Oh yeah, here we go. I don't even know what day it is.
What day is it today? Oh it's Thursday. Oh yeah, it
is Thursday. It's a throwback Thursday. Rodney Pete Jonas Knocks is in for
pred today, My man, Jonas, how you doing, brother, Rodney
p What the hell is going on? Man? It's been too long,
It's been way too long. I am. I'm all over the place,
man, I don't know where I am. I've been traveling a little bit.
I've been in and out of town. But it's all good man,
all good two pros and a cup of Joe. Every single day three am
to six am. You can catch Jonahs Knocks with LaVar Arrington and Brady Quinn
also on Saturday's eleven to one for the Jonahs Knocks Show. All good man.
We got a lot to talk about, Jonas, Oh yeah, to
talk about. We're gonna get into some Dodgers also, our man Ippe,
Who's aha just never never never ends, the story never ends. My god,
my guy. NBA playoffs, I want to get into that as well.
We're gonna talk some college football. You had some thoughts on on the
portal and some legacy stuff. Mark Medina is gonna join us this hour.
Next hour, Jose Mota is gonna join us from the Dodgers. And then
in the final hour, our man Vinnie bon Signor will chop up some NFL
stuff. But but real quick, man, before we get into because I
want to start with the Dodgers because they're on a roll right now. I
had I had the pleasure of hosting the Legends dinner last night at Yama Vau
Resort, and uh it was with Heinz Ward last night and it was really
cool, nice. So I moderated that and Heines had a lot to say.
Man. He was talking about you know, sometimes you you wonder how
deep somebody's gonna go. And it was really kind of an intimate dinner at
their theater at Yamava, which is a great place. If you get a
chance to get to Yamava, please go down there and check it out.
So it's an intimate dinner with a lot of their their their guests that that
are that come there on the record on the basis. But Heinz he didn't
hold back. Man. I asked him different questions like rivalries and stuff like
that. He talked about man like personally going after Ed Reid and ray Lewis
and how much he hated Baltimore and you know, try to try to take
him out of the game, you know what I mean. It was like
he had a linebacker's defensive back mentality playing receiver. Man, But I didn't
know how intense it was until he was telling the stories about how often he
wanted to go into Ed Reid and wanted to take him out of the game.
Well, I mean, if you remember, he was one of the
guys where when they were talking about, you know, players needing to check
out, you know, with a concussion that whenever he felt like he got
dinged, he would start adjusting, like his ankle wrap or his knee brace
to make it seem like, oh no, it's just my ankle. I
mean, you can worry about that, but you know, if it's my
head, I'm staying in this game no matter what. And I think that
was it. I mean, it doesn't seem like that long ago, but
it does in the sense that that style of football and the way that he
played, because man, that block was it was it Keith Rivers of the
Bengals that he cracked back on the linebacker and just annihilated him, and I
think he broke his jaw that nowadays you can't even touch it up. People
would win jail time. Well it's outlaw. You can't even do that.
You can't make that block anymore. We come from outside in as a receiver.
And you remember, because we're talking about Steelers and hines Ward, who
kind of set that tone of being tough receivers. Juju a few years later,
Yea had the same block on perfect Yep and knocked him out of the
game. So it was that mentality, and I think it started with hines
Ward. But yeah, you can't even as a receiver. You can't crack
back on anybody nowadays. But those were, yeah, like you said,
not too long ago, where it was so physical and guys were getting away
with stuff that you cannot even he'd probably be in jail right now. That's
what I did. That's why you look at not even just the NFL,
but even in the NBA playoffs, like some of the stuff that is considered
like a hard foul, some of the stuff that's considered a dirty play now,
it's like, man, that was just a common foul back in the
day. That was and he just makes you wonder how many guys like hinz
Ward would be allowed to play to the capacity they did in today's NFL,
because you know, he was physical as physical, got cared about the run
game just as much as he did the pass game as a receiver, and
was a quarterback right coming out of Indiana and just realized, look, if
I want to make this team, I've got to make an impact somehow,
some way. And Georgia, he came out of Georgia. Georgia had a
bunch of those guys that were like, well, you know the original slash
and yeah, Gordell that could play multiple positions. But Randall l and him
were both quarterbacks in college. In fact, he played quarterbacks first two years
at Georgia and then switched over to play wide receiver. But yeah, just
a different a different mentality, a different time. I was also with Ronnie
Lott not too long ago. Not the name drop I'm picking them off the
floor, but you know we talked about could he play nowadays? And and
just that mentality, could guys like that adapt to today's game, Like if
the rules were to change within a three to five year period, could guys
like Ronnie Lott, you know Lawrence Taylor's of those worlds, those guys that
played in the eighties night Hines Ward, we just talked about could those guys
adapt their game and still be effective. I don't work. I don't even
know if we can imagine what that would look like, because their physicality was
just a part of who they were. But that was just that's how they
played, that's what they did, that's just who they were. And so
to think about them in a different light, it's like, well, yeah,
that just doesn't that just doesn't work. You can't picture that that version
of them. All you think about is the violence and the collisions, and
you know, like the lowering the like you know, the lowering the helmet,
you know, like you can't lower your helmet anymore. It's like,
okay, well there goes the Steve Atwater hit on Christian Okoye then, because
that was literally lowering the helmet and just lighting somebody up, like it was
back in the day. But that was commonplace and now you can't you can't
even pretend to go there. And now it's to the point to where,
look, I mean, I understand there's a safety element and they want to
safe and you know, not just the NFL, but all of these sports.
