The Herd with Colin Cowherd - NBA Finals, Kevin Durant, and Kawhi Leonard

Episode Date: June 10, 2019

Colin believes the NBA Finals will end tonight and explains why it has been boring. More on Golden State Warriors F Kevin Durant's injury plus the news that he is playing tonight, and his thoughts on Toronto Raptors F Kawhi Leonard taking games off. Guests include Chris Broussard, Charles Barkley, Peter Schrager, and Mark Thompson.  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Joy Taylor is joining me. one hour from now, calling right, calling wrong. For the next week, we get to do a radio show, which you started in radio. And I started in radio. And so Joy Taylor and I, these are like the good old days. You started in Miami radio. That's a good

first market. We're going old school. Well, I went to school there, so. That's a big market to start it. It is. It is. But that's, you I encourage people to intern. That's how it works. Did you intern? Yeah. I interned. My first job was actually the place that I had my first internship. Oh, that's, so they must have, you must have

a good intern. I was great again. Half of my can't get out of the building fast enough. You were one of those interns. Everybody's like, oh, yeah, she could actually work here. I mean, that's the goal of getting an internship. Yeah. So it's kind of a screw-off week.

And I'm mean by that. It's fun. It's loose. And we're just, you know, we're knocked off obviously because of the women's World Cup, which tomorrow the United States plays, actually. And excited for that much more dependable than our men's national team. I'll get to that later. Because Kevin Durant, here's the injury update.

The Warriors, he practiced according to two reports. He wasn't very good at practice. Of course, he's not very good at practice. He's got a calf strain. This series, it's 3 to 1 Toronto, and I think the series is over, and I think they went tonight. I don't think this is a very complicated series. I said before the series, I think I picked Golden State in 6.

Joy, you picked, what was your final pick? I picked the Raptors in 7. Okay. So I'm on the wrong side. side of that one, I think one of the things I said before the series, length is something that fans don't talk about, but every scout have ever known talks about. I had a scout, Mark Worcantine years ago, said, you know, Scotty Pippen, twice a game

deflected a ball, Chicago ended up with it. That gave Michael Jordan two more possessions. He made one. He goes, Chicago Bulls won a lot of close playoff games. Laint matters. Well, Mark Nassau, Pascal Seyakum, Sir Jabba. Kauai is one of the longest six, seven guys in the planet. And who's hurt for Golden State?

Their longest player, Kevin Durant. Kvon Looney 6-9 missed a game. Boogie Cousins is running around the court about 60-70%. In the NFL, you would call this a cluster injury. When you have like three receivers go down or four offensive linemen or hurts called a cluster injury, the Warriors have a cluster injury with their bigs. And it is a huge disadvantage against one of the biggest longest teams in the NBA, Toronto. Toronto's shooting 45% in this series.

And my takeaway on this, I've watched four games now. They're just getting more easy baskets. This is where Katie's length, boogie at full strength length, would be a factor. It's not just offense. You're not missing just Kevin Durant's offense, obviously. But Kevin's a good defender, and Kevin's one of the longest players in the league. Golden State's not getting as many easy baskets. So Toronto, not known as a great shooting team, is shooting 45.5%.

Golden State, known as the world's best shooting. team is shooting 43%. What does that tell you? Golden State struggling to get easy looks. Toronto's getting more easy looks. And over the course of a series, 6-11.5 KD hasn't played. Seven foot boogie, not playing well. Six, nine and a half Kvon Looney missed a game, playing about 75%. And those guys are running around at 70% or not playing at all, chasing a very, you know, Sergei Bacca is swatting things left and right. Pascal Seacom for his size is incredible. incredibly athletic and nimble. And I think that's the series.

The other thing, it's playing a psychological effect. I saw Sam Amick of the Athletic said yesterday that, you know, the team, there's confusion, there's angst in the locker room. Is he going to play? Is he not going to play? I think there's a psychological impact now is they don't know. You know, I said this years ago, I used to cover Rashid Wallace. Rashid Wallace is one of the most talented players in NBA history.

And I say that. Rashid Wallace just happened. His prime aligned with Tim Duncan's prime. and Kevin Garnett's prime. So here you had in the Western Conference, Tim Duncan, the best four in 20 years, and you had Kevin Garnett, one of the best fours in the last 20 years,

and Rashid's career just lined up with him. The difference is you knew what you were getting every night from Duncan and Kevin Garnett. You kind of knew the game you got. With Rashid, I thought he was just as talented, but Rashid, you never knew what you were getting. He was a goofier personality. He's one of the best defensive bigs at his size, that position.

Go ask Tim Duncan and Kevin. Kevin Garnett. They hated playing Sheed. He's a knight. It was one of the longest players ever. But you never knew what you were getting with Sheed. Night to night. You did it with Duncan and Garnett. And with the Warriors, they don't know what they're getting with Kevin Durant. And they're sitting around talking about it. Are we going to get Kevin? And I think it's playing a psychological effect. So if he returns, I have real doubts he would add anything. You know, and I don't know if I'm Kevin Durant. If I'm not 100%, I'm not sure I would play So that's kind of my takeaway.

I don't think this is a wildly complicated series. I think you have a series of cluster injuries in your size for Golden State. It's getting Toronto more easy baskets five or six times a night, six or seven times a night. It's getting Golden State, not that general easy look from Kevin Durant. And that's the difference in the series. And let me shift to this. I think it's been a bit of a dud. Not all NBA finals are great.

There was the LeBron's first trip against Tim Duncan. Listen, there's a reason Hollywood pays movie stars $20 million. Kevin Durant's a star. You can't take Kevin Durant, Kobe, Shaq, Michael, LeBron, Magic, Bird. You can't take one of those guys out of a finals and say there's no impact at all. The ratings are down about 20%. Some of this, probably 10% of it, it's Canada. Obviously, Toronto doesn't count for our ratings.

And another part of it is we don't have Kevin Durant. I think he's the best basketball player in the world. I was watching a movie yesterday. I like serial killer movies. I'm not going to get into that. But I've seen Zodiac two or three times. Zodiac's a good movie. The Zodiac killer, the Bay Area, serial killer.

They don't know who it is, blah, blah, blah. But the movie's a good movie. It's not great, but it's good. It's not like Silence of the Lambs. It's not that level. But what makes the movie more consumable is Robert Downey's in it, Jake Gyllenhauls in it, Mark Ruffalo's in it.

And they're like, all those guys are like Avenger guys. These are guys who got great actors, right? And so it gives it gravitas, a feel, a bigness that it wouldn't have if it had just kind of delist actor people. And there's a reason those guys are stars. They feel bigger. You know, every time Mark Ruffalo, every time he's on the screen, he owns the scene. Like he's just one of those guys got a lot of texture. He's a very good actor.

There's a lot of guys like that for me. Ed Norton, Don Chito, Ray Liana. They're on screen. I can't take my eyes off him. They just feel big and textured. And they made the movie an average script. It's okay. It's pretty good.

They make it feel big. And this series doesn't feel as big. We got no Kevin Durant. But I also think, take the NFL out of it. Hockey, baseball and basketball. You could take a third of all those leagues out, a third of the franchises. It wouldn't affect it at all. The leagues, networks don't even put the bottom third of the NBA on TV,

the bottom third of hockey and the bottom third of baseball. In the NFL, outside of two or three teams, Miami's supposed to be the worst team in the NFL. I'll watch. They got Josh Rosen. I'll watch the Dolph. So who is in the finals matters in baseball. Yankees feel bigger.

Cubs feel bigger. Dodgers feel bigger. Red Sox feel big. In hockey, Chicago Blackhawks feel bigger. If you had like the Montreal Canadiens or the Detroit Red Wings or the Pittsburgh Penguins, they'd feel bigger. And in the NBA, it does matter that you have your stars. And, you know, that's why the Pistons team, the Mavericks team that won and this Raptor team will be far more forgettable. And so I just think these finals, it's a bit of a dud.

And the ratings indicate that. But here's the other thing, is that, and I don't blame the players for this because I, not lecture, I try not to lecture, but I say it all the time, evolve. Watch what's happening to cultures. I said when I went from the other place to Fox, I noticed the culture of podcast and digital YouTube and Facebook was exploding. So when I came over here, my sense was, I'm just going to grab my surfboard and ride this digital podcast wave and my numbers will increase whether I did as good as show or a bad show.

The numbers are exploding. So I watched the culture, which I considered a big digital wave, a big podcast wave. I just grab my surfboard, boom, take the wave. Let the culture do the work for you to some degree, right? And I don't blame NBA stars for what I'm about to say because I'd be doing the same thing. Kauai Leonard admits yesterday, yeah, the only reason I'm this good I took 22 games off. Kevin Durant's hurt. Clay's hurt. Vogue's hurt. If you're an NBA star, are you watching this finals thinking, I'm not playing 82 games next year? That'd be stupid. Why would I do that?

I mean, we have all over this country and the world, people are talking about a four-day work week. Work less, work smarter, work a little longer on a day, but don't work every day. Work four days a week. That's a real trend. I think in America over the next decade, and I have, firmly believe in this as a trend. Four intense days. Give people a Friday off. By the way, all you business people that freak out, people are going to shop more, eat more, sex more, recreate more, spend more. It's great for business. Not bad. It's great.

Ask your employees to work 10 hours, not 8 to get Friday off. Guess what? Your employees will be out, people coming to your business shopping. So my takeaway on the NBA is how can players watch this finals, especially star players and not come to this conclusion. I'm taking 20 regular season games off next year. Now, this is not a problem the NFL faces, because with only 16 games, you know, guys are dying to get on the field when they're hurt,

and games tend to have more impact. But you have an 82 regular season schedule. And, you know, the power in the NFL is in ownership and management and coaching. The power of the NBA is the players, especially the star players. And I think you're going to have a little bit of a runaway train that Adam Silver knows is coming. That's why Adam Silver this year,

All-Star break is longer, fewer back-to-back. Adam Silver sees this runaway train coming. It's going to be a real challenge for the NBA because I think you're James Hardin and your LeBron James and you're Kevin Durant and your Steph Curry and your Kauai Leonard. I think they're going to look around and go, look at these finals. Kauai's the best player because Kauai is not.

hurt. Kauai Leonard came out yesterday and said, the reason I'm so effective is I took 22 games off. And this is not, you know, every league has challenges. I think this is going to be a real challenge for the NBA going forward. I think this is going to resonate with players. I think guys are looking around and the regular season, which has never been watched much to begin with in the NBA. it's pretty much about the playoffs, the finals, and free agency. I think you have a little bit of a trend resonating in this league right now.

Guys are looking at all these guys hurting the finals and they're going to say, what the hell am I worried about Denver on a Tuesday night? Kauai Leonard's now being called the best player in the world, and Kauai is like the only reason I'm here is I took 22 games off. So I think that's a little bit, I think the finals is missing stars, a little bit of a dud. I do think leagues ebb and flow, I mean the NFL's had a violence problem, a CTE problem. OTAs now. less hitting college football during the season.

There's almost no hitting anymore. I mean, it's like, I've talked to coaches across the country. They're like, our hitting has been just taken off the board and practice. We want healthier kids playing. So leagues have challenges. I do think there could be a little bit of a runaway train here on the, I'm taking a lot of regular season games off for stars, because I'm watching this final.

My takeaway is why is Kevin Durant playing 78 games? What's the point of this? I mean, do you know, do you realize John Goulet told me this this morning? The Warriors over the last five years have played 109 extra games. What the hell you play in Memphis for in January? I want my guys available. So Kevin Durant went through full shootaround, getting treatment now. Still a game time decision, Steve Kerr says.

God, I wish they'd just keep it quiet. Play him or not. Good Lord. This roller coaster day-to-day, whether he's playing. Well, he's gone through a workout. I think the series is over. I don't think Katie coming back is going to change it. I really don't.

I cannot see the Raptors going and losing two home games. I mean, first of all, it's hard to beat anybody three times in a row. I think the Raptors are going to win the series. Didn't initially, but I do now. Where Colin Wright, where Colin was wrong, coming up in 45 minutes. Fascinating. You know, Rajan Rondo is an interesting cat. Always been a smart player. A little enigmatic, little tough to coach, blah, blah, blah, sat down with Rick Buecker. Some of the quotes about LeBron are fascinating. That's coming up. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd. Weekdays at noon Eastern.

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mattresses. Casper.com slash Colin. Code Colin. Additional terms and conditions apply. See casper.com slash terms. Welcome back. We have great conversations off the air. Don't skip meals. Drink Soilent. Complete meal in a bottle. Plant protein, essential nutrients. Soilent.com code herd 2. Get you 20% off your first case. It's great to have you in. We're calling right, Colin wrong, top of next hour. So it's fascinating. So Rojohn Rondo sat down with Rick Bueger this past week. They went and had lunch. Bukes told me about it. Well, the story came out a couple days later. And there's all sorts of great quotes here from

Rondo, who's a always been, he can sometimes not be as functional. He's one of these guys. He doesn't suffer fools easily. And if you can't play at his level intellectually, he just gets worn out. And he's kind of rigid. He kind of has the coaches I know that have dealt with him said he's sort of a coach on the floor. He can be tough. I mean, Doc Rivers is pretty easy to get along with. He battled with Doc Rivers. He battled with Rick Carlisle. Those are pretty easy coaches by coaching standards to get along with. But Rondo's bright as hell.

