The Herd with Colin Cowherd - HOUR 1 - Lakers, Brady

Episode Date: April 11, 2022

The Lakers couldn't even fire Frank Vogel the right wayThe behind the scenes story of Tom Brady returning to the BucsGuest: Ric Bucher Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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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 herd at Fox Sports Radio.com or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Heard. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Ah, here we go. Live in Los Angeles on a Monday, it's the herd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening, IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, FS-Wan. I want to say welcome in KJR in Seattle, 950 KJR.

My hometown is joining us after all these years, tolerating me, hopefully, for the next couple years or beyond that. Joy Taylor is joining me one hour from now as always, as is customary on Monday, where Colin was right, where Colin was wrong, plenty of both in one hour from now. Well, it was an interesting weekend. Tiger faded as we sort of thought he would the longer the weekend went. Tiger sort of faded.

Yeah, a bit predictable. I mean, it was great to see him out there at all. Oh, it was wonderful. Scotty had an interesting end to the weekend, but a win nonetheless, so congrats. Well, let's start with this. We know this to be true in all sports. There are very few great owners. There are very few great front offices and very few great players.

We know that. That's empirically true. We all know that. I have been talking about watching Winning Time on HBO. It's based on Jeff Perlman's amazing book about the purchase of the Lakers by the late Jerry bus, a maverick, just a unique all-time sports character. And since he has passed, it is not the same organization. They can't even get, forget hiring coaches.

They can't get firing coaches right. Frank Vogel found out he's been fired as the Laker coach through a tweet by an NBA reporter. He was asked about it last night. My reaction is, I haven't been told. And I'm going to enjoy tonight's game, celebrate what these young guys did in terms of scratching the clawing, getting back in the game getting a W and we'll deal with tomorrow tomorrow so as a sports fan sometimes a great owner passes hands it to kids it's never the same and then sometimes an owner is really over his or her skis and you wish they would go away they pass and you benefit from it and let me give you a couple examples of this

let's start with the lakers this team is not about frank vogel they use 41 different lineups this year. He didn't want Russell Westbrook. He got Russell Westbrook. Stories out this weekend in the LA Times. Westbrook was disrespectful, disingenuous, and a disaster for the Lakers. But don't forget, pre-Vogel, in Kobe's last year, if you take the last game Kobe ever played as a Laker, in the previous five years to that, they had the worst winning percentage in the league. This has been a mess for a long time. In fact, in the last 11 years, if you take out the bubble, the pandemic season, which was a weird break for one team in the NBA, the Lakers, because old LeBron and brittle Anthony Davis got a four-month break in the middle of the season. You take out the bubble season, the Lakers have won in 11 years, 41% of their games and have had six head coaches in 11 years.

This is not a gogill, Google, vogue issue. It is a, maybe it is a Google issue. This is a systemic front office ownership mess. One playoff series win in 11 years, take out the bubble year, 41% of games they've won, they increasingly bring in old players with big names to make it relevant. Who is that? That's the Raiders in the last 11 years with Al Davis. What did the Raiders do in the last 11 years before Mark Davis, who appears to be much more

let's be honest in the last couple years, much more capable. Say what you want about him. You don't like his haircut. He's more capable. What were the Raiders and the current Lakers like? Well, in those last 11 years with Al Davis, they won 40% of their games. They had a front office, too many friends of Al Davis. They had a lot of bad draft picks.

They were bringing in people like Randy Moss to remain relevant, like the Lakers are bringing in Dwight Howard or Carmelo or Russell Westbrook to make them relevant. So they sound big on paper and then they're terrible on the floor. This is what it's become. Die hard fan bases. One in Los Angeles. One in Vegas, Oakland and Los Angeles, the Raiders, great fans clinging to tarnished, dying brands.

But don't let that pandemic season get in the way. 11 years, six head coaches, you're winning about 40% of your games. And like Al Davis's Raiders at the end, you're bringing in big names so you can sell tickets. It looks great on paper. But then you hand it to a coach and there's nothing he can do with it. This is not a quick turnaround. As the NFL exploded in revenue, the Raiders never seemed to have enough of it. And as the NBA is exploding into a global game, Lakers sort of feel like an outdated local

general store. Sad, but that's exactly what the Lakers have become. Forget hiring the next coach. They couldn't even fire Frank Vogel with dignity. So this next story is fascinating. I didn't buy it initially. I thought it was a bunch of rumors and innuendo. It appears to be a real bombshell.

