The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Best of The Herd: 03/20/2019

Episode Date: March 20, 2019

Doug Gottlieb fills in for Colin and explains why the Lakers took another big loss last night, this time from Doc Rivers.  He says Zion Williamson has done something impossible at Duke.  Plus, 3x Super Bowl Champion Mark Schlereth talks about how the Cardinals are handling the Kyler Murray situation and why free agent signings are usually overrated.  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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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 iHeart Radio app by searching Herd. This is the Best of the Herd with Colin. Cowher on Fox Sports Radio. What up? Welcome in. This is The Herd, wherever you may be, and however you may be making this part of your day. Thanks so much. I'm Doug Gottlieb in for Colin Cowherd, who is away on business, I'm told.

I don't know what business that is. This is his business. Joy Taylor alongside. Good morning to you, Joy. Good morning. It's going to be a great day. I can just feel it. Man, we got a ton of guests.

Katina Mowbly. Evan Daniels talking some. college hoop and NBA hoop, Dante Jones as well. Plus, Stank, three times we're bowl champion. Mark Slayerworth will join us on the, it's not the couch anymore. It's the love seat. It's the easy chair. We'll talk with Stank upcoming in a half hour.

I got some thoughts on the Cardinals who apparently had dinner with Kyler Murray. I don't know if the dinner was a little bit bigger than people thought it would be or the same size. Of course, he's tried to put on weight. a lot of stuff to get to. Big suspension in UFC. I'm sure that Joy has that as part of this. We got a lot to get to. Plus, kind of soft launch for the NCAA tournament last night as the first four.

Wonk won't does begin. It's the tournament, but it's not the tournament because it's not the bracket. And I can actually prove to you the whole value of the tournament is the piece of paper, more so than the teams. I'll tell you what Zion Williamson is going to accomplish that was previously unattainable in college athletics. We'll get to that upcoming in the show. But let's start with the Lakers.

So last night, they go into Milwaukee, and we didn't see the old version against the new version. Remember, this is a Bucks team that essentially killed the Lakers' playoff hopes going back a couple weeks ago. It was at Staples Center. It was a close game. LeBron was back. LeBron was healthy, and they had a big lead, and the Bucs went on a run

and beat the Lakers. And after that, it was reading the last rights. Lakers were bound for the lottery, not for the playoffs. LeBron didn't play last night. And this is part of the issue with the managing LeBron's situation and the reason that he's really untradable and that it's even more difficult to shut him down is like, look, imagine yourself in Milwaukee.

They just built a beautiful, ridiculous arena. That arena, I'm not sure how many people are aware, is among the nicest in the entire world. And oh yeah, by the way, the home team, their seats, their bench, they have heated seats. Seriously, they have heated seats. And they raise and lower. So LeBron couldn't use the excuse if he was on the home team of, hey, I want to sit down that last chair, the throne chair and the bench because it raises up for my bad back, you know. But that wasn't the loss.

LeBron didn't play. They lost to the bucks. And it's like their 11th loss and 12th. games. Now obviously they're in full kind of tank, tank mode. And the ship that had a flimsy rudder has no rudder and it is clearly run aground. But the L they took was back home because it was a rumor that was spread like wildfire. It had been started by a longtime NBA insider Peter Vessie, who of course used to cover the NBA back when NBC had it. Then it was at the New York Post. Now he has his own subscription-based online service. And he has a little bit of the United States.

His rumor was that, hey, Doc Rivers, LeBron respects him. Magic Johnson likes him. And he can get out of his deal this year. And so if you're the Lakers who need someone, because this is a difficult hire for the Lakers. And by the way, they still have a coach. How'd you like to be Luke Walton? Everyone, including Luke Walton, knows he's dead man walking. But there's already rumors about who's going to replace him.

And the issue with it is really simple. If you hire Tailu, if you hire Tailu, whether or not LeBron James is in fact running the organization and making decisions for the organization, it's really hard to make any other argument. And so if you're not a clutch sports guy or if you're not a team LeBron guy, like, do I want to go and play for some players team? And they're clear is kind of a wrestle for control. I don't know how many you've read Lord of the Flies when you're a kid. I don't know if it's a conch or the conch, right? But whoever had it had the power in Lord of the Flies, right? Whoever was in command?

