The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Zion Williamson, Antonio Brown, Kyrei Irving and Charles Barkley

Episode Date: February 22, 2019

Filling in for Colin, Doug Gottlieb discusses Charles Barkley’s latest comments, Duke F Zion Williamson, the drama surrounding Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown, and Boston Celtics G Kyrie Irving’s disdain for the media. Guest include Matt Barnes, and Michael Rapaport.   Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, guys? This is Clivert Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Cliverts Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her.

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What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was harmed. you just understood.

That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Mark keep coming to her. He's like, you know I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball.

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However you may be making as part of your day. Thanks so much. I'm Doug Gottlieb, alongside the lovely, talented. Joy Taylor, welcome in to The Herd. Calling us off for the day. That's because he went on LeBron overload. LeBron taking a charge. James Harden Fowellon. out. Scott Foster. That one, that's one of those games last night. We'll get to what it means and why if you watch the first half of LeBron, the Lakers and didn't watch the second half, you'd be amazed when you click on the TV and go away. The Lakers came back and won that game and LeBron actually looked great in it. But there was a little bit of Kings Lakers game six Western Conference finals to it.

So just kind of an amazing, amazing night. I want to start, though, with a story which continues to kind of ripple through the world of sports. Two nights ago, there was Duke versus North Carolina. And it was as hyped a regular season game as we feel like we've had in a long time in college basketball. And there's a couple reasons to it. One, let's not bury the lead. We haven't seen a kid like Zion Williamson. Have we seen breakthrough college freshmen?

absolutely. But have we seen breakthrough college freshmen that are 6'5 pounds that jump the way that he jumps, plays as hard as the way he plays? Like, no, it feels like something a little bit different. And then he's a dukey who you like. Like that's a little bit different. You combine that with the fact they're taking on North Carolina. It's the best rivalry in the sport of college basketball. And, you know, traditionally they've had great ratings anyway. and then you factor in that ESPN smartly moved it to a later date than normally they play. It was the latest they'd ever played. It was the last day before the big boys came back to play.

And then you had former President Obama, whose court side, like you factor all these things in. And I don't know anyone who considers themselves a sports fan that didn't have something family or a date that wasn't at least watching just curiosity. 30 seconds in, he blows a tire. And it wasn't just that he ripped his shoe. I mean, the entire bottom of the shoe rips off. I mean, look like some LA gear he was wearing. And then the pundins start throwing things out and former players start ripping the NCAA.

Zion limps off. He misses the rest of the game with a sprain knee. And we collectively lose our mind. Yesterday, we found out that Zion Williamson just has a mild knee sprain, which is what it looked like. Thankfully, kids are going to be fine. They're going to play Syracuse this weekend.

there's another side to that where Jim Beheim, the Hall of Fame head coach at Syracuse, after beating Louisville on the same night, mistakenly hit a guy and killed him in a car. It just so much bad come from a night which could be so good in celebrating the sport. And, you know, I was watching TNT last night. If you watch Fox Sports One, you know,

I got a chance to co-host First Things First last four days. And I flew through Minneapolis and actually called a college basketball game on radio. last night, Minnesota versus Michigan. I get to the airport, getting ready to fly home, and I watch Charles Barkley. And he kind of nailed it. Like, I want to get to,

there's a proposal that's being made, which seems inevitable, which they're going to open back up, the chance for kids to come straight out of high school and go to the NBA. I'll tell you what I think about that and why I think it's actually bad for the sport. I also think it will completely change

how you'll ever think about the idea of compensating players for their name and likeness and anything above scholarship and cost of attendance once you get to college. But Barclay nailed something in a way in which only he is able to do. Like, look, Chuck sometimes goes off on divergent past. Sometimes it becomes a giggle fest of, you know, inside the NBA, they get, at times Shaq kind of takes over

and it's like a standoff of bravado and Shaq shows off his rings and he almost like dude if you guys want to unzip your pants and and see who's more of a man like go do that off camera when you guys just talk you're really interesting but college basketball is supposed to be fun do do colleges make money off of the games that are broadcast yeah they do uh here's a news flash i don't know if you know this colleges make money off of all of their students off the back of all their students they do and they don't pay taxes on it. And then they ask for more money from their alums based upon the success of their students who become alums. And then once you graduate, then they want some more money. That's just the

way part of it is they're getting less and less money from the state if they're a public institution. Part of it is if they're a private institution. This is how they got to continue to generate and grow their endowment. And part of it is just kind of the nature of how their business works. but we operate under this somehow it's sinister for colleges to make money off of basketball and football players and by the way the reality of it is they make a lot more money off football than they do off basketball you know and the football money that is made is not actually made by the NCAA the basketball money that's made by the NCAA is made off the NCAA tournament

and that's simply because everybody I know and everybody you know fills out a tournament bracket that's that's where the real money is the volume of sports, the logo across the front of the chest. Look, Zion Williamson played made for made for basketball events against lamello ball that was, you know, no one could get into a gym in Las Vegas, but it wasn't

a happening on TV until he played for Duke and they played North Carolina. There's a power to that brand. There's value to that brand. But more than anything, I was blown away and kind of embarrassed for many of my brethren in the media and a lot of former

players who has said that Zion Williamson should shut it down. Now, for the record, shutting it down does not mean if the kids hurt, he doesn't play. That's different. Shutting it down means healthy scratch. And we've seen shutting it down. That's what Kawhi Leonard was accused of doing last year. That's what Anthony Davis was basically accused of doing before the all-star break when he hurt his shoulder.

And the pelicans are trying to figure out what to do with him. A healthy scratch to a kid who's 18 years old who tweaked his knee, like, when, did playing basketball become some dangerous endeavor like being a middle linebacker or running back or a wide receiver in football? Right? Like, do I want him to get hurt? No. Do I think that he's injured? No. And if he's healthy, should he play? Yes. Why? Because you're a basketball player. You came to Duke to play basketball. If you wanted to simply be a professional, he could have, even before the proposed rule change, he could have gone to the G League. He could have benefited off. of his name and likeness and had a shoe deal.

He couldn't have thrown down dunks and we wouldn't have seen or watched all games. The level of competition or the level of talent is actually better in the G League than his college basketball, but it doesn't have the names across the front of the chest, doesn't have the coaches, doesn't have the arenas, doesn't have the field, doesn't have the, doesn't have the fun. Like, look, college basketball is fun. I've played it. It's the best.

It's just, it is exactly what you think it is. It's the best year to five or six, what was it, Chris Farley, seven years of your life. You're playing with a bunch of dudes who you live around, who you grow up around, your first chance to be away from home. You're playing for an old crotchety coach and trying to figure out how to kind of fit in, how to grow up. And then you win, you lose, you go out afterwards. And whether you have a beer or you have a soda or you have a gate rate or whatever, you're hanging out, playing video game. Like, it's exactly what you think it is. And just like youth sports is ruined by kids, we are trying to ruin college sports. Excuse me, youth sports is ruined.

for kids by adults, it's the same thing that's happening with college athletics. We are ruining it because we're getting away from the core of what's about. Here's Charles Barkley last night inside the NBA. When did we get to the point where all people care about is money? Shaq played college for two years. Three. Three. Kenny played for four.

I played for three. Michael Jordan played for three. Tim Duncan played for four. David Robinson played before. Some of the greatest players ever. Wilk Chamber, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson play. When we get to the point

where you got clowns on television saying, oh, don't play. That's what you do, Ernie. That's what we do. We play basketball. I mean, I don't ever want to see anybody get hurt. This kid looked like he's going to be

a fantastic player. But I get so mad when people act like money is the only thing that matters in the world. Like, oh, dude, you're going to go in the NBA, don't play. I mean, that's ridiculous. It is ridiculous.

It is like you're protect. I want you to protect your asset in Zion Williamson because I want him to profit off it, but like not play basketball, not experience, arguably the greatest three weeks in all of sports. Why would you wish that upon somebody? Either way, he's going to make a ridiculous amount of money. He's like, no, he's not. Yeah, Nerlin's Noel tore his ACL. And he was still a top five pick.

Joel Embed was a top five. pick and no one knew what he would be. Zion Williamson would be fine, and the likelihood of an additional injury, if he's fine, is slight at best. But we're not even talking about injury. We're talking, you got guys like Boogie Cousins who played in college basketball, and the cut that's being used today is Boogie saying that college basketball is BS, and he wouldn't have him play, kind of buried in that cut.

Is Boogie Cousins saying this? I love my experience in college. That was some of the best years of my life playing basketball. But with that being said, just how crooked the whole NCAA business is. I actually saw a poster over the day where it was, I think, the highest ticket for that UNC Duke game was $25, $3,500. How much does Zion win for the city? That's who they're coming to see. So how much does he get?

Actually, who does it go to? How does it benefit any player on that team? But if they were to get $20 in the free meal, they're this bad kid, they get a bad rep. uncultural, and thugs, whatever the case might be. So it's bull-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b. Well, just to be fair, and I actually have had dinner with Boogie Cousins,

and I like him a great deal, and he's a bright guy who's going through his own kind of process of evolution. He was a pain in the ass, and that's why he got run out of Sacramento. And that's why they were better when he got hurt in New Orleans, is he's gotten better and involved as a person.

And no one has ever said a guy's a bad kid for getting $20 in a meal. By the way, the whole idea of anyone not eating in college is complete BS to anyone who's ever been a college athlete. No one, the hungry huskies thing that Yukon lived on, is a joke. It's a lie. And by the way, the NCAA is not crooked. Do I think they're always aligned with the goal of what's best in the mind of the student athlete? No, there's some conflicting alliances.

But they actually show you exactly where all the money goes. he's talking about the secondary ticket market which doesn't go to duke basketball doesn't go to duke athletics it goes to the secondary ticket market just focus on the part that he said best time my life because you're just playing bad it's about the sport because the sport is supposed to be fun that's why sports were designed to work out get a little aerobic activity like that was the whole idea of basketball and dr james naysmith invented it as a p.e coach for competition and then again again get a group of guys together, you live together, you eat together, you sleep together, you work out

together, you win together, you lose together. And you start at the start of the year, the end of the year. And if you're fortunate enough, if you're lucky enough to win four games, you get to play in front of 75,000 people. And even the guys that have turned so bitter on the NCAA, because that's what we do, we're bitter on any sort of organizing group, Congress, the NFL, maybe not the NBA, because Adam Silver bows to their every whim. We get away from the idea that, like, you're a basketball player. You get a chance to play basketball. Finish the season, have fun.

And the ancillary benefit of having success in college, just like any student, is you get a kick-ass first job. And that's what's going to happen with Zion Williamson after just one year at Duke. Start with what it's all about. And by the way, yesterday, there's an NBA proposal, and it feels like it's inevitable that they're going to change the, change the age requirement from 19 to 18.

Let me just explain something to people that you've always been able to come out, go overseas or play in the G League if you wanted. Now, you know, in a couple years, you'll be able to go straight from high school to the pros. There is 0.000-1% chance that college will ever compensate players for their name and likeness, which isn't actually that valuable without the name across the front of the chest from that point forward. Why? Because if you want to be a professional, you're allowed to. You're allowed to remove yourself from school at any point in time, high school, college, and go to be a pro. And that's what the NCAA will say. That's not what we're about.

We're about having fun. We're about giving people a chance at an education, putting people in a room full of other students that they would never have a chance to meet because of the massive inequalities in education, in our society. And it offers a well-spring of opportunities after you're done playing basketball, after you're done in college. But God bless Charles Barkley, man. All these people, I just,

especially guys that are former athletes, don't play, sit out, get ready for the NBA. Like, well, if you sit out, you're going to be working out. And you could get hurt working out. You got a chance once in a lifetime. to play for a national championship with arguably the greatest college coach in the history of the sport with a couple of their guys that you live around, that you eat around, that you sleep around.

And because people say your paycheck might be slightly larger, if you don't play, you should do it. You tell me a problem that's been solved by money, and I'll give you 15 problems that have been caused by money. Was it just a win for the Lakers last night? Or it actually means something. Well, Joy Taylor, I'm Doug Gottlie, but that's next. this is 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 IHeart Radio app.

Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete, themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context,

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as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, learn the hard way. Open your free. iHeartRadio app search learn the hard way and listen now what's up guys this is clivert taylor the fourth and on my podcast the clivert show i'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff like being an internet famous referee we're in the middle of a game this linebacker you know these kids linebacker walks up to me he goes hey ref my mom wants you to wave at her what time out

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on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, wherever you get your podcast. What up? Hurd rolls on here on Fox Sports Radio. Fox Sports One, the I Heart Radio app. I'm Doug Gottlieb in for Colin Cowherd. So I was watching the Lakers take on the rockets last night. And, uh, ooh, first half, it almost looked like LeBron didn't warm up.

Like, hey, did you guys go do layup lines? Like, the first time he touched the basketball, I don't know if it was an errant pass, if it slipped out of his hands, or what it was. But, I mean, it was not an established. pleasing first half for 4-4-4 basketball in general. And this is coming off an incredible finish between the Bucks and the Celtics, where the Bucks ultimately got to stop. Kyrie Irving missed a shot.

Could have won the game at the end in Milwaukee. You flipped to L.A., and it wasn't good. It wasn't good. LeBron, the Lakers, fell behind by 17 points in the third quarter. Then there was some odd foul, one really odd foul call, two offensive fouls called late on James Hardin. The calls he normally gets, he did not get, he fouls out, and LeBron, the Lakers end up getting the win.

