The Kevin Sheehan Show - NBA and Will Dan Snyder Choose QB?

Episode Date: July 1, 2019

Kevin opens with the craziness of NBA Free Agency. He then gets to Doug Williams' comments last week about who will decide on when Dwayne Haskins starts. Jerry Brewer/Washington Post joined the show to talk NBA and the Redskins. Kevin finished up with Nats, Skins-Eagles week one odds, and the Mark Rypien story. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. All right, I am back from vacation. It was a short one, not a Tom Laverro-length vacation. Aaron was here the whole time, but we didn't do a show for the last three days of last week. And I missed it. We're back today. This show is presented by Window Nation. If you're in the market for Windows, call 86690 Nation or go to WindowNation.com and tell them that we told you to call. Max Scherzer and Anthony Rendon. Congrats, by the way, to Rendon. He's going to his first All-Star game, but Aaron told me before the show he probably doesn't even want to go to the All-Star game

because he's enjoyed sitting home for those days during All-Star break when he should have been there in years past. We'll get to the Nats a little bit later on. NBA Free Agency is the talk of much of the sports world, especially in legitimate NBA cities. Washington isn't one of those. They're just not. Their owner, I'm sorry, their governor, Ted Leonis said shortly after firing Ernie Grunfeld

that the team's open GM job was the best available open job in sports. Here was the quote exactly, because we've referenced this many times since Ernie got fired, and I went back to find out exactly what the quote was, and this is what it was. He said, quote, we're very focused on trying to make everything that we, touch world class. I don't think we have any doubts that this is the best important open job in all of sports right now, closed quote. That's funny, actually, as we've gone through the last couple of months, the Wizards haven't been able to attract anyone to this best important open job in sports. They are barely even recognized really as an NBA team among NBA fans. The Wizards

are on par with franchises in sports that nobody cares about and nobody really knows much about. That's where they are now. Like the Charlotte Hornets are like a good comp in the NBA. There are probably a half dozen NHL teams that the Wizards are on par with right now. They are irrelevant, totally irrelevant. They are never mentioned when it comes to anything relevant, big name trades, big name free agents. Everything about them is small. including the exhausting and insufferable tech speak that we get from Governor Ted.

I know the John Wall contract is smothering the life out of this team. I understand that, but they could have dealt Beal. Bradley Beal is not the difference between contender and non-contender. You've got to think big, and believe it or not, starting over by trading Beal would have been a big thought. Instead, they are stockpiling second round picks. Wee! That's my! fun? In today's NBA, in all seriousness, you need bold, risk-taking big stones dice rollers. That's what you have to have, like Brooklyn has. You don't need a headphones-wearing software code writing programmer. That's what the wizards have. You know, it's actually interesting, and I thought about this last

night, Aaron, is that the owners in this city, the governors in this city, they own the wrong teams. actually think Ted would be better off owning the Redskins, and Dan would be a much better NBA owner. Get all the stars. Aggressive works in the NBA. Impulsive works in the NBA. Restraint self-control. That works better in the NFL.

Ted's ownership of the Wizards is not a good match. It's not a good match. Meantime, by the way, on yesterday. I mean, it's crazy. Do you know that $2.9 billion went out yesterday in the form of new contracts and contract extensions? That's one of the craziest days in the history of the league, although it seems like we're getting this now every July, this year, June 30th. Jerry Brewer wrote about this, and he's going to join us a little bit later on in the show. Brooklyn went for it, and it may pay off, but they went for it. thinking aggressively and perhaps even impulsively is actually the new construct of the NBA.

Ted likes to use, we are working within the new construct of the NBA. No, you don't. Governor Ted is the opposite of what the construct of the NBA is the new construct. The new construct is that patience and overanalysis is paralyzing to an organization where thinking aggressively and going for it gives you. a shot. Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, DeAndre Jordan to the Nets, gives them a chance. They went all in. It may pay off. It may not. Not going for it has no chance of paying off. Sure, you could be one of those teams that get super lucky over a period of years and draft Kevin Durant, James Hardin,

and Russell Westbrook. But even that team didn't even get, well, they got to one championship series, they didn't win a title. Personally, I think Kyrie Irving is an incredible talent, but he's a loser. I'd also be concerned that while Durant is one of the best individual players on the planet, there's no debating that. He may not be capable of winning it all as the primary lead. And then there's the injury with Durant. Durant may never be the same.

And I say that and I also recognize that Durant isn't one of those players. that relies solely on his wheels, you know, to score 27 points a game. His shooting ability isn't going to change. His ability to get to his spot and score isn't likely going to change that much. But they won't have him for much of next year. 2021 is probably the target for Nets contention. I'm not a big Kyrie Irving fan. I'm not the biggest of Durant fans.

I love watching him play. Don't get me wrong. and I recognize he is a top three player on the planet in this league. And the Nets did the right thing by going for it. I personally would wager that it doesn't pay off in the form of a title down the road. That would be my wager, but I respect what the Nets did. You have to have a top five player to compete for a title, and they have one now, if he returns healthy. Kairie playing second fiddle probably suits him better.

And they also get DeAndre Jordan. Four years, $40 million for DeAndre Jordan. He's one of the biggest winners of yesterday. The Knicks certainly seem to be the losers in all of this, certainly in New York. According to reports, the Knicks were never prepared to offer Durant a max deal. You know, they feared his Achilles injury, according to the reports. I don't really believe it.

I just think that the Knicks have basically one of the worst ownership situations in all of sports, and it would make sense to me that Kevin Durant wasn't going to go from one of the best ownership situations in all of sports, or governorship, I'm sorry, situations in sports to one of the worst. It's probably one of the reasons he never even gave the Wizards a meeting in 2016. Now, I think part of that was he did not want to come home to play. But he was in a great ownership situation. He wasn't going to New York to play for the next. So he ends up in Brooklyn.

The Warriors, meantime, are changed significantly after yesterday. I wonder if some of the reports about Durant being unhappy with the team and the medical staff, which I read actually on the day that I left to go away. I wonder if they played into his decision to leave Golden State. Durant and Andre Agadala are both gone. Igadala, part of a trade that sends DeAngelo Russell to Golden State. Russell steps into a back court with Steph Curry until Clay Thompson returns. Clay Thompson's returning on a five-year $190 million deal when he gets healthy off the ACL.