And it's like there's a conch or conch. Like magic's got it, then conch, right? I think it's conch. I actually think it's conch. It's conk? Yeah, I think it's conch. I'm with joy. I'm not with Toey.

I'm going on Team Joy. They wrestle for it. Well, that's like LeBron and Rich Paul, they're like, we got it. And then Jeannie Buss is like, no, no, no, no. This is my conk. The Magic and Polinka wrestling for some sort of control. If you hire Ty Lou, that's the LeBron guy. This is Cleveland 2.0.

Same thing if you hire Mark Jackson, who's not repped by clutch sports, but same thing, right? It's the perception even more than the reality that becomes important when you're trying to rebuild this thing for long term. That's the reason. there was a Rick Buecker report a couple weeks ago that Jeannie Bus thought about, at least explored the possibility of trading LeBron James. It's not a possibility. I've heard Colin talk.

It's just not because he won't go. Where's he going to, like I'm going to trade you in New Orleans. Yes, he's going to get on that plane and go to New Orleans. Things that won't happen for a thousand, Alex. Oh, we'll trade him to the Knicks. Yeah, he's going to go work for Jim Dolan after moving his family to Los Angeles. Not happening. And I'm not even sure the Clippers would want him.

let alone what does he want to associate his brand with that of the clippers? So it's a very difficult hire to make. But Doc is the one guy who, in order to win an NBA championship, you have to have the respect of the locker room. In order to have the respect of a locker room, you probably have to have won an NBA championship. And the only guy alive that could potentially be available is that guy, is Doc Rivers, right?

Can't be Phil because Phil doesn't get along with most. people in the lakes organization. He broke up with Jeannie. He doesn't want to coach road games. And oh, yeah, by the way, I do remember a quote where he called LeBron James fellas a posse. That did not go over so well with Team LeBron. It's not going to be Eric Spolstra. Yeah, you think his contracts up or you think that Pat Riley's letting him go? Plus, Pat Riley, who has an NBA championship or two to his name, he's not coming back to L.A. He runs the ship in Miami. And that ship has sailed in terms of his relationship with LeBron. It's cordial at best.

So the only guy who has the chops, who's not associated with Team LeBron and Rich Paul, and is not seen as the LeBron guy. Oh yeah, by the way, he could be the first guy to ever coach the Lakers and the Celtics. I mean, home run. Here's the only problem.

He's got to actually want to take the job. Here's Doc Rivers last night. My job is not done here. I came here for a lot of reasons, and one of them was, obviously to win a world championship. And the other one was to make this place a place that people respect and want to come to. I think we've accomplished or are accomplishing that part. But that's the second part or the first part yet. And so that's my go. And that's it. So we don't need to

go on this anymore. Thank you, please. I'm going to be here and I'm looking forward to the future. Okay, so listen, in fairness, we've heard coaches. Nick Saban, of course, has said I'm not going to be the head coach at Alabama. How many more times do you want me to say it? We've heard that before. But this does feel legitimate in terms of Doc Rivers shooting down rumors. Plus, he's got a guy with as big a checkbook as there is in the entire world who goes like, wait, what?

They want off for you what? We'll just add a zero to that. And that will be that in Steve Ballmer. Plus, look, the Clippers do have a better vote. vibe. They trade away their best player and they're still going to make the playoffs. And oh yeah, by the way, they got the cap space to potentially go out and add not one but two superstars not named LeBron James who seemed to want to not play with LeBron and the Lakers. In the, you could, I grew up in the city of Orange, in Orange County, which is the county

just south of Los Angeles. If you would take post-pubescent me, you would take any sort of from childhood to youthhood to young adulthood to any time in my life, even six weeks ago. And you said, hey, would anybody in their right mind choose the clippers over the Lakers? I would say no. No chance. Zero point zero percent chance. And then you add LeBron and Magic to the Lakers.

she's like, well, everybody should, everybody should want to go there, but they don't. Kauai has said it. KD. has said it. KD. has said it. And whether or not Karee has made up with LeBron, this is, this is Chironobal. This is a level of toxicity not seen before in the NBA for a guy who is this well respected. Now, I think the biggest issue with the Lakers is not just the idea of the ties to LeBron James and their desire to get away from that and to open themselves up to all the other free agents because that is a big issue.

