The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hour 1 - NBA All-Star Dud, Nets Fire Jacque Vaughn

Episode Date: February 19, 2024

Doug Gottlieb fills in for Colin Cowherd and talks about the dud of NBA All Star Game. Ric Bucher joins the show and discusses more NBA topics, including the surprise firing of Nets coach Jacque Vaughn. #douggottliebshowSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. 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.

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I don't care what 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 I Heart 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. What up? Welcome in. This is The Herd, wherever you may be. However you may be listening to the show, thanks so much for making it fun of your day. I'm Doug Gottliebind for Colin Cowherd.

And for the next couple hours, I want to talk sports. with you. Well, another All-Star Game in the Books. And Jason Stewart, my esteemed producer alongside Jay, I don't want to profess myself to being somebody who's not fully open about my TV viewing of sports. And since 1993, I believe it was, when Magic Johnson hit his last shot in the All-Star game in Orlando, I had, if I was in an, airport and walking by, if it was on in the background noise, I had barely seen any All-Star Basketball, barely seen any All-Star basketball.

But I was with a buddy of mine at a bar in Oklahoma City in a new area called the Westside Village, which is really cool. And we watched the three-point shooting contest and the dunk contest on Saturday night. That was a debacle. and the dunk contest was up a debacle. And the All-Star game, I didn't mean to. It's like one of those who put this on my television where I sat down and literally spent 30 seconds

and was blown away, blown away by the, it's not that there wasn't enough effort. It was like the willful disdain for effort. There's a difference there. and there's a difference there. It's like teachers will tell you this all the time. Like sometimes you just you just go through the motions and you get a C.

You almost have to try and get a D or an F, right? You got to like try. Try these days. And I'm trying to factor in. I don't want to do a show or we're just like, The All-Star Games sucks. Let's take some calls. 877-9-9-9-9-5.

Doug Gottliebitt for Cohen. Oh, yeah, the All-Star game sucks. The NBA sucks. I'm never going to watch it again. Like, there's no level of productivity there. There's nothing interesting there. We can all agree that the All-Star game sucks. And I think there's a portion of it where you go,

hey, we operate under this premise that basketball is somehow like baseball or somehow like football where if you were to go hard and actually try, there's a risk of injury. Is there a risk of injury? Yeah, sure. But, I mean, there's just this great risk of injury. injury, in all honesty, of all of those dunks because all of those landings, you land wrong one time, and you have the same, it's the same risk of injury.

Generally, guys are not hurt in the NBA in contact moves, just not. And it's not like pitchers in baseball where you can throw out somebody's arms. And it's not like football where you can get a concussion or you can tear an ACL or break a leg or whatever. Like, show me when that's happened. So I do think there's a portion of this, like we've tried to, we haven't tried to, we've clearly made athletes believe that they're putting themselves at some sort of risk if they're competing in their chosen sport outside of championship level competition.

But I think there's something more at play here. The first thing is it's very, very obvious. that it feels like none of these guys, none of them, truly understand how they make their money. It's one of those things that when you're in business, it's like everyone usually figures out, all right, what's the most I can make on a contract? How do you do that? Well, you get leverage. You get multiple offers and you try and the job you want the most, you try and get the most out of.

Doesn't mean you always take top offer. but then once you get in the business, everyone I know would encourage you, how do we actually make money? And how do we actually make money? And yes, the TV deals, which by the way, the NBA is ongoing and negotiating, like, do we not know that that's, you know, that this is a bad look? Don't get me wrong, the new TV deals, I'm sure, are going to be, you know, 2x or 1.5x of the previous deal. Because even though it feels like cable is dying, there's always going to be a service, streaming service now, that needs a volume of live sports. Like, that's really the play here.

The NBA is a volume play for whether it's ESPN ABC or if NBC gets back in TNT, it's a volume. It's two and a half hours on a given night. They can do wraparound shows. You know, they give you lots of volume. Back-to-back double-headers, that gives you an entire night of programming. And while the numbers may not be astronomical, they're solid. You get like a million people and you get the right demo, young men, like to sit down and watch and they gamble on it. But when you give no effort in what's supposed to be the celebration of the sport,

remember, that's like a corporate event. They bring around all the executives. They bring around all the sponsors. Hey, look at all the shiny glitz and glamour and there's LeBron and there's Steph Curry and there's Yonis and there's Yolkich and there's Luca and there's Tatum and there's all these other magnificent basketballers. This is not me telling you these guys can't play. It's the frustrating part is they're not even trying. Like it's not even fun. It's it looked like if you play pickup basketball, it looked like the last game.

you know that game when you go and play and you get to like they're done everybody's they're done guys aren't getting back you know they're pretending like they're playing

defense they just throw a hand up it's terrible but I think I think what we have is a generational problem and again or maybe this first time I said this here.

Doug Gottliebind for Colin, this is the herd. I don't blame guys that are in their 20s, right? Because this is all the reflection of how we feel in our 40s. They react to how somehow we felt like our childhood or I, we didn't like, and now we look back, we're like, man, I kind of liked one of how I grew up or whatever. but the way that basketball players specifically are treated at such a young age. If you don't like that All-Star game, the crazy part about it is you go and look at, I coach U sports.

I have a AU program and you go to All-Star camps, there's no teaching anymore, and there's no defense anymore, there's no passing anymore. At least occasionally they'll get aggressive because they don't want to get embarrassed, you know, when they're somehow on YouTube. But this is what All-Star games look like throughout the pantheon of levels. It really does. We have a generation of players that take honor for granted. Like the greatest honor you can have is to be told you're one of the 24 best players in the NBA.

There's 8 billion people, 4 billion men or boys, males. and of those four billion there's 450 NBA players and you are the 24 best in the world and for that honor you receive untold millions of dollars in contract you get free everything we take care of you we treat you like your absolute gold and all we ask of you is for two and a half hours three hours on a Sunday night could you at least for a little bit guard somebody. Just give me a sense that you give a damn. But you don't.

You don't. You take honor for granted. And this is a societal problem. Right? When we allow it and continue to allow it, and you're like, what are we going to do? What are we going to do? And the NBA, they have to have an all-star game because they make a lot of money on it. But at some point, it just becomes a level of embarrassment.

investment. LeBron said, I think it's something we need to figure out. Obviously, from a player's perspective, it's fun to get up and down. But at the end of the day, our competitive nature doesn't have free-flowing scoring like that. Bro, you're LeBron. This is your league. And part of it is LeBron has always the, man, I just want to be liked by people. Like, eh, that's not really how it works.

it's a direct reflection of the leaders of the league as far as players. If this is, if you want to be a players run league, well then we're all screaming out, you guys are embarrassing yourselves. Because at least the Harlem Globetrotters are funny. And look, you're amazingly talented, but that was just a terrible watch. And then on top of that, here's Jalen Brown, who, I mean, I, Jalen Brown coming out of college should have been in the slam dunk contest. Jalen Brown now should not have been in the slam dunk contest.

Here's Jalen Brown when he's asked about the NBA's 65 game minimum for postseason awards. I do believe that if you win any type of award, I think you should have to play a significant amount of the season. Like, we've got guys to play half the season and win MVP. I'm not a big fan of that. But maybe 65 games might be a little too severe. You know, maybe they lessen it to 58 or something like that. or something a little bit less. 65 is a little bit tough.

But I definitely think that to win awards, you should play a majority of the games. You should play a majority of the games. Just less of a majority of the games. There's less of a majority game. Right? Well, by majority, what do you mean?

Well, there's 82 games, so majority, are you trying to say, okay, we just, you got to play 42? Oh, look, I think you need to really play to get those awards. Just not that much. Oh, Jalen's new contract is going to make $286 million guaranteed over five years. How do you make that money? You make that money from showing up every night.

I don't know. I just, I love basketball. I'm blown away by these guys' talent. I don't understand it. I don't, and I don't understand how they don't watch it. And it's one of those things where, like, we're all pointing out the problem. But, you know, all it comes from is, this is LeBron with who his coach is, right?

Boy, this is a real issue. I wonder how this is going to get fixed. All the way it gets fixed is that LeBron James and Kevin Durant and, you know, I mean, they looked like, I mean, that's why Damien Lillard flourishes, because you don't play any defense. You don't have to. And there's a trickle down to all that. I'm not going to sit here.

What about the kids, but kids do what they see on TV, what the best of the best do. And we have raised a generation. of people who are never held accountable, it's incredibly difficult. When you're an AAU coach, if you're too demanding and you don't have the buy-in from the parents,

like you can't sit a kid. If he's not passing, if you do, he goes to another team. The same thing happens in high school. The same thing happens in college. And in the NBA, if you're too mean, now the player, we want players to be able to demand

where they're going to play. This is what you get. This is what you get. Player run league, right? Okay, well, your product stinks. You make your money because of the volume of games you have in the regular season. You make your money because this is a big corporate sales sort of event celebration of the sport. And all you get is, I mean, even people that complain about it's snowing in Indiana.

It's February, dude. Like, what do you expect? Indiana is as good a city to have a convention or a big event as any in the entire world. Ask anybody. They know how to do it. Yeah, the weather's bad. All right. It's basketball.

It takes place in the winter. Inherently, you're going to have spouts of bad weather. It's not football. It's not that big a deal. Just the constant complaining nothing's good enough. And then not even putting the effort or energy towards it to act like you're honored by being there. I really think that's it. I am not old man. Get off my lawn. I'm speaking for all reasonable people. We've raised a generation of people that take honor for granted. Only Mercedes

Ben's EV isn't just extraordinary. It's easy. With full remote access to your vehicle from your phone via the Mercedes Meek Connect app, the vehicles are electric. The feeling is all Mercedes. The choice is all yours. Learn more at MBUSA. dot com slash EQ. I'm Doug Gottlie filling in for Colin. Hey, happy president's day to you. Kind of up next in the herd. One NBA coach didn't make it

to see the other side of the all-star break. I'll tell you who and why. Next. Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports Radio in noon to 3 Eastern, 9 a.m. to noon Pacific. Find your local station for the herd

at Fox SportsRadio.com or stream us live every day on the IHeart Radio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR. Hey, we're Kavino and Rich. Fox Sports Radio every day, 5 to 7 p.m. Eastern. But here's the thing. We never have enough time to get to everything we want to get to. And that's why we have a brand new podcast called Overpromised.

You see, we're having so much fun in our two-hour show. We never get to everything. Honestly, because this guy is over-promising things we never have time for. Yeah, you blubber lips. Blame and me. Well, you know what? It's called Overpromise. You should be good at it.

because you've been over-promising women for years. Well, it's a Kavino and Rich After Show, and we want you to be a part of it. We're going to be talking sports, of course, but we're also going to talk life and relationships. And if Rich and I are arguing about something or we didn't have enough time, it will continue on our after show called Over-Promised. Well, if you don't get enough, Kavino and Rich, make sure you check out Over-Promised, and also uncensored, by the way. So maybe we'll go at it even a little harder. It's going to be the best after-show podcast of all time. There you go.

Over-promising. And remember, you could see it on YouTube, but, Definitely join us. Listen to Overpromised with Kavino and Rich on the IHeartRadio 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, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined.

And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast, it's a space for honest conversations,

stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me, or you're just chasing down a dream, This is right where you need to be. Listen to The Clifford show on the IHeart 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. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs?

Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam Jek. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s.

To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack all day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you for finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people.

Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Doug Gottlieb. In for Collins. Sohert, Fox Sports Radio. IHeart Radio app.

Rick Buecker in about five minutes. Discover, did you know that Discover wants everyone to feel special? That's why with your Discover card, you have access to 24-7 customers. service as well as zero dollar fraud liability, which means you're never held responsible for unauthorized purchases. Learn more, Discover.com slash credit card limitations apply. Look, I understand that part of the pomp and circumstance of the All-Star game is gone and it'll never return. I went like when, let's just be honest, like when we were younger, you know, you go back, you go back to when we were kids, you couldn't see all of these players play.

there wasn't a league pass you didn't have you know Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Thursday Friday and Sunday games on TV you had Sunday games on TV that's what you had so some of this is the proliferation of sports NBA on television I mean the same thing in baseball baseball has always been this great all-star game okay obviously we've got an uber protective of pitchers and that makes it hard to have a real game But the other thing that's changed is you have Interleague play every series of the year. Every single series you're going to have Interleague play because you had 15 and 15. And you can watch anybody play.

So it's not the first time like I've never seen. Like when Vlad Guerrero was an expo, you saw him on SportsCenter and that's about it. Then you got to see him in an All-Star game. Same thing. When Ken Griffey Jr. was a mariner, you never saw him play. So you watch them in an All-Star game. In the NBA, it's much the same. But we've seen all of these guys.

So I understand that the lure of the All-Stars is never going to be the same because we've seen them all. And frankly, most of these guys have switched teams. So we've seen them play with each other or against each other, even though they still, you only get the Celtics twice in L.A. You know, you only get the nuggets twice, et cetera, et cetera, when you're east to west. but I mean just the willful disdain for any sort of effort it's hard to watch let's get to Jason Stewart with the news

turn on the news this is the herd line news good morning Doug good morning you just brought great memories of Vlad Guerrero as an expo I miss the expos and I know we've spoken about this on our show regularly but the Expo's hat is such an underrated cap.

Like if I had to wear one throwback cap and I'm not prone to do that, I think the Expos would be it. And that's a great memory of Vlad Guerrero. Do you know what the, do you, here's one. Do you know what the Expo hat symbolizes, right? I know what it symbolizes now, but what's funny is it took me like 38 years to actually be reminded of what it looks like.

You know, the other one that's like that, honestly, is the brewers. Is the brewers, right? Yes. Yeah. We're like, wow, that says MB. I had no idea. It's embarrassing how late in life I learned both of those.

For being a baseball fan. It was like, oh, that's not just a glove? Darn. That's darn it. Something happened in the NBA this morning. Jacques Vaughn was fired by the Nets. Now, I guess they had lost a game by 50 points going into the All-Star break. Yes.

Sounds like he's lost a conference. of the players. I know you have a lot of experience with Jacques, right? He's a contemporary of yours back from the Big 8 or Big 12? I did not. I never played against Jock in the Big 12. That's what I'm not. Yeah, you never played against him. No. But Jock was,

he went to Pasadena Mere High School. He was a couple years ahead. I mean, we beat them in the playoffs, but he was like a legend. Like that was the guy who anybody was a pure point guard wanted to be like. And then he went and played at Kansas, and again, kind of same thing. So

I'm not, I can't say like I'm super tight with Jock, but I've always been a fan and he's sort of a contemporary, sort of. But this is big because, remember, Sean Marks is at his core, a Spurs guy. Jock Vaughn is a Spurs guy. That's a family type of thing. And to fire him, they obviously did not want to fire Jock Vaughn as they brought him back as head coach. Remember he's the interim head coach previously before he didn't get the job.

but this just means they quit on them. They quit them. Now, that whole Steph Sabrina thing on Saturday, for those who haven't followed this, Steph Curry and Sabrina, what, Aienescu, I think is how you pronounce her name. They had a three-point challenge for charity. It was really built up to be the greatest thing

in the history of the sexes. And we were supposed to change the way we feel about the sexes. And it's Monday, I haven't quite felt that, but that's cool. Kenny Smith. Kenny Smith was broadcasting the game, the exhibition, and he ruffled a little feathers as he made this commentary. I think she should have shot from the women's line.

That would have been a fair contest. I still root for Sabrina. I still rule for Sabrina. I'm not from the three-point line at the women's shoot front. Why are you putting new boundaries on her? She's not a boundary. That's what the game is. She wanted to shoot they have a smaller ball, don't they?

She saw the WNBA ball. WMBA ball is smaller. She shot with the WNBA ball. She should have shot from the line. There's a women's tea in golf and there's a man's tea for a reason. No. She's a shooter shoot. Is that what you said?

Yeah, but they shoot from where they shoot from. No, no, no. Good job, Sabrina. Don't let any man put boundaries on you like him. But then give them a regular ball then. Don't let any man put boundaries on you. Get him a regular ball then. There are a lot of people who didn't like that by Kenny.

Kenny's saying that she should have shot from the women's three-point line for the WMBA Doug. Yeah, you almost felt like, did Kenny want to say, go shoot from the kitchen? Was that what he was saying? I don't think it was as chauvinistic as people make it out to be, and I guarantee what we're reacting to is what's, you know, social media. Oh, my God, he's such a chauvinist. you know if the exercise was for them to shoot the same shot

well then they have to shoot with the same basketball though I'll actually kind of agree with them like what are we doing right play with a smaller ball shooting the women's three point line but you play with a smaller ball you shoot for the same line I don't know like why do we have different rules if you don't need different rules that don't have different rules when you play

I didn't think it was the greatest battle of the sexist. It was just actually weird. I don't know why she couldn't just participate in the three-point shooting contest. That's what I was thinking. Like, we all agree, like, she obviously is a great shooter and she's a great women's player. But if she's going to shoot from the men's line and we're going to do this competition against stuff, like, why couldn't they have hopped in the competition? That was so weird.

Wasn't it? Because she made 26-3s, and then they put the graphic up there that, 26 series was the most that any of the other participants in the real competition shot. And I'm thinking, so why not just have women in that competition? It seems like an easy fix. But we're still waiting. We're still waiting for this paradigm shift and the way we consider the sexes. One last note from the NFL, Doug.

Steve Spagnola, who signed an extension with the Chiefs last week to be there, D.C. for quite some time. he was also quoted over the weekend as saying that he wants to be a head coach. And that's coupled with pro football talks commentary this past weekend that is there an age discrimination issue with head coaches being hired in the NFL? Steve Spagnolo, does he deserve another shot?

Do you think he'll get another shot? Does he deserve another shot? Sure. Well, you know, why not? He's done a marvelous job with the Kansas City Chiefs is their defensive courts. I thought he was good with his Giants defensive coordinator, the Saints defensive coordinator. Remember he was Rams head coach.

Vic Fangio, you know, famously, another tremendous defensive coordinator. He got a couple years in Denver. I don't think there's age discrimination. I don't think there's racial discrimination. I think it's really hard to get a head coaching job. I think that's exactly what it is. And it's fairly arbitrary,

but it's also about who you know. Like you and I have discussed this before. My son's favorite show is Survivor. Favorite show is Survivor. And I'm like, good. You know why? That's the most important show you can watch if you ever want to get into business.

It's about your alliances as much as what you know. It's about who you know. Guys, they get hired. Now, look, is there a certain sense that you hire some of these younger coaches show the GMs and the presidents and the team owners have a greater say because they don't have the ego of an older coach?

Sure. But with that, you're sacrificing the experience they have. There's also a push right now for more offensive coaches, developing young quarterbacks into league. And obviously, it's worked out with Andy Reid. It's worked out with Kyle Shanahan to a certain extent. Although, you know, John Harbaugh's had no trouble developing Lamar Jackson. He was a special teams coach. So some of this is the trends going on.

But like we make it out when a group of, when a guy doesn't get a job and you're like, man, he's got the resume to do it. But one, it's hard to get that second chance. And two, it's just really hard to get a job. There's 32 jobs in the entire sport. 32. 32. And here's nothing. You keep winning and getting to Super Bowls.

It's also hard to hire you because you don't have a chance sometimes to really dig in on the recruiting process or on the interview process. But I don't think there's an age. They're a little bit, right? but the fact is that it's much more about who you know and who you're connected to and do they get the GM job or they get the president job and are they willing to stand on the table and go I know he's a defensive guy I know he's the coach of the ranch for a couple years but look at the success he's had he knows who to hire he deserves a second shot and that's Jason Stewart with the news well that's the news and thanks for stopping by the herd line news in for Collins, it's the herd here on Fox Sports Radio, the I Heart Radio app. We're going to welcome in Rick Buecker in a moment. Obviously, All-Star Weekend is now behind us. We get ready for the stretch run of the NBA and into the playoffs.

There's a lot we don't know. I thought the LeBron thing was interesting, right? He mean, LeBron claimed to have heard about Golden State's desire to trade for him when everybody else did. when everybody else did. And you're like, there's no way. Right. No way. That Adrian Wojianowski, and remember, it came out about a week after the trade deadline had already passed.

Like, oh, hey, yeah, by the way, Golden State kicked the tires on the Bronjames and the Lakers. And they said, thanks, but no thanks. But there was some form of their informal talks or offer sort of made. Like, hey, what do you think? Like, we get those two together and see if they can make a run towards a championship. I actually get why the Warriors reached out. I don't get why the Lakers, I don't want to get why the Lakers didn't give it greater consideration. Like, are you really going to do another Kobe Bryant?

Now, the thing is, I'm sure they think, all right, this summer, another star is coming. Like, okay. do they want to play with LeBron? Do they want to play with AD? Do they want to play for Darvin Ham? And what does LeBron look like? Remember, this is, you're getting peak Anthony Davis. He spent the entire offseason training, conditioning.

He looks great. And for the most part, he's had a very, he's at a really good year. And even with that, there are 500 teams. Thanks for listening to The Heard podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports Radio and noon to 3 Eastern, 9 a.m. to noon Pacific. Find your local station for the herd at Fox Sports Radio.com or stream us live every day in the IHeart Radio app

by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR. 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'll say it. Yep, that's me.

Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show.

This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me, or you're just chasing down a dream,

This is right where you need to be. 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. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking.

What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam Jett. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so y'all know.

I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. They're finishing that sentence. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history.

Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's welcome in Rick Buecker for Fox Sports. Fox Sports.com. He joins us. Of course, you can see him on speak for yourself as well as there's other shows on Fox Sports One. it feels like the more we want the players to play with some form of intensity of the defensive end, the less we get. The less we get.

Is there any solution that can be made? Are you talking about All-Star game? Or you talking about the game in general? The All-Star game. No, there's not a solution because we've, it's, we, we, The solution that I keep hearing is, well, we need to put more money into it. We need to incentivize it. The money is already to a point where it does not matter.

And there's no real incentive that you can add to the All-Star game that is going to make it meaningful to a collection of stars versus a collection of other stars. this and Adam Silver sort of addressed it and I agree with it. This is a mindset that we've now incorporated into the development of the game in this country, which is that winning doesn't matter. I mean, I'm sure you've been to plenty of AAU tournaments. Who wins ultimately? You play so many games. Winning the championship does not matter.

It's individually, can I show you the skills that I have? That's going to be my gateway. Which is, and how do we define success? Success is getting the bag. And I don't want to put this on LeBron as much as I think he's a reflection of how this has evolved. But when LeBron came into the league, he didn't say, I want to be the greatest player that's ever played.

He didn't say I wanted to win championships. He said, I wanted to be the first billion-dollar athlete. That's where the target was set. At this point, the All-Star game, what is the All-Star game? mean to all of these guys who are making hundreds of millions of dollars with that being the objective they've got a weekend where it's all business yes where they're meeting with their sponsors and their and their marketing agents and how am i going to make more money that's what all star the all-star weekend is all about for the league and for the players and then you want them to

flip a switch and go, oh, I've got to play this game, and it's got to be important. Why is it important? Because. Yeah, but it's like, but it's like, look, if you're, if you're, if you're a venture capitalist and you're going around and you're going to, you know, you go pop in on a company or you have a meeting in a company and you're thinking about investing in it, everyone else, any other company is going to put their best foot forward when important people are watching. They do the opposite.

they do the opposite. It's like if you walked in, you're like, man, I'm really thinking about to invest in this company, and dudes are sleeping on the job. Like, what? Like, why would I, why do it? They're in a TV negotiation, TV contract negotiation. And you have Jalen Brown saying, like, you know, 65's too many. How about 58 games is all we need to play?

Yeah. Like, dude, you're going to get an average of $58 million over five years, and you're trying to play less, not more? But here's the thing that like the players don't feel the players are going to get paid the players are going to get

and they've been given this this has been you know demonstrated to them over and over again you're going to get paid regardless yes you're going to get a suit

you're going to get a max contract regardless so why would they feel invested in the overall of the league, when they are celebrated regardless of any of that. So I just, I feel like the NBA All-Star weekend has to go the same direction that the NFL did with the Pro Bowl, which is just, I would make it a series of, I would make it a series of competitions.

Who's got the best handle? Who's the best passer? find competition that allows you to compete for that because I do think that that element and again there's probably a monetary tie to it in terms of what it does for you in endorsements and whatnot.

If you can say, I mean, look what it does for Mac McClum. He's not even an NBA player. But as a dunker, he's got all these other endorsements that he otherwise would not have because he can say,

I'm the best, best dunker. And so I think if you could take that and say, you know, have proof positive, have a, I don't know how you, what, how you would structure it, but if you could have a, um, a handle contest between Steph Curry. But like, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, I don't argue that. Okay. So, um, you know, the three-point shooting contest was like, whatever. I just, I don't. Let's get to a couple of things that we learned over the weekend.

