The Herd with Colin Cowherd - HOUR 1 - Tiger Woods, Deebo, Lakers

Episode Date: April 8, 2022

It's impressive what Tiger Woods has done so far at The MastersDeebo Samuel wants a big contractChanges the Lakers would like to make for next seasonGuest: Stephen Jackson Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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A lot going on today. A couple hours from now, Tiger Woods tees off. Joy Taylor is joining me. Next week we get into NBA playoffs. The draft ends a couple of weeks out. This is our last kind of Friday before it gets crazy. with NBA playoff stuff, draft stuff,

and the joy you look like you're ready for a weekend in Southern California. It's 95 today. Yes. It is tropical. It's funny you say that because I was picking what I was going to wear it today and I was like, you know what?

It's too hot for these long-sleeves shirts. And it's usually freezing in the studio. Right. But it is, we're getting a heat wave here in L.A. And as true California people, we don't know how to handle anything. So everyone is, freaking out. I'm like, what is this? There's no wind. It's great to have you in a Friday. Thanks for

choosing us. So Tiger Woods is tied for 10th. He was one under. You ever met anybody? And you meet somebody in their 50s or 60s. And you can't believe how good they look. And it's just good, clean living. You know, they don't smoke. They work out. They eat right. Some of it's just obviously genetics. Tiger Woods is 46. Tiger's an old 46. He had a lot of life-threatening massive car wreck. Spinal fusion. ACL tear. 25 years of global travel. Also major family drama. That'll put some years on you. Spotlight, intensity for 30 years. Tom Brady gets tackled for a living and at 44, he looks 37. Tiger is every bit of 46 years old. He has lived a really intense life. I think it's absolutely remarkable.

that he is tied for 10th and one under. I do not believe he can put four straight days together of intense golf against the world's best golfers. Listen, I'm not talking just looks. I mean, Tom Cruz is 59 years old. He does his own stunts. Some people just age well. Tiger Woods is, I'm sure, taking good care of his body.

But golf may be an old man's retirement hobby, but it is not an old man. old man's game, the average age of a major winner, just guess, it's 32. Jack Nicholas, who didn't have any of the trauma like Tiger did, 46 years old, was his last major win, and that's Tiger today. The back, the wrists, repetitive swinging over and over, golf ages you really, really quickly. and Tiger now is a little bit of a victim of his of his greatness because all these golfers now are long off the tea and they're athletic think about this in Tiger's prime let's say 2000 there was one golfer on the tour that averaged 300 yards off the tea or more one John Daley there are 90 today 90 nutrition, trainers, weights, the way they travel. They don't travel as much.

They pick their spots. This has never been deeper. Golf has never had more athletic, strong, long off the tea. Great with the iron performers ever. So Tiger is one under. He's going to golf in about 90 minutes. I think it's remarkable he's even this competitive. I really do.

It's remarkable. I'm crossing my fingers for the weekend. I told you yesterday, I have Dustin Johnson to win it. Here's Tiger after round one. I am as sore as I expected to feel. But it was amazing to have, like I was telling the team all week, come game time, it'll be a different deal. My adrenaline will kick in.

I'll get into my own little world, and I'll get after it. If you would have seen how my leg looked to where it's at now, the pictures, some of the guys know that they've seen the pictures and they've come over the house and they've seen it. And to see where I've been, to see, to get from there to here, it wasn't no easy task. You know, it's easy to like Tiger now. He's very embracable because he's much more vulnerable now. I remember when I used to work in Portland, Oregon, I was a sportscaster for the NBC affiliate there, and I would put Tiger on every chance I get. And I would go, and I'm a lousy golfer, but I was at a public course one time, and people were like, oh, all you do is show Tiger. There was some resentment on the tour because, you know, Tiger burst onto the scene, the network shows every shot.

I find him much more relatable now. He's like a lot of guys on the course. His back hurts, his knees sore. And he's got a shot this weekend. Today is going to be crucial. Can't wait to watch, rooting for him. But he has lived a really, really dramatic, traumatic, intense 46 years. Let's shift to this.

