our friends. And I'm sitting there. And my wife looks in and she goes, what do you keep looking at?

I was like, that picture is just haunting me. And she looks, she goes, oh, my God. You know, she was there with me for game seven. And, you know, we all thought that was it. That was the moment. And it didn't happen. And, you know, my L.A. friends, till this day, still. clown on me and they're like when I posted that picture they're like just laughing the entire time so

yeah it's just one of those uh moments right I mean if that goes the other way Ernie Clementist pictures all over uh Toronto restaurants of him celebrating winning the world series instead it's that picture that catch I still don't know how you made that catch I still I off the bat everything I'm sure you guys watched the game still in my memory I sit there and I've done events for the Toronto Blue Jays where I go back and do stuff in the stadium for fantasy camps and stuff like that. And the first day, the first one I did this season, I went back and I stood in center field and I walked over to like left center and I was just like, man, how did he cover this much? How did he cover this much ground? There was just so many thoughts going through. It was just the

pain, the pain of a fan, you know, hoping that, wishing that the Toronto Blue Jays had, you know, pulled that game seven. You and most of the people listening in on the program still can't believe that he did. There's a lot of can't believe that happens in that one. The Barger, why did they stop to play when Barger hit the ball into the thing? There's a lot

that we could go back. There should be a 30 for 30. There's what, the 17 inning game. Like, it's unbelievable. And, you know, we'll see. The Js are starting to get hot a little bit here. Maybe, you know, they're getting hot at the right time, right? We know what that could do for a ball club. I want to

go back to, you said that you were chatting with Pete Walker when they acquired Dylan Sees. What is it about Pete Walker? You know, that, like, he's got this aura that he's just this guru pitching coach that can kind of mold pitchers into, you know, the best version of themselves. Like, what is it about him that allows him to have such success? Yeah, and when I was in the organization, he was still in, he was in double A working his way up and then he eventually became my pitching coach. But, you know, I think the biggest thing about Pete is that he was a former pitcher, right? He knows what it's like to be 60 feet, six inches. He knows what it's like to struggle. He knows what it's like to be successful.

And I think when you're able to mix that with what he knows about pitching mechanics and all that stuff, I think it brings a lot of value to guys that sign there. You know, and it's, I'm not just talking about, you know, we can talk about Dillon C's, but it was like, Ryu and Robbie Ray, you know, there's a lot of guys that have gone. in through the Blue Jays organization and been successful, let alone when Sy Youngs. So I think it's the way he relates to a player. I remember when I was going through my struggles in 2012, we'd sit in that computer room for hours, and he'd sit there and, you know, he's not only a pitching coach, I feel like he, you know, he should major, he has major in psychology, too,

because he, you know, he's trying to, like, you know, talk you out of things and, you know, and, you know, almost like your therapist, like, you know, he does it all, man. And, and that think that's the biggest thing. It's the way he relates to the players, the way he goes about his work, you know, the adjustments that he knows he's got to make on certain pictures. I think there's not one mold for a pitcher. I think everyone is their own Picasso, you know, so he's got to figure that out, and he's really good at it. And I think when you put in the work and you sit there and you do all this stuff in the video room and you present it to these guys, it's an easier transition rather than, you know, an analytical guy coming up to you and saying, hey, you got to make

these changes. It's different. You know, you kind of have to have a Pete Walker to kind of help you understand it, understand it in baseball terms, and we do live in a very analytical time. But this guy, he understands, man. He understands pitching. He understands human beings. He understands what it's like to struggle. And you put that all together in one basket. It's a huge recipe for success, especially nowadays. You talk about that mix between psychology and analytics, Ricky, and there's been the conversation the past month or so, maybe until Vlad hit that home run yesterday, the towering moonshot that we hadn't seen sometime is, you know, the analytics would probably say Vlad should be down in the lineup a little bit. He shouldn't be hit in third or second,

which is where he's hit the majority of the year, if not the entire year. And yet, John Schneider's talked about how he doesn't want it to be seen as a punishment to move the guy down, the lineup. Where do you stand on that? Would you see, do you think a clubhouse sees a guy getting demoted into the lineup that may be hitting fifth or sixth instead of second or third as punishment or is or is you know where do you sit on that situation with Vlad? Yeah, it's tough, right? I mean, I think everyone would think like, yeah, they need to move them down and this and that. But I think the biggest thing and no one knows other than Bladdy and Schneider,

the type of conversations that they have, the type of conversations that the department has, you know, in moving this lineup and stuff like that. I think, you know, it's as tough of a season as tough of a season as he's had, I mean, it's hard. I wish I had a good answer for you in that regard. But, you know, in the end, he is the heart and soul of this team, whether you like it or not. Like, you know, I think last year he proved what he can do in October. And to this day, that's why I say, man, you, you.