They want to make it safer. They want more people wanting to play
and being encouraged to play. But in a weird way, that used to
be kind of how you weed it out the people that could do it and
the people that couldn't do it, is that there were some people who just
wanted Like man, I was a terrible high school football player, but there
was always a telltale sign of somebody who was trying to get out of tackling
drills, and it was like, all of a sudden, man my helmet
just want snap right, trainer, can you take a look at this.
I need an equipment manager, or like, man, my shoelace I don't
know, like somehow came untied. I can't seem to get it back in
the It's just like there was a but that's how you just determined, Okay,
those guys want to play, those guys are into the physicality of this
and and some aren't. And that's just always going to be a part of
the game. So when the subject, you know, Austin Rivers brings up
of well, you know, I can find thirty guys that can play in
the NFL there's a reason why NFL players would be like, yeah, we
can just start stop at the physicality and and the conversations over there, because
it's still even though it's not like it was, there's still an element of
that that NBA players just aren't familiar with and they can't get familiar with.
Watt took real offense today. Oh my gosh, I was going to track
him down, you know, Chris Still, Chris Long took offense to it.
I know, you know, we were doing the show with LeVar Erring
and he took offense to because he was a highly recruited college back or high
school basketball player, Like he was recruited by every d one school and so
like that touched a nerve with a lot of footballers. We're like, okay,
like you think, so huh, then come give it a whirl.
But that's funny, man, No it is. It is crazy, but
you're you're right to the point of that's who those guys were. It wasn't
like they were taught, Okay, go be physical this way, go go
hit somebody hard. Those guys that we just talked about it at Waters and
Ronnie Lotts and even Hines. It was a part of their makeup, their
mentality, and you just don't take that out of somebody right who it is,
who they are. So to say, Okay, we're going to change
the rules and you can't do this anymore, they would be flagged on every
single play because that's who they are and you can't do that. You can't
change that. Yeah, it's uh, it is. You just you watch
some of those old school games and you go, my god, were they
violent? Did you know any guys that you mentioned? LeVar? And that
was on this and we got a lot to talk about full three hour show
today, Jonas Knox and for Fret, because I knew I knew a lot
of guys and I don't know about like today's game, but there are a
number of guys that I played with to your point, like LeVar, that
were recruited to play basketball, and had they gone on and played through college,
probably could have played in the NBA at some capacity. And so for
him to say thirty guys could do to play football, but football guys can't
play basketball, Like, wait a minute, I'm thinking in my mind,
I knew some guys that could play. First of all, the first guy
that comes to mind is Okay, Charlie Ward right, I mean war stunt.
Yeah, you could play both and then you don't play both. Yeah,
and made the NBA and was fantastic. I mean, you could go
to you know, Julius Pepper's. I'm sure if he wanted to and listen,
somebody try and tell Julius Peppers, somebody, you know, get down
on the blocks with Julie LEAs Pepper's to try and grab a rebound and see
who comes out alive. So watch him play, Yeah, play goes some
clips of him playing in North Carolina and see if he could, you know,
spend some time in the NBA. Now obviously great, great football player,
and he chose to write the right sport, but could definitely play in
the NBA. And there's also if you go back, you can find video
of Draymond Green playing with the football team at Michigan State and he was he
was trying out for tight end and it just yeah, not not great,
not not a great idea and get hit. Yeah, I mean because it
just it changes, it changes your willingness to want to go in and make
a grab or make a catch or make a block or something like that.
