The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hour 2 - Ranking the last 7

Episode Date: June 24, 2025

He also talks to Nick Wright from First Things First to rank the last 7 NBA champions and why the Thunder deserve more respect Airious "Ace" Bailey is probably making a huge mistake before the NBA DraftSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Here we go. It's hour two. Tomorrow at this time, Rick Petino, NBA draft. Nick Wright in five minutes live. We're in Los Angeles today. It's the herd wherever you may be and however you may be listening. Thanks for making us part of your day. You know, John, like everybody else, I have to be on my phone from time to time. I'm not a huge fan of sort of the sky is falling, sort of narrative constantly on the phone.

It gets a lot of clicks. It's grievance. It's outrage. It's the sky is falling. It's doom. I don't buy into that. My favorite sandwich is still peanut butter and jelly. I take naps every day.

I still watch television. I've been hearing for years. TV's dying. Everything's up on TV. So I was thinking about this. A number, John. And you're like me. When everybody says you've got to get rid of your cable, I'm like, I like college football.

How do I get rid of cable? Yeah. I need to watch my Big Dead football. There's games on cable. So I was thinking about this. Game 7 on ABC delivered the most watch NBA finals game in six years. People are starving for content. I've been hearing for you.

Oh, television is dying. I don't know. I watch a lot of it. The NFL's up. The WNBA is up. IndyCar racing is up. The Gold Cup, our B team against Haiti was up from last year. I don't know.

Everything's up. Baseball's up. Now, I do think there are challenges in hockey and basketball and baseball during the regular season because we're becoming a very much an event country. But I've never bought into the television. It's going away. I heard that about newspapers

40 years ago and I have never been a subscriber to more newspapers than I am today. I like content. The other thing I don't buy into is the NBA is doomed. Global League, $76 billion TV deal,

Amazon and NBC, and ESPN's involved. The Lakers just sold for $10 billion, and their number one sponsor is YouTube. The NBA is just fine. The other thing I don't believe in is at market size. For years and years, I banged on this,

stop being afraid of New York. Look at the NFL the last five years. You could argue that two New York teams in Chicago were the biggest tire fires. You know who's great? Buffalo. Kansas City. Green Bay. Do I say Buffalo?

Look at the NBA. Indie Oklahoma City. Boring Denver. I mean, Boston actually didn't get the number. OKC and Indy just got. Look at the WNBA, the Indiana fever, and they're star players from Iowa. So I've never bought into.

The NBA's dying. Everybody's getting rich in the NBA. It works with young people. It's amazing on social. Look at how much money the players now make on shoes and apparel. The league is fine. You may not like it,

but there's a lot of 14 to 33-year-olds it's their favorite sport. It's fine. The TV deal shows that, and the rating shows that. The other thing is, you know, big markets, the league is rigged for big markets. Let me tell you, if the NFL and the NBA are rigged for big markets, they're doing an atrocious job. The NFL's dominated by small markets. I mean, Cincinnati should have made the playoffs with Joe Burrow.

We already got Buffalo, Baltimore, Green Bay, Kansas City. The New York team stink. I'd argue the New York teams are the most hopeless in the NFL this year. the two New York teams. So, I mean, we had a Pact 12 with all big markets. L.A., San Francisco, Seattle, it dried up. They moved over to the Big Ten, because there's a lot more money in the Big Ten than the glamorous Pac-12 with the L.A., San Francisco, Seattle markets.

We're all going to be okay. Shack talked about market size recently. You know, when I was coming up, it was small market, you're too small. You probably need to go to a big market. I take it all the point with that. But now every market is the same. Nobody cares what city urine anymore. This ain't the 90s.

Bigger market, doesn't matter. Social media is the market now. Yep, social media is the market. So yesterday, I don't know why I got heat for this. I thought it was incredibly rational. I said over the last seven years, we've had seven different champions. We know they're not as good as the KD Splash Brothers Draymond team. We know they're not as good as the Duncan, Genobley, Parker, Popovich.

We know they're not MJ's Bulls. They're not Shaq and Kobe. They're not Showtime. They're not the McHale, Bird, the Walton team. We know they're not that. It's more 70s, which I grew up with. I love the Rick Berry Warriors and the Bill Walton Blazers and the DJ and Gus Williams, Jack Sick, Masonics. I love those teams.

