# Bears Stadium Fight, Can Wemby Be The Face Of The NBA? Luka’s Liabilities, Colin As An AI

An episode of [The Colin Cowherd Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1551365571), 1 Mar 2026, 1 h 09 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/arttrk.com/p/D5CA5/pscrb.fm/rss/p/prfx.byspotify.com/e/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/4013d28e-5f67-4885-bff1-ae3300346830/f7884618-2919-46b4-9877-b40001885ecf/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=e829cf60-fc06-4d61-8691-ae330034683e

Colin’s joined by Danny Parkins, host of “First Thing’s First” on FS1. They start with the ongoing posturing over the location of the new Bears stadium and the potential threat of moving the stadium just over the border into northern Indiana, which Colin argues is ludicrous and the idea that Indiana taxpayers would fit the bill for a Chicago based team is nuts (2:00). They debate how much time sportscasters should devote to the NBA during the regular season when fan interest isn’t very high, but both agree that the NBA playoffs are still one of the best events on the sports calendar (11:30). Colin argues that there have only been a few “faces” of the NBA throughout its history and discuss whether Wemby will become the next one (21:15). Colin revisits his take that Luka Doncic is just a better version of Carmelo Anthony and feels that the narrative has started to catch on, with Luka’s effort and lack of defense coming into focus nationally (28:00). Colin argues that it won’t be hard for the Lakers to move on from LeBron after the season because he hasn’t spent his career there, and Danny argues that LeBron means more to the league than the Lakers (32:30). Colin reacts to the new Fox Sports product, Colin Cowherd AI where an automated Colin answers sports questions and they discuss their long term view of AI and how it will impact society (47:00). They agree that they’re both “out” on the NFL Draft Combine and talk about which other sports events they just can’t get behind anymore with Danny pointing out regular season college hoops & shares a story about the time Jim Boeheim called in to his radio show (55:30). Finally, they preview the highly touted upcoming NBA draft class prospects (1:07:00). (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.) Follow Colin and The Volume on Twitter for the latest content and updates! #Volume See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: The volume.
[0:03] Speaker 2: Today's show is brought to you by our presenting sponsor,
[0:06] Speaker 2: American Beverage. If you think about some of the most
[0:08] Speaker 2: iconic drinks in the country, the ones you grab a barbecue,
[0:12] Speaker 2: the ones you raised to celebrate your team, that have
[0:15] Speaker 2: been part of your story for decades, Coke, Doctor, Pepper, Pepsi,
[0:18] Speaker 2: there's something people don't always think about. The companies behind
[0:21] Speaker 2: those brands are still making their drinks right here in
[0:23] Speaker 2: the US. While there's a lot of talk about bringing
[0:25] Speaker 2: manufacturing back, America's beverage companies never left their American companies,
[0:29] Speaker 2: making American products with American workers in America's hometown. So
[0:32] Speaker 2: two hundred and seventy five thousand men and women across
[0:35] Speaker 2: all fifty states, real jobs, good paying jobs, the kind
[0:38] Speaker 2: of jobs you can raise a family on. So more
[0:39] Speaker 2: than one hundred years, those brands have been part of
[0:42] Speaker 2: everyday lives and they're still here, still investing, still operating
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[0:47] Speaker 2: strong old economies and companies that walk the walk, check
[0:50] Speaker 2: out the good work and what they're doing it. We
[0:52] Speaker 2: deliver for America dot Org. All right, let's chop it
[1:02] Speaker 2: up for forty five minutes Danny Parkins and my guy
[1:04] Speaker 2: FS one formerly Chicago Radio Icon. This is the slowest
[1:08] Speaker 2: three weeks of the year. As you well know, is
[1:11] Speaker 2: that football season ends. We don't take any days off
[1:14] Speaker 2: for six months. Nobody cares. It's lightlifting. Then you get
[1:18] Speaker 2: about four days after the Super Bowl to chop it up,
[1:20] Speaker 2: and then there's like a three week stretch until NFL
[1:22] Speaker 2: Free agency, and you know, college basketball pivots into March
[1:28] Speaker 2: badness where it's pretty dead. But I wanted to start today.
[1:31] Speaker 2: I was watching JB. Pritzker as the governor of Illinois.
[1:34] Speaker 2: It's for the uninitiated here. He's one of the richest,
[1:37] Speaker 2: one of the richest families in America. He is the
[1:39] Speaker 2: Pritzker family. It's probably top four or five richest families
[1:41] Speaker 2: in America. A lot of their you know, net worth
[1:45] Speaker 2: was in the highatt chain and hotels. And in fact,
[1:48] Speaker 2: I have a place in downtown Chicago and JB. Pritzker,
[1:51] Speaker 2: somebody's grandfather has a plaque on the wall. I see
[1:55] Speaker 2: it every time I go out the door. So, and
[1:57] Speaker 2: he is the governor. I think he's a Northwestern duke guy,
[2:00] Speaker 2: very very smart guy. And you know, so the mccaskey's
[2:04] Speaker 2: when you hear these threats by Kevin Warren and the
[2:06] Speaker 2: mccaskeys of moving you know, the Bear Stadium. Good luck
[2:10] Speaker 2: negotiating against J. B. Pritzker, who's a very very sharp guy.
[2:14] Speaker 2: He's a businessman, very successful before he was the governor
[2:17] Speaker 2: of the state, and I think he would run circles
[2:20] Speaker 2: around the McCaskey family. But what is so insane to me?
[2:25] Speaker 2: Like I hear the stories. First of all, Chicago is
[2:27] Speaker 2: a blue blood American sports market. It's in the Boston, Philly, Chicago.
[2:33] Speaker 2: You could end the list there. I've always said, people
[2:37] Speaker 2: think New York City is a great sports city, but
[2:40] Speaker 2: yet thirty percent of the people are from you know, Europe, Russia.
[2:46] Speaker 2: I've seen the Rose Bull ratings in Chicago and I've
[2:49] Speaker 2: seen them in New York. You know, New York likes
[2:51] Speaker 2: New York. Chicago watches everything college football, bowling, NASCAR, NBA.
[2:57] Speaker 2: Chicago watches everything. Maybe the best American sports down and
[3:02] Speaker 2: the idea that you pull a stadium out and put
[3:05] Speaker 2: it in northern Indiana. And again for people that don't
[3:07] Speaker 2: know what's in northern Indiana, the answer is nothing. South Bend.
[3:12] Speaker 2: Gary Hammond Fort Wayne's probably got three hundred thousand people.
[3:16] Speaker 2: The people in Indiana would have to pay for the stadium.
[3:19] Speaker 2: There'd be taxes obviously assessed to build a two and
[3:22] Speaker 2: a half billion dollar stadium. So I look at it
[3:25] Speaker 2: and I think this is nonsense.
[3:26] Speaker 1: JB.
[3:26] Speaker 2: Pritz store is going to run circles around the McCaskey
[3:28] Speaker 2: family and all the kids. How do you view it
[3:31] Speaker 2: as somebody that worked here and is a Bears fan.
[3:34] Speaker 1: Well, so, first of all, I find this story to
[3:37] Speaker 1: be joyless because and so when I get when I
[3:41] Speaker 1: go on the score and you know, I still follow
[3:43] Speaker 1: all those people on social media and they're all my
[3:45] Speaker 1: friends and colleagues in Chicago media. I hate how much
[3:50] Speaker 1: they feel like they have to talk about it, because yes,
[3:54] Speaker 1: it is like it matters where the Bears play football,
[3:58] Speaker 1: But this is this is a store of billionaires trying
[4:01] Speaker 1: to get a better tax rate for a stadium to
[4:05] Speaker 1: make them rich. Yes, like they're going to be the
[4:08] Speaker 1: Chicago Bears whether they're on the Lake Front, Northwest Indiana
[4:12] Speaker 1: or Arlington Heights, they will be the Chicago Bears, just
[4:14] Speaker 1: like they are the New York Giants, even though they
[4:16] Speaker 1: play in Jersey. They're the Dallas Cowboys, even though they
[4:18] Speaker 1: play in Arlington. And so this is this is just
[4:22] Speaker 1: about a family, the mccaskeys, who inherited a football team.
[4:28] Speaker 1: They are not wealthy like the Pritzkers from Hyatt or
[4:31] Speaker 1: some of the poorest owners among the poorest owners. Their
[4:34] Speaker 1: wealth is a team in which they inherited. And there's
[4:36] Speaker 1: a ton of kids, some of whom want to sell
[4:38] Speaker 1: the team and cash in, others of whom feel an
[4:41] Speaker 1: obligation to keep it in the family. And it seems
[4:43] Speaker 1: like they're going to, but they don't have, you know,
[4:46] Speaker 1: millions and billions of dollars of their own outside of
[4:49] Speaker 1: outside of football. And they've played in Soldier Fields, small
[4:52] Speaker 1: stadium in the NFL, and they didn't own they didn't
[4:56] Speaker 1: own it. Like I remember, Kanye West had a concert
[5:00] Speaker 1: the weekend of a Bears game where he brought his
[5:03] Speaker 1: childhood home onto Soldier Field and lit it on fire.
[5:09] Speaker 1: And so the Bears then played a game like eighteen
[5:12] Speaker 1: hours later with just a patch of dead grass in
[5:15] Speaker 1: the middle because they didn't own the stadium. High school
[5:18] Speaker 1: kids would play soccer tournaments and yeah, you know what
[5:20] Speaker 1: I mean. So it was just it's been known as
[5:23] Speaker 1: the worst surface in the league parks and rec and
[5:26] Speaker 1: Chicago runs and it's atrocious correct and it's finally gotten
[5:29] Speaker 1: better recently after like literally decades of being the worst.
[5:33] Speaker 1: But so the point is it's impossible to get in
[5:35] Speaker 1: and out of. The renovation was pretty ugly. The field
[5:39] Speaker 1: was terrible, and it wasn't big enough to host a
[5:42] Speaker 1: super Bowl and it didn't have a roof so you
[5:44] Speaker 1: can host the Final four. Other than that, they nailed it.
[5:47] Speaker 1: And so then now it's like, Okay, so the mccaski's
[5:50] Speaker 1: want to own their stadium, fine, but they don't have
[5:52] Speaker 1: the money to do it. Well.
[5:54] Speaker 3: JB.
[5:55] Speaker 1: Pritzker, as you mentioned, smart business guy, Illinois Blues date,
[6:01] Speaker 1: it's not very politically popular to to have publicly funded stadiums.
[6:08] Speaker 1: You saw what happened with the Chiefs in Missouri and Kansas,
[6:12] Speaker 1: a couple of red states, and they are gonna they're
[6:15] Speaker 1: getting laughed at for how much public funding they're playing
[6:18] Speaker 1: going to pony up for the new Chief Stadium. So Indiana,
[6:21] Speaker 1: red state, they're going to do it, or they're going
[6:24] Speaker 1: to offer to do it. But my gut tells me
[6:28] Speaker 1: they go to Arlington Heights. I don't think George McCaskey
[6:31] Speaker 1: has it in them to have the Bears leave the
[6:34] Speaker 1: state of Illinois when he inherited it from you know,
[6:37] Speaker 1: Virginia McCaskey marriage. George allis the whole thing. Like I
[6:41] Speaker 1: just they bought Arlington Racetrack. They spent three hundred million dollars,
[6:46] Speaker 1: or they spent more than that. It's three hundred and
[6:48] Speaker 1: twenty acres of land for however many hundreds and millions
[6:51] Speaker 1: of dollars they bought it for. They're not real estate developers,
[6:55] Speaker 1: like they bought that land for a reason. So this
[6:59] Speaker 1: is all just the game of chicken. It's all just
[7:01] Speaker 1: to get Arlington Heights to lower their property tax rate.
