The Herd with Colin Cowherd - 3 Points with Chris Mannix - James Harden has been traded!

Episode Date: November 1, 2023

Chris is joined by National NBA writer for the Washington Post, Ben Gollliver to breakdown the James Harden trade. Who won, who lost, and what we can expect from both the Clippers and the 76ers in long-term because of this blockbuster trade. #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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 I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. 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 I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what's good, y'all? You're listening to Learn the Hardway with your favorite therapist and host Kear Games. This space is about black men's experiences, having honest conversations that it's really not safe to have anywhere, but you're having them with a licensed professional who knows what he's doing. How many men carry a suit or armor.

It signals to the world that you not to be played with. And just because you have the capability that does not mean that you need to. Listen to learn the hard way on the AHA radio app, Apple Podcast, or. wherever you get your podcast. The volume. Well, NBA fans, the weight is over. NBA basketball is back. And Draft King's Sportsbook,

an official sports betting part of the NBA is celebrating an unbeatable offer. New customers can score $200 instantly in bonus bets for throwing down $5 on the NBA. Win or lose, it doesn't matter. You'll start the season with an instant dub. And with Draft King's Parles, everyone's got a shot at even bigger basketball wins.

String together multiple bets with the same game or build your parlay across multiple games for a shot at making your payday even sweeter. Basketball's more fun when you're in on the action. Download the Draft King Sportsbook app now and use Code Manix. New customers can get $200 in bonus bets instantly for just betting $5. Only on Draft King Sportsbook with Code Manix,

the crown is yours. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler or visit www.1-800 gambler.net. In New York, call 8778-8, Hope N.Y or text Hope NY 467369. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling. Call 888-889-777-7 or visit ccpg.org. Please play responsibly. On behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas, licensed partner Golden Nugget, Lake Charles, 21 plus age varies by jurisdiction, void in Ontario, bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance.

See sportsbook.draftkings.com slash football terms for eligibility and deposit restrictions, terms, and responsible gaming resources. This is three points with Chris Maddox, part of the volume sports podcast. Now, with the show, we talk about three of the biggest topics in the NBA right now. Ben Goliver, senior NBA writer over at the Washington Post. he joins me. And Ben, it's a three-topic show, but it's really a one-topic show. It's James Hardin. The deal is done. James Hardin headed from Philadelphia to the Los Angeles Clippers. And my first takeaway from all this, Ben, is big win for the 76ers. Big win for Darrell Mori. I don't want to overstate it, but to get two first-round picks back for a guy that didn't want to be there that had already pulled two holdouts in the last three weeks, who, you know, was at least a threat to go full Costanza on the Sixers during the regular season,

disrupting what they don't look like a pretty good thing happening in Philadelphia right now. Tyrese Maxi coming off a player of the week, the first week of the season. Joel Embed, his number's actually better than Tyrese Maxie in this past week. And you've got some good things happening right now in Philadelphia. Now they do a deal that gets them two first round picks back in return. So let's start there. What do you make of what Philadelphia was able to get? for James Hard. No, you hit it on the head. There's not a lot of leverage there when James Hardin's

applying all this pressure. And I also think Philadelphia faced some pressure just from the standard set by the Damian Lillard trade and the True Holiday trade, right? Those create some obvious comparison points. If you've got a player like James Hardin and you're trying to trade him, you're going to want to get something back that's similar to True Holiday, maybe not quite as good as Damian Lillard, but you mentioned it two first round picks. There's also some swap, some future second round picks involved. And also three pretty big. expiring contracts, which could wind up getting flipped at some point going forward at the deadline to get some more assets as Philadelphia tries to retool around Joel Embed and Tyrese Maxie.