The Washington Bullets with Unselled, Hayes, Sheenier, Bobby Dandridge. I love those teams. But the following decade, sort of there was a rebirth of the NBA. So Nick Wright is joining me. So yesterday I ranked, I ranked the last seven champions. Catching a lot of heat, Colin. Which I know, listen, I know you're not checking your mentions, but I know you got plenty of people on your multiple staffs that come to you,

and they're like, Colin, the internet's ripping you. So if I just can jump in, my only major gripe would be, I would, at the very least, flip-flop, Thunder Warriors. I think you're underselling the Thunder a bit and I think that Warriors team, it was a great postseason run and Steph was unbelievable.

But when their second best offensive players, Andrew Wiggins, I think that theirs, and they weren't a dominant regular season team. So I would have the Thunder at least at four, if not at three. But what people are ripping you for is a version

of LeBron James derangement syndrome. How could you have the 2020 Lakers, number one, when here are the facts about one of the most disrespected champions, maybe the most disrespected champion of the last 25 years. I agree. That Laker team started the year 24 and 3. They earned home court advantage throughout the NBA playoffs, did not get that home court advantage because it was in the bubble,

and still swept through the West in five. games in every series and then won the finals in an easy six despite remarkable Jimmy Butler performance. They then followed that up. Well, how did they defend their title? The day LeBron James got hurt when Solomon Hill did a somersault into his ankle. The Los Angeles Lakers, they were 28 and 13. It was the midway point of the next season.

They had the best record in the entire NBA. Halfway through the season following their title. I would then add this. Take the best player on all of those champions. 2020 LeBron is eye to eye with 23 Joker and 21 Janus and take the second best player on all those champions. 2020 Anthony Davis is markedly better than any of these other team's second best player. Yeah, that was my argument yesterday.

Here is the deal. Colin, here's why you know that there is a fan and some media obsession with misremembering the career of LeBron James. Almost all of the NBA's biggest myths or biggest lies either have to do with tearing down LeBron or uplifting a guy he's competing with. There isn't a single NBA myth or lie that you're like, oh, that's interesting. That one works in LeBron's favor. No, they all go in one direction. And the idea that the 2020 Lakers got lucky by the bubble being no home court advantage when they had home court advantage is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard, but it's what everybody says. And by the way, it should be noted. It was the only

time in my life in the playoffs where young teams overwhelmingly florinely florida. because the older married players missed their kids and family and the Lakers were an old team. They were the only old NBA team with veterans that crushed all the other. So they had to fight. You know, because as you get older, you have kids and family. You have kids and family. You don't want to go to four-week rode in Orlando. So the bottom line is I'm with you.

People forget how good they were to start that season. They were dominant through 2730 games. Okay. Yeah, go ahead. Absolutely. Go ahead. No, no, no. They were dominant that year.

They rolled through the playoffs. They then had the best record in the NBA at the midway point of the next season. They were the favorites. The day LeBron got hurt. They were the Vegas favorites to go back to back. And so it's just total recreation of history. We all agree with, I think, the only real other controversy, you're probably underselling Thunder a bit.

But otherwise, fine list. You shouldn't have gotten dragged on Twitter. I have your back. Okay. So I said this about Kevin Durant. is that I didn't understand his lack of market. I'm like, listen, players like him, he doesn't need the bowl in his hands, he's arguably the best jump shooter in the league,

he's not a great defender, but Houston has so much damn length, and so does San Antonio. I'm like, this guy is a, you don't have to bake him. He's a microwave player. You need about four practices in two games, and he'll give you 25. I think Houston is a great fit. Let's start with this. Were you surprised at the pushback on,

well, you'd have to sign a couple of big years. I'm like bench guys make $15 million. I was surprised there wasn't a livelier market. Well, so I wasn't surprised by the market because I do think you have to thread the needle of. Like, I don't think Kevin Durant would have made, as much sense for San Antonio or Miami because neither one of those teams are Kevin Durant away from winning a championship. And when you trade for him, what you are really trading for is this coming

season and you hope next season as well, the 27th season. And then after that, he'll be 40 and it's probably in a different situation. So I understood the market. But I agree with you wholeheartedly in this regard. This is the perfect trade for Houston. So Houston replaces Jalen Green, who in the playoffs, despite having, I think, a 37-point single game, averaged 13 points on less than 40% from the field, less than 30% from 3.

