The Herd with Colin Cowherd - THE HERD - Hour 1 - The Knicks have a problem, Fernando Mendoza is on a certain level

Episode Date: April 21, 2026

Colin Cowherd identifies the major issue the Knicks have after their shocking 4th quarter collapse vs the Hawks in game 2 of their playoff series. He claims Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza is on the same level as Andrew Luck as a prospect ahead of Thursday’s NFL Draft.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Okay, 16 teams get into the NBA playoffs. 16. There's three levels of playoff teams in the NBA. Great. There's one. Oklahoma City defending champs. Best roster, deepest roster, best defense, dominant score.

That's a great team. The other 15 playoff teams are very good. That's Denver. You know, that's Boston. Very good teams. And then there's the Knicks. The Knicks are good. They're a good team, and they're going to beat inferior Atlanta.

But Nick fans have put their best player, Jalen Brunson, on a level above what he is, and they put their team a level above what they are, and so people get unhappy. That's unrealistic. New York is going to beat Atlanta. But they led by eight with six minutes left at home, and Atlanta goes out and hits seven of eight shots, and C.J. McCollum looks like MJ. He literally hunted Jalen Brunson. Well, Jalen Brunson's a great player.

No, Ant is, SGA is, Yokic is, Wembe is. Those are great players. Brunson, after a great first quarter in game one, disappeared the rest of game one. And last night, he's 11 for 37 since the first quarter of game one. Ant, meanwhile, was better last night. He'll get better as the series goes on. So, I mean, Jalen Johnson and Jonathan Cominga down the stretch, they were just too much.

They're too athletic for New York. So great players can make a stop on C.J. McCollum, who is shooting 75% in the series when he's guarded by Jalen Brunson. Nick fans treat their team in Brunson like everybody treats their kids. Oh, my kids are brilliant. Look at this. Picasso. It's a dinosaur. It actually looks like a cat. I don't think it's a dinosaur.

You can't treat your teams and your star player, your very good player. So Brunson's very good, but he has great moments, great plays and great possessions, and great nights. He's very good. And it's great. The Knicks are just good, and they have very good halves and very good quarters. But, I mean, Jalen Brunson, after a great first quarter in this series, hasn't been very good offensively. he's not good defensively. So, you know, you just got to take a deep breath on this stuff.

You keep getting frustrated, and it's like, this is why the Yonah stuff makes sense. And here's the other thing. The Knicks have a central issue, that they have to have Brunson and Kat on the floor because it optimizes their offense. But then they become a huge hole defensively late. So, I mean, when Brunson and Kat checked in with about $750 to go, the Knicks led by 9. uh-oh, they couldn't hold a lead against Atlanta, an inferior team at home, because CJ McCollum just took him to the rack.

So, and it's interesting. After the game, I'm going to let you listen to CJ, and you won't hear the follow-up question, but the follow-up question after his initial comment is, did you hunt, did you attack, seek Jalen Brunson? Listen. I love it. It's why we played the game. It's fun being in.

you know, opposing arenas and when the buzzer sounds and it's quiet and you walk off the court, I think there's a level of, you know, mutual respect. Like, it was a, you know, a tough game against a good team. Like, what you had in that end of those four hours and what's the area? What you think? What do you think? Yeah. Yeah.

Did you hunt Brunson? What do you think? What is everybody think? And you're taking it as a criticism. The Knicks are not a very good team. They don't get much bench scoring. They can't defend a three. Their two best players are defensive liabilities.

They'll beat Atlanta. But Atlanta made them look pretty unathletic down the stretch. CJ's 34-year-old vet getting great shots, total pro. He can get like any NBA veteran in the back court. He can get hot. He can deal. He can play out of Lehigh. Had a very nice career.

but you just got to take a deep breath. Brunson's a 6-2 guy, not super hyper-athletic and a defensive liability, and he's not a great playmaker. He's a very good player who you think is great. And the Knicks are a good team that you think are as good as Denver or as deep athletically as Minnesota. They're not. So if you scale that down, you're not going to be as angry.

