The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Best of The Herd: 02/12/2019

Episode Date: February 12, 2019

Colin criticizes the NBA media for focusing on Russell Westbrook's meaningless streak of triple-doubles instead of how good Paul George is or how bad Westbrook’s shooting percentage is. With Kyler Murray, he sees a lot of sizzle but not a lot of steak.  Plus, The MMQB's Albert Breer talks about Antonio Brown's trade request and why certain teams that need a WR might not want to deal with him.  Presented by Perky Jerky. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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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 Hurt at Fox SportsRoddio.com or stream us live every day on the iHeart radio app by searching Herd. This is the best of the herd with Colin Cowherd on Fox Sports Radio. Ah, here we go.

It's a Tuesday loaded show. This is The Herd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening, it is wet as always, Los Angeles. Joy Taylor is joining me. It is great to have everybody in today. Joy, how are you? You said it is always wet in Los Angeles.

It's going to rain the next three days. I feel if for all the people, that owns ski resorts and reservoirs in America. Congratulations out west. It's very strange. It's been crazy. It's a cold, wet winter in Los Angeles. We're not complaining, though. No, no, it's good for the state. It's good for the, you know, it's good for the farmers. It's good for the farmers. It's good for the ski resorts. It's good for California. It's pouring all the time. Today we get a brief break, and by tomorrow, again, I was just told it's going to be pouring. I was just joking with the guys. I retweeted Jimmy Butler today. I hope that's not tampering.

I'll get to Magic Johnson in a couple of minutes. Let me start with this, though. NFL media is smarter than the NBA media. More sophisticated. The NFL media doesn't fall for gimmicky stats. The NBA media still does. Russell Westbrook's getting all the headlines this morning. Every article I read, Russell Westbrook makes history 10th consecutive triple double.

Oh my God, it's history. Every newspaper, every blog. Oh, my God. Can you believe it? Westbrook is making history. The triple double in the NBA has become hitting for the cycle in baseball. You do realize that Babe Ruth never hit for the cycle.

22 years, Babe Ruth, probably the greatest baseball play, never hit for the cycle. Aaron Hill, a journeyman infielder, hit for the cycle twice in three weeks. Triple double is hitting for the cycle. Cool. Headlines. Wow.

I'd rather a baseball player go four for four with four jacks out of the stadium. Because in baseball, the only thing that really matters, run scored. Who leads the league in runs scored? Cross the plate. That wins games. The best player for Oklahoma City last night was Paul George again. I don't know if you've noticed. He's arguably after James Harden, the MVP. He's averaging 40 points a game in February. His plus minus last night was plus 14. He scored 47 last night. He's the reason they won. Not a headline. Russell Westbrook's plus minus was plus.

one. By the way, he's fourth, fourth on his own team in plus minus. He was one for six last night in threes. He was five for 19 from the floor. And that's the headline. Congratulations NBA media for not getting it. For falling for a gimmicky stat. Babe Ruth never hit for the cycle. Okay, congrats. Four for four. I'd rather be four for four with Jacks. And I don't care about fake rebounds. Alan Iverson, one career triple double. Because Alan Iverson actually played defense and gave effort on both ends of the floor. And Alan Iverson wasn't hanging around the rim getting fake rebounds. Did you hear, there's an amazing piece of audio after the game.

Paul George, listen to how totally obsessed with this triple double stat. By the way, Westbrook can no longer shoot, 65% from the line, 24% from threes, and he knows it. So he loves this stat because it overshadows the bigger problem. He's a guard who can't shoot.

You can't be short and not be able to shoot in the NBA. You can be tall and not be able to shoot, but if you're short, you've got to be able to shoot. All right? Sorry, you got to be able to shoot. Listen to Paul George, by the, by the way, he was a plus 14,

the game. We talked about it right before that play. We talked about it. I was clueless at that moment. But, you know, he told me the situation. So it was cool to be on the other end of the triple double. Paul George was actually worried about, you know, winning. Westbrook came up to him. Hey man, one more of these and you'll have a triple double. I mean, does Westbrook have one of those fit bits where it tells him, okay, you're almost got a triple double. Even his assists sometimes are fluff. He doesn't move the basketball. You know, if a guy's wide open and he gets doubled, he'll pass to him.

But I feel like sometimes, sometimes even his assists have a fluff feel to him. But, I mean, you know, the NFL, the NFL media doesn't fall for like passing yards. Matt Stafford has a million passing yards. Kirk Cousins has a million passing yards. Do they have one signature play in the history of their careers? The NFL media has figured it out that passing yards have a direct correlation to a bad team trailing in a game. You want to know who led the NFL last year in passing yards? The team?

