The Kevin Sheehan Show - Caitlin Clark + Kevin's New QB Crush

Episode Date: April 2, 2024

Kevin and Thom opened the show talking about last night's Iowa-LSU "Elite 8" game. Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese put on a show that lived up to the billing. Kevin has a new QB crush and got called out for it. The boys talked Nats' home opener, the Commanders' new LB addition, the Wizards' and Caps' new alt casts, and much more. Download the PrizePicks app today and use code Sheehan for a first deposit match up to $100! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey guys, I'm really pleased to have a new sponsor to the podcast. Prize picks is the largest daily fantasy sports platform in North America. They're the easiest and the most exciting way to play DFS. It's just you against the numbers rather than you battling thousands of other players, including pros and sharks. Football season's over, but Hoops Action is heating up, whether it's tournament season right through the end of this month or the fight for playoff home court advantage heading. into the postseason, there's no shortage of high-stakes basketball moments this time of year. Get in on the excitement with prize picks, America's number one fantasy sports app where you can turn your hoops knowledge into serious cash. Download the app today and use code Sheehan, S-H-E-E-H-A-N for a first deposit match of up to $100. You don't want it. You don't need it, but you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin She and show. Here's Kevin.

A trip to the final four at stake. Clark was trying to redirect a pass. Clark. Oh my! From Schenectady. Been so sick before that UCLA game. That's how sick she was. Clark!

I thought it was a great game last night. I really did. I thought it lived up to the billing. Tommy's here. I am here. The show's presenting sponsor, as always, is Windonation. Call them at 86690 Nation, or head towindonation.com. I watched, Tommy, it was appointment watching for me last night. I'm not going to lie to you. I sat down,

watched some of the pregame leading into this game last night. Iowa, LSU, for those of you who are wondering which game I'm talking about. I haven't seen the numbers. I'm guessing 10 million plus watch this. It's not going to surprise me if that's what we end up seeing. But I thought it was a phenomenal college women's basketball game with the two stars of the game, Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese completely delivering. What did you think? You did, you watched it. Did you watch the whole thing or just half of it? I watched. I was out at Nats Park yesterday for the home opener. And by the time I got out of there and made it to Shelley's back room for my typical post-game smoke, I got to watch the second half.

And you are right. It was must-see. I was very entranced by the whole thing. I hadn't seen Caitlin Clark that much this year. I mean, high-lights here and there and stuff. But she's one of these players, and you see it in different sports sometimes, with whatever tool they're using in their sport. the ball is part of her body.

Yeah. You know, it's part of her. She has control over that ball like it's an extension of her. I always thought Iverson had that. Steph Curry has that. I think Earl Monroe had it. You know, that's what she has. I mean, she just doesn't even think you're going to knock the ball away from her.

That's not even an option. Yeah, you know, she, I think the most underrated thing about her game, and I've watched now, I've watched no less than six games of hers this year. And I know I've talked about this before when talking about her, but she's an incredible passer. She just has incredible basketball. Tremendous pass last night, too, when she drove the lane and then found a teammate on the other side of the rim. She's just got, you know, that incredible basketball IQ, you know, sees the floor, sees things, you know, a step ahead of where everybody else sees them.

And to your point, she's also an excellent ball handler. And the Steph Curry comparisons, you know, for the women's game is, it's a good one because Steph isn't overly athletic. Caitlin Clark's not overly athletic. She's not super quick or super fast, but it's the quick movements. It's the no-wasted movement. She's able to create with her ability to create the space, and she doesn't need much of it to get off these bombs that she throws in.

She doesn't need much at all to hoist one up. I mean, 41.12 assists last night. And the truth is she probably should have had 15 or 16 assists. because some of her teammates just didn't finish easy buckets. Angel Reese got injured during the game. I guess she came in with a bad ankle. I mean, she was so dominant inside. I understand she's 6'3, and she's much bigger than most of, you know, the players in the game.

But she had 17 points, 20 rebounds and three block shots. She was a force inside. An absolute force. Now, she's not a smooth offensive player. Her brother isn't either at all. You know, she sometimes gets her legs a little bit off by, with her hands. They're not exactly synced up all the time. But all she had to do, all they had to do was just somehow get the ball up on the rim somewhere.

And then let her chase it like she was like she's Moses Malone. She had one possession where she had three offensive rebounds on one possession. And they didn't do that. The game overall, I really felt, I mean, I don't want to overdo this because I, you know, you live in, we live in the recency bias era that we're in. But I really felt the anticipation for the, game and I felt it right when they tipped. Like this was a big game that a lot of people were participating in as viewers. And the question that I have for myself and for you and for any

of those out there listening, and I did this on radio this morning, is what we're watching is clearly a phenomenon for right now. Like the numbers are ridiculous. Like when Caitlin Clark plays, the Colorado game on Saturday did 7 million viewers. No other tournament game not involving her is done more than like a million and a half. Or maybe there was one game with South Carolina that did 2 million. The game last night is expected to be 10 million or north of that in terms of viewers. And then Friday night, when she goes head to head with Yukon and then a potential national championship game, we're going to see all-time viewership.

for any women's basketball game. I mean, the WNBA doesn't draw very well at all. But my question is, is this just a Caitlin Clark thing? Or will people watch these games and become fans of the sport and start watching it without her in it next year? What do you think? I don't think it needs to be easier or. I think there'll be some growth.