I think it provides a real clear definition for Philadelphia. They have the money to pay Maxie next summer. He's going to need a big bag. He's going to have a breakout season. There's no question about it. He's probably the single biggest winner of this entire deal because he gets the ball, he gets the shots, and he's going to get the big payday next summer as well. But they're going to be, big players next summer, potentially in free agency as well if they don't trade those expiring contracts, and they just let them come off the books and they have some flexibility. So I think Daryl Morey did very well here to kind of save face after backing himself into a corner. You can look at, you know, at the entire experience and say, well, was it really a win or a loss

for Philadelphia, the James Harden era? They never make the conference finals. Very disappointing ending against the Boston Celtics in last year's second round. But they're able to get out of it. They just kind of snuck out just like they did with Ben Sibbitts, too. years ago. Yeah, and look, the next question, obviously, is what does Joelle and Bede think of all this? And Joel is going to tell us in the days to come, no question. But I would imagine that he's happy, but not fully happy, if that makes any sense. Like, Joelle and Bede, I'm sure, is glad that this saga is over, that he's not having to sit up there after every practice and every game and talk about James Hard. That it's not going to be the topic every day for the newspapers, outlet, website,

sites in Philadelphia. That being said, on the court, they got some decent role players. I think Marcus Morris is going to be invigorated, being back home playing in Philadelphia. He won it out of L.A. Like,

I wrote this couple of weeks ago, Ben, like players in that Clippers locker room can count to 35.6 million. They know that if James Hardin is coming in, some of them of going out, and Marcus Morris knew he was, you know, prime target number one to ultimately get more.

I think they'll get an invigorated version of him. Robert Cunnington is fine. Nick Batum is fine. I think the Six will miss PJ Tucker because he was a pretty good defender against guys like now to the Kumpo, Jason Tatum, whatnot. But I think, you know, from that end, it's in a way of wash. It's what the Sixers do with this draft capital. And that to me is the most fascinating part of all this, because now the Sixes are armed

with two first-round draft picks, two pretty appealing first-round draft picks. The 2026 pick, I'd have to go check my notes on which pick that is, like the lesser of like three draft picks, I don't know, 2028 pick is the Clippers pick, and that's incredibly value because nobody really knows what the Clippers is going to look like. Forget 2028, like next year. Next year.

You know, the four-fifths of their starting lineup can be a free agent next summer. So, you know, they can, they've got a lot of questions to answer. But that 2020 pick, when you put it on the market is going to be a coveted pick. And I think that's going to give them some opportunities.

I wrote about this earlier the day on Tuesday. I think Zach Levine is going to be a target of theirs. That would give them another ball handler, which I think they need because right now it's Maxie and like nobody else, you know, handling the ball in that backcourt. He's also a proven score in this league. And I think he'd play really well with Joel Embed behind him. Really has never had a shop locker playing behind him. So that would be an asset for him. And I think O.G. Anobie is someone to keep an eye on too because Ogie, in addition to being shopped by Toronto for the better part of, you know, the last.

year plus. It's on a team that right now stinks. Like the Raptors are bad. And he's an expiring contract too. So there might be some motivation from Toronto to move in. If you're Philadelphia, there's appeal to Ananobe because to get to the finals in the Eastern Conference, through the Eastern Conference,

you got to defend Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown. You got to defend Yonstantacompo and Chris Middleton. You need wing defenders. And OG Anobie is that. So I'm very interested to see where the Sixers turn with this draft capital? Where else do you think they might look as they try to build out this roster the rest of the season? Well, there's not a ton of superstar level talent out there. I feel like they're kind of at a similar pivot point to the Portland Trailblazers, say 12 months ago,

where the mission is to try to build a contender around your superstar level guy. That was Damian Lillard in Portland. Now it's Joe Olympied here in Philadelphia. But if you can't find the right deal, if you can't swing for the fences and get like a clear co-star type guy, at that point you have to wonder what does Ambite think of these scenarios you're presenting. Zach Levine, O.G. and Anobie, are those guys that he believes he wants to spend the remaining, you know, of his prime years with those guys trying to keep up with Boston and Milwaukee because this is an arms race. You know, these guys are getting big weapons. Damie Liller, Drew Holiday, Chris Debs, Porzinkas. You know, they're all, you know, showing out here early in the season.