Once you get in there, and I know Petros has talked about this before
to where he said there's a reason why wide receivers and DB's talk to each
other the way that they are and the way that they do, because they're
not held accountable for their words. Like when you're in the when you're in
the trenches, you're held accountable, and you're held accountable single play. So
some of you said the play before, you're gonna have to answer for it,
no matter what the very next play we're gonna see, We're gonna see
about that. I can remember. I can remember guys in the huddle,
like wide receivers, you know, John with defensive linemen and linebackers, and
my offensive line would be like, set the hell up, what are you
doing? Don't be making that guy man, I gotta face him for sixty
minutes. You'll be a John with them pissing him off, and I gotta
face him. You are, you're outside outside the numbers. You don't have
to deal with the guy like I did. Oh That's what I'm gonna miss
about Aaron Donald is because Aaron Donald, I wish somebody would go with advanced
stats and how everybody makes a stat out of everything. I would love for
somebody to go through Aaron Donald's decade plus career and see how many altercations he
got into during the course of a game, every single game, because I
mean, remember what was it? Was it practice or a joint practice where
he flew through somebody's helmet and that was what a year ago, year and
a half ago. Like, I just wonder, like what when you know
people talk about you know what it's like. No, No, I wonder
what it's really like when you get down there and hear some of the things
that are said and just hear some of the stuff that goes on. And
Aaron Donald was involved in a skirmish every single game. It's like every game
there was some sort of an alter case and you could feel it bruin too.
Oh, you know, during the course of a game or even practice.
I remember there are a couple of times they practiced against some other teams.
Yeah, and Aaron Donald was right in the middle of it. You
know, they could be practicing against the Cowboys or the Giants or whomever else
they were getting ready to play, and do you know they do those two
or three days of practicing and it was always a skirmish. But Aaron Donald
was always in the middle. So good, so good, all right,
man, So Dodgers Dodgers don't want to get your take on this too,
because the Dodgers are rolling. And you said something early in our notes about
people being concerned about the Dodgers and the Dodgers, and you know, early
on they come back from Korea, they're not doing what everybody thinks that he
should be doing, like going one hundred and sixty two, and oh,
they're not gonna do that, but people felt that they should and they should
be dominating people. Well now they are dominating people. You know, They're
won fourteen of their last sixteen games. The top four of that lineup is
killing it. Otani is on fire as advertised. He keeps going at this
pace. He's gonna break every single record. Mookie is doing his thing.
Freddie is starting to come on again, even though Freddie's a quiet two ninety
whatever he's hitting right now, but but Freddie is starting to come on again.
It's like Freddie's doing this, but he's overshadowed because Otani's on fire,
Mookie's on fire, Will Smith is doing his thing. But this team is
so good to you, Esscar Hernandez hit his ninth home run. They sweep
the Marlins, and it's like ho hum, they get the Padres this weekend.
Early on whether there were some concerns and you mentioned our man Vic who
had no concerns, and you're seeing people owe him apology because he stood fast
with this. Well listen, I mean, I you know it. I
was, you know, filling in on Petro some money a couple of weeks
ago, and we were everyone was talking about Otani's average with runners in scoring
position, and he was like one for nineteen and yeah, the average was
decent, but it was this and that, And my thought on it was
this, like people forget how weird and unusual the start to this season was,
because if you think about it, not only were they welcoming in a
couple of brand new players, one of them just got to this country in
Yamamoto, but also Shohe Otani who had been here. But still, you
know, I mean, it's a new environment, it's a new place.
Yeah, well he only had to drive a a free way to get here.
It's like, okay, Well, in the middle of all that,
he finds out that somebody has stolen millions of dollars from him and his interpreter's
a degenerate gambler, I don't know, and he finds out while they're overseas
in South Korea like that that that feels like less than ideal beginnings to a
season. And then you start off over the air. Then you come back,
you've got to resume spring training, and then the regular season starts.
Like I mean, anybody that I've talked to, and you would know this
better than any of us, Rodney, being an athlete, you like your
routines, your rhythms, your habits, if you will, because it keeps
you engaged and you know it's a process. Like there's a lot of fighters
who talk about this that they love training camp because it keeps them on schedule,
like they love they love a fight camp. They love getting because the
preparation is what keeps them engaged. Otherwise, if their mind wanders and they've
got a bunch of time to kill, they're like, oh, now what
do I do? So the routine helps, and the Dodgers' routine to start
out the season was just odd, like you, Oh, you're gonna go
over there, but those games will count, but you'll come back and finish
spring training, and in the midst of all that, you have this scandal,
for lack of the better terms, and they're trying to find their way.