Okay, the other series, and again, I'm working on four hours sleep. This is April. It's a fascinating series. Denver, Minnesota. So Denver's got the best player in the series, Yokic, and they've got Gordon, and they got Jamal Murray, and there's a drop-off. Minnesota has a aunt, but they have a deep, long, athletic roster, and what's happening is Denver, needs Yokic to be great. And Rudy Gobert defends him pretty well.

But it's not just Rudy. It's Ann. It's Julius Randall. It's Nas Reid. It's DeVangelo. It's Jaden McDaniels. They got length and depth and experience. And they're just...

Minnesota, we said all year. What's wrong with Minnesota? Well, when you watch them in the playoffs, you can see what's right with Minnesota. A well-coached team with a lot of playoff minutes and a guy that defends Yokich better than almost everybody else in the league. Yokich, by the way, was one for eight last night.

One for eight. This doesn't happen very often for Yokic when Rudy Gobert guarded it. And they've got Julius Randall looks like a defensive end. And Nas Reid is a big time athlete. Jaden McDaniels is an un... I've said this during the middle of the year. If the Lakers just had Jaden McDaniels, they'd be a different team. That would be a Western finals team.

He can shoot now and he's a great defender. So it's a fascinating series. You need Yokish and Murray to be great offensively. And Minnesota is giving Yokic problems and almost nobody in the world does. So it's, you know, Minnesota is just, I mean, all season, this is how valuable Yokic is. His nine worst offensive games, Denver's 2 and 7. Where Minnesota can compete with anybody, even when ants off. They prefer he's on and maybe in Denver you need Ann to be great.

But they are so deep and so long and so thick and so experienced. So Minnesota is a handful. And just to show you the depth of Minnesota, Ant scored his last bucket with about six to go. If I told you, Yokic scored his last bucket with six to go, six minutes to go, you'd be like, oh, Denver loss. But in Minnesota, Ant scored his last bucket with six to go. It didn't matter.

Deven Genzo hit a shot. Julius Randall hit a shot. Jane McDaniels hit a shot. So Minnesota's got, they've just got a lot of, length and size and experience and athleticism and they all kind of fit together they've got the defensive big and the hyper athletic scoring aunt edwards and then they've got defensive guys and a three and d guy and defengenzo's tough guy that's been around the league forever that can pop up and hit a three Minnesota's a deep feisty roster and they they don't have to even if aunt

doesn't play great did last night they're trouble Denver is very very Yokich dependent and he's being put to the test and after the game Jaden McDaniels goes out and says the quiet part out loud

about Denver's limitations maybe athletically go out Yokage, Jamal all the bad defenders Tim Hardaway, Cam Johnson Aaron Gordon the whole team

just go out They're all bad defenders. Yeah, they're all bad defenders. They don't got people that can defend the rim. And if he is there, we still more athletic than them. And just got to be able to finish when we do it. So that feels like a second round series or a conference finals. You've got a lot of star power.

You got aunt. You got Yokic. But, you know, Minnesota is one of those rare teams that I could argue is actually built for the playoffs. Right? Like teams that are, you know, like Lakers, Austin Reeves, Luca, LeBron, Aiton, Rui, these teams that are pretty good offensively, in fact, exceptional offensively. I mean, if you come in with little rest, you don't get much prep, and the Lakers spread you out with spacing, they can create a lot of opportunities offensively.

Minnesota is the kind of team you don't want to play in the playoffs. they're grabby and they're physical and they're deep and they defend and they protect the rim and they can throw gnaz and McDaniels on the wing. They're just, they're built for the playoffs. Minnesota's built for the postseason. The sexy, beautiful offensive teams, those teams can really carve it up in the regular season because let's be honest. Not everybody brings their B game during the regular season in the NBA.

You got load management, you got tanking. You know, Tuesday night in Minnesota, you know, it's just the reality. Lakers are the best team in the league in March, right? A lot of times offensive teams do that in the regular season. You got to play defense in the postseason. And that's what Minnesota does. So that is, that's a wild one. That is a great series so far.