you respect what he's able to do on defense because not a lot of times when you're having bad, a lot of times when you're having bad offensive years, it carries on into defense. You're watching it a little bit with Kyle Tucker here in L.A., where he's, you know, not producing offensively. It's kind of leading into the defensive part and, you know, and it leads to booze and stuff like that. And obviously, he's struggling. But with Lattie, I feel like it's completely opposite. He's not letting the offensive struggles carry into the defensive part.

And as far as the lineup, only they know why they're doing, what they're doing and they feel like he could still produce at the two-hole, you know, regardless of what anybody thinks. And I think that just shows you, you know, the belief that John Schneider has in him and the belief that the whole organization has in him. I think if guys were frustrated, maybe they would maybe voice it. I don't know. But again, this is the leader, the heart and soul of the team in the face of the franchise. And, you know, I feel like they're going to live and die with him. You talk about living in L.A. Ricky and obviously the Dodgers

are always the favorite to win another world series, a third straight potentially. And yet there's been a lot of interesting stories rolling around out there about the Dodgers and their owner and his financial troubles in a federal

investigation to how he got all the money that he's bought these sports teams with. Of course, he recently made a deal to sell his majority stake in the L.A. Lakers. In your read of this situation, and is there any chance that all the discord around Mark Walters' troubles could put some kind of a dent in the Dodgers clubhouse?

They haven't been playing great lately. I think they're four and six in their last 10. Are we reading too much into that? Or you think this team is just too good to let something like that affect it? Yeah, I think they're too good to let somebody like something like this affect them. I think they have enough leadership top to bottom. They're all proven winners. that I don't think

any of that is affecting them on the field. I think that what's affecting them is that Shohei Otani doesn't look healthy. I think there's some part in that. He's obviously been in a bit of a slump. And we all know what he can do at the top of the lineup. He can change the course of the game at any moment. And obviously on the mound too,

and they don't have them on the mound either. Yes, they have Yamamoto. Yes, they have plates now and et cetera, et cetera, all starts at the top to bottom. But at the end of the day, I think that group, that group, is, you know, they have so many veteran leadership that I don't think they would have let that shit sink that easily.

But, if anything, it proves to other teams that they are beatable. And you just never know what can happen in a five-game series, right? I mean, they can go cold easily like they have, they've gone cold as of late and get bounce. You know, that's the game of baseball sometimes. The best team doesn't always win. So it'll be interesting how they play in October. And, you know, and hopefully.

for our sake, we don't see it to repeat. I think everyone wants to see something new. I think we're going to see a new MVP in the National League, maybe a new National League champion when all said and done as well. Ricky, really appreciate the time, as always. And thank you so much, and we'll do it again soon. Absolutely. Thank you, guys. Absolutely. Ricky Romero,

former Toronto Blue Jay. Yeah, I mean, it's true. The Dodgers, they look beatable right now. No, they're not playing their best. Like I saw, you know, we focus so much on the struggles here in Toronto. I think Freddie Freeman hit his first home run since, like, July 4th or something like that the other day. I mean, that guy's been a beacon of consistency his entire career, and he just went two and a half months without a home run.

It's tough to keep doing it, right? No matter how many guys you got on the roster, and hey, if the leader, if their leader in Otani is not the Superman that he often looks like, and clearly he's showing that there's at least some kind of kryptonite out there that can slow him down because he's not been 100% healthy. There's some question marks about how much he's going to pitch down the road here. Yeah, he might not. Like that's the thing.

He might not pitch for the rest of the season, at least the regular season. I think I saw a report on that, how that's now kind of up in the air. Yeah. Because last week it seemed as though he might pitch in that Tiger series, and then that didn't happen over the weekend and didn't pitch at all this week. you're hearing reports, he may not pitch at all for the rest of the season. And that's taken a shot

to his MVP consideration. I'll tell you that. Yeah, I think Pete Carl Armstrong's got that thing wrapped up. Yeah, I think, where was it, I had it here? It's pretty well wrapped up. I think he's got a massive, massive lead at this point, minus 2,000.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You got a plus 950. If you still got Hopin Otani, plus 950 currently on Fandul. That's even, even, even Otani's translator would know that's a bad bet. Yeah, even Ipe. Even Ipe would probably fade Otani at this. And he's the worst sports better in the history of sports betting.

