The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Ezekiel Elliott, Baker Mayfield, NFL hope, and WR duos

Episode Date: July 17, 2019

Colin talks about how immature players like Ezekiel Elliott can hurt teams, Baker Mayfield's recent comments on Hue Jackson, teams who have a chance to win it all, and his thoughts on the best WR duos in the NFL. Guests include Danny Kanell, Kevin O'Connor, Matt Mosley, and Shawne Merriman.  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. 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, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise,

breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. 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 Sports Slice 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.

Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, guys? This is Clever Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her.

What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue with 42. Hey, Wreck, my mama want you to weigh better. What? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was harmed. You just understood. That's how personal it got.

Wow. Then after that game seven, Markeep coming to, he's like, you know I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening to The Heard podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday from 12 to 3 Eastern, 9 to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS1.

Find your local station for The Heard at Fox Sports Radio.com or stream us live every day on the Iheart Radio app by searching heard. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. It's midweek Wednesday, live in Los Angeles. This is the herd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening, we're on IHeart Radio. Fox Sports Radio and FS1, Joy Taylor's got the

summer outfit working today for you radio listeners. You have to rush to FS1. Rush to FS1. You have a remarkable ability to change your hair every day and change your look. Some days, you You're like an old Hollywood star, Marlina Dietrich. And then the next day, you look very lit and cool in Miami Beach. I look very lit today, yes. Today you actually look very casual summary and very happy.

Thank you. That's what our sound engineer, Bonnie, just told me. I look very summary today. You're like Gloria Estevan in the late 90s. You are taking over America. Thank you. That's a compliment. We have a great hair and makeup staff here.

By the way, they keep both of us looking sharp. True story. when I used to be a minor league baseball announcer, Tucson, Arizona, high corbett field. After the game tonight, the Miami sound machine will perform. Amazing. And I'm like, yeah, I'm sure it's some hat garage band. Nope. Nope.

End up being stars. Started in minor league baseball. I remember the night. Minor league baseball games are fun. And much cheaper than Major League baseball. I wish they would do, this is going way off the rails here, but I wish they would do with the G League, what they do with minor league baseball. Kind of quirky and fun and goofy and, you know.

Theme nights. Yeah. So let me start our show today. We're officially into football. We're 50 days away from Packers going to Chicago. Arizona and Denver's running backs, rookies all report today a week out from camp starting, okay? And I want to talk about the Cowboys again. So this is the story this morning on Ezekiel Elliott.

This is Charles Robinson at Yahoo.com. a very trustable guy. He said, if the Cowboys aren't proactive about a new deal, two years out on Zeke, this thing's going to go sideways fast. Pro football talk reports, Zeke is going to, Ezekiel Elliott, hold out until he gets a new deal. So once again, Zekeel Elliott is creating organizational tension right before a season. Two of the last three years, one of them a judicial matter, now this one. Two years out from a new contract. Folks, this is. why I'm tough on Baker Mayfield and Johnny Mansell and James Winston. It's why I was tough on John Wall. Okay, because I don't have time for you to grow up. I'm paying you a fortune to John Wall.

John Wall now is getting mature. He's two knee surgeries in and 45 million large a year. It's too late. As an organization, now I'm overpaying him. I need the first four years of underpaying him or fairly paying him. The bottom line with Zeke, his dad came out when he was drafted and I'll read the quote. From his father, my biggest worry is, I don't think my son knows how to navigate in life being a superstar.

He's like a little boy. He just wants to have fun and play football and enjoy people. The problem is by the time he gets a little more mature, he's 28, he's 4,000 carries in and it's too late. Now I have to overpay him

for a running back who's past his prime. This is why a scout at the Combine ask about your childhood, and they ask about your parents, and they ask really uncomfortable questions. And the media, which tends to lean left and be protective of athletes, generally doesn't like it. But this is why you ask the questions. Johnny Mansell, James Winston, are why I ask questions about Baker Mayfield. The police video of Baker Mayfield wouldn't be a big deal if Johnny Mansell and James Winston had been stars. But James Winston, Johnny Manzel, and Baker came into sports with maturity issues.

Johnny's already out of the league. James Winston's got about a year, maybe eight games, or he's out of the league, and Baker will see. This is why we ask maturity questions. This is why I'm tough on quarterbacks and star players because I'm paying you a lot of money and I can't wait for you to grow up. And maturity, by the way, is not really teachable. blocking is teachable tackling is teachable

playbooks are teachable have you ever met a really immature 21 year old and at 28 they were super mature no they make baby steps they get more mature but generally in life I can remember the kids I went to college with

the two guys I was best friends with in college that were really mature are now super successful great dads very wealthy the guys that were screw offs are still screw-offs. Like, you don't go 21 in immature to 31 in super mature. You may get more mature.

And by the way, Dallas, you have an example of this. It's called Des Bryant. Des never reached his potential. He didn't take working out seriously. He didn't take coaching seriously. And he underachieved. By the way, T.O. three times left a team.

All three teams got better the following year. New England won Super Bowls when Randy Moss left. But fans freak out because Zeke is great, and it freaks us out in football when a great player could leave. But remember, football is not the NBA. There are players in the NBA. You're just going to put up with a lot of stuff. But the NFL's always been about letting guys go who are still great and have stuff left in the tank. Peyton Manning won a Super Bowl, and Indy knew he could win a Super Bowl.

Brett Farve still had stuff in the tank. Joe Montana went to Kansas City still had stuff in the tank. You've got to get comfortable in professional football in America. The basketball culture is not the football culture. NBA players are generally more important. Only five starters, only

12, 13 in a roster. LeBron's got the ball in his hands the entire game. Zeke, what does he get? 18 carries? They have 69 plays. There's touchdowns the Cowboys have over the course of his season. He's not even on the field. So when you see in the combine organizations asking tough questions about your parents, your childhood, your maturity, this is why.

Or you end up the Cleveland Browns, you spend this money on Johnny Mansell and he's a bust. Or you spend a fortune on coaching and teaching James Winston and he massively underachieves. Now, I think Baker is going to be better than both those guys. But the questions, police video, grabbing your junk, throwing the football, have to be asked. Because I don't have time for Baker-Mayfield to grow up. He's a number one pick. You've got to be good now. John Wall, I don't have time for the nonsense.

Now you're two knee surgeries in and 45 million a year. So I'll say it again. I trade Zeke. I trade him. You got eight great young players. Running backs don't dictate wins in this league. They never have. Adrian Peterson left the Vikings.

Never had a losing record. DeMarco Murray left the Cowboys. Won two or three division titles. Labian Bell left the Steelers. Number four in total offense. I'm just not putting up with this nonsense. Listen, have you ever worked? Forget football.

Ask yourself this. Have you ever in college lived with somebody that was immature? Yeah, I had one of those. They suck the oxygen out of your apartment. Have you ever had somebody in your family that's immature? They suck the oxygen out of dinner. Have you ever worked with somebody that's in a locker room or in a cubicle space? they suck the oxygen.

They create tension. Everybody walks on eggshells. This Dallas Cowboy team, these windows close real quick. You're in a division with Philadelphia. And I think Philadelphia's got a better GM than you. I think they've got a better coach than you. I think they got a better quarterback than you. I think they have a better defensive line than you.

Every little detail, Cowboy fans, every little detail is going to count. This is not a division with the Jacksonville Jags or the Detroit Lions. No, no, no. New England and Philadelphia right now are probably the two best run football operations in America. So these little tensions, these little bubbles, this little immaturity, this little, oh God, we got to worry about that thing instead of football,

and this thing instead of football, they will matter. This is Microsoft and Apple 15 years ago. Like every inch counts for a foot. And I say it again, I know people freak out in football, but he's so great. Yeah, and for the second time in three years, you have organizational tension going right into a camp. Philadelphia doesn't.

New England doesn't. Chicago doesn't. Rams don't. A lot of good teams in the NFC. Seattle doesn't. Dallas does. It's not the NBA. This is not the NBA.

You put up with a lot more. You deal with a lot more, and you have to. And if you can't handle it, don't work in the NBA. That's the culture of basketball. Players matter more. From the AAU to the college to the pro level, they do get over it.

In the NFL, they really don't. And you can move off players. T.O.3 times. All teams got better. Des Bryant, Randy Moss, teams get better. Amazing. It's like this is the second time. Three years.

Nonsense. Two years out. Dealing with this. Teadious. I want to go to this. So we are 50 days away from the start of the NFL season, Packers Bears. But that's not really football. Today, Arizona-Denver Rookies report in a week the camp start.

And one of the reasons, I'm a huge college football fan. Joy and I both love college football. But over the last four or five years, people have said to me, you've reduced your college football talk. And I said that's because Hope left the building. I'm a big believer in hope. I want fan bases to be engaged. So the more of you that are engaged, the more I can talk about a sport.

And aren't you all real happy about all the NBA parody? Isn't everybody telling me via Twitter, I love the NBA parody? Because next year, like, 16 NBA teams, it was like hopeful. I mean, Utah has a realistic shot. Denver, Milwaukee, Philadelphia. You know, by the way, Toronto was 17 and 5 without Kauai. They'll make the playoffs. Indiana, Portland, Golden State, Houston, endless, clippers, Lakers.

And you're all right. You're all very, very viable. Even the teams in the NBA that are great, Sacramento, Pelicans, Dallas. So college football, the bubble in college football now of teams that can win the national championship is a three-team bubble of 130 college football programs, Bama, Clemson, Georgia, that's it. They can win the national championship. They can go through their season, win a conference championship, and then win two games in the playoff. Now, I don't think there's much around that. I do think Michigan and Washington are very interesting, very interesting.

I think Oklahoma's always interesting, but it's a three-team bubble. This is why the NFL is fantastic. And I was thinking this morning about, you know, I always talk about these bubbles. Who's in the Super Bowl lead bubble? I think there are six teams in the NFL that should be favorites. roster, coach, organizational quarterback, and the six teams are New England, Kansas City, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Rams, Chargers.

I think that's the bubble. But in the NFL, I also think there are 11 teams that hover around the bubble. Now, they may need a fluke win. They may need a break in scheduling. They may need to stay healthier than other teams. I think they're Atlanta, Minnesota. Tennessee is my dark horse in the NFL this year,

along with the 49ers. Tennessee was nine and seven, two years in a row, best offensive line, arguably in the AFC, and Mike Frable appears to be able to coach. Pittsburgh, St. San Francisco's my second dark horse team. I think Kyle Shanahan's the next Belichick.

Seattle, Chicago, Green Bay, Dallas, and Houston. Now, I think those teams can win a Super Bowl, but I do think they need a series of breaks. Their personnel's good enough to win, unlike college football. Their personnel's good enough to win. They may be not quite as good at head coach. They've got a real hole. San Francisco secondary, you know, Tennessee, Marioita, can he ever

stay healthy? Houston. God, I like the team. I hate the offensive line. Those are teams that need a break, need a fumble, need a fluke, need a call, need to stay healthier. Probably all those bubble teams need like two of their rookies to pop. Like they come in and you're like, oh my God, we got a rookie here who may get pro bowl votes. But when you add. that up, that's 17 of 32 NFL teams. That's called optimism. That's what everybody's excited about the NBA next year. That's why I've moved off on my show, college football talk. My love for college football hasn't dimmed. I watch more college football than I've ever watched. I bet more college football.

I go to more college football games. I've already got tickets for two games this year and we're in July. I, okay, but hope and optimism are what helps choose my topics. And we are starting here. I think we got six in the bubble, 11 hovering. And I will even throw this in. I think there's five other teams in the NFL that are talented enough that their fan base can lie to themselves that they think they can win the Super Bowl. I was just about to say there's probably a couple teams that are all angry right now.

Okay, so there's five more. So now we're at like 22 of 32. Cleveland is too young to win a Super Bowl. The Jags are too Doug Marone. The Jets have too many new pieces. Carolina is too inconsistent. And I do think the Raven ceiling is too low. But those teams are good enough at a bar their fans could argue.

I mean, Cleveland's got the players. But Jacksonville, by the way, sees too much of Andrew Luck and too much of Deshawn Watson. I don't think they're going to get another division. So now I got six Super Bowl, 11 bubble and 5 who can argue about it at a sports bar. 6.11, 17, 5, 22 of 32. That's called optimism. That's called hope.

That's why, along with other reasons, the NFL continues to be king and why the NBA may have its best regular season in a decade next year. If you can go to a bar and argue you can win it, that is great for my business. Six in the bubble. Chargers, Chiefs, Rams, Patriots, Philadelphia, Indy, 11 hovering the bubble. Atlanta, Minnesota, Tennessee, again, my dark horse. Pittsburgh, New Orleans, San Francisco, dark horse in the NFC, Seattle, Chicago, Green Bay, Dallas, Houston, and five, you can have two Bud Lights and argue at a bar.