So, you know, Tom Brady's the most detailed professional athlete of anybody's life, my life, your life. So when he retired and then unretired, it made no sense. And then Bruce Ariens, who never showed any inclination to work upstairs in a cubicle in the front office, was moved upstairs. Ben Volan, Boston Globe, detailing this wild story and what really happened. And we told you, Joy is my witness. We told you, I can't wait for the story behind the story because I don't buy any of this PR nonsense where Brady returns after retiring. and oh, Bruce Ariens, Instagram, I love you, nonsense.

And the Bruce Ariens, oh, I just, yeah, I was going to retire anyway. Now we know the rest of the story. Essentially, Brady has had a relationship for 20 years with Sean Payton, the coach of the Saints, former coach of the Saints. They have the same agent, a guy I know and like a lot, Don Yee. They were going to go to Miami. And Brady was going to be part owner. He would only go if he got a legitimate veteran coach,

and it was going to be Sean Peyton. And then the Brian Flores situation happened. The lawsuit against the dolphins and other teams, racial discrimination, Brady and Peyton said, we're not going to go here now. It's just a mess. Remember, the owner of the Dolphins, Stephen Ross, is a Michigan alum and booster, and Brady went to Michigan. So they're close.

So the story is true now. Rich Ornberger, who's a regular guest on our show, had tweeted, and now we know it's true, that Ariens and Brady had had their issues. It was not great. There was tumult and turbulence in the entire relationship. And Brady was ready to bolt. And here's a curveball that's been added. So when Brady in the Miami situation imploded, right?

Brady suddenly, we all saw this, right? He was suddenly over to English Premier League game, Manchester United. That was weird, right? We never seen him there in 20, 25 years. Oh, now we know why, according to Ben Bowlen, Austin Globe. They're owned by the Glazer family who owns the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Tom Brady flew over, met with the Glazer family.

Listen, I'll come back. Here's the story, but you've got to make a couple of changes upstairs. And suddenly Tom unretires and Bruce Ariens moves upstairs virtually on the same day. We don't believe it was happenstance or coincidence because I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I do not believe in coincidences for our Seattle listeners. I'm not a conspiracy guy. I don't wear tinfoil hats. But in this instance, you can put the things together now.

We know it to be true. It's that Brady basically had a deal to go to the Miami Dolphins, like a Derek Jeter to the Marlins, be an owner, maybe quarterback for a year. Sean Payton comes over. They take it over. We know the Dolphins wanted to pivot to an offensive coach because they hired an offensive coach from the 49ers, and you and I know they would have hired Sean Peyton before the young guy they hired from the 49ers with no head coaching experience.

So it was all in the works, then the lawsuit, and not a shock. The dolphins screwed it up because the dolphins grew everything up. And that's the way, you know, I started talking about this 10 minutes ago. There's very few great owners, great executive front offices, great quarterbacks. In Seattle right now, you're dealing with Paul Allen passed. They don't draft well. Russell's gone. Good luck, Seahawks.

So the story is out. It's official. And just be very careful about buying into PR nonsense. And this, once you have a Ronaldo, a Messi, once you have a Brady, a Russell Wilson, a LeBron, when you have somebody that big, the team will always take the hit. The star never does. That's the way it works. Why? Because you want to get a next star if that star is leaving.

right if the Seahawks want the next great quarterback and free agency they don't want to dog Russell Wilson and other people go look at that owner look at that organization they don't treat their athletes well so it's all about brand protection for the bradies and the LeBrons right by the way as the Lakers implode here you know who's never around LeBron when David Blatt got fired by the cavaliers years ago LeBron's quote was oh boy I was surprised surprised by what happened today and not yesterday you're the guy that ran him out but Dan Gilbert knew he had to take the hit. He was not going to dump it on his star player because star players, especially in the NBA, have huge leverage with other star players. They couple up, they join forces. So we're getting more clarity now on this story. It is absolutely fascinating.