Now look, do I think that the Lakers are going to turn into the second best team in the West, the team that was top seven across the board and analytics defensively before LeBron and Coosma and Rondo and Lanzo got hurt? No, I think the Thunder have put themselves in position to be the second best team in the West. They'll think the rockets are going to be there. I think there's some competition there with teams like the spurs and the jazz. But if you look at the standings right now, the clippers who already sold off Tobias Harris and their big plays for the off season, you can kind of take them off the board.

Then there's the Kings that played very well and lost, had a chance to beat the Warriors last night in the road and feel like they really, really, really want to go for it. And nothing would be a bigger victory for. the Kings, then to not just make the playoffs, but keep their nemesis the Lakers out of the playoffs. Remember, the Kings and Lakers aren't rivals because one has to actually beat the other in order to be a rival. But come on, folks, we've seen this movie. We know how it ends, right?

Was there some officiating? Yeah. Did LeBron figure out how to make it work? Yeah. Did they get some stops? and do the kings happen to lose? Like, stop me if you heard me this before, but I'm guessing when it comes down to the end of the year,

somehow the Lakers are going to pull it off. But man, the first half, they look dead. And before we, before I should even hop on to the bandwagon and say, forget eight seed, seven seed, six seed, here they come, because they're all within reach. We did see a comeback against the Celtics and then a terrible performance against the Sixers and even worse performance against the lowly hawks.

So they got the next three games are Pelicans, Grizzlies, Pelicans, two teams, three games. The opponents are trying to lose games. They want to lose games. The Pelicans have come out and said, not only are we not playing Anthony Davis in the fourth quarter, but we're going to play our younger guys,

not Drew Holiday in the fourth quarter. So we'll know if the Lakers are really back based upon how they do their next three games. They sweep all three, they have four-game winning streak. Like, all right, they're back, and nothing is out of the question seed-wise. But in the Atlanta game, they look dead. In the 76ers game, they look dead.

And in the Pacers game, they look dead. But as we've learned from the Princess Bride, they weren't dead. They were mostly dead. All the way dead, the only thing left to do is to go through their pockets for loose change. Mostly dead means somewhat alive. It's going to be fun to see if they can storm the castle. because there is something to everybody counting you out.

And even LeBron not looking like the same LeBron. I frankly think there's somebody in that organization that's tweaking LeBron a little bit where, you remember the story a couple days ago, the Lakers are concerned that LeBron's groin injury may cause him to not be playing at the level that he should be playing at. And then all of a sudden, LeBron went from,

I'm not chasing anything to it's all activated now. I don't know if he sprayed soul glow all over his body and suddenly got activated. He must have got activated halftime because it was not a pretty first half. Yes, Lakers likely make the playoffs. But let's not go crazy on one game, one win where they get a bunch of calls. There's a bunch of – Matt Barnes is going to join us in a second. And it did feel like whether you think the officiating was against James Hardin or it was just playoff officiating.

It felt like Hardin really struggled with it, and that's why we saw an incomplete performance by a guy who was last year's MVP, who could be this year's MVP. But the Lakers are not dead. They're somewhat alive. Here's Joy Taylor with the news. No, no, no, no.

Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. Great, right? Princess Bride. Fun, to blave. By the way, Joy, I just, I don't want to interrupt, but is there a worse invention? I want to save the earth, okay?

Very important to me. I like the idea of electric cars. I like solar power. But the paper straw thing, like, who thought this was going to work? I have to drink my drink so fast I get brain freeze every time. The trick is to kind of let the straw get a little bit mushy. Yes. And then it's good to go.

Really? Yeah, I get a smoothie every day. That's the trick. Coffee, it's a little, I don't know. I haven't used it with coffee yet. I apologize for him. I will say I am pro paper straws. And I'm actually pro anything that replaces plastic.

There's a lot of plastic in the ocean. Okay. We need the ocean. But I understand it. We just need a better way of replacing. Like paper and water, paper and liquid don't seem to mix. And I don't need to be a scientist to know that they don't mix. You just said how mushy it is.

Mine is still mush. So just a few weeks ago, it was safe to say LeBron and the Lakers Front Office were a little dissatisfied with the team's roster as currently stood and we're trying to trade everyone for Anthony Davis. Obviously that trade didn't happen and now the Lakers are left with basically their original roster and apparently LeBron has made peace with that.

You know the trade deadline is over with this is our squad. I'm happy with who we got. I love our squad and I look forward to seeing how we continue to battle for the rest of the season. I mean what else is he going to say? This is the squad that you have.

I wanted you all traded But since you're not all traded, this is the best. I'm still currently unhappy with the situation as it is, but we've got to make it happen. I still believe that they're going to make the playoffs, mainly just because I don't see how in LeBron's going to do anything but completely exert every drop of energy he has in his body to make that happen, because it's just not an option for them not to make the playoffs. I actually think they're also a pretty good team. When they're all healthy.

Right. And they don't even have, and I know people like to kill Lonza Ball because of the shooting numbers. Like, he's actually really important to them because he's tremendous defensively. He does a lot of little things. I think people get too caught up in the shooting thing. It's such a basic element of watching basketball. Like, oh, he doesn't have a good shot or it's weird or it's too delayed. It takes too long to get up or percentage.

There's a whole lot more that goes into being a great basketball player than just your shooting. Correct. He's a facilitator. He brings energy. Rebound. He's a good defender. It's interesting, though, right? Like, on one hand, a lot of people give credit to Russell Westbrook, who's struggling with

his shooting. Can't make a free throw. His free throw shooting has dropped 20% over the last two years, but we're all like, hey, you know what? He's actually become a better teammate. Whereas Lonzo Ball, and I'll grant you, his numbers are not even as good as Russell Westbrook. He's not close to being the player with us, but we're so

focused on those shooting numbers, we don't realize that he actually really helps them. Rondo is better off the bench. He's a tremendous defender and rebounder, and you don't need another facilitator in the half court because you have LeBron James. Well, I mean, Lonzo came into the league with incredible, very unfurial. fair expectations. And we're looking at guys like Hardin who are, you know, Luca,

or putting up these ridiculous numbers and holding him to the same standard. And everybody isn't great at the same thing. And he's still developing. Anyway, after fouling out in last night's game, lost to the Lakers, James Hardin thinks that referee Scott Foster should not be allowed to officiate any more Rockets games. He was called for two offensive fouls in the last three minutes of the game and fouled out for the first time all season and the seventh time in his career. And here is Hardin and Chris Paul after the game. It's just is lingering And it's something that

It has to be looked at for sure For sure It's personal For sure Like I don't think you should be able To even You know, officiate our games anymore Honestly

I mean I don't know what else to do You know what I mean And met with the league With him before And all this stuff I don't know what else to do Now in general This is just

Smothered an irony That James Harden is complaining About a referee not giving him the calls. It was a great word, by the way, smothered in irony. I just pictures just rubbing out, right? The guy who leads the league in free throw attempts is complaining about officiating. Yeah, maybe.

And the last two charges were, I mean. They were, yes, they were legitimate calls, I would say. The third foul, the fourth foul was Rondo reaching in on the break. Yeah, that was a terrible call. Terrible call. But the last two were legitimate calls. But it is James Hart, and so it's kind of like, I mean, you, you, you, you, You travel habitually.

Correct. You get every single call. It's so much so that there's a league-wide resentment for how many calls you get. But Foster did officiate two of the Rockets and losses to the Warriors in last season's Western Conference Finals. He also officiated their loan loss to the jazz in the Western semifinals. And in a 2016 survey by the LA Times, players and coaches named Foster the worst referee in the league by a significant margin. So maybe there's something going on here. I just still think it's kind of amusing because it's James Hardin.

Well, he's clearly in their head, right? He's in Hardin's head. And I personally think that the league is as much to blame for this. Because Hardin gets away with it so often and gets so many calls, once we get to the playoffs, James Hardin doesn't play any differently. Right. The officiating is different, and he doesn't seem to be able to adjust to it. So there's a, like, could we nitpick every different call?

And I'm sure there's something with how he deals with it, his, his, his, his, his, his, his reaction there to Chris Paul. I actually thought Chris Paul, he wasn't abrasive and like, well, look, what do you want me to do? Like, well, this has been a problem. We've told you it's a problem before. But I love that. That's a great way. Smothered in irony that James Harden, who we all know he travels on a stepback.

We all know he gets more calls than anybody in the regular season complaining about officiating. Yeah, I mean, they may have a point. But it's just like when you're looking at the other side of it, it's kind of like, you know. So finally, Dwayne Haskins will throw at the NFL Combine in India, according to ESPN's Justina Anderson. This comes after the news that Kyla Murray has yet to say that he is committing to working out. Now, throwing's a small sliver of the evaluation process, and Matthew Stafford, Sam Brafford, and Andrew Luck all chose not to throw an indie. I personally don't feel like it's a big deal.

I mean, it's the NFL offseason, so we're covering every inch and centimeter of anything that happens with the NFL, and especially the Combine, because, you know, it's the quarterback, because we want to see what happens here. But I really don't have a problem with a quarterback choosing not to throw at the Combine. I don't, but I do think that the more confidence you display in your skill set, the better it looks upon you. You're like, well, I have nothing to hide, you know? I do think that there's some element to it there,

especially with Kyler Murray being on the smaller ends. Like those other guys were big guys and, you know, expected to be going number one overall. And Kyler Murray is, I mean, unless Arizona decides to move off Josh Rosen, it's likely not going number one overall. I think Dwayne Haskins is a better prospect than him. I agree. I agree.

I mean, 50 touchdown pass. He's a tremendous. pure pocket thrower, right? Whereas Kyler throws some pocket puts a free athlete. Look, if I'm advising Kyler, I tell him one to run because Baker Mayfield told me at the Super Bowl, he thinks he can run a 4-2. You run a 4-2

or 4-3, somebody's going to draft you higher than you should, because you're like, I don't know what it is, but it's like the Zion Williams said, I'm not sure exactly what he's going to be, but I got to have, I want to see it. I mean, 4-2 would be insane. Would be insane. And there's a distinct possibility. He said last time he ran it was 4-3, and he thinks he's faster.

But I would also have him throw. He's a good thrower. The crazy thing about him is he's being called like a smaller baker when he's way more athletic, but he's not necessarily the leader of the savant that Baker is. So maybe Kyler, how he does in the whiteboard is more important than how he does throwing on air. But I just think I'm always one of those guys that are like, look, if you can throw, throw. Is it a little bit more difficult not throwing to the guys you know better? Sure, but you're going to have your own private workout. Right.

And if you show confidence in what you're going to do for the next 15 years in the NFL, I think that reflects well part. I also just feel like the combine is just, it's kind of overrated when it comes to those skill evaluations. Like, you're going to get a better view of them at their private workouts at their school where they're working with guys that they work with habitually. And that's what you're going to have with a team that you get with. You're not just going to be throwing to random receivers every single week. That's not how it works in the NFL anyway. No question.

But the whiteboard sessions and the interaction with people. And the interviews and how they, you know, their body language and all that stuff. I get all that. I just think it's, I feel like most teams have a pretty good idea of who they're looking at seriously before the combine. And the combine is more for players and prospects who didn't get the shine in college that have the opportunity to show off at the combine. That's what I feel like it's. It's a great point. Joy Taylor with the news.

Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Heard Lye News. He played 14 years in the NBA and, of course, won a championship. Part of the Warriors going back a year and a half ago, he's Matt Barnes. He joins us in the herd. You got caught for it. You got actually standing ovation from everybody here in the studio.

When you watch LeBron last night, and it did the entire team, like, look, they were shooting some air balls in the first half. They just, they did not look sharp. But then he dialed it up and he figured it out and they played LeBron stock, give me the ball. Everybody space out. He's got his new toy and Reggie Bullock who's spacing out.

They got kind of their new lineups there figuring out. What was your takeaway from their win against the Rockets? It's not how you start, it's how you finish. You know, LeBron said he's in with an activation playoff mode or whatever he said. You know, I believe in LeBron. He's someone that's always been able to put a team on his back and do what he does. I think this year will be no different. You know, very uncharacteristic of him taking 23 shots.

It's not normally his MO, but he said, you know, hey, either we're going to do it or I'm going to do it. You know, I think obviously Coosma, Ingram, some guys. played good. And they got a lot of work ahead of them. But, you know, it's hard to bet against him when the world is trying to doubt him. I know he's using that as motivation. And he just has to remind people every once in a while who he is and what he's about. You know, it's interesting. I was one of the people, one, I was told that they weren't offering up all of their prospects. Like all their young players. Like it was more pick a couple. And they didn't want to part with

Ingram and Kuzma and Lanzo. Like that wasn't. They were like, you can pick a couple and we'll talk about it. I think those guys are about. better than probably the national respect of them is. No question. But am I wrong? No, I was glad the trade didn't go down. I thought the Lakers were giving up too much. Like I said, I don't know who was right,

who was actually in the trade or not. But to give up all those pieces plus draft picks, I mean, you're never going to get, from a Pelican standpoint, you're never going to get another Anthony Davis. You know, he's a generational type player. But I understand you're getting five young players with draft picks. How do you not pull that trigger?