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers led the NFL in passing yards. But the NFL media doesn't freak out over it. Because it doesn't, what does it mean? Twelve quarterbacks threw over 4,000 yards last year. Half didn't even make the playoffs. So I'm not saying passing yards mean nothing. you wouldn't want to generally be last in the NFL and passing yards, but it doesn't translate to wins.

Half the teams that had it last year didn't make the playoffs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers let it. Didn't make the playoffs. All it means is you're generally behind in games and have to throw to catch up. The triple double, it grabbed all the headlines last night. Paul George, to me, is the most valuable player right now in the league, not James Harden. James Hardin is the best score. but he didn't play defense like Paul George.

Paul George is loose, is feeling great. He's the MVP of the league. He had 47. He had a plus 14 plus minus. And the headline is that stupid triple double garbage? I mean, I'm sorry, but if you win the game 8 to 7 in baseball, I don't give a rip about an individual stat for a guy that hit a triple in the third inning with nobody on and was stranded there.

I mean, the NBA media. it's embarrassing now. That's the headline. Not that Paul George is the best two-way player in the NBA this morning. And unlike Kauai Leonard, he's out there every night. Paul George's a best two-way player in the NBA. Not LeBron right now. Last 60 days, Paul George's best player in the league.

If defense matters and call me nutty, I think it does. All right, I'm going to introduce something new today. Let me shift gears. The NBA is investigating. Magic Johnson and the Lakers, if they have potentially violated tampering rules by, you know, talking about Magic Johnson, talking about Ben Simmons. It should be noted, Magic Johnson was a great player. He now leads the NBA in tampering.

He's become very good at it. Magic Johnson rolls out of bed and he's just tampering with a light switch with his bagel. Magic Johnson tamper's 24-7. But here's what's happened. And this happens in life, and I'm going to introduce you to something. It's called the, that's just rule. Think about that, watching, driving. That's just rule.

Simon Cowell gets to use that. Simon Cowell can be so mean. That's just Simon Cowell. Charles Barkley says things no other broadcaster broadcasting for the NBA could get away with. Well, that's just Charles Barkley. Magic Johnson talks about players, jokes about stuff. That's just Magic Johnson. It's not tampering.

It's who he is. He's fun. He jokes. Remember when he went on television, Fox? Remember this. Can you imagine Danny Aange of the Celtics doing this? Nobody's watching. Nobody needs to know.

What are going to take to me? bring lebron to the lakers i'll bring the fire trouble but you know what we're trying to build a championship team with the lakers and hopefully next summer we'll be in line to sign free agents

it's happening it's just magic johnson john daily this engulfed is that guy smoking you got to kick that guy off the course that's just john daly many manny ramirez remember manny ramirez one of the great all-time players for the

Mani Ramirez once cut off a throw, he was a left fielder. He once cut off a throw from a center fielder. Johnny Damon made a play at the wall, balls loose. Johnny Damon's throwing it back to the infield, the cutoff man. Mani Ramirez cuts off the cutoff man. Well, it's just Mani Ramirez. They even had a term for it. It's just Mani being Mani.

You watch Gordon Ramsey on those cooking shows? You're like, what a jerk. Oh, not really. It's just Gordon Ramsey being Gordon Ramsey. It's called, I'll introduce it to you in life, and it matters, and we use it all the time. The, that's just rule. Magic Johnson's not tampering. That's just Magic Johnson.

It's how he talks. It's how he's always talked. He's funny. People like him. I've been in rooms with Magic Johnson. He's always smiling. Even this past week when he was angry at the Pelicans, he was kind of smiling. As he said, you know, there's a lot of stuff out there.

We didn't, of course, give it any of the stuff. I went to a Laker game a year ago. It was unbelievable. I'd never seen anything like it. And I've got decent seats, right? I'm around mid-court, about 30 rows up, sitting with the NBA commissioner. Just joking. Anyway, I was at the game and I look over to the right.

And the crowd rises. And I thought there was a fight. You ever gone to a stadium and everybody's getting up and you're like, oh, there's a fight. And I looked over in the crowd and I couldn't see a fight. And I looked on the floor and I didn't see a fight. And the crowd, section by section, by section, by section, by section, was standing. And finally I saw it. Magic Johnson, who's been in that building 10,000 times, had simply emerged from the tunnel.

And people stood section by section to get a glimpse. of a guy they'd seen play, stand, talk in Los Angeles for 30 years. He's not tampering. He's a superstar. That's just magic. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. There's a reason that Boston keeps beating Los Angeles in sports. Red Sox over the Dodgers, Patriots over the Rams.

There's a reason their hockey team is generally better than the one hour. out here, and there is a reason for all of this, because Boston is a city of steak and very little sizzle. That doesn't mean they didn't have Manny Ramirez. That doesn't mean Jason Tatum doesn't have some cool in his game. But the city of Boston with crappy weather, windy, is academically driven, analytically driven. They have a little, little sizzle. They're 95% stake. Los Angeles is, of course, a sizzle town. And they've got some, they got some steak, too, but it tends to lean closer to 50-50 steak and sizzle. Rams were a lot of sizzle in the Super Bowl.

