The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Zion Williamson, Kyrie Irving, LeBron James, being a leader, and Tom Brady

Episode Date: February 21, 2019

Colin discusses how Duke F Zion Williamson will make more money from his injury, why he likes vocal leaders, why Boston Celtics G Kyrie Irving is overreacting to the media, why Los Angeles Lakers F LeBron James is smart to rest his body, and New England Patriots QB Tom Brady taking another pay cut. Guests include Chris Broussard, T. J. Houshmandzadeh, and Daryl Morey. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise,

breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to Sports Slice on the 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 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 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, Wreck, my mama want you to weigh better. What? Hey, Ms. Parker. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas.

And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast point game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season, and I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was harmed. You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow.

Then after that game seven, Markeep coming to, 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 IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening to The Heard podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday from 12 to 3 Eastern, 9 to noon Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and FS1. Find your local station for the Heard at Fox Sports Radio.com or stream us live every day on the iHeart

Radio app by searching Herd. Now let's get this party started. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Ah, here we go in a Thursday. Hour 1. This is The Herd. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening, we are live in Los Angeles on IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, and right here on FS1. Joy Taylor is joining me. Darry, Rockets General Manager, will be on the couch today.

some pushback there. Chris Bruce Sard stops by as well. Joy, how are you? I'm doing great. Good morning. Good morning. Last night was why America is great. Yes, I said it. Last night, Zion Williamson is done with college basketball. If not, he should be. And that is a great thing for all of us. It really is. Years ago, I was in Mexico in a pool. There was a surgeon from Beverly Hills, global traveler. We talked for like 30 minutes, sip beers. And I asked him before he swam away, just kind of hanging out in the sun. I said, what makes America great?

Why'd you move here? And he said, why America is the greatest country I've ever been. And again, he was a top surgeon in Beverly Hills, had lived in seven or eight countries. He goes, because America spots talent and then cuts a path and grooves it into commerce. For the gifted, there is no red tape. commerce for the gifted is a wonderful thing. And it's why the world's best basketball players come here, and not Spain, and not Germany, and not China. They come here.

Because Zion Williams, my friends, is a prodigy. He should never play again at Duke. No, it's over. It's all over. By the way, the shoe deal is actually the greatest thing that ever happened to that young man. Nike now has to keep him. Oh, no, they have to keep them. When I used to work at ESPN, they used to bid on the Olympics, not because they wanted them.

They wanted to drive the price up for NBC. Make them uncomfortable. Under Armour and Michael Jordan, they're going to bid on Zion's shoes just to drive the price up because Nike's got more money. That kid is going to make more money on a shoe deal than anybody in the history of the business outside MJ. Last night was not the end of amateurism. It was not the end of the NCAA. It was not the end of Nike. It was not the end of humanity.

It was the beginning of a wonderful thing called American Commerce in the American basketball machine. Zion Williamson will make hundreds of people millionaires and himself, eventually, perhaps a billionaire. Executives, GMs, fans, he's different. He is a once-in-a-decade talent, a phenom. When he got hurt last night, was your first image really about the Nets? hunting them down in the ACC Championship. Mine wasn't. It was about wearing a New York Knicks hat. Buddy Healed was a college basketball player. So was Trey Young.

So was R.J. Barrett. He is beyond that. The New York Knicks and Forbes magazine are listed at $4 billion in value. If he becomes a Nick, they are worth $4.5 billion the very same day. If Nike signs him and I guess they will, I'm almost sure of it now after the shoe exploding, if they sign him to a new deal, the valuation of Nike stock will rise billions in an afternoon, maybe in an hour. We do this in America, and it's why it's great.

This is why America is great. We do it for a Whitney Houston. We do it for a Bryce Harper. We did it for Barack Obama. When you find a political, a sports, an entertainment prodigy, Bryce Harper hit a 500-foot home run in high school. You don't waste his time four years in the minors. You groove him for the show.

That's what America's about. America's about giving opportunities to young people and sometimes older people who are special, who are different. Zion William isn't just a basketball player. Zion Williamson is a prodigy, is transformative. He doesn't even look like other college basketball players. The appetizer portion of this meal is over. Let's move to the entree, the NBA. Tiger Woods had an agent by 12.

It wasn't published, but I lived in Oregon. I knew the Nike people. It was true. He had an agent by 12. You don't waste Tiger Woods time. When the Democrats found Barack Obama and thought of him as a political prodigy, you don't go door to door. You groove this system to get him all the donors of the party aligned.

Notice the Democrats have nine different people want to be president. Once they found Barack, it was like, clear the tarmac. We found our guy. Last night is not sad. It's not the end of anything. It's the beginning of American commerce. I cross my fingers. They say now the injury is not too serious.

God, I hope they're right. and I think they probably are. But everybody last night was freaking out. Ironically, that shoe exploding is the greatest gifts Zion's ever had beyond what the man upstairs gave him. Nike has to keep him now. Are you kidding me? Nike has to keep him.

Can you imagine Zion Williamson saying, I can't wear Nike's. Nike will spend whatever it takes to get him. Last night was not a sad night. Last night was not the end of anything. It was the beginning of the machine. He's going to get rich. His family's going to get rich.

Executives are going to get rich. The fans are going to win. A team is going to win. The league is going to win. He is bigger than college basketball. And I don't say that about a lot of players. But in 2019, when you have mid-level NBA guys signing $32 million a year deals, the kid's too big for college hoops.

It's okay, don't be mad. This is why the world's best players want to come here. It's why the world's best businessman want to come here. It's why the world's greatest surgeons from Saudi Arabia, who I meet in a pool in Mexico, want to work here. They could save your life, your kid's life, your daughter's life, your son's life. We have the best universities. Ten of the top 15. We have the best hospitals.

We have the best athletes. Nothing ended last night. It all started. And yes, I want to see him as a New York neck. I don't want to see him as a cavalier. Nothing against Cleveland. I've seen that. Your star left.

I don't want to see him in Orlando. I've seen that. Shack left. Last night was a great night. As long as the injury report comes back and it's just a mild knee sprain, which they're saying this morning it is. Let me shift to this. Don't we want our quarterbacks?

wants not strong enough. Don't we demand that our quarterbacks are leaders? We kind of do, right? Leadership's hard. Leadership's not a popularity contest. That's why a lot of people don't want to be leaders. Kyrie Irving doesn't sound like he wants to be a leader. He just wants to be a basketball player.

LeBron's a leader. Michael Jordan's a leader. Michael Jordan punched the teammate. Tom Brady screams at teammates. So there's all sorts of stories right now. Kevin Colbert's the GM for the Steelers. He's a good one. He drafts very, very well.

He defended Ben Roth's He and Antonio Brown's relationship has gone south. He said he's the elder statesman. If our players were smart, they'd listen to him. He's got 52 kids under him. He got 53 guys who he can say, hey, right now he's the only one. He can call him out. That's fine.

And the media's kind of freaking out. They don't like calling him kids, blah, blah, blah. I'm going to show you a piece of video, if I may. Sorry for the radio audience. It's Tom Brady yelling at people. I've never once criticized Tom Brady for yelling at people as I show you this video. Tom Brady is aggressive. Troy Aikman barked at people.

I've had three football friends who played with Peyton Manning. Peyton Manning barked at teammates. Tom Brady on more than one occasion yells at teammates. That's called leadership, aggressive leadership. Steve Jobs was aggressive. Bill Gates is aggressive. Leaders are aggressive. The great politicians, they're aggressive.

They take risks. What I don't like about Big Ben is, when he's passive aggressive. What I don't like about Aaron Rogers is he's passive aggressive. Remember this sound? I'm going to play a piece of audio. Do we have that from Aaron Rogers set about the Packers' front office? Roll that.

I think it's pretty clear that players play and coaches, coach and personnel people make their decision. That's the way they want it. That's passive aggressive. I don't like that. I don't like Big Ben when he's passive aggressive. I don't like Aaron Rogers when he's passive aggressive. You never hear me yell at Peyton Manning for barking at a teammate.

Tom Brady barking at a teammate. Troy Aikman barked at a teammate. Terry Bradshaw bark at a teammate. That's aggressive leadership. Okay. Antonio Brown, his former teammate, Ryan Clark, who now works at another network, went on the air,

knows Antonio Brown and said this about him. I knew already that they were going to offer Antonio, and he's walking past, and I turned to the strength coach. and I say, when you give him money, you're going to create a monster. Okay. So we have a teammate saying money changed him. So who is going to rein him in?

Mike Tomlin. Mike Tomlin doesn't even hang out in the offensive meetings. Defensive head coaches, we had players say it this week on the show. They don't hang out in offensive meetings. Your quarterback's got to be the guy. Your quarterback's got to yell. Dan Marino's got to yell. John Elway's got to yell.

Troy Eickman's got to yell. Peyton Man's got to yell. I don't love. everything Ben does, but I'll defend him on being aggressive. I'll defend Tom Brady turning around and barking at Joshman Daniels. That is the opposite of passive aggressive. And I've criticized Ben, but I criticize him when he drops a goofy comment after a game and you're trying to read through the lines and you think he's Barry and Tomlin,

could be the Rooney's, could be a bad. That I don't like. But we demand that our quarterbacks are leaders. It's what I talk about all the time. It's not about arm strength. Are you a grown-up? Are you a man? right out and call out somebody because most people don't want to do that.

Most NBA players don't want to punch teammates. MJ did. Most teammates don't want to call out players. Kobe did. LeBron does. I will defend aggressive leadership always. Antonio Brown was so upset that he didn't win a team MVP award this year. They gave it to Juju Smith-Huster.

That he pouted and the team had to suspend him. You can bang on Ben all you want. Ben has never missed a game because he got mad that he didn't win a team plaque. Ben's not perfect, but I'll defend aggressive Ben calling out guys, and those are the claims here, over the passive aggressive actions of Ben and others anytime. All sorts of stuff today. I thought there was a moment of real honesty last night, yesterday I should say. from LeBron, and I appreciated it.

I know a lot of people are pushing back, but I've said this before. Be upfront, be authentic, be aggressive, I'll defend you. And he was, and I liked it, and that's next. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeart Radio app.

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

make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to SportsSlice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own

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

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

I want you to just really be a good person. a good person. Join me, Keir Gaines, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now.

What's up, guys? This is Clever-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.

I want you to wave at her. What? Quarterback on office blue of 42. Hey, Rhett, I want you to wave at her. What? Hey, Ms. Parker. Listen to the Clippers show on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. American soccer is about to explode.

The World Cup is coming. Ramos sending on the Army Stewart. I'm Tab Ramos. I'm Tom Bo. On our podcast, Inside American Soccer, you'll get the real storylines. I'm not worried about Policic. I'm not worried about Balagan. I'm not worried about McKinney.

My only concern is what happens in the back. The biggest decisions. If you're going to look at stats and numbers, he has no shot at making this World Cup team. And the truth about the U.S. national team. It wouldn't be a huge surprise if our team ends up in the quarterfinals or potentially a great run into the semifinals. The World Cup is a big run. almost here. Experience it all with us. Listen, Inside American Soccer with Tom Bogart and Tabramos

on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcast. Welcome back. You know, for years and years, I have been critical of the media when they rip athletes for being honest, even if they say things we're not comfortable with. And LeBron James said something yesterday, and some will push back that it's too much ego or that he's admitting that his regular season effort isn't equal to his playoff effort. But LeBron James got hurt, wanted to come back slowly. And we've said this for years. January and February, that's where James Hardin is looking to get a plaque.

And Russell Westbrook wants to be nominated for an Oscar. LeBron doesn't care. He's not chasing plaques. He's chasing immortality. And he does not. And believe me, Larry Bird didn't play hard by the time he had a bunch of titles and a bunch of money every single quarter, every single moment. But I think it is smart in every business when you become a legend to pick you. your spots, Michael Jordan, believe it or not, he retired from basketball. He wanted to give it

a rest, okay? He went and did baseball for a couple years, for whatever reasons. So LeBron admitted yesterday this year, he didn't want to play as hard as he's going to have to play. He didn't want to put on the Superman Cape left yet, but he's going to have to now because the Lakers are three out of the final spot. Well, it's going to be a little bit different, you know, for me now. I'm just knowing the position that we're in, you know, for me personally, I haven't been in this position to allow them because of my injury is kind of, you know, hit us, hit our team, you know, and obviously we would love to have the success where I was out, but we didn't, and this is where we is right now.

So, you know, I'm going to be a little bit different, a little bit earlier than I would like to be in years, previous years. Just get in. I've said that from the beginning. Just get into the playoffs. The Lakers have their next seven games. I think the Lakers go five and two. I think they lose to Houston tonight.

