The Herd with Colin Cowherd - LeBron James, Kyler Murray-Russell Wilson, Antonio Brown, & Josh Rosen

Episode Date: March 6, 2019

Colin doubles down on his belief that Los Angeles Lakers F LeBron James should've taken time off, why people shouldn't compare Oklahoma Sooners QB Kyler Murray with Seattle Seahawks QB Russell Wilson, why teams should stay away from Pittsburgh Steelers WR Antonio Brown, and why the New England Patriots should go after Arizona Cardinals QB Josh Rosen. Guests include Rob Parker, D'Qwell Jackson, and Jim Jackson. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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We are live in Wendryny, Los Angeles, on IHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. Joy Taylor is joining me. She is wearing a veritable turtleneck this morning because she knows what we're going through here. Another tsunami rolling through town. I told you. I tried very hard to not complain about the weather here, but I think I'm on board officially. It's pouring again. And cold. Congrats to all the ski resorts out west. Make your plans. It's a great year for snow out here. Rain becomes snow. So, you know, I've been hosting this show for a long time. Joy has been with me for about six months now, my zaniness. I believe part of my job is to come in and tell you about what happened last night,

yesterday. But I also believe, and this is why I'm wrongsome, that my job is to project and theorize what's going to happen tomorrow. Anybody in my business can talk about yesterday. Let's talk about tomorrow. And if you do that sometimes, your crazy theories fall flat and you look like an idiot. But I'm okay with that because some of my theories are right. I've written books about them. I said at the end of last year with LeBron James, I came out for a couple of segments. I got, you know, people just attacked me, said I was an idiot. This is ridiculous. You you don't know what you're talking about. I said, LeBron should retire for a year.

Take a year off. You just got divorced in Cleveland. You don't move to Los Angeles and remarry. Take a year off. This morning, ask yourself, he should have. He should have. He should have taken a year off. Surveyed the league.

Recharge his body. Do all the movies, the TV shows, the pizza company. Get it out of your system. Have dinner with Magic and Rob Polinka. Talk about Brandon Ingram Coos, Malonzo Ball. Travel around the league and recruit players. Oh, yes, it's not tampering when you're retired. Go to the All-Star Games.

Sit front row at the Warriors with Kevin Durant and Clay Thompson. Be their friend, buddy up. Private Jetum, take him to concerts. LeBron's always been the player empowerment guy. He didn't empower himself. He was dating. He got divorced. Marriages.

Dude, you don't get back into the, you don't get married in another two months. Take some time off. LeBron James had earned the right to get off the treadmill. Just think of all the advantages. I was in Colorado this weekend at a celebrity ski event, and I got stuck in an airport for nine hours. They had avalanches and stuff. And I talked to the CEO who built a company and sold it.

I said, what did you do afterwards? He said, I got off the treadmill for 20 months. surveyed my industry, watched other people make mistakes. You can't see those when you're working every day. You can't. You're too busy dealing with your own minutia. You're in too many meetings. He goes, you step off the treadmill, survey the landscape.

Man, it's a ton of clarity. Michael Jordan retired twice, recharge his batteries. Roger Clemens had a year. Andrew Luck, Peyton Manning, some injury, some not. They came back recharged, refocused. Most of us can't take a year off because myself included, we can't afford it. We just can't afford it. But if you can afford CEO, athlete to step back, recharge, refocus, get some things out of your system.

When LeBron went, there's Cleveland, and there's Miami, and it's back to Cleveland, there's a bunch of conflict, moves to Los Angeles and gets married again. What? Time out. Slow down. Whoa. Date a little. Take a breath.

This whole year for LeBron has been, couldn't we all admit, kind of the unfocused LeBron. It's been the unfocused LeBron. L.A. does that to you. You move to Los Angeles. I want to go to the beach. When I moved to Los Angeles, I'm a West Coast guy. For six weeks, I was on a boogie board every day. I was doing Los Angeles, going to Dodger games.

going to USC practice, going to the beach every day. And then after about a year, I'm like, yeah, I'm not a go to the beach every day guy. I'm going to go back to watching movies, reading books, and being a homebody. But L.A. does that to you. New York does that to you. Big cities do that to you. And there's a lot to do. Can you imagine if LeBron James would have spent the last five months?

Just think about this. Going to Warrior Games. Watching Katie and Clay. All-Star Game. Dinners with Magic and Polinka. Listen, man, LeBron's been on the treadmill too long. Breaks for people who can afford them almost always work. Andrew Luck got hurt, could not play for a year.

Came back this year, a smarter quarterback, fewer mistake quarterback, gets hit less quarterback, allowed the Colts to build up around him. the best thing that ever happened to Andrew Luck was not playing. Getting some time, some clarity, some space. It's not like Andrew Luck didn't deserve it. He'd taken a beating. Peyton Manning had taken a beating. Roger Clemens, George Foreman.

You sit around, most of us, you get up in the morning, you brush your teeth, you drive to work, you get your coffee, you get in the treadmill, you work hard. And we do that because we have to do it. We got kids. We got mortgage payments. But the people in society that don't have to should take a breath. Michael Jordan took two years off. We don't even remember him.

Never heard of his legacy. Peyton Manning missed a year. Didn't hurt his legacy. George Foreman actually was more popular when he came back the second time. Roger Clemens. Wait, whatever you think of him, nobody talks about the year off. It was too much. It was too much.

LeBron has been unfocused. He's a kid. He's in his early 30s. He moved to L.A. He wanted to do L.A. for a year. Should have taken a time off. I think if you asked him privately, LeBron would admit,

I needed to recharge. I needed to refocus. I wanted to do L.A. This has been a complete waste of his energy. I want to shift gears to this. This is the time of the year. Combine. pre-draft where you get a lot of rumors, speculation, stories.

This kid, bad interview, this kid a jerk, this kid's smart, this kid, I don't know, this kid red flag, this kid no flag. We had one of those moments yesterday. Kyler Murray's a quarterback, Oklahoma, many suspect he'll go number one to Arizona. And Charlie Cassard, he who's been in the league forever, you know, like, you know, he was in the NFL forever, now works for an NFL network, came out and said, Kyler Murray, interview with teams. It was a disaster.

It was a disaster. So I went last night, made two calls, two NFL scouts, and they both said the same thing. The reports are not untrue. Now, it should be noted there have been lots of quarterbacks in the NFL that are great on the whiteboard. That's when you go up to the board and you draw plays. And not so great. Baker-Mayfield last year, I was told that got him drafted number one. He was great on the whiteboard.

He'd been in college, different programs. He had Cliff Kingsbury. He had Lincoln Riley. Those are smart guys. He went to the whiteboard, knocked it out of the park. I was told Sam Darnold, who hadn't been playing quarterback as long, was not as good at the whiteboard. USC coaches, not in the same class as Oklahoma coaches.

That Sam Darnold wasn't very good on the whiteboard. Sam Darnold, bigger, stronger. I liked him, but Baker was way better in the interview room, getting up to the whiteboard and drawing up plays. And Sam Darnold, a bigger, stronger athlete, who I think is incredibly instinctive, more than he is polished, and I love Sam Darnold.

Not every quarterback interviews well. Not every quarterback is a pre-snap genius. There's a lot of guys in this league. Aaron Rogers, ad libs out of place. Big Ben, Russell Wilson, Cam Newton, Sam Darnold. They're instinctive players. They're not Tom Brady, Eli Manning. They do all their work pre-snap.

I don't think this hurts Kyler Murray a ton. Because if you're looking for a playmaking quarterback, Kyler Murray is the best playmaking quarterback in the draft. And reportedly, Arizona sat him down. And he did fine with them. The good news for Kyler Murray, there are about seven teams that are desperate at quarterback. This is a bad quarterback class. And he is uniquely gifted.

I think he's fine. He's going to be a player. And there's a lot of them. I think Russell Wilson is a great example. Aaron Rogers, too. Instinct is a big chunk of who they are. That's okay. Now, I don't like Kyler Murray as much as I do Russell Wilson.

In fact, I don't even think the comps are close. But the stories about Kyler are not untrue. He's not great at the whiteboard. All right. He would not be the first quarterback to win a bunch of games who's not great at the board. Who's not world class in interviews? There's a lot of ways in this league.

There's quiet guys, Eli's. There's talkative guys, Aaron Rogers. There's passive-aggressive guys, Big Ben. There's hyper-aggressive guys, Drew Breeze. There's big guys, Cam. There's small guys, Russell. I think these stories are true. They're not, I was told by two scouts, untrue.

But if you want him and you need, him and Arizona, probably both boxes checked there? I think you take him. All right, good stuff today. Absolutely packed. You know, I've spent Rob Parker this hour. Also, this Antonio Brown Raiders thing, I got to push back on this. I got to push back on this. But tonight is a night. I'm not sure if you're aware of this. LeBron's going to surpass Michael Jordan tonight in the all-time points list. And you know what that means. And if you don't, I'll explain it to you coming up next. Here's something interesting. Studies show that security systems deter burglars. It's a fact. But there's still a burglary every eight seconds in America. How? Well, think

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LeBron James will likely pass Michael Jordan tonight on the all-time scoring list. if he gets over 12 points. So there's that. And I could spend time talking about MJ and LeBron. I've called LeBron the greatest Swiss Army nice I've ever seen. LeBron does more things well than any player I've ever watched. I would never deny that. Michael is the greatest single score and defender, two-way player I've ever seen in his prime.

They're really different players. Michael's a score first. LeBron's more of a distributor slash score. He's a little bit more like magic. But be that as it may, I spend a lot of time on this show telling you how great LeBron is and how he matches up with Michael Jordan. He's a bigger, stronger, better shooting, better range, better passing, better rebounding version of Michael.

But let me for a second. Let me for a second talk about why I don't buy stats. And LeBron will blow Michael away with stats. I don't buy stats. Carl Malone's the second leading score in NBA history. I watched him shrink a dozen times, half of them live in the playoffs. Russell Westbrook, Mr. Triple Double. Yeah, but, you know, he can't shoot and he's a guard.

Stats are not touched. Stats are not a witness. Stats are not eyes. Stats are not being there. I saw Michael Jordan play at 40 years old. We'll roll a tape. I'm in the crowd. If you slow it, you could probably see me.

Michael was 40. It was at Portland. I was a sportscaster. He played 41 minutes. He was 11 of 19. He scored 25 points and had seven assists. I was under the basket, upper right. He was easily the best player on the floor at 40.

LeBron is 34 years old. he will never be as good as Michael Jordan was at 40. Michael Jordan, folks, it doesn't make sense. He retired twice. He got the hell beat out of him in a physical Eastern conference. He was a cigar smoking, steak eating, wine drinking, card playing maniac who didn't sleep. He left a sport and played another and came back and was still a mile better than magic. I was at his last game at 40 years old.

The Portland team, I think, won almost 50 games. The Washington team had some good players. Michael was 40. It was the last game he ever played in Portland, the home of Nike. And he was easily the best player on the floor. Easily. LeBron James at 40 will not be in an NBA game six years from now and we're all going, wow.

LeBron against Milwaukee. He's easily the best player on the floor. I spend a lot of time telling you how great LeBron is. But the most remarkable night, I've lived in eight states, I've been to 49, I apologize to South Carolina. I've been to every big sporting event except the Kentucky Derby. One of the most unbelievable experiences of my life and I was sitting next to my friend, Brian Lightgib, at the Rose Garden, was this night. 40 years old after getting the hell beat out of him in the Eastern Conference when you had hand checks and forearm shivers. Three years of college.

Retired twice. Went played baseball. Cigars, steaks, gambling. 40 years old. Easily, best player on the floor. On a good Portland team, on a night when players were playing. playing against their idol. I mean, it was like you got up to fight Muhammad Ali.

You got up to play Michael Jordan. You wanted to stop Michael Jordan. 11 of 19, they couldn't. 7 assists, 41 minutes, more minutes than any other player. I don't buy stats. LeBron will be a tidal wave of stats over Michael Jordan. But I'll tell you one thing LeBron will never be. As good as Jordan at 40.

