The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Warriors, Magic Johnson, LeBron James, and the Steelers

Episode Date: May 21, 2019

Colin explains how amazing it is for an injured Golden State Warriors team to make it back to the NBA Finals, why he's impressed with Warriors HC Steve Kerr, why he believes Lakers F LeBron James was right to not comment on Magic Johnson leaving the Los Angeles Lakers, and his thoughts on Pittsburgh Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger's recent comments. Guests include Geoff Schwartz, Tom Tolbert, and B. J. Armstrong. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. I'm Michelle McPhee, and I've been unraveling the strangest criminal alliance I've ever reported on, a Mormon polygamist, and an Armenian businessman.

Multi-million dollar house, Ferrari's and Lamborghinis, private jets, a billion-dollar fraud. But how long can this alliance last? Tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me? Listen to Kingdom of Fraud

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That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to SportsSlic.

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from 12 to 3 Eastern, 9 to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS1. Find your local station for the herd at Fox Sports Radio.com or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching heard. We're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Ah, this is the herd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening, we are live

in Los Angeles on Iheart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1. Joy Taylor is joining me. We are packed today, all sorts of stuff as the Lakers' dysfunction rises to new levels. Crazier than ever. I will defend kind of

magic. I'll defend LeBron today. Although I don't think either has had a last great stretch. Joy Taylor's joining me. Joy, how are you? I'm great. Good morning. You look like corporate executive, Joy Taylor. Maybe that's my calling. It's not.

You're going to be firing people today. It's just the shoulder pads. It makes you seem very important when you wear shoulder pads. Well, you're always important to our show. Let me start with this. There is this feeling. Here comes free agency. Kevin Durant's going over here and Kyrie's going over. and Kauai's going over there and everybody's moving around. It's got me crazy.

It's going to change the NBA. No, it's not. No, it's not. In the third quarter last night, the Golden State Warriors had on the floor, Clay Thompson, Jonas Jerepco, Sean Livingston, Kavanaughan Lunei, and Jacob Evans. They swept the second best team in the West Portland. They haven't lost a road game since Kevin Durant got hurt and Boogie Cousins didn't play last night.

And Iggy, an MVP in the finals a couple of years ago, didn't play. And Steph's at 90%. Listen, I've always said Michael Jordan's Bulls are the best deepest team I've ever seen. Warriors, Showtime Lakers, probably second place. But these Warriors, are you got to be kidding me? No KD? You keep telling me, best player in the game. No Boogie Cousins All-Star.

No Andre Iguidala. And you sweet Portland? Could Michael Jordan's Bulls be missing? missing Michael Horace Grant and Tony Koo Coach and sweep those old Pacers or Knicks? You've got to be kidding me. There's a great stat in this series. The Warriors trailed for more minutes 101 than they led Portland, 83, and they swept them. Folks, they're just toying with people.

I mean, that game last night's a great example. Stay close, stay close, stay close, use the bench, stay close, stay close. All right, three and a half left, bing, bang, boom, hit it, overtime win, game over. Thanks for flying United. They're toying with people. And there is this notion that free agency is going to change the world. But let's just talk about the West, since 80 to 85% of the best players in the NBA are currently in the West. Take out Janice and Kauai.

Who do we know for sure? I mean, we don't even know if Kauai is going to be in the East next year. We don't know where Kairi is going to be next year. 80% of the best players, minimum, are in the West. 14 of the last 20 NBA titles. I think it'll be 15 out of 21 have been won by the Western Conference. So let's just talk about the West. Chris Paul's a shadow of himself.

They have no salary cap flexibility. And frankly, PJ Tucker, Chris Paul, they're old. Let's talk about Oklahoma City and Utah. Let's not. They don't have enough shooters. Let's talk about Portland. Good team. Like them a lot.

Not championship level. Let's talk about the Lakers. complete chaos. KD leaves to the east. It's not changing the West. It's not changing the West. And the West, like the SEC in college football, is where champions are made.

I don't see anything changing. And next year, the one thing this sweep guarantees is that Draymond's going to get a max and Clay's going to get a max and Steph's going to get a max. And Steve Kerr's not going anywhere. And they've shown an ability to draft really well. and the young players have stepped up, and if KD leaves and goes to the east,

Brooklyn, New York, whatevs? It's not changing the West. It's not changing the West. And that's where the stars are. That's where the champions are. And I'm watching that thing last night. They, by a long shot, trailed more minutes than they led

and swept Portland. I went to Vegas, looked at the odds this morning. It's not close. The Golden State Warriors next year, and they have Kevin Durant leaving baked in are a heavy favorite to win. What about the Clippers? What about them? They're the Clippers. They have never been consistently dominant in the NBA. When it happens, I'll acknowledge it. To this point, they haven't even been the Raptors good but disappointing in the postseason.

They've just been the Clippers, the second most popular team in one building in the NBA. I'm watching this thing last night. I'm not sure this isn't the best. team we've ever seen. I don't think you could have taken Michael Jordan, Dennis Rodman, Horace Grant, Tony Koo Coach, and they'd sweep a Knicks. Well, the NBA was way better than, oh, stop it. The New York Knicks ended up in the conference finals. They had two decent shooters on the roster. We've never had an NBA with this many good ball handlers and this many good shooters, with this much open space for artists to be artists. I don't want to hear about how great the NBA was. The Pacers, Knicks back then were shooting 70 free throws.

Some of the all-time classic Knicks, Charles Oakley, the late Anthony Mason, couldn't shoot. I mean, this league is all about skill. And when you can lose the people there losing in Sweet Portland, well-run, well-coached, starring Damian Lillard, just a big wow. And let's shift to this. So yesterday, it was cats and dogs living together. the Lakers announced their new coach, Magic times it perfectly and make sure on the day the Lakers hire a new coach, magic's on another network ESPN ripping the Lakers. LeBron in all of this was in the back.

Wasn't really talking. Looks like he was just working out. And Bill Plashke wrote an article this morning. He said LeBron looked disengaged again. How hard would it have been for James to wander over to the media and give a quick quote or two to support the news? guy who clearly needs it. Vogo said he talked with LeBron. It was all positive, but LeBron's body language told an indifferent story one he could easily, easily could have, you know, refuted if bothered to invest one ounce of emotional energy in the team. Now, I have been very critical of LeBron

this year for being disengaged. Let me pivot here and support LeBron and what he did yesterday. Could I make an argument? LeBron was hiding to protect his brand. And I did. I'd make an argument. LeBron was hiding to protect his brand and I don't blame him. It was strategic. Where does he win if he talks? He's distancing himself from the worst run iconic brand in all 50 states. Listen, magic gets to walk away from this mess. LeBron is trapped in this mess. And I banged on him all year for being aloof and not engaged. This morning, he's better off standing in the and watching the festivities. LeBron has been in this NBA for 16 years.

All but four of it, he's dealt with ownership issues, coaching issues, roster issues, chaos, disharmony. Miami was the exception. Great owner, Pat Riley, Eric Spolstra, and LeBron, and I get it, chose to leave, in hindsight, not the greatest move. But for 12 of LeBron's 16 years, he's dealt with, and again, take Miami out of it. He's dealt with moody stars, often injured Kyrie Levant stars, Kevin Love,

Kyrie were hurt. He's dealt with guys who don't step up like J.R. Smith in Big Moments. He's dealt with head cases. He's battled owners. There have been GMs fired. And now look where he's at. It's almost fitting that LeBron's career could end. like it started.

Mayhem. Didn't work this way for Dr. J. Or Michael Jordan or Magic or Dirk or Bird or Shack or Steph or KD or Duncan. Or now James Hardin. Good ownership, smart coaches, nice rosters. I mean, let's be honest about this. LeBron's career appears to be ending the way it started. He's carrying an utter.

mess. Isaiah Thomas on first things first yesterday, had some thoughts on it. This is where I think the NBA in all league has truly failed LeBron James, because every place LeBron James has gone. They've always given him either a first year coach or someone that they were experimenting with. And they always took unnecessary chances because you had LeBron James. James. LeBron James has never had the benefit of, in my opinion, Hall of Fame coaches. He had a Hall of Fame front office with Pat Riley in Miami. However, you know, they gave him a rookie coach. I mean, everybody else had more. I remember Dr. Jay. Good coach, good front office, good roster. Magic inherited Kareem. Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parrish.

Dirk had a good owner. Rick Carlisle, top coach. I mean, you start looking about the stars. Look what Steph walked into. KD, I mean, let's be honest. Sam Presti, Westbrook Hardin wasn't terrible. Now he's with the Warriors. You start looking at the top 15 players of all time. One, started with a mess, had to leave, felt guilty, went back to his hometown in one,

moved to Los Angeles when that started to deteriorate. Kyrie leaves him. And I don't blame him for standing in the back. not commenting, disengaging, protecting his brand. I'm not saying a thing. And I've been critical of him in the last six months. But if I was LeBron, I'd look at this mess and think,

I'm going to keep my distance because they have pulled the cape off Superman. And he has more than done his fair share in his career. We got some video on Zeke that's not great for Zeke. Coming up next, I'm going to ask you to look into the future. And it's not great for KD. That's coming up. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeart Radio app.

Jacob Kingston grew up in an isolated polygamous sect. We were God's chosen kingdom on earth. He felt destined for greatness. So when a swaggering Armenian businessman, catapults Jacob into an extraordinary world, he doesn't look back. Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, meeting the president of Turkey. I'm Michelle McPhee, and this is one of the most shocking criminal conspiracies I've ever come across.

When Jacob met Levant this plant to a billion dollar fraud. But with two kings from entirely different worlds, just how long can their empire survive? The largest tax investigation in American history. You need to tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me? Jacob told Levan, you're ruining my life. Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Life throws hurdles big and small.

The question is, how do you conquer them? On Hurtle with Emily Abadi, we sit down with the most inspiring women in sports and wellness, professional athletes, coaches, and Olympic champions to talk about the challenges that shaped them and the mindset that keeps them going. From the WMBA standout, Kate Martin, and rising hockey star Layla Edwards. If a boy can do it, I don't see why a girl can't. Like, I've never understood that. Like, it didn't make sense in my brain. It's hard to be in spaces that no one looks like you, but don't ever feel like you don't belong. Don't let that be the reason you don't do it. An Olympic champs, Gabby Thomas and Katie Ladecki. The ability to show a gold medal

to someone and have their face light up and smile, that means the world to me. And that's what motivates me to win more gold medals. At our level, at this scale, like being able to fail in front of the entire world. Like, I can do anything. I can do anything. Because resilience isn't just about winning. It's about showing up, even when it's hard. Listen to Hurtle with Emily Abadi on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. 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 SportsSlice 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, you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered. SportsSlice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsSlice on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slicelife 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the middle health field and conversations with so many incredible guests.

I'm talking. Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch.

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

And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Keer 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. Great to have you in today. Absolutely fantastic. Coming up in about eight minutes, Vincent Goodwell is a Yahoo's senior sports writer, covers the NBA, one of the few people in America that agrees on Russell Westbrook with me. Not a huge fan of Westbrook. Listen, there's got to be two of us in the world.

I'm on an island all the time here. So you're not a fan of Westbrook? I'm over him. I just got over him before everybody else got over him. Everybody else now is coming to the realization that Uncle Colin may have been on to something. Let's not give me any more pats on the back here. So there's some numbers now. These are not small sample sizes.

Like, you know, if I said, hey, you know, Shaq didn't play for one Laker game in his prime and they won. That means the Lakers are better without Shaq. Give me a large sample size. We now have a large sample size of Steph and KD playing together. They have played together over 200 games. And when Steph and KD play together, they win 61% of their games. That's very good.

We also have a massive, massive sample size when KD and Steph play together. they win 78% of their games. It's a massive sample size too. And now we have a pretty large sample size that when Steph plays without KD, they win 90% of their games. They're 34 and 4. This is not four games, 6, 8, 9, 12. It's almost 40. And many of those, as we're seeing now, the recent ones are against good teams and now playoff teams.

Let's just skip ahead one year from today. We know narratives are very powerful in framing legacies. So one year from now, Steph, Clay, Dray, Drayman, improving young warriors, Steve Kerr win the Western Conference. I think they will. They've proven they can win without KD. KD goes east. I'm told he'll team with KRI. I'll throw this out there.