You can win, but you're wrong. Cleveland, Jags, Jets, Carolina, and Baltimore. God, I love football. It's so close. This is so good. The weather starts changing in about three weeks. Coming up next, why the Miami Heat have to trade for Chris Paul. You have to.

I know it sounds crazy, right? Counterintuitive, Chris Paul, Miami has to. And by the way, Oklahoma City has to. That's coming up. 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. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind.

Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise. Breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real.

From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hard Way with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kier Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience

in the mental health field and conversations. with so many incredible guests. I'm talking. Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it.

And we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross. Because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth? Are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro.

Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm CJ Toledano, and our podcast Point Game is about defying the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter.

what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows, without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted

this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night to night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stopped by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too.

Steve Nash will get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers why he got the ball. Like, after you go through a training camp with that, I said, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball.

So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, guys? This is Clever Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Cliver Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being. an internet famous referee.

We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker walks up to me, he goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue of 42. Hey, rep, my mama want you to wave at her. What?

Hey, Ms. Parker. Listen to the Cliverts show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Great to have you in today. Joy and I, mid-July, 50 days away, Packers, Bears, very exciting. Arizona, Denver, rookies report today. You know, once or twice in my life, I've had to sell a car. And selling a car is actually really easy because there's always somebody looking for a nice car that's been well taken care of.

And they can get, you know, at a reasonable price. buying cars can be tough, you take it off the lot, you lose 30% of your value. So I've found through the years, houses are very expensive, be careful buying a huge house that sometimes some people, you know, millennials don't want to have houses like we did growing up. The millennials now want smaller houses, they want to travel more, they don't want the big mortgage. But cars are easy to sell because everybody's got a different situation in life. You're divorced, you're young, you don't have the money, you're just starting out in your

life, and then there's the rich person that they want to treat themselves and buy the Mercedes. There's just a million different buyers out there with a million different agendas. And this is why you can always move an NBA contract, okay? Chris Paul's contract is awful. I don't think it's as bad as John Walls, but it's bad. But if I was Miami, I'd go buy the contract because Miami right now is an NBA quicksand. They're 17th. This is Miami.

There's a lot to do. distracted market. It's like Los Angeles. Boring and okay doesn't work. You got to be interesting. Jimmy Butler and Chris Paul is interesting. Call him they won't get along perfectly. No, this is not E-Harmony. This is not going to be E-Harmony. This is not why you're making the deal. You're not making the deal for harmony. I'm not even sure you're making the deal for titles. You're making the deal for two reasons. A, be interesting. Chris Paul and Jimmy Butler would be interesting in a very distracted market. Football season is big in Miami. Hurricanes, dolphins, dolphins, There's a beach.

There's a lot to do. The other reason is you can reboot quicker. You can get four or five picks. You have a very willing trade partner in Oklahoma City. Oklahoma City doesn't want the Chris Ball contract, and they have a surplus of picks. They've got more picks than they never need. So you've got the opportunity to put jet fuel into your reboot

and get an interesting player in Miami. Do it. Well, they may not get along. Again, this is not e-harmonie. You're not doing this much. move for harmony. You know that Butler and Chris Paul are both difficult. This will not be, it'll be like Harden-Westbrook. It could be exciting. We know Harden Westbrook won't be the best duo. They may be the most fascinating. They may win a bunch of games, but there's going to be

problems based on their personalities, rigid, and styles. This is not going to be about harmony, but it makes you interesting and you reboot things really quickly. And why you can always get rid of an NBA bad contract is why you can always get rid of sometimes bad cars. because there's so many different buyers out there. In the NBA, you've got all these food groups. You've got five teams are NBA title favorites that with their current rosters should be favored to win the championship. Clippers, Lakers, Warriors, 76ers, bucks.

I'm counting the Warriors with Clay Thompson coming back. Those teams should be NBA title favorites. So that's one group of the NBA buying group. They don't need to buy anybody. Those teams are good enough. Clippers, Lakers, Warriors, 76ers, bucks. Then you've got five total rebuild teams. Oklahoma City, Knicks, Cleveland, Charlotte, Memphis, complete and utter rebuilds.

Okay, they'll give you good players. You may have to bite in a bad contract, but they'll give total rebuild teams. Knicks, calves, gris, thunder, hornets. Then you have these young and promising teams that they're not going to win the championship, but they'll make it interesting. They may win a playoff series or two, kings, pelicans, nuggets, Mavericks. I put the nuggets in this because they are still even next year, super, super young. I don't think they necessarily need more pieces.

These teams, I think, simply need more time. Then there's a bunch of teams that I think need another piece, but they're very, very good. I think Indiana, Portland, and San Antonio, they got the veterans. They don't need time. They need another piece. Portland should move that Hassan-White side contract at the trading deadline to get a Kevin and love. Indiana needs another piece, but they're very good and will win

playoff series. Same with San Antonio. Then you have teams that are, you know, there's also just teams that are just favorites. Again, Clippers, Lakers, Warriors, 76ers, bucks. I didn't count everybody in the NBA. I don't know where I put Utah. But you can always trade a car

because you got the young kid that doesn't have any money. You have somebody that's just looking to get to work and get back. You've got the old people with money, and They want to reward themselves. You've got the family that has kids in soccer practice, and they just need space. You got the single divorce guy who wants to show off but can't afford the nice sports car,

so he buys a used sports car, convertible. There's a million buyers. And there's also, like, 30 NBA teams. There's like seven different groups of teams. Chris Paul and Miami, it really works. You'll be interesting. You'll be better. And you can jet fuel the reboot.

And in Miami, they're not that patient. They're not that patient. Aqual water, beautiful beaches, nice winters, things to do, other pro teams. I love it. I love the move for Miami. Joy with the news. No, no, no, no, no. Turn on the news.

This is the herd line news. Well, it was made official yesterday. Russell Westbrook is a rocket. And Thunder GM, Sam Presti, said in a team release, Russell Westbrook is the most important player in the brief history of the Oklahoma City Thunder. He has left an indelible mark on this team, city and state. None of us could have anticipated the player he has become, and we are all deeply proud of what he has contributed to the success of the franchise and to our community.

That's fair. That's accurate. So the Thunder are being classy with the exit of Russell Westbrook. So, by the way, Westbrook was very classy. Did you see his Instagram post? I mean, well, they should be. I mean, this is a situation where, like I said yesterday, Sometimes you realize that this is the ceiling of the relationship. You had issues from the beginning, and you've all worked through them,

and you thought you could maybe get over the edge with a piece here and a piece there. And this is just what it is. This is all that Billy Donovan and Russell Westbrook were going to be able to accomplish together. And Sam Presti should be in there, too, because they did have some other incredible all-time pieces on the team that are no longer there. So there's plenty of blame to go around. It's not all on Russell Westbrook. But to Russ's credit, Russ was incredible to the community there. Russ has this reputation, obviously, of a villain on the court because of the way that he plays.

And some people like yourself don't necessarily prefer the triple doubles. And like the things in his game that are not aesthetically pleasing or don't go along with what you like to watch in basketball. Off the court, he's been tremendous in Oklahoma City. He won the NBA. NBA CARES Community Assist Award in 2014, 15. he was instrumental with all of the tornadoes and destruction that was there in the area when all of that happens. I mean, and he's Thunder's all-time leader in scoring assists, rebounds, and steals. So he will probably go down as the greatest Oklahoma City Thunder player that had the best career there.

Like obviously Kevin Durant was there, but he didn't have the best parts of his career with the Thunder. Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, this is not a marriage. It's a sports marriage. They're different. You know, marriages are supposed to last forever. That's the construction of them. The construction of professional sports relationships are, it'd be neat to be Jeter. That's the exception.

Yeah, and I mean, that's sports fans imagine that it's going to be forever. Like in the draft, like, okay, this is going to be our guy for the rest of the franchise. He's going to be the next franchise guy. But yes, those situations are incredibly rare. Dan Marino, Jeter. Like, those are not normal situations. You have to get lucky as a player. have to get the right coach. Brady got the right coach. I mean, look, even Michael Jordan.

When you think of the heat, Dwayne Wade, he didn't spend his whole career there. Jordan's a great example on this joy because Michael Jordan's first two coaches and his first roster did not work. So Michael goes in there and they got Quentin Daly and Orlando Woolridge, who are great NBA players, but they're shooters. And Michael's like, I'm better than all you guys. And then they had the wrong coaches. Doug Collins was a little too intense. So they had to get the Zen master. So Michael's first four or five years, there was a lot of headbutting there. And Michael wasn't happy and they they got lucky they found this kid from arkansas named scotty pippin that none of us knew of and they found phil jackson the zen master from you know the cba and then it worked but but michael's a great

example michael could have been westbrook what if westbrook would have got what if they would have kept durant and they get so you need to defend westbrook on this you do need some breaks to be jeter to be coby you need the right coach you need the right brand everything that's has to fall into place. I mean, even if you look at and look, like, I thought that the Raptors were going to be great last year, but you can't deny the Raptors had some incredible all-time breaks go their way. I mean, Kevin Durant, like, it's, it's, things went their way, but they always do to win a championship. It's not, it's not easy to just win a championship every year. So I'm, I'm happy for both of these situations. I think Oklahoma City does need to rebuild.

We've talked about Billy Donovan. Now he has an opportunity to coach a team without Russell Westbrook, so we'll see what he's really about. And I'm actually rooting for. for the Rockets this year because I'd like to see Westbrook and Harden get a ring. It's better to have conversations about all-time greats when they have championships. So I'm also excited for the Pelicans. Their backcourt of Lonzo and Drew Holliday is going to be fun to watch. And Lonzo specifically is moving away from the national spotlight a little bit from the Lakers. And he thinks that's going to provide him a chance to do what he loves most, which is play

basketball. And he reiterated that yesterday. I'm getting back to playing pretty much a style of been playing my whole life. So I'm very comfortable in the high uptempo offense as a close-entry head. So I'm running the best of my abilities. I know the media is not like it was in LA. But I know the fans are great. You know, come out of support. I'm going to put on a show for a fresh start.

I get to go here with two guys that I already custom to, you know, organization, you know, a lot of help. You know, call me right after the trade went through. So, you know, I'm just happy to be here and get back to playing basketball. They're going to be a fast team. Zion runs the court well, Ingram for a big runs it. J.J. Reddick loves to get up and down. J.J. Reddick may be in the best shape of any NBA player. He's like a cardio monster.

Drew Holliday can play both ends. Like the Pelicans, I don't think they're a playoff team, but this really is, this is a team built for Lonzo ball basketball, which is push the ball up the floor constantly. And he's going to have an opportunity to facilitate Zion Williamson, which is going to be exciting for all of us to watch. Now, I don't know how much the media attention is going to go down. It's obviously not going to be L.A.,

but he is playing with Zion Williamson, so we are going to be paying quite a bit of attention to this team. But I think Lanzo is in a better situation for Lanzo. I do too. Lanzo had an unfair amount of scrutiny and pressure on him coming into the league, and you can say some of that is from Lavaar or coming from UCLA and being an L.A. kid, or it's just the Lakers, whatever it was, it didn't work out with the Lakers, and that's fine.

It's something we were just discussing. People move teams and change the course of their career. But this is going to be an offensive system, like he said, that's going to be better for him as point guard. And it just feels like they've wrapped their arms around him. Look at their roster. Okay, so a month ago, they were a dumpster fire. They had a star who wanted out.

They have, by the way, Derek favors analytically, a lot of people like him. Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Drew Holiday, Derek Favors, 800 draft picks, Zion Williamson, and by the way, the center out of Texas, Jackson Hayes, who all my scouts, all my scouts, and I said this before the draft said, that's the steel in the draft. He's going to go like 10th, and you're going to look up in four years, and he's going to be an all-star. No, I think they're going to be championship contenders and quicker than you think. I think within three years. So finally, speaking of Zion, it's probably premature to call it Weightgate,

but the subject of Zion's weight and level of conditioning is starting to loom more. large over the situation and Charles Barclay said that Zion can't play at 280. The Washington Post reported that numerous evaluators agreed that his conditioning needs serious improvement. Quote, there's no nice way to say he has to lose weight.

One scout said, but he has to lose weight. Yeah. Kendrick Perkins weighed in also having a little lighter take on it said Pelicans better lock Zion in the house because I can hear those good people in Norland saying, hey baby, you want some fried gator baby? I'm telling you, I played for the Pelicans. And

It's food everywhere. And by the way, it is great food city. And that's their culture. New Orleans is really proud of their food. And so they're offended if you don't eat it. Yes. I love New Orleans and I love New Orleans food. There's amazing places there.