The biggest issue is this. Now, I got caught in traffic today because I left my house like 15 minutes later than I probably should have. And in Southern California, if you don't hit the 605 before 545, you're done so. There's always an...

accident or a stalled car or something. It's just a mess. But I do have the rare gift of Ninja Dad. You guys aware what the Ninja Dad is? Some of you are Ninja Dads out there, which means when you get up in the morning, the ability to go out and get coffee, whether you go to run a couple errands, you go to the gym to work out, or you got to get up and go work, can you can you quietly get dressed, get your keys, get your computer, you know, maybe make something to eat without waking up a soul, the dog, the cat, the kids, the wife. Are you a ninja dad? I am. And most GMs in the NBA operate like ninjas. You don't know any of this stuff, any of these rumors, and then all of a sudden, Tobias Harris is sent to Detroit, right? Jimmy Butler is traded

to the Philadelphia 76ers. That's the way it works in the NBA. You don't see the train coming down the track a million miles away? Because if you do, it gives Steve Ballmer a chance to go, hey, doc, I read this story about Peter Vessie. Let me just explain something to you. You're not going to the Lakers and you name the number and it's going to be done. That's the way these conversations work. Whereas if the Lakers had any ability to be Ninja Dads, they would already have the agreement.

Peter Vessi wouldn't have the story and it would. be done. The same thing happened with the Anthony Davis deal. They're so clumsy. They're the guy who every time they get up, they stub their toe. Or they rattle the keys, or they start the car too early, or their alarm goes off and they have it on full blast so the entire top floor wakes up. And now your kids are upset. Your wife's ticked off at you. The dog has to go out. All of these things go wrong. the Lakers are the clumsy dad who can't just be quiet and tiptoe around. Oh, the stairs are creaky.

No, dude, put on some socks and you should know the dead spots within the stairs. That's the problem with the Lakers. If they were going to get Doc Rivers, it should have been done under cover of darkness, and there should have been no rumors. But that's the problem with the Lakers. It's the whole reason that they've gotten caught tampering, because they can't just keep their mouth shut and find a way to get things done

before anybody knows that it's coming. But that's what happens when you hire a GM who's never worked in a front office before. You hire a president who's never been a president of a team before. You hire a head coach who's only been a head coach. You don't have an assistant GM. And Jeannie Bus, who runs the business side, not the basketball side,

was thought to have some sort of basketball acumen because she used to sleep with the greatest professional coach of all time. Like this thing is Chironobo. And Doc Rivers said, yeah, hey, I'd rather stay with the Clippers, the third tenant at Staples Center, who have exactly zero legitimate banners, who have never been beyond the second round of the playoffs. I'm good where I am instead of coaching the Lakers and becoming the first coach to coach the Celtics and the Lakers, potentially win another NBA title and be the last guy to help coach LeBron James to an NBA title. If that doesn't tell you the state of the Lakers, nothing else does, kids.

One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week within the IHeart radio app. Search Herd to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Last night, as teams are allowed to do, the Arizona Cardinals, who have the number one overall pick in the draft, met with Kyler Murray. Now, Kyler Murray could well be the number one quarterback taken in the draft. Kyle Murray is a Texas high school legend, and of course, Cliff Kingsbury is a Texas quarterback in his own right before being a head coach at Texas Tech. The two know each other. There is an it factor to Kyler in that he has the speed of Mike Vic and the pocket awareness as a diminutive quarterback of a Doug Flutie.

That's the combination. And so the Arizona Cardinals are trying to do their due diligence. This is not anything new. The Giants last night met with, what's Ohio State's quarterback? Duane Haskins. They had dinner there. That's a lot. Here's the problem.

The Arizona Cardinals just drafted a quarterback in the first round last year and started him this year. Josh Rosen. Now, remember, this was Steve Kime a couple weeks ago, clarifying Cliff Kingsbury's initial comments about Josh Rosen as a starter. Cliff said was trying to avoid bulletin board material. I think if you're at Texas Tech, I would have said the same thing about an Oklahoma quarterback. But, again, it's still early in the process. We haven't even gone through a full evaluation at all the positions.