And he's talking about, it's a fascinating opinion on being with the Lakers this year. And he talked about what happened at the trading deadline when Kuzma, Brandon, Lanzo, Josh Hart, their names all showed up in the paper. They're getting traded. He said, listen, every guy in our team, LeBron was their favorite player growing up. everybody had his shoes and they had his jersey biggest fan in the world it's like you're playing with mj and then you get there and it's like your mom and dad or that person you looked up to

they don't want you he goes it even freaked out the old guys i'm not going to say a name but i'm sitting there on the bench for the atlanta game right before the all-star break and the old guy's cussing and talking about the situation i'm like dude snap out of it this blank is over with but even veterans were freaked out by it. And I think this is something that in basketball, there's a very unique, specific culture that doesn't exist in any other sport in America, the shoes.

So you start wearing your favorite basketball players shoes when you're seven, eight, nine, right? Like, they're a thing. You don't wear, I've never, you never talk about wearing Drew breezy shoes or Russell Wilson's shoes or Patrick can of the Black Hawk shoes, skates. You know, it's not the way it works. Maybe in golf a little bit, you use Tigers clubs or whatever. So at 7, 8, 9 years old, you're wearing your idol's shoes.

So that is a deep, visceral, emotional connection that you don't have with other athletes. So then you enter the league, if you're one of the rare great players, and you're on not only your idols team, but you've been wearing his stuff. So the emotional connection is far deeper. And Magic and LeBron, superstars, I always thought were just way too glib on this trading deadline thing. These guys just got to get used to it. And these guys just got to get... No, that's because you've never been these guys.

You were both into the league. Remember, LeBron entered the league as a superstar. Magic entered the league as a superstar. You know, a lot of guys, Duane Wade, Marquette, then by like year four, you're like, oh, my God, this kid down in Miami's, he's a superstar. star. LeBron was a star at 15. Magic was a star at 18. And so as superstars, they just didn't understand, I get it. I mean, it happens. They didn't understand the magnitude of the players in the room. Everybody looked up the magic and LeBron, mostly LeBron because of the age. Remember,

the NBA and Nike had a B-like Mike campaign. There's never been a B-like Brady campaign. In fact, if you look at Brady's marketing, it's not about you and I being the same. Tom is saying, hey, my life is amazing. I'm going to live to be 140. If you'd like to join me up on this private jet, wearing my ugs in kale pajamas, even the mattress Brady sells is like the most expensive mattress.

Tom is not saying I'm one of you. Tom Brady is saying I'm living an elevated life. Would you like to come join me? That's why I always defend the Tiger Woods. when Tiger Woods never said he was you. Go look at, Tiger Woods was like, bro, American Express. American Express is what rich people use. You know, MasterCard's what everybody uses.

When people said, Tiger Woods, what am I going to tell my kids? Tell him he's the greatest golfer you've ever watched. They're your kids, that's your problem. Don't have sex if he can't handle the parenting. Tiger Woods never said he was you. John Daly said he was you. I drink too much in smoke when I play golf. That's what I see in a public course.

That was his marketing. Now, Peyton Manning's marketing has always been Oreos, mid-sized cars. So if Peyton Manning does something, I'd be tougher on pay. Tom Brady's never done that. I wear Ugs. I'm married to a supermodel. Would you like to join me on the private jet and live to be 140? Then buy my book and go to my age clinics.

That's his marketing. And so in basketball, everybody can buy shoes, right? They're expensive, but you buy shoes. So all these kids buy shoes and they're emotionally connected. to LeBron. LeBron comes in. They love me. I'm not really interested in the kids. They're all like I can trade it down to the neighborhood. And I don't think LeBron ever

quite understood that. And I guess you probably wouldn't, right? Because you've never faced it. LeBron didn't come into the... I mean, he loved Jordan, but LeBron was a superstar at 60. So the Rick Buecker interview with Ron knows really, really fascinating stuff.

Joy with the News. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Well, after 18 NBA seasons, Tony Parker is retiring. He told the undefeated he feels physically good enough to play two more seasons, but in his mind, he believes it's time to walk away. He added, at the end of the day, I was like, if I can't be Tony Parker anymore and I can't play for a championship, I don't want to play basketball anymore.

So he is one of the legendary trios from the Spurs dynasty is out of the league. It kind of felt like he retired a couple years. years ago. It did sort of feel that. He kind of just disappeared. Like, we all knew he was still playing, but it just, it's never felt the same once he wasn't in a Spurs. He was probably a Hall of Famer. Of course, he's a Hall of Famer. Four Rings. He was a part of that, I mean, anyone who is in a part of that, uh, the upper level of that, that franchise during that time is a hall of the second part of that dynasty wasn't as good as the first part where Duncan was the guy. But the second part of that dynasty got to a bunch of finals too, didn't it? Yeah.

He won one and got a couple of them. Parker has four rings. I mean, Tim Duncan, Manu Geno They won four championships together, and Parker became the first European player to win finals MVP in 2007. Monu could be a Hall of Fame for the best six-man in the history of the league. I think Mono Genoble is a Hall of Famer. I think he can argue best Argentine. Because remember, the basketball Hall of Fame has Metal Arc Lemon and referees in it. It's different. So you could say, best player from a country, best six man ever, four or five rent.

Yeah, I think Manu's a – he won with Argentina. I think he's a Hall of Fame. Yeah, I think Mono is a Hall of Fame. Well, congrats to Tony Parker on a great career. So one of the biggest storylines of this NBA finals has been the murky injury status of Kevin Durant, whether he would be available or not. He's been sidelined for over a month now, and his absence is reportedly taking a toll on the Warriors locker room. According to the athletics Sam Amick, Durant's absence has created confusion among several of his teammates. He reports, when they saw their season compromised more than ever without him, and after they'd grown hopeful of his return.

turn after seeing him on the court, the irritation grew in large part because they simply didn't understand why he wasn't there. Obviously, he's been listed as questionable for game five tonight and is a game time decision. He was seen on the court today, but you're not going to find out for a little longer. We're not getting. I don't think he's going to play. And even if he was going to play, he's not going to be 100%. I can understand the, I guess the irritation of his teammates. It's probably not directed necessarily towards him as much as it is just frustration because you're losing. And obviously you want him out there. I know that they all understand how injuries work and sometimes it just it is what it is.

But there's probably another added element of, well, he might be leaving. So is he not trying to come back so much because it's pretty obvious that we need him. And then it's kind of an easier exit or he wants to save himself so he doesn't injure himself further. I don't know. But like I said, I never thought he was coming back for the finals anyway. So this whole roller coaster, I haven't been riding it because I, once I saw that injury, I had decided in that moment he was done for the rest of the playoffs anyway. So I think it was more of a hope on Warriors fans behalf and, you know, anybody who wanted to see KD,

which obviously I love to see KD in this finals, would make it way more interesting. And then you wouldn't have a conversation of, well, you know, the Raptors won, but they didn't have KD, which I hate because injuries are a part of every single championship in every sport. That's how it goes. You can't account for that. That's just the way that it goes. If Kauai Leonard was injured, no one would be saying, well, the Warriors won, but Kauai Leonard was out.

Like, that's just, this is just how it goes. Obviously, it would be better to see KD in the finals, but I never thought he was going to be back anyway, but we'll see in a few hours if he's going to play tonight. Finally, you were talking about this a few minutes ago. Kauai set out 22 games this season, mostly in the name of load management. Fans and some people in the league's front office may not have liked him being absent so much during the regular season, but the result is that they are in the finals and they're likely going to win tonight and win a championship. And as he told Rachel Nichols, that is all because

of the load management during the season. So let's listen. That was big, you know, when it got bad, we ended up taking, you know, four or five games off. And, you know, if we didn't do that, I wouldn't be here right now for sure. You know, I'm already favoring. And, yeah, I mean, the way we laid out the schedule was good. You know, I'm happy. You made that big a difference. Yeah, for sure. I don't think I'll be playing right now if I would have tried to go through that season. Yeah, if I was Toronto, if you win the title and you're Nick Nurse, you just go to the schedule next year, say, Kauai, 22 off, go to your veterans.

Kyle, Surge, 13 off. I would go to Danny Green 8. I would just go up and down the line and just say, guys, I mean, because if you're a champion, you buy a lot of equity with your fans. And by the way, you try to take most of those on road. You try to play your guys at home mostly. But, I mean, if this wins a championship, how does it not alter the model going forward for veteran star players? Well, like you said earlier,

you got to pay attention to culture changing and trends. And, I mean, this has been a conversation for a while. Yes. Is the season too long? Should there be less games? Yes, yes. LeBron's sitting out. And he obviously got a lot of feedback from that because people want to see LeBron playing.

but it's just a very long season and the travel is exhausting. I mean, you hear it all the time. Guys would be like I would wake up and not even know what city I'm in because it's just the up and the down. I mean, think about how tired you are when you just go on a weekend trip on a plane. Listen, when I fly cross country. Yeah. I went Saturday night partied with my wife up in Santa Barbara an hour 15 from my house.

I came back Sunday. I was shot. Right. Imagine 41 flights. Yes, yes. I mean, it's an exhausting season. And if you're trying to come back from an injury, you have a high demand on you. It makes sense. And if your team is set up in a way that you have enough talent around you

to get into the playoffs and get a good seed while being able to manage the load that's on your stars, it makes perfect sense. I've said this about baseball. The idea of 162 games, especially for a pitcher, because that's a violent movement by your arm, if I was a major league baseball team. I mean, you're seeing it with the Dodgers a little bit. They got a couple of pitchers, a young pitcher they're taking their time with. I would just literally before the season, you know, I'd tell pitchers, listen, July, you're going on the IR. I don't know how you manipulate it, but I think a lot of these analytic GMs in baseball are figuring out, you've got to find rest areas off the interstate for your arms. What you want to be is great down the stretch.

You can't ask guys to throw 250 inning year after year. No, and I know it's not very old school. It's not very traditional. It's not the, you know, don't stretch, just to get out there and play. Figure it out. But we were evolving. Figuring out that the human body may be, it's not the best, the most ideal thing to do to have that much wear and tear on you. It's not even, people,

you know, people are like, they all make money and they should do it. Folks, they found that cancer rates increase if you fly more in a life. I read that about six months ago, up, down, 33,000 feet. That's why pilots work fewer days. The wear and tear for airlines,

employees that just basically fly a plane, which by the way, the plane does about 80% of the work now, it's not good for your body. All these. And by the way, in baseball, the travel's different. In the NBA, you get on a plane at 10.50. You fly cross-country.

You land at 2. You're on a truck to a Ritz Carlton. I know it to Ritz Carlton. Then you're at shoot-around at 10. Where's your out? That's why guys leave this league. They're just tired of the travel. And it's kudos to Kauai, too, because he got a lot of pushback for saying that he didn't feel comfortable with his body and he wasn't ready to play.

And the Raptors gave him the opportunity to do it in a way when he's healthy in the biggest moment. So, yeah. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Herd Lye News. Hey, Broussard's going to join me in a couple of minutes. I'm going to take a break, come back with Chris Broussard and give him 15 minutes.

In L.A., it's The Herd. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. 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 iHeartRadio 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,

Kier 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 Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app.

Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. 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 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 stopped 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 why 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. Hey, everyone. It's Ryder Strong and Will Ferdell from PodMeets World. And now the Pod Meets Twirled podcast. We're two men who were completely clueless to reality TV, who now have covered Dancing with the Stars, traitors, and we're gearing up for the season finale of Survivor.

So yeah, now we're experts. I know we annoyed a lot of our listeners by our severe lack of survivor knowledge. That is the point of the show. I'm just going to remind you. I have watched some Survivor. I obviously haven't watched enough. Did people not like it? Like what was just because we?

Yeah. We'll be recapping the big conclusion in the 50th season from the final attempts at gameplay to the desperate pleas of finalists to a bunch of ha, who, ha, ha, who, ha, who. Again, we are experts.

So make sure to tune into PodMeets Twirled for all our Survivor 50 takes. Listen to PodMeets Twirl on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Chris Broussard, joining me, co-host of The Odd Couple with Rob Parker, former New York Times guy.

So, uh, series is going to end tonight. Chris, you think it is? Look, I picked the Warriors in 6 and I'm sticking with it. No, I guess now I have to go. I don't want to change picks. I hate to change picks, so I guess I'll say Warriors in 7. But look, obviously every, you know, bone in your body tells you Toronto closes them out tonight. But I covered that series when they were down 3-1 in Oklahoma City.

And I thought it was over. And of course, they came back and went. Same thing. I had the same exact feeling when LeBron was down 3-1 in 2016. That, of course, once Draymond was suspended for game five, I remember feeling like this changes everything. Even though it was just one game, he's not the best player on the team. I felt like that little thing gave them enough hope to think they could win it.