I think there'll be another person. Look, really, I'm going to absolutely discuss you with this conversation here. But the game has either evolved or deteriorated, depending on your point of view, to the point where you can be a six-foot female and score 40 points a game. Okay, you have to be really skilled to do it, but you can do it. You couldn't do that before, even if you were skilled. That's not the way the game was played. But the game has evolved in a way where that's where it happens, 35 feet out, 30 feet out, 40 feet out.

And she could, you know, she's six feet tall. She can play that game. Are you telling me, and I don't know this to be true or not true, that women's college basketball has never had scoring like her scoring? Well, I understand she's the all-time leading scorer in, you know, basketball history, college basketball. basketball history. But are you telling me that players just never scored 40 points? Like Cheryl Miller never had 40-point games or Lisa Leslie or any of the other great players that I'm sure I could come up with a list of here if I could just Google it real quickly? I'm telling you why Caitlin Clark is the phenomenon. She obviously has more to offer than those who came before her. It's become more of an attraction.

Yeah, because the thing that she does, if this is what you're referring to, then I agree with it. The thing that she does and the reason it's become a phenomena is why Steph Curry became a phenomena, because he wasn't just shooting threes, he was stopping three or four or five feet inside half court and knocking down threes. She shoots these threes from 28 to 30 feet. is unique in that sport, I would guess. And certainly... That's my point. Okay.

All right. You were talking more about 40 as if players didn't score 40 before. You're saying that they didn't score... No, no, no, no, no. Yeah, okay. She was great. She was awesome. Yes, she was.

It was fun to watch. It was fun to watch, and I was impressed with Angel Reese, too. I remember that championship game last year. You know, I know that there was a lot of back and forth going into the game or whatever, but I wasn't a huge fan of kind of not the trash talking's fine that the trash stalking at the end of that game I thought was a bit much but this was an anticipated rematch I thought they both played really really well and Caitlin Clark and I were moving on and I'm sure that this is the preferred result for ESPN that has the games on Friday night and then the game on Sunday

night the national championship game let me just say for me Tommy, I have never watched this much women's college basketball. Never. I've followed the Terps, you know, whether it was Chris Weller's Terps or Brenda Freezes Terps of the last 20-something years. Whenever they've been in the tournament, I don't watch, you know, their games during the regular season, but I have always followed them when they've gotten into the tournament. She's had some really good teams. I have watched more than I've ever watched before. I don't think without her in the sport, I'll watch it nearly as much next year. But I can't really predict that because there's a possibility there's going to be another big-time star.

Oh, is Paige Buchers is senior or a junior? I think it's Beckers, not Buchers. But I don't know what she is. But the freshman who plays for USC, and I didn't stay up and watch that game last night. Or I did stay up, but I just didn't watch that game last night. but she apparently set all of the freshman records. So there could be another big-time star coming, you know. Yeah, because this is the way the game is played,

and it's not my game, but she did a magnificent job with it yesterday. Can I interest you in DJ Burns versus Zach Eadie in the final four's first game on Saturday night, a center versus a center, both players being the best players on their team and both players being post players. Can I interest you in that game Saturday night? Well, normally I would be. But Saturday night, I'm going to the Birchmere to see the average white band.

Oh, the average white band, the 70s. Here we go. Yes. Yes. And, you know, I'm sad to say, I'm embarrassed to say, this is my first time at the Birchmere. I've never been there before. I feel kind of goofy not being there with all the great musical acts they've had.

But this is my first time. So, yeah, we got tickets to see average white band. A band I always loved. That's what a Buckhance's favorite bands, by the way. Oh, it is? I didn't know that. Do you know that I don't think I've ever been to the Birchmere? I don't think I've ever been to it.

You know, I think other than, you know, the Virginia venues, like the one way out, you know, um, 66. Jiffy Loob, I've been to several times. I don't find that a very... I've never been to Jiffy Loeb. I've never been to Wolf Trap. You've never been to Wolf Trap? I think you told me this recently.

That's crazy. Yeah. I've been to Wolf Trap at time. Well, you know, it's across the river. It's like the Great Wall of China. Yeah, but it's just barely across the river. I mean, you know, wolf trap is, you know, basically probably a mile to two miles from where I live as, you know, the crow flies, as the saying goes.

Then you go. No, I've been to wolf trap a bunch, and I've been to Jiffy Lube a couple times. What I'm saying is that Jiffy Lube is really inconvenient. It's far. I've heard that. The traffic is always terrible because it just doesn't seem to flow in and flow out. Merryweather, in terms of the outdoor venues, is the best. The best.

I've been to Mary Weather multiple times. Yeah, Mary Weather's awesome. Not a lot, but. a number of times. So I won't be able to watch the game Saturday night, and I can promise you that I'm going to tape it, but I'm not going to keep that promise. But normally I would be interested in something like that.

Yeah, because DJ Burns is your kind of player. I love him too. Yeah, I know. He's really... In all of this discussion, let me just mention real quickly, I didn't intend on talking about him that much, the discussion yesterday is like, will NFL fans, NFL teams, be interested?

in potentially giving him a shot to play defensive tackle or offensive tackle because he's big, he's strong and he's so skilled and athletic. This dude's going to get paid to play professional basketball people. Trust me, he is so skilled. He's going to get paid. I don't know. He will be in an NBA situation, whether or not he sticks or not. I don't know.