How about the changes in Philadelphia? A team that always seems to be changing. Jimmy Butler gone. To me, at times, he was by far and away their best playoff performer. He goes to Miami in a sign and trade. Al Horford comes to Philadelphia on a $109 million four-year deal. They also lost JJ Reddick, but they re-signed Tobias Harris. They're going to be interesting with Horford. I'm an Al Horford fan. I wish the Wizards had won that battle with Boston, but they don't win those kinds of battles, right? They just don't. They were in trouble Philadelphia was last year when Embedde was physically unavailable or just physically not right. Horford's going to help a lot with that. The East is nuts. Now, obviously, it depends on.

on Kauai Leonard in his decision, and that's the last big major domino to fall, and it hasn't as of this morning. But the East saw Malcolm Brogden leave Milwaukee for Indiana, where he will team in a backcourt with Victor Oladipo when Oladipo's healthy. Indiana could be really good. The Bucks lose Brogden, but they keep Middleton, Lopez, and Hill. I thought George Hill was really good for them in the postseason. And now we wait on Kauai Leonard. The Raptors, the Clippers, or maybe the Lakers. I hope he doesn't go to Los Angeles to play for the Lakers. If he leaves Toronto, I hope it's for the Clippers.

More than anything else going into yesterday, and I know a lot of you aren't into this. I am into it not like I'm into the games, but my one hope was that Kauai Leonard would stay in Toronto, more than anything else, and try to repeat next year. I hope that happens. In terms, by the way, those stories that started to,

come out late last week about Kauai and Durant teaming up, that would have been a problem for me. It's just like I don't want to see Kauai and LeBron play together. Kauai is the lead. He's your number one. He proved that he doesn't need a significant star elite number two to win a title. I'd like to see him try to do it again. By the way, in terms of the odds to win the NBA championship next year, after all of yesterday and even early this morning's moves, the Lakers are still, even though they did not sign another elite player, not yet anyway. Kauai's still out there.

They're still the heavy betting favorites at 3 to 2. They're a 3 to 2 favorite to win the title next year with Anthony Davis and LeBron James. Then it's Milwaukee at 6 to 1, Philly and Golden State at 10 to 1. then it's Toronto, the Clippers, and the Jazz, which all the sudden are a very interesting team to watch next year, and the Rockets are all 12 to 1. The Wizards are 400 to 1 to win the title. The only teams with worse odds than Washington are Cleveland and Charlotte. By the way, just back to the irrelevant wizards here, one last minute. Bobby Portis was a restricted free agent.

He's gone to the Knicks. Thomas Satteransky traded to the Bulls for a second. round pick. He got a three-year deal for good money in Chicago. I'm happy for him. Trevor Areza signed with Sacramento got really good money. The Wizards did re-sign Thomas Bryant three years, $25 million, and they signed Isch Smith this morning. They signed Ish Smith a few years ago, right before the season started, and I remember being thrilled about that signing, and I said, he's the perfect backup for John Wall, super fast, pace won't change. I've always like Dish Smith as a backup point guard. They're getting him two years, $12 million. And some of you

picked up on this on Twitter and remembered how much I liked Mo Wagner, the Michigan Center, who got drafted in the first round by the Lakers last year. While I was on vacation, the Wizards acquired Wagner, Isaac Bonga, and Jamario Jones, and a 22 second round pick. They are stockpiling second rounders. The anti-Ernie. Yeah, they are, they got those players from the Lakers as part of the Anthony Davis trade, and it costs them $1.1 million in cash considerations, I think, to New Orleans. That trade, by the way, actually resulted in the Lakers having enough cap space to pursue one of those big-time free agents, but Durant and Kyrie and Butler, they've decided on other players and only Kauai Leonard has left. Anyway, I like Wagner. I liked

him before the 2018 draft. He'll get a chance here. He's big, he's strong, high motor, high energy can shoot it. I think he's going to be a good, a good player one day, and hopefully it'll be here. One last thing, I promise, on all of this, specific to the Wizards. Man, did they mess up badly by not dealing Trevor Arisa and or Jeff Green before the trade deadline? Who knows what will happen with Green? I mean, as much as I am the biggest Trevor Arisa fan, they weren't going to the playoffs. He was a rental. He more than likely was not going to stay here or sign here. and they got nothing for him. And you know what?

Have you seen what basically the Otto Porter trade has now produced since Bobby Portis signed in New York? Depending on what happens with Jabari Parker, and I don't know if they're going to re-sign Parker. I thought he played well for them at the end of last year, but again, he's not like a major difference maker, and he's going to cost a lot of money. The Wizards, if they lose Parker 2, for Otto Porter, the Wizards got a 2023. 23, second round pick from Chicago for Otto Porter. One other thing, I lied. There is one other thing, because I saw this a little while ago,

David Aldridge reporting that the Wizards are interested in Isaiah Thomas. There you go. Enough about that. While on vacation, Aaron, the most tweeted thing in my direction was the quote from Doug Williams on Dwayne Haskins in an interview he did with Steve Weich. who's Steve White's with, NFL Network, right? I think so. I think so, too.

Here was the quote, if you missed it. I know most of you have seen it. I did not respond on Twitter because I just thought I'd wait until today to respond. I actually wrote a couple of responses and then I deleted them saying, no, I'll wait till I get back because it's hard to do it in 280 characters or less.

But the quote, that's what it is now, Twitter, right? 280. Right? It was 140 now it's to it. Okay, good. This was the quote from Doug Williams in the interview with Steve Weich talking about Dwayne Haskins. Quote, I know there's words out there that Haskins might end up starting, and that could happen. But at the end of the day, that's going to be on Jay, myself, and probably Bruce, and the owner,

and what he does during preseason, and to see where we are as a team to make that decision, closed quote. Oh, the surprise, the anger from so many of you reading that quote. I clipped out a couple of them. Steve on Twitter. That's it. Dan Snyder and Bruce Allen take the decisions on who starts a quarterback away from the head coach. I'm done. And then Steve wrote, oh, wait, I was already done.

From Lane on Twitter. Jay Gruden will do what Dan tells him to do when it comes to the most important decision the head coach makes. laughable. From Andrew on Twitter. So Bruce and Dan will be involved on the quarterback decision. That's really encouraging with a laughing emoji. That was pretty much all of the reaction. Nobody seemed thrilled with this quote from Doug Williams. Here's my reaction. First of all, I love Doug Williams. It's hard, however, to really take anything he says literally. He may be saying exactly what everyone in the building is thinking. He may be what everybody's agreed upon. He always,

also may just be riffing in an interview. Some of that riffing has gotten him in trouble in the past. I haven't heard what anyone inside the building thought about his comments last week to Steve Weich. But here's the thing regardless of what Doug says, whether or not you take him literally or not, whether he was riffing and didn't mean to say what he said or totally meant it. Here's the one thing we know. All right. Dan Snyder was behind the same. selection of Dwayne Haskins as much, if not more than anyone else in that building. The reporting at the time and since revealed that several of the so-called football people in the organization didn't agree with Dan's evaluation of Haskins.