There's some injuries, there's some concern about who's gonna and then you've got
all the expectations to go on top of it. I just looked at it
and said, yeah, it's gonna take time. But I find it hard
to believe that with the lineup you throw out there every day, where you've
got betts Otani and Freeman, Hall of Famer, Hall of Famer, Hall
of Famer, every guy probably first ballot, I find it hard to believe
that they're not going to figure this out and find a way to make this
go. And they've done it, and now Walker Bueller comes back. I
just think they're saving this town because of what happened to the LA basketball teams
in the playoffs. And I think they're saving Vic the Bricks reputation. A
man who stood by his guys, told everybody to calm down. He was
laughed at, he was mocked, he was ridiculed, and VTB Vic the
Brick was the guy that was right all along. And they have found their
groove and they're the best team in baseball and playing the best in baseball,
and the fourteen of sixteen is only to me a prelude of what the entire
season is going to look like. Yeah, you know what, it's interesting
you say that because I feel the same way is fourteen of sixteen. Yes,
that's fantastic, And yet it still feels like although they're playing well and
they're winning these games, they have not gone to a level in which they
can go to me, meaning that, yes, they're winning and they've dominated
some teams. But as you mentioned, Walker, Buter comes back, you
know they're gonna get Bobby Miller back here in a second. The pitching staff
is starting to find their groove. I mean, this is a team that
hasn't, I guess even really peaked yet. Even though they winning, it
doesn't feel like they peaked yet. And it's scary to think of what they
can do. But do you think they've peaked? And are they peaking too
soon right now? And are they going to go through a lull in June
and July where they're gonna, you know, maybe fall off a cliff.
I don't know if I see that ever happening with the lineup it'd be hard
to imagine that ever happening with the lineup. But as we've noticed with this
team and the way that they have, you know, like sometimes look if
they go through a lull and say they lose five of eight in the middle
of July or in the middle of August, it still goes back to the
fact that when we start out the year and we look at this team,
people are going to lack patience if they struggle in the postseason. I look
at it and I say, until we get to the postseason to be determined,
because we talked about it last year when we were discussing this team after
they were eliminated in the postseason, and the conversation about the Dodgers back then
was, well, you can't blame Dave Roberts. The best were cold.
That's not on Dave Roberts. Those guys have got to produce. The playoffs
are going to be the playoffs, and we wait for that, but this
is going to be a damn fun ride before we get to the playoffs.
To be able to see and I hope people recognize that these lineups don't come
along very often, if ever, and to appreciate the number of talented future
Hall of Fame players. You've got in one lineup to start out every single
game. We've never seen anything like it. This is if you want to
talk about dream team level talent to begin your lineup and to begin your game
every single day on offense. It's going to be really, really fun to
watch. And I think we're just scratching the surface for what twenty twenty four
is going to look like. Oh good stuff to kick it off. Jonas
not sent for Fred Rogan. Hey, stay tuned. Mark Medena is going
to join us Fox Sports Radio NBA Inside as we'll get into the NBA playoffs
and what's the future holes for the Clippers and the Lakers. Hang in there,
am five to seventy LA Sports. Oh just one. I'm sorry,
I'm trying to overdo it. We are giving away Burke Williams gift card worth
two hundred and fifty dollars, So stay tuned. We're going to give away
one of those today on the show again. Jonahs not joins us today,
Jonahs switch gears man and Mark Madeen is going to join us here in a
second. I want to know, just real quick, your general thoughts on
the NBA playoffs right now, it feels like there's a lot of new blood
some you know, we've gotten used to the old. You know, it
was either going to be the Warriors or it was going to be Lebron,
and it was gonna be and it just seemed like it was the usuals.
And you've got some teams that are that are still there and still competing.
And obviously Boston, you know, is up one nothing over Cleveland and all
that. But man, Anthony Edwards, he's he is fun to watch.
Man, He's right, Oh my god, he is so much fun to
watch. And the Tea Wolves are fun to watch. And then just to
see that atmosphere in that crowd at MSG, and it's just it's kind of
nice to have just some different looks at basketball from different places that we haven't
seen a lot of before. So for me, just the takeaway is you're
seeing new stars take center stage. You're seeing MSG come alive again with the
way the Knicks play basketball, and it's a little old school with the number
of minutes they play and the physicality and all that. But no, it's
been it's been a lot of fun to watch. What do you what do
you make in that the it feels like the refs, and that feels like
as they are, the refs are letting them play a little bit. I
mean, I like it, but I'm not Rick Carlisle. And Rick Carlisle
he's not he's not happy and he doesn't feel like there's you know, I
was a little look we can you know, we'll get it more into the
pap Beverly suspension. I was surprised it wasn't more like I thought it would
have been more than the four games that he was popped for. But you
know the fact that he threw the ball and then threw it again game and
then doubled down and was was a j off to the reporter afterwards, like
that was a little bit surprising. But maybe this is they're trying to let
you know, people, you know, come back to the game and realize,
look, you know, we're not you know, we realize you miss
your nineteen nineties basketball. We can't go all the way, but we'll give
you a little pieces of it and maybe that'll entice people to come around with
But not even just not not Pat Bev, but also Jamal Murray. Yeah,
only gets you know, get to one hundred thousand dollars for throwing not
only a towel, but throwing a heating pad on the court. He threw
a heat pack and then made a money gesture to the official as if like
like, you're on the take. Yes, I mean it is. Anybody
like include Jamal Murray and he first of all, for Jamal Murray, there's
a guy named Tim Donnahey, yes, and b there's a guy on your
team, Michael Porter Junior, who just brother from the league right because he's
you know, he got a gambling problem. So like that that was a
little surprising. But I mean, I guess the NBA is like, no,
you know, we'll let some of this stuff slide a little bit.