Oh, boy. Yeah, that's, there's been a lot of scandals in L.A. Lots of scandals in L.A. And then the Mark Walter, when you bring up, is kind of another under the radar scandal. What's going on there and his financials doesn't necessarily have to do with sport like these other ones are. It's got something to do. It's got, hey, I'll tell you what it's got. to do with. Will Otani

get paid his deferred money? That seems to be an open question. Now if this guy's going like, we don't know what's going to happen to Mark Walter. I mean, there's a you talk about above our pay grade. I mean, he's being investigated by the feds for, you know, insurance

money that was loaned internally, you know, whatever. It's, it's complicated stuff not to be talked about on a sports show. But you know, you do read some of the financial press about the idea that Otony deferred. the bulk of that contract many years down the road and

what happens if, say, the guy that he signed a deal with, the entity he signed the deal with doesn't exist anymore, you know? Well, I'd imagine that would just be assumed by the owner who takes over, don't? Well, we'll see. I don't know if that's,

I would think so, too. Don't get me wrong, but I'm just, the fact someone's raising that question, it's interesting. It could be holes. It could be some holes in there. Yeah. It was an unconventional deal is what saying. It wasn't your garden variety MLB contract is very unusual structure. Yes, Uncle Dennis to do it because Uncle Dennis

got his boy paid. Uncle Dennis got everybody paid. Uncle Dennis got everyone paid. That you should have been negotiating Sho Hayes deal. Well, he's banned from the NBA. He's not banned from MLB. There you go. Maybe hit up Uncle Dennis. There you go. All right, we'll hit up Josh Loonberg on the other side. We'll get into the Uncle Dennis

story. The Kauai investigation is over. We'll find out what Josh thinks of it live from Costa Rica. He's on vacation. That's joining us on vacation. Yeah. So appreciate that one. So we'll get Josh Lumberg next here on Overdrive. Overdrive continues on TSN 1050 upon TSN5 and live on YouTube. It's Mike DeStefano, aka Al's brother. Got Dave Festrach of the Toronto Star with me here. And we're just talking about the Dodgers and the Mark Walters situation. No much money they have deferred. $1.6 billion in deferred contracts that they have to pay out between now and 2047.

Yeah. 2047. $247. $1.6 billion. And if he's forced to sell the team for whatever reason to pay off his debts and whatever happens, I would imagine that you're taking that $1.6 billion out of the sale. Yeah. The liability.

A hundred percent. So you sell that thing or $10.000. billion dollars the price, I'm slashing 1.6 right off the top because that should have been dollars that you were paying Mr. Walter. Mark Walter. Yeah. Crazy stuff, man. The money's crazy and the whole scenario is just nuts that this insurance money funded sports teams. And apparently when it started happening more than a decade ago, there were some people in the financial press saying this seems a little odd, seems like a lawsuit

waiting to happen, but it's taken this long for the feds to sort of start sniffing around and we still don't know where it's head. More? Some more here? Yeah, who knows? Probably. The feds of, you know, when they board your plane, take your laptop on your phone, you know it can't be good. Yeah, yeah. It's true.

I know that it did not turn out well for the Clippers with their entire situation and the investigation into their shenanigans, stripped of five first-round picks, a $30 million fine and Steve Balmer suspended from all basketball situations for the next year. Pretty harsh fines there, pretty harsh fines. Locked out of the building. Locked out of the building. All right.

To join us, talk about that. And when we'll see the Kauai Leonard deal finally come to fruition. It is our TSNR rappers reporter, Josh Lomberg. Live from Costa Rica. Look at this guy. Oh, my goodness. Not a green screen. This is real.

Oh, boy. Josh, did you, like, how did it feel hopping off the plane last night, landing in Costa Rica, and this bombshell ends up happening? Do you expect that when you boarded the plane or what? Oh, yes. No, I mean, look, I would love to say that I'm surprised to be talking to you right now, but it was inevitable. For the last two months, everybody that I talked to,

whether I knew them or I didn't, would ask me, when is the Kwai news going to come down? And I would joke, but like, maybe not actually, that I'm going on vacation first week of September, and the moment that I go away is when this thing is going to happen. I didn't think it would happen so literally minutes after I got off the airplane. I had just gotten onto the shuttle to the hotel.