So really, it's, again, too early to say. Is Josh Rosen our quarterback? Yeah, he is right now for sure. Yeah, he is right now for sure. That sounds really, really good. I want you to think about this for a second. Like, imagine if you're a woman and you say yes to a man and you have a ring on your finger. And then six months later, you're having a glass of wine with another good-looking man.

How do you think the man feels about that? The same can go for a man. and we can go with the Chris Rock line, which is a man is only as faithful as his options, and that appears to be exactly what the Arizona Cardinals have. They're doing the opposite of what you should do. Even if they want Kyler Murray, every public comment should be Josh Rosen's amazing. He was under duress. We had to change coordinators mid-season.

Then he had Byron Leftwich who had never called plays before. We didn't provide him the best offensive line. The season went to hell in a handbasket. We had to fire our coach. And you know what? Josh Rosen is solid as a day is long. Even if it's a complete lie, Steve Kheim has shown he has no clue what he's doing.

Because he's damaging the reputation of Josh Rosen and damaging the relationship he has at Josh Rosen all at the same time. again, you're allowed to meet with Kyla Murray. But should you? Should it get out? Of course not. And every public comment should be, we got you. We're good at quarterback.

Everything else? Up for grabs. We're good at quarterback. It shouldn't be, we haven't evaluated all the, all the things. Like, no, no, no. I found, we found our quarterback. Now we got to work out with the rest. because who's going to want Josh Rosen if he's been there for nine months,

his coordinator gets fired, his coach gets fired, his GM loves him so much that he's willing to, he's willing to openly interview and discuss the possibility of drafting a 5 foot 10 quarterback to replace him a year later. I'm not saying the reality of football isn't that Kyler Murray is a better fit, a younger option, and maybe a better option for what the Cardinals have and they can get some value for Josh Rosen. But if that's the plan, why are you killing the value of Josh Rosen? You're dopes.

And oh yeah, by the way, if you decide Kyler Murray's not your guy, how do you think that goes over with Josh Rosen? You know, you can tell me you love me all you want, but you were just at a wine bar with another woman. Or you can tell me, but you were just at a wine bar with another dude. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays and noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeard Radio app. He's a three-time Super Bowl champion. He's a Fox NFL analyst. He's Stink. He's Mark Schlaerth. He played in two Pro Bowls

and won three Super Bowls. I want to ask you about the Cardinals and there at least some sort of pursuit in the idea of drafting Kyler Murray. Like I get the whole idea he might be a better fit. And that, like, look, if you're going to go a completely different track than most NFL teams and get Cliff Kingsbury, who struggled to win at Texas Tech, buy into his offense, and, you know, have somebody else fix the defense, like, I get all of that. But why are you not pumping up Josh Rosen? Why are you letting it get out that you met with Kyla Murray? Like, why are you handling it in the fashion in which they're handling it? It's a great question. I mean, I have no idea. Obviously, they're enamored. But you mentioned it. Cliff

Kingsbury. I mean, the NFL MVP was Patrick Mahomes, right? I mean, you couldn't win games with Patrick Mahomes at Texas Tech, right? I mean, and here's the other interesting thing. So Steve Wilkes, and Steve Wilkes is a great guy, who was their head coach last year. He comes

in and he has played a series or a system of defense, and he played it back to his Chargers days, back with Ron Rivera to his Carolina Panthers Day. He comes in Arizona. He implements that defense, and it doesn't fit the personnel he has. I mean, it's not a fit, but he's dead set that this is the way we're going to do it.

We're going to create, we're going to plug our players into a system. So aren't you really taking a coach and saying, all right, here's the new coach. He just wants to run his system. You know, I get going and getting players to run that system. But the best coaches to me are coaches to say, what do I have? What's in the cupboard? And let me develop a system that fits the guys that I have. You just, you moved up in the draft to get Josh Rosen.

You moved up to get him at number nine. And now you'll be lucky to get, what, a third rounder for him? And they spent $20 million in San Bradford. Like, we forget, like, how badly. They remember is they spent all that money. Sam Bradford didn't have a market, and they spent all that money on San Bradford. He lasted all of a couple of games, and then we remembered. Oh, yeah, he's San Bradford.