Amazing. Amazing. Cafe Dumas are nods. Their coffee has calories. Yes. But the thing is, well, all that is true. And I'm sure Zion will indulge from time to time. Zion is already coming into the league

as a full functioning brand and star. He is very aware of the pressure that's on him and it seems like he has good people around him. I'm sure he's not going to be walking the streets, walking down Bourbon Street, trying everything that's available. He's going to be on a very strict diet,

working with the best trainers and nutritionists in the world. And for the record. And he's not there to party. I mean, I'm sure he's going to go. So, Alec, I'm not being delusional, but he's coming in the league with a little bit of a different standard. Look at the history of the NBA. Charles Barkley, Shaq, Magic, all got much bigger when they got out of the league. It's hard to put on weight in the league.

I'll tell you this. I've been told this by NBA players. College is 36 games. NBA is 82. NBA is national travel, not regional. You're tired when you get off the plane. You're not going out to eat. You think you can party, but you have shoot around at 9 in the morning.

NBA guys get into the league and they struggle to keep weight on because you're siphoning through so Zion once the game start with Zion I think he's going to lose 20 like that now the next three months in football season hide him from the Benets but Oliver Miller is a rare player

where he had weight struggles in the league Charles Barkley put weight on when he left magic shack this league is in by the way Joy it's now a cardio league so it's just more running than it's ever been. I understand that he needs to lose weight. This is not a fear of mine.

If he comes into the league and doesn't take care of his body, then we've all been dupes. He's not overweight. He's a huge guy. Like, that's muscle. He doesn't even look like he is an undisciplined eater. Like, he's a specimen. He's just big.

He's going to take care of his body. I joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The herd line news. He was an all-time great college quarterback Danny Cannell. Six years in the NFL. He joins us next.

He'll defend Baker Mayfield. What to make of the Cowboys, Ezekiel Elliott. I say, quietly trade him. T.O. Three teams got better the day he left. That's next, The Herd. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd. Weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Last night, a blown call changed a game.

This morning, the Internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending. Opinions are flying. And nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where sports like. comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode we're cutting through the noise. Breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athletes themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to

hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. 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. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host and your favorite

therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the process. pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing and we're still chasing it and we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross,

because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth or are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me. Join Me, Keir Gaines is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. What's up, fam?

It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano and our podcast Point Game is about defying the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows, without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game.

We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson,

we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nass would get that thing. That man, hell get the fly. He running up the court, licking his fingers why he got the ball, like, after you go through a training camp with that, Isaiah, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court,

and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, guys? This is Clever Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff, like being an internet famous referee.

We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker. This linebacker walks up to me, he goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office, blue of 42. Hey, rep, my mama want you to wave at her. What?

Where's she at? Hey, Ms. Parker. Listen to the Cliverts show on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Danny Canal was a dominant college football star. at Florida State, six years in the NFL, drafted twice in the MLB draft and a fine broadcaster who now has a podcast with Raja Bell, former NBA player, Cannell and Raja Bell host Off the Ben. He's joining us live today in the herd. Danny, first of all, you know I love you. I try, recruited you hard to come to Fox Sports One, but too many people were after you. I want to

start with Zique. NFL is not the NBA. You have to move off stars all the time with tons left in the tank. For the second time in three years, before us, season, the Cowboys now have tension, judicial the first time, financial now with Ezekiel Elliott. Why not move him, get a haul of picks, and go get a durable, solid running back? Because this cowboy team is too good to be sidetracked, in my opinion. I do. I think you have a great idea. I don't think Jerry Jones will do that because of what Ezekiel Elliott means, not only to that locker room, but more specifically to Dackeyescott. I mean, it really is Dak Prescott's security blanket.

what do you mean to that offense is just I don't envision any scenario where Jerry Jones would move him. But I do think you made an excellent observation that I think you are aware of. Look, the NFL is not the NBA. The players don't have the same type of leverage. And yet we're seeing more and more NFL players look at the NBA and think that they're giving them a blueprint of how to get more money, how to get their way on a different team, how to kind of navigate their careers. and it simply doesn't work the same. And until they wake up to the harsh reality that it's not the NBA, there are going to be some guys that are going to lose out on a significant amount of money

because they think they can hold the cards in their hand, like Levyon Bell last year. He thought he had some leverage. The Steelers looked him right in the eye and said, go ahead and sit out. And it cost him $14 million and right the prime of his earning potential. And the contract that he got with a jet isn't that significantly much more money. So I think the NFL players are really looking at a wake-up call right now, and yet they're not realizing it.

You know, there are some analytics that say don't give running backs 25 years old that long contract, and I do think Zeke is rare. I want to ask you about the Cleveland situation because I'm under the impression that veterans win in all sports in the postseason. The Browns have the youngest roster, a rookie head coach. But the O'Dell Beckham situation is fascinating. Jarvis Landry has the most catches after five years of any receipts. in NFL history in their first five years.

They have multiple running backs. They have the best young tied end after George Kittal of the Niners in the league. They got a lot of mouse to feed. I can see Odell Beckham in that first eight weeks, very tough schedule, getting frustrated, not getting the ball enough.

Now, I do think Baker and Odell should succeed. Can you see a situation where it implodes? The defining moment for a team is when you lose two games in a row early in September. When you've been picked, all of a sudden, you're the darlings of the NFL. And I felt victim to this. When they traded for O'Dell Beckham, I was like, man, the Browns can win the Super Bowl. They could take it all. And the more people that have jumped on that

bandwagon, the more likely I want to get off, because the more I've thought about it, first-year head coach, quarterback in just his second year, who really has made some critical mistakes with things that he's said and done off the field. And a very mercurial, teammate and Odell Beckham in the trade. Yes, he's an incredible talent, but this thing is combustible. And if it doesn't go off without a hitch early on, I could absolutely see a team start some infighting, guys start complaining because guys don't change their habits quickly overnight. And I still don't know if Odell Beckham Jr. has learned what it takes to be a professional and a good teammate. And I mean, the way he's treated the New York Giants after the fact since they've left, you've seen him say things.

saying, hey, the only cancer I see is losing. Well, that's what if you're losing in Cleveland? Are you going to be able to handle that? And nothing has given me any indication that this team could handle it. If they win, they'll be fine. But as we all know, very few teams just run the table and everything goes perfect. And you're 14 and 2 when you're starting the playoffs. It doesn't work that way. So I have my concerns about the Brown. I want to shift to college football because you were a great. You love the sport. So do I. But in recent years, last four to five years, I've scaled back some of my coverage because I think the bubble of teams that can win a national title this year is three. Bama, Georgia, Clemson, and I'm not sure who's really close.

I think the sport's gotten, and again, I love the SEC, but I think it's gotten too insular and two southern. I think Denver West, people have turned it off. L.A.'s now got two NFL teams, so USC and UCLA are a second tier story. Are you concerned about college football becoming, and you live in the South, but becoming almost, it's a two to three team race. every year. I am massively concerned about college football. I think it's in an inflection point right now, and they need to do something about it because it is eerily similar to way the NBA has been dominated the past few years by the Warriors and the Cavs. You know, it was them for three or four years playing in the title game. You knew they were going to face there. This year,

you knew the Warriors going to win until they were marred by injuries. But in, you know, and then we're all celebrating this. The Super Team has been broken up and now it's wide open and it's great. I don't see any end to the Bama or Clemson dynasty. And last year's regular season was a snooze fest. Last year's playoffs were a snooze fest. I don't see this ending anytime soon. And I'll give you an example of the difference in the two. So in the NFL, you have 15 teams that are better than a 30 to one odds to win the Super Bowl. So if you're a fan base, you can take a flyer and say, oh, 30 to 1, that's not a bad odds. I'll take that. So about half the teams in the NFL are within 30 to 1 odds. In college football, there's only eight teams that have 30 to 1, 30 to 1 or better

odds. But the thing is, there's 130 teams in college football in the FBS subdivision. And even still, if you whittle it down to the reality of Power 5 teams, it's only going to be 12% of teams that are within those 30 to 1 odds, which still are long shots. We say maybe that could happen. It is. And to me, I would disagree with you on Georgia. I don't think they're in the bubble. I think it's Bama and Clemson and everybody else is looking up to them because if you look at the second half of those games between Georgia and Bama. Bama, yes, they were trailing at half time, but the second half combined the last two times they faced Georgia, it outscored them 47 to 17. So I think there is a big problem in college football. The regular season is the thing I'm the biggest

concern I have. And the only fix to it in my mind is to them to expand to eight teams, which they have been very reluctant to even acknowledge. Yeah, I think college football has another issue. it's called the NCAA. They should shorten schedules, get into conference play sooner. You could dominate September. NFL doesn't play until the second week of September. You could really have 12, 15 huge games from August 20th to September 10th, and they don't.

It ends up being garbage. SEC teams in the middle of the season are playing three cupcake games. It's awful. And the thing I say this, I love college football. So it's something I struggle with in terms of how much do I talk about. Danny Cannell's his name. friend of the show, great talent. Danny and Rajabelle host off the bench, CBS Sports. Great talking to you, buddy. Wish we had more time.

No problem, Con. I'll talk to you soon. Yeah, really, really talented guy. Yeah, I mean, by the way, and I say this whole time, what I talk about on the show isn't always what I love. I love United States men's national team soccer. I like the women, too. But the men, I like watch their friendlies. I watch every man's day play.

But I know you don't care three years out from a World Cup about of friendly against Venezuela. Okay, so I don't talk about that, right? I love college football. I love it. It's, for the longest time, it was my favorite sport. But they basically allow too many crappy games, and I'm not blaming Baman Clemson. I'm not blaming anybody here. In their footprint, there's more good high school players.

The sports become very, very regional. And once it becomes regional as a syndicated host, it's not a national topic as much. And so I'll sit on Saturday for nine hours and watch college football. And then Monday, I can't talk as much about it. You know, that's just the reality of my business. Coming up next, it is remarkable. Some of it's a coincidence. Some of it is not how Kevin Durant's career as of this week is officially LeBron Light.

The coincidences are bizarre. That's coming up next, The Herd. 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, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened.

That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered.

SportsSlice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. 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. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests.

I'm talking. Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing and we're still chasing it and we don't know when we've done enough because people scoreboard watch.

Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth, or are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person.

Join me, Kear Gaines, is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free, Our Heart Radio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. What's up, fam? This Isaiah Thomas. And I'm CJ Toledano and our podcast,

Point game is about defying the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs.

I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reed. He has to guard Julius Rui. Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nass would get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He run up the court, licking his fingers, why he got the ball. Like, after you go through a training camp with that, Isaiah, you figure it out real quick.

Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up guys? This is Clever Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game.

This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue with 42. Hey, rep, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Hey, Miss Parker.

Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Ah, here we go, hour two. This is The Heard, wherever you may be, and however you may be listening. Live in Los Angeles, we're on IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. Joy Taylor is joining me for hour, two. First Hour flew by.

I loved having Danny Canella. I can sit and talk to him for hours about college or pro football. It was also drafted twice in Major League Baseball. One of those guys that could just, he was just a great athlete. And dad was actually an interesting life. Dad's a very prominent doctor on the coast of Florida. And was the Yankees doctor. And so it's not, you know, he's one of these kids that grew up with a pretty good life,

but, like, didn't stop his drive. Like, Danny was just driven, driven, driven. Even when you listen to Danny, he's a fighter and an arguer and a debater. And he's just a great dude. Great to have you in today. Joy, how are you? I'm great. You know, there are coincidences, and then there are things that clearly can't be a coincidence.

I think we all acknowledge when Kobe Bryant came into the NBA, he mimicked Michael Jordan. His game looked like Michael. He sounded like Michael Jordan for about the first eight years. Kobe was Michael Light. Now, I don't blame Kobe. When you watch a young star and you pattern your game after him, you can look like that. I'll give you an example. I'll bring this close to home.

When I was a young broadcaster in my 20s, it wasn't until like I was 32, 33 where I found my style. I was like 10% Letterman, 10% Bob Costas, 10% The Iman, Don Imus, 5% Stern. I didn't know what I was, right? Like I was trying to figure out exactly what I was and what my style was. And, you know, other guys, Joe Buck, since he was, 8, had a style and it was his. It didn't work that way with me. My dad wasn't a broadcaster.