He could not make a shot, he could not create a shot, and you replace him with one of the best shot makers and shot creators for himself, in the history of the league. You have now a starting lineup of Van Bleet, who's a steady champ. Amin Thompson, who is a future star defensive player of the year caliber guy. Kevin Durant, Jabari Smith, the top five pick, and Shingoon, and you didn't decimate your bench. That's right. Coming off the bench, you still have Tari Eisen, Stephen Adams. Reed Shepard, who they took in the top five last year, but Udoka didn't want to play a rookie, but he'll play a lot in Cam Whitmore.

You go nine deep. You can defend. You have a great coach. You now have a bucket at the end of games, and Shingoon is the connector. And so the critique on Durant has been about leadership stuff. Udoka will take care of that. I think right as we sit here today,

and, you know, it's early, obviously, season ended two days ago. But when I look at next year, I think the Rockets have a real path to being, the Western Conference Champion. And I would, I miss seeing Kevin Durant in big games. Some of that has been bad luck, some of that's been bad choices, some of that's been bad teams.

Like, you know, it's a big stew. Some of it's on him, some of it's not. But the fact of the matter is this, Colin, in the six years before he went to Golden State, his final six in Oklahoma City, he made the conference finals four of those six years in the NBA finals once. In the three years in Golden State,

obviously three straight NBA finals. In the six years since then, he has won two playoff series. He has never been out of round two. For a guy who lived at, you know, mid-May, end of May, beginning of June, NBA playoff basketball for the first decade of his career, I want him to have one last act. And I still think he's right around the 10th best player in the league. It is a great addition.

And I do not think they gave up too much at all. Okay, so I'm looking at my topics here. I don't, you get so agitated when I pick the chargers over the Chiefs. So I'm doing it every year. And it's not, and I don't, it's not, I don't, by the way, it's not out of Chief's defense. It's out of Colin Coward protectionism. You know how much you've meant to me. You know how much I love you.

And I hate that every year you do this to yourself. that every year it's either the Broncos, you flip a coin. Is it Sean Baiton and the Broncos, or is it my friends, the Chargers, who are going to beat the Chiefs, and then you're just wrong. But go ahead. I'll let you do it again, I guess. Okay, so John and I, John Middlacob, do you know John? Have you met John before?

Of course. Never in person, but I obviously know John. He does a great job, and his three bold predictions made a lot of sense, unlike yours. So let's just go to mine. Let's not throw shade at John. No, John's were great. Okay. And you probably do agree.

The dolphins are no stake in a lot of sizzle. I think they're going to, I think they're, and I think Steve. So the one that bothers you are the Chargers win the AFC West. And here's my take. Is that I've watched Harbaugh and year two everywhere, first year he builds the culture, but he needs two years to build the roster. And their roster is now really, really good. And I don't know what the Chief's O line is.

I don't know what it is. Their receivers, I hope they stay out of personal issues, but that's been sketchy. Don't you think it's time? Didn't you see the vulnerability of the Chiefs last year? When Mahomes played and they went 15 and 1 and were 17 and 1 with Mahomes playing going into the Super Bowl? Yeah. Listen, I said it before and I'll say it again. The 2024 Kansas City Chiefs were without a doubt the worst one-lost two-time defending champion I've ever seen.

Now, they're the only one lost two-time defending champion, but yeah. But I just, I, somebody and I know the Chiefs looked bad in the Super Bowl, they did. I also know your beloved Justin Herbert is, I think he just threw another pick against the Texans. That game's been over for four months, but I'm sure they're flying high going into the offseason. But here is the problem. The problem is this. Patrick Mahomes in his career is 35 and 45. five against the AFC West.

Patrick Mahomes in his career has started seven years. They have won the division seven times. They have played in the AFC championship seven times. They have won the conference five times. To pick against Reed and Mahomes is just lunacy, and I would evidence it by whenever you do your other divisions. every other team in the league that you believe clearly has the best coach and quarterback in its division, you will pick to win that division except for the team that always wins the division that is always there.

And so I think that, I do think, like maybe, because sometimes, you know, there's like take osmosis. And J-Mack has just been, he's, you know, he is playing, he's betting zero on the roulette, wheel every time. He's like, when it comes up, I'm going to be a genius. And so he's just betting into the Chiefs every year. And I think it has rubbed off on you a bit. Now, so maybe with Middilkoff there, now, I thought John's predictions were excellent. I also, though, if the, he has the Patriots and who's the other team he has in the playoffs? Oh, the Colts. I respect that because that's going to mean there are some teams. Everyone has penciled into the playoffs that are going to be left without a chair.