Yeah. And it did obviously. Does Kevin Durant give them that hope? going to say. That's the thing. I don't think he's going to play. Now, that's not based on talking anybody or anything. Of course, there were the reports that whatever he did yesterday was very little, right? He shows up after the media's leaving, takes place part in their practice, whatever they did. It was a short practice naturally, and he's the first one headed to the bus. So, unless, now it's possible he went back at night and worked out with some

some reserves or whatever. I haven't heard that, but I just don't see how a mini practice or whatever he did, it doesn't seem like at least from what's reported, that he did enough to know if he can play or not. So I'd be surprised if he does play. I was telling Joy this a couple minutes ago.

It does feel like culturally, if Toronto wins and Kauai took 22 load management games off, and we have a finals, players, litany of players are all injured, it does kind of say to me that stars look around this and say, okay, LeBron went to all these finals, his body

finally gave out. Kevin Durant played 78 games this year. Clay played 78, 79 games. They're all hurt. And Kauai took games off, and he's great, because I've seen Hardin look like he's exhausted. Chris Paul get hurt.

Steph Curry looked exhausted. It is there, and I think if I was a player, let me defend the players on this. If I was a star player in this league, I'd wake up this morning saying, hey, next year, I'm just taking 16 games off. It's a copycat league. Of course. I mean, San Antonio started this by playing guys 30, 31 minutes.

There's stars. Sitting them every blue moon, you know, maybe five games a season or whatever. And now it's blossomed into what we see now. I agree. I think a LeBron, the key is you have to make sure your team can still make the playoffs and play well without you. And Toronto was 17 and 5 without Kauai. But I agree.

I mean, Steph has looked a bit worn down in most of their playoff series. Even though he's put up good numbers and play well, he does look a bit worn out. And look, this is not recent. I mean, the Detroit Bad Boys first championship in 1989, Magic Johnson played 75 minutes in the entire series. You know, Byron Scott was out the entire. series. In 1983, James Worthy, a rookie was out the entire series. We can go

on and on to how many years, injuries have played a huge role. So, look, I'm a straight shooter. And I don't like it for the fans. Because teams sell ticket packages. The Cleveland

Cavaliers will sell. Come get this 15-game package where you're going to see LeBron and the Lakers, Kauai in the Raptors, Kevin Durant and the warrior, you know, and those guys might not be there. It's not bad for the home fans, because one, if I'm a home fan, I would want, oh, if he's going to be better in the playoffs, I can stand in Mississippi. Hey, listen, I'm a home fan.

I want to win. I don't give a rip who I see. Right. And I'm seeing him, I'll see him 32 nights a year rather than 41 or whatever it may be. But for the visiting fans, this just goes to prove how, they'll never do it. I know, unless the fans show some backlash. but I'd rather them cut the season to 65 games.

Listen, think about this. NFL ratings crush college football, NHL ratings crush college hockey. Baseball ratings crush college baseball. But why is it that March Madness actually can beat NBA playoff occasionally? It ain't talent because of urgency. Right.

I've been arguing this for years. The first round should be three games. Now, that's a little too much urgency. Okay, you think it's crazy, though. But Duke has a bad half their seasons over. But here's the thing with that. You need to have two bad games as a favorite. Here's the thing with that, though.

The goal of the NBA playoffs is to determine who the best team is. Right. It's easy for somebody to be a better team to lose to a worst team in three games. I don't think it is. Look at the history of NBA. They used to have three games first rounds. The year after Magic and Kareem won their first championship together, they went out in the first round.

Because it was three games. I would argue. The object of the NBA is not to find the best team. It's to get the best TV ratings and the most money. These leagues are a television product. It's a combination. I mean, obviously money and the ratings and everything is a huge part. Doesn't urgency create ratings?

Look, it would be exciting. That's what I care about. Look, you're telling me you didn't love the first 40 days of the playoffs where there was a game every night. I loved it. You're telling me the goal of the NBA. This is bittersweet because now I got to wait several nights for a game. But Toronto's not the best team in the league and they're going to win it.

So is the best team winning? Are you sure they're not the best? I'm not. Okay, that's where the injuries, because I do agree if Kevin Duran and Clay and all these guys are healthy. But I would say rather than cut the playoffs, cut the regular season. That would create urgency. If you make a 60, 65 game season, every game would be important. to make in the playoffs.

You have a five game, do you have a seven game first round series? If almost no first round series go seven, very few go six. So if you just made it a five game series. Don't do though. Not many. I mean, Boston, the year the big three in Boston won their first ring. They went seven in the first two rounds. Philly, that was Philly in Toronto second round.

Last year, remember Boston, Milwaukee seven in the first round? Okay, let's go this year. How many first round series went? six to seven games. Because if the series was five games, Clippers and the Warriors was six. But again, does it go six because the warriors know they have all these games and don't care? My point is, you're not giving up lots of real estate. One series went seven. The others didn't. So if you just shrunk the first round of five games, it would give the fans a sense of, oh, God, you got to watch the games tonight.

Well, five would, I wouldn't go three because there's two, it would be too easy for a superior team to be upset. I mean, Orlando won the first game against Toronto. But Toronto won the next two. Yeah, but I would, five maybe, it used to be five, just I think they changed in 03 or something like that. With all these devices in our hands, I think the only thing that guarantees a TV rating is urgency, because I'm constantly distracted. And if you force people, listen, college basketball, Zion Williamson is out of the tournament because his team has a bad half, and the ratings are fantastic. So people are telling the quality of college basketball doesn't interest me.

But the urgency, I watch the tournament in the players outside of Duke. Most of the players are like, they're not going to sniff by the NBA. The quality of the NBA player compared to the quality of the college player, it's the Grand Canyon, but I watch college basketball because I have to. But see, I think the playoffs, it's really two seasons in the NBA, the regular season. The playoffs is so long, it's like a second season. Yes. But I love it.

I would rather them cut, which I, I know. know they won't because it's money. I would rather them cut the regular season though than the playoffs. Well, I think everybody would. But if they cut it to five, five would be workable. How could you, let's sift to this. If you're KD and you had another injury, this is not his first, right? How on guy, as you get older, Chris, the goal for all of us is to work less, but maintain the quality of what we're doing, right? Right. So if you're a columnist, instead of four columns a week, two, but you only have to write on Monday and Thursday,

so the quality is good. This is what Dwayne Wade figured out. Bring stars to Miami. I don't have to play 43 nights and score 28. Kevin Durant this morning, I'm going to go to New York. Like, I'm watching this and I'm thinking to myself, Kevin, you are, this injury would have been healed if you're 21.

Kevin's becoming an older athlete. Well, look. When Jerry West, who was integral in recruiting Kevin Durant to Golden State, that was a part of the pitch is that, look, you're going, and you're getting older. You're not going to get better, okay? You're going to get older. Every year you're getting older. You need to make it easier on yourself.

You can go to the Warriors and get your 28 points on two-thirds of the shots because they're going to be guarding. Steft, they're going to be guarding. Clay, your shots will be easier, and you'll be able to play longer at a higher level. So that was a part of the sales pitch, what you're saying. Here's what Kevin Durant really needs to think about. Why was I or am I considering leaving? If it is only because of the narrative,

because, look, I heard Clive Frazier talk about the asterix. I've heard people say players think my championships are cheap. You know, I've heard people say, you went to this great team that the Warriors don't need you. If that is the only reason he's leaving to change that, right. Look, legacy is, you can ignore that if you want and God bless you if you do. But there is, I understand if a person at his level, he's one of the greatest ever played a game,

if he really wants to dispel that narrative. So if that was the only reason you're leaving, here's the deal. The narrative is pretty much being dispelled right now. That's right. Some people are still going to hold it against him. You still went to a great team, blah, blah, but that narrative of them not needing him. They're getting crushed. Right.

If they lose tonight, they got beaten five by Toronto. And I mean, dominated. So it is gone. Now, if that was your only reason, then stay. No, about next year, everybody's going to be saying, the Warriors need you. Well, I'm saying it now. Right. I mean, it's gone.

That narrative is gone. And I'm with you. If Toronto wins tonight, let's just put the Warriors better without KD. It's over. Right. Like, there's the garbage bin. wrap that thing up and throw it in the garbage bin. We've got to go.

Eight seconds, nine, seven, five, four going down. Chris Broussard, calling right, calling wrong. Next. Thanks, Chris. Yeah. 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 a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. 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 Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicelife-Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host and your favorite therapist, Kier 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 day, of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing and we're still chasing it and we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth or are you a good person because you're afraid?

Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Keir Gaines, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hard Way. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. 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. ever 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 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 Nass would get that thing. that man, hell get the flying, he running up the court, licking his fingers why he got the ball, like, 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. Hey, everyone, it's Ryder Strong,

and Will Ferdell from PodMeets World. And now the PodMeets Twirled podcast. We're two men who were completely clueless to reality TV, who now have covered dancing with the stars, traitors, and we're gearing up for the season finale of Survivor. So yeah, now we're experts. I know we annoyed a lot of our listeners by our severe lack of survivor knowledge. That is the point of the show.

I'm just going to remind you. I have watched some Survivor. I obviously haven't watched enough. Did people not like it? Like what was just because we? Yeah. We'll be recapping the big conclusion in the 50th season from the final attempts at gameplay to the desperate pleas of finalists to a bunch of.

Ha, who. Ah, ha, ooh. Again, we are experts. So make sure to tune into Pod Meets Twirled for all our Survivor 50 takes. Listen to PodMeets Twirled on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Ah, here we go on a Monday. This is The Heard, wherever you may be and however you may be listening. We're on IHeart Radio and Fox Sports Radio all week, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube stuff.

Not on television this week. It's the World Cup Women's World Cup next two weeks knocks us off TV. This week I'm working on radio next week and I'm leaving. I'm taking a summer vacation. NBA season will be over.

NBA season will be over tonight and I'm going to take a vacation, go to Utah and hang out and water ski and do one of those whitewater rafting trips. Whitewater rafting? Oh, they're so much fun. So much fun.

The bad. Doing every suburb. The best. Like with the helmets? Oh, no, no, like rapids. Yeah. It's crazy fun. Wow.

You've never done one of those? No. They're just incredibly fun. You and Earl would laugh so hard. I'm more of a margarita and sand vacationer. Well, good luck holding a margarita on those boats. Life is thrilling enough. So it is.

We got doom buggies one day. That's fun. We go up in the hills. And then, I mean, we tangle with the bears. Yeah, I see that. Yeah. Living life on the edge. Yeah, Utah's beautiful.

people just it's just beautiful there's mountains and 80 degrees and no humidity and fresh air oh lord don't get that in L.A we drove in yesterday I went to Montecito for the weekend well for the day with my wife and we're driving back to L.A and Montecito's north of L.A.

at Santa Barbara you know it's beautiful and we're driving back and as we come over the hill you can just see the smog and I'm like boy L.A. needs a good windstorm I mean it's just a good reminder that there's a lot of us here together together all right we do it on Monday

Sundays. Colin right, Colin wrong. I make a lot of mistakes. Hold myself accountable. Here we go. Where Colin was right? Well, I said, the story broke 10 minutes after my rant, I said, Mark Stevens, warrior owner, you got to kick him out of arenas. And I would have kicked him out of the owner's circle. And people said, you're kind of harsh, Colin. You're overreacting. Well, 10 minutes later, the NBA dropped the hammer on him and said, you're out of our arenas and we're giving you the second largest fine ever. I still contend that they went a little light on it. Most people disagree with me, but it is unthinkable to me that

in this day and age where everything every piece of video, you're always on camera, forget just an arena, a shopping mall, a grocery store, that an owner would not only shove an NBA player, but drop multiple F-bombs. And the NBA came in

harsh, not as harsh as I would have, but nonetheless, a lot of you, your initial reaction was calling you being ridiculous, and the NBA said, no, not really. out of arenas for a year. Second largest fine ever. And I think they got it right

mostly with Mark Stevens. Where Colin was wrong. I kept laughing all year about load management. I'm like, who came up with that term? But it's worked. Load management is what Kauai did. He just took 22 nights off. And, you know, an athlete knows his body better than I do.

I don't think, I think going forward, it's problematic for the league to have stars sitting out. And I've always contented the NBA. be better to 60 games, 65, 68 game schedule. But the message is pretty clear if you look at these finals. Give players more time off. And I know they make a lot of money and let's baby the stars. Ask yourself this.

Would this finals be better with a healthy Kevin Durant? Would it be better with a healthy boogey cousins? Would it be better with a healthy Clay Thompson? Come on, Looney? Yes. And by the way, Toronto's guys are all dinged up. So the reality is, I can laugh all I want at load management. Kauai Leonard's an advertisement that that's the future of the NBA.

Where Colin was right? Carson Wentz got signed two years early to a long contract. Can you stop with the Nick Foles nonsense? Nick Foles is a C-plus B-minus quarterback talent. Can win the games? Very, very coachable, and that's a big thing. I'm not denying that. But Carson Wentz is the future.