And as we predicted, you know, it's not that Arians and Brady are enemies. Nobody is suggesting that. Nobody's suggesting they shoved him upstairs, but they nudged him. that appears to be the case. 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 back.

So the Packers, Mark Murphy, is the president, Harvard guy, was talking this weekend, as he often does, to the fans and the media in that area. And he was talking about two different things. One, Jordan Love, the kid they drafted in the first round a couple years ago. We've seen play a couple of times.

Not very promising. his quote was, we haven't seen enough of them. Preseason will be very important. They've seen enough of them. They know at this point he's not ready to play. If he was, they would have moved off Aaron Rogers. We all know that, right? Alex Smith, much better than people have ever given him credit for.

They moved off in Kansas City because they knew Patrick Mahomes was great. Like if the quarterback is great, that's why Jimmy Garoppolo is still around for the Niners, because they have some misgivings about Trey Lance. It doesn't look good. He has struggled. You know, if you draft a quarterback in the first, first round and move up to draft him. You want to play him as soon as you can because you're not paying him anything and it allows

you to do with, you know, what the Rams did with Jared Goff or the Seahawks did with the young Russell Wilson. You can load your roster up for two or three years, Joe Burrow and Cincinnati right now. You're not paying him anything. Josh Allen's first couple years in Buffalo. You can go add pieces. It's kind of the secret sauce when you have a young quarterback, Sir Baker Mayfield in Cleveland. Didn't pay him anything.

You know, 18 million, not much of a cat pit. You can load him up. Go get Jadavi and Clownies. Go get Kareem Hunt as a backup quarterback. Go get OBJ. Go get Jarvis Landry. We all know the game, right? So if he could play, they would have moved off Aaron Rogers

and not been publicly humiliated by him and given him 50 million a year. But the other quote that Mark Murphy had, which is a real thing. So we theorized a couple weeks ago. I said, Green Bay has got the weakest wide receiving core in the NFL right now. There is no second place. maybe Houston, maybe the Patriots, it's bad. Increasingly, outside of quarterback, wide receivers matter more than any other position because of the rule changes and the cultural changes in football.

The star athletes in high school now, they want to be quarterbacks, they want to be wide receivers. And you've got to be good at both. Cincinnati had a lot of flaws. Great young quarterback, great wide receivers. You know, you start looking at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers a couple years ago when they won. Great quarterback, great wide receivers. They didn't have a great secondary.

They didn't have a great left side of the offensive line necessarily. You've got to be great at those places. Green Bay is awful right now at wide receiver and yet is not going after any of the free agent wide receivers, even the cheap ones. Even Devonte Parker. They're not even in the running. Why? Because Mark Murphy said over the weekend, and this is something I believe and now it's been

verified. He said, we don't look at Aaron Rogers as having. a three-year contract, it's a series of one-year contracts. Ah, my theory is right. So number one, Green Bay knows Aaron doesn't like criticism at all. Number two, Green Bay was humiliated and ticked off at constantly being publicly berated and manipulated by Aaron Rogers the last year. They didn't like that at all.

No front office does. And number three is they're not. pursuing wide receiver talent in free agency. Why? Because there's no owner for the Packers. So the guy's in the front office, Mark Murphy is safe. He's not going to get fired. Matt LaFleur is not going to get fired if the season goes sideways. What they don't want to be is in the Aaron Rogers business for three more years. They're over it. And so what they do is they sign him so they can be competent. They don't go after veteran receivers. They're going to get them only in the draft. Why? Because Aaron doesn't deal well. He has trust issues. He doesn't deal well with young receivers.

And the criticism of Green Bay has been for years. They draft receivers, but never in the first round. And they have two first round picks. They may go after two receivers and they'll be able to say, we drafted wide receivers in the first round. So watch Green Bay. They've got two first and two seconds. They'll take at least two receivers. And they'll cover their arse. Hey, we went out and got them. Year before, We got Amari Rogers. We got young receivers. AJ Dylan was a second round round. We got him a lot of skill people.