Then I think they beat New Orleans, Memphis and New Orleans again. Then they lose to Milwaukee in L.A. They're a very good road team. They beat Phoenix and the Clippers. They're five and two. They make up a little ground on the Clippers and Kings. They're a game out by then maybe two. And here you go.

Just get into the playoffs. But I appreciate LeBron being honest. LeBron is telling you, listen, regular seasons now, I can't be gas going into the postseason. I put 168 playoff games in the last eight. years. I appreciate his honesty. And by the way, in the NFL and in the NHL and hockey, you got to play hard every time you're on the field, head in a swivel, or you get hurt. But in baseball, not all right, be it, bat is October. And in basketball, Tuesday night in Memphis, in February, is not Sunday night on ABC against the Warriors. Tip of the cap.

Superman Cape goes on earlier than he wanted. And I do think again, the Lakers and LeBron get in. Seven or eight spot, don't last long. If they're the eight spot, seven, they can win a series. Joy with the News. No, no, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news.

So when Art Rooney the second told Antonio Brown that they'll try and trade him, their leverage took a massive hit. So now they're probably trying to regain some of that upper hand by suggesting that they may keep him. GM Kevin Colbert said the Steelers won't give him away and that if they trade, it doesn't benefit the Steelers. If the trade doesn't benefit the Steelers, they will keep him. He added by no means will we make a trade or any move

that will not be beneficial to the Pittsburgh Steelers organization. I don't think any relationship is irreparable. So, this is probably not great news to Antonio Brown. Now, I don't think that the Steelers will end up keeping him, but he is going to be 31. when he starts the season next year. Yes. And he obviously wants out.

But the Steelers aren't going to get anything for a levy on bell that's already been decided. He's going to be an unrestricted free agent. So they can't risk also not getting anything that matters back for Antonio Brown. But it's not the most ideal trade situation. He's said he wants out. Teams know that they are up against the wall with trying to move him out. Not every team is interested in him because they may feel like he's too much noise and he's on Twitter. and they saw how the relationship this year you're rated with Ben

and with the Steelers organization, which is very widely respected. If I'm Pittsburgh here, this goes back to what we always say, pigs get fed, hogs get slaughtered. You got him in the sixth round. You got 74 touchdowns in 11,000 yards. Don't lose sleep if you only get a third round pick

or a fourth round pick. You got so... They got a third round pick from the Raiders from Artavius Bryant. I know. Antonio Brown. You have to do better than a third round. I don't think you do. I think you look at it and you say, listen, the Steelers have a history of drafting well. They know what they're doing. There's a lot of stars in this league, starting quarterback

stars, Brady, Dak, Russell Wilson, didn't go first couple rounds. If you trust your scouting department, don't blow up. You know there's an old saying in sports, don't let one loss be two. Like, don't blow up next year's locker room holding on to Antonio Brown because the Packers will only give you a second. Like, if you get a second, a second round play. should be a eight-year starter. Don't, don't get, you got 74 touchdowns out of a sixth round receiver. But I don't, I don't think if they look at him like that, though. Like, it's, Tom Brady went in the sixth round.

He's 31. But I think that they're not going to take less than the second rounder. That's for sure. Especially after not getting anything for levying on bail. And if you get a second rounder, again, that's a day. First rounders should be pro bowlers. second third rounders should be multiple year starters. You got 74 touchdowns than 11,000 yards.

Don't let him blow up the locker room. As a GM, I'd want to first. I'd take a second. I think they're really just trying to get leverage back because there's no way that he can be in the locker room next year. That's what I totally agree with you. So 33 seconds into the biggest regular season game in college basketball. Zion Williamson went down in a very scary moment.

His left foot blew through his shoe. The entire side panel appeared to be ripped apart. And after the game, Coach K called it a mild knee sprain. I'm sure we'll all be getting updates throughout today about what the intensity of that sprain is. And Nike issued a statement, they said, we are obviously concerned and want to wish Zion a speedy recovery. The quality and performance of our products are of the utmost importance. While this is an isolated occurrence, we are working to identify the issue. Now, Nike stock was down 1.37% this morning.

They have a $130 billion market cap, which means that's almost. $3 billion. So they lie. Nike lost three. Now it doesn't mean anything long term. Nike lost $3 billion on that moment. Yeah. I mean, when you put into perspective like that, it's a pretty big deal.

Now, obviously, Nike's going to be fine. Yes. But it's going to end up being an expensive thing for Nike. Obviously, as you said earlier, which I totally agree with. Nike has to overpay him now because you can't risk him going to another shoe company. And I already saw shoe companies running to Twitter to put in their two cents about how their shoe would not follow up. Yeah, Puma did and then retracted it. Did they delete it?

Aw, man. Puma last night said, it wouldn't have happened in Pumas. And then they said, we're getting a lot of heat. We're deleting it. Well, yeah. So people are out there talking about it. I mean, look, it's a huge moment. And it's 33 seconds into the game, a game that people spent thousands of dollars to watch.

And obviously, everyone was there to see Zion and see this matchup. But hopefully he's just fine. Like, the bigger picture in all of this is that it's not an injury that's going to, you know, deter the rest of his career. But it's... Listen, when you're a big guy with all that weight and you're, your knee tweaks. That's what you get... I mean, I understand that the teams all get these shoes from the shoe companies.

Yeah. But you would think that a guy of that size would be like, hey, we kind of need to check this shoe out. I mean, obviously, this is something none of us would have even thought of if this hadn't happened. But, I mean, LeBron wears shoes that are for big guys. So maybe that's the move there to get into a LeBron shoe. Have you ever seen LeBron shoes? Yes, yes. They're tanks.

Little mini tanks. Yeah, they're big... I think I weigh as much as, like, a pair of LeBron shoes. They are huge. Finally, a video has made rounds on social media this week of a private conversation between Kyrie and Kevin Durant during All-Star weekend. Yes. And yesterday, Kyrie lashed out about the questions he's getting from that video.

It's just crazy. You know, this is, I mean, this is the stuff that just, like, it just doesn't make the league fun. Like, it doesn't make the league fun. Nobody helps promote the league even more about doing bull-h-h-h-h-de-just. Just fictitious putting things on, like, what we're talking about. Like, it's just, it's crazy. 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. Okay, now, this is the video here. People are kind of doing the lip reading thing with him and KD. And it appears that he says two max slots in the video. Oh.

Okay. here's the thing. Well, I'm on Kevin Durant's side. I was on Kevin Durant's side when he lashed out of the media two weeks ago, whatever it was. And I understand Kyrie's frustration with the media. I think it's starting to get to the point where everyone needs to be on the same page and understand that if you, if your name is in the pool for free agency, this is what you're going to deal with. Literally everything you do. The colors you wear, the the Instagram pictures that you like, the vague quotes you may post,

like everything is going to be picked apart. I was thinking about this. So the video shows them saying what? It looks like Kyrie says two Mac slots. What if he was saying two chains rocks? Oh, I mean, of course. We're lip reading. We're acting insane.

He could have been saying Matt. Everything they do, we watch and pick apart as if it's these little breadcrumbs to their decision, which they may not have even made yet. Steve Kerr said about two weeks ago in regards to Kevin Durant, he said, this is why players are stars. The soap opera's part of doing business. Right, and this is what I'm saying.

So I think if you want to get mad at the media, fine. Like, we're annoying. We're the worst. That's fine. But what I think players need to understand is this is really coming from fans. Like fans want to know. They want to be a part of this journey. They want to see if they can be the ones to pick apart and predict where they're going to go.

It's part of the soap opera. So it's just kind of something that you have to deal with, and it benefits everybody, really. Yep. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The herd line news.

If you're on a sports team, you need to be informed and make smart decisions to build a champ, no different when buying or selling a car. New or use, go to Truecar.com. Their certified dealer network can save three grand enough MSRP. Let's go to Chris Bruce Arden, New York via the coward global satellite network. All right, let's start with Zion. Williamson. My takeaway is, much like Bryce Harper, Bryce Harper was too big for college baseball. Bryce Harper was too big to hang out in the minors. He was hitting 500-foot home runs in high school.

We do this with politicians, prodigies in tech. Zion Williamson now is too big. He's Shaq in Orlando. He's too big. Let's get him to the pros. You know, he gave us 25, 30 games. I don't think it's the end of humanity, the NCAA or Nike, or college basketball or Duke. It's the beginning of basketball commerce. To me, it's over in college. Let's go to the NBA. Your takeaway, Chris. Well, look, remember Ben Simmons for different reasons, but Ben Simmons wasn't in the NCAA tournament,

and the tournament went on, and Ben went on. It was the number one pick. Nobody held it against him. I've texted with some NBA guys today, and I kind of got three different answers when I asked if Zion should shut it down. One said he should. Another said he really wants to see him compete to, you know, fight through this and show the competitor in him.

And the other said, no, ballers ball. Oh, come on. So, but I asked all of them, too, okay, with shutting it down, hurt his trade stock, and every single one of them, no. He's still going number one. Right. And it's not even close. So I'm with you. My feeling, Colin, is that if he is, if this is remotely serious, like even if, you know,

If doctors say you can play through it, look, you're going to have some pain. You're not going to get up quite as high as normally, but you will eventually. It'll come back to you. But your movements won't be the same for a few weeks through the tournament. I would shut it down. I'm only playing if I'm him. If I am completely 100%, I feel no pain. I feel no differently than I did two days ago.

Otherwise, he should shut it down. I would also get a second opinion. After Duke's doctors do whatever they do, I would go get a second opinion. And look, Colin, if Zion came out tonight, even before we know how severe this injury is, if he and his parents come out tonight and say, look, we've talked about it as a family, Zion's goal and dream for his whole life has been to make it to the NBA. Therefore, after this injury the other night, we're going to sit out and prepare for the NBA draft. I would have absolutely no problem with him doing that.

Yeah, you and I agree. So I've pushed back on this Kevin Durant's leaving the Warriors thing, but I do trust agents because that's always where all these stories begin. They're problem solvers. And Sam Amick, you know him, was on our show yesterday and said, Durant's people are talking about New York. That's why there's all these stories. Before yesterday, I was like 20% chance.

I got to tell you, when Sam said that, Chris, I kind of feel like it feels 70-30, Durant's leaving after the season in New York. Where do you sit on this today? It feels a lot like LeBron going to the Lakers. Yes. You know, everybody was talking about it. It was the worst kept secret in the league. I've said, I think the best thing for Kevin Durant's legacy is that he, assuming they win it this year,

he stays one more year, opens up the new arena in San Francisco, and goes for a fourth straight. championship, Colin. All the guys he's compared to and really below, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Tim Duncan, Kobe Bryant, so on and so forth. Magic, Kareem. They never won four straight. Nobody since Bill Russell has won four straight. That would be, I think it'd be great for Durant's legacy.

Then you could go to New York and try to win it elsewhere. Now, maybe it doesn't work out timing-wise. Maybe Kyrie stays in Boston long term if you don't go this year. year. So maybe it's not realistic, but I like KD in New York, not by himself, but I love KD and Kyrie in New York. Colin, I think that would be the best thing for the NBA. Golden State would remain a contender, but they wouldn't be light years ahead everybody else. Houston would be good. Oklahoma City would be good. The Lakers would be good with or without Anthony Davis, but let's say they get him. Boston's still good. Milwaukee's still good. If

Kauai goes to the clippers, they're good now. I mean, it could be great for the NBA because New York would then be good. You would have six, seven teams really kind of on the same level, and it would be outstanding, especially after these, what, five years of dominance by Golden State. Are you bothered at all? I'm not, but some may be. LeBron mostly admitted yesterday, okay, now I got to play hard. But he said, listen, I'm doing this sooner than I want,

but I had an injury. We're not in the playoffs. I can't tell you the last time I missed the playoffs. LeBron acknowledged completely honest here that, okay, I got to start playing hard. How did that land for you? It was fine. Look, this guy since 2007, since he first got to the finals with Cleveland, he has been championship or bust.

And that's it. It's been all about that. And now he knows what it takes to win titles. he's played 60 more playoff games than Michael Jordan did. He's played 110 more regular season games than Michael Jordan did. So if he has to coast a bit during the regular season, fine. He coasted for four regular seasons in Cleveland. You know, they never won more than what, 57 games last year to the fourth seed.

