The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Pelicans fire Dell Demps; NBA tampering; Defending Matt Kuchar; and Lincoln Riley!

Episode Date: February 15, 2019

Colin Cowherd weighs in on the Pelicans firing Dell Demps and the front office's complete mismanagement of Anthony Davis. The NBA is holding the Lakers to a different standard than other NBA franchises and Colin defends professional golfer Matt Kuchar. Finally, Colin shares his thoughts on Colin Kaepernick settling his dispute with the NFL. Guests include Lincoln Riley, Bill Plaschke, Sam Monson and Ric Bucher! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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This is The Hurt. Wherever you may be, however you may be listening. Live in Los Angeles, IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, Channel 83, Sirius XM, not on TV today. I've got to do the rare radio-only show. I love doing these. Rick Buecker, Lincoln Riley, Bill Plashky, among others today.

I want to do a radio show only about two or three times a year. Didn't shave, look like hell. Don't care. Just had a delicious scone 30 seconds ago. I crumbs all over my face. Never been happier. This story just broke. I believe the kids call this a wojbom.

Adrian Wardenowski. New Orleans has parted ways with GM Del Demps. You know what the NBA should do? They should have a new trade deadline. announced today. Lakers, Pelicans, you got 48 hours, wrap this Anthony Davis thing up, would you? What a mess. You know, it's funny because the coach of the Pelicans, Alvin Gentry, last night, his team beat Oklahoma City, Anthony Davis got hurt and the guys won.

And he was talking about this entire Pelican situation where the star player wants out all the rumors of a Laker trade. And he talked about it. To tell you the truth, you know, this whole thing has been a dumpster fire, you know, and it's just hard, you know, for guys, you know, we want guys to be professional and we want them to do this, but it's hard for guys to go through what they've been through. It's not a dumpster fire. Since Dell Demp's just got fired, it's a Dempster fire. Listen, the Lakers didn't want to get involved, and this is a golden rule. Be very careful about getting involved in unbalanced relationships. Okay, the Lakers are the golden brand of the NBA.

The Pelicans are run by NFL people. Louisiana has two Fortune 500 companies. Cities not really capable of generating enough sweet revenue, TV, local radio, to really make this puppy work. Players don't want to play there. You know, not enough big money in New Orleans to have a separate ownership group. But the Lakers had to. where in baseball, certain teams will say, we're not going to deal with Scott Boris, the agent.

In the NBA, sometimes you've got to deal with second and third tier agents and the bottom of the barrel teams because players matter more. Individual players matter more in the NBA. By the way, Woj continues on in regards to that Laker Pelican mess. Woj says, quote, ownership was livid with an injured anthems. Davis leaving the arena during Thursday night's game sources say. Gail Benson's telling associates, she wants an overhaul of the Pelicans and a search for a GM to take command of the trade talks with Anthony Davis and reshape the team's future. But again, this is an organization, the Pelicans, and just don't have the money, the Gravitas,

the history, or the personnel. Top scouts don't want to work for the Pelicans. Topps GMs don't want to work for the Pelicans. That's why leagues, you have to be very careful. who you allow in the league. You got Frank McCourt, Dodgers, bad owner, did not have the money to own a major league baseball team. Frank McCourt did a lot of injury to the Dodger brand.

He did not qualify and they slid him in. Bud Seelig did. It was a massive mistake. You want rich guys who don't meddle, who have capital. Pelicans shouldn't be in this league. But one of the reasons I don't engage on Twitter with just regular people. There's no win for me.

Somebody's trying to get into a conversation to get me in trouble, get me all stoked up. It's the same thing with the Lakers. They didn't want to do business with the Pelicans and Del Demps, but they had to. And I feel bad. Nobody ended up looking good in this thing. Clutch sports look bad. Lakers look bad. LeBron look bad.

Magic look bad. Rob Polinka. Anthony Davis. Even the Celtics got hit by. Shrapnel. And in baseball, we all know they should cut out about 60 games. In the NBA, they should cut out about five teams. I mean, New Orleans is in the West. Figure that one out. The Pelicans use NFL employees. So it's just, and it's not over, by the way, this mess is not over. The Pelicans, you know, they felt like they got over on the Lakers. But the problem is, now your star,

Anthony Davis, hates you. A, and B, he just got hurt. So this has been one of these situations where this is a cautionary tale of where you put teams. You know, when you, Jacksonville in the NFL, it's not an NFL city. Top people don't want to work there. You know, I mean, it's just, you got to be careful every time these owners, these billionaire owners say, yeah, expansion, expansion. None of our leagues need expansion. And I'm not picking on New Orleans.

They're a great NFL city. It is an unbelievable college football city. But I lived in Portland, Oregon. Portland Oregon's got a great NBA franchise and a great MLS franchise. You can't give them a baseball team. They're not big enough. They don't have the corporate support for 162 game. You'd need 37,000 season ticket holders and 40 suites being sold to corporations.

Outside of, you know, you got Nike, you got, you know, techronics or a couple of, you know, tech companies. You don't have money. So Pelican thing was a mess. Del Dempster fire is out. And I swear to God, they should just open that trading deadline up for 48 more hours and get that puppy done. By the way, great to be with you today. Rick Buecker, Sam Munson, who runs a site called Pro Football Focus, lead NFL analysts for them will come on today.

Can't wait for that, too. I follow Pro Football Focus like crazy. They grade every player. It's great. So Magic Johnson is a celebrity in America. I told the story last week that I was at a Laker game late last year. And I'm sitting, you know, 30 rows up around midcourt, you know, good seats, got some freebies, took a buddy. And the section started rising one after another.

And I thought there was a fight. You don't see fights in NBA crowds. very much. You see him in football upper deck. You know, Buffalo Bills, Cleveland upper deck, late, snowballs, fights, fist fights, whatever. You don't see NBA fights much. So all of a sudden, all the different sections started rising. And I looked to my right and I'm like, what's going on? And it's like three different sections rise. And it's just Magic Johnson in the tunnel. Magic's a celebrity. And don't blame Magic for being a celebrity. When you're a celebrity, there are different rules. Donald Trump is a celebrity. Ran for president? He didn't have to knock door for

door. He didn't have to knock door to door. Didn't have to. He could go on Saturday night live. He could go on radio shows, TV shows. Rules are different. By the way, Barack Obama ran for president. About the last six months, Oprah and some huge American iconic celebrities were like, vote for that guy. Obama didn't have to play by the same rules. He became a celebrity. You get the benefit of the discussion. Everybody wants to talk to you. And, you know, in politics, they always want to keep it even. You appear, then they appear. Democrat. Republican, there is no balance anymore. Once celebrities run for president or politicians become celebrities, all rules change. You can't punish Obama. You can't punish magic.

So Magic Johnson yesterday was asked about a player. Play some audio. Here's what he said. I have to ask you about Kimball Walker. You know, I can't answer any question about no players because every time I do it, I get fine. But anybody else do it, they don't get fine. So I'm going to stay away from that. All right. You know, Magic Johnson's right. If Clutch Sports had no relationship to LeBron

and Magic Johnson and the Lakers weren't involved, nobody would care about this AD thing. If Anthony Davis was going to Charlotte, nobody would give a rip. Well, that's Michael Jordan. If Anthony Davis was going to Milwaukee, nobody would give a rip. I mean, the L.A. Clippers have said, sent somebody to every single Kauai Leonard game in Toronto this year. Nobody cares. It's the Clippers.

The reality is the NBA's punishing magic for being magic. That players want to talk to him. People in Los Angeles where he's been forever still rise to see him in a business suit walk out of a tunnel. What is tampering? The Warriors recruited Kevin Durant for months. Nobody cared. The Warriors had been awful for 50 years.

since the Rick Berry days. They had a brief year or two with Monta Ellis. They weren't seen as a huge threat. They were just young and fun and they'd won a title. But there were still LeBron, still had big brands. And they recruited KD and everybody's like, they were recruiting him during the year. The Lakers are essentially the rich guy getting a tax break and nobody likes it.

Because the NBA's most powerful team is the Lakers and the most powerful players, LeBron and the most beloved popular CEO is Magic and everybody's freaking out. But like Obama at the end of his presidential run, when big iconic stars embraced him, like Trump, like Magic, don't punish the celebrity for becoming in a celebrity obsessed culture. Don't blame them for becoming a celebrity. I mean, this tampering issue to me feels like an anti-Laker issue. The rest of the league is just too sensitive with LeBron Magic and the Lakers brand. I'm going to give you an example. You know, July 1st is the NBA free agency signing day.

So at midnight, 1201, you can announce or start, quote, unquote, working on free agents. You ever notice guys sign one minute after midnight? You ever notice that? Meaning they've been working on it for months. They've been tampering for months. Nobody has any problem with it. Those free agents sign a minute after 1201. You really think this is how it goes.

Ring, ring. Hi, it's Anthony Davis. Hi, it's the Lakers. Would you like to play for us? Sure. Call Woj. No. They've been working on that puppy for 60 days.

And it's understood. And nobody has a problem with it. Those deals are discussed for months. Recruited for months. But yet, LeBron Magic and the Lakers talk about AD. This is outrageous. This is too. tampering. By the way, NBA All-Star weekend, this weekend, right? So all the stars are going to be in the locker

room together and eating dinner and drinking wine all weekend. They can't talk. They can't discuss business. They can't slide into somebody else's DMs? What? You ever notice? Tampering didn't become a problem until LeBron started going to see Zion Williamson and LeBron talked about Anthony David. It was a LeBron issue. It wasn't a tampering issue. Just nonsense. What is tampering? Rick Bueger's joining us. I tamper all the time.

Seriously. I wake up in the morning, roll out of bed tampering. I'm constantly texting guys. Come over here. Work for Fox. Amazing. He's Skip Bayless just showed up. Tampering for months.

Brousard. Chris Carter. I was on the phone. with those guys for months. I'm like Bristol, L.A. What do you think? Free scones over here at Fox. Everybody over here.

I gave my company like a list of 15 guys that was tampering every second. It's good to have you in. Tell you something, free scones. I heart radio, Fox Sports, give you free scones. If that doesn't get you to a company, you host a show. Yeah, producers like caddies and golf. Just get treated like crap.

Don't even tip them after we win. I saw something that was really two stories. First of all, the media tends to attack the powerful. And it's probably healthy, right? Comedians make fun of rich people and powerful people. It's no fun. It would be mean-spirited to make fun of the weak and the poor. So it's funer to make fun of presidents and powerful people and rich people.

But I do think the media is really, really unfair in that regard with a certain person in sports. And that is coming up next. When it comes to costly car repairs, you need options. Instead, you're often stuck bargain hunting for the best deal because you get stuck with an $800 sensor light issue. Most cars, you buy them, they have warranties. In fact, all do. But what if you have a used car or what if your new car, it's four years? I mean, when you drive to work, most of the cars when I'm driving to work on the 405 in

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market as you build your portfolio. Discover new stocks, track your favorite companies, get custom notifications for price movements so you never miss the right moment to invest. Robin Hood is giving listeners of the herd of free stock like Apple, Ford Sprint, to help you build your portfolio. Sign up at collin.robinhood.com. If you own a sports team, got to be informed, make smart decisions. same with cars. No different when you're buying or selling or trading one. Truecar.com. Save three grand off MSRP. It's great to be in. Rick Buecker about 10 minutes away. I'm doing radio only today. No coasters under the drinks. It's great to be here. Love it. Somebody has a camera pointed at me. I think it's like a YouTube. All right. I'm on YouTube.