He is the 10-year quarterback. I think he's an amazing talent. He's one of four or five guys, Patrick Mahomes. You know, like, they're just different. He's just physically bigger, stronger, faster than another guy. and I love this kid when he came into the league and everybody in Philadelphia was pushing back and I was getting a lot of this Nick Foles nonsense.

They let Nick Foles walk and they signed two years early Carson Wentz. The Eagles see Wentz and Foles precisely as I see Winson Foles. Where Colin was wrong. The Warriors without KD are not competitive. Listen, I never said they were better without KD, but I didn't think they were different

and that different was good enough to win the final. This isn't really a competitive finals. I think they lose tonight. It's not just his scoring. It's his length. I mean, the reality is Kevin is the best basketball player in the world, and he's probably the longest basketball player in the world. And Toronto's getting a lot of easy looks down low.

And, you know, Draymond, you're big. Boogie cousins. It's really been a disaster matchup. And I do think Kevin Durant alone being inserted in if he was healthy would change the series. So there's two different warriors. With and without him, the with Kevin Durant can beat everybody. The without Warriors Kevin Durant can beat Portland and can beat a lot of teams. You're not beating this Toronto team without Kevin Durant.

Where Colin was right. Roshan Rondo to Rick Buecker confirmed what we had told you all February, March, and April is LeBron James never understood the impact of these trade rumors. Magic Johnson never understood the impact of these trade rumors. Rondo was brutally honest to Rick Buecker saying, not only did it affect our young guys, he said in the interview, the old guys were all worked up. LeBron was their idol.

It's like your mom and dad telling you they don't love you. You can go live with your neighbors. And that's why you cannot tell me that if you read your name in the newspaper and you're 21 years old, and this is as much on magic as LeBron's, more on magic than LeBron. You cannot tell me a 22-year-old playing for the Lakers being rumored to be headed to New Orleans. Most have never been to New Orleans would not affect the team. And Rondo confirms it absolutely did. Where Colin was wrong. I've never really trusted

Kyle Lowry in the NBA playoffs, but he was very good against Milwaukee, and he's been very solid, 13.7 assists in this finals had 23 in game three. He also showed restraint and judgment with Mark Stevens, the owner of the, one of the owners of the warriors pushing and dropping F-bombs. He's also had to guard Steph Curry, which is a real assignment. Steph had one great game, but has not had a remarkable series. And so, you know, he's a guy that for years and years, I always felt if Lowry was your second best player, you're not going to win a championship. On this team, he's probably the third best player.

There have been nights where Serge Abakka, Seyakum, Mark Gassolabin, the second best player. Now, as a third best player, I can take Kyle Lowry, and I think I can get to the finals. But he's been better than I thought. Where Colin was right? Been complaining about this forever in baseball. Could you guys occasionally have fun? The old unwritten rule baseball guy is so tired, is so tedious, I'm so over it. So Max Baumgartner this weekend, Giants hosting the Dodgers, Mac Muncie hit a ball 600 feet into the bay.

Covey Cove and admired it for, whoa, three quarters of a second. And Baumgartner didn't like it, ran over to first base, chewed him out, and Max Muncie said this after the game. You know, I hit the ball, and then he yelled at me. He said, don't watch the ball. You run. And I just responded back. You know, if you don't want me to watch the ball, you can go get it out of the ocean.

Didn't Major League Baseball do an ad campaign? Lighten up. Let the kids play. This continues to be a really bad. for baseball. Cranky announcers, cranky old school unwritten guys. Let people celebrate briefly a 600-foot bomb into the ocean. Ken Griffey did it. We were all okay.

And Barry Bonds did it and we were all okay. And I grew up and all sorts of stars did it like Reggie Jackson. And baseball was more popular than lighten up old school unwritten rule baseball dork. where Colin was wrong. AJ Green is arguably the first or second best wide receiver in the NFL. He's a monster. He said this weekend,

I just can't see myself playing anywhere else. What? With Andy Dalton? The Cincinnati Bengals are the third to fourth most interesting football team in their own state. Ohio State football, Cleveland Browns. Listen, you've become the Bermuda Triangle of star players. You've disappeared. You're unbelievable.

You can't see yourself. playing. Do you realize that in the 111 career games, he has 63 touchdowns? When he's healthy, he's a thousand yards guaranteed. He's one of the great receivers. And I'm not joking here in NFL history. AJ Green is a unguardable, dominating player. And he can't see himself playing anywhere else. Yeah, I can with Tom Brady. Get on the phone. Where Colin was right? I never bought the old local radio guy says Kauai Leonard has bought a house. Kauai Leonard was asked about buying a house. No, I didn't.

It hasn't happened yet. No, I haven't bought a house. Sports writers are generally not real estate moguls. I do not buy stories from sports media. and I've seen, I don't know, three dozen of these in my career, so-and-so coach bought a house in Austin, Texas. That means Nick Saban is coming here. No, Nick Saban sent his wife to Austin

and made sure the news got a hold of it so that his athletic director heard that Nick Sabin's wife was in Austin looking at houses and they gave him a big fat off-season raise. It is a game. Everybody plays it. There's a reason these stories leak. Story had no validity.

Colin right, calling wrong. On a Monday. Johnny Mansell's story? Is Todd McShay taking an NFL front office job? I'm calling him after the show. I just DM'd him. We slid into each other's DMs. Interesting story.

Marcus Thompson, as good as they get, covers the Warriors for the athletic. Joining us next from Canada. I presume Toronto. Maybe he just drove to Ottawa for the night, but I presume he's in Toronto. 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 IHeart Radio app.

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 Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. 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, Keer 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 iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the hard way and listen now. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas.

And I'm CJ Toledano, and our podcast Point Game is about defining 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 will get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He run up the court, licking his fingers why he got the ball. Like, You go through a training camp with that, Isaiah. You figure it. out real quick. Oh, yeah.

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. Hey, everyone. It's Ryder Strong and Will Ferdell from PodMeets World. And now the PodMeets Twirled podcast. We're two men who were completely clueless to reality TV, who now have covered Dancing with the Stars, traitors, and we're gearing up for the season finale of Survivor.

So, yeah, now we're experts. I know we annoyed a lot of our listeners by, um, Our severe lack of survivor knowledge. That is the point of the show. I'm just going to remind you. I have watched some Survivor. I obviously haven't watched enough. Did people not like it?

Like what was just because we? Yeah. We'll be recapping the big conclusion in the 50th season from the final attempts at gameplay to the desperate pleas of finalists to a bunch of, ha, ooh, ha, ha, ooh. Again, we are experts. So make sure to tune in a pod meets twirled

for all our Survivor 50 takes. Listen to Podmeets Twirled on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back. It's great to have you. He's a lead columnist for the Athletic in the Bay Area, previously spent 18 years with the Bay Area News Group, author of Golden, The Miraculous Rise of Steph Curry, and author of Kevin Durant's new biography, KD, Kevin Durant's relentless pursuit to be the greatest. He's our friend. We love having him. Marcus Thompson joining us from Canada. Let me start with this. Do you both? believe, Marcus, there are any players in that Warrior locker room that do think Kevin Durant

should have already played? Does that exist? No, I think, I think that's been kind of squawk at this point. I feel like maybe there was a communication issue and people weren't aware or how bad he was or how bad the injury was. I think that's been handled. I was actually talking to a couple of players today about it. And they're kind of back on their unit, type it feels like. So whatever concerns there were, and I think it was more confusion in anything because people just didn't know what was up. I think that's been

cleared up now. Do you think he plays in the series tonight or any time? It's looking like he's going to play tonight. I mean, he walked by, so it's like a stronger media and he walked by and we all shut up. Like everybody got quiet. You know what it takes to silence like 100 media members? He walked by

with the aura of, I'm about to play tonight. And I don't know. Maybe I'm Maybe I just want to sell a bunch of books, but I'm feeling like a big Kevin Durant game tonight all of a sudden. You surprised so far where we're at in the series? Not really. I mean, you know these things, man, these dynasties, they don't fall apart neatly, right? Right. When it comes crashing, it's like a demolition.

So this has felt like the end, right? You got injuries, you got tired legs, you got confusion, and you got another team on the side that just almost feels deaf in the wind. Like, it's not really surprising. You knew it was going to end at some point. Maybe you didn't think it would end now, but once it started unraveling, it kind of made sense that this is how it would go down. So I'm not surprised. Plus Toronto, man.

They're just really good. I don't think they get enough credit by how good they are. Yeah, they're also really long. Gasol, Abaka, Kauai. Yeah, I mean, it's, Gassal, I think I already said. They're a long team, and Kevin Durant, Siakam, Kevin Durant's length is not just his points, but his length are, you know, it's interesting. When I look at all this stuff, you were the first person that said you didn't think Kevin Durant had made his mind up.

It's hard for me to watch Kauai Leonard. He did the load management thing. And now it looks like the smart prudent thing. Rest yourself 20 games. Because the Warriors, you know, KD's playing 78 and Clay's playing 78 and they're falling apart. do you think going forward that Kauai Leonard has sent a message, hey, this is all about June. You got to rest. You got to take 15, 20 games off because I could argue the Warriors' biggest problem is they play too many games in the regular season.

No question, especially when you stack five years of this up on top of each other, right? Five years of playing until June, five years of going hard. No question. And remember, they started, like the Warriors kind of started to backlash against it. When they sat four All-Stars at time at San Antonio, everybody went nuts like, oh, I drove three hours to come see Seth Curry and you're resting them. And it was this big old deal. And that's what created a rule where, like, you can't just be rested players.

So I do feel like Kauai is showing the validity of it. And the answer is probably the strength of the schedule. But who's going to do that and cost money, right? Like, nobody's trying to give up money. I bet you next year. Man, can you, how many games are Andre Aguadaligo play next year? Right? I mean, he's the one who already is rested.

He's got permission to just take 20 games off. I think Steph needs to do it. He needs to sit out. He should be playing 82 games. Ditto for Clay. And if you're Kevin Durant, maybe it's the same thing, depending on where you end up. But Hawaii has shown everybody the way once again. Yeah.

You're around the Warriors. Do you feel an anxiety or a stress? going into tonight? What do you sense? Nah, they're chilling. It's so, it's amazing what you really think about it. Because here's what we don't know. We don't know if this is like, oh, we got this, right? We know, we know who we are.

We're about to come back on the team. Or is it, yeah, if this is the end, it was a nice run. Like, what are we mad for? Right. There's a sense of, like, peace about the team. Even today, like, Steve Kerr nailed the underhand halfport shot. Right? Everybody's smiling, they're playing, the music's going.

There's no tightness. There's no, it wasn't tense. It wasn't like, oh, we're down 3-1. It was like, all right, we're fine, we're cool. And that's what I'm trying to figure out. Is this the extreme confidence of a team that won three championships or is this a team that's like, hey, if it is, it is, right? Like, it's a great run.

We do it's going to some point. Look what we did. Like, that's what I need to figure out. I guess we'll find out in a few hours tonight, right? Yeah. you know, it's fascinating. We've had these sort of one-off teams. The Mavericks when Dirk beat Miami and the Pistons beat that Laker team.

And there is this sense that Toronto could win a championship. Kauai leaves and they start rebuilding. Do you believe the success of Kauai when you're in Canada, you read, you talk to journalists, that winning here is helping the Raptors in the retain Kauai sweepstakes? man if he cares at all about adoration it's got to be helping this place is it's unbelievable you can't go to a restaurant without a

Hawaii poster somewhere they're sleep in the rain they spent the night in line for Jurassic Park is raining and the line is already all around the building I saw him camping out last night like if he if he cares about that's the thing we don't know if Hawaii cares about this at all right But if he cares about it, you don't, you can't get this anywhere.

Like, where do you get this? Where do you get a whole nation behind you? Right. Not a city, not a state. The whole country is like, it's all in on Kauai right now. You know, this is like, this is what NBA players dream about. Once you get the money, like it is a cap of the money. You can't make any more money at some point.

It becomes this, like adoration and fame and prestige and love and appreciation. he's got it all here. If he can walk away from that, he's probably a bigger man to me. I'll tell you that because I would want to go stand at Durecic Park and soak up all that love. Yeah, Marcus Thompson, lead columnist, the Athletic Bay Area. Have fun tonight, buddy.

Thanks again, his book, Kevin Durant, KD, Kevin Durant's relentless pursuit to be the greatest. Go to Amazon.com. You can pick it up. Thanks, Marcus. Colin, is he giving me a new chapter tonight? That's what I want to know. It's giving me a new chapter tonight.

Yeah, when that's all. to go to paperback, you can have a new chapter in the book. There you go. There we go. I appreciate it. You bet, Marcus. Thanks. Joy with the news. No, no, no, no, turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Well, we've got somewhat of a Woage bomb.

David Griffin is starting to provide teams with a framework of a package he wants for Anthony Davis. Oh, I'm very excited about it. Are you breaking this news, Joy Taylor? Well, I think Woj officially broke it. I'm sharing it with everyone who hasn't seen who would use an article and tweets. You're co-signing.