I think he's got a chance, though. but he'll play somewhere and get paid. Like if he wanted to play football, he would have already been maybe playing football. Who knows? Although we've seen a lot of basketball players become really good football players. So I want to read something.

I'd ask all of you if you haven't rated and reviewed the show, especially on Apple and Spotify, to do so. It's really easy on Apple. You can give us up to five stars, which would be much appreciated. And you can write a quick one to two sentence a review and when you do that

it's really good for us also subscribe to the podcast and follow the podcast if you get a chance but this comes from it's a review and I just read it before the show started and it's perfect to put it side by side with another one just to

sort of describe I think how people kind of hear what they want to hear although actually I think they're both right to a certain extent this guy's name is the bashed He gave us five stars, all right? But the title of his review is, Come on, man!

And he writes, I love Kevin and I love this show. But you're, as in mine. Your blind, totally non-objective view of Jaden Daniels is nauseating. You excuse every flaw as unimportant and explain away every negative stat to fit your locked-in narrative. You're leading a way. one-man band of people who think that Daniels is the second coming, second coming of every other

quarterback not named Williams. How about pumping the brakes a bit, sparky? Hey, thanks, friend. Thanks, pal. Really appreciate it. I trust me. Go ahead. Kevin Foss head over heels for quarterbacks. Trust me on this one. I am not a one man band for Daniels. I mean, there are plenty of of people that think Jaden Daniels actually should be taken first overall. Orlovsky thinks that, Lewis Riddick, several others. But I think it's funny because before radio this morning, I saw this. This was a tweet from Champ. Champ.

Hey, Champ, Big fella. Champ wrote, Kevin, am I hearing from you that you would be okay with a tradeback for Michael Pennix Jr? I've listened to you for a long time. You won't say it, but I can tell Pennix has become your guy. It just cracks me up. People definitely hear what they want to hear, although I don't think, with all due respect to both of them, do respect. I think you nailed it.

I think you both nailed it. There's no doubt I am all in on Jaden Daniels as my favorite quarterback, not named. Look, Caleb Williams would be my number one, but they're not going to have a shot at Caleb Williams. I do like Jaden Daniels, and I'm hardly, hardly a one-man band, the bashed. That's ridiculous. And it's also... What is interesting is, from what I gather in following you on social media and catching your show, I listen to your show from time to time when I'm on the road. I mean, you talk more about Michael Pennix now than you have before.

Yes. And he has become a presence. Now where he'd happen before. Well, I've always liked Penix, and I actually, when Denton and I, like a month and a half ago, did our rankings of quarterbacks, I went Caleb one, Daniels 2, and I went Pennix Jr. 3 ahead of May, and very much ahead of McCarthy for me. But I think his pro day in particular, and the discussion coming out of that pro day, which was last week, I have definitely, over the last,

week or so said, I think that Pennix Jr. is going to get taken in the top half of the first round. And I loved Pennix Jr. Tommy, not as much as Daniels. So the bashed is right, although I don't personally view it as non-objective or excusing every flaw. I think his biggest flaw, and it's a concern, is his frame. Second biggest flaw, which I've talked about, is the fact that he wasn't really asked at the college level to read much pass, you know, one or two. You know, at the NFL level, you're going to have to go one, two, three, four across the board. So those are two concerns.

But no, I do love Daniels. You're right. And I'm sure it's nauseating for some of you. That's fine. But yeah, Pennix Jr., you know, Denton and I were talking about this on radio when we created our list and I said, I just feel like we've been talking a lot about Caleb Williams, a lot about Jaden Daniels, and a lot about Drake May. but we watched all of these Washington games. And there wasn't a guy that was more impressive in some of these big games

throwing from the pocket and throwing with really quick processing speed. He got sacked 11 times in 15 games this past season. 11, that's it. He got sacked once in the National Championship game against Michigan's vaunted defense on 52 dropbacks. In two games this year, this year, excuse me, against Oregon, 80 dropbacks, three sacks. Last year in 2022, he was only sacked five times. Now, a lot of that could have been O-line, play calling, run game, but we all realize as football fans, that sack stat is a big-time quarterback stat too.

And I think it's been from watching him, it's his processing speed from the pocket. He's so good and directing traffic at the line of scrimmage, then post-snap, just getting it out quickly. Now, he, like Jaden Daniels, had big-time NFL receivers as well. Right. But I do like Pennix Jr. a lot. And if they did trade back because they loved Pennix Jr. a lot, picked up some, you know, extra draft capital and took Pennix, let's just say at number 11 overall. Let's say they swapped with Minnesota or something like that. that, I wouldn't hate it.

I would be concerned that they passed on a potential superstar in Daniels, but I wouldn't hate it because I'm benefit of the doubt, Kev. And if they like, if they like Pennix Jr., go for it. Okay, well, let me ask you this. Yeah. Trading back, you feel confident and have the assurance that you won't wind up losing. losing that quarterback. I'd be concerned about that.