Live or just taped? Just taped. Oh, whatever. I look like hell. I don't care. Elijah. Thank you. Awesome. some Elijah. It is nice to know the man who's sitting next to me. His name, thank you, for the heads up, everybody. Okay. So if you haven't heard, it's a dempster fire in New Orleans, Del Demp's been canned, Pelicans GM. Let me shift to this. I think it's probably the right position to take that comedians make fun of rich and powerful people. It would be mean-spirited to make fun of impoverished people, less powerful. It's fun to poke fun at the big dog, right? Comedy writings poking fun at power.

And I also think there's a media responsibility that we should keep our eye on power. You know, a guy making 19,000 a year cheats on his taxes. I don't care. I don't care. A guy making $9 million a month cheats on his taxes. Amazon not paying taxes. If you can find illegalities there, not saying there are, but if you could, that's an issue. That affects the country, the big and the powerful.

I don't care if my neighbor is smoking a joint. I probably would care if my Delta pilot was. You know, your gravitas, your position in life matters. The more power we should keep our eyes, you know, not transfixed, but a little more fixed on you. But I think the media sometimes shows their hand too much here. Adam Silver, a story yesterday, NBA commish, good guy, by the way, really like him. I think he's smart and effective. But a story came out yesterday, NFL owners would like Adam Silver.

Well, one, two, maybe. Can I just say this in defense of Roger Goodell? Roger Goodell is powerful, easily the most powerful commissioner in the world. So he is not going to be popular on Twitter. He's not going to be popular. And he's not an overly charismatic guy. he's trying to give you as little as he can. Adam Silver on the underdog NBA, much smaller the NFL,

is trying to give you more, has a little more personal flair, gives you better answers to questions. But as a consumer, and that's what you are, and that's what I am, Roger Goodell's been great. You may not like the way he handled Kaepernick. You may not like the way he handles domestic violence. I could agree with both. But what I really care about more than anything is

what my eyes see when I turn into the game Sunday. PAT used to be boring. Now it's fascinating. Safety rules, improved. Parity, amazing. The draft, great, four-day TV event. The Combine, now on network TV.

Scoring's up. Quarterbacks healthier. Catch rule flipped. The football product in the NFL right now? Hell, it's great. Adam Silver may be glib and popular, but NBA has got, and I understand why he's popular. The media tends to lean left.

He's a progressive guy. He also, to me, to a fault, enables and coddles players sometimes. But as a consumer, NBA's got some issues. We've got a tanking problem. We've got a competitive balance problem. We have a really disturbing trend where stars are not hurt and just take nights off. That is after the NBA extended the All-Star break and after the NBA, reduced significantly the number of back-to-backs.

So I understand on Twitter, powerful people get raked. And I know Twitter likes the underdog. But as a consumer, I really like what Roger Goodell does. He's nimble. He's fast acting. He listens. I mean, you know, you ever, you ever seen like one of those things at work, a suggestion box? I used to have one of those at a local TV station.

I put a piece of paper. Give sports guy massive raise. I did that like every fourth day. But if the NFL had a suggestion box and you, the fans were putting notes into it, Goodell's grabbing them and reading them and implementing them. It's done a very good job. As a consumer, I don't get too caught up on the Kaepernick thing. It was a fluid situation.

There wasn't a rule. You know, David Stern had a great advantage. So did Adam Silver. There was already a rule in place. You couldn't sit for the anthem. So it's easy for those guys to say, hey, I would have handled it differently. NFL didn't have that rule. So with the tsunami known as social media, it was a very difficult situation.

Much tougher than the NBA years ago when a player would not stand for the anthem. They just suspended him. David Stern said this week, I would have suspended capital. It's a lot more difficult now. He didn't have a rule. Media was pro-Capernaic. Internet was pro-Capernaic. It was very fluid.

But I think Goodell, being powerful, gets criticized a little too much. The product, my eyes to the TV, is better since he became commissioner. Since Adam Silver became commissioner, I don't remember a tanking problem with David Stern. I don't. There may be a team doing it. Not six. I don't remember this great of a gap between the best team and everybody else. So all I'm asking for, and I probably won't get it, is a little more fairness.

I think they're both fine commissioners. But the avalanche and the kind of heavy handedness toward Goodell, I think is intellectually dishonest. The product's damn good. By the way, I'll be the only person in America. Supporting golfer Matt Coocher. Last couple of days I've been driving in. on that story. People are freaking out. Mad coacher's a terrible guy

and did tip his catty. Yeah, I did. Just didn't tip him as much as you want. Veteran newsman, John Goulde. No, no, no, no, no, turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Tom, we had a dream scenario for you last night.

I'm kind of shocked you didn't start the show with this and talk about it the whole half hour. So Russell Westbrook decided to go back to MVP Russell Westbrook status. And shoot 40 times? Only 30 times. He took 12, three-pointers. How many do you make? Two?

He made four of them. It's not awful. Finish the game with 44 points. Obviously, he had another triple double, his 11th straight. Yeah, and they lost. Right. His plus minus was minus 15, and they lost to the Dempster Fire Pelicans who didn't have Anthony Davis in the second half. You know, it's funny.

He had a cheat day. Like, you know how like you go on a diet and you have a cheat day? You don't eat carbs for a month and you eat all that pasta? Right. Russell Westbrook was doing so well. They'd won like 11 of 12. He was staying on his diet. Only shoot 15 times.

Last night he had a cheat day. And they lost. He shot 12 threes. Like nine pieces of garlic bread with his fiduccini Alfredo. God. So speaking of the Pelicans, they, as I said, beat the thunder last night. But future Laker or Celtic, Anthony Davis, injured his shoulder. According to sources, the MRI revealed a muscle contusion, nothing too serious.

Although if I was playing for the Pelicans, I'd probably say it was a two-month injury. Now, remember, Davis is on LeBron's All-Star team this weekend. Do you want Davis to play on Sunday to see him with LeBron? Or is that a little disrespectful to the Pelicans to play when he's hurt in a meaningless game and then probably sit out once he gets back? Yeah, I mean, if I was his agent, Rich Paul, I'd be like, dude, don't play in the All-Star game. It's going to look really, really, really bad. But I mean, this situation is embarrassing.

And it's, and I'm not blaming New Orleans. I mean, they got the team and whatever. But this is a mess to begin with. This is an NBA franchise run to a large degree by NFL people. Mickey Loomis, the GM in the NFL is a great NFL GM, the GM for the Pelicans, like part-time. Like, it's a VP. It's like, come on. This is just not a.

Yeah, that's a mess. And finally, you remember yesterday on the show Greg Jennings talked about how the 49ers would be a great fit for Antonio Brown. You were a little higher on you thought he should be a ram or an eagle. Yeah. So one sportsbook now actually has the Arizona Cardinals as the slight favorite to land him. Or in terms of where he's going to play week one next year. Wow. It's definitely long.

It's still plus 450. So it's not like it's likely. 49ers and dolphins were right around plus 550. I don't really get the Brown to Arizona. That doesn't make any sense to me. They're rebuilding. Why would he want to go there? But your two teams really not on the list.

So Vegas just does not agree with you. Everybody keeps saying 49ers. Listen, I want Josh Rosen to succeed. So I think Arizona would be fun. You have a Christian Kirk, Kim, the running back. David Johnson. They're all lines of mess. But you know, you can work on that.

Kingsbury, a guy who's been dealing with teenagers, is going to be able to deal with Antonio Brown? Listen, he's got to deal with Pete Carroll, Sean McVey, and Kyle Shanahan. He'd better figure out how to deal with Antonio Brown. They need players. That division now is the best coaching division in football. That's the best coach division in the NFL.

Veteran newsman, John Goulet. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd Lie News. So Del Demp's got canned. Rick Bukers in Charlotte for the All-Star Game, Bleacher Report, Senior Writer. You know, I was saying this is that nobody came out of that whole AD LeBron Laker Clutch Sports thing looking good.

It's a mess. It's a mess. Nobody looks good. Do you believe now, Rick, that basically the waters were poisoned by Dell Demps just to make the Lakers look bad, to make Clutch Sports look bad? That they really, because this is what I'm hearing now, but I don't have it sourced, but you hear things that the Pelicans just wanted, they were so pissed at Clutch Sports and AD. they just said, we're going to throw every name out, make the Lakers look horrible. Do you believe that's what happened and how all the names got out? It's not normally the way I would expect a guy like Dell Demp to operate.

So when we say the Pelicans in terms of who put it out there where it came from, but I do know that those that are involved do believe that the names came from the Pelicans now. It was originally thought by the Lakers that Rich Paul and, and Clutch Agency were the ones who put those names out there. But there's been a meeting of the minds between the Lakers and Clutch, and the feeling is now, as you said, that the Pelicans were the ones that put those names out there. And yes, the enmity toward the Pelicans at this stage, whether it's the Pelicans or just about any other team in the league, is, you know, screw them.

They think they can do whatever they want. They can break any rule that they want, that they're entitled. If we're going to approach it this way, then you know what? We'll play dirty. But as far as Demp's being the one that leaked them, that's just not his style. You know, July 1st is the NBA free agency period. It begins. And one minute after midnight, all the deals get made, illustrating what appears to be clear

that everybody's tampering for months and everybody knows it. could I not make the argument that this is a LeBron magic Lakers, the clippers, the Clippers are at every Kauai Leonard game in Toronto, nobody cares. If Anthony Davis was going to Denver, nobody would care. This is an anti-Lebron. You know, it's fear-based. It's like giving the rich guy a tax cut. Nobody likes the Lakers that part of this is like anti-Laker bias. Well, I would temper that with this, but you're right. The truth of the matter is, I've talked to GMs. The business of the NBA would not function if there weren't tampering. It simply wouldn't work. The timing of everything, the ability to vet things, it would be on an entirely different time scale if there weren't tampering. What ticks people off in the league about, the Lakers because this tampering happens everywhere. And there is, there are discussions. The difference is the Lakers are arrogant about it. The Lakers advertise it. Magic Johnson is on late

night TV doing the wink wink. Yeah, are we interested in Paul George making a joke of it? LeBron is being interviewed and saying it's incredible that, you know, it would be amazing for me to play with Anthony Davis. And then reports are leaked. that he's having dinner with AD. It's more that it's not that these conversations are going on. It's that the Lakers and LeBron in particular, and you have like the two biggest culprits in doing it, advertise that they're doing it.

And that's what ticks everybody off. Rick Buecker, Bleacher Report, Senior Writer. So rebuilding, if there was a rebuilding for dummies, the Celtics would be on the cover. They didn't tank. They got the right coach. They didn't whiff on any draft. Well, they drafted well.