I didn't get a lot of steak. I got a lot of sizzle. I hear that all the time. Kyler Murray announced yesterday he's going to play in the NFL. I would not draft him as a franchise quarterback. I would not, but I do think he's a first-round quarterback. The NFL, the game has changed. There's more college offense in the pros.

He has a very nice touch throwing the football, terrifically athletic. There are some red flags, though. Number one, size. Okay, he's tiny. Number two, only played 17 college games. Historically, that doesn't work. And oh, yeah, there was this interview on the Dan Patrick show.

God, I felt sorry for Dan. The kid knew the question was coming, but would you want this to be the leader of your $3 billion franchise? Here you go. Do we have the Dan Patrick interview? Let's just say he was brutal and didn't answer questions. the comment? I don't know. Dad, is he going to the combine?

Dad had no comment there. Pro day? I mean, that's after the combine. Yeah, you're going to do a pro day? Yeah? Yeah. I guess if you would say, yeah, yeah. That's going to be the face of my $3 billion franchise. Knew that interview was coming and those questions were coming.

Had to keep turning to dad. okay he's tiny hasn't played many games that ain't great okay he's going to get drafted and the NFL's changed but I want to remind everybody of something I see this with parenting I see it with business the NFL's in a very interesting place now is that people are giving up on their principles for sizzle big 12 guys run around call what about Patrick Mahomes Patrick Mahomes Patrick Mahomes at Kansas City is 95% state Yeah, occasionally he throws without looking. He is a 6-3-228-pound rocket-arm quarterback who is great from the pocket.

That is all steak. Who's funny in front of a microphone? Who's big and tall? Who can run but would prefer to throw it from the pocket? Don't tell me Patrick Mahomes is sizzle. Patrick Mahomes is about 5% that kid is steak. He is big, he is strong, he's got a rocket arm, he is unbelievable in front of a microphone. I'd give my franchise to Patrick Mahomes any day of the week.

That kid's a franchise quarterback. Okay, Kyler Marie's small, only played 17 games, and that interview is embarrassing. That's not on Dan Patrick. That is not on Dan Patrick. He's asking legitimate questions. That's on the kid. That's embarrassing. Okay, and let me just say this.

This is happening in America. Now, I saw it in the NFL with Mitch Trubisky. Mitch Trubisky for the Bears has to run to be successful. will never be an elite thrower and played one year of college. And the Bears drafted him number one. None of those things say number one pick. I mean, Lamar Jackson at least went later in the first round, but Lamar has to run to be successful.

We'll never be an elite thrower. And he became a first round quarterback. Like, this is the way it works, folks. 6'3 or taller. Prefer to throw off in the pocket. Generally, less mobility is actually better. because it forces you to learn the pocket game faster. Russell Wilson's an outlier.

Russell Wilson ran too much early. Then about year three, he totally committed to the pocket, and now he runs. But when Russell Wilson runs, it's all about throwing. He is keeping his eyes down field. I'm going to throw, I want to throw, I want to throw. So Dwayne Haskins of Ohio State is the best quarterback in this draft. He's not athletic. He's just big, tall, and strong, and throws the ball accurately.

I'll just lay it out right here. took Donald over Baker and I still think 10 years down the road, that's going to be the winning formula. I'll take Ohio State's quarterback. He doesn't run around. He doesn't need to run to be successful. He borders on unathletic. He's not really an athlete. In fact, when he runs, his accuracy dips, he can move a little to his throwing side. I'll take the Ohio State guy. I'll take the Ohio State guy. I'm going to go with a steak. I'm going with 6'4. I'm going with a rocket arm. I'm going in the pocket. I'm going with a guy that's got no mobile. I'm taking Dwayne Haskins.

Because I'm seeing this now happen all the time in America. Folks, the rules for parenting don't change. Don't give your kid a BMW at 16. Don't get your daughter enhancements at 16. Don't

do that. I don't care what Twitter tells you to do. Love your kid. Go to bed early. Do your homework when you get home from school. Treat others like you like to be treated. Nothing in parenting changes. Be there for your kid, not out partying. Nothing changes with parenting. I don't care about Twitter. Keep them off at most of the time. And nothing changes for quarterbacks. Who's at the Super Bowl? Who runs the current dynasty? By the way, Drew Breeze is not

ideal height, but all the other things, accurate, pocket, workaholic, grown up, all the things I want, Drew Breeze is. I wish he was two inches taller. And Kyler Marie's going to play in the NFL. I'm not saying that. He's going to get drafted in the first round. I'm not saying that. But man, I'm seeing NFL teams now. With Mitch Trubisky really jumped out to me. Bail on long-held, understood beliefs. Just because football has changed a little, it hasn't changed a lot. Good tackling matters. Don't turn the ball over matters. I mean, all the stuff that wins the Super Bowls, be smart. Nope, the New England Patriots, don't get penalized. Never fumble. Never get called for holling. Don't turn the ball over in the red zone.