Rick Buecker, join us, Fox Sports.com, and Fox Sports One. LeBron claims he found out about the warrior's interest in training him when everybody else did. Are you buying that? Well, it's not possible because we all found out about it well after he was or told about it. We didn't find out, you know, a lot of these things we find out in real time, but it literally it was, would you do this? And Rich Paul's not categorically answering that question without talking to LeBron. Dremont, I don't know why he would go to Rich with it rather than go to LeBron and say, hey, would you do this? And we've been told that's what happened. He went to

LeBron and Askin. And we found out that it wasn't happening well after it could have. So it's literally impossible that he found out the same time that we all did. Is it, was it a power play? And by power play, I mean, you know, like LeBron doesn't really want to leave L.A. You know, happy, he's building a gigantic house in his, Bryce is in school, his daughters in school. We don't really, but the, Ronnie's not doing anything at USC. That is a complete dumpster fire. Yep. And in order to guarantee that he would get what he wanted,

you know, I could go play a Golden State. I can go try and win a championship. And he got the promises that he wanted by leveraging the fact that there's interest for him out there. Yeah, I mean, maybe that's how it ended up. I, from what I understand, this was a Joe Lake of production. Okay. This was Joe, and I think Draymond,

made the ask because Joe wanted him to make the ask. But this was more Joe Lekob trying to demonstrate, I will do anything to win. And I'm always coming up with new ideas. And I think it was a mistake, honestly, because there was plenty of ways to find out where LeBron's head was at without overtly going to Jeannie and the Lakers and saying, hey, can we make a deal for LeBron?

Because I think it creates a problem potentially in your locker room. Because guys are now looking around and there's three or four guys, they're like, oh, so they were willing to move us out for LeBron. Well, we, we, don't you get the sense that Clay is one of those guys, right? I've always thought Clay as a Laker and

look around. How does it end with Clay Thompson and the Warriors? I would expect that they are going to try to find a way to re-sign him. It's not going to be the max deal that he wanted or talked about last summer, and it's a matter whether they can find that number or not. But I do believe that when it comes to Steph and Draymond,

that and Steve, Kerr, that they'd like to find a way to keep these guys together and make it work. And a bigger part of it is, I don't know what you're going to get for Clay at this point that's going to make you measurably better. That's really the issue that they're facing is they looked at winning the 2022 championship as, oh, we just breathed new life into our dynasty. We're going on another run now. instead of looking at it as this was a last gasp. And I've said if they were going to rebuild or start over or move in a new direction, right after that 2022 championship was the time to do it.

And I said at the time, don't think that this is like the rejuvenation. They reached back from, they reached out of the coffin and grabbed one more is what they did. Yep. And signing signing Andrew Wiggins to a big contract, signing Jordan Poole to a big contract, thinking that Clay was going to be the same. No, it's fools gold.

It was a mistake. Yeah, it's fools gold. That was the time to move. Buk, real quick, and it's my apologies, it's me on time, not you. The Doc Rivers thing hasn't gone well record-wise. Yeah. Is it, I mean, is this just what happens

when you change coaches and cultures, or is this a bad fit? Well, I don't know that Doc was ever going to be the solution or that Adrian really was the problem. Adrian Griffin was the problem. I felt like this Milwaukee Bucks team took a step back when they traded Drew Holiday for Damian Lillard. They lost their second best defensive perimeter player.

Chris Middleton is at a point where he's not the same. They were the oldest team in the league coming into the season, and they're particularly not good on the perimeter, and you're playing against a load of teams that all have offensive weapons on the perimeter. So I think they looked at it and said the players were not responding to Griff. They weren't going to get anywhere close to where they hope to go, hope that Doc with a ring and as a veteran coach, you know, rather than a rookie coach,

he could possibly move this in a different direction. Honestly, I would have given the job to Joe Prunty because he's done a tremendous job as a fill-in coach in a multitude of situations. Rather than invest in a new case, I would have given him the rest of the season to see where it goes and then make a decision. The fact that they sign Doc to a multi-year contract, I guess they like paying multiple coaches. I guess.

Because I never thought it was going to work. Rick Bueker, Fox Sports, Fox Sports One, Fox Sports.com. Read his work. Bueker, the best man. Have happy President's Day, and look forward to talk with you soon. You got it. Thanks, Doug. All right, that's the one and only Rick Bueker.

I'm Doug Gottlieb in for Colin. This is The Hrd. 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, S&L'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. 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 put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win. A win is a win.

Yep, that's me, Cliver 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 Cliford Show. This is a place for raw, unfilts of conversations with athletes,

creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to The Cliford 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.

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