Yes, including multi-team scenarios. Although they might have to get creative and work in a third team to acquire them all, Griffin would like to land one all-star player, another young player with potential to be an all-star, and then a pair of first-round picks. Now, that sounds like a lot to me for Anthony Davis, considering that, you know, the Spurs got... Well, that get the Lakers out of the running and the Knicks. If they want a first a pair... Well, that's why they're saying they might have to work in a third team in a deal to make it all fit.

I'm going to say, potential All-Star, you can argue if you put Lonzo with Zion and with, you know, he's going to get 12 assists tonight. I don't think the Lakers have enough. The Lakers have a different package than what they're asking for here. So the suitors that have inquired so far are the Lakers, obviously the NICs, the Clippers, and the Nets. Now, it's on a sliding scale depending on what is offered here. So if it's a better player, maybe they'd be willing to go down to one first round pick, depending on the situation. I mean, the Spurs got DeRosen Pertil and a first round pick in 2019, in the 2019 draft for Kauai Leonard, who many are arguing now is the best player in the week since Duran has been out.

Anthony Davis is not on that level to me. I mean, he is, Anthony Davis, he is a great player, but is he going to carry your team to a championship the way that Kauai Lentner has? Lakers could give you one potential all-star and two first-rounders. They can't give you the all-star part of it. The Nicks couldn't give you a potential all-star or an all-star. They couldn't give you either one of those. The Nets could give you an all-star, D'Angelo Russell, and the two first-round picks. Could they sell you on one of our other guys as a potential all-star?

To me, when I hear this, the Brooklyn Nets are in the lead. They have DeAngelo, Russell, and first-round picks. So I got, and by the way, those are the two things that he really wants. He wants the picks and he wants an all-star. But if you're the Nets, do you believe that giving all that up puts you in a better position to win a championship? Well, if I get Kyrie and Anthony Davis, I can sell a lot of tickets. If you get Kyrie, but if it's just Anthony Davis, I personally would stick with the group that they have now with DiAngelo Russell. Well, I think Kyrie's...

I'm not selling the future for Anthony Davis if I don't have Kyrie if I'm not. But I think Kyrie's told the Nats. That's why they traded those picks last week. They may not have draft capital. I'd have to look at the Nets picks. Did they just trade off all their draft capital? Did they clear it because they want to get Kyrie? I don't know.

That's a big package, though, so it'll be interesting to see how that they put all that together. So the Warriors Dynasty began back in 2014. Has been discussed as one of the greatest teams ever assembled. And now they are one loss away from termination. Well, what we assume is going to be termination, because we're assuming that Kevin Durand is leaving. And a pessimistic Clay Thompson seemed to acknowledge the inevitable yesterday. I just try to enjoy the journey and it's been a very long one since we've been on this, you know,

championship run, whether it was, and it started way back, you know, 2014, so you wish to have no one in sight, but everything that's great always comes to an end. So whether that's tomorrow or four years from now, you never know. That's a beauty of life. So you just got to go out and enjoy every minute you do. with the group of guys you got because it's professional sports, nothing's ever guaranteed. While everything he's saying is true,

I personally would have saved that quote for after the loss. Yeah. But I will say Clay Thompson is one of those players that just wears, he wears his emotions right on his sleeve. When he was out of that game, you could tell he was so frustrated. Right. When things are up and the energy is high. Like he is a steady player,

but you can tell that he enjoys every moment that he is. is out there. He's in the moment for sure. I mean, look, he's right. Everything does come to an end. I predicted this would come to an end this series. But that's just because Kauai Leonard has been playing incredible. And I never thought for a second that Kevin Durant was going to come back in this series. And Kevin Grant is between him and Kauai, the best players in the league right now. That's not a replaceable situation. And we go 35 points a game. You've got to make that up somewhere. Everybody can't make it up every single night. So, I mean, if you were the one of those people that thought they'd be fine without Kevin Durant,

then now you're seeing why they need him. But it's not, there's no shame in this ending. It's this very, very hard to win three championships. Listen, Michael Jordan missed a finals for the Bulls. He wouldn't be six for six. And, you know, I mean, the reality is you can't lose Kobe Shack, Michael, LeBron, KD. It's not the same team. And also, give the Raptors some credit.

The Raptors built their organization the right way. They made aggressive moves. They took big chance. and it paid off for them. And they've got good coaching, and they've got good players, and they've got a superstar. So they deserve to win this championship. It's not like, we just handed it over to the Warriors this entire time. Yeah.

They're a really good team, and they're showing that. Finally, the Browns. So, Odell Beckham recently shared some thoughts on the adversity that he faces. He told Albert Breer, I don't think anybody knows what it's like to be me, what I go through on a daily basis. Like, every single thing I have to deal with, that's somebody that nobody, else I feel has to deal with. I feel like I'm in a way different position than anyone else in the NFL. Who's saying this? Odell. I feel like I deal with more. I take more. There's things I've done in the past, but as a man, I've tried to grow a lot and try to put a lot of stuff behind me,

and it's like it just keeps getting brought up. Yeah, but that's that's on Odell. Time out. You know, it's funny. Twice in my life I've seen Tom Cruise in public. No entourage. Yet I've seen significantly lesser stars with 19 people around them. And you're like, it creates a stir, right? Like, Julio Jones is a better player than Odell. And he's not dealing with a lot of this because Odell just, I mean, Odell's created a lot of the drama. Well, so I understand what he's saying.

And what he's saying is true. I mean, he is an international superstar. Right. I would say the only one besides as we discuss Brady. And Brady is an international superstar for other reasons. Right. mostly it's Giselle. So O'Dell is absolutely one of a kind.

He's very unique in all of sports, not just in football, but certainly the most visible, recognizable NFL player. That said, as you said, this is the persona that he is created for himself because there are lots of players in the NFL. There are lots of former players in the NFL,

and nobody has ever been on this level. And that is because of O'Dell's personality and what O'Dell has done and his social media. Yeah, like he's made this choice. So all those choices come with repercussions, both very positive, and some can be negative. And it's not wrong of him to say this. People are going to take it as he's complaining and, you know, he's not grateful for the positions that he's in. Just because you have money, power, fame doesn't mean there aren't negatives that come with it.

It just says it isn't in reverse. The Kardashians have opened their life up through reality shows. You know the color underwear they wear. And it's made them wildly rich. The downside is they've given up their privacy. Right. Which has huge repercussions to your sanity and your happiness and how you manage everything in your life. So you have to at some point, at some point Brady has been pretty much family. I'm on off-season, you're not going to see me much except for some pictures.

Players make choices. Odell has been wildly rewarded because of it. But, you know, don't. You're also going to be scrutinized in the same fashion, especially when you have expectations because you are as talented. as Odell is. He's not just the personality. He is talented. Oh, yeah. That's not debatable. He's great. Joy with the news.

Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The heard lie news. This is an interesting football story. The Cowboys and Dak Prescott on the heels of Carson-Wenz contract, quote, are not close on a new deal. Everything that I have been told said Mike Garofalo of the NFL network said

Garofolo, excuse me, they're not close. Dak's not close. Cowboys aren't close. Not even close on numbers. And here's the thing about Doc Prescott. On paper, you should pay him. On film, you shouldn't. All right? So on paper, he has two division titles. He never misses a start. He won a playoff game and he's 32 and 16. On paper, he deserves 33 million a year. On film, he deserves about 22 and a half because he misses open receivers. He's got first round town all around him. His accuracy is hit and mess. He doesn't throw the ball particularly well downfield. And he fumbles a lot, got kind of small hands, fumbles a lot.

And on film, he doesn't pop. On film Carson Wentz and Patrick Mahomes, pop. You got to pay him. On film, DAC doesn't pop. But his resume, that's a popper. And so that's where the Cowboys are at. On film, he's a $23 million quarterback. On paper, he's 32 and a half.

You got to pay him a little more than Carson wins. And, you know, you see this in Wall Street all the time. A company buys a company. It looks good on paper. And then this company buys a smaller company, and they get them in a house and they're like, you know, the synergy doesn't work. It's not the same company. You know, we were on the outside looking in. I've seen this a thousand times.

I mean, how many of you have worked at a company that you admired on the outside? Then you got in the door and you're like, it's a lot of stress. People aren't happy here. Morale's not good here. DAC is great on paper. on film, not quite the same quarterback. I always say this about websites. On the outside Twitter, it's so glamorous to own a website.

And then I know three people who have in its ungodly hours. It never ends. Like the game's never over. The margins are tiny. But some newspaper corporation or TV corporation will spend $100 million and buy a website. And it's all smoking mirrors. They don't make any money. I mean, Barstool makes a lot of money selling merchandise shirts.

and their podcast, their websites, that's a lot of hours and tiny margins, if anything. Websites are the classic, man, just glamorous. Then ask people who work on websites. And they're like, yeah, I know the guy that used to run ESPN.com, Chad Millman. He's like, it never ends. Like, there's not a, there's not like a, oh, and the game is over. Or like, as a columnist, oh, I wrote a story. Now I send it to my editor.

Or we do a show, Joy and I, and it's done at noon Pacific. home. Like websites are a 24-hour radio show. They never end. And so I think Dak, you got to figure out the resume on paper says this. The film says this. And the happy medium is, to me, if I'm Dallas, is probably going to be around 28 and a half million, which is more than I want to spend. But I'll tell you what, he doesn't get hurt. And he's great late in games. You can go look at the numbers. If you're close late, Dax's one of those guys that plays better in crisis than he does without

and you got to pay him. Frank I, Sol of the Athletic, Sirius XM, some NBA stuff next. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. 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 note. 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 Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in 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 rapid.

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.

What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano and our podcast Point Game is about defining 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. ever 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 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 Reed. 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 Nass would get that thing. that man, hell get the flying, he running up the court, licking his fingers

while he got the ball, like, after you go through a training camp with that Isaiah, you figure it out real quick. Oh, yeah. 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. Hey, everyone, it's Ryder Strong, and Will Ferdell from PodMeets World. And now the PodMeets Twirled podcast. We're two men who were completely clueless to reality TV, who now have covered dancing

with the stars, traitors, and we're gearing up for the season finale of Survivor. So yeah, now we're experts. I know we annoyed a lot of our listeners by our severe lack of survivor knowledge. That is the point of the show. I'm just going to remind you. I have watched some Survivor. I obviously haven't watched enough. Did people not like it?

Yeah. Just because we? Yeah. We'll be recapping the big conclusion of the 50th season from the final attempts at gameplay to the desperate pleas of finalists to a bunch of. Ha, who. Ha, ha, who. Again, we are experts.

So make sure to tune into Pod Meets Twirled for all our Survivor 50 takes. Listen to PodMeets Twirled on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Well, a little surprised guest today. I came into work and they said, hey, Charles Barkley may call the show. I said, all right, I'll take that. There's two networks that have the NBA. There's a reason I watch one more than the other. TNT, because of Charles Barkley.

He's on a pre-and-post game show. It's the best thing on television during the NBA season. And he's always very accommodating to the press, talks to people all the time. He was a hoot when I covered the NBA in Portland, Oregon. And Charles is joining us. Charles, I'm thinking about this with KD the other day. If I was KD's agent, I could never tell him, go to a worse owner and make less money. I could never tell a player that.

The idea that Kevin Durant is going to take less money and go to a lousy owner in New York, if you were KD's agent, what would you tell him to do, Charles? As a guy who never won the championship, who would have played with the most talent available. Because losing sucks. I mean, losing sucks. And no matter how much money you make, he's going to make money from Nike and do commercials.

But, you know, I'm always fascinated when these teams break up because they can't get alone. When I got traded to Phoenix, and I got Dan Marley and Kevin Johnson, and Sabalo's a guy. I thought I was in heaven. You know, playing in Philly on those teams that sucks all those years being a one-man band.

That's not a lot of fun. What about Kauai Leonard in Toronto where they don't attract free agents? I can win here, but I'm going to have to carry the surplus of the minutes and points. What as Kauai's agent would you tell him. Toronto, because I'm going to own a country after they win the championship tonight.

He's got arguably maybe the best GM in the league. So he's always going to get him players. I mean, he might be, no disrespect to R.C. Bufa or Sam Presti. I think Maasai is the best GM in the NBA. He's done a fantastic job, not just this. year. But, because listen, Ray,

the Rosen, firing the coach of the year, put all your tip to the middle of the table is one of the justiest move

of all time. Because, you know, everybody's going to be on his bandwagon. Now, if these guys had lost the

first round or second round on the playoffs, we would have been killing him. Yeah. But now we got to praise that man.

Because he could have kept the Rosen won another 50 some games a year and got beating the playoffs and been content. I got nothing but respect for that man to put all your chips in the middle of the table. You know, Colin, what's going to be interesting, I'm watching all these people talk about free agency. Listen, if you don't get KB or Kauai, you're not really getting a superstar.