Again, not that they didn't like him as a prospect. I've said this many times, and many of you take what I'm saying to be overly negative and you take it out of context. I'm saying it wasn't that they didn't like him as a prospect. I think they did the football people or so-called football people. I think they did like Haskins, but they didn't agree with Dan's evaluation where Dan had him as a top 15 pick. The football people didn't have him that high. We know that many other teams that had quarterback needs also didn't have him evaluated that high.

How far would he have dropped had the Redskins not taking him at 15? I mean, we've gone through this exercise before. It's possible he could have made it to the late portion of the first or even the second round. I've been told that several of the so-called football people had him evaluated there. Late first, second, not top half of the first. They liked him. They didn't like him at 15. But the fact that it didn't matter to the owner where the football people had him evaluated is all you need to

to know when it comes to the decision on when Dwayne Haskins plays. The football people will have their opinion and the owner, and perhaps even the team president, will have theirs. Whose will matter most? That's easy. The one that mattered most on draft day. The owner's opinion is going to matter most. Whose opinion should matter most?

Well, of course we know the answer to that. The coach's opinions should matter most when it comes to who plays and who doesn't. and when they play and when they don't. But the owner's opinion matters the most on this. He proved that on draft day. If you want to tell me that the quarterback decision is a decision, by the way, that in many organizations is handled this way, it's managed through a consensus approach with the owner heavily involved,

I would say that those organizations aren't likely very stable and more likely than not don't win much. That's my immediate reaction to that. Coaches make on-field football decisions. When to run it, when to throw it, when to go for it, when to pun it, and who plays and who doesn't. If your coaches aren't given that final say responsibility, you've neutered them, period.

Snyder has done it before, and it won't be surprising if he does it again. Now, some of you might say this situation is unique. Jay Gruden is a lame duck. They need to protect Haskins or do the right thing for Haskins because the head coach has a shorter term agenda and the organization needs to be thinking longer term. Okay. But if that's true, why the hell is Jay Gruden even here? Why didn't they move on from him like they tried to move on from their defensive coordinator?

I just can't buy into, they are looking at Gruden as if Gruden's not going to be here, therefore Gruden's not going to be the final say-so on this. That's not the way it is. The way it is, I believe, is that the owner wants to have the final say-so on this, as he did on draft day. There's a lot going on here. I think all of you realize that. My preference on all of this, there are,

What do they bring to camp? 80 players? I think it's 80 now, Aaron. At the end of July when camp starts, and you've got 80 plus players there, I want the best players to play when they get to the real games. You got three quarterbacks, you might have a fourth in there. In the case of the quarterback, I guess there is one conversation that to me is worthy of everyone's input. When it comes to a rookie quarterback, that one conversation would be, hey, Jay, you have the final say-so on whether or not he's ready or not ready. If he's not ready, don't play him. If he is ready and he wins the competition with case and cold,

or it's legitimately close, play him. That's the direction from the top that I would accept. The direction from the top, not being the final decision, the direction from the top saying to Jay Gruden, J, U, Kevin O'Connell, all of the offensive people, whomever you have involved. Coaches, you decide on whether or not he's ready to play in the NFL or not. And if he's ready, he plays if he wins the competition or he's legitimately close.

If he's not, he doesn't play. I don't want Dan and Bruce watching preseason games and saying, he's ready. We can get him ready for Philadelphia. He just went seven for ten in the third quarter against Cleveland in the first preseason. season game. If Jay knows he isn't ready, I don't want Dan and Bruce telling him they think differently. Jay and Kevin O'Connell and all of them out there get to decide if he's ready, not Dan and Bruce. If he is, he plays, period. If he doesn't, if he's not ready, he doesn't play.

It's not that hard, but it usually is with this organization. Doug should have said it that way, by the way. I mean, again, we've talked about Doug being, you know, the occasional spokesperson for the organization, and it doesn't always work out for the organization. He should have said, Dwayne's coaches will let all of us know when Dwayne is ready to play. It's their call. That's how it should have been handled. Now, if behind the scenes, they have given Jay some direction, like, hey, you get to decide on whether or not he's ready, but we are all deciding now as a group. that if he is ready, he's playing, if that's a decision. Or we're all deciding as a group that regardless or not, if he's ready, we're going to be patient.

We're going to hold him out. We're going to make sure that he gets a year to watch, whatever it is. But in terms of his readiness, that's a coach's decision. That's the way I would prefer. I think that's the way many of you would prefer. Although many of you don't really trust Jay and trust in Jay's decision-making ability. when it comes to these kinds of things. By the way, I did see something over the weekend.

Somebody sent this to me on Twitter. It was updated odds on the most likely NFL firing of a head coach. Like who would be fired first? Jay Gruden's the odds on favorite now. Sounds right. Does it sound right? If you're telling me that, I mean, maybe not because Dan Snyder doesn't typically fire people in the middle of the season, but if you're looking at someone on the hot seat with a hot head owner who might make that move in the middle of the season, then, you know, Jay Gruden and the Redskins fit.

Jay Gruden is the favorite at 5 to 1. Pat Schumer is next at 7 to 1 in his second year in New York. And then you've got a bunch of people like Dan Quinn, Doug Marone, who else? I mean, Jason Garrett's always on the list, but he's actually further down the list than typical. Matt Patricia's on the list. You know, in terms of the top five, six guys favored to be fired first. But Jay Gruden is the odds on favorite right now, according to Sportsbook.com, at 5 to 1 to be the first NFL coach to be fired. All right. We got a lot to get to.

We're going to get to the Nats here momentarily. And we're going to talk to Jerry Brewer as well from the Washington Post about NBA free agency and the madness of the last couple of days. But first, a quick word about window nation. I've mentioned this many times on this podcast and on radio over the years. I've used window nation. I've had windows installed in my home twice over the last decade. Many of our listeners have had Windonation install windows as well, and it's worked for everybody. This is the God's honest truth. I don't have one memory of anybody getting an installation from Windonation based on my recommendation coming back to me and saying, oh my God, it went horribly wrong. Everybody has said, thank you so much for

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Plus get zero zero zero. What does that mean? Zero down payment, zero interest, and zero payments for the first 12 months, for 12 full months after you purchase these windows. Call them today. 86690 Nation, that's 86690 Nation, or go to windownation.com. Let's bring in Jerry Brewer from the Washington Post. We'll talk some Redskins with Jerry here in a few moments,

but I wanted to start with NBA Free Agency, because you wrote yesterday, NBA's Free Agency Circus is fun, but bad for the game. That was the title of the column. For those that didn't read it, explain what you meant. I think that was a little bit of a click-bating headline that someone wrote. I wouldn't call it bad for the game. I think there's a danger on the other side of all the excitement was essentially the point. And madness is wonderful.