We'll let it, you know, well, we'll trying to you know,
let people paint outside the lines and then and then see what we got as
far as the crowd goes, are you are you surprised at all that that
Minnesota is doing what they're doing through the Nuggets right now? Yes, I
was surprised. I mean them getting one game in Denver, that's not that
surprising. They haven't lost yet. Minnesota is a good team. Clearly,
They've shown their good team the way they dominated them in game two, and
the way that Denver, who you look at and go defending champs, championship
pedigree, has seen it all, been through it all the way that they
just melted down at home, lost by the way they lost, but also
Mike Malone had a melt down during that game. Jamal Murray as we just
discussed how to meltdown, Jokic was sort of keptain control. Yeah, Like
it wasn't that that was surprising to see the way that team with championship pedigree
and all all of that in their background just sort of melted because of the
upstart Anthony Edwards led Minnesota Timberwolves doing it old school. They didn't have both
bigs, but they were playing like, yeah, they've got that old school
twin you know, kind of like what Houston had back in the day with
the you know, the Twin Towers duo. Like it's kind of you know,
David Robinson, Tim Duncan early in Duncan's career. It's kind of interesting
to see how Minnesota's played them. I was just surprised that Denver mentally seemed
like they just cracked and caved while Minnesota was putting it on them at home.
That was surprising. Absolutely well. Let's bring in our guy, Mark
Medina from Fox Sports Radio NBA insider Mark. How you doing, oh,
Yonas, Ronnie, I'm doing well. I think Jonas nail on the head
about the Nuggets that all those things that you mentioned definitely took me aback,
and I think it's a troubling sign for things to come. So you think
that this is this run is over. They're going back to Minnesota and this
could be maybe not a sweet but a gentleman sweet. Yeah, I'm certainly
not predicting a sweep. I think that they'll make it a serious but I
think Minnesota clearly is in firm control now and I think that they'll be in
firm control moving forward. It's not just about the fact that the Termberwolves aren't
afraid of the moment or that they're talented. They're being so much more aggressive
and effective. And I think, you know the point that Jonas made about
the Nuggets, the fact that they're showing a lot of emotions and the lack
of control is a troubling sign. It was one thing for them to fall
early in the games against the Lakers. Some of it you're thinking, Okay,
they're just playing with their food. They know they can make adjustments.
But they always talked about how they have so much resiliency because of the continuity
and the fact that, you know, Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Junior in
particular, had you know, presignificant injuries in a recent season, so they're
equipped to deal with stepbacks. But Game two I didn't see any of that.
That Jamal Murray, heat pack, toss Ojokic not playing MVP level,
Michael Malone, losing with the officials. I suspect that they will improve relatively
speaking in game three compared to Game two, but Minnesota is too talented that
I don't think it's gonna matter. Are you, Mark, are you surprised?
We just talked about Pat Bev and also Jamal Murray. Are you surprised
what the penalties were for those two guys? Yeah. I think our good
friend Scott Shapiro, you know, up at the Fox station, he was
saying, Hey, if only he did what Jamal Murray would have done,
the officials would have seen the fan interaction, they would have gotten away with
it. I was surprised that no official saw what Jamal Murray did. I
mean, it was clear in daylight what he did. And while at least
Mark Davis was contrite enough and saying yeah, if we saw him do that,
he would have gotten tossed the fact that no one on the crew saw
that pretty inexcusable. I'm not surprised about the Patrick Beverly suspension anytime it's dealing
with fans, you know, that just makes the league office twitchy because of
the the Mouth of the Palace and you know, obviously much different scenario.
But I thought I didn't think it was going to be in the double digits
with games, but I thought it would have been more than four. You
know, what Pat Bev did was an excuse. Well not just because you
never throw things at fans, but he couldn't hide behind anything about the fan
was saying something threatening or you know, racially abusive or personal. It was
just good old fan trash talk. No reason, there's no excuse, excuse
or reason for Pat Bev to get all, you know, up in his
pants because of what you just said. That someone gave him the cancun Ton
mark. And we were talking about Anthony Edwards and just we're seeing a star
like you know before a very and he just gets better and better as this
playoff go along, and we saw it during the regular season, and we've
seen this throughout his career, but not to this level on this stage.
