The Kevin Sheehan Show - Jayden's 'Friendly' Wager

Episode Date: May 9, 2024

Kevin and Thom today on the news that Jayden Daniels and his LSU teammate Malik Nabors made a $10,000 bet on who would win the NFL's Offensive Rookie of the Year award. The boys reacted to Jamal Murray's response to questions about his $100,000 fine for throwing things at a referee. They also talked Nats-O's, basketball to football players, and more.   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.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. The show's presenting sponsor, as always, is Window Nation. Call them at 86690 Nation. Head to Window Nation.

com. Mention my name for a free, no obligation in home quote. Tommy is here. I am here. Tommy, are you feeling better than you were feeling yesterday? You really, you were slow to the punch. lunch yesterday, and I know that it was long travel and the charity event, Cigars and Curveballs on Monday night. You didn't want to do the show yesterday.

No. No, I didn't. In fact, right up until you started walking away from Shelly's Monday night, I wasn't going to do it. But then I said, okay, I'll do it. Well, you did. I said, can you do it tomorrow, meaning Tuesday? And you're like, no, I cannot do it tomorrow. And then I said, well, okay, well, then we'll do the Wednesday, which by the way, was the schedule you gave me. You told me that you didn't want to do it Tuesday and that you would do it Wednesday. And then when I said, all right, well, then we'll do it Wednesday and you're like, I don't really want to, I don't think I can do it Wednesday either. And I said, well, what do you mean? That's not tomorrow. That's two days from now. And I think I tried,

I started to emasculate you a little bit and you finally, you know, grabbed my arm, pulled me up against a chain-link fence and say, fine, I'll do it. That was such a great story for those of you that missed it yesterday. Tommy thwarted the attempt of a pickpocketer in Ireland. The guy picked the wrong guy to try to pickpocket, that's for sure. Yes. Yeah, I mean, you did not sound well yesterday. Well, no, I was, I faded.

I think I was okay. You were okay in the beginning. I mean, you got this story. I was excited. It's a good thing we did that in the opening segment and didn't save it for the last segment. Yeah, but I faded as it went on. You were fading. No doubt you were fading.

I mean, did it just all kind of come together? You knew Wednesday, which was still, you know, it was still 40-something hours away from the end of the Shelley's event on Monday night. But you knew, you know what? You know your body. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but you know your body and you knew you weren't going to be super sharp for an hour plus on Wednesday. No. I was still feeling the effects of red kryptonite.

How do you feel today? I feel like I could burst through the fortress of solitude, baby. All right. You know who doesn't feel well today? I'm ready to go. But never complains. Me? I was up for basically the entirety of the night with a dog that was not well last night.

But she's much better, and that's the good news. But your boys working on maybe, maybe an hour and a half from last night. I trudge on, no complaining. Although I do have something going on with my neck right now. I don't know what it is, but I'm sure I slept. on it at some point because I didn't sleep much last night wrong and I got some sort of probably some sort of disc issue going on. Whatever. All right. I wanted to read this email to start the show. It comes from Dan. Dan writes, I'm 44. I listen all the time, but can't believe

that both Kevin and Tom are rushing Jaden Daniels into the starting lineup. The line is bad. The system will be new, and there's no pressure to win in 2024, so why rush it? Marcus Marietta is actually better than most fans think and could be a great mentor and a player that could make Jaden's transition much easier. Jaden Daniels being great three years from now is what's most important, and playing right away and risking early career adversity, and perhaps even injury, because he's not ready, seems very short-sighted. Well, thank you, Dan, for the email.

There is some Jaden Daniels stuff that we have to get into today. For those of you that may have seen the headline about his wager with his college teammate, Malik, neighbors. We will get into that. But you did agree with me yesterday that he should start week one or that you didn't have a problem with him starting week one, right? Yes. Yes, I did. I understand, and in the past, maybe years ago, I'd be all in favor of bringing along the young quarterback slowly. But like you pointed out, how many games did he start in college over 50? Yeah. He's been starting at quarterback in college since before the pandemic began. Yeah. He threw touchdowns to Brandon I.U.

He's 23 years old, yes. Yeah. No, no, no, no. This kid should be ready to play, and he should be a better option for them than Marcus Marriota from game one. Now, I do have, like I've voiced yesterday, I mean, I don't think they've done, I do have concerns about their ability to protect him. and but you know there's been I just think that you know he came baby you got to put him out there that's what you that's what you picked him for yeah I think you know I don't have a problem with what Dan writes especially if he's not ready I would not advocate putting him out there if he's actually not ready.

And as Dan writes, you know, would be risking early career adversity or maybe even injury because he's not ready. If he's not ready, they shouldn't put him out there. What I am saying and have been saying is that I expect him to be ready. And if he isn't ready, then I think I would be concerned, not concerned to the point. of giving up, I mean, that's not going to happen in his first season. But, you know, he's got all of this experience in all of the lead up to the draft. He and Caleb Williams were described as the most pro-ready. You know, if they had drafted Drake May, who was not their number two quarterback, J.J. McCarthy was. If they had drafted Drake May with all of the discussion from a lot

of the, you know, so-called experts about him needing time, then I would have expected maybe Drake May not to start this season. They drafted Jaden Daniels not because he was the most pro-ready. I hope that's not the reason they drafted him. That would have been a stupid reason to draft him. You draft him because you think he's going to be the best quarterback and have the best quarterback career, not because he's the most pro-ready to start with.