Don't give up many points. Are good with special teams. Are always among the best tacklers. Don't drop passes. That's how New England win Super Bowls. They don't win Super Bowls because it's like, oh, they got this new, crazy, fangled wildcat. That wildcat didn't win squat.

All right? And Mr. Trubiskey couldn't win a playoff game. And Lamar Jackson was fun. He didn't win a playoff game. He didn't beat that team he was supposed to beat. He played the second time either. Steakover Sizzle. Dwayne Haskins, my guy.

Miller Murray's going to get drafted, 10 years down the road, may even have a better rookie year. Because nobody's going to know how to defend him initially. Nobody's going to know how to defend Kyler Murray when he comes in the league for the first 12, 15 games. They're going to be like, Lord, where is that guy? I can't see him. But I'll take Haskins 12 years in. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the IHeart radio app.

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Okay, first of all, let's address. I like Brian Winhorst. You know Brian Winhorst? Yes, I know Brian well. I think Brian does a very good job. He does. He's a fine reporter. And generally, if he says something, he's not making crap up.

Okay. Jason Taylor. Okay, so I have always said the way to rebuild is the way the Celtics are doing. They didn't tank. They were competitive. They hired a good coach. They drafted well. They went all the trades.

So they're doing it right. But I'm going to say something right now. I think what's happening in the NBA is rebuilding is crap. Boston now, all this rebuilding. Gordon Hayward doesn't fit. Kyrie's hurt. And now Jason Tatum wants to be the face of the franchise. Is that while the franchise is patient, players are no longer patient.

Well, it's tough to be on two different time tables. So you've got Kyrie Irving, Al Horford, Gordon Hayward, and so on. And they are trying to win now. They're veterans who want to win the championship now. Then you've got young guys like Jason Tatum, Jalen Brown, so on and so forth. And I'm telling you, when you're a young guy, your number one priority is to establish yourself as a star. So you can get a max contract. Remember, this is a business for these guys.

Sure. If you're of that caliber, it's one thing if you're just a Josh Hart, who, no disrespect to him, but you know, you're a role player. But if you have star aspirations and star caliber talent, then you're trying to be a star, get that max contract, and then the winning becomes a priority. And we treat them like that. When a guy's young, first couple years, heck, Anthony Davis right now.

We're not holding it against him that he never wins. We're just saying, look at the numbers. He's a superstar. He's only 25 years old. Carl Anthony Towns, it's just now beginning to become a problem for people that, hey, this dude never wins. You know, so that's how the NBA works. So now in Boston, you've got Kyrie and so on and so forth ready to win now.

And then you've got Jason Tatum, Jalen Brown, Terry Rozier, still in their rookie deals who are looking at their miss. They're looking at last season when they made the playoffs without Kyrie. and they made the Eastern Conference finals game seven without Kyrie. Terry Rozier was averaging 36 minutes a game. 16 points, 14 shots. Not anymore. He's averaging 23 minutes, 9.8 shots.

Jalen Browns, all those numbers have dropped for him. Tatum's have dropped slightly. He's still shooting about the same, but his points have dropped. So they're looking at it as a business standpoint, which I get. LeBron and Kyrie and everybody else looks at it as a business too. And they're like, this isn't helping my business. I got to get this deal. So even if consciously they're with it or trying to be with it, subconsciously,

they know that this is not good for their careers. I got to tell you. I look at this Celtics rebuild, and I think we have things happening. LeBron has been very much about player mobility and player empowerment, which I'm for, but it can be disruptive. I mean, this Boston Celtic thing now does not feel nearly as viable and dynamic as a year ago. It just does not. Not at all.

And the other thing is, and I may have said, I'm not sure if I've said that on this show yet, but Brad Stevens, very good coach. Yeah. But there are coaches who when you don't have a lot of talent, you don't have any stars and any egos, they get the max out of you. They bring you far and you look at it like, wow, this coach is fantastic. But when give them some, then there are those that can do that, but you give them some stars, and they can't maximize it. And some that are vice versa. They're good with stars, but not good with just average players.

Phil Jackson was great with stars. Joe Torrey, the baseball manager. With the Yankees and before that, he struggled. He had a losing record, but you gave him Jeter A-Rot and a combustible. Have you ever been around Joe Tori? Oh, yeah. I mean, he's like the strict stepdad you don't screw with, but totally respect. He's your little league coach.

