The Herd with Colin Cowherd - HOUR 1 - Westbrook, Jimmy G, Soto, LeBron

Episode Date: July 18, 2022

Russell Westbrook and his agent part ways Jimmy Garoppolo is the most underrated player in the NFL Juan Soto turns down of 15 year deal from the Nationals LeBron James playing in the Drew League Guest: Ric BucherSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. Major League Baseball All-Star Game, Dodger Stadium this week, one hour from now where Colin was right, where Colin was wrong. There is plenty of both. A lot of baseball this week. British Open's over. Tiger Woods winning the British Open is absolutely over. Joy Taylor, I was in Chicago. You stayed around this weekend, which is rare for you, and you were all over the city.

I saw that, Howard thing. Very good. I actually was down at your... Haunt. It's not your alma mater. It's your adopted alma mater, USC. Yes. I did think of you and I was there.

I was like, oh, this is, you know? And you were there for... Dr. Jim Welter had a flag football camp for girls at the USC practice field, which is beautiful, by the way. Oh, it's gorgeous. Beautiful. Yeah. They had a great time. Great time. So this is something that I think everybody understands that chemistry matters, in your house, at your work.

And I'm always sort of amazed because I know the people that are executives in the NBA are smart people. They're very successful people. Many of them went to big colleges. They graduated. They played in the league forever. This is why I've never understood Westbrook. I've never understood the fascination with Westbrook. Now, you can argue he's hyperathlet. You can argue he's fashionable. There's the triple double thing, which I always thought was overstated. What you can't argue is this. And it's not arguable.

And it's being proven more and more so. He can't play with other people. You know, when you're a little kid and you went and got your report card, doesn't play well with others. He doesn't play well with others. You can't dispute that. If you're arguing that, stop talking. You can argue he's athletic. You can argue he gets stats.

You can argue he's quick and got a burst. I get it. But now Westbrook's agent has put his hands in the air and said reportedly, I'm out, I can't deal with it. 14 years he had an agent. And the agent came out this week and just said, fourth trade possibility in four years. The marketplace is telling the Lakers they've got to add value with Russell in any trade scenario. My belief is that that kind of transaction diminishes Russell Westbrook. Basically, nobody wants his contract.

Unfortunately, irreconcilable differences exist. his best pathway forward. We are no longer working together. And you can tell that Westbrook now, you know, there's criticism for every politician, every basketball player. We all know if you're in the public space, joy, I, any job. It doesn't matter if you're a mayor. It doesn't matter if you're a city council person or a basketball player or a football coach,

a high school football coach for something. You're going to get criticized publicly. But it's starting to affect Westbrook now. LeBron, he can't even hide within the team. LeBron won't sit next to him at Summer League. So it's one thing if outside voices are ripping you, but when you go to work and your guy at work, LeBron will not sit next to him. He posted a video on social media the other day when he signed that contract.

He opted in. That's called projecting. Now he's talking to the critics. He's pushing back. It's really in his head. It's really affecting him. It's not good. He thinks this is great.

It's like no self-awareness. It's not great. Don't react to that stuff. And listen, again, I don't want to just bash on Westwood. Brooke. Like it's over, right? But one of the things, as I look at this situation, and I actually think it's good for the league, is that I'm not going to, I know the executives in this league, they have to be smart. You can't become a GM in the league and be a dummy. They've got to be smart. But what I think is happening is we're pivoting out of about an eight year, 10 year deal

here that I don't think was good for basketball. There's no market for KD this morning. There's no market for Kyrie. There's no market for Ben Simmons. There's no market for Westbrook. There's very little market for Hardin who basically told Philadelphia, go find a bunch of good players. Whatever you have left, pay me that. To Hardin's credit, he owns it. But this kind of chemistry puncturing, walking on eggshells, hyper high maintenance, I think people around the league are going, no, I want Janus, I want Steph, I want Dame, I want Chris Paul. I want Jimmy Butler. And Butler's had his issues, but he shows up and he works hard, and he demands it from his teammates. I do not think college basketball's March Madness

should be routinely beating the NBA playoffs because the NBA players are so much better. But what it's telling you is America and big portions of the sports audience don't like this diva, high maintenance, I'll play when I feel like it guys. And I like KD, but there's no market for them. Miami's trying to engineer a deal, but they're not going to give them what they want. I don't want to spend all my time bashing on Westbrook. I've never been a big fan. I wish him the very

best. But people now Kyrie, Simmons, Hardin, Westbrook, KD. And I think KD will go somewhere, but we're pivoting to the kind of basketball you can put your arms around and embrace. And don't lump LeBron into that. LeBron elevates others.