Instability is terrible. So we just have to kind of remember this as we're, you know, our jaws are hitting the floor, you know, for six hours yesterday. As free agency began, let's just remember that you want there to be an end to some of this or you want there to be something that's good for the game that comes out of this. And my hope is that it just kind of resets the league, and there are a lot of very good teams that maybe pushes one team to become great, and we have parity of opportunity and parity of excellence, as opposed to parity of mediocrity.

And I think there's a chance that that could be happening, but then becomes the fight, Kevin, to keep these teams together. And the thing that bothers me in particular is that guys are leaving great situations, guys are leaving very good situations, guys are getting what they want, and then two years later wanting something else. And mind you, that's the freedom that players get in free agency. And also mind you that the players have never really been responsible, for

exactly, you know, enacting policies that are for the good of the game. They've never really been a part of that process. It's been about what they earn and rules that make things fair for them and so on and so forth. But now that they have a seat at the table in terms of how teams are built

and how they're wielding their power, I think they also have to take that responsibility of what is. exactly here is good for the game. And that's hard when you've got 400 people making individual decisions. And it's only their right that they make their individual decisions. So there's a lot of weird stuff in there that you have to monitor and you have to be careful about, even as we enjoy and to celebrate what early July is will come in the NBA. Yeah, I think I agree with a lot of what you said. I found it very interesting here over the last several years when it comes to this

sport. I love basketball, probably more than anything. And I like the NBA a lot. My kids love, I have three boys. Two of the three are really into sports, and they love this almost as much, if not more, than the games that we just watched, which I thought the NBA playoffs after round one were really compelling. And the Toronto run in particular in the way Kauai Leonard played was just incredible to watch, but this has, you know, even during the playoffs, it was, where's Durant going to land? What's Kauai Leibah going to do? And all of the talk about what was going to start yesterday, it almost exceeds in terms of interest the games themselves. Now, that may be my reaction, and it may be a social media thing more than anything else, but do you agree with that?

And to me, that's the part, Jerry, that is unhealthy. But I guess for some, this is entertainment and it's the best part of the league when it comes to entertainment. No, I think you're absolutely right, Kevin. That is unhealthy. I mean, that is, you know, eating a Snickers bar for lunch instead of a well-balanced meal. And that's the most concerning thing. And it's something that I've expressed in columns more specifically. You know, the free agency is supposed to be a mechanism to make your team better, but then also in a sense to make the game better. You know, this is, you know, one of the two major avenues,

are three, if you want to include trades, to make your team better. And ultimately, like, it shouldn't be the show. It is a medium to get to the show. And I want to see basketball front and center. And maybe all of these things that have happened, you know, since LeBron and the Big Three with the heat on through Golden State and on through LeBron and all of his decisions, maybe it's all leading to what we're getting this summer.

And next year we're going to start the year and you're going to see eight teams that you feel like could win it all. And we have a really compelling regular season and postseason. But it does seem as if we're getting to that. that point in which all you're anticipating is this. And I think Golden State, and I would argue with anyone who tries to say Golden State was bad for the league, I think they elevated on a lot of ways. But the fact that Golden State was so dominant made people turn their attention to this a lot of times.

And I'm really interested to see what next season is going to be like, because there isn't going to be that one team that everyone feels like if they're healthy, you can't beat. And then also the 2020 free agency class is nothing. So there shouldn't be just this amazing anticipation for things. Yeah, it does. I mean, the results of this past 24 to 48 hours, you know, and depending on what Kauai Leonard does, now if he goes to the Lakers, then you have a prohibited favor. You already have a prohibitive favor right now in the Lakers. But I think that the perception will be it's as wide open as it's been. And I enjoy that. I also recognize what the Warriors have done for the game over the last five years as well. When I said that this time of year

and the stars and where they're going to go and how they're going to get there and which stars are going to combine to create the next super team, while I say on one hand, Jerry, that I wonder if that actually exceeds the importance of the games themselves for a lot of people. The true measurement of these things, television ratings, clicks, etc. The games do. The games do. still matter. I mean, the ratings weren't great in the NBA finals, but they're still significantly higher probably than last night's, you know, the

jump show on ESPN. I would imagine that they are. It's just, it's interesting how the league and its stars get, as you mentioned, the stars and the players run this league more than any other, don't they? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And it's all

an incremental thing, Kevin. And it's one, you know, we're never going to have just this dramatic year, I don't think, in which the ratings just plummet and all of a sudden we say, aha, there's where the damage was done. I think it can all be done over a long period of time. And my thing is you just never want too much of one thing, just as if we had an NBA that was much more like the NFL and there was just this great parity year and every year out, what would we start saying?

There isn't a great team. All right. You have a great team. What do you want? You want parity. You have a superstar movement like crazy. What do you want, this thing to calm down? When it calms down, what are you going to want?

You're going to want, oh, man, what happened to these guys wanting to form these super teams? So I think it's an ebb and a flow. It's a check and a balance. And I think it's time for things to balance in the other direction. And then we'll start to see. And I just, more than anything, I want stars. to stop playing copycat, and just do what's right for you. And I think we have this period in which things like that could happen.

Kauai Leonard is definitely someone who, as a model citizen for the league, he thinks his own way. And I think that will inspire players to think about things differently. When you look at the Greek freak, Janus is someone who certainly goes his own way, is not bound to some of the conventions of American basketball because he didn't grow up in this system. And this whole thing with guys wanting to change their minds and move from place to place, it's at all levels of basketball.

I don't know how many high school stars do you see who stay in the same high school for four years now. No, they don't. It's incredibly rare. And we think about the transfers in college basketball, one season in which you don't, get to play as much as you want, you're out the door. So it's even deeper than just what's happening at the NBA level.

But what you just want is some variety and for guys not to just follow the same pattern. Kauai Leonard was so refreshing in so many ways, probably more so for someone my age than maybe somebody's super young. But I really hope he doesn't go to Los Angeles and play for the Lakers. If he goes to the Clippers, that's one thing. My preference would be that he stays in Toronto and tries to repeat with what was a very good team, overall team, not just a one-man show. What do you think will happen? Yeah, I'm a little concerned that he's going to go to L.A.

And I would be riveted by that just because we've never seen, you know, three of the top guys are arguably top five come together. and not even that Heat team. I mean, LeBron and Wade were clearly top five guys at the time. Bosch was probably 10 to 12, so close, but not quite like this. And just how little that would be around them. Let's not remember the heat had Edinus Haslam. And they also traded Michael Beasley to create the room to sign Mike Miller, another veteran. They had Mario Chalmers, someone they had drafted.