No way. know how. Hey, MJ couldn't hit the curve in baseball, but he hit 40 and was still unbelievable. Joy with the news. No, no, no, no, turn on the news. This is the herd line news. So the Celtics have been in a slump lately,

losing seven of ten games going into last night's matchup with the Warriors, and a lot of players are talking about toxic environments and being frustrated with the team's performance. But the Celtics pulled off a 128-95 win. over the Warriors last night and Kyrie Irving had this to say about how the team got back on track. That long plane ride helped us out.

I'd just say that. That long plane ride helped us out. We needed it. It was just, we were going to get to a point where we were just going to get tired of fighting each other, fighting the outside world and it doesn't really matter. So we just want to come out here and just play basketball. This is our sanctuary and

we have to do everything to protect it. We can't let anybody infiltrate this. How about that? Getting along now? Well, I mean, look, sometimes it just takes the conversation of airing it out to get back on the same page. Of course. There's a lot of talent on that team. They have a lot at stake here, and they have championship expectations. So at one point or another, they needed to get in a room or a long plane ride and have those conversations. Yes. I mean, seriously, one of the things, it's funny, when I used to work out east and I would fly to the west, I'd get on these five-and-a-half-hour flights. and I actually, it's how I wrote both my books

because I was so focused in the moment, five and a half hours on a plane, it's like I'm going to get a bunch of homework done. I would never be more focused. I'm kind of an ADD guy than being on that plane. When you're trapped in a small tube for five and a half six hours, you decompress a little, you take a deep breath. It's kind of the perfect time to get stuff done.

And Kyrie and the Celtics, they got some relationship stuff done on that six hour. Yeah, there's no escape. No distractions. You know, distractions, and you're stuck there with each other. It's the perfect time to talk. I mean, I think a lot of these situations, if there were actual conversations had, not necessarily in an airplane, but just sit down and hash out the issues,

you can save a lot of these relationships before they turn sour. But we'll see how it goes. It's a big win for them. I don't think it means much for the Warriors, but I thought for Boston it meant something. I don't know. Steve Kerr wasn't very happy. So the Cardinals have the first pick in the draft, and rumors have been swirling about Kyler Murray being their top choice. Kyler and Nick Bosa from Ohio State are currently tied as a favor to be drafted first overall.

But Cardinals head coach Cliff Kingsbury insists the team has not made a decision yet. 50 days out, so I don't think any of us have a clue at this point. But it's fun to hear how I've said I do and that it's a down deal and all those things. So you just roll with it and enjoy this process. I mean, just rolling around Indies saying it's a none deal. I would have to adamantly deny that. I'm sure it's not a done deal just yet. But draft day is going to be very interesting.

You know what I did last night when I got home? Mock drafts. A couple of them. Sat down with a couple of NFL mock drafts. Open myself a Corona light and enjoyed it. So it broke down a lot of left tackles and pass rushers from schools. It's a great time last night.

Sat there with my dog, Corona Light, looking at mock draft. I've never met anyone who loves the draft more than you. I love it. Seriously. I have never done a mock draft. I may do one this year. I may do seven rounds of mock draft. Just fill out.

I'll just go the whole damn thing. It's actually good research for our show. Oh, it's great research. Me and Pete Schrager will do it all day. Why not? Finally, the pursuit of Antonio Brown could finally be coming to an end. According to Ian Rappaport, the Steelers are moving quickly to find a trade for Brown. Three new unnamed teams have entered the running. The Jets and the Cardinals are out. Okay. And the deal is

expected to be in place Friday. All right. Here are the current odds where Antonio Brown will play next season. Oakland is the favorite, which I actually do like. Okay. And I think that he would be the perfect player to transition them to Vegas. So they do need some stars on their team once they once they make that move, which won't be for another year or so. Tennessee, Arizona, although in Robert reports reporting that the Cardinals and the Jets are out of that. Green Bay, San Francisco, Cleveland, Indianapolis, and of course Pittsburgh is still on there, but they are going to trade him. Who's list is that? I don't know where this list is from, but these are the odds.

Oh, these are the odds. I don't love that. I think that list is off. I'll tell you why in a bit, but I don't buy that list. I don't know. I like him, I like him landing in Oakland's. I think that'd be a good spot for him. John Gruden has shown that he's able to manage big personalities in the past. He's a big personality himself. And they need a receiver after trading Amari Cooper. Interesting. Interesting.

Joy Taylor with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The herd lie news. He is the instigator at FS1. Has his own crazy theories. He's a Hall of Fame baseball voter. And he's my friend.

Rob Parker joining us in the herd. It is a pleasure. Good morning. It was a great. It was such a bad. bad time for you when Tom Brady won the Super Bowl, but I do feel like you've been reborn now that LeBron's season's been an utter mess. I, after the season ended last year, I went out and I said, I played this for a couple

days. I said, why didn't he take a year off? You don't get remarried again and move to Los Angeles. Sample. Go to the beach. Do movies. Do your pizza chain? Clearly, he's had no focus this year.

Do you think it's a crazy idea? I think it recharged Michael? Andrew Luck, by the way, now it was an injury. I thought Robbie was a better quarterback. He was more efficient. He didn't make the dumb throws. There is something to be said. You and I can't take the year off because we got bills to pay.

Exactly. But for a CEO, sells a company. Could you argue my, LeBron would have been better to just recalibrate? No, I get your point on it. But as you know, I told you a couple of weeks ago that they wouldn't make the playoffs. I just looked at this team. But here's my problem. and yours is compelling from the standpoint of

recharge, take a year, get yourself together, and then get ready to take this on. The problem is, I think, LeBron James came here with bad intentions, and I'll say it from this standpoint. At least Jim Brown had the decency to retire when he came out to Hollywood to be a movie star. No, LeBron wanted the NBA money as a player,

but he wanted to do all the other stuff. See, that's why I say he has bad intentions, because this team, LeBron, has more projects, Colin, than the Lakers have wins. Just look at, he's in everything, he's involved, he's on television, he turned the TV on, he's on everything, and people said, oh, well, he has his own free time, and he can do all that. The people in Los Angeles and the people spend money for Lakers, they don't want to hear that. I'm sorry, you still have a uniform on. They want you to be a basketball player.

They want you to be committed, and LeBron wasn't committed. Colin, this is why he's to blame 100%. What about Polinka Magic, the roster? You know why? LeBron is the worst general manager in the NBA. I've said this over and over. He's the one who brought the veterans, right, who came over. So you think he knew the roster?

Yes, he's the one. Was Magic? And Rob Polinka not going to give him what he wants once they get the best player on the planet. So yes, these are the guys he wanted. LeBron came to L.A. knowing it's a young core, a young roster that needs time to grow. He didn't embrace that. Right away, halfway point, all right, I need Anthony Davis.

I can't win with these guys. And then you look at he never brought into Luke Walton. So you add up all these things, and then he doesn't on the court, he doesn't play defense. So you can't ask your teammates to play defense when the leader doesn't play. defense and that's why I have a new name for LeBron. What's that? He's now the Wolote. W-L-O-A-T. What's that? The worst leader of all

time. He had a bad leading year. No doubt about it. He had a terrible year of leadership. Body language, remember he sat away from the team. There's just so many things you can look at this year. Yesterday Joy had a piece of video and it's funny. I listen to radio shows

when I leave sometimes and I just thought the video was funny. But people who I listen to who are connected inside the Laker building were like, Kuzma shoving LeBron, it looked like, dude, we're watching. Let's go. Kyle Kuzma's the second best player on that team. You know, here's what's interesting. That about two years ago, a friend of mine who's a woman came up and said she went on a vacation

with a guy and he was on his phone the whole time. And I said, he's not that into you. He's distracted. Absolutely. LeBron is showing you. He's not that into this Lakers team, these projects. Like Kobe bled L.A. This is my knock on LeBron this year.

His body language, his thing. If Joy was doing seven different projects, I'd be like, well, she likes us, but she's not really, really totally into the show. To do this show and to do it well, I can't be on 14 projects. No, and here's the other one. This is why the mural was, two murals were defaced before the season even started.

They got to feel like LeBron's not real. Is he really here for us? Is he really going to deliver a championship to people? And I think people get a false sense of Laker fans. They think it's only the rich in Hollywood stars and all that. There's a lot of hardworking people who give up their money to go see the Lakers. They're into the Lakers. You know that.

Oh, no, no, no. I go Laker Clipper games all the time. That's the misconception. Like every Yankee fan's rich. Right. Go to a Yankee fan. 90% of Yankee fans are not hedge fund guys. No.

Goula is a Yankee fan. They're working class people. All fans are. Yes, who give their money. So I think they felt like LeBron's not really, as you said, not into the Lakers. Is he into Los Angeles? Yes. He wanted to be here.

This was the first time in his career. Colin, he always wants the deck stack for him. He came to the Lakers without having a number two player in place. That's fair. He came here without really knowing what was going to play out because it wasn't that much about winning a championship in L.A. If he gets it done, fine. I think he also came here because, A, the Hollywood stuff,

and B, he was tired of losing in the finals. If you come to L.A. or the Western Conference, you don't have a chance to lose a championship. You could, right? You need to beat the Warriors. You won't lose again. Yeah, nobody holds it. it against MJ that for years he couldn't get past Boston and Detroit. They hold it against

LeBron that he gets to the finals and loses. Nobody holds it against Georgia football. They can't beat Bama and get to the championship. They would get ripped if they'd lost four straight championships. Absolutely. So I think that's another part of it. But it's a total mess. It is. And LeBron has to wear it. I'm serious. I think people, because if we were here right now, and they were the fourth seat in the Western Conference with this team, people would give all the credit to LeBron. That's fair. With it not being where they're out of the playoffs,

he should get all the blame. And the other part is, Colin, plain and simple, LeBron came back. He's playing. He's putting up triple doubles, right? And they're still losing. So you can't just say it was the stretch where he wasn't playing and they went six and 12.

They just lost to the sons, to the Grizzlies, to the Pelicans, without Anthony Davis. I mean, look at the teams they lost to Atlanta. They lost to some of the worst teams in the NBA with LeBron, with LeBron putting up numbers. LeBron has the waiters, and I think fans should not let him off the hook. All right, let's shift to football.

Kyler Murray, I think it's a weak quarterback class. I don't think he compares to Russell Wilson, who I think is one of the most underrated players in NFL history. And now stories yesterday, two sources told me they were not untrue, that he was not good at the whiteboard. He was not great in interviews. I saw him on the Dan Patrick show when I thought that was an embarrassing performance by him.

Dan asked legitimate real questions. I mean, Dan was basically trapped with a guy. What do you make at Kyler Murray in the latest stories? I mean, there's always going to be stories, you know, in these situations where somebody's looking to be the first overall pick. So I get that. Anybody who decides to make the move, you know what? It's going to be a gamble.

I mean, he might be the next it, but it's a gamble. And remember, Josh McDaniels in Denver when he was the head coach, traded up for Tim Tebow, who was everything in college. Won a national championship was on the team for two national championships. Right. Tim Tebow, a college legend. Who a lot of people had doubts about. Who a lot of people had doubts.

He moved up, took Tim Tebow, that, and, of course, cheating and recording a walk-through cost Josh McDonough. Daniels his job, but that didn't work out. As soon as John Elwick could get rid of Tim Tebow, he did. But remember, that's somebody that Josh wanted. So it's a gamble, but without risk, there isn't reward. So he might break the mole and be that guy. But I'm telling you, the people in Arizona, they better be very, very careful because

it's a bad franchise, and things haven't always worked out for them. And if you're the GM and last year you picked Josh Rosen, and now here you are, taking another quarterback to next year, you got to question whether or not, what was the Josh Rosen pick about, and you got it wrong. I would charge that as getting it wrong. Great to see you, Rob Parker,

the instigator on FS1. Absolute pleasure. Always a pleasure on the way to USC. I got class now. You're teaching your sports commentary class. Today I'm in the newsroom with the kids. We put it on a live TV show every Wednesday. And you're the news director.

Yes, sports director. You know what? Cut the time for weather. Nobody cares about weather. Cut the weather? Yeah. Weather is like the biggest thing on local news. I know.

If I ran local news, there'd be no weather. Really? I would come on and say, go to the weather channel right now. We're going to do more sports. Well, maybe if it was what you're called. You're a weatherman in Southern California for the most part. Those guys are stealing money. Until the last month, you're right.

