The Herd with Colin Cowherd - 05/20/2021 - Best of The Herd

Episode Date: May 20, 2021

Colin pushes back against the Laker-doubters after their impressive win over the Warriors in the NBA “play in game” to secure their place in the playoffs. He argues that LeBron’s clutch 3 pointer late in the game was clearly skill, not luck. He talks about Steph Curry’s status in the Bay Area and why it could be time for him to find a new contender in the near future. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year.

Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifers Show.

This is a place for raw, unfilled conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but the show. celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to the Clifford show on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok's podcast network on TikTok. On the Look Back at it podcast. From 1979, that was a big moment for me.

84's big to me. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. With our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s. 84 was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Thanks for listening to The Best of Heard Podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday. From 12 to 3 Eastern, 9 to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS1, find your local station for the herd at Fox Sports Radio.com or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Heard. This is the best of the herd with Colin Cowher on Fox Sports Radio. It is a Thursday, a glorious Thursday, in a city that always wins. Live in Los Angeles, it's the herd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening, IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, FS1, it is amazing. You know, the NFL, you're just like games or games.

They're all fun. I mean, obviously, the playoffs feel a little different. But in the NBA, you get two seasons. You get kind of a regular season. And then you get the playoffs. And as a consumer, I'm just glued. I mean, that's fourth quarter last night. Lakers Warriors is just unbelievable sports.

Joy Taylor is joining me. God, that was good last night. That game definitely lived up to the hype. It did. I told you it was going to be close. I know. I lost my bet. I didn't care.

You know what? It was only a few hundred thousand dollars. So I hear a lot of this this morning. Colin, Warriors should have won they played better. Not in the second half. Since when are legacies in the NBA framed on first halves? We talk about Tom Brady's first halves in the Super Bowl. He's never throwing a touchdown pass in the first quarter of any of them.

All those great Michael Jordan highlights, those are second half highlights. Lakers were the better team in the second half. In fact, I'll take a different tack than everybody I've heard this morning. The Lakers should feel great about themselves. If I'd have told you before the game, LeBron had his worst half as a Laker. A.D. was terrible. Steph Curry was on fire. The Warriors hit 44% of their threes.

Yeah, Lakers still won. He went, what? Warriors should have won. They didn't. The Lakers had no juice. They had no juice. LeBron and AD were just not ready to play. Dennis Schroeder played as poorly as you can play.

And they won. Listen, man, in 2021, that game would have been over for a lot of teams. We saw Charlotte the other night. They bailed at half. They just bailed at half. That game could have been over at half. Steph's on fire. Steph was easily the best player on the floor last night.

And in the end, playoffs. Now, you've seen those the last four or five years as it become more of a three-point shooting league. Team blowouts are everywhere. I mean, in the 2016 NBA finals, Warriors and the Cavs, six of the seven games were blowouts. That's what happens against the best teams. I mean, think about this. You go back to those 2016 finals. Game two, I think the Cavs lost by 33. Game three, they won by 30. That is the new NBA, because you get behind. You're playing against the great shooter like Steph. You get kind of desperate.

You got to catch up and you can't hit your threes. And a nine-point deficit becomes 16 becomes 28 game over half. I mean, think about this. If you're a Laker fan, Steph was amazing. Draymond Green was a major headache for AD. I thought Andrew Wiggins played really, really well. Steve Kerr's a great coach. Warrior shot 44% on threes.

And the Lakers won. And LeBron played his worst. first half. In fact, LeBron plays poorly so infrequently, I can't remember a half like that. I mean, he had no legs. He had no juice. Too much Drake. They went out tonight before. So, in fact, I look at the Lakers last night. I'm like, oh, this is why they should be favored to win the championship. They did things that other teams can't do. They were great late in the fourth quarter. The Clippers aren't. they played great defense late.

Brooklyn can't. They adjusted. Charlotte didn't. They played poorly for long stretches and won. That's hard to do in the NBA. A lot of teams would have folded last night in the first half. So if you look at what's happening to the NBA since the three-point shot, players are now so efficient. I mean, centers now shoot them.

Joel M. B. and Anthony Davis couldn't pull out and shoot a three. You fall behind by 12 and 13, 14 points. A lot of teams pack it in. In playoff games, they pack it in. In finals, they pack it in. I thought the Lakers, to come back and win last night when so many things worked against them was fantastic. Their biggest dilemma for the Lakers, and they adjusted. This is what they do.