But like I said, as a Laker fan still, I'm glad that trade didn't go down. Because they have a very young, talented team. you know, Ingram has always been a proven score, but I love Kuzma and what he brings, you know, his energy and his, his, his, his, his, his, his, his, he's, as, same as Wessel rest book about not caring. He just goes out there and does it no matter what. He's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's a, he's, he's in front of the grandfather, Godfather, too. Yeah. You are? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Do you guys, do you guys, do you remember Frank Pantangeli? Joy, do you remember Frank Pantangeline? Okay, so Frank Pantangelo is going to, he's going to, he's going to, he's going to, he's in front of the injury and he's going to out Michael Corleone as a mafia boss, right, as a head of a crime syndicate family. And then, and so he gets up there and all of a sudden he sees another guy, turns out to be his brother. And they start asking him questions and it's some Sicilian thing where he completely changes. And he goes from, instead of outing Michael Colone, he goes,

Michael Colione, Michael, no, no, you guys got it all wrong. You guys got it, right? That's what Anthony Davis felt like to me at the All-Star break. They were like, you don't like to want to play for the Sells? Like, no, something's, no, I'm okay. Right. All 2019, anybody but the Pelicans are about four. Somebody got to him, didn't they? I don't know if someone got to him or

the standpoint of he just realized the negative energy that was around what Rich Paul was doing, what the media turned it into. So I think he was saying what he had to say, just like LeBron says, you know, I'm sure he loves his teammates, but obviously the situation was trying to get AD, you know, but you have to say this is, AD is there for the rest of the season.

LeBron has his teammates for the rest of the season. So you have to say what's supposed to be said. And, you know, I think LeBron will still be able to motivate these guys and get them playing well enough to get in the playoffs. And, you know, if they face the Warriors, we already know what that is. But if they slip into the seven spot somehow, I think they can challenge people because I really like their team. I love what Lonzo brings when he gets back and he's healthy.

And these guys clicking on all cylinders with the leader like LeBron, I think they can shock someone if they get out of that eighth spot. I do, I do too. I don't think the Warriors want to play them, but I think if they get out of the eighth spot, then they could maybe see the Warriors a little bit later on, a dangerous, dangerous team. All right, Matt, you're going to hang with us. I want to ask you about the proposed age limit change, which is likely to happen.

And I'll ask you about Kyrie last night and how Kyrie is handling the pressure of being an upcoming free agent. That's upcoming next to Joy Taylor. I'm Doug Gottlieb. Matt Barnes continues to hang around. This is the herd. Doug Gottlieb, Joy Taylor, in for Colin Cowherd. This is the herd. Thanks so much for making us part of your Friday.

Matt Barnes continues to join us. Play for the Clippers, the Warriors, the Lakers. And, of course, the Kings does kind of feel like we know how this ends for the Kings. Right? Like, it does. He's like, if there was anyone else in chase of the Kings in the playoffs, you'd be like, all right, Kings got a shot. Then you see the Lakers, you're like, man.

And, of course, the Kings fans are forever upset over the officiating, more game six than Game 7, although I thought Game 5 was Pro Kings. And then in Game 7, Page, it's famous series, Paige Stiochovic shot an airball. at the end of regulation they lose in overtime. You know, it's like one of these, like, let me guess, James Bond is going to end up beating the bad guy and getting the girl. I know how this movie ends.

But Scott Foster was officiating that game last night. And after the game, James Harden laid into him a little bit. Chris Paul's like, hey, what do you want us to do? You played in the league. You were a guy that would get into it sometimes with officials, sometimes with other players. You could be an antagonizer. What's your opinion of Scott Foster?

Terrible. Terrible. You know, and it's a known thing. You know, I think I heard the stat this morning about the poll I didn't even know about in 2016, but it's a known situation. And, you know, like we touched on the show previous, it may not be so much on the actual calls. Some here, you know, guys mess up on calls, but it's his arrogance. It's the way he carries himself. It's the way he looks down upon people like he's better. And he acts like these people pay a bunch of money to come see him. It's not about him. A sign of a good ref is to know he's not there. Scott Foster is someone that takes everything. personal. You can't talk to him. And it's truly, like I said, the numbers don't lie. You know, the games he refs and the teams that lose. And then, you know, I saw a story this morning about the number of calls he had with Donahey, you know, back before the Boston Miami series. So, you know, to me, if he was a part of that, who knows. But he's a known bad ref or carries itself in a hard-to-manage way and it's rubbing players the wrong way. And I definitely think the NBA needs to take a look at it. Are there guys that can maintain control of a series? Look, basketball is hard to fish you.

No question. I mean, it's really, really hard. Because you don't want to call every foul, but you've got to call the first foul because otherwise you get the other foul. Like, it's a hard deal to fissiate. I have a lot of respect. But is there, are there enough other guys that are strong enough willed to make the right call

and yet respected enough by the league and respected enough by the players to make those hard calls? Yeah, I think there's a handful of refs out there that do a great job. Like, you hit on refereeing. it's a tough situation. You know, 10 of the best athletes in the world, a high-paced game, it's hard to get everything right. So, you know, you're not expecting that. But with those refs that do make the tough calls or miss calls, you have to be able to talk to them. You know, especially superstars, but people, you know, of myself who played a long time and, you know, a veteran that speak

for a team sometimes, you have to at least hear these guys out. And in the heat of the moment, you know, tempers are up, you know, emotions are up. But Scott Foster is someone who's always had a quick trigger on the tea. And it just, the way he carries itself just disgust me. These guys are completely right about, you know, what's warranted and the way he conducts itself on the court. Guys, we can't amount out anymore. We can't draw an opinion out of him. This is really difficult. Matt Barnes joining us.

No, I'm going to give it to you. They can't find me, you know what I mean? Chris and James Hope might get fine today, but they can't find me. And I speak for a lot of the players when I say this about him. Look, I have an immense amount of respect for you because you're a guy that continue to find ways to make it in the league. Right. So I didn't play in the league, but this is in no way a shot at the none in Duns, which is coming again, or the one in Duns. I just take it from Steve Kerr. He wrote an article back when he was broadcasting.

Hey, look, I've been a player. Now he's a coach. He was a general manager. And he felt like it's bad for the sport to have guys come straight at a high school because they have to learn how to play. They have to learn how to grow up, how to handle themselves. And college, it has its flaws. but you do grow up. You do learn to manage whatever budget you get based upon your scholarship check. You do have times of which you have to go to work, per se, and go to practice.

And then, you know, you've got to balance your work-life balance. What's your opinion, though, of the rule? If it's, you can come straight at high school. Is that good for the actual sport? I think it's a catch-22 from the standpoint of it's such a business now. So for every LeBron James and Zion Williams, you're willing to throw away a handful of guys

that aren't ready that are going to be drafted. You know, the Corleone Youngs and guys like that who, you know, had a lot of hype and didn't pan out because they weren't ready. You know, there's a huge gap from a 17-year-old to even a 19-year-old, but even a 20-year-old, your maturity, your understanding of life, your understanding of the game. So I see where you can water down the game. And a lot of these guys get a lot of bad advice. You know, there's, what, 250 kids in every draft in only 60 spots, and some kids are leaving situations and leaving school early. And so you get a lot of bad advice. But like I said, for someone like Zion Williams, it's no coincidence the day after he gets hurt.

that we're talking about should the eighth limit be lowered. But he's gotten better. Like, college has helped his game. There's no question. He's learned how to play hard. He's gotten himself in better shape. Right. He's playing with better players in which the thing I like most about him is this is how he's going to have to play early on in the NBA, where small ball five, starting power four, but not a guy you go to every time down the court.

I actually think this has really, really helped him. Every experience doesn't help everybody. Right. But I think in Zion's case, could. Would he have gone to the pros? Yeah, but he's improved his stock and improved his game. I completely agree. And I'm one who loves to see.

I'm not even really watching college basketball as much, but when he plays, it's much watched TV. So it's definitely helped him. And like I said, if he doesn't blow a shoe out in a non-contact injury, we're not even talking about this. No one's telling him if he continues to play away, he plays, well, maybe you shouldn't play in the NCAA tournament because you might get hurt.

You know, the fact that he got hurt is the only reason why we're talking about this. But it's just a tough situation. You know, I heard what Chuck said last night on T&T about just, going out there and playing. I completely agree with that, but it's such a business now. And the money that these kids are making are changing, you know, their lives, their families, lives and their friends' lives. So you really have to approach it from a standpoint of what's my best business decision and what is best for me. I'm hoping if there's no structural damage and he gets an opinion not only from a Duke doctor, but an outside doctor, if he feels like you can come

back and play, come back and play. You know, you get college, one year of college, go out there and do what you do and then be, you're risking, you're risking a lot, but you're risking a lot when you work out. You're risking a lot when you play five and five and pick up. You're risking a lot when you walk out of your house every day. You know, you're risking a lot. But at the end of the day, you have this one year of college if you're healthy enough to play. I'd like to see him play. I only got 30 seconds. I'm sorry to shortchange you. Kyrie really didn't like the fact that a private conversation

to him and KD in the hallway becomes public. Your private life has become public before. Is it fair the way we're covering Kyrie and KD, considering they are free agents this upcoming offseason? It's not fair from a standpoint of everything you say. or they're seeing you doing, it's going to get blown. You don't know what these guys are talking about. They could be talking about anything,

but I think we live in a world where there's 24-hour news cycles now, so a story has to be made up. No one knows what they really said, but there's been 100 different allegations of what they said. So it's unfortunate, but it's the world we live in, and it's not going to change. So guys are just going to have to get used to it. Maybe start talking like baseball pitchers with your hand,

but still they're going to make up what you say still. You have to understand. I got to go, Matt, Matt Barnes, who, by the way, his 10-Nunder team is the number one ranked team in the world. On the way. What up, welcome in. This is the herd, wherever you may be, and however you may be making it as part of your day.

Thanks so much. I'm Doug Gottlieb in for Colin Calhurt. You can hear us on the IHeart Radio app on Fox Sports Radio and watch us on Fox Sports One. Joy Taylor alongside as always. And Joy, this is about your hometown team. Here we go. The Pittsburgh Steelers, who.

I do think, look, I'll admit it, you know more about that place than I do. And I think people in Pittsburgh have tried to tell those of us outside of Pittsburgh like, hey, this thing's kind of been brewing for a while. But those of us outside are like, okay, so let me get this straight. Mike Tomlin's one of a soup, he's pretty good coach. I know they lost Ryan Chazier and I sat on Collins' couch. this is a year and a half ago and said, I thought their Super Bowl went out the window when he suffered that devastating injury.

I thought it really changed their defense and changed kind of the culture of the place. He's a great leader, great player. He was everything you want in a middle lineback for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He gets hurt. It was devastating. But you still thought like, well, the Patriarch aren't that good.

You look around and you're like, the Colts aren't that good. The Ravens, I mean, they got to the playoffs, but Lamar Jackson can't really throw. the first half of the year trying to figure out, do we want flaco? We want to want to want flacko. Defense was outstanding, but their offense was nothing

to be scared of. Yeah, the Kansas City Chiefs were unbelievable offensively, but no defense. And the Chargers are the Chargers. You don't have a ton of respect if you're the Steelers who constantly make the playoffs and you think challenge. And you start to say yourself, like, we didn't make the playoffs this year? And we had Antonio

Brown. And, oh yeah, by the way, the year before, we couldn't beat the Jacksonville Jaguars at home. and we had Lavian Bell and Ben Rothesberger and Antonio Brown. Look, you can tell me there are other trios that are as good, and I may buy it. There are not trios that are better than those three. They're just not. Antonio Brown is a top five web receiver as anybody in the NFL. Lavian Bell, when he was healthy, you're going back, and when he was engaged,

and this is a year and a half ago, was as good as any running back in the NFL. And though Ben Rothesberger is not as good as he used to be, like look, Ben Rosberg still Super Bowl quarterback, big body can make the throws, can move the can extend the play. That trio is good and yet they came up short and then the thing

imploded this year and you're trying to figure out why. Why would Antonio Brown go on these almost bipolar rants and posts in the same day two days ago he posts an IG live from a treadmill

where he's got a dyed mustache and he's talking about it being about the money. Hey, if you got guaranteed money, hit me up. But it almost felt, he almost felt unhinged to take a word from people talking about a different topic. There are just things. He's calling out Ben. He's liking things on Instagram and point out Ben Rothsberg's

illicit past. And you're like, man, then he's meeting with the owner. And you're like, wait a second, that's classy. That's the way you should handle it. Why is this such a mess? I think we have our answer. I think we have our answer. Kevin Colbert is the general manager

of the Pittsburgh Steelers. And he said a lot of things like this one. Ben is an unquestioned leader of this group. Unquestioned leader? All right. He's taking the... Is it conch or conch? You know what I'm talking? He has every Lord of the Flies. Remember whoever? It's the conch, right? By the thing is spelled conch, but it might be a conch. I'm not really sure.

It's like from Lord of the Flies, it was signified who had the power of the group of boys. So he basically takes the conch or conch, you can hit me up on Twitter ad, Godleap Show and correct my pronunciation if it's incorrect, and hand it to Ben Rothsberg and said, here, he's the Lord of the Flies. Okay. Like I said, he's the elder

statesman, Super Bowl winner. I can't question that. If our players were smart, they'd listen to him. It's a little much. he's got 52 kids under him wait what i think that once you win it you've got 53 guys you can say what it took right now he's the only one he can call me out and that's fine wait did he just call the other 52 guys on the active roster kids he did you know listen um i would advise you not to call your wife or your girlfriend honey or babe these are things that don't Well, unless you really mean it.

Yeah. I mean, listen, you can, in passing, like, hey, babe, can you pass me the salt? Like, okay, hey, babe. You know, like that, it just, excuse me. There are things in which you say where you lack kind of a self-awareness. And between Levion Bell, not understanding the market for running backs, Antonio Brown, not having the self-awareness to realize, like, hey, you do realize that if you want a new contract, showing up for week 17 against the Bengals would probably help you get a new contract, even if you force a trade to another team.

And Ben Rothensberger and some of the things that he has said lack self-awareness. And look, I'll defend Ben Rothsberger on his radio show because we do take some of his opinion and we only cut it up into the things we think of as negative. For example, when he called out Antonio Brown for running the wrong route, he did say like, look, and I should have thrown it to juju. You go back early in the year and there were quotes where Ben Rothsburger said, I need to play better. I need to get more engaged with these guys during the week.