Good seeing you. Coming up next, why John Gruden shouldn't go after Antonio Brown and not for the reasons you think. That's coming up. Be sure to catch live editions of. the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHard Radio app. Washington Caps, flyers from Philly tonight, Discover card key matchup, get your free credit scorecard today. Includes your FICA credit score. Check your scorecard won't hurt your credit. Learn more,

Discover.com slash credit scorecard limitations apply. Um, Rob Parker very good today. So here's something we know about football in general, certainly in college, absolutely in the pros. Generally, the first year you take over a football team, a little bit of a mess. Belichick first year in Cleveland, mess. Belichick, first year in New England, mess. Takes a while to get your culture in.

Tom Coughlin, first year with the Giants, bad. Parcell's first year with the Giants, bad. Nick Sabin, first year, Alabama, not great. Urban Meyer is one of the rare guys that wins right out of the gate everywhere. By and large, first year's a mess. Got to get rid of coaches, got to create your own culture, got to get some bad guys out of the locker room, got to draft your own guys, got to trade free agent your own guys, got to get all the coaches in. It's a mess. I'm okay with it. I never judge coaches after the first year.

But what I need to see by year two is a plan. What's your plan? Are you just making it up? Kassaban, Coughlin, Parcell, Jimmy Johnson, Cowboys, 1 in 15. Then the trades. He had a plan. plan. So here's the four things we know. Facts about John Gruden. He's the most criticized coach in the NFL last year. He's got a big healthy TV ego. He's accumulated a bunch of good draft picks. And he got rid of two stars, both dominated. Can't dispute any of those. Those are all true right now. Here's the one thing that's also said about him that I think is disputable.

He's got a plan. Belichick, anti-star, only pay the quarterback. Got a plan. All right. Well, he has accumulated a lot of picks. He did get rid of two stars to get more picks. But if the Raiders and John Gruden, and he has more control than any coach in the NFL, including Belichick, he's drafting the players, it's his organization. It's got nine years left in his contract going nowhere. If he goes out and gets Antonio Brown, he doesn't have any plan. He's just making it up as he goes. He doesn't have any plan. Because Antonio Brown, you had two stars, both great guys, both great in the locker room, both with no baggage. You got rid of both.

So one of the reasons that I've said, I got to kind of wait on Gruden. I don't think this is going to work long term, but I got to wait is I watch Coughlin. I watch Parcells. I watched Jimmy. I watch Pete Carroll, both at USC and Seattle. I watch Belichick, Cleveland, New England. first year's ugly first year's messy i mean if you're a CEO and you take over an organization it takes you a year to hire all your people and to change a losing culture into a winning culture go to

barry alvarez at wisconsin go to go to go to anywhere it's very rare that you just walk in oh i got my quarterback got my coach got my coordinator doesn't work that way it almost never works that way does sometimes generally you know you got the quarterback in place you're not you got the quarterback in place, got a good GM, and you got a little momentum, new guy, everybody listens to you. But if Gruden goes out and gets Antonio Brown, he's telling you, he doesn't have any plan. He's just making this crap up as he goes. Because this doesn't make any sense. You had a good receiver without any baggage.

Amari Cooper is one of the good guys. Amari Cooper's coachable. Amari Cooper wants to fit in. Amari Cooper works hard. Amari Cooper doesn't talk to the media. Even with the Cowboys, Amari Cooper, it doesn't talk much. So I think there's a real danger here because there are certain things we absolutely know about Gruden. But Gruden, there's still a part of the media that is like, they don't want to crush him yet because he does have a bunch of draft picks.

And there is sort of a New England feel here to it, which is I'll have a star quarterback. And then I'm just going to get a bunch of good football players, keep my team mostly affordable, nimble, can move off guys. That feels very New England. I mean, that's kind of what New England does. We'll pay the quarterback, we'll negotiate with everybody else. And even with our quarterback, we'll negotiate with him. That's called a plan. You got Antonio Brown, there's no plan here.

They're just like, hey, we'll take him. That's not a plan. That's what bad teams do in the NFL. I don't know if the New England get in line, don't celebrate the stars thing is really the formula for Las Vegas. Well, we'll see. I mean, Gruden himself, let's be honest,

New England, the two stars are Brady and Belichick. If the Raiders go, two stars are Gruden and Derek Carr. Yeah, I would see the two names. Brady's the star. I mean, I could be wrong, but I would not go to a football game to see Belichick. No, but he's kind of the centerpiece

of the culture. No, that's for sure. It's his team. I want to shift to this. So there is a report this morning that at least one NFL team says the Arizona Cardinals are shopping Josh Rosen. And I want to add some context to Josh Rosen, who now suddenly is just terrible according to everybody. A Warren Sharp is very good, a football analytics guy, and was posting some things last night about Josh Rosen, defending Josh. Rosen, that he switched coordinators midseason, played behind the NFL's worst pass-protecting O-line. Of any rookie quarterback faced the most top 15 past defenses, had the worst rushing

attack in the league, and was faced with 8.4 yards to go on third down on average, most in the NFL. Bottom line is, nothing went right. I want to remind people that Jared Gough went 0 and seven his first year. Five TD seven picks. Mitch Trubisky went four and eight and in 12 games inexplicably through only seven touchdown passes seven picks. Rookie quarterback. Josh Rosen, and I'll stamp it here,

is absolutely better than at least seven starting quarterbacks in the NFL. He is better than Annie Dalton. He is better than Ryan Tannehill. He is better than Blake Bortles. He is better than Colt McCoy who will start for Washington. He's better than case, Keenham. He's better than Marcus Marioo, and I'll say it right now. He's better than Eli Manning. I

absolutely believe that. Now, do I worry about his body, which is brittle? I've been saying that from day one. If he fails, it will not be his ego. It will be he got hurt playing tennis. He used to be a great tennis player. He's not thick, the neck,

the shoulders. I think he's an absolutely perfect, perfect quarterback in New England. It's an academic system. He's smart. Belichick, somebody he'd respect and listen to. They always have good offensive lines and protect their quarterback.

And his family, Rosen's family, a lot of it goes back to the Massachusetts area, comfortable, been there, and New England's got 12 draft picks and all sorts of stuff. I think he's great in New England. But before we bury Josh Rosen, I would this morning, if I was New England, give up my second round pick to get him. Absolutely. They have 12 picks, six in the first three rounds.

I'd give up a second round pick for him. I think he's better than every single quarterback in this draft. I absolutely do. Now, brittle, concerned, absolutely. Hour two next, The Hurt. Be sure to catch live editions of the HARD weekdays and noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. Now, this is The Herd, wherever you may be and however you may be listening on a Wednesday. We're live in Los Angeles, IHart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1.

Things are rolling here, baby. It is good to be here. Joy Taylor is joining me. March, never been better. So last night there was an NBA game, and I watched it for the first half, and then the game was over. And I don't generally in the regular season overreact to moments. There's a handful of games that I kind of categorize and go that mattered. Last night, the Warriors hosted Boston and the Celtics crushed them.

And the Celtics were energized, and the Celtics blew them off the court. And it was never really close. And Gordon Hayward was fantastic. And the bench was amazing. And the energy and the chemistry for the Celtics, that's as good as they played since last year. maybe the best they've played in years. It meant nothing for the Warriors. The Warriors have been blown out at home this year by Toronto, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and now Boston, all four teams in the East.

These are big games for the East. They mean nothing for a reigning dynasty. This is an offensive-driven glamour franchise like the Showtime Lakers, like the Shack Kobe Lakers. The Shack Kobe Lakers, after they won their first title, the second year, there were a number two seed in the West. And they went 16 and 1 in the playoffs for 15 and 1. The next year, after two titles, Shaq Kobe Lakers were number three seed in the West, and they went on to win the title.

NBA is long, 82 games, five times an NFL season. Dynasties, glamour franchises, take nights off. And it does show in the NBA, if you're not ready to play, you can get your butt handed to you. This meant nothing for the Warriors. But it did mean something. thing for the Celtics. Kyrie Irving admitted all the chemistry, all the toxicity, all the issues, a six-hour

plane ride. Danny Aange, Brad Stevens called Kyrie Irving up to sit with them, and they talked for hours. Here's Kyrie. That long plane ride helped us out. I'd just say that. That long plane ride helped us out. We needed it.

It was just, we were going to get to a point where. we're just going to get tired of, you know, fighting each other, fighting the outside world and it doesn't really matter. So we just want to come out here and just play basketball. This is our sanctuary, and we have to do everything to protect it. We can't let anybody infiltrate this. I have picked Boston to get to the NBA championship. I think Boston will win the East.

They have seven really high-end players, seven players who are B-minus B-plus or A. Kairie Erving's their A. Al-Horford's a B. Marcus Morris, Jalen Brown, Jason Taylor. Adam's a B-plus. Gordon Hayward last night was an A, but he's a B. They have a ton of playoff experience. They have the best young coach in the NBA. Chemistry issues almost always get solved once the playoffs start, because that's when stars are like, all right, everybody's watching, get over my pity party, no more pouting, let's play. Last night, big game playoff field

first half, all the chemistry issues were gone. And by the way, I do this all the time. The NFL, I always feels like there's seven or eight teams that can win the championship. And we figured out by a little after Thanksgiving. I would call it the NFL Super Bowl bubble. And I always put about seven teams in it, maybe one or two on the outside. The NBA bubble looks differently. There's only one team in the bubble. It's Golden State.

But there are three teams, in my opinion, that are right outside the bubble. The Rockets, the Celtics, and the 76ers. Milwaukee's close, but they're not in. This is the championship bubble. There's one team in it. But the Celtics are absolutely one Houston, Philly. They got too many good players, too much experience, one of the great closers in the game, outstanding young coach, seven quality guys who have been in these spots before.

Last night meant something for one team and mostly for one half. When they're engaged, Boston's really good. Really, really, really good. All right, let me shift to this. I believe you've got to trust your eyes. There's a reason you never see blue food. Think about that for a second. Nobody eats blue food.

Why is that? Because, as any chef would tell you, you first eat with your eyes. nobody wants to eat something that looks like ink that's why there's no blue food when you're going to buy a home it's not about the square foot you go to realtor.com what do you look for pictures

if it's one of those goofy sellers that only has one picture you eliminate it eyes when you book a hotel room what's the first thing you look for not the price pictures what's the bad bathroom look like. What's the bedroom look like? What's the pool look like? What's the gym look like?

Trust your eyes. That's why there's no blue food. Folks, you can tell me and talk to me and try to convince me all you want. But the stories came out yesterday on Kyler Murray. And they don't bother me that he's not a great interview or not great at the whiteboard. I think he will be a instinct football player. Russell Wilson, Aaron Rogers, Ben Cam, do that. I can live with that. I've got a history of the NFL. Guys have won games. They play an instinct.

Mitch Trubisky's done a great passer. Moves? Pretty good on instinct. Pretty good on finding holes and moving. But many of you have tried to convince me that Kyler Murray is Russell Wilson. I'm going to run tape of Russell Wilson in college at Wisconsin. They don't look the same.

Stop trying to convince me that Russell. Wilson and Kyler Maria the same. Watch this tape, FS1. I want you to look at the sturdiness, the legs, the size of Russell Wilson. He doesn't even look small against those 6-7 Wisconsin offensive linemen. You don't think of his size. When you watch Russell Wilson in college, I'm not saying he's big, but he is sturdy. He is sturdy.

He is strong. He is athletic. There was one plan. I'm not sure if we'll show. Look at that. Does he look small? No. Look at the butt. Look at the shoulders. Look at the back. Look at the arms. Look at the head. He looks strong. Look at the pipes. Look at the arms. He doesn't look tiny. He doesn't look huge, but he looks thick. Okay, now let's go to Kyle Murray's video. Now let's go to Kyle Murray video. Sorry for my radio audience. It was tiny. Arms, butt. It was tiny. man body boy body man body kid body look at that that's not what russell wilson looks like russell wilson cut weight to run faster at the combine russell wilson playing weight

220 kiler murray gained weight bulked up the combine playing weight 190 it's like a 30 pound difference trust your eyes don't eat blue food when you go to realtor dot com you look for the pictures When you're in a hotel room, it's the bathroom. If it looks like a bathroom, they'd gut a deer in, don't stay there. Stop trying to convince me a stuff that's crap. My eyes don't buy into it. Trust them all the time. I ever tell you, my Vegas story walked into a room years ago.