[7:04] Speaker 1: And so I find the story to be joyless because
[7:06] Speaker 1: it's literally just about can the mc caskeys increase their
[7:09] Speaker 1: net worth by building an entertainment complex around the new
[7:13] Speaker 1: stadium that they will finally own. I just don't care
[7:16] Speaker 1: about it that much to we totally can't right it
[7:19] Speaker 1: Just who cares? Who cares? They're gonna be the Kayleb
[7:23] Speaker 1: Williams is gonna be the quarterback of the Chicago Bears.
[7:25] Speaker 1: Call with Ben Jonson calling the plays. Whether it's an Arlington,
[7:30] Speaker 1: Arlington Heights or Northwest Indiana. I honestly don't care very much.
[7:35] Speaker 2: Yeah, Arlington Heights is close to my house, so I'm
[7:38] Speaker 2: obviously don't feel like going to Hammond, Indiana.
[7:41] Speaker 1: Can I tell you one thing about Hammond, Indiana.
[7:44] Speaker 2: It's where the casinos were, And there's probably only one
[7:47] Speaker 2: thing about hamm in Indiana.
[7:48] Speaker 1: Okay, So it's where I would gamble because that's where
[7:53] Speaker 1: that you could. That's where there were casinos. So it's
[7:56] Speaker 1: right over the border, like it's Northwestiana is Chicago Land.
[8:02] Speaker 1: It's the real thing called the region. Like I had
[8:04] Speaker 1: radio partners, you know, who lived there because of the taxes,
[8:08] Speaker 1: and it was so much. You could work in Chicago,
[8:10] Speaker 1: pay the nine dollars toll and then pay way fewer
[8:13] Speaker 1: taxes in Indiana. But I would. I would live in
[8:17] Speaker 1: Wrigleyville and drive there every day and play poker when
[8:20] Speaker 1: I was twenty two years old, because that's where all
[8:22] Speaker 1: the casinos were. Now it's disgusting, it's it's gary, it
[8:26] Speaker 1: smells bad, it's smoke stacks, it's it's prison. It's terrible.
[8:31] Speaker 1: But you know, cheap land and property taxes. So maybe
[8:35] Speaker 1: they'll build a stating there, I doubt it. I doubt it.
[8:37] Speaker 2: Where do you think they're going to go Arlington Heights?
[8:40] Speaker 2: I don't buy it at all. And this is a
[8:42] Speaker 2: blue but I mean the Niners play out in Santa Clara.
[8:45] Speaker 2: So California is such a massive state, but there's nothing
[8:48] Speaker 2: in Indiana. Even Indianapolis is a snooze. I mean, you
[8:52] Speaker 2: know a state's a bad food state when you say
[8:55] Speaker 2: where do you go to eat in Indianapolis and everybody
[8:57] Speaker 2: gives you one restaurant st Almon.
[8:59] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[8:59] Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just and there's nothing against Indiana, but I
[9:03] Speaker 2: mean it's the State's not wealthy the states. It's just
[9:07] Speaker 2: not a place that local taxpayers in Indiana don't care
[9:10] Speaker 2: about the Bears.
[9:11] Speaker 1: They love the Colts. You know what.
[9:12] Speaker 2: The best part about Indiana is Bloomington. That is a
[9:15] Speaker 2: great town. Bloomington's a great college town.
[9:18] Speaker 1: Sure and listen, and I've had plenty of good times
[9:20] Speaker 1: in South Bend going to football games. It's just I
[9:26] Speaker 1: don't they hired Kevin Warren to get this thing done
[9:31] Speaker 1: because he helped spearhead the stadium for the Vikings, which
[9:34] Speaker 1: is arguably the best stadium in the NFL. And he
[9:37] Speaker 1: just came in with a lot of bluster, being like,
[9:39] Speaker 1: we're gonna get shovels in the ground. He promised shovels
[9:43] Speaker 1: in the ground in twenty twenty five. We're recording this
[9:47] Speaker 1: on March first of twenty twenty six, and we're still
[9:50] Speaker 1: playing one state against another and three different locations against
[9:54] Speaker 1: each other, and there's no shovels in the ground happening
[9:56] Speaker 1: any time soon. So it's just manipulative story. The Bears
[10:01] Speaker 1: are leaking a ton of stuff to a ton of
[10:03] Speaker 1: local media. Oh yeah, that's eating it up, which drives
[10:06] Speaker 1: me insane, Like it's this is just a game of
[10:09] Speaker 1: political chicken, and just let it play out. They'll end
[10:12] Speaker 1: up in Arlington Heights and everything will be fine. So
[10:15] Speaker 1: this is the slowest time of the year.
[10:17] Speaker 2: I was thinking about it, and I think I've told
[10:20] Speaker 2: the maybe you or the audience before, but to a
[10:23] Speaker 2: large degree, the audience drives my show. I love college football,
[10:28] Speaker 2: but when it got very regional for about twelve years,
[10:31] Speaker 2: when USC went down and Texas went down, and Miami
[10:34] Speaker 2: was irrelevant glamour programs and the Big Ten was miles
[10:38] Speaker 2: behind outside of Ohio State, miles behind the SEC. It
[10:42] Speaker 2: became a very regional conference. It was I mean every
[10:44] Speaker 2: year it was like Clemson, Georgia, Bama, maybe Ohio State.
[10:49] Speaker 2: And so I've always said I always root for Texas,
[10:52] Speaker 2: the Miami Hurricanes, and USC to be good because those
[10:55] Speaker 2: are glamor programs. They haven't they're they're college football, but
[10:58] Speaker 2: they feel like thirty percent NF. Well, and now with NIL,
[11:01] Speaker 2: Miami does feel like pro football, Like I mean, honestly,
[11:04] Speaker 2: they had like you know, you're watching them play Indiana
[11:06] Speaker 2: and you're like, half of these guys are first round,
[11:09] Speaker 2: second round picks. So I tend to kind of let
[11:14] Speaker 2: the audience. I watch ratings, I watch response and I
[11:17] Speaker 2: kind of go where they go. So, for instance, I'm
[11:21] Speaker 2: back on college football now because Notre Dame's good, Michigan's good,
[11:25] Speaker 2: Texas is good. Ohio. The Big Ten right in the
[11:29] Speaker 2: center of the country where massive schools, graduates go all
[11:33] Speaker 2: over the place. I predicted it two three years ago.
[11:35] Speaker 2: I said, NIL is going to change everything. The SEC
[11:38] Speaker 2: has car dealers, the Big Ten's got car makers. It's
[11:41] Speaker 2: going to change the whole landscape.
[11:42] Speaker 1: And it has.
[11:44] Speaker 2: But so I looked, once I let the audience drive
[11:51] Speaker 2: the bus. Once football ends. I did my top five
[11:56] Speaker 2: things that I will talk about, and I've told my
[11:58] Speaker 2: staff this NFL Draft is number one until following football season,
[12:05] Speaker 2: and then it'll probably be baseball playoffs, March Madness and
[12:09] Speaker 2: the Masters. Those are your four baseball playoffs are in October.
[12:13] Speaker 1: And they'll get a lot of love for you in
[12:17] Speaker 1: this time of the year.
[12:20] Speaker 2: What do you do? I'm interested in a talk show
[12:22] Speaker 2: host perspective. What do you do with the NBA? I mean,
[12:25] Speaker 2: I watched the entire Spurs Knicks today. I watched the
[12:28] Speaker 2: entire game. What do you do with the NBA when
[12:32] Speaker 2: increasingly it's parody driven, there's nothing close to the face
[12:37] Speaker 2: of the league me hella, maybe Wenby of a year
[12:40] Speaker 2: Lebron's on his way out, seemingly steps on an atrocious team.
[12:45] Speaker 2: How much do you cover the NBA? Or do you
[12:47] Speaker 2: just say the hell with it? I love it. It's
[12:49] Speaker 2: big enough.
[12:50] Speaker 1: I'm covering it so that that is what I want
[12:53] Speaker 1: to be the case, because I do love it so
[12:56] Speaker 1: and I will. What I will say is I still
[13:01] Speaker 1: think the playoffs are a great product.
[13:04] Speaker 2: They are. I agree with you. It's physical, it's feisty. There,
[13:08] Speaker 2: you know what, It's The reason it's good is it's
[13:11] Speaker 2: got a little hockey football field. Like there's animosity every possession. Y.
[13:15] Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, and like by by game three or game four,
[13:18] Speaker 1: the teams like they know each other they hate each other.
[13:21] Speaker 1: There it gets chippy. You know, you start counting technical
[13:25] Speaker 1: fouls for guys like I just seriously like it's it's
[13:29] Speaker 1: it's great and so and because there is a little
[13:33] Speaker 1: bit more parody now, it makes the playoffs even better.
[13:37] Speaker 1: It makes the regular season mean less because home court
[13:39] Speaker 1: advantage doesn't mean anything anymore. But it does make the
[13:42] Speaker 1: playoffs better because you're like, oh, Indiana can go to
[13:44] Speaker 1: the finals, like the Timberwolves have been in the Western
[13:47] Speaker 1: Conference Finals back to back years. Like can the Spurs
[13:51] Speaker 1: actually do this having never won a playoff series before,
[13:55] Speaker 1: Like the Spurs look good against the Thunder, so the
[13:59] Speaker 1: Thunder aren't shoe in anymore. The Nuggets took the Thunder
[14:02] Speaker 1: to the brink last year, so that maybe that series
[14:05] Speaker 1: would be compelling again. Like coming into the year and
[14:08] Speaker 1: the first you know, six weeks of this season, it
[14:12] Speaker 1: looked like this was just gonna be Oh, the Thunder
[14:14] Speaker 1: are gonna set the wins record and blitz through the
[14:17] Speaker 1: playoffs and there's gonna be nothing intriguing about this basketball season,
[14:22] Speaker 1: that's no longer the case. And so while I think
[14:26] Speaker 1: the Western Conference Finals will be the equivalent of the
[14:31] Speaker 1: NFC Championship in football, where like ram Syhawks was the
[14:35] Speaker 1: real super Bowl because they were clearly better than the
[14:38] Speaker 1: AFC this year, and I think the West is clearly
[14:40] Speaker 1: better than the East. Like I do think that like
[14:43] Speaker 1: round one playoff series are going to be pretty compelling
[14:47] Speaker 1: talk talk talk items for us on our shows. So
[14:51] Speaker 1: for me, like NFL Draft, NFL offseason is always number
[14:55] Speaker 1: one because it's a three hundred and sixty per day sport,
[14:58] Speaker 1: but I would say NBA Playoffs is two. And then
[15:02] Speaker 1: if you're asking my personal enjoyment, I love March Madness
[15:06] Speaker 1: and the Masters as much as any sporting event, but
[15:08] Speaker 1: they're not as good as National talkers.
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[16:40] Speaker 2: New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia. You know, it's interesting. I
[16:48] Speaker 2: was thinking about this this morning watching Wemby and so
[16:53] Speaker 2: I've made this argument multiple times that the NBA has
[16:56] Speaker 2: only had about five faces of the league. Will was
[17:00] Speaker 2: too flaky and not relatable. Doctor j spent too many
[17:03] Speaker 2: great years in the ABA. Kareem was stoic and unapproachable.