Like he's willing to be self-deprecating and self-critical, which is great. And I don't even have a problem with Kevin Colbert saying he's the leader because he's won a Super Bowl and because he's our quarterback. But when you call 52 other grown-ass men, prideful men, kids, especially consider look, I think Ben Rothsberger's story is mostly good. He was a knucklehead and an idiot earlier in his career. And I'm willing to believe that like most of us as guys, you grow up, you mature, you have a kid, you have a wife, and you're not that guy anymore.

You know? And we're still guys. Every guy lives differently in terms of the proximity or how closely they are to pressing that self-destruct button, right? and his self-destruct button seems a little bit closer than some people's. But you got Kevin Colbert clearly lacks self-awareness. Your job is to be the spokesperson. Your job is to say the right things.

And when you say, hey, he's got 52 kids under him, to say that misses the mark, instead of putting out the fire, he stoked it. He stoked it. Did he not join him? I missing something? This has been my issue with the Steelers. season long is to me the Steelers have this reputation of toughness and grit and blue collar.

The standard is the standard. Yeah, the standard is championships and it's all about winning and up until this year had the most Lombardies of any team in the league and they're a cornerstone franchise. And it's like on the other hand, it's just all chaos and social media and big personalities and all this stuff going on. It doesn't match the original brand. And I think that that's kind of what everyone's hanging on to is like the Steelers aren't the same Steelers that they used to be.

It's not about the steel curtain and Troy Palomalu and the bus. And it's all an offensive team now. And Ryan Shazier was a big part of that. But to me, the culture breakdown with the Steelers came from the top. And clearly him calling everyone else on the roster except Ben Rothesberger, a kid, that trickles down. It runs downhill. Obviously, Antonio Brown could have handled this differently, given. Ben could have handled this differently.

Leveon Bell could have handled this differently. But to me, the fact that they feel the comfort to handle anything the way that they're handling it comes from Tomlin and comes from the front office. How about the fact that Kevin Colbert didn't say Mike Tomlin is the adult and everybody else? I don't even like, I don't like the idea of calling somebody kids just because it's like. It's the meaning. It's disrespectful. Don't call somebody a boy. No. Don't call somebody a boy. Right? Don't sell it's a kid.

And it's just because Ben has two rings is what are you saying. Like he's the leader. He has two rings. He should be the one who's, if anyone's going to task size anyone, it should be him. Right. But if you say it that way, it comes across better than if you say you've got 52 kids. Right. And one adult, like you call somebody like that's just going to stoke the flames. And I think this is a, it's a good look under the hood. to those of us like, man, I get it.

You got a pain the ass wide receiver. Lots of teams do. I get it. You got a running back that wants to be paid more. Lots of teams do. You got a quarterback who's probably not as good as some of the results, right? Like the first Super Bowl you want to get down to it, his lowest quarterback rating for any Super Bowl winning.

But whatever, Ben Rossboro is a good quarterback. Is he the greatest of all the time? Should he actually be a Hall of Famer? We could have that debate on one of the debate shows, and it'd be an interesting one. Well, I think he is a Hall of Famer, and I think he should be the leader of the team. team. But to me, and if I look at any organization and success or failure of an organization,

I don't look at the worst player on the team. I go straight to the top. What is the ownership done to make it a winning franchise and a winning organization and a winning atmosphere? What does the head coach do to create a culture where everyone feels supported and like their role is important, even if they are the lowest guy on the roster? To me, there's just the fact that there was a report that Mike Tomlin said that Antonio Brown can do whatever he wants until he's not productive? Huh? It's not that you feel that. It's that you say that and that you feel that it's a problem as well. I mean, like, look, this is the reason that, and I think that Tomlin is going to, he's not going to get a pass, but this is a chance for him to hit the reset button. I think

it's just going to be really hard. Look, if you read the entirety of the quote from Kevin Colbert, you know, he said once you've won it, you got 53 guys, you can say what it took. I totally respect because what I've seen too many times win games for us and come through in the situation. Talked about the Jacksonville game. He brought the team in. It was hot. It was nasty. They weren't allowed to get water.

It was immediate. Everybody over here right now in the speech he made, the challenge he made, he backed it up because he played better than the second half. He didn't play well in the first half. And he said, quote, I'm the first one that needs to look in the mirror and the rest of you better too. So I absolutely have no problem with him. I do think that Ben Rosberg, again, if he's a lot of you. it's sold the right way should be the unquestioned leader. And Ben Rothsberger's own, own issues, remember he wasn't just women and Lake Tahoe. It was also the motorcycle and then

getting suspended. And this was a different life ago. But I do think there should be, there can be a relatability with the younger generation of people like, look, dude, I was in your shoes. I was knucklehead. And here's how I went through the process of being more of a football player, more of a leader. But just sometimes you say one line and you lose us. Well, yeah, I mean, that one line to me shows what the culture is

with the Steelers. It's that Ben is in a different category than everybody else. And we know that the quarterbacks are in a different category. But you can't say it. You can't say it. Correct. It's the if you're the sole breadwinner in your house, right? And people go like, why don't you just tell it? Like, you make

the money. Like, yeah, you can't say it. Go ahead. Try that one at home. see how it goes over. You know, try it home and see how it goes over. Thanks so much, Joy. Kyrie is learning something about free agency. I'll tell you what it is. Joy Taylor, I'm Doug Gottlieb.

This is the hurt that's coming up next. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode we're cutting through

The noise, breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athlete themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. 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 rapidly. up in the chase, that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person

while you hear on earth. Are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, is we have real conversations about How all healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. What's up, guys? This is Clivert Taylor the 4th.

And on my podcast, The Cliverts show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me, he goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. quarterback on office blue with 42. Hey, Rhett, my mama want you to weigh better.

What? Hey, Ms. Parker. Listen to the Cliverts show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast Point Game is about defying the odds.

Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows. Without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reed. He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends

stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nass, but get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers why he got the ball. Like, after you go through a training camp with that, Isaiah, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Tomorrow, the Big East leading score, Marcus Howard leads 11th ranked Marquette against Providence.

Then it's Georgetown taking on Creighton. A Big East doubleheader tips off tomorrow at 1130 Eastern. on Fox and the Fox Sports app. Doug Ghaly, Joy Taylor, in for Colin. This is The Herr, wherever you may be. Thanks so much for making this part of your day. We'll get to Joy with the news upcoming. You know, I watched Kyrie Irving last night,

and field goal percentage-wise, he didn't play great, but in the fourth quarter, he was spectacular. Some of the scoring, some of the assists. I thought it was just a high level, felt like a playoff atmosphere at that a new arena in Milwaukee. The whole Milwaukee thing is outstanding. You know, just from the moves of the move to get Eric Bledsoe last year to signing Brooke Lopez, who, I mean, you went to the Lakers, what they did in the office season, they had Brooke Lopez, and they let him walk for small money. He went to Milwaukee. He's a perfect fit as a, now is stretch five who can defend the rim. He's been great for Milwaukee. He should have been good for the Lakers. And then they have this new arena, which is outstanding. And then, of course, they have Yannis, who, who I would guess likely wins the NBA's MVP. That game was a high-level game. Kyrie had a couple of great finishes, a couple big pull-up three.

He hit Al Horford for a couple made jump shots on a pick-and-pop, one pick-and-roll. He did miss a shot at the end of the game. They called timeout, weird situation where it was a jump ball. And because of the time of the shot clock, the Celtics got the basketball, advanced it 3.5 seconds. And Kyrie wasn't able to get a good shot. Actually, took like a left-hand runner. But I was thinking back to the sound, well, first the video which went viral, which is, there was a couple videos of Kyrie and KD talking at the All-Star game.

There's one in particular where Kyrie and KD were in a hallway. And, you know, they're both dressed for the game. They're both wearing their signature shoes. They're both wearing kind of their signature shoes that are fluorescent shoes. KD's wearing the anti-pearl, the pink ones, the pink KDs, which are cool. And Kyrie is wearing like a fluorescent yellow version. of his own shoe. And they're talking and they're talking with their hands and they're going back and

forth and they're smiling. And so it became this like, well, maybe they're talking about where they're going to go and free agency and how people reacted to them. It allows people to kind of speculate. So you go back to two days ago and Kyrie was asked about this

after a workout. He's sitting down. He's got a hat on and he really took offense to the idea that he had to put out a kind of viral video firestorm, if you will. Take a listen to his response. So it's a video of me

and one of my best friends talking. And then it turns out to be a dissection of a free agency media. You get that? Like, do you get that? And then I'm asking, and I'm asked questions about it. Like, that's what disconnects me from all that.

It's my life, right? There's two people talking, having a conversation. But it's a video of somebody assuming what we're talking about, right? I hear you making an opinion about it. So why would I care about it? Why does that have an impact on my life? Why are you asking those types of questions?

Now, look, his defensiveness is what really kind of perks up your attention, right? If he just said, like, well, we were just having a private conversation, we could have been talking about movies or books or shoes or anything. You know, it's not really any of your business. You don't have to be defensive. But I think he's growing tired of the media speculation over what he's going to do, where he's going to do it, and how he's going to do it, and how he's. going to do it. It kind of mirrors that of Kevin Durant going back to last week. Remember when KD. said this?

Y'all come here every day. Ask me about free agency. I ask my teammates, my coaches, you rile up the fans about it. And now when I don't want to talk to y'all that's a problem with me. Come on man. Grow up. How are you playing? How's the team playing in the last couple weeks? I'm done.

You know you don't care about that. I just asked you. Both of them are getting kind of turst with the media. And I get it. We've gotten to this age where somehow the guys at TMZ that aren't really reporters get their cell phone, you get off a cross-country flight. Like I did, like if somebody would have asked me questions at, you know, one in the morning when I landed about anything, about filling in for Colin and what Colin's off skiing and

you enjoy our left and you just flew cross-country. I'm, I got off a flight. I got bad breath. I kind of got B.O. I had a couple glasses of wine to help me sleep. I watched a movie. I might have a headache. I need some coffee.

I want to get my car. I want to drive home. I want to sleep in my bed. I want to take a shower. I want to pet my dog and see my wife and kid. I understand that sometimes you want to be left alone. And we have become intrusive and in many ways unfair with how we treat people. Like there should be a barrier between your personal life and your professional life.

On the other hand, there is some of this that you have welcomed in. You have. You've allowed us to speculate on it. Like, Kari was the guy who grabbed the microphone without telling anybody else and it's like, hey, if you guys have me, I want to stay in Boston. They're like, okay, cool, awesome. And then you were the same guy that said, talk to me June 1st. Like, that was you. So, and I fully understand that you want to be empowered and choose your own.

Who doesn't want to pick their own destination, right? There used to be these books. I don't know if you had these to choose your own. own adventure. You know, read one of these books when you're a kid? Choose your own adventures were just, I think more for boys than girls, whatever, and you'd read like a chapter, at the end of the chapter.

You know, like, do you slay the dragon? Do you run away? Like, you make a choice. It's like, A, B, or C, and you turn to each, a different page and that, you know, the story changes. Right. It's a great idea. And it becomes kind of the butterfly effect, right? If this happens, so I know that you want to choose your own adventure, and you may choose poorly. Like, you

you may make a mistake and you may not like it. Hey, look, I've been a free agent in this business. And it stinks because you might actually get what you want from the place where you are and then have already come to the conclusion that you want to try something different and then maybe kick yourself for having tried something different. Like that, that's real. That happens. And the last thing you want is every conversation you have with a friend to become, for us to guess what they're saying and to read your lips across the room the way they did in that Seinfeld, right? Well, what he said? Like, it might misread your lips. But, like, you're going to go play in New York? Really? If you think they're intrusive now, have fun in New York. Everything is made bigger.

Every deal is made more important. And if you're the two guys that are going to come save the Nix, they're going to parse every one of your words, every postgame press conference. I don't love the direction of the media. And I do think that we kind of is like, we got like, hey, let's give these guys from space. they are friends. They can be talking about a million things, but he's not helping it, Joy. He's not helping it by, one, being so defensive. And then, two, like, this is kind of part and parcel

what comes with being a guy who's leaving it ambiguous as to what he's going to do this off-season. I mean, none of them have any option but to leave it ambiguous because I don't think any of them have made a decision about what they're doing this off-season yet. Like, I think everything could change, depending on where or when they lose, you know, what player that they're talking to,

decides to stay or go. There's a lot of things that can still happen. So I don't think that any of them know. So it's a little unfair for us to ask of them, like, to tell us. Great. And even if they did know, you're allowed to change your mind. Right. So they can't win.

If they say they lose, if they don't say they lose, if they say they're focusing on basketball, they lose. So I do sympathize with them as far as getting mad at the media. Right. Because who are we? I mean, come on. Like I think we in the media sometimes get a little entitled in that spot. Like, you have to answer our questions.

It's not about us. But what I do feel like is if your name is in the free agency pool and you are a superstar, you have to be aware that fans are dying to know or be part of the figuring it out process. And they care. It's really about the fans. Like we are fans of the sports. So we're interested in it as well. Obviously, it's content for our business.

But at the end of the day, it's really about everyone else. And these decisions affect whole cities, the worth of franchises. they affect other people's careers and jobs. So it's not a small thing, someone like Kevin Durant leaving Golden State to say for the Knicks. It changes the NBA history forever. But if he just said, listen, let me just tell you how it works, okay? Me and Kevin, we're friends.