This was not on us. So why are they not going after veterans? Because eventually they don't want to be for three more years in this nonstop firehose of drama with Aaron Rogers. They see it as a one-year contract. They'll try to get out of it. If they can't, it'll be a two-year contract. They will not have a relationship in three years. And the difference between this and Russell Wilson was Russell Wilson wanted out of Seattle three years ago,

but they made some changes for him and he kept it out of the papers. And Russell Wilson wanted out of Seattle two years ago, but he mostly kept it out of the papers, although a list of teams he would go to. And then Russell Wilson really wanted out about eight months ago, and then eventually he moved out. But he didn't try to publicly humiliate the franchise. He would have been gone a lot sooner had he done that.

With Aaron, they're trapped. They are trapped because Jordan Love, although they drafted them and moved up, can't play. They are trapped. And teams don't like to be trapped. But what they don't like even more than being trapped is humiliated publicly. Owners don't like it. Coaches don't like it. GMs don't like it.

So Mark Murphy acknowledging it's not a three-year deal. It's three-one-year deals. It's exactly my belief why they're not going after free agents. Listen, when you've been as good as Green Bay has been for what, 20 straight years, it's like Michael Jordan and the Bulls. When you win all those championships, you can be crap for a couple of years, right? People aren't going to cancel their season tickets. So Green Bay has been so good for so long that if they go with Aaron this year and it's

disappointing and then they move off him for a year, it can be bad for two years until you find your quarterback. You know that you're not going to lose any fans in Green Bay. They have given these fans a 20, 25 year magic carpet ride. But that's a very interesting quote. It's not a three-year deal. Says the president of the Packers. It's a series of one-year deals.

And by the way, Aaron said I'm 50-50 on retirement. What the Packers are telling you, yeah, we're 50-50 on you. That's what that quote means. Joy with the News. No, no, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Well, the Nets have apparently gotten some good news on the Ben Simmons front.

Uh-huh. Pain-free progress is reportedly giving them some hope that he, would be available sometime during the first round of the playoffs. Now, this all depends on if the net's advance out of the play in tournaments. And he would take on a limited role, 10 to 15 minutes per game. This is what we talked about last week. So he's yet to play in a game this season. Joy, this is Ben Simmons value.

Brooklyn doesn't need points. They need length, defense, and distribution. This is my argument that if he plays, let's say we go, so they say 10 to 15, let's say he goes seven minutes a half and they played Miami and you just put him on Jimmy Butler or they played Boston and you put him on Jason Tatum. He has massive value. And by the way, because all the shooting stuff is in his head, you can tell him, defend and distribute. You don't need to take a single shot. I think Brooklyn ends up in the Eastern Conference Finals. I really do if he does. If that's the role for him, his defense, I think they're going to play Milwaukee in the Eastern Conference Finals.

I don't know. I think the tales of how far Brooklyn is going to go are greatly exaggerated. And it has nothing to do with Kevin Durant, obviously, because I think he's had one healthy, which is most of the season, an unbelievable season. And I think he's carried them and kept them relevant since the moment that he's got there since he's arrived in Brooklyn. But I just have no faith in this Benson's situations. There's no indication whatsoever that any of this is true. We've heard that he was going to play. And then it was just like he was just gearing up. Then he hurts his back. And he's not a plug and play player. Like even if he's not a plug and play player. Like even if he's, he is available for this 10 to 15 minutes. Is he going to fit? Is he going to be mentally ready? I have no faith in this at all. This is, you know, the playoffs are better when they're a little bit of a circus. You got to give us one like circus show. Oh yeah.

The Nets are completely filling that role. Now they, again, he hasn't played in a game this season. So if they, they'll face the cabs in the first round of the playing tournament tomorrow night. If they win, they'll go on to face the Celtics in round one. I think they're, if I was Boston, I'd be. I don't know. I don't know that anyone's afraid of the Nets. I got to be honest with you. I think they're afraid of Kevin Durant.

If Ben Simmons plays, I'll say this, 15 minutes a game against the Celtics, they will beat Boston. I think Boston's terrified of them. You know, I cannot wait for that series. The Nets have the third best odds to win the finals at plus 650 behind the Sons and Bucks. I think Ben Simmons is. I don't, I mean, I don't, I don't. remember the last time I saw Ben Simmons play basketball. So I have no idea how this is going to fit or work. I've said from the beginning, I think this trade is for next year.