And not even your real dad. He's your stepdad, but you don't mess with him. Even when you get big and strong as a teenager, and you totally, every kid in the neighborhood is like, oh, Joe Torrey. Collins, don't mess with Joe Torrey. There's something to be said about this. Brad Stevens, this is fascinating. Brad Stevens at Butler took two-star recruits. Right.

Right. Right. Now you got some egos. You got a legitimate superstar. That's what Kyrie Irving is. Here's the thing Boston. has to realize. And Danny Ains does. And this is why he's moving the way

he is. Number one, he knows yeah, we can be good. We can get to the playoffs without Kyrie. But we can't win a championship without Kyrie and probably another superstar. Only twice, Colin, in the history of the NBA, have teams won

championships without a superstar leading away. Detroit, Piston, Seattle Sonics. That's it. That's it. The history, not just in the last 40 years. The history. So that's why he wants to keep Kyrie. And that's why he's willing to give up all these other guys for Anthony Davis. Because he knows at least I have the building block of a championship team. And that's what you need in Boston.

Okay, don't go anywhere. This is one topic. Boy, you have delivered it today. Thank you. This was a fascinating. I think this is fascinating. I was all in on the Celtics. And now I got Jason Tatum, I want to go to a crappy franchise and be the guy.

I don't blame guys for wanting to be the guy. But what happened to winning? said it earlier today, I am beside myself. In the NFL, everybody understands that passing yards are a gimmicky stat that don't mean anything. Twelve quarterbacks through for 4,000 yards, half didn't make the playoffs. It generally means you trail late in games. Tampa Bay Buccaneers led the NFL in passing yards. They literally did.

The triple double has become that. That Ile and Iverson did it once because he played defense and didn't give me fake rebounds. He got out of me. He got steals. Okay, but again. He wasn't a great defender. He was physical for his size and he didn't do fake rebounds. So this triple double thing, last night Paul George is plus 14,

scores 47 points. In my opinion, you can argue he's the MVP with James Harden. All the headlines are, hey, the guy that was one for six on threes is shooting 65% had a plus minus of one got all the headlines. Can we acknowledge now

the triple double has become a junk staff. No, we can't. Fake rebounds. Let me take your football analogy. Okay, you're right. Passing yards because you can get a lot of yards when the game is over, right? Junk yards. But what if you've got a ton of passing yards and you win?

Then they become significant. Pat Mahomes passing yards aren't insignificant. Those 5,000 yards he threw for are legit because they win. You know what the Oklahoma City Thunder record is these three years that Westbrook has average a triple double when he gets a triple double. Well, they win most of their games. No, but they win a lot more when he gets a triple double. 72

and 20. That's a 64 win pace when he gets a triple double. He's helping his team win. Really, those fake rebounds. They're not fake rebounds. Why doesn't anybody else get fake rebounds in the entire league? If it's that easy, Colin,

he just did something that nobody in the history of basketball, not Wilt, not Wilts. Most of Wilts' records, we don't even like, we just don't even think about challenging them because they're so cartoonish. When you do something, Wilk Chamberlain never did. That's incredible.

You don't think that Westbrook, literally Paul George said after the game last night, Paul said, I didn't know how to triple double. Russell came up to me and said, hey, I can get you a triple double. You need one more assist. Paul George, who wants to win, it's like, I didn't have any idea.

You don't think Westbrook now, by the way, he can't shoot. That's not disputable. And as he's become a worst shooter, and it's in his head, you've acknowledged he's a broken shooter. He's doing, he's more inclined to go triple doubles because it masquerades its blemish on the pimples, which is dude can't shoot. And so the triple doubles become the talking point instead of us going.

Could Jason can't shoot till the end? When Jason Kid was really a tremendous player, could he shoot? He was a career 40% shooting. Jason Kidd was a winner. He wanted to win. He never worried about staff. He didn't win anymore than Russell Westbrook has. He went to a dumpy.

He won a championship at the end when he was at the end of his career. I watched him play in high school. Jason Kidd was about winning. He made the winning play. Did he lead any teams to championships? Russell Westbrook can't get out of the first round. Russell Westbrook had Golden State down 3-1. in the Western Conference finals.

What it could or should have. And he's been to the finals once. He's screaming at Utah fans last year. He's melting down. Look, Russell Westbrook has become a better passer. You watch him, and he is now not getting those assists where I'm trying to score, oh, I can't, let me kick it to you. He's looking for guys.

He's setting guys up. And Paul George, this is no coincidence. Paul George, Stephen Adams, Dennis Schrooter, and Jeremy Grant are all how. having career years. Because Westbrook's. Because Westbrook has become a better facilitator. Yeah, no, because he can't shoot so Westbrook knows. Could Alan Iverson, the year he won MVP, led Philly to the finals, shot 42%. We're killing Westbrook because he's basically shooting 42%. Yeah, but in Iverson's years, the hand check. The game, it's much easier to shoot 42% today. You don't think it is. You can get, you can get. Defense is not what it used to be. I'll give you that.