We're going to be friends if we play together. We're friends we don't play together. That doesn't change. I'm just, I'm not going to tell you what we're talking about, but I can tell you what we're not talking about. We're not talking about what we're playing next year. I mean, all I would say is me and K. we're having a conversation. And they're like, they ask another question, just say the same thing.

Like, just shorten it and just dead the story. That's the best that you can do because you know you're going to get asked about it. And I, again, I sympathize with the frustration of constantly being asked the same thing over and over and you can't give a different answer anyway. That I understand. But you know this is going to happen. Like, this is the error that we're in. You put it well, actually perfectly when you said it's a no win situation. Right. But it is a potential lose situation. And I feel like when you come across defensive, now you're losing. And you don't need to lose. You don't need to lose. You don't need to go off on Ethan Strauss. You don't need, you know, privately pull a guy aside. Yeah. I also feel like we tend to remove the

human elements of the situations. And I, I mean, I'm actually more impressed with people like LeBron or big superstars who never snap. That's my. more impressive to me and more just unrelatable to me than guys who do actually show some emotion and annoyance because it's fascinating to me that you can sit there and take all those questions and deal with all the scrutiny and deal with

all the social media backlash over and over and over and over again almost every single year and not snap. I would snap. You actually just snapped during break for me and I apologize to you. Let's get Joy Taylor with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news.

It's a big one for the Lakers last night. They're now two and a half games out in the West after coming back to beat the Rockets and LeBron finished the game at the team high 29 points to go along with 11 rebounds and six assists and after the game he addressed his comments from earlier in the week about taking his game to another level.

I'm just an all-around basketball player. I'm not as proud. You can't give me a position. I'm just a ball player. Put me on the floor, I'm going to make plays offensively and defensively. You know, I sacrifice my body. You know, sacrifice for my team. It's just all about whatever it takes That was one.

And this is why they're not going to miss the playoffs. I just refuse to believe it. There's too much riding on LeBron's legacy, the situation with the Lakers. I know we came into this season with low expectations, and I think very quickly everyone realized that's not a thing with the Lakers in Los Angeles, with LeBron James. It's not a passaway season. And with everything that's happened already and with his injury, now it's become very urgent that they at the very least make the playoffs.

Because what's going to happen if they don't make the playoffs? and LeBron is, I'm sure, very aware of this, immediately it's going to kick in that all these back-to-back return habitual appearances in the finals really don't mean anything because he was playing in the East. As soon as he comes to the West, first team he gets with, he doesn't make the playoffs. So it's not an option.

I actually think they're going to get more out of this season having not made the big move than had they made the big move. because in addition to using this season to figure out who he likes who he doesn't like, now you're going to see who can come back from being mentioned. Like if you're going to ride with LeBron Jane for the next three years, there's not going to be less. There's going to be more drama, right? Like we know this.

We have 15 years of data. And at the end of his career. And he's admitted he just said the other day he likes to be uncomfortable. He likes to play with pressure. Right. And so now we're going to really find out like, all right, listen, there's two different types of NBA. regular season games. There's everybody else's

and hours in terms of every game being important. How do you react to playing that kind of pressure? And we'll find out so far. Kuzma, Ingram especially was pretty good last night, especially in the second half. And we'll see how some of the other Lakers respond. Josh Hart didn't hardly play early. I don't think he played

to like the third quarter and then you couldn't get him out the floor. And Josh Hart's been like a season long slump. So I think this pressure he will find out more about these teammates and it could be the best thing never happened to Young Lakers. Yeah. Well, speaking of that whole situation, the Anthony Davis Fiasco, merely tore the Lakers apart

two weeks ago. And an upcoming Sports Illustrated feature, Kyle Kuzma said it was difficult to put their best face forward when talking about moving on. He said fans think we're just part of a circus here to just entertain them. It was hard. You can't really escape these things. You can't look at your phone.

I felt like the whole team got very tense. Everyone's screaming at you and people forget we're humans too, that everyone has emotions. This I was talking about with Colin a few weeks ago when this was going on. When you talk about trade rumors, we kind of get into this just mode where we're like, yeah, this person and this person would be great trade piece to there. But we could kind of just move these players around, like they're not human beings with families and whole existences outside of the sport that they play. And we completely remove the human element of it.

To me, this was the biggest thing coming out of the trade deadline. It wasn't necessarily that they didn't get Anthony Davis. It's that you guys have to make the playoffs and you've just treated your young core as if they're just disposable. pieces. And I understand it's a part of the business. I get it. But it's easier to say that than to actually live that. Because if you're put into a trade rumor, now of a sudden, your anxiety is kicked in. If I do get traded, where do I move my family? Where am I going to sleep? I got to have someone pack up all my stuff. I got to completely change my routine. All those things on like the personal level. Then you have to deal with being with a new team. Who am I going to be

playing with? Who's going to be coaching me? You have a new staff. You have a new training staff. You have a new facility you have to learn. You've a new city you have to get used to. You may have a new time zone you have to adjust to. Everything in your life is going to be new. So you've already kicked into this whole anxiety, despite the fact that you're going to have to then go on a court and play in a new system with completely new players. Then all of a sudden, you're not traded.

So you've got to go back and attach to everything that you've already mentally started to detach from. There's a whole psychological warp that goes on on a human level. Listen, I agree. I also think, though, that we look at it a little bit more as adults. Whereas, you know, when you're in your early 20s and you're part of basketball generation, basketball guys switch schools,

switch AAU teams, switch high schools a lot more than we did. And so they do adapt a little bit better than we did. Millennials do adapt. They constantly want to move. They want to get raises six months into work, six weeks into work in a new job, right? They're wired differently.

But one of the things they do better, I think, than our generation of previous is they are more, they are more pliable than we were. But I agree with you. Like, there's part of, the human element to this is fascinating. Fascinating. And it's just mostly ignored, which is fair. Like, there's, it's not fair, but it's part of the game.

Like, we don't, we don't look at it on that level. But I think that that plays more of a part in chemistry and how teams actually do than any of the analytics or systems or anything else. We finally got into the place where we talk about culture in sports and the media. Right. We've been talking about it all morning. That's important, okay? conditioning is incredibly important.

We talk about some of the reason he's never gotten hurt. He's incredibly conditioned athlete from what he eats and how he rests to how he works out. We don't talk enough about confidence. Like, guys' confidence, the best of the best seem to never lose their confidence, but everybody else goes up and down, and these can be reasons. You don't value me. I don't know where I'm supposed to get a meal. Like these things, guys confidence.

There's a mental health element to it that we've only just started to discuss, and I do think it's important. finally the NBA has submitted a formal proposal to the MBPA to allow 18-year-olds to be eligible for the NBA draft by 2022. The current rules require players to be 19 before they can be drafted and lowering the age limit would be the first step towards eliminating one and Duns that had been in place since 2005. And this news came one day after the Zion Williamson injury and the report clarified that the timing was coincidental. This has been discussed a lot lately. and a lot of people think that this is a college rule actually. The NCAA actually gets blamed for the one and done.

Correct. It's really actually an NBA rule. Collectively bargain upon between the NBA and NBA PA. The college actually has nothing to do with it. I actually don't think that this should be a rule. I think that kids should be able to go to the NBA and not have to go to college. And I don't think that changing is really going to make a difference because you've always been able to go to the G League if you felt like that was an option for you.

But nobody ever did it. Nobody ever did it. Well, right, because it's the G League. And even though it sounds nice, it's the G League. It's not an easy road, even if you are a great player. Even if you are Zion Williamson, there's a lot of talent there for sure, but it's not an easy life. It's not like, it's not.

Like, do any research on the G League. It's not that simple. But every player, just because this is not a rule, is going to go straight to the NBA. It's still going to be LeBron James, Zion Williamson. Everyone's not going to go in herds and skip college basketball. I think the first couple years, you'll have a massive group going because they've up the G-League salaries.

They don't understand that not all the G-League salaries are going to be six figures. Right. But by then there'll be several G-League salaries that are six figures. And everyone, you have to spend time in a college locker room and say, how many guys think you can play in the NBA? And 13 scholarship guys are all going to raise their hands. Sure. Right.

So what happens is, hey, there's Zion Williamson. Well, Zion obviously could have gone straight to the pros. Right. And he wasn't even the top-rated prospect. RJ Barrett was a higher-rate prospect. So you're going to get the top five, but the next five, and the next five, and the next five, and I just think you're going to have a mass exodus from the potential college pool, which will eventually, water will eventually find its level.

Eventually, you'll have the small group. But I don't know how many years it takes before we, because the first couple years, you're going to see a lot of kids put their name. I don't think it would take more than one year because even though everyone feels like they can go straight to the league, once they see that first wave of players go straight to the league and aren't successful and now they don't have their college career to come back to, it's going to be an awakening. Like there's not that many players that can go straight from high school to college.

I wish more people would broadcast the Lenny Cook stories, the Corleone Young stories. We don't. We focus on the success stories. It's kind of what we do in the media. I hope you're right, but I fear that you may be incorrect. That's Joy Taylor with News. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by.

The Hurd Lie News. All right, big picture. What did last night's Lakers win over the Rockets mean for both teams? Michael Rappaport joins me to argue. Next. Doug Gowleyman for calling this to the Hurt on Fox Sports Radio, Fox Sports One, and the I-Heart Radio app. Joy Taylor alongside.

Let's welcome in Michael Rappaport who joins us. Actor, antagonist, hot take artist. Yeah. And protector of all things, Odell Beckham Jr. Yeah. You as a New Yorker have some, have a beef with me. Oh, yeah. Well, word on the street is that you called Odell Beckham, a loser the other day.

I was offended about it. Plenty of New Yorkers were. I fended them off because they were like, people are like, where is he? We want to talk to them. And listen, I have been on this program. I've been on my own social media platforms screaming and yelling. about O'Dell Beckham screaming and yelling, punching walls, getting into fights with equipment,

dropping passes during playoff games. But O'Dell Beckham is a Ferrari, okay? We need to rev that puppy up every now and then. Otherwise, the Ferrari goes to waste. For the last two seasons, and I also was very public and very adamant that Ben McAdo, the Wackadoo, was disrespectful,

and needed to be fired for the way he handled the Eli Manning situation. That being said, the last two seasons, we've had Eli Manning who can't throw the ball 30 plus yards

down the field to a young, Sprightly, 2019 Ferrari. So, yes, I'm all in on O'Dell and all his mishaps and the tweeting

and the boats and all that stuff. But he does have a point in saying, I'm in my prime. I literally can't go over the top. Okay. So, yes, I was upset with him. Now, where are you from, my friend? I'm from Orange, California.

Orange, California. My dad is a lifelong, my late father is a lifelong Giants fan. I'm watching Giants. My son's favorite player is Odell Beckham Jr. My dog's name is Odell Beckham Jr. I don't know if OBJ knows that, that he's named after. I don't think OBJ cares. Didn't he clap back at you?

He did clap back at you? back at me. Here's the thing. I did not. I'm okay with him clapping back. I did not. I'm okay with him clapping back. It's okay. Why is he speaking to you? Well, he shouldn't be speaking to you. I'm not worthy of being spoken to. I'm saying you're worthy of he spoken to, but he shouldn't be speaking to you. Odell is that guy. He shouldn't be speaking to you. Okay. So here's what, here's the context of what I said is, I do not believe he's a winning player or that he puts winning above himself, above his own image. That that's what he's always been about. You mentioned Ferrari. I think that's appropriate. I think he's an

amazing talent. He is a breathtaking. Just like when a Ferrari drives down the street, you're like, damn, that must be fun. But the problem of Ferrari is, a lot of times the Ferrari's in the shop. Odell's in the shop a lot. Okay? True. And here's the thing. You can tell me you're a leader. You can tell me you're about winning. And you can tell me, hey, when we got off to a bad start and he pointed some fingers at other guys not working hard and a little bit about Eli Manning and some of the play calling, like there's some accuracy to it. But, I would also point out they're playing the Bears with a chance to beat the Chicago Bears at home.

He's on the hands team. He's considered to have the best hands in football. And the only thing we focus on pregame, maybe in the history of the NFL is Odell Beckham Jr. One hand, here, one hand. And it's amazing. And he doesn't lay out to get the football, which is his specific job.

In football, we've learned the old Patriots adage, do your job. Yes. I think there's some hypocrisy in either what you're saying or actually what you're saying, what you're echoing. You're actually admitting Ben McAdoe was right. Eli Manning was washed. You might not like his bedside manner, but it was the right move at the time. And that's what they should have done. They should have, they should have bit the bullet and gotten rid of

Eli Manning or made him a backup and drafted Sam Donald last year. They didn't. And now they're reaping the, they're reaping the lack of benefits or lack of rewards from it, as well as Odell Beckham Jr., who is a tremendous talent. But stop saying he's this, you're not saying it. He wants to think he's a leader. But leaders, he has to prove it at this point. Leaders do. Leaders don't say. You're totally right. And he's no longer, like, when he burst on the scenes and the fame and the catch and the

looks and the blonde hair, I think the amount of stardom even took him back. No pleasure. I was in a place in New York, like an event with other big names. And when he moved across the room, the only other person I saw move a room like that was Brad Pitt and his prime. Like the whole room followed him. And that thing can kind of put you on your heels. but now you're heading into your sixth season.

Yeah. Now it's like we're talking about like what you're going to be. So I think this is important here, but I would be demoralized if game one of the season comes up and Eli Manning is starting as our quarterback. I'm going to be demoralized. And I imagine Eli and the rest of the giants are going to be demoralized. And it's going to wind up backfiring on, I don't know if he's more like a truck, a fast driving truck, a young Saquan Barkley, who the guy you're filling in for, we had arguments about him being drafted.