When I looked down on my phone, I'm like, yeah, of course. I'm going to take off my sunglasses. I've got to be professionally. Good look. I liked it. You look cool, Josh. You can go back to the glasses. Nobody would be offended. You're on vacation.

We appreciate you doing this. So I guess the question is, when will the deal with the raptors and the clippers that's going to bring Kauai here? And, of course, in his statement he was very much talking about being in Toronto as it is. When will that deal be consummated? And there's been some speculation, Josh, down in the States from some of our old colleagues at ESPN, that maybe the Raptors are in a position now where they have leverage to maybe sweeten this deal on on their side.

How do you see it? No, I don't think so. I think it's going to be done at some point in the next few days. I imagine the clippers are pretty busy right now. They've got their hands full. So do their lawyers. But at some point in the next few days, it's going to be made official, official, official this time.

And, yeah, I mean, I expect the trade to come through. as it was designed as it was set up a few months ago. Same amount of draft picks, Grady Dick, Brandon Ingram, Kauai coming back to Toronto. I don't expect any changes there. And then, yeah, I mean, the Raptors will get working pretty quickly on an extension for Kauai, adding on another two years to his remaining deal. I would expect it to come in pretty close to his max, which is, I believe, around $126 million.

Now look, I mean, I guess technically until the trade is official, they can't begin negotiation on that. But I mean, even though I'm sure Kauai wants to have his hands clean right now, he's been spending a lot of time with the Raptors over the last few months. They never doubted for a second that this trade would ultimately go through. So I'm sure they've had some conversations and have a pretty good idea of what that extension is going to look like. So, I mean, that's the order of business here. At some point in the near future, we're going to get word that the trade is done. and an official and Kauai is back with the Raptors. And then the extension news will probably follow pretty shortly after that.

So Josh, I mean, we've spoken extensively from the Clippers perspective and the harsh penalties that were levied to them. There's a sentiment that Kauai Lennar got off a little easy. Where do you kind of land on that debate when it comes to Kauai? No suspension, no voided contract, just a $700,000 restitution bill, and away you go. Now, I mean, no question. A slap on the wrist, a drop in the bucket. The guy is worth nearly $400 million just in terms of like his career earnings up to this point.

And as I mentioned, he's about to sign an extension worth nearly $126 million. So $700,000, yeah, he's going to be just fine. Don't worry about Kauai Leonard. In some ways, it's surprising because, look, if the clippers are guilty and now the NBA has proven that they are, And even before they had that hard proof, we all had a pretty good idea that they were guilty of the allegations that were being thrown their way. If they're guilty, Kauai is guilty to some degree, right? He's complicit in this and he can plead ignorance all he wants and say that he had no idea where the extra money was coming from. But he had to know he was getting more money than what was allowed by the CBA.

He had to know what was being asked of the clippers, even if he wasn't the one doing the asking. Because, of course, he asked for the same things from the Raptors a few years before. So, yeah, to just get a slap on the wrist while obviously the hammer was dropped on the clippers and his reps, including and especially Uncle Dennis, were made into scapegoats. Yeah, he came out of this pretty good, I would say. in another sense though it's not surprising because i think it was pretty clear all along that the NBA didn't want to go to war with the players association that's exactly what would have happened if the leonard suspended if the leonard penalty had looked anything like what the clippers punishment is

suspension voided contract any of that the the pa would have come after them and look i mean the voided contract was never going to happen that would have been a nightmare scenario for everybody and it would have screwed over the Raptors which is something that the NBA didn't want to do so not surprising in that sense that they would kind of let the players

slide by a little bit and I also don't think they needed to throw the book at Kauai in order to accomplish what they needed to accomplish here I mean basically what the message here is is that players and reps can ask for whatever they want. At the end of the day

the onus is on the team now to uphold the league's rules and to say no in the way that the raptors did back in 2019 and the way that the clippers now we know did not do um so i think it still sends the message around the league which is what the NBA needed to do here that this is not something that is going to be tolerated that if you get caught doing this the punishment will be significant even if it isn't significant on the player's side of things josh there was a lot of speculation before this ruling came down yesterday about how this would go. And I think there were a lot of people very

close to the NBA, people who worked in it or worked in it for years, who weren't convinced that Adam Silver had this in him, who weren't convinced that he would put the hammer down on the richest owner in North American pro sports. A man worth maybe three times more than the next equivalent.