Right. And then we also fired the offense coordinator. Then they fired the coach. and yeah, now they're bailing on Josh Rosen's nine months. Right. And by the way, by the way, Josh Rosen came into a very untenable situation where they couldn't block anybody. They didn't have a tight end. They could block anybody. Their most dynamic receiver is Larry Fitzgerald, you're 15. Like, they were, I did five games. They were a mess. Yes. And you're like, all of a sudden, you're like, well, that guy, that guy's a butt. Is he a bus? I don't really know because he didn't have enough people around him to actually have any success as a rookie.

So, I mean, he was put in an unbelievably difficult position and you're already bailing on him because you're going to scrap pilot and you're going to go collegiate. It does feel with Fitzmagic signing with Miami. It does feel like either the Giants who now have two first round picks or the Chargers who need an heir apparent and, you know, they pass. on Pat Mahomes and they're kind of probably going to forever live to regret it. That feels like the only two possible landing spots for Josh Rosen, who was seen to be one of the two or three best prospects in a quarterback loaded draft last year. It's really remarkable the fall, considering all the other things going on. It is.

But here's the thing about the NFL. Remember, Nick Foles walked away from football. He was done. He was going to go into the ministry. Andy Reid talked him out. of it, brought him in for a year of football rehab. And the guy just signed, what, an $84 million contract with Jacksonville? He comes into Philly, gets the backup role.

We know what happened over the last two years, Super Bowl MVP. So for Josh Rosen, sometimes the best thing that can happen to you is somebody giving up on you and giving you your freedom to go find a place where you can actually learn the game and be supported by better players. Like this may be the best thing that's ever happened to Josh Rosen without the pressure of being, hey, the number ninth overall. Now you're just some guy they traded a third rounder for. The Cowboys signed a name yesterday, Randall Cobb, obviously injury plague year last year.

Is that a good addition, right? Like you lost your slot-wide receiver. You go and sign Randall Cobb to replace him. Granted, they still have the NFL draft. You got some issues. David Irving retiring. You got another suspension in the defensive line. I'm just wondering your reaction to what the Cowboys have done so far in this offseason.

Well, you know, I look at what the Cowboys have done, and I think by standing Pat, first off, you've got a bunch of really good players that are young players, that you have an opportunity to sign before they hit free agency. And I think that's the best way. Reward your players, reward your players that have had success, and show that that's the organization that you want to be. We're going to reward and promote from within.

We're going to let those guys develop. Randall Cobb's a good football player. Randall Cobb is a professional. Randall Cobb will be a nice addition to the Dallas Cowboys. But I always look at the first wave of free agency. I mean, to me, you're overpaying for usually damaged goods. Right. There's a reason guys are on the market in the NFL. Right.

And so I think that first wave is like you dramatically overpaid. Like go back to last year's free agency. Remember Nate Solder, and I'm not trying to bash on Nate Solder because Nate Solders is a good football player. But I've never looked at Nate Soulder at any time during his career as a top five offensive tackle in the league. Never. And yet you're paying him $15 million a year. Like you had to pay him this exorbitant fee, even though he's not a top five player, you made him the number one paid guy at his position in the national football league.

That's free agency in a nutshell. So I think the real value, after the first wave and the hype is done in the first week, that's where the real value in free agency lies. And so for the Dallas Cowboys, them standing Pat and really doing nothing and now signing Randall Cobb to a one year, $5 million deal, you're getting a very professional good football player that can come in and play multiple positions. He can play in the slot. He can play outside. He can do those things for you. You have versatility there.

And come on, $5 million in the NFL now for one year. You can flip over the couch cushions in Jerry Jones office and find $5 million. It's right there. Okay. Let me ask you about the Raiders. you and I had a great discussion. I've always been pro-Rater's trade with Kalee Mack. I thought people said, well, you can't get two first-round picks.