Oh, well, he was wrong. He's probably listening on the ski slopes. Oh, you were wrong. I don't think Colin was wrong. Colin's not saying, Colin has not said that Sequin Barclay's not awesome. It's when you're drafting that high in a quarterback heavy draft,

they had a chance to stick a stake in the heart of the Jets who moved up to get the third spot. They had a chance. You should be. They got more cap space and they got a better young quarterback. They got a plan for the future. You're right. you're right. Okay. And they might get

Levy on Belgrade. And they might get Levy on Belgrade. I got it. I understand it. The point is the point is not that say no one's saying Sequan stinks, but was saying you could have had Darnold and you could have gotten another running back. Let me quickly get you to the Lakers last night. Oh.

Rockets fans and Hardens complain about the refs. Should have. Valid. LeBron is fully activated. Sprained soul glow all over his body's playoff activation mode. Takes a lot of shots, makes a lot of shots. They win down the stretch, how important was that game for how you look at the Lakers?

Listen, I feel like the Lakers are going to make the playoffs. Last night, I think Luke Walton deserves the credit. He had them ready to play. Defensively, they played hard and as good as you could play him. They took some key charges, and I think that

was put in the head by the coaching staff. If he had lost, if the Lakers had lost, we'd automatically being Luke, Luke, Luke, so I think he deserves some credit for having team ready after a very tumultuous pre-all-star break going into the break. They won one game. The calls were bad.

The Houston Rockets have showed that consistent weakness that they have. They live or die by the three of the layup. And when things don't go their way from the top down from Dan Antony, who I really think he needs to grow his mustache back, by the way, to Chris Paul. Yeah, I got to get that creepy mustache. There has to be a pretty mustache. He needs a change. That's his head.

Samson hair. Just like Odell needs a change of a hairstyle. Like enough with the blonde hair. It was cool. We got to move forward. But at Dan Antonio, I think he would afford him to do well to get the message. Let's stay focused. You got to stay. I'm going to keep you focused. He played well. They got a long road.

The Kings blew a game last night versus the great Golden State Warriors. They're coming. They're not backing down and they're looking to make the playoffs just like the Los Angeles Lakers are. I'm going to give you, I know you've done sideline for basketball as well. I'm going to give you a little.

A multifaceted. Analyst breakdown of what changed last night. And Reggie Bullock allowed them to do this. But I told Colin last summer, hey, LeBron, one of the things they want to do with him in the finishing kick of his career is, can he be a small ball five? And you look at their lineup when they came back and their closing lineup, LeBron was essentially their small ball five. LeBron, Coosma, Ingram, and Bullock.

And then, you know, they use Contavius Caldwell Pope. they'll put Lonzo in there as well. And this is a way to create a mismatch so he's guarded by a center because he can't get by small forwards and power forwards like he used to. That is coaching. The defense is coaching. The shots going

in or not going in? Not really coaching. Do they take good shots it is? I agree with you. I thought it was a good night for Luke. And I do feel like we know how this story ends. It ends with them in the playoffs, doesn't it? Like it's almost preordained that that's the way it happened. I think we expect it to be

preordained because of it's the LeBron James factor. And, you know, after what he did in the playoffs last year, ridiculous. That you could pull off. He's a miracle worker. I got 30 seconds. I want to ask you. If you were to give Kyrie Irving advice, because now people are filming every festive of his life.

Don't, don't share things that we didn't know about. We didn't know that you spoke to LeBron James and you made amends with him. So now the media's like, well, every time we speak to you, you might give us some good stuff. We didn't need, like when I text you, I text you, Joel. I speak to you. I don't go, oh, I spoke to joy. This is a conversation. Why are you sharing that, Kyrie? And then when people want more, you're like, what are you asking me this for? We got to run. You're great. That's great advice. Great advice. Thank you. Next time. You seem to you say it like you're surprised, though. I am because you always text me middle finger emojis. Michael Rappaport. This is The Herd.

What up? Welcome in. This is The Herd, wherever you may be. And however you may be making this part of your day. Thanks so much. will you listen on the iHeart radio app, SiriusXM Channel 83, or any of our hundreds of Fox Sports radio affiliates. Thank you so much. Joy Taylor alongside. We've been reacting to all the news of last night and the day in the world of sports.

Getting you ready for a huge weekend. We got the best for last upcoming this hour. We'll tell you which NBA players should be cast in the new Space Jam 2, which I believe they will record this summer. and then in a year it'll come out that LeBron announced going back two days or so ago. Well, the NBA yesterday, there was big news. It came a day after the Zion Williamson's shoe incident. The NBA is proposing a rule to change its entry age from 19 to 18.

I want to talk about why. Two nights ago, there was Duke versus North Carolina. And it was as hyped a regular season game as we feel like we've had in a long time in college. basketball. And there's a couple reasons to it. One, let's not bury the lead. We haven't seen a kid like Zion Williamson. Have we seen breakthrough college freshmen? Absolutely. But have we seen breakthrough college freshmen that are six foot six, two hundred and eighty-five pounds that jump the way that he jumps, plays as the way he plays? Like, no, it feels like something a little bit different. And then he's a dukey who you like. Like that's a little bit different.

you combine that with the fact they're taking on North Carolina. It's the best rivalry in the sport of college basketball. And, you know, traditionally they've had great ratings anyway. And then you factor in that ESPN smartly moved it to a later date than normally they play. It was the latest they'd ever played. It was the last day before the big boys came back to play. And then you had former President Obama, whose court side, like you factor all these things in. And I don't know anyone who considers themselves a sports fan that didn't.

have something family or a date that wasn't at least watching just curiosity 30 seconds in he blows a tire and it wasn't just that he ripped his shoe i mean the entire bottom of the shoe rips off i mean look like some la gear he was wearing and then the pundins start throwing things out and former players start ripping the NCAA zion limps off he misses the rest of the game with a sprained knee and we collectively lose our mind. Yesterday we found out that Zion Williamson just has a mild knee sprain, which is what it

looked like. Thankfully, kids are going to be fine. But college basketball is supposed to be fun. Do colleges make money off of the games that are broadcast? Yeah, they do. Here's a news flash.

I don't know if you know this. Colleges make money off of all of their students. Off the back of their students, they do. And they don't pay taxes on it. And then they ask for more money from their alums based upon the success of their students who become alums. And then once you graduate, then they want some more money. That's just the way part of it is they're getting less and less money from the state if they're a public institution. Part of it is if they're a private institution. This is how they got to continue to generate and grow their endowment. And part of it is just

kind of the nature of how their business works. But we operate under this, somehow it's sinister, for colleges to make money off of basketball and football players. And by the way, the reality of it is, they make a lot more money off football than they do off basketball, you know? And the football money that is made is not actually made by the NCAA. The basketball money that's made by the NCAA is made off the NCAA tournament. And that's simply because everybody I know and everybody you know fills out a tournament

bracket. That's where the real money is. The volume of sports, the logo across the front of the chest. Look, Zion Williamson played made for basketball events against lamello ball that was, you know, no one could get into a gym in Las Vegas. But it wasn't a happening on TV until he played for Duke and they played North Carolina. There's a power to that brand. There's value to that brand. But more than anything, I was blown away and kind of embarrassed for many of my brothers. and in the media, and a lot of former players who has said that Zion Williamson should shut it down. Now, for the record, shutting it down does not mean if the kids hurt, he doesn't play. That's different.

Shutting it down means healthy scratch. And we've seen shutting it down. That's what Kawhi Leonard was accused of doing last year. That's what Anthony Davis was basically accused of doing before the all-star break when he hurt his shoulder. And the pelicans are trying to figure out what to do with him. a healthy scratch to a kid who's 18 years old who tweaked his knee. Like, when did playing basketball become some dangerous endeavor like being a middle linebacker or running back or a wide receiver in football?

Right? Like, do I want him to get hurt? No. Do I think that he's injured? No. And if he's healthy, should he play? Yes. Why?

Because you're a basketball player. You came to Duke to play basketball. If you wanted to simply be a professional, he could have, even before the proposed rule change, he could have gone to the G League. He could have benefited off his name and likeness and had a shoe deal. He could have thrown down dunks

and we wouldn't have seen or watched all games. The level of competition or the level of talent is actually better in the G league than his college basketball, but it doesn't have the names across the front of the chest, doesn't have the coaches, doesn't have the arenas, doesn't have the field, doesn't have the fun. Look, college basketball is fun.

I've played it. It's the best. It's just, it is exactly what you think it is. It's the best year to five or six, what was it, Chris Farley, seven years of your life. You're playing with a bunch of dudes who you live around, who you grow up around, it's your first chance to be away from home. You're playing for an old crotchety coach and trying to figure out how to kind of fit in, how to grow up.

And then you win, you lose, you go out afterwards. And whether you have a beer or you have a soda or you have a Gatorade or whatever, you're hanging out, playing video game. Like, it's exactly what you think it is. and just like youth sports is ruined by kids, we are trying to ruin college sports. Excuse me, youth sports is ruined for kids by adults. It's the same thing that's happening with college athletics.

We are ruining it because we're getting away from the core of what's about. Here's Charles Barkley last night inside the NBA. When did we get to the point where all people care about is money? Shaq played college for two years. Three. Kenny played for four. I played for three. Michael Jordan played for three.

Tim Duncan played for four. David Robinson played before. Some of the greatest players ever. Wilk Chamberlain, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson play. When we get to the point where you got clowns on television saying, oh, don't play. That's what you do, Ernie. That's what we do.

We play basketball. I mean, I don't ever want to see anybody get hurt. This kid looked like he's going to be a fantastic player. But I get so mad when people act like money is the only thing that matters in the world. Like, oh, dude, you're going to go into NBA. Don't play. I mean, that's ridiculous. It is ridiculous.

It is like you're protect. I want you to protect your asset in Zion Williamson because I want him to profit off it, but like not play basketball, not experience, arguably the greatest three weeks in all of sports. Why would you wish that upon somebody? Either way, he's going to make a ridiculous amount of money. He's like, no, he's not.

He had New Orleans Noel toward his ACL, and he was still a top five pick. Joel Embed was a top five pick, and no one knew what he would be. Zion Williamson would be fine, and the likelihood of an additional injury, if he's fine, is slight at best. But we're not even talking about injury. We're talking, you got guys like Boogie Cousins who played in college basketball, and the cut that's being used today is Boogie saying that college basketball is BS, and he wouldn't have him play, kind of buried in that cut. is Boogie Cousins saying this?

I love my experience in college. That was some of the best years in my life playing basketball. But with that being said, just how crooked the whole NCAA business is. I actually saw a pulse over the day where it was, I think the highest ticket for that UNC Duke game was 25, 3500 or all. How much does Zion win for the city? That's who they're coming to see.

So how much does he get? Actually, who does it go to? How does it benefit any player? on that team. But if they were to get $20 in the free meal, they're this bad kid, they get a bad rep, uncultural, or thugs, whatever the case may be.

So, it's bull-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-. Well, just, to be fair, and I actually have had dinner with Boogie Cousins, and I like him a great deal, and he's a bright guy who's going through his own kind of process of evolution. He was a pain in the ass, and that's why he got run out of Sacramento. And that's why they were better when he got

hurt in New Orleans, is he's gotten better and evolved as a person. And no one has ever said a guy's a bad kid for getting $20 in a meal. By the way, the whole idea of anyone not eating in college is complete BS to anyone who's ever been a college athlete. No one, the hungry Huskies thing that Yukon lived on is a joke. It's a lie. And by the way, the NCAA is not crooked. Do I think they're always aligned with the goal of what's best in the mind of the student athlete? No, there's some conflicting align. but they actually show you exactly where all the money goes. He's talking about the secondary ticket market,

which doesn't go to Duke basketball, doesn't go to Duke Athletics. It goes to the secondary ticket market. Just focus on the part that he said, best time of my life. Because you're just playing bad, it's about the sport, because the sport is supposed to be fun.

That's why sports were designed to work out, get a little aerobic activity. Like, that was the whole idea of basketball and Dr. James Naismith invented it as a PE coach for competition. And then to get a group of guys together, you live together, you eat together, you sleep together, you work out together, you win together, you lose together. And you start at the start of the year, the end of the end of the year. And if you're fortunate enough, if you're lucky enough to win four games, you get to play in front of 75,000 people.

And even the guys that have turned so bitter on the NCAA because that's what we do, we're bitter on any sort of organizing group, Congress, the NFL, maybe not the NBA, because Adam Silver bows to their every whim. We get away from the idea that, like you're a basketball player. You get a chance to play basketball. Finish the season, have fun. And the ancillary benefit of having success in college, just like any student, is you get a kick-ass first job.

And that's what's going to happen with Zion Williamson after just one year at Duke. And so I'm just one of these people that I don't understand why we're pushing him away from playing, acting like we're protecting this asset that doesn't need to be protected. It's a good conversation to have as long as you're open-minded to it. And I do think that the idea of the NBA opening up, opening up the draft to being 18 instead of 19, that's going to solidify the stance of the NCAA, which is like, hey, if you want to be a pro, go be a pro. If you want to come to college, here's the way we roll here. we give you room, board fees. By the way, just getting into college, if anybody has a high school student out there, you know what I'm talking about. It is way harder to get into college than it ever was when we were kids. Way more difficult, unless you're a student athlete, which it's easier.

And I do believe it should be. I believe there's a certain leveling of the playing field there. But it's easier to get in. It's easier to stay in and be successful. And they've created all these other rules where even when you leave, you can come back, potentially get a master's degree. And then, by the way, I'm not sure if you're paying attention, but the people carrying debt from college is skyrocketing because it's more and more expensive. It's harder to get into more expensive than it's ever been. And so what you saw yesterday in the NBA announcing a proposal, which is likely at some point to go through in changing the age limit of NBA draftees from 19 to 18, is going to solidify that to all of you who are calling for colleges to allow the student athletes to either get compensated or to get paid for the name and likeness. It's not happening. Because if you want to be a pro, go be a pro.