I wasn't around broadcast booths. It took me years in years to kind of figure out my style instead of nibbling pieces from everywhere else. And it's funny about, like, Kobe came into the league, and he was trying to find Kobe while he was doing a really amazing imitation of Michael Jordan. And then Kobe's last eight, nine, ten years in the league, Kobe was Kobe. More dramatic than Michael, took tougher shots than Michael, developed his own style. He was much more fashionable, a little less corporate than Michael was. He really became his own guy, but it takes a while. Kevin Durant has a lot of similarities to LeBron.

And here's where LeBron's a pretty fascinating do. You know, LeBron James walked into this league, and then let's go back to LeBron's childhood. Not ideal. You know, he moved around a lot, a lot of chaos. But yet, LeBron had a very strong sense of self very early. and he's still to this day, I'm going to find the best basketball shot. From the very first day in the league,

LeBron's like, no, no, no, we will take the best shot. I don't have to take it. And a lot of you critics out there, Michael would have taken the shot, and Kobe would have taken the shot, and LeBron's like, that's not my game. It's pretty remarkable that LeBron was 20 years old in this league and already knew himself,

was mature enough to like, this is who I am, this is what I'm, now, and by the way, he's tweaked stuff, but he's never copied as he's tweaked. I mean, he started shooting three-pointers. We never had a 6-9 forward guard that... I mean, LeBron was just an evolver. Like, here's who I am.

I'm comfortable with it. I'm going to get better. I never felt LeBron was like copying anybody. He was just, he was getting better. Kevin Durant feels very much like Kobe early in his career doing the Michael thing. Just think about this. So, Kevin Durant,

rant signs with the Nets, he's, first or second best player in the league doesn't hold a press conference. And he's always been great at press conferences. He's very vulnerable. He's very raw. We've seen him cry. He's a great press conference guy. He doesn't hold the press conference. Well, LeBron didn't hold a press conference in Los Angeles. Now, you think I'm just throwing that out there. But this is the difference with LeBron and KD. why LeBron's going to go down historically better. It's not just the wins. LeBron has a sense of self.

Kevin Durant's always been a little bit of a seeker and a wanderer. Think of how similar to their careers are. Some of it is just happenstance. Both come into the NBA, highly touted, and are exceptional early. They work out together, and they both leave their first team, and it shocks the world. Durant goes to the rival. LeBron goes to Miami. Holds a press conference.

They both join other stars and win two titles, get two MVP's. And they both become the villain of the league when they do it, and they don't like it. Then, after they lose a final to Kauai Leonard, they both bail. And they both join a team, LeBron, Lakers, Kevin Durant, Brooklyn, where basketball's important, but business clearly has an influence. These were not the best teams they could have joined. Both will not hold a press conference because they're now above the press conference thing, even though both are great at press conferences. And I think the first year for both, this is just happenstance, will be defined by an injury.

Kevin Durant can't play in Brooklyn first year. LeBron played got hurt his first major injury. But there are parts of it that feel very much like Kobe Jordan or me and Bob Costas that I'm kind of trying to find my place. LeBron has a show called The Shop with his business manager. And then KD creates a show called The Boardroom, which is the shop without haircuts, and Rich Clim and his business partners on the show.

This is the difference between LeBron and KD. Is that I do believe LeBron has had a huge influence on Kevin Durant's game, brand, and decisions. I feel that Michael had a huge, influence on Kobe's name, brand, game, and decisions. The remarkable thing about LeBron James, he didn't, he loved Jordan, but he never connected with Kobe. He had never had any interest in that because he didn't have Kobe's game.

And he grew up liking Michael, but didn't worship him and wouldn't mimic his game. In fact, he often said, I'm not MJ. I'm not going to take the final shot. That's not what I do. in that I don't blame Durant for this. But we know now Durant's a little bit of a wander, a little bit of a seeker. But here's the difference.

Here's the real big difference. LeBron would not have left the Warriors. No way in hell. Because whereas LeBron left teams, Cleveland, Miami, and Cleveland, that appear to be getting older and worse, Kevin Durant left two really good basketball teams that are young and had years left to win championships.

OK, see, Westbrook and Hardin were both just coming into their prime. No way LeBron leaves the Warriors. LeBron's got two greatest sense of himself and two greatest sense of history in the league. You think that LeBron would bail on Steph and Clay and Draymond and Kurt? There's no way. And I do think fundamentally this is the difference between LeBron and KD. LeBron's got a much greater sense of self. KD tends to be a little bit of a wanderer.

not quite sure what makes him tick. He said this before. This is not me reaching. He said this before. He's trying to find himself. I want a hoop. That's all I want to do. But then it's not all he wants to do because he's incredibly active on social media.

And if he wants the hoop, that's exactly what he could do in San Francisco, was just hoop and hide because Steph's the star of the team, right? It's interesting, no, no press conference for either. Like LeBron did that. And I was like, that's weird. That's the first time I've ever seen in the NBA. Star goes to a team and he just like hides. He didn't show up until the photo shoot.

Where's LeBron? Kevin Durant signs. You're not talking. He's hidden. I think some of it's coincidence. Some of it is LeBron has great influence on KD, whether KD wants to admit it or not.

I saw this story. That's interesting. Baker Mayfield admitted yesterday, a big long article. He wanted revenge against Hugh Jackson. when Hugh Jackson got fired and took a job with the Bengals, Baker Mayfield came out and called him fake and ripped him. And he talked about it yesterday. He doubled down.

Baker said, listen, I'm doubling down on this. I'm not going to lie to you. When we played us, it's human nature to want revenge, and I wanted to get revenge on him. So let me say, first of all, Hugh Jackson did have a right to take another job. But I also think Baker Mayfield just said what everybody else thought in the Brown's locker room. Dude, if you're going to take a job, don't take it into a job.

don't take it in division. That's cheap. So I can see both. Hugh has a right to employment, and I can see Baker saying, dude, a week later, you're against us? You told us we were your guys. I get both sides. Here's what, again, bothers me. I just wish somebody else said it, not the franchise quarterback. Let a wide receiver say it. Let a DB say it. An emotional position player say it. I'd rather not have my quarterback doubling down on calling NFL coaches fake. And I, this is my thing about Baker Mayfield. when you're young, you feel like you've got to win the fight and win the argument and win the Twitter debate.

And then you get older and I just stay off Twitter. And I just sometimes live to fight another day, let sleeping dogs lie. That's just a maturity thing. When you're in your 20s, you want to win every fight, a haymaker, I want to win the argument. And then I'm old now. I just avoid those problems. I don't have the energy to get into fights all the time. You know, a couple weeks ago is a prime example.

Baker Mayfield came out and ripped the Texas quarterback. Remember that a couple of weeks ago? The NFL guy Baker ripped the Texas quarterback. The Texas college kid was asked about Baker's thing and he said, I just, I don't want to, I respect his game. So the college kid wouldn't get involved with the NFL player. The NFL player took a shot at the college kid. The college kid had the mindfulness to go,

I respect his game a lot. I don't want to get involved in this. That's my Baker thing. Now, by the way, cocky, outspoken. great on social media, reactionary. It doesn't mean you can't win a bunch of games. And that's what Baker's going to be.

Variety is the spice of life. I believe in the history of the NFL, quarterbacks that are stoic win championships. Montana, Brady, Roger Staubach. If you look at the quarterbacks I like now, Russell Wilson, I like stoic. I don't like drama.

Big Ben, Aaron Rock. I get a lot of drama. I don't think it helps the locker room. I think we have proof with both. It doesn't help the locker room. I do think that Baker fits Cleveland. Cleveland's trying to prove it's worth its value. Freddie Kitchens had a quote yesterday saying,

the bottom line is Baker's been told no his whole life. He walks into every room every day trying to prove to you he's worth it. At the core of everything is the fact that he's always been told, no, you can't do this. So is Cleveland. So I think Baker is a very good fit with Cleveland. Cleveland's got a chip on its shoulder. They've been beaten down by guys like me forever.

And Baker's got a chip in his shoulder. He's been told no, he's had to walk on. I think the fit works. The downside to being the social media quarterback, the reactionary quarterback, the outspoken quarterback, that will be perceived differently based on wins. When Kobe won, he was a killer. When Kobe lost, he was a ball hog.

His game never changed. When you lose in the NFL and are the reactionary Twitter, take shots at everybody guy, that will land his immaturity around the league. If you're winning, people will be like, I love his edge. Chip on his shoulder. And over the course of 15 years,

and Baker will play that long, it's not linear. It's like most actors' careers. Good movie, bad movie, awful movie, embarrassing movie, nice movie, solid movie, awful movie, great movie. Tom Hanks and Denzel, that's not the way it works. In Hollywood, most of the actors up, down, good role, bad role, clunker, straight to video, win an Oscar. Outside of Brady, that's the way it works in the NFL for quarterbacks.

Like you have lean stretches, great stretches. You get a great coordinator. Kyle Shanahan to Atlanta. Oh, right. Oh, then he leaves. Matt Ryan's like, oh, we're not the same team. Cam Newton, great talent. Winning season, losing, winning, losing, winning, losing, winning, losing.

That's the way it works. And Baker's personality will be loved and defended and embraced when he's winning. But when he's not, it's going to land as immature. And I just think your game is your game in the NBA. Your personality is your personality as a quarterback. And so, you know, yesterday in the last two weeks, actually the last three weeks, Baker's taking a shot at a teammate, had to reel it back in. He's taking a shot at a college quarterback.

and he's doubled down taking a shot on an NFL head coach. Like that's a three-week span. Young guy, win the argument. Honesty is valor, it's power. I think all this Baker stuff, if he wins, we're all going to embrace it. But the minute he loses or struggles, ripping a college quarterback, doubling down on a coach, ripping a running back for wanting a pay raise. I think this is what you're going to get with in his career.

somebody you're going to get with Baker. You're going to get a lot of what most actors in Hollywood have. You're not going to get the Tom Hanks, Tom Brady, the Denzel, the Don Cheadle. It's just this nice, smooth ride. His personality's not built to be smooth. Baker's personality's just not built to be a smooth ride. He'll win a lot of games, and he'll start a lot of forest fires. I mean, he's going to start a lot of fires.

Kevin O'Connor's around the corner next. Really, really interesting. The Ringer NBA analyst has got a couple of fascinating. articles recently on the Harden Westbrook stuff. There's just, Jerry West, by the way, yesterday saying the Clippers, the best organization he's ever worked with. He also worked with the Warriors and Lakers. So we got some pettiness in the NBA as well, and Kevin O'Connor is around the corner.

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. Last night, a blown call changed the game. This morning, the internet lost. its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff

nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicelife-Live 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kier Games.

And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with social. many incredible guests. I'm talking. Trip Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth. Are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely.

And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hard Way. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now.

What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm CJ Toledano, and our podcast Point Game is about defying the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before.

And he knows. Without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense.

And when IT's friends stop by like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nash will get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers why he got the ball, like, after you go through a training camp with that, I said, you figure it out real quick.

Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, guys? This is Clever Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff.

Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker walks up to me, he goes, Hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office, blue of 42. Hey, rep, my mama want you to wave at her.

What? Where's she at? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clifford show on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. podcast. Oh, it's great to have you in. In just three days, one of the greatest fighters of our generation puts his legacy on the line as Manny Pacquiao Battles undefeated world champion, Keith Thurman, in the can't miss

fight of the summer, Saturday at 9 Eastern Live on pay-per-view or order on the Fox Sports app. Oh, my God. I'm going to be in Utah watching this drinking beers. I cannot wait for this. It's going to be a great fight. Kevin O'Connor from the ringer, NBA analyst, one of the really smart guys who covers the NBA. Let's bring him on the show again. It's great to have him. We're so lucky in our business living in Los Angeles. We got all these NBA guys. And we just call him on the phone and say, get over here.

Kevin, it's great to see you again. You wrote an article, we're all this morning waking up, and we're talking about the duos. And we're like, oh, poor Oklahoma City, they just got nothing but draft picks. You make the argument, Oklahoma City may have won the offseason. Yeah, I think with Oklahoma City call, and a number of NBA executives I talked to at the Summer League, and since then, in regards to their offseason, they may have been the winners,

getting 15, they have now 15 first-round draft picks over the next seven years. So one of the executives I talked to mentioned that, Kauai Leonard recruiting Paul Georgia away is what gave them an out in order to trade Russell Westbrook without any backlash. Let's go to that, because I talked about this yesterday, I believe, here's my argument. in the NBA, we're really tough on coaches. If you have a big payroll and you don't win playoff series, you're on the hot seat.

Billy Donovan's the exception. He couldn't win games in the first round. Never rumored to be in trouble because I believe deep within the organization, they knew that Westbrook was great for the community, but wasn't the kind of player that could win them titles. But in a small market, you've got to embrace the quarterback. Cam Newton. You've got to embrace the star. So you believe it gave them a little bit of an out. Sure. Yeah. I think with Russell Westbrook, there's a ceiling on what that team could become.