But what's going to be really interesting, none of these teams, none of these guys can go to teams by themselves. That's what I hear the guys with this guy going here. But what if you get that guy? The team not going to be much better. Unless you get Katie or Kauai and another guy,

your team's not going to be in the better. If you hit two decent creations, he's just going to be a middle-of-the-road team paying two guys max dollars for the next 10 years. Do you think LeBron wakes up this morning? He's got $500 million net worth a bunch of rings, a great legacy, good guy. But do you think he wakes up this morning and is sort of bummed what the Lakers,

like if he could do a do-over, he'd say this doesn't work? Or do you think he reached sort of a, I'm Michael Jordan may have done this. He kind of reached a mogul stage. Basketball's big, but it's not everything. What do you think LeBron thinks about when he wakes up after this past year? I think he wakes up and says, I owned a state. When I went back to the Cleveland, my legend is already secure, and I can just play. If we win another one, they might make me positive if I win another one in Cleveland.

Because, listen, going to the Lakers, I kind of don't think that was a basketball decision. That was an after-life decision. He was going to learn the business model for Magic Johnson. And I think he made him a mistake going to the Lakers. a huge mistake. Yeah, I think you're right. Load management. I don't like it, but man, Charles,

Kauai Leonard looks healthier than these warriors, is the future of the NBA guys saying, I'm taking 20 games off in the regular season. Carr is taking 20 games off. The NBA won't be around. We can't be paying guys for $50, $60 million, and them sitting out 20 games the year of the best players. That's not fair to the game.

It's not fair to the fans. Listen, Kawai is the perfect superstar. He's a no drama. He just wants to play basketball. First of all, he's looked like it doesn't have been nothing in some of these games in fairness. But to get back to your original

part, we can't have Katie, Kaua, LeBron, Yonis sitting out 20 games here. But it's not going to work. in the fifth sister from a financial standpoint overall for the NBA. I've been lucky, Charles. I've worked at good companies with good bosses,

and I've always felt my career to some degree a large chunk of it, at least half as I've been well managed and well represented. I would struggle to play for a James Dolan. I would struggle to play for Phoenix. I don't trust the ownership. When you look back at your career, did you value that, undervaluate, overvaluate? Because at Kauai Leonard, boy,

that Toronto's well-run. I'd have a hard time leaving a well-run team. What do you make of the owner playing a part in the free agent decision? Well, I think a couple of things. Number one, don't sell yourself short. You've been successful for a long time for a reason. That takes talent. I mean, seriously, though, you need to pat yourself on the back.

When you are able to run shows and people know who you are, a long experience, a period of time, you're very talented. Hey, we've only seen the flash in the pants, but you've had a great, amazing career. So that, number one, touch yourself on the back. You know, I've been blessed. I had good owners in Philly, Phoenix, and Houston. To me, the one thing that would concern me, I know if you go to Phoenix, the God won't let the people who run the organization do their job.

Yeah. I would have to sit down with Steve Mills and stop Paris and wait. Are y'all going to make the decision? You know, I mean, clearly, we all got issues with Dolan. But my number one concern would be, is you're going to let these guys do their job. Because, you know, I've heard stories from Steve Cruz, Grant Hill, those guys.

And Robert Sarver comes over two and three in the morning, and talks about three. I'm like, are you kidding me? I mean, this is a general advantage of one of the greatest players in Grant Hill. And the owner is covered their house at 2, 3 in the morning trying to make trees. And you can't have an owner doing that. So, yes, that is a concern with Phoenix. And, like to say, I don't know if no one stays in or out of it.

I got to be honest with you. I'm a big Steve Mills and Scott Perry fans. Yeah. But you know what thing in the bottom? me about this whole thing in the NBA college. I can't, when did we get to the point where we let these teams suck

and they just put all their eggs in the free agent basket. There's not enough free agents to go around. That's what's going to be really interesting this summer. 20, 20 seconds, Charles. Hey, listen, a team just stuck and wait

to raise somebody by a free agent every year. That's not a good vision model for the NBA. Yep. I Totally agree there. Totally agree there. Charles, we got to run. You know I love you. TNT, Charles Barkley, the very best in our business.

Thank you, Charles. 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. 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 slice life 12 and the ticot podcast network on ticot welcome to my new podcast learn the hard way with me your host and your favorite therapist care games and in recognition of mental health awareness month i'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests i'm talking trip fontaine ryan clark Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough.

Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on Earth. 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 Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano,

and our podcast Point Game is about defining 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 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 Reed. 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 stopped by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nash will get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers, why he got the ball. Like, 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. Hey, everyone, it's Ryder Strong and Wilfredel from PodMeets World. And now the PodMeets Twirled podcast. We're two men who were completely clueless to reality TV. who now have covered Dancing with the Stars, traitors, and we're gearing up for the season finale of Survivor. So yeah, now we're experts. I know we annoyed a lot of our listeners by our severe lack of survivor knowledge.

That is the point of the show. I'm just going to remind you. I have watched some Survivor. I obviously haven't watched enough. Did people not like it? Yeah. Just because we? Yeah. We'll be recapping the big conclusion in the 50th season

from the final attempts at gameplay to the desperate, please, as a finalist to a bunch of ha, who, ha, who. Again, we are experts. So make sure to tune into Pod Meets Twirled for all our Survivor 50 takes. Listen to PodMeets Twirled on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Oh, here we go, hour three.

This is the herd. Wherever you may be, however you may be listening, IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio all week, a bunch of Facebook, YouTube stuff. By the way, aluminum carry-on luggage is amazing. Go to awaytravel.com slash Colin. 20 bucks off. If you enter the promo code, Colin, that's awaytravel.com slash column.

The most incredible luggage. I kid you not. It's unbelievable. Awaytravel.com slash Colin. Good to have you in. So I mentioned this earlier. Charles Barkley had said it's not good for our game if guys are playing 20 games left. I agree.

It's a tough sell. I think it's going to be a little bit of a little bit of a runaway train for the NBA. It's not something you have to deal with in the NFL where you have fewer games. You got to play. Guys are playing hurt. The culture of the NFL is you play hurt or you're weak. That's just the culture. If you don't play, you know, Joy's brother was a Hall of Famer, you don't take the needle and play.

You are ostracized in a locker room. You got to play hurt. Yeah, that's not really how it goes down. You got to be out there. Yeah. And that's just a badge of honor. In the NBA, guys are looking around and be like, Harden looked tired. KD's all beat up.

Clay's beat up. That one guy took 22 games off. And we were saying earlier, I am a big believer in the four-day work week. And I'm a workaholic. So it's not like this is something that it would work for me. I'd be sitting home on Friday thinking, okay, twiddling my thumbs. But there's a reason I watched Showtime last night. I'm watching billions.

It's not 37 episodes a year. It's like 8, 10. Game of Thrones, last year, six episodes, a bodyguard on Netflix, eight episodes, higher quality, fewer shows. You pay for better actors, better directors, better writers, you do fewer shows. It's a better quality television. I think all these sports would be better with fewer games. Do we really need September and college football? I see Alabama schedule.

They'll play one legitimate team and then three Panera breads. You could take off three games every year from Alabama schedule. College football, September is stupid. either move the conference schedule up or get rid of just start in October because it's ridiculous. You're playing a bunch of garbage games in the NBA. I mean, I've talked to NBA coaches. They're like, listen, man, until we get the All-Star break, we're not even locking in our defense. We're just trying to figure out, you know, there's too many games.

Baseball, I don't even want to start. If you were starting a league with investors today, we've got 162 games. They'd be like, yeah, hard pass. I'm going to invest in something else like, you know, McDonald's. It's just the stupidest thing. So I am a big believer in the four-day work week, and I do think the reason I'm talking about this, you know, Kauai Leonard's taking a bunch of days off, load management. It's kind of a funny new term.

I didn't buy into it. But he is the healthy guy that appears to have more gas in the tank. Now, Steve Kerr, this is from this morning, was asked about KD's status for tonight, and here we go. How was Kevin's practice? Could he play tonight? He went through full shoot-around, and he went back to get turned. treatment. And so we'll list him as game time decision. But we look good and we'll see where it all goes. Yeah. So it's kind of bumpy audio. But, you know, the injury changes really the

entire NBA. Just think, you know, it's the domino effect. Just think of what Kevin Durant's injury affects, A, the outcome of the finals. Canada, if he doesn't play tonight, probably has an NBA championship. That's a big thing. Listen, their hockey teams can't advance to the next round. So you can make an argument that it is a seismic shift in the culture of Canada where the NBA team is competing and winning a championship over a dynasty and makes a massive impact culturally for the next 30 years in Canada where young kids grow up basketball fans over hockey fans. it has a it changes not only the outcome it changes culturally you know i'm not i'm not trying to hyperventilate here Canada because of their tax system it's harder to get the world's best hockey players it's their

sport we can have them play down in miami and no state tax or Dallas stars or so canada has been struggling in recent years the last decade to get teams to the second third in the Stanley cup final now your NBA team wins it over a dynasty that is going to resonate for 20 years in Canada. It also rewrites the Warriors dynasty a little bit. Oh. So really, they only won one title without KD, and that was because Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love got hurt,

kind of rewrites the dynasty. I also think does it affect Kevin Durant's decision on free agency? Well, hell, I'm hurt. What's the point of going playing 42 minutes a night with a bunch of scrubs in New York? I think it affects other stars free agents. Kyrie and Kevin Durant sounded like a really cool thing. If Kevin Durant's like, bro, I'm not moving, then Kyrie by himself to Brooklyn is just

what they have now, DeAngelo Russell, all-star good player, not that relevant, big picture NBA. I also think if Kevin Durant loses and stays, it affects LeBron in the West, it affects the Houston Rockets, you know, I think there's this, this is a big deal. Kevin Durant not playing. And I know everybody in Toronto, you're making excuses. You can't lose MJ, Kobe, Shaq, Magic, Bird, Duncan, Kevin Durant, in the finals. It's not an excuse. It's a reason.

They're not the same team. It's not to say Toronto is not good. But I, you know, I start looking at this whole thing. And I think the goal in life for all of us listening, as you age, work smarter, not harder. Kevin Durant going to the necks off this injury, I don't think you're smart. I don't think it is. I think it's working harder with less talented people. I am for players making more money and the best players playing with the other best players.

And, you know, I was thinking about this. We don't like the way the Warriors were constructed. We don't like that Kevin Durant chose them. We don't have a problem with how Michael, Jordan, and the Bulls were constructed, even though they added Rodman. They traded for, you know, they traded for a bunch of guys. But we don't like that Kevin Durant chose the Warriors. So as the Warriors lose the finals, nobody wants to hear.

Well, it's because Katie didn't play. But if Michael would have lost the finals and Pippin would have been out with an injury and Kooch would have been out with an injury, we would defend Michael Jordan because we love those bulls. We've tolerated the warriors, right? We loved Michael Jordan's bulls. They were like the coolest thing in the world. The way they dress, the swag.

They were just cool. You know, like the Pistons were workman-like. The Lakers were way out west. The Bulls were right in the middle. He had like Oprah going to games and Siskel and Ebert, and it was the middle of the country, and they were rock stars, and Michael Jordan was the coolest. You know, if Michael Jordan would have lost a finals

because Cooch and Pippin are out, we had a rally to his defense. A what guy could carry you? This morning, we're just killing Steph Curry, because we've never liked any of this. We have tolerated the Warriors. I mean, Steph went out. and recruited Kevin Durant.

How weak is that? I don't know. That's what I would do. If I was a player, I'd want more guys driving to the arena every night that could drop 27 points. So I think tonight can reverberate. My feeling is Kevin Durant,

it kind of sounds like from Steve Kerr, it kind of sounds like he's going to play. I don't know what you get back. Now, of course, if Kevin Durant comes back and they win, tomorrow's show is totally different. I mean, because tonight, I feel like it does feel like just the hobbled warriors are just too deep. But then I think to myself, this is a Toronto team.

I have no idea night to night who's going to be second in scoring. I mean, that's the reality of the Raptors. Like, I have no idea tonight. I know who's going to lead them in scoring. I know who their best player is tonight. But I don't know if it's Pascoe, Seaccom. I don't know if it's Abaca. I don't know if it's Kyle Lowry.

I don't know if it's Fred Van Blee. I don't know if it's Mark Gassal. I don't know if it's Danny Green. I have no idea who's going to be the second. leading score up for the Raptors. And historically, that's not how you win titles. That doesn't win any titles. So, this could be the last NBA game

of the season. I hope it's not. Or if not, and Golden State wins and KD plays, our show tomorrow will be the opposite of today's show. It says here, Monty, this is just, we have breaking news here.

Sources tell Monty Poole he's a Bay Area Media guy. Breaking news. Kevin Durant will play tonight. Wow. Okay. Kevin Durant will...

What do you mean, Goulet? What do you say? Why wouldn't, I mean... Because his calf would explode. It's not going to... I mean, worst case, he re-injures it, and he won't play pickup this summer. I mean, you don't you have to try? This is it. So your worst-case scenario is a severe injury.