If you want to be a college player, be a college player. Zion Williamson made this decision. You know what he's doing. And it was the right decision. He's aligned himself with Coach K with Duke. He's improved, improved his draft stack, improved his body, improved his game. It's a win-win. Stop chasing him away from a team.

Let him finish out the season. This is in football and a meaningless bowl game and putting yourself in harm's way. This is basketball, a career which, frankly, is the safest and best and most fun and the most envied about in all of sports. And he has a chance to play however many games remaining in arguably the most prestigious uniform for the most prestigious coach in the most prestigious tournament still remaining in America. Why are we chasing away from that? Because we want him to put money and his future ahead of being a kid. You can only be a kid once. Once.

You show me a problem that money fixes, and money does fix some problems, but I'll show you 15 that it creates. James Hardin went off on the officiating last night. It was a good message, but the wrong messenger. I'll explain why next. I'm Doug Gottlie.

She's Joy Taylor. This is 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. 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 SportsClice 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 SportsClyce 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 my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking. Trip Fontaine, Ryan Clark.

Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross. Because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on earth. Are you a good person because you're afraid?

Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Kear Gaines, 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 Hardway and listen now. What's up, guys? This is Clever Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Cliver Show, I'm bringing you conversations about all kinds of stuff. Like being an internet famous referee. We're in the middle of a game. This linebacker, this linebacker walks up to me.

He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue of 42. Hey, rec, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clippers show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

What's up, Fam? Isaiah Thomas. And I'm CJ Toledano, and our podcast Point Game is about defining the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid.

He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nash will get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court licking his fingers while he got the ball. Like, after you go through a training camp with that, Isaiah, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball.

So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Washington Cabals take on the Toronto Maple Leafs at 7 p.m. Eastern Time on our Discover Card Key Matchup. Get your free credit scorecard today, even if you're not a Discover customer. Includes your FICO score and checking your scorecard won't hurt your credit. Learn more at Discover.com slash credit scorecard limitations apply. Doug Gottlieb and Joy Taylor in for Colin.

This is the Hurt, Fox Sports Radio, Fox Sports One. Man, we got a great best for last upcoming for you. last night the Lakers came from 17 down in the second half to beat the Houston Rockets. And while LeBron and the Lakers quest to make the playoffs is really topic number one, one B or maybe topic two is James Harden struggling with the officiating. He fouled out. He called for a couple offensive fouls, one of which seemed flimsy at best. But the last two were charges and seemed like pretty good calls.

so, you know, he was called for a block that could have been a charge and then called for charges that could have been blocks. It felt like he had one of those nights. But I found it ironic that he was complaining about the officiating. Here's James Harden after the game. Scott Foster, man, he's, you know, I never really talk about officiating or anything like that, but just rude and arrogant.

I mean, you aren't able to talk to him throughout the course of a game. game and it's like how do you do that relationship with officials you know so and it's not even that call like it's it's just you know who he is on that floor it's uh it's pretty frustrating and i mean and i'm probably going to get hit but honestly i don't really say anything i'm probably pretty quiet guy to myself but it's one of those things where you can't voice your opinion you can't have a conversation with someone that's officiating the game and you know you're getting a tech that's pretty sad. I mean, I don't know what else to do.

You know what I mean? I met with the league with him before and all this stuff. I don't know what else to do. Obviously, they have an issue with Scott Foster. Matt Barnes joined us early, and he thought Scott Foster is terrible, not just because of the officiating, but the way in which he handles himself. But while it might be the right message, and you might sit there and go like, hey, what are we doing here?

Like, the league has always been. The NBA has always been a star-driven league. And it's not like, tell me the game Michael Jordan or Madge Johnson ever fouled out in. Right? They just magically the foul was always on somebody else. Right? I mean, we watch enough Bulls games. Like Jordan could get four or five fouls early in the fourth quarter and somehow

he managed to still play defense and not foul out. And look, the sixth foul, nothing he could do. That was an offensive foul. And by the way, it's LeBron James taking it. And he was outside the semi-circle. It felt like a good call. But there's some other ones that were shaking. but for a league that generally protects their stars to not protect James Harden.

The problem with James Hardin complaining about the officiating is, here's the guy that, you know, 81 other games seems to benefit from getting a friendly whistle, right? Leads the NBA in free throw attempts, has done so for the last couple of years. He's got the most famous, it really is a travel, but we'll call it a step back move in all of the NBA. We're not even getting to the euros and the, you know, raising the ball up and throwing the ball up in the air and getting a foul and the way in which he leans in. He leads the NBA in free throw attempts. He plays a style which forces the officials to make a call and more often than not it goes his way. So of all of the guys on earth to complain about the officiating, really, James Hardin?

It's not the message. It's the messenger. And look, the NBA does itself no favors when it doesn't even seem like they're trying to hide. Hey, we love the home team. We love the Lakers to play in the playoffs. And there's however many thousand Sacramento Kings fans are watching and listening to this program, not in their head like, oh yeah, we've experienced this. I do think LeBron made a smart play and took a charge.

I do think there were plays in which he's, and some of this, the NBA does it to themselves in that you give, James Harden the call so often that when you officiate this game, which felt like a playoff game at the end and was officiated like a playoff game at the end, what does James Hardin do? He usually struggles in the playoffs. And one of the reasons he struggles most in the playoffs is he's not getting the calls that he gets in the regular season. And I actually don't blame him for his frustration because, hey, if 81 nights a year you get one call and another night and in the playoffs, it's a different call. Like, that's really hard to adjust to. Really hard to adjust to. you know but but this is this is if you've ever had a PE teacher who walks in and is super heavy

you know and is always eating a hostess product you know before class and they start laying into you about your diet and your work ethic and your exercise and like really James Hardin telling us James Hardin telling us that the officiating was crap and he can't believe how bad the officiating made him play and made him look and was uneven. Dude, I get it. You don't like Scott Foster. People don't like Scott Foster. And he may be feeling himself a little bit.

He may think that we look at the ticket and says, Rockets versus Lakers, Staples Center starring Scott Foster. It's a bit much. The ref show, I'm okay with people calling it out. I don't think the message is wrong. I think the messenger could be a little bit better or could be different. let Chris Paul, let Mike Dan Tony, let everybody else say what you think is obvious,

even if you're the reigning league MVP. Let's get to Joy Taylor with the news. No, no, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. So there is some movement in an impossible Antonio Brown trade, but probably not as much as expected. Steelers GM, Kevin Colbert,

told NFL network today that three teams have reached out to talk about a potential trade. But it's kind of surprising that only three teams. have called. Now, one would assume that next week's NFL scouting combine will generate more talks. Steelers can't play really a long game here because he's due to $2.5 million in a roster bonus on March 17th, and they probably don't want to invest any more money in Antonio Brown before moving on from him. He has a base salary of a little over $12,000, $11.3 million, and $12.5 million, all non-guaranteed, which will be attractive to some teams. But I think what's going on with

Antonio Brown is that there's a lot of noise surrounding Antonio Brown and I think teams are a little afraid of if they bring him in what that adjustment is going to be I just think that it's worth the risk whatever that is. Well, depends also you have to pre-negotiate

how much money he wants. He said... Right, he's going to want... He wants a new contract with guaranteed. He wants a guaranteed. And look, is he worth more than Sammy Watkins who I think it was $16 million this year? Yeah, absolutely. Like he's a stud. I don't care of he's 31 or 41.

I mean, he's the top receiver. He's the number one receiver in the league. Like, if you want to say Julio Jones or Odell, fine. You're not going to offend me. Those three are interchangeable to me as the best receivers in the league. Right. I mean. But can he get along with the coach, the offense coordinator of the quarterback, and can you fit his salary into what you want to do?

I think the salary is the biggest question. I do, too. To me, at the end of the day, it comes down to talent. And a lot, unless you're the Patriots, you really need talent at that position. You know, it's interesting. I think at the end of. of this off season, we're going to look back and go, man, John Gruden, he killed it with those trades. Just from this perspective, remember, Aramari Cooper's contract spikes to $14 million.

The Raiders weren't good if they had Khalil Mack, didn't have Kalil Mack. They weren't. They were, it was a bad roster, and he had to gut it. He got two first round picks for Kalil Mack, who also got $90 million guaranteed. So you take that off the books and he can remake it. It doesn't mean that he's going to nail the draft picks. It's a 50-50 proposition for anybody. But when you consider what you're going to get for Antonio Brown, who's going to make a little bit, is a much better player than Marri. Mari Cooper has a longer career in front of him, but I doubt Amari Cooper ever has even one year as good as Antonio Brown in his prime.

Right. He's a stud. But I think you're going to look back and go, you know, John Gruden actually got a Pirates bounty for Amari Cooper especially. He nails the picks. But either way, I think he had to move off of them. Yes. I know you come in, you have to kind of create your own system and his growing pains,

but he's just got all the pressure on him because of that contract. So the Anthony Davis fiasco nearly destroyed the Lakers two weeks ago. And in an upcoming Sports Illustrative feature, Kyle Kuzma said it was difficult to put their best face forward when talking about moving on. He said fans think we're just part of a circus here to just entertain them. It was hard. You can't really escape these things. You can't look at your phone. It felt like the whole team got very tense.

Everyone's screaming at you and people forget we're humans too, that everybody has emotions. Now, he's probably going to get some pushback on this. Like, oh, you make a lot of money and you play in the NBA. Why are you complaining? The reality is this is his job. And every job, however much money you make or however much fame it comes with or anything else, it has stresses to it. Like, this is his job to deal with the possibility of being moved in an instant

to the other side of the country to be around a whole new group of players and a whole new system and a whole new coach. Like, this is what he has to face. And not just him, other players on the team too. I just felt like from the beginning it was a little unfair the criticism that they were getting as far as like oh this is stressful oh stay off social media yeah that's fine you can stay off social media let's just pretend like they delete all their accounts

they still have what five media meetings a day on a game day they have that ask the same questions in every single city they go to their friends are hitting them up their agents are hitting them up their families are hitting them up it's not so it's not just stay off social media and ignore the Twitter trolls It's a lot more complicated than that. But this will be interesting to see how they get the chemistry back together after that.

I mean, it's been quite a month for the Lakers. Fascinating. I will say this. The chance from the Indiana fans and the chance from, where was it, Atlanta as well, like that felt more like college than pros. I actually liked it. Was it trolling the Lakers? Yeah.

Well, I mean, I don't have a problem with that. I don't either. That's other teams fans. No, I know, but fans don't usually. They're allowed to do that. Boston fans sometimes will do that, but usually Indiana fans are kind of tamed. Pacer fans are kind of tame. Hawks fans are known, you know, are known to not show up.

Obviously, LeBron in town is very, very different. Right. But I actually thought it was kind of a cool thing. It would be interesting to see if people tweak them the rest of the season because it did, and even by Kyle's own admission, it did affect them. I mean, how could it not? You'd have to be a robot. Some guys, the more you say it, the better they play.

Like, oh, really? Whap, whack, whack. Some guys you don't talk trash to because when you do, they become licensed killers. Some guys don't like it. All depends on the guy. Yeah. Well, just a few weeks ago, LeBron and the Lakers were talking about that trade, and it obviously did not happen. And now LeBron has said he has made peace with the roster that he currently has.

You know, the trade deadline is over with. This is our squad. I'm happy with who we got. I love our squad, and I look forward to seeing how we continue to battle for the rest of the season. So coming off of Kuzma, Kuzma's comment, into LeBron's comment. That's not heartfelt, didn't it? I love our squad. I love our squad. I mean, I'm not going to pick a part of his tone,

but it just, that's kind of what I'm alluding to. Like, how do you then just press reset and get everyone back together and on the same page? I don't know, but he's going to have to do it. I mean, I really feel like it's all on LeBron at this point. Because he is, he's the leader. It's also about Luke. It's also about Luke. Like, listen, Luke loses, if Luke can get this thing going and they can get you know, to the second round

or to the conference finals. Like, look, I'm not saying it's going to happen, but if they could do that, he keeps his job. Otherwise, probably make a change this off season, not crazy. If they don't make the playoffs, there's going to be a ton of changes. They're all gone, right? They're all gone, except it's going to be a completely different load next year.

But they make the playoff, like, I do think it is on LeBron, but it's also on Luke. Like, and I thought Luke's done a better job. There are things that have been missing. I haven't agreed. I didn't agree with some of, you know, I thought he played Lance Stevenson too much in when he had FEMA high look.

I thought they should have invested in him early. But Lucas, an NBA team, it's how well do you play defensively, how hard do you play defensively, and do you take and get good shots offensively? And for the most part, they have. They used to have good enough shooters. And then they had all these injuries,

and they started kind of plugging leaks and trying to figure out how to play without LeBron while playing without Rondo, Zoe, and Kuzma. Like, it was difficult. I think he's done a good job, but I wouldn't put it solely on LeBron. It is, a lot is on LeBron's play. But this is Luke.

Hey, look, man, you want to show you that you can coach. You got an NBA, coach in the NBA at the top level, you got to be able to handle dysfunction. Anybody can coach these things when things are going well in the first two months of the season. And this is a different kind of dysfunction. Well, I wouldn't say dysfunction, but it's a different level of drama and attention when you're coaching a LeBron James team. That's not dysfunction. I would have called them dysfunctional. For those two or three weeks, they were dysfunctional.