If you're Embed, you're just trying to say, like, who's still going to be with me in 12 months? because it's been just such a circular ride here. And you also have to wonder if he starts to look around and say, I wonder where I could try to like, you know, create a team up scenario. Could I go to the New York Knicks? Could I go back and reunite with Jimmy Butler down with the Miami Heat? I mean, we get some juicy stuff, you know,

percolating if we wanted to talk about it. So I think, you know, Ben, are those better like the Knicks look, I mean, it's three games in, but the Knicks look dreadful. Like Julius Randalls happened like the every other year,

Julius Randall's to start the season. The offense in general has not been very good. Jalen Brunson, I think his three-point percentage is 10 points higher than his shooting percentage at this point. I look at the Knicks and like if Joel and B gets traded there, and stuff would have to come back from New York. I mean, I don't know if they're better. The heat, yeah, look, they're highly competitive, but Jimmy Butler's 34, going to be 35 next season. That's an aging team as well.

I actually think, Ben, that if you can get, let's use Levine as an example. That's a big contract to take on for a guy with a history of knee injuries. But if you're getting Zach Levine back, Zach Levine, Tyrese, Maxie and Joel Embed, that's a pretty good big three. It's maybe not as sexy as, you know, Tatum Brown, Drew Holiday or Porzingis, whatever you want to plug into that mix, Yonis Lillard Middleton sexier. But like, Joyal and Bede still the reigning MVP, Tyrese Maxie, if he's not an all-star this year, he's like that just below, he just misses. Player number 15 or 16, whatever it is that they take that year. I think you got to be like, I don't, to borrow a terrible phrase,

I don't think you can let, like, what is it, perfection be the obstacle to good, right? Like, that's a really good team. I think Philadelphia could assemble if they can get one of those second tier stars. Well, it comes down to is really good, good enough for Joel Embed. And to this point of his career, it has been, right? He hasn't been this guy who's the orchestrator like LeBron or Kevin Duran, who's trying to come up with his own career arc and navigating to, you know, different markets and try to put together super teams.

That really hasn't been him. He's been more or less happy being in the process there in Philadelphia. but he's now gone through the Jimmy Valler era, the Vince Simmons era, the James Hardin era, and so far he hasn't asked out. It's amazing. He's more patient than me. I think I probably would have asked out at this point, you know, but maybe Tyrese maxi winds up being the electricity and the fun that they need to kind of keep this thing going. I look at this idea of a Zach Levine. Clearly it would be a better fit now that Hardin's not in the mix because you have more shots and touches available for that guy to come in. But I don't look at him as a big time like two-way

impact-making type of guy. He's a good score. He would help take some of the burden off of Embed, especially in the playoffs late in games where Philadelphia has kind of struggled in those moments. I think Levine would be able to help in those spots. But again, I don't see that being a championship core at any point here in the near future. And I guess, you know, it just, you know, we can't really look inside Joel at B's heart, right? But I think a lot of guys hit this point of their career. They're the MVP. They've kind of done everything they could possibly do with their current group. And they say, all right, I've taken this as far as it goes. I need to find somewhere else that gives me a marginally better chance. I need to get some real superstar

teamups going on. And we'll see if he gets there by next summer. But I do think there's going to be a relief factor, right? When a guy checks out on your team, like James Harden checked out on Joel Embed in the Philadelphia 76ers, you might like him off the court. You might respect his place at NBA history. But typically, you just want that guy gone, right? You just want to remove yourself from that environment and, you know, kind of get the relief effect. I'll bet you Nick Nurse is sleeping good that night. I'll bet you that. He's probably feeling great right now because his life got a lot easier. So I think in the short term Philadelphia, they can easily have a nice little run here, a nice little boost just off of the vibes improvement. I'm not having to deal with this. I think M. Beats dying

to win a championship in Philadelphia. I mean, he's the process. Like, he's dying to win a championship in Philadelphia. And look, this is an incredibly important, like, nine-month stretch. Because one of the options the Sixers are going to have is to just do nothing, right? Like, hope that this group stays healthy. Maybe they catch a break or two in the playoffs. They can do something. And then next summer, they got at least $50 million in cap space.