This is why Frank Vogel is a good coach. They really struggle against certain teams having Anthony Davis and Andre Drummond on the floor at the same time. They're a little too heavy-footed. And Anthony Davis doesn't like to play the center or what they call the five or what they call the post. He doesn't like to. He's more of a finesse big.

He wants to be out moving around. He doesn't like, but they made him in the fourth. Get in there, big fella. Play the five. Drummond did not play a minute in the fourth quarter. And LeBron and AD were great. But I saw adjusting. I saw fight.

I saw resilience. I saw a team play poorly come back. I don't look at it any other way. I don't understand this. Warriors should have won. We don't frame legacies on good first halves. The Warriors were a hot mess in the third quarter. They had a ton of turnovers.

The game went sideways. And the Lakers, in the end of the football game, the last seven minutes, who was the better team? The Lakers, they should have won. Nice performance. Now, now, let me get into this. This just cracks me up. Remember when Jalen Suggs hit that great shot for Gonzagin? Everybody's like, oh, it's luck.

And then Mark Fugue came out and he said, no, he practices that all the time, like 35 footers. We practiced late game situations. And LeBron James, let's just show it to you. But the sound up, everybody's saying, oh, it's very lucky. So here's the sound up on it right here. James, two defenders on him. To Calvo Pope inside, he's tied up by Green. throws it back up top.

James puts up the break. A desperation heave and the Lakers are up three. Okay, he didn't grab the basketball and throw it. It wasn't a two-handed chest throw from 40 feet. He maintained his shooting form. That's a jumper. That's how he shoots jumpers. I'm going to show you now five, six different LeBron shots.

Just because you can't do something doesn't mean it's luck if somebody else can. LeBron can make that shot. Most guys in the NBA don't. LeBron practices these shots. You think that's out of control. I've seen LeBron hit that bank shot, sorry to the radio audience, 20 times. That shot, he's leaning. LeBron practices these shots.

Phil Mickelson's a golfer. Phil has what they call a flop shot. He'll use it twice a year. It doesn't mean he doesn't practice it all the time. Just because an athlete does something in. frequently doesn't mean they don't practice it regularly. Remember the great Michael Jordan shot where he switches hands, right? You think he never practiced that?

You think Michael just in the moment is like, try something I've never done before. Michael had done that either by himself at practice. This is what players do. Steph Curry took a shot last night, six minutes, about six, 20 something in the, I think it was fourth quarter last night, 26 feet, leaning the wrong way. I'm not sure he got a good grip on the ball.

And I'm like, man in his face, well, that's what he practices. Steph Curry's out there for an hour and a half. I remember as a kid going to the kingdom in Seattle. It was a terrible place for basketball games. It was a barn. And I wanted to go watch Larry Bird. And I can remember I had binoculars because I didn't have any money, but bad seats. Larry Bird's out there at like 3.45 in the afternoon.

Like the minute we could get in his fans, you know, I was sitting there at the gate and I rush in and I watched Larry Bird's out there an hour before everybody shooting threes when they didn't even shoot threes. It's like, yeah, that's what they do. LeBron practices that. You talk to anybody, we had Tim Grover on yesterday, MJ's trainer. You don't have to beg these guys to come to the gym. The great practice. Phil Mickelson practices the flop shot all the time. Steph practices all these goofy shots that go in. LeBron's not throwing it. doing a chest heave.

He's maintained his form. He's maintaining his form. So you watch dunk contests. Those guys have practiced goofy dunks. They're going to use once in their life. So that to me is just a shot. If you maintain your form and you just, you're probably, by the way, LeBron called for the ball.

LeBron set himself, he knows where he is on the floor. He knows what the clock is. He set himself up in a. in a spot that he can hit that shot. That didn't luck. A little dramatic on the ice stuff, but it's not, you know, people are like, oh, he's by the R at the Staples Center. Steph Curry weighs 60 pounds less, has less muscle mass.

Steph shoots from that area all the time. LeBron's as strong as any player in the NBA. That's a 33-foot shot. Not 70? By the way, LeBron talked about it after the game. I saw that was, I had to get it up. at least get up on the rim. Second thing I saw was three rims.

You know, from being poking eye on that previous possession when I drove to the hole in transition. So I just aim for the middle one. You know, I've been, I mean, I practice enough. You know, I work on, you know, my game. And I was able to, the man above and through a lot of practice, I was able to drain it. Yeah, they practice this. Like Mark Fuse said with Jalen Suggs. Like Gonzaga practices.