Brooklyn. Yeah, that's actually getting talked now, Brooklyn. They're good, they're fun, they're exciting. But let's go with the averages in both careers. KD doesn't care much about the regular season. Is interested, but by the All-Star break is getting ready for the playoffs. Kyrie gets hurt once, maybe twice, difficult to play with, always has been. They win a bunch of games.

They're absolutely fun. But because it takes a while to start chemistry, they, end up being like a third seed, and they end up playing in the second round, Milwaukee, and they get whacked by a team of the better coach, more depth, a big time star, better chemistry, and it got to the finals the previous year. And what are we saying one year from now? Let's start with Steph. That guy didn't need KD.

Boy, you know what? We got to put him top 10 all time. Here's the thing about Steph. KD never understood how good he had it. And what will we be saying about KD in a year? I don't understand why I went with Kyrie. Cairo is just like Westbrook, and Westbrook drove KD crazy. I'm not sure he should have left the Warriors.

He's sitting home like LeBron watching the finals on TV. Boy, the grass isn't always greener. I'll tell you that. Skip ahead to a year. You're watching the Warriors Sweet, without KD. Like, we know in a year what we're going to be saying about Steph Curry. Best shooter, all time, leader, ball handler, the system, curd, Draymond's so amazing

in the postseason. Clay doesn't get the respect he deserves. We know the West controls the NBA. One 14 of the last 20 titles. 80% of the stars are there. I don't know. I don't know. But we got better or not better.

I don't know. But 34 and 4, and now like 7 and 0 without KD tells me they're at least fine without KD. They're at least okay. They can sweep the Western Conference finals without him. No boogie, no KD, no Iggy last night. Staff's 90%. Look ahead a year. Just look ahead one year.

Be very careful with your choices. Kevin Norent. Joy Taylor with the news. No, no, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. So the Lakers have their new head coach. They officially introduced Frank Vogel yesterday. Yeah.

And in his first public comments, as the Lakers head coach, Vogel laid out his path to bring the Lakers back to success. Okay. We need to build togetherness with our organization. Okay. and I don't just mean with the 15 guys or 17 guys that are going to be in uniform or in that locker room. Okay, I'm talking about organizational togetherness, all right, starting with ownership to the front office, to the coaching staff, the players, the trainers, the business side. Okay, we are all going to be pulling in the same direction.

No. It's a great idea. Yeah, no kidding. Absolutely right. Yeah. It all starts from the top and goes down from there. We were talking earlier. You cannot overcome bad ownership and bad.

management. It doesn't matter how talented you are, how brilliant, how one of a kind and rare, you will not win. Because no matter how great you are, they will find a way to mess it up because they make the decisions. Right. And he's absolutely right. In order to build a successful on the court product, you have to have a successful off the court product. Everyone has to be on the same page. Everyone has to have the same mission. You have to have a culture, which the Lakers don't have. A cohesion. And so Magic Yesterday is part of the organization, but was ripping them and LeBron was smartly disengaged and we still can't figure out Linda Rambus is she like a co-owner and Kobe and is still got some influence and so does Phil and

what Vogel said is the opposite of what currently is the status of the Laker front office. And unfortunately he only has a three-year contract. Yeah. Which is not a standard coaching contract and he's not going to have enough time to implement something like this and everything you just said is preventing him from doing that anyway. It's not that he's not right. He's 100% right. I just don't know if he's going to be able to do that. He's not realistic. The current situation, right. So Ben Rothesberger made his first public comments since the 2018 season ended.

So almost five months of silence. And a sit down interview with KDCA, Ben was asked about when he called Antonio Brown out on his radio show after the loss of Denver. And he was asked if he took the public criticism of his teammates too far. said, I know I took some heat and deservedly so. I genuinely feel bad about that and I'm sorry. Did I go too far after that Denver game? Yeah, probably and I regretted it. That's the thing about media and social media and things like that. You can't take it back. I wish I could because if that's what ruined our friendship and our relationship, then I'm truly and genuinely sorry about that. I like him owning it. A little late for that. Yeah. Antonio Brown appeared to respond on

Twitter. He tweeted Two-face. Yeah. So he obviously did not accept that apology. I'm glad that Ben is talking about it. I'm glad that he is finally acknowledging that that was a mistake. But it's just too late for all that. I don't know what I expected to hear from Ben yesterday. I guess this is what I expected. I mean, he was wrong.

We all know that. He's the quarterback. It doesn't matter if the receiver is wrong or if you're wrong or if the offensive line is wrong. At the end of the day, if you win, you get the praise. If you lose, you get the criticism. That's what happens when you're the leader in the face of the Yeah, I mean, listen, everybody's like it was a terrible interception.

Did everybody see the interception Tom Brady threw against the Chiefs? Listen, legends throw horrible passes. Most interceptions are terrible interceptions. Right. Some are a little worse than others. And by the way, Big Ben had an awful, and Tom Brady's looked just as bad. The reality is, what you can't do when you do that is throw the receiver under the bus. You just eat it.

Well, he also talked about it during the interview. He kind of meant to say he should have thrown it to Juju because Juju was open. and it's a testament to Antonio Brown that he is double-teams. But it's like it doesn't matter. You're getting into the nuances. It's silly. Just own it and move on.

There was no reason to call it or teammates. I don't think that this was the one thing that was the issue, but it may have been the thing that pushed everyone over the edge so that they couldn't have conversations anymore. But anyway, like I've said about the Steelers all along, they have a perfect opportunity to show everyone that the dysfunction was really just Antonio Brown and Levi-on-Bell.

And if it continues to be chaotic and loud, then we know what the problem was. We're all here now. We can watch it unfold together. Finally, speaking of NFL franchises in disarray, no team has been criticized more this offseason than the Giants probably. They traded Odell and Olivier Vernon to the Browns for a little return and let Landon Collins go to division rival Washington.

Pat Schumer was upbeat yesterday because Eli Manning apparently looked good in the first day of practices. And according to their beat writer from Newsday, Eli went one for six with two picks. So there's conflicting reports on how well Eli actually. actually did. But to add insult to injury, Landon Collins sold ESPN yesterday. I know with myself, snacks, Odell, Vernon, all we wanted to do was win. And we spoke up because we had to get them to listen to us. We had to get them to get us winning pieces to help us at least be contenders.

I think we were too vocal. If it's not good media, they don't want that kind of media. And Dave Gettleman never even talked to me. Basically, I don't know him. He don't know me. That's kind of how it just was. Well, the giants are very, very aware of me. media coverage. I think they're in New York. You have to be. Yeah, but I think to a fault. You know what's amazing about New York? So this is the city with all the money. The Mets are a mess. The Nicks

are a mess. The Giants are a mess. The Jets are a mess. St. John's basketball's never recovered post-Louis For all the money, power, and prestige, who's well-run in New York? I mean, the Nets are doing okay. Okay.

I mean, we'll see. You get him some credit. They're trending upwards. Yeah. There you go. in New York, trending upwards is like the halo. It's like, oh, God, they're trending upwards. I don't know. I just, it's disappointing hearing this from Landon Collins because it does, it does, usually when players move on or, you know, GMs move on, you get kind of more perspective what's actually going on.

And it seems like this is what we've all assumed, that they are just attached to Eli Manning. They aren't really interested in taking things to the next level. PR matters way too much. O'Dell came out and said, like, he cares about winning. He's a cancer to a locker room if he cares about winning. There are guys who are extremely passionate who get labeled as divas or emotional.

When in reality, they just cannot accept that they're in a losing environment and their organization's okay with losing. Yeah. Landon and Odell Beckham were both unhappy. I've said before I had a conversation with Odell. I'm not going to ever say everything he told me, but he felt the Giants were stuck

in just a really average holding pattern in the sky. And that's the nicest way I can say it. I mean, I think it's pretty obvious to everyone at this point. He wanted to play for a better team. Yeah. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by.

The Hurd Lie News. So there's some video out. Ezekiel Elliott, who's a remarkably talented running back, but an immature kid still who gets in trouble, it seems like every 9, 10, 11 months. There's video of him being detained, but not arrested at a Vegas festival, pushing around a security guy.

And the first thing I thought of when I saw this was Dak Prescott. Hey, Jerry Jones, you don't have to worry about me doing this. Dak and Zeke used to run together. They don't really run together anymore. Do a word association with Dak Prescott. Clutch, leader, stoic, stable, unemotional, even. Do a word association.

with Zeke, talented, immature, emotional, chaotic. The first thing I thought of when I saw this video was Dallas has a lot of mouse to feed. They got a lot of really good young players. And when I saw that Zeke video, I thought, oh, that's more leverage for Dak Prescott. Jerry, you're not going to see me doing that. Now, Dak and Zeke started out very early rolling together. Dak moved away. And I've always felt part of the appeal of Dak Prescott.

Not only the fact he's grown up, he sounds like the right quarterback. That anthem controversy was brewing in Dallas. Dak stood up, defended his owner, and it disappeared into the ether. Contract negotiations are all about timing. And leverage. That video is more leverage for DAC. Because you're not going to let Zeeke go. He's ridiculously talented.

It's one of the only running backs I've ever seen who can catch, who can block, who can run. You're not letting him go. And you also know, you're probably going to get a couple more of these in the next six years. He's a kid. His dad admitted he can be immature. It's not perfect. Young money. Cool kid.

Dallas, Cowboys, Star Running Back. That video to me is great leverage for DAC. He gets more valuable. He really does. Because if I'm Jerry Jones and I'm Stephen Jones, I'm sitting there this morning thinking, well, we're not trading Zeke. Because we know Dak's not as good without Zeke.

We've seen those numbers. And with Dak, you're not getting this stuff. Dallas is a fascinating team. They're now, you know, they've always been a little noisy. Even in the Troy Ackman days, they're a little noisy. And, you know, if you did the noise meter in the NFL, certain teams like Pittsburgh and the Cowboys, listen, they're never going to be perfectly quiet.

They're too popular. The brand's too big for the Steelers. It's just too big for Dallas. A guy gets a speeding ticket, a slot receiver for the Cowboys. It's a national story. You know, a quarterback could get a speeding ticket for the Jaguars and nobody cares in Jacksonville. So there's a little. noise around the cowboys, but the one quality that

Dak Prescott has that I think is, it's always been my favorite quality. He just feels like a grown-up. And that is what separated Troy Aikman from some of his predecessors and some of the people that followed him. He was the grown-up in the room. And there was some noise with the cowboys and some egos with the cowboys. You got Michael Urban doing his thing and you can read the books on the cowboys. Troy was solid. That's what DAC is, and that's why that video makes me think of DAC as much as Zeke. By the way, you know, I'm watching that Warriors game last night, and I'll get into this

at the top of next hour, but there's no question that there's a saying, you know, building a brand. And, you know, Michael Jordan, Nike built this sort of bubble around Michael Jordan. And even if Michael, you know, had a bad game, had some bad PR, it was impenetrable. Michael's Nike bubble was so big. And Michael was great that was hard to penetrate that, right?

His brand was so big it could deflect. Ronald Reagan was so popular as a president. He was so beloved and so popular. At one point, he joked about bombing the Russians and the media laughed at it. Oh, that's Reagan just being Ronald Obama was

smart, but he didn't have a brand. quite like Reagan and, you know, a guy wore a brown suit once, and we went crazy. And Steve Kerr doesn't get called the Zen Master. And Steve Kerr didn't have a triangle offense. Does everybody understand Steve Kerr, the coach of the Warriors, is the only four-for-four in league history? Player five titles, broadcaster number one analyst,

GM Sun's got to the Western Conference finals he leaves grease fire since and now he's going to his fifth straight finals four for four Steve Kurt but he doesn't have the Zen Master brand and the triangle brand

he's just you know successful at everything he does and with that I mean it's really remarkable I covered him in Portland he was smart but I would have never guessed that in a very short 20-year period, player, broadcaster, GM, coach. I mean, as great as Michael was, did you watch that GM thing?

As great as magic is, did you watch that coaching thing? I mean, Kerr's a remarkable American story. Four, four, four. And you think it's easy. Oh, well, he's got all these good players. Never forget, one of the first things he did. He got there. and had to tell an All-Star Andre Iguodala, I'm putting you on the bench.