LeBron is about winning. So you can't And I don't lump LeBron into that. LeBron goes to a team. Everybody generally plays their best basketball ever around LeBron James. He's hyper-focused on winning. He wants to play every night. He's falling apart a little physically and he can't.

But I like the pivot of the NBA, which is moving away from this like 10-year cycle of high-maintenance, needy, I'll play when I feel like it, guys. More into Janus, more into staff, more into Jason Taylor, them, more into the Warriors culture, and I think it's great. So I'm going to say something in football, and we all have these moments where, like, you think something, and nobody else thinks it. And, you know, I think Jimmy Garoppolo has now become the most underrated player in the NFL,

by a mile, and I'll lay out my argument. So Steve Young thinks the Niners, Steve Young thinks, we have some sound about Jimmy potentially asking out of San Francisco? If Jimmy requests a release, I can't imagine a scenario where they tell him no, you're going to stay. And I can't imagine Jimmy not getting to the place where when he passes his physical that he doesn't ask for his release. But I think Jimmy will probably pass his physical.

And then when that happens, I can't imagine a scenario where they don't give it to him. Okay. Let's lay it out. Let's be totally honest about Jimmy Garoppolo. He has one year left on his contract. So if you sign him, you're not invested for years. He's going to make $26 million, one year, most of it not guaranteed. All right, that's way undermarket.

There are seven to eight teams minimum after this year. Forget now. After this year, we think you're going to need a quarterback. We know there's seven or eight that need it now, but after this year, Jets may move off their guy, Lions may move off Goff, Wents may be out of Washington, Tampa, Seattle, Atlanta, Carolina, Saints, Giants. You can talk yourself into 10 teams pretty quickly that in a year from now, is Detroit going to stay with golf if he doesn't win? Wents is going to make some reckless mistakes. Ron Rivera, a defensive coach will move off that.

Didn't we watch him outplay Aaron Rogers in Lambo? Yeah, we did. he was five for six he outplayed Aaron. Colony can't stay healthy. So let's attack that narrative. He played 15 of 17 games this year, 15 of 17, plus three playoff games. And in the one he lost to the Rams,

he led 17 to 7 in the third quarter. This he's never available as nonsense. In the Super Bowl year, he played 19 of 19 games. Folks, what you don't want to be at quarterback is incompetent, chaotic, uncoachable. He's incredibly coachable. He's an all-star in the locker room. He was available in 95% of the games last year, and in the Super Bowl year was upright for all of them.

And there's no market for him? I've said this before. A lot of good people aren't always available. Your best friend. There's employees who, you know, they've got something they're not always available. But good to very good, get it in the building for me. Garoppolo's gotten to a point where it's now silly. One year, 26 million, not guaranteed.

He was in an offense that is geared toward running the football. Here are his stats last year. This is an offense in Kyle Shannon. They'd prefer to run the football. football, sixth in the league in completion percentage, ninth in passer rating, second in yards per attempt, first in yards per completion. And there's no market for him? What? Well, Colin is health. Okay, he can be rickety. I'll take that over bad, uncoachable, incompetent. You can't be paralyzed because he's gotten beat up. He's available in the two

biggest years for the Niners, he was available. And this, I would turn the argument on its side and say, when he is available, which is mostly, he wins playoff games. One year he got to the Super Bowl, led in the fourth. Last year he played three different playoff games. And they had the Rams right where they wanted them. It was their defense that let up big plays. By the way, he's not great.

I'm not saying that. I think he had a bad pick in the Rams game, if I recall. I'm not, he's not great. but, you know, Joe Burrow is really talented. Didn't he have like multiple mistakes throughout the playoffs? All I know is Joe Burrow ends up winning a bunch of games. He doesn't know his play great, but he wins a bunch of games. Jimmy Caropoulos wins games.

George Kittleback in January, like the ultimate praise for his quarterback. He's been incredible. He's been nothing but inviting. I think him and Trey are really good friends. I think he's taught him a lot of things. Jimmy came from a room with Tom Brady. And I think he brought a lot of those attributes that Tom brought from leadership to just his work ethic. And he's been fantastic every single day this year.

You know, as a leader, as a quarterback, as a captain on this team, he's, like I said, he shows up. He's consistent every single day. He leads his team. Yeah, I find it fascinating. There's no market for Jimmy Garoppolo. It's like I talked about NBA execs. It's a one-year deal, NFL executives. It's one year.

It's not all guaranteed. He wins like 75% of his starts. Just right over my head. I don't get it. 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. 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 what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clever 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.

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podcast network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tapped 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 a little kill? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J. 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.

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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. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games.

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Search, learn the hard way, and listen now. You know, I was watching, LeBron played, I watched Clipsa, but I didn't go to, the Drew League, which is in Los Angeles. It's a summer league, very, very popular, a handful of NBA guys play there. And it's fun video to watch. Now, a lot of people were making fun of LeBron because he's dominating less than NBA talent. I'm in awe of what I'm watching with LeBron. This is one of one. I know y'all love MJ. MJ played 1,200 games in his career. In the last 250, he was shot. He couldn't jump. Larry Bird played 1,00050. He was shot. He was

shot at the end. LeBron's played over 1,600 games and still has a burst, can use either hand. He would have led the NBA, my bad. He would have been number two in the NBA last year in scoring by a fraction, a tenth of a point. M. B. would have barely beaten him if he just qualified and played enough games. He's so quick. 16333 games. And I believe today, if you put him on the right team, he could lead an NBA team to a championship. He's just with an organization, that's got chaos and a bad roster and nobody can really shoot. And that's not LeBron's problem. I mean, well, I guess he wanted Westbrook, so it's part of his problem.

And he moved to L.A., business is good. He got a ring. He's probably tired of, you know, moving around. He lives in Beverly Hills. Trust me, it's a nice place to live. I've driven through it before. It appears to be a very nice place to live. But, you know, as much as we all love KD, and everybody's like, where's KD going?

And I think he's a great player. if you told me I could sign KD or LeBron for a two-year contract, I would sign LeBron. One, he always elevates teammates. Always. KD's great. Doesn't always elevate everybody. Number two is he'll play it through his contract. LeBron's always played through his contract.

He may leave early, but he plays through his contract. With KD, you don't know. And number three is, and I think we all kind of know this, LeBron's really a great leader. He has a quarterback leadership. He could have been a politician, whether you agree with what he thinks politically. He's willing to take shots. He's willing to take strong stands. He's a leader.

He elevates others. And you can say, well, LeBron's been hurt. Last two years, he's played 101 games. Katie's played 82. Not that hurt. I just think he's gotten to a point in his life where LeBron's really happy and business is really good. But I still think when you watch him in this Drew League stuff, he admitted he's 100% healthy for the first time in like a year.

You can talk all you want about Tom Brady, but that's a team sport. And Brady has to have certain coaches, certain players to work. And I don't think Brady right now, for the first time in my life, I'm predicting that Brady is okay this year and that Tampa is a big disappointment. Vikings will be the shock of the NFC. The Buccaneers will be a tad bit of a disappointment. But I believe LeBron could be the best player on the best team in the league. doesn't mean he's better than Janus, but he's darn close.

He is darn close. We've never seen anything like this. I watched Jordan and Washington. He played 1,200 games. His last couple hundred, he was not the same player. LeBron is absolutely the same player he was five years ago. The difference is he's had all these ankle sprains, all these little tiny injuries that are wading him down.

And I know it's the Drew League. My eyes tell me he is as good as he was five years ago when he's on the floor. That is one of one. That is a total unicorn. Joy with the news. No, no, no, no, turn on the news. This is the herd line news. While we're still on Kevin Durant watch and the heat have reportedly been working to put together a trade package for Kevin Durant's. According to Bleacher report, Miami is looking to acquire multiple draft picks that they could send to Brooklyn for KD, but the Nets might not be interested in that deal. NBC Sports is reporting that ban.

is off the table, so a trade would likely center around Tyler Hero and Duncan Robinson, but Brooklyn is lukewarm to that deal. That's all I get? Tyler Hero and Duncan Robinson? How many picks? No, you would get picks too. I better get picks too. I better get picks into the next millennium.

Realistically, well, Miami has three picks they could send. They're trying to acquire more picks to send to Brooklyn. All right. So the ban thing is complicated because of the designated Rook. rule. Yeah, that's weird. So you couldn't have Ben Simmons and another rookie max extension on the roster. So they could send BAM to Brooklyn, but Ben Simmons could not be on that roster if they did that. So they're going to have to get either more picks or include a third team in this thing. Yes. Okay. So this is going to get complicated. Now, they also have Kyle Lowry,

Max Schuze, Gabe Vincent's, Victor LaDipo, their first round pick, Nikola Yovic, and they have two future first round picks that they can include in a trade. this is going on a little bit longer than I thought it would. I didn't think it would happen immediately, but this could drag out for a while. It's entirely possible that they're all back in Brooklyn next year. Yeah. I mean, if you gave me Bam, Butler, and KD, it's a great team.

I don't know how they're going to pull that off. I don't know how they're going to... Pat Riley has done crazier things. That will be his greatest feat. If you can do Duncan, Robinson, Tyler Hero, and Picks, that'll be your greatest feat. Well, I mean, let's say they sent, say they were able to, through,

trades acquire two more picks. If you're Brooklyn and you have five first round picks. And I mean, Hero's a bench player and Duncan, the Miami didn't even bring him off the bench. No, they're both defensive liabilities. Yeah. But the question with Brooklyn is, what direction are you going in? What is your future?

You know, Kyrie is, if he's even back next year, he will not be there the year after. We talked about this last, I think it was last week. It may have been Monday or Tuesday show, where people are talking about this collection of picks for Kevin Durant. And we both like him. But I would not give you Anthony Edwards or John Morant for him. He's 34. And he has now, because of a third dissolving relationship, I'm not sure I can pull my arms around him as a franchise. So, I mean, if you gave me six first round picks and a couple of shooters, that's what Duncan and Tyler are, I guess.

But I thought they wanted two all-stars a week ago. when you look around the league, what makes this complicated is that. Is Kevin Durant better than Anthony Edwards right now? Yes. But if you're going to leverage your future, you have to be in a situation where you can win now. That's why Miami or Phoenix, which Phoenix is probably out of it now as well, makes sense. Because if you added a KD to that roster with the subtractions of Tyler Hero and Duncan Robinson, that's a championship team.

Now, you gave up some, but to your point, point Duncan Robinson didn't play very much late into the postseason and Tyler Hero is a great bench player but a six man of the year. That's by definition a bench player. So you can't blow your entire roster up to bring in KD because that defeats the purpose of bringing in Kevin Duran at this point in his career. So that's why the market is interesting. And I think a lot of teams are just not really that desperate. They feel like they have good developing rosters. Well, certainly there's a top 12 group in the league. They're not giving up their future. There's no way. I mean, what's the point? You're competitive right now.

The only other reason would be if you're completely desperate and you're trying to be relevant, relevant, but why does KD want to go to a team like that? So, that's where the market is very interesting. So James Harden declined his $47 million player option with the Sixers and is working on a new deal with the team. And he has agreed to take a pay cut. He explained to Chris Haynes why he decided to do that and take a team-friendly deal. He said it was explains how we could get better and what the market value was for certain players. I told Darrell to improve the roster, sign who he needed to sign and give me what is left over. This is how bad I want to win.

I want to compete for a championship. That's all that matters to me at this stage. I'm willing to take less to put us in a position to accomplish that. I think Hardin's made more money per game than about anybody ever. I don't have the numbers in front of me. He's made approximately $268.7 million over the course of his 13-year career. That doesn't count shoes. A $200 million deal with...

So he's bumping up against a half a billion dollars. Yes. I wish it wouldn't have taken as long. But this is where, you know, I'm not blaming these guys. At this point in James Hardin's career, the extra money just doesn't have what, I mean, don't you want to be playing in June? That's the fun of this. Sports is about winning.

And I understand you want to get the bag. Like, I'm not going to knock on a guy. But boy, by the time you get the 33 and you got $175 million in the bank or in homes or whatever you have it in businesses. Being on a plane after getting beat by 28, I am over that. Like, I am done getting beat by 20. I want to win games. Yeah.

I mean, and the book on James Hardin in the postseason is that he fizzles out. Like, he disappears in the postseason. He's made to the conference finals four times. He's one of the, I mean, in the history of the league, one of the greatest scores we've ever seen. He's an incredible player. If you've made half a billion dollars. I would want to win. I mean, what's 20 million to you?

Now, again, I don't care if you do take the money, and I think it's interesting if you don't. I don't count people's pockets. Whatever, this is what you do for a living. So I have no problem with you taking as much money as you want. But I do think once you get into a certain category of a player, and you want to win, this is how it works. Like it's a salary cap league, obviously with some flexibility,

depending on how much your owner wants to pay. But I think it's very telling of where Hardin is. in his career. I think it's cool that he's doing that. He doesn't have to do that. And I wouldn't think less of him if he didn't. So the Bucks coaching staff is reportedly unhappy with Leonard Fournett. Joey, please report

the story and I have an opinion on this. He's listed at 228 pounds, but according to long-time Bucks reporter Rick Stroud, he weighs about 260 pounds now. 228 is what he's listed at. 260. So do the math that.

Stroud said he didn't look like a guy who could play every down. And when he showed up to mandatory camp and the coaches feel like he has a long way to go to get into playing shape. They signed him to a three-year, $21 million deal this offseason. Okay. So this is my theory on this. Is that, Gronk, I'm not going to come back for net 260. That Brady, it's been reported now. It's on the market.

He was gone. He was done. He was moving to Miami. Then, after the Flores situation, soothes the Dolphins, Brady, who had checked out, he moved on. Because you and I talked about this in the second half of last year around Thanksgiving. He wasn't barking at coaches. Brady was not barking at teammates. We'd seen him do that the first year in Tampa, right?

And then when the season was over, we find out he checked out. Tom was moving on. Doesn't mean he didn't want to win, but he made a pivot upstairs to go to. Miami. Then it blew up. Then he pivots back to Tampa. And I think the players know. Gronk's like, dude, you're out of it. I'm out. Fournett. Furnett would not be at 260 in Tom's first year. Because Tom would hold him accountable. That the Buccaneers this year are not going to have that sense of urgency. It's not that Brady doesn't want to win. But I have that, I've said this, there is, there's an urgency. I think it's impossible.

to be all in, pivot off that. And then in six months, pivot back to that, like, it's everything to you. I think Tom knows it's his last year. It's done. That's why I was willing to blow out Arian because it's like, it's my last year. Yeah. I'm not going to pretend this works. And I think the team is going to not be as focused.

There's no way his star running back would let himself get completely out of shape if he thought Tom was going to bark, if it meant the, they got that ring, man. and Tom got that ring and Tom's ready to go. I don't think they're going to be as intense this year. Well, it's very, very hard to repeat, as we know, to keep that sense of urgency. It's not that they're going to be bad, but... No, division's too bad. They'll win 10, 11 games. We always talk about this.

Like, once a player starts talking about retirement, there's a little bit of... There's always that, like, question of, like, well, if you see the ends, are you really giving it your all? And it's hard to question with that with Tom Brady, obviously, who is, the ultimate's insane competitor. But to your point, he publicly retired. He was done. He was moving to Miami.

And now you expect him to re-engineer all that passion. And this year hold everybody accountable. Well, the Miami thing is what's interesting. We all haven't really talked about it much. Right. Like it doesn't really matter because it didn't happen. But it was very significant. And it was part of the reason why he retired.

So that falling apart, to your point, pivoting back. And maybe sending the message out to every. else like, hey, I'm really out of here. I wouldn't be shocked if this year, I don't know this, but like his family's already moved to somewhere else at some point in the season. I mean, it does feel like his, it feels like his last year. Oh, absolutely. And for years, I was like, I'm not wasting my time talking about when Tom Brady's going to retire.

He'll let us know. Well, he did let us know and now he's back. And also the end of his contract lines up with this year. So is he going to sign another contract? Right. Doubt it. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news.

And thanks for stopping by. The Heard Lye News. So this is just kind of a belief I have about baseball. So Juan Soto is a great young player. He's like 23, 24-year-old kid for the Nats. He's an unbelievable player. And maybe best young player in baseball. He was offered $440 million, rejected it.

Now, it sounds crazy. But the way the contract worked out without getting in the weeds, it was a 15-year contract. And on a per-year basis, he would have been like the 20th highest-paid player in baseball. So he and his agent said, no, we'll go to the market, which is probably the smart thing to do. Does he have Steve Boros as an agent? Probably does that. Scott Boros, excuse me. Scott Boros always wants his guys to go to market.

So that's what they'll do. But it's interesting. The angels have Mike Trout and Otani, and they're next to last in their division. Because the Oakland A's basically have sold off their parts and the A's are a AAA baseball team. They would be in last place otherwise. Trout will go two for four. or Otani will go two for four with a jack and they'll lose to the Orioles. Get swept sometimes.

The Nats have the worst record in baseball and the best young player. This is what I've never understood about baseball. Is that in baseball, if you're the best player in a team and you hit third, you'll get four at bats. And if you're the second weakest guy in the lineup, you'll hit seventh or eighth and you'll get four at bats. So average and bad weights down excellence. In football, it's different. Brady, you'll touch the ball 62 times. The blocking tight end may touch it once.

I can largely marginalize him. I can avoid my average players. In the NBA, the best player will get 27 shots a night. An average player gets three. I can move away. It doesn't work that way in baseball. You're stuck. You can't hide your worst players.

In fact, you can not only hide them, you can put him deeper in the lineup. Mike Trout gets five at bats. At best, the guy who hits eight gets four. And how many times is the ball hit to him? Mike Trout. Yes, we know a catcher or a shortstop, get the ball hit to them more or touch it more. But bad weights down great. If I went to a restaurant and it was a seafood restaurant and the lobster was fantastic, but the parking was lousy, the service was bad and everything else in the plate stunk, I wouldn't go to the restaurant. And that's a little about baseball. The only exception to that

is if you have the Yankees payroll, the Dodgers payroll, Steve Cohen and the Mets payroll, maybe the Braves and the Astros. So what I think is a, here's what I always think is a terrible contract in baseball is when you get a great, wildly expensive player, Robinson Canoe on the Mariners. Remember that? They were awful. Joe Mauer with the twins. Ken Griffey, I think at one point, with the Reds.

Now, the Reds are bad now. Is that if you're a great player and you want to be protected, just go to the big market teams. If I was the Angels, I'd move Otani and Trout. Because you can't surround them with great players. So you don't have to throw good pitches to Trout. You don't have to, you can pitch around them. You can give them, to me, GM and salary drive the sport. Not managers.

People are always beating up on managers. There's limitations. Now, if you want to beat up on a Mets manager or a Dodgers manager where you have an all-star lineup or really high-end players protecting each other, it's fine. But I've never understood, like to me, a bad contract in sports is a star-beats. baseball player on a team that can't afford much else after you sign him. Because your average players are going to pull down your great player. And you're seeing it all over baseball this year.

Otani and Mike Trout, angels are awful. Soto, Nats are awful. You can't protect him. It's a great piece of lobster on a plate surrounded by garbage. The restaurant stinks. The bathrooms are dirty on the plates. What are you going to do? So if I was Juan Soto, get me to a good team.

I can have somebody that's great hitting in front of me. If we lead the game late, we can afford a bullpen. And I see a lot of these players, they're loyal to these kind of medium payroll teams. It's just, you're just going to lose games. It's different in every other sport. In football, I can keep my average to slightly below average players out mostly of touching the ball or getting the shots or wading down my great players. I can hide certain players to some degree.

Can't do it in baseball. So if I'm Juan Soto, and this is nothing against D.C., he's got to go to the Mets, Steve Cohen. He's got to go somewhere where he can be surrounded by great players. I get him turning it down. A, if you look at the contract in the years, it's not that great of a contract. I know, 440 million sounds outrageous, but it's a 15-year deal. Do you want to win games? Do you want to be surrounded by great players?

I think you could, if there was a list in front of me, you could look at huge contracts on average payroll teams. It just doesn't feel like it ever, ever works. 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 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 Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. 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. 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 big. 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 J. 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. Thank you 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. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and

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

know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth? Or are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood,

pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free Our Heart Radio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. John Smote's Will Blackman's going to be joining us next hour. We've got the baseball all-star game this week in Los Angeles, a lot of events in town. Rick Buecker, Fox Sports NBA analyst joins us. Couple of things on the docket this morning. First of all, the agent for Russell Westbrook, who you know basically said, I give up. Are you shocked by that? And what does it say?

No, because the market is telling him that. Look, it's not that Russell Westbrook still can't put up numbers or that he still can't play. It's just he's such a big presence and you can't play without him dominating the ball. or he can't be at his best without the ball ultimately in his hands. And obviously, the price tag is really big. So I just, I think it's just reality in that Russ is going to have to go through what Carmelo Anthony went through a couple of years ago, where when Houston essentially waived him and he had to show a certain amount of contrition

or I'm willing to change or I'm going to change my approach to the game, in order to make himself viable again. Yeah. So the Drew League, you know, it was fun. I'm amazed at how twitchy and how explosive LeBron still is. I know it's not, you know, Dramar Derozen played. I know it's not the best of the best. But my eyes tell me he's still unbelievable.

I watched MJ who played 1,200 games. In the last two years, he wasn't a vertical player. Kobe's last three, birds last two. I watch LeBron and I see Twitch and I see explosive. I'm sorry. I still think he's absolutely a top five player in the league. Do you? Oh, out! Out! You don't? We mean a top five player in the Drew League. No, in the league. Yonis is the best player in the league. Give me four guys better than LeBron, not name Yonis. Today. Yeah, see? I don't want to, I don't want to do that. No, no, no, I don't want to do that. I'm not going to do that. And look, I don't want to disparage

LeBron James for playing in the Drew League. I thought it was a brilliant PR move because of where the Lakers are and that this is most likely going to be another disappointing season. So let me go out and entertain the masses and let me do it in a charitable way. I thought it was absolutely brilliant. I feel like we saw Kobe Bryant do something similar when it was, I can't give you championships anymore in a Lakers uniform, but let me show you that I still am willing to entertain.

Look, doing what he did in a Drew League gives you an indication of just the difference in the speed and intensity when it comes to the NBA versus Drew League. Now, I give LeBron all the credit in the world the amount of time and money that he has spent on keeping his body right and the fact that he still can crush a dunk is impressive. I don't want to take anything away from that. But I also, Colin, we can't go overboard on this means that he's a top five player in the league. He simply, he can do it in moments, and he can do it in moments in the Drew League, and he can still do it in moments in the NBA. But the idea that he can do it for 40 minutes at both ends of the floor, those days are well behind us. I don't need him for 40.

Give me 20. And why do you put me in this position? You know people are going. Oh, Eric Rose Buecker again. He's the hater. Can't you appreciate LeBron? I can appreciate LeBron James. I can admire what he still is.

I just can't elevate him into top five. I think last I checked at the end of last season, I had him on the fringe of top 10. But top five. Come on. Oh, we disagree. He did say he had, I thought it was interesting on his show called The Shop,

that he said he has sleepless nights when he knows he's all about winning and not everybody on his team is. So who's he taking a shot at? If we're talking about the current team, Anthony Davis would be at the top of the list. Yeah, okay, that was... Because he doesn't...