And there is a, so Bruce Feldman went out and talked to an NFL personnel director in an NFL top scout. And they're saying that Fernando Mendoza is being bunched into this, well, he's no Cam Ward, he's no Drake May. He's no. And these two are saying, no, no, no, no, no. He's better than Drake May. Drake May just got to a Super Bowl. Interesting article.

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Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name, Hey Jonas, Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about... what we should call it. Well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band

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follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Oh, welcome back. I've got to be honest with you at least for short stints I like playing on four and a half hour sleep I got a lot of energy today I got a lot of Nick Wright's coming up next hour

see if he can match this energy so an anonymous personnel director in the NFL an anonymous scout told our Bruce Feldman Fernando Fernando Mendoza is a better prospect than Cam Ward although Cam moves better

and he's a better prospect than Drake May and this personnel director said, and I like Drake May. Everybody does. So it's interesting about this. When Sam Darnold came out, I said his comp to me, one of his comps was a poor man's Brett Favre. Well, I got a lot of crap for that. For the record, they both have one Super Bowl trophy.

But if you go look at the completion percentage for Fav and Darnold, it's identical, 62%. Yards per attempt in their career, identical, 7.1, 7.2.2. Touchdown to Interception ratio. Darnal Favre, identical. Passer ratings 86, identical. Super Bowl titles identical. Both also were small town guys, tough as a $4 steak, loved by their teammates,

sometimes got reckless, both struggled with their first team, Falcons and Jets, but eventually end up with a great GM and a great coach and have a great career. Now, Fav is better than Darnold, but they're both near the, you know, their first round talent. And Darnold is like Farrv is tough and he moves plus arm. He's athletic. Both Fav and Donald get a little reckless, little hero ball. But when they get the right coach, they win a lot of games. Their division, playoff game, Super Bowl, that's what they are. Remember, the knock on Fav was, God, he threw interceptions at the worst time. That was Darnold until he hoisted a trophy.

Like when Brett ended up with Minnesota, had that game one again. I forget even who they were played. They had the game one, he throws a pick, and you're like, you've got to be kidding me. That's a little Darnold. So I am not saying Fav's not better than Darnold, but there's a lot of traits. So when I see the Bruce Feldman story on Fernando Mendoza, and I'm going to say this, Fernando Mendoza has a little bit of a poor man's Andrew Luck. Both went to non-traditional football powers with quirky coaches.

Both are often better when they get hit in the mouth. Andrew Luck used to say, until I take a shot, the game doesn't start. Both Fernando Mendoza and Andrew Luck have a short memory because they're going to throw some ugly picks and they shake it off and forget about it. Both come from great families. Both are big. Both have excellent ball placement. Both ended up being very, very good players and tight games late.

Both didn't play with the best rosters, but elevated teammates. Intellect, toughness, family, short memory, size, like to get pop before they really, really develop in a game. Power throwers. So, oh, come on. You can say what you want about this stuff, but the darn old Farf thing was not crazy. If you go look at the numbers and Farve's better. Farr got a much better career. Sam's got six more years.

Sam's passer rating is going to end up in the 90s. It's going to be much higher. His yards per attempt with JSN is going to end up higher as well. His touchdown interception ratio with JSN, that's going to end up much higher. I think Mendoza's got a little bit of Andrew Luck. He's not as athletic as Andrew Luck. Big, strong, smart, tough, family. I mean, was there ever a quarterback that was as humble as Andrew Luck?

If I said most humble, talented quarterback ever, luck's one. From what I've seen from Mendoza so far, he would be two. Maybe Kirk Cousins is up there. Here's Bruce Feldman last week on Fernando Mendoza. You can affect him, but you cannot rattle him. and what they mean by that is and this is totally backed up

by the track record of 2025 season. It was like over and over again where they would say, all right, you know, you may get him on one play, but then he comes back on the next series and he's ready to go back to work. I always tell the story. I was at the

Coliseum in Los Angeles. Stanford was playing USC. It was a wild shootout. I think Matt Barclay, was Matt Barkley, was Matt Barkley, USC's quarterback. I think he was. and they're two great college quarterbacks. And Andrew Luck throws a terrible pick six late in the game. And he grabs his helmet and he's like, oh!