I'm going to put this young Draymond Green as a starter. Iggy had never come off the bench. Several years later, he was the finals MVP. He had to go to Andre Aguadola, All-Star in the East, and say, I'm going to put you on the bench behind Draymond. Steve Kerr always just sort of everybody gets along, lubricates everything. He's had Draymond call out KD, non-factor, KD's got rabbit ears, step non-factor this guy didn't have the you know the zen or the triangle steve cur is remarkable absolutely remarkable be sure to catch live editions of the herd

weekdays in noon eastern 9 a.m. Pacific Jacob Kingston grew up in an isolated polygamous sect we were God's chosen kingdom on earth he felt destined for greatness so when a swaggering Armenian businessman catapults Jacob into an extraordinary world, he doesn't look back. Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, meeting the president of Turkey. I'm Michelle McPhee, and this is one of the most shocking criminal conspiracies I've ever come across. When Jacob met Levin this plant to a billion dollar fraud. But with two kings from entirely different worlds, just how long can their empire survive?

The largest tax investigation in American history. You need to tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me? Jacob told Levan, you're ruining my life. Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Life throws hurdles big and small. The question is, how do you conquer them? On Hurtle with Emily Abadi, we sit down with the most inspiring women in sports and wellness.

professional athletes, coaches, and Olympic champions to talk about the challenges that shaped them and the mindset that keeps them going from the WNBA standout Kate Martin and rising hockey star Layla Edwards. If a boy can do it, I don't see why a girl can't. Like, I've never understood that. Like, it didn't make sense in my brain. It's hard to be in spaces that no one looks like you, but don't ever feel like you don't feel long. Don't let that be the reason you don't do it. An Olympic champs Gabby Thomas and Katie Ledecki. The ability to show a gold medal to someone and have their face like. up and smile. That means the world to me. And that's what motivates me to win more gold medals.

At our level, at this scale, like being able to fail in front of the entire world. Like, I can do anything. I can, like, I can do anything. Because resilience isn't just about winning. It's about showing up, even when it's hard. Listen to Hurtle with Emily Abadi on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHart Women's Sports. a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where sports slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays,

the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. SportsSlice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them.

Listen to SportsClace on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience

in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing and we're still chasing it and we don't know when we've done enough

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

I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Keir Gaines, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free, Our Heart Radio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. All right, welcome back. Good to have you in. So there is a, you know, I think we all understand that for any, I mean, I've worked for this company, the previous company, three local radio TV corporations, actually four.

So over the course of my career, of the seven corporations I've worked for, this is currently the best corporation I've worked for. I can say that, and I've said it multiple times on the air and off the air, because of its structure. It's nimble, it's quick on its feet, it can quickly pivot. Bigger is not always better, but faster's always better than slower. We're quick, we move, we're nimble. I've worked local, regional, national. You cannot overcome bad management. It doesn't manage.

I tell people all the time when I talk to college kids. Chase management, not money. LeBron's a great example this year. He's Superman, and the Lakers have literally ripped the cape off. There's nothing he could do. I mean, as great as Kevin Durant is, he was struggling in the playoffs because they traded James Hardin and got an end table and an encyclopedia for him. In the end, you can't overcome bad management. No matter who you are, LeBron's first seven years in this league, he didn't have an All-Star next to him.

He couldn't get past Boston. Forget the champion, Jim. He couldn't get past Boston. So remember, Michael Jordan came into this league. First couple of coaches didn't work. Then he got Phil, and Phil figured out smart guys to bring with him. They put it together, and then he couldn't beat the Bulls. And so lost in all of Magic's greatness is that he inherited Kareem, and Magic didn't get

Kareem to Los Angeles, the ownership, and the management did. So yesterday, Magic Johnson went out, and there's a general consensus that Magic sort of did the right thing. He protected his brand. I defended him yesterday. And he only really hammered Rob Polinka. But in reality, what also happened yesterday is, and Ramona Shelburne put this out there in an article well written today is, it did create more chaos and it undermined the current structure.

As Ramona said, this time around, Johnson blindsided Jeannie not once but twice. Second time came Monday morning when he went on the airways and hammered people. Rob Polinkincom, Tim Harris, an executive and family member. They refer to each other as brother and sister, Magic and Jeannie, but he's proved to be incredibly distrously. and damaging. So again, let's go back to the management. There is something called like a pyramid of success. There's a flow chart to success.

And let me give me an example. With a Miami Heat where LeBron played, Mickey Erison, a very smart, thoughtful, good guys, the owner at the top. And then Pat Riley has the final say, he's got some hubris, got some ego, but he runs the organization. And then they found this really young, talented coach they trust, Eric spolster. That's the big three in Miami. And let's go to the Warriors. Okay. So Golden State Warriors, you got Joe Lacob is the Silicon Valley rich guy at the top. There's a little bit of ego,

but you got Bob Myers and Steve Kerr making the salary cap roster moves. They're the second tier. Lakeb trusts them implicitly. Then you got the big four beneath. You got grownups. Those are big four. You got Steph and Durant and Thompson and Green. You may lose one. But the structure is smart owner, two really brilliant guys beneath him, and really big, grown-up NBA bankable stars. Let's go to the ever-improving Clippers. Steve Bulmer, a Microsoft money, buys the team. Very energetic, very dynamic. What does he do?

Well, he goes and finds one of the NBA's smartest old sages, Jerry West. And he puts him next to this really smart young guy who people thinks one of the smart young guys, Michael Winger. Okay, so you got the veteran smart guy, and he got the young smart guy, and then basketball, Doc Rivers, a grown-up. You trust him. You know, Jerry's having meetings with Doc,

and Michael's having meetings with Doc. Doc's the grown-up on the basketball floor. And you trust him, hey, sometimes he benches good players. He goes to them and says, let's move. Now let's look, those are the pyramid of success, the flow chart of success. Now let's look, this is a spider web. This is the Lakers current situation.

So there's Jeannie Bus owns it, but she really listens a lot to her friend Linda Rambus, who of course is married to Kurt Rambus, who just got hired in the organization. Jeannie also listens to Phil. They dated for years. Now, Jeannie's also very close to longtime operations guy, Tim Harris, smart guy. But he was now, according to Magic, involved in some basketball situations. And there's Rob Polinka, who's super tight with Kobe. and we think they're both kind of tied to Jeannie Bus because Rob survived all this bad press.

Well, LeBron's kind of floating in the middle of it disengaged, but we know he's close with Rich Paul. Rich Paul swears to me. He and LeBron are just letting him run the organization. By the way, Tim Harris and Jeannie are tied to Frank Vogel, the new coach, who's tied to Jason Kidd. But we think they're at the bottom of the flowchart because they're not even officially owning a home in Los Angeles yet. And oh, by the way, there's Magic Johnson off to the right there. Sorry for our radio listeners.

we think he's tied to Jeannie, but he just called out Jeannie twice. So I doubt Jeannie considers him brother's sister, like Magic said two weeks ago on Twitter. And look at this. Remember John Gruden used to have that football call, Y2K Banana Spider, that's what it looks like. That was like a football play from a coach on steroids.

That kind of gave me a headache. Okay, that is their current power structure. Sorry for our radio listeners, but now let's go back to again, the nimble. I said, bigger's not always better in business. Faster and quicker is always better than slower. So let's go again to Miami and the Warriors and the Clippers.

In all three of those, very simple. The billionaire, the basketball savant, and to the young Wonderkin, the young smart coach. Miami, simple, small, nimble, quick. Let's go to the clippers who have suddenly looked incredibly well run. The billionaire into the old sage next to the new, brilliant personnel guy and the veteran high IQ coach. Simple, nimble, small, few voices. Let's go to the warrior's power structure. Billionaire, two really smart former players.

And then veteran grown-ups, who, by the way, players are athletes, they're artists. They can be a little dysfunctional, but it's mostly grown-ups. Small, simple, fewer voices, nimble, can move. Now let's go to the Lakers. The hell is this. Well, this is why Magic was saying there's too many voices in the room. There's too many people with an opinion that matters. By the way, a month ago, Magic was way up at top.

And now he's way off the right. And Magic yesterday on TV says, our Lakers, so he's still part of the team, but he called him out. It's a lot. I mean, I'm not a, I didn't go to Wharton. I didn't go to a business school. That's not the way the power structure should look. That's not the way it should look.

That's bad. That's not the way family decisions should be made. That's not the way anything should look. It's just not even a strong spider web. They build out. Yeah, spider webs, they almost art. And they're very strong. Very strong. Spider-Man was strong.

Sinui strong. This is just, this is a mess. It's like an unraveling sweater. Lord. And you know, it's funny. So, because I live in Los Angeles, in a part of town where there's a lot of Laker employees, they're generally very, even during these trying times over the last five years. They're upbeat, they're optimistic. like if you have any Laker connections now, they're not optimistic. Like people, when you listen to that Frank Vogel press conference yesterday,

I mean, I don't think it's a coincidence that Frank Vogel kept saying cohesive. We need to get that. Frank Vogel was basically praying that this thing could get. He wasn't just speaking to fans. He was speaking to Jeannie and Polinka and the rambuses and Sinclair. and cinch this thing up, just out of control. Too many voices inside that organization means nobody has a clear and concise voice. Tom Tolbert, BJ Armstrong, an agent, and a three-time champ will also join us today.

Don't skip meals, drink Soylent, complete meal in a bottle, plant protein, essential nutrients. Go to Soylent.com. If you put in the code, Heard 20 or Herd-20, 20% or Herd-20. 20% off your first case, one hour down, hour two next. In L.A., it's the herd. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, seven days a week, within the IHeart radio app.

Search Herd to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like. Jacob Kingston grew up in an isolated polygamous sect. We were God's chosen kingdom on earth. He felt destined for greatness. So when a swaggering Armenian businessman catapulted Jacob into an extraordinary world, he doesn't look back. Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, meeting the president of Turkey.

I'm Michelle McPhee, and this is one of the most shocking criminal conspiracies I've ever come across. When Jacob met Levant this plant to a billion dollar fraud. But with two kings from entirely different worlds, just how long can their empire survive? The largest tax investigation in American history. You need to tell me what?

you know, is somebody coming after me. Jacob told Levan, you're ruining my life. Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Life throws hurdles big and small. The question is, how do you conquer them? On hurdle with Emily Abadi, we sit down with the most inspiring women in sports and wellness, professional athletes, coaches, and Olympic champions to talk about the challenges that shaped

them and the mindset that keeps them going. From the WMBA standout, Kate Martin, and rising hockey star Layla Edwards. If a boy can do it, I don't see why a girl can't. Like, I've never understood that. Like, it didn't make sense in my brain. It's hard to be in spaces that no one looks like you, but don't ever feel like you don't belong.

Don't let that be the reason you don't do it. An Olympic champs, Gabby Thomas, and Katie Ladeke. The ability to show a gold medal to someone and have their face light up and smile, that means the world to me. And that's what motivates me to win more gold medals. At our level, at this scale, like being able to fail in front of the entire world. Like, I can do anything.

I can do anything. Because resilience isn't just about winning. It's about showing up, even when it's hard. Listen to Hurtle with Emily Abadi on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened.

That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls,

calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations

with so many incredible guests. I'm talking. Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so 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, Keer Gaines, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free, Our Heart Radio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. Ah, we go, hour two. We're live in Los Angeles. This is The Herd, wherever you may be.

And however, you may be listening. We're live in L.A. on IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and FS1, Tom Tolbert, former NBA or funny guy, big radio guy in San Francisco will be joining us. Warrior sweat last night. Joy Taylor is joining me for hour number two. Nine days off for the Warriors until the NBA finals. For the record, they need every day of it. They do, but man, that's scary.

That is. That's a lot of time off. That is a lot of time off. Now, Milwaukee would rather get right into it. Young teams want to play fast. Veteran teams, boogie, you know, KD's banged up. So the Warriors really get a break that is necessary. Like winning that game last night meant something.

I want to start this hour with this, though. Last year, let's not get things confused. The Pittsburgh Steelers were 7-2-1 through 10 games. 60% of the NFL season. They were 7-2-1. Second best record in the AFC, led the division. and of their remaining six games, they faced Denver, Oakland, Cincinnati. They should have finished minimum 10, 5, and 1 in one their division.