So they had a core of role players who weren't minimum guys with their big three. They still lost that first year to the Mavericks. And I honestly think if it's LeBron, Kauai, and Anthony Davis, I don't think they win the title next year, believe it or not. You know, depending on, I mean, if just a bunch of just ridiculous names signed minimum contracts to go there, that's another deal. but when you look at their salary structure and what they have available if they sign a third max guy and what should happen with other players, I just don't think that big three in Kyle Kuzma is going to be enough.

But we'll see. I mean, especially when you look at teams, I think what the Sixers have done is really interesting in balancing that team out. It looks like Milwaukee, Milwaukee lost Brogden, which is a huge. huge loss, but they were able to get Brooke Lopez back. They were able to get, most importantly, Chris Middleton back, Eric Bledsoe's under contract. They're able to get Robin Lopez as their backup center, who is, I mean, the combination of the Lopez twins is everything you want in a center. You've got this stretch five, and now you're going to have a backup who's just a really good

defensive player and really tough. So all of those teams, I think you can't rule out just because they would put together this super team in L.A. I hope that he stays in Toronto. And I think the Trump card, if I'm a Saijiji, I'm really playing up. You know our medical staff. You know our training staff. We went through the grind with you last year and had you ready to play at a finals MVP level.

we can do the same model next year. As a matter of fact, if you want to play 55 games instead of 60, that is fine with us. You will continue to manage your body where the Lakers situation, they have turnover on that side and some uncertainty in their training and medical staff. They just had a year in which an incredible amount of guys got hurt. You know, Brandon Ingram and Lonzo Ball and LeBron James' first major injury in his career, Rajan Rondo got hurt a million times last year. So I think I'd look at that and I'd say, well, maybe they aren't going to be able to manage you through this year.

And I think that, of all things, for all the glamour and glitz and all these big things, I think something like that could be more important to Kauai than any of those other factors. I also think in watching virtually every one of Toronto's playoff games after the first round, I thought Kauai seemed to really enjoy being the guy, you know, taking every big shot, or being the guy with the ball in his hands on every single key possession, you know, especially in the Milwaukee series down the stretch and in the finals. And I don't know that that would be the case. It wouldn't be the case in L.A.

We'll see. I had one last thought on this particular subject before I moved to the Redskins. and actually this will, in a weird way, segue into the Redskins. But as much as we talked about, you know, this time of year, and, you know, to me, some of it tends to be not nearly as entertaining as it is to some. The bottom line, though, Jerry, you got to have, and I mean, this is hardly, you know, a revelation, you got to have a top five player in the game to win a title, period. And the only chance you have of getting a top five player definitively,

is during this process. And so the aggressive, you know, risk-taking, you know, dice-rolling owner and thought process pays off and is worth taking more than, you know, in the Wizards case, a patient, restrained, you know, tech-speak code writer, you know, which is what they have for an owner. Because that doesn't work. And I made this observation earlier that in this city, Dan Snyder, might actually be a better owner for the Wizards, while Ted would definitely be a better owner of the Redskins,

where his self-control and restraint works much more in the NFL than it does in the NBA. I think that's a great point. I mean, if you could make that trade today, I think I would. I would make it as a fan of both teams. I mean, that is outstanding. Ted is very much a long-term strategy guy, and Daniel Snyder is very on the emotional end, and it would work in the NBA.

Yeah. It absolutely would work in the NBA. I do think just on one little – I think before you get to the craziness, you have to build a plan that is solid enough to build on top of that and to attract stars. If you want to – look at what the Brooklyn Nets have done. and basically all they did was get DeAngelo Russell and create a bunch of just really tough role-playing dudes. It's the same thing that the Clippers have done since they broke down, you know, from Lob City and that whole thing.

It's almost like you have to do just enough to have permission to go out and be crazy. And that's the problem, I think, that the Wizards had had is that they didn't have a lot. solid enough foundation of enough of those just gritty core guys to attract a star. Had a chance in 2016, but it didn't work out. I also think that there are some innate traits, geographic traits, that can help, even if you haven't laid the groundwork. Brooklyn, you know, they've done both, but it's also, you're in New York and you're in Brooklyn, and it's young, and it's hip, and it's, you know, it's a franchise that you could see

taking off. L.A., the same thing, you know, the same. Sixers, what they've done over the years, and for whatever reason, and I don't know why this is, but Washington has never been a destination for NBA players, even though, and you've lived here now for, what, five, six years, something like that, maybe even longer than that, it is a great city and would be a great city for an NBA player and a great city for young people, so much more so than it used to be. Yeah, the problem is you look at over 40 years, they just haven't put together a run more impressive than the one that they're just coming off of with Wall and Bill and Otto Porter.

You know, you look at that like it's something legendary and they never made it past the second round. Yeah. So I think they could get there and people would be highly attracted to come here and play. But you've got to do something better than that. And they got close this time, but to that point, I would say, look at the Toronto Raptors, a team that is in more of a disadvantage because they're in another country as far as attracting the American star. One thing I love that Missai Ujiri did, he built that team around their situation. It's like, hey, we're never going to be a team that's going to be able to tear this thing down

and go get Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. And they said, we're going to build this our way, right down to the risk they took with Kauai this past year. And if you look at that and you look underneath it, it really wasn't that risky because if the thing didn't work, they're going to have to tear this thing down anyway. And getting Kauai and getting rid of that long-term commitment to DeMara Rosen was going to give them an opportunity to tear it down faster. So it was actually genius. I'm waiting for the wizards. The wizards need to say, okay, this is what we are.

This is our standing in the league. And until we went enough to change our standing in the league, we have to build our team this way. And we're going to do it to the best of our ability. And if they do that, I think that's when you start, that's when you can become a Milwaukee box. I understand they have, Janus. But that's when you can start to do these things that really set the table.

for you to be something special. You have to realize that all 30 of those teams are not created equal, and you have to find your superpower. And for different organizations, it's different things that appeal to people. Yeah, I agree with that. I think that they did have that opportunity, though, for those couple of years where they were, you know, they were hitting their limit,

which was winning a series and losing in the next, round, even though they got very close in a game seven against Boston, and they probably would have advanced to the Eastern Conference finals had John Wall not gotten hurt against Atlanta, and yet they couldn't even get a meeting with Kevin Durant, and Al Horford decided not to come here, and it just still wasn't, for whatever reason, it still wasn't attractive enough. It just wasn't. Yeah, you look back and they should have done more intel on Kevin Durant, and I think that's when Ted Leone also thinks that he can really hit the home run if I can just get in the room with the guy,

especially someone who's a D.C. guy, I can really sell him on this. You look back, they were in a period there. You know, when they lost that Atlanta series, when John had that broken hand that he had to play through, that was the time to invest in that team. But instead, it was, okay, we're going to continue to work this plan. I guess before that, even, you had the opportunity to resign Trevor Areza and you didn't because you're going to execute this plan.