Why? Or he just re-aggravates his calf and then is out for another month. Would I ever ski in a mountain where the... The worst case scenario is they're this close to an avalanche. This isn't like an injured knee where he could blow out his ACL. If it's really a calf strain, the worse is he restrains it. Or tears it. That's the Knicks problem. Who cares?

You have such deep compassion for the player. Hey, listen, he ripped some ten. Well, I mean, they're not making him play. Like, he wants to be out there. Yeah, I get it. He could potentially injure himself much worse than he is now. Yeah. But, I mean, it's the end of the season.

And if he feels like he can be out there, then this is the time he's out there. By the way, movie stars, ask yourself this. Aren't you fascinated to watch tonight's game suddenly? Well, I was fascinated to watch it regardless. Well, I know. Because we could be watching the end of a dynasty. But now you have the element of KD being back. This will be the highest rated NBA game this year tonight.

Because Kevin Durant's coming back. Yeah, and hopefully he's amazing. God, if he gives you 18, I'd take that. Listen, we cannot let Canada steal what is rightfully ours. Okay, well, I mean, that's layered. I'm on Team Canada in this spot. Did Dr. Adam Silver clear him to play? I mean, Katie is not going to go back out there if he doesn't feel healthy enough to be back out there.

I'm sure he wants to. I think Golden State's not going to risk putting him out there if he's not able to play. I mean, everyone's playing injured at this point. We're only focusing on Golden State because they literally have guys out. I mean, everyone from the Raptors played a lot of games, too. Like, this is because they are healthier. It doesn't mean they're not still dealing with ailments. It's the end of the season.

Interesting. Coming up next, there have been two rumors in the last two weeks that Peter Schrager and Todd McShay are going to join an NFL front office. I don't think it's crazy at all. I'm going to talk to one of them next. Peter Schroger. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. By the way, Father's Day's

this Sunday, Tommy John has exclusive Father Day's gifts, loungeware apparel, use the code heard 20% off your first order. So I'm reading this story about Todd McShay says he's being considered for a front office job. And, you know, my takeaway in this stuff

has always been like if you're a football player, you play high school college, then NFL, that's the order. And then if you're a coach, you coach in college, you're an assistant, maybe you get an NFL position job, then you're not. assistant, then your coordinator, then you're an NFL head coach. But if you're a general

manager, what's the order? There is no order. Like you don't get college athletic directors don't become NFL GMs. You get into scouting, player personnel, and you work your butt off and you just end up like to me, do you have brains, people, skills,

work ethic, and can you evaluate football talent? I'm in. So when I hear like Todd McShay and Schreger are up for jobs, I'm like, Yeah, yeah, it didn't surprise me at all. I got a bunch of, I got six GMs on my phone and nine scouting guys on my phone, and they remind me of Schreger and Todd McShay.

So that's what I see. I think players and coaches, there's an order you move up. I don't see that in front office NFL jobs. I think they should be looking at all sorts of smart people. And Peter Schroger's joining us. All right, so I saw you up for that jet job and you still work for Fox. So I imagine you turned them down, or is that what's going on with that whole thing? Yes, the GM.

Truth is, I never got any calls. I'm with you every weekend over the football season. You look at my phone, I look at your phone. I talk to people in 32 organizations. I have all these guys are watching. I know just about every person in the NFL as far as the craziest thing. Talent. Then goes and does it.

Everyone talks to Todd to everybody. And oh, yeah, he was a college teammate of the Jets' new general manager, Joe Douglas. If Joe Douglas was to call up Todd McShay and say, hey, do you want to do this? I don't think that's the craziest thing either. To your point, it's not. this wild orthodox path to getting to these positions. Mike Mayock can go from a draft pundit. We're not that far off from Todd McShay doing stuff on ESPN,

where he talked about draft to being an assistant general manager to Joe Douglas. I don't think it was crazy at all. No, I don't either, Peter Schreger joining us. By the way, Carson Wentz signed with the Eagles, my takeaway is it's smart. You don't want to wait two years and have to pay him $200 million like Patrick Mahomes is going to get. But I also thought there was a little psychonical.

here. If you pay him early, you force the Cowboys to look at the number you pay him. So if you're paying Wens $31 million, well, Dax's beaten Wence more times than he's lost to him, and Dax won the division two out of three years. And it kind of, does it force the Cowboys to pay Dack over $30 million? Cowboys on the point. Contracts up and Dax contracts up this season, and you guys haven't committed yet. So what's it say to you about your quarterback? Of course there's gamesmanship here, but the Eagles have been known for this. Roesman does this, whether it be Zach Ertz or Fletcher Cox, a year before these guys' contracts are

up, he likes to nip it in the bud and show that you are our men. Now, whether or not everyone else in the league is convinced Carson, that's neither here nor there because now both Chase of Gough is the same agent as Carson went and say, okay, well, now I'm up also. What about me? Knowing his agent is a guy named Todd France over at CIA, who, oh, by the way, was representative of Aaron Donald last two years when this whole thing went down with the Rams, number Donald would not take a penny less than what he thought. I think it's going to be real interesting because I don't think Dak Prescott's taking any sort of hometown discount.

And Stephen Jones publicly said, we look around and say, hey, if we take a little bit of a discount and we all win, we're going to be set for life. Well, guess what? When you say something like that publicly, it irks the players saying, no, no, no, no, no, just the opposite. We should be being paid more because we're under the Microsoft of being the Cowboys quarterback. The DAC thing is fascinating.

I'm told, and I'm also told that Dak Prescott's looking at $30 million, and it may be more than that. And if that's not the case, this could drag on all summer long and into the regular season. Somebody told me, T, I've said before every year I pick two teams that I think will double their win totals. San Francisco is one of my teams this year. You spent time with them recently.

Yeah. I got to do an event where I spoke with the owner, the general manager, the head coach, and all the different offensive and defensive stars last week in San Francisco. The way they feel in that locker room. The Niners, to me, are the sleeping drag. where last year they got all the hype in the world. Added Kwan Alexander.

15 sacks last year in Kansas City. Nasty team. I don't think Kyle Shanahan's been watching Sean McVeigh's Ascension and Media loves the last few years. You've got to be kidding me. This is the kind of team that is perfect for the double in the wind. Last year you were big on the Colts. It started slow out of the gates, Colin, but you were right on the Colts.

I think the Niners might be that team this year, where they won just a few games last year, but they could be already competing for the NFC. West. By the way, what do you make of the whole Odell, Baker, noise in Cleveland. They obviously have a bunch of talent, but they were also one, six, and one against winning teams. Noise does not win

in this league. Freddie Kitchens already got sort of trapped into a corner and had a comment on Odell Beckham. And what do you make, what's going on in Cleveland? I know guys in the Cleveland organization, I know all this. Colin, when you are the greatest rival to the quarterback in an offseason

and not the Steelers, not the Ravens, and not the bank, when I say you are, I mean, Colin Coward, that to me raises a flag for me. I don't know. I don't know if it's a bit. I don't know if it's an act, but I hope you're taking it to the bank. But it seems like you've got more beef with Baker-Mayfield than the other teams in the AFC North. And to me, that's sort of a red flag. I don't know why he's concerned with you. And I don't know why O'Dell's concerned with you. But I would like to see a team that went seven, eight, and one last year focused on, all right, we got a rookie head coach,

a second year quarterback, and a bunch of big personalities. I've got to bottle this up and see what we can do in our division from the country. That's right. That's what I think. I got you, baby. Peter Schrager. By the way, it would, what if you got offered a great gig? I don't think I would. Well, I love what I do. I honestly love the platform.

I love the ability to kind of, you know, to me to be the number one, the number two guy at Fox behind Aikman was a pretty good gig too. I don't know. I mean, of course, money talks, and Joe Douglas got six years guaranteed and it's going to make a ton of money. But I don't know. What would you do, Colin? If they had an NFL team called you this offseason and said, we're going to give you big money, and we're going to let you be a job. general manager. To me, that's not my job. I wouldn't get that, but if somebody came to me and said,

listen, you get to be in the war room, you're part of our draft, you're part of our personnel group, and now that financially, those positions don't pay, but if somebody came to me at some point in my life and said, you'll be in the, of the top eight people in an organization, the problem, of course, would be if I took the job, I'd be so resented by everybody in the organization, because I'm just a big loudmouth. That was, in like, oh, the jets are a mess. They're asking Schrager. I was insulted. I mean, at the mere thought that even if they did, you know, you know, asking me that everyone thought that was so crazy. I was like, all right. I mean, it's not brain surgery. Look at the last few GMs hired for the Jets. It wasn't like those guys

were, you know, obvious choices. I don't know. To me, Colin, you would miss that radio microphone so much every day. And anytime a big Durant or Alonzo ball thing happened and you were sitting in a random NFL facility, not allowed to talk, it would drive you crazy. Yeah, I think you're right. I think you're right. Who would interview LeVar Ball if you weren't here? That's right. Peter Schrager, always, NFL reporter for Fox. Good morning football in the NFL network.

Co-author with the New York Times bestseller, Out of the Blue. It's a pleasure, my friend. Thank you. Yeah, you know, here's the thing, Joy. We're off at noon, Pacific. Yeah. We've got a good gig. I mean, listening to you to talk about it,

that's a little bit, I think, what happened with Magic. Magic had the ability to go and talk and be big brothers who, you know, all these guys across the league and do what Magic does. And that position with the Lakers really limited him. I mean, you could hear him when he was talking about it with the Ben Simmons situation, the Ben Simmons' tampering situation. I mean, that's something that Magic's done for the last 20 years is just talk to guys about business and about their game. I always thought this. If let's say I'm, let's say in 12 years I retire, I don't need the money. done well. And I go to an NFL team and I'm like, listen, you don't need a GM, you don't need a

scouting director. What you need is somebody who understands how to manipulate a narrative. And I'm going to tell you how things are going to play and how it's going to work. And you just put me on the staff and you don't have to give me an office. Don't even give me a cubicle. I will be a, I'll be a consultant to let you know this is going to play terribly to the media. Here's what the media is going to say. and it would mostly be for big markets where I could give you, put me on a little retainer, I'm going to say, okay, Bob, this is not going to play well, don't say that, do say that.

This is inauthentic. That's very authentic. Some teams make moves, and I've said this about the NFL with some of their flimsy suspensions. Was there anybody in a room saying, no, two games is not going to play well on sports talk radio in America and you're going to get nine weeks of vitriol.

It's amazing sometime. I always thought I've owned a big company. I would like to just have a, if I ran a company, and that never happened, but if I ran a company, I'd want two smart people around me, a man and a woman, different gender, different set of eyes. How do you think it'll play?

Well, I mean, you took the words out of my mouth because the issue there was, of course, there's no diversity in the room. So when you run into situations like that, where it's like, how could you come to a decision like that? The answer is so obvious. It's generally because there's no diversity. There's an echo chamber.

Right. I mean, it's like on Twitter. When you put something out there, everyone you follow essentially or everyone that follows you is in that space for the same reason. So you're going to get the feedback that you want. Like you don't want a roomful of people who are going to give you the feedback you want. You want the feedback you need. And those things are very different.

Joy Taylor with the news. No. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. All right, a little woe bomb, and we were kind of expecting us to happen, but we have a little more information now. Love bombs. David Griffin is starting to provide teams with a framework of a package he wants for AD, including multi-team scenarios. So Griffin would like to land one all-star player, another young player with the potential to be an all-star,

and then a pair of first-round picks for Anthony Davis. So suitors that have inquired so far are the Lakers, the Knicks. the Clippers and the Nets. Now, just to put in perspective, the Spurs got DeRosen, Purtle, and a first round pick in 2019 for Kauai Leonard. So they did say that they're flexible.

What did they get again? They got DeRosen, Pertil, and the first round pick in 2019. So, I mean, Pertil had 16 and a half minutes, average 5.5 points, 5.15 rebounds this year. So he's in his third year. So it's essentially the same kind of package minus a first round pick that Griffin is asking for.

Now, they're a little flexible on it, depending on how good the All-Star is or how good the potential All-Star is. But I don't know. I just, I don't know. I mean, the Lakers don't have that package. No, they have a potential All-Star. Right. The Knicks don't have that package.

They don't have any potential anything. And I think the Brooklyn Nets actually, if the Brooklyn Nets know Kyrie's coming, and I think they do. I'll give you DeAngelo Russell. And I'll give you up my first off first round. I mean, if they know Kyrie is coming, then yes. That's the best winning.

Who's the second best player for the Nets? Spencer Dinwiddie. Like who's the second third best player? Okay, I give you DeAngelo. I'll give you a pick. And who's the Lavert? Yeah, Dinwiddie. So then I can give you those two guys.

That's a potential All-Star and an All-Star and a pick. That's about as good as anybody else. If I know Kyrie's coming. If. If. If not, I don't know what the difference is. Well, again, I think they do know he's coming. I think that's the only, of all these free agents, the only good source I have on any of them is Kyrie Brooklyn 75%.