I was dating a girl. It was a Vegas story. It was an apartment. I was young. And I walked into the room. And I looked around. And I saw too many guys with velour shirts and handlebar mustache. And it didn't feel right. And I looked around and I thought, these aren't my kind of people.

And I used the bathroom about four to five minutes in. There was cocaine all over the bathroom. I knew there would be because I trusted my eyes. It didn't say on the door, cocaine, left turn. Trust them. They matter. Size, biceps, butt, shoulders, waist, head, helmet fit, guns. Look at those pictures of Russell Wilson. You can tell you. tell me they're the exact same guy. Ah, I don't buy it. I don't buy it. Russell Wilson in college,

look at the thick, the butt, the arms, the shoulders, the strength. You don't look the same. Kyla Murray is also 21 and it has 17 college starts. Russell Wilson had 46. That's a good point, too. That's also something. It's everything.

It's a big deal. I'm not saying that Kyla Murray is not going to develop, I'm not saying that either. By the way. To compare them at this point is it's very unfair. It's almost it's ridiculous, really.

It's like the comparison to Baker Mayfield. Baker Mayfield is much bigger and had also 46 starts when he entered the draft. By the way, Baker Mayfield, everybody told me Baker Mayfield, uh, Baker Mayfield sat in his couch.

Baker Mayfield's thick. Baker Mayfield's got a shoulder. Baker Mayfield's a thick guy. Russell Wilson was 23 when he was drafted. He turned 24 in November. The difference between a 24-year-old and a 21. year old body is tremendous. But they're both six feet and a

190. No, I don't want to hear it. Don't want to hear it. Got the video. Watch it. Stop trying to convince me of stuff. There we go. God, dang. I'm just telling you. I can't believe I told that drug story. Yeah, the staff wants to hear more about my drug story. That's interesting.

By the way, it was like narcos in there. I had to get the hell out of there. I got a career. I wore glasses to the party because my future was so right, I just wore shades. I can't walk into parties like that. That's a true story, opposed to my other ones that I just make up. That was a totally true story. I remember the people I was with.

I can name them right now. Don't do that. Don't do that. It'll end up on TMZ. I knew it was fishy. I walked in, I looked around with all the people, and I'm like, velour shirts, handlebar mustachees, leather jackets. There's bad stuff in the bathroom.

Went back there? Seriously. Looked like Narcos, episode four. It's like, get me out of here. All right. Buy, sell or hold. And I will not drop names on the party in Vegas. I can tell you the apartment complex.

I can tell the street it was on. I can tell you the woman I was with. I can tell you everything. Seriously. Don't. Those memories don't go away. Yeah, I literally have had nightmares about the bluer shirts. Seriously.

You don't think you could pull off a lure? Oh, God, no. Or a handlebar mustache. I couldn't grow one. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, 7-8. a week within the IHeart Radio app. Search heard to listen live or on

demand whenever you'd like. 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 on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. 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, Tripp 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? 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, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, learn the hard way. Open your free, our heart radio app.

Search Learn the Hard Way and listen now. Will Farrell's Big Money Players and IHeart Podcast presents soccer moms. So I'm Leanne. Yeah. This is my best friend Janet. Hey. And we have been joined at the hips since high school. Absolutely.

Now a redacted amount of years later, we're still joined at the hip. Just a little bit bigger hips. Wider. This is a podcast. We're recording it as we tailgate our youth soccer games in the back of my Honda Odyssey. With all the snacks and drinks. Sidebar. Why did you get hard seltzer instead of beer?

Oh, they had a bogo. Well, then you got them. Do you want a white color or something here? Just hit it. Oh, what are y'all doing? Microphones? Are you making a rap album? Oh, I would.

How did you put? I would buy it. Cuts through the defense like a hot knife through sponge cake. That sounds delicious. Oh, you're lucky. I'm not a drug addict. You're lucky I'm not an alcoholic. You are.

I'm not a killer. I love this team, and I'm really trying to be a figure in their lives that they can rely on. Oh. Oh, oh. Listen to soccer moms 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, and our podcast, Point Game is about defying the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed.

And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate. late the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nasree.

He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nash would get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He run up the court, licking his fingers, why he got the ball like, I don't know. After you go through a training camp with that Isaiah, you figure it out real quick.

Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We've got back-to-back Big East matchups tonight on FS1. First Marcus Howard and number 16 Marquette face off with Seton Hall. Then Georgetown takes on DePaul. It all starts tonight at 630 Eastern on FS1 and the Fox Sports app. By the way, I watched Duke last night. They didn't have Zion Williamson.

they're not the same team. He is so good. I want to introduce you to DeQuil Jackson, who played in the NFL for over a decade, a lot of years with Cleveland, then with the Colts, was a big component with Deflate Gate, good dude, pro-bowler near the end of his career, and would absolutely fit the Colts today,

at least as far as emotionally, because they're building a culture, which I love right now, full of good dudes. It's great to have you on the air. People may forget this. Deflate Gate started, You made a great interception covering Gronk. Yes.

Tell him how the story was. So basically that play was one of those plays we knew they liked to go to in the Red So. And Gronk was a big target. Anytime he was on a move, I knew, based on the coverage, I was going to have Gronk man to man. And he went in motion. He did exactly what the film study and our scout report said he would do. And I knew Tom Brady, if I was running neck to neck with his number one target, that ball was going to be thrown.

So I got my head around. I saw this brown figure coming my way. And it happened to be the football. I put my hands out. I catch it. And I remember after that play, running to the sideline, throwing the ball to the equipment guys. Because this is my first year, you know, in the playoffs.

I just intercepted Tom Brady. I wanted that football to put on my mantle. So after that game, it kind of, we all know, the flake gate happened. And, yeah, it was pretty interesting. That was the ball. Yes. Was that the football that the league used that they said didn't have enough air in it?

Yes. Now, did you tell somebody that it felt funny? So, ironically enough, the NFL never interviewed me. Never. I didn't get a call from anyone. Ever? Ever? About the football.

Did I think it was underinflated? I just happened to be the guy to make the play and the ball to be used in the investigation. So did you go to the sideline and say this ball feels small? No, no. I wanted that football for it. I just intercepted Tom Brady. This is my first career playoff experience. That ball was going on my mantle.

And come to find out that it was underinflated and it springboarded the flate gate. And the NFL never reached out to me. No one ever reached out. Did you feel it was underinflated? Did you have any inkling? I had no idea. It didn't feel.

My hands were numb. You know, it was cold as crap outside. You know, I could barely feel my fingers. And as you can see on the clip, I almost dropped the end. reception. But no, I had no idea the ball was under inflated. But I could tell you this, when after that game, it was a late game, I get back to Indy, I'm dead tired, the phone's been off, we're on the plane, you can't get any text messages. I have a driver set up. And the driver,

all he wants to do is talk about, not talk about the loss. All he wants to do is talk about the football. I'm like, the football, what are you talking about? He turns on the radio station. They're talking about the ball, you know, deflate gate. I had no idea. That was my first inkling about the flake gate was from my driver in the ending. Crazy story. God, that is crazy. Crazy story. By the way, so you spent years in Cleveland and you were there for the dysfunctional years.

Yes. Then you went to the well-run Colts. Take me back to Cleveland. How bad was it? It was, if I can curse, I could tell you exactly what I meant. But it was, it was toxic sometimes. You know, from a player's standpoint, the players, we loved it. It was funny how when you lose, it galvanizes guys to play better and have a better relationship in the locker room.

But you can tell my later years in Cleveland, there was no splash about top free agents coming in. And it made you think, wait, are we really in the business of winning games or we're in the business of selling out seats? And I think, you know, every now and again, you'll get a splash of a Johnny Mansell or whatever the case. But there was never any big free agency. And I think it was just a culture. again, I love Cleveland. Don't mistake me on that. I love Cleveland.

I met a lot of great people there. The food is actually really good in Cleveland. But from a football standpoint, it's just so much turnover. So much turnover, and you had no continuity, so it trickled down to the field. Then you go to Andrew Luck and the Coles. I want to talk about Andrew Luck. Luck is the best quarterback I've seen out of college since, like, John Elway. That doesn't mean he's going to be end.

the best. It depends on the support system, the coach, and all that. Talk to my audience about, because obviously Andrew Luck, you were one of the better players, took a roster, a rebuilt roster with a bad on line and no running game to the AFC championship. Yes. Yes. What

separates Luck? His humility. I think he's one of those guys. When you look at him, he's Andrew Luck. Like he should be put on a pedestal, but that's so far from the truth with Andrew. He does not want to be treated any better than the last guy on the roster. I think that humility piece is what draws everyone to his attention.

And aside from that, I mean, he's a heck of a talent, as you mentioned. He has all the tools, cerebral ability. I think his likability is just through the roof. The one area that I think Andrew has taken a step forward this past year is being able to adapt his game. You know, early on it was let's drop back five, seven. Oh, he wanted to throw the ball deep all the time. and, you know, we saw where it got him.

He wasn't able to finish some seasons. So I think he's matured in that level. And I think, you know, at some point, Andrew's got to take the bull by the horns and start raising his voice a little bit. Thank you. This is my knock on Andrew. He always takes the blame.

Yes. He is almost to a fault. It's almost false humility. Yes. It is okay sometimes to call a guy out. So I was there for three years, and I've never seen him scream at anyone. for giving up a sack, dropping a catch.

I get it. But all it takes is one time. You don't have to do it all the time because Chuck Pagano, he didn't want coaches. He wanted coaches to coach, not just scream and hollering and do all that stuff. Because sometimes it doesn't work. But in Andrews case, all it takes is one time. By the way, Brady barks about twice a year. Yeah.

Oh, I've played against Brady. And Brady will give it to the refs, the offensive tackle, the running back, the defensive guy. He's screaming at everyone when it calls for it. And I think Andrew, when he can, it's not who he is. You know, so if you understand, if Chris Ballard understands that's not who he is, you go out and get an offensive alignment who can be Andrew's kind of alter ego. And there you go. It solves the problem.

DeQuelle Jackson, 11 years in the NFL, a pro bowler, Browns, and then the Colts. Antonio Brown, I have a theory on this. Okay. Is that pro athletes, you probably have friends who are. pro athletes and other sports. You guys go to the golf events, charities. Yeah. You know, the millionaire is pro athlete club. And so you have a lot of friends. And you'll, you know, Andrew Luck's got a golf tournament. You'll go to it and meet other guys. And so you probably know a few baseball guys and a hockey guy and some NBA.

I actually don't. I'm not that important. You're not that important. But I do have a theory on this is that NFL players, it's the most watched league. It's the most popular easily. It makes the most money. They watch Bryce Harper's contract. and there's a little jealousy, 13 years. They watch NBA guys be promoted and marketed bigger than everybody. And there's a little jealousy. That Antonio Brown is looking at the Bryce Harper deal, is looking at the LeBron's. And he's saying to himself, I get a voice. NBA guys get a voice.

Baseball guys get a voice. I mean, yesterday, Bryce Harper said, hell, yeah, I'm going to recruit Mike Trout. I do think there are a handful of NFL players that get frustrated. And Antonio is one of them, that the NFL is popular, makes the most money and you always feel like you can be cut any 15 minutes that you're just a kid and the parents are running the franchise am i that's very accurate you know it's different i don't know how it works out in the NBA but from the outside looking it looks like the NBA basic control the player actually has power over his contract everybody everyone does from the lebrons on down

in the NFL you hit it right on the head and Antonio brown situation granted, Pittsburgh, there's so many levels to this. Like Pittsburgh mishandled this situation. And I think the comment did not, we talk about luck and his leadership qualities and his humility. I think Big Ben, no one's talking about Big Ben and his role with the relationship between A.B. and Labyon Bill. I think if he really wanted those guys in that building, if he really thought he could win moving forward with those guys, there would have been a lot of, you know, a lot more talk behind the scenes about let's work things out. Let's keep it quiet on the outside.