[17:08] Speaker 2: Kobe had off the court issues, Duncan was boring, Wade
[17:11] Speaker 2: was never the best player. Shack may have been the
[17:15] Speaker 2: most fascinating player. I'm not sure he was face of
[17:18] Speaker 2: the league, but he was. Kobe took a little bit
[17:20] Speaker 2: away from that Phil Jackson. The Lakers were kind of
[17:22] Speaker 2: sharing it there. I mean, yeah, the owner was interesting.
[17:25] Speaker 2: He was a playboy, the coach was interesting the GM
[17:28] Speaker 2: in that the faces of the league, Larry Bird again
[17:31] Speaker 2: was kind of too feisty and kind of a rural feisty,
[17:34] Speaker 2: not like a you know, he wasn't a happy guy.
[17:36] Speaker 2: The faces have been Magic Johnson very unique game, Michael
[17:43] Speaker 2: Jordan the greatest game, Staph wildly innovative game, and Lebron
[17:49] Speaker 2: James the Swiss Army Knife. And I was watching Wemby
[17:53] Speaker 2: today and he's clearly so defensively disruptive Danny. I mean,
[17:57] Speaker 2: it's just I don't think there's ever been anybody quite
[18:00] Speaker 2: like him. I mean, steals blocks, he alters every shot.
[18:04] Speaker 1: I've never I've never seen basketball players dribble into the
[18:07] Speaker 1: lane and then dribble backwards. It's seriously because like it's
[18:14] Speaker 1: it's a league where like a legitimate criticism has been
[18:16] Speaker 1: like foul hunting. Like everybody just like, oh, I'm going
[18:19] Speaker 1: into the lane. I'm going to attack the rim and
[18:21] Speaker 1: hope to get fouled, and they're like nope, and they
[18:24] Speaker 1: just like turn around. It's like they put it in reverse.
[18:28] Speaker 1: It's it's really, it's it's an He's a remarkable defensive talent.
[18:33] Speaker 1: He is.
[18:34] Speaker 2: But I was thinking about this today because he by.
[18:36] Speaker 2: You know, Jokic is the best player, but has He's
[18:38] Speaker 2: just not again he falls into the Duncan category. He's
[18:41] Speaker 2: just not that interesting, Sga. His game's not exciting enough.
[18:44] Speaker 1: He's just a score.
[18:45] Speaker 2: It's like alex English with a higher average right on
[18:48] Speaker 2: a better team. And I loved alex English. But I
[18:51] Speaker 2: was thinking about Wemby. Is if his three balls not hitting.
[18:55] Speaker 2: In the history of basketball, almost all great players, it's
[18:58] Speaker 2: an offensive league. Almost every great player. If you said,
[19:01] Speaker 2: hey man, we need thirty six tonight, Magic once played
[19:06] Speaker 2: center and scored forty two in a finals, Gip, Magic Bird,
[19:09] Speaker 2: Wilt Kareem, even Carmelo, Lebron Steph, all the great players
[19:15] Speaker 2: could just get you. Duncan could get you thirty five,
[19:17] Speaker 2: Luca now Sga. Wemby, if he's not hitting his three
[19:22] Speaker 2: point shot, he could give you seventeen. He could give
[19:24] Speaker 2: you twenty four. It's an interesting game. Like as I
[19:29] Speaker 2: watched the game, I'm in awe of it. But Michael
[19:33] Speaker 2: Jordan an inch shorter or two inches taller. I never
[19:36] Speaker 2: thought about his height like with Wemby. It's not a
[19:40] Speaker 2: game that I fall in love with. It's incredibly disruptive
[19:44] Speaker 2: on defense. It's kind of fascinating on offense, but the
[19:49] Speaker 2: lob dunks aren't.
[19:51] Speaker 1: You know.
[19:51] Speaker 2: It's like you look at him and go, well, yeah,
[19:53] Speaker 2: it's like the big kid playing nerf hoop, like it's
[19:55] Speaker 2: of course he dominated you.
[19:58] Speaker 1: Well, I know, but watch him today, I'm like, I'm.
[20:01] Speaker 2: Not denying his greatness, and I think they'll probably win
[20:04] Speaker 2: multiple titles and disruptive defensively like I've never seen. Maybe
[20:07] Speaker 2: Kareem was like that at Russell or Chamberlain, But when
[20:11] Speaker 2: I watch his game, I'm not fascinated by it. I'm
[20:14] Speaker 2: just impressed by it because of the sheer length of
[20:17] Speaker 2: him as a player and his ability with that size
[20:20] Speaker 2: to pull up, and it reminds me of a much
[20:22] Speaker 2: better Sam Bouie. You don't remember him, I do YouTube him.
[20:26] Speaker 2: Sam Boy was insane before he got hurt. I mean
[20:28] Speaker 2: he was insane. Seven to four Kentucky could pull up
[20:31] Speaker 2: on the wing and shouldn't jumper.
[20:32] Speaker 1: No Biggs did that.
[20:33] Speaker 2: So as I watch him, I'm like, I appreciate the greatness,
[20:37] Speaker 2: but he doesn't feel like a face of the league
[20:39] Speaker 2: guy to me.
[20:40] Speaker 1: Okay, so let me maybe this is a distinction without
[20:43] Speaker 1: a difference. And you tell me because like you just
[20:47] Speaker 1: said that, it looks like, you know, an eighth grader
[20:51] Speaker 1: out there playing on a nerf food. It's the NBA, Like,
[20:56] Speaker 1: I know, you're not supposed to be able to make
[20:58] Speaker 1: it look that easy, and I think him making it
[21:01] Speaker 1: look that easy is the thing that it's like, is
[21:04] Speaker 1: that an Jokic had him sign his All Star Game
[21:08] Speaker 1: jersey with his name, and then he had him draw
[21:11] Speaker 1: a picture of a face of an alien. Like these
[21:15] Speaker 1: guys are in awe of a literal alien on the
[21:18] Speaker 1: jersey because we have never seen anything like it. And
[21:21] Speaker 1: I would just I would just remind you when you
[21:24] Speaker 1: talk about his offensive game, he is twenty two years old.
[21:29] Speaker 2: Now, true, but it's interesting because he's an ascending player.
[21:34] Speaker 2: All of his offensive numbers came down this year. Now
[21:36] Speaker 2: it's slight, but you would think he would take another
[21:39] Speaker 2: eight to twelve percent leap. They actually all came down points, rebounds,
[21:42] Speaker 2: field goal percentage. They all came down.
[21:44] Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, listen, he's not playing a ton of minutes.
[21:49] Speaker 1: They have a surprising amount of talent. They play almost
[21:55] Speaker 1: to like an arrogant level. So unselfish Brew has made
[22:00] Speaker 1: this point many times Chris Brossard, and I think it's
[22:05] Speaker 1: a correct one. He's like, I want to see them
[22:07] Speaker 1: play through Wemby more like he's like, I want to
[22:09] Speaker 1: see him be more, be more selfish.
[22:12] Speaker 2: Great, no watching today. It's a great point. There are times,
[22:15] Speaker 2: I mean, he never disappears on the floor, but there
[22:18] Speaker 2: are times there are times I'm much more I'm his defense.
[22:22] Speaker 2: It's just like, wow, he says a force onto himself. Offensively,
[22:27] Speaker 2: there are times like oh he didn't get a touch
[22:29] Speaker 2: on that possession.
[22:30] Speaker 1: Yeah, or or a stretch of possessions and and that.
[22:34] Speaker 1: But that feels like something I've seen before. That will come.
[22:38] Speaker 1: And they're really good, like you. They're their efficiency numbers
[22:44] Speaker 1: are really good there. Their win loss record is really good.
[22:48] Speaker 2: They got hammered today. They couldn't make stops. They just
[22:50] Speaker 2: did Cat played well Nick when the Knicks shoot well.
[22:54] Speaker 2: Knicks are good offensively.
[22:55] Speaker 1: They got players, They're they're very good offensively. I still
[22:57] Speaker 1: think they're drawing dead in the playoffs, but I I
[23:00] Speaker 1: don't think your top two guys can be defensive liabilities,
[23:03] Speaker 1: and they are saying so, I don't think the Knicks
[23:06] Speaker 1: can win a title as presently constructed. I am not
[23:09] Speaker 1: denying Wemby is the best prospect since Lebron. He's the
[23:13] Speaker 1: most disruptive defender ever. And he's going to average twenty
[23:16] Speaker 1: four points a game. But when I watch him, I'm like,
[23:20] Speaker 1: his his offensive game is like, yeah, I enjoyed watching
[23:23] Speaker 1: Steph Moore, Magic More, Bird Moore, Wiltmore.
[23:26] Speaker 2: I just I don't I don't love the game.
[23:28] Speaker 1: Oh okay, I mean I guess I would just say, like,
[23:30] Speaker 1: give him time and I will be floored if he
[23:33] Speaker 1: if like his peak offensively is averaging twenty four a game,
[23:37] Speaker 1: like I I.
[23:37] Speaker 2: For the record, yeah, yeah, for the record. Two three
[23:42] Speaker 2: years ago, I was very critical Luca and I said
[23:46] Speaker 2: everybody loved him. Yeah, and I got ship because I
[23:48] Speaker 2: said he's a better Carmelo Anthony. He's going to age quickly.
[23:51] Speaker 2: I remember that he doesn't defend. Yeah yeah, And people
[23:54] Speaker 2: push back this last week. I must have read that
[23:57] Speaker 2: twelve times, and I'm like, guys, if you don't play defense,
[24:02] Speaker 2: harden mellow Luca, it will create resentment. Number one, It
[24:06] Speaker 2: will create resentment in the locker room. It's a small
[24:08] Speaker 2: locker room, Danny. You know baseball ten guys go down
[24:11] Speaker 2: to the bullpen. They're not even part of the team
[24:13] Speaker 2: in the locker room.
[24:14] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[24:14] Speaker 2: In basketball, it's a small roster. Seven to eight guys play.
[24:18] Speaker 2: I mean, hell, it's sometimes you have more coaches on
[24:20] Speaker 2: the bench than guys that actually get in the rotation.
[24:23] Speaker 2: And so, like word travels fast if you're a dog.
[24:26] Speaker 2: So if you don't play defense, Harden's head, Carmelo Luca
[24:31] Speaker 2: not a lot of playoff success. The second thing is
[24:33] Speaker 2: in a long series, the coaching's too good. In the NBA,
[24:36] Speaker 2: they hunt you. If I got to play Luca five
[24:38] Speaker 2: straight games, well I know. And by the way, the
[24:42] Speaker 2: more you get hunted, the more effort you put it.
[24:45] Speaker 2: By the end of a series. I've seen Luca before
[24:47] Speaker 2: at the end of a series. He shot Harden at
[24:49] Speaker 2: the end of a series because they hunt him for
[24:51] Speaker 2: five games.
[24:52] Speaker 1: Yeah. Right, whoever he's guarding, that guy sets the screen
[24:55] Speaker 1: on the ball, right, And so you just bring him
[24:57] Speaker 1: into the action every single time, and you make him running,
[25:00] Speaker 1: you make him do a ton of things there. The
[25:02] Speaker 1: listen to me, Luca can be the best player on
[25:08] Speaker 1: a title team. I still believe that I do too.