They land Gordon Hayward. They get Kyrie. Their rebuild comparatively to others has been the gold standard of rebuilds. But in the last couple of months, Gordon Hayward isn't a perfect fit right now. Kyrie's heard again. Anthony Davis, I'm told a week ago, is not going to be a Celtic. and Jason Tatum, according to Brian Winhorst or somebody on a podcast, would entertain the Pelicans. From the outside, is it fair to say that this rebuild as they become, as now they're getting into business with stars,

that the Butler head coach Brad Stevens, it's getting a little rocky. Yeah, you know what, it's a great point. Now, I'm not going to say that what they have and what they've done. somehow that they screwed this up because they still have an embarrassment of riches. Yes. And they could still end up very easily winning it all this year. And I do believe that the champion, the NBA champion is going to come out of the east one way or another this season. That said, I think that this is a referendum on maybe we anointed Brad Stevens a little too soon.

because for me it's not the X's and O's, and I think a lot of people lose this. When you are a coach in the NBA, it is about managing egos, and the great coaches have to manage huge egos. If you're going to have the talent to play for a championship, you are going to have an array of egos that you have to make work together. And that's what Brad Stevens is facing right now. Last year, when you have Kyrie and Gordon Hayward Hurt, you have a bunch of young guys that have been discounted. They stepped up to the four and said, you know what, we're not ready to pack it in this year. Now you have to combine Tyree and Gordon Hayward with these guys who made a name for themselves last year and find a way to integrate all that. I'll be honest.

You know, I just, I look at the rotations. I looked at the handling of it. This is not something a guy from Butler ever had to deal with. That's right. And not to say that he can't, he can't do it. But this is the, you know, when you talk about the Phil Jackson, and the Greg Popovich's, yeah, their great ability was to manage monstrous egos and make them work together. And that's what Brad Stevens is facing right now. Listen, listen, in baseball,

if you manage the Cincinnati Reds, it's about X's and O's in analytics. If you manage the Yankees like Joe Torrey, it's dealing with egos. You know, in Kentucky basketball and Duke basketball, it's not the same as it is Xavier. And if you go like the Michigan coach that everybody loves in college basketball, he gets three-star recruits. But if you put him in the NBA, you know, so I agree with you. I think Phil Jackson's greatest gift to me was Joe Tories. In a room, he could sense the temperature of Kobe that morning and shack that night.

And even though it broke up, so we agree. I want one more thing. Jeannie Buss says Luke Walton is safe. And I think it's way too late in the season to start over. Your gut feeling this morning, is Luke Walton a top 10 coach? I never thought. Okay, who do you like? Give me some guys.

We know Spolstra, Carlisle, Pop, Kerr. We know that. But in your sources, people think Luke is still not a top third. coach in the league? No, he's a development. And keep in mind, I mean, look, he's, he's a developing coach. Does he have the capability? Does he have the IQ? Sure. Does he have the experience? He was hired for a rebuilding job. And when they got LeBron James, that suddenly changed everything. And I don't blame him for what has gone on with this team this year, but because it's such a mixed bag. You've got it's a half one foot in, one foot out with LeBron and a bunch of young guys.

I mean, this team isn't built for a LeBron James. It simply isn't. And he's had to find a way to manage it. But the, like just being around when he was coaching the warriors and they went on their great run, that was a function of what they already had in place as opposed to Luke, you know, working some incredible magic. So, I just, I feel as if he's under a new regime that did not hire him, the landscape has changed in terms of what this team is trying to do. Now, is he safe? Is he safe for this year? Yeah, because I don't know that there's anything that's going to change markedly for this season.

Do I expect Luke Walton to be the coach of the team starting next season? I don't see any way that he will. Buecker and Friends podcast. Rick Buecker Bleacher Report, senior writer. It is a pleasure to talk to you, have fun at the All-Star game. Thanks, we'll do. Rick Buecker, good stuff. Guy lives in the Bay Area.

Also surfs. I eat scones, he surfs. You can see the difference, clearly. I will defend Matt Couture, that PGA jerk. Next, the herd. Don't let your age beat you. take MDrive. Buy MDrive.com.

Refound your prime. Great to have you in. So the big story last couple of days on radio, at least the one I thought was really captivating. We don't talk a ton of golf. Matt Coocher's a golfer. He's a good golfer. He won 15 events.

Apparently last fall he won a golf classic that I didn't watch and haven't heard of. And his caddy, not his regular to caddy, but his caddy at the time recently said, that guy took advantage of me. Matt Coacher said, we had a deal. $4,000 if I got in the top 10. Coocher won it, gave an extra $1,000.

Gravy on top. Cootcher said, making $5,000 is a great week. People are upset that Matt Coocher won $1.3 million, and Matt Coocher only gave him $5,000. So let's talk about that. Matt Coocher in this caddy, that was not his normal caddy. He was outsourced. They had an agreed-upon rate.

$1,000 to the caddy, if he missed the cut, 2,000 made the cut, 3,000 top 20, 4,000 top 10. He actually won it, and he gave an extra 1,000. So the caddy agreed to the terms. By the way, a $5,000 to carry clubs for three days is outrageous. My staff is asking to work for Matt Coocher. Matt Coocher's excellent. The hardest league in the world to make is the PGA. Literally, you have a big.

bad week you don't get paid. You have a bad hole. You don't get paid. They can eliminate you from the tour if you don't win enough. I mean, the Pelicans, they can't even get a trade pulled off. They don't lose their franchise. So Matt Coocher has 15 tournament wins. He's won with several caddies. So the question now, not the answer, is, what's the value of a caddy? Now, this was not Bones to Phil Mickelson. A longtime caddy, no longer, but a long time. caddy that Phil Mickelson absolutely trusted and relied on. This was not Jordan Speeth's caddy. I mean, he's in that guy's ear every shot.

This was an outsourced caddy. Who Matt Coocher was not going to rely on nearly as much as somebody he lives, breeze travels with. It's not bones with Mickelson. So if you have an outsourced caddy, and I'm struggling with the value of, for instance, if John took the day off and I had an outsourced producer who I would not rely on as heavily, then he is worth the terms you agree to. Colin, but Coutcher won. Deck Prescott's won the NFC East two of the last three years.

You get a tip for it? Russell Wilson won a Super Bowl. to get a tip for it. The people supporting the candy can't even come up with a satisfactory amount. I listened the last two days. Hosts, callers,

golf pros, experts, 50,000 minimum. Next caller. At least 100. Golf pro calls a radio show. 10, 15%. That's standard. So the experts,

the caller, the hosts, you can't even come to terms. You're not even close. So when you outsource somebody and there is a discrepancy in the considered value of said outsourced employee, you go to the value, the agreement, the handshake, the terms of the agreement. I'm listening to everybody tell me what coocher should have paid him. And by the way, everybody's always got an opinion on everybody else's money. Michael Jordan donated a couple million dollars a few years ago for some natural disasters. Everybody's like, ah, he's cheap. His money, two million bucks is two million bucks. Doesn't matter what he makes. I don't go to a restaurant. You don't get a better tip

because I have more money than the guy sitting next to me. My money. I'm going to tip you on service, not on my income. But Matt Coocher's agent offered the caddy 15 grand. The caddy turned it down and went public. This was not a typical caddy. This is an outsourced. This is what corporate America does. And so there's always questions on the value of any employee that is not a full-time employee, that is not a long-time trusted, relied upon employee.

When it comes to the outsourcing thing, what are the terms? Let's agree to them. And in this instance, the caddy did a bad job figuring out, what his value was. I know that's not a popular take. I know nobody agrees listening to me. But there's a difference between, let's say I had a driver that drove me around Los Angeles. I don't, but let's say I did.

The tip would be much different than the Uber driver, who I have no relationship with, who doesn't make the trip as comfortable, as seamless, and as trustable, even if he gets me to the restaurant I'm going to. So once you have an outsourced employee, that's based on terms. It's not the same relationship as Mickelson and Bones. And I know that's not popular. But listening to everybody, inform me and educate me on what you should pay him, was so random and arbitrary had he tipped him $25,000,

yet it has still ripped him. Most of the callers thought at minimum $50,000. to carry clubs? Hell of a weekend. So it's five grand, actually. Lincoln Riley coach of the Sooners. What's up with Kyler Murray? And more next.

Ah, here we go, hour two. This is The Herd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening. High Heart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, not on the tube today. Collin, your opinion on Matt Coocher and the caddy is outrageous. Just an opinion. you get yours. Agree to terms.

Sorry, I won the tournament. You agree to terms? It's not like if I get a huge rating, I get more money. I agree to terms with my company. You know, that's why you have handshake deals, you have contracts, you have terms. If Dak Prescott is a rookie won the Super Bowl, you're not getting a tip. He's going to be the most underpaid player in the history of the league. Timing is everything.

That's just the way the world works. Timing is everything. I can remember years ago at another place. that I negotiated a new deal pre-October 2008. So I had negotiated a contract with my former employer, it was a very lucrative contract, before Wall Street melted down.

If I had waited two or three months, I would have never gotten the money I got because of the economic meltdown in America. Sometimes you get the break. Sometimes you don't. You know, I mean, that's just the way the world works. You know, what caddies get is, is if it's not a long time caddy, you agree to terms.

So it's up to you. Don't agree to terms. But I've never believed that in life, you should, if I was a waiter, your tip to me is not based on what you make. It's based on my service. I earn a better tip. I don't deserve one based on your income. So you agree to terms.

And then, you know, that's your job to sit there as a caddy, regardless and say, If you win the tournament, dude, I'm getting 20,000. And by the way, they offered him 15. He said no. He said he called him out, you know, you're six, seven months later. It's like, all right. I mean, I think I'd have tipped him.

I'd have said, here's 20,000, 25, whatever it is. I'm not saying I'd do what Matt Coutcher did, but the avalanche against him is outsourced caddy. You agreed to terms. Then they offered him 15 grand more. He didn't want that. Instead, he wants to call him out. All right.

I mean, if you feel you're already got job, take him to court. Otherwise, it's just an internet topic. It's not a real topic. Take him to court. Then maybe if you think you can win, take him to court. There's always an attorney out there pro bono that'll go to bat for you if they think they can get money. I saw this story. LeBron James gets it.

There's a kid at Duke named Zion Williamson. It's going to be a great NBA player. How great, nobody knows. But, you know, he's going to be a really good player. He's big. He's strong. Got a great first step for his body size, very nimble, good finisher at the rim. Not much of a free throw shooter yet.

You know, and he looks like he's going to have a career like Carl Malone. He's going to spend a lot of time at the free throw line. So he's got to get that up to about 75, 76 percent right now. He leads the ACC in free throws, but he's not a great free throw shooter. So, and he could be. I mean, that's getting to the 74, 75 percent. Otherwise, you're leaving a lot of points on the table in the NBA. But the kids are really fun to watch.

Seems like a really good kid. Transformative body size. Quick for his size, incredibly quick. And it finishes well to him. But here's what I like. So LeBron James was talking about. And the media, let's just be honest here, is anti-NCAA. You have got to pay all kids.

All right. But LeBron said, you know the best thing about this kid? He's got his head on. right. When they asked him, said LeBron, about, you know, guys in our league saying he should sit out the rest of the year at Duke, LeBron said, the kid said that's silly. Why? I love to play basketball. I'm here at Duke. I'm having fun. These are my friends. I'm having a great time. Why would I sit out? That type of blank really strikes me. So LeBron James defended the kid not getting paid for college basketball because of his love for the game of basketball. Thank you, LeBron.

College basketball for the 360 Division I programs, less than half of 1% play in the NBA. The system in the NCAA should not be built around seven prodigies. You do not build an economy around the rich. You build the economy around the middle class. Elevate them. The media. And every time I read this, I just roll my eyes. This kid should not finish the year at Duke. Oh, the horror. Sending a child to Duke, big man on campus, best staff in college basketball,

27 games on TV, play at Cameron Indoor. What a horrible life. That he has to wait nine months before he gets $100 million between Nike and the NBA. college basketball should not be altered for seven prodigies. College basketball is an unpaid internship with incredible benefits. And for 99.9% of the players, it is all good. For seven basketball prodigies, how you got to wait nine months and go to wink, wink, wink class,

and wink, wink, wink, not get paid. You've read those recent stories. They all getting paid. Zion Williamson gets it and LeBron gets it. LeBron is the player empowerment star. And even he says, one year. Go play nine months.