You know, Ryan Wilson, who I actually like, and I've had on the show a bunch of times on radio, he works for CBS Sports. He put out his updated mock draft this morning. He has Daniels going two to Washington after Caleb Williams and has Drake May going three. And it's the first time I've seen anybody put Pennix Jr. up this high. He's got him at 13. You know, there's some people that still think Pennix Jr. is going to, you know, be a

Knight 2 pick late first at the earliest. I think he's the one that's going to rise, along with McCarthy, who apparently is rising. But yeah, I'd be, of course, I'd be concerned about that, about trading back and losing the guy that you really like. Of course. Yeah, that right now, since you have options that you feel really good about within your grasp and control, that's like not walking away from the table when you've got a pocket full of money. Yeah. Yeah. I had on radio this morning, this guy Greg Holcomb, who is J.J. McCarthy's long-time personal quarterback and trainer, quarterback coach and trainer. He's had him since seventh grade. And he apparently told his father, like, in eighth grade, your son's going to get 30 plus offers

to play college football as an eighth grader. And the father said, oh, stop it. He got 50. But he's, you know, not objective, obviously, but he actually said some things that were very interesting because I said, have you talked to any NFL teams? And he said, no. But I talked to JJ's father, Jim, all the time. And he started to share some of what J.J. McCarthy's father, Jim, had been saying about Washington. He said things like they love Washington. There are places they don't want to go. Washington's one of the places.

that they'd love to go. They had a private dinner. Washington's Brass did with J.J. McCarthy the night before his pro day. So that's about a week ago. No, two weeks ago, excuse me, at this point. He said that the father suggested that Washington had said to him, it's going to be really hard for anybody to pass on you, that somebody, the next, that somebody, the next day during his pro day from Washington's front office came by his father and said, your son absolutely killed it at the dinner last night.

He checked every box. Now, I'm sure Washington says this, in teams say this to a lot of quarterbacks, because if you end up taking them, it's nice for them to think, hey, you were our guy all along. You know, who knows how it'll shake out. But I just thought it was interesting that he also said, the family really likes Washington.

And I said, why? He said they love Quinn, they love Kingsbury, they love the situation, which is completely different than the way, than the situation that used to be there. I'm not sitting here telling you that I think I learned from his quarterback trainer and coach that Washington's leaning J.J. McCarthy. but he was talking from the father's point of view, and the father certainly thinks that Washington's a really good possibility for J.J. McCarthy at two. And there are some people that believe that Adam Peters would fall in love with a quarterback like J.J. McCarthy. I would personally be benefit of the doubt, Kev, but this would be the one if they took J.J. McCarthy at two that would really push me in the direction of saying,

wait a minute, hold on to that benefit of the doubt. Really, J.J. McCarthy, too. But everybody has him climbing up draft boards. Everybody suggested before the combine, before the pro days, that pro people were going to love him and the intangibles, and apparently they all do. So, anyway, who knows what will happen? Three weeks from Thursday night.

But you're going to be away, aren't you? You won't be here. Oh, God. I will be here for a draft. Tom sent me, I mean, this email and text with his schedule. It's like, good God, I need a chart. I'll be in Ireland, April 26th through May 4th. So you're leaving the morning of the draft? Or when do you leave for Ireland? Oh, I forget exactly when. The draft starts April 26th. A red eye. It's probably a red eye.

Okay. I need to do the podcast. Monday and Wednesday, April 8th and 10th, regular time. Also, Wednesday morning, April 17th, I need morning. Friday, I need regular time. Can do the following week as normal. Oh, thank you. And then there's no podcast again until Tuesday, May the 7th. Oh, by the way, I will be gone before cigars and curveballs on May 4th, but I'll be back for it. I'll be gone before it, but I'll be back for it. I'm hoping that you'll promote it for me on the podcast that week. And can we, none of this bothers me, by the way. I'm glad that Tommy's so organized.

But he also said, can we auction off another podcast visit for people at Cigars and Curveballs? Oh, God. Do we have to? It's a big ticket I am, buddy. It's brought it over $1,000 in the past. You know what? Of course we can do it. The answer is 100%. Yes. But every time I do that and I've done, we've done that so many times for various auctions over the years, especially when we were together in studio doing radio every day. Kooley and I did it a bunch. And what it is is when you do it and the day actually comes and you meet the people, it's all great. And 99 times out of 100, the people have been wonderful. It's just the setting it up. And then, oh, no, you know what, we were going to come in that day, we can't do that day. What about this, you know, and it just, you know.

But maybe, you know what, maybe your administrative assistant can handle all of that. I don't think so. I don't think so. I have them doing off the duties. All right. We have other things to get to. We have the Nats home opener, which Tommy was at. we have some monumental news, not like it's big news, but like legitimately monumental, the

monumental sports group news that we want to discuss, and more. And we will get to all of it right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey guys, most of us are interested in our mental and physical well-being to a certain degree. And with that in mind, I'd like to welcome and introduce a new sponsor to the podcast. The new sponsor is Unified Healing, Unified spelled, U-N-I-F-Y-D healing. It doesn't matter if you're a big-time world-class athlete or just a somewhat athletic podcaster like me. We all understand the importance of mental and physical well-being and proper recovery for top-notch performance. That's why I'm excited that Unified Healing is sponsoring the podcast now.