[25:11] Speaker 1: I do too, Okay, but I think you need to
[25:13] Speaker 1: have like a very specific roster constructed around him. And
[25:17] Speaker 1: it's the same point, like it's it's it's the cousin
[25:19] Speaker 1: of the point I was just making about Towns and Brunson,
[25:22] Speaker 1: Like you can't everyone else around. Luca needs to be
[25:27] Speaker 1: an amazing athlete and a great defensive player and long
[25:32] Speaker 1: and able to switch and cover and cover.
[25:34] Speaker 2: And preferably catch and shoot because he's always got the ball.
[25:38] Speaker 1: Yes, right, Like three and D guys you want, you
[25:40] Speaker 1: want as many now the whole league wants three and
[25:42] Speaker 1: D guys, but like you want you want long athletic
[25:45] Speaker 1: wings who can switch, who are going to be catching
[25:48] Speaker 1: shoot three guys and all that. But like he's gonna
[25:50] Speaker 1: get you your offense. And why I kind of pushed
[25:52] Speaker 1: back against your metal thing is like Luca is a
[25:54] Speaker 1: great passer, like he yes, Like he is a great passer,
[25:58] Speaker 1: Like he will like Luca when he's got the screen
[26:02] Speaker 1: and roll and he's like throwing the lobs to guys.
[26:04] Speaker 1: It's why DeAndre Ayton is so frustrating, Like he's like, oh,
[26:08] Speaker 1: do you want to make me Clint Capella that thing
[26:09] Speaker 1: that was going around the other day, It's like that
[26:12] Speaker 1: that'd be good for you, Like, go be seven feet
[26:16] Speaker 1: tall with two of the best passers in the world
[26:21] Speaker 1: and go catch lobs all day like you should like
[26:24] Speaker 1: you that, Like the Lakers need a rim running center
[26:27] Speaker 1: who's like actually willing to be a rim running center.
[26:31] Speaker 1: Uh and so but they but because Lebron is what
[26:34] Speaker 1: he is at this age defensively, and Reeves is what
[26:37] Speaker 1: he is defensively, which is like he gives effort, but
[26:40] Speaker 1: he's not a plus defender. Yeah, and obviously Luca is
[26:44] Speaker 1: what he is. Like, they can't win, Like people like
[26:47] Speaker 1: ask us to talk about the Lakers on the shows
[26:49] Speaker 1: and it's like, are they a contender of pretenders? Now?
[26:52] Speaker 1: They're the only way they win is if they are
[26:55] Speaker 1: like the best offensive team in the sport by like
[26:58] Speaker 1: you know, but they have to just out shoot. Yeah,
[27:00] Speaker 1: and that's what you can't You can't do that in
[27:02] Speaker 1: the West. The teams are too good. So I think
[27:05] Speaker 1: they're also drawing dead for winning more than one series. Yeah,
[27:09] Speaker 1: it's interesting with Lebron. You know, the Dodgers owners now
[27:12] Speaker 1: on the Lakers, and you know they let go of
[27:15] Speaker 1: Cody Bellinger and Scott Sager and Trade Turner on the
[27:18] Speaker 1: batting title and Manny Machado in his prime, which I
[27:21] Speaker 1: was surprised with Zach Grinky. They don't they'll let go
[27:25] Speaker 1: of people and they and by the way, all the
[27:26] Speaker 1: analytics tell you that Luke and Lebron on the floor
[27:28] Speaker 1: don't work because and for obvious reasons.
[27:33] Speaker 2: One they both need the ball. Two both are I mean,
[27:36] Speaker 2: Lebron is now the second slowest player in the league.
[27:40] Speaker 2: So like the the tandem of Luke and Lebron is
[27:42] Speaker 2: like it's a disaster on the floor. But not to
[27:46] Speaker 2: include myself in this, but I saw this week like
[27:48] Speaker 2: Chris Berman announced his retirement and it'll be like in
[27:51] Speaker 2: a year and he'll have worked like fifty years at ESPN.
[27:54] Speaker 2: And that's Jeter, That's Kobe. When you play for one team,
[27:57] Speaker 2: that's Dan Marino, right, So there's this love of you know,
[28:02] Speaker 2: I've bounced around to different companies, but I've been a
[28:05] Speaker 2: bit of a mercenary. You know, have microphone, will travel,
[28:08] Speaker 2: what's the best offer, what's the best commerce. That was
[28:10] Speaker 2: best for my family. That's why I did it. I
[28:12] Speaker 2: could have stayed everywhere if things worked out. But the
[28:14] Speaker 2: downside of being a mercenary in basketball and broadcasting in politics.
[28:20] Speaker 2: The downside to being a mercenary is there's not a
[28:25] Speaker 2: lot of romanticism about it, right, Like, so Lebron, you
[28:28] Speaker 2: could show him the door. Tomorrow, Magic Johnson walks into
[28:31] Speaker 2: that arena. He's still more beloved than Lebron. But to
[28:34] Speaker 2: this day he walks into the Staples and it's fascinating
[28:38] Speaker 2: to watch the crowd stands. It's like, ooh, there's Magic.
[28:42] Speaker 2: It's like you've never seen him. You're all season ticket holders.
[28:45] Speaker 2: So my take is the advantage the Dodgers have is
[28:48] Speaker 2: you can let Lebron go and people would be like, well,
[28:51] Speaker 2: building a statue, And I don't think, like, it's not Jordan,
[28:55] Speaker 2: it's not Pio, it's not the eighty five Bears, it's well.
[28:59] Speaker 2: And I defend Lebron's mobility, but like La is distracted,
[29:03] Speaker 2: like nobody's gonna care no.
[29:05] Speaker 1: So a couple of things. First of all, we will
[29:08] Speaker 1: romanticize you, Colin. Whenever you want to hang it up.
[29:11] Speaker 1: I promise you. I promise you. We will give you your flowers.
[29:14] Speaker 1: And I don't don't worry. You're very important to all
[29:18] Speaker 1: of us at the volume. So yeah, you are. You
[29:24] Speaker 1: are the son of which we all know, So don't worry.
[29:28] Speaker 1: You'll get You'll get your flowers, and you're goodbye to her.
[29:30] Speaker 1: But you're you're not You're not going anywhere anytime soon.
[29:35] Speaker 1: Lebron means more to the NBA than he means to
[29:38] Speaker 1: the Lakers. I totally agree. But you know, like I
[29:41] Speaker 1: wouldn't worry if I were if I owned the Lakers
[29:44] Speaker 1: about saying goodbye to Lebron, But I would worry if
[29:47] Speaker 1: I was Adam Silver about saying goodbye to Lebron. Lebron
[29:51] Speaker 1: still matters. He is still interesting. People still care about him.
[29:56] Speaker 2: People I went to the Bulls game with Lebron, he
[30:00] Speaker 2: was the most popular player.
[30:01] Speaker 1: I mean, of course he was the most popular. He's
[30:03] Speaker 1: one of the most famous people in the world. He's
[30:07] Speaker 1: maybe one of the most famous. He's one of the
[30:09] Speaker 1: greatest athletes ever any sport. He's it's even remarkable. It's remarkable,
[30:16] Speaker 1: like he he's taking up golf and I can't get
[30:19] Speaker 1: enough of it. Like I like watching the clips of
[30:23] Speaker 1: Lebron trying to learn golf because it's like, oh, man, Lebron,
[30:25] Speaker 1: he's just like me. He's yeh, duffing it out of
[30:28] Speaker 1: the rough, like he's I would imagine, like, obviously, I
[30:33] Speaker 1: have no idea what it's like to be Lebron, obviously,
[30:36] Speaker 1: but I gotta think if I was Himmer in his camp,
[30:42] Speaker 1: there would be a sinister part of me that when
[30:45] Speaker 1: he retires would wonder what shows like ours on both
[30:50] Speaker 1: networks would talk about we've spent I mean, you've been
[30:54] Speaker 1: at the song of me. I've been doing National TV
[30:56] Speaker 1: for a year and a half. How many thousands of
[31:00] Speaker 1: hours between the two networks do you think Lebron has programmed?
[31:03] Speaker 2: Oh?
[31:03] Speaker 1: I said fifty.
[31:05] Speaker 2: I said this to a I said this to a
[31:07] Speaker 2: baseball executive ten years ago. I was about a year
[31:11] Speaker 2: before I left ESPN, and I told this baseball executive
[31:15] Speaker 2: it was at some it was in Connecticut, and there
[31:18] Speaker 2: are a bunch of baseball people there. I said, do
[31:19] Speaker 2: you understand nobody talks about your sport? And you may
[31:24] Speaker 2: look at first take and you may you know, my
[31:26] Speaker 2: show wasn't a thing at FS one yet or but
[31:28] Speaker 2: I mentioned four or five popular hosts, and Tony and
[31:30] Speaker 2: Mike and all them, you know, get I don't even
[31:33] Speaker 2: think Get Up was a show yet. But I said,
[31:35] Speaker 2: you know, Mike and Mike, I think was Mike, and
[31:37] Speaker 2: I said, nobody talks baseball. I said, do you understand
[31:40] Speaker 2: how many free hours the NFL and the NBA get
[31:43] Speaker 2: on these networks. It's insane. Now baseball, Oh Tani the dog.
[31:48] Speaker 2: That's why the Dodgers, you and I have said this,
[31:50] Speaker 2: They're great for baseball. They got a villain again for
[31:53] Speaker 2: the first time in twenty years. Like they need a villain,
[31:55] Speaker 2: they need a bad guy. So, yeah, no, I think
[31:58] Speaker 2: there isn't really. In fact, I've noticed Danny when I
[32:01] Speaker 2: talk NBA now, I talk Nicks. I don't talk players.
[32:06] Speaker 2: I talk Nicks, I talk Oh, I don't talk Warriors.
[32:11] Speaker 2: I would say Celtics, Knicks, Lakers. I don't really talk
[32:16] Speaker 2: a player. I really don't. And I think that's that's
[32:19] Speaker 2: one of the challenges the NBA has, because it's always
[32:22] Speaker 2: been its most popular when there's a galvanizing or a
[32:26] Speaker 2: polarizing figure to lead the way.
[32:27] Speaker 1: Yeah, and so to circle back to Wemby, because I
[32:30] Speaker 1: do think he can be that, because I like he
[32:34] Speaker 1: might just start breaking all of the rules. Like the
[32:38] Speaker 1: whole thing in the NBA was like you have to
[32:39] Speaker 1: like crawl before you can walk before you can run,
[32:42] Speaker 1: Like it happened with Michael Jordan, it happened with Lebron
[32:45] Speaker 1: in terms of like the yeah, like he would lose
[32:48] Speaker 1: to the Pistons and the Celtics, and then he would
[32:50] Speaker 1: beat them and then he would win his title, and
[32:51] Speaker 1: that was like the progression of the whole thing. Like
[32:53] Speaker 1: if Wemby just enters the playoffs at twenty two and
[32:56] Speaker 1: beats Jokic and beats the Thunder and wins, it'll be oh, well,
[33:00] Speaker 1: that's different, you know, yeah, yeah, there are just think
[33:04] Speaker 1: there are things about him that are different. And like
[33:06] Speaker 1: I as a longtime basketball fan. You was a long
[33:09] Speaker 1: time basketball fan. I can't appreciate Like I've seen Wemby
[33:13] Speaker 1: and I've said this before. I don't think to you,
[33:15] Speaker 1: but it just it's a highlight that sticks in my mind.