It's a long game, you know, when you draft a quarterback number two. But if he's not ready, don't start him. I'm with you. I'm just saying that if he's not ready, I would be surprised and just a tad concerned. This is a guy that's played a lot of college football, is 23 going on 24. He's got a high floor, if you want to talk ceiling floor, because of his mobility. He's coming into an organization that doesn't have an incumbent that isn't expected. to win. I actually think that works in favor of playing him, is that you don't have to win in

2024. You can use 2024 as that rookie season for him to have ups and downs and not worry about needing to win nine or ten games because every rookie quarterback's going to have, you know, ups and downs. You know, I went through the list of quarterbacks going back to Robert Griffin the third in 2012, who were picked number two overall. Every single one of them, with the exception of Mitchell Trubisky started week one of their rookie season. Robert Griffin did. Marcus Marietta did. Carson Wentz did.

And then you had, where are the others? Zach Wilson did. And C.J. Stroud did. The only one that didn't was Mitch Trubisky. He started by, I think it was by week five in Chicago. So it's not an, the era we're living in isn't to sit quarterbacks for a year. Even Anthony Richardson last year, and I've used him as an example, was picked, you know, fourth overall.

And everybody said the same thing about him that they're saying about Drake May. He needs a year. If you're willing to sit him for a year, then pick Anthony Richardson. Well, guess what? He started week one, started week two, then got injured and missed a lot of the season. But I just, if you're, if he's not ready, I would be surprised. I'd be a little bit concerned. But if he isn't ready, Dan, then he shouldn't play right away.

It just would be, I don't know, a little bit, just a little bit concerning. Because this is a guy that everybody says, well, put in the work, is ready, played in a pro system. And it's not like, you know, he's sitting behind Aaron Rogers, like, you know, as the 26th pick in the first round, like Jordan Love was. Go ahead. You know, we've always said, and this is what we've been told by players and coaches alike, that the players know who should be starting. And it'll probably be obvious to them before the season starts

that Jane Daniels should be out there on the field for game one in the locker room. But, you know, that theory, I think, took a little beating last year because I'd be shocked if really, based on what they saw in practice and in training camp, that Sam Hal was a better option than Jacoby percent. Right. You know, and we didn't hear any squawking from the players about it. Yeah, that's true. But, you know, Sam Hal had taken. talent. And they, you know, a lot of what the players see during the off season and, you know, before you start playing games, is they see things like the arm talent. That's where the wow factor was

with Sam Howe during the off season. And by the way, let's keep in mind, it's not like Jacoby Berset had been on the team. He was new to the team and new to the offense as well. It was also, I think, ultimately a dysfunctional situation, as we've talked about before, because of the lame duck head coach and the offensive coordinator that he hired. You're right. You know, Dan also mentioned Marcus Mariotta. I actually think he's right. I think Marcus Mariotta actually has played better than probably a lot of our fans believe

that he has. He hasn't played at an outstanding level. Like, oh, he should definitely be a starter level. but he is one of those guys that is a low-end NFL starter backup, you know, at this point in his career, he's 30 years old. But in Atlanta, a couple of years ago, before I guess he went AWOL when he got benched for Desmond Ritter, he actually played pretty well. And Atlanta was playing well.

You know, they had that game here in Washington in which he basically drove him down the field for what would have been the winning touchdown on the past. Ron Payne got a hand on it, and Kendall Fuller intercepted it. But I thought he played pretty well. He throw 93 career touchdowns and 55 interceptions. Is that what it is? That's not bad. It's not great, you know, in this day and age.

It's not bad. For a backup quarterback, those are pretty good numbers. What are the career numbers that you just said that are pretty good? 93 career touchdown passes and 55 interceptions. Yeah, it's not great. That's not good at all. Typically for backup quarterbacks, the interceptory is a higher. In Tennessee, he was the starter there for three or four years, right?

And in Atlanta, he was the starter. Like his last season starting, because he was in Vegas, that's right, he was in Vegas behind Derek Carr as a backup quarterback before Carr went to. Started in Atlanta in 2022. Yeah. And he, and that's what I'm saying. He wasn't terrible that year. I'm looking at his stats now.

completed 61.3% of his passes, started 13 games, 2219 yards, 15 touchdowns, nine picks. You know, it's fine. You know, if Jacoby Brissette were back here for another year, I bet more people would be okay with him not starting week one after what we saw from Berset. After what we saw from percent in that small little window that we saw them, yeah. I think people would feel that way. All right. So there is another Jaden Daniels story that we should address here. And it's funny because we talked about and played some of the Jaden Daniels sound from the Kishan Johnson podcast the other day.

And I think we were in agreement yesterday, right? It's like, wow, he handled those questions well about being the week one starter. You know, that's not my call. Absolutely. You know, in the NFC East where he got prodded to say we're going to win the NFC East and he didn't fall for it. Well, I guess the part we missed yesterday is the part that's blowing up right now, which is the part where they ask him, and I think it's Kishan's son, asks him about this bet that he has with his good friend from LSU, Malik Neighbors,

who was picked number six overall by the New York Giants. Let me play this for you, and you can hear it, and then we'll respond to it. Is it facts or fiction that you and him have a rookie of the year bet going on? Man, he wasn't supposed to tell nobody. It's supposed to be, we got a little something going on. What's the bet, though? Is it money or it was?