That's fine. Just get to the playoffs and then turn it on. Now, it's a little tougher in the West, and he's finding that out. But I'm like you, Colin. I liked what he said. I do think he can turn it on and get this team revved up. I also think this, Colin, I think the Lakers were playing a few mind games with LeBron. Remember a few days ago we get this story that the Lakers are concerned about LeBron's groin

and he's not as intense as usual and he's not engaged, all that. That was a leak. I think it was a purposely planted leak because I'll take. talking to people close to LeBron, they said, look, yeah, of course he comes out of, you know, the injury and he's kind of pacing himself, feeling the injury out, wants to make sure he doesn't re-injure himself, and he's trying to get back in the game shape. But the groin, I'm being led to believe, is not an issue. And so where did the Lakers, where's this concern come from? I think they put it out there hoping for just what they got, that LeBron would

be tired of this. Everybody's questioning me, can I make the playoffs? The West is different. Am I still the best player in the league? I've messed up the minds of these young kids. And now the Lakers don't think I'm intense enough. They're worried about my groin when I feel like I'm fine. They must not think I'm playing well. So I think he's responding a bit to that.

And I like it. Finally, Odell Beckham lashed out yesterday at somebody that said he's selfish. Kairie Irving lashed out yesterday about, you know, he and Durant in the hallway. and I really do see them as very similar. These are gifted athletes that I'd love to have on my team, but I wouldn't build around them. They've both been hurt a couple of times, and I think their talents, not necessarily great leaders.

Joy and I talked about this. If you're a superstar in this league, you're part of the league's soap opera. When I watch Kyrie Irving pushing back on all these rumors about him, I think to myself, I can't build around you. I'd love to have you on the roster, but it makes me think he really can't handle being the face of a franchise. What say you? It's interesting.

I mean, look, and I heard Joyce say it earlier, as a human being, these guys are human beings, I get the frustration. You know, you're in the hallway talking with one of your good friends and everybody's diet. They could have been talking about who knows what. They could have been talking about music, about politics, about women. It could have been anything.

And we don't know, but everybody's speculating what it means, psychoanalyzing these guys. So I get it, okay? But you have to understand that comes with the territory. If you don't want public scrutiny, don't have a job in the public eye. It's as simple as that. You can go get a normal job like everybody else, and then you can have all the conversations in the hallways with your best friends that you want,

and nobody will care. And guess what? You also won't have a movie called Uncle Drew. You also won't have your own sneaker. You also won't make millions of dollars. You also probably won't have all these beautiful women. So, look, he said the job isn't fun. Well, there's plenty of fun to be in an NBA superstar,

and everybody has something about their job that isn't fun. And many people, if not most, their entire jobs aren't fun. So just relax, enjoy it. If you have to like shut down social media, if you have to not read the papers or whatever, then do it if that's what makes you happy. But this is part of the job you signed up for.

And Kyrie does have to realize that. Last thing, when he apologized to LeBron, he also, and I'm serious, he also should have talked to LeBron and maybe he did about how to handle the media because you can say what you want about LeBron and he's had a couple missteps himself but every year

first in Cleveland when he first left then Miami is last year there then in Cleveland again is last year there was speculation all year LeBron never let it get to him he never let it ruin that team season that year and he was somehow he was able to just really handle it well and I think Kyrie could learn from that.

Kyrie doesn't, it's fine for him to change his mind and go from, I'm here if you want me, Boston, to ask me July 1st. I don't know he owe anybody anything. That's fine from him to change his mind like that. But he has to understand what comes with that. And now we're all wondering. So yeah, we're going to scrutinize everything. Good seeing you, buddy.

First things first this week. He's co-hosting Chris Broussard. Love having you on, bud. Thanks, man. Yep, Daryl Morey's coming up in about an hour and a half. Odell Beckham, speaking of him, Doug Gottlieb said something about him on TV, and Odell Beckham fired back at Doug

and I'll respond to both next in LA. It's the herd. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Cold and flu season, try Vic Sinix nasal spray. A couple of sprays up there, 12 hours. I was talking about Russell Wilson yesterday. I heard via an entertainment agent.

Sierra Russell Wilson, New York Giants, blah, blah, blah, got me thinking about the New York Giants yesterday, and there just happened to be a story on the New York Giants yesterday. Doug Gottlieb was on first things first and was talking about O'Dell Beckham, Jr., and Doug Gottlieb said this. When they were talking about moving on from O'Dell Beckham, Jr., it tells you all you need to know,

he's a pain in the ass that keeps you from winning. He's about himself, not about winning, and if the Giants want to win, they should get rid of O'Dell Beckham Jr. Now, O'Dell Beckham did not like, that. He was watching FS1 in First Things First, and he went to Twitter and said, that's some of the dumbest I've heard in my life. It gets to a place where it's borderline disrespectful. I don't care. Especially when they're saying is false, but it's really getting to the point where it's hard to keep quiet. All right. Does anybody ever remember Odell Beckham being a pain in the butt at

LSU? I don't. Has anybody remember Odell Beckham being a pain in the butt first year or two under Tom Cofflin? I don't. When did O'Dell Beckham start being a little bit of a problem when Ben McAdoo got hired? You do get the New York Giants are now a dysfunctional mess. Folks, last two years, only Cleveland has fewer wins than the Giants. They've had three head coaches in four years. This decade, and I'm not joking when I say this, they have the third worst record in the NFL. They've missed the playoffs six of the last seven years. O'Dell Beckham is a kid, and I think I'm one of these.

I don't deal well with dysfunctional organizations. I had enough crap when I was a kid. I like stability, and I've been very lucky in my career. I worked at five companies. Four have been great. I dealt for a year and a half in Tampa at a completely dysfunctional newsroom, and I was miserable. I went to work in a bad mood. I was no fun to work with or around.

Odell Beckham's a kid that flourished at formidable, organized LSU and under Tom Coughlin. And though he's still very productive as a football player, the Giants are a mess. Don't blame all this on Odell Beckham. They're a mess. They're Cleveland with a logo we think is great. You ever got to a restaurant? You haven't been there in a while. You go to a restaurant.

It's got a great reputation. but they changed chefs. You didn't know that. You go to the restaurant and you're sitting there with your boyfriend, girlfriend, girlfriend, husband, and you're like, this isn't very good. The reputation's good, but the food's not good. I remember years ago, about 15 years ago, I went to a golf tournament, legendary golf course. New management.

I'm sitting there going, this place is a dump. It was living off reputation. The Giants are, they're that restaurant, they're that golf course. This is a poorly run football team. Go look at the cabbalt. roster and the Eagles roster in their division and look at the Giants roster. Look at the Cowboys online. Look at the Eagles online.

Look at the Washington Redskins online. Then look at the Giants online. The most important unit for a football team should be that because you're protecting your franchise quarterback. They're a mess. They don't draft particularly well. A lot of hits, a lot of misses. Free agent acquisitions.

Three coaches, four years. Last decade, third losingest football team. Listen, Odell, I don't remember Odell being crazy town in LSU and I don't remember him being crazy town with Coughlin. But he may be a player that doesn't work well in chaotic environments in unstable organizations

and the giants are living. They're like Sears. You went there as a kid. You're like, oh, we got a Sears to get our underwear and socks. Drive by a Sears now, it's empty. They got to, you know, they're knocking it down. Giants are a mess. I think anyone with standards or expectations for themselves doesn't do well in a dysfunctional situation.

I don't do well in dysfunctional situations. You don't. And from everything that Odell, we see from him, or hear about him, is that he is a very hard worker. And he cares about football. Now, Antonio Brown's different. The Steelers are still formidable. Do still draft will. Do win their division.

So Antonio Brown's issues, to me, are some of that's just ego. I'm not saying O'Dowell doesn't have that, but I got a history of O'Dell Beckham not being an issue. I have an issue with the Giants way more than O'Dell Beckham. By the way, this is why the Russell Wilson of the Giants rumor that I heard a couple days ago and talked about yesterday, what is Russell Wilson? Rock solid, dependable, adult, stable, mature. Remember I said yesterday I heard from an entertainment agent? That's where all these stories come from when Christian Pulisic signed with the English

Premier League. Where did I hear it first? An agent. Kevin Durant, Nix. Where are we hearing it? Agent. The Russell Wilson thing. It's not going to happen tomorrow. Still got a year in his contract. But finally year of his deal. Sierra wants to move to New York. Giants need a star quarterback to replace Eli.

You can't do a college kid. Marketability being wasted in Seattle. Giants have an offensive head coach. And by the way, he'd add what New York doesn't have. A grown-up, stability, and a talent. I like Eli, but he can't play anymore. So, you know, this, not everybody, you know, there's a general rule. If you have, depending on, you know, how you're raised, some people as they age, like quiet rooms, like stability. And some people, they're fine with that.

I think it's quite possible that we're looking at O'Dell Beckham Jr., a very emotional athlete who has flourished in stable environment. and he's just getting worn out by the chaos of the wildly over-edged giants who are completely living. They're seers. They're living off reputation. Hour two. Darryorne around the corner next. 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. Hour two, here we go. Live in Los Angeles. this is the herd, wherever you may be and however you may be listening. We're on IHeart Radio. We're on Fox Sports Radio, and we are on F.S.1.

Joy Taylor is joining me, Our 2, lively first hour. Zion Williamson, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, O'Dell Beckham, all sorts of. O'Dell Beckham not happy with Doug Gottley. A lot of cats and dogs living together. They're fireworks. So, Kyrie Irving of the Celtics, he is talking a lot lately. He was talking to Rachel Nichols that he asked me in about all these rumors about where he's going.

And he had a quote, he said, people don't realize on the outside that a lot of things that are said get into the locker rooms. Like a lot of things that are put into the headlines, they get into the locker rooms. And media has broken up locker rooms. It's been done before. Yeah, weak locker rooms. The Patriots. And our locker room doesn't get broken up with media and Alabama football doesn't get broken up

and Clemson football didn't get broken up and the Golden State Warriors don't get broken up weak marriages, weak businesses, weak cultures and weak locker rooms get broken up by the media. You can't withstand the media. I mean, if Golden State couldn't handle us, you think they beat Michael Jordan's Bulls or the Showtime Lakers,

they couldn't handle us? A bunch of out-of-shaped sports writers and sportscasters. And then Kyrie Irving said this about the rumors about Kevin Durant and the video in the hallway that showed he and Kevin Durant talking. Kyrie said this. 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. Do you get that? Do you get that?

And then I'm asking, and I'm asked questions about it. 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? 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? Because you're a superstar in the NBA. This is not an indictment on the media. It's an indictment on Kyrie Irving who's letting this crap get him worked up. Like, dude, you left the best player in the world, LeBron, and then you left a team that had been to the finals three straight years, the second best team in the world. So you left the best player in the second best player.

team, I'm going to assume that you have the right to leave in three months, you may, and you're a star. And I thought with all this stuff, you know what, instead of criticizing him, certain players, I just sort of give up on the sensitive stuff, and I put them into my all sensitive Hall of Fame. And without further ado, it is time to induct our newest member into our All Sensitive Hall of Fame. And before we do that, let's look back at the other members of the Hallowed Hall, Kevin Durant, who has dominated the NBA finals and also the comment section on YouTube. Kevin Durant is in our All Sensitive Hall of Fame. Odell Beckham Jr., who can handle a football with one hand, but doesn't appear to be able to handle Doug Gottlieb.

Terrell Owens, a man who needs no introduction, but at this point could really actually use a conclusion. So Kevin Durant, Odell Beckham's on the All Sensitive team. and I think T.O. is already a member of the all-sensitive team. Baker Mayfield, who gained admittance into the hall just last year for his constant need to attack anybody who dares criticize him. And that leads us to our newest inductee, Kyrie Irving, who today earns admittance for his continued dedication to believing that the entire world, even though he's an NBA superstar, should not talk about him in a hallway, even though the reason. we talk about him in a hallway is because he's a superstar and that's good for his business. So congratulations. You have been inducted into our all sensitive Hall of Fame.

Aaron Rogers, by the way, has been nominated. Not inducted yet, but he's like this far out. Aaron Rogers is not in? It's Aaron Rogers. In fact, this weekend where the committee is voting on it. Oh, okay. I feel like he's got, he's just got one more little push. Hey, like every Hall of Fame, there's always somebody you think should be in or not.

Yeah, there's always that final vote. So I've never bought into Kevin Durant leaving the Warriors. I think it's insane. I would never do it. But Sam Amick, NBA reporter, came on our show yesterday, and I asked him, do you think he's going? And he said, well, certain people are talking. There's this kind of unique calculus in sports media and sports fandom

where the idea of getting one championship in New York is worth however many somewhere else. And that's where I think in his mind, that prospect of going there doing something like that. Obviously, that's a pretty tough mountain to climb. But doing it in that market in that city with that friendship he has with Jay-Z, who knows better than anybody, kind of what New York can bring you. I think that is what he's looking at. His people have gone around the league and talked in pretty, you know, kind of alarming terms about the New York possibility. That's why we're talking about it so much.