He did. They didn't want to pay $90 million guaranteed. They didn't have the cash. They weren't that good defensively. I like that trade. The Sloan Sports and Analytics Conference, going back, I think a week and a half ago, voted that the number one transaction, the best transaction from the Raiders' perspective in the league this year. They also traded Mari Cooper, whose contract was going to be $14 million.

this year or it gets reworked. Sure. So now they've traded for and signed Antonio Brown to a bigger contract than that of Amarie Cooper. Now they've signed Trent Brown to a huge contract, left tackle free agent for the New England Patriots. Now that we caught our breath on the first wave of John Gruden, what do you think? Well, I think they, like, I think they were in a position where if they would have paid Khalil Mack, they have cash flow issues. If they would have paid Kalil Mac, they're going to, I mean, they're basically breaking the bank and saying, you know, we're not winning with him. And if we pay him, we can't address all the other issues and needs we have on this football team. So from that aspect, you know, they had to kind of strip this thing down to the

studs and start this rebuild. And so from that aspect, I think they made a wise decision. It's always funny to me, it's like, you know, the day after the draft is over, we get all the draft nicks and the gurus, right, that grade the draft. Like this team got an A. this team got a B minus, you know? And I'm like, how do you know? Like, until the guy comes in and plays or doesn't play, you don't really know if they did a very good job with the draft or not. So same thing when you evaluate, like you can sit there and say they got great value for Khalil Mack.

But until they make those picks and have those picks play, you know, until those picks prove that they can play at the NFL level, like, I don't know the value of that trade. I've got to see who they pick. And I've got to see if those guys actually can play in the NFL. And so, you know, I would I would pump my brakes on saying, man, what a great trade analytics-wise, that was. I got 30 seconds for you. Lavian Bell basically said that Ben Rotsberger thinks he's Kevin Colbert.

He thinks he's an owner. Should we believe take at Levyon Bell at face value, considering he's now a former Pittsburgh dealer? Absolutely. I mean, I think there's enough smoke to where there's probably some fire there. And again, I'll go back to the organization. and I say this all the time, you're either coaching it

or you're allowing it to happen. So if you allow him to go on the radio and bash his teammates, if you allow him to act like that, guess what? He's going to take advantage of that. And so I put that more on the organization than I do the player.

Mark Schleyer, a three-time Super Bowl champion and NFL analysts on Fox. Great stuff, as always, stink. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Joy, do you, what are your, when I say Duke, when I say Duke, when I say Duke, Okay. What is your immediate reaction?

I don't have the deep hatred for Duke that most people do. I do understand it to the tradition of hating Duke. Well, explain what you understand the tradition of hating Duke to Duke. I mean, I guess, you know, you've got the history of rooting against Duke in college basketball if you're not from Duke. But why? Well, in general, people don't, people like to hate on winners, for one. And there's a bit of an arrogance that comes with being a Duke basketball. player. And not that I'm saying there's anything wrong with that because if you win or you're from a successful program, I think you're entitled to be arrogant if you've had some success there. But I don't, I don't subscribe to that as much as I love antagonists and villains in sports.

Because I think that makes for a great conversation and debate. But I'm probably the wrong person to ask. Because it's not like, my first reaction isn't like, I hate Duke. John Goulet, who's a native of Connecticut, he automatically hates Duke, correct? Yeah, it's in contractually obligated, too. Like you're born in the nutmeg, and you're like, they're like, okay, listen, you got to pick Red Sox for Yankees. That's a choice.

That's a choice. But what you cannot choose is to like Duke, correct? Very right. Okay. So, look, for the record, I grew up a huge Duke fan because of Bobby Hurley. the last time they played a national championship in Minneapolis, Duke won their second back-to-back titles, and I was court-side,

and they dominated the Fab Five as a bunch of freshmen by 20 points, ran them off the court. And I don't actually, and we played against Duke in the tournament, and they didn't offer me a scholarship because they had taken Wojo the year before, at least that was the out for Mike Shoshchewski in terms of the discussion. I always, I always like Duke.

I've worked with plenty of Dukies, you know, from Jay Williams to Jay Billis to Grant Hill to Jim Spinnarkle to like you name it there's if you're going to work in media and cover basketball you're going to work with a bunch of dukees Adam Silver's a duke as well like they do in fact run the universe I don't think they're helped by having Dick Vitale who though he loves everybody oh it's awesome he seems to love the dukies a little bit more oh and when you talk about greatness you talk about Chishefsky and Brubuilla, right? But he always seems to lead.