How much? 10. Who won a rookie to year? That's nothing for y'all now. You guys are. I mean, he put it out there, so it's like. That ain't really. I can't say he caps.

Yeah, we did miss that from the Kishon Johnson podcast. You could tell that Jaden didn't really want to admit this. He said, man, he wasn't supposed to tell nobody, as in Malik Neighbors wasn't supposed to tell anybody. So you can tell that he understood that this probably shouldn't get out, but it's out now, and it's a headline right now on ESPN. n.com, Jaden Daniels, Malit Neighbors have $10,000 offensive rookie of the year, a bet. John Kime wrote that there's a good chance that this bet doesn't happen.

A team source said that the education for rookies on gambling policy takes place during their rookie mini-camp, which, by the way, for Jaden Daniels, begins actually this afternoon. with orientation sessions and continues tomorrow and Saturday. And John writes in his story, the bet could end up being canceled afterward. ESPN has contacted the NFL League office to determine if this would violate its policy on gambling, but did not immediately hear back. The league's policy states that NFL personnel are prohibited from placing, soliciting, or facilitating any bet, whether directly or through a third party,

on any NFL game, practice or other league event, such as the draft or combine. It includes betting on the outcome of a game, statistics, the score, or individual performance, or other prop bets. The 2022 gambling policy stated that gambling includes private wagers between teammates, family, and friends, or others. But that was not included in the first. revised 2023 policy.

So there you go. What do you make of this? You know, I mean, the word that that everybody shook up these days, and rightfully so.

I mean, people's antennas are up about gambling in sports right now, and I think they should be. I think people should be very vigilant about, again,

I'm all in favor of legalized sports betting, but, But that requires even more vigilance than before when it came to whether or not, you know, there's betting activity that could be perceived as, you know, as problematic. This doesn't necessarily fall under that category, but now it's become, because players have been suspended for a year, it's become a lightning ride, you know, a friendly bet between teammates is now a lightning rod situation.

So I understand that reaction to it. I don't think it's going to amount too much. It's an easy thing to address and to say, no, we're not going to do that. And that's the end of it, right? Yeah, I think so. I think there is a difference between, you know, a bet with a friend and a bet with an actual sports book, you know, or an illegal, legal or illegal. Part of it is that, you know, it's a bet that you, not that you shouldn't pay all of your

bets and wagers, but, you know, lots of friends have like a running tab wager, you know. It's like, we're going to bet on this and, you know, we're going to come back and we're going to play cards and we're going to play golf and, you know, we'll settle when it gets to a certain number. But it's not like, it's not like, you know, it's not like, you know, you know, we're going to play. you know, you've got a gambling entity that can come to you and say, if you're down a bunch of money, hey, I've got a way for you to clean the slate, you know, which has led to a lot of the concerns over athletes betting. And that's the integrity of the game has to be there or you have professional wrestling.

And you can't allow players to bet, you know, with sports books legal or illegal. But this sounds like something that probably, you know, 25% of players in sports have going on. Betts with friends, bets with teammates, et cetera. With that said, I'm glad that he recognized that it's not good for this to get out. I think there's some recognition there. I know I'm probably giving him too much credit because I want to give him credit when he said he wasn't supposed to tell anybody because I'm sure. when they made this bet.

It's like, hey, we can't tell anybody about it. And then neighbors went and told the Ryan Clark podcast. That's where the question came for Jaden Daniels on the Keishon Johnson podcast. It's because they had already heard Malik neighbors say it. So he understands that it shouldn't have gotten out. But maybe the part of it that I would have recommended he not discloses the amount. you know, people It's kind of a

relative thing, but I, I, this bet's going to be, they're going to take this bet back after this rookie minicamp and the introduction to gambling. You're going to hear that, yeah, we canceled that bet. I think John comes. So there are questions about it this weekend

from B-writers. But you know what, it'll come up. You know what, Tommy? I know that there's a lot of money involved for the NFL. And by the way, for the players. You know, the players benefit when the NFL benefits. I think most people understand that. There's always this feeling like the NFL's making all this money at the players' expense or taking all this gambling money. Well, no, they get, you know, they get 49% of the revenue. You know, they're in a

rev share with the league. So the players benefit from all this too. But I'd love to see what the number is in terms of how much revenues being generated through their, you know, partnerships with gambling entities, legal gambling entities. Part of me thinks it's, you know, I guarantee you if I were sitting in their shoes, I could never turn down the money that is there for them. They also benefit from, you know, sports gambling because it just raises interest overall in the sport. And, more people are interested than ever before. Gambling was always a big driver of interest even before it became legal. But, you know, I just don't know if, as you like to say...

I think it's bigger. I think it might be more than you think because of the accessibility of, I mean, right there on your phone. What do you mean? You don't have to walk into a sports book. What I'm saying is, what I was about to say is, I just wonder. if it was worth it for the league to jump in bed with sports gambling the way it did. If the juice is worth the squeeze, you know, it's a lot easier for them to come down hard on gambling. It would be, I think. And not that they haven't, you know, Calvin Ridley was suspended for a full

season. We've seen that. Shockatoni, who played for Washington, got suspended for a full season. But there is some hypocrisy in all of this. And I just, on some level, I know the pitfalls of this. A lot of people that talk about gambling or have just gotten into gambling, I don't think they really understand, you know, the danger in this for people. There are plenty of people. The majority of people can bet and never be at risk because they're able to do things in moderation. but the people that can't, and some of those people are in the league.