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That's unified spelled, unified, healing.com slash sheen. No material or testimonies on the unified healing website are intended to be viewed as medical advice or a substitute for professional medical advice diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health care providers with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment and before undertaking a new health care regimen, including EE system. All right, Tommy, tell us about Shelly's. Well, last night, for my usual post-game smoke, I headed the Shelly's back room, and that's where I sat and watched. I wanted a big eight different eight big screen high-definition televisions that they have for sporting events,

sat in a very comfortable chair, watched the second half of the LSU Iowa game, with some good friends, with Jesse, with John Allen, John Allen, maybe perhaps the greatest political writer in America. He's a Shelley's guy. You mean all kinds of people with Shelly's, you know, all kinds of people. and we all enjoyed, you know, the Caitlin Clark show while we were smoking a top-notch cigar and drinking top-level whiskey or beer from their menu. You can find out more at shelley's backroom.com. Shelly's backroom at 1331 F Street, Northwest, in the district.

All right. Tell me about the home opener yesterday. They had it tight and then it got away from them. Yeah, they don't have pitching depth I mean they use their two top relievers in the two previous games and maybe he didn't want to use them again

so he used this guy who you know, it's a new guy and he got lit up you know, McKenzie Gore did not pitch that badly you know, he left at one point, what was it? Well, he left like maybe in the sixth inning. Yeah, he did. Five in a third

innings. And he had given up just two runs, but he gave up a, you know, he gave up, like a squibbler, you know, hit. Right. And that put a third run on his record, but he pitched better than that. But they just, they don't have the starting pitching depth. They don't have the bullpen depth. They're going to score some runs. And my guy, Strait Limbscomb, had a great day.

He did. He did. You know? and scored a run and he's the real deal people should get that's what people should get excited about you know and that's the way it's going to be

this year at Matt's Park look they had 40,000 uh did they were some MTCs but they yeah they called it a sell out there were some MTCs not a lot I watched I didn't watch the whole thing but I was

I had it on here in the studio when I was doing the podcast or finishing up the podcast then when I got home I turned it on. I actually was struck by how many empty seats. It appeared there were on television anyway, but you're saying there weren't that many? I didn't think there were that many.

Look, I'm kind of surprised that anyone comes out to see them, given the fact that the learners have put this thrift shop team out there on the field and lied to their fans about their financial commitment. You know, but I give them credit for showing up. They declared her to sellout. and you know that's the closest they'll get to a sellout maybe for a while the Phillies come to town this weekend and that's always painful yeah um i i didn't watch much uh i mean i watched bits and pieces of that i mean it's it's strange because i was thinking about this i mean it's the home opener it's your baseball team and i know

a lot of you are into it in a big way and for many years especially when they were really good i got into opening day as well. But the last couple of years, with them being as bad as they've been, I think it diminishes opening day. And again, not to break this, but it's like, I think if I had grown up with opening day and

home openers and it being part of a tradition, an annual tradition, I think I'd feel much differently. But I think there are a lot of young people that feel that way, hopefully, about the home opener. I don't. I I think so.

Yeah. I think so. And there's a lot of young people that live around that ballpark these days. Oh, yeah. For a social event as much as anything. Right. Definitely. Okay.

So I did want to mention real quickly, the Caps, because we've talked a little bit more about them here recently, they didn't play last night. The Red Wings won. The Flyers lost in overtime picked up a point. But here's the deal. The caps are tied with the Red Wings for that final wild card spot, but they've got two games in hand with Detroit. With the Flyers, they are one point behind the Flyers for third. They've got three games in hand with the Flyers. They're in really good shape to make the postseason.

They play Buffalo at home tonight. They do play Detroit one more time on the road next Tuesday, and then they finish with Philadelphia. Philadelphia. And then I didn't talk about this yesterday on the podcast. I kind of wanted to save it for you. I'm actually Wednesday night. I'm going to go to the Lakers Wizards game because LeBron's in town and who knows how many times LeBron will be in town. Now, I am concerned because they played a night in Toronto as to whether or not he'll go back to back, although they're in a big time, you know, playoff race here down the stretch to try to get the best possible position. But have you, did you see what LeBron did the other night? Have you been following LeBron's season?

I don't think you probably have, but you pick things up here and there. That's a reasonable guess. That's a reasonable guess. I have not to. So the other night, he scored 40 against Brooklyn. He was nine for 10 from behind the arc. He shot 13 of 17 in the game from the floor. He became just the second player 39 years or older with multiple 40-point-plus games. Jordan is the other one. I know we've talked about this previously. LeBron looks to me to be bigger, stronger, faster.

quicker at 39 than he's ever looked before. Beyond that, this is the best three-point shooting career of his season of his career. He is shooting 40.1.6% from behind the arc. Last year, he shot 32.1%. LeBron's never been a stone-cold knockdown three-point shooter, ever. LeBron's never been a great throw shooter during the course of his career. In fact, I'm going to look that up right now to make sure I'm right about that. Because I've always felt like, especially in crunch time, LeBron doesn't always come through from the free throw line. So LeBron this year, 41.6% from the three-point line, 32.1% last year. It is the best he's ever shot threes in his career. You've got to go back to 1213 with Miami with the heat. He shot 40.6%. But basically, he's been between 30 and 36% over the last 11 years of his career, or 10 years of his career.