And yet here he is. He's looking a little bit like his mentor and predecessor David Stern. May he rest in peace with this hard line punishment that really sets a tone. and really makes a statement about the standards of the league and what the salary cap means.

What was your level of surprise that Silver did have this in himself? Uh-oh. Ah, it looks like we might have lost them. Ah, that Costa Rica, that's not the best. Should have kept the sunglasses on. Yeah, maybe that was it. A little in tennis situation. You know, it's interesting, and I don't know if we're going to try and get him.

Ah, we're kind of up against it. So maybe not. Well, let him enjoy his vacation down in Costa Rica. You look relaxed. Appreciate to Josh for joining us. I think that was his way, his wife's way of saying, I've given you enough time. Let's cut this short.

Get the, get the, the, it's happier. It's happy hour. Let's get this thing on the road. But yeah, I mean, you bring up a point that a lot of us thought was, there's no way Adam Silver brings the hammer down this way. And it shocked a lot of people in the NBA that he came down. And he levied this harsh punishment. And one that Balmer seemingly isn't,

going to just lie down and accept, or at least as of now, he still plans on fighting this out. But, yeah, I think that there's Adam Silver, who took a lot of bullets throughout the last few months here with this entire investigation. I think he won some people over when it comes to how he finally kind of came out and did what was right. He did his job. The end of the day, he did his job. And he stood up for the integrity of the league and the salary cap. and, you know, hey, you cheated, you did this. And we're going to prosecute you to the full extent. And that's what they did.

Yeah. You got to respect it. And, you know, it means a lot to the NBA. I mean, there was a moment there where it felt like if these guys are going to get away with it. And let's face it, ESPN had that story only a couple weeks ago about how, you know, their sources said that there was no indication of wrongdoing in the end. NBA investigation to date. The NBA, of course, refuted that story very shortly after it ran.

But I don't think that ESPN story, you know, even though obviously it's proved erroneous, there was a sentiment around the league that the clippers could be on the verge of getting away with something that was pretty heinous when it came to making the salary cap look like a joke. And if that

would have happened, I mean, we'd be sitting here saying, this league is out of control. Yeah. I want to play Sham Sharania was on ESPN earlier today. I want to play a clip of kind of his understanding of the situation from Kauai's perspective. I had one executive tell me last night, Greenie, that the clippers were essentially acting like a power agent brokering deals for Kauai Leonard's business representative at the time in Dennis Robertson,

and that's millions and millions of cash flow coming into Kauai Leonard at a point in time in the calendar where we were in the pandemic, in 2020 and 2021. By mid-2020, Kauai Leonard had pocketed tens of millions of dollars in endorsement deals where there just was not any type of showing up or any type of obligation that he had. And it wasn't just one company. It was four companies that the NBA found. And the investigation, I do have to make it clear, did show that Kauai Leonard did not have any knowledge of this salary caps, sir mentioned that was going on.

He had essentially given all of the power to his own. uncle Dennis Robertson for years now. I mean, you had tens of thousands of dollars showing up in your bank account and you have no idea? I don't know about that. Sounds very show-hah with Tani-S. I don't know about that. I didn't know.

I didn't know what the hell was going on with somebody draining my bank account. Well, Kauai had no idea what was going on with somebody filling his bank account. I mean, that's hard to, that's hard to muster any sensible. Well, any sense of belief. During, like, during COVID, where they were at a stoppage, they weren't playing. I'm sure that meant that, like, the game checks weren't coming in at that point, too. Meanwhile, he continues to, you know, still get tens of millions of dollars of cash flow, according to Sham Sharania. And he didn't think that that was a little odd.

It seems hard to believe. I mean, one thing about Kauai, I mean, look, it's a great, it's a great storyline. It's a great cover to say, oh, I gave my uncle, you know, cartblon. He was my guy. He was my agent. He was representing me. He did what he did, and I didn't really pay too much attention. I just played basketball.