It's awesome. For the record, both Kobe and LeBron have said, you know, going to Duke would have been really cool. It'd been really awesome. So every time you hear this, college basketball. It is broken. These players are being

a bit. No, no. 360 Division I programs overwhelmingly 99% never play in the pros. What they get is attention. Big man on campus. Free this, free that, free that. And an opportunity to get a college degree, which in life statistically is a really good thing for everybody. I mean, I understand everybody's got to have a, you know, something to put their hands around.

It's got to be a business model for somebody. And college basketball is kind of, you know, dying. So if you cover college basketball, being the anti-NCAA guy is like a brand and stuff. But LeBron James defending Zion Williamson for not quitting and demanding to get paid. Because college basketball, frankly, has been marginalized. It is not an awful thing. even for the seven American basketball prodigies who for nine months at Duke and Kansas and Gonzaga

don't get wink, wink, wink paid. I saw this story. The Alliance of American Football, A.A.F. Tried wooing in quarterback Colin Kaepernick. I have no interest getting into a Kaepernick topic. There's reports. He was offered a bunch of money. I don't trust the report.

reports. What I do like about this story is that the AAF also last week got headlines on Tebow. So since I can't confirm what he was really offered, I don't know if he was offered anything other than a job. The interesting part of this story to me is the AAF and in one year the XFL, folks, they're going to work. They've already figured out the headline business. and they're going to work because the NFL wants them to work. It's like the WNBA. It loses money. WNBA loses $10 million a year.

Slightly more than half the teams lose money. The NBA co-signs for the WNBA's house. They couldn't afford it on their own. But that's okay. The NBA supports it, feels it's important, so it survives. The WNBA survives. It's on more solid footing today than it was 10 years ago, but it survived because the NBA wanted it to survive for a lot of different reasons.

Good for them. Similarly, the NFL wants the AAF and the XFL to survive because it wants to hurt the NBA. That's what this is all about. A developmental league, a minor league system, which the NFL doesn't have, and the NFL is going to support the AAF and the XFL. they're going to support it because it dings in February, March and early April, it takes the NBA, at least occasionally, a segment, a day, a story off radio shows, off TV shows, off debate shows. The league will be Kaepernick, by the way, I'd watch him.

Tebow, I'd watch him. Johnny Menz, LAAF, I'd watch him. Hell yes, I'd watch all three of those guys. I believe the NFL used to carry three quarterbacks. now it's mostly two. That means there are 32 guys that would have made the NFL years ago that are out there.

Where are they going to go? Used to have NFL Europe. Kurt Warner was in NFL Europe. I don't have that anymore. NFL only carries two quarterbacks, maybe a third and a scout team. There's all sorts of quarterbacks out there. Arizona's got a quarterback, Khalil Tate.

Fun to watch. Probably not going to get a lot of NFL love. I'd watch them in. a spring football league. Trace McSorley at Penn State. Fun, fun quarterback. If the AAF comes up and says, we're going to pay a lot more in the NFL.

I'm Trace McSorley, I'd go play, showcase my talents for the NFL. In the last 15, 20 years, the NFL has said we're not going to carry three quarterbacks. We're going to carry two. Well, it's not like we have less teams playing football in high school and college. Got more. So the NFL needs a minor league system.

The AAF and the XS, F.L are going to be perfect for it. And don't forget, the NFL Europe had Hall of Famers in it. James Harrison, Kurt Warner. There's no NFL Europe. We're dying for this thing. And as long as they don't go into the fall and compete with the NFL

and they will not, this stuff's going to work. So when I saw the Kaepernick story to the AAF, I don't necessarily buy into what they said they offered. I think there's a very anti-Kapernic faction in the media and there's a very pro-Kapernic faction in the media, I'd rather not be either.

I don't care enough. So I don't really buy the reports. But I do think it's fascinating that they'd be willing, if that's true, I don't care about what they offered him, that they'd be willing to get Kaepernick. I'd watch him. You wouldn't watch Kaepernick? Hell, I would. If Kaepernick's starting to mark on the AAF,

I'm sitting down on my couch watching him. Not because of his social stances, that's fine. I'm interested. I'd watch Tebow. I'd watch Manzell. So my takeaway in that story is I like what the AAF's doing, getting headlines. They've figured it out. They've figured out the headline business, and that's why this league's going to work.

There are quarterbacks out there, and football's as good as the quarterback play. That's why LSU is a great program. They're not nearly as fun to watch as, to me, Texas. Texas generally has better quarterbacks. That's why Oklahoma is a fun watch. They've always got good quarterbacks. their coach, by the way, Lincoln Riley. What's up with Kyler Murray?

What's up with Kyler Murray? Not talking to Dan Patrick? That was weird. We'll talk to him next. When men and women upgrade from their tattered, outdated, multi-pack underwear to Tommy John, the most comfortable on the planet, they got a lot to say about it. Like Scott,

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Simplysafe.com slash H-E-R-D. Great to have you in today. Fun show. Rick Buecker last hour. Boy, that caddy thing gets everybody worked up. Crazy. Lincoln Riley is, you know, I say this, he's a little like the Sean McVeigh of college football, is that he sees the world offensively from kind of a different view. And I said this a couple days ago, I went back and looked at the two quarterbacks he had at East Carolina. I don't

know them well, but their numbers were through the roof. And we've had this throughout the course of my life. I'm in my 50s now. Don Corrielle saw the world differently and changed it. A Bill Walsh saw the world differently and changed it. Sean McVey. And I think Lincoln Riley falls into that class, is that he is doing things. Bobby Bowden told me this years ago. This was years ago. He said, you know, and I'll do a dadgum Bobby Bowden impression.

When I used to work in Tampa, he said, you know, I'd stay up. I'd stay up and I'd watch those Oregon games. Man, they were doing crazy stuff. I'd get my pad out and I'd steal all their stuff. And back then it was like Chip Kelly, Mike Bellotti were doing, I was covering Oregon. They were doing different stuff offensively. And so with that, we introduce Lincoln Riley, who I'm just sucking up to here. Coach, thanks for coming on the show.

Yeah, thanks for having me on, Colin. You've done a remarkable job. You've made Oklahoma, it's very interesting because we were talking about Kyler Murray. And I think he's a first round pick, and I think he works. But I do think that historically, even college and high school coaches, you'd ideally like to get a guy who's six feet, six two, six three. I mean, that's why we have these prototypes for left tackles and Mike linebackers. but Kyler Murray there is an interesting thing here he does not get the ball tipped at the line of

scrimmage is that your offense your spacing or is that kind of a gift Kyler Murray has no it's a gift it's a gift I think it's very I think one of the thing and I think that's one of the things that they have in common and they feel you know to be able to create a arm angles all that takes to do it and it just doesn't it just doesn't affect those guys and I think until somebody really coaches them and we have never had an issue. One of the reasons I was not a huge fan of Johnny Mansell to the NFL, the transition, or RG3, thin body frame. Now, I did say Baker's kind of thick and he just throws a great ball.

Russell Wilson, you see him in person, he's thick, hips, shoulders, he's thick. Kyler is not, you know, forget the height. He is, he's about 205. Could I not be concerned a little bit that he does, he likes to run, but Mitch Trubisky does, but Mitch Trubisky's a pretty thick kid. Could I worry about Kyler being small-ish prototype body? No, no, and you're not taking any smart about it as well. Did you expect him to choose baseball or football before his decision? Did he ask you for advice?

I had an expectation of him some that he really loved football. But I think also he wanted to make a good decision too and not just his passion, but I think he got the point for his future and also the... His dad was a quarterback at A&M. There was a weird interview on Dan Patrick where he didn't talk a lot. I did not love it. I said this. I wouldn't care generally, but quarterbacks I kind of see as a leadership position.

I was bothered by that interview that he just kept turning to his dad. And I understand that in the quarterback world, and I've heard this from people, Pete Carroll and college coaches. Dad's often play a significant role. Dad was often a quarterback. Son becomes a quarterback. That interview, Dad was quarterback. How am I not worried about that a little?

Well, I think the toughest thing in that interview, he's a very thoughtful thing. He'll spit it right back as well. Yes. And Kyler's different. You know, Kyler's a little quieter, a little bit. You know, there's been so much. You know, it's interesting. Jalen Hertz has joined you guys as a grad transfer.

and it's interesting about transfers. And this is where I differ from the media. I do believe that college athletes should be able to transfer, but I believe once. I think, listen, part of college sports is decision making. My daughter's a college student. And I tell her, hey, I'm not there. You be careful when you go out with your friends, be responsible.

That's part of growing up. I think kids can make a bad decision, choose a wrong school, leaves, but I don't like multiple transfers because I think it puts stress on universities, the system, and frankly, coaches. What do you make of the new portal, this kind of new narrative that the media loves, which is kids should just be able to transfer whenever they want, wherever they want? I think I totally, I don't like the fact that players, especially players that have not graduated, can transfer somewhere, hire a lawyer, and then find a way to be any more than a multi- So if you live,

leave. I'm not saying they shouldn't be able to leave. I think players do deserve rights. I do for changing. And I think that's because right now we're teaching them some things, guys. Yeah, that's really well put. And I totally agree. Lincoln Riley, Oklahoma Sooners head coach. They have always been a power. I'm in my 50s. There's very briefly been times when they weren't a dominant program. It is interesting. You're in the Big 12. There's a style you got to play in the Big 12 and then you get to the playoffs and that style sometimes maybe not a perfect setup to play a Bama or a Clemson. But you guys have pulled it off. You always looked the part. I want to go to, you're going to get mentioned for NFL

jobs. Urban Meyer's been mentioned. Sabin even in his 60s was mentioned. If I was your age and I'd say, you know, Lincoln, win some college games, have some fun. Oklahoma is one of the great jobs in America, but I do think you, as a great offensive mind, there will be times in your life as you're a young man now. You're an aspirational guy. You don't get to be the Oklahoma coach without big dreams. envision a time 7, 8, 8, 9 years, perhaps that your your worldview changes and you'll want to be challenged against the world's greatest coaches? I don't know, and it's not one I've spent a lot of time on right now. I know I don't feel that right now.

By the way, I don't hate Baker. I put him on my show. I thought he was a riot. I love, I find him absolutely fascinating to watch. And by the way, you don't know this, but I was told by an NFL general manager is the reason he moved up the charts because there was some concerns about his size and some of the, you know, off-field stuff a little bit, that they thought he was so well coached at Oklahoma under you that he would go to the whiteboard. And I had a GM say he was so far ahead of the other

quarterbacks on the whiteboard. And that momentum started a lot of the Lincoln Riley talk. So that's what I was told by a GM that he was so good and so well coached. So I don't hate him. and he's a heck of a fun guy to watch. But I will say this. I got to ask you this. When you look at a quarterback, he was a walk-on. He wasn't big enough. Give me one or two things for our audience as one of the real progressive thinkers in football.

Kyler's 5-9-5-5-10. Baker was a walk-on. What is the it you look for in a high school quarterback? Because everybody thinks, well, he's big and he's got a big arm. Is there an it you look for? Yeah, the big, I mean, physically, what we look for, the number one thing we look for is then your team. You may not win the state. You can just tell so much out of a guy that gets a future.