So I've said this before. The media, as I've aged, has gotten younger, not relative just to me. But, you know, when you hire young people in the media, they're less expensive. and the media has never been more corporate owned. And so the trend I see with young media people, it's just pay everybody. It's like, no, that's not how it works. You can't pay everybody. Outside of baseball, these are salary cap leagues.

And so whenever I, you know, see somebody get paid, everybody in the media celebrates. And I'm always like, you guys ever run a business? You can't just pay everybody what you want to pay. And right now we have like a housing bubble and a wide receiver bubble. But it's interesting. This looks like an easy one. And let me just take you inside what the San Francisco 49ers are thinking with Debo Samuel. Now, Debo Samuel is a very unique player.

He's a running back. He's a wide receiver. They use him in a variety of positions. He's fantastic, big bruising and physical. And you should just pay him what he wants, right? Well, yesterday he took all his social media stuff with the Niners down, which is juvenile, but it's a trend. He wants to get paid top of the market.

I want you to think about this. If you ran the Niners, he gets hurt a lot. he plays one way. He's not going to age well. He's never played a full season. Two years ago, he played seven games. First thing to think about. Second, George Kittle is your other most dynamic offensive player.

He's expensive and he gets hurt a lot. You're trying to beat the Rams in that division. Aaron Donald never gets hurt. Jalen Rams, he's not hurt. Stafford's never hurt. Go look at the Rams best players, Bobby Wagner. You want to have your two best offensive players. Kittle and Debo Samuel, often unavailable.

They play one way. They're both wildly physical, Hall of Fame talents. Kyle Shanahan's offense leans into these type of players. That's why they draft him. He likes big physical players. Niners have pushed the Packers around multiple times in the last several years. Green Bay can't beat him. But when I hear just pay Debo, just pay him.

There's a lot that goes into this. he's essentially becoming a quasi running back. Go ask the Dallas Cowboys what it's like to pay big money to a running back early. How's that work with Zeke? That's why they can't keep Amari. Go ask the Rams, Todd Gurley. How'd that work out? Go ask the Carolina Panthers on Christian McCaffrey.

How are those things working out? Not great. The player's winning. The team isn't. Debo Samuel's contract is very interesting. Because if you sign him for big money, think about your four crucial players for the Niners. Trent Williams, expensive, had some injuries,

Kittle, Garapolo, and Debo Samuel. On any given Sunday, none are available. Rams, in the same division, Aaron Donald, always available. Stafford, always available. Cooper Cup, always available. Jalen Ramsey, always available. Bobby Wagner, always available. So that's not as easy as you think.

The media always said, oh, just pay the guys. Yes, I like him a lot. But as he's been moved to a running back for a lot of his importance. That take, that's the last offensive position. You can hit a guy as hard as you want. You can hit him wherever you want. And the way Debo Samuel plays, I mean, it's, he is old school.

He and George Kittle looked like 1977 football players. They are seeking. They are heat seeking contact missiles. So the Niners right now, he has scrubbed his social media of all the Niners stuff. What would I want to do? I'd franchise tag it. Players don't like franchise tag. It's amazing.

They agree to it, but players hate the franchise tag. I would not pay them early, and I would pay him, and I would deal with some repercussions, but this is what goes into it. The rival Rams best players are never hurt. Ours increasingly are older, expensive, and getting hurt. That's what these GMs have to think about in a salary cap league. It's just not as easy as these two words.

Pay them. Not that easy. all sorts of good stuff today be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS1 and the iHeart Radio app. So I saw a couple days ago

Lakers already got rid of Trevor Areza they're going to reshape their roster. There's a lot of speculation on what they're going to do. We all know they're going to get rid of Russell Westbrook. They would like to move off Anthony Davis. I've been told they can't. He's just not healthy. enough so they can't get much for him. Maybe they can do it next year at the All-Star break

after he's had a very good first half. If he stays healthy, I highly doubt it at this point in his career. He just gets hurt about every 15, 20 games. There are those that are throwing out LeBron as a trade option. I saw Brian Winhorse said, keep your eye on LeBron and Luca teaming up because LeBron keeps picking him in the All-Star games. How is that going to happen? It can't. Mark Cuban has his star. He's not going to sacrifice anything to get LeBron. And, you know, why would I help the Lakers out? I don't think LeBron's nearly as enticing to the rest of the top teams in this league, as a lot of people speculate, including LeBron.

He's old and expensive. He plays about 60 games a year. He doesn't like playing with young guys. And here's the biggest issue. He can't play with anybody who has the ball in their hands. LeBron is a seventh in the NBA in ball usage. Seventh. Look at all the players around him that people think he should play with.

Ball usage. Embed, Luca, Janice, Trey Young, John Morant, Donovan Mitchell, Tatum, Booker, Yokic, DeRosen, Steph Curry. So if LeBron goes to these teams, he's not a good enough shooter to play off the ball. That's not his style. LeBron's not going to do that. his ego and his style is going to eliminate that option. He wants the ball in his hands. You can't take it out of Jason Tatum's hands or Devin Booker or Donovan Mitchell or

Janice's hands. Yonis is a better player now. Yokic is statistically, right now, a better player than LeBron. So this idea that you can move LeBron, yeah, there'd be a lot of places. It'd be wonderful if he would play off the ball. But if you put in with Luca, Luca's not as effective off the ball. Do you want to tell Luca or Jason Tatum or Devin Booker Young Stars, it's LeBron's team? So I've said this.

LeBron is starting to age like Michael Jordan, scoring a lot of points in meaningless games with a bad franchise. You can argue whether or not the Lakers are better than the Wizards, but if you look at the winning percentage during the Michael years in Washington, it's not that much different than the last several years outside of the bubble with the Lakers. So I think there's this sense, oh, people would just be lining up for LeBron. Milwaukee and Phoenix are the two best teams in the league. They would have absolutely no interest in bringing him in. Just like Michael Jordan's last several years. None of the good teams wanted him.

The bad teams could use him as an attraction. But I'm not taking the ball out of Jason Tatum's hands or Janus or Yokic or Embed for LeBron. He plays 60 games a year now. Joy with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. It's the herd line news. I'm sorry.

Everyone just plays fantasy owner. Yeah, just... Oh, my God, just Luca. Luca and LeBron. It's like, that's not going to happen. Why don't we just build a team with John Morant and Luca and LeBron? I bet that would be a championship team. And we could throw in...

Another thing. Yokich. Nobody wants to throw the Lakers or LeBron a life preserver. Okay, but also that's just, why are other teams helping LeBron? They wouldn't want to. Why would you, why on earth would they, why would that happen? Or GM's helping clutch sports. There's a lot of GMs that don't want to be pushed around by Clutch and LeBron.

They're not going to throw out a life preserver. And right now, that's why Steph Curry yesterday we talked about it on the show. When LeBron suggests that he wanted to play with him, Steph's like, I'm good here. Why would Steph help out KD who abandoned him or LeBron who's beaten him in a finals? Not going to help those guys out? It's not even helping. It's just like, why would they do that? They're winning.

If they weren't winning. Be different. And they weren't in functional organization. then that would be different, but they are. So sticking with the Lakers, season did not end the way that they hoped, and that made a lot of people start talking about potential trades in the offseason, including one that might include Anthony Davis. And AD knows that he cannot quiet the haters.

He said, I can't control those things. That's an upstairs thing. My job is to go out and play basketball. Obviously, I love it in L.A. If that's something they're considering, then we'll have a conversation about it. I don't know what they're talking about. My job is to be on the basketball floor and play games. when I'm healthy, I'm a bleep, but I got to say healthy.

Yeah, he is terrific when he's healthy, but he's not. I think if that's a sentence you have to say about a player, then you already know what it is. Yeah, right. You're just not reliable. Like, when he's healthy, he's great. Well, then he's not that good. That's right.

Then he's just a good player because he's not available. Yeah. Having an injury here or there, that's one thing. You're going to have injuries throughout your career. If you are not available for almost 40 games for two years in a row, you're not a player you can rely on. Listen, I thought I was the biggest Kauai Leonard fan two years ago. I'm like, he's a top three player in the league.

Kauai is not emotionally available or physically available enough? Well, that's the other thing with Anthony Davis. A lot of what happens with the Lakers this season feels like there was a complete lack of leadership. For all the respect that we give LeBron James for being the team guy that he is and, you know, bringing people together. And he does deserve credit for that. who was going to step up this year and take control of this chaos? Nobody. LeBron remained completely neutral on everything.

Anthony Davis is not a leader. We know that. Russell Westbrook may be vocal, but he was toxic. There was no one in this locker room that at least maybe behind the scenes did, certainly didn't work publicly was like, this is out of control. Yeah. We're taking control of this. No one did. So you can't rely on Anthony Davis as a leader either.

He's unavailable physically. He's not a number one guy. is he a great player when he's available? Yes. No, he is the best, you know, when healthy, he's the best number two in the league. He also doesn't love playing his position. He wants to shoot. And this year he was an atrocious shooter.

So he's also got to psychology here where he wants to be a finesse player. He doesn't want to bang. And the truth is, his body, he should be down on the block more. Yeah, he had a terrible, terrible shooting year. Yeah. Then that's this, he said, he said his training is top tier. It's just a matter of accidents. Miss 39 games this season. He missed 36 out of 72 games last year.

His current deal is through the 24-25 season. The other situation with the Lakers is they don't have a lot of assets. So if they want to make moves, if they want to bring in any kind of players, they have to trade someone like Anthony Jones. They almost have no assets. They have one really good draft pick a couple years down the road. I'm very interested to see what actually happens with the Lakers this offseason because there's a lot of talk about all the things that need to change,

but what they actually do, speaking of Russell Westbrook and what they end up with him. According to Mark Stein, the Hornets might be interested in trading for Russell Westbrook this offseason. They have several players on longer term contracts that they would prefer to unload for a more manageable cap. Terry Rozier is on a four-year $97 million extension. Gordon Hayward has two years remaining on a $120 million deal, and they also have Kelly Ubre on an eight-figure deal. So sending Russell Westbrook out would send out about $38 million in salary to the Lakers, any team that was trading for Westbrook. Now, Westbrook is a Jordan guy.

Jordan's been a big admirer of his. I actually think this would be a good move, especially if they are trying to unload some of those contracts. Now, were the Lakers to be excited about any of those players? Maybe, maybe not. But at this point, I think it's more than just the production that you're moving on from with Russell Westbrook. It's the toxicity of the situation.

So the Lions have not been successful for the last few seasons, really for a long time. time. And Dan Campbell doesn't think the team needs an elite's quarterback to win in the NFL. Oh, great. He said, no, I don't think you need that. I think those guys like that are obviously they're special and they can certainly give you a better chance. But no, I don't believe you have to have one of those guys to have sustained success. Oh, geez. I mean, listen, I feel bad for fans sometimes. Like, you and I work in the radio TV business. There are just certain things that are really, really, for instance, if you want to get ratings in this business, you better talk NFL at least half the time, even in the offseason.

Like that's the foundation of our business. It is, if we were in London, we would talk English Premier League half the time. If you and I were in Toronto, we would talk NHL half the time. There are basics, fundamental basics to every business. You know, if you're a chef, have salt and butter always available. Put it on everything. If you're still fighting this as a coach, the best quarterback won every division. Some of the teams that won their division didn't have good old lines, didn't have good pass rushes,

didn't have the best quarterback won every division. And if your coach doesn't get that, I feel bad for fans. Yeah, I came around on Dan Campbell last year, but this is kind of an outrageous statement. The entire league is spending all of their time and energy trying to find. a franchise quarterback. It's not all you need, but it's like mostly what you need. Look at the Cincinnati Bengals.

One of the worst though lines in the league, forget in the playoffs, in the league. One of the considered weakest front offices, owners. They don't have an indoor training facility in Cincinnati. But they got the quarterback right, and they have a couple good weapons. And they're in the Super Bowl. And could have won it.

And it was competitive with four minutes to go. I mean, look, I actually think it's a way. of time for us to have an argument about whether or not you need an elite quarterback. But isn't it discouraging? There was a time where you didn't. There was a time where you could win with the best defense in the league or the best weapons or

a strong running game. There was a time when you could do that. That doesn't exist anymore. The three of the top four rushing teams in the league last year did not make the playoffs. Half the league makes the playoffs. Couldn't make the playoffs. Top five teams rushing didn't win a single playoff game. Like I feel

it'd be like being a golf pro and telling people, don't worry about putting. Pudding is not consequential in golf. Don't worry about putting. No, that's the fundamentals. That's where you make up all your strokes. It's not off the T. It's on the putting green.

That's the difference between a PGA player and a guy that can jack at 324 off the T. You have to know basic things in industries that are always true and quarterbacks are essential, the winning big in the league. They won three games last year. Now, I don't think they should move off of Jared Goff, and he said they want to get an immediate starter with that number two

pick, which I think they should. They need a lot of help. It's not just the quarterback situation. I don't think they should do that, nor should they force themselves into a quarterback in this particular draft. But if they run it back another year with Goff and win five games, then it's time to have a more aggressive conversation about that position. I had an argument probably 10 years ago with an actress. And I said, nothing against you or any actor, but it's all about the writing. Yeah. I said, that's why Tom Hanks has been in bad movies because he had a bad script.

I said, if it was just about acting and that was the key to it, then the great actors would never be in bombs. Marlon Brando was in seven great movies and 10 unwatchable, if at the time, straight to videos. It's the right, the winning time watching on HBO from the book, it's well done. The actors are great, but again, if the script was hacky, it would be unwatchable. Like, it's understood in Hollywood. You got to get writers. Right. Or it doesn't worry.

It doesn't matter who your actors are. If it's bad writing, it's a bad movie, it's a bad streaming series. It stinks. And it's the same thing. Like, if you're struggling this in Detroit with your head coach, you just don't get it. You're not the guy. I just think it's a wild thing to say when the entire league is going in that direction. When you're paying Patrick Warren.

Holmes, how many hundreds of million? Half a billion dollars is his contract? Yeah, right. Like, I think everyone's got it that the quarterback is important. Now, obviously, he's not, that's, you know, it's an NFL contract. We know how those work. But like, the idea of it, like, that's the number. The quarterbacks are important. You need one to win in the NFL today. Yeah. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The herd lie news. You hear this term all the time. It is a bubble, a

Stock market bubble, housing bubble. Many suggest we are in a big housing bubble right now. Interest rates have been low. People are buying more house than maybe they can come to afford. Banks are giving out more loans. It's all going to come kind of crashing down. Housing prices, especially on the coasts in America, are absurd. I would suggest we are in a housing bubble.

Stock market bubble, I don't know. Housing bubble, it feels absolutely in my life. when houses are doubling in price in L.A. and three years. Yeah, I'm going to say it's a housing bubble. We're in a wide receiver bubble, too, in the NFL. So Brandon Cook's got $20 million basically a year yesterday. Nice player, good guy, not worth half a point in an NFL game. He got $20 million a year. Salary cap league. I like him. Nice guy. Has a concussion history. You know, I was told when he was with the Rams, he was considering retirement. He's kind of a one-trick pony. he's a speed guy.

He's not going to be all great on the route tree, but he can really, really run, and he has value in this league. But I've seen Brandon Cook's play on four different teams, and he has not changed the temperature and the offense for any of those teams. By the way, I was looking today on the internet, Spot Track, had updated wide receiver market evaluations. Cooper Cup, four years, $113 million. I would pay that because he is so valuable in so many different ways. Terry McLaurin, four years, 97 million. That's a lot, I'd consider it. He averages 80 catches in about 1,000 yards last couple of years with weak quarterback play.

But the rest of those guys, it's gone haywire. I mean, when Christian Kirk, a number two receiver on most teams, a number three on many teams, when he got 18 million a year, all right, wide receiver market's crazy. Now, again, Tyreek Hill at $28 million. I get it because he does so much. The franchise has an average quarterback. They're trying to pivot to offense. You start looking around at these guys.

I mean, Stefan Diggs at $14 million. It feels like a bargain. Yeah, Devonte Adams, again, $30 million is a hard, it's a hard pill for me to swallow, and I like him a lot. But he's not a speed receiver, and they have a slot receiver. There's an argument to be made. I think DeMonte Adams is really good. They still need a speed receiver.

And they don't need a slot receiver or a tied end. So he is a classic big volume receiver. That is valuable. $30 million? Probably not. I mean, the Cowboys, they're going to pay Michael Gallup a fortune. He's coming off an ACL tear. So it feels like, and what you're getting in a lot of this stuff, yes, the NFL is pivoting to offense.

I'm not disputing that. but there's a scarcity of quarterbacks. The NFL draft gives you one great quarterback a year over the last 20 years. That's it. We're getting two dozen wide receivers in the NFL annually that can play and five or six that are really, really good very, very quickly. Justin Jefferson and Jamar Chase are Hall of Fame talents, week one in the NFL.

So when Kansas City let go of Tyreek Hill, it's painful, but they save $25 million a year and they got five draft picks. I'm on their side. Mahomes will elevate receivers. Now, again, Tyreek's a very unique talent. But we're getting, when you get wide receivers who are not inching toward it, they have lurched into the quarterback realm of pay. We got a problem.

It's just, it is a wide receiver bubble. Yes, the league is moving in their direction. Yes, Tyreek Hill is really valuable. But be honest, five draft picks for a wide receiver. Come on now. The Patriots, and it wasn't like it was an all-defensive league. The Patriots got Rannie Moss for one. I think it was like fourth round.

Now it's five, including a first-round pick. It seems like to me, and I'm seeing a lot of these historically poor franchises like Jacksonville. 18 million, Christian Kirk. Like him, on the Rams, he's a three. You know? Tampa Bay, he's a four, three, maybe a four. I don't know. Feels desperate. Brandon Cook's $20 million.

Yikes. That is a lot of money. And, you know, the thing is, it's not been gradual. I mean, we're all waking up and it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa. It happened like really fast, sort of like houses in coastal cities have gone from $1.2 million to 2.3 in nine months. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Feels like a bubble to me. To some degree.

Not saying they're not important. I'm not saying your house on the coast isn't worth something. It's gotten really out of hand really fast. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Hey, it's Ben, host of The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller, along with my trusty sidekick, David Gascone. It 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 Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. So the playoffs, NBA playoffs start a week from tomorrow. The playing games start Tuesday. And so I think Phoenix is going to kind of fly through the West. I think the Clippers and the Warriors have some matches. up advantages over the sun, so the games will be pretty competitive.

But I think they'd fly through everybody else. I think Milwaukee and Phoenix are the two best teams in the league. The difference is Phoenix doesn't have a title. So they're playing this regular season with the urgency of a team that doesn't have a title. Once you win a title, you're Milwaukee. You know, you take the occasional, you know, the Spurs dynasty, a Laker dynasty. You know, you rest your players, you get ready for the postseason. You've already got some hardware.

Stephen Jackson's got hardware. He was a champ with the Spurs. 14 years in the league. Also, all the smoke with Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes, wildly popular pot. Yes, look at that, baby. That is nice. Let me throw this at you. Is that you played with Chris Paul. And I always loved Chris because I thought he was old school. He was feisty. He was tough. He would bark at players. And I said, last year I said with Phoenix, I said, those young guys will get barked at for a while. But once they start getting the bag, they may not want to hear old Chris Paul barking at him.

Are you surprised how smoothly Chris and Phoenix have been since he arrived, Stephen? It has just been win after win after win. Well, I mean, that's what happens when everybody buys in. I think a lot of the guys there looked up to Chris, regardless of what was said about him. They know he's a winner. They know he's a guy that plays hard and comes to work every night, regardless of what people say about him. And he's a great leader.

And those guys respect him regardless of him, regardless of if he's barking, he's barking for a reason. And when you have a whole team buy-in, when you have a coach like Marnie Williams that guys rely on and respect, this is what happens. And that's what happens in every win the organization. Now, over in the east, people are speculating about the KD. Kyrie team. And here's probably my pushback. Man, they don't play much together. They haven't gone on a long winning streak. I'm not saying they don't have great halves.

but Stephen, if you haven't won seven, eight games in a row in a regular season, I have a hard time embracing you as a really great, valid title contender. I know Durant and Kyrie are remarkable. What do you make of them? I agree with you on that. I mean, it's hard to say that because a lot of times that me knowing from experience, going into the playoffs, everything has to be rolling for your team to have success in the playoffs. You know, at the end of the season, everybody has to be healthy.

The team has to be on at least a good winning field about how they're playing, going into the playoffs, even have success in the playoffs. So I understand that. But if I had to go into the playoffs with any team that's discombivibulated and any players that discombivis and have confidence in the team, it would be the next with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irvin. You know, we said this the other day about Kevin Durant on the show. I said he may not say it publicly, but Ben Simmons isn't there. James Harden quit.

Kyrie couldn't play home games. And if he was back with Golden State right now, they would be a handful. Do you think he's ever had a moment privately where he's thought, damn, what did I do? I'm sure he has. I mean, we all make decisions. Some we regret, some we don't. But at the end of the day, he's still one of the best players we've ever seen play the game. You know, multiple champion, multiple finals MVP.

So, you know, I don't think he has any. regrets. We all, even with decision-making that I've made in my career, you know, we're walking away from teams and not want to play with teams. There's some things we regret. But if you do it, your way for the most part, and you respect the game and play the game the way it's supposed to be played, which he has done, it's hard to have any regrets or to even think about things like that. You're having a great career. What would you do if you ran the Lakers? A couple years ago, they won the title in the bubble. And AD came back, the fall. following year after summer, out of shape. And in the building, LeBron was really discouraged. Vogel was

really discouraged. He's never been known as a grinder. That's not his style. In fact, he doesn't even want to play the five. He wants to go out and shoot jumpers. What do you do with AD? Because I, you know, Stephen, if they keep bringing back AD, you're going to have injuries. He's not going to be a grinder. He doesn't have your leadership qualities. You know what I mean? Like, my thing is, I would have moved off him two years ago. I'm in the minority. What do you do with him going forward with the Lakers? You know, I'm right there with you.

I was a guy that was saying he's a more athletic Tim Duncan, but I got to take my words back because, you know, even though I know Tim played injured, but Tim took care of his body, you know, even when we're playing paintball summer with Tim, practicing in, like, UFC fighting, he took care of his body. He worked out all year.

And Tim wasn't muscular. Tim wasn't just a big strong guy that, His muscles popping out everywhere, but he played, and he stayed healthy, and he played a lot of games. So, but for AD, I just don't think that he take care of his body. He takes the game serious as other guys. I think he's just talented, naturally talented. And if I was the Lakers, you know, I would start looking at different ways. I never thought Vogel coached from year one.

I've been said it from year one. When you put a healthy AD and the healthy LeBron together, it's going to be easy to win the championship, as long as they're healthy any year. But when you have the coach, when you have guys injured, when you have to throw guys in and out the lineup, then we see what type of coach you are. And obviously, he hasn't been successful in that. But if I was the Lakers, if AD doesn't take his body serious, if we can't sit out and have a conversation and understand how serious these last years for LeBron are,

to him and to this organization, if ADK jump on board, you have to move it. You know, you played with Duncan. Great players in their prime, LeBron, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, when a great players in his prime, there often are veterans who will take a little less. They've got their money. They want to ring. They want to go on the road. They want to get on that plane after another win.

Do you think really talented players in the league view LeBron as the kind of guy they'd take less to play with? Or is that ship sailed? I don't think it's sailed. I think more guys want to be around LeBron and Brie is being his friend off the court than actually play basketball with him. You know, me personally, you know, as great as LeBron is, I would love to play with the ball. run because I know he'll make the game easy for me, and I know we have a great chance to win a championship if I do my job. But think about it. When we won a championship in 03, look at the events we had that wasn't making money. We had Steve Kerr, Danny Ferry, Steve Smith,

David Robinson wasn't really making that much in his career. We had, we also had Kevin Willis. We had all these veterans that were taking low contracts just to win the championship. I don't think guys respect winning the championship that more as much as they did when I was playing. and I don't think it's really too much as LeBron. I just think guys rather make the money and be comfortable just playing and when it's not as important no more. You know, it's funny, Adam Silver, during his state of the union this week, acknowledged it's a problem in the NBA. Many of the best players are simply missing too many games. You tell me, how would you incentivize players to play more?