Do you remember or from people you talk to the first time you heard about
this kid Anthony Edwards and how surprised are you at what he's done at this
level? Well, I inevitably heard of him when he was the number one
pick with the Wolves, but I think even talking about him at that point,
talking to people in the organization and talking about himself, you could tell
that he was going to be a special player because of the athleticism, the
dunking, the talent. I didn't know what gets to this level this fast,
but I remember talking to him his rookie season and second season in particular,
it really struck me that he had an old soul to him, where
he has this really happy, go lucky, like no filter, playful personality,
but he has the old school mentalities of like knowing really well the past
greats before him, and really wanting to study the games that they showed on
tape, and also relishing that had to have competition. I remember talking to
him his rookie season. He was just whacking so much nostalgia about Hey being
able to go up against Lebron James, going up against Kevin Durant, and
part of it it wasn't anything about being starstruck. Part of it was just
it's cool to see his idols, but also wanting to have the opportunity to
go head to head with him, and not from an arrogant standpoint of thinking,
oh, I'm already better than them, more of thinking, Okay,
I'm going to learn from this matchup because I want to get better and I
want to compete. And then I remember talking to him second season and he
lost, as you guys know, the Rookie of the Year battle, the
Will Mellow Ball, and instead of being all you know, you know,
moaning about it, he said, Hey, you know, this just means
I got to get better. I got to continue to get better as a
player guy, get more you know, complete and consistent. And I think
the other thing I was telling is that at that point the Wolves coaches and
teammates were saying, hey, Aunt could be even more of a vocal leader.
He was a rookie last year, but he can be one of our
stars and our leaders in the locker room. And he was embracing that,
but he also said, you know what, I don't know if I've earned
that, Like, I don't feel right speaking up and telling veteran teammates what
to do because they know more than me. And I thought that that was
the acknowledgment of him being really humble, But it's been also an opportunity for
him to grow into that because you fast forward now he isn't afraid to say
to karl Enentine Towns, I need for you more defensively stay out of out
trouble. He's not afraid to talk up his teammates in public. And so
I think that it's just been this perfect combination of he's been all about the
right in tangibles while having a lot of great natural talent to back it up.
Yeah, we're seeing a young kid grow right in front of our eyes.
Mark. When you see what the Knicks are doing, and Jonas brought
this up earlier about MSG and and what it's like and the energy in that
building. This has got to be good for the NBA seeing what the Knicks
are doing and how deep this run is going to go. And we'll see
how far it goes for them, But right now, the energy in Madison
Square Garden has got to be good for the NBA. Yeah, I mean
the next I've been waiting for this moment for a while because outside of that
short playoff run when Carmelo Anthony was there, they've usually been a franchise of
dysfunction and no doubt, like when there's good market teams that thrive, the
NBA thrives as well. But I think that in fairness to the NBA,
they say it, and I do think that there's validity as much as there's
an importance for large market teams to be good, I think the bigger driving
forces, the quality of games have you know, have to matter in the
regular season postseason. It's good that there's parody, but there's no doubt there's
a larger fan base or for the next larger fan base in LA for the
Lakers, and when those franchises do more, it's inevitable that they're going to
draw more viewership. But I would argue in twenty twenty four, what's going
to be the leading indicator as far as ratings going up or ratings going down
is the availability of star players night tonight as well as the quality of competition
both in playoffs and in the regular season, mark as we transition locally here
for the teams here in LA who are now at home and didn't last too
long in the postseason, or watching everybody else like Anthony Edwards and Madison square
Garden takes center stage. Whose future are you more concerned about the Lakers of
the Clippers. It's a very good question, and I think that you can
make a case for both. But I would say that there's a lot more
question marks about the Lakers and the Clippers. Here's why. First of all,
who's the head coach. I think that because of the fact that they
find Darvinham it was a second year, they had issues with his adjustments,
rotations. Naturally, even though they're keeping open mind, they're probably going to
lean toward the experienced coaches that know how to do that. But you know,
there's no slam dunk home run candidate because I don't think Tylo's going to
be available. And that's part of why I have fewer question marks for the
Clippers, because the expectation is Tylo staying, they're going to agree to an
extension. I think while it is comforting for the Lakers that Lebron James Andy
Davis were relatively healthy this season and played at a pretty high level. You
never can quite know if that's going to be duplicated because where Lebron is added
in his career and where Ad is at with his injury history. I think
the other thing is the Lakers. Yeah, they have more opportunity to make
a big move this summer because they can use three draft picks starting on the
NBA Draft Night. But there's a lot of holes for the roster to fill.