They did beat New England at home. But then, let me give you the chronological events that happened. And then in week 12, Ben threw a really, really bad interception against the Denver Broncos. Now, a lot of quarterbacks. Tom Brady's thrown a pick six on a Super Bowl. Tom Brady had a terrible pick last year against the Kansas City Chiefs. Big Ben threw an absolutely

terrible pick for the 7-2-1 Steelers, and they were leading their division, and life was good, and he threw a bad pick, and do we have the audio? Here's Ben what he said after that bad interception against Denver. Looking at it on film,

you know, the guy would... I can't tell if he would have called it or not, obviously, but, you know, he did undercut AB. So, you know, who knows what would have to happen. And that's where I talked to AB, AB, you have to come flat. You can't drift in the end zone because those undercuts can happen. Like I said, I thought I was kind of doing the safest thing by throwing it where AB was going to have to really make a play for it.

But looking at it on film, like I said, I wish we would have went back to Juju, for a straight play. Okay, that did not set well with Antonio Brown. So Antonio Brown went on something called The Shop. It's a LeBron show. And then Antonio Brown, oh, we got a problem, said, this. So the last week of the season, we

going into the final game. We got to win and we got to hope the Ravens don't win so we could advance to the playoffs. I'm a little banged up so I meet with Coach Tomlin and tell him like, hey man, I'm a little banged up so I'm going to need a little time to get right. So he's like you're banged up man, just

you can just go home. So I'm like, damn, that's where we're at. I don't have an ego because it's like, bro, I'm just trying to win. We lose a game. He's like, A.B. should have ran the better route. Why would Ben do that? The type of guy he is. He feels like he the owner.

Bro, you threw the shit to the D line, man. I don't know. You need to give me a better ball. Okay, then Ben yesterday, through all of that, remember 7-2-1, lead the division, second best record, appear to have three guaranteed wins. Denver, Cincinnati, Oakland.

And then Ben yesterday apologized. He came out and he said, I took some heat, deservedly so. I feel bad. I'm sorry. I go, you know, did I go to? far after the Denver game, probably as soon as you say sorry, it only goes so far, can't take it back on media.

I ruined our relationship. I'm truly genuinely sorry. Then AB responded yesterday. This is the chronological order and said two-face. All right. And you know where we're at this morning? Big Ben has Juju Smith-Schuster a pro-bowler. James Connor running back was a pro-bowler.

Three offensive linemen were pro-bowlers. And Big Ben's really, really good. And the GM's good, and the Roonies are good, and Big Ben is good, and the offensive line is good, and this morning I like Pittsburgh to win the NFC North. Yesterday, Ben put it to bed, and frankly, at this point, it doesn't matter what A.B. says. He's in Oakland. There was an interesting moment yesterday, and this is why I still think the Steelers are fine. Yesterday on Peter King's Football Morning in America, Mike Tannenbaum, former GM, had a quote that was fascinating. He said, you know, for New England, continuity has become a force multiplier.

He said, nobody really talks about the new rules in limited practice time with CBA, but it limits how much new coaches can do with their teams, whereas the Patriot staff, they've been together so long. So when Miami's rookie offensive coordinator, Chad O'Shea, calls his next play to Josh Rosen, it'll be play number one. When Adam Gase in the season calls a play for Sam Darnold, it'll be play number one. When Josh McDaniels calls a play for Tom Brady in September,

it's play number 15,000. This is exactly why I like Pittsburgh. Veteran owner, veteran GM, veteran O'Line, veteran quarterback. New, new, new, new. It's all good here. AB was great. They stole him in the draft.

He was wildly productive. Ben said something stupid. Yesterday owned it. AB pushed back. But getting noise out of the building almost always works in the NFL. And yesterday is precisely why I like the Steelers to win the NFC North. He played for seven years in the NBA and now is a wildly popular radio. host and has been with the media for a long time at KNBR. His name is Tom Tolbert. We haven't talked to him

in a long time, and he is now joining us here in the herd. Tom, I've got to be honest. I did not think they would go to Houston and win. I did not think they would sweep Portland. You watch every game. How surprised have you been by the immediate excellence minus KD? Well, first of all, Colin, Good morning. How are you? I am great. How are you? All right.

I mean, at least you could do is, you know, find me dinner before you ask me any question. I'm sorry. I'm not. I saw it before. I saw how good they were before. I know that was the whole strength in numbers team, so they were deeper.

And, you know, Harrison Barnes was there, Andre, or Bogot was, you know, four years, four years younger, Barbosa, Livingston was younger. So was he good. But look, here's the thing. For people who think they're better without KD, I mean, you're on crack.

They're not better without KD. The thing is, is there's not as much a drop as you think there is without KD. They have something, no other team maybe in the history of the NBA has had or not close. I mean, they're close to maybe the Warriors, but you're thinking KD Hall of Famer,

Steph Hall of Famer, Clay Hall of Famer, Dremont probably a Hall of Famer. We're starting to be able to be able to be. to make a case for you, Godala, as a borderline Hall of Famer. DeMarcus Cousins, when he was healthy, he was a multi-time all-star. I mean, this team has so much ammunition, though when you lose something, you're still able to have firepower.

So I've always said it this way, that I think the Warriors with KD were clearly the favorites to win the championship. Without KD, there's still among the handful of teams, two, three, four of them that have a really good chance to win a championship. I don't know what people expected to see when KD left. team are just going to fall up the map. That's just not the case. They're too talented. Could they beat Milwaukee, in your opinion, without the length of Boogie or KD? Yeah, they could. I mean, it can be hard. I thought it would have been hard to beat Milwaukee anyway.

I mean, I think Milwaukee's really, really good. And that being said, they probably won't get by Toronto now. So it looks like a yo-yo in about a week and a half. But I love their team. I love Janice. I love the length they have on that team. I love the shooting they have on that team and they had a few issues here and there. But yeah, it would be tough, but I think they could do it. I mean, they've proven that. They go to Houston when a game six without KD. They sweep the Trailblazers.

I mean, they came from 15 down, three straight games in a row against the Trailblazers. Now does that say more about the Trailblazers or the Warriors? Maybe a little bit of both. But the point is this team is super talented. They're really good. They have a lot of championship medal. So, yeah, I absolutely believe they could win without KD. Would they be the favorites?

probably a small favorite, not a two-to-one favorite like they would with KD, but yeah, they could. You know, listen, I'm on the outside looking in. I have had a former All-Star who knows KD say he's gone. I had an NBA player still in the league last week in the Eastern Conference said he's gone. In the Bay Area, is there sort of an understanding KD is gone? I think that's kind of the working assumption. I have no idea. He says he doesn't know, but everybody that seems to be plugged in seems to say he's gone.

He wants to go somewhere else and kind of be the face of the franchise, so to speak. And I just, look, that's never going to be the case here. Whether you believe he's the best player in the league, whether you believe he's the best player in the team, it's just not going to happen here. I don't even know this is important to him. This is just me as an outsider, too. I mean, I'm close to the team, and I know a lot of people won the team, but this is me just looking at it.

I mean, this guy's like two-time finals MVP, stud, and it's always Steph's team. And guess what? It's always going to be Steph's team. I mean, Steph is a two-time MVP. He's a Hall of Famer in his own right, and he was drafted here, and he went through some of the tough times here. And he came out the other side, and he helped his team lead him to a championship

without KD being here. So as great as KD is, and he is. And yes, the Warriors, again, are better with him. with KD, it's still always Steph. Steph's always going to be the face of that franchise. Draymond has probably earned himself a max deal. I don't think he's a max player, but there's a lot of guys in the NBA, and that's the way it works.

Clay is going to get a max deal. So here's my question. Let's look ahead. So KD says, I'm going to go with Kyrie to Brooklyn or wherever. And so you're paying step a ton. You're paying Draymond a max. You're paying Clay a max. You got some nice young, cheap parts.

Do you try to retain boogie? Like what do you think the roster looks like if KD leaves? Or do you just with the Clay and Drayman Max's, this is the new team going forward? The bench is young, we don't have a lot of size, and here we are. Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, I think they're willing to spend as much money as they have to. I mean, I don't think they really care much about the luxury tax. They'll go over it to get players that they need to.

It's just some rules are put in place to where you can't. Like I think with the markets next year, they can only pay him so much like six or seven million. So they can't. People say, well, just pay him as much as you can. Well, sometimes there's rules and how much you can pay a guy. So he might want to leave and go get more money. Of course, if he doesn't play the rest of the postseason,

maybe he had a good enough time there and he wants to go there and, you know, rebuild his stock again. I don't know. But, yeah, I mean, that's the question, right? Is it good enough now to have Braymond Clay and Steph and then maybe some mercenaries and some 28, 29, 30th pick overall. I don't know. I mean, I think it is, but let's remember

when those guys were younger, they weren't making as much money so they could afford a better bench, so they were a lot deeper. If Durant goes, it's not like they can take that $30 million and just replace them with $30 million worth of parts. You can't do that. I mean, they could go over with Durant, but if Durant leaves, they could probably only spend

about $5 or $6 million of that on new players. So if you could make it, like if you'd say, okay, we'll take those $30 million and replace them with like $30 million with a players, they'd be fine. But it's going to hurt. I still think they'll be fine. There'll be one of the handful of teams that can win, but it'll certainly be a hell of a lot tougher.

You played in the NBA, Warriors, Clips, Magic Hornets, Tom Tolbert, K&BR now in the Bay Area. Finally, free agency now. It's, you know, it's an empowered league. The players move around. I get it. I wouldn't leave if I'm KD. I think he probably does. But when you look at the Lakers from the Bay

area down south to Los Angeles, you had Magic call out the team yesterday. LeBron at the Frank Vogel Press conference sat in the back and wouldn't comment. Phil Jackson has a voice. I think so does Kobe. Nobody likes Rob Polinka. I read and hear, though I don't know him.

Do you think they'll land anybody if I had to do Crystal Ball, Tom? You know enough players. You hear enough things. Who do you think they land? That's a great question because, I mean, it is such a clown show. I mean, it really is. I mean, I grew up Rootin for the Lakers and watching magic and Byron and Scott and Kareem and

Worthy and all those guys. I mean, I loved watching those guys. That was my team, and it was them and the Celtic. Those are always the two teams atop the NBA. And when you still look at all time, NBA championships, it's like the Celtics and Lakers have about damn near half of the championship.

So, I mean, this is like, supposedly the gold standard of the NBA, and now it's a joke. I mean, they're becoming the clippers and the damn warriors of like the 90s. It's ridiculous. What they're doing over there. So if I'm a free agent, hell no, I'm not going there. Not that they figure this thing out. Why in how would I want to go there? I mean, I got to try to fit

in with LeBron. LeBron's, I mean, one of the greatest, if not the greatest of all time. But it's probably hard to fit in with him. He's toward the end of his career now. So I think you could say the same thing about Kobe toward the end of his career. It's like, well, God, I want to go play with him. And I don't know if I want to go play with him. Let me wait until this whole thing blows over. Maybe he retires. And I can go there. But it is a Lakers. So maybe someone will a shot there and think they can win a ring. I mean, what I would do is I would just hope that Anthony, you get this thing cleaned up and Anthony Davis wants to come there after next year.

I wouldn't give up any of my young assets. I'd try to keep them all. LeBron's going to retire in a few years. And I'd hope that my young assets become what I thought they would be. And then Anthony Davis joins us. And at least I have Anthony Davis and those young assets. And then I could move forward with that. But, I mean, if you get one of the second tier free agents this year,

and blow up your cap space again for just trying to make the playoff this year, I don't know. I mean, I don't know if they have a plan, and that's the problem. They seem to always have a plan down there, but that I don't know what the plan is now. And Magic was probably right. There are too many voices. But if you're going to take a damn job like that, I know Magic said yesterday, you know, I told them from the get-go, that I'm going to keep my other business and I'm going to do my other thing.

Why take the job? I mean, if you're not going to invest your time in that job, like, that's a job job. Like you show up every day to that job if you want to do that job, right? And if you don't want to do it that way, why do it in the first place? I mean, what do you think people are going to say about you when they show up in the office and you're not there half the time, even though you told somebody you weren't going to be there half the time? That's the part.