Some of those people are probably in the league office. This is why I hated the way, you know, Ted, you know, pitched it very naively in the early days of legalization a couple of years ago with the sports book and being the first and trying to be so super edgy and talking about how, you know, with the kind of data that was out there, you can almost make a. living doing it. It's just that part of it, it bothers me because I know it's not true. And you don't win gambling. I mean, I'm hypocritical. I have a gambling partner as an ad partner on this podcast. I bet, you know, and I know that my bookie's a good place to bet, but, and I'm taking the money because it's a big deal for sports, you know, books right now, to spend big money on advertising to try to acquire customers. It's become very competitive, but I don't know about the leagues doing this.

The NFL in particular, which, you know, it's not like they absolutely need it. Some of these other leagues do. But I'm sure it would be too much money for me to turn down to if I were in the Roger Goodell seat. Yeah, I mean, ignoring it isn't going to make it go away. I know. I think being part of it, I think they feel like they can maybe foolishly or not or not have some control over it. They ignored it for years and it was a big part of what drove league interest. The league doesn't, you know, the league is not the sheriff on this thing.

The sports books are keeping the integrity of the game. They're the ones that monitor suspicious betting. The league doesn't know that. League's not taking bets. ESPN is, and they're a league partner. I haven't heard much about that app. But anyway, anything else on this? I don't think this will lead to much.

It's not great judgment from elite neighbors. to have disclosed this, to be honest with you. But, you know, Jaden Daniels confirmed it. So you could say maybe not the best of judgment, but you could tell that he was doing it reluctantly. But anyway, I think they'll... Let me ask you a question about something else. Sure.

Why is he doing the Kishon Johnson podcast? I don't know. He's an L.A. guy. I think he's known Kishon. I think he's known Kishon's son, who's a part of the podcast. I wasn't aware of that. Yeah, that's my guess.

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offensive rookie of the year. Now, as I understand it, the way it works, this will be a bet that the public can make, right? Yes, of course. It's a prop bet. This is a normal prop bet. It's not an outrageous prop bet. You know, who's going to be the rookie of the year, offensive rookie of the year? Yeah, I mean.

The whole betting public can bet on this. Yeah, if we're being, if we wanted to get into the bet that Malik Neighbors made, he made a dumb bet because his odds are longer than Jaden Daniel. He should have gotten odds on his $10,000 bet because Jaden Daniels is right around plus 900. Malik Neighbors is like plus 1,500. So, you know, he should have, he should have gotten somewhere. around plus 600 on his bet, his $10,000 bet with Jaden Daniels. I had this, by the way, real quickly on the mock schedule from yesterday.

CJ sent this to me, our guy, CJ, who was there the other night? It was good to see our boy, CJ out. So the Orioles put out a notice to their fans that their Sunday, September 8th game, at home against Tampa Bay has been moved from 135 to 1205 p.m. That would suggest, I think, that the league is told the Ravens, they're going to open up Sunday night football. And they play Washington at home. Now, will it be Washington or would it be, you know, somebody like the Steelers,

you know, an archer rival or, you know, the Bengals or even the Browns? A lot of buzz about the Steelers is off the season. What about the team that they're going to have with Russell Wilson? Justin Fields? Or Justin Fields. Yeah. And they got high grades on their draft. Huge grades on their draft.

There's a lot of buzz about the Steelers. People already picking, some people are picking up to win the division already. Really? Yes. The Steelers are being picked. to win their division? There's no way that they're the odds favorite. Some people have picked it.

I just say that the Steelers, there'll be a lot of buzz going into the season about them. I could easily see them opening against Ravens on Sunday night football. Yeah, I mean, the Raven Steelers game and rivalry is always a big draw. but they also play Buffalo at home. I could see that being the Sunday night game. I could actually see Washington and Jade and Daniels opening up in Baltimore, too. On my mock schedule yesterday, I did have a Sunday night game in Baltimore in October, October 20th. Dallas has been, I'm telling you, they have played that Sunday night spot so many times.

But that would be an indication that maybe the league's told Baltimore they're going to be the Sunday night. game. They do play Dallas, but they play them in Dallas this year. And I would guess, by the way, that if Baltimore's the Sunday night game, let's just say it's against the Steelers, well, Dallas doesn't open up on anything other than prime time typically. So that would give them the Monday night opener. And that could be against Washington, Dallas, Washington, Monday night football, to open up the season in D.C., in Dallas? Who knows? Anyway, I wanted to get that out.

Speaking of Baltimore, yeah. Did you see the reports that Lamar Jackson says he's down to 205 pounds? I have not seen that. Yeah, he's going to be much faster, he says, this year. And his weight is, because he's on purpose, his weight is down to 205. What did he play at last year? 215, I mean, what does he need to lose weight for?