That Ben's got a little more drama than anybody realized. Yeah, I think so. By the way, you faced him two times a year in Cleveland. What do you make of Ben? Some people say he's overly dramatic, a little bit of a poser, acting he's heard. He's got that sort of Messiah complex. Let me save the day. What were your interpretations of him?

Film, watching, listening, hearing. Yeah, I mean, from Cleveland's standpoint, I mean, he used to beat us up every year. Twice a year he would beat us up. But from a football standpoint, I thought he was, you know, as advertised. You know, he was a guy who was going to stand the pocket and make all the throws. He was a likable guy. But then over the years, you started hearing stories about off-the-field issues and how he relates to guys in the locker room.

And I think Antonio Brown is now feeling like, okay, I was a loyal soldier for you guys. I basically, you helped me just as much as I helped you. And he wants some sort of, you know, hey, I just, As he mentioned, I want to be respected. And I think that relationship got a bit rocky, and he realized he's one of those pillars of that team. And he wasn't being respected as so. So I think Big Bend and the Pittsburgh Steelers,

they have a lot of work to do because now you've missed out on Antonio Brown. Labion Bell won't be back. And now you're relying on Juju Smith-Schuster, who is a great talent. And now is between him and, you know, the draft picks and Big Ben. So we'll see how Pittsburgh makes out about all of those. This. Kyler Murray's out there.

His playing weights about a buck 90. He comes in at 510. I don't think he looks like, I mean, everybody keeps telling me he's Russell Wilson, but I put some video up of Russell Wilson in college. Russell looked a lot bigger. Russell Wilson's playing weights about 225. At the combine, he was 206. Kyler Murray was 206 to the combine, jacked up, but his playing weights about a buck 90.

He looks small to me. I'm not saying he can't play. But DeQuil, you're big. How big are you? I'm six foot probably 240. Okay, and you're chasing him. Yes. His playing weight, I believe, is under 200 pounds.

What do you make of his size? Yeah, he's a small guy. I mean, like you mentioned, you watch him on film. He looks smaller than 5'10. He plays like, he looks like he's like 5'8. He does. A height you've never seen before making all these throws down the field and elusive within the pocket.

But yeah, if I see a guy like that, you know, you want to, you know, in the National Football League, you want to make a statement when you hit him. you want to make sure he realizes what it takes. If you're going to run, you're going to feel this pain afterwards. So will he run as much whoever decides to draft this guy? Hopefully not because the guy his size, in my opinion, doesn't last. You know, if you have a guy like Andrew Luck who's a bigger guy who stands in the pocket

and he's taking his beatings over the years, you know, you kind of, you have to equate the size as a factor of him, you know, exposing himself and getting hurt. By the way, I ask this to anybody that plays. De Quo Jackson, if you're listening on radio, who was the best player? So you would deal with some interior linemen? Yes. Who was the best player in the NFL that you faced? Competition, combat, blocking one-on-one, hands, arms, size, mobility.

Oh, man. The one name that comes to mind is Alan Fannica. Thank you. So I had my welcome to the NFL moment against Alan Fannica. It was, oh my gosh. Pittsburgh, I get my number called. I get a chance to blitz. You know, I'm a rookie.

You know, I'm thinking, okay, this is my opportunity. And I didn't realize how smart offensive alignment actually are until I met Alan Fannica. It was, I was blitzing up the A-Gap. He was chipping on another guy. He was eyeballing me. I run through thinking I have a free lane to hit, you know, Big Ben. Next thing you know, I'm in the air. The trainers are around me.

They score. And it's like, what the hell just happened? And it was Alan Fantic. So every time I played Alan Fannica, it was just like that moment, I had to play my best game because I knew he was going to bring it. So he knocked you out. Yeah, he knocked me out. He knocked me out, which was rare, but he was, he was just, he was a man child. He was hard to, he was hard to play against.

That's great. I cannot believe you. I was sitting there waiting and I'm thinking, okay, Steelers, is there going to be a guy? Yeah, yeah. Alan Fannica was my guy. He was my guy. So if Alan Fannica is watching, thank you because he made me a tougher player. I guarantee you that.

Dewelle Jackson, 11 years of Pro Bowl. Hey, great meeting you. Great meeting you as well. Thanks for coming on the show. Joy with the News. No, no, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news.

So Buccaneers head coach, Bruce Ariens, is continuing his effort to employ the most diverse coaching staff in the NFL. During the women's careers in football forum at the Combine, he said he plans to establish a full-time coaching position on his staff for a woman. The exact timeline for the position wasn't set, but he didn't roll it out happening this season. In 2015, Ariens was with the car. Cardinals, and he hired Jen Welter as the first female in NFL training camp, first female coach.

Katie Sowers is the only full-time female coach in the NFL. She's been with the 49ers for three years. So he actually has a very diverse staff already. His top four assistant positions are African-American, including all three of his coordinators. Well, I mean, you have to be smart to be a coach. There's no, I mean, to be honest with you, a lot of coaches didn't play. So I never have a problem with that. That's always the first pushback is like, well, you didn't play professional.

or didn't play in college. There's plenty of examples of coaches. Vin Scully. That are in place right now that did not play one down of college football. Vin Scully knows more about baseball than anybody. He never played the game. To me, if you're smart and you're analytic and you're a you're somebody that thinks ahead of the curve,

if I ran a business, I want young, old, multiple genders, multiple races, multiple religions, I want conservatives, I want the hippie. I want... So you want diversity. Well, I just want more voices. I don't, I can't. I can't see everything. I need people. My wife's creative. So my wife and I walk into a room. I told

to the story about my therapist when I used to go to therapy. So I went to a therapist. My wife's a creative. She'll walk into a room. She can see everything. So I go to this therapist for 12 times. And he said, after the 12th time, he said, yeah, you don't see the frog. And I said, what are you talking about? He goes, you don't see, you had never seen the frog in the room. And I'm like, what are you talking about? He goes, move your, I was sitting on the couch. He goes, move your eyes up one inch. And I went, okay, there was a two-foot frog hanging from a life. And he goes, of course you wouldn't see it. You're not a creative. You don't see the world that way. And at that moment, I'm like, man, there's a lot of things as a parent and as a sportscaster I don't see.

I got to surround my self with people who see things I can't. And if she sees the world differently, it's like, I'm in. Diversity makes everyone better. We know that. So the Warriors lost to Celtics last night, 128.95. The defending champs let the Celtics go on an 11-0 run to start the game, and they were never able to recover, take the lead. 33-point loss was the worst loss of the season, and after the game, head coach Steve Kerr did not hold back when he was describing his team's poor play.

Right from the beginning, just the level of competition wasn't where it needed to be. It looked to me like we were jogging up the floor. Can't play basketball jogging. He had a sprint. You had your cuts half. to be hard. You've got to be going all out and we did not go all out and it was embarrassing. He might be being a bit dramatic. Was bad loss for them obviously, the worst

loss of the season. Clay Thompson didn't play. But yeah, and it's just, I feel like it's getting to this point with the Warriors where it gets every season and every season with them or it's like, all right, like it's just, it's time for the playoffs. Like we're ready for the playoffs. No one's panicking about this loss. Like you said, this is a big win for the East. And, a basically irrelevant loss. Go back to the Shaq and Kobe teams. If they started poorly in the first eight minutes, they just stopped playing. Like this was one of these games, about six minutes in, the Warriors are like, yeah, we're

not going to win this one. Well, they're a game and a half ahead of the Nuggets in the West, and they play them on Friday night. So if they want to keep first place, they can get that game. But I have a feeling like they're going to be all right despite this loss. All right, it's time to see who's going places. Sponsored by Toyota. Let's go places. LeBron is 13 points of.

away from passing Michael Jordan on the all-time scoring list. He's been to be way better. He's currently fifth and will most likely jump to the fourth spot tonight at home against the Nuggets. He will. The, uh, Kareem, obviously, is the all-time leading score. Carl Malone's second. Kobe, Michael and then Kobe's third.

Yes. Michael LeBron. Yeah, why don't we give Kobe more love? Third all-time leading score. Kobe is, Kobe is going to be getting a lot of love over the summer. It's already started. The third leading score with five titles. The fact that Kobe's not more in the conversation for the greatest of all time,

to me, is reflective only on the fact that he was so similar in style to Michael. And it's like you're going to go with Michael in that spot. So you want to kind of have someone who is opposite of Michael or just has a different skill set, which is why LeBron gets put in that conversation. He's so similar to Michael and that's why. But I think we, I'm hoping not, but I think we can all expect a congratulatory, strive for greatness, Instagram posts once this happens tonight, although they would lack a lot of self-awareness concerning the Lakers' current state,

but we'll see. Yeah. I enjoy the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd-Lie News. Coming up next, I'm the stockbroker. Buy, sell, hold.

All sorts of stuff on the Patriots, Antonio Brown, LeBron, Kyrie Irving. back in a couple of... Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeard Radio app. High quality meats, ethically created butcherbox, blown away, butcherbox.com slash herd, free ground beef for the life of your subscription. 20 bucks off your first box.

Great, organic, grass-fed beef, good stuff. Boy, it was nice to have DeQuil Jackson in today, who started deflategate with that interception of the Tom Brady, passed. Good story. Rob Parker. Jim Jackson. That is a crazy story. It's a crazy story. Didn't know about it until he landed in and Indy, got in his car. What's crazy is that the NFL didn't talk to him about it? At all. Not once. He's the one that literally got that ball.

Of all the controversies with New England, deflategate to me, Brady threw out his phone. I didn't like that. But outside of that, it's a lot of nonsense. He was a better quarterback after it. If Brady hadn't had been so great, he wouldn't have wanted to keep the ball. and therefore this never would have gotten uncovered. There you go. I'm your stockbroker. You ask questions. I give answers.

It's time for buy-sell, hold. Time to buy. Colin will decide if he'll buy it, sell, or hold. Buy sell or hold, the Patriots will draft a quarterback in the first two rounds of the NFL draft. Now, Tom Brady was top 10 in yards, but he is 41, so the feeling with 12 draft picks, I'm told they're going to draft a quarterback.

It is not a great year for quarterbacks. Kyler Murray and Dwayne Haskins are the two best. They will be long gone by the time New England picks, and New England does not have a history of moving up in the NFL draft. The only quarterback that Bill Belichick has drafted in the first or second round is Jimmy Garapolo, and that was four years ago in the second round, and Belichick reportedly sort of forced to trade him off. So John, sell, sell, sell.

I think they'll get a quarterback, and with 12 picks, I would look for the third round to find a guy they like. Buy seller hole, the Cowboys will miss the playoffs next season. I think actually one of the things you have to just remember this, that Dak Prescott last year was three and four before Amari Cooper, and his quarterback rating was 84. After Amari Cooper, and this is interesting, this is an in-season trade. You don't get a camp to work things out.

So they had to on the fly figure out their relationship. Once Amari Cooper returned, Dack was 7 and 2 and a quarterback rating of 99. They've added Jason Witten. They bring their top defensive players back. The Redskins and the Giants are bad football teams. They could easily go 4 and 0 against those and split Philadelphia, and they'd be 5 in division. So John, Cowboys are up.

playoff team next year. Come to terms with it. It's one of the safer bets in football. Buy seller hold, Antonio Brown will be traded for less than a first round pick. Now, Amari Cooper got traded for a first round pick, but two things to remember. Amari Cooper was 24 and a lot cheaper. Antonio Brown will be 31 by the time the season starts. He is more expensive and he is clearly more volatile. So John, Buy, bye, bye. Antonio Brown, this deal, they say, will be wrapped up in 48 hours. My guess is somebody gives a second or a third round pick to Pittsburgh.

And the other thing here is I don't think Pittsburgh's nearly as demanding on this trade front as they were three weeks ago. I think at this point, third round pick, get him out of town. Buy seller hold, LeBron and the Lakers will not land a big name free agent this summer. Well, let's first talk about the cap space. The Lakers may end up. It's very possible they could land AD and another All-Star. They're going to have all sorts of cap space. Here's the other thing to remember.

I'm going to mention five of the free agents. Jimmy Butler, Kauai Leonard, Boogie Cousins, Clay Thompson, Kevin Durant. All five have a California connection. Play in L.A., playing California. Clay Thompson's dad's a Laker broadcaster. Boogie Cousin, Sacramento. The other is Kyrie Irving. That's another big free agent star.