Well, we'll see. It's going to start getting interesting really soon. And finally, I'm sorry, Kauai set out 22 games this season, mostly in the name of load management. And fans and some in the league office didn't really like that so much. But the result is speaking for itself because he's led Toronto to the finals and is mostly healthy at this point. And he told Rachel Nichols that it's all because of the load management during the season. Listen. That was big. You know, when it got dad, we ended up taking, you know, four or five games off. And, you know, if we didn't do that, I wouldn't be here right now for sure. You know, I'm already favoring. And yeah, I mean, the way we laid out the schedule was good. You know, I'm happy. You made that big a difference. Yeah, for sure. I don't think I'll be playing right now if I would have tried to go through that season.

I do think more players are going to pay attention to this, especially if they are coming off a big injury or, or, you know, if they feel like they need, just in general, they're getting towards that point in their career where they need more time off. Now, this has been a discussion for several years, obviously because of LeBron and people getting very angry that they, you know, paid money to go see LeBron playing and he's taking time off.

So he's been on this into LeBron's credit also. LeBron has mostly not had any, well, he really hasn't had any major injuries. And his body finally said, I surrender. Right, but I mean, everyone has an injury. It's remarkable that it's been this long since he's had this, situation. So for all the critics of him being injured this year, I mean, it's remarkable what he's

done with his body. And Kauai is saying the same thing. Like, this is the only reason that I'm available right now. I don't think Kauai has LeBron's body. I think LeBron is such an outlier. Katie's been hurt. Kauai's been hurt. Steph's been hurt. I think M. B.'s been hurt. I think LeBron's Superman. No, he is. He is.

But I'm saying this is. Injuries are inevitable part of professional sports. It's just everyone is going to get injured at one one point or another. It's just the way it goes. but I don't think this is going to become rampant, but I do think that bigger stars are going to start taking more time off. In the end, well, I do agree with, we had Charles Barkley and asked him about it earlier. He said it would be bad for the game and bad for fans.

I do think it is in some way, but something's got to give. I mean, people are becoming more aware of their bodies and nutrition and rehab and what causes these injuries, and there's a lot of money on the line. And there's a lot of pressure to win championships, maybe more now than ever because there's more media and more outlets for opinion. So I don't blame anyone trying to figure out a way to beat the system when it comes to that. Finally, this is kind of an interesting story. Tom Cruise and Justin Bieber in the Octagon.

So no one really knows what exactly spurred Justin Bieber's desire for martial combat with a man 31 years older than himself. But he's challenged Tom Cruise to an MMA fight. Bieber already has one man in his corner, Connor, McGregor, So Bieber tweeted, I want to challenge Tom Cruise to a fight in the octagon. Tom, if you don't take this fight, you're scared and you will never live it down. Who's willing to put on the fight? And then he tagged Dana White.

Connor McGregor got on it and said, if Tom Cruise is man enough to accept this challenge, McGregor's sports entertainment will host this bout. Does Cruz have the sprouts to fight like he does in the movies? Stay tuned to find out. Cruz is, there are already sports books taking bets for this. So people are taking this seriously. Cruz is a minus 200 favorites. Cruz is a much bigger, thicker, stronger guy.

Bieber is the underdog. Now, Beaver is, I believe, two inches taller than Tom Cruise. Yeah, but he weighs it. He's built like one of those skinny little pretzels. They're little pretzel sticks. I don't know. I think I might take Bieber in this. I know that you are a huge Tom Cruise fan.

And a huge Mission Impossible fan. I've watched Tom Cruise save the world seven times. Justin Bieber can't save his own career. I'm taking Cruz. He's allegedly a very good athlete. So, Tom Cruise. Yes. No, Tom Cruise is an athlete.

Floyd, has vouched for Justin Bieber in the ring before. You know, they were friends. I don't know if they still are. Can you play a Justin Bieber song for 10 seconds and tell me when you listen to Justin Bieber, does this sound like a pugilist? I like Justin Bieber.

I actually, I think he does good music. His documentary is unbelievable. Have you ever seen this documentary? I haven't, no. Oh, God, it's good. We had Bing Rames on. He said that Tom Cruise was a really good athlete. Tom Cruise could kick a lot of people's butt in Hollywood.

Most. He's 31 years older than Bieber. Okay, let's listen to this. We're not going to play. Unfortunately, I don't have any beaver in the system. It's not a usual request I get from you. He doesn't sound like a fighter. I would agree, but he challenged him.

I don't know why. Where did you get this story? I mean, it's on the Internet. I'm telling you that sports books are taking bets on this. So I don't know if it's all a big joke or not, but you can put money on it. So apparently you're going with Cruz. All right, Joy Taylor, with the news. Well, that's the news.

Thanks for stopping by. The herd lie news. So I know I'm not supposed to do this. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. No, I got nothing against Judge. The Bieber.

I think he's really talented. Hold on, but I'm just waiting. I want to play five seconds off my phone. And you tell me if this sounds like a vicious... Okay, here, hold on. Where we go? Right, one second. All right.

Come on, Justin Bieber. Would you start singing? Hold on. Here we go. Yeah. Does that sound like a... I mean... No, it's not really the most aggressive song that you've ever heard. So if he was like a rock star, you'd be fine with it.

Yeah, because those guys have all done math for like 12 years and gotten in a bar fight. I'm sorry, are you saying Bieber doesn't have any issues with that? I mean, well, Tom Cruise was pretty intimidating in Tropic Thunder, so. I've seen him save the world. If you didn't watch The Last Mission Impossible, that was not a movie. It was a documentary. It was live. He was on that cliff saving the world.

It's the second best movie I've ever seen. I don't even care. You love that movie. Oh, my God. It's incredible. He's on the edge of a cliff. It's live. It's being televised live.

It's not live. I saw the movie, too. You didn't like it? No, it was a good movie. I mean, I didn't, I wasn't emotionally as moved as you were by it, Mission Impossible 75. This cup of coffee was good. That movie was more than good.

I felt like I knew what was going to happen. Yeah, yeah. He did. Tom would save the world because he always does. Right. Well. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd. weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeart Radio app.

So this is the Justin Bieber who has challenged Tom Cruise to a fight. Yes. By the way, I think it's a great song. Very very, very young Bieber. And Bieber's like 30, what, three? He's 31 years younger than Thomas. And how old's Tom Cruise? 67 years old?

65. Cruz is way up there. Justin Bieber is 25. Okay, Bieber's 25 and Cruz is an old man. And Cruz would still kick his butt. He's 56 years old. Cruz is 56. Are you sure?

Or is that his Hollywood age? That's how old he is. By the way, here's what's at stake for Kauai tonight. It's remarkable. Quite a resume. If he wins the finals MVP, he joins an exclusive list of players with multiple final MVP. Bird, Elijah, Juan, Kareem, LeBron, Duncan, Shaq, Magic, MJ Bryant, Duncan.

He'll be the third player to win finals MVP with two different. teams. Only Kareem and LeBron have done it. Only player to do it in both conferences since the Bucks were in the West when Kareem, you know, Lou El Sinder won in Milwaukee. If Toronto wins tonight, Kauai will have ended two dynasties, the heat

in 2014 and the Warriors, first title to Canada in the NBA, won the first Canadian title in four major sports since the early 90s, and he's already in 2014 he becomes the third youngest finals MVP ever back when he won the first one,

with Magic and Tim Duncan were younger. So in this postseason, he has the eighth most points ever in a single playoff. So there is a... Incredible. There's a lot at stake for Kauai. Just think of this. The third player to ever win finals MVP with two different teams. Kareem, LeBron, and Kauai Leonard.

Pretty amazing. You know, I was going to have more on this topic, but I'll make an exception. he calls our show twice a year to yell at us. He hates our show. But we've grandfathered him in. A longtime critic and hater of our show, former columnist for the new Canaan Dispatch Telegram, F.T. How are you, F.T.? Cowherd, frankly, I don't understand you. Here we are at the end of your show, and you haven't once brought up any subject remotely having to do with the game of baseball, the national pastime. We have the NBA finals tonight. There's a lot.

this thing called urgency, right? And there isn't in baseball? Why, there are only 98 games left to go. The pennant races are heating up every time gunning for a spot in October. Why, the Kansas City Royals are about to head into a three-game stand against their division rivals, the Minnesota Twins. And this one is going to be a real barn burner. Why, if the Royals complete the sweep, they could find themselves only 20 and a half games.

out of first place. There's your urgency. Listen, maybe you went to the bathroom or something. I did spend a minute talking about Madison Bumgartner, pitcher got angry at Max Muncie for watching a home run. A whole minute on baseball. Color me impressed. Let me guess. You probably prattled on about how you can't tolerate all these old-school guys who want to take the fun out of baseball. That's actually exactly right. Did you even watch the rest of the game? Why, it was baseball like. excitement at its finest. The Giants and Dodgers went the remainder of the game without scoring a single run. It was thrilling. There was highlight after highlight. Fielders choices, several pop-ups

to right field. Oh, and in the final stretches, not one, but four pitching changes before the final score of one-nil. Frankly, I can't even begin to fathom why you didn't begin your show with it. Well, the NBA is a huge story. I can talk about the finals, free agency. You know, No, I can't do that in baseball. Stars and baseball signed 12-year contracts. They never leave. And that's how it should be. In my day, a man spent his entire playing career with the same organization and never

once entertained the idea of leaving. The only time a ball player was even allowed to move from one town to another is when the team's owner agreed to move the entire organization or when the town itself was attacked by a wild band of coyotes, at which point everyone was forced to run for their lives. All right. Well, F.T., you know, I appreciate your long-time dedication to baseball. I've got to go. Yes. No, I'm the one who has to go, because I refuse to sit here and listen to more of your nonsense. You call this part of your show Best for Last. Put it this way, Cowherd. If there's a segment with you in it, it couldn't be best for anybody. Good day, sir. F.T. Tilsworth, long-time.

I'm a very impatient, a hater of our show, which is we did talk about baseball today briefly, but it was a brief subject. He would like more baseball discussed on the show. And, well, this is where, by the way, Adrian Ward Janowski, Kevin Durant's going to play in game five tonight. There's your story. That's your story. You know, it is interesting. What if he comes back tonight and Kevin gives you 27 and they win by 12? And it's like, oh, God, here we go.

Back to Golden State. I mean, I would love to see it go seven. I'm not rooting for the gentleman's sake at all. Because it can't end with Kevin Durant not playing. It can't end this way. I'm not happy. It's like, you know how mad everybody got when the Game of Thrones? You had this great series.

And then at the end, the she wolves ate the dragon flies. And everybody freaked out and hated the ending. That's exactly how it happened. It did ruin, to a large degree, a lot of you people that watch this nonsense were furious. I was not furious. You were not happy. It's a television show, and that's how they chose to write it. But I feel I'm a bit more grounded as an individual when it comes to, you know, television series ending.

But you wouldn't want it to end tonight with no KD. No. That's not right. Having KD come back is the right way. And if they lose, it won't be an excuse. If you lose tonight with KD, then Toronto can say you get Clay left came back one. KD left came back one. Yeah.

Actually, Toronto, you should want Kevin Durant to play tonight. No, they absolutely should. You always want to beat a team when they're at their best, when they're at, when they have everyone. Then nobody can say that you did it the wrong way, even if it's not Toronto's fault that KD got hurt. So they should absolutely want him back. Go further than ever with the Discover at Miles card automatically matches the miles you earn at the end of your first year. So your 35,000 miles could become 70,000. Limitations apply.

I discover match for new car members only. Learn more at discover.com slash travel. BJ Armstrong, the former Chicago Bull. Now he's an agent, and Rick Buecker will stop by our show tomorrow. Oh, Lord. So I wouldn't even, I just kind of had, after Friday, I'm like, series over, kind of a dud finals. Now I'm all fired up tonight.

I'm going to have, I'm going to make myself something I haven't made myself in a long time. Homemade nachos. I knew you were about to say nachos. Oh, so good. I swear I was about to say nachos. God, they're good. You had a big party Saturday, and you had tacos, I heard. We did have tacos, yes.

And margaritas. And margaritos. It's Earl 40th on Wednesday, so we celebrated it over the weekend. Wednesday is a terrible party day. It's better during the weekend, yes. So that's what I heard it over the weekend. I heard your house was just crazy, like drinking and. Oh, it wasn't crazy.

It was pretty tame, actually. Not according to one of the makeup, ladies. Four tequila shots, I heard. Well, everyone didn't do. for tequila shots, but it was a celebration. Did people wear tuxedo shirts? Was there a sense of... No, no, no tuxedo shirts. All right, we'll see you tomorrow.

For Joy, Colin, John, Greg, everybody. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where sports slice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports

and giving you the real story behind the headline. and we're going straight to the source the athletes themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests

from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, guys? This is Clivert Taylor the 4th. And on my podcast, The Cliverts show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker... Yeah, you know these kids.

This linebacker walks up to me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue with 42. Hey, ref, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Hey, Ms. Parker.

Listen to the Clifford show on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast Point Game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season.

And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was calling me. You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis come in, he's like, you know, I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs.

This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.