I don't know if he thought it was going to be like maybe a L.A. Dodger type job where you just kind of show up and wave and do a few things. And instead of like going, damn, this is like 12, 13, 13 hours a day. Look, there are a lot of people that make that type of money or as great as he is at what he did. They don't want to invest 13, 14, 15 hours a day because they've already done that growing up and getting themselves ready to be in the NBA and making themselves a Hall of Fame. Now it's like, okay, I got other things I want to do. So it would just, I mean, it just seemed like miscommunication like Jeannie wanted him because he's magic and because he's a Laker grade.

We've got to have Laker grades in the front office. Get the damn people that do the job right. That's what you want in your front office. Finally, you went to college with Steve Kerr. He was a very good player, excellent broadcaster, tremendous coach. And the last time he was a front office guy, the sons made the Western Conference finals and had been a dumpster fire since. Did you know early this guy's special?

Did you sense, I mean, nobody can predict this, but did you see this kind of success in multiple platforms within the league? You know, I did. It took a little while. I had to get him over his angel dust addiction. And then after that, We were smooth sailing.

Look, here's the thing with Steve. As Steve's always been a leader of men. When I went to Arizona my junior year, he got hurt that previous summer in the world championships, and he wasn't a part of the team. I think we're 18 and 10, 19 and 10. We lost in the first round, incidentally tournament. But there was just something missing. I didn't know exactly what it was.

He could just tell there was a little something missing. Then he shows up the next year. That was our final four year. And he's just a leader. He knows how to lead. And I think that's something you have or you don't have, and he has a great way about him. I mean, he's just such a great communicator. And he has such an easy way of communicating what he wants to have done.

And you feel like he's on your side. And he was that way when I played with him, like he was our leader. And, you know, you'd squabble with him and fight with him a little bit because he's your teammate. But, I mean, you knew what you should do is what he wanted you to do. And he just had such a fierce, intense, competitive streak. And it's funny because you watch him on the bench. Him and Draymond are the same guy. I mean, him and Draymond are that guy.

They're the guys that wear their hearts on their sleeves, that yell at each other, that curse at each other, then hug each other after the game and then move on. But Steve generally cares about everyone on that team. And Steve talks with them about other things other than basketball. He's a basketball coach, and he loves it, but that's not how he identifies himself as a basketball coach. But yeah, because he's so smart and because he's such a great leader of men, I knew when I played with him.

This guy's going to coach somewhere. That will be his calling. I didn't know he'd win five damn championships in the NBA as a player, and now he's tacked on three more. Think about that. Eight damn rings this guy has. I mean, I could kick his ass. He's like six, four, one, seven. This guy is like eight rings.

It's incredible what he's been able to do. But no, I'm so happy for him because he deserves it. I mean, he's worked his butt off for it, and I think this was always the trajectory he was going to be on, that he was going to be a leader of men somehow, somewhere, and he was going to be very successful at it. So the success he said, yeah, I mean, I'd be lying up. I said, yeah, I think it wins three championships in his first four seasons and go to four and be finals. No, I didn't see that coming, but I saw success in his future. There's no doubt.

Tom, great talking to you, buddy. Tom Tolbert, K&B.R. in the Bay Area, continued success, my man. Colin, hopefully the Warriors make the NBA finals next year. I'll talk to you again. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, they played together in Arizona. Kerr's a remarkable story. Jeff Schwartz will be joining us today as well.

BJ Armstrong final hour. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeard Radio app. Jacob Kingston grew up in an isolated polygamous sect. We were God's chosen kingdom on earth. He felt destined. for greatness. So when a swaggering Armenian businessman catapults Jacob into an extraordinary world, he doesn't

look back. Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, meeting the president of Turkey. I'm Michelle McPhee, and this is one of the most shocking criminal conspiracies I've ever come across. When Jacob met Levant, this went to a billion-dollar fraud. But with two kings from entirely different worlds, just how long can their animals, you Empire survive. The largest tax investigation in American history.

You need to tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me? Jacob told Levan, you're ruining my life. Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Life throws hurdles big and small. The question is, how do you conquer them? On Hurtle with Emily Abadi, we sit down with the most inspiring women in sports and

wellness. professional athletes, coaches, and Olympic champions to talk about the challenges that shaped them and the mindset that keeps them going. From the WNBA standout Kate Martin and rising hockey star Layla Edwards. If a boy can do it, I don't see why a girl can't. Like, I've never understood that. Like, it didn't make sense in my brain. It's hard to be in spaces that no one looks like you, but don't ever feel like you don't belong. Don't let that be the reason you don't do it. An Olympic champs Gabby Thomas and Katie Ladeke.

The ability to show a gold medal to someone and have their face light up. and smile. That means the world to me. And that's what motivates me to win more gold medals. At our level, at this scale, like being able to fail in front of the entire world. Like, I can do anything. I can do anything. Because resilience isn't just about winning. It's about showing up, even when it's hard. Listen to Hurtle with Emily Abadi on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Last night, a blown call changed a game.

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

The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered. SportsSlice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience

in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking. Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing and we're still chasing it

and we don't know when we've done enough because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth? Are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely.

And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Keir Gaines, is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, learn the hard way. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the hard way and listen now. The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup kicks off June 7th,

and all eyes will be on Alex Morgan, Carly Lloyd, Megan Rapino, and the U.S. Women's National Team. As the defending champions head to France, looking to win a historic Fourth World Cup, all the matches will be live here on Fox and FS1. You know the great thing about the World Cup? It's perfect. NBA season ends, and it just, in that month gap when you're looking for stuff, you know, we're just dying for content. Here comes the World Cup to slide in. We're the favorites.

France is number two. They're younger, less experienced. It's in France. It's a perfect environment for a great World Cup. We're the favorites. The underdogs, the slight underdogs, are hosting the event. So it's going to be less than three weeks away to the Women's World Cup, which is going to be incredible. We have so many dynasties going on in sports right now.

New England, Alabama's got slightly disrupted. Their favorites again this year. We have the Golden State Warriors. You know, our United States Women's National Team is kind of a dynasty. Yukon women's basketball, slight disruption, but still top two or three. It's just so funny to me in sports. What all these organizations and leagues are trying to do is not have too many dynasties, right? The best team gets the worst draft pick, free agent restrictions.

All salary caps are, if you think about it, a salary cap is we don't want a big city having way too much money and dominating. But it's fascinating to me that the big cities in America often have the most dysfunctional teams. The Jets and the Giants and the Mets and the Lakers and it's like, money doesn't guarantee anything. More money, more problems. I mean, you start looking at all these sports teams. And in my life, there's never been more dynasties, which is what the NCAA doesn't want,

which the NFL is basically built for parity. They want everybody to go 8 and 8, 7 and 9, 9 and 7. And New England's burst through it, and Alabama's somehow figuring out how to burst through it and Golden States burst through it. And it's unbelievable. And the United States women's national team, you know, again, the world,

women now are playing soccer everywhere. and we're still number one. I mean, I don't know how to explain it. It's the one thing I observe sports and try to have theories and belief systems. I can't figure it out. I think maybe it's part of the early adapter that if you adapt early to analytics, you get a head start on people. Well, adapt early and continue to evolve.

That's, as good answer as anybody, because I've never in my life seen more dominant teams in an era where commissioners, leagues, the NCAA are trying to keep you from doing that. Yeah, they're trying to squish you together. Joy with the news. No, no, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news.

So, Steph Curry and the Warriors took down his brother, Seth and the Blazers, as expected. A little sooner than we... Yes. I don't know if expected is the word, but sooner than we hoped, I would have preferred more basketball. But the Warriors are returning to the finals and Seth is going home. Seth feels his brother made a statement during the series, and after the game, shared his message for his brother Seth. I mean, somebody had to lose, but this is just a beginning for him

and his career in terms of being in this stage. He's proved a lot of people that not only does he belong, he can play big minutes in a playoff game. So we'll remember this for the rest of our lives and, you know, for our family and back at home watching. Like, this is what it's all about for sure. Hey, Seth Curry in this league right now, a lot of teams would take Seth Curry, Here's what takes off currently in a minute.

A guy who can hit threes? Yeah, I think he made a statement particularly this series. I mean, he was undrafted out of college. He barely played in his first three seasons in the league. He spent a season out of the league. And sign with Portland, which, Portland, despite the fact that they got swept by the wars, which obviously, as I said, we would have preferred more basketball. Damien Lillard was clearly hurt.

They're just a better team. I don't know that I don't look at this series in general as a knock on the blazer. at all. They're just a better team. They just have more talent. And Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum were incredible, this entire playoff run. They're a great team. They're going to be back in the playoffs next year.

And Seth Curry was a important part of the series, despite the fact that it was a sweep. Listen, Seth Curry can shoot a three. Bottom line in this league, LeBron doesn't have a single guy on his roster that can shoot threes like, not Steph, Seth, Seth Curry. So I thought it was, I actually thought for Portland, did you really think they go to the Western Conference finals before the season? I think it was a great year for Portland. Yeah, it's a great year for Portland.

Obviously, everyone wants to win a championship. That's the goal. So, you know, they're not trying to hear that right now. But I wouldn't be unhappy with it. It's not a, it didn't feel as dramatic as a sweep of sweeps that they've had in the past and that other teams have had. Competitive games. Right.

In the postseason run. So there's been some conflicting reports about Magic's resignation and, and Rob Polinka's reputation around the league. And at Frank Vogel's press conference yesterday, Palinka responded to Magic's comments from early in the day about what was going on behind the scenes with the Lakers. I think the most important thing for me is the two years of getting to work side by side with Irvin

are some of the greatest memories I have. And truly, it's saddening and disheartening to think he believes things are a misperception. But I look forward the opportunity to talk with him and sit down with him and work through them, just like in any relationship, because they're just simply not true. Yeah, boy.

Frankly, I don't know what's true. I do think, I understand Magic protecting his brand. I do. Because, like, for a month, we were all like, that guy doesn't know what he's doing. But in the big picture, by the way, so Magic said on ESPN, our Lakers. So is he still in the building?

Is he still like making... Well, I mean, Magic's always going to be a part of the Lakers, whether people are angry at him in that building or not. They don't have a choice. That's Magic Johnson. It just doesn't matter. When you think of the Lakers, you think of Magic Johnson, you think of Kobe Bryant. You think of Kareem.

That's inevitable. That can't be changed. So he's always going to be an hour guy, a wee guy, even if he isn't involved in what's going on inside the building. I don't think anybody had a problem with what Magic did yesterday. Magic didn't have a choice. Magic's getting all this was getting all this negative press and, you know, He's not a hard worker. Did everyone forget what kind of businessman magic is?

Nobody is expecting Magic to be in the office, getting copies. That's not the kind of businessman magic is. Magic put in his work in the MBA and was smart with his money and made the right connections, just like most people who come into money do. And that's how you make more money by having connections. That's what he did. And what Magic brings to the table is something that you can't put a dollar sign on, and that is magic's personality

and the ability to go in a room, light it up like everyone says that he does, and bring people together and elevate the situation. You can't pay for that kind of of talent or energy. And Magic's getting put in a situation where he looks like he's causing all this dysfunction. He had no choice but to come out.

But any time you have two different stories on the opposite spectrums where somebody's saying someone was backstabbing and the other person saying that it's simply not true, there's got to be somewhere in the middle. And that's the problem with the Lakers. everybody is putting out their particular angle on it. There's no voice.

Finally, much has been made about instant replay in the NFL this off season, and Pete Carroll believes that taking it out of football altogether will actually improve the sport. He told Peter King, get rid of or at least decrease the use of instant replay. I get all the reasons why we have instant replay, and technology has opened up a new world for us to get to this point. But I miss the human element of trusting the officials to make the calls in the moment and the rest of us having to live with what they called.

It was both fun and frustrating. This is not happening, Pete. Not ever. That ship has sailed. Everyone has a smartphone now and immediate camera and a thing called social media. People will lose their collective minds if you get rid of instant replay and you have trusting the human elements as the answer. There's too many cameras now.