And I'm not saying Westbrook and shoot, but I just gave you every number. His teammates are playing better. His team is 9 and 1 in this 10 game stretch. They're the third seed in the West. He's 72 and 20 when he gets a triple double. He's done something that nobody has ever picked up a basketball has done, including Wilk Chamberlake. There's no way to just say this is not impressive.

By the way, nobody in the NBA shot free throws as poorly as Chris Dudley. Nobody ever did. Is somebody supposed to be impressed with that? No, no, no. This is a positive step. Nobody had a jump. Magic could not do it. Oh, God.

LeBron could not do it. LeBron could. Jason Kidd could not do it. LeBron could score 50 a night. I want to see it then. I'm tired of hearing it, and I love LeBron, as you know. I'm tired of hearing he could. He could.

He could. Do it. You don't think this dude's doing it. You don't think LeBron could do a triple double. Hey, if LeBron cared about stats. I deal with facts. My hypotheticals. He hasn't done it.

I deal with winners. You don't think LeBron cares about stats. I don't. I don't think Magic Johnson cared about stats. Look, talking to Magic, I don't really think Magic care. Well, no, you're talking to LeBron. Bron's 15 years in. There's a big stat that said he's an all-time guy and he goes, hey, man, I love the game.

But I never feel LeBron's like, hey, what's my Fitbit say? I've got to get an assess. I've seen pictures of LeBron on vacation with a T-shirt that said, check my stats. Seriously. There's on the internet I saw it. You know what? Check my stats.

This is terrible. That's what's going to be LeBron's claim to fame. When the argument is made, he's the goat, it's going to be, look at his stats. 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.

You know I like LeBron James because he cares about winning. You know I like the goal. Golden State Warriors, because even though I think Kevin Durant's into Kevin Durant sometimes too much, they do it the right way. So James Hardin and the NBA media, the fanboys, the pom-pom waivers, are just going crazy because James Harden score over 30 points again last night. And he just said, everybody's going crazy.

Oh, my God, James Harden. It should be noted in a blowout game he scored last night to score 31 points to keep the streak alive. He should not have been in the game, but the Houston Rockets, to keep his streak alive kept him in a blowout game so he would get over 30 points. This is the difference between LeBron and James Hardin and the Warriors and the rest of the league and James Hardin. The two entities that drive the ratings in this league are LeBron, James, and the Golden State Warriors.

James Hardin is staying in blowouts to set personal records. Westbrook, let me goose stats to get my triple double. Of course, enabled by their coaches. Last week, Houston was down by 19 at Denver. Fourth quarter, minute and a half to go. Why was he in the game? There's no reason to have a superstar in a game. Minute and a half to go, blowout.

Oh, they took him out of the game 40 seconds later. After he hit a meaningless three to continue his streak. Yep. What matters? LaRont James, titles matter. Golden State Warriors, titles matter. Harden Westbrooks. stats matter. Houston now is keeping him in games, meaningless shots, in blowout wins and losses

to set numbers. That's what matters. And you do know January, February, Hall of Famers don't win titles. Struggle to win playoff series. We've seen Hardin and Westbrook both gassed at the end of seasons. Should be noted, Clay Thompson of the Golden State Warriors set a three-ball record. He had 14-3s against Chicago. They pulled him out of the game with four minutes to go in the third quarter. Third quarter. He could have hit six more. They didn't even let him play in the fourth. They took him out with four minutes to go in the third quarter. Never went back. You know, I always said this. I used to work in local news. Joy, do you work in local news? Not news, but local sports. In local news, I worked in local news for 14 years. There were two types

of people. The people that had confidence, were really good. and cared about breaking stories and news. And then there were the type of people that were less talented, but they wanted to have an Emmy reel and win awards, feel good about themselves. So the boss thinks I'm really good. But in local news, we all know who can play and who can't. You don't have to worry about winning Emmys. When the red light goes on, there's people in every newsroom that are players.

They can just talk their way through a battleship. And there's people that fill up their Emmy reel because they want to win awards and put it on their resume and impress the bosses. And they're never as talented as the other people who don't give a crap about that. And I've worked with a lot of both. And let me tell you, in the NBA, there's guys goose and their stats and that care about the MVP. James Hardin wants to win the MVP. Congrats.

But the Golden State Warriors worried about stats one time. Do you remember that? There was one time the Warriors were into records. Remember that year when they kept playing their starters extra minutes? And they wanted to set the NBA record for regular season wins. And they did. And do you remember what happened at the end of that year? They were gassed.

And they admitted it. They had multiple players hurt. They were gassed. So go ahead. Chase records. Win the MVP. Win plaques. But January and February is not where you win NBA championships.