Okay. So once Sam said that, then it's a real deal. That's where I got my Russell Wilson story. that's where I got my Christian Pulisic story about a month before I got reported. Once agents talk, that's who star athletes go to when they have a question or a crisis. They don't go to mom. They don't go to dad. They don't go to their cousins. They don't go to their coach. They don't go to their GM.

They don't go to the team owner. They go to their agent. That's what agents do. They solve problems and they give you information and they lay out the land for you. That's the number one reason I think it's real. The number two reason is Kevin Durant is sensitive. and I don't think he'd get me push back for going. The media is rooting for him to go to the Knicks because it makes the league more interesting.

The NBA right now has a parody issue. If he left to the Knicks, you know, the NBA writers get read more, get more clicks, get more money, get more value when we're interested in what they say. Secondly, the NBA privately would love this. They know they have an issue. Numbers are down 12% All-Star-Gar. game down, 20% TNT ratings are down. Is that because the guys are not good basketball players? No, they've got a problem. They have a team that's so dominant that nobody can compete with them.

And I don't think he gets crushed for this. When LeBron left Cleveland the first time, it was almost like bailing on your high school girlfriend. You were super talented, but come on, she was there for you. And when he left small market Oklahoma City, Kevin Durant, it was, Come on. They struck through you. Nobody's going to have any pity for poaching Golden State in their dynasty that's already won three titles if he goes to New York. So number one, agents are talking. That usually means it's real.

And number two is Kevin is sensitive and I think he knows. Not going to get a lot of pushback. Just think about this. Let's say tomorrow he announces, I'm going to the Knicks. Media doesn't rip him. Oh, well, I mean, it's still the middle of the season. Let me reframe it. They win a title and he announced his next day, I'm going to New York.

Not going to get any pushback for that. In fact, what the media will do is what they often do. They rip you for doing something. Then when you win, they rewrite history and go, you know, I told you so. This was a brilliant move by him. The media never admits they're wrong. The media never admits they were on the wrong side. And the media was completely diametrically opposed to him going to Golden State.

They ripped him. We did not. They did. And I wouldn't rip him for leaving. but they will also, though critical initially, the media will be like, it's good for the league. It is great for the league because it's New York. And like I said before, I feel like the Knicks are the Cowboys of the NBA. They're just that iconic franchise that maybe hasn't won the big game in a long time.

They haven't won the championship, but they are a humongous international brand. And also, Joey, he's signed one-year deals. He's never married them. He's been dating. He's been doing one-year contracts. No, it feels a lot like the LeBron and Miami situation. And I would argue that even though if he stayed, he may win that fourth title in a row, which would be a big deal, it'd be a much bigger deal if he won three titles in a row

and then eventually won one title in New York. Because it's New York. I actually think that would be bigger than winning the four, because people are constantly going to say he joined this super team and that it was just easy for them. Yeah, I think it feels. feels like it's more likely to happen than not happen. In fact, the story today, the headline today is Warriors, quote, have no idea, unquote, if Kevin Durant will re-sign in the offseason.

I would stay. I would win a third, stay for a fourth with a new arena, then see if Zion goes there. You know, I want to see what happens. I want to see what gets cobbled together. But it's all fun. I'll say that. Coming up next, be totally honest with me next. What was your first thought?

Go to Twitter. What was your first image? Your first thought when Zion Williamson went down last night. Be totally honest. Not what you think this morning, because I'm going to tell you what my first thought was. My first image in my head.

That's coming up next. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHeard Radio app. 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 triage, the moments that never make the highlight real. From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you context, and ask the questions everybody wants answered. SportsSlice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slic Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hardway with me, your host, and your favorite there.

Care Games. And in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase

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

Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Keir Gaines, is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free, our Heart Radio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now.

What's up, guys? This is Clifford Taylor the Fourth. And on my podcast, The Clifford 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, rep, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Where's she at? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clippers show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

American Soccer is about to explode. The World Cup is coming. Ramos sending on the Army Stewart of the Chip. I'm Tad Ramos. I'm Tom Boke. On our podcast, Inside American Soccer, you'll get the real storylines. I'm not worried about Policic.

I'm not worried about Balligan. I'm not worried about McKinney. My only concern is what happens in the back. The biggest decisions. If you're going to look at stats and numbers, he has no shot at making this World Cup team. And the truth about the U.S. national team. It wouldn't be a huge surprise if our team ends up in the quarterfinals or potentially a great run into the semifinals. The World Cup is almost here.

Experience it all with us. Listen, inside American soccer with Tom Bogart and Tab Ramos on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcast. Sharks take on the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight. Discover card key matchup. Get your free credit scorecard today. Even if you're not a Discover customer, learn more at Discover.com slash credit scorecard. Limitations apply. So last night, I'm watching Duke, Carolina, and Zion Williamson blows out his shoe, hurts his knee, and apply.

And it was interesting. Like, when it happened, nobody knew exactly how serious it was. And the crowd was electric. It was, for 33 seconds, it was fascinating. But I got to tell you, when it happened, the first thing I thought about was not the shoe. I mean, you know, I've seen Manu Genobli blew out a shoe one. I've seen it happen in the NFL. I've seen it happen with other basketball players.

I didn't think the shoe exploding. You know, I didn't think it was the end of the world for Nike. I think they'll get a little negativity in the press. But in the end, it's a great company. It'll be fine. So I didn't worry too much about the shoe. I mean, Nike did the Kaepernick spot and everybody freaked out. and the stock went up and they still sold merchandise.

My first image when he slid was Adam Silver, Zion Williamson, New York Knicks cap, number one pick in the draft. I literally transitioned. That's the first thing I thought. I didn't think about Duke.

I didn't think about the game. I didn't think about Coach K. I didn't think about the ACC attorney. The first thing I thought was, okay, that's NBA. How optimistic you are. It was just the first image in my head. The minute I saw it, I'm like, well, we'll see if he comes back.

But you could tell from the grimace, I'm like, okay, now it's NBA. My first thought was disaster. So you thought disaster? Well, yeah. For who? For Zion. I mean, obviously, this is a major injury. This is a colossal thing to happen at this point in his career.

What everyone's afraid of is what we're all talking about him sitting for the rest of his college career. and then his shoe explodes and he blows his knee out. Now, at this point, none of us know the severity of his injury, obviously, when it first happens, but it's knees. Like, that's the main concern you have with a big physical player. So you thought disaster. I thought Adam, Silver, Knicks cap. By the way, the way it works in the NBA lottery this year, the three bottom teams all have the exact

same chance to win the lottery. And I have no problem. The sons, the Knicks, and the Cavs, 14%. Then the Bulls and the Hawks are slightly. lesser percent. I have no problem in many of this. I have never, ever cared in my entire life where college athletes go. I don't care. It's the first time I didn't care where Patrick Ewing went. I didn't care where Michael Vick went. I didn't care. I didn't care where Earl Campbell went when I was a kid. I didn't care where Barry Sanders went. I didn't care where Tim Duncan went.

It's the first time, as I'm driving in this morning, I'm thinking to myself, I'm rooting for him to go to the Knicks. Oh, yeah, I can agree with that. This is the first time it's really been something that we're all kind of rooting for. Listen, if you've never gone to Madison Square Garden, I'm sorry, it's just different than home games for the Cavs, Atlanta, Sacramento. It's nothing against those cities. And I'm not saying the Knicks are well run. But my first image on it was, not that Nike was in trouble. I mean, my takeaway was, I saw, I've seen Manu Genoobo. I've seen players in the NBA blow out their shoes. I don't know how many people know this. Many of you may know this NBA players, the stars,

wear a new pair of shoes every night. They wear 82 shoes. Some guys change at half. And they almost all have special inserts. Yes. Yeah. So the shoe thing didn't really, I mean, it was like funny. You know, I went on Twitter and said, from now on I'm wearing only big baller brand shoes.

But I didn't really care about shoes. And I didn't think Zion, too big of a kid. He grimaced, but my takeaway was, it's an injury. It's not that. But I transition. on one play into the NBA. And I'm not anti-college basketball. I'm not like other people, anti-NC-WA. I'm not anti-amitorism.

But he is such a profoundly captivating kid. Those tickets last night cost more than the Super Bowl. And I was like, okay, he's a Nick. Adam's so, that's immediately where my mind went. And I'm comfortable with it. I'm okay with it. By the way, Nick Bosa played football for Ohio State, got hurt and said, I'm done.

NFL. We were all okay with it. Why aren't we all okay with this? Because we want to see him in the tournament and it feels different. So we're selfish. Oh, it's totally about us. It's completely about us. Nick Bosa got hurt, laughed.

Nobody had a problem. I feel like he should sit out. Like his future is way more important than this. Even though we were all excited about the tournament and what we would see from him, it's way more important that he stays healthy for the NBA. Even though this is not going to affect his draft stock at all. At all. But it's, you know, hopefully he's fine.

Yeah. I think he will be. Hopefully he is. with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. So the Lakers of 28 and 29 are in danger of missing the postseason for the sixth consecutive season,

although this season will feel a little bit different. And yesterday, LeBron said he's not thrilled with the Lakers' core record, but that he loves being uncomfortable. I love being uncomfortable. I fall in love with being uncomfortable. So this is another uncomfortable thing for me, and I love it. My level of intensity has to be, unfortunately, for me, because I don't like to do it at such an early time.

I'm a little bit different. But it's been activated, so I look forward to seeing what we can do. I love that he acknowledges. Okay. Now this, usually I don't want to play this hard in this many minutes in the NBA regular season, but I am chasing immortality, not MVP awards, so I'll play hard now. You know what I heard from that? What?

I feel like LeBron just admitted. he likes a little bit of a drama. I think he just admitted that. What do you say? He doesn't like being comfortable. He likes being uncomfortable. He just create a little drama, give you a little bit of anxiety,

and he works better in that environment. No. It's an admittance of the liking of drama. You know, let me defend, this is not a popular opinion, let me defend great players who are legends. At some point, it becomes easy. Is it possible that LeBron

is bored now with big chunks of the NBA regular season. That's been that way for several years now. That's not new. That's what I said, we flip out every single year before the all-star break about every LeBron team. He doesn't have enough pieces. Are they going to be able to be in the right seat in the playoffs?

Michael Jordan retired twice. Like it was like, for whatever reasons. It's a very long season. It's a long season. And for legends who have stacks of money and multiple trophies, you know, the regular seat, like in baseball. I mean, I have no problem with a guy with a New York Yankee with two or three rings or a Red Sox saying, okay, I got 20 spring training games, 162 regular season. We're going to make the playoffs.

I'm going to find a reason to go on the IR in June. Like, I get it. I know if they make a lot of money and nobody wants to hear me say that. But for legends with stacks of money and stacks and rings, you have to find another way to motivate yourself. And sometimes you just have to check out. But over the last three years, his field goal percentage, points per game, rebounds, and assists all go up after the All-Star break. So that's what activated means. And he's going to need it because that's making the playoffs thing has to happen.

Unlike Antonio Brown, who regularly posts workout videos, Levi-on Bell does not frequent Instagram to show off his workouts. And that's actually a concern that some NFL teams have. Teams aren't allowed to bring Bell in for a workout because he's technically still a stealer. So according to the New York Daily News, there was word on the streets that, bail got up to 260 pounds during his year off. Now what is he normally? 230? 225.

Oh, boy, that's a lot of weight. So that's 35 pounds. And the jets are concerned about what kind of shape he's in. I would say, of course he's not in shape, not a tremendously amount out of shape, but he's not played football in a year. So he's not going to be in football shape, even if he is working out strenuously every single day, which would be hard for anyone to do when they know in the back of their mind they're not going to play this year. So I don't know.

I would imagine that he's in some conversations and sent in his agent is working to fix this idea. But you know what? That does worry me. First of all, it tells you if the jets are concerned, that also means they're interested in Lavian Valley. Right. They wouldn't be concerned about his weight if they weren't interested in acquiring him. The second thing it tells me is I've always been a little concerned with athletes who let themselves get out of shape. Because if you look at really most great athlete, I mean, I'm talking about.

talking the great ones. The, you know, the Peyton Mannings, the Brady's, the LeBron's, the Cobes, the Michael. It is, you know who you used to get out of shape? And I love Charles Barclay, but Charles Barkley was a lousy practice player. Charles Barclay let himself get out of shape. Because Charles Parkley wasn't driven like a Michael or a Kobe. It was as talented as they were. What does it tell me about your mindset as a pro athlete if you let yourself gain 30 pounds. Well, I do think that you have to give your body some time off. Like, CJ Anderson was on with us and he said he gives himself a couple, a month or so to just eat whatever he wants. But I'm not paying him. He gets about 20 pounds. No, no, no. You're not paying him

over $17 million a year. Right. And I don't, he doesn't do that all year round, obviously. But I do think as a running back, especially, someone who's taking a lot of hits and certainly offensive linemen do this as well. Anyone who has to maintain a certain amount of weight at their position, like, I don't put Brady and Manning in those situations, even though Brady, obviously shows that he trains year-round, is very serious about it. They don't need to maintain a certain weight. So I don't have a problem with your weight fluctuating in those positions. 35 pounds seems like kind of a lot.