He just won his second MVP. He's pretty damn fast already. You know, it's hard for me to actually conceive how 10 pounds is going to make a difference. Yeah, I mean, it's, you know what, it's kind of hard for me to concede to be able to see that too, although I could use it. you know, there's that stat out there that since 2000, I think it is, that quarterbacks that come into the league, Lamar Jackson's already in the league, but the quarterbacks that play it below 210 pounds, there's basically a list of them and they've all failed.

None of them have been, and that's one of the reasons people believe Jaden Daniels didn't weigh in at the combine. and he did end up weighing in on his pro day, and he was at 210, right? Lamar Jackson, to me, looks great, but whatever. The big thing with Baltimore is somehow getting through in the postseason when you got to sit back, drop back, and make throws on third down,

which he hasn't consistently done, at least in the postseason. He hasn't, but he's won a lot of regular season games. That's for sure. All right. I wanted to get to this, and I know you saw this as well, and I want to play it, because we talked about Jamal Murray yesterday on the show, and the fact that the league did not suspend him for throwing objects out onto the floor to referee from the bench.

I mean, let me just repeat that, because I almost feel like we've undersold what he did. He threw a towel and threw a heating pad, at a referee from the bench while the game was going on. I don't know that that's ever happened, that players have thrown something at a referee. Roberto Alamar once spit in the face of an umpire. I do remember that. But throwing things at a referee,

and he didn't get suspended for it. I was, you know, wasn't that I wasn't surprised. I was disappointed. Adam Silver not suspending him. didn't really look after the referees or protect the referees in that particular instance. I think you should have been suspended. You agreed with me yesterday, right? Absolutely. I agree with you 100%. Imagine the reaction. What would have happened to a fan if they threw something from the stands onto the court during the game?

Ejected and not allowed back for a while. They'd be banned from the arena and they'd probably be charges filed against them. I mean, if somebody had gotten hurt, like somebody slipped on the heating pad, you know, Carl Anthony Towns or somebody from Minnesota, he probably would have been suspended. I also said yesterday, I think I did to you, that if Denver were up to nothing in the series or maybe if it was 1-1, maybe they would have suspended him for game three. But, you know, they're looking after themselves here. They need this series to continue. They need more product. They want Denver to remain alive. And if they lose Jamal, Murray, no matter how badly he's played in the first two games, they don't have much of a chance of beating Minnesota in game three. And if you go down three nothing, no one's ever come back from

that in the history of the NBA playoffs. But anyway, he spoke yesterday. He did not speak after the game on Monday night. He did get involved in a media scrum yesterday, and I'm going to play it for you right now. It is what it is. And I take everything for the most possible. So on to the next. Was it just a frustration boiled over? Is that what happened? Yeah, onto the next. I mean, two days ago, not much for me to say about it right now.

Were there any conversations that you had with people or anything just to kind of, like, apologize or whatever maybe take this particular? Do you have any basketball questions? No. So he did say I take everything in full responsibility, but, he had no interest in talking about it and acted as if they should be talking about something else. I'll let you start. Basketball questions?

Say again? He said basketball questions? Any basketball questions? Yeah, at the very end. Do you have any basketball questions? I mean, it was two days ago, not much for me to say about it right now. What do you say about this? Well, it's funny because I'm sitting there thinking, you know,

know, somebody should say to them, basketball questions. You've proved something on the court. Why would anyone ask about the basketball questions? I mean, there's nobody in the history of the league that we can remember who's never done that. I mean, look, he's an idiot. They're most of them are idiots. You know, it's an idiot league. It is not.

The idiot players. It is not. Yes, it is. No, it isn't. Okay. Whatever you say. I watched these great games that people talk about. And they only talk about them being great in part because they're close.

A lot of them haven't been. I see guys walking. I see guys. I see guys. It's just, it's just, I can find it's not. You don't like the NBA. Can you focus on the topic for crying out loud? Are you done?

Well, I can see. He's an idiot? No, not done yet because he's an idiot. Yeah. It certainly was an idiotic way of handling that, no doubt. Anything else? No. Okay.

Sorry to offend your sensibility. Well, it's just you don't watch the NBA. So to have this, you know, strong opinion on how awful it is, it's just it's, it's entertaining, but it's also it's ignorance because you don't know because you don't watch. You admit you don't watch. I watch the NBA, and every time I watch NBA, no, you don't. You don't watch it. Exactly. Did you watch the Knicks Pacers game last night?

You're going to tell. I didn't watch the Nick. So if I don't watch one night, does that mean I don't ever watch it? Did you watch the Knicks Pacers game last night? I should watch. You've told me you don't watch the league. You've admitted you don't watch it. I do sporadically watch games here and there.

All right. Well, I can't keep up with whether or not you're watching or not watching. Just as much as it did, the time. time before I watched it. This was incredibly idiotic. I mean, Jamal Murray has gone from being an incredible clutch closer. He closed two games against the Lakers out, one with a buzzer-beater, the other one with a shot with three and a half seconds to go.