[33:17] Speaker 1: And I'm a nerd about this stuff. But like, not
[33:21] Speaker 1: like a trailing three where his momentum is carrying him
[33:24] Speaker 1: towards the basket because he's running in transition a catch
[33:29] Speaker 1: and shoot, stand still three pointer. I've seen this alien
[33:34] Speaker 1: catch a ball, shoot it, recognize that it was long run,
[33:40] Speaker 1: catch the rebound, and tip slam his own missed three
[33:44] Speaker 1: point shot. That's not supposed to be physically possible.
[33:49] Speaker 3: Like like like tip, like Jordan would do it off
[33:53] Speaker 3: of a missed free throw when someone else would miss
[33:55] Speaker 3: a three throw, and he would be have a running
[33:56] Speaker 3: start and jump and tip, slam and put it back
[33:59] Speaker 3: like this guy.
[34:00] Speaker 1: He can get from half court to dunking and two
[34:03] Speaker 1: dribbles like it's just it's just a I do think
[34:06] Speaker 1: that Wemby can capture our basketball curiosity.
[34:12] Speaker 2: But but you but you do know this. The big
[34:14] Speaker 2: guys don't sell shoes, for instance.
[34:16] Speaker 1: Yeah right, yeah, you know, I mean like I want
[34:19] Speaker 1: to be like Mike, or I want to or you know, staff,
[34:22] Speaker 1: I can shoot threes. I want to be like Mike.
[34:24] Speaker 1: Was a moment in time with campaigning everyone wanted to fly.
[34:27] Speaker 1: No one thinks their kid could grow up and be Wemby,
[34:31] Speaker 1: and that it might be the least relatable physical specimen ever.
[34:36] Speaker 1: That's fair.
[34:37] Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think that's it's like and and that's
[34:40] Speaker 2: when I watch Wenby. I'm not I'm not disputing any
[34:43] Speaker 2: of it, but it doesn't feel necessarily relatable. It's not
[34:47] Speaker 2: always artistic, it's just almost genetically fantastic. It's listen, I
[34:53] Speaker 2: I watched Shack in Orlando I actually covered them a
[34:56] Speaker 2: few times, Shack in Orlando and when Shack first came
[34:59] Speaker 2: into the league. The best part about Shaq is when
[35:03] Speaker 2: you get a rebound take at the length of the
[35:04] Speaker 2: floor and like almost break the backboard. It was the power.
[35:08] Speaker 2: And I think Wemby's not as much power. He's just
[35:10] Speaker 2: length and dexterity. And so it's it's not that I
[35:14] Speaker 2: don't appreciate it, but I look at him and I think,
[35:16] Speaker 2: I don't know, does the kids relate to that? Is it?
[35:19] Speaker 1: Is it fun? Is it mean? Because Jordan was cool?
[35:22] Speaker 2: Magic, the no look passes, Bird was actually kind of cool.
[35:27] Speaker 2: Curry is cool. There is a cool factor in the NBA.
[35:31] Speaker 2: It's it's you know, I've said this to you before
[35:33] Speaker 2: one of the reasons I don't like the three point
[35:35] Speaker 2: shot because the basketball is the most artistic sport in
[35:37] Speaker 2: the world. Yeah right, I don't want aunt shooting thirteen threes.
[35:41] Speaker 1: Of course, dunking. I honestly think everybody is in agreement
[35:46] Speaker 1: on that, including the players and the teams. They just
[35:50] Speaker 1: know that they have to shoot threes in order to win,
[35:52] Speaker 1: so they do it. But I think everybody like artistically
[35:55] Speaker 1: agrees with that. But so like when Lebron, Stephen Katy retire,
[36:02] Speaker 1: which is, you know, we probably have another five years
[36:07] Speaker 1: before like the last of them is out of the Yeah,
[36:10] Speaker 1: maybe you know. I mean Katie's talking about playing the
[36:12] Speaker 1: twenty twenty eight Olympics, so like, yeah, four or five years,
[36:16] Speaker 1: I would say, with those guys, with at least one
[36:18] Speaker 1: of them, do you like? I guess I just think
[36:22] Speaker 1: Cooper flag Cooper flags it to me, okay, yeah, because
[36:25] Speaker 1: but I guess my point is, like I don't there's
[36:27] Speaker 1: so much talent and basketball is such a popular sport
[36:32] Speaker 1: that I don't I don't really worry about it, like
[36:35] Speaker 1: I I think the like if I was, if I
[36:37] Speaker 1: was Adam Silver, I'd be much more concerned about stuff
[36:40] Speaker 1: we talked about a couple podcast episodes ago, like too
[36:43] Speaker 1: many threes, guys getting injured, too much, not knowing if
[36:48] Speaker 1: a star is going to play, when you buy your
[36:49] Speaker 1: tickets in advance tanking like which I know you and
[36:52] Speaker 1: I disagreed on a little bit, but like I would
[36:54] Speaker 1: be more worried about like macro issues than I would
[36:57] Speaker 1: be about stars. Like I I think I think they
[37:00] Speaker 1: will find stars because basketball is just really good at
[37:03] Speaker 1: creating stars. Even if there isn't a singular Lebron Michael
[37:07] Speaker 1: Magic work face of the league, I still think there
[37:10] Speaker 1: will be enough high level talents that will sell jerseys
[37:12] Speaker 1: and shoes.
[37:14] Speaker 2: Well, the other thing we have to be fair to
[37:16] Speaker 2: all these sports and all these athletes is they're not
[37:18] Speaker 2: fighting over a tiny slice of the pie. I mean,
[37:21] Speaker 2: go look at Michael Jordan and Magic's contracts. They're like
[37:24] Speaker 2: what a popular DJ makes in New York City. Like
[37:27] Speaker 2: it was like they were fighting over you know, Magic
[37:30] Speaker 2: signed a twenty five year, twenty five million dollar deal.
[37:33] Speaker 2: That is a that'd be a horrendous ig account now
[37:37] Speaker 2: for an NBA player, right, Like, So, I think the
[37:40] Speaker 2: reality is it is hard to get worked up when
[37:45] Speaker 2: you you know, signed a three hundred million dollar contract
[37:47] Speaker 2: or one hundred million dollar contract. It's like even in
[37:49] Speaker 2: the NFL, you're being tackled by players and the NFL
[37:54] Speaker 2: game's over. Players are shaking hands and they're fist bumping. Hey,
[37:57] Speaker 2: I'll see in the golf tournament at Hilton Head this year,
[37:59] Speaker 2: we have homes next to each other. It's like Chris
[38:02] Speaker 2: Paul and Steph Curry and they have places in Mexico. Yeah,
[38:05] Speaker 2: they're they're fighting on the court. They both yea, they
[38:07] Speaker 2: both have mansions, and I think it's hard to get
[38:10] Speaker 2: it's hard to muster up that angst when everybody's eating.
[38:14] Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, well right, There's there's a lot of money
[38:16] Speaker 1: in this, in this stuff. There's a lot of money
[38:18] Speaker 1: in professional sports. But this, I mean, this all began
[38:21] Speaker 1: because you were talking to me about like what I
[38:23] Speaker 1: am most interested in in the dead period of sports. Like,
[38:25] Speaker 1: even with all of the issues, I'll still take the
[38:30] Speaker 1: two and a half months of the NBA Playoffs of
[38:35] Speaker 1: every night, one two, three games of these these athletes
[38:40] Speaker 1: going one hundred percent against each other. Like, still, I
[38:43] Speaker 1: still think it's great theater. I love Thursday to Sunday
[38:47] Speaker 1: opening weekend of March Madness. Going from sixty four teams
[38:49] Speaker 1: to sixteen single it's fantastic. Single elimination is amazing. You know,
[38:55] Speaker 1: I want to play Augusta more than basically anything in
[38:57] Speaker 1: the world. But I don't know anybody. So if anyone
[38:59] Speaker 1: wants to invite any members listening to the HERD podcast, no,
[39:02] Speaker 1: But like I so, the Masters will get me from
[39:04] Speaker 1: start to finish, like every year. But you know, we
[39:09] Speaker 1: were a splintered Society Colin. You know that. Like, so
[39:12] Speaker 1: the things that everybody cares about really are football at
[39:15] Speaker 1: this point. So that's why you're going to hear a
[39:17] Speaker 1: lot of Fernando Mendoza talk. So this week.
[39:31] Speaker 2: It's something Fox had been working on for like ten
[39:34] Speaker 2: or eleven months. They took all my opening rants and
[39:38] Speaker 2: they threw them into this AI machine. Yeah, and they
[39:43] Speaker 2: came out eleven months later and they're like, okay, listen
[39:45] Speaker 2: to I didn't know they were doing it, and Eric
[39:48] Speaker 2: Shanks during a commercial break, says, listen to this. And
[39:51] Speaker 2: he asked it a question, and it was me spitting
[39:53] Speaker 2: it out, except I could see a picture of me.
[39:55] Speaker 2: This version you just hear me, don't see me. His version,
[39:58] Speaker 2: you could see me and Frank. It was way better.
[40:01] Speaker 1: Looking than me.
[40:01] Speaker 2: I was like, oh, I look like David Hasselhoff.
[40:05] Speaker 1: I had all this hair.
[40:07] Speaker 2: But the point was is I thought to myself, you know,
[40:11] Speaker 2: some people won't like it. You know, people will say, oh, well,
[40:14] Speaker 2: you're just you know, you're you're eliminating jobs. Well it's
[40:17] Speaker 2: not has nothing to do with the show or the volume.
[40:20] Speaker 2: It's just basically like a trivia app. You know, you
[40:23] Speaker 2: go to Fox Sports app you go to the AI.
[40:25] Speaker 2: But it is interesting because in my entire life, and
[40:31] Speaker 2: maybe the media really does think this, the media tends
[40:35] Speaker 2: to veer to chaotic and worst case scenario. So when
[40:41] Speaker 2: I did this AI thing, my takeaway was the smartest
[40:45] Speaker 2: people in the world do not know the outcomes. Nobody
[40:49] Speaker 2: really knows. We're not going to have thirty eight percent unemployment.
[40:53] Speaker 2: I'm absolutely sure of just that there'll be shoulder economies.
[40:58] Speaker 2: I mean, I, like I've said before, even if it
[41:00] Speaker 2: did a better job than my accountant, I still like
[41:02] Speaker 2: my accountant and trust my accountant and can call my
[41:04] Speaker 2: accountant every day. I'm not replacing my accountant. I may
[41:07] Speaker 2: ask my accountant to be able to use AI, but
[41:10] Speaker 2: I'm not getting rid of my realtor my accountant, my lawyer,
[41:13] Speaker 2: like none of that stuff. So just as a starting
[41:17] Speaker 2: point for this, as a member of the media, when
[41:21] Speaker 2: you look at AI, are you do you think, Oh,
[41:26] Speaker 2: it could replace me? Holy crap, what are my kids
[41:29] Speaker 2: are going to do? Oh Jesus, I mean, how do
[41:32] Speaker 2: you view it? Apocalyptic?
[41:34] Speaker 1: No? No, listen, it's it. It's a tool. And I
[41:42] Speaker 1: think that, like anything there is good and bad. So
[41:49] Speaker 1: I'll get back to AI in a second. But like,
[41:51] Speaker 1: like social media net positive for the world, net negative
[41:55] Speaker 1: for the world. There's a lot of arguments on both sides.
[41:59] Speaker 2: I'd say slight negative.
[42:00] Speaker 1: Okay, right, and that I think I would too, right,
[42:05] Speaker 1: Like you can read stories about how like in some
[42:08] Speaker 1: places in the world they don't really have the Internet,
[42:10] Speaker 1: but they have Facebook, and so their only access to
[42:13] Speaker 1: news is misinformation and it has led to civil war
[42:17] Speaker 1: and it's like that is mortifying and it's and it's
[42:21] Speaker 1: influenced elections and it's like really toxic. Internet brained a
[42:27] Speaker 1: lot of people, and that would be in the negative column.