And, I mean, hindsight is 2020, right? It's hard to fault someone for executing a plan to try to bring, you know, the best or second best player in the league back home. But I think if they had done their research more on the slide, they would have realized the chances that he wanted to come back home were. extreme long shot. All right. So while I have you here, and I know I've taken up a bunch of your time already, but I did want to get your thoughts just on the Redskins here as we were about a month away from the beginning of training camp. I was on vacation for a few days last week and read the

comments Doug Williams had about Dwayne Haskins and that this would be more of a consensus, you know, decision on whether or not he plays. What did you make of those comments? And what is your gut feel on whether or not he'll, you know, start, you know, sooner rather than later? Well, we all hate that because we feel like, oh, the coach isn't going to be able to make the choice. But truth be told, this is how it works in any organization, and you just can't skirt around the fact that you've got this weird front office and ownership situation. Your owner's got to be better. And good luck there because he's been around for 20 years.

but it does seem like he has learned some things from some of his failures and we'll see where he goes from here. The whole thing was, you know, I mean, everybody knows how I feel about Bruce Allen. I think I got no faith in. And so that's where you get really nervous and afraid. But ultimately, like, I don't feel like that is

different from the norm in the league. If you're going to play your rookie quarterback or not, that is an organizational decision. And we're just left to pray that the organization is thinking about the right things. And we'll see. It's in their best interest to not even think about playing Dwayne Haskins next year until they have an understanding of what's going on with Trent Williams. I mean, their offensive line situation is, in terms of injuries,

it's enough of sort of a question mark. And then if you don't know whether you got Trent or not, I just, on one hand, you don't have weapons in the receiving game that are particularly impactful. And then you've got questions on the offensive line. Why would you want to throw a rookie quarterback into that fire? You know, especially one who, you know, it's not like he's Russell Wilson and is going to move around like crazy and make plays for himself or not like Kyler Murray is going to do or, you know, or name any other, you know, not like RG3 when he was young.

So I would not want to put a dropback quarterback in that situation. It seems like a situation for failure. Right. And I think that the best approach is you start the year. And if you're not any good, maybe you play them at mid-year. If you are better than expected, it just becomes a true red shirt year for it. Yeah, I think I would, your answer, I would debate one point, but maybe we actually do agree on it anyway. I think organizationally, it's okay that the direction comes from the top, hey, if he's

He's ready he plays. If he's not ready, we're okay waiting and we're okay being patient. But in terms of the person or group of people that determine whether or not he's ready to play, those are the coaches. You know, I don't want Dan and Bruce watching preseason games and seeing Dwayne go seven for ten in the second half against the Ravens and decide, you know... Yeah, against third stringers and say, hey, man, our guy looks great. You got to play them.

Nobody wants that, and that would be different than in good organizations where the coaches ultimately determine whether or not somebody's ready to play. There's a lot of – and there's so many complicated factors here because Jay Gruden, I'm sure, feels like he's coaching for his job. Of course. I mean, he's basically said things that make that clear. So that's tough. And maybe that skews his – his –

perspective where if he was in year one or year two, he'd say, okay, we're just going to hand it over to the rookie and whatever happens happens. If we go four and 12, we'll go get a weapon for him that'll make us that much better than next year. I think we're also in this period in which a lot of young quarterbacks have come on and made an impact early in their careers. And it is not the in vogue thing to essentially redshirt to a rookie quarterback. anymore. Not one who's taken in the top 15 of the draft. I mean, that is becoming incredibly rare.

So there's so many things. And it's just whenever it is a complicated decision with the Redskins, that's when I cover my eyes. And you look, I won't. No. They struggle with the easy decisions, let alone those with, you know, incredible extenuating circumstances that make them complicated. And, you know, I, I feel the same way you do. I don't have a lot of faith in the owner or the team president to make the right decision. And I, you know, I said earlier, Jerry, I said, look, for those that are upset, you should have learned on draft day that his opinion matters most. You know, if his opinion didn't matter most, Dwayne Haskins wouldn't have been taken at 15 overall. Last thing, and I'll

let you run, because it's been quiet on the Trent Williams front here over the last couple of weeks. Are you hearing anything? I'm not hearing much of anything because I've kind of been divorced from that conversation with NBA finals and such, but he's at an interesting time in his career and he needs to continue to put good tape out there. And if I'm the skins,

I probably play a little hardball in this situation or I try to just make the promise of, you know, you come, you show your good faith effort and you come, and we'll talk about this and we'll work something out. And I think that is ultimately the way it's going to go. Trent Williams has never struck me as an unreasonable person. I do think this whole deal with the growth on his head and I haven't seen it and wondered about it. it is in a bad place to where if they had to cut it off and get a scar, leave a scar. I could see how that really would upset someone and make him feel like I can't trust you anymore.

But I do think overall he's a reasonable person, and he's got a lot of skin in the game with this franchise. And one of his best friends in football and Adrian Peterson is still there. and I can see him saying it's in my best benefit. It's most beneficial to me to go out here, have a kick-ass season, and then really make my demand and make sure that I get what I want. And I think he's going to be in that mindset here in a couple weeks. I'd be surprised if we don't have more clarity in terms of Trent is there, and they're going to try to work this out at least for a year.

Jerry, thanks so much for your time. I always enjoy catching up and talking about a lot of different things with you. I'll talk to you soon. All right. Take care, man. Follow Jerry on Twitter at Jerry Brewer. Jerry, of course, columnist with the post, and I always enjoy my conversations when Jerry is on the show. Quick word about stamps.com, especially if you're a small business, listen closely.

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Now, right now, my listeners get a special offer that includes a four-week trial plus free postage and a digital scale without any long-term commitment. Just go to Stamps.com, click on the microphone at the top of the homepage, and type in Kevin D.C. That's K-E-V-I-N-D-C. That's Stamps.com enter Kevin, D.C. All right, there's several other things I wanted to get to from this weekend. We'll start with the Nats and Max Scherzer's brilliant performance. It's just one after another now. Shurzer struck out 14 yesterday in the Nats, 2-1 win in Detroit against his former team, pitched eight complete, 115 pitches, by the way, 14 strikeouts, just four hits allowed and one earned run and that was a seventh inning home run that tied it for

the Tigers and then Rendon went deep in the eighth to give the Nats a two one lead which Doolittle saved even though he gave up a hit and walked somebody in the ninth but he got to save anyway and the Nats won the game two to one. Shurzer right now is on a stretch of 13 what they call quality starts in a row. You've got to go all. all the way back now to April 20th, a 9 to 3 loss in Miami where he pitched 5 and a 3rd, gave up 11 hits and 6 earned runs to find his last non-quality start. Since then, the most hits and earned runs he's given up in a game, most earned runs, 3, the most hit 7, but other than 7 hits allowed, I'm sorry, that's

not the most. The most hits allowed in a game were eight during this quality start stretch. But other than that, it's all been six hits or less during this stretch. The most earned runs during this stretch, three. And by the way, that's only happened twice during this 13 game quality start stretch. The last, June was amazing because it finished yesterday. Here were his June performances, Aaron. every single June start the Nats won. Six and O during his starts. On June 2nd, eight innings pitched, three hits, one earned run, 15Ks. They beat Cincinnati 4-1.