Yeah, I always felt Colt McCoy at Texas had a lot of that. He didn't blow you away in the hotel lobby. But God, I saw that guy pull out more last second wins over the course of three or four years. I think his dad, by the way, was also a coach. That doesn't hurt. He was. Yeah. Lincoln, Riley, Oklahoma Sooner Head Coach, 10 minutes.

Thank you so much for your time, coach. Yeah, thanks, Colin. Appreciate you having me on. You bet. Lincoln Riley. He's one of those offensive guys that he just sees the world differently. And he got me around a long time. But I also think to be the Oklahoma head coach, you have to have some sort of drive that is beyond average. That's just a great job. That's a top six job in college football.

So aspirationally, I think there will be, you know, does he hit a ceiling after two national titles or after six straight? I don't know if he's going to win six straight Big 12 championships. I think Texas next year is going to be stacked. Stacked. Sam Munson. Monson Pro Football Focus, which is a site I love. He's the lead NFL analyst. He'll be stopping by.

I think I'm going to have another scone. Seriously. It's going to be a two scone day. Here is veteran newsman John Goulet. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Colin, here's a tweet from NFL networks, Ian Rappaport.

Sources, Steelers owner Art Rooney, is down in Florida, and had hoped to meet with frustrated wide receiver Antonio Brown to clear the air. Brown has no plans to meet with Rooney, and he stated his intentions publicly. They're expecting a lot of the trade talk to ramp up when the combine starts when everyone's altogether. Now, if you look at the Vegas odds, it looks like Vegas still gives a decent chance that the Steelers actually keep Antonio Brown for next season. do you think the Steelers can actually pull that off and get him to want to stay in Pittsburgh? No. I think he's made his mind up.

He feels very much like every woman I dated. They'd made their mind up very early. They were dumping me. And it didn't matter about my sales job. Women made up, like by the third date, they'd made up their mind. This wasn't going to last a long time. And despite my efforts, they would not sign long term.

So I think this guy, you can tell from his Twitter, his social media, He's made his mind up. It's hard to, as my therapist once told me, it's hard to change when you want to change. It's almost impossible to change because most people don't want to change. He's made his mind up and you're not changing it. So good luck. You don't think he listens to you. You'd said he's in the perfect position for him to be in.

Oh, God. I think he's crazy. If they're talking about trading him to Arizona, is that really better? I think he's absolutely out of his mind leaving the best big deep ball quarterback in the league. Another good receiver on the other side so he doesn't get doubled constantly. and Big Ben's one of the great ad-lib quarterbacks, and Antonio is very much, very much an ad-lib wide receiver. So another legendary coach has said he would love to have Duke star Zion Williamson as a part of his team. This time was Clemson head coach Dabo Sweeney.

This is what he said to Coach Kay on his serious XM show. The only guy that I think could be better than him as a freshman is the Zion kid you got. I put him at tight-in or wide out or D-end or wherever. he wanted to play. He might put him a quarterback. You'd run the wildcat. Put in the wildcat, no doubt. Now, that would be a lot of fun. I don't remember a guy like this in college

getting as much hype and talk. Oh, he's so much fun. This is what college basketball used to be like with these kids. He used to have Patrick Ewing coming back and oh, this Zion Williamson kid is, and he seems like such a good kid and he's fun to watch. And I got to tell you, the one thing in sports. I generally go with the flow. I'm so bummed out that college basketball, because of the one and done, has lost a lot of its steam. I love this Duke team reminds me that Kentucky team with Anthony Davis a few years ago. Like I can't, I want to watch him. You don't get, I couldn't

tell you the last time I was this excited about a college basketball player. And he's just, I mean, I'm telling you, physically, he didn't even look like the other kids. When they play Virginia, it looks like a high school and a JV team. Your guy, Doug Gottlie, I had a good tweet. He said, Zion looks like the way every football player thinks they would play basketball. I thought that was well put. And finally, after getting bought out by the Pelicans, veteran forward Markeith Morris has signed a deal with the Thunder. The other team's interested were the Rockets, the Raptors, and the Lakers. Yeah, no, he can play. He can play a little. His addition isn't huge, but to me, I think it kind of signifies maybe what some players are thinking,

because he could have joined the Rockets. He didn't. He could have joined the Raptors in the East. maybe got a chance of the finals he went to the Thunder. Are they maybe more of a title threat than you want to give credit for? I don't think they're a title threat because Westbrook will, I think, eventually revert back on key nights to Westbrook. Like last night

when he had a cheat day on his diet and shot 40 times. But I do think they're absolutely a team capable of they will win a series for sure. And if they don't win the second, they're going deep into it. They got too many good players. Too many good players.

Veteran newsman, John Gou, Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd-Ly News. A guy that knows football, pro football focus, Sam Monson, they say he's Irish or something. I'm excited for that. That brogue accent. I'm very excited for that.

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They have a handsome discount more you buy, the more you save. And they have everything for the bathroom. And it's easy. They send it to you. Like, for instance, they have a $5 oral care kit. And so five bucks you get into the club. And after that, you know, they ship regular size products at regular prices.

Dollar Shaveclub.com. So, L-I-N. They have a new program where they automatically keep you stocked. on the products that you regularly use. So it's a good deal. The company's really grown. It was just about razors, but they got body wash and hair pomades and toothpaste, toothbrushes, everything you need to smell, feel your best, look your best.

Try the toothpaste out. That's good stuff. Dollar Shaveglove.com slash COLIM. Well, his name is Sam Monson. And I, pro football focus is a site I go to regularly. I go to it a ton, actually. and they grade every NFL player, and I think it's fascinating. And I don't watch, I don't know or understand interior line play offensively,

defensively. So they'll tell you who can play and who can't, and it's sometimes surprising how good a player is or how overrated a player is on the grading system. And, you know, people can argue about is their grading system perfect? But I think it is fascinating that you or I can get grades on every single player based on analyzing and film. And the whole thing is really fun for me. And I have followed him now for a couple of different years.

Chris Collinsworth, the NBC guy with Al Michaels, terrific broadcaster. He's one of the owners of it. He started it. And I just love it. I never, ever, ever knew, never, ever knew what, how you graded a guard until pro football football. ballfookas. And many of you may not care about that, but I do. And I think if you play fantasy football, if you bet football, if you just like football, it all matters. Sam, how are you? I'm doing good.

How about you? I'm doing great. For instance, is there a player in the NFL that you're shocked that he grades that high? Like obviously there's stars, or is there a star when you look at your grading system does not grade as well? I think there's always a lot of stars that don't necessarily grade as well as everybody expects them to. And we get tons of crap for that, you know, particularly cornerbacks. Cornerbacks are always a big one because everybody loves to look at a guy who's, you know,

who's just regarded as the best cornerback in the NFL. But when you start to calculate, you know, how many times are they targeted, how much yardage do they give up, how many first downs do they allow, how many touchdowns did they give up? Tons of times those guys aren't the best cornerbacks in the league. And, you know, you can throw in little bits of

information about sure they had a harder job because they were tracking number one receivers and all that kind of stuff. But the beauty of PSF is that we're quantifying all of this stuff and grading every single player in the league. Joe Flacko's a big strong-arm quarterback. I think he fits in Denver, where in November, December, and potentially January, it's cold. He's won games in Foxborough. At Pittsburgh, I get why Denver made the move. But many people say Case Keenham, statistically, who had his best year in a dome, smaller guy less of an arm, is a better quarterback. What do the analytics say with a Flacco in a case Keenum? I mean, is Joe Flacco a big arm quarterback anymore? Sure, he came into the league that way back in

2008. But when was the last time Joe Flacco's arm was legitimately one of the stronger in the league? I don't think he even has that anymore. I think both guys are below average to average quarterbacks. Both guys have shown in the past they were able to play better than that. But, you know, PFF has been developing a war metric like baseball, wins above replacement. And if you look at the PFF war score from last year, if you put Joe Flacco on last year's Denver team instead of Case Kinnam, they win maybe one more game. Like at best, this is a lateral move for the Broncos. Who is the most analytically underrated quarterback in the league?

I mean, I think it's probably still Baker Mayfield. He was the guy coming out of college who was this incredible prospect by the analytics. We loved him. We were saying he was the number one quarterback on the board all the way through from October. And he still graded amongst the better guys in the NFL in his first season. He was a top 10 graded quarterback for us. But right from the get-go, Brown's receivers were dropping passes. And they weren't just dropping them.

They were hitting receivers' hands and they were becoming interception. So his pass-a-rating was never as good as his actual play show. And, you know, the play calling was bad. That's why they made the coaching change. So I think Baker-Mafield was still underrated. by the conventional stats, compared to how he is when you actually grade the tape. Levy and Bell, I see the production.

Are you shocked that Levy and Bell doesn't have analytically, does he look like a guy that can change an offense? Because I thought there would be more takers for him. I think Leveon Bell is a great running back. He's an incredibly talented guy. He can do a lot of things for an offense. But when you start to dive into the numbers, what generates rushing success, it isn't the running back.

It's the blocking. It's the offensive line. It's a bunch of other things way before the running back. And that's why, you know, C.G. Anderson was able to come in this year off the street and do the same job that Todd Gurley was doing. And if anything, have better production than Todd Gurley because the Rams had the best run blocking offensive line in the NFL through the season. So, you know, Levyon Bell is a very talented player.

And there aren't many teams that he wouldn't upgrade from a personnel standpoint. but if they don't have the offensive line to put in front of them, it doesn't matter. They're not going to have running success. So I think teams are just starting to catch up to the idea of you just shouldn't commit that amount of dollars to running back. Patriots are the ongoing dynasty. Super Bowl win again, Super Bowl appearance again. Analytically, I've been arguing that I think their lines are better than we think. I think their players are better than we think.

They don't have a lot of superstars, but they don't have a lot of below-up. average players. Analytically, where do they rate as a roster, a starting roster? Yeah, I think you're right. I think they're a very good roster analytically. What makes them so good is that they're versatile. You know, this idea that a lot of coaches have systems and they get the right guy for those systems and that's what makes them good. The Patriots don't really have systems. They have game plans. So they get in guys that can do a bunch of different things depending on the game plan. And when they can't do that, they find guys that are good for specific game plan so they can chop and change the personnel and become better week to week depending on

what it is they want to do. And that's why they're able to go into the Super Bowl against a team like the Rams and take away the Rams' biggest strength and make some changes on personnel. They're really good in the trenches. They, you know, Dante Scarnackia, their offensive blind coach, maybe one of the most underrated coaches in all of football. He works magic with that unit every single year and is really part of why they're such a good roster. Okay, I want folks, go to pro football focus, PFF. Sam Monson is who you're listening to. It's a fascinating site.

If you love football, I'm all in on it. And I think it makes you smarter if you play fantasy, if you wanted to gamble, or you just like to watch football. I'm on it on a Sunday when I'm watching games the entire time. Give them a little pop here. PFF, Pro Football Focus. Sam, an absolute pleasure. First time talking to you.

Anytime. Thanks for having me. You bet. Like to give those guys a pop. Chris Collinsworth's company. and they do really good work. Cold and flu season. Try Vic's Sinex nasal spray. Works in seconds.

Clears your nose. Last up to 12 hours. Be ready when congestion strikes. Synex nasal spray. Vix Sinex nasal spray. We got that second scone ready. Very excited for that. Man, two hours has just flown by today. Rick Buecker, Lincoln, Riley, Sam Monson. Bill Plashky of the LA Times has come.