Yeah, it's a lot of deep balls. But when you're running around at 225, but he's not going to be in playing shape. So I don't know. We'll see. I don't like it. We may be seeing a workout video from Levy on Bell soon. Yeah, if you're a backup running back, your weight can fluctuate. If I'm paying you 17 million, you're a franchise guy.

I don't want you gaining 35 pounds on the off season. It tells me something I don't want to think about. Yeah. So finally, the Ravens are clearly building a new offense around Lamar Jackson and his ability to run. But the offensive coordinator, Greg Roman, says he's not going to worry about Jackson getting hurt while he's on the move. I think it's a little overrated the whole danger thing. Why? Because, and this is empirical data here, over the years, you kind of realize that when a quarterback decides to run, he's in control.

There's more danger is when he doesn't see what's coming. my eyes are downfield. I'm standing stationary in the pocket. Somebody's hitting me from the blind side. When a quarterback takes the ball and starts to run, there's not a lot of danger involved in that relative to other situations. I kind of see what he's saying. No one's really ever put it that way. Like, if you are a quarterback, you can slide. You can get out of bounds. You kind of more in control.

He's a bad slider. Yeah, he's going to have to work on sliding. We saw that worked out for our G3, so sliding is going to be important. but what everyone's concerned about is once you become a runner, the defense is really, really trying to hit you because you're no longer protected in the pocket. You don't have those special quarterback rules. And we've seen this with Cam Newton.

You can really get rocked. Could you imagine some of the hits that Cam Newton is taken while he's been running at Lamar Jackson? A running quarterback should see themselves like a base dealer in baseball. That the slide is a key component, not just your speed. Lamar can run nine times a game, I'm fine. But he took shots. Russell Wilson, Steve Young, did not take shots when they ran. My problem with Lamar is, I mean, look at the video we're showing you.

It's like, dude, you ate 209. What a free safety whacking you. It's not ideal because that's what I'm saying. The defense knows once you become a runner, they're going to try and lay a hit on you that they can't necessarily do while you're in the pocket. But more importantly, they are going to have to develop his pocket presence and him as a thrower because the running stuff is fine, but we've seen it's not sustainable. A joy with the news.

Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The herd-lie news. Don't let your age beat you. Want to feel stronger and have more energy. Go to buy mDrive.com today. Refind your prime with MDrive. Drive. I'm your stockbroker.

You have a stock. You come to me and say, Colin, do we buy it? Do we sell it? Do we hold it? Here we go. Time to buy. Colin will decide if he'll buy it. Sell.

Roger to sell. Or hold. All right. Colin, buy, sell or hold. Zion Williamson's next game will be for the Knicks. Knicks have the second worst record in the NBA. Phoenix has the worst.

They're only a half game back of that. The three worst teams all have a 14% chance. I do not believe lotteries are rigged. The Knicks, if they were, the Knicks haven't won one since 1985. So if they're rigging them for big markets, Cleveland's won a couple, Orlando's won a few. They're doing a lousy job. I would say yes.

Buy, bye, buy. I think New York wins the lottery. It's time. I do think they'll end up with the worst overall record. So I'm just, my hunch is the Knicks get him. From your lips to the sports gods ears. All right, buy seller hold. LeBron will not add a 2019 All-Star to the Lakers roster this offseason.

By the way, they have space for two minutes. contracts. There are notable free agents, Kyrie, Clay Thompson, Kauai, Kevin Durant. The most notable, though, is Anthony Davis, who was represented by Clutch Sports. As I said before, here are the three things in a row that LeBron's camp and handlers cannot have happened. He gets hurt, he misses the playoffs, and he doesn't land AD. Because that is horrible for the LeBron brand. And if you look at their next 25 games, 17 against playoff teams, the hurt parts already happened, and the missed playoffs, many believe Vegas included is likely to happen. So my gut feeling is.

Sell, sell, sell. LeBron will add Anthony Davis. It is really a must this year for his business. Yeah, it's really not an option. All right, buy, sell, hold. LeBron James will never win another championship. You know, I thought Los Angeles, we were the first to go out and say it's going to happen. Well, actually, Peter Vessy may have been.

But we acknowledge early we thought it was going to happen. And I've always said, I, you know, I think there's one in here. But a couple of things have happened. LeBron had an injury. I did not foresee that. Paul George stayed in Oklahoma City. I certainly did not predict that. LeBron is in his 16th season

and so I would say Today this morning If I was setting odds I think LeBron's going to get to some Western Conference finals But remember even if KD leaves the Warriors They have room Because they're going to bail on Boogie and probably Dremont To get another star

My gut feeling today is he doesn't win another title Also let me throw this out AD may go to the Celtics And if he goes to the Celtics They're not beating Boston in a final with the Lakers roster with LeBron. All right, by seller hold, Kevin Durantz will be a warrior next season.

Well, he's the final MVP last two years. The Warriors are opening a new arena. Here's what I think's going to happen. If Zion doesn't land for the Knicks, and if Kyrie doesn't go to the Knicks, and I don't think Kyrie will, then Kevin Durant will be looking at a third straight NBA championship with the best coach and co-star of any star in the league.

And my gut feeling is that Durant, after they win in his finals MVP, if he doesn't get Zion and is a nick, and if Kyrie doesn't go, and I don't think he will, it would be going to New York by yourself. He's going to see how that looks for LeBron going to L.A. by himself. and people, cooler heads will prevail and he'll stay. Although the sentiment this morning is he's going. By Seller-Hole, this will be Jason Garrett's final season as the Cowboys head coach. Well, he's two and three in the playoffs.

And you're getting to a situation with Dak Prescott. If Dak Prescott is given a large contract, and we would both acknowledge he's going to be given a contract, 28 million, maybe not 25. wouldn't the understanding be in Dallas as the offensive line ages, if we're going to pay DAC more than we think he's worth as a B-minus quarterback, then we're going to have to get the most out of him from the coaching staff. Jason Garrett's never made back-to-back playoff appearances. So I do think it's Jason Garrett's final year.

I think once you pay DAC and you look around this league, Jerry's going to say, I got to get more out of my $26 million a year I'm paying to DAC. Oh, I don't know. I think Kellan Moore is in line for that spot. All right, buy seller hold. Kyler Hold. Kyler Murray will be the number one overall pick. Cardinals have the number one pick.

They picked Josh Rosen last year as a quarterback. Manzel and Vick are the only quarterbacks listed six feet or under who were drafted in the first round. My feeling on this, because the Cardinals have a huge liability on their hands, it's called their offensive line with the immobile and susceptible to injury Josh Rosen. That's, I'm going to hold on this. I think Kyler Murray is a first rounder. I've been told by somebody I trust a high first rounder. Let's let this puppy sort out. Let's let the interview process sort out.

There are people in the rooms in Arizona that are not all in right now on Josh Rosen. Not saying it's right. I'm just telling you that's what I hear. Tom Brady has taken another pay cut. That's a story today. He's taking another pay cut. Lord, oh, Lord. Do you know last time he got market value was 2010?

Eight? By the way, that's pre-Giselle. Eight straight years of pay cuts to win. By the way, how many straight years has he been in the AFC championship? Eight. They've been able to put a good roster around him. They've proven they can do that. He's not consumed by stacking money.

I don't think every team's capable of doing that. Eight years, eight discounts, eight AFC championships. You don't see the alignment? I just don't. Yeah, I do see the alignment. It's Bill Belichick and the Patriots. Hey, if I could take a pay cut, and guarantee ratings.

I would not, because there's a lot of factors in that. I know Dak's going to get labeled as greedy and only about the money and all that, because that's the big conversation that's going to come up is whether Doc's going to take a pay cut or not. And he very may will take a pay cut. I don't encourage people to take pay cuts. But they have had him on an incredible discount for the past three going into four years. And they've not shown that they can get him to a Super Bowl with basically paying him nothing. So I don't know what evidence they have that if he does, they can pay God they'll be able to do that.

All right. T.J. Hooshmanzada's around the corner. He's got some harsh words for Steeler Management. T.J.'s next. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Saturday, the Big East leading score, Marcus Howard, leads 11th ranked Marquette against Providence. Then it's Georgetown taking on Creighton. A big east double header tips off Saturday at 11.30 Eastern on Fox and the Fox Sports app.

Okay, so T.J. Hushmanzada, how much do you weigh right now? About 207, 208. What did you weigh when you played? About 205, 206. Have you ever even weighed 220? In college, I did. Why? I wanted to be big.

Okay. So you made a plan. You designed a workout that would elevate your weight and your strength. Protein shakes every night with ice cream. Okay, okay. But you mostly last 15 years weigh the exact same. Yeah, I haven't gained a pound in probably 15, 20 years. Okay.

So when I hear this story, you know, I hear the story. the Jets are concerned that Lavian Bell added 35 pounds. I got to tell you, I've always been concerned about the athlete that weight fluctuates. That tells me about... But you know what, though? Lavian Bell was really big. He was huge in college, 250, I believe.

265? I don't know. I think that might be a bit exaggerated. That might be... Tell me a teammate you had who fluctuated in wait. The running back. Rudy Johnson, he fluctuated in weight. Corey Dillon would fluctuating weight. And so...

And they were both good. They were pretty damn good. It's one of those things where as long as you can gain weight, as long as it's not sloppy weight and fat and you don't look good. You want to look good. He didn't play football the whole season. I'm not too much worried about it. As long as when it's time to take a physical,

if you're not over 240, 2.45, I'm fine with it. All right. So I heard you, you know, I was saying this earlier. I know people that played with Peyton Manning. He would yell at you. I know I've talked to people who played with Troy Akeman. He would yell at you. Big Ben yelling at A, B, doesn't bother me.

What bothers me is when Aaron Rogers and Big Ben are passive aggressive. I like my quarterbacks to be aggressive. I like when Brady yells at teammates. I like when Aikman did. I know Peyton Manning. I know Jeff Saturday. He's like, Peyton and I got into arguing what I don't like is passive aggressive. So when I look at Big Ben and A.B.,

Antonio Brown literally pouted because he didn't win the team MVP award and they decided to sit him. That seems like an issue that's like childish. I want Big Ben to be a screamer. What I don't want him to be is passive aggressive. Now, number one, we really disagree on this and I'll tell you why.

Peyton Manning is looked at as a leader. Tom Brady is looked at as a leader. Drew Brees is looked at as a leader. Ben Raffersberger is not looked at as a leader in the locker room. So when you yell at me, the guys are like, bruh, you need to chill out. We don't see you as a leader. A lead, like the general manager, it's asinine for him to come out and say that

because you can't appoint somebody a leader. You know what a leader is? Somebody that others are willing to follow. You can't make somebody a leader. If the guys in that locker room don't see Ben Rathesberger as a leader, which they do not. You can appoint him as a leader. You've been on the field with him.

I don't, when you say paid man in time, Brady yells at guys. It's in the heat of the moment. It's in battle. Ben Rafflesberger, he criticized you after we've calmed down in a radio interview. He's not yelling at me over the course of a game, which I could take. I've been yelled at and I've yelled at and I've yelled at quarterbacks over a course of the back and forth. Once the game's over with, it's not a big deal because it's the emotion of the game. Don't do it in a radio interview.

when everything is calmed down, it's really no emotion tied to it. If you were a member of the Steelers receiving corps and you read what their GM said, Kevin Colbert, which is he's got 52 kids under him. What was your... I would laugh. I'm not Rafflesberger's kid. I have kids in my own.

Like, no, I'm not under you, Ben. Because we don't see him that way. He's not... And I'm obviously, this speculation. I don't believe the Steelers' locker room looks at Ben Rafflesberger as an unquestioned leader. Like, to me, why didn't he say Mike Tomlin?

And they've been winning and having success despite all of this. They know 2009, 2010, we're not going to get into the transgressions that Rafflesberg's had with women. When you have those type of, like, people don't view you as a leader. And because he's a quarterback, he's supposed to be the leader.