And while the Clippers have a lot of questions about their underachieving performances ever
since the Kawhi Leonard Paul George era started, and question marks and if they're
even going to retain Paul George or James Harden, I think that they're probably
going to retain those guys with the idea that they can flip them in future
deals leading into the trade deadline if this continues down the same path. So
I think that it's all relatively speaking, because the Clippers have a lot of
issues they have to address, but compared to the Lakers, I have fewer
question marks. Yeah. Fox Sports Radio NBA inside of Mark Medina joins us
H Mark, the Laker job is it a job that a lot of people
want. Is it a coveted job anymore? Well, the Lakers, it's
only going to be a coveted head coaching a job because there's only thirty head
coaching positions available. The Lakers are the Lakers. But I think it's much
different than a Laker team that is definitely him handmade for. This is definitely
a championship roster. It's also different than you know, maybe during the rebuilding
years where there were relatively fewer expectations and someone like a Luke Walton could walk
in and be comfortable with his security. That's not necessarily about results, it's
about development. And here they're in the ultimate gray area because as long as
you have a healthy Lebron James, you technically always have a shot at winning
an NBA title. But they're not the prohibitive favorite, even if they presumably
upgrade the roster. So with that, they're going to have to hire a
coach that is proven, but also going to have to be willing to take
ownership that there might be holes in his resume or weaknesses. How can they
safeguard against that? So if it isn't a less experienced coach like a JJ
Reddick, they got to make sure that he has experience on his staff.
They also have to make sure that they have relatively consistent players where you know,
that's not an issue. If they have a proven head coach but has
been fired multiple times, maybe it's good to have, you know, younger
players or or younger people on his staff that can relate to the younger players.
So what I'm gaining at here is the Lakers have a lot of challenges
on their hands, but whatever avenue they choose with the head coaching realm,
whether it's you know, proven head coach or respected assistant coach that hasn't been
having a lot of head coaching experience, or that wild card and JJ Reddick,
they got to make sure that that coach is in a position to succeed
as much as possible, but easier said than done because of their cap constraints.
Mark, you mentioned JJ Redick. Is there a couple other names that
Laker fans should be on the lookout for that we could expect or at least
going to get interviewed or be of interest that could get the gig. Yeah,
I think Mike Bodenholzer is an inevitable candidate because he is a former head
coach, while you know, he got fired from the Milwaukee Bucks ironically enough,
because they had issues with his adjustments. Want a championship with them and
he and he's well respected. I think another person keep an eye on as
Kenny Atkinson. He's a well respected assisting in Golden State. He's really known
for his expertise in maximizing an offensive playbook as well as player development. But
you know, if you're going to look at a potential weakness, I mean
when he was with the Brooklyn Nets, he got a lot of credit for
developing that team, but as soon as they got star studded players with Kevin
Durant, Kyrie Irving, they decided to you know, part ways. You
know. I think another thing that will be interesting Terry Stott and Scott Brooks.
Those are former head coaches, but they could also be proven assistant coaches
that could join the bench. But you know, knowing how Terry Stotts obviously
left Milwaukee, I don't think that it's either of those two Candida's preferences that
they want to automatically make themselves available for an assistant coaching job. But I
think that they could you know, talk at least hypothetically about both positions and
then see where the chips fall with that search, uh Mark, before we
let you go. I just I think there were there were a lot of
concerns with people from the NBA that listen, no kd no Lebron, no
Steph Curry in these playoffs. But as we watched these first couple of rounds,
it feels like the NBA is gonna be all right. Yeah, no
doubt. There's always gonna be a transition when there's a changing of the guard.
But because the quality of play is good, because there are you know,
star players in the making that are gravitating to an audience, like in
Anthony Edwards, I think it's the larger point here. I mean if if
the NBA, and you know, they'll never say this because they don't want
to be seen as playing favoritism, but just from a pure marketing standpoint,
ideally Lebron James and Steph Curry led teams would always make deep playoff pushes as
well as Kevin Durant. But you can't script that because it depends on how
the team is, depends how healthy they are, et cetera. But I
think that they are very pleased with how the interest is in the playoffs regardless,
because the games have been mostly good and there have been alternative stars that
have been able to grab the attention span from both the vote NBA fans and
the casual fans. Absolutely, Mark, great stuff as always, Man,
thanks for joining us. Really appreciate it. Appreciate you guys as well.