Westbrook is an unbelievable player. He has proven that. He's gotten better over the years since his days at UCLA as a playmaker to become one of the league's best playmakers. However, with his shot selection, it has never evolved. With his activity off ball, as a cutter, it is not evolved. And his defense still remains incredibly inconsistent. So with those flaws, I think there was a ceiling on what OKC could be. And they were locked into the cap with Stephen Adams getting paid what he was, Robertson getting paid what he was. So for these guys, this was there out. And it turned out to be a gift because had Kauai Leonard not recruited Paul George, you're not getting as many first-round picks as you did. That's what gave OKC so much leverage. And then for Russell Westbrook, similar circumstances where Chris Paul and James Harder are going at each other. And Darrell

Mori is upgrading from maybe what the 35th or 40th of the best player to a top 20 guy. That's the price it takes to pay. So for OKC, you know, it's disappointing for them that it ended this way. It's sad to see this run end for them. But ultimately, they're better off with their their just haul of draft picks, Shea Gildes Alexander, and all the flexibility they'll have moving forward. So Chris Paul is out there. I made the argument this morning that Miami's an NBA quicksand. They're the 17th best team in the league. For two reasons you make the move. You're interesting in a very distracted NBA city. Aquawater and Ice Beach. Miami's like L.A. When or people tune you out?

Butler and Chris Paul is not E-Harmony, but it is interesting, and it's only three years. And the other thing is, you can get a bunch of draft picks for it. I think you have to make that move of your Miami, which sounds counterintuitive to we've got to have Chris Paul. What do you make of Miami and OKC working? By the way, OKC has such a surplus of picks, Kevin, that you could give four away and sleep at night. You know, I think in regards to Chris Paul, there's been conversation about how he's an untradable contract. The reason why that is is because so few teams need a point guard, so few teams would want an old point guard making nearly $40 million. That's what makes him untradable.

But I do think that's sort of distorted perception of what Chris Paul is. When James Harden was off the floor in the last two years, Chris Paul was still averaging around 21, 22 points with 12 assists per 36 minutes, if you extrapolate out his production per minute. So he's still a productive player when not standing off ball while James Harden is dribbling. dribbling the ball. Makes sense why Houston would do that. But for Chris Paul, if OKC takes this into the season or Miami gets him now, I think we're going to start seeing the normal Chris Paul. Just an older version, a little bit worse, but still a really productive player.

So for Miami-Con, I think it makes sense to trade Chris Paul because you're not only getting something back now, maybe one pick, but you're also giving up some Albatross contracts on your own end. So for Miami, it makes sense. But if you're taking this into the season and you have to give something up eventually, I think I'd hold off. You know, we had Ben Simmons. I like Ben Simmons.

And I've said this before. We're trying to make young people what they're not. I have these conversations with my son and my daughter. You are what you are. I'm not changing you. I'll add some occasional sprinkles of wisdom because I'm older. But your game is your game as a kid. And I'm going to let you develop.

And we're trying to make Ben Simmons a shooter. We never thought Magic was a great shooter. He never became a great shooter. And by the way, Magic was an overrated defense. Fender. Magic gave us gifts for six, nine, we'd never seen. I'm, I'm overhearing about Ben can't shoot because he does so many other things well. Now, a lot of people think he was massively overpaid. How does it land for you? He wasn't overpaid. No, I think Ben Simmons already, without a jump shot, is a great player. He's one of the more versatile defensive players in the

entire league. Yes, he is. He is one of the best players in the open floor as a playmaker. He is somebody when he wants to can be a Blake Griffin, Draymond, Dreymond Green, style guy in the pick and roll, setting screens, rolling, picking apart defenses. The problem with Ben is that he mentioned to ESPN earlier this year that he does not see himself as that player. He wants to be more of the playmaking presence with the ball on his hands. But if he's willing to accept that role being a screener, being a guy off ball cutting and doing all the dirty work, he can be a great player for what he is and what he's been so far with Philadelphia. But in regards to the jump shot, it does matter though there's there comes a point where you need to at least be a mild threat off ball and until i mean i think ben simmons shoots with the wrong hand he shoots over 70% of his shots that aren't jumpers with his right hand floaters layups hook shots layups dunks he is a right-handed player shooting with the wrong hand until he switches shooting hands i don't see ben simmons becoming at least an average shooter that's the strangest it's just crazy we do have a lot of americans by the way who right left-handed and do other things uh left-hand

I mean, that's common. But in the NBA, you score mostly with your right hand and then you shoot jumpers with your left. That's a new problem in 2019. It's the wildest thing, but he wouldn't be the only guy who's ever switched hands. Tristan Thompson did. It didn't work out well for him, but he did. Nate Britt, college player, did as well.

So he wouldn't be the first player. And he wouldn't be the only player who may shoot with the wrong hand. J.J. Reddick said on his podcast a couple years ago that he thinks DeAndre Jordan, his ex-teamate from the clippers shoots with the wrong hand. DeAndre Jordan, another guy. over 80% of his dunks are with his right hand, not his left hand, a guy who writes right-handed as well. So Ben Simmons isn't an isolated incident of a guy who just happens to be shooting with the wrong hand.

And he admitted himself to the New York Daily News, I think, in 2016, that he thinks he grew up shooting, that his dad made him shoot lefty, just to give him a bit of variety with his right-hand-dominated game, shooting jumpers with his left hand. Did not work out for him. Dad's trying to be a good dad. Who knew? They don't work out.

Some of it's coincidental, some of it's not. When LeBron creates the shop with his business manager, and then KD creates the boardroom with his business manager, feels like a copy play, right? And I was just saying this morning, it's remarkable how often Katie and LeBron's careers. Kobe did mimic Michael, sounded like him for years.

So you start looking at the difference between KD and LeBron, the similarities, and they're similar. Some of them are just crazy coincidences, both basically lose to Kauai Leonard and then leave their team. But LeBron has generally left teams that were aging, lacked cap space, or the vibe wasn't right. Kevin Durant left young, vibrant Oklahoma City and dominant Golden State. I do think Kevin is a wanderer finding himself.

And I do think sometimes, am I wrong saying, am I reaching saying, like even the press conference with, LeBron didn't hold a press conference with the Lakers. I'd never seen a star go to a team and not hold a pressure. And then Katie goes to Brooklyn and doesn't hold a pressure. Do you ever since there's a mimic thing going on with KD and LeBron? For sure, but why wouldn't there be? I think it's a good playbook to follow for one of the best players of this generation in KD.

What LeBron has done has laid really a blueprint out for other stars to follow with the way they control their own brand, they control their own destiny. And for KD, from a business standpoint, another guy who wants to become a team owner someday makes some sense to adapt what LeBron did. But LeBron never had to go through an injury like KD did. I thought before last season, it made sense for Katie to leave Golden State and go to New York, to run his own team to become the best player in the world, which he's always wanted to be, instead of second best. But after that injury, I still agree with the decision to go to Brooklyn with Kyrie.

That's a great organization. However, I do wonder if at some point there will be regret, whereas with Golden State, he had Draymond and Steph Kari and Clay Thompson to allow him to ease back where there'll be more pressure immediately in Brooklyn. How do you think he'll deal for a year not playing rehabbing and then going on social media and hearing about all these great tandoms? L.A.'s got a couple of tandums. Everybody's got a tandem now. How do you think that'll play KD. for a year? I mean, if it saddens me, I can't imagine how it makes him feel. I mean, it's disappointing, isn't it? How great would have been to also have Katie and Kairie is one of the great duos entering the season where there are so many title contenders, teams that at least have a shot. And it's a shame that Brooklyn, it's unlikely Katie would come back. even if he did, he wouldn't be himself until maybe the following season, you hope.

You know, Joey and I said this yesterday. The one team, I watch all these odds, I am shocked at everybody bailing on Golden State. I still have Looney, Draymond, Clay by February, Steph. DeAngelo Russell's a real player, Steve Kurt Bob Myers. Steff's made everybody work. Clay wouldn't work with everybody. KD wouldn't work. I am shocked.

We do this with the Patriots. Tom's old, I'm bailing, it's the Chiefs. Smart wins. And when your star embraces new and others, I still think the Warriors can win the West. They could, but what's Clay going to look like immediately after he returns in March, April, whenever it happens,

I think for Golden State, there's certainly a chance. DeAngelo Russell is somebody who, in their system, it's going to be really interesting to see how he uses his offball ability, which he didn't get the show in Brooklyn, but is a really important skill for him since his days at Ohio State. But with that said, I still have a hard time putting Golden State with Clay Out with a torn ACL now ahead of the two LA teams and then even other combinations in the West, Portland, Denver, right now, until we see Clay Thompson come back and be healthy. I have a hard time putting them ahead of them.

Do you like DeAngelo Russell as a player? I do. I think Russell ever since his rookie year without Kobe on the floor. Talk about that. The Kobe Farewell Tour ruined a lot of guys' careers that last season. season. And for D'Angelo Russell, look, it's a type of thing where with Kobe off the floor, he was able to run more pick and roll, able to handle the ball. And his stats showed it. And yeah, his per minute production was great. And as Lakers fans know, Russell was productive for them. He just didn't have the opportunity there. And him manifesting it eventually in Brooklyn is really not too much of a surprise. And now he'll get to evolve again in Golden State. Yeah. And I don't think he's hit his prime. I think Russell's probably two years from prime. He still needs to improve in certain areas.

His career best season last year was driven so much by his productivity for mid-range on floaters and mid-range pull-ups. He still needs to improve in getting to the basket. He's one of the worst in the league of getting to the rim, drawing free throws, one of the worst all-time of guys that are high-volume shooters. So for him to become a more consistent player, especially on the playoff stage. You need those free throws. That's the next area. Yeah. Kevin O'Connor, the ringer.

Great seeing you, man. Nice seeing you. Love having you on the show. Joy with the news. Good stuff, no, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. So Mike Dantonie is doubling down on saying the rockets are favorites to win in the West after getting Westbrook, despite the setbacks in the past two seasons.

The Antonio sounds more confident and excited with their chances next year. And he said, anytime you're dealing with a wealth of talent that we have here in Houston, it makes it interesting and at the same time intriguing to see what we can come up with and to see exactly how good we can get. I think we're going to be, and as we were and still are, one of the favorites in the West. If not the favorite, we're going to have a great year. I'm as excited as heck. Still don't go quite to the level that Rob Polinka went to, which is that we must win a championship, or it's not a success.

I feel much better about Rob Polinka's team. I just wish you would say we need to win a championship. I know it seems insignificant, but to me, you need to win a championship. it's been your goal this entire time, has it not? It's just this kind of speak that, well, like, we're just going to be greats. Like, we're not trying to be champions. We're just trying to be greats. Like, the Rockets need to win a championship.

This whole thing is built. It doesn't work. It's a disaster if they don't. To win a championship. Yes. Yes. And that's not even going to, and it's going to fall partially this year on Westbrook and Hardin because we're already going into the season questioning if they can work.

But I still maintain, like, this situation. situation to me falls at the feet of Dan Tony. Westbrook and Hardin have played together before they've known each other since high school. Whether that's going to translate at this point in the development of their games is yet to be seen. But there are a lot of moving parts in this situation. Westbrook's being plugged into a system that's already been rolling a mantra of analytics and three-point shooting. Like there are a lot of roles that need to be assigned and adjustments that need to be made in the playoffs. And to me, that falls on Dan Tony.

I'm rooting for the Rockets this year because I want to see Westbrook and Hardin win a championship and this may be the best situation for them to do that. The downside of the NBA is the Players League, but then when you put a bunch of players who games don't fit, it's now on the coach. That's why I think coaching in the NFL

is more fun than coaching in the NBA. Because it is a players league, and the players get all the love and all the power. But in Houston, none of the responsibility, because Russell can't shoot a three. and Westbrook is going to be watching Harden play. I mean, Harden has one style.

So essentially now, this is what happens in the NBA. Dan Tony's like he has to make it work. And Dan Tony should say, it's a player's league. How come now it's a coach's team in the end? Well, because he's had players. I mean, he cannot go out there and say that he hasn't had the talent that anyone would need to get to a championship. He got to the Western Conference Finals,

led the Warriors 3-2, and Chris Paul got hurt. So Dan Tony can say, I did it and we got hurt. And he had everyone healthy. last year and Durant got hurt. Yeah, no, I mean, there's no... I'm not saying it's all on him. I'm just saying that at one point or another, it can't be, you know,

everyone just doesn't fit into this system and you can't be rigid, like you always said. And as far as Westbrook not being able to shoot a three, he can't shoot a three. He's also an incredible passer. You don't average a triple double without having an incredible amount of assists.