I was told a day ago that Kyrie Irving and Durant talk frequently and the Lakers on occasion and maybe it's kind of just verbal volleyball. But they both talk about joining LeBron. I don't think it'll happen. But of the six free agents I name, five have a California connection. Kyrie has a LeBron connection. So John... Sell, sell, sell.

LeBron will land somebody. There's just too many connections in Los Angeles. Kauai's from here. Butler's got a place here. Clay Thompson's dad's here. They'll land one of them. Last one. Buy seller hold.

Kyrie Irving will be a Celtic next season. Well, they won last night and they looked amazing. But they are nine and two without him. players do things in the NBA, I don't always agree with. And there is a real trend in the NBA where guys sort of want to be the man. I mean, even Jason Tatum, Good Kid, comes out and says, you know, I'd play anywhere. By the way, Jason, don't. You want to play for the top seven or eight teams in this league historically.

It's a better life. But Kyrie's a free agent. He's been rumored. And I know he is a frequent verbal volleyball volleyball. player with Kevin Durant. They talk regularly. So John, sell, sell, sell. I don't think he'll be a Celtic next year. I think he's a little flaky for their brand. Danny Ains tends to be a little more emotionally conservative. Trump comment. Look at his history. A little more conservative guy. I think Kyrie's a little flaky for Danny Aange, who's got sort of a Belichick feel to him.

Belichick has always sort of struggled with the kind of the diva wide receiver, the guy, that doesn't get aligned with the system. So I don't think Kyrie will be a Celtic next year. But I think they'll win a bunch of games with Kyrie or without Kyrie. I gave you my NBA championship bubble. NFL, I usually have seven or eight teams. My NBA championship bubble consists of the Golden State Warriors. And then the Rockets, the Sixers, and the Celtics are just outside the bubble.

I do think Milwaukee is interesting. I don't think they're a championship team yet. I think they're interesting. But they're also one of those, yeah, there's my championship bubble. The Warriors are the only team in the bubble. And I think the Sixers have the talent. But I don't think they match up with the Celtics. I'd put Houston and Boston outside of that bubble that on any given night can be a pain.

They're well-coached. There's some match-up issues. I don't put Milwaukee there yet. I don't put Denver there. I don't put Toronto there. Now, Joy, of course, has already bought season tickets for the Raptors going forward. I do not. I do not buy into the United.

You're not by season tickets. I'm just saying that you're being very dismissive of the Raptors. I am. You're also completely dismissing the Bucs, which I'm kind of doing. Less dismissive of the Bucs, but. I mean, they can't be on the bubble. I don't know. How many road playoff games that Bucs win last year?

How many of they? It's a new year. Well, it's not that far from last year. It's certainly a new year for the Raptors. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Ah, here we go. Go. Hour three, we're live in LA. This is The Herd, wherever you may be and however you may be listening. We're on IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. I got it tomorrow, Joy Taylor,

I have to go speak at a big conference for radio executives. Oh, what are you going to talk about? Oh, I don't know. Be dropping woj bombs and breaking news. Can't wait. Just me and a bunch of boring executives. God. How do I get roped into these things? What do you say you are? An American media icon?

I have America's media icon. Oh, America's media icon. Not N. Yeah. So sometimes you just got to take over a room. Got a bunch of people in the bad suits. I've got to walk in and, you know, pow. And you don't wear suits.

Bryce Harper hit it out of the park and stuff. We're also on Sirius XM Channel 83. You should listen to us. coming up in 15 minutes. Jim Jackson is going to join us. He's doing those TNT things. It's about his third game last night. He did the Celtics and the Warriors.

They're called Players Only. Some are good. They were good last night. Some of the guys aren't as quite as it doesn't quite work. But last night guys were good. Celtics Warriors. We'll talk about that. Well, the Lakers play the Nuggets tonight.

Nuggets pretty good this year. LeBron has a chance to actually pass Michael Jordan on the all-time scoring list. But the Lakers are five and a half games out of the playoffs. and basically eliminated from the postseason. So let me start with that. I said at the end of last year with LeBron James, I came out for a couple of segments. I got, you know, people just attacked me.

He said I was an idiot. This is ridiculous. You don't know what you're talking about. I said, LeBron should retire for a year. Take a year off. You just got divorced in Cleveland. You don't move to Los Angeles and remarry. Take a year off.

This morning, ask yourself, He should have. He should have. He should have taken the year off. Surveyed the league. Recharge his body. Do all the movies, the TV shows, the pizza company. Get it out of your system.

Have dinner with Magic and Rob Polinka. Talk about Brandon Ingram Kuzma, Lonzo Ball. Travel around the league and recruit players. Oh, yes. It's not tampering when you're retired. Go to the All-Star Games. Sit front row at the Warriors with Kevin Durant and Clayton. Thompson, be their friend, buddy up.

Private Jetim, take him to concerts. LeBron's always been the player empowerment guy. He didn't empower himself. He was dating. He got divorced. Marriages. Dude, you don't get back into the, you don't get married in another two months. Take some time off.

LeBron James had earned the right to get off the treadmill. Just think of all the advantages. I was in Colorado this weekend at a celebrity ski event, and I got stuck in an airport for nine hours. They had avalanches and stuff. And I talked to the CEO who built a company and sold it. I said, what'd you do afterwards? He said, I got off the treadmill for 20 months.

Surveyed my industry. Watched other people make mistakes. You can't see those when you're working every day. You can't. You're too busy dealing with your own minutia. You're in too many meetings. He goes, you step off the treadmill, They'll survey the landscape.

Man, it's a ton of clarity. Michael Jordan retired twice, recharged its batteries. Roger Clemens had a year. Andrew Luck, Peyton Manning, some injury, some not. They came back recharged, refocused. Most of us can't take a year off because myself included, we can't afford it. We just can't afford it. But if you can afford CEO, athlete to step back, recharge, refocus, get

some things out of your system. When LeBron went, there's Cleveland, and there's Miami, and it's back to Cleveland, there's a bunch of conflict, moves to Los Angeles and gets married again. What? Time out. Slow down. Whoa. Date a little.

Take a breath. This whole year for LeBron has been, couldn't we all admit, kind of the unfocused LeBron. It's been the unfocused LeBron. Listen, man, LeBron's been on the treadmill too long. Breaks for people who can afford them almost always work. Andrew Luck got hurt, could not play for a year. Came back this year, a smarter quarterback, fewer mistake quarterback, gets hit less quarterback,

allowed the Colts to build up around him. The best thing that ever happened to Andrew Luck was not playing. getting some time, some clarity, some space. It's not like Andrew Luck didn't deserve it. He'd taken a beating. Peyton Manning had taken a beating. Roger Clemens, George Foreman. You sit around, most of us, you get up in the morning, you brush your teeth, you drive to work,

you get your coffee, you get in the treadmill, you work hard. And we do that because we have to do it. We got kids. We got mortgage payments. But the people in society that don't have to, should. take a breath. Michael Jordan took two years off. We don't even remember him.

Never heard of his legacy. Peyton Manning missed a year. Didn't hurt his legacy. George Foreman actually was more popular when he came back the second time. Roger Clemens. Whatever you think of him, nobody talks about the year off. It was too much.

It was too much. LeBron has been unfocused. He's a kid. He's in his early 30s. He moved to L.A. He wanted to do L.A. for a year. Should have taken a time off. I think if you asked him privately, LeBron would admit,

I needed to recharge. I needed to refocus. I wanted to do L.A. This has been a complete waste of his energy. I want to shift gears to this. This is the time of the year, combines pre-draft, where you get a lot of rumors,

speculations, stories. This kid, bad interview, this kid a jerk, this kid's smart, this kid, I don't know, this kid red flag, this kid no flag. We had one of those moments yesterday. Kyler Murray's a quarterback, Oklahoma. Many suspect he'll go number one to Arizona. And Charlie Cassidy, he's been in the league forever. You know, like he was in the NFL forever.

Now it works for an NFL network came out and said, Kyler Murray, interview with teams, it was a disaster. You better hope Kingsbury takes him number one, because this was not good. This was the worst comments I ever got on a high-rated quarterback. Really? I've been doing this a long time. I'm probably doing it long and you're alive anyway. You have.

That's why I said, really? Yes, leadership, not good. Okay, study habits, not good. The boardwork, below not good, not good at all in any of those areas. see, and raising major concerns about what this guy's going to do. Now, people will say, well, we're going to compare him to Mahomes. We're going to run an offense like Mahomes. We're going to run an offense like Baker Maphia.

But those guys are much different. I mean, those guys, you never question about their ability on the board. You never questioned their leadership ability. Their work habits, they were outstanding in those areas. This guy's not outstanding in those areas. It showed up in the interview. Last night made two calls, two NFL scouts, and they both said the same thing. the reports are not untrue.

Now, it should be noted there have been lots of quarterbacks in the NFL that are great on the white board. That's when you go up to the board and you draw up plays. And not so great. Baker Mayfield last year, I was told that got him drafted number one. He was great on the whiteboard. There's a lot of guys in this league. Aaron Rogers, ad libs out of place. Big Ben, Russell Wilson, Cam Newton, Sam Darm.

Arnold. They're instinctive players. They're not Tom Brady, Eli Manning. They do all their work pre-snap. I don't think this hurts Kyler Murray a ton. Because if you're looking for a playmaking quarterback, Kyler Murray is the best playmaking quarterback in the draft. And reportedly, Arizona sat him down, and he did fine with them. The good news for Kyler Murray, there are about seven teams that are desperate at quarterback. This is a bad quarterback class, and he is uniquely gifted. I think he's fine. He's going to be a player, and there's a lot of them. I think Russell Wilson is a great example.

Aaron Rogers, too, instinct is a big chunk of who they are. That's okay. Now, I don't like Kyler Murray as much as I do Russell Wilson. In fact, I don't even think the comps are close. but the stories about Kyler are not untrue. He's not great at the whiteboard. All right. He would not be the first quarterback to win a bunch of games

who's not great at the board. Who's not world class in interviews? There's a lot of ways in this league. There's quiet guys, Eli's. There's talkative guys, Aaron Ron. There's passive aggressive guys, Big Ben. There's hyper aggressive guys, Drew Breeze. There's big guys, Cam.

There's small guys, Russell. I think these stories are true. They're not, I was told by two scouts, untrue. But if you want him and you need him in Arizona, probably both boxes check there, I think you take him. Coming up next, Jim Jackson Haven't talked to him in a couple of months. NBA analyst was on TNT last night for the Warrior Celtics.

I thought it meant something for the Celtics, not much for the Warriors. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week, within the IHeart radio app. Search Herd to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Last night, a blown call changed the 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 to the action with stories told by the people who live them.

Listen to SportsSlice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. 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, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in.

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? 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, Keir Gaines, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway.

Open your free iHeartRadio app, search Learn the Hardway, and listen now. American soccer is about to explode. The World Cup is coming. Ramos sending on to Ernie Stewart the chip. I'm Ty Bramos. I'm Tom Bow. On our podcast, Inside American Soccer, you'll get the real storylines. I'm not worried about Policic.

I'm not worried about Balligan. I'm not worried about McKinney. My only concern is what happens in the back. The biggest decisions. If you're going to look at stats and numbers, he has no shot at making this World Cup team. And the truth about the U.S. national team. It wouldn't be a huge surprise

if our team ends up in the quarterfinals or potentially a great run into the semifinals. The World Cup is almost here. Experience it all with us. Listen, inside American soccer with Tom Bogart and Tabram. on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas.

And I'm CJ Toledano, and our podcast Point Game is about defying the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows, without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the play. playoffs.

I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nash would get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court licking his fingers while he got the ball.

Like, you go through a training camp with that, Isaiah. You figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. He does NBA and college for us. He just put me in a good mood. I said, who's the best college team you've seen this year? He said, Gonzaga.

Yeah, baby Zags. How about that, Jim Jackson, decade and a half in the NBA, a first rounder? You know, I got to start something. You played against Michael Jordan's Dynasty Bulls. And I, you know, again, I remember the great moments. There's things, I remember one year they struggled with the expansion raptors. They tip nights off. This warrior dynasty, though, they got polished by 33 at home.