There's too many angles. There's no reason to get rid of instant replay. Nobody's ever going to be happy with the system. matter what way you do it. You know, everybody's always, it was funny. I read the article, so Peter King went to like 20 people, all sorts of different people, and said, what change would you make to the NFL? And that was the impetus for this article. The one I agreed with was Rich Eisen, which I think is incredible. There's a rule in the NFL that I do not get, that if you fumble at the one inch line, you not only, you lose possession. If you fumble out of the end zone,

you lose possession. I'm with that rule. That's got to. ago. That to me, and it happens like twice a year in a big spot and you're like, and you forget that it's a rule and you're like, how did that happen? Like I get going back to the 20. I lose possession because of years ago the Raiders without it being accidental. They purposely fumbled the ball ahead and that was kind of the impetus to all right, teams can no longer fumble the ball ahead. But I actually agreed with Rich. That rule is a disaster. It's the worst I forgot about that rule. Every year about once

you and I'll complain, we're like, that doesn't even make sense. Yeah, that's got to go. Re-Blay can stay, though. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Hurd-Ly News. By the way, Chris Long, we know

Belichick's smart, right? We all get it. Chris Long, Virginia, great player, son of Howie Long, came out yesterday. He just retired. And he had a quote, he said, in New England I learned so much about football. I mean, I always thought I was a smart player.

You know, dad played in the NFL, even though I never thought about anything but the six inches in front of my face. And in New England, I was forced to learn so many schematic concepts in my playing career football. Nobody asked me to do as much as Belichick did. Might be a three technique, a linebacker, dropping into coverage more than ever or playing inside more than ever. I always remember how much I learned watching Bill in practice. he can coach any position as good as any position coach in the league. He can walk around the field, stop drills, coach each position at the highest level. By the way, the trend in the NFL, get the young coach, Matt LaFleur in Green Bay,

and Cliff Kingsbury in Arizona, and Freddie Kitchens in Cleveland, and Zach Efron or something in Cincinnati. Zach Taylor, I know. You do get that age equals experience and no prep school can teach experience. This is one of these compounding interest things. Best offensive line coach in the NFL, New England, 70s, best coach Belichick 60s, offensive coordinator in his 10th year, older, older, older. I know we all want to find the hipster, but who was the best coach in the Super Bowl beyond Bill Belichick?

70-year-old Wade Phillips. Chris Long's a really smart kid, just finished his career, and tells you everything you need to know about New England. Not lit, not dope, not cool, not new, not fresh,

old, smart, experienced. Oh, yeah, they've got Tom Brady. Jeff Schwartz around the corner, hits the herd. One more herd? The herd streams 24 hours a day, days a week within the IHeart radio app. Search heard to listen live or on demand whenever you'd like.

Jeff Schwartz had dinner with him last night at a really cool steak house place. Manhattan Beach is nice. I see what people live there. I had coconut sorbet and a steak, and you're a very light eater for a man of your steam in size. Yeah, I eat throughout the day very often. Okay. So that was a smaller meal, yeah.

Okay. Eight years in the NFL, his brother, of course, Mitchell Schwartz has, offensive linemen for the Kansas City Chiefs. By the way, before we start, Belichick, Chris Long, super smart guy. I think it was an academic All-American at Virginia came out and said, when I played with the Patriots,

I learned more stuff in the year I was with New England than any other operation. Do you have a Belichick story? Yes. In 2015, we were playing the Patriots. I was on the Giants. I never started a game against them because I was always in the NFC. We didn't play them very often. And we prepared for three different base defenses, which almost never happened.

teams just have their base defense, three four under, three four, four, three, whatever it is. We prepared for three different defenses, and the one we thought we'd see the least, we saw the entire game. They ran like an old school like basically, you know, four, one, six thing. It was just like we did not expect they ran the entire game against us. That's the beauty about them. They can do whatever they want week to week. It's amazing. Would they show an offense week to week is different.

They might pass the ball 50 times. They run the ball 50 times on defense. They just have interchangeable pieces. They bring all those pressures. You know, the playoffs, they attacked the Ram Center. He was their weak spot. The Chargers, they attacked the right side of their offensive line. The Chiefs, they attack the middle of their offensive line.

Any week, they can just change. It makes them so special. Yeah, they're very, very nimble. So there's a video out of Zeke, you know, he's a young guy. His dad said when he came into the NFL, I'm not sure he's ready for the Dallas Cowboys stage. He can be immature. I saw this video and my first takeaway is this is more leverage for DAC

to get his money. What is your takeaway in the video? Well, it's not great. Here's the thing. EDC is a fun time. My wife has been, I was actually going to go this year. It's a music festival.

It's a music festival. But you try to be smart. You have to do it in the private. Like you can go and do VIP. Don't be in public. Just have fun. It's okay to have fun. Just do it quietly.

As far as the leverage for DAC, it's interesting. So I think DAC is not elite quite yet. I want to see what it does in the offense this year. Zeke Elliott, to me, is the only running back in the NFL that is worth probably as much money as he's going to get. He's the only guy that makes an offense 100% go. You know, we saw CJ Anderson come in for Todd Gurley. They were fine on offense.

They were fine, right? Obviously, the Patriots game wasn't ideal. But they used Zeke so much in the past game. He scores on almost a screen every other week. It's the same screen, by the way. I don't know why people haven't figured it out. He makes their engine go in the run game. He obviously helps him in the past game.

They need him so much in that offense. I think he's the only back in the NFL I can say that about. Like, they truly, I would pay him his money. I wouldn't have paid Levion Bell. I wouldn't have paid Todd Gurley that much money because it doesn't pan out in the end. But he, you've got to pay Zika, in my opinion. If you pay Dak, you need that running back there. Okay, so Big Ben came out yesterday on KDKA.

I think I was right, the oldest radio station in the world, or at least in America. And he came basically said, yeah, I made a mistake on that Denver thing. I think people forget they were seven and two and one before that loss, and then it went sideways, the locker room issues. What did Jamaica, his apology? I loved it. He's clearly listened to the criticism this year. He's been almost quiet, this entire offseason, has said nothing.

First time he speaks, he says, I apologize, I regret, it ruined our relationship, accepts responsibility for the problems he had. Obviously, did the Lakehouse thing. I think it's fantastic. I think he's going to be highly motivated this year. He's not going to miss Antonio Brown. I think Antonio Brown is more of a cancer in that team that people want to admit. And I think they're going to be much better without him.

Look, Antonio Brown couldn't go one hour without responding on Twitter. You're not on that team anymore, bro. Like, get over it, be done with it. You're not there anymore. So I love the apology. He took responsibility, which is what people have been asking Big Ben to do. Just take responsibility. He's obviously trying to build new relationships with his wide receivers

and running backs and tight ends. His offensive line loves him, right? Ramone Foster, Pouncy, all those guys. You know, they have three pro bowlers in that offensive line. Like, does everybody get the O lines essentially out-out of quarterback? O-lines dictate. the league. They kind of dictate time of possession, how good you are in the red zone. Pittsburgh's is the best in the league now. They lost Muncheck, though, to Denver, which is going to be

interesting. Their offensive line coach, really good offensive line, obviously. We'll see how they do. But to your point, yes, they're very good on the offensive line. And those guys love Big Ben. That's why I've never really bought into Big Ben being a terrible leader, is because we've only heard a couple guys, Antonio Brown, a little diva-ish. Levyon Bell really was an afterthought to criticize Ben in that article. just like, how do you feel about Ben? He's like, ah, I wasn't quite sure about him. Otherwise, offensive linemen love him.

Ramone Foster Poundt. They talk very highly of him. They celebrate with him every touchdown. Like they're really into Big Ben. And remember, he didn't have to be a leader for many years. The leaders were the defense. The leaders were Heinz Ward, Jerome Bettis, Max Starks. Now he has to become the leader, and he's getting used to doing that.

And he's understanding he's got to be better at it. So I love what he's done this offseason. By the way, the New York Jets are so noisy that it's embarrassing. Like I thought Adam Gase would work. It is just every day. They've literally, and this is hard to do, made the Knicks look functional. Okay. And then Cleveland, last week, OBJ Baker throwing salvos at me.

Hurt my feelings. What noise is okay in the NFL? You've been in locker rooms. And what noise is destructive? It's a good question. I think there's no defining line, in my opinion. The defining line is wins and loss. So if it hurts your team as far as wins and losses, that's where the line is.

So all this office and stuff, it's not terrible, but if it gets to the point where it hurts your team in the regular season, that's the problem. That's why coaches say we don't want distractions, right? Distractions end up leading to losses, not preparing properly each and every week. There's no defining line. There's no saying, well, you can't say this and that. As long as it doesn't destroy your team, in my opinion, it's not a big deal. You know, Baker Mayfield and Odell, you know, re-answering you, they probably shouldn't be doing that.

if it leads to not preparing well and focusing too much on other things, that's a problem. But until we see it really manifest in losses, I don't know how we'll see that, then that's a problem. So I don't really think there's an issue until you start losing. And winning hides a lot of the stink, too. If you start winning, it's a great deodorant for team problems in the locker room. Well, I mean, the Jets are prime example where Adam Gase is known as a highly intense guy,

gets there, immediate issues with the GM. GM has gone. And Gays says all I want to do is coach. But since the GM has been out a week, Gase is making all sorts of moves. He's traded people. He got an extra draft pick. He fired a scout. He said he wants to streamline.

In your years in the NFL, you played Panthers, Chiefs, Vikings Giants. Did all coaches privately want to be GMs? You were under Andy Reed. Yeah. What is the – because Gase is telling me I want to coach, and I'm not and what he's saying? So I was with Andy Reid after Philly, and at that time he was over the personnel.

He's like, I tried that in Philly. It did not work. I'm happy to let John Dorsey hands all the personnel. I think secretly they love to have more control. They have high egos. I don't think you can coach the NFL, I have an ego, and they want to control the players they have. This is a bigger issue, which is that often I find front offices

and coaches do not, are not on the same page of type of players they need to win. So coach wants X player to win. the GM wants Y player and they don't match very well. New England does a great job because Belichick's basically in charge of that and they match players up to their scheme. Often teams don't do that. So like Levyon Bell, for example, Gase has never had a top-end running back really in any of his systems.

He doesn't need Levyon Bell. He'd rather spend the money, I assume, on other positions to help his team out. He doesn't need the running back. So you don't work in concert. It's great to have Bell. He's going to do well this year in the offense, but he doesn't need him. So I feel like there's a disconnect between front office

and coaching staff on a lot of teams. That's why you get just mismatched parts all the time. You have guys, you know, the bills. I like what they did. They signed speedy wide receivers, but you didn't sign anyone that was kind of tall. Like, you know, Alan's not very accurate. Like, you need a big wide receiver. I like their signings, though. I won't say that.

They don't match up sometimes between personnel and what you need on your team. Who is the best run team of the four you played with? So it's only there for, I mean, the chiefs are very well run. Andy Reid does a good job. The Giants will run one. We didn't win a lot, but they were well-run, I think, in my opinion. I'd go to the Chiefs as far as that year, we went 11 and 5.

We were 2 and 14 the year before. I mean, that's a quick, John Dorsey turned that Ross over quickly. Alex Smith's first year. It's a well-run organization. They did a good job. Another 60-year-old guy who's pretty good, Andy Reid. The book is Eat My Schwartz. Our story of NFL Football, Family and Faith, Jeff and Mitch Schwartz.

Hour 2, BJ Armstrong, three-time champ, NBA. agent coming up. Thanks, Jeff. It's the herd. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeard Radio app. Jacob Kingston grew up in an isolated polygamous sect.

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Is somebody coming after me? Jacob told LeVan, you're ruining my. my life. Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Life throws hurdles big and small. The question is, how do you conquer them? On Hurtle with Emily Abadi, we sit down with the most inspiring women in sports and

wellness, professional athletes, coaches, and Olympic champions to talk about the challenges that shaped them and the mindset that keeps them going. From the WNBA standout, Kate Martin, and rising hockey star, Lela Edwards. If a boy can do it, I don't see why a girl can't. Like, I've never understood that. Like, it didn't make sense in my brain. It's hard to be in spaces that no one looks like you, but don't ever feel like you don't feel on.

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iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness

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becomes about wins and losses steve burns dustin ross because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth or are you a good person because you're afraid because that's two different intentions bro absolutely and that that's two different levels of trust i want you to just really be a good person join me keir gains is we have real conference conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now.

My pleasure. I have never had the opportunity to meet BJ Armstrong, a three-time chant with the Bulls, a one-time All-Star. I remember you played at Iowa. I can remember you playing with Steve Kerr, who you know well. It's amazing. When you're successful like yourself at a very young age and you just keep You're still looking credit. How old are you, by the way, BJ?