In fact, I would argue, I wouldn't even argue this. I think you could find it statistically. What's LeBron's worst month? It's January. It's January. LeBron's really not a very good January player. He starts the season, he gets in shape. The trading deadline comes in, and he just kind of waits to get the right roster.

He's statistically much better after the All-Star break. Yeah. Because LeBron is about winning, gaining momentum late. getting chemistry and defense locked in late, winning playoff series of which LeBron's never lost a first round playoff series. Westbrook can't get out of the first round. James Harden struggles sometimes out of the first round. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays at noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific.

He is, their lead content guy from Monday morning quarterback, incredibly well connected, and I bring him in via the Coward Global Satellite Network. Albert Breer, senior NFL reporter. Let's start with this. Antonio Brown, there's dysfunctional and then there's destructive. He's tweeting like crazy today that he wants out. What do you make of his most recent tweet? Is there a market for him?

Well, what I can tell you, Colin, is that he has requested to trade, whether or not the Steelers are able to get proper value for him, we'll see. The one thing the Steelers do have going for him there, going for them here, he's on a very, very workable contract. There are three years and $39 million left at $13 million. That's a bargain. And so they should be able to put Antonio Brown out there and they should be able to get suitable offers for him.

And right now I think Antonio Brown sees some players starting to move. Eric Reed gets paid yesterday. Kareem Hunt gets signed by the Cleveland Browns, maybe getting a little bit antsy here. And so I think the Steelers now take a look at what they might be able to get in return for Antonio Brown. Of course, there is a time table here in that by March 17th, he's due a roster bonus of and a half million dollars. And so they'd like to trade them before then. Obviously, the window to start to work something out would be right now before the NFL scouting combine. And so I think

you'll be hearing about this over the next few weeks, whether or not the Steelers actually go through with moving and we'll see. But it certainly seems like Brown is trying to put the pressure on them to do just that. I've heard 49ers, although Kyle Shanahan doesn't have a lot of time with nonsense. The jets are interesting. They need receivers. But Adam Gase, again, not a guy in any nonsense. Is there a landing spot? The culture guy. Yeah, he's a culture guy. Those two guys remind me of each other, Adam Gase and Shanahan, but people are saying Jets and Niners, what are you hearing? Well, I think that the Niners is certainly being playing, that they're looking to build an offense the way that Kyle had it all those years ago in Houston, like the one he had in Atlanta

a couple years ago. And that, that offense demands that you have some sort of explosive weapon who can take the top off of a defense. Julio Jones was a dunes. dominant force in Atlanta for Kyle Shanahan. Obviously, Andre Johnson was that guy for him in Houston and Antonio Brown wouldn't fit the bill. And in a year where the free agent class isn't very good at receiver, where the draft class isn't great at receiver, it might make some sense for them to do that. The other team that I would just keep an eye on here is the Washington Redskins. They're obviously in need of a receiver. They drafted Josh Doxon in the first round a couple years ago. That didn't work out. They lost to Sean Jackson a couple off seasons ago. They need help

at the receiver position. They've built up their offensive line. They've built up their defensive line. They've got a coach in Jay Gruden who may be coaching for his job in 2019. And so that'd be one team I would just keep an eye on that could be willing to take on the wrist that Antonio Brown Brins. Five foot eight and a half. I believe he's that maybe slightly taller Kyler Murray. I do think he's an NFL quarterback. I don't think I'd build around him. He hadn't played enough college. He's small. I thought he did an interview with Dan Patrick, which was disturbing, where he kept turning to his dad to answer all the questions. I didn't like that at all. Wasn't on Dan. What do you make of him as a prospect? Well, if he was six foot four and

225 pounds, the feedback I'm getting is that he'd be the first overall pick. But he's not that, and he's not close to that. And this is really stretching the outer limits of how far you're willing to go. I mean, look at Baker Mayfield. He was short. Not as short as Kyler, but he wasn't small. Russell Wilson was short. He wasn't small. This guy is short and small. And if you follow me here, there is an issue with that as far as his ability to hold up beyond just this vision of the field and that sort of thing.