They've been blown out by Boston, Philly, Toronto, Milwaukee, all four Eastern teams at home. Let's take me back to the MJ Dynasty. Were they this bad during the regular season regularly? No, I mean, they got beat. I mean, when I was in New Jersey in 97, we beat them in Jersey. okay and then we went back to Chicago and they got us but they had some games like that but it's a different time you know it's interesting because I did the game last night and we were meeting with Steve Kerr and leading up to it he said the challenge for him is trying to figure out

how to get his how to motivate his guys on different levels because human nature sets in course and with the grind of the last five years okay how do you motivate a team that's kind of been there. At first, the first two years, it was just, we're fun, we're going out of it, we got something to prove, and then it switched to being more of a burden during the regular season. And that's what we saw last night.

A Boston team trying to figure it out, we're on the road, can we bond together? This road trip is huge for us to kind of bond together where it was a Golden State team that came out flat and see you kind of looked like, here we go. Body language, by the way, we'll show some video here, the body language

for Golden State. No. I mean, just not getting back. You know, I want to talk about the Kyrie situation because Joy and I were talking about this earlier is that I wrote both my books on a plane because I found that I tend to be kind of ADD and I can't pay attention to stuff. But when I was on a plane for six hours,

wow, I could dive deep. And Kyrie mentioned last night that the flight was so long that Danny and Brad called him up. go back to the bad times in your career and the flights and how do you turn the chemistry around? Well, it depends on the team too and the makeup of the team. I think that's so important because you got to keep in mind a lot like the Lakers,

the young players, okay, there's a lot of commonality there because you had high expectations based of what happened last year. Kuzma, Ingram, Ball. Lanzo, yeah. Okay, you think about, okay, now they're going to take the next step. You think about Jaylen Brown, Jason Tatum, Rozier, after that great

next step. Now you bring back Kyrie, you bring back LeBron. Oh, instantly we're going to get better. But what happens is you have these young guys that got expectations upon themselves and who they want to be and they're young. Kyrie hasn't had to deal with that

in regards to being a leader. LeBron hasn't had to deal with that in regards to being a leader because he's had an older team put around him. So I'm sure on that flight, they talked about this Boston after the Houston loss, but what they needed to do. Everybody's talking about toxic environment,

this, this, and this. And we expect it just to all happen because, oh, they're young kids, and Kyrie really hasn't led. So that flight probably gave them time to kind of talk a little bit more, to be in close comfort, to have some things out,

to figure it out a little bit. and the difference last night was from the beginning of the game they were connected. Oh, even the bench. Oh, they were cheering on everything. No, I mean, I watched the first half. They were so engaged. It was unbelievable to watch, and it was even better to watch them continue to go to Gordon Hayward. See, listen, Colin, I've been in a situation to understand what Gordon Hayward is going to.

My third year, when I got hurt, 51 games, I'm averaging 26. The next year I come back, I'm not the same player. Okay? Gordon Hayward didn't play as many games with that crew as I did with Dallas, but trying to integrate him back into the system caused a little problem. Trying to integrate me back in the system caused a little division because I wasn't the same player. And I can understand Brad's dilemma, the player's dilemma, and Gordon's dilemma, you know?

And to see him play like that last night, would he get 30 every night? No. But to watch his teammates support him, when he was open, they made sure he got it. They were cheering on the sideline. That was a beautiful. That was one of those moments where you can see, okay, now where can this Boston team carry that attitude? Forget win or loss.

It's how they played the game to me that was more important. Yeah. And they do have playoff experience, a great coach. And they got about seven, eight guys that can play. Al Horford, Gordon, Kyrie, Jason Tatum, Jalen Brown. Marcus Smart. Yeah. And the other kid, the four.

Moors. About seven dudes that can play in this league, some B minus, some A minus, but I still like them. I've said my championship bubble is Golden State's the only team in the bubble. Houston, Boston, Philly, I think are really talented. Milwaukee is close. Right. Let's go to LeBron. You know, I said this.

I said about after that last season, I said it and I readdressed it today, you could make an argument that LeBron would have been better off moving to L.A. L.A. is big. It engulfs you. if he'd have said, listen, man, I just got out of a bad marriage in Cleveland. I'm going to take a year off. It's not tampering when you're retired. Comes to L.A.

It's like, you know what? I want to do some movies. Want to do some stuff? I want to two chains. I want to do my stuff. Right. When I moved to L.A. I was at the beach for six weeks.

I dyed my hair. I was a mess. Okay. L.A. does that to you. That LeBron may have been better served after eight straight trip to the finals, looking at it and saying,

you know what? I'm going to take a year off. I'm going to get off the treadmill. I'm going to survey all this stuff. I'm going to tamper, although it's not tampering. I'm going to get on my private jet. I'm going to go to Warrior Games. I'm going to take Clay and Kevin Durant out.

I look at this year and I think, of course it didn't work. You can't get remarried 15 minutes into L.A. There's no way this emotionally was going to work. Well, here's the challenge you for a guy like LeBron because he's so competitive in what he wants to do. But because he's older in his career, and you understand that he's, crossed over, you talk about the mogul stage, to doing other things. To me, just outside looking

in them what this team needed, maybe you don't do all the Hollywood stuff. Maybe it's just basketball this year because that young team needed his full attention to understand what it means to win. And they didn't get it. And they didn't get it. And it's no fault of his own from this perspective, because in his mind, he's still doing what LeBron does all the time. Everybody else just follows. But again, I'm going to go back to the youth aspect of it. When you got people saying, okay, we need you to step up. You're next in line. Kyle Cousman, he's a surprise of the NBA, you know,

what the Lakers were able to get in Ingram. You need to play better. All this stuff is going on. Okay? Yeah, we want to win, but I need to get my numbers too. I need to get better. I need to prove as a young player that I can compete in this league. And the problem and the issue we have is that we want an 18, 19,

20, 21-year-old to automatically be 25, okay, overnight. It doesn't happen. They got to go through a process. And the process could have been helped a little bit more by LeBron of that laser focus. Okay? And I hate to compare Kobe and LeBron, but imagine if Kobe was in a situation, it's all basketball. And that's what those young players would see. By the way, I never felt Kobe in all his years in L.A.

I never felt he was distracted. I felt Shaq was often distracted. Shack was into a Hollywood thing. And again, different personalities, different upbringing. Think about when Kobe was going through the whole trial. He had some of his best game because he was laser focused, okay? When I was there briefly with the Lakers, I got a chance to see it. Okay?

First hand, just Kobe just being all about basketball. And that makes other guys that want to play and want to contribute. You know what? you know, maybe tonight or maybe I got to really zone in because that guy up front, employee number eight at the time, is zoned in. And I got to do my job. And sometimes it takes that subtle change in the personality

as big as LeBron is to say, you know, I'm just going to focus here. By the way, one question about Jordan. LeBron will surpass Jordan tonight in points. I said, listen, I spent a lot of time saying, LeBron's the Swiss Army knife of the NBA. He does more things well than Michael. But I will tell you, I was at Michael's last game in Portland. We have video.

He was 40. He won 11 of 19, 25.7 assists. I was at that game, about third row to the left. Right. I do not believe LeBron's 34 that in six years, LeBron will ever play an NBA game and easily be the best player on the floor. And by the way, Rashid was on the floor, Bonsie on the floor. I think Rip Hamilton was on the floor.

Damon Stottomire was on the floor. Zach Randolph was on the floor. I was at that game. Portland was a 50-win team. Michael at 40 was unbelievable. Go to your last time playing Jordan. How old was he? Washington.

When I play him in Washington. But here's the difference. His game was so dimensional from this perspective. If he didn't shoot the three well, guess what? I can go to the mid-post. I can go to the post. I can go to the mid-range. All the stuff that we're seeing right here are baskets that are in 15 feet, 18 feet,

the polls. All of those things are hard to stop. He can still get those shots. LeBron is built more. I'm going to take a long jump shot or I'm getting to the basket. And then he's not shooting free throws well. So as you get older, it's easier to guard you, okay? Because I can take that away.

With this right here, this is a skill set that he developed over years. So when he got 40, this was second nature. LeBron doesn't have that tool in his toolbox to kind of go to midpost post to be able to still be effective. Would he still be great? He probably will be. We don't know. But that game right there transcends. Transcend.

I don't care. That transcends. That game had Rip Hamilton, Zach Randolph, Damon, Bonzie, Sheed, and I sat there with a buddy of mine, and I'm like, he is the best player on the floor. It's unbelievable. 40 years old, but he did it because he was so efficient at understanding where the sweet spots in the defense were and where he could get his shots. That's the beauty of it. And as great as LeBron is, that one year in Miami when he really went to the polls, he was right hand, left hand, couldn't stop him. I said, see, that's that next step.

But he kind of went away from it because he's more comfortable playing outside. Yeah, great stuff. Jim Jackson, 14 NBA seasons. Congratulations on all your personal stuff. as well. Thank you. It's a lot of fun, man. A lot of fun. Joy Taylor with the news. No. No. No. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news.

So you were just talking about Kyrie. Celtics have been in a slump lately. Losing 7 of 10 games going into last night's matchup with the Warriors, but they pulled off a 128.95 win over the top seat in the West, and Kyrie had this to say about how the team got back on track. That long plane ride helped us out. I'd just say that. That long plane ride helped us out. out, we needed it.

It was just, we were going to get to a point where we're just going to get tired of, you know, fighting each other, fighting them, you know, the outside world and it doesn't really matter. So we just want to come out here and just play basketball. This is our sanctuary and we got to do everything to protect it. We can't let anybody infiltrate this. Sometimes it just takes a conversation. Now we'll see if this positive start continues. They needed something though.

They needed something to kind of break and it just felt like it was just this, you know, cycle of negativity. And sometimes you just got to get in a room and have a conversation. You know, it was, as Jim Jackson just pointed out, I watched the first half of this game. The Celtics, you mean, you could watch this video, as you watch this video, I'm sorry for a radio audience, the energy on the Boston bench was palpable. Like, you could really, the whole game, they were just having so much fun. And it comes on the heels of toxicity, we don't get along.

Those guys pointed it out last night. It was really like, if you're a Boston fan, it was like, okay, this is the team last year in the playoffs where the 13th guy is cheering for the first guy. And Gordon Hayward was great last night. I mean, that's sort of how these relationships start to deteriorate, right? Like, you don't have the conversations and everyone's kind of harboring their own animosity. So being on a long plane ride and having a great win like that over the Warriors and the top seat in the West is a good way to start getting back on track into the postseason. Yes. So the Cardinals have the first pick.

in the draft and rumors have been swirling that Kyla Murray might be their top choice. Kyler and Nick Bosa from Ohio State are currently tied as the favorites to be drafted first overall. But Cardinals head coach Cliff Kingsbury insists the team has not made a decision yet. 50 days out, so I don't think any of us have a clue at this point. But it's fun to hear all the how I've said I do and that it's a down deal and all those things. So you just roll with it and enjoy this process. I mean, just rolling around Indies saying it's a none deal.

So I would have to adamantly deny that. Now, he did say before he had this position that he would take Kyler Murray's number one overall. Wasn't there a story the other day that Josh Rosen erased his Instagram stuff with a carnal? He said he was hacked. All of the stuff that related to the Arizona Cardinals was deleted off. Have you ever been hacked? No, thankfully.

But I don't know that he was hacked or wasn't hacked. I do think if someone was. going to hack him, deleting all the stuff from the Cardinals off of his page, would be a very good way to mess with him if he was. And I don't know. It's not that I don't believe it. I'm, I don't know. John, you're a techie guy.

Do you know any hackers? I got hacked once. You did? My Twitter account got hacked. Why would somebody hack your Twitter account? All it did was send out links to something to everyone I followed or that followed me, so it was some stupid thing. Because I've followed you on Twitter. You're not that

captivating. I don't think there's any reason to literally hack you. That's nothing against you personally, but it would be, I would not hack. I would not say... Nothing against you personally. I just don't find you very interesting. Like you would hack like the president or... I was very surprised myself and had no idea how to stop it. John's the only guy that's ever had his account hacked and nobody cared.