All right, eight seconds. This is what coaches do at practice. Eight seconds left, no time out. Go up the court. This is what they do all day. This season lasts 200 days. Do you think they practice this stuff? It's just like Hoosiers.

Back door cuts. Do it over. Guys are goofing around all the time, practicing crazy shots. Coaches give them time to do their independent stuff. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. On Fox Sports Radio. FS1 and the IHard Radio app. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged.

It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media.

Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment,

and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast, it's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. The story I've told myself about love or relationships can then shape my behavior,

and that can lead me to sabotage the possibility of connection. This mental health awareness month, tune into the podcast deeply well with Debbie Brown and explore the journey of healing, self-discovery, and returning to yourself. We explore higher content. We explore higher consciousness, emotional well-being, and the practices that help you find clarity, peace, and self-mastery, in a world that can feel overwhelming. The world is becoming lonelier. We're not becoming more social and connected. We're becoming more individualized, but we actually meet people in connection.

If you've been searching for a soft place to land while doing the work to become whole, this podcast is for you to hear more. Listen to deeply well with Debbie Brown from the Black Effect Podcasts. network on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, I'm Jordan Arano. You might know me as that loud guy who yells out, help on the internet. Help! Somebody! But there's so much more to me than me.

I'm an actor. I'm a comedian. And recently, I've become quite the helper myself. And on my new podcast, Hope from a Hippocrite, I'll be changing lives, helping people in need with my sage advice and thoughtful solutions. Sike! I'm a comedian! I'm not qualified to give good advice. Join me and my comedian friends as we riff, rant, recommend some of

the most legally dubious advice known to man. If I'm calling you, even if you're on your phone, let it ring twice. One ring is too scary. Cream a chicken suit. Hey, cream. Cream a chicken suit. This is Help from a Hypocrite, the worst

advice from the dumbest people you know. Listen to Help from Hypocrat as part of the mic Cultura Podcast Network available on the I-Hart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So I'm watching The Warriors last night and the Lakers like everybody else who's a sports fan. And I'm thinking to myself, yeah, I'm not, and I, Joy and I have talked about this. I'm not a traditionalist. I didn't go to church much as a kid. Although I can appreciate it when I move from the West Coast where we just blow stuff up and build new stuff.

And I went to the East Coast. I do think the old churches and the prep schools, the Hogwarts feel to it. I think it's awesome. Some of the places, you know, you see some of the architecture. It's amazing. People have been sending their camps, kids to camps for like 70 years out east. There's a lot of tradition I can appreciate. But when you listen to my show, I don't wax philosophic about the 50s and 60s in baseball.

It's just not who I am. I'm not interested in it. I didn't grow up in that culture. So I don't fall in love with stuff that's happening now. I fall in like with everything with an eye on getting better. That's my person now. I think Joy and I kind of share that. And so I look at the Warriors dynasty.

It's the second best team I've ever seen to Michael Jordan's Bulls. But I look at him now and I think Steph is way too good to just linger with Golden State. His contract's up in a year. He's a free agent next summer. I mean, let's be honest. He was easily the best player on the floor. floor. He's 33, and his skills will age really well. Shooting ball handle, be smart. Lakers threw everything at him. Totally ineffective as the best NBA defensive team. Totally ineffective.

Draymond Green now, 41 minutes, two points. He's a liability on the floor offensively. Andrew Wiggins, good, but way too expensive. Clay Thompson's back hasn't played in two years. James Wiseman's, a rookie center, lost several years from even being a potential star, so his timeline does not line up with Stephs. The Clippers right now are a good team that would die for a leader. Hello! LeBron James getting old. You think it's a coincidence in the last two years?

LeBron's buddy, buddy with Steph Curry. See him talking last night? See him talking all the time? LeBron throwing bouquets at Steph Curry. Didn't used to. LeBron was a Westbrook guy. Now LeBron's like, oh, that's the MVP easily. You think this is just random?

Come on now. LeBron's working it every day of the year. He's the best off-ball player in the league. He's the best score. He's the best ball handler. He may be the smartest or second smartest player. He's a free agent. By the way, it's not all doom and gloom for Golden State.

They could get a ton for him. You can get it all. star or two for him in several draft picks. But you look at the contracts next year between Clay, Draymond, Wiggins, and Steph. It's $139 million. You've got to blow this team up. It's over.