Free throw shooting, yeah, like his best free throw shooting percentage of his career was back in 0809 with Cleveland. He shot 78%. He is shot in the mid-60s as recently as 2019. But his free throw percentage has come up the last couple years. how is this guy almost he might be better than he's been in the last couple of years. I'm not going to say that he's better than he was 10 years ago, but he might be better than he's been the last couple of years.

He's the best he's ever been as a shooter. Nine of 10 from behind the arc. Should I be suspicious? Well, one possibility could be the defense that has deteriorated in the league over the last 15 years that he doesn't have the same challenge anymore because defense, you know, I think they passed a constitutional amendment prohibiting defense in the NBA. They haven't done that, but, you know, there are some teams that don't play great defense, but if you're saying for the last 10 or so years, I mean, you're going back away.

This is an unbelievable shooting display that he's put on at times. He did it against the Clippers in a game where he scored like 20-something in the fourth quarter a few weeks ago when he was like seven for 10 or something from behind the arc. It was ridiculous. I watched that game. But I'm going to go see LeBron tomorrow night. Wouldn't you consider it a possibility? that it's because the defense has suffered.

The defense has dropped down. But you said the defense has been dropping down over the last 10 years. The percentage just shot up this year. So if you're suggesting that the defense this year became all of a sudden terrible in the NBA, that would fit more with the spike of his three-point shooting. But I wouldn't say that. I think he's had a lot of open threes before. during the course of his career, because in some cases, they preferred defenses did for him to shoot an open three than to drive it.

I just think he's a much better shooter as a 39-year-old than he's ever been in his career. Now, I would not, when I said, should I be suspicious? I'm not. I'm not suspicious because I think, you know, in this day and age, guys like LeBron spend two, three million bucks a year just on their bodies, you know, But this is a skill. This isn't even a conditioning or an athletic feat. This is more skill, and I would attribute it probably to the fact that he's worked on it and become a better shooter somehow. But this is the best he's ever shot the basketball in his career, and he's doing it at 39.

It's actually pretty incredible, I think, for that sport. I'm, you know, LeBron's... I don't know. A 39-year-old man shooting better than he ever has before. That begs suspicion. Except that it's not something that a performance situation would help them with. I'm not necessarily saying PEDs. I'm just saying that the defense has deteriorated so much.

It allows a 39-year-old man to have its greatest shooting year. That's your suspicion. But again, you said the defense of the last 10 or so years, his three-point percentage has been terrible, has been much worse during that 10-year than it's this year. So again, if you're saying this is the first year of defense as being really horrible, then that would fit with what you're trying to describe. But he was 32.1% last year from behind the arc.

So I don't think defense in the NBA is as bad as you do, but I certainly acknowledge that there are games that you watch where it is optional for much of the opposing team. I also think it's really hard to guard people now, and it's really hard to guard the game the way it's played. Well, you're being sarcastic, but it is. No, it is. No, I think it is. Okay. But all I can go by is what our glorious hometown team does.

That's all I can go by. Well, you know, speaking of our glorious hometown team, you know, for those that don't know, their games are actually broadcast on what's called the Monumental Sports Group Network. That is the, that's the group that Ted owns, monumental sports. That's the thing that he wanted to take public, you know, as Tom, you know, described in a good column the other day, wanted to move the caps and wizards. we spent all the end of last week talking about that, or yeah, Friday, I guess, or Thursday talking about that. But that's where the games appear. I think most of you know that you turned a certain channel, and it's not NBC Sports

Washington anymore. It's not Comcast Sportsnet. It's the Monumental Sports Group network. And they are going to begin offering alt-casts of the Caps and Wizards games. games. I mean, it's a great idea with the Manningcast. You know, and by the way, you know the funny thing about the Manning cast on Monday Night Football? It doesn't do anywhere near the numbers that people thought that it would do. It pales in comparison to Buck and Akeman on the regular broadcast. It kind of tells you that people just want the games matter the most, although that

Manning cast has been very entertaining at times. There's no doubt about it. But let me just share with everybody that you're going to have an opportunity if you're interested in watching the Wizards to see Steve Buchance back on an alternate sports cast. So they have, I guess they have two channels monumental, because I think NBC Sports did as well, because sometimes the caps and wizards are on at the same time, so they've got them on different networks. So there must be like a one and two. And Buck, J.P. Finlay. and Gravis Vasquez, love me some Gravis Vasquez, and Jason Smith are going to do the alt-cast of the Wizards games,

and then the Caps alternate cast. So instead of Joe Bion Locker, you can tune in to Grant Paulson, Devante Smith Pelly, Bruce Boudreau, and our good friend Tarek Al-Bashir. Oh, no. that there was such a demand for double the broadcast for these teams. Look, this is a serious question. Some of these people I like a lot personally.

Obviously, you know, Buck and JP and I like Grant a lot. And I don't know some of the other people. Gravis is one of my all-time favorite players. Love TARC. I think the question that would be a fair question is, look, if you're not doing an actual playboy, by play analyst situation like you have with Chris Miller and Drew Gooden or Joe B and Locker. And it's going to be more of if it's if the format is more of like a Manning cast format and

there's going to be a lot of more freewheeling. Yeah, more freewheeling and more opinion, you know, based. I mean, will they be able to express how they really feel? Like, this is the problem with, you know, monumental is it's been very much sort of state TV like. It's been Pravda like. Yes. I would imagine you're not going to. That's the truth.