It's amazing how many broadcasts have been done with a pom-pom in hand. That's what it feels like. And I think there are things that we collectively celebrate as fans watching the NCAA tournament on a yearly basis. It's a lot like in college football, for whatever reason, when Notre Dame loses, everybody rejoices. Like, oh, Notre Dame. cross them out. We don't have to see them in the national planet. We saw them this year and when they lose you're like

when Notre Dame loses people take a special amount of joy. When Duke loses you take a special amount of joy. I don't know what it is, whether it's the success, whether it's the private school, whether it's the perceived arrogance because not all Dukies are arrogant. I mean, they do seem to be a little

confident, but not all Dukies are arrogant. Let me tell you about the Zion Williamson cat. He's accomplishing what had never been accomplished before. And that's, I don't know anybody don't want to see him play six games. Now, you may not want to see him win the sixth game,

which is the National Championship game. It's on a Monday night. But just ask yourself, do you have any desire to watch any other player play in the NCAA tournament? Like, you know, look, you guys know, I'm a basketball guy. I want to see John Morant,

who's going to be the first point guard taken for Murray State, play against Marcus, Howard, who's 5 foot 10, leads the country and scoring, like, only 19 years old. Like, I want to see that, but it's a hard sale to get anyone who doesn't follow the game, like I do to go, oh, I want to watch Murray State take on Marquette. Like, I pick Kentucky to win the damn thing. I don't know. Their best player is in a walking boot today, so I don't know how healthy they are.

I don't have a love or a hatred for anybody. I think the beauty to how I've done, what I've done is you actually can't tell who I like and who I don't like or what my affiliations are. I just call it like I see it. But I can feel a sea change. And the change is Zion Williamson. Because whether it's the joy in which he plays with, the energy, the dunks, or even the fact that he's 18 years old from a small town, South Carolina. And dude has handled this thing perfectly, right? He got hurt. His shoe came off. I've never seen, I've blown out a shoe before. I've never seen an entire bottom of a shoe come out ever before. And he handled that perfectly. Then he comes back in plays. And instead of

being defensive about why he's playing, he was like, look, I hear you. I heard all these people speak. I just speaking for me, I want to play with these guys. I want to play for Duke. I want to play for Coach Shoevsky. Like, you know, he's 18 years old. And whatever negative baggage so adults carry in regards to the NCAA or Mike Shoshavsky or Duke and this desire we have for everybody to just get paid immediately and fast forward past an experience of a lifetime. This kid's like, he's not defensive. He's not like, he's not me where he's like these, because I frankly thought the discussion was moronic.

Like, why are we trying to speed up the process? Why don't we just let them enjoy playing, let him enjoy growing, play for those guys in locker room, try and win the thing? then he can become a pro. Like, that's the way the deal works. It's a good deal. And by the way, business-wise, it's a smart deal. Because you'll play in front of 20 times the number of people you normally play in front of.

If you play in the Sweet 16, then into the Final Four. People have never watched basketball before, watch the NCAA tournament. But people who have never cheered for Duke before find themselves rooting for Duke because of Zion Williamson. That's amazing. That's amazing. But I do think this all changed. and everything goes back to normal, all is right in the world,

once Zion leaves. Agreed. Agreed. This is not going to be a wave of change. I agree. I'm not disagree. Again, but that is the impact of a guy. You know, I've heard people talk about his value in the NBA.

I don't know what he, I know what I think he'll be in the NBA. Like, I think he's going to have to play a Draymond Green-like position where he plays an undersized power forward and small ball center. I think he's more athletic. I think he has Draymond's type of basketball IQ. Now he won't have developed it as much, only playing one year at Duke as opposed

to Draymond playing longer at Michigan State. And like Draymond, I do think he's going to have to lose some weight once he gets the NBA. But I think there's some Barclay to him. There's some Roddy Rogers to him. There's some Blake Griffin to him. There's some Draymond Green. Like you mushed all of them together. That's what he is. And then he plays with

the joy and energy, frankly, of Steph. Right? of Steph Curry. Like, hey, you know what? It's still supposed to be fun. It's just basketball. And he has that to him. And I agree.