Marcus Thompson was on earlier this week. You can't live in the rearview mirror with the Warriors. It's over and it's time to just dismantle this puppy. We got to let go of that dynasty. team for sure, right? This is post-dynast. This is Kobe after the Shaq Kobe years, right? And it's like, you got to recreate yourself.

I think that's what Steph is doing. You got to reinvent it. I think a lot of people are clamoring to, you know, hey, they won three championships. They had all these all-stars. They've got to reinvent themselves. Because keep in mind, these dudes are 30 now. You know, it's funny. in the NFL, we're seeing teams do this all the time now.

They're just like, all right, do over, draft a guy, all right, we're done. And we're like, it almost always works. I mean, Jared Goff gets to a Super Bowl. Two years later, we're done with that. And we're like, all right. And they paid him a lot. They still owe Jared Goff some money. The NBA has always been the progressive league.

Like there's an old saying in sports. The NBA thinks of it first. Baseball makes the most money off it, and the NFL gets it right. But the NBA thinks of it first. This is not baseball where they're stuck in the mud. They want to, I mean, when I talk NBA, I don't ever talk George Miken. You know, I don't, you know, Michael Jordan's about as far back as I go, and he's the best player of all time, and he's still a relevant person in the NBA, he owns a team.

So I just look at this team and I think, it's done. And Steph is way, you don't want him to become Bradley Beale, where you're like, bro, what are you doing? and Steph's got a lot of titles in him. Steph's got a lot of titles in him. I mean, I'm watching last night, he was so far and away the best player on the floor, totally controlled the game.

I mean, he's just there. I mean, and I don't think it's a coincidence that LeBron has become his biggest fan in the last two years. He wasn't early in his career. He used to see, he used to kind of roll his eyes at Steph. Now he's like, oh, he's the best player of the world over there. Be a joy to play with it. What a player, Steph Curry.

That's not a coincidence. But he may fit the Clippers better than the Laker. And I'm not saying those are the only teams. Who wouldn't want Steph Curry? I mean, why everybody wants Steph Curry? I mean, Phoenix would figure out a way to get him over there alongside Chris Paul and David Booker. Just bring him in.

We'll figure it out. But what I don't want to see is athletes because of tradition and loyalty. giving away championship. Steph's got like four left than him. He needs to be in three or four more finals here in the next five or six years. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Hey, what's up everybody? It's me, three-time Pro Bowl of LaVar Arrington, and I couldn't be more excited to announce a new podcast called Up on Game.

What is Up on Game, you ask? Along with my fellow Pro Bowler, T.J. Hushman Zada and Super Bowl champion. Yep, that's right. Plexico Burris. You can only name a show with that type of talent on it. Up on Game. We're going to be sharing our real-life experiences loaded with teachable moments. Listen to Up On Game with me, LaVar Arington, T.J. Hushmanzada, and Plexico Burris

on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast from. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds.

I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me. Cliver Taylor the fourth.

You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life.

mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Hey, it's Edwin Castro, also known as, Castro 1021. And I'm Kunky, his best friend and business manager. And we've got a new show called The 1021 podcast. I'm taking you behind the scenes on how I became one of Twitch's most popular streamers. We also love sports. And with the World Cup right around the corner, we'll be breaking down the biggest

storylines ahead of the big tournament here in the USA. Listen to the 1021 podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, I'm Jared Adano. You might know me as that loud guy who yells out, help on the internet. Help! Somebody! Please!

But there's so much more to me than that. I'm an actor. I'm a comedian. And recently, I've become quite the helper myself. And on my new podcast, Hope from a Hypocrite, I'll be changing lives, helping people in need with my sage advice and thoughtful solutions. Sike! I'm a comedian.

I'm not qualified to give good advice. Join me and my comedian friends as we riff, Grant recommends some of the most legally dubious advice known to man. If I'm calling you, even if you're on your phone, let it ring twice. One ring is too scary. Oh, cream a chicken suit. Hey, cream. Cream a chicken suit.

This is Help from a Hypocrite, the worst advice from the dumbest people you know. Listen to Help from Hypocrat as part of the MyCultura podcast network available on the I-Fart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I always hear this. Well, the NBA, the regular season doesn't matter. Nobody's saying it doesn't matter. But the regular season in professional basketball is different than the regular season in, than the playoff season in the NBA. First of all, you can burn 4,000 to 5,000 calories a night playing professional basketball.