And you can see, I saw a picture of him later on the highlights. He's smiling. I think David Shaw, if I recall was the coach. Next drive, Luck marches right down the field. That is very Fernando Mendoza. Size, intellect, family, toughness, good late, sometimes going to make mistakes, short memory, bounces back. I don't think that's crazy.

And I didn't think Donald... I'm saying poor man. I'm not saying Donald's Farrb and Mendoza's luck. But there's some stuff there. J. Mack with the news. No, no, no, no, no. Turn on the news.

This is the herd line news. All right, I'm going to dive right in with some breaking news. Billy Donovan is stepping down as the Chicago Bulls head coach. The Bulls recently canned their EVP of Basketball Ops and G and now Donovan is departing.

I love the new phrasing. I'm stepping down. That's what Doc Rivers allegedly did in Milwaukee. Now, Donovan's stepping down. A lot of people think he's got his eyes on the Orlando job. I'm sure you'll talk about that shortly. I was told this weekend two separate sources in the Eastern Conference. In the Eastern Conference, both said, keep your eye with Billy Donovan on Orlando.

and I said he's staying in Chicago. They said he's weighing, not staying in Chicago. He's weighing it. And remember, they love him in Chicago. This is not a Doc River situation. They love him. The Rinesdorf love him. Intellect.

Every time he's had good players, he wins a bunch of games. Well, he hasn't had good players in a while, and he's like 39 win. Time out, time out. That's why they fired everybody in Chicago not named Billy Donovan. He had incompetent people running the organization. OKC. built a dynasty at Florida, and Florida was a football school at the time. That was the last great dynasty in college basketball pre-Ucon was Florida. And they were a football school.

You think of Florida now as a basketball school. You didn't then. No, he did a great job. I mean, that was like 20 years ago. So Orlando is ready to win now. Now, the Bulls have two of the top 15 picks. And I think they're going to get that Illinois guard and the Michigan big, Mara. And I think those are great picks. But even if you, you have... nail your picks. It's like a three-year runway to get good because they've made so many mistakes giving players away and missing on players. Orlando is ready to win now. Now, if Orlando beats Detroit in that series, I've got to feel in the Pistons, kind of got a feeling the Pistons are going to come back, blowout win, and they play tomorrow. But I think Donovan, or, or, or keep your

eye on Kentucky basketball. Why Kentucky basketball? Well, real? No, Mark. Pope getting rubbed out. Well, no, I'm just saying. The only problem with Donovan, I like him. I mean, listen, 20 years ago he won dominating in Florida. You don't hear me talking about creating a website 20 years ago and selling it.

You know, like 20 years ago, that's a long time ago. Colin, he's 60 years old. He made $6 million in Chicago. You think Orlando's paying that much? I would pump the brakes on that. First of all, college coaching is getting older. Why?

It's all administrative now. You don't have to go to the AAU tournaments. So if he goes to a college program, it's built for old guys. Petino's crushing. Izzo's crushing. All these old guys are crushing in college basketball because they can write checks and don't have to be at high school and AAU gyms. I like that.

Okay. The second thing is this dude is hyper competitive. He's in an unbelievable shape. I think he's going to stay in the NBA. And I think people are out of their mind if they don't consider hiring Billy Donovan. I would hire Billy Donovan tomorrow. And I'm not saying Orlando is going to fire their coach. but there's about 19 different rumors on the internet that somebody inside the building,

one of the star players, we can figure that out, doesn't love the coach. I don't like to see anybody get fired. But I was told by two Eastern Conference sources last week, I put it on Twitter. I said, why is Billy Donovan going to stay in Chicago, even if they nail their picks? It's a three-year play. Orlando's ready to win now. Orlando's got dudes. I like the Kentucky thing, because you made a good point.

Remember, in the Sweet 16, weren't there like five or six? coaches who were like over 60 years old. It's actually easier to win at Kentucky when you're just writing checks. Kentucky's done decent in the portal this week. And I'm not saying Mark Poles in trouble. I'm just saying is if Donovan came back to college, my guess he would go SEC and he would wait for a blue blood. He may do television for a year.