That's right, great stuff for Mark Medina. Hey, stay tuned. Next
hour, we are going to give away that Burke Williams gift card. Hey,
treat your mom. Mother's Day is coming up. Stay tuned, We're
going to give that away. Also, if the kitchen is too hot,
you got to get on out. We talk about that next. Today's Throwback
Thursday edition of Afternoon Delight is Nothing on You by Bob. This was the
debut single for the North Carolina native and appeared on the freshman album entitled Bob
Presents the Adventures of Bobby Ray in twenty ten. The song was co written
by Bruno Mars, who also serves as a featured artist on the track,
and it topped the Billboard Hot one hundred charts for the first two weeks in
May of that year and was certified triple platinum in the United States, in
addition to going platinum in Australia and Canada. The track also received three Grammy
nominations, including for Record of the Year Again. Today's throwback Thursday edition of
Afternoon Delight is Nothing on You by Bob featuring Bruno Mars. Bruno Mars got
a gambling problem. Noney, Well that's what they said. That's what they
say. But MGM came to his defense and said, it's all false rumors,
all false rumors. I mean, if you wanted somebody to clear your
name, man, m's the place. That's the place. Oh yeah,
yes, they got a speakeasy loude in the NBA with they'll be messing with
our what's our money out there talking about Bruno that way? What's wrong with
you guys? All right? Uh? Jonah? So Brian Kelly, head
coach at LSU, you know the world has changed in college football obviously with
with nil deals and now the transfer portal. He's complaining it was asked about
not landing some of the top defensive alignement in the transfer portal this year and
his quote, where is, Hey, we're not in the market of buying
players. You know, that's not what we want to do. That's not
what we're all about. We don't want to buy players now. To me,
this is where college football is, you know, and and maybe you
don't have to put it in those hardh terms, but money is money speaks
nowadays in college football, and if you're not willing to play that game,
then you're gonna be on the outside looking at it. Yeah, what is
it? Adapt or die? You know, like I mean, and that's
that's what it look. If you've seen a lot of these coaches have complaints
about this. Obviously, Nick Saban's the most well known because he just,
you know, he decided he wanted to walk away done. And it was
also you know when he's getting you know, asked, you know by coaches
and recruits and you know, how long are you gonna be there? And
how long is that? Like he just got tired of it and it was
like, yeah, I don't want to be in this climate anymore. Dabo
Swinney's talked about it. But then you've got other coaches who have just been
like, is what it is? You know? Jimbo Fisher was like,
hey man, I mean I'm gonna I'm just gonna play this all the way
and if it works, it works. If it's not, I'll take my
seventy eight million dollar buyout and I'll just go away and you won't hear from
me for a couple of years. I mean, whatever the case is.
This is just what the new era of college football is and college athletics is.
And look, I mean I it would be nice if you had commit
to one spot stay there and then that was just that. That would be
nice. But now like the college job, and it's why coaches have left
college football to go to the NFL. Chip Kelly was a head coach and
left to go be in Ocah somewhere like, and coaches have left, you
know, Boston College's coach left to go be the decordinator for the Packers.
Like, there's a reason why because some of these guys are like, look,
not only do I not want to have to recruit players the way that
you currently have to do it, or buy players if you will, I
don't want to have to keep re recruiting my own guys every year because they
could just bail. But if you don't like it, like, you got
options, you can you can leave and go somewhere else, Brian Kelly's got
some NFL background, maybe he wants to go there. I just think this
is what it is, man, Like, what are you gonna do about
it? Now? Toothpaste is out of the two. Yeah, it's almost
like the uh, you know, the one and done in college basketball when
it was happening and and Calipari was the guy that really embraced it. The
milk and Kentucky was on the map and that was when you know, Kentucky
was going to every Final four and they were you know, they were competitive
instead of getting knocked out in the first round. But you remember coach k
and Duke was like, all right, I didn't like it at the beginning,
but now I've got to I got to embrace the one and done because
that's where college basketball is. And he started to embrace it, and they
became competitive again, and it was like, you know, you watch basketball,
and you know seven, eight, nine, ten years ago, it'd
be like, oh my god, the guy's a seven footer. Get inside.
What are you doing shooting threes? Yeah? Like, I mean,
like this, I don't know what to tell you, Like, this is
what it is, like we have been What are you doing? I mean
like, look like we've joked about it before to where like growing up,
when I was playing basketball, if there was a fast break and it was
a two on one and I pulled up from twenty five feet on the bench,
on the bench, kicked out of the league, suspended, indefinitely fined,
like I would have gotten you know, it would have been you know,
I would have come home. My dad would have that, all right,
wrench baseball bat or a stick off the tree. You choose, You're
getting tended like like that wasn't acceptable, Like that wasn't nowadays it is,
And it's like you either had to adapt to what the new NBA is and
or else you just weren't going to play and you were gonna get phased out.
And I think this is just where a lot of college football coaches are
getting frustrated because they really had it all figured out and they had the market
corner, and then all of a sudden, players are like, no,
I'm gonna need ten thousand more. Yeah, listens like you're getting squeezed.
And going back to Brian Kelly, yes it is. There's some issues with
it, and it has to I think that more so that the transfer portal
has to be figured out because you can't have guys, you know, going
to school for one year, transferring and then transferring again and with no repercussions,
no penalty. You know, there's got to be a way that that
they I don't want to say force the kids, but there's got to be
some sort of penalty if you try to keep transfer in every single year because
you don't start or you don't get something that you want. There has to
be some adjustments made to them. There will be, But right now,
Brian Kelly, you better adapt to get out and go join Nick Saban and
cancuon fishing or doing something like that, you know what I mean,