Baseball players do not burn that much. Baseball players, when they travel, and they have a lot of travel, but a third of the team's pitchers. They don't even play. They go into a game not knowing they're going to play. NBA is a schloid. It is a lot of travel. You're talking about, you're running.

You're cardio. NFL, it's 12 minutes of action. That's it. Bursts. NBA, you're running up down the floor, guarding the world's best athletes for 40 minutes. It's an exhausting sport. And so the veteran teams tend to pace themselves.

The stars take more time off. The stars are often older. they are more beat up. It's their 11th year in this travel schedule. You've ever seen a 50-year-old NBA coach who played, they're all hunched over. All of them, like Phil Jackson, they got bad backs. So the Knicks, the sons, and the jazz are built for the regular season. They got depth and they're young and they got a new coach. The Knicks are an underdog to Atlanta in the postseason. Sons are a massive underdog to the Lakers in the postseason. and the jazz are not a top three favorite despite having the best record. So why is this so different?

There's a lot of reasons. First of all, depth matters a lot in the regular season. It's long. Utah's got like 10 dudes that can play. But in the playoffs, you play coaches trust about seven. So the depth advantage for a Utah is just not going to matter as much, right? Because those bottom two or three bench guys, you're not going to play. You're not going to put them out on the floor against LeBron and A.D.

They're not going to be out in the floor. floor. The second thing is you play the same team over and over and over and over and over. Coaching becomes really important. No more tricks. You will find a team's flaw. Like Janus in the regular season, unstoppable. But if I get to play Janus six times, you can marginalize him. There's things he doesn't do and you just keep refining it and refining it until Janus is a liability late in a playoff game if they're trailing. The other thing is veteran teams, and this is obvious, tend to be better in late game situations because they played in them a lot. I mean, last year was very unique.

Only time in my life, young teams outside of the Lakers were way better than older teams. And a lot of that was the pandemic. The older players missed their wife, their kids. It was depressing. Players talked about being depressed. Young players weren't. It's like AAU basketball. Video games play.

Sleep, eat. Video games play. It's great for a 23-year-old kid. But in the playoffs, generally, young players, noisy arenas, go on the road, they panic. Veteran teams, stars, your Ray Allen, I mean, that Miami Heat team, Haslam and Wade and Bosch and Baddie. Zillion games, those guys have been in that big spot forever. The other thing now is coach travel. I'll give you an example.

The Phoenix Sun's top four players averaged six. 69 to 70 games in a 72 season. Three of them are very young kids. They play. They're healthy. James Harden for Brooklyn played as many games for Houston this year as he did Brooklyn. So it's not the officials are doing this and the officials. Depth matters a lot in the regular season.

It doesn't in the playoffs. Coaching becomes more significant. Veteran players, bigger bodies, rested, better late game situation. they're very good in the playoffs. So nothing against Phoenix or the Knicks or the Jazz, but a lot of their, I mean, Tom Timitoe teams are all the same. They just grind the hell out of you in the regular season.

And they just play harder than teams in the regular season. But in the playoffs, everybody plays hard. So their big advantage in New York disappears. Like Mike Dunleavy told me years ago, if you just play hard, if you commit to the defensive end, an average team wins 45 games, a slightly above average. team wins like 48, 49. The Knicks aren't a slightly above average team.

Play's hard. Now everybody plays hard. So that advantage goes away. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the IHard radio app. Search Hurd to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Tim Tebow signs with the Jaguars. I don't really care. But nobody plays the victim in America more than Tebow fans. Oh, you guys pick on Tebow. No, we don't. If Derek Jeter eight years after leaving the sport came back and said he wanted to be a catcher we'd make fun of him. And Jeter

was great. Tebow was terrible. I got nothing against Tebow. He's just bad at pro football. I don't care about his religion. Nobody does. In baseball, a pitcher can be great for four and two-thirds innings. But he doesn't get credit for a win

until he pitches five innings. He can be unhittable. No hitter four and two-thirds. He leaves before that. Before, Four or five innings, no credit for the win. Tebow got credit for a win in which he completed two passes. If he was baseball, he'd never have an official win. In five of his six wins during that winning streak,

he had ten or fewer completed passes. He's bad at pro football. I don't give a rip about his faith. My favorite NFL player is Brady or Russell Wilson. I don't know Brady's religion. I know Russell's. He's all Christian all the time. He's my second favorite player in the NFL.