Like, that's how that works. So, I don't see, and he's not a traditional point guard anyway. So I don't necessarily see their game as not fitting. I think that there has to be very clear assigned roles to the rest of the team and a sit-down conversation with Hardin and Westbrook about how they

are going to adjust their games to make it all fit. So we were just talking about this. Ben Simmons just got some issues with the jump shot. I think we can all agree on that at this point. But he has been working on it this offseason. Teammate Tobias Harris recently posted some workout pictures and they show Simmons wearing what appears to be shooting gloves.

The gloves that help maintain proper shooting mechanics and open your follow-through. He just got a five-year, $170 million contract extension, which I don't think is too much money. Ben Simmons is a great talent. But they were knocked out of the Eastern Conference semis for the second straight year. And the jump shot remains kind of a mystery as to how that's going to be about. It's an enigma. I saw a video this week. He took nine straight threes, missed eight of them badly.

It's not close. But to your point that you made, I think, a week ago, or maybe two, you know that. Like, this is who Ben Simmons is. This is not a mystery. It's not, we're not at the beginning of his career trying to figure out if it was just a college thing. Like, this is real life. So build your team around him. If you're going to pay him and keep him, build your team around him with shooters.

I don't like the construct of this team at all. I think the talent's great. I like everything about the team. I don't like what they're building. Simmons works with an open lane. They have the biggest, strongest team in the league down low. I don't like the construct of it. I know I can bag on Westbrook and Hardin.

Philadelphia's got the same issue with more players, which is I don't like the construct. It feels a little bit like Boston where you have too much of a good thing, Boston last year. Now, Kyrie obviously seemed to be an issue there with, you know, changing up the game plan and all that. It's not that. Ben Simmons doesn't seem to be difficult to coach. It's just the setup of the team is not what works for him. So finally, we were just talking about Baker Mayfield And his big article that just came out

He was talking about his new teammate Odell to Mina Kimes And he said he's here to work And he wants to be surrounded by people who love and support him And allow him to be himself He's here to play in front of fans who actually care Who will actually show up to every game And pack the stadium and love him for who he is Giant fans don't care?

I find this quote to be so odd. Like, I really don't understand it. I'm a big Baker supporter. I thought he should have been starting from the beginning of the season. I have no problem with his antics. I think he's great for the league. He's a star, and I'm looking forward to watching

the Browns this year, and I hope they're successful. That said, what is he talking about? Like, there are certain fan bases. I'm a Dolphins fan. Okay, if you take a jab at a Dolphins fan, okay, I can assure you, we don't care. It's Miami.

We're probably watching the game, sitting in the pool. watching the TV outside by the pool drinking a margarita. We're not at the stadium. Big deal. It's hot out. So maybe we just decided to stay home or go to the local tiki bar. By the way, home attendance last several years.

Giants were like fourth in the league. Yes. 2018, they were second in the league. Yeah, 2018, they were second in the league. I mean, it doesn't make sense. Overall attendance ratings. And then home attendance, they were fourth in the league. I don't get this jab.

Like, never in my life in any sport. where you'd like name a fan base that you feel like is not like loyal and doesn't attend. I would never name any New York team. It doesn't even. No. No, the Knicks still sell out the garden. Yes. And it's been a tire fire for 20 years.

Yes. I don't. It's just such a strange. Like the supporting and allowing him to be himself thing that I understand. Clearly the Giants had moved off and there were some issues. But attendance? Joy with the news. Well, that's the news.

And thanks for stopping. I'm back. The Herd line news. Matt Mosley, inside the Cowboys, covered him for years, joins us next. The latest on Zeke, financial tension. Two years ago, judicial tension. What do you do with Zeke, Matt Mosley next to Heard? Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd, weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting. through the noise. Breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them.

Listen to Sports Slice 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. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped.

up in the chase, that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth. Are you a good person because you're afraid?

Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, is we have real conversations about. How healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hard Way. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now.

What's up, fam, it's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast, Point Game is about defying the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows without Luca and Austin. And Reeves, I got to manipulate the game.

We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nash would get that thing. That man, hell get the flying.

He running up the court, licking his fingers, why he got it? at the bar like, you go through a training camp with that Isaiah, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, guys? This is Clever Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me, he goes, A, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her.

What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue with 42. Hey, rep, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Where's she at? Hey, Ms. Parker. Listen to the Clifford show on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

By the way, Discover at Miles card. Match the miles you earn end of the first year. 35,000 becomes 70. Discover it Miles. Limitations apply for new card members only. Learn more at Discover.com slash travel. Great to have you in. So it's one of these lists.

This is the time of the year when, you know, we're all trying to fill space for two weeks until NFL training camp start and get all these lists out there. And all that. So one of these lists, this will get a lot of attention. And fans will just love this is James Jones, former NFL player, good buddy Aaron Rogers, former Packer, nice career now at the NFL Network,

came out with his five best wide receiving duos. And I don't have any real problem. I only have one little tiny problem. Odell and Jarvis Landry are number one. Listen, they're quick. They can catch. They separate, no problem. Stefan Diggs, Adam Thielen.

I'd probably put them number one in terms of over-the-top deep threats. They're remarkable. Thelan's story is absurd how he got into the league and how he dominates. Totally, everybody, nobody saw him in college. It's amazing. It's one of the great stories in the league. Keenan Allen, Mike Williams, Chargers. Very good.

When Keenan can stay healthy, they're very good. Rams is weird. Brandon Cook's Robert Woods. Cooper Cup. is far more valuable than Brandon Cooks to the football team. I'd say Cooper Cup and Robert Woods and Brandon Cooks. And again, Cooper Cup was hurt last year. He's more valuable by far than Brandon Cooks.

And then Raiders, Antonio Brown, Terrell Williams, who came from the Chargers. I don't have any real, again, that's fine. I don't care. But this is what's funny. Let me ask you, are the Raiders or the Vikings or the Cleveland Browns like Super Bowl favorites? not really. This is a classic list that will get attention. Here's the list I care about.

Pro football focus came out with the best offensive lines in the NFL. Philadelphia, Dallas, Pittsburgh, Tennessee, Colts, Patriots, Saints, Packers, Bears, Carolina. Those feel like Super Bowl teams. But nobody wants to talk about offensive lines. Here's what you don't see with all those wide receiving cores. Where's Cleveland's offensive? line in that top 10. Where's Minnesota's offensive line in that top 10? Where are the Chargers offensive line and then top 10? Where is the Raiders? All these wide receiver

groupings, none of their offensive lines are top 10 in the NFL, and none of them have mobile quarterbacks. And so you can have these great wide receivers. But if you have an immobile quarterback in a below-average offensive line, wide receivers don't have the time to get open. I will tell you, I think the dark horse team in the NFL is Tennessee. Tennessee was playing to get to the playoffs last year, and Marcus Marietta couldn't play week 17. They beat the Cowboys in New England badly.

I think they're going to beat Cleveland in week one. I've already made my bet on it. I got four and a half points. When you look at the top ten offensive lines, those feel like more Super Bowl teams. When you look at the best wide receiving duos, they just look like exciting teams. The offensive line pro football focus, and I think they do as good a job on offensive line grading as you can possibly do for a guy like me who doesn't really know offensive lines. But Philadelphia should be considered, by the way, a Super Bowl favorite.

And the Colts are one of three teams in the AFC and the Patriots. The Saints and the Packers and the Bears are all getting odds in the Super Bowl. They have a real chance to, like I see the offensive lines. list and I'm like, those teams feel like playoff teams. Half of the other list don't feel like playoff teams. Yeah, I feel like the other list is like just is not taking this into consideration. Because looking at the other list, I would, I would have put the Saints up there. But that makes sense because the Saints offensive line is in the top 10.

So the Saints don't have as flashy a receivers as all these teams. But the Saints have, I could argue the Saints have the second best, first or second best offensive line in the game. So when you give me all the wide receiving duos, yes, Odell and Jarvis and Brandon and Robert Woods, but you got to be great up front in this league. I've said this for years. Quarterback's the most important player in the league. The O line is the most important unit in the league. And football's a unit sport over a player sport. New England has dominated this league for 20 years. It's not because of Brady, because they never have a bad offensive line. Tom left one year with a broken leg. They still won 11 games because their offensive lines

always great. Philadelphia doesn't have the best running backs. It's running back by committee. They have a great offensive line. The Saints brought seven young players two years ago into the league. Kids, rookies. Why did it pop? Because they were solid up front on the offensive line, giving Breeze time to create a running game with rookies, create a passing game with we just don't pay attention to, we don't pay attention to the big uglies up front. That pro football focus list is way more important than that duo wide receiver list, which is fun. I still think. I think Odell will be really good with Landry, but I will say this.

Jarvis Landry has more catches his first five years in the NFL than any wide receiver ever. They have the best young, tight end or second best, David Njoku. They have two and eventually three great mouse to feed at running back. And Baker has got to keep all of them happy. And think of those Jarvis stats where Jarvis was getting those numbers. That makes it even more impressive. So Odell's going to go there in that duo, but their offensive line, the Browns have really weak tackles. They're good guard, center guard.

They're really below average at tackle. And Baker's not mobile. And Odell likes to go deep. And Baker's not going to have a lot of time. And if you look at the pass rushes, Baltimore, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh in division have real pass rushes. So that one's going to be very interesting. I think Jarvis and O'Dell are talented, but if Baker didn't have a ton of time to throw, do you watch the Chargers play the Browns last year?

Chargers, two good pass rushers, they engulfed Cleveland up front. Cleveland's bad at tackle, left and right. Third hour, Matt Mosley, talking Cowboys next. 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. columnist for the Dallas Morning News and a good one, Matt Mosley, host of the Doom Day podcast with one of my friends Edwarder, who I think that's one of the great football podcasts in America,

and Matt's joining us. I know I'm in the minority in Dallas, but the NFL, Matt, has been a league for years and years where you move off Brett Farr, Joe Montana, Peyton Manning, and they go out and win a bunch of games. Is there anybody in Dallas right now that is tired enough of Zeke from judicial to financial headaches that would move off him? No, they're not. They're not, man. And I've been listening to you.

And this is an interesting take. And I promise you, I will be at Oxnard to go wall-to-wall coverage if he holds out. But I think there's about a 2% chance that he doesn't show up down there the 25th, whenever they fly in. He's going to be there because Dak is going to be in his ear. And Dak is going to bat for him right now. And like, hey, you've got to pay all of us.

and none of us are taking cuts. And Dax's going to tell him, hey, I'm going to have a little bit harder time being in your corner if you don't show up and be with us. So I would say, you know, while it's a very interesting thought process, they don't know how to operate without this guy. They've built everything in this offense around him. They don't have the faith. They're about to pay a guy $30 million a year, and they have no clue what Dack would be without Zeeke. and Dak knows that too. So, I mean, Jerry is pretty dug in on Zeke.

And so there's a better chance, Zeke. Zeke may be, he may be pretty smart here, because right now he is as valuable as he'll ever be to them. And so a little holdout threat two years early is not as crazy as it seems because he is at the zenith. He's at the top of his leverage point right now. and I think I promise you I think they could soften Jerry a little bit if they truly didn't show up I just don't think Zeech's wired that way Zique is not his own man Zeeke kind of goes around he's a

friendly sort of a little puppy dog kind of guy he is under Dax Bell and he will do I think what Dack advises him to do and that'll be to show up at the start of camp of all these great young players because i believe dallas and i'm not sure there's anybody quite as close has the best young football players in the nfl they can't pay them all who doesn't get paid here probably like byron jones a cornerback that puts up tremendous uh you know they the the all the pf and all these things they puts up you know he's he's but he doesn't intercept the ball i mean if you're not making plays you can you can you can shut guys down at all, but if you're not getting your hands on a football ever, these guys don't

make interceptions. So you may see him have some issues getting paid. And we'll take a look at Jaylen Smith. You're so down the road. I mean, that's a great young linebacker. But, you know, he's a guy that somebody else might go crazy over. They were patient. They've let him go. But I don't know how you could give a linebacker like that huge money. I mean, they just don't do it. I mean, over the years, you name me. some huge money linebacker the Cowboys have had. It just doesn't happen. And Sean Lee, you know, got a decent deal, but it wasn't enormous money.