They can use Ben. And there are some guys out there. I mean, like I keep looking at Clay Thompson in Golden State. And if I'm going to be a betting man, I'm going to say Clay winds up with the Warriors for the rest of his career. But is that, would anyone look better in Philadelphia than Clay Thompson,

a shooter, a still pretty good defender. And the guy with championship experience, when anybody fit better off of, you know, Tyrese and Joel Embedde then Clay Thompson

there's all those other guys like you know and it'll be going to be a free agent Pascal Seaccom going to be a free agent DeMarrozen going to be a free agent like the the Sixers could probably sell Joel Embed on standing pat you know I don't want to call it a gap year

but taking kind of a year where you're good but not championship good and then next summer use all that cap flexibility you gained to go sign that next star let's talk about the go ahead you got some I was just a real quick on that point you know you look back at last summer Chris there were no contending type teams or teams that had big time, you know, elite players like an Mbid

who had cap space, right? Fred Van Vleet has to go to Houston because no one else has spending power. It would be a very unique situation for Philly to not only have this kind of core that's a playoff core, right, with a clear direction going that way, but also to have the flexibility financially to add a big time player. If you put Pascal and Siaqa in Philadelphia, now I'm getting excited, okay, because I think that would be a better role for him. I think you'd fit well with Mbid, great defensive front line and some scoring too. So now we're starting to get somewhere, I think, if you're trying to dream for Philadelphia,

I like where you're going. Hey, Pascal Seaccom already won a championship as the de facto third option on a team. And they wouldn't have won a championship in Toronto without Pascal Seaccombe playing the way he did in the finals. 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 I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win.

I don't care which I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver 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 what you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your

podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes. Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of tauntons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of two. Listen to stuff to blow your mind on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your

podcasts. Let's talk about the Clippers. The Clippers, you know, days before the start of the season, they put it out there that they are backing off the James Harden, you know, talk with Philadelphia. They go two and one to start the season, and they pull the trigger. They get an extra first round draft pick. They do some maneuvering with Oklahoma City. I guess the question is, did the clippers give up too much for James Hardin? Or was this a deal that you thought they needed to do? I thought it was too much.

I mean, honestly, like I guess I understand why they did it. But when you're looking at James Hardin, we have to talk about him as a flight risk next summer. You mentioned all the free agents they have. But what about Hardin just souring on your situation in nine months like he did in Brooklyn, like he did in Philadelphia? And then now you're stuck with, you know, no real future, all these traffics you just sent out years and years into the future. And you're saying, well, what do we have to show for this, right? That's why I thought the price that Darry was going to be able to get back was actually going to be lower than what he got just because of the contract factor. And because of this idea that Hardin does still want to get paid.

He wants one more payday that he hasn't been able to get these last couple summers. And he's willing to go kind of anywhere to get it. And I think that should make Clippers fans a little bit nervous, right? You want this honeymoon period. And there's always a honeymoon period. The first couple months are great with James Hardin, but you want that to extend past just this year if you're going to give up all that draft capital. The other thing that I think is so interesting with this L.A. Clippers group,

you're talking about four future Hall of Famers, right? Kauai Leonard, Paul George, James Hardin, Russell Westbrook. I think the real leader of this team is going to be PJ Tucker, man. Kauai Leder doesn't use his voice. Paul George, to me, has always kind of been more comfortable in that number two role. Russell Westbrook, I'm not sure, you know, in playoff games, is he going to be closing? Is he really going to be a guy you trust in those moments? And then James Harden, I think you're up a creek if he winds up being your dominant personality, right?