And by the way, he's highly marketed. He's got advertisements, speaking engagements, commercials everywhere. Seattle is one of America's most agnostic cities. In fact, Google it. Seattle has 10% atheists. Seattle is agnostic. They call it one of America's most godless cities. Russell Wilson is the most popular athlete in Seattle's history.

Ken Griffey is close. And he is all Christian. Steve Young in San Francisco, the second most agnostic American City. Steve Young, beloved in San Francisco. Nobody cares. Look around America. Dion Sanders was religious. Tony Dungey has loved him religious. Russell Wilson. Steve, yeah, we don't care about that stuff. Just don't be crappy at football. He's not any good at football. If he was a baseball pitcher, he wouldn't get credit for any wins. The New York Mets admitted, Sandy Alderson admitted. He was a gimmick. If Tim wants to be used as a gimmick, whatever. That's his life, not mine. But Jacksonville,

has got the smallest fan base in the NFL by a mile. Like there's nothing close. If Urban Meyer doesn't work, they're pulling the franchise. That franchise is moving. And I think Urban has got a better than 50-50 shot to work. Because I think he's smart. And I think Trevor Lawrence is unbelievable as a number one quarterback prospect. But does this feel like you could sell some tickets for this?

Hell, excuse me. Heck yes. Heck, yes, it feels like that. And I understand that Urban's his friend and Urban likes him. I get it. I like Urban. But my outrage isn't on the religion. Nobody's picking on Tim.

My outrage is this. And it's not even really outrage. He has a lower completion percentage does Tebow than Kyle Bowler, a first round bust. He's got a lower passer rating than Paxton Lynch, a first round bust. He's a bust. And now he wants to play a different position. And I'm supposed to just say, go get him. This is awesome.

No, it's not. Bad football players are not good for the NFL. This is not like college football. I don't want to see the Rudy story. It's not high school basketball. Hoosiers doesn't happen in the NFL. I turn the television on. I want the world's best football players.

Years and years ago, I forget where it was. Tim Tebow came up to me somewhere. And I was one of the few people that was critical of him. I got a lot of hate mail. And I told him, I said, Tim, it's not going to work. Because I'm not one of these guys that ducks. If Russell Westbrook came up today, I'd be like stop shooting three. And I told Tebow, I'm like, it doesn't work.

And he goes, there's more than one way to win at quarterback. And I said, to his face. No, there's not, Tim. No, there's not. There is high school. There is college. No, Tim, there isn't. What about Lamar Jackson?

Okay, talk to the hand. Lamar Jackson's passer rating is 99. 99. That's top five ever. Like, people knock Lamar Jackson's throwing. He is Elway compared to team. Tebow. Like, like Lamar Jackson's, not Mahomes, not Rogers, not Russell, not right, nobody thinks he is. And he doesn't play as well trailing as leading. But he gets better. And his completion percentage and his

passer rating are like above league average. Tebow's completion percentage is 47%. He won a game with two completed passes. It's not the God thing. It's the he wasn't very good at football thing. And I like good football players. That's all it is. It's not that he. against him. It really isn't. He's a good kid. He's a really nice guy. I met his brother. His brother's a nice guy. Tim's a great guy. And he's used this whole marketing thing, made a fortune. Good for him. No bitterness, no acrimony from me at all. But let's be honest about that. We live in a world now, I call it the post-truth society. You can give people data. And they just don't believe it. Tim Tebow, in five of his six wins in the winning street,

completed fewer than 10 passes. If I went out saying he was great, you'd crush me. You'd be like, what are you doing? It'd be ridiculous to go out and say, oh, it's great. Oh, my God. In baseball, you have to pitch five innings or you don't even get credit for the win. That winning streak was Denver's defense, Denver's coaching, and Matt Prater's kicking. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific.

on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeard Radio app. Chris Brousard, Fox Sports NBA analyst. So my takeaway on the Lakers last night was this. If you'd have told me, Steph was the best player on the floor. They shot 44% on threes. Draymond defensively was great. Wiggins was darn good. LeBron played his worst first half in recent memory.

and the Lakers won. I mean, all that stuff sounds like, oh, yikes. That's the kind of game the Warriors blow people out. I came out of this and I was like, man, when you can play poorly and beat maybe the MVP of the league, I think the Lakers wake up this morning and go, fellas, it's a good team. We adjusted. By the way, we're great late.