He's not stepping away. Billy Donovan is like when Sean Payton stepped down. Did TV for Fox for a year. Sean's got too much going on. He's too competitive to do television. Like he was going to go back into coaching. And we didn't even think when he took the Denver job because of the cap hit with Russell Wilson.

We didn't even think it was a good job. We're like, I don't know if that. It just, Billy Donovan is going to have his choice. He is, the smart people in the league know how good and smart Billy Donovan is. Yeah. He's definitely, he's going to have options for sure. All right. Let's move on, Colin, to Kevin Durant.

He was only a partial participant in Rockets Prakits Prakits yesterday. It's got that injured knee. I'ma Udoca is saying game time decision tonight. Wow. That's stunning. The worst part is this dude played, what, 78 games this year? I mean, Durant's one of those guys that doesn't do the load management thing.

Like, KD shows up and plays. He loves basketball. He's always been, he's a ball. I'm on a ball. He's not one of these load management dudes. he shows up of healthy and plays. So this is, I feel terrible for him because he had a great year. Houston doesn't have a point guard, so their offense has been weird all season.

Shengoon will play better in game two. Oh, it would be so crushing the KD because he, you know, you wonder why guys load managed. Players are probably saying privately, well, this is why we load manage. This is why we don't. Sounds fluky, though. It's just banged knees at practice. It is. It is.

But this is when guys load manage, this is why they do it. So they're ready for the playoffs. And he played 68, not 78 games, had taken three or four games or three or four weeks down the stretch to rest. But that's not who KD is. KD's going to play every night. Yeah. Listen, the line is five and a half. If he doesn't play, Lakers are going up two nothing, Colin.

And I know the Lakers did catch some fortune despite getting outshot by 27. I mean, honestly, offensive rebounds were 21 to 3. The box score of the Laker Houston game, if you'd have looked at the box score, you're like, Houston had, what, 30 more shots? But the Lakers were so hyper-efficient. Is Luke Kinnard going to go five-for-five from three again? Probably four-for-six, because he's just such a great shooter.

Great game tonight. Actually, great lineup tonight of NBA games. Finally, Colin, let's go to the NFL. Obviously, the draft is rapidly approaching a lot of people hitting me up. Or J-Mack, are the Jets taking Bailey? They canceled his visit. Well, the GM of the Jets. spoke up about whether or not that means anything.

And for folks who don't pay attention to the draft, listen closely. When we do top 30s, every single player in case is different. Sometimes I want this player to meet with our player engagement department. Sometimes I want this player to meet with our sports performance. Sometimes it's purely medical. Sometimes it's a recruiting process. Sometimes it's a smokescreen. And in regards to David, we had good touch points with him at the Combine.

We went to his pro day, had a good dinner with him. and we were just kind of juggling our 30 in how to use them, and I wouldn't look too much into a cancellation, because there was other ones that we may have changed as well. I don't know much about him. He's crushed it. I think he's had like 10 trades in the last calendar year. No, I don't know him.

He's not a contact at this point, but I still would take David Bailey. I would tell. I remember when he left Stanford, and I made a call to USC, And I asked one of their people, are you guys pursuing Bailey? And the answer was, no. And I was like, you guys watch the Stanford game tape?

And then he goes to Texas Tech. And not only was he great, but he got better during the season. I think there's not many players in this draft that are undervalued. I feel like if the Jets get Bailey, he's one of the few guys who I think's a little bit better. I think Mendoza and Bailey are actually going to be great pros. And everybody classifies him as very good prospect. I watch enough college football. This dude is going to walk in and be, he's, he knows exactly what he is.

You need a pass rusher. That's what he does. And he's getting better. It's a discussion, a good one, Bailey versus Reese. And the way I look at the draft always, it's not what you are. It's what you can be. And I think if you look at Reese, man, Colin, you look at Reese. A lot of people who I respect are saying this guy has the tools, the body, the

frame the measurements of Michael Parsons. And I know Micah skipped his last year at Penn State, and Reese was kind of moving around. Bailey had the production in college. I would lean slightly Reese here. And I know he had a loaded defense, obviously with Sunny Styles and Caleb Downs are going to be top 15 picks. But Bailey, I like him a lot.