The one guy who has kind of like been in the trenches recently in these playoffs and has had big impact over these last couple of years has been PJ Tucker. and he's got a loud voice. He wasn't afraid to use it with a player like Joel M. B. Laster during the playoffs. And I can kind of see him almost out of nowhere winding up being sort of the heart and soul of this group. And I think the clippers, honestly, they need a little bit more heart and soul here these last couple years. Yeah, I think he's going to be even more than heart and soul because, look, he can incredibly guard Nicola Yolkich, you know, gives up a lot of hype, but certainly has the muscle to do it. We've seen him defend Kevin Durant in the postseason. So he's going to be deployed. I mean, the guy is like almost 40,

but he's still going to be deployed his defensive weapon out there with the clippers. And Yokic kills those guys too. That's the thing. It's like he has owned the clippers. They need help. It's another body you can put on him in a postseason series. Look, I don't know. They did give up too much because they didn't want to do this, right?

Like this was about as transparent of process as we could have hoped for. We knew that the Sixers wanted either two first round picks, or a first round pick and Terrence Man. The Clippers were not willing to include Terrence Man. So it was really either holding out for waiting for the sixers to take one, which Darrell wasn't going to do, or going to get a second one. And ultimately in the last few days,

they decided to go out and get that second one. I think that's because, you know, you're out there in Los Angeles. When I was out there a couple of weeks ago, when they played Denver, those back-to-back games in L.A., like you talk to people around the Clippers. and they're comfortable with who they are.

They know they're really good if they're healthy, but I don't think they were fully comfortable at the point car position. I mean, you know, they wanted Damien, although they wanted some guys. They wanted Harden for a while. They wanted,

they wanted, they wanted, um, they wanted, Drew Holiday really bad. They were envisioning some of them out there, we're envisioning a three-pronged defensive attack of Drew Holiday, Paul George, and Kauai Leonard.

How do you score on that on the perimeter? That's three elite defensive players. I think they were Luke warmish on Malcolm Brogden, but they might have revisited it if the Hardin deal completely fell apart. But they needed somebody. They wanted somebody. And for whatever reason, they believed that James Harden was the right fit for that team.

And I can understand why you would expect to get the best out of James Harden because this is all about self-preservation now for James Hard. Like all the stuff about James Hard wanted to play in L.A. and be back home and win a championship with the Clippers. Come on. We all know why he wants to go to Clippers. The Clippers present him with the best opportunity to get a long-term deal. They are motivated to win championships over the next couple of years.

Steve Balmer has the deepest pockets in the NBA. A lot of owners with deep pockets. Steve Balmer could buy almost all of them. Like this, he has got more money than he knows what to do with. Next fall, they're going into a brand new building and they want stars in that building. James Hardin knows that this is where his bread is going to get buttered. All he has to do is be. a team player this year.

Be a not a role player because he's too good for that, but someone that kind of fits in alongside Kauai and alongside Paul George. And to James Hardin's credit, he did that early on in Philadelphia. Like he came home from Brooklyn and he wasn't trying to be, you know, Houston James Hardin or even Brooklyn James Hard. He was playmaker first James Hard. He tailored his game to try to make that team successful.

And frankly, look, however it all played out, he did give up money so that the Sixers could go. out and sign other guys in notably PJ Tucker in free agency. So I think the clippers should feel reasonably good about getting the best out of Hardin. The question I have been, we've seen the Hardin Russell Westbrook song before. This is not something that would be like, wow, I wonder how it's going to work. We saw how it's going to work. It worked great in Oklahoma City when Hardin was a sixth man and it was a different environment then. But in Houston, it did not work. They did not succeed. Now, they didn't have Paul George there at that time.

They didn't have Coahey Leonard there at that time. So there's some new pieces in play. But do you think this has got a chance to work itself out? Or is this a kind of situation where Russ, who has been playing pretty well? Like, you know, he seems to have found a niche in Los Angeles. This is a situation where Russ is going to find himself potentially in a bad spot once again. Well, I think he's going to come out with the short end of the stick here. But in terms of the fit with the Clippers star players, right? The reason why you overpay is because the thing that Clippers have been missing on offense for years is an organizer, a guy who can kind of just bring the ball up the court, get Kauai Linnert to his spots, keep the pressure of being the ball handler and the playmaker