Clippers aren't great late. We can adjust. We can play defense. Brooklyn can't play that level of defense. I mean, why shouldn't I be positive and optimistic if I'm a lake? Laker fan today. Wow. I came away feeling differently, Colin.

I think the Lakers are more vulnerable than I expected. Now, I still have them as the favorites in the West. I think LeBron will get better as time goes on. But they're vulnerable. There's no doubt about it. LeBron, you can see he's not even close to 100% physically. Early in the game, he's going inside, and he couldn't finish. Had trouble finishing because he's used to getting up a lot.

There you go right there. I know that's just a layup nine times out of ten. He'll make that, but he wasn't getting up in the air like he typically does. Now, over time, maybe that'll get better. But for now, he's got to excel on his skills and his smarts. And he's got plenty of both so he can do that. He did it last night. But until he can get his legs underneath him, that's what they're going to have to do.

And that's a concern. Also, I think a big advantage for them, Colin, is their size. eyes. Right? They're the biggest team in the league with the clippers. And I thought if they meet Brooklyn, man, they're just too big. But here's the thing, even when they go big, they play small. They don't know how to play big. So when they had drunk, I mean, they were huge last night compared to Golden State. And in the second half, yes, they went small and it was good. First half, they played big, but they're finesse. They didn't bully the warriors. They barely out rebounds. that the Warriors.

AD couldn't post up Draymond, who's four or five inches shorter than him. I mean, the Lakers are a finesse team. And Drummond's not going to play as much as people think. Right. Because they were at their best when AD was at the five. Yep. And LeBron really was at the point. They need LeBron bringing the ball up, controlling tempo.

Yep, go back to that, all right? And the problem is they can beat teams playing that way, but can they beat Brooklyn playing that way? Spread the floor, shoot out, let's go finesse game, no. Because Brooklyn's got three guys that can do what Steph did last night. Yeah, I mean, Schrooter and Drummond were not on the floor late. That tells you everything.

They didn't trust him late. Schroeder, by the way, played one of his worst games as a Laker. He was awful. So, you know, there's always this perception that cracks me up. And I showed earlier in the show, I showed a minute, like the LeBron's not clutch. And I'm like, and we'll run some of these. I mean, you know Cleveland, you covered him.

And I just look at the LeBron not clutch, and I'm thinking last night he called for the ball on that shot. He had his feet set. And we're going to show you some, you were probably at 99% of these games. To me, LeBron is clutch. I've always thought he's clutch. Your thoughts. Colin, it has become.

And this is going to be a huge statement. But I think it's true. It is one of the greatest misperceptions in NBA history that LeBron is not clutch. Because if you talk to somebody, random person on the street, particularly if they're not a LeBron fan, they will say, oh, but he doesn't want the ball in the clutch. He doesn't, you know, give me Kobe, give me Mike. And maybe you do. I certainly take Michael over LeBron in the clutch.

Maybe you take Kobe. But LeBron is definitely clutch. he's hit seven buzzer beaters in his career. That is topped only by Michael Jordan with nine, Kobe Bryant and Joe Johnson with eight apiece. That's it. He's got more buzzer beaters than Larry Bird, than Reggie Miller,

than Steph Curry, then Kevin Durant, then Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson combined. Kareem and Magic combined. He's got five in the playoffs. That's more than Jordan and Kobe combined. And you saw the stat that ESPN threw up.

up last night. Now over the last 25 years, 99 shots he's made to go ahead or tie the game in the last minute of the fourth quarter of overtime. That's the second most to Kobe by two in the last 25 years. I mean, what more do you need? And even the passes he's made, because people will say, well, he passed to Kyle Corver. Don't forget that. Well, Michael Jordan passed to John Paxson and Steve Kerr, the only difference is they made it. Jordan didn't even pass to Kerr, to Paxon, Jordan was out of the play, really. Jordan passed to Pippen, who passed to Horace Grant, who passed to Paxon. I believe that's how it went.

And so, and then he did pass the curse. So they just made the shot. The past of George Hill and Golden State last year, the right play. George Hill had a layup. He just missed it. So it is one of the biggest misperceptions. It'd be like if a guy, Colin, was an 87% free throw shooter, and the perception was that he couldn't shoot free throws. I mean, that's how bad this is.