It's a win-win for the Jets, but I would lean Reese over Bailey. All right. J-Mack, are you done, J-Mack? J-Mack with the news. Well, that's the news. stopping by. The herd lie news. This is pretty cool.

Victor Wembenyama. Name the first ever unanimous NBA defensive player of the year. That is great. Beyond his defense, there's two things I really like about Wendy. Number one is he wants to be great. He wants to be the face of the league. Aunt said, I'm not interested being the face of the league. Wemby wants it.

He wants to dominate. he wants to crush. Michael had a business savvy to him. LeBron, Michael, Kobe. They wanted to be the face of the league. So does Wembe. And not every great player does. Number two is, unlike, say, Zion or John Morant, he's not distracted.

He wanted to go to Sleepy San Antonio. It's about winning, body, training, sleep, rinse and repeat. So he wants to be great. And he's not at all distracted. He's very much, he's very much LeBron. He cares about the right stuff. I mean, this guy wanted to go, I mean, Yokic could care less about the All-Star game. He was so uninterested, so apathetic.

Wembe wanted to go to the All-Star game and win MVP. He said it. He cried when he lost in the finals in the Olympics for France. I mean, he cares so much about winning. So in the NBA, and I say this as this is strongly and often documented, in a league with apathetic issues, with apathy issues and load management, his passion cuts through. Now, he doesn't play as many minutes because when you're seven foot four, it's a lot further to fall down. And I think guys like him or Chet Holmgren, I don't want him playing 48 minutes. LeBron's bodies for 48 minutes.

A lot of these big, he is so efficient. You can play him 34 minutes and he gives you 44 minutes of production. And he also has, and Tiger had this in his prime and Brady and Peyton Manning and, you know, there's a handful of athletes. They are obsessed. And he's got the obsessed thing. He really does. In three seasons, 181 games played, Victor is the only player to be voted unanimous for an individual award. twice, rookie of the year and defensive player.

And I mean, you know, sometimes I feel like leagues got, they got, I mean, like the NBA got lucky with LeBron James. If you look at LeBron James' childhood, you know, if he would have gotten in some trouble in his career, you'd be like, I understand it. It was a tougher than average childhood. LeBron doesn't get in trouble. Wembe's never going to get in trouble. Like, you know if Wemby's the face of the league, you're going to get a classy guy.

who cares about the right stuff, who if his body's willing and able, he's going to play. He wants to dominate the All-Star game. He's going to want to dominate the Olympics for his country. Sometimes you get, you know, we all thought John Morant and Zion were the faces of the league.

And that stuff went sideways real fast. So good for him. Get your Spurs season tickets if you can still afford them. They're going to get more expensive over time. And Nick Wright, top of next hour, man, there's some stuff. There are some ramblings out there and rumors on the draft that are delicious. And the Cubs manager calls Major League Baseball bizarre for what's happening with O'Tonnie.

Live in Chicago, it's The Hurt. Be sure to catch live editions of The HARD weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. The NFL draft is where it all starts. This is crazy. I can't believe it. From the picks to the breakdowns, weird covering all of it. Because in the NFL, I put myself in a position to be here. One pick can change everything. It's draft night long. Join Jenny Taft, Jake Laser, LeVar Arrington, and former Falcons GM. Terry Bonham, April 23rd at 5 p.m. Pacific. And it's brought to you by Express Pros and Weibo. It's so I'm doing for, man. On Fox Sports Radio.

Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers. And guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, huge news? We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it.

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

And we were thinking I'm originally calling. it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers was... This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes.

I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast where people could call in and say, hey Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad,

Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio

app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel,

help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games.

And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking Tript Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch.

Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth? Are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person.

Join me, Kear Gaines, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, learn the hard way. Open your free, our heart radio app. Search learn the hard way and listen now. Last night, a blown call changed a game.