So, you know, with the way Vanderres is coming on, the two guys that might be odd been out right now would be Jalen Smith and then that Byron Jones, who is an excellent quarterback, but the band never makes interceptions. You know, how is it playing? Listen, from what you're saying is Zeke and Dak are both going to get their money, You know, the DAC thing, we've talked about this on the show. He sold a lot of jerseys and kept the Cowboys on TV for three years

and made roughly what a DJ in Dallas does. He made Jerry a fortune, the anthem controversy. He defended Jerry Jones, the owner. Like I get Jerry saying, we're keeping him. He really, there was some anthem stuff about two years ago and DAC did something very unpopular on social media. He defended his owner. When does Dak get paid?

If you're telling me, Zeek's going to get paid, when's Dak going to get paid? That gets first. Dax's going to get first run at this. But Dax's using his enormous leverage right now to help his teammates and make sure Amari and Zika are taking care of because all these guys know what the Cowboys do. You've made the point. It's this guy's 28 and then he's looking for his money and he's past his prime a little bit. That's why Zeeks threaten the holdout.

He knows that too. He knows the way they treated to Marco Murray. This guy was on top of the world. This guy put up huge numbers, rushing, you know, rushing crown. And they let him walk. And Zeke knows that could happen to him. And that's why he's thinking my best chance to get money is right now why they base everything around me. So, you know, the best strategy for all of them might be Dak, Zeke, and Amari, three-headed holdout.

And then we'd be all over that, Colin. I mean, that would be – then we'd be having some fun. You just kind of pull in together. But that won't happen. And they got to take care of the quarterback. So he gets his 30-mill a year. And boy, he made a statement about a week or two to USA Today. Do you see that?

Yeah. He's like, hey, I'm not taking any pay cut. I'm not taking a, I'm not doing a team-friendly deal with the Cowboys because I'm going to get a broadcasting job someday. I don't care about any of that. You know, they can, and his whole point is the cap's going to go up. Gambling's coming in the NFL. These guys are getting smarter and smarter.

I mean, you know, he's like, they've got billions and billions. of dollars these owners. So the players are like, really? You're going to try to do some kind of PR thing with me publicly and make me look greedy for taking the full deal? Dax's not playing that game. And he said so about a week and a half ago. So I think you'll see Dax still get done first, then Amari, and then Zique. Now, when will Zique have the nerve to hold out? Because you've got to watch that. Look at what happened to Levyon Bell. I mean, he may have eventually got some money, but he held out a whole season, and they kind of were able to stay afloat without him. And that would be the hard part.

If Zeke dug in his hills, could the Cowboys stay afloat without him? I think it would be a lot harder than it was for the Steelers. Matt Mosley, listen to his podcast with Edward, or they're both fantastic, very tight in. It's called the Doomsday podcast, Dallas Morning News columnist. Love having you on the show. When you're out here for Thousand Oaks, stop by the show. Love to put you on the show and on the couch. Okay, I'm going to hold you to that.

Yep. We'll go grab some beers. Texas-sized beers. Matt Mosley, good stuff. Listen to his podcast with Word, or it's great. All sorts of information about the NFL and the Dallas Cowboys. Okay, we got Sean Merriman. Today's a national holiday.

Well, it's not national holiday. There's two national days today. It's a national day. Oh, there's two. Yeah, the one I do not recognize, though, which is National Hot Dog Day, and I don't participate in that. I hate hot dogs. But the other one? Very important day.

Yes. And it's real? Yes. And we'll discuss that and best for last. Plus Sean Merriman. 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. Good to have you in today.

All sorts of stuff. Sean Merriman likes Baker Mayfield's cockiness a lot, I'm told. Likes it a lot. I'm very excited. 50 days out. 50 days out, Joy, from the Bears Packers game. I think that's on Fox, isn't it? Or is it?

Yeah. What game's that on? NBC? I never heard of them. All right. And then Arizona, Denver Rookies report today. Camp opened it about a week. I've said I think in the NFL I always have these Super Bowl bubbles.

I think eight teams are in the Super Bowl bubble and then 11 teams are just on the outside of the Super Bowl bubble. And my teams in it are the Chargers, the Chiefs, the Colts, the Patriots, Philly, and the Rams should be favorites, don't need to make changes, can suffer a couple injuries. Then I think there's a bunch

of teams on the outside. Atlanta, Minnesota, Tennessee, Steelers, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Green Bay, Dallas, Houston. They've got a major flaw. We'll need a break. Maybe not as talented at quarterback, not as great at coach. They need a fluke win. They need to stay healthier. They need a rookie or two to pop.

But that's my bubble. Six teams should be favored. Chargers, Kansas City, Indy, New England. AFC, Philly, Los Angeles. NFC and an 11 bubble teams. And I also said, I think there's five teams that are talented enough that you can make the argument at the bar that you can win a Super Bowl, but I don't give you much of a chance. And I think Cleveland's one of those teams, but they're too young. The Jets are one of those teams, but they've had too many changes.

The Jaguars are one of those teams, but they have too much Andrew Luck and Deshaun Watson on the schedule. Carolina is one of those teams, but they're always too inconsistent. And Baltimore is one of those teams, but their ceiling is too low. So all in, 22 at 32 teams have an argument feel like at least. Last five, I think, is pretty delusional, somewhat delusional. But that's a good sport when you have that many people under the tent feel they can win big. It's what the NBA regular season is going to bring us next year. It's what college football, by the way, doesn't have right now, which is depth of national championship contenders.

In college football, Bama, Clemson, Georgia feel like overwhelming favorites. and I'm not sure out of the 130 college football teams, I'm not sure who's close to those three. Coaching, personnel, momentum, depth. I don't sure anybody's close. I think Michigan's good. Washington's interesting. Oklahoma's going to be Oklahoma

and Texas is probably one year away. Here's Joy with the news. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. So Boston fans want to erase the drama of last season from their memory. And Ennis Cantor is trying to do that as well for Celtics fans.

He will wear number 11, which was Kyrie's number. In fact, Nike did a little commercial with Kyrie last year. Let's take a little listen. He's the reason I wear number 11. I want to be the reason no one else will. You want to swim? I'll never give up. You know that.

So his kind of pitch that he was going to be there forever. And obviously that did not last. It did not. Well, Ennis Cantor spoke to the media today. Let's take a little listen to him. Oh, brother. The choosing of your jersey note. Why did you pick number 11? Well, it was by

an old jersey number, by the way, number 11. And I want to be the reason that no one else way. I had to say it. So he has jokes, but Celtics fans do have a lot of Kyrie jerseys, so they've become very innovative of how to keep them without how

having to buy New Jersey's with canter on them. So this is what they've decided to do. Listen, there's so much peddiness. Well, yeah. It's fine. It's fans. I have no problem with this. Kyrie decided to leave, and he did say that he was trying to stay there forever,

which is never really necessary to say, especially in today's NBA, that you don't have to say they're going to be there forever. You're here now. You're going to do what you need to do and moved on. I don't really, I don't, I mean, I'm not speaking for Boston fans. Obviously, I'm not a Celtics fan, so I don't know how they really feel. Oh, Boston's better. They're better about everything.

Boston's bitter about everything. I mean, okay. Well, I can't really tell them out of the field. I don't think if there's anything to be bitter about. It just didn't work out. There were a lot of moving parts there. Have you ever listened to Boston Sports Radio? It's six in the morning.

They're angry. Who's angry at six in the morning? I barely have my coffee there. I mean, they have enough championships in that city to maybe, you know. Not be angry all the time. But they're at least Cantor's endearing itself. Itself expands there. So we'll see.

But he has a New Jersey. So, also, I don't know about you, but I'm excited for the Pelicans this year and to the backcourt of Lonzo and Drew Holiday. And for Lonzo specifically, it's kind of moving into a different phase in the national spotlight, not necessarily Los Angeles, but he's going to have some eyes on him because of Zion. And he's looking forward to just playing basketball, and that's what he said yesterday. I'm getting back to playing pretty much the style of him playing my whole life. So I'm very comfortable in the high uptempo offense. That's a close entry head. So I'm going to run the best of my abilities.

I know the media is not like it was in LA, but I know the fans are great. You know, come out of support and I'm going to put on a show for him. Fresh start. I get to go here with two guys that I already cut them to, you know, organization, you know, a lot of help. You know, call me right after the trade went through. So, you know, I'm just happy to be here and get back to playing basketball.

I think that Lonzo and Zion are going to put on a show in New Orleans. Obviously, Lonzo is an incredible passer and just all around great facilitator. He had great leadership qualities, which LeBron clearly showed that he appreciated towards the end of his time there in Los Angeles. And in Gentry's offensive system, he's going to be more of a pure lead guard. So he's excited about it. I think that the Pelicans have done an amazing job turning around. It would look like it was going to be a very desperate situation in New Orleans. Actually, it's going to be a good defensive team.

Drew Holliday is great. Yes. Derek defends. Ingram's a better than average defender. Juanso is a good defender also. Not bad. So Zion's not a bad defender. size alone. He can put a body on people. The Pelicans will not be a well-oiled machine for a while,

but they'll D up. You watch, they'll be a top five, top six NBA defensive team. And for the record, young teams that play hard and play defense, you can win a lot of NBA games on effort in this league. Somebody flies it in New Orleans. They go out and have a good time. They show up in the arena and you out, Mike Dunleavey told me this once. He goes, if you got, if you have guys that play hard every night, if you just got that, he goes, if you got any scores, you can win 40 games in this league. Pelicans are going to be one of the younger, more talented, and their defensive teams, they'll lock you down. I also think, I mean, maybe this is just me, but I don't feel like the pelicans have an insane amount of expectations on them for the next, not even for the next few years.

Zion coming into the league, I think if he had gone to, say, the Knicks or another more high-profile team, it would have been a different situation. Or they east. Right. In the West. So I think that you're looking at New Orleans, like this is a good place for Zion. They're going to be a fun. young team with a lot of upside. I don't think the pressure is really going to amount for him for a few years, which is really good for him. And speaking of that, the subject of Zion's weight is being

much debated. Charles Barclays said that Zion can't play at 280. And the Washington Post reported that numerous evaluators agreed that his conditioning needs serious improvement. There's no nice way to say he needs to lose weight. One scout said, but he has to lose weight. Kendrick Perkins weighed in as well.

Sweeting Pelicans better lock Zion in the house. I can hear those good people in Norris. Orleans saying, hey, baby, you want some fried gator? I'm telling y'all, I played for the Pelicans, and it's food everywhere. Gator is actually very good. Have you ever had? No, have not. Benyets, they have good coffee. They have great oysters. Yes. But, of the food, New Orleans is incredible. I think it's being a little bit exaggerated that Zion's going to go to New Orleans and

eat his way out of the league. He's aware of what his body type is, and he's not out of shape or overweight in any way. He just needs to drop a few pounds, lean up, because it's a lot of wear and tear on your body and he is a forceful player. That's the only thing that anyone's worried about. We all saw his shoe explode. I think he's aware his shoe exploded as well. It was on his foot. He's going to be working with the best nutritionists and trainers in the world.

I don't have any fear that he's going to keep his body in shape. He doesn't seem like an undisciplined guy. He loves playing basketball. I don't look at him and see a guy that's just going to go to New Orleans and let himself go, despite the fact that it has some of the best food in the world. You should try Gator sometime. It's really good. I had a friend in college

he called himself, Gator. Gator and I had some good time. I'm sure. Never been a guy nicknamed Gator. Gator that does not have good times. That is true. A joy with the news. Well, that's the news.

And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd Lie News. The name was Jimmy. We called him Gator. I didn't realize until two years in, he was the college pot dealer on campus. It was my roommate. Two years, huh? Your roommate?

Well, I had to clean. It was my Saturday to clean. Cleaning, looked at a big hefty bag, opened it up. It's like 75 weed bags. I had no idea. Had Pablo Escobar living with me. No idea. That was Gator.

Gator was a good time. I have no idea how to properly respond to this. I'm not saying anything. Sean Merriman, get out here. Sorry for the weird segue as I talk about my drug dealing gator roommate in college. By the way, he was a good time. I loved it. Apparently so.

Then I figured out why it was always such a good time. So Baker Mayfield's cockiness. So he took a shot. a college quarterback a week ago. The college guy's like, I'm not firing back. He took another shot at Hugh Jackson today, doubled down. He likes to take shots at people, but you're okay with cockiness in Cleveland. Yeah, yeah, I love it. Um, you know, one of the biggest things, especially when you have an organization that's been losing for so long. Yeah. You need these guys in the locker room. You need the attitude. You need the big personalities because without that,

you don't have a momentum shift. You've been losing for, you know, for so long, you can walk in there And it feels like a morgue. I mean, I take it back to when I was released by the charges. And I went to Buffalo, to the bills. And when I got there, I just, I looked around the locker room and it just, it was some guys in there that was okay with losing. It was a dead locker room. Yeah, it was a dead locker room.