No, I mean, stuff, these days, stuff just, it gets, you know, you get these narratives going. They're just nonsense. And that is one of them. You know, I look at Steph Curry. I said this earlier. Man, I don't want him to become Bradley Beale. If Clay comes back, hasn't played in two years, and he's a 17-point-of-game guy, not a 24, Steph's his free agent by next summer. Should Steph be looking around going, man, I got Clippers could die for me. LeBron, by the way, suddenly now is the biggest Steph Curry fan in the world. That's not a coincidence. Every five minutes, oh, that guy's the best.

Unbelievable. I don't know, man. I look at this warrior team, Wiseman's years away. Wiggins is expensive. He's not a long-term warrior, is he? I mean, is it maybe time for Steph to think about greener pastures? Here's what I, and I've been consistent with this. I think Steph Curry, Colin, should go back next year.

He's got one year left on his deal. He and Draymond, right? So he's not a free agent to what would that be, the summer of 22. So he's got another year left. Yeah. Play that out with the Warriors. I actually think they'll be really good. I mean, what they're showing now, see, the role players, Jordan Poole, JTA,

Juan Tascano Anderson, these guys are getting seasoning. So when they go back to their normal, spot, which is on the bench and the seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, tenth, man, they'll be fine, just like the guys were when it was strength in numbers. Clay, I think Clay will be really good next year. So I think you got Steph and Clay now of a sudden, Draymond is still playing well. He doesn't score. He's never been able to score.

He could score decently because you had other guys to worry about in the past. And with Clay back next year, you have two big time guys you have to worry about. So Draymond will score a little more. He's playmaking as well as ever. He averaged nine assists the game this year. He's defending as well as ever. I had him on my first team all defense, and you saw him last night against AD.

I like Wiseman. I think a starting lineup of Wiseman, Wiggins, Drayman, Steph, and Clay. I think there'll be contenders next year, Colin. I love Andrew Wiggins for what he is. A third scoring option, the fourth best player on the team. Remember, when Andre Iguidalla went to the, Warriors. Denver got rid of him. Philadelphia moved on from him because it was like,

oh, as the man, no, he's not the man. We paid him max money. He's not the man. But in his role in Golden State, some people think he's a Hall of Famer. Sean Livingston was struggling. Goes to Golden State in a certain role. Now he plays well. Leandro Barbosa, same thing. I think that's the same thing with Wiggins. So I think there'll be contenders, but let's say they're not. Let's say there's a seventh or eight seed again, a sixth seed. Then I think Steph is well within his rights and smart to look at the landscape. If Brooklyn runs through the league this year, if Brooklyn's rolling through the league next year, then you say, okay, I got to go somewhere and form another super team to beat Brooklyn,

and I would be fine with that. But give it a shot next year first. That was pretty compelling argument right there, Broussard. Hey, by the way, you, uh, that whole whole. whole LeBron grab his head. It was so funny because he grabbed his head. And I thought, oh, he got bonked in the head. And then I watched the replay.

I'm like, he didn't get his head touched. He was grabbing his knee. And I watched the replay. I'm like, and nobody hit his knee. Can we say LeBron kind of likes a little drama to ramp things up? Is that fair to say? That is incredibly fair. We've seen LeBron flop.

LeBron's a flopper. And LeBron, every time he gets hit, look at that. I thought he was out for the season. Actually, I didn't because I knew that's LeBron. I mean, every time he gets hit, though, he takes his time getting up. You know he used to do that. You remember Jim Brown. Not that bad.

But Jim Brown would take his time getting up after being tackled. But yeah, LeBron definitely does that. At first, I was really like, come on, man, get up. I didn't, and he did get poked in the eye. When I saw him on the bench, before he's even getting the drops in the eye, you can see the water. So he did at least get poked in the eye. But yeah, all of that, I mean, I don't get it.

Hey, he's the greatest player in the league. But if that's the only thing we can say about him bad, then he's doing pretty well. But yeah, it's ridiculous. It is. Watch his ankle here. That's what I thought got hurt. I mean, he's a 250-pound dude.

When I watched the replay, I looked at his ankle. Everybody watched the ankle here. Sorry, Radio. That's the part I'm like, oh, damn, he just ripped his ankle up. And he didn't even, he never even addressed. his ankle. It was his head. It was his knee. It was it. And I'm like, your ankle's the thing that took a beating. And the head never hit the floor. Never. The head never hit the floor. You noticed that. All right. So, uh, yeah, it was. Hey man, it's L.A. Everybody acts a little in L.A. Waders or actors and actresses. Everybody acts little. All right, Bruce Sard. Great seeing you, buddy. All right, man. See you. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy. Not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests.

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