Yeah. But, and obviously not, I didn't anticipate him being out this long with the, the back injury. But these are not one, like the outside of the play in tournament, obviously, these are, it's not one game winner go home. These are seven game series. I don't know. I'm interested in it though. So much. Because everyone believes in the nets. I just don't think that they're deep enough. So some news came down regarding the 22 civil lawsuits pending against the Browns, Sean Watson. I don't know if this was good news or not. I mean, this is not good news at all for anyone.

So according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the lawyers handling the cases have agreed that no trials will be scheduled between August 1st, 2022 and March 1st of 2023. So that means it's going to hang over the season? It could go beyond that because the lawyer who represents the 22 women told the plane dealer he's trying to get a trial set for July. But if that's not feasible, then all 22 cases will be ready to go in March of 2023. So that means that will hang over all of this season.

And then you have to consider that this is, again, not a class action suit. So unless someone gets everyone in a room and convinces all these women who are filing these lawsuits and their lawyer to file as one class action suit, he is going to have to go to trial with each individual 22 times. Like each case is going to be tried separately. So this is not a we're going, like they're all together. It sounds like they're together, but that's not how this is going to play out. And he doesn't want to settle.

So he's going to have to go to trial with each individual plaintiff. It's interesting. If I'm the National Football League, how do I suspend him if nothing? I don't know what I do with Deshaun Watson. At least if there was closure on it, I could then suspend him for six to eight. games. What do you do if you're the league now? Well, clearly the criminal cases were not moving forward was a big indication that they were clear as far as teams were concerned because everyone began moving forward with trying to get him once that didn't move forward. But you don't have to have

a criminal charge in order for the league to suspend you. That's right. So that has nothing to do with it. And he's not on the commissioner's exemplar. So he's available. He was available to play all year last year. He's available to play now. If they don't suspend him because, to your point, there is no closure on the situation, he could play all year this year, potentially all year after that. And then when these cases are settled, because there are 22 of them, this could go on for several more years. Oh, boy, hovering over a franchise, it just is a lot of drama. It's a lot of, I don't know what you do if you're the league.

I mean, Cleveland will screw it up. they always do. But I mean, from the league standpoint, Roger Goodell, what do I do? Do I, well, they've said from the beginning that they're not going to interfere with any criminal investigation, which the criminal investigation is now over. It's over. And you don't need a criminal charge in order to suspend. But the civil cases aren't going to be settled for, like I said, maybe another two years. Could I say, because you, it was such a negative story for the league. I don't, and just say we're going to suspend you because of, I think the league at this point, since they haven't suspended him already,

I don't know how you don't just wait because what you could walk into is a Ray Rice type of situation where you do suspend him and it turns out to be wildly lenience. Yeah, I don't know how this all plays out. I don't know what you do with this. Well, it could be a while before we find out. So this conversation might go on for quite some time. So the USFL regular season starts on Saturday. Very exciting.

They had a preseason game on Friday in which they debuted the use of chips in the footballs. Now, this could be copied by the NFL to help determine first down. So they claim this is more accurate. They'll use the yellow first down marker on TV for fans, but they aren't using the 10-yard chain markers that are currently used in the NFL. Now, the NFL has chips in the footballs already, but they use that technology for their next-gen stats for tracking data. It's not for officiating. So this could translate to the NFL, depending on how this works. But again, the shape of the football makes it kind of difficult to determine, like, where is the chip in the football?

Is that on the ends? I would think it's on the end. Or is it in the middle? Because obviously, like, the shape of the football changes things. Like in tennis, there's very accurate ability for replay because of the shape of the ball. So this is something, my friends and I, you ever see a great business and you think to yourself, God, for a great business, I can't believe they do blank that way. our big joke about the NFL is for a zillion dollar business they determine first downs on old guys who run in carrying chains from the sidelines and you're like that's those guys could it's never felt accurate to me at any point it's kind of like we're determining super bowls on two the old guys on this by the way those we determine who gets the ball off of a coin flip I mean there are some a bit archaic things that are in place still in in games and this is you. you know, we do ping pong balls for the NBA draft lottery.