And I remember Buddy Nix, who was a general manager there, who also was with the charges at the time who brought me in, he said, look, they knew that I wasn't going to be the player that I was. They knew I came over there and I was hobbling around. but they needed my attitude in the locker room. That's what he told me. They wanted me in the locker room. So when you have a Baker Mayfield,

when you have a juice laundry, when you have Odell, it's going to be an exciting. Those are culture changes. Culture changes. You know, it reminds me a little of Kurt Schilling and Manny Ramirez. Boston had talent for years. And then outspoken Kurt Schilling came in

and crazy Manny Ramirez. And they changed the culture. Like Kurt Schilling's like, give me the ball. I want to face the Yankees. I'm breaking this stupid curse. And Kurt Warner, by the way, in his own way did it in Arizona.

I'm just changing the, and you said that. So the whole Baker thing is to you, it may not fit in Pittsburgh, though. No, it's not going to work there because they have a system, right? And a culture. And a culture that's been working for a long time. It wouldn't, you know, it wouldn't work there. So when I seen Baker Mayfield drafted as high as he did and everybody was shocked, I wouldn't shocked.

I wouldn't shocked at all. There wasn't another quarterback that was going to be drafted that year that will fit better in Cleveland than Baker Mayfield. so that all made sense. And now, you know, for one, it's only cocky when it doesn't work out. Right. If he goes out and he plays well this year, and he's just extremely confident. He knew and felt great about the things he's saying.

Now, if it doesn't work out, then it becomes cocky. But if it does, not only will, you know, kind of this attitude spread across a locker room, it's going to spread across the offense. It's going to spread across the defense. And the whole team is going to kind of, their morale is going to change. We shift to the Dallas Cowboys. Two years out from a contract, Zeke's like, Pay Me. Well, they got a bunch of good young guys, and they're all mostly need to get paid.

So somebody's not going to get paid. Two years out on a contract, that's a long time. I've generally argued for running backs a year out, if you're great Melvin Gordon, by the way. He's been a workhorse in college, a workhorse. He's not overachieved, but he's achieved to his first round draft pick. and he's good. And he's been a great locker room guy. Never a headache.

They've leaned heavy on him as Philip Rivers is aged. What do you do with Zique? What if you run the Cowboys? What do you do? This is the problem with Zique. One of the scariest things for organization to do is pay a guy that's been having repeated off the field problems. It's a real issue.

It's a real issue. You can be fine. You can have antics on the field. You can get in trouble on the field. You can be O'Dell Beckham and throw a goal post and do everything. You can do all that stuff. But if you're repeatedly getting in. trouble off the field, they're saying to themselves, well, you don't even have your money yet,

and you're already doing this. What happens when we give you money? So I don't think that's going to stop the Dallas Cowboys from possibly paying them, but it's definitely a contract negotiation leverage point for them. You know, it is interesting, is that, Sean, we forget sometimes, these are all 20-year-old men, okay, and it took me a long time to find myself. You were in a lot of these locker rooms. There are just, Zeke's dad came out and said, he's not ready to be a star in this league.

Like the dad did. He's like, and by the way, Johnny Mansell's dad came out and said, Johnny's not ready to be a star in this league. I'm worried about him. Nobody knows the son like the dad, right? So Johnny Manzell and Zeke's dad said,

this could be, and by the way, they were both right. Johnny capsized and Zeks had trouble. When you were in the NFL, go back to your career. You can name names or not name names, but maturity's not teachable.

Plays and tackling are. Did you ever go into an NFL locker room and you loved a player and he was good, but you just knew. Childhood, personality, he was just trouble. Well, you know, I was one of the youngest drafted, if not the youngest drafted, player at the time. And I struggled early on. I mean, I have a Pro Bowl rookie year, right? You double did the sacks, double did the sacks, double did the sacks, and even though I was mature in some areas, I was still mature in other areas. Because a lot of things are coming at you, right?

And so you're still trying to figure this thing out. You're still trying to figure out, okay, who do I have around me? What things should I should and shouldn't be doing? Now, I didn't have repeated situations over and over and off the field. You know, I've had my run-ins, but, you know, once you do that, you wise up real quick because you know that that next path is not going to be good for you. Who took you aside and said, you've got to shape it up, dude, are you going to get run out of here? Well, it was me.

It was me. I mean, I had a bunch of older guys on the team, and, you know, I had LT around and I had Lorenzo. I had Lorenzo, I had a bunch of older guys. But, you know, it was me. I just said, look, I got to grow up. I got to separate myself from some of these things. And mind you, a team is okay. If you're growing up, right, you get in trouble once or twice.

They say, you know what, he's learning how to be an adult, learning how to be a pro, right? When it's three and four times and your contract is up, they're hesitant to give you 35, 40 million dollars guarantee. Hell, yeah, they are. No matter how good you are. Right. And you were a pro bowler. Yeah. And there's back and forth and push and then resentment.

And all right, I got to ask you this. So the Madden rankings come out. And, you know, when I do my thing for a living, there's media critics. And I don't pay much attention because it doesn't matter. I would think Madden ratings wouldn't matter to a player because it doesn't get you paid. But I'm being told by players Madden rankings matter. Absolutely. You know, and I see some of the guys that seem,

Keenan out on the other day say that he wouldn't play because his matting rankin was so low. I feel him. Well, you know, 100% because, you know, growing up as a kid, you always want to be on the video games. You thrive to be on a video game. And you're coming out and, you know, you have a guy that's back-to-back pro bowler and had these big stats and stuff like that. And you ranked 87 or 89.

You're like, hold on. I'm not in the 90s at least. What games were they watching? You know, I was fortunate enough that I think I had a. 98 or 99 a couple of times in the game. And I was like, okay, I'm okay with that. Now they can deduct me down the road. Yeah, they can hit me down the road when I'm running around here like a scarecrow on one leg.

But right now, when I'm at the peak my game, I want to be mentioned up there with some of the greats in the game. Isn't that funny? Here's the Madden NFL 20 quarterback ratings. Mahomes 97. I don't have any problem with that. Brady 96, Philip 94, Breeze 92, Luck 92, Wilson 91. Russell's a little low for my taste. Aaron 90, Matt 89.

Ben 85 seems they got Ben and Cam Newton essentially the same score. Well, Cam was coming off of injury. I like Ben more than Cam. Yeah, you can say that. I like, by the way, boy, they got Carson Wentz at 82.

Again, he's coming off injury. Yeah, that's the thing. Once you have an injury, they will drop you. I remember going from my 90s to like a mid-80s in one season after an injury. So they'll drop you pretty fast for injury. Good season. you, bud.

Good seeing you, too. Sean Merriman. Coming up today is a national holiday. Well, it's not a national holiday. It's a national holiday. This is a national day. It's a national day. That's a good way to put it.

It's a national day today. It's two. It's hot dog day, which we will not acknowledge, join I. I should not acknowledge that, no. No, that's not, no, no. We're not hot dog people. But it's also emoji day. Yes.

And we're going to celebrate that coming up next and best for last. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd, weekdays and noon. Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. My staff told me today is World Emoji Day, five years ago, celebrating every July 17th, World Emoji Day. I love emojis. I send them all the time. Goulet, anybody who talks to me, I'm sending my emojis. It's a global celebration of the greatest or laziest form of communication ever invented little symbols for words. I use them all the time with my daughter, my wife, my kids, my friends. So Goulet, we're going to play a game. You're going to have an emoji, and Joy and I hold up a car.

for what we think it symbolizes, and here we go. All right, first one. The crown emoji symbolizes a king. Put our cards up? LeBron. I reluctantly say LeBron, because I want to be more creative, but that's what I think. That's his nickname. It is, and it's his logo and, like, everything.

It's everything, yeah. He uses that emoji, by the way, the king all the time. All right, number two, the sunglasses face emoji, which is kind of the I'm cool. Tom Brady's married to a supermodel. He dominates the most popular sport in America. And he's always giving you these emo. If you go to his Instagram, he was holding up the Thanos thing with all the rings on it. I think he's the cool guy.

I respectfully disagree. I think it's Pat Riley. Well, actually, for Miami, that's a really good call. It was just the coolest. How about the red angry face emoji? I think of John Gruden. Oh, that's good. He's always intense.

You know when he's smiling? Yeah. He's intense. He is intense. I'm going to go with Rondo. Actually, it looks like Rondo's face a little. All right, the angel with a halo emoji. I'll go Russell Wilson.

I think he's got to. I think he feels above earthly sometimes. Yeah. I'm going to go Tibo. Oh. I know we're not announcing winners and losers, but Joy won that one. Yeah, and by the way, again, look at the emoji. That is T-Boh.

That is what Tebow looks like. That is Tebow with facial hair. Okay, the bandage face emoji. So when you think of injuries, who do you think of? This is too remote. It's Jacoby Ellsbury of the Yankees. They sign him for six years. He's never played.

Yeah, I go with Sam Bradford. Oh, that's a good one, too. His injuries literally changed the game. Like, for everyone. I went way deep on baseball. You're a Yankee fan. I'm a Yankees fan. I liked your answer, but yeah, most people forgot that he even still exists.

No, I mean, seriously, he's never played. And by the way, he was injury pro when they got him. Like, everybody knew it wouldn't work. This is the Colin Gowardt special, the dumpster fire emoji. I'm not being unfair here. Cleveland's been the NFL's dumpster fire for 20 years. It's pretty good. I think they're changing that narrative, but I might contradict myself later.

I'm going to go to the Giants. Current jumpter fire. Yes. Can't get together. Yeah, they're, their attendance is fine. If I've told you five years ago, New York Giants, dumpster fire. No, I would not believe it. You would never believe that.

They're a top five all-time franchise. What comes to mind when you see the alien emoji? So someone that does not look human to you. Kevin Durant, seven-foot-one, best shooter in the game, unheard of in NBA history. Rodman? Actual alien, Rodman makes sense. Yeah. Is he still negotiating with North Korea?

Is that his latest venture? Okay. How about the goat emoji? Well, I mean, there's only one. Warren Buffett. He's the world's best stock picker. That's who he is. It's not where I think Joy's going.

Nurty. What do you mean? Yes, MJ is the goat. Michael Jordan. A basketball. Of everything. Of being the goat. Is Warren Buffett on Twitter?

I mean, I'd be surprised. That was a totally. A total nerd answer. Why? Joy is winning this so much. It's not supposed to be a competition, but Joy wins. You don't think Warren Buffett's the goat? I don't think emojis, I don't think Warren Buffett.

Has anyone ever, like, in the history of the goat emoji thought of Warren Buffett? I know just respect to Warren Buffett, but... He's the history of the world. Maybe the money emoji. Okay. Okay, last one, because it's emoji day. What about the poop emoji? I struggle with this because I don't want to insult anyone.

This, again, this is personal. This is, we're doing that. It's like, you know, image association. Like, what do you think of? What do I think of? I think of the Seattle Mariners, my hometown team. That's what I think of. They're just poop.

My entire life. I don't think that they are pooped this year, but this, you know, am I being obvious here? The Cleveland Browns. Yeah, the Browns. Okay, so, again, I call them dumpster fire. I'm also being really immature for that also. Well, I mean, but in my life, like I just,

just, we know it poop, there's another four-letter word we use for it. That's what my favorite team as a kid growing up became. They just never can get it together. They're always rebuilding. 18 years without making the playoffs. 18 years, Mariners haven't made the playoffs. They added wild cards. How many games out are they right now?

I can relate. Dolphins fans, who's a long time before they made the playoffs? Games out. We just got the All-Star game completed. They're 20 games out. That's their poop. That's what they are. I think the Browns are going to be good this year.

I just want to say that. Yeah, you have them as a playoff team. I do. I think they don't have a choice, really. All right, that was fun. emoji day? Can we do that every July 17th? Do you use emojis a lot?

Oh, God, all day long. Oh, okay. I've gotten more emojis from you than words. Do you know I just had, I have to cancel a lunch with Rich Paul today. I feel terrible. Might you ever get a day get squeezed real big? I know. Rich Paul is, runs the NBA now.

What else do you have to do? I got a bunch. I'm getting squeezed on all. He's going to be furious with me. See him, tomorrow's the hurt. 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, and 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, the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to SportsSlic. On the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slical Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

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 acapella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up guys? This is Clivert Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Cliverts

Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me, he goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue of 42. Hey, Wreck. My mama want you to weigh better.

What? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Cliverts show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season.

And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff mom. If we didn't talk ever again, I was crying. You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis come in to you, he's like, you know, I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs.

This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.