You could say that. I'll tell you what, though. One thing about Kauai, like when he was in Toronto, there was always talk about next contract. And it was Kauai driven. You know, like he was very aware of what he was worth and what he might be worth in the future. It's hard for me to believe that a guy that was that tuned into his worth

would be suddenly completely dumbed to the idea that, I got $10 million in my account. I wonder where that came from. I don't really care. I'm not even going to ask. You know, I see no evil, hear no evil. It doesn't. And then, of course, Pablo O'Re,

the great Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who broke this whole thing open with his great podcast. He's, I guess he tweeted out not too long ago, a copy of a signed contract with one of these companies. With Hawaii? Kauai Sidney Chishers on there. So he might just say, I didn't know what I was signing. Okay, Kauai.

I don't think of it. guy worth 400 million generally signs papers that he's not sure what they're all about. Yeah. Well, I know you're, I was reading your story by your colleague Bruce Arthur and the Toronto Star today. After reading the law firms big, was a 36 page report on the investigation, and he said it found four companies that paid Leonard outside the salary cap via the clippers. The two companies cooperated with the investigation. Companies were pressured or induced to pay Leonard as a way to secure contracts with the clippers who use the common method of contractual quid pro pro

to force money Leonard's way. And Balmer knew it and was involved. But Kauai didn't know anything. But Kauai didn't know. If you believe Kauai. Yeah. Which I don't. Don't at all.

No. But it ultimately doesn't matter. He's going to come to Toronto. He's going to put this to the side. He's going to pay $700,000. And away we go. Now, Jay Lou Neal, the NBA, through the mess this is,

they're probably still going to have to go to war with Steve Balmer, who's vowing to fight this. They didn't want to go to war with the Players Association as well. So a slap on the wrist for Kauai was easier. There was so much more at stake with Kauai situation, right? Like you, the, the Balmer thing, go battle that in court, right? Go battle that. If you have Kauai wanting to appeal, now that drags into the season. Yeah. This was just the easiest way

to sweep it under the rug and then go after the rich guy, essentially. And they can figure it out in court away from, from the public and the press. And we'll see where it all kind of comes and shakes out. Will it stick? Will he end up going in? Will they uncover more by going to court? It's also positive, too.

Possible too. We'll see. There's more there, apparently. I don't doubt that. Where there's smoke, there's fire. And this is just maybe the tip of the iceberg. And it could be more than just the clippers as well. So, all right.

Bandua, best bets. Still to come here on Overdrive. Today's best bets are powered by Fandul. Make your picks and assemble a same game parlay in seconds on the Fandul's Sportsbook app. I like the Cubbies today. Kevin Gossman on the mound. I like the Dodgers tonight.

Tarek Scouble on the mound. Parlay those two together. Get at plus 172 with those two on the money line. Today's best bets powered by Fandual. Same game parlay are available for every MLB game on the Fandual Sportsbook app. Please play responsibly 19 plus and physically located in Ontario. I should mention Josh Lewenberg, who joined us from Costa Rica,

did also join us from the Maple Toyota hotline. He did let us know what happened there. I guess he didn't get cut off for Happy Hour. Apparently it was a real hotline. His phone overheated and temperature, the iPhone needed to cool down. So his phone overheated on us. That's what happened when you...

In the tropics. You're in Costa Rica and it's the middle of the south. summer. Towards the end of the summer. But yeah, that's basically what happened. So shout out to Josh Luhumberg. He didn't have to join us on vacation, but he did. Big stories like that, man.

That's what happens. Where it's literally, they look at you and they say, I'm on vacation. Don't bug me unless this happens. You hope that doesn't happen, but it did. The biggest story of the summer broke. Kauai Leonard investigation over. We found out what the penalties were and you got to bring in the big guns. You've got to bring in Josh Lundberg.

All right. We'll be back tomorrow. You and I once again. Yes, sir. Loved it. Good show today. And excited for tomorrow. For Mike DiStefano and Dave Festchuk of the Toronto Star.

We'll join you back here tomorrow 4 p.m. We'll chat then. Hello, Canada. This is Brian Adams Radio. Hosted by Brian Adams himself. We'll play a few of mine, a ton of my favorites, and some must-hear behind-the-scenes stories from the world of rock and roll. Oh, too many get you.

One thing about doing rock and roll so long as you end up meeting a lot of the people that you admire. Sometimes you even get to work with him. Brian Adams Radio. Now available on the free IHare Radio app. Hey, everybody. How are you tonight? Sounds great.