It just can't be. And so I completely disagreed with that. And the guys in the locker room, they know. They know. They don't see them that way. So O'Dell Beckham got really mad at our Doug Gottlie because Doug Gottlie, do we have the piece of tape of that? Doug Gottlie went on First Things First this week. He's co-hosting because Nick and Chris Carter out. And so Gottlie was talking about Odell Beckham. It was a pretty heated exchange. And basically

he said, you know, he's not about winning. He's about Odell Beckham. And then Odell Beckham went to Twitter and was all worked up and he was furious about it. And here's where I defend Odell Beckham. The Giants in the last two years have lost more games than everybody not named the Cleveland Browns. In the last decade, the Giants are the third worst team. They've had three coaches in four years. Is that this is a completely dysfunctional organization. And it's quite possible that Odell Beckham, I consider myself one of these people, needs to work with a good, strong organization. I don't like chaos in my life. I don't deal well with dysfunction. And it's possible. I didn't hear about Odell back at

at LSU being a problem. I didn't hear him with Tom Coughlin being a problem. He's been a little bit of a headache since this organization circled a toilet bowl. And so my takeaway is Odell just needs a better environment. He wants to win. Once he's established himself as,

he's pretty much a global superstar in the NFL and you rarely see that. It's probably him and Tom Brady and Aaron Rogers. I would guess those are the only three in the league. I don't even know if Aaron's global. Brady is and Odell is. And so now that he's established himself, self. He wants to win.

The Giants have had zero success since he's been in the NFL. The dysfunction is failure. That's what it is. We have failed to win. I'm frustrated. I want to win. It's as simple as that. That's how I said. If they win, none of this comes out. Do you ever have a teammate that was a different guy winning and losing? You're a pretty consistent guy.

A lot of guys are different when you win or lose. It's whether you show that. It's whether you can compress. and keep those feelings inside and not try to change because if you can accept winning, you got to be able to handle failure. And so there's guys that are like that. And he's in New York.

You can't, I don't mind him going back at Doug because he's a human being. Like, dude, we got feelings. We're athletes, but we're humans as well. If you say something negative about me, I only can take so much. Yeah. By the way, and by the way, when you were playing,

you didn't have all these debate shows, not to the level you do now. Right. did you ever get ripped on the air and it bother you? I remember one time, and I'll never forget, I didn't see it. We're on the plane. Trent Dilfer said something negative about me, and I did not see it, if somebody sent it to me.

I didn't know Trent Dilfer, and I don't know if I sent him a text message. I got his number from somebody, or I called him, but we had a conversation about it. And I didn't see what was said. I just went off of what I was told, and it was something about me being a bad teammate, and I'm like, I've gone at coaches, but I've never had a problem with one teammate I've ever played with. And so, yeah, with Trent Dilfer years ago, he probably remembers it too. But you call him and got after him?

I wouldn't, we just had, we had a conversation. I'm like, you know, where did this come from? It was a good conversation. And anybody knows Trent Dilfer is not a punk. And so it was a good, grown man conversation. I've had two, I don't mean to this. I'm throwing this out there. I had a NBA coach call me a week ago.

I was in the middle of dinner, and I said, I'll call you back. He was actually, he was great about it. He's like, you know what he told me? He goes, your information is bad. Really? And I said, why is it bad? This is what I hear. And he said, no, no, no, no, I'm all good with this guy.

There's a star player. And he's like, I'm all good with this guy. He goes, and I said, okay, how come blank, blank, blank? And he said, well, that's just a bunch of media crap. He goes, I'm good with him. Do you respect that? Oh, totally. We were great.

And by the way, I said, he goes, I don't watch these shows. goes, but my friends do. And my friend said last couple days, hey, coward's ripping you. And I didn't really rip him. I just, I put his name out there with something, and he was very good about it. I always respect when guys call me.

Now, I did have one NBA coach threatened me. Taking it too far, man. It's a little too far. I was just a little over. He got really mad at me. But that's okay. That's your job. It happens.

By the way, I put Baker Mayfield on the couch. I don't mind getting yelled at. You got to have thick skin. You can't be. thin skin. You're professional athlete. We're lucky to be in a position we're in. If you don't like it, just quit and go work another job, and nobody will know who you are. T.J. Hushmanzada,

good stuff, buddy. Dary Rockets' GM, borderline genius. Rocket's second best team in the NBA? Many think so. What to make a James Hardin streak next. 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. Ah, this is the Heard Hour 3. We're live in L.A. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening. IHeart Radio, Fox Sports Radio, FS1. We're also on Channel 83, Sirius XM. I'd be listening now if it wasn't on the air. That's how I listen.

Coming up in 15 minutes, by the way, Daryl Morey is the Rockets, Houston Rockets General Manager. I think he's got a beard. Last time I saw me, he's been growing a beard. He's a lumberjack slash NBA general manager. And by the way, tonight, the Lakers host the rockets. Chris Paul and Rondo are back facing each other for the first time since Rondo spit at him. Can you get scrappy?

I think it's a little scrappy. I think if somebody spit on me, I think the next time I saw them, I would want to make. hands on. Yeah, I think it's game on a little bit. Wouldn't that be? That's personal. You can yell at me. Yes, it's very personal.

If you spit on me, I'll never forget that. I don't think that you would make the decision to come around me again if you chose to do that. Yeah, so I think that'll be kind of lively tonight. Yeah, it's exciting. You ever thought about growing a beard? I can't grow a beard. I'm not able to grow a beard. I can't grow facial hair to that level.

You're looking at me like I'm a weirdo. I have no chest hair. I have no back hair. I have hair on my, I just have some. I have hair in places that I need to, but I don't have any hair. I can't grow a mustache. And I'm not joking when I say that. I cannot grow mustache. Just goes in patches or just doesn't? I don't even think it grows. I'm not, it's just hard to explain. It's sad. I wish I, I wish I could have a beard. I can't grow facial hair. I'm not joking. It's, it's pathetic. You know, sometimes I'll look at Chris Collinsworth, because somebody told me I looked like him.

And I looked at him and I thought he, he couldn't have facial hair either. I can tell. I think you could work a mustache with like the ones that twirl on the end. No. If I go like, for instance, I'm going skiing with my son after the show today. So I will not shave until Monday morning. And I'll have gray, what do you call us? It's like stubble. Yeah, like it's not.

Yeah, but you said your son doesn't like that. You'll have like whiskers, but I can't grow a mustache. It's really. Well, you'll be very jealous of there. I can remember the first place I shaved, Toclin, Washington. I got a mirror. There was a razor. and I was like, because somebody told me if you shave, it grows back faster.

And I was like 16. Yeah, that's not true. Anyway, this is kind of a random. Yeah, it kind of went off the rails. Went off the rails a little bit. By the way, so everybody today is reacting to the moment last night. Zion Williamson injury for Duke from last night. So let me start there.

Years ago, I was in Mexico in a pool. There was a surgeon from Beverly Hills, Global Traveillance. We talked for like 30 minutes, sip beers. And I asked him before he swam away, just kind of hanging out in the sun. I said, what makes America great? Why'd you move here? And he said, why America is the greatest country I've ever been. And again, he was a top surgeon in Beverly Hills, had lived in seven or eight countries.

He goes, because America spots talent and then cuts a path and grooves it into commerce. For the gifted, there is no red tape. commerce for the gifted is a wonderful thing. And it's why the world's best basketball players come here, and not Spain, and not Germany, and not China. They come here. Last night was not the end of amateurism. It was not the end of the NCAA. It was not the end of Nike.

It was not the end of humanity. It was the beginning of a wonderful thing called American Commerce and the American Basketball Machine. Zion Williamson will make hundreds of people millionaires and himself eventually perhaps a billionaire. Executives, GMs, fans, he's different. He is a once-in-a-decade talent, a phenom. When he got hurt last night, was your first image really about the nets cutting them down in the ACC championship? Mine wasn't.

It was about wearing a New York Knicks hat. Buddy Healed was a college basketball player, so was Trey Young. So was R.J. Barrett. He is beyond that. The New York Knicks and Forbes magazine are listed at $4 billion in value. If he becomes a Nick, they are worth $4.5 billion the very same day. If Nike signs him, and I guess they will, I'm almost sure of it now after the shoe exploding, if they sign him to a new deal, the valuation of Nike stock will rise billions in an afternoon, maybe in an hour.

We do this in America, and it's why it's great. This is why America is great. We do it for a Whitney Houston. We do it for a Bryce Harper. We did it for Barack Obama. When you find a political, a sports, an entertainment prodigy, Bryce Harper hit a 500-foot home run in high school. You don't waste his time four years in the minors.

You groove him for the show. That's what America's about. America's about giving opportunities to young people and sometimes older people who are special, who are different. Zion Williamson is a prodigy, is transformative. He doesn't even look like other college basketball players. The appetizer portion of this meal is over. Let's move to the entree, the NBA. Tiger Woods had an agent by 12.

It wasn't published, but I lived in. Oregon. I knew the Nike people. It was true. He had an agent by 12. You don't waste Tiger Woods time. When the Democrats found Barack Obama and thought of him as a political prodigy, you don't go door to door. You groove the system to get him all the donors of the party aligned. Notice the Democrats have nine different people want to be president. Once they found Barack, it was like, clear the tarmac. We found our guy. Last night is not sad. It's not the end of anything.

It's the beginning of American commerce. I cross my fingers. They say now the injury is not too serious. God, I hope they're right. And I think they probably are. But everybody last night was freaking out. Ironically, that shoe exploding is the greatest gifts Zion's ever had beyond what the man upstairs gave him.

Nike has to keep him now. Are you kidding me? Nike has to keep him. Can you imagine Zion Williamson saying, I can't wear Nikes. Nike will spend whatever it takes to get him. Last night was not a sad night. Last night was not the end of anything. It was the beginning of the machine. He's going to get rich. His family's going to get rich. Executives are going to get rich. The fans are going to win. A team is going to win. The league is going to win. He is bigger than college basketball. And I don't say that about a lot of players.

But in 2019, when you have mid-level NBA guys signing $32 million a year deals, the kid's too big for college hoops. It's okay. Don't be mad. This is why the world's best players want to come here. It's why the world's best businessman want to come here. We have the best universities. 10 of the top 15.

We have the best hospitals. We have the best athletes. Nothing ended last night. It all started. And yes, I want to see him as a New York neck. I don't want to see him as a cavalier. Nothing against Cleveland. I've seen that. Your star left. I don't want to see him in Orlando. I've seen that. Shaq left. Last night was a great night. As long as the injury report comes back and it's just a mild knee sprain, which they're saying this morning it is. Let me shift to this.

Don't we want our quarterbacks wants not strong enough. Don't we demand that our quarterbacks are leaders? We kind of do, right? Leadership's hard. Leadership's not a popularity contest. That's why a lot of people don't want to be leaders. Kyrie Irving doesn't sound like he wants to be a leader.

He just wants to be a basketball player. LeBron's a leader. Michael Jordan's a leader. Michael Jordan punched the teammate. Tom Brady screams at teammates. So there's all sorts of stories. right now. Kevin Colbert's the GM for the Steelers. He's a good one. He drafts very, very well. He defended Ben Rothesberger. He and Antonio Brown's relationship has gone south. He said he's the elder statesman. If our players were smart, they'd

listen to him. He's got 52 kids under him. He's got 53 guys who he can say, hey, right now he's the only one. He can call him out. That's fine. And the media's kind of freaking out. They don't like calling him kids, blah, blah, blah. I'm going to show you a piece of video, if I may. Sorry for the radio audience. It's Tom Brady yelling at people. I've never once criticized Tom Brady for yelling at people as I show you this video. Tom Brady is aggressive. Troy Aikman barked at people.

I've had three football friends who played with Peyton Manning. Peyton Manning barked at teammates. Tom Brady on more than one occasion yells at teammates. That's called leadership, aggressive leadership. Steve Jobs was aggressive. Bill Gates is aggressive. leaders are aggressive. The great politicians, they're aggressive. They take risks. What I don't like about Big Ben is when he's passive aggressive. What I don't like about Aaron

Rogers is he's passive aggressive. Remember this sound? I'm going to play a piece of audio. Do we have that from Aaron Rogers said about the Packers' front office? Roll that. I think it's pretty clear that players play and coaches, coach and personnel people make their decision. That's the way they want it. That's passive aggressive. I don't like that. I don't like Big Ben when he's passive aggressive. I don't like Aaron Rogers when he's passive aggressive.

You never hear me yell at Peyton Manning for barking at a teammate. Tom Brady barking at a teammate. Troy Aikman barked at a teammate. Terry Bradshaw bark at a teammate. That's aggressive leadership. Okay. Antonio Brown, his former teammate Ryan Clark, who now works at another network,

went on the air, knows Antonio Brown, and said this about him. I knew already that they were going to offer Antonio, and he's walking past, and I turn to the strength coach, and I say, when you give him money, you're going to create a monster. Okay. So we have a teammate saying money changed him.

So who is going to rein him in? Mike Tomlin. Mike Tomlin doesn't even hang out in the offensive meetings. Defensive head coaches, we had players say it this week on the show. They don't hang out in offensive meetings. your quarterback's got to be the guy. Your quarterback's got to yell. Dan Marino's got to yell.