Yeah. I would imagine you're not going to do this without, you know, giving these guys a chance to be constructively critical of the team. I can't fathom how you could. I don't see how you could. What do you mean? Could what? I don't see how you could allow this to happen without giving them some kind of leeway in their commentary. That's right.

I mean, Ted and Zach in this group, obviously there's an insecurity about constructive criticism. And maybe their data, you know, because they always have a lot of data, maybe their data suggests that any sort of constructive criticism turns off the few people that are watching the games, especially the Wizards games, because you've got to be hardcore die hard to be watching Wizards games, right? You really do. Yes, yes. So, you know, we've seen that with, you know, the football team in recent years. Those that were hanging on and still spending big money were actually the few that would get upset when you were critical of the team.

You know, they were the ones, no offense. They were the marks over the long, you know, stretch of the last, or certainly the last five, 10 years of the Snyder era. But you can't, I have not talked to JP or Grant about this or Buck. There's no chance you can offer an alternate cast like this with the format that they'll have without allowing them to be constructively critical. You would think that they would allow their post game, you know, people, pregame and post game people. But you and I have both heard, I think everybody's in town, in town has heard, that it is very much frowned upon.

if you are critical of the teams. Yes. Absolutely. You know, I mean, I don't have a lot of faith in anything Ted does anymore, warranted by the debacle of the arena in Potomac Yards. Now, he went on one of his little spin doctor interview sessions this past week. He did an interview on the front of office sports podcast. Are you serious?

Oh, stop, stop. He went on a front office sports podcast. I think every single person in town has asked for Ted. I'm talking about sports talk radio-wise. And it's been crickets, crickets. And he went on a- Bruce Allen did. Remember Bruce Allen? He'd go on TLP. Yeah, he did the same thing. Well, he also went on 1067, the fan, just to stick it to 980.

I But What is the front office sports podcast anyway? Who does that? Who does that? A front office sports is a legitimate sports No, I know what the news site is, but I didn't know they had a podcast

who hosts the podcast. It might be Eric Fisher, our old friend from the Washington Times, I think. Okay. I'm not sure. All right. But my point is, in his WTOP interview, you know, because he thinks he can get away with anything, particularly, you know, given certain venues where he does these things. And he said this.

He said he was surprised how difficult it was to do business in Virginia, which is, as you know, from listening to May's preach for years, is the exact opposite. of what I've been saying for years now. Of course. And he says it caught him by surprise, how difficult it was to conduct business in Virginia. That's just, that's either disingenuous or dopey, one or the two. The other one, he says, you know, I'm not a politician. I think this guy was the mayor of a small town in Florida once.

Is that true? I think so. Google it. I think he was mayor of a small town. You Googling it. You Google it. Hold on. You're the one who said it's true.

Mayor, Ted Leonis, mayor of Florida town. He once served as the mayor of Orchid, Florida. There you go. Leonsis got involved in politics after he ran a friend's campaign for Congress and worked as an intern for Paul Songis's office in D.C. Oh my God! He has donated to the camp. This guy was me deep in politics.

I say, I smell a column. I smell a column coming. It might be written before we're done today. That's pretty funny. That's pretty funny. It really is. But, you know, no one calls him on it. And they think that they just talk the great lie into existence.

And then, you know, that's their MO right now. I had the, did I tell you this? tell you this because I texted you to see if you had any suggestions, but I had Mayor Bowser on the radio show yesterday. Great for you. I can get her on.

There's a gatekeeper for Ted now. You can't reach out to like any of the PR people. There's some sort of gatekeeper you got to go through and I sent her this person a bunch of information and just it was crickets after that. Whatever. I mean, he's not

Anna. Her name is Anna. Yeah, exactly. He's not moving the needle for any of us anyway. But I, Mayor Bowser, I thought she was really good. She did say something that was, I thought, like, really? And I asked her how she felt. She said that she knew when she watched the press conference with Yonkin and Ted that she had a pretty good feeling it wasn't going to happen. And the reason was she said, Ted didn't look happy. Nobody looked happy. And I said, that's an interesting interpretation because I think a lot of people, and I'll just say myself, watched it and saw someone who was super giddy and excited. There were people on that stage that day that were so moved by the announcement they had tears coming down their face.

Good point. But maybe she knows him in a way that nobody else does, or maybe it was more that she really understood, and she did speak to this a little bit. She understood what you've understood, what Ted claims was a surprise to him, and that was that it was, Virginia was going to be hard for it to get done.

Yeah. You can, by the way, if you want to listen to that, anybody. It's at the Team 980.com from yesterday's show, April 1st show. All right, what else? I wanted to mention Larry Likino passed away. Let's do that. Let's do that. I've got one more thing as well to get to. We'll finish up the show right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey guys, the elite eights are over and the final fours are set in both the men's and the women's tournament. Prize Picks is the place to go to for Daily Fantasy Sports.