And everybody was like, yeah, it wasn't interesting before. It's not that interesting now. Well, I don't know if he was hacked or not. But it would be an interesting thing to do to delete all this stuff from me. from the Cardinals off of there. I don't know what they're going to end up doing again. I keep saying if I was them, I would stick with Josh Rosen and trade back and get more picks because they have a lot of pieces that they need to fill.

But it is Cliff Kingsbury's team and he's new and Josh wasn't his guy. Everybody gave up on Jared Goff and Mitch Trubisky after the first year. We had a defensive coach where last year, Arizona. Where do they have a defensive coach, L.A., where they have a defensive coach Chicago. It doesn't benefit them right now to say we're going to pay. Kim because they have a quarterback. So there has to be some sort of strategy to it. So I get why they're not coming out and saying that they're definitely going to take it.

So finally, the pursuit of Antonio Brown could finally be coming to an end. According to Ian Rappaport, the Steelers are moving quickly to try and find no trade for Brown. Three new unnamed teams have entered the running and the Jets and the Cardinals are both reportedly out. So the Jets are out too. Yes. Jets and Cardinals are reported out. I didn't love that fit. I think Labian Bell with the Jets is interesting.

I think the Jets would have been a good space for Antonio. They need a receiver. fit with Sam Darnold well. Sam Donald, to me, his personality would have balanced out the stardom and personality of Antonio Brown. Because Sam's a steady guy. He's part of your bore for, right? Yeah. No, he's not part of my bore for yet.

Not yet? Yeah. Didn't we expand it for him or no? Not yet. No, okay. But at Jared Goff, we considered expanding. Okay. Sam's not good enough yet to be in the list.

Well, the Raiders are currently the favorite to land him, and Derek Carr said his team would be more than happy. with the edition of Antonio Brown. I would imagine he's definitely in play. I hope. I hope he's in play. It would be great. It would be great to add a guy like that to your team, talent like that.

If it works out on the business side, I know that our locker room would be arms wide open to accept Antonio. He can't even talk at a children's hospital. He just, somebody's got a phone on him. Well, yeah. I mean, that's the world we love in. I do like the combination,

Derek Carr and Antonio Brown. I'm sure Derek Carr would love to have a receiver with the talent of Antonio Brown. And I do think that John Gruden could handle the personality of Antonio Brown. And I think that he would be the perfect star for their move to Las Vegas. But we'll see. Because I'm sure

the Steelers are going to try and get the best package more than sending him. Well, the Raiders have a ton of picks. Yeah. And the Patriots and the Raiders have a ton of picks. The Patriots would be a shocking turn of events. To say the least. Yeah. Joy Taylor with the news.

Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Herrline news. Okay, our staff did a great job. So we're going to play kind of a game next. We're going to put every NFL team up. And through a series of events or reasons, eliminate who Antonio Brown would play with. And there's five or six things, salary cap, bad fit.

And it kind of reduces it to a very, very, very, tiny number where he's going to go. And again, the story is he will sign here in the next 36 hours to 48 hours. That's coming up in Best for Last. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays at noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeard Radio app. Studies show security system deter burglars. Simply save smart system. Protects every point of access. Simply save Colin.com. Free shipping. a money back guarantee. Simply savecollin.com. So in best for last today, Antonio Brown, the deal is going to get done in 36 hours,

and I thought I'd play a game. There's a lot of people talking about it. So I take all 32 teams and through a process of elimination, who am I left with? A very common sense feel to how the process works. And so here are all 32 teams in the NFL, in order. mostly not. And so let's start eliminating NFL teams. So step one, the teams that are too close for comfort,

they're not going to trade them to the Bengals, Browns, or Ravens in division. They don't want to see Antonio Brown walk into Pittsburgh and light them up every year. And I also include New England in that group. They're your number one big boy championship rival. So let's just take out the too close for comfort teams, Bingles, Browns, Ravens, Patriots, we're down to 28. Rumored to not be interested. The Broncos have said not interested.

Arizona publicly has said not interested. And stories leaking from the Jets, not interested. When you come out and tell me publicly, you're not interested. You don't need to do that. So that leaves us with 25 teams. They're just not interested. Step three. They've already got a number one receiver.

Why create dissension? The chiefs have Tyreek Hill, the Giants had Odell, the Vikings have Stefan Diggs, the Texans have DeAndre Hopkins, Chargers have all sorts of good receivers, including Keenan Allen, the Bucks have Mike Evans, the Falcons have Julio Jones, the Saints have Michael Thomas, and the Cowboys have Amari Cooper. They've already got a receiver in many instances, an expensive one that is not an area of need. And Antonio Brown, frankly, probably not great having to share the spotlight. So now we're down to 16 teams. Step four.

These teams are obviously rebuilding, and they've got lots and lots of needs, offensive line, defensive line. And we just don't think they'd spend big money on a wide receiver. Dolphins, Bills, Raiders, Redskins. Okay, the Redskins have a lot of needs. They need a quarterback. And my guess is they may move up, one of the teams to move up to get Kyler Murray and give up a bunch of picks.

I don't think the dolphins, builds, Raiders, or Redskins. I think they've got different plans, either rebuilding, accumulation of picks to rebuild. I don't think they fit. Number five, they've already spent too much money teams. Eagles, Rams, Jags, Bears. They don't have a lot of room. They spent a lot of money. Rams, Jags?

I mean, the Rams yesterday got rid of a couple guys, Mark Barron, and they moved a little cap space. but it seems to me these teams just don't have enough room that leaves us with eight teams left. This is step six, hard-ass head coach. Just doesn't seem like a coach

that wants to deal with A-B's nonsense. Tennessee Titans Mike Vrable the Detroit Lions Matt Patricia and Kyle Shanahan of the 49ers. Those guys, they can struggle at times with coaches. They struggle with the media. I don't think they really work.

That's five teams left. Step seven. Not a great cultural fit. Green Bay Packers, they just don't do this. And the Indianapolis Colts under Chris Ballard are building a ego-less culture. Andrew Locke, they're not looking for dynamic big personalities. I've been told it wouldn't be a great fit and they're not interested. I think the Packers and Colts, it just culturally I don't think fits.

And that leaves us, of course, with three teams. Let's put the three teams up. The Seattle Seahawks, the Carolina Panthers, and the Pittsburgh Steelers. So I am going to eliminate Pittsburgh for, shall we say, obvious reasons. We shall say that, yes. It's a great fit. I'm going to take out Seattle because they have two really good wide receivers,

and they're becoming kind of a run-first defensive team, and they don't have a ton of extra draft picks. My guess is the Carolina Panthers, and I'm going to give you the reasons I think it's a very interesting fit. Number one, Cam is the closest thing in the NFL to Big Ben. they do not have a number one star receiver. They have a Labian bell. His name is Christian McCaffrey,

a runner and a pass catcher out of the backfield, so they will have balance. Ron Rivera has handled Cam beautifully for years, and Cam can be a little high maintenance, can be a little needy, handled him very well. Steve Smith, Cam Newton, never a problem there. And by the way, the Panthers are good. every other year,

seven and nine last year. Antonio Brown comes in with Cam. They've got their Labian Bell. By the way, Ron Revere, like Tomlin, a player's coach can handle big personalities. Antonio Brown to the Carolina Panthers. What do you think of that, Joy?

You're looking at me, not dismissively, but with great utter curiosity mostly I do like Carolina for Antonio Brown I think Cam and Antonio Brown would be electric to watch if they could figure it out

and it would be great for the league Cam is a superstar and so is Antonio Brown and I do think they will get along and they're already friends so it makes perfect sense if Cam can get him the ball very interesting

and let me just throw this out there for Carolina you're in a division where there's a lot of offense. New Orleans got a lot of offense. Atlanta's got a lot of offense. Tampa Bay's got unbelievable offensive weapons. Carolina could use a pop player. Yeah.

And with Christian McCaffrey, you would make them a really well-rounded offense. And Cam's not a precision guy. Cam's a big play guy. Antonio Brown's a big play guy that, I mean, Tampa's got a Mike Evans, got Mike Thomas, Atlanta's got Julio. You've got to start matching up.

There's some, that division's got big time perimeter weapons. And they have the picks to make it happen. I do think that, I mean, Oakland's the favorite to land them. I do think that Oakland is also very interesting, but I like Carolina. I think Carolina was in Peter King's top teams for landing spot. I really enjoyed that segment. We got to kind of the process of elimination segment. I like that.

So Kyrie Irving has had a very weird season. The Celtics last year got to the Eastern. conference finals without him. And so then they added Kyrie healthy Gordon Hayward. And everybody's takeaway, mine included is, oh, good Lord, Boston's going to be really good. Well, they're nine and two without Kyrie and have struggled with him. So they just had a plane flight. This week, he said he never wanted to be a celebrity, which is odd since he was, you know, in a movie.

There's a reason they call a movie stars. Kyrie has been, I think it's fair to say at times this year, a little off, a little high maintenance. apparently they solved some of those problems two nights ago on a flight to Bay Area six-hour flight from Boston, Danny Aange, Kyrie Irvin. But Charles Barkley this morning was on the other network, and he was asked about sort of Adam Silver's opinion the other day where Adam Silver came out and said, you know, my stars are unhappy. It's amazing how many star players I talked to in the NBA said Silver are really unhappy,

and Charles Barkley addressed that. I've never seen a person so miserable to have so much success to have the world and the palm in his hands he's going to make $40, $50 million year for the next 10, 15 years. He's already won a world championship.

He's in movies. But he's got to be one of the most miserable people I've ever seen. Like I say, we can all get on television and complain about, oh, I can't wait to get away from this. Like, no, you, dude, we're playing you 40 million dollars years. That's just how this thing works. It was interesting how many people reacted.

Barclay's very old school, nothing wrong with that. It is weird when the NBA commissioner says, I can't believe how many of my stars are unhappy. As we said yesterday, it's going to kind of fall on deaf ears with a lot of people. Because I think a lot of people, the one thing, if you're, let's say you make a bunch of money and you're an engineer or you're a stockbroker or whoever makes money, aerospace, you tend to put in a lot of hours. grind. You know, when NBA guys work six months, six months off, I think a lot of people just don't want to hear it.

Six months off. A lot of time off. If they have six months off, they are going to be off. Well, LeBron's taking defense off this year, so even when he's playing. Okay. That's, that's, he's also in his 16th year, not including the, basically two years that he's added to his career through the playoffs and Olympics. Do you really want to hear how unhappy though? No, I mean, complaining is not kind to anyone's ears. for the most part. Like, people don't want to hear you complaining when you make a lot of money and you're famous and, you know, you get to go to exclusive places and all the things, parks that come with that. But money doesn't make you happy. As cliche as that sounds, there are pressures and things that are involved in Kyrie's life

that you and I and everyone else cannot understand because we are not in that position. Well, money doesn't buy you happiness, but it is a good down payment. It is, and I'm not dismissing that. And I would like to see what being, having $50 million does. to make me more happy, if that's the case. Like, of course, everyone wants more money and everyone wants to be successful. And there's different things that motivate different people. But I'm just saying it's not, you don't know what someone's going through.

It's very easy to say, like, oh, you should just be happy. You don't know what anyone's going through. Yeah, I guess. Is it a bummer when I put perspective on things? No, no, no, I think Barclay's whole take, you know, Barclay's takeaway is you're making a bunch of money be happy. I get that. I think.

But that's not, that's not life. That's not that, it's not that simple. There are a lot of miserable rich people. Exactly. A lot of them. That's not how things work. I've never met one myself, but I've heard there's a lot of miserable rich people. I was around a bunch of kind of rich people this weekend.

I was at a charity event in Colorado American Air Cystic Fibrosis. They seemed to be really happy. They were skiing and drinking wine and helping an amazing cause. But I think there are miserable rich people. somewhere. It's not just about money. Yeah. That's not even what Kyrie's talking about. I think if you ask Kyrie, you would keep it real about that.

All right. Speak for yourselves around the corner. The Iowa's outspoken. Stephen Jackson will be on our show tomorrow. Rob Parker, DeQuil, Jackson, Jim Jackson. Great in our show. Today, it's the herd. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. And nobody's telling you exactly what

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