John Elway's got to yell. Troy Aitman's got to yell. I don't love everything Ben does. But I'll defend him on being aggressive. I'll defend Tom Brady turning around and barking at Joshman Daniels. That is the opposite of passive aggressive. And I've criticized Ben. But I criticize him when he drops a goofy comment after a game and you're trying to read through the lines and you think he's very in Tomlin.

Could be the Rooney's. That I don't like. But we demand that our quarterbacks are leaders. It's what I talk about all the time. It's not about arm strength. Are you a grown-up? Are you a man? Can you go right out and call out somebody?

Because most people don't want to do that. Most NBA players don't want to punch teammates. MJ did. Most teammates don't want to call out players. Kobe did. LeBron does. I will defend aggressive leadership always. Antonio Brown was so up.

upset that he didn't win a team MVP award this year. They gave it to Juju Smith-Shooster. That he pouted and the team had to suspend him. You can bang on Ben all you want. Ben has never missed a game because he got mad that he didn't win a team plaque. Ben's not perfect, but I'll defend aggressive Ben calling out guys, and those are the claims here over the passive aggressive actions of Ben and others anytime. So excited for my next guest.

One of the really truly smart guys. Forget that he went to MIT and Northwestern or used to kind of run the Boston Celtics. Yes, he was the operations guy for the Celtics. Forget what he's done for the Rockets. He's a big global thinker, a lot of ideas, great sense of humor, and now has a beard. So he's very TV-friendly. That is very important for this show. We're very telegenic, obviously.

Darry is right around the corner. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd, Weekdays, and noon east. 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the IHard Radio app. Wait. 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. 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 Slic Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

Welcome to my new podcast, learn the hard way with me. your host and your favorite therapist, Kear Games. And in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark.

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

Are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Keir Gaines, is we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose. On my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. 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 Clifford 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 whops up to me. He goes, hey, ref, my mom wants you to wave at her.

What? Time out. Quarterback on office blue 42. Hey, rep, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app. Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast.

American soccer is about to explode. The World Cup is coming. Ramos sending on to Ernie Stewart the chip. I'm Tad Ramos. I'm Tom Bo. On our podcast, inside American soccer, you'll get the real storylines. I'm not worried about Policic.

I'm not worried about Balagan. I'm not worried about McKinney. My only concern is what happens in the back. The biggest decisions. If you're going to look at stats and numbers, he has no shot at making this World Cup team. And the truth about the U.S. national team. It wouldn't be a huge surprise if our team ends up in the quarterfinals

or potentially a great run into the semifinals. The World Cup is almost here. Experience it all with us. Listen, inside American soccer with Tom Bogart and Tab Ramos on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcast. For this interview all day, I only get Darry a couple times a year and his rockets are in Los Angeles to take on the Lakers. He has been the Rockets GM for 11 years.

NBA executive of the year multiple times. You now have a beard. You look very professorial, very academic. I mean, you went to MIT anyway, but it does. You grew a beard. Why? I started when James started his 30-point streak and figured I'd have to shave it soon. But now, here it is.

Still going. So the best player on your team and the GM got a beard thing going. Do you worry, though? And I said this last year. I don't think people understand. To play on both ends of the floor at an elevated level is hard. I mean, Kobe at one point was a good defensive player. He didn't do a lot of it after about year 10.

LeBron's not the same defensive player, not a criticism. It's a reality. Do you worry that James, the effort to score 35 in this league, it's daunting that he could be gassed by the second round? He had to do it. I mean, we've had so many injuries. This is our first healthy night for our starters, I think in months. Tonight?

Tonight. Wow. Against the Lakers. So we're full strength and we're against playoff for LeBron. It should be a – Superman, Kate LeBron. It should be a great show for folks. Hopefully we do it well.

But, you know, we were in bad straits. We had Chris out. We had Clint out. We needed him to step up. He put us on his shoulders. He's actually been playing both ends really well, having his best defensive season as well. Yeah. So the reality is it's what we needed.

You can fall out of the West easily as the team we're playing tonight knows. You know, it is interesting. For years and years, there was a narrative. The West is better than the East. I bought it. I think the East is a little better this year than it's been in years. I want to throw a theory, and I've never been able to figure it out. I've never been able to figure this out.

Why that's the case? Why for 20 years the West is better than the East? Now, I used to float a theory that it's a winter league, and players would rather wake up in Phoenix and L.A. than Chicago. Why do you think the West has been the spot? My theory, and to your point it's all theory, I think, just frankly, the owners are better in the West. They've been consistent.

I think ownership is the number one factor for a lot of these teams. They set the tone. they hire the people, everything. And if you look at the West owners, they've consistently been very good. So it's kind of just happen, Stan. It worked out that way. Yeah, I think so. I would argue NFC owners outside of Bobcraft always felt a little better than AFC owners.

So I think that that may be it. Maybe smart owners like buying teams in nice weather places. So maybe that's more. You just went second level thinking on me. Player mobility, I've moved a lot. So I would be an utter hypocrite. You and I have talked about this for me to go on the air and say don't move. I'm always pro-mobility.

I'm going to throw a mythology at you. I think LeBron and Michael are just historic outliers in the sport. LeBron's political, most players aren't. Kevin Durant's like, I just won't play basketball. Is that when LeBron leaves, there is no other LeBron. that most players are closer. James Hardin's not gregarious. Kauai Leonard's not gregarious.

Yonah said, I want to stay in Milwaukee, Damian Lillard. A lot of this is fear-based from smaller markets. But LeBron is very rare. He has historic aspirations. That player mobility is oversold.

The country, the commissioner, we're freaking out about something that has largely been empowered by LeBron, but he's probably gone and out of the league in five years. I just think player mobility, it's fearmongering. I see it with political hosts. I see it with sports host.

What do you make a player mobility? I think it's very good for the league. I think it keeps us at the top of your show and other shows. I think players should be able to go play where they want to play. I think a lot of the changes to shorter contracts have increased player mobility. I'm a big fan of player empowerment. I think players are the talent. Players are the people who generate the wins.

And I like when players get to choose where they want to be. Because I think, to be frank, I think that favors the Houston Rockets. Players want to play with us. Players want to play with the best team. So we're a big fan of player mobility. But the smaller markets, Darrell. What do you say to that? I'm not in one.

That's a good answer. Yeah, it's somebody else's problem. Yeah, no, my job is to help the Houston Rockets win. And so I focus on that. And I get that the league office has to worry about those issues. But for me, I'm just trying to win the championship somehow. One of the things we can't talk about Zion Williamson, but I do think there's an interesting conversation to have.

We have the NBA, that's the entree, and college basketball has always been sort of the appetizer. There is a league in between those two that I think is wildly underrated, called the G League. Now, I don't think last night was the end of Nike college basketball or amateurism. But I do think there were a handful of 16, 17, 18-year-olds that watched that and thought... I think Adidas is very excited right now, too.

The G-League. One of the reasons I'm not a huge believer, you have to pay out college athletes, because if you are a basketball prodigy and there's about seven domestic kids a year that are literally good enough to go to the NBA, maybe need about an hour with Mike Shoshavsky or Bill Self, that the G-League is an absolutely viable transition league. Do you believe that, or am I overstating it? No, absolutely. In fact, it's underrated. Commissioner Silver has done a fantastic job growing that.

People don't realize the worst D-League team would beat Duke by 20 to 30 points on a given night. Yes. The level of play is super high. The talent is super high. I see a huge future in the G League. I think it'll be a viable option for these players. And a viable option is playing overseas as well. I think you saw Luca Donchich, you know, tweet about, hey, you know, players should maybe play overseas like I did. He made significant money over there before he came over. I do think the G League is an up-and-coming model.

Is there any value to college basketball? For me to evaluate them as draft picks, yes. You're being very honest today. I really appreciate that. Okay, so you said this, and I just pushed back. I didn't love this comment. Love the beard, didn't love this. You said that Hardin could be in the conversation as the best offensive player of all time.

And I said, he's not as good as Kobe. He's not as athletic. I don't think he's quite as long. I don't think he's as vertical. I don't think he's quite, I don't think he's Kobe. Now, you know, I'm not going to deep dive into analytics. So for you to say that, knowing your MIT background and your analytic specialization, why do you say that?

Because I look at Kobe and James, and they're both all-timers, but I lean Kobe because I think he was a little longer, a little bigger, a little more athletic, and a little more vertical. So there's a dimension there finishing at the rim. That's my pushback. Yeah, I don't want to compare too much to Kobe. He's an all-time great, so you can't take any thing away from him. But if you just look at offensively, the best offenses of all time are currently playing in the NBA. They're our team, their Golden State.

Yeah. And just literally, just the fact that when we cross half court, we score more points than any team has. in history and how does that happen? It's happening because of the great players on our teams. And obviously Golden State has multiple, multiple top players. We have James Harden and Chris Paul. We didn't have Chris Paul out of the season. If you just look at James Harden and when he drives of the basket, what happens? Out of isolation, out of a set, he generates more points than basically any player in history. So that's my argument. People made it sound like there's this horrible comment. And then I felt better there was like 10 articles after basically saying, no, Daryl's right.

He is one of the best offensive players of all time. Until we get a ring, people aren't going to probably recognize that. But offensively, his talents are undeniable. You know, what I've always liked about you, we had lunch a couple of months ago. And, you know, people forget this. Bill Belichick has whiffed on all sorts of draft picks. He just has a lot of them, which is smart. Yeah.

And that is smart. The reality is you can't look with it. a kid's soul. You can do as much scouting. When you look at the NBA today, who's a player in the NBA that has shocked you? That is significantly better than you thought. Even with your scouting department, with your expertise, your Celtics, your MIT, your Rockets, is there a guy you're like, I didn't see that? Yeah, no, there's quite a few. I mean, in the NBA. It's hard for me to talk specifically about them, but the guys who are picked later, really the NBA missed on him. You know, you look at...

Play Thompson. He was picked later. Then you can even go into the second round. There's been some great players in the second round picked recently. So, you know, we like to think it's a science, the draft. And the reality is it's still 70, 80 percent not science. It's luck or art, whatever you want to call it. What matters to you?

Now, using today's game, I don't want back to the basket bigs. I want the Euro big, face to the basket, highly skilled. What matters? When you look at a player, obvious, Mark Warkinteen, was. an exec. He used to always say, you guys never talk about length. He goes, I love length. He goes, Scotty Pippen gave me two tip passes. Jordan converted one of those to a basket. That won a lot of games in 10 years. What do you look at? Yeah, you mentioned length. That's actually the only physical factor when you control for how you play that actually is additive.

It actually helps you predict what they're going to do in the NBA. So Warkin, Warcintin was on that. I would say the biggest thing we look for, it sounds silly, but it's like a guy who, really elevates his team's ability to win. We don't tend, we haven't picked high in a long time. Right. Our highest pick ever is 14 since I've been with the Rockets. So we're generally picking not among the hyper-talented guys that everyone talks about, but among the grinders and the winning players.

And we look for, we look for those players who love the game, who are going to continue to work on their game, and who already are doing it in college. That's generally what we look for. And we've had a very good track record with that. Tonight Rockets Lakers, Chris Paul Rondo facing since the spitting incident, I could forget a lot of things.

But if Joy spit on me in between segments, a year from now, if I saw Joy for the first time, it wouldn't sit well. I would not blame Chris Paul if he was not in the greatest mood tonight. Are you concerned about that experience? Chris is one of the most intense guys I've ever been around. Whether he's been spit on or not, I think he's bringing it 100% always. so he doesn't have a mode. He doesn't have a playoff mode and a non-playoff mode.

So Chris is bringing it tonight, you know, whether he's been spit on or not. I don't think it's a big factor. How did you know Hardin and Chris Paul were going to work? By the, for the record, I liked it and enjoy it. I don't know, you weren't on the show yet. My takeaway was they're both really smart. If you put two smart people in a room, they'll figure it out. But that's my rule on any business.

But there was a lot of pushback that there's, Stiles didn't work. You rolled the dice. Why? So that's the right answer that we thought it would work, but we didn't know. Nobody knows, right? No one knows for sure. I think we had a lot of things that made us feel good. Coach Santone, coached them both together in USA basketball. USA basketball shows that if you've, to your point, if you get smart, good basketball players, they're going to like make winning plays together. It's only when you get talented players who maybe don't think the game well. But Chris is,

only, well, he's not only good. He's good for a lot of reasons, but a key reason he's good is he's extremely smart. That's also true of James Harden. The fact that they're both smart, they're putting a great system by Mike. We thought it could work. It actually worked better than we thought, frankly. Yeah. Yeah, it was better. Yeah. By the way, you have a new owner, and owners can be demanding. You've made moves. You're never afraid to make moves, which is interesting because when you're on a good team, you don't want to disrupt character. You've been kind of, you're a dice roller. So, and a lot of, you know, it's easy if you've got nine wins.