This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines.

We go straight to the source, the athletes themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down,

give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more,

follow Timbo Slices Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. It's 7 Eastern only on Fox. Okay, so I'm gonna, I want, I want you to consume and digest this. There is a big difference with athletes between a weakness and a flaw. Let me describe it. A weakness would be something you could develop.

A better jumper as a basketball player. Mechanics as a quarterback. A weakness you can develop. You can work on it. LeBron's having a bad shooting series. Well, practice. Take more jumpers. That is a weakness.

A flaw is biological. Length. You're small. You're not hyper-athletic. Like that's a flaw. That's biology. You can't develop size or length. You can develop a little bit of strength, certainly.

Jalen Brunson is a very, very good, flawed player. Ant's got no flaws. He's got weaknesses that he has worked on. like the three-point shot, Jaden McDaniel has developed into a good three-point shooter. He was a very athletic guy first day in the league. So when I knock Jalen Brunson, he's just a flawed player. Brock Purdy is flawed. He's smaller.

He doesn't have a huge arm. Brett Farr have had weaknesses. He could be reckless. There's a difference. So that's the thing about Jalen Brunson. He's small. He's not hyper-athletic. And you're seeing the weaknesses in the series.

He wears down often later in a series. C.J. McCollum picks on him and hunts him. And C.J. is a 34-year-old veteran. So, you know, that Michael Jordan had weaknesses. Not many, but he wasn't a great long-range shooter. The two years that Michael hit the three-point shot, they'd moved in the three-point line. Michael didn't have a lot of weaknesses. Maybe that was the only one.

He didn't have any flaws. You know what I mean? And so the Jalen Brunson. that's why the Janus to the Knicks talk is so credible because then Brunson could be your number two star after Janus. Oh, gee, if you keep him's your three, that's a team that can get to the finals. You know what Jalen Brunson reminds me of? Damon Stoddemeier, who I covered, a brilliant, albeit small, score and finisher. Not a great playmaker, a great score. High school college pro. Damon could get you a bucket.

He wasn't a great playmaker. He's a guy you could pick on defensively. There were limitations. He had flaws. That's the difference between the two. So I really like Jalen Brunson. But the difference between stars and very good players, as often very good players, have some flaw built in.

Whereas superstar players like Ant don't really have flaws. They have weaknesses that if they put their mind to it, can improve. For Ant, the three-point shooting over the last couple years is that. Here's Jalen Brunson on the loss. Knicks are going to win the series, but here he is on the loss at home last night. We were a little stagnant. Obviously, I can control what I can control. And so poor decision made, it came on my part. And a couple possessions, they play great defense, not the ball on my hands. We just had to be got to play better with the lead. That's twice in the fourth quarter now. We've done that.

Yeah. And again, when I said, I was about a week ago, I said, you know, Hall of Fame, remember when Dion Sanders got mad, he goes, we should have two Hall of Fame because you're putting guys in that aren't great, that are not Jerry Rice. And that's what you have to be careful about when it comes to Hall of Fame. Now, saying somebody is very good, not great, is not a Hall of Fame. It's just an opinion. But when you're 6-2, limited athletically, not great defensively, kind of a liability and not a great. I mean, Brunson's not a great playmaker. He's a great finisher. He's a great score. He is, he's a really, really good player. But you're seeing things here that he can't get better at. Like he's not going to get bigger. He's not going to get super vertical. That's not what he is.

Those are flaws, not weaknesses. Okay. So Craig Counsel is the manager of the Cubs, very well liked. Very well liked guy. And what happens this, I remember when I covered a Shaq, and I was up in Portland, and the Lakers and Arvita Sabonis and Shaq, and Shaq was a very difficult player to defend. And if you ever went to a Laker game and sat close to the court and could hear, you could have called a foul every time Shaq came down the floor. Every single time. Shaq was not a great free throw shooter.

but the truth is he was under-officiated because and sometimes shack will get a foul called on him when he just changed positions he was so large so he was an incredibly difficult guy to officiate and and that's what happens when you get great players everybody in the league starts complaining about he gets SGA right now oh SGA is just a gifted offensive player the guy is just a great all-time offensive player so Otani now has come into the sport And Otani, because he can do something nobody else can do, which is be a dominant pitcher and a dominant hitter. I mean, back in 2022, Major League Baseball created a new rule that said, if you're removed from the game as a pitcher, you can remain as a DH. Now, he was an angel, so nobody cared.