And so obviously the Bengals are one of them, according to John. So I do respect a non-chalky prediction. But I'll tell you this much, it's not going to be the Chiefs without a chair, and it's not going to be the Chiefs not winning their division. Okay, that's fair. Let's see. Okay, one more thing. The draft is tomorrow.

I said earlier, I always defy, I never like going to a restaurant that's got a signature dish. Like, just do everything well. Last night, by the way, overlooking palm trees in the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica, I had a vichy swan, a nice cocktail thinking of you. And as I had dinner, I was in a restaurant where everybody ordered a bunch of stuff, and it was all amazing. And my take is, I don't want to go to a place that's got a 16 egg omelet. Just, dude, and I've always said LeBron doesn't have a signature move.

And my take is, because he does everything well. I don't need the skyhook. He just gets the best players, the best shots. So they're saying Cooper Flag doesn't have a bag. And my take is it's been the most overrated thing of my life. Kareem had one because he didn't have the ball in his hands. You didn't give centers the ball like you do now at mid-court. Like you had to wait for the ball late in the shot clock.

What do you make about the criticism? You know, LeBron, he doesn't have a go-to signature move like MJ. Yeah, so I also, again, this is. bag for this. Right, of course. But this is, again, to go back to what I first said, every NBA myth starts and ends with the same theme.

We must elevate Michael Jordan at the expense of LeBron James. And so there's just, it's never the other direction on the myths. There's some of that on the facts, but not the myths. So, like, does LeBron have one single move, like you close your

eyes and you think of LeBron? That's what he did. And the answer to that question is it's actually probably a chase down block, right? That's you close your eyes, you think of it. But on offense, when you can do everything, then you don't have to do any one thing specifically. People will say for Jordan, his signature move was the mid-range turnaround, but that's only, only young people think, young-ish people think that, because that was a 96 to 98 Jordan's signature post-baseball. Jordan's signature early in his career was I'm going to go down the middle of the lane,

jump in the air, and figure it out about four seconds later, because I can hang and I'm such a great athlete that I can figure this out on the fly. He wasn't this mid-range assassin he became later in his career. Here is what I will say about Cooper Flagg. There is not a single person alive who was a finished product at what they ended up being at 18 and a half years old. The most important number with Cooper Flagg is his date of birth.

He reclassified. He is, when he gets to the league, since we're talking about LeBron, he will be only two weeks older, two weeks older than LeBron was when LeBron entered the league, and LeBron skipped college. He turns 19, 19 in December of his rookie year.

So the fact that Cooper Flagg does basically everything pretty well is to me a brilliant place to start he'll figure out a couple things he does great but what I think sometimes happens to young star athletes and maybe this is why signature moves can be at times overrated is they figure out what they do really well and they end up spending all their time or a lot of their time perfecting that as other things actually atrophy a bit. It feels to me like Cooper Flag is a B to an A minus at almost everything you can be, and so he'll figure out where his ultimate strength is. But listen, do I think he's a future league MVP?

I think that's a little strong. Do I think he's a no-doubt consensus first overall pick? Absolutely. And I think he'll be just fine. Nick Wright, bring in the heat. Really enjoyed it today. You know, basically I'm your a little bit of your speed bag, but I enjoy that. I enjoy our friends. No, well, no, I gave you credit. I had you. Listen, our relationship on this show is actually a perfect, it's just a homeostasis,

where when you're right, I affirm you, and when you're wrong, I try to prevent you from public embarrassment. And if I can't, then I just have to inflict it. That's all it is. Talk to you later. Nick Wright, first things first. Trust and will.com makes it easy to the right thing. your family visit trust and will com today for total piece of money

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Hey, it's us to Jonas Brothers, and guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, new? Huge news. We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to a...

We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts. We're starting a trend. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it

one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers. This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, where people could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a,

potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. 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.

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A lot of things going on. NBA draft tomorrow. There's an emerging story that sounds like trouble. Sometimes young people just get bad advice. We'll get to that in a bit. First, John Middlough with the news. No, no, no, no, no. Turn on the news.