The Knicks can make all sorts of moves. Right. But you're good. You're seen as the real challenger to the warriors and you've made acquisitions. I know Trevor Aries, it was painful, but you can't sit around and whine about it. Where do the epiphanies come? When are you, is it a discussion with your scouting department and to drive to work? What is the trigger moment for you to go, I'm doing it.

Yeah, I mean, we're looking at some signings right now, so this is pretty relevant. And to your point, you know, Tillman Fertita, what I love about him is he's brought in. He's been successful at everything else by being a risk seeker, a smart risk seeker. And, you know, he's given, he's empowered us to really take that mode. He has. And that's a mode that we like. because we're still chasing the Warriors, all-time great team, probably should have won four titles in a row, one, three.

We need to take risks. We're not as good as them. We hope to be as good as them by April 15th. So we're going to continue to take swings at this. We took swings at the start of the year. Everyone sort of criticized what we did, what we didn't do. Our goal is to be the best team on April 15. That's always been our goal, and that's what I'm moving towards.

And that means trying things. Yeah. The NBA is fun. The ratings are down a little bit this year. And I do think the Warriors are a really fun story, but I do worry that, and you worried about this at the end of Michael Jordan's first three-year championship. Is there a fatigue that nobody can beat them? I do think, this sounds macabre, but Stefan Kevin Durant have twisted an ankle a couple of times. It may take a bad break for them.

analytically though I've asked you questions before about players analytically have you guys ever looked at the warriors and the Chicago Bulls and said what do the analytics tell you about that matchup my eyes tell me that the physicality if you were allowed to use some of the old rules I would take Chicago if I said to you warriors bulls the rules are split it's a little more physical what do the analytics say about that matchup yeah I'll say what I know I can say, I feel. So if you took the Bulls in their prime and, like, take 97, maybe that's the best team,

and transported them to now and played the rules now, Golden State would crush them. I don't even think it would be close. I can't, I don't feel like I know enough. I watched the Bulls. I watched the Bulls beat my Cleveland teams growing up over and over. Both were good teams. Yeah, we were great teams and Jordan was always in the way and Piping and all these guys. So it's very frustrating.

I don't feel like I know enough to know what happened if you take Golden State and transport them back. I respect the opinion. Maybe they would lose because of the rules are different. But in today's game? Today's game, it's not close. And it's not just the rules. I just think the players are better. I'm not saying you put Jordan now and he wouldn't be elite, elite. He would be right there with the best in the league. But if you go down 2 through 15 or maybe in their case more like 4 through 15,

They had some great players. The players after that are just better. You know, the other thing, Darrell, that I always, when I talk to friends about this, everybody can handle the ball in the NBA now. Yeah, yeah. You could literally, at a seven-game series, I could look at that bull team and say, take the ball at a boom, boom. Even back then on that team, six guys, you don't want the ball.

You used to be able to play elite rebounders who could do nothing else, non-shooters who could just defend. You can't be a specialist in the NBA. It's going to get targeted in the playoffs and you're going to get killed. Is Dan Tony, he seems like a nice guy. Unbelievable guy, the best. I mean, really. Really?

Yeah, I mean, he's got that West Virginia accent and just the best guy, yeah. And smart and an innovator. I'm lucky to work with him. Yeah. You know, the Fortita family, when I moved to Vegas out of college, I was a big ball of mess and had no money, but I would go to the Fortitas places, and they used to have 99-cent breakfast. So I ostensibly bought the Rockets. Because I have spent more money.

I have put more money between UFC and between their casinos. I think they're called Station Casinos in Las Vegas. Golden Nugget. Golden Nugget. Yeah. Spent a lot of money there. Yeah. Well, your percentage of the Rockets is probably a seat at one of our games.

So we'll hold it for you. Okay. Hey, it's great seeing you. Thanks for having me. Good luck. One of the really smart good guys in the NBA, Darry, GM. Joy Taylor with a new. No.

Turn on the news. This is the herd line news. So unlike Antonio Brown or Odell, who regularly post workout videos, Levi-on Bell doesn't frequent Instagram to show those off. But it's been a concern that some NFL teams are having because teams aren't allowed to bring Bell in for a workout because he's technically still a stealer. And according to the New York Daily News,

there was word on the street that Bell got up to 260 pounds during his year off, and the Jets are concerned about what kind of shape he is in. Now his playing weight is about 225. Yes. And so that's about 35 pounds. I don't know why this is not sitting well with me. It's not such a big deal to me because I don't, whenever anyone takes a year off from a sport, their body's going to change. It's like when guys sit out for training camp and come in and aren't necessarily in the best shape or, you know, they tweak a hammy or something.

You're not in playing shape. 40 pounds? This feels like a lot, but he isn't running back. that's a position where your weight does fluctuate in season and out of season. Now, his agent did give a statement to fan-sided denying that he's gained any weight. They did not give any evidence that he didn't gain any weight, but they just said it. He didn't gain any weight. So we'll see him.

So 33 seconds into the biggest regular season game in college basketball, Zion Williamson went down in a scary moment. He blew through his shoe. And after the game, Coach Kay called it a mild knee sprain. Of course, we were all waiting for another update. and Nike issued a statement they said, we are obviously concerned and want to wish sign of speedy recovery.

The quality and performance of our products are of the utmost importance. While this is an isolated occurrence, we are working to identify the issue. I don't think it is some default with the shoe. I do think it's a little strange because he's a big kid that they would just give him the same shoe

that they're giving everybody else. But he's not the first person to blow out through a shoe. No, but this is pretty dramatic. I mean, everyone's, I mean, Obama's there. The ticket prices are more than the Super Bowl. Like it's a big deal and it's a big moment. It was 33 seconds into the game. Nike stock did take a little hit.

They're going to be fine. They'll figure it out. And Zion's probably, like you said earlier, are going to make a ton of money off with this because Nike has to get him now. Yeah, Nike is forced now to sign him. Otherwise, they'll look like a second tier shoe. So Zion in a weird way, probably made an under 12 million a year off that. Bigger picture, I just hope he's okay.

It's any type of knee injury to me, especially with an athletic place. A bigger player of a lion's size makes me nervous, but hopefully he's okay, and that's the bigger part of the story. Finally, the video is making rounds on social media this week of a private conversation between Kyrie and Kevin Durant during All-Star Weekends. It looks in the video, it appears like Kyrie says, two max slots. I don't know, I'm not a lip reader, that's just what the Internet's are saying. That's ridiculous. Yesterday, Kyrie lashed out about it. It's just crazy.

You know, this is, I mean, this is the stuff that just, like, it just doesn't make the lead fun. Like, it doesn't make the league fun. Nobody helps promote the league even more about doing bull-b-buck. Just big tips just putting things on, like, what we're talking about. Like, it's just, it's crazy. 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. Okay, so getting bad at the media is fine. I'm always okay with that. We're annoying. We're the worst. mad at us, I don't care. Like, we're not in some elite category where we can't be criticized.

So that doesn't bother me when it comes to this stuff. But I'm starting to get to the point where I feel like everyone's got to be on the same page here. This is really about the fans. NBA on social media is huge. NBA free agency. Biggest of any pro league in America, NBA social media is massive. Yeah, I mean, I would argue the world. Like, it's huge on social media. Everyone's trying to dissect and who they unfollow and like and they quoted this random quote. What does that mean? And it's really just everyone excited about what may or may not happen. It's a soap opera.

It's a reality show. And you're part of it. And Kyrie's a superstar and Kevin Durant's a superstar. And I think it's just the point where if your name is even in the free agency pool, this is what you're going to have to do with. And it's not us. It's not the media, although we like to talk about it too. It's fans.

Like fans want to know what's going to happen. Sure. And we know that they haven't made a decision yet. Kevin Durant and Kyrie haven't made a decision about where they're going yet. They're still in the middle of the season. Then either one of them could make it to the finals, likely Kevin Durant will, could change everything. The greatest thing you can say about a pro athlete,

if the media and fans are concerned about where you're playing currently or soon, it tells you they care. And you want players and media to care about you because it drives your shoe deal. It drives everything. It drives your business. I mean, I sympathize with Kyrie. I know it's super annoying, but it's really just, it's the fans. Getting up in the morning sometimes is annoying.

Sometimes I want to stay in bed. It's cold. Joy with the news. Well, that's the news. Thanks for stopping by. The Herd Line News. The greatest compliment in a very rarefied class that I could ever give Zion Williamson, that's coming up.

Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific. Great to have you. And I've been saying all day multiple times if I was Zion Williamson. I think he is so different. I would jettison college basketball and I'd moved to the NBA. And it got me thinking, Joy, about, you know, I've been watching college sports since the 70s. I don't think college basketball is nearly as talent-laden as it was. College football is more talent-driven than it's ever been.

There's just more good players, more good quarterback, good coaches. But I was thinking, let's go for our best for last today. After almost three hours, Colin apparently hasn't gotten to the point yet. Quit holding out on us, cowherd. It's the best for last. There are four players I've ever seen in college sports that I would classify as the most extraordinary physical presences. These are not always the most productive or the quote best on any list, but physically extraordinary. They simply didn't look like college

players. And I'd put them on my Mount Rushmore. I would start with Herschel Walker. Herschel Walker, three years at Georgia, the least he rushed for in any season, including his freshman year, was 1600 yards. He was so much faster than everybody. He was so much stronger than everybody. Even in the SEC, he just didn't look like a college player. And I mean that by about the end of his freshman year. I'm showing you highlights.

He literally looks like he's running downhill. I remember watching him. Look at this. People have angles on him. They've got angles on it. Look at his butt. He's his biggest defensive lineman. The first time I saw Herschel Walker,

and again, all the games weren't on TV back then. I didn't see all those games. him played twice as a freshman. He was literally, at the time, the most physically extraordinary college athlete I'd ever seen. Number two would be Patrick Ewing. Patrick Ewing was a three-time All-American. When the Big East was loaded, he was the best player, really for three years, although he won two-time Big East player. The criticism on Patrick Ewing out of high school was he just dunks too much. Can he shoot? The criticism on Patrick Ewing out of college was he sort of dunks too much? Does he have a well-rounded game? He was always an extraordinarily

offensively gifted player. Patrick Ewing, this is when the Big East, you got to remember college basketball back then, the good teams had four NBA players. He once blocked the first five shots against Carolina International Championship, all goaltending, and he did it to prove a point. He wanted to get in the head of the Tar Heels. He just went out and blocked the first goaltending, first five shots of the national championship game. Number three is Michael Vick. Michael Vick wasn't just the best football player in the Big East. Didn't just score 17 touchdowns rushing, just rushing. Michael Vick was the fastest player in most games.

Faster than the running backs, faster than the receivers, faster than the wide receivers, faster than the corners. Michael Vick, again, you were watching him in college thinking, wait a minute, that's not a college player. He really started the trend for mobile quarterbacks. they ended up in the national championship, lost to Florida State. But again, you have to remember, there was no Russell Wilson at the time. There'd never been a quarterback that was the fastest athlete in most major games on the field.

He was faster than everybody else. He got to the NFL. He was the second fastest Atlanta Falcon to Rossum, the Notre Dame punt returner. And finally, I'd put Zion Williamson in this class. He's the only freshman in the last 25 years. to average 20 points and over nine rebounds per game and shoot 65% from the field. You're watching the highlights out. We can just roll some tape.

It didn't look like a college athlete. I mean, he made a block this year. I hope we have this in our highlights. 6-7, 285. And what's remarkable is how quick his first step is. Now, he's not a great shooter. Nobody thinks he is. He'll develop into a better shooter.

But I would say Hershal Walker, Patrick Ewing, Michael Vick, and Zion Williamson. It's like a video game. He literally makes the rim look like it's lowered. You said that yesterday. You watch him and think, oh, the rim should be higher. Right. So those four to me are the most physically extraordinary Mount Rushmore college athletes I've ever seen.

And that's why I think it's time for the young man to go to the NBA. Speak for yourself is coming up next. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind. And nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. In every episode, we're cutting through the noise,

breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions in the moment, and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to SportsSlic. On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more, follow Timbo Slicalife-12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite, unhumored me with Robert Smiley. and friends, me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and 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 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, Brett, my mama want you to wave at her. What? Where's she at?

Hey, Miss Parker. Listen to the Clippers show on the Eyeheartedly Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm CJ 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, Marquis keep coming to him. 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 audience. I heart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.