Now he's a Dodger, and they want congressional hearings on it. So here's Craig Counsel talking about some of, you know, the Otani. He thinks a lot of this stuff with Otani's bizarre. There's one team that's allowed to carry basically one of both and that he gets special consideration, which is probably the most bizarre rule. There's not another player like that, but one team gets different rules for that player. No, they don't. There's one rule for everybody.

They just have the special player. It's not a special consideration. It's a special player. Everybody gets the same consideration. Span the globe and find your Otani. Nobody had a problem with him down in Anaheim. Now call your senator. So it's like everybody's allowed to do deferred payments.

If you look at the income, the revenue that Otani drives between merchandise and tickets, the Kansas City Royals could have acquired Otani. and afforded him. They could have deferred the payments, made a billion dollars over eight years, put that in the bank, draw some interest, made it much easier. Also, the brand of the royals, the merch of the royals, home attendants, road attendants. What they're finding out with Otani is he was much more affordable to everybody. I mean, the angels had him for a while. He was, he was, but once the Dodgers got him, they're finding out, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, he's, even more lucrative than we thought.

That's why we can go get Kyle Tucker. He's selling out. I mean, they're averaging, at least last year, they averaged like $6,000, $7,000 more than the Yankees. I mean, so, you know, the Astros got sneaky. The Dodgers aren't getting sneaky. They just read the rule book. You know how everybody has those, you ever look like DocuSign or a contract?

There's that terms and condition box. Everybody checks at the end. you're like, terms and conditions, check. The difference is nobody reads the rules before that, except the Dodgers, they read every line. You can defer payments. Yes, these are not bizarre rule. They're rules with a bizarrely talented player.

That's the only difference here. And I just, it cracks me up. And I think Craig counsel's great. But when baseball changed that rule, he can leave as a pitcher, stay as the DH, crickets. I said this before. Had the Dodgers not won the World Series last year,

had they lost in that game seven of the Blue Jays, people wouldn't be freaking out. I mean, look at baseball right now. The Mets are atrocious. The Phillies, Astros, and Blue Jays, high payroll teams are not good. And the Reds, the A's, the Rays, the Brewers, the Guardians are crushing.

It's not that the Dodgers, I mean, right, Edwin Diaz, they say. It's not going to play for the second half. So they went and got a closure. He's not healthy. Snell's, you know, always feels like he's resting, getting healthier. So I find the Otani stuff fascinating. It's not a special consideration.

It's a special player. Everybody has the same consideration if you get him. And for the record, people could say, well, why did baseball do that? Well, they had this guy in Otani that was pitching. Baseball 2020 was not as hot as it is now. And they're like, well, so on the nights that he leaves the mound at the seventh, he can't hit later? He can't be a DH later? Why not?

Baseball was smart. Baseball's been tweaking rules for the last three years, four years, and they've hit on almost all of them. So, of course, of course, when you have a transformative superstar, who can do this crazy thing, be an all-star pitcher and an MVP hitter. Yeah, if he pitches, he leaves, it can be h twice. They would do that if he played for the Cubs. It makes sense. It's smart baseball, smart marketing.

Nick writes around the corner. NFL draft, man, there are rumors percolate. Hour two next. Hey, guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick.

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

tired and sick. Tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to

David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and headwriter, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Winning on Clay is an art. The rallies are relentless. And at the French Open, only the toughest survive. I'd know. I competed there for decades. Join me, Renee Stubbs, on the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast for no nonsense breakdowns of the biggest matches, the toughest players, and the moments that define Roland Garros. She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay.

Listen, Lernerabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now, and I actually can win on any surface. Listen to the Renee Stubb's tennis podcast on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all,

embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human.