What would you do? It's hard to, once they sign their name on their country, contract. You've been around a long time. When I was playing, it was an honor to play 82. We fought to play 82. Broken toes, anything, we fought to play 82 because that was something that you hung your hat on. These days, I think guys are just worrying about getting to the playoffs and playing where on the playoffs. And to me, that's disrespecting the game. You give the game all you have. The fans are there giving you all they have. You're making all this money. Respect the game. And the game will respect you. And I think that's why I had a

I wasn't the most at the great career. I wasn't the most athletic and the best basketball player, but I respected the game. And respecting the game always put me in great situations. So I think if guys get back to the old school, respecting the game and not worrying about being there at the end and just playing the whole way, most of the time when you get injured is because you're thinking about getting injured.

And that's just the truth of the game. Yeah, 14 years. Podcast All the Smoke, Stephen Jackson, Matt Barnes. Good seeing you, my man. Congrats on all your success. You're crushing it. Appreciate it. Good to see you, man. Steve Jackson, Fox Sports NBA analyst as well.

Yeah, Adam Silver has came out this week and just said, listen, we got an issue. I, you know, obviously, you shouldn't have to incentivize people making 35 million a year to go to work. Just the world we live in. I go back to this. Hard parenting, hard coaching, hard commissioning, it works. You know, the old saying, give somebody an inch, they'll take a mile and the players have a lot of leverage and they're taking advantage of it.

I was, we were doing this this morning. My theory on what I would do is I would say you have to play 85% of your games on the schedule or you can't play at the All-Star game. So the 85% of the games before the All-Star game, you don't play in them, you can't be in the All-Star game. Guys have bonuses tied to that. You can't win a scoring title, any individual title, unless you play 85% of the games. You can't be all NBA if you don't play 85% of the games. And that goes to not only today

and bonuses, that's a legacy thing. Now, the downside of that is I did it this morning. I went and looked what would this morning my first team, all NBA team look like in the NBA. First team is not bad. Trey Young and Demar Doros in backcourt. Hey, there's nothing wrong with that. Jason Tatum, Andrew Wiggins forward. I know you say Andrew Wiggins, but Yonis didn't. play enough games. Kevin Durant didn't play enough games. Anthony Davis didn't play enough games. And Yokic, MVP candidate center. Got to play 85% of the games. You can't make all NBA. You can't make any award. You can't go to the three-point shooting contest, dunk contest, all-star game. Here's the second team. Then it gets, then it gets a little cringy.

Lamello ball, Anthony Edwards, Tobias Harris, Julius Randall, Carl, Anthony Towns. But again, if you're Janice and you only make a handful two or three all-N-B-A teams, he wants to make ten of those things. I mean, the MVP conversation would change dramatically as well. Yokic wins. Yeah. Yokic is the MVP.

So you can't win an MVP, a scoring title, you can't be an all-star. You cannot be all-N-B-A. Those awards, they're incentivizing bonuses. Would you remove COVID as an exception for missing games? Well, I mean, I think pandemics changed everything. Right, right. I think this is an interesting strategy because I think that those things matter.

Not just for bonuses, but I mean, that's tied to your future contracts. But these are the players that fans are seeing. That's the point. Yeah. And you say how can you say Andrew Wiggins, he's there every night. Listen, you don't have to do this in the NFL. I went and looked at all pro NFL teams this morning. Those guys play 15, 16, 17 games.

NBA, this is where we're at. So you got to do something. You can't just sit there and pretend it's not happening. Adam Silver to his credit said, it's an issue. Hour to next. 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. 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 I-heart 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. On The Look Back at it podcast. In 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. 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 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 Clifers 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,

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