I just saw Fred Rogan in the hallway. For the national listeners, you may not know who Fred is. Fred's a big deal in L.A. Just walked by in a hoodie, unshaven. That's a great thing about radio. Swear to God. A great thing about radio, hygiene is not a factor. It's unbelievable.

I got to be the real me. I'm seriously. I'm totally empowered right now. Not wearing socks. No coasters. Second scone. Look at my belt. Oh, I don't even have a belt.

I can wear a belt today. I mean, I could walk through TSA. Nothing will go off. I got nothing on. Don't let your age beat you. Go to buy mDrive.com today. Refind your prime with MDrive. Stronger, energy, leaner.

That Matt Coucher topic. We've got to hit that again. People freaking out. I may take a phone call on that. Hour three coming up Friday. in LA, specifically Burbank. It's The Herd. Ah, this is The Herd.

Hour 3 live in L.A. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening. We're on IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, Channel 83, Sirius XM, doing radio only today. I find myself increasingly distancing myself from the media of which I'm a part of. I can't trust. I saw a story about Colin Kaepernick. He was offered $20 million by the America.

an alliance of football and I'm like, that doesn't sound right. Everybody like, you know, there's a pro-Capernic side and an anti-Capernaic and I'm neither. What he did, kneeling didn't bother me, but I don't think he did himself any favors with some of his comments and the, you know, cop pig socks and all that stuff. So, you know, I'm no big fan of some of the things he did, but he didn't bother me. So I'm not pro or con. I don't care. I don't think he's a great quarterback. I think he's better than some in the league.

but the people that are anti-Captainic see that $20 million offered by the, and I'm like, I don't believe that. It doesn't sound right. And now people are saying, nah, that's not right. That's why you go into a story open-minded. It's like I saw this story a couple days ago. There's an actor for empire, and he was assaulted, and everybody's like, ah, it's a hoax. I'm like, whoa.

And then today they're saying, well, they arrested two guys. It's not a hoax. Well, get it right. What's the rush to be first? How about the Russian news to get it right? It's just everybody's trying to be first and coolest and hippest and smartest and snarkiest. Isn't our job to get it? I mean, I'm in the opinion space so I don't classify as a reporter.

But if you're a reporter, don't be in a hurry to go to social media. Get it right. Get it right on Kaepernick's contract. 20 million, really? You think they're paying that for a quarterback in that league? They got 20 million bucks? Come on. Give me a break. That's the kind of money.

By the way, the other story, the Matt Coacher story. That got, that has, you know why that has everybody worked up? Because it's a rich guy who didn't take care of a guy who doesn't have much money. You know, it'd be like a rich guy coming into a restaurant, party at eight, only tips 40 bucks. You'd be like, what a jerk. You know, no tipping, Scotty Pippin. Remember those rumors forever? You know, you probably poorly tipped a guy once.

Scotty Pippin doesn't tip anybody. A lot of people. are crappy tippers. You ever dated a girl guy? They were a waiter. They always tell you. A lot of people are bad tippers. Over half.

But if it's a rich guy is a bad tipper, that guy's terrible. That Matt Coocher story, listen, they had agreed terms. He gave him a thousand more than agreed terms. Eh, wasn't his longtime caddy. Well, it should be the caddy's responsibility before he's a catty should be to agree to reasonable terms. if they weren't reasonable, why does the golfer take all the hit? Now, I would have given out more than $5,000 after winning the tournament.

But Matt Coochers people offered $15, he turned that down. I think I'd, you know, off the top of my head, I'd be like, oh, here's 50 grand. But that's like I'm probably a better tipper than some people, are a worse tipper than other people. But I don't like when everybody else has a strong opinion about your money. Michael Jordan gave $2 million to a, natural disaster relief fund and got ripped for it.

Two million dollars is a lot of money. Michael, the late Michael Jackson years ago, I was talking to somebody in our office today, gave a million dollars at a charity event. And at the charity event, give a million dollars. And by the end of the charity event, people were saying, you know, he's worth $600 million. Michael Jackson is cheap.

A million dollars is a lot, period. It's a lot. So, you know, I don't think Matt Coocher's the best guy in the world. but, you know, if you're, it's kind of an outsourced position, it wasn't as regular caddy. You agree with terms. He gave him a thousand over that. All right. I saw this.

A lot of people now, for the first time in probably a decade or more, there's a college basketball player. You can't take your eyes off. Zion Williams and at Duke. Now, Duke may get the top three guys drafted in the NBA. And you're going to hear a lot of people, a lot of, Internet experts, basketball guys, try to sound really smart. RJ Barrett, his skills, his lane, his, a stop-it.

Zion Williamson, unanimous number one. Okay, about every five or six years in sports, and I'm talking all of them combined, baseball, NFL, NBA, NHL, but every five or six years, you get a body type that is just abnormally impressive. Eric Lindross in hockey. He's got to be the first pick. Bryce Harper and baseball. Cam Newton, Ben Simmons.

Six, ten and a half point guard that sees the floor like that, you make him number one. Before Ben Simmons got drafted, I brought a couple of these, you know, basketball analytic guys on. They were like, ah, Simmons, couldn't win in the tournament. Not a great leader. He's a six, ten and a half point guard with Magic Johnson handles. He's number one. Zion Williamson is going to go number one.

There are these freakish, Bo Jackson, Shaq, Bryce Harper, LeBron. You just got to pick him number one. There's too much, literally too much pressure within your industry. And I think the kid's terrific. He's large, quick, great first step, has great body control, a really nice touch. He's going to be an over 20-pointed game NBA guy pretty quick. Now, his big issue is free throw shooting. He shoots under 70%.

That is a problem. He's got to get to the mid-70s. Carl Malone scored a lot of his points at the free throw line. He's got a lot of Carl Malone. He's got a lot of Carl Malone. But don't listen to anybody that tries to, you know, talk you out of Zion Williamson being number one. That kid is an all-time body. It's the same reason why.

the Houston Rockets who drafted a Kim Ilajuan over Michael Jordan, yet nobody's going to hold it against him. I mean, I saw Kim Ilajuan play college. He was sculpted at 6.11 and a half. He looked like a defensive back, like ripped super quick. You just, I'd never, frankly, I'd never seen a center that agile. That's why nobody rips. I mean, you had to take him number one.

By the way, I'm reading a pre-draft analysis. It's right in front of me on Zion Williamson. It says his improvement areas. Challenging player for NBA scouts to wrap their head around. He doesn't fit into traditional molds. He doesn't compare to any existing players. Folks, that's not a weakness of Zion. That's a weakness of NBA scouts.

That's not his problem. That's theirs. He's a really impressive defender when he's into it. He really knows the game. You can tell hips, angles, where he puts himself on the low box. His footwork for his size is absurdly good. I mean, he can go fast. He can go slow.

I mean, he's just, he is just, he's a combination of things physically that God, and I'm not religious, God just doesn't create a lot of Zion Williamson's. He'll be right out of the gate one of the 10 most difficult guys in the low block to defend. Right out of the gate. I mean, day one in the NBA, they're going to be guys that are like, I mean, that's like Chris Bosch told us yesterday. He's like Anthony Davis broke into the league. He was the first guy I ever said, oh, I can't guard him. He was right out of college.

Played one year of college. So don't anybody talk you out of this guy going number one. Well, the skills of R.J. Barretted. Trey Jones. This guy's got, just turn the television on. Just turn the TV on and watch that kid. And he also has something that I think is just, you can't, you just can't fake. He appears to love basketball.

I mean, he just loves playing basketball. He's pumping his fist. I mean, the guy's going to make $100 million in, you know, eight weeks. He is so excited. He loves playing for Duke. And that's just contagious. I mean, the NBA's long season. Joy matters.

Guys who, Magic Johnson, you never saw Magic play and didn't think he'd rather not be there. You watch some NBA games and there are guys going through the motions. Same with football. I've talked to NFL GMs before. Scouts, they're like, we're not sure if he loves the game. They say that about Lavian Bell, likes the game, not sure if he loves. loves the game because it's hard. Football practice is hard getting NBA. It's a lot of travel. A lot of coaches barking at you. A lot of late night flights getting

into Cleveland at three in the morning. Go to a hotel, sleep, shoot around, up, nap, lunch. It's a grind. Getting traded to cities you don't want to live in. So the Zion Williamson kids just, I think he's going to be just a fantastic player. Gotta hit free throws, though. If not, he's going to leave 10,000 points. He's just going to, they're going to go the ether because he's going to be at the free throw line. He is going to be a... I mean, right now today, LeBron James could not defend him. No way.

Low block? No way. Perimeter? Yeah. But low block, he got the ball against LeBron. Good luck. Maybe Anthony, maybe the long guys could. You know, Janus could.

But he'd bump, he'd push Janus around a little with those, with that butt and those hips. I mean, he's a big, big explosive kid. Fun to watch. Couldn't tell you the last time I made an effort to watch an individual college player. Bill Plashky, LA Times around the corner. So much fun today. Don't get to wear flannel shirts very much. I'm really enjoying that.

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H-E-R-D order today. Refind your prime with M-D-Drive. By the way, there is a story out there that Kaepernick and the NFL settled. No idea what the money is. But, I mean, he opted out of the final year of his deal with a nine or so he left a lot of money on the table. So if he gets, you know, 20, 30 million bucks, it's kind of a break-even deal. There's a story out that said he made 40, 50 million. No idea.

I mean, again, I'm not really, I don't care either way. you know, he left some money on the table, got it back. I wasn't outraged when Nike had a series of commercials with him. It didn't bother me. I've never had this strong emotional feeling about Kaepernig either way. I made a mistake earlier. I said he was offered $20 million by the AAF reportedly now. That was my mistake.

They offered him a contract or they said they'd like him to play and he said, I'll only play for $20 million. And I don't necessarily believe that story. I mean, you know how I've had my contract in trades? It's never been right. It's never been right. It's never, and it's often not close to being right. So, you know, well, he demanded 20 million.

Show it to me. Show me the paper. I don't buy that. I don't think Cabernick's ever going to play in the AAF. I would watch him. I would absolutely watch him. Bill Plashky is a long time award-winning columnist. What's an award?

I've never won one of those. He must have a house full with plaques. At the LA Times, today is columns of Jeannie Bus reminding everybody this week that she runs the Lakers, not LeBron and Bill is joining us. I'm actually, I think, in the group, the quieter chorus, the smaller group, to not fire Luke Walton with 30 games last. I'm on Team Jeannie Bus. Where do you land on this, Bill?

Yeah, I agree if you completely, Colin. We just don't know what Luke can do with a full season with this team. Now, I don't think if they don't make a playoff, he's not getting past the final game of the season. I mean, he's done then. I'm certain of that. But I think he needs a chance to be. I mean, this is a guy who is, you know,

they're committed to growing their young players, yet suddenly they're not committed to growing their young coach. and, you know, he's the guy who was this year, he had these young guys, plus then he had, I call him, he had the kids and he had the cooks. And they added all the cooks in the summer, plus LeBron. He's got to coach all this mess and try to figure it out. And LeBron missed 18 games with the groin. And, yeah, so he hasn't had a fair run. And I think this is really impressive to me, is that Jeannie Buss, just as she rested control of the organization from her brothers, she put her foot down and said, you know what, LeBron, we'll give you Lance Stevenson, we'll give you Michael Beasley, You're not getting Luke Walton, not now, not on my watch. And I thought that was really important symbolically to let everyone know she still runs this team. By the way, Clutch Sports has tried to in the last couple of weeks, distance themselves from LeBron. We all know there's a real alignment with Rich Paul and Clutch Sports. How much power does LeBron have inside the Lakers?