Like, there are some things that are like, I feel like we could find a more efficient, you know, like technology to figure this out. And. But it's good that they're able to try this in the USFL. Well, the NFL, to its credit, has stolen or borrowed a lot of things from a lot of leagues. Sure. People made fun of the XFL, right? When they had cameras in the huddles and sweeping cameras, NFL took that stuff.

Like, there's going to be stuff in the USFL that you're, look at and go, oh, that's clever. Because when you don't have a history like the NFL, you can take big chances. I used to say this all the time to my friends. USC or Penn State or Alabama, if they make a uniform change, their boosters freak out. Michigan. What if Michigan say, hey, we're going to have a new helmet. Oh, my God, the donors would go crazy. Oregon had no history, and Phil Knight said, we're going to have 240 uniforms. They had no, like, great history. So when you don't, it gives you, it gives you great freedom to take big swings and big risks. And actually people really liked the different uniforms. Oh, I mean, it was literally became like Oregon's hallmark. It was huge for recruiting.

They had the whites, the greens, the hazmat spill. I mean, but I mean, when you have a great history, I mean, you could not go to Michigan football and say, we're changing the uniforms or Kentucky basketball. Right. Like, or Yankee baseball, the pinstripes. The USFL? Yeah. No, I'm interested to see how how truly accurate it ends up being and how it works. but it seems like, I think we've been talking about this for a while, though, like, shouldn't we have this sort of technology? Like, I feel like it could be in place already. But this is a good place to try it.

What if the chip gets knocked out of place? Then what do you do? This is the perfect place to try it. So the USFL debuts Saturday with the New Jersey generals taking on the Birmingham Stallions, prime time on Fox and NBC. The stallions are currently favored by three and a half, according to FoxxBet. Good stuff. Joy, Taylor, with the news. Well, that's the news.

And thanks for stuff. The Hurd Lie News. It's so interesting. I'm reading a story here about possible Laker coaches. And I'm like, this is not the NFL. Like Quinn Snyder and Nick Nurse, who are guiding teams to the playoffs, are going to abandon those fine franchises in Toronto and Utah and take a Laker job. It's different in the NFL.

So in the NFL, the Rams came from St. Louis to Los Angeles. They were terrible. They won four games. They just made a head coaching change. They didn't even make a quarterback change. They made a head coaching change. And they went from four wins to 11. And they went from last and points to first, just with a coaching change.

Wasn't big personnel changes. Bill Parcells, Miami was a 1 and 15 team. Parcell shows up just as a general manager, hires a coach Tony Soprano. They go to 11 wins. Because in the NFL, there are no real obstacles. You can cut players, trade players, move players. there's no resistance. The NBA is different.

You can't just cut guys and trade guys. So the idea that, in the NBA, you get bad, you are in quicksand for half a decade. And that's if you hit a couple of draft picks. But remember, the kids you're drafting now in the NBA are 19 years old. Used to be you'd bring a Tim Duncan in or an Akeem Olajuwon or a Ewing. Well, these are like 24-year-old men. they've been in college for four years. So you could bring them into the NBA for your rebuild,

and they were ready to be all-stars within a year. Well, even the good players now you bring out of college. They're 19 years old. Jalen Suggs, gone Zaggett, Orlando. He is two years away from kind of nudging up to his NBA prime for seven years. So the rebuild process in the NBA is brutal now because you're no longer drafting players, a Uing that can come in.

And I mean, immediately the Knicks were better. Immediately. He had so many college games. He was older. He was stronger. He was emotionally ready to be. You bring guys now in in the NBA. They cannot drink at the hotel bar.

They're 19 years old. Literally, you bring them in. And the rest of the team goes to get a glass of wine or a beer after the game. They have to go upstairs and, you know, watch Hulu or something. So I don't know how in the world. Quinn Snyder would give up Utah or Nick Nurse would give up Toronto. Well, also, if you look at the history of the Lakers over the past decade, why are you uprooting your family and taking a risk on an organization that's likely going to fire you in three years?

I've said this about like New York Jets fans, and are Cleveland Brown fans or Detroit Lion fans. They always want to fire the coach. And I'm like, you do get, you're sending a message to coaches. Right. Why would I take my daughters and my sons? I've got a good job. I'm a coordinator somewhere.

my kids are in a good private school. I'm also winning. You're always better off. Jerry Jones for all his faults generally gives a coach another year, even Barry Switzer. You're better off creating stability. You know, an owner knows you have bad years in business. These owners own like 30 businesses.

This is just one of them, their pro sports team. But these fans that always want you to fire the coach, it just sends a message. That's why the Cleveland Browns forever never get the greatest coach on the market. They just never get, by the way, the giants, by the way, have gone through a lot of coaches. But Brian Daible was one of the better coaches on the market, and they got him. Because they had been, you know, Tom Coughlin at the end got extra years and extra years. Well, also coaches talk about what the environment is as well.

So if you're going to come in as a coach with the Lakers with that idea that you might be fired in three years, and then knowing that you're not going to have, say, over personnel, you're going to be the scapegoat if things go wrong, you're not going to be able, you're going to have to ask permission to change your end of game lineup. Like other coaches know that as well. Yeah, the things that were, everybody would have wanted to coach young and in his prime LeBron. Now LeBron's not that attractive to a coach because he doesn't give you 82 nights a year. He gives you 60. He's hurt a lot and he still has leverage. Like the early LeBron, who wouldn't want to coach him? It's like Aaron Rogers. He was great in his prime. Now you get old expensive Aaron who is prickly.

That's not as fun to coach. Be sure to catch live editions of The HARD weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. I'm George Reister, host of the Reister or Wrong podcast. This is the intersection where sports, business, society, and pop culture meet the truth. Absolute fire on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Facts only. Make sure you check your feelings at the door because no BS is allowed. We keep it 100.

This is where real conversations happen. Listen to the Rights or Wrong podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Okay, I have a crazy idea for this. You know, Joy, by the way, Joy today is wearing very fashionable, your hand. What do you call that? I don't know. That's just the way the dress is designed. It's like, I don't know.

They just have the thumbs cut out. Wardrobe Department. I'd love a shirt like that. I'd never worn a shirt like that, but when I go skiing... I actually have a lot of dresses like this. Well, I don't want a dress, but if you could design a shirt so I could do that with my hands, I'd be very happy. Yeah, they have them for skiing. They have running.

Yeah. You know, jackets. Keep your hands warm. Something to work on for my wardrobe department. Okay, Rick Buecker, NBA guy since the 90s, early 90s. He's going to join me here. I'm going to throw a trade thing at it. Okay, here we go.

So, listen, you know and I know. the NFL, you can cut guys, trade guys, no obstacles. It's very easy to go from bad to really good, really fast. You get the right quarterback, the right coach. NBA, you're in quicksand if you're bad. You don't have draft picks. That's where the Lakers are. So you've got to take a big swing because the L.A. market is more crowded than ever. Two NFL teams, Lincoln Riley at USC, Clippers are now viable. They're going to take a big swing. They're not going to be patient. That's not what the Lakers are going to do. So I'll throw this at you. You call up Golden State and you say, Jordan Poole's becoming a star.

You know it. Everybody knows it. And you're looking at Clay Thompson's contract and going, we'll take Clay Thompson, give us James Wiseman a big who can't stay healthy. He's a project. We'll take him. Those are two headaches that you won't admit publicly that Jordan Poole's going to solve one. We'll give you Anthony Davis.

That solves another. Now, he may not play 82 games, but you won't need him for that. And the Lakers get maybe a draft pick, James Wiseman, Clay Thompson, and the Warriors, they cry at the press conference. We love Clay. But privately, Jordan Poole's becoming an all-star, and they want him to play 40-some minutes a night. And you can't with Clay around. Is it nuts? Before I answer that, Colin, I just realize that you are the Russ Westbrook of talk show hosts.