This is the herd line news. Well, that NFL team up north of 49ers coming off the Super Bowl had a disastrous season. Last year, obviously filled with the ton of injuries. The Niners moved off of Devo Samuel, and with Ricky Pearsall, their former first-round pick, entering year two, he's expected to take a bigger role on offense. He talked about his growing relationship with quarterback Brock Purdy. He's the same person no matter what. It's almost like I kind of knew a side of Brock when I've seen him from afar, you know,

being in college and watching him because he doesn't change. That's one thing about Brock that I really respect. You know, he's the same person. And, you know, I think everybody in the building feels comfortable and feels the same way of Brock just because of the way he carries himself. And, you know, he's about his business. I didn't love the Ricky Pirsall pick because at the time it was like Debo and Iyuk and Jennings. I'm like you don't, you're overdrafting wide receiver.

Then there was the near tragedy. But I will say in that offense, and you know the Niners better than any person I know, in that offense, the Shanahan offense, it does feel like he's, now that Debo's gone, he's a good fit. He showed signs of life last year at the end of the season. After the catch is big with Kyle, right? Get the ball in your hands, then make plays. That's what Debo became a star. Iuke's really good at that.

The problem is, no, I mean, his toughness, he got shot and played in the season. It was incredible. But he's been injured a lot with football injuries when they drafted him. Hamstring, shoulder, he was injured in OTAs, you know, the last couple weeks. Brandon Ayuk has hurt right out. So you have major question marks with the skill group. They need this guy to be a good player. I mean, there's a lot of pressure.

part of making a transition, how the Rams did it when they, you know, went through their roster, was they drafted well. So you draft a guy in the first round. There's a spotlight on Ricky Pearson. Well, I mean, Cooper was aging and Puka Nakua emerged. For sure. Otherwise, they'd be in big trouble right now at wide receiver. Yeah, I mean, Jennings is a good player, but he can't be your one.

So, I mean, they need both these guys. They kid old McCaffrey coming back. I'm still bullish on the 49ers because they're scheduled, but a lot of question marks coming into the season. Yeah. Speaking of, we just talked about this, the emergence of Daniel Jones, mainly because Anthony Richardson has been shelved most of the OTAs in minicamp with a shoulder injury earlier this month and it's opened the door for DJ. According to a recent report, Jones has built a significant lead over Richardson to start for the Colts and is quarterback one moving forward. Yeah, that doesn't surprise me. I've always said he's not quite as fluid as Alex Smith. He's a little more, I feel like he's sometimes a bit more rigid,

but he's a bigger, stronger version of Alex the athlete. His straight line speed is good. He went to Duke, he's got to be bright. He's a big strong, I mean, I had a friend who was next to him in an event about a year ago. He's way bigger than you think. So, you know, I always felt they drafted him. They saw, physically, they saw the next Eli Manning, and Eli's really special. But he did make the playoffs, and he had no support system.

I mean, the cults have a better O-line than the Giants. Sure. The Colts have better skill people now than the Giants do. So he'll have more to work with and Shane Stike and most like him more than dayball. I think they're both very good. I think football is a lot. Who believes in you? And you go back to Alex Smith, Jim Harbaugh believed in him.

A couple years ago, the Baker-Mayfield, Tampa believed in him. Last year, the last couple of years with Sam Donald, from Kyle Shanahan to Kevin O'Connell, now to John Schneider. I think this team not only believe they need this guy. And let's face it, Anthony Richardson, he has a lot of. the new version of Trey Lance. They swung for the fences, they whiffed. This thing's over before it even started. Yeah, Richardson is one of those. He only played 13 college games at Florida. So you were taking a bit of a gamble. But again, I go back to Chris Fowler. I lose luck. I swing the fence on Wentz, who people were like, whoa, it was very good, actually, 27 touchdowns.

And then you go get a really old Phillip Rivers. And that hit. They were looking to bridge the gap with the Kansas cities of the league in Buffaloes and Baltimore's, and they're like, listen, the kid physically is insanely talented. And I think they looked at the AFC and thought, well, we don't have a quarterback. We're going to roll the dice. I think it's hard sometimes when you pigeonhole yourself. The Steelers are going to be in this position. We've seen other teams where you've got to take a quarterback. That's, you know, the Belichick did it with Mack Jones. The Steelers did it with Kenny Pickett. When you can just, let's just take this guy, Dak Prescott, Brock Purdy, Jalen Hurts in the second round.