off of Paul George. They've had incredible turnover problems when Paul George has kind of been his de facto point guard. They can't even get into stuff because he's throwing the ball all over the court. He doesn't have to worry about that. Now he's going to get a lot of catch and shoot open three is a lot of Paul George's game now is jumper dependent and James Hardin's going to be able to find him. I do think it's going to be more of a point guard James Harden like he sacrificed in Philly and at times frankly he sacrificed in Brooklyn too. He is a very versatile and adaptable player when he wants to be when his heart is in it when he's motivated to fit in with the guys around him and Kauai is going to be able to pick his spots a little bit better. I think also when those two

stars are injured, Kauai Leonard and Paul George because they always miss time. James Hardin's shown the ability to be one of those guys who just picks up the bird, steps up as a score and kind of can carry you through those lulls. So I think it's going to be very helpful for a number of reasons with those stars, and that's why you overpay if you're the clippers. But the Westbrook factor is tricky, right? Because even Oklahoma City, it was great for a couple years, but what happened? Harder won't want and more, right?

And Westbrook really wasn't able to kind of accommodate him. They weren't going to be able to start him at the same time. So that's why he gets traded to Houston. Everything blows up so bad in Houston that not only did Hardin leave, Westbrook leave, Darry more he left too. Everybody got out of town because the playoffs went so poorly in 2020, right? And so now you've got Russell Westbrook. He's kind of settled home, comfortable with the clippers after a really tough stretch with the Lakers. And it kind of feels like Hardin's crashing on his couch. He's going to be raiding his refrigerator a little bit. He's going to be marginalizing him

on the court. And I think that Westbrook's going to wind up being the one who has to sacrifice a lot. And I think it's probably not going to come in the starting lineup. You could probably just start those guys together, but when they're closing games, when they're looking for their best five-man lineups, it's probably not going to include Russell Westbrook anymore, and that's going to be tough. We've seen Chris Paul and some of these other aging guys struggle with changing roles, right? Like, I'm no longer a starter. I'm no longer this. And I think it's going to be one more adjustment for Westbrook, and we'll see how he adapts. But we know Hardin's not going to be sacrificed. And he's going to want to be out there's going to be problems. So good luck, Ty, Lou. I think that's

probably our side off message on that one. Yeah, that that there's like four isolation players out there at one time. They've got the heaviest isolation offense, or at least guys that play isolation offense in the NBA. That's going to be a real challenge for a tie-le. Before I let you go, that LeBron picture that made the rounds last year. You took that, correct? I took it from my seat. It was crazy. I didn't know what I was doing like in the closing seconds, but I just saw him sprinting and I was like, what the heck, let's just snap it. I took like five shots. And the one where he's peeking, like, just completely off the court, it does look fake, but I can promise you, Chris. That's a real photo. No doctors. You know, nothing, no funny stuff. No AI. Don't worry about it. That's just LeBron, you know, a year 21, as they say, just getting high off the court with everybody looking at it. And LeBron reposted. He's got like 40 million followers. No credit to Ben Oliver. Come on. You got to tell him that. Next time you're in L.A., you've got to tell him that. That's my picture. Can I get a photo credit? Look, we've all been living off LeBron for like 15. 20 years at the NBA. He could have that one for free, Chris, but it's amazing how many people

called me and texted me to say the same thing. Where's your credit? It's like I didn't realize this was the new passion project of the internet, but I'm glad because photographers, you know, it's a tough job and you want to get your due. I love it. I love it. Ben Gallup. Follow him on social media. You can see stuff like that picture of LeBron James. Read his stuff in the Washington Post. Ben, good to catch up, man. Always good to see you, Chris. I can't help but think that you move to L.A. And that's why Hart is trying to follow your lead, man. Everybody's coming to L.A. now. It's the place to be, I guess.

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.

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. Hey, what's good, y'all? You're listening to Learn the Hard Way with your favorite therapist and host, Kear Games. This space is about black men's experiences, having honest conversations that it's really not safe to have anywhere, but you're having them with a licensed professional who knows what he's doing. How many men carry a suit or armor. It signals to the world that you're not to be played with. And just because you have the capability that does not mean, that you need to listen to learn the hard way on the iha radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast.