The Herd with Colin Cowherd - HOUR 1 - LeBron James, Tom Brady, NBA

Episode Date: April 7, 2022

LeBron James can no longer get big names to play with him like beforeTom Brady does deserve the creditThere is a bad trend in the NBAGuest: Cedric Ceballos Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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If you're into the NFL draft, a lot of bad teams have a couple of picks in the first round. Some good teams have two picks later in the first round. Greg Cocell, the prospects he likes, the prospect. prospects he's concerned about. Joy Taylor is joining me today. Tiger and the Masters this weekend. I don't think he's going to win. I'm going to take Dustin Johnson, but I do like all the big hitters now in golf, all the Brooks Keppkas and the Rory McElroy's and the Dustin Johnson. And the Tiger Woods is still long off the tea. How are you? I'm great. Have you ever been to the Masters? I have not been to the Masters. We're thinking about that podcast company I have the volume.

We're thinking about setting up shop here in the next few years and going annually and covering it like a big event. So we have some big time golfers on our staff. I'm willing to be a reporter. You could be a reporter. I've always wanted to go to the Masters. It's on my list. Well, there's two golf tournaments that I kind of feel like I, like I will sit by the TV all weekend. My wife's out of town, U.S. Open, especially when it's at Pebble Beach, Pinehurst, Pebble Beach, and the Masters. Rider Cup can also be a lot of fun. You know, there's golf Scott. It's the ultimate, you know what I mean? It's golf's most gentlemanly, most austere event. It's definitely gentlemanly.

But, yes, it's, but I mean, it's an experience. Yes. It's one of those bucket list sports. I haven't been to the Kentucky Derby. Yeah. You need to go to that, get a big hat. Yeah. Went some money.

I think they're all good plans. So let's start with this. So, you know, it used to be that when LeBron flirted with you said something off the cuff, boy, I'd like to play with that guy or that guy, you'd call your agent. LeBron say he wants to play with me. Now LeBron doesn't even flirt. He hits on Steph Curry. Steph doesn't call his agent.

Steph's like, I'm flattered. So LeBron said this on the shop. This is very interesting, his show. Steph Curry is the one that I want to play with, for sure, in today's game. Why stuff? I love everything about that guy. What? Let's let.

When he got out of his car, you better guard him right from the moment he pulls up to the arena. As soon as he get out of his car, you might want to guard him when he can get out of the bed. The parking dick, swear to God. That's not even flirting. That's like, I want to be a teammate of Steph Curry. And again, for years and years, if LeBron even casually said he was interested, casually flirted, you called your agent. Can I get to LeBron? but this is like the third or fourth time LeBron said,

I want to play with this guy. And here is Steph Curry's latest response. He got his wish. He's the captain. He's picking the last two All-Star games. So I don't know if that suffices, but I'm good right now. I mean, whenever you get the interest or curiosity of what it would be like to play with, arguably, you know, MVP kind of caliber dude,

like he is and the greatest of all time. Cool. It's amazing. We all can live in that fantasy world, though. They don't kid yourself. Everybody thinks Steph Curry's nice. Yeah, he's a killer too. He's a killer too.

He's like, LeBron is trapped. They got no trade pieces, no picks. He's becoming Michael Jordan. Meaningless games, scoring a lot of points, end of his career. Steph Curry's like, I can still win titles.

I got a great GM. I got a great roster. We got picks. We got trade assets. We got Jordan Poole, an emerging star. I got Clay, Draymond, Wiseman. Steph Curry sees, LeBron's drowning, and he's not going to throw him a life preserver.

Remember what Rick Buecker, I'm going to play a bite from Rick Buecker yesterday. Rick Buecker was on our show yesterday. LeBron has come to terms with a reality. And remember, LeBron bailed on D-Way. that's his best friend in the league LeBron's bailed on coaches Pat Riley franchise D-Wate

here's what Rick Buecker said yesterday after they won in the bubble and the team comes back and AD is out of shape LeBron that Anthony Davis is not the guy they found that out a year ago and rather than moving Anthony Davis

they tried to find somebody to come in and change Anthony Davis. The criticism I've heard over and over and over again from inside the Lakers organization is that AD does not, is not a worker, does not work hard. And it's part, and then when you get injured all the time, that raises the question, is it because you're injury prone or because you're not doing everything to get your body in premier shape? And Steph knows it. Steph knows LeBron is trapped and is now MJ scoring a bunch of points, end of his career,

bad roster, totally trapped. Why should I throw him a life preserver? By the way, Steph has watched KD leave him. KD this morning is everybody as good as LeBron or better. How's that going? So don't kid yourself. Steph's a tiger. And Steph's looking at Kevin Durant and LeBron James

on any given night as good as anybody in the league. And they're both drowning. one guy's got Wackadoo Ben Simmons and Kyrie Irving and James Hardin left and the other guys got a roster. There's no picks. There's no. Who are you going to trade and get for Westbrook? And so I think it's funny. Years and years ago, you know, it was, LeBron was the A-lister in Hollywood.

Ryan Gosling called, you listened. Now he's straight to rental. He's had back-to-back bombs in Hollywood has LeBron. And Steph Curry's not the least. bit interested. You saw the way he said it. I'm good here. Yeah, he is good there. Steph Curry is good. Jordan Poole, James Wiseman, Andrew Wiggins, Clayton, Thompson, lot of picks, Steve Kerr, Bob Myers, great owner. Steph Curry knows they can reorganize this thing. They can tweak this thing. Don't kid yourself. Golden State. Steph knows I'm going to stay here

with these guys. I'm not going to do a KD and leave a brain trust like us. I'm not going to be LeBron and bounce around the league, all this mobility. Right now, Steph knows I'm going to end my career at the top of this league. KD's not. LeBron, who I've beaten in three or four finals is not. And by the way, how you end matters. Go look at Tom Brady's career. Look at Brady and Manning for a long time.

Brady and Aaron Rogers, look how Brady's ending his career and writing the final chapters. He's separated. Steph Curry is like, I'm one of the four or five greatest players in the last 10, 12 years. Durant, Stav, LeBron, and Steph looks at those guys and thinks, no, no, no, I'm going to be the Brady. Last four or five years, I'm going to stay in Golden State and we're going to buy it for a championship. I'm not throwing a life preserver to KD again, and I'm not throwing it to LeBron James. Even Nick Wright loves LeBron. couldn't defend them based on what we've seen the last couple of years with LeBron James.

LeBron, listen, LeBron this year is going to finish averaging 38 and 6, and I think it's pretty damn clear that we all have to acknowledge and admit he's no longer in his prime. And the real signal he was no longer in his prime should have been last year's playoffs, where for the first time in a decade, he wasn't dominant in the postseason. He is still clearly one of the, at worst, seven best players in the sport, but he is no longer a walking finals berth. Bingo and Steph Curry's reply to LeBron's flirtation. Three words.

I'm good here. Yep, so is the rest of the league. No longer can LeBron flirt. and you call your agent. Now other stars just say, I'm flattered. I'm good here. All right. So Bruce Ariens and Tom Brady, I said last week, got some pushback, I said, don't, don't tell me.

Bruce Ariens really wants to end his career upstairs in a cubicle. And don't tell me, Brady, the most planned guy in the world, retires, unretires. He and Ariens are not tight. Ariens called him out multiple times. you don't call out superstars. I don't care if it's messy. Rinaldo, Steph Curry,

you don't keep calling out superstars. Bruce Ariens did it again. He minimized Tom Brady's impact again yesterday on Phoenix Radio. I get credit and Brady gets way too much credit for what Byron does with our offense. And one of the reasons I hope

he gets all the credit he deserves this year to get a head coaching gig. You know, he has about four or five teams real interested last year, I would anticipate him to be a head coach real fast. I counted. I went and looked this morning. That is now eight times that Bruce Ariens, since he and Tom Brady, have joined at the hip, that he is either marginalized him, criticized him, or said, he's not that important. He gets too much credit. You don't do that with stars. You don't do that with superstars. And this goes back. The more Bruce talks, the more it proves

there's turbulence here. There's never been a time that Bruce Ariens in his career said, you know where I want to end my career? Upstairs in the office in a cubicle looking at college tape. In fact, he joked at his retirement press conference. I don't even know what my job is. Tom Brady nudged him. By the way, Tom Brady, you can't limit how important he's been in Tampa.

In the 10 years in Tampa before Brady arrived, they had two winning seasons and never won a playoff game. Tom Brady arrived. They won a Super Bowl and vied for it. Brady is the singular reason. The Tampa mess in the last decade has been interesting. That's it. They were 7 and 9 with the GM, the coach, the D-Line, the linebacker.

Brady is the reason. Just like Russell Wilson, you're going to watch in Denver this year, is the reason the Broncos will be a viable Super Bowl contender. He's it. Listen, Steve Jobs built Apple and then he left Apple and it died. It tanked. I'm not saying they don't have talented designers and programmers and engineers, but he cinched it all together when he came back and it exploded.

Same with Brady. I'm not saying they don't have a good GM. Ariens can't coach. But stop minimizing what Brady meant. Stop. It's like seven, eight times now. We counted. You can put them on the old bulletin board.

Seven, eight times Bruce Ariens has tried to marginalize or minimize the impact of Tom Brady. We can stop now. Tom Brady has not gotten way too much credit. Tom Brady deserves a majority of the credit for tuning a losing franchise who had had good coaches and good players but never had a legitimate Hall of Fame quarterback. They get him. They win a Super Bowl and a pandemic. They vied for a Super Bowl this year. and there'll be an NFC favorite with the Rams next year.

That is singularly Tom Brady, regardless of who and how talented they are around him. All right. Good stuff today. Good, good, good stuff. Greg CoSell, top of next hour. Steph Curry. You all think he's a nice guy.

He's a killer, too. You all think, you know, it's like everybody, everybody, oh, Tiger's a killer. You don't think Dustin Johnson is and Brooks Keppco, all these guys are. When you get to the top of the class, these guys, Peyton Manning's really funny. You don't think Peyton Manning's competitive. When Matt Ryan made the Super Bowl, he goes out with his family.

The first call Matt Ryan gets at dinner the night he gets to the Super Bowl is from Peyton Manning. Are you preparing for Tom Brady in two weeks? That's a true story. And Peyton Manning's funny. I know him. He's likable. He's a killer. All these guys at the top.

So is Steph Curry. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeart Radio app. I always tell young broadcasters, don't try to be cool. You're not cool, you're a broadcaster. I've seen people their entire career get obsessed with being cool. I've seen it with pro athletes.

Be relatable. Most people aren't cool. The coolest sportscasters, never the most popular, the highest paid. And the coolest athlete, I mean, Michael Jordan was a once in a lifetime, super, super cool. Most great quarter of it. Is Brady cool? Not really. He's just great. I don't even think Mahomes is cool. I just think he's great. I don't think Josh Allen's cool. The NBA players are in this kind of cultural zeitguist where they're cool and they do Hollywood. And it's like, I don't think it's terribly relatable. But I don't think that's the biggest problem. I think the biggest problem in the NBA as the NFL continues to pull away is that it is somehow normalized stars missing games all the time. All the time. When you want to be a lot of the time, when you want to be a NBA, as the NFL continues to pull away, is that it is somehow normalized. I'm a lot of the time. watch the NFL, any Sunday, all your favorite quarterbacks are playing. Burrow, Aaron, Mahomes,

Josh Allen, Tom Brady, Matt Stafford, all of them are playing. Maybe one is hurt. And he wants to play like Mahomes and the staff won't let him. It's a badge of honor to play not at 100%. This is a sport where the strongest men in America tackle each other at full speed. But there's a sense of community in the NFL. Hey man, it's raining, it's snowing, it's windy. I'm reason my arse off, I hurt. Oh, no, I'm playing. The NBA, oh my, it's an inconvenience if they're not given a week off for the All-Star game. I think fans can feel it. And attendance and ratings for the last three to four years have been down. And I will give Adam Silver the commissioner credit. He had a state of the union yesterday. He's always been smart. I like him a lot. He's always willing to adapt.

Those are two great qualities. But he acknowledged it is a big problem. Greater concern to me is a trend of star players not participating in a full complement of games. And I think that's something we, together with the

Players Association, need to address. I don't, not standing here saying I have a great solution. Part of the issue is injuries. Are there things that we can do in terms of sharing information, resources around the league to

improve best practices, rehabilitation, etc. Now, the Phoenix Suns are now starting to rest players. I'm good with that. They've been going 100 miles an hour all season. They play virtually every game. They play hard. They're wildly entertaining. In fact, I'd argue Phoenix Suns fans today would rather have their stars rest like Chris Paul

for the playoffs. I'm totally for that. People have been doing that since the 70s, 80s, and 90s. You win 60 games. You rest your stars. These are long, long playoff series and they're really intense and the refs let more go in the playoffs. They get really physical. Get your veteran stars healthy.

I don't want to see Chris Paul play until the playoffs now, right? That's different than this whole. It is a pleasant surprise in the NBA now. On a back-to-back, if you're starting five's all available. Oh, they're all playing tonight again. Now, I believe all regular seasons in all sports should be shortened. 162 games in baseball is ludicrous. You should be playing no more than 100.

All you're doing is ratcheting up injury percentages. Here's what I would do if I was the NBA. I would shorten the season to 68 games. Owners now can give up some home dates because they make a majority of their money through television. I would get back-to-backs out. I mean, these are unique bodies. Seven-footers on planes arriving at three in the morning, have to get up for a shoot-around. Let's get rid of back-to-backs.

By the way, if you shorten the season, you don't need back-to-backs. Also, I would extend the playoffs, create more urgent games. Let's get rid of seven-game playoff series. Five max, I would have three in the opening round. I mean, really, first-round playoff upsets don't happen. Do I have to watch a good team, hammer a bad team four times? I would also add minimum games played to awards. You have to play.

If you get hurt, that's a you problem. But you have to play a minimum number of games to be all NBA. Guys get bonuses for that. Got to play a minimum number of games to win the scoring title, to be MVP, to be all pro. All this stuff that are tied into bonuses, minimum number of games. Listen, I think most players like to play. but it's gotten a little out of hand. David Stern, Iron Fist,

Adam Silver, much more of a players commissioner. That's fine. It's a different world today. Silver did talk about shortening the season. I also said in the past, if we have too many games, that's something we should look at as well.

And it's the style of the game has changed in terms of the impact on their bodies. I think we've got to constantly assess and look at a marketplace going forward and say, you know, what's the best way to present our product and over how long a season? Let's stop being cool and let's start relating with fans. The NBA charges more per ticket than any league. It'd be nice to know when I'm driving my kids to a game,

I'm going to get like the best players. Increasingly, that feels like a pleasant surprise. At least Adam Silver is acknowledging it. Joy Taylor with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is a good. the herd line news.

Well, the Seahawks said they intend to keep DK.K. Metcalf, but that hasn't stopped other teams from trying to get him. According to Howard Eskin of WIP, the Jets were ready to send the 10th overall pick in the 2022 draft to Seattle for Metcalf. He said the Jets were going to offer in Seattle knew it. The number 10 pick in the first round, I've been told by multiple people when somebody calls Seattle about DK, they say we're not trading him, we're not trading him. They don't even take the offer. They say, nope, and shut it down. You can't even make an offer right now. Well, they lost Russell and Bobby Wagner.

I mean, I think it would be a bad sign to the locker room, to be honest. And if Drew Locke is your starter, you're not going to give him a weapon? Well, I'm not giving away good. You need to give them a weapon. You have lost all the faces of the organization. You need to give the fans someone to, you know, rally around or be excited about. You've got to sell tickets still and fill that stadium. Despite, you know, Seahawks fans being good fans, they still want to see a competitive product.

They have to have something to believe in. And D.K. is, you know, an ascending player, which is obviously why the Jets are trying to get him. But even though if you're in a rebuild, that doesn't mean that you shed any and all assets that you have. Well, especially, so you lose your quarterback in a quarterback league, I'd argue the second thing it is is a weapons league. So you got to give Drew Locke a fighting chance. And if D.K. wants to be there, that's a great situation. And you don't have to pay him for another year. he's not.

Right. He's entering the final season of his contract. He'll be an unrestricted free agent next season. Yeah. And they currently have the number nine pick in the draft. They also have two second round picks, a third round pick, a fourth round pick, two fifth round picks and the seventh round pick. So draft well.

Yeah, that's right. You have more than enough draft picks to rebuild your team. Listen, if Green Bay is going to give you two first at the end of the first round for D.K. Matt Caff, I probably, that's a perfect. If you're getting two first for D.K. Matt Caff and he's going to be an unrestricted free agent next year, you are, you should have. Be considered to be removed from your position if you're not going to move off of two first-round picks for D.K. MacC. You know, I mean, the truth is for Green Bay, they don't need first-round picks.

They need a star receiver. Right. So if I was Green Bay, I would offer two first-first for D.K. If I'm Seattle, I would certainly listen to it. But he's saying they're not listening to any trade offers. Right, right. And we offered a first-round pick. If you ran Seattle and you got Green Bay's two end of first picks for DK, would you take it?

Two first-round picks? Yes. One first round pick, I understand them saying no. Yeah, no, no, I'm the same way. Because he's also a known commodity. Yes, I mean, so Seattle, if they made the DK. Metcalf move to Green Bay, they would have three first round picks. That's three starters for them.

And that first pick, if they got that corner from Cincinnati or one of the edge rushers, those are immediate impact players for that and areas of need for Seattle. Well, yeah, Seattle has to rebuild their, mostly their entire defense. So we're getting some interesting information about what might have actually played out with this Tom Brady retirement situation. Very interesting. As the world turns. Yes.

So Tom Brady retired on February 1st. Well, he reportedly knew what his next move was going to be. Now, we've heard some murmurs about this for a while. So according to multiple reports, Brady eventually would have been introduced as the minority owner of the dolphins. The announcement would have been made as soon as the following week, which was the week that preceded the Super Bowl. The Dolphins reportedly also had planned on a Tom Brady Sean Payton deal. And they would have acquired the rights to Sean Payton from the Saints and gotten the rights from the bucks to bring in Brady because Brady is under contract until the end of this upcoming season and then he will be an unrestricted free agent. Well, the Brian Flores lawsuit was filed the same day that Brady retired.

So this ultimately resulted in that deal falling apart. So I heard initially that Tom wanted to go to Miami more than Tampa. It's a more international city. His wife's an international supermodel. I heard and he would face the Patriots twice a year. So I had heard he wanted to go there, but they settled his wife. They settled on Tampa, which I've lived in Tampa. It's a small town.

It feels small. Brady and Giselle are superstars. It's kind of a weird fit. Miami, they'd just fit right into all the pit bulls around the corner. Yeah, no, it definitely. Miami definitely felt like more of a fit than I was surprised it was Tampa. So I was told Brady was really interested in Miami and now this story breaks and it's like, oh, okay, well, there's something there.

Stephen Ross, the owner is a Michigan guy. Brady went to Michigan. Correct. All of the pieces are adding up. And this also explains why Brady would come back for another year to Tampa, why he would unretire and come back to Tampa. Tampa made it clear they were not moving off of his rights. He wasn't going to play for anyone else.

Right. And knowing that Miami is no longer an option because they're dealing with this Brian Flores lawsuit, well, now the math is mathing. Because we were all trying to figure out why is Brady retiring so suddenly and so almost randomly, well, there was a deal in place to be a minority owner of the dolphins. And then that got taken out the table with the Brian Flores lawsuit. How about that? Which, by the way, has been added to today. The Texans have been added to the suit. there's a little bit of an update.

Former Cardinals coach Steve Wilkes and former NFL assistant coach Ray Horton have joined the suit with claims against the NFL generally and allegations against the Cardinals and the Titans. Wilkes said he was hired as a bridge coach and not given a chance to succeed. And Horton's claiming that he received a sham interview with the Titans in 2016 and they hired Mike Malarkey instead.

So that lawsuit is clearly moving forward and getting added to as well. And Brian Flores also reportedly has a receipt of a memo that he sent to the organization internally about being pressured to lose games. So

never seems to get more information about that. So the Panthers have made it clear they're interested in potentially bringing in another quarterback and Sam Darnel says his feelings aren't hurt because he believes in himself. Whatever happens happens. Because that's at the end of the day like it's out of my control. Yeah. And I know that. And so I have enough security in myself to where I can be like, I know I'm a good quarterback.

I know I can be a good quarterback in this league. I've proved it. And I know there's a team if, you know, something happens that would want me. What's happened to Sam is the concerns out of college have been validated. So it was he plays recklessly and makes too many mistakes. And that's exactly what we've seen in both of his stops. And he's had two offensive coaches, the last two coaches. So when your college concerns become your NFL reality, you lose support.

If Sam's things were injuries and he didn't turn the ball over, I think he'd get another shot. Now, Carolina, he's probably this year, because I don't have another quarterback, he'll probably be the guy. Unless they draft someone. Yeah, yeah. So, but Sam's biggest issue, it's not that he's not big enough, strong enough, he's really talented. He reminds me a ton of Carson Wentz. they are, I think Carson is more naturally gifted, but they were, I like both of them. But you can make mistakes in this league.

You can't make two a game or three. And Sam's gotten into the Carson Wentz, where in big spots, when it gets really urgent, you have to play really fast, he makes egregiously bad decisions. And I like Wentz and Darnold, but it's a very fair criticism of both. Yeah, I mean, it's the same thing with James Winston. Yep. He can be incredibly productive, but you cannot turn the ball over that much. In this league, it's become such an efficiency league that the, and the defenses are so good keeping up with these high-powered offenses.

They're going to take advantage of your mistakes. It's going to turn into other points immediately, and then you're out of deficit you can't overcome. Well, the Panthers have the number six pick in the draft. They also have a fourth round pick, two, fifth round, a sixth round, and a seventh round pick. He's played for two teams in four seasons, 17 and 32 record, 54 touchdowns, 50. interceptions and a 76.9 pass the rating. I'm with you. I think if they don't draft a quarterback this year, they're going to stick with him just because he's expensive and what else are you going to do?

I don't think that they would make a drastic move to trade for someone this particular year. I do think they're going to draft a quarterback though. Yeah. I think you're probably right. I also think you could bring in a Tassum Hill. You could cobble it together because Darnold will get hurt because of the way he plays. And Tassum Hill has some similarities to Darnold, doesn't throw the prettiest ball, super athletic. I don't think the Saints would move off of Taysam Hill, though. They're going to use him in kind of a similar way that he's always been used.

You would have another kind of bridge backup quarterback. I don't know that Sam's going to get another opportunity to be a starter in this league. No, I don't think so. Well, listen, Marcus Marioita is starting again. I mean, I think Sam's moved into bridge, a talented bridge. No, he's absolutely. That's what I mean. Like, he's no longer going to be a.

Nobody's building around him. No. He's a bridge. Yeah. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd Lie News.

Joy will keep you out as well on Tiger Woods today. I don't think he's going to win the tournament. They're expecting lousy weather over the weekend. But my Masters is fun. I think we just had this great three-week event. You know, not all sports are the same, right? Like the baseball season is a marathon. March Madness is a bit of a sprint.

It's a three-week sprint. And then you have these events, big UFC cards, or the Masters, or the Tour de France, or the World Cup. And I kind of like that about sports. It's a little bit of a kaleidoscope. Not everything's this. I wouldn't want my NBA season to be as long as my baseball season. I am a believer in all these sports because we're just more distracted as a society and because television now, not fans in the seats, pays the majority of the bills.

shorten the season. It's good for the owners. The owners are billionaires. Billionaires have a history of being, you know, money obsessed, right? That's why they're billionaires. But once butts in seats and beers and popcorn and programs is not driving the money, shorten the season, it gives great athletes longer careers. Wouldn't you like another four years of Durant not getting hurt?

So the owners say, oh, I lose that game revenue, but you get to keep your stars longer. You have more stars last longer. I didn't like the NFL extending to another week. I want Mahomes to play for 15 years. I don't want guys bang around. So I'm with Adam Silver. I mean, you shouldn't have to incentivize players who make $35 million a year to play. But 82 games for the, I mean, if you've ever been around NBA players, they're not built like us. I mean, there's a 6-11, super long. You know, all these games, all this track. arriving in town at three in the morning, morning shoot-around, just get rid of back-to-back, shorten the season, then add a layer of playoffs with three-and-five games series.

We're all watching that. I see the ratings. Give me urgency. Shrink regular season, expand playoffs. To me, that's the solution on all sports. If baseball cut 40 games out and it started in every year, you know, a month from now, You wouldn't have the rainouts. And then it ended a month sooner.

The playoffs would be done by September 28th. So you'd be playing postseason baseball in the same weather as regular season baseball. Nothing's worse than October baseball. The players are freezing. They play all summer. And then in a postseason, the weather's terrible. That's why bowl games go to warm weather. So you get the best athletes playing in ideal weather.

So the best athletes win and the best teams win. Cedric Sabalos around the corner of The Herd. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd, weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Hey, it's Ben, host to The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller, along with my trusty sidekick, David Gascon, would mean a lot to have you join us on our weekly auditory journey. You're asking what in God's name is the fifth hour? I'll tell you, it's a spinoff of the Ben Mather show, a cult hit overnights on FSR. Why should you listen?

Picture, if you will, a world where we chat with captains of industry, in media, sports, and more every week, explore some amazing facts about human nature and more. Listen to the fifth hour with Ben Mather on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Eleven years in the league, he was a slam dunk champ, an all-star. He was initially drafted by the Sons. And the former Laker Cedric Saballo now is doing a morning show and Phoenix joins us live. For the record, I've watched Phoenix play 10 times this year. Whenever they're on, I watch.

I think they're the best watch in the NBA. Boy, this feels like a championship team. Are they missing anything? You watch every game they play. Are they missing anything? Anything concern you, Cedric? Well, see, they play with a go-back. You know, they all contribute.

They all play defense. They all, you know, have an ability to score. You know, a lot of Devin Booker fans, which I first time seeing him live play the other day against the Lakers, for me, are going to say to me, he's the person who can control and get them a button. it anytime they want. I think the difficulty, that's to be their only mishap that they have. I mean, Janice, you give it to Janus and get out of the way where the two or three people on him,

he's still going to score, even LeBron, you know, if he made the playoffs. But Devin's going to need a pick and roll. Devin's going to need a one-on-one situation. He can't do it with two or three people hanging on him. And he does make the right plays. But that's the only deficiency I see them. And then happened to come up against Janice last year. And that's probably why they lost in the final. Yeah. For the record, Adam Silver addressed it yesterday, how it's become sort of normalized, stars missing a lot of games. In the NFL, it's a badge of honor to play hurt. I'm not asking for guys to play through injuries. Does it bother you? What do you make of it? Well, there's two things you got to understand with the NFL. One, they play every Sunday. So they get a week off and sometimes two weeks off. And they don't play offense and defense. So you know, you play four downs. one, two, three, four, you go sit down and hopefully your team, you know,

does some good things on offensive defense where it gets you more arrest. So you look at that a little bit more pounding. How do they adjust that? If I was the commissioner, I spread the games out a little bit more. I force teams to play all of their players instead of having all these future superstars not play. You know, and then if you're a big money guy, your team should invest like LeBron and Tom Brady. They spend a million dollars on their body in the offseason. the team, if you're giving somebody $30, $40 million,

go invest that money, too, to try to keep... Obviously, you can't fall for accidents or things that just happen on the court, but if you're like the Sons are now, they're out of the situation, then they sit out. But it's real difficult for fans that want to watch that get their only chance to see David Booker, get their only chance to see LeBron,

and they paid all this money for his ticket, and they don't get to see them because of a, you know, a little minor injuries, like that and they're worried about the longevity of that career. Yeah, no, I think it's a bad look for the league. So Steph Curry, LeBron's been flirting with Steph Curry for multiple years. He did it again a couple days ago. I'd love to play with Steph.

Steph's response was, I'm good here. And my takeaway is Kevin Durant and LeBron and Steph, you can argue, are the three best players in the last decade, the most important players. And Steph's looking at LeBron, he's drowning in the Lakers. They got no picks. they got no trade assets. They're bad. He's looking at Kevin Durant now and that mess with no Ben Simmons in Brooklyn.

And Steph's saying, I'm not going to give you guys a lifeline. I got a great GM, a coach, draft picks, good young players. So I think it looks like, not that it's desperate by LeBron, but it does signal to me, Cedric, that maybe LeBron knows this AD thing. We've seen the best of it. Like it's not getting better. Is that fair? Well, what about LeBron knowing that the downhill, and he's going downhill, he's going to have to be a post player, and he has to get off the point guard position.

And what person does he give off the ball to? Does he give it to Westbrook? I don't think he's trusted in Westbrook. Does he give it to Kyrie? He's been there, done that. Steph is the only person that he'll go, okay, I don't need to be the point guard to step. Future Hall of Famer, two-time MVP, has won championships. and everybody's thinking that LeBron is going to lure Steph to L.A.

This might be the other way around. Step is right. They got a great organization. They got an unbelievable GM. They got a great Hall of Fame coach to beat. He might be leaning, maybe going up to the Bay Area that way, because LeBron is the one who can restructure and structure, because he's a free agent every other year,

and go up there maybe play for less. And then he also is baiting on trying to get his son. He wants to play with his son. So that's going to take a little bit. it off of his contract and try to get the approval of some teams to allow Brownie to play with them. You know, that is interesting because the Lakers would certainly take a Jordan pool and multiple draft picks. You don't want to, you know, have the Warriors and Steph and Clay and LeBron crush you, but maybe Clay Thompson, dad, Michael Thompson down in L.A.

It's not the craziest thing. The Lakers appear to be trapped. Cedric Sopalos joining us. So when you look at a team like Brooklyn, we talked a lot about this, I mean, they don't have a lot of chemistry. They don't play a lot of defense. But Durant and Kyrie are so, they're arguably the best big closer and small closer in the last 10 years in the league. There's a lot of questions about Brooklyn.

But man, when I look at those two, Cedric, what's your thoughts about Brooklyn in the playoffs? Well, first, you know, Kevin Durant, let's go to be KD. I've always called him from day one. Kareem Abdul-Jabar with a crossover in a jump shot. And Kareem did it, the all-time leaving score without all that. So you've got to expect what this guy can do on the court. Kyrie Irvin coming back, obviously only played half the season. He's got his legs.

Doesn't look like he's hurt. If he had nagging injuries, he took care of all that. I think the biggest factor that we're missing here is two of them. One, Steve Nash, the ability to make sure everybody's on the court at the right time when it comes to the role players. And then also Ben Simmons. Yeah, he said he's not going to play. the regular season. But that may be a decoy to say, is it shot back? Is this confident back?

We hadn't played in the year, so nobody really knows. So you throw Ben Simmons in in the playoffs. Obviously, you're going to get defense. You're going to get him to play hard. But the shot thing, we don't know about and how you're going to defend him. Do you push up on Ben Simmons thinking that he, that's going to leave Kyrie and K.D. more room than negotiate. So it's a tough scenario, but I think the two factors is it's been going to play in the playoffs. and also how Nash negotiates the role players with those two superstars. Cedric Sabalos now in Phoenix. Great seeing you.

What a rich, resonant voice. Knowledgeable. Cedric Sabalos, it's great seeing you again. Thank you. Hey, go Titans. We almost beat Duke, baby. All right. Good luck to you.

You know, it's interesting. Would LeBron stay in California? Because he likes California. We know that. I'll go up. I'll go up to the Warriors. Because the Warriors have a lot of stuff. the Lakers could use.

A Jordan Poole, a James Wiseman, multiple picks. There's no way out of this thing. At some point, tweaking's not going to do anything for the Lakers. They can't make the play-in game. I don't see how legacy-wise LeBron leaves the Lakers. It becomes too diluted. Who do you think of when you think of LeBron James? Are you going to think of the heat?

Are you going to think of the Lakers? You can think of the Warriors. You can think of the Cavs. It's too much. at one point or another it becomes too much. Yeah. I mean, how this all plays out with the Lakers is going to be different than the last two stops.

Like the heat fans have moved on. There's a little animosity at first, but it was like Pat Riley or LeBron James, they're going to pick Pat Riley. The Cavs, I mean, what are they going to do? They're just happy to have him back, right, and get a championship. And they have now finally built themselves back up into a competitive team. Lakers, this is the Los Angeles Lakers.

If things go badly with the internal structure, ownership, front office, legends, fans with the Lakers, it's a little different. Yeah. We all have different ideas about success. Achieve it at different times. Retirement changing jobs. You can't go about it alone. S-T-I-F-E-L. Check out a Stee-F-E-L.

Check out a Steeful Financial Advisor over 130 years. Steeful Nicholas and Company Incorporated. All right, good stuff. I think that, you know, the other part of that Tom Brady story is that Sean Payton was going to go to the Dolphins, which is, you know, if you think Sean Payton's out of football forever, you're clueless. Sean Payton's coming back. The question is, who's he coming back to? Most people think the Cowboys have Mike McCarthy struggles. but Sean Peyton, the league now is leaning into Sean Payton's skill set.

Play caller, play designer. If the NFL was getting very much more into a defensive league, he'd stay retired. Sean Payton is back in the NFL, two years max probably next year. It's the hurt. 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 helped 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. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth.

Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care which I'm saying. Yep, that's me. 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 IHeard Radio app,

Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast network on TikTok. On the Look Back at a podcast. For 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 a year, 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. 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.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.