Sometimes it's an easier landing spot for that player, and there's less pressure. This is Anthony Richardson, Trey Lance. You go all in for them, and then immediately high expectations, it blows up in your face real quick. Okay, how about Dodgers owner, Mark Walter? He made headlines last week after buying the majority share of the Lakers for $10 billion. With the change in ownership, the belief that the L.A. is now in a position to make some significant moves moving forward. And Draymond Green recognizes the position the Lakers are in. Jeannie Bus and the Bus family were one of the least wealthiest families as far as money goes.

They had the big asset in which they just sold, but that's kind of the source of their income. Now you've got an owner with the deep pockets. He don't say, well, no, I don't need that money. Take all of that money and put it back into the team and go get me this guy and go get me that guy. And let's do whatever we want to do with this roster. We'll do this. And so I think with getting this new ownership group, it makes the Lakers so danger. Well, the downside to being the Lakers, well, here's one of the things that Laker fans have

to realize. Your entire brand was built on the ability to seek and land the superstar. Those days are over. Now, unless you want to pay just an – I don't even know what the parents are. penalties are now for blowing through caps. But if you look at the aprons and you look at the new CBA,

you may have a lot of guys that want to play for you. Once you pay Luca and for the next two years LeBron's, there's limitations on what they can pay. They need a center. There's limitations on what they can pay to get one unless they move Austin Reeves. So they always were

the team, the Miami Heat with Riley and the Lakers were like, if there was a top free agent out there, you knew they always got a call. People like in a winter league going to Miami and going to L.A. The league and the aprons and the CBA is a different ball game now. To me it's less about the

players because of the aprons and most of the teams are playing on the same level playing field in terms of how much you can spend. I guess you can spend more on tax money, but you can't really acquire more players that way. It's more about what you can do off the court and to me one Bob Myers

L. L.A. guy went to UCLA. Polinka, remember him and Magic have a weird relationship. Magic's part of Washington and the commanders operation. You know who I saw sitting in the draft room was Bob Myers for the Washington commanders. A lot of connections there. From Pat Riley to Phil Jackson to Jared, they like these

big stars. Bob Myers looks the part. So does Polinka. But you wonder if this comes full circle because that's what they did when they bought the Dodgers, right? They brought in their guy, Andrew Friedman. Well, Bob Myers lives in Los Angeles. I'm telling you, you can see it coming from a mile away. He ran a team. You know,

I think the Warriors spent almost $700 million in tax money, but they were winning championships and it was worth it. A guy that has experience with the dynasty. I do think that magic Polinka relationship could kind of come full circle here now with the Dodgers gaining control. Not great for Polinka, who in fairness pulled off one of the greatest heist in the middle of the night. Oh, and they also got Austin Reeves. He's done a good job.

No, no. The Westbrook move, whatever, but they've done some, they haven't. I'll defend Palenca. He's made some nice moves. and the Luca one will go on his Wikipedia page as one of the great steals in league history just ran into Bob Myers

lives right down the street What's the part huh? And he's one of the most gracious likable people I've ever met in sports Yeah, beloved Great guy John Middilcoff with the news Well, that's the news

And thanks for stopping by The Herd Lie News Petino's going to come on our show tomorrow And I mean almost a savant with his knowledge and understanding of basketball and what he did for St. John's. You know, when Louis Carnaceca left, they just tried a lot of different people, capable people in St. John's, and it didn't work, and Rick Bettino arrived, and suddenly they were really good, really fast.

I watched, I mean, I couldn't tell you the last time I was that into St. John's. It was the Louis Carnaceka days. So he's going to come on tomorrow with the draft. There is one player in this draft, I think, making a big mistake, and we'll talk about that coming up next. 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. Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers, and guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, new?

Huge news. We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts around there. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it.

Well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band. Before Jonas Brothers was... This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, where people could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas,

and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. 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 I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise. breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions,

the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice. radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicelife 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis. And I know firsthand because I competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs. And on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris. Every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on clay. Jen Chinchin win. I mean, she went down in three to Rabakina. But I'm delighted.