[42:31] Speaker 1: It also how people meet and how people see pictures
[42:38] Speaker 1: of their grandkids when they live far away, and has
[42:42] Speaker 1: created careers and launched new media empires, and you know
[42:48] Speaker 1: what I mean. Like it's a lot of good and
[42:50] Speaker 1: a lot of bad with social media. Like I think,
[42:52] Speaker 1: I think net negative net positive social media is I think, yeah,
[42:58] Speaker 1: of course, of course, because the world is gray. The
[43:03] Speaker 1: world needs nuance. So like AI, I am thrilled that,
[43:11] Speaker 1: you know, I do a lot of fundraising. I'm very
[43:14] Speaker 1: proud of it for brain cancer research in honor of
[43:17] Speaker 1: my brother who passed away. I'm thrilled that I read
[43:23] Speaker 1: about and occasionally talk to and know people in the
[43:26] Speaker 1: space that like are really, really, really optimistic about what
[43:31] Speaker 1: AI might be able to do to help figure out
[43:35] Speaker 1: ways because the brain is the most complicated computer of
[43:39] Speaker 1: like delivering medicine to portions of the brain that have
[43:42] Speaker 1: previously not been available through normal medical science, like what
[43:47] Speaker 1: AI like. I absolutely want the medicinal field to be
[43:53] Speaker 1: using AI if they think it can help. Right when
[43:58] Speaker 1: do I love the idea that, like you, one of
[44:03] Speaker 1: the greatest takesmen of all time, have given all of
[44:07] Speaker 1: your takes to the big brain machine, who maybe, just
[44:11] Speaker 1: maybe won't replace Colin Cowhard, he of many homes and
[44:14] Speaker 1: many companies, but that like that might somewhere down the
[44:18] Speaker 1: line replace a guy like me a few rungs lower
[44:21] Speaker 1: than you on the totem pole. Like the thought crossed
[44:23] Speaker 1: my mind, but so like it's will it have negative impacts? Absolutely?
[44:30] Speaker 1: Like will it cost people jobs? Absolutely? But will it
[44:35] Speaker 1: also like cure a disease and like save millions of lives? Yeah,
[44:43] Speaker 1: I think inevitably, And so I don't. I don't. I
[44:47] Speaker 1: don't try to get to apocalyptic on either side. And
[44:52] Speaker 1: I tend to think that, Like I actually have a
[44:56] Speaker 1: job that is like in a pretty good spot for it,
[45:00] Speaker 1: pretty immune, pretty pretty immune for it, right, like live
[45:03] Speaker 1: live TV is pretty safe.
[45:05] Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, it feels like live TV is pretty safe.
[45:09] Speaker 1: So yeah, so like I selfishly personally feel okay, like,
[45:14] Speaker 1: but like the person who writes the catchy headlines for
[45:21] Speaker 1: the bottom line on our TV show, I don't know
[45:26] Speaker 1: that job might be able to be done by by
[45:28] Speaker 1: AI if I'm being totally candid with you, so like,
[45:31] Speaker 1: you know, I again like net negative net positive, Like
[45:35] Speaker 1: I think we're gonna we're gonna see and so I'm
[45:39] Speaker 1: not I'm not apocalyptic, but I'm not also like totally bullish,
[45:45] Speaker 1: like I'm the most excited about it that I've ever been.
[45:46] Speaker 1: Like I think there's gonna be good and bad that
[45:48] Speaker 1: comes from it.
[45:50] Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's I I just like the social
[45:54] Speaker 2: lubrication of I like to call my attorney. I like
[45:59] Speaker 2: to call like just sometimes I'm like I need an answer.
[46:02] Speaker 2: I want to talk to a human. It's more comforting
[46:04] Speaker 2: than a computer. So I you know, there's a lot
[46:08] Speaker 2: of things. But you're you're you're.
[46:11] Speaker 1: Sixty, like right, like will someone who's twenty five who
[46:18] Speaker 1: doesn't have an accountant yet because they're not making any
[46:20] Speaker 1: money yet, Like will they feel the need to do that?
[46:24] Speaker 1: I have no idea. Well, I mean, listen to my idea.
[46:28] Speaker 2: We had an entire industry, the cab industry, I mean
[46:32] Speaker 2: got replaced. Yeah, like yeah, I mean, like just it
[46:35] Speaker 2: does happen. The typewriter went away, cabs went away. I
[46:41] Speaker 2: mean it's it's made our job. The Internet's made our
[46:44] Speaker 2: job a thousand times easier instead of like reading seven
[46:47] Speaker 2: newspapers what I used to do in Las Vegas, where
[46:50] Speaker 2: I I mean literally I had two newspapers. I mean
[46:52] Speaker 2: it was just insane what you had to do to
[46:54] Speaker 2: do a sports talk show host and sports anchor.
[46:56] Speaker 1: When when I was an intern for ESPN one thousand
[47:00] Speaker 1: uh in Chicago, one of my jobs every day was
[47:04] Speaker 1: to like print out the baseball standings and like hang
[47:09] Speaker 1: them in the studio and then like take the like
[47:12] Speaker 1: agate page of the newspaper and like magnify it and
[47:16] Speaker 1: blow it up and put it at each of the
[47:18] Speaker 1: host stations so that they could see like the box
[47:21] Speaker 1: scores from the night before, because you couldn't like just
[47:23] Speaker 1: pull it up on the computer easily. So yeah, like
[47:26] Speaker 1: now if I'm filling in for you doing a solo
[47:30] Speaker 1: three hour radio and television show, and I can't think
[47:35] Speaker 1: of a fact I'm a good enough speaker and thinker
[47:38] Speaker 1: and typer that I literally can be looking into a
[47:42] Speaker 1: camera on National TV talking into a microphone and I
[47:45] Speaker 1: know I could say something in your producers would help
[47:47] Speaker 1: me out with it. But like I can google, like
[47:50] Speaker 1: you know Anthony Edwards age because I'm like, I can't
[47:54] Speaker 1: remember if he's twenty four or twenty five, and it'll
[47:56] Speaker 1: pop up. So Yeah, the technology is amazing and it's
[47:59] Speaker 1: made our job a lot. Sorry, I was just yes
[48:01] Speaker 1: andending you there.
[48:03] Speaker 2: The NFL combine is something and I think I we
[48:08] Speaker 2: touched on this earlier. I I it EBB and flows
[48:11] Speaker 2: on what I talked about college football got too regional.
[48:13] Speaker 2: I stopped talking about to a large degree.
[48:15] Speaker 1: Now it's back.
[48:16] Speaker 2: Jim Harborough brought it back. The Big Ten brought it back.
[48:18] Speaker 2: Now I talk about it all the time, the NFL combine.
[48:22] Speaker 2: I am out on. I am out on the NFL
[48:27] Speaker 2: the last two years.
[48:28] Speaker 1: Basic were you ever in? Yes, you were?
[48:31] Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I think probe I think for a
[48:36] Speaker 2: long time it was just NFL and I loved I like.
[48:39] Speaker 2: I like the convergence of college and pro.
[48:41] Speaker 1: I love the draft. I love the combine that makes.
[48:42] Speaker 2: Sense, but it's so rehearsed. Many of the stars don't
[48:45] Speaker 2: show up. I don't care about people's hand size.
[48:49] Speaker 1: I really don't care.
[48:50] Speaker 2: And the truth is, I think one of the things
[48:53] Speaker 2: that's really smart. One of the reasons I love the
[48:54] Speaker 2: way the la Rams do business is they're not They're
[48:56] Speaker 2: willing to say things and do things that other people won't.
[48:59] Speaker 2: They just said several years ago, we're not going that.
[49:03] Speaker 2: We do our own homework. We have tape, we can
[49:05] Speaker 2: go to the Senior Bowl. We're not doing a quick
[49:08] Speaker 2: fifteen minute interview where Johnny Manzel had NFL teams believing
[49:13] Speaker 2: he was Peyton Manning. It's like, let's ride I never want.
[49:16] Speaker 2: It's a bullshit seminar and it's just polished visa. The agents.
[49:22] Speaker 2: These guys come in with talking points. They train in Phoenix.
[49:26] Speaker 2: You know, everybody runs their fastest forty. Everybody's got abs.
[49:30] Speaker 2: You know, it's like everybody has their best vertical. It's football.
[49:34] Speaker 2: By October twelfth, nobody runs a four to three, not
[49:37] Speaker 2: even the four to three guys. They've got a bad hip,
[49:40] Speaker 2: they've got an ankle spring like like the whole league's
[49:42] Speaker 2: beat up by week six. It's just it's a sport
[49:44] Speaker 2: of attrition. You're just trying to get your best players available,
[49:48] Speaker 2: like down the stretch. So I find myself, like, we
[49:52] Speaker 2: know who's going to go number one? Is there anything
[49:54] Speaker 2: that you have moved out of Like, I'm just not.
[49:57] Speaker 2: I was never a home run derby guy, for instance.
[49:59] Speaker 2: I was now so that I was never in. I
[50:02] Speaker 2: didn't leave it Pro Bowl. I've joked, I've never watched
[50:05] Speaker 2: four plays. I think the last time I watched the
[50:07] Speaker 2: Pro Bowl. Walter Abercrombie was a running back for the
[50:10] Speaker 2: Baylor Bears and the Steelers briefly. I don't even know
[50:13] Speaker 2: where he played, Like I remember watching it.
[50:15] Speaker 1: He had a big run.
[50:16] Speaker 2: I think it was him.
[50:18] Speaker 1: So I don't.
[50:19] Speaker 2: I don't watch that combine I used to. I'm it
[50:21] Speaker 2: doesn't do a thing for me. Now I turned it
[50:23] Speaker 2: on for twenty minutes today and I moved over to
[50:25] Speaker 2: the NBA and said more interested.
[50:27] Speaker 1: Yeah, So the combine like that was one that I
[50:30] Speaker 1: always I I understood it because the NFL is just
[50:35] Speaker 1: the cash cow and it's the thing that makes the
[50:36] Speaker 1: whole business go. But like, man, these networks really invested
[50:40] Speaker 1: in their combine coverage. They're they're on live for the
[50:44] Speaker 1: whole time that you know, Rich Eisen is running the
[50:48] Speaker 1: forty like he's participating, right, like you know what I mean.
[50:50] Speaker 1: Like they made it into like big business in big TV.
[50:54] Speaker 1: And the whole time, I was like, this is the
[50:55] Speaker 1: underwear Olympics for a draft that like I'm not sure
[51:00] Speaker 1: we like should be having. And it's just like they
[51:02] Speaker 1: it's between all the college football tape and the in
[51:05] Speaker 1: person interviews and the pro days and like the number
[51:08] Speaker 1: one pick never throws like it's just like it's just
[51:11] Speaker 1: go get your height and your weight measured basically. Like
[51:15] Speaker 1: So I just I never was that enthralled by it
[51:18] Speaker 1: and was kind of amazed that these networks could get yeah,
[51:22] Speaker 1: eight hours a day of televised content out of it.
[51:25] Speaker 1: So I've never been a huge combine guy. Regular season
[51:31] Speaker 1: college basketball is something that I very much used to
[51:35] Speaker 1: love and now yeah, really I think America did. Yeah,
[51:39] Speaker 1: I used to love it, and part of it part
[51:41] Speaker 1: of was age too, to be honest with you, Like,
[51:43] Speaker 1: just like I went to Syracuse that that program mattered.