Incredible fourth quarter play in that series. To being nine of 32, he was three of 18 the other night. And now he's got something attached to him that I think. think he could have gotten out of, but he didn't. And answering the way he did without any level of contrition is just really bad judgment. I actually would put some of this without knowing for sure, but if he wasn't coached up for this press conference, you know, because I do agree with you, these are young people and some of them aren't the brightest. The whole league isn't filled with a bunch of it of idiots.

but there are some dummies for sure that need help, you know, from a public relations director. Like, this is a big deal. You know, there is outrage from a lot of places that you weren't suspended. You're going to meet with the media. I need to sit down and prepare you for this because this is how you should handle it. Now, maybe they did. And he said, no, I'm not going to handle it that way. I'm going to go out and basically act like, you know,

This was not a big deal, and I'm here to take basketball questions. First of all, like you said, basketball questions. The only thing anybody's talking about as it relates to you is what you did from your little sandbox on the bench the other night. I mean, what you did was so immature and reckless. I mean, it really was. And so the only answer is I was frustrated. I did something that was out of character for me because he doesn't have a history of this. I was wrong to do it.

It was reckless. It was dangerous. I apologize to not only the Timberwolves, my team, the referees. I need to do better. I need to play better. And I will. and there wouldn't have been many follow-up questions, you know, probably. He could have read from a statement.

It was that kind of a, it should have been treated as that kind of a press conference, right, Tommy? After that event, it should have been treated by the PR people as, you know what, we're going to help you write a statement. You'll read from a prepared statement. And then hopefully that'll put it to bed and you can answer basketball questions. I also blame Adam Silver in the league because I think when he got fined instead of suspended he felt like it wasn't that big of a deal. Yeah.

You know, like... I'm sure he doesn't think... I'm sure. You know, I'm not saying, I can't say I'm sure. Maybe he does now based on the reaction to what he said. But I'll bet at the time he didn't think it was that big of a deal. and when the league signed him, I'm sure he still didn't think it was that big of a deal. It's really, it is, it's just pitiful the way that was handled.

And, you know, there are people out there, and I always find this entertaining. Leave him alone. You asked once, he gave you the answer, leave him alone. You know, they'll blame it on the media. Look, there are some times where the media is excessive and overboard. This is the only thing that matters talking to Jamal Murray yesterday if you've got a job in media. And the fact that he wanted to move on and did not want to express any level of contrition is why the questions kept coming. And I don't know, you know, you and I have talked about this before.

being a PR person for a team nowadays is getting harder and harder because PR people, they don't listen to them, and then you've got a lot of PR people that are just actually hesitant, if not afraid, to tell players and coaches, no, you need to do this, and this is how you should answer this question. But, well, like we talked about this before and the problem starts at the top. If the general manager or even higher of a team has not let the team know that this person in charge of media is speaking for him. Okay? That's his voice. when your media guy is in the club locker room,

giving you advice on something, he's speaking for the general manager, he has my full support. That's what you don't see anymore. I'll tell you what, for the way he handled it yesterday, I think Adam Silver should slap another fine on him. He clearly doesn't understand the actions from the other night. By the way, I'm just reading this right now. Patrick Beverly, Bucks guard, you know, everybody knows Pat Bev and the, he's rather, he's got rather a short fuse and is a bit odd.

Suspended four games without pay, this would be for next year because the bucks are out, for throwing a basketball multiple times at fans and for an inappropriate interaction with ESPN producer Melinda Adams after Milwaukee season ending loss of the pay. Pacers in game six of their first round series last week. If you miss that, basically he looked at this producer and said, are you a subscriber to my podcast? And she said, excuse me? And he said, I'm only talking to people who subscribe to my podcast. By the way, I think I'm going to start doing that. Do you listen to my podcast?

If not, I'm not talking to you. I mean, you talk about an idiot. Pat Beverly. Actually, he's actually very interesting. I've seen him interviewed so many times. Scott's had him on several times. He's actually a very interesting person, but that was idiotic, for sure. Well, I think there's a criminal investigation going on into that case.

Into what case? Oh, throwing the basketballs? Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. Yeah. I think the police are investigating it. Okay. To see if there's any assault charges involved.

So I'll take a moment to talk to all of you out there that have actually been watching the NBA playoffs to talk about the game last night, which was a crazy game. Jalen Brunson got hurt in the first half, only had five points. Indiana built a 12-point lead. And on the anniversary, maybe I can work Tommy into this conversation. I know, the Willis Reed. On the 54-year anniversary of Willis Reed. coming out of the locker room to score four points in the game that you've often said was Walt Frazier's game, which it was as the Knicks won the title 54 years ago, yes, last night, I guess.

But Brunson came out in the second half and scored 24 of his 29 in the second half. He's on just an incredible role. What a player he is. I never saw this coming. I didn't see it coming when he was at Villanova. I certainly didn't see it coming when he was at Dallas. he was great. He's one of the best small guy scores we've seen since maybe Iverson.

The game, so a lot of controversy over the way the first two games have been called, and there's no doubt that Indiana's gotten the short end of the whistle in the first two games. But they put in a complaint to the league of over 78 calls that they claim were, incorrect and went against them. But if you've watched this series, which I have, the biggest problem Indiana has is they are a terrible defensive team. You've seen some incredible defensive performances in the postseason so far, especially Minnesota and Oklahoma City. Indiana just doesn't guard. And so until they fix that, they can complain all they want. They're in big trouble, although New York's hurt. I mean, Anna,

Anobi got hurt at the end, hamstring. Brunson's, you know, hurt, Mitchell Robinson's hurt. Wouldn't surprise me if Indiana wins a couple of games this weekend. They can really score. I like, I've always liked Rick Carlisle, Tommy as a coach. I don't know what he's doing, having Nemhard guard Brunson most of the time. I mean, Brunson's laughing. He was on one foot last night, shooting over him. The garden, man. I'll tell you what, I would like to, If it's Nick Celtics, I would love to go up to New York for one of the games in Madison Square Garden. It looks like it's one of the most incredible environments in sports, the way that that fan base is into it. I've heard it's just off the charts.