She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lina Rubakina is arguably the best player in the world right now. And I actually can win on any surface. Because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Alex Pulo looks to continuous legendary. season and holdoff award, New Garden, Kirkwood, and the rest of the pack as the IndyCar series rolls into Mid-Ohio, July 6th on Fox. So a couple stories. First of all, Ace Bailey, who was not the best player on Rutgers this year, the best player is going to get drafted number two, the guard, Harper. And Ace Bailey was a big, he's not a playmaker, one assists a game, takes a lot of

tough shots. He's talented. He's long. But he is the mystery man of the draft. He's trying to manipulate the draft before he's in the league. He's not actually going to workouts. And I think it's a big mistake because I think this is a very rich draft. And so maybe it was a, if it was an awful draft, he'd have more leverage. And, you know, this is a little bit of Shador Sanders. And John, because he's a former scout and has a lot of of sources in the league. You and I were talking this morning, this is a little what Dion and Shadur did where we're going to try to pick the team before we're in the league. I think a lot of the good teams in the NFL, let's say the playoff teams, want to talk to Shador Sanders during

the draft process. Well, he declined because of course they have quarterbacks. And their mindset is, well, one, you're not going to go as high as you think. And two, people move now, right? GMs move, quarterbacks are constantly traded. Zach Wilson, Trey Lance, Justin Fields, Mack Jones. Look how many teams all these guys have already been on. Look at the NBA, for example.

SGA and Tyrese Halliborne were both traded within a year and a year and a half of this start of their career. So unless you are Cooper Flagg or LeBron James or Trevor Lawrence, it does you a disservice to me in the draft process to literally not talk to everybody because that guy in two years could be acquiring you and then extending you. I mean, it makes no sense. Yeah. Now, John Elway, who

by the way, is still to this day the greatest quarterback prospect ever, he did say using leverage, I'm not playing for this team. But Elway would talk to teams. Elway just said, I'm not playing for the Colts because they're a tire fire and I don't want to play for him. That's different than

Shadour, who was a B to a B minus prospect saying, I'm not talking to the good teams. And then his dad during Super Bowl week says, we're not going to the bad teams. So he shrunk is market to a tiny market. This kid in a very good draft and he's the kind of player.

He's not a playmaker. He doesn't necessarily play well with others which, as we're watching the NBA, that's the league now. The league is not about your bag. The league is Halliburton. The league is SGA. The league is Tatum. Because you can't stack stars.

Do you play well with others? And Ace Bailey, not necessarily he's not a playmaker. You don't get any assists out of him. So I think this is a big mistake. Even Caleb Williams, remember the controversy with the dad and, you know, you had talked about it. He was going to meetings. We all knew he was going number one to Chicago.

He's still meeting with Minnesota. Like, it does you a big disservice, your camp, I think, you know, your brand to not talk to all these GMs and coaches. These aren't difficult. You're just talking about basketball or football. This isn't rocket science. It's not that complicated. I think any time you're going into any industry, have as many allies and, friends as you can. One hundred percent. You talk to everybody. Here's a second thing. So yesterday,

it's so funny. So we do prep. John's been sitting in on the prep here, and he's first time on our show as heard, he's been great. And he's kind of sitting in our process. It's about an hour and a half process. And we just go through the day's stories. And yesterday, the last thing we threw in, we were done with our prep. And I said, you know, seven years seven champs. I'm going to rank them and we spent about five minutes on it i said bang bang bang bang this got apparently big play i stay off my phone in the afternoons this apparently got big play so i put the lakers number one and my reasoning was well anthony davis was the two and if you stay is anthony davis better than jalen brown the celtics too yes is he better than jamaul murray the nuggets

too yes was he better than like andrew wiggins or draymond the warriors should yes was he better than Chris Middleton? Yes. Is he better than Chet Holmgren? Or who was the two for the Raptors? Fred Van Bleet, you know, whoever it was. My take is LeBron was outside of Yokic,

arguably better than all the ones, because LeBron was close to his prime, and Anthony Davis was easily the best, too. And if you have the two best players, and you forget that team had Caruso and KCP, but we didn't know what Caruso was. Well, Sam Presti at Oklahoma City did. He went to Chicago. He was excellent. He was excellent.

for OKC. So people just didn't know what Caruso was. He's really good player, who plays a lot and can defend multiple positions, and KCP has always been a shotmaker. But Alex Caruso, who I like, I've seen him live play several times. He's a strong guy for his size, excellent defender. He was on the Laker team, and he's on this OKC team, and he downplayed a little of that pre-Bid COVID championship with the Lakers. Now I've got a real one. I don't know if you can say anything. Yeah, I think just because of the way the team is constructed now versus the team I had in 2020, like it was much harder with this team just because of the experience, right? And everybody talked about you need experience to win a championship.