If you want to make Kyler Murray work, you're going to have to play offense a certain way. You're going to have to move the pocket. You're going to have to get him on the run a little bit. If you do that, you're going to get him hit. If you get him hit, is he going to be able to hold up? That's a very serious question, especially since. last year at Oklahoma, he was playing behind the best offensive line in college football and against defenses that weren't very good. He didn't get hit a lot last year. So not only is there that open

question out there, is he going to be able to stand up to the punishment that he's going to take in the NFL with his frame? There's also almost no evidence of him taking hits in college. And so that question is a very, very real one and one that I think that every NFL team is considering him needs to pay attention to. his agent's Eric Berkhart. That is Cliff Kingsbury's agent, the coach of Arizona. I'm seeing various reports on that. I will say this. The Arizona Cardinals have a bad old line. It's a little old and unathletic. And Rosen's cannot take a beating and you can't turn that thing around in a year. I could make the argument that a way to solve that dilemma is get a mobile quarterback and,

you know, ship Rosenoff. One report said to New England because Belichick liked him to be a backup for a couple years. That whole Patriot, Rosen, Murray, what do you make of it? Well, let me just start with what you said about their current state of affairs. If you're drafting a quarterback first overall, Colin, I don't think you get too much too wrapped up in what's going on this year, what's going on next year. I mean, these are franchise shifting decisions. This is a 10 to 15 year decision that you're making when you draft a quarterback that high. So I just don't think you can be that wrapped up and where you are as currently constituted when you make a decision like that.

That said, I do know there are some people in the Cardinals building who aren't completely sold on Josh Rosen. And what he did in 2018 didn't do a whole lot to move them off those positions. And so I don't think that there's 100% agreement within the Cardinals organization that this is a guy for the next 10 or 15 years form. Additionally, Cliff Kingsbury has always been a guy who's been able to work with different quarterbacks. For all of his flaws at Texas Tech, look at the different guys he's worked with. He worked with Johnny Mansell at Texas A&M. He goes to Texas Tech. He had Davis Webb, who's a bigger

quarterback who can't move real well. He had Baker Mayfield. He had Pat Mahomes. He's been able to work with different types of quarterbacks. He's been effective with different types of quarterbacks. So when people say, well, is this guy or that guy, a Cliff Kingsbury type of quarterback? I think Cliff Kingsbury is actually pretty adjustable in what he wants. And so I think a lot of this boils down to what Cliff Kingsbury individually, what his assessment of Josh Rosen is. If you likes Josh Rosen, you know what you do? You sit there with the number one overall pick. You see if you're Kyler Murray, you're Dwayne Haskins, your Drew Locke. You see if those guys rise at the point where there's going to be real value for the number one overall pick.

And if they don't, then you wind up taking a Nick Bosa or Quentin Williams. Either way, you're in a really good position because you have multiple options at the quarterback position. And if you like the quarterback who's sitting there for you right now, then you turn around and you use the number one pick as a commodity. By the way, a couple minutes left. Brian Hoyer, the story is out now, basically is the backup to Tom Brady, played Jared Goff for two weeks in the Super Bowl,

and by watching ESPN Plus, Amazon Prime, all or nothing, hard knocks, was able to get the language down and that the Rams put themselves out there, and that became a huge factor in their defensive game plan. It's kind of remarkable. What did you make of it? A minute and a half left.

Yeah, I basically, like I talked to Devin McCordy and Jason McCordy about this, and they were over the moon talking about what a big impact Brian Hoyer had on their ability to win the Super Bowl. And so they took me through it. I talked to Hoyer about it on Sunday. Yeah, he had background in this offense. He played for Kyle Shanahan in Cleveland. He played for Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco and said he wanted to see, hey, how close is this offense to what I was doing? He went and he watched the Peyton Manning series detail on ESPN Plus. that looks a lot like the offense I was running.

And so then he goes back and he looks at Rams tape. Yep, that's the same stuff I was doing. He went and looked at an NFL network interview. They were talking about the coach to quarterback communication thing that we've all talked about between McVeigh and golf. Another check mark there. That's what Shanahan did with Brian Hoyer both last year and four years ago. And then the final piece of it, of course, you go to the Amazon series.

That was on Jeff Fisher's Rams, but at the very end, there was footage of OTAs with Sean McVeigh. and he recognized the language. And so he was able to ascertain. There's a lot of similarity between what they're doing in Los Angeles and what I did in San Francisco and Cleveland, and he gave them a little tip. He said to the defensive players, hey, look, if we send an all-out pressure at the quarterback,

they don't have answers for that. The answer is the quarterback is going to take a shot. They're relying on the quarterback to make a play. So read the quarterback's eyes and back off a little bit. And if you look at the play, Stefan Gilmore made the interception on, He is the furthest player back of all 11 defenders. Everybody else is up towards the line.

They snap the ball. Gilmore's eyes aren't on Brandon Cooks. His eyes are on Jared Gough. He's watching Jared Gough the whole time, and he fielded that ball like it was a punt. I thought it was a really interesting way of explaining how the Patriots get the most out of every roster spot. And remember, Ryan Hoyer landing there, Colin, was a result of the Jimmy Garoppola trade. So maybe in a certain way, the Patriots got a little more out of that Garoppola trade. that's right there on the surface for you.

Great stuff. Got to run. Albert Breer, Monday morning quarterback. Thanks for telling the story. And thank you, bud. Thanks, Colin. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. And nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where sports slice comes in. I'm Timbo.

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