[51:48] Speaker 1: Then I worked in Kansas City, so I was around KU.
[51:51] Speaker 1: That program mattered, good college basketball markets. But then, like you,
[51:55] Speaker 1: you grow further, you grow up, you grew further away
[51:58] Speaker 1: from your alma mater, you moved to a sport market.
[52:01] Speaker 1: You realize that, like you know, it doesn't matter, like
[52:04] Speaker 1: you doesn't You can go they're ten and eight in
[52:08] Speaker 1: the Big Ten and make the tournament and then make
[52:10] Speaker 1: a run. So like one game doesn't mean all that much.
[52:13] Speaker 1: So you regular season college basketball has lost me tremendously.
[52:17] Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it's really interesting. The advantage to age
[52:20] Speaker 2: is hopefully over the course of your life you've consumed
[52:25] Speaker 2: enough interesting things and had interesting relationships that you have
[52:29] Speaker 2: a little bit you can impart a little bit of wisdom.
[52:31] Speaker 2: And I've said this before for a twenty for any
[52:34] Speaker 2: sportscaster that's eighteen to thirty five. The two things you
[52:38] Speaker 2: missed out on boxing was freaking unbelievable. Yeah, like great athletes,
[52:45] Speaker 2: big personalities, Haggler, Hearns, Leonard Duran Ali. I mean it
[52:51] Speaker 2: was just insane, young Tyson. The second thing is goddamn,
[52:55] Speaker 2: the Big East was unbelievable.
[52:57] Speaker 1: Oh, it's one of the best thirty for thirties. Ever,
[53:00] Speaker 1: the all the coaches hated each other. The coaches were
[53:05] Speaker 1: Beatino and Thompson and Beheive and PJ. Carlissimo and Louis Carniseca.
[53:11] Speaker 1: I was a West Coast kid. I never watched the
[53:13] Speaker 1: PAC twelve. I was like, I watched the Big East
[53:16] Speaker 1: and those are the and so it's very hard for
[53:18] Speaker 1: you and I because you know the Big East year
[53:20] Speaker 1: old enough. It is hard now to watch what college
[53:23] Speaker 1: basketball is now. I mean I love watching Gonzaga Duke
[53:27] Speaker 1: or the you know, like to go watch this kid
[53:29] Speaker 1: at BYU or Darren Peterson. But you tell thirty year
[53:33] Speaker 1: old sportscasters, yeah, there would be like Georgetown would have
[53:36] Speaker 1: four NBA guys and there would be fights regularly in games.
[53:40] Speaker 2: Often the coaches were at each other.
[53:42] Speaker 1: Shroat oh like yeah, Matt, Yeah. The old Big East
[53:47] Speaker 1: was incredible. And then when I was when I was there,
[53:50] Speaker 1: it was when the Big East like before you know,
[53:53] Speaker 1: the schools left to go to the ACC, but the
[53:56] Speaker 1: Big East blew up and it was a sixteen team conference.
[53:58] Speaker 1: It was still like I still feel like I the
[54:00] Speaker 1: end of it. Because John Thompson's kid was coaching Georgetown,
[54:04] Speaker 1: jay Wright was at Villanova, Patina was at Louisville. Bayheim
[54:08] Speaker 1: was still at Syracuse, jay Wright was at Villanova, Bob
[54:11] Speaker 1: Huggins was at West Virginia. And so I'm a student
[54:14] Speaker 1: reporter going down to Madison Square Garden to cover Big
[54:17] Speaker 1: East Media Day and all of those coaches are sitting
[54:20] Speaker 1: there at tables. I'm like, man, this is a big deal.
[54:23] Speaker 1: So that's two thousand and six, seven eight, you know that.
[54:27] Speaker 1: But post conference realignment and football driving the bus for everything,
[54:32] Speaker 1: and it broke up the basketball super conferences. And then
[54:37] Speaker 1: you add in Nil, which I am in general in
[54:40] Speaker 1: favor for, but it's changed that aspect of it. And
[54:43] Speaker 1: then a lot of the famous coaches, you know, Jay
[54:45] Speaker 1: Wright's like, I don't want to do this. I don't
[54:47] Speaker 1: want I don't want to recruit my freshmen to stay
[54:50] Speaker 1: for my sophomore year. I can make more money in TV.
[54:53] Speaker 1: You know. Coach k retires, Jay Wright leaves, Roy Williams leaves,
[54:57] Speaker 1: Beheim leaves, a lot of the big personality coaches leave,
[55:00] Speaker 1: and it's it's still is a again March madness. I
[55:05] Speaker 1: used to joke in Chicago because it's not a big
[55:08] Speaker 1: enough college sports market. I would say, like when I
[55:10] Speaker 1: was doing mornings or like mid days, I was like,
[55:13] Speaker 1: I'll work because I'm off the air. At one I
[55:15] Speaker 1: was like, but you guys don't deserve to have me
[55:17] Speaker 1: on the air in the afternoons during during the opening
[55:20] Speaker 1: of the turn because you don't care enough. You guys
[55:22] Speaker 1: want me to like spring training Cubs baseball, and I'm like,
[55:26] Speaker 1: I'm like, I got six bets going on on these Jmax, Yeah, yeah, oh,
[55:31] Speaker 1: the the opening. It's the best man sixty sixty four
[55:36] Speaker 1: down to sixteen over four days, single elimination upsets, four
[55:41] Speaker 1: games at a time, starting at noon ending at eleven PM,
[55:44] Speaker 1: like that that is the best. Like I still get
[55:47] Speaker 1: totally amped up for it. I just now come into
[55:50] Speaker 1: it with a lot less regular season body of work
[55:56] Speaker 1: knowledge because of the job. Like we're doing more NBA,
[55:59] Speaker 1: We're doing NFL year round in Chicago, I was doing
[56:03] Speaker 1: baseball year round. Like, so, I just you know, my
[56:06] Speaker 1: team sucks. Syracuse is terrible. So I fully admit that
[56:12] Speaker 1: I parachute in to college basketball now in a way
[56:16] Speaker 1: that I used to never before. I used to be
[56:17] Speaker 1: like into it and be watching early season tournaments and
[56:21] Speaker 1: going to games. Yeah, and the whole thing, man, And
[56:24] Speaker 1: it was great. It was great, Like I mean, this
[56:27] Speaker 1: is again a little inside baseball, but I know you'll
[56:28] Speaker 1: like it. Like Jim Bayheim, he used to have open practices.
[56:34] Speaker 1: You can just go. You can go as a student reporter.
[56:38] Speaker 1: You can just the whole thing. You can just walk
[56:40] Speaker 1: in and watch in practice. I watched. I watched dozens
[56:45] Speaker 1: of Syracuse basketball practices from second row. It was the greatest.
[56:49] Speaker 1: Was like a real cool like then you could ask
[56:52] Speaker 1: questions at the press conferences and he would chew you
[56:54] Speaker 1: out like he was a real guy. He used to
[56:56] Speaker 1: call in Colin to my postgame show. He would be
[56:59] Speaker 1: driving home and he'd hear me say something. He was
[57:02] Speaker 1: so like he had such rabbit ears that if the
[57:05] Speaker 1: local if national media ever criticized him, he never said anything.
[57:09] Speaker 1: But if local media ever criticized him, he was like,
[57:11] Speaker 1: I'm the biggest game in town. And he was, uh,
[57:14] Speaker 1: but like and he left and look at him now,
[57:17] Speaker 1: yeah exactly. You know he was on hundred percent right.
[57:20] Speaker 1: But I used to be like, oh, man, Daheim's over
[57:22] Speaker 1: the hill. He's got his kids playing on the team.
[57:24] Speaker 1: I'm like, we need some new blood in there. Now
[57:26] Speaker 1: the school can't even they can't even make the n
[57:28] Speaker 1: I T. It's pathetic. But I once had to take
[57:33] Speaker 1: they had. This is so stupid. They had two names
[57:36] Speaker 1: that Super College Basketball had, Brandon Trish and Scoop Jardine.
[57:40] Speaker 1: I was like, you gotta name one of them the
[57:42] Speaker 1: point guard. You know. It's it's like, it's like it's
[57:45] Speaker 1: you know the old football adage you had two quarterbacks.
[57:48] Speaker 1: You have none. You gotta have a point guard. Phone
[57:51] Speaker 1: line rings for my postgame show, Carl screeners like it's
[57:55] Speaker 1: Jim in Syracuse. I'm like, he's like that, You like,
[58:00] Speaker 1: what put him on? Danny? I go, Jim, is this
[58:06] Speaker 1: you goes? Listening to your show driving home from our win.
[58:11] Speaker 1: By the way, he goes, I just want you to
[58:17] Speaker 1: know that you say I need to name a point guard.
[58:22] Speaker 1: If they're not pressing, you could bring the ball up
[58:25] Speaker 1: across half of it doesn't matter. It was incredible. It
[58:31] Speaker 1: was incredible, one of the greatest moments of my career.
[58:36] Speaker 4: I was like, oh my god, that's such a good point.
[58:38] Speaker 4: That's why you're a Hall of Famer. Thanks for calling
[58:40] Speaker 4: Jim first time. Don't be a stranger. And it was
[58:44] Speaker 4: the greatest. So we've had a pretty good relationship ever since.
[58:47] Speaker 2: Yeah. No, he he would come on and be feisty. Yeah,
[58:50] Speaker 2: it's great to I always liked him. And you know,
[58:53] Speaker 2: people say all these coaches are overrated. Villanova's not the same,
[58:57] Speaker 2: Syracuse is not the same. Don't don't tell me they're overrated.
[59:01] Speaker 2: Thinking out Arizona, Patina was turned Saint.
[59:03] Speaker 1: John's into I mean, just Patino's one of the greatest
[59:06] Speaker 1: coaches ever.
[59:08] Speaker 2: Like, yeah, listen, I don't know if you know Doug Gottlieb,
[59:12] Speaker 2: but I know Doug Gottlieb. So he takes over a
[59:14] Speaker 2: program in a big conference, small or smaller conference, but
[59:17] Speaker 2: it's it's not a great conference and the program is
[59:19] Speaker 2: a mess.
[59:19] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[59:20] Speaker 2: Last time I looked at the standings, they were in
[59:22] Speaker 2: second in year two. So it's like, you know, and
[59:25] Speaker 2: I'm thinking he was doing a radio show and coaching like,
[59:28] Speaker 2: but he was. You know, he's a bit of a
[59:30] Speaker 2: savant with college basketball. I mean, he knows everybody, he
[59:33] Speaker 2: lives and he breathes that, he sleeps it. But my
[59:36] Speaker 2: takeaway is, yes, coaching matters, Like let's let's stop like Beheim.
[59:40] Speaker 2: Syracuse was fascinating because I know you went to college
[59:43] Speaker 2: there and are probably proud of it. But I remember
[59:46] Speaker 2: going to that campus and thinking, man, it's not the
[59:50] Speaker 2: prettiest thing. Like what does he sell kids? I mean
[59:53] Speaker 2: it's kind of in the middle of nowhere. How did
[59:56] Speaker 2: he well, I mean listen, it was I mean the dome,
[59:59] Speaker 2: the players, you know what I mean. There were recruiting
[1:00:02] Speaker 2: violations right like nil before nil, so like that was
[1:00:06] Speaker 2: a part of it for sure, but everybody was doing that.