51. Holy mother of youth. Oh, my gosh. I've got to thank my parents for that. Yeah, you better. Let's start. You're now an agent. I want to start with Steve Kerr because Steve was at a time when the three-point shot was

considered corky, often dangerous. Don't shoot that. Don't shoot that. Okay. Steve was one of the first bullseye shooters in the league. There's all these stories that he and Jordan and feisty, there was punches thrown. Go back to Steve Kerr, the player.

Give me a story, the niche he sort of found in the league. Well, I think Steve is very underrated from his toughness. Steve has always been a very tough, tough player. And I remember when he first came to Chicago, he had been around the league, he was with Orlando, kind of bounced around

a little bit, he was with Cleveland. But the one thing I always appreciated about him was his toughness. You know, he has this youthful look, you know, young, he's funny, very charming, but he's a very tough kid. He's a grinder at heart. And that was the one thing that I appreciated about Steve more than anything

is that he had an incredible understanding of the game, but he was willing to grind, throw his body around a little bit, even though he was little himself. I mean, we both, you know, at the time, probably 165 soaking wet, but he was able to grind, and he was really a tough player and had a great career. By the way, you had to be because MJ was tough and Michael didn't take practices off.

So, I mean, there's a legendary story where Steve Kerr did not back down for Michael Jordan. No, he wasn't. And, you know, as I look back on our time, I think we played two or three years together. I never imagined that he would be a head coach. I always knew he had incredible communication skills. And I think that's what's what has allowed him in his career, whether it was a GM or coach or on television, allowed him to be able to adapt to whatever the situation is. and he's had a great job and had a terrific run thus far with the Golden State Warriors.

How do you describe people, Michael Jordan's fascinating because, you know, everybody's the best this and the best that. Let's get out of that. I do believe he's the most relentless player I've ever seen. I think Kobe is in that class. Michael was, he would, not that he wouldn't take occasional possessions off, but the steam would come off his head. He'd have these eight-minute burst. take me to a practice. Was it like that at practice?

Well, the one thing, you know, I always say about Michael and my time spending with him is we didn't see the best of Michael Jordan. He was as good as he was in the game. He was that much better in practice. He attacked practice with the same ferociousness, the same discipline,

the same, he was very mindful that, you know what, he was going to transfer what he did in practice. to the game. And he was an incredible practice player, the best practice player I've ever seen. I was always amazed of his ability to respond. He would play 40 minutes one night and come back and practice with the same intensity the next day in practice and attack it with such, you know, he was ferocious in the way he attacked practice. So to me, that was his greatest quality. He was an incredible practice player than one that you just had to respect because, you know,

not only was he going to beat you during the game, he was going to attack you in practice the next day, you know, not just give a half effort. He was going to give you the effort that was necessary for him to be the very best that he could be and the very best that we could be as a team. Yeah, I always said Michael's teams, those teams were the best I've ever seen. Golden State, at least on the offensive side, is the most lethal. There's just so many shooters.

And I do think if the hand check was allowed, Michael's team would win. If it's what the NBA is today with spacing, I think Michael's team would struggle just to cover all the space, the corners. If they matched up and you took half the old rules, half the new rules, you think it'd be competitive? I mean, I always felt the Showtime Lakers were the second best team. Kobe Shack Lakers, maybe third. If you took these warriors and those bulls, what you know of both,

what do you think the matchup would look like? Well, I think you hit it, you know, I think you're dead on with the rules. If the rules were different, the way the team was constructed, the way the Bulls teams were constructed back then. We're constructed with hand checking and all of the rules and take advantage of the rules that were in place in the 90s. Today is a different game. Playing against the spacing and the way that the Warriors play,

I mean, it really is, it poses a lot of problems defensively. How are you going to defend them? How are you going to defend screen role? How are you going to, you know, really channel Steph Curry? And then you got Clay Thompson. Then you got Draymond Green, who is excellent at finding players. So I think if you kind of staggered it down the line, I think it would be a very competitive series, a lot of competitive basketball.

But most importantly, you know, watching Steve Kerr as a coach and then thinking is you're going to have Phil Jackson on the other. I think that would probably be the most intriguing because you would have a great chess match. You know, it's funny. You're in the – you have Derek Rose, Josh Jackson, Javelle McGee, Emmanuel Moodye, Bismarck Biombo as players, your client's part of the Wasserman agency. You know, we talk a lot about free agency. And like, Kauai Leonard's a fascinating player.

So Kauai is quiet. And that's okay. Mike Trout down in Orange County is the best baseball player. Some say since, you know, Mickey Mantle and Mike plays and then Mike goes home. And Mike's not interested outside of a subway commercial of doing that stuff. Bryce Harper's got a little more flare, the hair, the panache, whatever. What do you think matters to Kauai Leonard if you could? Like, forget where he goes.

Like, would he be difficult to represent as a client? Can you gauge, you know, I mean, listen, everybody works in San Antonio. he didn't. He got tired of it. What do you make of Kauai? Well, you know, Kauai's personality reminds me of a player I worked with for many years and still work with Derek Rose. You know, as quiet as Kauai is, Derek Rowe is probably quieter than him, okay? And that personality in today's world is kind of, it doesn't fit because, you know, we're

constantly scrutinized by the media, whether social media, television or what have you. you know, we're looking for the big personality, the Michael Jordan personality, the Irving Magic Johnson personality. You know, those personalities, we tend to really keep the camera on, and it makes for great news. It makes for covering coverage. But Kauai Leonard is a throwback. He's without question one of, if not the best player in the game currently.

He is that good of a player. And I think he's a throwback in the sense that, you know what, every player that's played with him, every coach that's coached him, respect him. And every relationship that you have is always going to be built on respect. You respect his work ethic. You respect who he is. Even though he's not a talker, he lets his playing do the talking form. So you know what? He comes in. He doesn't say much. That's fine. But it's a rare combination because you want that first guy to have this huge personality, which he doesn't have. I guess that's my question. Tim Duncan did it. Yes. But generally, Michael, Magic was a

force of personality. Yes. Michael wasn't seen as a big personality. but I always had a feeling that Michael in the locker room did plenty of talk. You know, Scotty, by the way, got the number one manal when Michael left, and I never felt he was quite comfortable with it. That's what I felt. Well, yeah, you know, Michael's personality fit. You know, he was like three-dimensional. He was a great player.

He had a great personality, and he enjoyed being the very first guy. He enjoyed to be that. He wanted to be Michael Jordan. He wanted to be the best player. He won it every night. He took on that challenge every night. Where I think Scotty had this incredible talent. He was incredibly gifted as a player.

But Scotty wasn't always the guy that wanted to spend the extra 15, 20, 30 minutes to take the interview and answer all the questions and do all of the things that master talent. And I think that's why it was so great for him to play with Michael Jordan because he could just be Scotty Pippen. And I think that's probably Kauai Lennett's personality more than anything. So sometimes your personality doesn't fit exactly. exactly where you're at, but again, sometime it does, and it's a perfect fit. And Scotty Pippin was the beneficiary of playing with Michael Jordan because he didn't have to do that for many years of his career. You know, I look at the Lakers right now, and I was saying with Joy, they've literally, the Lakers, you cannot overcome bad bosses. I've had the opportunity.

I've worked with a lot of good bosses and a lot of good people, and I've bounced around the country, seven different companies. And there's a certain pyramid of success. We talked about it earlier where, you know, with the Warriors, it's Lacob, Joe Lacob, the owner, you know, into Steve Kerb, Bob Myers, and then the veteran players. It's a very simple, nimble pyramid. You know, I put it up here on the wall today with the Lakers. I got nine different people with different opinions. I don't think LeBron can overcome it. What do you make of what wins in this league?

What's the secret sauce of the recipe beyond, hey, we got a bunch of good players? Well, you know, that's a great question. And I've been around in this league now 30-something years. And if there is a secret recipe, you know, the recipe looks like this. You have four people that sit at this table of success. You have the owner. You have the general manager. You have the coach.

And you have the player. If any one of those people aren't aligned with the other, it's a recipe for disaster. It will fail. It's guaranteed failure. So the one variable that you need to have success in this league is interoperable. leadership. And it doesn't matter where it comes from. It can come from the players. It can come from the general manager. It can come from the owner. It can come from, you know, the coach. It doesn't matter where it comes from. So what we're looking at is if you don't have the alignment of those four

people and they don't. Then this is what's going to happen. But this is a problem throughout the entire league. This isn't just the Lakers problem. You see this all the time. There's only one thing that allows these problems to go away and that's winning. Winning covers a multitude of sense. winning covers everything up. So the real issue here is that you have to address these issues with those four people, because those are the four people that stand to communicate, which leads to cooperation throughout the rest of the organization. They have to be aligned with one another to have success.

You're an agent with the Wasserman agency. BJ Armstrong is joining us. So what if you had a client? Let's just say his name was Kevin Durand. Okay. And he could make more money where he's at. and has, I believe, a better structure where he's at. But he has things and pursuits that maybe, in your opinion, that is an agent,

don't serve him well. What do you do as an agent? And I use kiddingly, Kevin Durant, but let's use an anonymous player. He had something made up in his mind, and you wanted to dissuade him, but he is the player and he's paying you. what do you do as an agent? Well, first, you have to listen to your client. And that is my number one, number two, and number three,

is I have to listen to my client and listen to what it is, what it is that it's important to him and what he wants for his career. This isn't my career. It's his career. So I have to listen. And to be a great listener, I think, is one of the requirements to becoming an agent. You have to listen to what your clients are saying. Today's kids, you know, they have spoken.

And the one thing that they're hanging on to is they want the respect of the people that they're working with. That's the one thing I think that today's kids, unlike in my generation or, you know, 25 years ago, today's kids are hanging on to the respect that they demand from working with the owners, the coaches, general manager, whomever, other players. Okay. When this league in like in the 90s or so, the late 90s, is when I saw the, a shift in the way the players started to think at the tail end of my career. Players started, once the salaries started being kind of, you know, a standard across the board,

all salaries were the same. The max was the max. You know, the mid-level was the mid-level. You took away the competitive spirit of the player. That's when it changed. When you took away the competitive spirit, all the max players were going to make the same. All of the mid-level players were going to make the same. And then that's what took away the competitive spirit.

now the players are fighting for the one thing that's important to them where they play. They want that. They're holding on to that because that gives them a say-so where they live, who they work with, how they want to be treated, and most importantly, where they think they can be most effective. And that's what you're seeing with today's kids. So if I was working with any player, and I'll have, you know, many players that will be a free agent this year, is to listen, to see what's important to them, and then to be able

to discuss and try to get that place for them and make a win-winner, not only for organization, but for the player, because that's very important to today's player, unlike 20 years ago, where we didn't really think about that. Finally, BJ Armstrong, an agent for the Wasserman agency, an All-Star and an NBA champ. You know, whenever I hear people bag on young kids and millennials and blah, blah, blah, I'm like, time out. We didn't grow up with the devices. We'd be distracted, too.

I am my son. That's what I would have done. Instead of being at the bowling alley playing Atari, I'd have been on my device all day. And so when people bag on the NBA players, you know, I always look at them and I say, it used to be the high school coach barked at you and no AAU recruiting you. You went to where you grew up. And then you went to college and the college coach barked at you. And then you came in the NBA and fire coaches every 15 minutes.

I don't blame the players today. They're, by the way, by 13 AAU coaches are recruiting him. Then basically college coaches are like, could we just come here for one year? and in the NBA, we fire coaches. Like, I think players are not more difficult. I think the system and the culture has changed, and they've been empowered, and they want more power. I watch LeBron's career, and I'm like, yeah, by the way, in Los Angeles,

he surrendered the one-year deal to a four-year deal. It's done him no good. He probably would leave tomorrow if he could. So are the players changing? Has the culture changed? When I hear people bagging NBA guys, they're divas, there's prima donnas, kind of go into that. basketball when you started and the basketball 14-year-old today?

Well, you know, the environment has changed, the coverage has changed, the popularity of the game has changed, and more importantly, you have more and more people that want to play the game. You know, more and more people around the world, this is an international game now. A third of the league now are international players that are playing in the NBA. A third. A third of the league. I mean, this game has just, the growth and popularity of the game is growing. So the game looks different.

I think now the kids are way more informed. I enjoy working with the kids today. And more importantly, when I was 19 or 20, I didn't have this idea of how I could best, how the game should look from my eyes. It was always, well, he's the coach. I'm the player and I, you know, I kind of, you know, I just do what the coach said.