For me, I've seen grades do it, so I knew the way, I knew the mindset. But to see these guys do it, man, it's really cool to see it in person. And I'm so happy for the guys. Yeah. By the way, you know why I was harder this time? because he didn't have LeBron and AD. That's why it was harder because that team was better than this team. Yeah, that team had all the experience.

That's why they would have beaten this team. Okay. LeBron, outside of Yokic, was better than all the other team's best player. Give me a break on Janus. He still can't shoot a jumper. And AD was the best, too. And they had really good players behind them in good depth. So, yeah, it was weird.

Here's how I look at COVID. Anybody in any industry who succeeded deserves credit. I'm the opposite of the market. The market is telling you, what a break. A break. Do you know how hard it was to perform with COVID?

I mean, here at Fox in the building, there were arrows on what bathrooms you could use. Just getting through the building here was the matrix. So anybody in any industry, if you're a financial planner, if you're a nurse, if you're a basketball player, anybody that succeeded with all that sort of drama

and trauma we were all dealing with for a year and a half. I got your back. I think it, and Nick Wright talked about this earlier. We forget how good that Laker team was before the league shut down. 2020 LeBron is eye to eye with 23 Joker and 21 Janus and take the second best player on all those champions. 2020 Anthony Davis is markedly better than any of these other teams. second best player. The idea that the 2020 Lakers got lucky by the bubble being no home court

advantage when they had home court advantage is one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard. Yeah, they were 24 in league when the when the league shut down. And they would have had home court advantage where when LeBron gets home court advantage when the best, the top two tandem have home court advantage in NBA playoff history, unlike the Celtics this year, the Lakers were good at home. So it was a major, major disadvantage that they were the best team. Then they fly through it when. All the other older veteran teams regressed and just kind of unraveled because they missed their families. Older players have families and kids.

Older teams, the Lakers had to deal with a lot of drama. The two best players were older players, and they just dealt with it. The following year they came back, they were still the best team in the league. And then LeBron got hurt, rolled on his, Solomon rolled on his leg, as Nick pointed out. So the way I always looked at COVID, it didn't matter the profession. I don't care if you're a podcaster or a physician. If you flourished during COVID, you get credit. I'm just going to give you credit.

I don't think it was easy. And I think, for the record, I acknowledge, for the radio audience, I'm showing the seven best teams in order. It was Lakers, Celtics, Nuggets, Warriors, Bucks, Thunder Raptors. I acknowledge the Celtics had the better overall roster. But it should be noted. You want to know who won championships during COVID. Tom Brady and LeBron.

The two most focused professional athletes of my life. Oh, yeah, the Dodgers did too. So it's not like it was who won the World Series, the Pittsburgh Pirates. You know, who won? You know, start looking at who won, Brady, LeBron, and the Dodgers. So this idea that it was this quirky COVID thing where all of a sudden, the Washington Wizards won the NBA title. Then I would discount it because they've been dog food for 20 years.

But it was big brands, focus stars, I'm good with it. And John hates the Lakers, so this doesn't go over well. It pains me to say that the Warriors, you could have had them last. It was the defining championship for Steph Curry, but it was his worst team, that their team were stacking up. I give him credit because I thought Wiggins was the best he ever was as a warrior. I think Steve Kerr is arguably the best coach on that entire list. Agreed. And Steph Curry had some phenomenal games in the playoffs.

So I get a great player, a great coach, best defensive player at all time, and playoff experience. I'd probably have the Warriors, maybe a slot high. Hey, guys, it's us and the Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas.

We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because, We're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it, but, you know, tired and sick. Tired and sick.

Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. 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 I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Deanna Maria Riva, and on my new podcast, How Hard Can It Be? I call on my Gen X squad from Ohio to Hollywood

as we navigate Midlife's most fantastic BS. Unfiltered conversations from night sweats to futas to scheduling sacks. Wait, what sex? Is it just me or does every woman my age want to look at Pinterest instead of having sex sometimes? They say we can't polish a turd, but we're sure going to try. So let's get blunt with laughs, tears, or tears of laughter. Listen to How Hard Can It Be with Deanna Maria Riva on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas.

And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was hungry. You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow.

Then after that game seven, Marquis come in to you, he's like, you know, I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.