Against the Padres on June 8th, they also won that game 4 to 1, 7 innings complete, 6 hits allowed, no earned runs struck out 9 in that game. Against Arizona on June 14th, went 7 complete, gave up 3 hits, 2 earned runs, struck. 10 against Philadelphia. Remember the black eye start. Seven innings, four hits, no un-earned runs, and struck out 10 in that game. His last two performances, all right? Against Miami the other night, eight innings complete, five hits, one earned run, no walks, 10 strikeouts. And then yesterday,

eight complete, four hits, one earned run, no walks, 14 strikeouts. I think you can, could say if you look at his career that he may be right now in the best stretch of his career at 34 years old. And the Nats have needed it, especially in a couple of those starts, right? They only generated two runs yesterday. The Black Eye game, they only got two runs against Philadelphia. He is dominant right now, and he's lowered his ERA all the way down to 2.43. At one point, I think, earlier in the year, his ERA was nearly four and a half. It's like 4.52 or something like that at some point early in the year. He has been a dominant performer. He'll be an all-star, and it's so much fun to watch him pitch. I watched a lot of that game yesterday. There was that key at bat, late in the

game against Miguel Cabrera in a key spot late in the game. And he got, I think that was his 14th strikeout. I think that was his 14th strikeout against Cabrera late when Cabrera came in as a pinch hitter. And they won again, the Nats are as hot as anybody in baseball right now. And they are right back in the thick of things, seven behind Atlanta, but very much in a wild card race right now. Yeah, they're going to be in a really interesting position at the All-Star break with a number of different things there. You have obviously, look, you can't do what you did last year and just sit. You know, Tom has been talking about it.

I was saying it last year, too. The biggest mistake they made last year was just sitting pat at the deadline. They either have to be buyers or sellers. And right now they should be buyers. Obviously, they need the bullpen help. They could have help throughout the rest of the lineup as well. But they need to do something. They can't do what they did last year.

If they do, they're going to be in the same position where maybe they're competing for the wild card, but not really making that run. that they should be trying for. So that will be the key. And then you have the whole Rendon situation hanging over the whole process. So it's exciting to see, but it's going to be a really interesting month coming up for the Nats. Well, exciting in the fact that they are back in a race. They've got two dominant players right now,

and Anthony Rendon as a position player and Max Scherzer as a pitcher. Rendon gets his first All-Star nod after probably being overlooked at least once if not twice during his career. But he's having an unbelievable season right now, despite missing a bunch of games. But he will be in the All-Star game and his home run yesterday in the 8th, won the game for them. And they still, you know, we talked about when they came off that two losses in three games against the Braves at home, that, you know, a division was, you know, there was a lot of games to be played, but that this next stretch that they were in with the Marlins, I think six times the Tigers and the Royals could give them a ton of momentum

going into the All-Star break, and they've won five of those six so far with another series against Miami and then Kansas City, and all six of those are at home. So they could, I mean, if they, if they just go four and two at this point, they're 46 and 43 at the All-Star break, three games above 500, very much in a wild card race, and let's face it, they're right back in the National a league east race. They're sitting there, you know, seven back in third place, a game and a half behind the Phillies, who seem to not be able to handle the Marlins. They're the only team that can't. And seven behind the Braves with plenty of games. What did we count up the other day, 14 games or something like that, left with the Braves? Yeah. It's, they're going to be in a legitimate

pennant race. This teams really come around after an incredible June. They had an incredible June. I think I read it was their fourth or fifth best month since they came to Washington in 2005, the record that they had during the month of June, which started off with like a four-game win streak. And I think there's something like 13, I think they've won 17 and lost 6 or something during the month. I'm sorry, 17 and 8 was their June month. So big month for the nationals and a big stretch here coming up against teams. that they absolutely can beat in Miami and Kansas City at home. And then you get the All-Star break,

and then you get Philly and Atlanta, I think, in seven of their first eight or nine, seven of their first nine or ten games out of the All-Star break, with a lot of those games on the road, by the way. So a couple of other things that I noticed from over the weekend. First of all, there was this story about Mark Rippin this morning. He was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence yesterday in Spokane, Washington. It's a one-count fourth-degree assault charge, which is actually a misdemeanor for first-time offenders in the state of Washington.

He's going to appear in court later today. But according to reports, police found Rippin and a woman, which reports identified as his wife, in a grassy area near a Spokane bank around 5.30 yesterday evening, both individuals were interviewed by police over a period of roughly 45 minutes before Rippin was placed in handcuffs. The woman cried as Rippin was arrested, according to reports. State law in Washington mandates that police make an arrest when responding to a domestic violence call if they have probable cause to believe that a domestic assault occurred. You know, Rippin, if you recall, it was about a year ago that he was interviewed, and I forget by whom.

So I apologize because I can't remember specifically who the interview was done with, but that he had been battling depression, that he had attempted suicide, had been battling suicidal thoughts. his wife at the time, if I recall this accurately, had said that she thought he was suffering from CTE, the brain disease that has been diagnosed in former NFL players. Rippin, you know, over the years has been such a gracious guest on the shows that I've been involved in, and he's been on this podcast, I think. I know he's been on the podcast at least once, Mark has always been the same.

It's like I can call him, you know, a half an hour before and say, hey, do you have time at about, you know, an hour? And he'll say, sure, I'll come on. Everybody knows the story of he and his first wife, who was a Redskins cheerleader. I believe her first name was Annette. They lost a child at a very young age, which is something you never get over.

But, boy, this is a troubling story, certainly, when it comes to Mark Rippin. A couple of other things, by the way, just that I wrote down from over the weekend. First of all, I'm changing subjects here quickly because I got nothing else on Rippin. I hope it works out. I hope this wasn't a serious case,

but obviously domestic violence is a terrible thing. And my thoughts are with his wife as well. So the story came out. I didn't read it. People sent it to me, including my mother, who called me and said, hey, are you going to be able to do your podcast anymore? Because Tony's restaurant is closing.