How much does he want? How much is he in Magic or Rob Zier? Oh, completely. He wants it all. I mean, he's trying to run the team. From what I understand, he's trying to, you know, micro-managing behind the scenes with Rich Paul trying to pick the coach, pick the players, design the future of the Lakers. And it's not, you know, and again, this Anthony Davis thing failed so spectacularly.

And then plus, I think he's lost. So he's totally in Magic's here. Magic's following his lead, all that. And then, but it's not working out so well because A, LeBron got hurt and B, he's not connecting with his team on the court. He's so disconnected out there that, you know, if you ask me, he's the biggest problem with the Lakers right now, is that he is not, you know, lived up to expectations out here either physically or mentally. And then he comes out with a quote, which, again, he's trying to, you know, run the Lakers. And he says, well, it's only icing on the cake.

A championship is only icing on the cake. Laker fans don't want to hear that. Laker fans think the Lakers are the cake. You know, they want him to be here to win a championship, not to come out here and live out of Hollywood days. It's been a disappointment. It's been a big disappointment so far with him. And I think he's got, you know, 25 more games to try to figure it out to try to establish this first year. Jackie McMullen, a widely respected longtime NBA reporter, said about a month ago, there is real tension inside the building.

Do you sense that as well? Oh, absolutely. I mean, he's brought, you know, Kevin Durant, I criticized Kevin Durant for not wanting to play with LeBron, but Kevin, Katie, was right about everything. LeBron brings with him. And he brings this, maybe it's creative tension. Some of it is, you know, a jealous tension, but it's a lot of tension, a lot of, do we have to operate around this guy? Is this guy in our orbit? You know, a lot, yes, a lot of tension. And again, I think this works out if he's on the court and he's invested and he's bought it and they're winning, but when he's

injured and they separates himself from his team and then his team does the trust, you know, the young guys don't trust him anymore because because they think he's the one that, they're one of them traded, which is very likely. So he's having a hard time connecting with everybody. And now the trade deadlines over with, you know, we'll see what happens. They're all on even ground. We'll see if moving forward they can figure it out. But yes, he has brought – and, you know, we heard stories about this, Colin out here in L.A.

about how LeBron works and how his planet orbits – he eclipses your planet. We're finding it out out here. We're seeing exactly what that's like. And it's a whole big ball of wax. It's a whole big thing. Yeah, there's a definite urge. trade everything to get good now. Do you think they land Anthony Davis by seasons?

And do you think he's their number one target? Do you think it's already inevitably done? I don't think they get him at all. I don't mean, now, and this Dell Demp's thing may change it. We'll see who's running the pelicans. But I don't think, no, I don't think that they, their package as constituted, their package wouldn't match Boston's package. And so I don't, I think they're out of the Anthony,

in a lot of people's opinions, they're out of the Anthony Davis three stakes. They've got to go out and get a free agent. They've already blown that. And that's the next question is now seeing all the issues out here with LeBron and wondering still, why is LeBron here, and is you really here to chase the championship, will that make it harder to them to get a free agent and come play with him? I mean, that's going to be the next step. So I think there's a lot of uncertainty.

A lot of people are worried, oh, my gosh, it's just like that the White Howard Steve Nash era was going to be so great and it turns out to be a complete failure. I think there's a lot of unknowns going forward, and a lot more than what most people thought. Magic Johnson took a real hit on the Anthony Davis situation. People said it was disorganized. I will defend magic two ways. One, I think the Pelicans poisoned the water by leaking stuff.

There's nothing magic could do. Secondly, I do think there's sort of a, you know, I said this. Obama became a celebrity last three or four months of running for president. Trump was as he ran. You can't blame a celebrity for being a celebrity. you do play by different rules. People want to be around you. TV and radio stations want to talk to you and ask you questions.

Players want to play with you. So part of it is I support Magic on this tampering stuff because I do think part of it is if Magic has an opinion, it's much bigger than if, you know, the Charlotte GM had an opinion. But do you think Magic's done a good job? Is Polinka running the show or do you think Magic was exposed with all the Anthony Davis stuff? Well, I agree with you about Magic.

I think he's done, I've criticized him. in the past for several things, but I think he's done, he did what he had to do with his Anthony Davis thing. Rich Paul got the whole thing started. Never should have gone public with all this. Put his client in a tough position, put the Lakers in the opposition. And Magic was forced to go out there and try to get him. And I wrote Magic had to try to get Davis. And he did everything he could to try to get him. I think Magic's doing his job. I think we'll see Magic. We can't really evaluate him. Even with LeBron James, LeBron James, it turns out, was probably coming to L.A.

no matter who was running this show. Right, right. So we have to see what he can do this summer. He'll be judged by championship of tips like everyone else. But no, he's got, he's not around the, as you know, Colin. He's not around the offices as much as Rob Polinka. He's not there every day like Rob Polika is. But Magic clearly has Jeannie's ear.

I mean, Magic is still the one calling all the shots and having the final say on everything. So we'll see. I think the jury is out on him. But I don't blame him is Anthony Davis thing. I mean, I don't blame him for trying to do what he could do. He was stuck. Once Anthony Davis, once they said he wanted to be traded and he wanted to come to Lakers, by goodness, you know, magic had to do whatever he could have tried to get him. I don't blame him for that.

And I do think New Orleans poisoned the well and kind of got back at him for that. It's funny with LeBron the other night against Atlanta. I watched that game and he had really good. He had really good numbers, but he did look disengaged at times. He really did. He looked. It was the most evocuous triple-double I think I've ever seen. He wasn't helping on defense.

He was walking down the court, those sides, those winces. Laker fans are getting sick of that. I mean, buy in, man. This is your team. You came here. You know, don't come here to go on vacation or to build your brand. Come here to win championship. Buy into Luke Wall and buy in.

To me, he has not bought in. No, no, no. I said this the other day. I said Park City, Utah is in Utah. It's not of Utah. Austin, Texas is in Texas. But it's not of Texas. LeBron's a Laker, but he's not all in.

He's not of the... He doesn't feel like it. New is not you exactly right. He's disconnected. You can't ask anybody with an organization. It's like he's his own company, his own brand, his own element. He's his own planet. And he's orbiting around the Lakers, but he's not landed and connected with the Lakers at all.

And yes, and they feel it. And the players, you know what the team leader is, is Rajan Rondo. He's their leader. They love him. The kids love him. you saw how much he celebrated when he came back and beat Boston with that shot. That was real. He's mentoring them.

He's helping them. He's leading them. What's LeBron doing? Right now, you know, putting up some good numbers and, you know, in playing, but not as engaged and as invested as he should be in any of this. Great talking to you, Bill. I don't see, I only see about once a year now, even though we live in the same town. You know, you can take me out to lunch.

Oh, you know, the L.A. Times. I can't afford to go where you. you go, Colin. The LA Times building is right next to my house. But you sports writers, you don't, you don't go in the building, do you? You just do your stuff. No, no, because those are so far away. We never go in the offices. No, you'll find me a staple center, Colin. Come by and see me some path. All right. Good talking to you, Bill. See you, man. By the way, Bruins-Anaheim, Ducks tonight, Discover card key matchup, get your free credit scorecard today. Even if you're not a Discover customer includes your FICA credit score. Learn more. Discover.com slash credit scorecard. Limitations apply.

You know, I'm reading that story right now on the Kaepernick settlement with the NFL. Here's a weird thing about Kaepernick. Am I the only person in America that doesn't have a strong opinion about him? I think I am. Certainly in the media. I was never bothered initially by what he did. Then I thought he did some really dumb stuff with like the pig socks. That was stupid.

And then it's like one of the reasons I don't believe 90% of what I read is everybody has such a strong opinion on Kaepernick. that I feel like everybody sort of slants the story to pro or anti Colin Kaepernick. I don't know. This story never, the knee isn't what I would have done. It never rose to the level of some, I went to some emotional place. I think he hasn't always, he's rubbed me a little the wrong way on, you know, I want to be in football. Well, then go practice. Release more than one video.

your Instagram has to have football stuff on it. And you got to show me you love something or I'm not going to invest in you. Like I said about Zion Williamson, he appears to love basketball. I can invest in that. I tell my kids all the time, if you don't love basketball, then I'm not taking you to practice. If you're not into it, why do I got to be into it? You know, my daughter at one point said, I like volleyball. I don't love it.

And I said, good, because then I don't even like it. If you don't love it, then I don't like it. I'm not getting into a van all weekend and watching volleyball matches. So, Kaepernick's a funny story to me. Earlier today, I said, AAF offered him $20 million. Apparently, they offered him a job and he said,

I won't take it for less than $20 million. Which, by the way, he'd be the rock star of the league. That's probably a very realistic number. I mean, from his vantage point. I don't think that league's in a place where it can give people $20 million bucks, maybe, you know, four-year deal. But if you're Kaepernick, and I don't necessarily believe that number

because when I see numbers thrown around the internet, I just don't buy any of them. But, you know, I mean, if he was going to be the rock star of the league, that's probably what he's worth. I mean, he would definitely, he would change numbers. There's no doubt you'd watch if Tim Tebow or Kaepernick would play. I don't have to agree.

I mean, Baker Mayfield rubs me the wrong way. I still think he's interesting television. I love watching Baker Mayfield play. I don't have to like a guy to watch him. play. It's like I had a news director tell me this years ago. He said, what kind of candy bar do you like? At the time, I said, Snickers. He goes, what if I told to the CEO was an absolute creep? Would you eat three musketeers instead? And I said, no, I don't like three musketeers.

Whenever I hear people, I'm not going to watch that movie. It's written by a bunch of liberals. Everything on TV was written by a liberal. Turn the TV off if that bothers you. I live, other than Fox News, I live, I live. Not far from, work not far from Hollywood. If that bothers, you, turn your TV off. Entertain me. That's all I care about. People said it all to.

How can you defend? It's my television. My eyes want interesting. Kaepernick would be interesting. I'll watch. Baker Mayfield's last year was way more interesting than Sam Darnel. And I love Darnel. But Baker was fascinating.

It's time for veteran newsman, seasoned veteran newsman, John Goulet. No, no, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. So earlier we had this as our breaking news to start the show. The Pelicans fired their GM Del Demps earlier today. He's been there for nine years, three trips at the playoffs. They've advanced past the first round a whopping one time.

I believe you coined the phrase Dempster fire, which is very clever by you. A nice pun. apparently Danny Ferry who was a consultant for the Pelicans he's a candidate There's also some rumblings at David Griffin He was the GM that built the calves And then got let go

He could be a candidate for the job Could this whole situation have gotten any worse For the Pelicans? This is the guy that wouldn't He wouldn't talk to Rob Polinka He would only talk to Magic And now he's not talking to anybody Yeah I don't think it landed well on everybody

Anybody I think it's just a mass It's, you know, I got nothing against the city of New Orleans, but Seattle is a corporate hub, and they yank the NBA out of Seattle. And there are times I say this. L.A. went 15, 20 years without an NFL team, but Buffalo has one. Sometimes I look around the landscape of pro sports, and I'm like, I don't get how certain cities get teams and certain cities don't get teams. I remember when I worked in Tampa, George Steinbrenner was alive, and he had his house in Tampa. He was from Tampa.