[1:00:10] Speaker 2: He sold a brand of basketball. Come play my two
[1:00:16] Speaker 2: three zone. Yeah, matchup zone, so you can, but you
[1:00:20] Speaker 2: don't have to use as much energy on defense and
[1:00:23] Speaker 2: then run on offense.
[1:00:27] Speaker 1: Not a lot of design plays, a lot of pick
[1:00:30] Speaker 1: and rolls, a lot of transition, a lot of like
[1:00:33] Speaker 1: NBA stop, a lot of NBA.
[1:00:35] Speaker 2: Style off Well. Yeah, I mean his his is the
[1:00:39] Speaker 2: key to him. He always had incredible length. His teams
[1:00:42] Speaker 2: were fast and long and looked like pro teams.
[1:00:45] Speaker 1: Yeah, so he would recruit for his system, so he
[1:00:48] Speaker 1: would his His selling point was basically like, go get
[1:00:52] Speaker 1: your numbers. However you can get your numbers, like, play
[1:00:55] Speaker 1: your brand of basketball on offense, play my brand of
[1:00:58] Speaker 1: basketball on defense, and you will play in front of
[1:01:02] Speaker 1: more people than you'll play in front of at Madison
[1:01:04] Speaker 1: Square Garden or Staples Center. They put thirty thousand people
[1:01:08] Speaker 1: in there for college basketball games Inmber with three feet
[1:01:13] Speaker 1: of snow outside, like the Dome in its heyday would rock.
[1:01:17] Speaker 1: And it was just like a oh yeah it was.
[1:01:18] Speaker 1: And it was like a singular thing, like Cameron is
[1:01:21] Speaker 1: an amazing place, and allen Field houses maybe the best
[1:01:24] Speaker 1: venue I've ever seen a sporting event at, Like it's
[1:01:27] Speaker 1: you know, the smaller loud places are very very special,
[1:01:31] Speaker 1: but the Dome is a one of one thing, you know,
[1:01:36] Speaker 1: Like thirty thousand people for regular season college hoops games
[1:01:41] Speaker 1: was a regular occurrence. You would set the they set
[1:01:44] Speaker 1: the attendance record every year. They would pick a game
[1:01:47] Speaker 1: they'd sell just a few extra tickets to say it's like, oh,
[1:01:50] Speaker 1: we're gonna set the record against Duke, we're gonna set
[1:01:52] Speaker 1: the record against Louisville, we're gonna set the record against Villanova,
[1:01:55] Speaker 1: and thirty three thousand, thirty four thousand people, and so
[1:01:58] Speaker 1: it was just a that's what it was. And he
[1:02:01] Speaker 1: would recruit like a very Baltimore, DC, New York like
[1:02:06] Speaker 1: he would just he had his yes he had his
[1:02:08] Speaker 1: area of the country that he recruited from, and it
[1:02:12] Speaker 1: was it was a pipeline.
[1:02:14] Speaker 2: Yeah, what would you do with Darren Peterson who had
[1:02:18] Speaker 2: missed at one point eleven of twenty seven games. Jeff
[1:02:21] Speaker 2: Goodman was on my show last week and said, I
[1:02:23] Speaker 2: think it's gotten into his head. And what would worry
[1:02:26] Speaker 2: me is Markel Foltz and Royce White and Jordan Speith
[1:02:29] Speaker 2: and David Duvall and some own biles. And when stuff
[1:02:32] Speaker 2: gets into an athlete's head, that's I used to have
[1:02:35] Speaker 2: a therapist that used to say this. He said, be
[1:02:37] Speaker 2: careful what you put on the merry go round upstairs,
[1:02:40] Speaker 2: because it's hard to get it off. And then you're
[1:02:42] Speaker 2: nineteen or you're twenty and you're on a college campus
[1:02:45] Speaker 2: and you're getting crucified on social media, and we didn't
[1:02:48] Speaker 2: deal with that stuff, like, like, do you think it's
[1:02:51] Speaker 2: a like, I mean's obviously a really talented player, but
[1:02:55] Speaker 2: it does. My take is if he goes into the
[1:02:57] Speaker 2: tournament doesn't play plays poorly, it's like I think I
[1:03:01] Speaker 2: struggled to draft him number one, Like in a loaded
[1:03:04] Speaker 2: draft with like eight really good players, it's like I
[1:03:07] Speaker 2: may take him three I don't know. It's like right
[1:03:09] Speaker 2: now it's number one, but when you hear it's in
[1:03:12] Speaker 2: his head, I'm like, that's not a great place for
[1:03:13] Speaker 2: young people to be basketball or not.
[1:03:16] Speaker 1: Yeah, So I think when you watch him, I'm like, oh,
[1:03:20] Speaker 1: is that Anthony Edwards or Kobe Bryant or Dwayne Wade,
[1:03:23] Speaker 1: Like he looks like he is gonna be a like
[1:03:27] Speaker 1: an NBA All Star for a decade, elite scorer.
[1:03:31] Speaker 2: Oh, it's got some Kobe comps.
[1:03:33] Speaker 1: Yes, you know. So it's like, so I'm interested in
[1:03:37] Speaker 1: that at number one, Like as a basketball talent, he
[1:03:41] Speaker 1: needs to explain it, like like this is one where
[1:03:46] Speaker 1: the pre draft workouts and interviews and what he does
[1:03:52] Speaker 1: the rest of the way and the tournament to your point,
[1:03:54] Speaker 1: like they're gonna matter a lot. Now you said three,
[1:03:58] Speaker 1: I tend to think the floor is two. Like I think,
[1:04:02] Speaker 1: you know, Debansta looks awesome, right, like, yeah, six eight
[1:04:09] Speaker 1: length plays hard, can score well.
[1:04:12] Speaker 2: Boozer, Cameron Boozer's got a lower ceiling. I think he's
[1:04:15] Speaker 2: a really really good player place for twenty years eighteen.
[1:04:18] Speaker 2: I mean Luke's hands feet, but the ceilings.
[1:04:21] Speaker 1: Lower right, well exactly though, but That's kind of my
[1:04:23] Speaker 1: point is that, like, there's a lot of good players
[1:04:26] Speaker 1: in this draft, but if you get the number one pick,
[1:04:31] Speaker 1: like you're trying to get the franchise Alterroer, You're trying
[1:04:34] Speaker 1: to get the face of the league, the face of
[1:04:36] Speaker 1: the franchise, the best player on the title team, And
[1:04:39] Speaker 1: Peterson clearly has the ceiling of that. So I think
[1:04:44] Speaker 1: you're still going to see teams be willing to strike
[1:04:48] Speaker 1: out on it. And like the phrase boomer bust for
[1:04:51] Speaker 1: prospects exists for a reason, like he's got boom and
[1:04:54] Speaker 1: he's got busted. Debansta might have enough of the ceiling
[1:04:58] Speaker 1: where he goes one and Peterson goes too. Because of this, Like,
[1:05:01] Speaker 1: I do think that's in play, but I don't think
[1:05:03] Speaker 1: him going any lower than two is realistic barring like
[1:05:07] Speaker 1: a I don't even want to, like a serious medical issue,
[1:05:13] Speaker 1: a serious admission on his part of like, yeah, I
[1:05:17] Speaker 1: don't know if I love basketball, which I don't think
[1:05:19] Speaker 1: is the case. No, nobody says that, no, that's not
[1:05:22] Speaker 1: the case, But I'm just saying, like I think that
[1:05:24] Speaker 1: there would have to be something shocking to come out
[1:05:27] Speaker 1: in the next few months for him to fall any
[1:05:29] Speaker 1: lower than two. I think. I think one is the
[1:05:32] Speaker 1: ceiling and two is the floor, right.
[1:05:35] Speaker 2: Danny Parkins, Are you back from vacation in the Bahamas,
[1:05:39] Speaker 2: which is an unbelievable place, and I don't go to
[1:05:42] Speaker 2: on vacation for a while a couple of weeks. Yeah,
[1:05:45] Speaker 2: I'm I'm head and east it is. I will say this,
[1:05:51] Speaker 2: that vacation thing, golf, sun, beach, cocktails. It doesn't get old. Yeah,
[1:05:57] Speaker 2: you know, I used to when I was in my twenties.
[1:05:59] Speaker 2: I was like, I want to get back to work.
[1:06:01] Speaker 2: I never think that anymore.
[1:06:02] Speaker 1: Yeah. No, when you say like you're going again in
[1:06:04] Speaker 1: a couple of weeks, I don't know what I'm going again,
[1:06:07] Speaker 1: Like you have more time off than me. But it was, listen,
[1:06:11] Speaker 1: I mean it was. I love our job, I absolutely
[1:06:13] Speaker 1: love it. But yeah, this the week off was necessary
[1:06:18] Speaker 1: and like, I think I found my perfect day as
[1:06:22] Speaker 1: like a married man with young kids. First guy off
[1:06:28] Speaker 1: on the golf course. So the first tea time that
[1:06:30] Speaker 1: they would let me have is seven fifty in the morning,
[1:06:33] Speaker 1: So I'd wake up kids and wife are still asleep
[1:06:37] Speaker 1: out the door, go stretch, driving range, warm up. First
[1:06:42] Speaker 1: guy off, Colin. I played this course in the Bahamas.
[1:06:46] Speaker 1: I played three times two and a half hours because
[1:06:49] Speaker 1: I would play solo. So I play in two and
[1:06:52] Speaker 1: a half hours by myself. Come back, wife and kids
[1:06:55] Speaker 1: are up. They had a big breakfast. They're down at
[1:06:57] Speaker 1: the pool. I meet him. I'm back by eleven. I'm
[1:07:00] Speaker 1: a hero. I got eighteen eighteen holes in and I
[1:07:03] Speaker 1: still have the full day. Then water park water slides
[1:07:07] Speaker 1: with my boys. What's more fun than a water slide
[1:07:09] Speaker 1: with a six year old? It's oh, it's.
[1:07:11] Speaker 2: Great skiing and water slides where your young kids are
[1:07:15] Speaker 2: the best.
[1:07:16] Speaker 1: I went down the same to two dueling water slides
[1:07:20] Speaker 1: that like you could like go at the same time
[1:07:21] Speaker 1: and race down with you like that. My kid was
[1:07:23] Speaker 1: all enough for We counted. We went down twenty seven
[1:07:26] Speaker 1: times in a row. It was he was so tired.
[1:07:31] Speaker 1: It was just like I would get the bottom, he'd
[1:07:32] Speaker 1: be like again, and I'm like again. And then we
[1:07:35] Speaker 1: went out to dinner at a great place at the resort,
[1:07:38] Speaker 1: and then the and the kids crashed, and the kids crashing.
[1:07:40] Speaker 1: The resort had a credited childcare and so we would
[1:07:45] Speaker 1: be pay for a babysitter to come sit in the
[1:07:47] Speaker 1: room while the kids sleep, and then my wife would
[1:07:50] Speaker 1: get dressed up and we would go and we would
[1:07:52] Speaker 1: like play blackjack and have cocktails and listen to some music.
[1:07:56] Speaker 1: I mean, oh, just what a day. And I did
[1:08:00] Speaker 1: it six days in a row. It was the incredible good,
[1:08:05] Speaker 1: incredible good for you. Thank you, sir, You've earned it.
[1:08:08] Speaker 2: Great football season and I love when you come on
[1:08:11] Speaker 2: podcast Buddy. Thanks Colin Danny Parkins.
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