I haven't played in some of those Nick Celtics playoff game back in the 70. Yeah. You know, I can tell you it is an electric atmosphere. It looks at. really, really entertaining game last night. And tonight, I mean, the Celtics just look like. I just can't see the Celtics not being in the NBA finals. But you get a chance to see another Oklahoma City effort tonight.

They are fun to watch. And then we get Knicks Pacers twice this weekend in Mavs Nuggets tomorrow night to see Jamal Murray, what kind of response he has in a game that he shouldn't be playing in. All right, we got a few more things to finish up on. and we will get to those 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.

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access to a center is easy and affordable. Interested in experiencing the EE-System technology for yourself, we'll go to unifiedhealing.com slash sheen to learn more and find a center near you. That's unified spelled, unif-y-d-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 Shelley's where I'm sure they'll have the NBA playoffs on tonight if you want to go down there and watch games. Absolutely. A lot of people the other night at my Cigars and Curvalls Fundraiser discovered what a special place, Shelly's is. And Shelly's is special for a lot of reasons. And one of the reasons are the food specials that they have daily from their great menu of excellence.

And let me just tell you what today's special is. Today's special is something that if you're planning on watching the NBA game, you know, eating a nice dinner. This should be your item right here. Shelly's Cordon Blue Burger. A half pound of shelley's custom blend. They have a custom blend beef. Angus Groundchuck, beef short ribs, and beef frisket

are blended together for their custom blend of beef. Topped with honey ham and blue cheese on a butter toasted bun served with ranch dressing, fries, and a kosher Bill Pickle. That's only 1595. That's a hell of a deal. That's a good deal. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's a quality meal deserving of the excellence of the NBA.

Okay. And you can have all that at Shelly's. And if you get bored watching the NBA game, you can watch the smoke just come out of your cigar while you're smoking it. Shelly's backroom, 1331 F Street Northwest in the district. There's some Washington commanders news. Nikki Javala reporting that the commanders are not renewing the contract of Senior Director of Player Personnel, Eric Stokes. He joined in 2020 as the director of pro scouting and then was elevated to his current role in 2021.

I think once you get through this first draft with the new GM, then he starts to look at the entire front of office, scouts, et cetera. So expect some changes. Remember, Kyle Smith was here with Ron Rivera through that first draft. It's hard when you get in in January to reshuffle the whole deck. And the scouts have been the ones out there, you know, getting you ready, getting the organization ready for the draft. So Adam Peters probably will revamp that department. The Nats lost last night, Tommy, but a good game. Seven to six in 12 innings last night against the Orioles. They were down two runs twice, once in the ninth, once in the 11th. But, you know, not a bad two days for the Nats who were back at 500 at 18 and 18.

I thought it was an excellent two days for the Nats. I think they learned something about themselves. I think they feel even better about themselves than they did before going into the game because the Orioles are a measuring stick. You know, this is maybe the top team in the American League. And, you know, the Nats blanked them the first night and went toe-to-toe with them, taking them the extra innings, you know, last night, and really could have won that game as well. Even though they didn't play that well, they left a ton of runners on base.

12 men on base, yeah. Yeah, yeah, and they still were right there through 12 innings. So these were two good days for the Washington Nationals moving forward. And I think there could be some exciting baseball coming up. I mean, if you were at the park last night, I wasn't at the park last night. I mean, I was there too tonight, and that was a good game. But last night it was pretty dramatic, especially when I went into extra nings, I was watching on TV.

You know, they made a couple of mental errors that probably cost them the game. Jordan Weems, the reliever overtrew on a play to second base. Jesse Winker, shrews are the wrong guy on a play at the plate. Should have thrown the second base. But overall, a positive two days for the Washington National. Yeah, and Rosario has had a really good stretch of games after having such a horrific start to the season. He's got five hits, four RBIs, and two home runs,

two home runs in his last three games, including a homer last night in the ninth, when they were down 3-1, that made it 3-2, and then they ended up tying it up and forcing the extra endings, so good for them. You wanted to talk about something that I did on radio today. Austin Rivers, who is an NBA player, although he's not with anybody right now,

he is the son of Doc Rivers, the Milwaukee Bucks head coach, made a comment on the Pat McAfee show that 30 players in the NBA could play in the NFL and that zero players in the NFL could play in the NBA. And that sparked a lot of conversation. J.J. Watt said, you're not playing for anybody right now. But go ahead and try it. So football players have always had this idea that, yeah, we play a contact sport. So you better enjoy the contact basketball players.

But we've seen, you know, great basketball players play in the NFL, Antonio Gates, Jimmy Graham, you know, Julius Peppers, you know, Tony Gonzalez. You know, a lot of players have played basketball at a very high level in college and played at a very high level in the NFL. But you wanted to... They were football players who played basketball. They weren't basketball players who played football. Say that again?

They were football players who had played basketball. They weren't basketball players who had played football. Well, they were college basketball stars, in some case, who then ended up playing in the NFL. Who would that be? Well, that would be Antonio Gates. That would be... Was he a college football star?