Because you just throw up. things. I mean, you just did it to joy. You just did it to me now. Like, it's, it's the right idea, but it's coming in so hot and unexpected that you never quite know. Like, oh, I didn't see that coming. Anyway, I'm not mad at that idea. I always appreciate your out-of-the-box thinking. Do I, do I believe that the Golden State Warriors emotionally would be able to detach themselves from Clay Thompson at this point? No, not without a full season of seeing if he can get back to any semblance of Clay. So that's the biggest rub. But from a simply basketball standpoint, it's not the worst idea. I'm on you, I'm in full agreement with you

on James Wiseman. I don't know that Clay Thompson can get back to being Clay Thompson. And without question, I voted Jordan Pool most improved at the top of of my most improved ballot, even though I don't think he's going to win. I believe Clay Thompson coming back undermined the season that Jordan was having. So it's not a crazy idea. I don't see it happening, but it's not a crazy idea. Okay, Frank Vogel fired. I mean, listen, they've had 11 coaches, six coaches in 11 years. They're becoming, I compared him to the Al Davis last 11 years owning the Raiders, where they bring in big names like Randy Moss to be relevant. The front office,

office had too many friends of Al Davis, just not really overly credible outside of a massive brand. Who do you hire next? What do you make of Vogels firing? Number one, Frank has nothing to complain about. He had two years in Orlando that were disastrous, and he was not the first choice by any stretch by the Lakers, and he comes in, he wins a championship from everything that I've seen and heard. Not a lot of what happened this season is being put. on his plate, nor do I think it should be. This was a flawed roster from the very start, both from a basketball standpoint and a chemistry standpoint. And I knew that Frank didn't have the personality to ride a rough shot over Ross, Dwight Howard, LeBron James, A.D. It was just too much

to ask. It would be too much to ask of anyone. So I don't have a problem with them moving on. I've said, I've seen Mark Jackson change a culture and the culture with the Lakers needs to be changed. Now, I haven't gotten any indication from sources that the front office is looking in Mark's direction. And that's going to be the greatest issue. There's always going to be an attraction to coaching the Lakers and to be the head coach in that market. But you're dealing with a LeBron James at this point. You have to know going in, that everything is going to depend on your relationship with LeBron

and your ability to build around LeBron. And from what I've been told around the league, for the first time, there's the question, is LeBron good enough to get you where you want to go considering all of the concessions that you're going to have to make when you coach LeBron James? It's always a matter of what a guy can bring you versus the maintenance required.

to get the most out of him. And for the first time, there's the question of, can LeBron do enough that warrants all of the maintenance that he's going to require in terms of the authority and the control that he has in any franchise that he's been with? All right. We've got about 60 seconds left. If Ben Simmons plays seven minutes a half for Brooklyn, just as a defender and distributor, they're going to beat Boston.

Agree or not. I don't know that Ben Simmons is the difference. difference maker there. And so, no, seven minutes just isn't enough. If he's playing 20, 25 minutes and he's any semblance of the defensive player that we've seen him in the past, then yes, I would say that whether it's Boston or it's, I mean, with the Celtics, I would say that they have a good chance even without Ben Simmons. Because the question is going to be, is Jason Tatum ultimately going to show up and what's the status of Robert Williams. The nets are getting hot at the right time.

And if they can incorporate Patty Mills and Seth Curry and Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, I like their chances at an upset. All right. Good seeing you, Bukes. Appreciate it, buddy. You got it, Colin. All right. So here's my thing.

If the Warriors get beat early in the playoffs, Clay Thompson struggles. Inside the building, he used two words. emotional attachment. So Steph, Clay, and Draymond are really tight. Steph would not like the move. But Steph would like, would not like losing early in the playoffs either. And if Jordan Poole is emerging and cost you nothing, and Clay Thompson costs you a ton,

and you kind of feel like he's hit a ceiling, and he's getting in the way of Jordan Poole's growth, you move Clay Thompson to L.A. As dad Michael lives down here, you give James Wiseman, who's been kind of a bust as a draft pick but has a ton of talent. Give him to the Lakers, maybe a draft pick. You get Anthony Davis, who will play 50 games. But when he's playing, I get Steph, Draymond, Jordan, Pool, AD.

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

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days I'd put on 10 pounds, I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

On the Look Back at it podcast. From 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84 was big to me. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick you here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. With our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the...

80s. 84 was a wild year. It was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying.

Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfilled conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to The Clifford Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. This is an IHeart podcast.

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