That's where the Yankees minor league AAA teams in Tampa, right? Their training facility. And the reason the Tampa Bay Rays got a Major League Baseball theme wasn't because any other reason that George Steinbrenner went to the commissioner and said, you owe me one, I'm carrying your sports ratings. And that literally, I mean, he just wanted nine games here you'd not travel to to watch the Yankees. Yeah, I mean, seriously, and the more you did the reporting on it, basically George Steinbrenner said, do you know the value of the Yankees

since I bought the team. He bought the team for like $9 million. He goes, now I literally control the sport. You can't do me as solid. Because Tampa only had at the time one Fortune 500 company, Raymond James, financial services, and they got a Major League baseball team. And then they put it in St. Petersburg, which people in Tampa don't want to go across the bridge to go to St. Petersburg.

It's always struggled. Think about Tampa. They've struggled with the Red Sox and the Yankees in their division. The two biggest draws in baseball outside of the Cubs are Yankees' Red Sox. Rays have them in their division and still can't get flies. They can't get anybody of their game. I think that's the most in-depth breakdown of the Tampa Bay Rays we've ever in the history of sports radio. Yes. So we had a, what I thought would be your lead story coming in today that Russell Westbrook decided I'm going to shoot all night. No.

Took 30 shots last night. Twelve three-pointers. He actually made a lot of them, which is a change. had a 44 point triple double, but they lost to the Pelicans without Anthony Davis, a team that fired their GM 12 hours later. And you didn't really seem to react to it. I'm going to give you a last shot. Do you want to go after Russell Westbrook for his cheat day last night? No, I figured it's Friday.

I'm in a good mood. Two scones in. I'm like, you know what? I'm not going to bang on him today. I don't care. Listen, he should not shoot ever 12-3s in a game. He should never do that. I don't even know.

outside of Steph Curry, I don't think maybe Clay Thompson, anybody should. Hardin takes about double that. But, you know, this is what I contend Westbrook's going to do. He's going to get to the playoffs and revert back to Cheat Day, Westbrook. He'll go off his diet of 17 shots and he'll get up to 38. And that's what he'll be. He'll go back to relentless Russell Westbrook, harder to play with Russell Westbrook in the playoffs. It's all that matters for a player.

And finally, Markle Fultz, one of the big. biggest bus any of us can really remember 76ers traded away the spot to draft Jason Tatum in order to draft Fultz. They traded him at the deadline of the magic for basically nothing. Yesterday, he took a little shot at the 76ers on his way out. He said, quote, it just excites me really to know that I have coaches that's going to push you to be better and not just going to tell you what you want to hear. Do you blame the 76ers coaching staff for Fultz just being one of the worst number one overall picks ever? No, because I think he was a good prospect,

and then he became mental. I don't, I know, I blame the team. Remember there was that guy Royce White who played for Iowa State, and then he went into the NBA, and he had a fear of flying. And he said, it was the Rockets. The Rockets or somebody. He's like, I have a fear of flying.

And they were like, no, we're going to get him anyway. And it's like, I probably wouldn't draft a guy if he told me. They got to their first road trip and didn't know where he was. Yeah, and so it's, like that's kind of on you. But the Sixers draft of a really talented kid who was a dominant player in AAU, very good college player. And then they got him and all of a sudden he had some, you know, psychological thing. And then he had a shoulder injury and then he got the yips and then he can't shoot. And I don't blame the team. I blame teams. I mean, like Greg

Odin was injury prone. Like, like, and then Portland said, we're going to go with Greg Odin. That's where you have to have your staff and doctors come in. Yeah, and that one would deserve more criticism. Veteran newsman, John Goulet. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Heard Lye News. By the way, Greg Toey, I want Greg Tooey on the mic and John Goulet on the mic.

And Sam, get on the mic. So everybody says I'm out of touch on Matt Coocher, who is the golfer who only tipped that he had agreed to terms with his caddy. He won the tournament. And he gave him $5,000. And everybody says, Colin, you are out of touch. because you make a lot of money. And to that I say, this was not his regular caddy.

This was not Bones and Mickelson. This was not Jordan Spee's guy who they're in each other's ear. This was a guy they never used before and the guy was there and they agreed. All right, I'll give you a thousand bucks. I make the cut. Miss the cut. 2,000. They agreed to everything.

And then by the way, Coutcher, when it was all said and done, offered him 15,000 bucks. And he turned it down. And my takeaway is, and maybe I'm completely out of touch here, so I'm going to bring on people who are not out of touch. A regular Americans, apparently I'm not. Okay, this is Sam Battash, whose dad was a tailor or something.

Okay, Sam, are you from a wealthy family? It's not exactly a wealthy family, I would say. My dad definitely works downtown. How can you use your mic working? Hold on. Hold on. We can slide over. Okay, so give me the family background of you.

My father works and hosts. sale clothing downtown. He has his whole life. And my mom is a therapist. But I grew up, yeah. I mean, I would say we grew up. I was certainly not hurting growing up. Yeah, yeah. I went to a nice school, grew up in a nice house. Beautiful neighborhood. Yeah, okay. Yeah, exactly. An elite valley boy, if you were here in L.

Are you and Rachel Maddow hanging out on the weekends? Okay, so I don't want his opinion. Too-me, how about you? Well, you're rich then. I mean, I wasn't rich. I would say, look, I mean, in regards to what Cochre did, look, I don't like the fact that he wasn't willing once he won to tell his caddy immediately in that

moment, okay, maybe this is something we shared together. Maybe this is more special than the $5,000 we agreed to when you filled in for somebody else to do this for me. I thought it was a more special occasion that he could have at that point, you know, tipped more than 20% on his bill. I would say the service was better than he realized it was going to be. Okay, so Greg Tooey, what was your childhood like? Uh, middle of the road. What do you mean? Three, three, six, we weren't rich. We weren't poor. We were middle class. Okay. Did you ever You're eating Applebee's? No, but, well, maybe occasionally.

Chili's was one of our... Oh, right. Then you're a regular American. What is your takeaway? You're not out of touch like me and Sambo here. I think it was absolutely fine what he offered. I mean, this guy, like, he didn't even know him. Like, he should be lucky he got anything.

Whoa, that is hard. Who does this guy think he is? That's out of line to you. By the way, I went through eight divorces as a kid. Apparently, I'm Donald Trump. I'm out of touch. All right, Goulet, where did you grow up? You've never grown up.

Yeah, in Connecticut. Okay. Did you grow up around? to rich people. What was your father? My dad is a radio DJ similar to you. Oh, good hell. Okay, so, so you grew up normal, just normal life. Totally suburban normal life. Did you have a second car? Each one of my parents had a car. They weren't nice though. Were they a Lambo? No, no Lambo. Okay, so you're out of touch. What do you make a coocher? I think if you agree to something, then you have really no right to complain. It does appear that I'm not. If I, we,

I work for you, right? If I, I work for you, right? If I, I, If I do something, if I come up with something that makes you a ton of money or wins you an award, you don't then go, hey, you deserve more. But he could, but wait, but Kulay. But Colin could in that case say this was above and beyond. And in this case, I would say winning a turn, it's tough to say wins and losses, Colin. For what we do, it's really tough to say wins and losses. Winning a tournament being the best out of a pool of 30 golfers, let's say.

And again, again, before the cut, we're talking 60 golfers, right? I mean, being the best in a tournament, I think that at that point becomes above and beyond what you signed up for. Okay. All right. That's fair. Listen, I'm apparently out of touch with America. I had two scones. Yeah, like, I'm totally out of time.

Yeah, you're not thinking straight today. I'm drunk on scones. My audience has turned on me. 66% of men lose their hair by the age of 35. Thing is when you start the notice hair loss, it's way too late. Easier to keep the hair you have than to replace the hair you've lost. Thanks to science, baldness can be optional. And forehems.com is a one-stop shop for hair loss and skin care and sexual wellness.

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Put it in your nose. I did that once as a kid. Bad news. What a show today. Rick Buecker, sooner coach Lincoln Riley, Sam Munson, Bill Plashke. Yeah, I guess the Kaepernick,

Eric Reed, finalized their collusion grievances with the NFL. Money. A lot of people are guessing on the money. I don't have a strong feeling either way. Collusion to me. What hell's collusion? But if they got paid, they got paid. I'm not losing any sleep on it. I know it got a lot of people worked up. I mean, the internet.

If you don't really care about Kaepernick and I don't, stay off the internet today. It'll just melt down. I'm sure it's melting down right now. You got money. Good for him. Good for him. Rick Buecker on earlier today. We were talking about, you know, the Anthony Davis thing and are they going to land? And Bill Plashky was on 10 minutes ago, and he said, I don't think they're going to land Anthony Davis. And Buker earlier talked about why he thinks the Lakers are in trouble more than other teams. What ticks people off in the league about the Lakers, the Lakers are arrogant about it. The Lakers advertise it.

Magic Johnson is on late-night TV doing the wink-wink-wink. Are we interested in Paul George making a joke of it? LeBron is being interviewed and saying, you know, it would be amazing for me to play with Anthony Davis. the two biggest culprits in doing it advertised that they're doing it. And that's what ticks everybody off. I, Bill Plashky brought up a point, which I think is very fair. And I like LeBron. But I don't think, I don't think he's all in. I don't feel it. Like I, and, you know, some of it, and I've always kind of felt that with Kevin Durant. He's a warrior. But I feel like Steph Curry's all in forever.

Draymond Green would be all in forever, unless they moved on, didn't want to pay him big money. But some guys, you know, Kyrie Irving never feels all in on anybody. And I always felt LeBron bought into Cleveland, even when he came back.

And I thought, and I absolutely felt like he bought into Miami. Until the very, very end. But I've never, it just, I watch him. And there are nights he is just not into it. Now, some of that could be he's sidetracked, like an executive producer on like 15 TV shows.

Some of it could be the NBA regular season, January, early February. LeBron's just waiting to get to the playoffs. He is just waiting to get to the playoffs. And he doesn't have that first six, seven year in the NBA joy and zeal every night to go attack it. Some of it's just that. but he doesn't and I think it's a fair, I always use that. You know, Park City, Utah is in Utah. It's not of Utah.

They party there. Hard. LeBron doesn't feel like a Laker. He wears the uniform, but he doesn't feel all in yet. And Bill Plashkey said it and he said people in the Lakers feel it. And I can kind of see it. The Atlanta game, it was obvious. And again, LeBron's talented enough to get triple doubles.

And you could, you know, it's just you can, like, you know, I watch Michael Jordan in his prime and he would take there was no question you could tell when Jordan was into it because that steam would come off his head he'd have these like six minute bursts where he was just absolutely both ends of the floor relentless and Michael would take possessions off it's a long season back then it was a physical league I mean you were taking a beating so good friday show radio only really enjoyed it really really enjoyed it you want more energy more Strength, more drive. M drive is a family run business.

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Monday. I'll have a podcast, a special podcast Saturday morning. Well, it'll be fun. Some media stuff. The herd. 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. In every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headlines. 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 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. 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 acapella 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. Life is full of hurdles. So how do you keep going? On Hurtle with Emily Abadi, we're talking with the most inspiring women in sports and wellness, from professional athletes, coaches, and Olympic champions about the challenges that shape them and the mindset that keeps them moving forward. At our level, at this scale, being able to fail in front of the entire world.

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