They were stressed out. It was just like the best soap opera opera and sports history. We're arguing semantics, but we're closer to agreeing than we are to disagree. That's it is. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Heard Lie News. So O'Dell Beckham, Jr. clapped back at me on Twitter because when I was co-hosting

First things. First, I said, like, two things. One, don't tell me you're a winner and only about winning when there are things that you do, which lead you to believe you're not about winning. He said some of the dumbest, whatever I've ever heard in my life. It gets to the point where it's borderline disrespectful. I don't care, especially when what you're saying is false, but it's really just getting to the point where it's hard to be quiet.

But part of my reaction is based upon what Jake Glazer offered up as a, it wasn't a hot take, it was a bold prediction. and since, by the way, Jay has doubled down that bold prediction. Now, if you know Jay Glazer, you obviously worked here at Fox, he has so in the entirety of the run of the NFL on Fox, he knows he's different than other NFL insiders. Like, he doesn't like breaking the stories on linemen getting hurt and different, you know, different trades and assistant coaches. He waits for the big news stories.

he has incredible relationships and this might be a dated reference Joy do you know this reference when E.F. Hutton talks when E.F. Hutton talks? Nothing. There used to be an ad campaign. E. F. Hutton was a financial company like financial advisor

advisory company and it's like when EF. Hutton talks they used to say people listen. It was a great like of the campaigns of my childhood right there was the doublement twins there was where's the beef? Remember the old lady? Where's the beef? That was one of them. Mikey likes it. That was life cereal. Do you remember he likes it? Mikey likes it. One of the most powerful ones was

E.F. Hutton talks, people listen. I think Jay Glazer is much the same way. When Jay Glazer talks, people listen. I had T.J. Hushmanzada on my radio show. I know he was on here yesterday. And he was like, wait, Jay Glazer said that? Oh, he's as good as gone. And so when you factor in the idea that this time last year, they told him to shape up or maybe ship out. And then he had like three months of good behavior. They gave a new contract. And he has the Little Wayne interview. He has other times in which he's calling out his teammates for not playing hard.

Even if it comes from a good place, a place of, hey, we, but it wasn't we need to play hard. We need to practice hard. We need to be tougher. It was pointing the figures outward. And he wasn't wrong about Eli. Manning not being up to snuff. I actually agree with them.

But we talked about this with the Pittsburgh Steelers. These are things you can't say, especially when you carry the burden of his past flaws with the media and ways he's acting things he said. And then you fast forward to later in the year when they're playing better football and he bailed on an onside kick when he's on the hands team. You can tell me, hey, you shouldn't have a superstar on the hands team, but who better to be on the hands team than Odell Beckham Jr.

And look, Plaxo Burris, on first things first yesterday, Placisco Burris came out and he defended O'Dow. He's like, look, he is about winning. He is, he does want to be a leader. And I said, okay, I'm willing to believe he wants to be a leader based upon what he says. I said, but what about not going for the football on an onside kick? How would that have been handled in your locker room? Take a listen.

We would have had somebody in that team meeting room the next day. on Monday morning, a veteran like, you know, Michael Strayhan or Sam Madison or one of those guys stand up. And that team, special teams meeting on Monday morning and say, hey man, you got to go get that football. It doesn't matter what everybody else says

because we're the guys that got to go out and play hard with each other on a day-to-day and week-to-week basis. You got to have that person on that team and just say, hey, man, you got to go get that ball. It doesn't matter what the coach is saying in the press conference. Because we already know what playwood should have been made,

and he should have dove in their head first and jumped into football. It's the old idea of actions, not words, right? You can tell me you want to be a leader. You can tell me you're about winning. You can tell me you're more focused than you've ever been. And I'm not somebody who's anti, like an Odell Beckham Jr. Hater. But like, look, dude, you want to show me how great your hands are the entire pregame of every game.

And that's all we talk about. And every kid across the country who's played football, buys the sticky gloves and tries to do the OBJ catch. And then you try and do off the jugs machine, the one hand and the no looks, and it's unbelievable. But the one time you got a chance to use those hands to, if you make this play, you win the football game.

Your actions don't match up with your words. And Plaxico is an OBJ fan and OBJ supporter. And even he points out like, that's one that you might have gotten a code red for in the locker room or at least called on the carpet in locker room. And it's one of the reasons that, in spite of his immense talent, they haven't been the playoffs, except for one year when they went on the boat trip. And then he didn't have a great game.

So, and I just, it's not about reading the tea leaves. It's about listening to Jay Glazer. He offered up out of nowhere, old prediction. Odell Beckham Jr. traded. Does it make sense? Would I bail on OBJ? Probably not, unless I can get a huge return of assets, specifically the offensive line. And then maybe draft a quarterback and play with the room.

and he has a general manager, Dave Gettleman, who came from Carolina, who jettisoned Steve Smith, who still had gas in the tank. Obviously, not as young as OBJ was, but they went to a Super Bowl after they got rid of Steve Smith. Okay, if we've learned anything from watching the playoffs, team football wins. You don't have to have the greatest guys outside the numbers, but you better have a good offensive line. You better be able to protect the quarterback, be able to run the football, and you better have everybody pulling in the right direction.

That's the problem with the Steelers. clearly the problem with teams like the Giants and some of these other teams that have talent why don't they win? Little things. Actions, not words. You want to know which NBA players will be starring in the bronze Space Jam 2? We've got a few interesting ideas.

We'll pitch them to you. It's in the best of her last. It's next in the herd. Doug Gottlieb, in for Colin Coward. This is the herd. Joy Taylor alongside. Wishing you just a great, spectacular weekend. a couple weeks away from Selection Sunday, like a month and a half away from the Masters. We're getting closer towards the NBA playoffs.

LeBron is back. The Lakers get a big win. Big plans this week. You're talking about going to seeing a movie, right? Yeah, I want to see that Alita Battle Angel movie, so we might go see that. Fighting with my family, I think, is coming out this weekend, too. Yeah, fighting with my family sounds a little bit better to me in terms of relating than Alita.

I have heard great things about Alita. Okay, so you go to a movie theater. Yes. What do you get? I get a water, a large popcorn. Well, you're the bigger size for just a dollar more. Do you have free refills? Yeah, yeah.

You do the biggest one possible? But, I mean, it's like this big. Okay, do you do butter? Yeah. Do you have them layer the butter where like popcorn butter, popcorn butter? No, I can't be that bougie. Okay. It's not bougie.

I'm just, I'm asking, I'm trying to get a visual here. You got the popcorn. Yeah, popcorn, water, and then I usually get a glass of wine. And then depending on the, well, we'll always get candy. We usually get peanut M&Ms. Don't gloss over. Don't yada yada yada out of the candy. Okay. You said peanut emm. I'm not a big sweet person.

I didn't say you were, but then you were like, yeah, we get, like people want to know. My important part. Popcorn is most important. Yeah. I would advise people, I don't know if you do this. It's a lot like fries at McDonald's, right? Like, our fries is good for you, no, but if you're going to do it, I'll wait for the hot fries. Same thing with popcorn.

There's nothing worse than going and getting popcorn being excited. Then all of a sudden you dig in and you're like, that's not hot. I will wait. Do you serve you cold popcorn? What kind of theaters there's cold popcorn? Just depends. It can be sitting there for a while. But it's in the giant thing.

I know. Sometimes it's in a giant thing and you get stuff that's been sitting there a while. I will wait. No, no. I'm here early. I'll wait. You make me a fresh thing of popcorn. For what they charge for popcorn?

Yes. Cold popcorn's unacceptable. Free movies for a year for that. I did not go and see Space Jam when it originally came out in the theaters. Probably because my kids like Space Jam. I don't know. Two years from now, I would think I'm going to go see it. So LeBron James

is going to remake Space Jam. I think they're going to film it this summer and then it's going to come out the following summer. July 16th, 20, 21. So he just, did he have the tweet that he just put out? We don't have the tweet. All right, so. I have it in front of me. It says, mark those calendars right now. This is going to be

epic in the making. Then he has the date and a bunch of emojis. Which allows us to bring you the best for last. It's almost the end of the show, but that doesn't mean we're phoning it in. Nope. We grind to the very last segment. It's time for best for last. So the year was 1996, Michael Jordan had Space Jam.

So this is what, a 25 year, 25 years remake, right? It'd be the 25th anniversary of it. In the original, they had NBA players who remember lost their powers. Yes. Right? Charles Barkley, Pat Ewing, Mugsy Boggs, Larry Johnson, and Sean Bradley. I believe all David Falk clients. They're like, that's the weirdest team. That's the most 90s team ever, by the way, right? Like guys who you could,

not only could you not have all of them out in the court at all times, I would start, I don't know where, Sean Bradley would be a rim protector. Larry Johnson would have to be a small ball five. Mugsy Bugs, who's he going to guard, although Mugsy Bokes is one of my favorite all-time NBA, five foot three,

playing the NBA, are you kidding me? Patrick Chewing, or Patrick Ewing. And then you have Charles Barkley, who I still think would be an unbelievable power forward this day and age in, the NBA. All right, so here's what we did. We tried to come up with, and we didn't say whether he's rep by clutch sports or not. Just if we were going to create a casting call or the cast for the

movie that most replicates the 90s NBA stars. Okay, so this is not like a wish list. This is like if you were going to do it closest to the original movie. Yes, based upon today's NBA play. Okay. Okay. So let's, can we start with Barclay? Let's start with Charles Barkley. Okay. Charles Barkley was a loud mouth, was a great player. Never was an NBA champion. Shaq lets him know that all the time. But a huge personality who would get it to with fans and occasionally officials. I think this one's easy.

Dremont Green. You okay with that? Hmm. Yeah, it's close. Okay. All right, now we need some bigger guys. Let's go to Patrick Ewing. Pat Ewing 7-21-256, who of course played at Georgetown,

with the New York Knicks. I don't know if I play with the Knicks, with the Celtics, or with the Lakers. But you also got to give a tip of the cap to the fact that he's a clutch sports guy. He'll be in the movie. Plus, he's got the unibrow. It's a great movie look for the Monstars. Anthony Davis. Yeah, I like it.

And plus it's probably going to be a thing, too. It's going to be a thing. Yeah. Remember, they didn't turn into the Monstars, though. Like they didn't look like them. They sort of. They look like Monster version. of them, right?

They stole the monsters. They stole their powers. They stole their power. And so then they kind of became... Like the monsters already kind of looked like themselves and then they just became bigger. Yes, it was a mushing of the two.

It would actually be cool if they added that. Okay, so, and I'm sure the graphics will be better, the cartoons will be better. Mugsy Bokes. This one was hard. Mugsy Bokes is hard because there are no 5'3 players. Right. And I know Isaiah Thomas has thrown himself out there,

but we saw how well Isaiah Thomas got along with LeBron James. I'm guessing that union will not be reformed. So we need... Remember, in the movie, Mugsy does some great ball handling. We thought maybe this could be Steph, maybe it could be Russell Westbrook. But remember, Kyrie picked up the phone and apologized to LeBron for a reason. He's already had... Uncle Drew was a good movie.

He's shown he can carry a movie. How about Uncle Drew as the Mugsy Bogue's character? A little, much bigger, a foot tire. Much bigger. I like that, though. Okay. Then we need Larry Johnson's character. Larry Johnson was a bad boy.

Of course, she had that one gold tooth. I mean, before he heard his bad. before he became L.J. in New York. I mean, how amazing was he with the Charlotte Hornets? Guy who grew up in Carolina and South Carolina, not far from Charlotte, also listed at 6-7, closer to the same size of Larry Johnson. Zion Williamson. I like that.

That's the real reason that LeBron was at the Duke Virginia game, right? He wasn't recruiting him for clutch sports. He was casting him for the new space champ. All right, one more. Sean Bradley. Sean Bradley, 7 foot 6, 275. How are we going to find 7 foot 6, 275?

This one's easy. And he kind of looks like an alien and has a great personality. Bobon. What do you think about Boban as Sean Bradley's character? I love that, actually. Okay, okay. So I sold you on a couple. There'll be other, like listen, you don't always, you know,

people have turned down, who is it Al Pacino who turned down Harrison Ford's character in Star Wars? you'll have somebody turn it down not be able to make schedules work but those are my that's my dream list for for space show i don't know if that casting is to be entirely on points um i do think that the zion williams williams williams is interesting though although i don't know if a team would be too hyped about him shooting his rookie season but i mean obviously i don't think it affects them that much they do get some they do get some doubt have a great weekend i hope you enjoy whichever movie you go and see i would encourage you you to layer the butter. It is a little bougie, but then you get to the bottom of it. You don't want to be the person who's holding the lineup, you know. I'm okay being that guy. Like you said, if I'm going to pay that much for a bucket of popcorn,

which costs them about 20 cents to make, I'm going to spend it on a little bit extra butter a little bit. But it's just a requirement, though. Like, it's just take my money. Colin is back Monday. Lakers appear to be playoff bound, but we'll see over the next three games. And anybody who wants NCAA athletes to be compensated above that of a scholarship,

with the NBA doing away with one and done, I think those days will never come as well. Enjoy your weekend. I'm Doug Gottlieb for Joy Taylor. This is The Hurt. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. And nobody's telling you exactly what happened.

That's where sports slice comes in. I'm Timbo. And every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves. their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment,

and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to SportsSlicse on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends.

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

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

Hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her. What? Quarterback on office blue 42. Hey, rec, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Hey, Ms. Parker. Listen to the Cliverts show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam?

It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprise. of the season. And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments.

If we didn't talk ever again, I was crying. You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Marc keep coming to you. He's like, you know, I love you,

dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs. This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast.

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