The world would be, next year, they'll have a new group and you'll go back to Hayton Duke again. But it's crazy what an 18-year-old kid can do when he just has a smile on his face and goes out and plays really, really hard and has a lot of fun. He has a special X factor to him, for sure, and he plays bigger than he actually is.

Yeah. When it comes to the NBA, I don't know if it's going to be fair, the expectations that are going to come on him. and especially once the rest of the world gets to see him play in this tournament, it's just going to escalate that to another level. So I'm with you. I'm not entirely sure what kind of player he's going to be in the NBA.

He's going to be the number one overall pick, and he's going to sell a lot of tickets because he's an exciting player. I think he's going to have a great NBA career. What type of player he will be, I think everyone's still trying to figure out. You and I are completely locked up. But I also think, and this is important, so when I was at CBS doing the tournament, the two things that are no-nose to talk about,

are Vegas and NBA. Like they're just, you will have somebody here like, let's not talk about Vegas, let's not talk about NBA. And I, look, do I think there's a disconnect with reality? Sure, right?

The reason that the tournament is so popular is not just because of Zion Williamson. Just not. It's because of, it's because of that bracket sheet, that everybody, it fits perfectly. You know, everyone can fill one out and the person that knows nothing about the sport

can somehow beat the person that knows everything about the sport. And usually does. And the crazy finishes and whatever. The more you know, the less you know, et cetera, et cetera. And then there's the gambling element of it. There are people watching us in Las Vegas now, getting ready for tomorrow and Friday. And they'll lock it in folks.

They're doing their show from there. It's just a zoo. Like Vegas is, and the NBA is a big part of it. We promote players for what they might be at the next level. But I do think there is a certain, while I disagreed with not talking about it at all, I do think we have a tendency to completely diminish what happens these next three weeks. It's not a facade if you stink in the NBA or if you get hurt in the NBA. If you're Greg Oden and your body doesn't hold up, right?

Like we shouldn't, if Zion Williamson isn't the greatest thing since sliced bread in the NBA, it doesn't, it shouldn't take away from the amazing impact he has had. He's made Duke not just likable, lovable. Lovable. You know? I mean, the only greater accomplishment, the only greater accomplishment is if he made the president lovable on Twitter, right? That would be, that's the only thing that's the only thing that's a greater mountain to climb. That's the only thing.

because ask yourself, you probably remember where you were or you remember, you may not remember anything about previous tournaments. I bet you remember the Mercer Dance when they beat Duke. I bet you remember when Lehigh beat Duke. I bet you remember when VCU beat Duke. Like you don't remember anything about other tournaments. You probably remember who won it. And then, hey, didn't Lehi beat them and C.J. McCullum?

Didn't VCU beat them? And didn't you go, yes, my, how's your bracket? It's a mess, but Duke lost. And now you're sitting there going, man, I sure hope Duke doesn't lose because that kid number one, he's awesome. He's awesome. Could I pick apart his jump shot short? The point you made is a great one.

Like Mark Slayvers just walked out. He's like, how big is he? Like, six, five and a half, six, six maybe. You know? I mean, he looks when, physically. Basically, like when you're actually watching him play a son, I'm playing person against Louisville, I mean, he looks kind of like a football player and a basketball player's uniform, right? But then all of a sudden he plays, and it's not just how high he jumps and the dunks and the block shots.

He plays both ends. He plays hard. He got a smile on his face. He doesn't have to have the ball. He's not doing the James Hardin thing or the R.J. Barrett thing, shooting 30 times and over-dribbling the basketball. I don't know anyone who's watched him has not come away. going like, I find myself rooting for the four-letter word in college basketball that I used to think was a four-letter word in college basketball. John Goulet, who was born in Connecticut and in his baby bottle was Duke Haterade.

That actually was Duke Haterade that he was forced to chug down for the first eight months of his life. Underneath his chair is a blue and white Duke Pompompom. He has them winning the national championship by 50 points, and the MOP is going to be Zion Williamson. That's how America has reacted because of this one kid. 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, in every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headlines. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to SportsSlice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

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