Some of these guys were college football players, but they were more known as college basketball players. And Antonio Gates was known more as a basketball player. Yeah, he was in the Elite 8 against Indiana with Kent State. Big-time player was, you know, I think he was an All-American or it was like, you know, honorable mention all-American basketball player. at Ken State. They played in the Elite Eight against Indiana the year that Maryland won the national championship in 2002.

So what did you want to say about this conversation? Because I did a call segment this morning where I said, give me the NBA player that you are convinced and would be excited to see play in the NFL and at what position. And there are a lot of players that I think people think would be awesome NFL players. Russell Westbrook always comes to mind for me as a guy that could be a safety, could be, you know, an outside linebacker. Lou Dort is the guy I mentioned. If you watch O'KC, he is just a brute at 6-4, you know, 240, and he's just so physical,

so defensive. He just looks like a linebacker. You know, people have mentioned, you know, a lot of other players as well. But did you want to add to the conversation with a player that you were thinking of? Is that why you wanted to talk about it? No, no, here's what I wanted to say. Okay. And I wanted to make it about me, which I rarely do.

Right. You know, there are NBA players who have the physical skills to play in the NFL. I don't know if there's NBA players, many NBA players, who have the heart to play in the NFL. And we're talking about the load management league now. You know, this isn't, this isn't the NFL from 20 years ago, let alone 30 or 40 years. The NBA, you mean? Yeah.

Yeah. The NBA. You're running out of gas again today. You're fading here on the stretch. Here's my point. At the cigar event the other night, we were trying to bid on, and we were trying to to generate bids for an item for a boat ride out of Annapolis that on a weekday afternoon with me, myself, and NFL players, John Booty, and Ken Harvey.

And it didn't generate much interest. I mean, you know, it was near the end of the auction. but in order to generate that, I said, I'll even have Ken Harvey show some of his past rushing moves on me on the boat as part of the thing, which didn't seem to interest anybody. But Ken Harvey came over to me, and he grabbed my arm, and he did a move that was a split-second move. move on me

and all of a sudden right there, I realized the power and he's 59 years old. Okay. The power and the speed of NFL players is just

is like something from an alien planet. I mean, I knew that from years ago but this was just a reminder to me. I mean, he grabbed me for a moment on my arm, and my life was not mine at that point. Well, he's lucky he wasn't reaching for your back pocket. That's what he was lucky about.

He is lucky about that. Look, all of these guys are... And the NFL is a tough, tough, tough business. And the NBA... They're not playing two ways. They're not playing both ways anymore with leather. their helmets. You know that? I know. I know. I mean, I'm sure.

The NBA is, again, it's the load management league. It's kind of farcical to talk about players playing in the NFL when they can't even make it through, you know, three NBA games in a week. Well, I'll tell you what. I disagree with Austin Rivers that zero NFL players could play in the NBA. There probably are a few NFL players that could play in the NBA. Some of the NFL players were phenomenal, you know, high school basketball players. And, you know, you take a guy like Miles Garrett. Have you ever seen Miles Garrett or Anthony Richardson in the athleticism? But I absolutely think that basketball players are the best athletes. I've always felt that way. And I'm not so sure out of 500 players in the league, it's not more than 30 that could play in the NFL.

And there are lots of positions. Now, you know, you have to, the big thing with basketball and football, and anybody that's ever been a part of any of those sports, you got to like contact. You know, you can't shy away from contact. But there are plenty of NBA players that would be okay with the contact. And then others that you'd probably be surprised would not be okay with the contact, which is why they play basketball.

But I do think that there are a lot of basketball players that if they focused on football, would be able to play at the NFL level. And yeah, and that's it. What else? Nothing else for you today, boss. All right. Well, you know, let me know when you're going to sit down and actually watch an NBA game. And then maybe we can talk about it during the game, so I know that you're actually watching it.

and then come in here and let it play out on the podcast, see if I can get your mind changed on it. You know, when I send you a text that says, is there quicksand in the paint, then you'll know I'm watching the NBA. Because they're just stuck and sinking in it? No, then nobody wants to step in it. Oh, oh.

Well, I don't know about that. Of course you don't. Jalen Brunson get into the paint as a 6-2 player. Okay, maybe I should have amended it to defenders. You don't watch the game. But that's okay. It'll never stop you from being sure about what it is. That's why we love you.

All right, do me a favor. Get some sleep because you faded a little bit here day two. By next Tuesday, I hope you're ready to go full strength. This load management's killing me. I need you here. Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'll watch an NBA game this weekend. I'll try to figure out a way to force myself to do it, like eating my broccoli.

Well, you know what? It's better than asking you to go out and play golf. All right. Have a good weekend. I'm back tomorrow, and we should be able to talk tomorrow about what Jaden Daniels looks like in a Washington uniform. of minicamp, rookie minicamp tomorrow. All right, Tommy. See you.

All right, boss. That was it. Mixed out of run here. Branson gets to the basket. Is fouled. Brunson really added to work to it. Brunson, off the prize, scores. Wow.

Set up for another terrific matchup between these two. Brunson, Bowling is way, and finishes with the right hand. Pacers need a stop. Nick's trying to add to it. Brunson going to work. Taurant and God! And they give the ball to their best player. Brunson.

Five to shoot. Brunson drag.