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You can't afford to wait. It's easy. Call 86690 Nation or visit windonation.com right now. All right, Tommy, I know you wanted to talk about Larry Lukino passing away. He's a guy that I think you were really hopeful would have been a potential buyer of the Nationals. Yeah, or the Orioles. When Larry Likino heard that both teams were for sale, he really was very interested in being part of what was going to happen here because he was such a big part of it before,

but he didn't have the energy and he ran out of time. He died at the age of 78. He was a cancer survivor. I don't know what he died of. But he is maybe the most important owner in baseball in the last 50 years. Why? It was his vision that resulted in Camden Yards of a ball. a retro-style ballpark with modern amenities.

That was his vision, his idea, and he had the drive to do that. The architects, when they presented Larry with a stadium, the architects a year before had designed New Kamisky Stadium, the White Sox Stadium. It's an abomination, and they presented Larry with the same thing for Camden Yards. And Larry literally took pieces of the market. model, threw them across the room, said, this is gone, this is gone, this is gone. He had a vision, and that changed baseball. I mean, because then you've got over a dozen stadiums that followed in the next 15 years

built on this, you know, retro-style modern amenities philosophy, Coors Field, Jacobs Field, the ballpark in Arlington, PNC Stadium. I mean, that's Larry's vision. that's the impact he had on baseball. And that really helped revitalize baseball more than anything, all the new stadiums that they had built over a 20-year period, not the least of which is then he goes, first he went to San Diego from Baltimore and built a new stadium in San Diego because they were talk about the Padres moving.

Then he goes to Boston, and what does he do? He does the opposite. He saves Fenway Park. He said Fenway Park is too important. We're going to come up with a way to figure out how to renovate and fix up Fenway Park. So it has more of a modern touch, but it doesn't lose its charm. And he did that. He saved Fenway Park.

Wow. And just just, and they won three World Series while he was the owner up there. You know, 2004, 2006, and 2012, I think. And I knew him over the years when I wrote the book, Home and the Game, the story of Camden Yards. He was a big source for that. And he's one of the smartest businessman I ever known in my life. Yeah, I know you've always spoken so highly of him.

And, I mean, he passed away too young of an age, too, for this day and age. He is the only sports executive to have a final four ring in basketball, to have Super Bowl rings from when he worked for the Redskins when EBW was part owner, and World Series rings. Wow. But he played for Princeton. He played for Princeton with Bill Bradley. Yeah.

That was a good team, right? No, I'm thinking. Yeah. Were they a good team? Was the Princeton team? Yes, they were. They went through the Final Four. Oh, they did?

Okay, so was that the year that Ohio State won it with Jerry Lucas or something like that? It may have been. Yeah. Okay. A couple of other things just to finish up with. Number one is this. The NC State Duke game on Sunday night, the last of the Elite Eight games, it was the most watched Elite Eight. games since 2019, 15 million plus watch the game. I got to tell you, I'm very surprised. I shouldn't

have been, but before this tournament started, I just wasn't, I didn't have much juice for it. I've since gotten juice for it, and I've watched a lot of the games, but it was viewership overall on Sunday was up 34% over the last year. It was the most watched basketball game at any level, any level since 2022. It's Duke. It's Duke involved. It was a holiday Sunday, right? It's Easter Sunday. People are, you know, in their homes maybe. I don't know. But I can't wait to see the Iowa numbers from last night. But good for the NCAA tournament. They've, it's, they prove year and year out that people may not care about this sport, November, December, January, and February,

but they will tune in to see how their brackets are doing. Speaking of brackets, I haven't even looked at it, but we can look at it on Thursday to see how we're doing. Washington signed a player today. Just saw this come across via email. Michael Walker is a linebacker, got drafted by Dan Quinn's Falcons in 2020. I mentioned the other day that Olamidi,

Zechias, the receiver that they signed from the Falcons, had had a really good game against Washington in that 2022 season when they got to 7 and 5. You know, before the tumble down the stretch. And the Falcons came in. It was Thanksgiving weekend. Washington won the game 19 to 13. Dron Payne tipped a Marcus Mario to pass that got picked off by Kendall Fuller. Well, in that game, Michael Walker had an interception in that game.

So two players that they've signed played really well in what was a crucial game that year for Atlanta, because they were in the hunt too, and it got Washington to seven and five. Taylor Heineke through the interception. Speaking of Taylor Heineke real quickly, he is sticking in Atlanta. He had to take a massive pay cut to stay. His expected $5 million base salary was cut to $1.21 million. But good for him. He's staying in the league. Staying in the league is a backup quarterback for Kirk Cousins in Atlanta. Because remember, they got rid of Desmond Ritter. But they basically made Taylor Heineke take a massive pay cut. Remember, the deal he got last year was a decent deal for a backup quarterback in free agency.

But it was really more of kind of a one-year deal where there would have been cap savings had they released. him. Now his cap number is essentially cut in half for the Falcons. But Taylor will be in Atlanta. I thought there was a chance they were going to release him. There was some discussion that Atlanta was going to release him. I think he would have been picked up had they released him. He's played well enough, certainly as a starter in Washington for some games. And I think Taylor Heineke's proven to be a backup quarterback in this league. So if the Falcons had released him, I bet you that they would have, somebody would have picked him up. Yeah, probably. Him and cousins together in Atlanta.

Do you have anything else? Nothing else for you, boss. All right, that's it for today. I'll be back tomorrow.