It's kind of like what you said earlier. Today's kid, they have an idea of who they are. They have an idea how they could be most effective. And I think their exposure to the game and how they can be best used far as surpasses what we did 20, 30 years ago. So I think today's kid is much more sophisticated and how you have to coach them. And I think Steve Kerr is an example of that.

You have to communicate with today's player at a level that I don't think coaches are used to doing. I mean, you have to really, I mean, if you just took Steph Curry and just made him into a point guard, Is that very effective for him? Because he arguably may be a better player without the ball than he is with the ball. And he's an exceptional player with the ball. So the sophistication in which you would have to coach a Steph Curry,

I think now the game is more sophisticated. The problems. And these kids are way more skilled. By the way, it used to be you could bark. You now have to form a relationship with a player. Absolutely. Well, I think that's, you should always form a relationship with a player. I think today's kid.

Well, Phil Jackson was a little ahead of that then. Phil Jackson, you know what? Any way that you can communicate with someone, I think is great. Phil passed out books. Phil had all of these different things. But the one thing about Phil is that he knew that the way he spoke with me was going to be different than he spoke with Scotty, which was going to be different way he spoke with Steve,

Dennis Robin, Luke Longley. And I always respected that because he saw me. He didn't just see, he just didn't see the, you know, a bull's uniform. him, he saw BJ, and I respected him for that. And I felt comfortable playing for him just because I knew he was looking at me when he was coaching me. How did he speak to Dennis Rodman? That's another segment.

BJ Armstrong, absolute pleasure. Thank you very much. Right around the corner from us. Got to have him on more often. NBA agent with the Wasserman group, BJ Armstrong. Thank you, BJ, Joy with the News. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news.

This is the herd line news. So the Lakers introduced their new head coach, Frank Vogel, yesterday. And in his first public comments as the Lakers head coach, he laid out his path to bring the Lakers back to success. His path. His path. We need to build togetherness with our organization. Okay. And I don't just mean with the 15 guys or 17 guys that are going to be in uniform or in that locker room.

Okay, I'm talking about organizational togetherness. All right. Starting with ownership to the front office, to the coaching staff, the players, the trainers, business side. We are all going to be pulling in the same direction. Sounds like he's pleading. I mean, he should be because he's right. He only has a three-year deal, so that's not a whole lot of time to be able to build an organization structure and togetherness and direction. But, I mean, he's right. This is the problem.

A well-run organization, business team is not the smallest piece. It starts from the top. Everything you do starts from the top. You can't overcome bad management. You can't overcome bad owner. You can't overcome dysfunction with the people who make the biggest decisions for everyone. Think about if John Elway yesterday went on the other network and bashed the Broncos. We'd be like, what in God? I think we like magic so much.

And we respect him. I don't know if I fully embraced the fact of what he did, which is seismic. I don't have any problem with it because magic is being painted. as being lazy and unavailable and incompetence and incapable of maintaining relationships and even understanding the nature of the position that he took. Like he didn't understand he was going to have to be around more than he was with the Dodgers. He's not the GM of the Dodgers. He's just a part, small percentage owner.

That is his job to show up and do nothing and smile and bring people together and create relationships to elevate the Dodgers. It's not his job to run the team. So there's no way he thought, like, We're talking about Magic Johnson. He's a very successful person. He didn't not understand what went into this job. It is a dysfunctional situation.

Even if Magic was the best in the world of what he does, who's overcoming that? No one. So I'm fully on Magic's side. Now, I don't think that there's not some other things that were in play here, some relationship issues or things that couldn't have been solved. But this doesn't come down to anyone other than the owner, which is Jeannie Bus. Like, we can put the blame in a million different directions and maybe it's deservedly so. But at the end of the day, she's the one with the powers. No, everyone else may have a voice, but she is the one with the power.

She's the one that can snap her fingers and say everyone out of the room, except for Polinka and myself and Frank Vogel. She can make that happen, but she has to make that decision to make that happen. As long as she doesn't, all those 15 people in that web of situation that we posted earlier are going to have a say, and that's just too many people. So Ben Rathesbiger made his first public comments on since the 2018 season ended. That's almost five months ago. and then sit down with Katie K.A. He was asked about when he called out Antonio Brown on his radio show after the loss at Denver,

which took a lot of criticism, and his teammates felt like he went too far. And Ben said, I know I took some heat and deservedly so. I genuinely feel bad about that, and I'm sorry. Did I go too far after that Denver game? Yeah, probably, and I regretted it.

That's the thing about media and social media and things like that. You can't take it back. I wish I could because if that's what ruined our friendship and our relationship, then I'm truly and genuinely sorry about that. And Antonio Brown appeared to respond on Twitter. He tweeted, TwoFace. I just feel like this is just too little, too late with Ben Rathesberger.

But I don't care what-you-have-to-know. I don't care what Antonio Brown has to say about it because, like, we've moved on. Like, you're on another team. We know how you feel about Ben-Rothusberger in the situation. With Ben, I just feel like he should have known better. You've been in the league too long. You have two Super Bowls. Like, you're in an organization that has dealt with a lot of character.

You know when you can and cannot say something. This was beneath Ben to do in the first place and to come out all this time later and admit like, oh, well, you know, maybe I shouldn't have thrown Antonio under the bus. It's like, all right. He should get off that morning radio show. He does a Monday morning radio show. Yeah, the radio show did not work out well for him. Yeah, Brady, by the way, has done it for years and he's had like three or four grenades. He never says anything.

No, but there's been grenades somebody. And like that Monday morning quarter, because you know why they do that? These quarterbacks want to set the agenda for. the week. I mean, they're making nothing on this. These guys have $100 million. No, it's a good way to have a pulse with the fan base. Yes. Hey, this is what we are moving for. It kind of gives you

a narrative. So, you know, because by the way, it's Ben and Brady's Monday morning message is the thing talked about in the city for 24 hours. It sets the table for the week, but man, there's grenades with those things. Right. So finally, speaking of NFL franchises and disarray, probably

no team has been criticized more than the Giants this off season. They traded Odell, Olivier Vernon and let Landon Collins go. But Pat Schumer was upbeat yesterday. Apparently, Eli Manning looked good for the first day of practices, at least according to him. And then according to the beat writer from Newsday,

Eli went one for six with two picks. So there's a little bit of conflicting reports about that. But to add insult to injury, Landon Collins told ESPN yesterday, he is with Washington now. He said, I know with myself snacks, Odell, Vernon, all we wanted to do was win and we spoke up because we had to get them to listen to us. We had to get them to get us winning pieces.

to help us at least be contenders. I think who are too vocal. If it's not good media, they don't want that kind of media. And Dave Gettelman never even talked to me. Basically, I don't know him. He don't know me. That's kind of how it was. Yeah, I'm not a Gettlement fan here.

I just think that the Giants are holding on to this nostalgic idea that Eli Manning is going to snap out of the decline. I'm done with that. Well, I think we're all done with that. I think the only people that aren't is the front office of the Giants. I'm pretty sure most of his team. were off of this too. I saw a story yesterday on this. Eli Manning and this Daniel Jones, they look alike. I'm not kidding. They look like brothers. Their facial expressions,

their body types, their size. Joy, I'm not kidding you. I think they drafted him to some degree. He sounds like Eli. Eli clone. Seriously. It's incredible. I saw the picture of him. There were three pictures on the internet and I'm like, it looks like his brother. Their size. They're smirk. They're, well, if they get two Super Bowls out of them, then that'll be worth it, I guess. Yeah, enjoy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by.

The Hurd Lie News. Get ready, Nobel Prize Committee. I'm introducing my new invention, my NFL noise meter. It's able to predict which teams are going to the Super Bowl and which teams don't stand a chance. I'll break it out next and best for last. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern 9 a.m. Pacific. on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeard Radio app. Discovers going further with mile rewards than ever before. Discover at Miles Car.

Limitations apply. Automatically matches all the miles you earn at the end of your first year. Joy Taylor is joining us. And best for last today. This is like Nobel Prize Committee. I hope you're paying attention. I've got a new invention today. Oh.

I got a new invention. To change the world? Yeah. Well, to change the football world or maybe just this segment, it's called the NFL noise meter. And it is able my new invention to ditches. detect how noise will disrupt your chances of kind of ending up the season. Now, there's five categories. Super Bowl contender, playoff contender, mediocre, dysfunctional mess, all-out circus.

We picked the 10 noisiest teams in the NFL. So let's turn on our NFL noise meter. Let's talk Steelers. Let's see where the meter now. Lavian Bell did not play. So that was noisy, but not really their noise. Now it's the Jets noise. Antonio Brown was really noisy, but they moved on from that pretty quickly.

Big Ben talked yesterday. A little bit of noise I don't like, but that's three and a half months from the season. The noise meter lands on. Okay. High-end playoff team. Let's go Cowboys. Zeke got into a fight with a security guard in Vegas. That's not great.

now we are three and a half months away and a couple of extra drinks for a running back for the Dallas Cowboys. You know, it's not the end of the world. Now, Kellan Moore is the new offensive coordinator. I couldn't pick him out of the lineup, so that's not noisy. Jason Whitten came back. That's kind of good noise.

Dak Prescott's in a contract year, but if anything, Dak Prescott will push that down throughout the course of the year. So the noise meter, my new one, invention playoff team. Not a high-end playoff team, but a playoff team. How about the Packers? Oh, boy. That's a lot of noise.

There was a lot of noise with the Packers. And the former coach and Aaron Rogers, and there was a big ESPN article. No, what? It was like, who was it? Bleacher reporter somebody. Big article bashing Aaron Rogers. And they brought in this new coach. But they did have a great draft.

And I thought they signed really smart, free agents. And I got to be honest, the reports I'm hearing, Aaron Rogers and Matt Lefleur, it's kind of quiet. The noise is all gone. So where does the NFL noise meter land? There's a playoff team. Now, the division's tougher. So they sneak into the playoffs, but they get to the playoffs. How about the Chiefs?

There's been a lot of bumps here. They lost D. Ford. They didn't think they were going to lose D. Ford. Justin Houston, we all kind of knew they weren't going to pay him. There's the Tyreek Hill situation. He could be suspended, which I don't like. he's not a player that you can duplicate. Now, they do have a great coach, and Patrick Mahomes is, like, filthy talented.

And in that division, there's some dysfunction with the Raiders and Denver, and so the NFL noise meter lands. This is still a playoff team. How about Seahawks? Oh, Lord, Russell Wilson wants to be the highest paid person in the world. He's going to be a New York giant. Cam Chancellor and Doug Baldwin are now gone. I don't like that noise.

Four draft picks become 11. Kind of making it up as they go. NFL noise meter just missing the playoffs. Jets hired Adam Gase. I just want to be a coach. Then the GM gets fired. And in the last 72 hours, he's made nine transactions. Gase is denying he's got power.

He talked yesterday. Sam Darnold's the quietest thing, but everybody else is talking. And the Jets, the noise meter says this, this, oh, it's a non-playoff team and below mediocrity. Arizona Cardinals have Cliff Kingsbury. Good Lord. Josh Rosen just said, nobody talked to me. Kyler Murray team photo, he's 5'5. What in God's name is going on?

Cliff Kingsbury is almost too handsome. The draft was a mess. What is the NFL noise meter? Yeah, dysfunction. Do I have time for the Raiders? Let's get the Raiders in. Okay. They traded for Antonio Brown, made him the highest paid tackle ever,

and then moved him to the second most important tackle position. Whereas the Steelers moved the noise out of the building, they sign and put the noise Antonio Brown in the building. They even made noise at the draft. They sent Scouts home in the NFL noise meter. Circus. I'm not going to do the Browns. I was going to do the Browns.

I'm not going to do them. Hey, the noise meter is coming back before the start of the season. Okay, all right. It's a very important device. It's a really important device. Yeah, I didn't want to... You know, I've already got into a border skirmish

with Baker and O'Dell Beckham. Let's just... Cooler heads prevail on that relationship. Speak for yourself right around the corner. We'll see you tomorrow. What's the herd? I'm Michelle McPhee, and I've been unraveling. the strangest criminal alliance I've ever reported on, a Mormon polygamist and an Armenian businessman.

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This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where SportsSlice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment,

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