Well, I don't do the podcast. My mother doesn't even know this. I don't do the podcast from Tony's restaurant. I did when we started it because he was gracious enough to give me the restaurant studio, his podcast studio, to get it launched. But shortly thereafter, I built out my own studio so that we could start earlier because Tony, you know, does it early and he's not done until mid-morning. and we wanted to start it a little bit earlier,

especially during football season. But anyway, the podcast is fine. It's going well. Everything about it has gone very well, and we are not impacted by the announcement that Chadwick's or Chatter, the restaurant that Tony and Mori Povich and Gary Williams and Alan Bubis owned is, I guess,

shutting down for renovations and other things. And Tony's podcast isn't going to, to end either. Those of you that have asked about the other sports station and the news about the other sports station, I got nothing to say right now. There's been interest, yes, there has been, but I've got nothing that I can say as of now on that particular topic because nothing has happened on that topic that would be considered, you know, an actual commitment either way. But But there were other things that I found over the weekend, and I thought you would find this interesting, Aaron. Do you know that Joe Lunardi already put out his updated Bracketology for next year's college basketball NCAA tournament?

Of course he did. It was updated on June 27th, so when was that Friday or Thursday? And I saw it over the weekend. The Terps are a three seed in the east region, which by the way, the east region, New York. I don't know if it's in Brooklyn or Madison Square Garden, the regional next year. But Maryland, the three-seed. The Terps are expected to be a top 10 to 15 team, maybe even higher. I was going to say a lot are having them in the 5-6 range right now.

Yeah, so. Yeah. That is Madison Square Garden, by the way. Oh, good. You know what? That would be good for them. Wouldn't be good for them like Capital One Arena would have been last spring in March. But, you know what? If Maryland's in a sweet 16 game in Madison Square Garden, they will have a lot.

of fans in that arena. Every single time they played in the garden or in Brooklyn, you've had a big Maryland contingent there. And that's in November, you know, when they played early season games there. Georgetown was in Lunardi's bracket. Hoyas thought to be a potential tournament team next year. He had him as an 11 seed playing, you know, an 11 versus an 11, you know, Tuesday night, first four game.

And there was something else that, off of it. this that surprised me. It's early. I mean, who knows? Oh, that Maryland was the second best or second highest-seeded Big Ten team. Michigan State was a one-seed. I've seen a lot of big-10 teams in the top 10 to 15 range. Lannardi thinks they're the second best team in the big ten. I was also looking at, you know, the college week one lines are out, which made me, you know, circle back to the NFL week one lines. The Eagles are still nine point favorites. Were they, were they eight point favorites before? Because they're nine point favorites now. I was going to say, it was always around eight and a half, nine. All right. So they are nine point

favorites in the opener against the Redskins. And the Redskins over under number hasn't moved. It's, you know, right around six and a half, you know, pretty much at the bottom, you know, the Bengals and the Cardinals, and there was one other team that was lower than six and a half. It may have been the Giants. Actually, the Giants may have been right at six and a half as well, but the Redskins over under at six and a half. I right now, I wouldn't bet either way. If you told me I had to wager on that,

I would probably take the under at six and a half. You know, the Redskins are six and a half like minus 120 if you play the under, so you're going to pay heavy juice on an underplay and less on an overplay because they're probably not getting enough overaction. But I think that would be my wager as of now. I mean, we're going to wait until the week before the season to have official predictions on the Redskins season. But right now, I've got the same feeling I've had for a while now, that this is a double-digit

loss team on paper. Nothing that's happened since the draft or free agencies, changed my thoughts on that. It hasn't. What else did I have? Oh, the guy that won the, if you read the story about Nate Lashley, the guy that won the golf tournament yesterday in Detroit. I have not. This guy has, it's his first tournament ever. He's had an incredible life journey. He lost both of his parents and his girlfriend at the time in a plane crash when they were on. On the way to watch him, he was playing for the University of Arizona at the time. This was back in 2004.

They were going to Oregon to watch him play in an NCAA regional. And his father was a pilot piloting a smaller plane crashed. Both parents and his girlfriend both died in that crash. And he went through a real difficult period of time in his life where he quit golf at one point and started selling real estate and then recently really tried to get back into golf. He wasn't actually qualified for the tournament field this week in Detroit, but he got that last man in after there were multiple withdrawals before the tournament started. So he got in that way and then proceeded to go 25 under par to win this event in Detroit yesterday

with two rounds of 63. He shot 63 in the opening round, 63 in the third round, and one going away by six strokes. Nate Lashley, read his story. There's a lot more to a story, but it was really interesting, and he was incredibly choked up afterwards.

The other thing that I did notice, and I turned it on briefly yesterday, getting back to baseball for a moment, were the games in London between the Red Sox and the Yankees. Why were the scores of those games 17, 13, and 12 to 8? Was it the weather? Was it the park? What was it about those two games that generated that kind of offense?

It was weird. I mean, I don't think it was the stadiums were, the stadium was a little bit small, but that wasn't really what account for it. It was just bad pitching, good hitting. I mean, numbers are up across the league, obviously not to this extent. For whatever reason, it just got into a huge storm of this. I mean, that is, if my math is right, that's 50 runs. in two days. 50, 5-0. There was one book that said they might put a prop up on, will any NFL game in London have that many points?

Yeah, right. 65 hits in the two games, 15 doubles, 10 homers, over 18 innings that took nine hours and six minutes to play at Olympic Stadium in London. The games were in London, right? Yes. And the Yankees won both of them.

Yes. 17, 13, and 12 to 8. All right. One other thing before we go. I just wanted your thoughts. Carol Lawson, now a coach with the Celtics. Oh, that's right. I did see that.

Good for her. That means there's no booth right now as we speak. Correct. No booth. Buck and Phil, please. I'll take that. unless they're considering something totally unique, you know, younger, I don't know what they're thinking about.

I mean, this is a Zach, I've heard, decision, Leonis. Of course, they put it on NBC Sports Washington because they don't want credit or blame for the decision. But God, as a longtime friend, first of all, of Buck, and Phil, for that matter, but as a long-time fan of the franchise, you just can't get any better than Buck and Phil. You know, you just can't. The truth of the matter is the hockey team and the basketball team that Governor Ted owns both have had phenomenal broadcast pairings.

You know, I mean, you've had Joe B and Locker for the Caps forever, and Buck and Phil. You didn't need to move on from Buck and Phil. That's as good as it gets. You know, I'm not, and by the way, a carpenter and FP, they're fine too. They're fine also. I guess that's it. I think that's all I had. Oh, that KC radio host that talked about Andy Reid is a bad father to his son who committed suicide or, I'm sorry, didn't commit suicide, died of a drug overdose and said those hurtful things was fired, which, you know, was obvious that that was coming.

All right, Tommy will be in tomorrow and we'll have a lot more then. Enjoy the day.