AD doesn't put... We talk about putting time and money into your body. AD is not demonstrated he's on the same path or the same course as LeBron James. But I also, again, you're putting me in this difficult position. Yes, I am. I'm going to push back on this idea that LeBron is always about winning. Because this past season, he spent an awful, he played an awful lot of minutes in fourth

quarters where the game was already decided one way or another. They were either blown out or they had a sizable lead. Where I have seen him in past years conserve his energy, knowing that he's going to, he's playing the long game. This year he didn't do that. In games that he had it rolling, regardless of what the score was, he stayed out there and he added to a scoring total. You can't tell me that he was not after that scoring title this year and that he did it knowing that, well, what else am I playing for? We're not playing for a title this year.

But that's not all about winning. Okay, so you can't win a title. How many games can you win? Can you get your team to the playoffs? even if it's scraping in. We saw a very different approach with Steph Curry with his team and just trying to get them there didn't care whether they were capable of winning at all. LeBron James consistently makes business decisions.

And last year he made the business decision that this is not a team that is going to get me a title, but maybe I can get a different one. I can get a scoring title. So I'm here in Miami's trying to engineer a deal to get KD. I don't know how they pull it off. Why not just go after Donovan, why not go after Donovan Mitchell, a borderline all-star player

who, for the record, has double the years left in his NBA career. This is not a beat-up on KD show, but you'd have to give up so much to get KD, and it's like, I'd rather just get Westbrook with Jimmy Butler and Bam if I could pull it off. To me, that feels like a much easier, more doable deal, doesn't it?

It does, but if you're asking, me which player I'd rather have if I'm playing for a championship right now, it's not close. It's Kevin Durant. I said it the other day on Speak for Yourself. I'd rather have two years of Kevin Durant than four years of Donovan Mitchell at this point. And Pat Riley, I believe what he's looking at is the Phoenix Sun's door is closed. And the only other team that we know that KD is adamant about going to, or is at least at the top of his list, are the Miami Heat. So he's hoping that maybe I can construct something that the price comes down a little bit because this is the one place that KD still wants to go. That's the card that I believe Pat Riley is playing.

But you are absolutely right. I would think that getting Donovan Mitchell would be infinitely easier, except that the Utah Jazz know that the New York Knicks are desperate for a star. They are and they see Donovan Mitchell in the crosshairs and we've seen this. before with the New York Knicks. They will overpay to get that star when they are starved for one. The Utah Jazz know that they've got a fish on the hook. Rick Buecker. Fox Sports, good seeing you, bud. Good to see you, Colin. Yep, all started. That's it? Yeah, that's it

buddy. I got a clock. I got to be up against the clock. That's the way. That's the way it works. All right, yeah. Will Blackman, John Smoltz, Dodgers voice, Joe Davis, Mark Medina, Colin Wright, Colin Wrong, top of next hour. You know, I spent the weekend in Chicago with my wife. I have come to terms that's my favorite city in America. The food, the people, the architecture.

I went for hour, hour and a half walks. That is, that's how you do a city. It is a great American city. In the summer. Early fall. Little chilly. Other than that. Late spring, summer, fall. When a coat doesn't work, it's not for me.

I should be able to wear a coat and be comfortable in a big coat. But I love Chicago. There is something to be said. just the architecture of a city when you walk around. There's a place by the river that I was walking with my wife, and it was in between buildings. And we came out and I'm like, that looks like Florence. It looks like Rome.

When cities are thoughtful and there's, you know, the city managers have built it. So you've got trees into parks, into rivers. It's like there's not a lot of that in America. There's not a lot of great walking cities. Chicago is at the top of the list. It's a beautiful place. Absolutely stunning.

People are great, too. Foods unbelievable. Colin Wright, Colin Wrong, top of hour number two next. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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 Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the Look Back at it podcast. From 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84 was big to me.

I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a hear, 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, 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 Clifers Show. This is a place for raw, unfilts of college. conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to The Clifford Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast network on TikTok. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.