0:00

You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show

0:03

on Fox Sports Radio. Play

0:05

of the Day coming up. Got some

0:07

information about the ongoing

0:09

hearing, which is Shaun Watson. Have that

0:12

for you coming up as well. The agent

0:14

for Freddie Freeman strongly denied

0:16

a tweet from Fox Sports radio host

0:19

Doug Gottlieb that he withheld

0:21

from Freddie Freeman the Braves final contract

0:24

offer. That agent is Casey Close,

0:26

who's been around a long time, and

0:28

said that he is considering legal action

0:31

over that report. He called Doug's

0:33

tweet reckless, said

0:36

there's no truth whatever whatsoever

0:39

to what Doug Gottlieb recklessly tweeted,

0:42

and I would testify that under oath,

0:44

we are currently evaluating all legal options

0:47

in this matter. What Doug tweeted

0:49

yesterday that the

0:53

agent never told Freddie Freeman about the Braves

0:55

final offer. That's why Freeman fired

0:57

him. He found out in Atlanta this week

1:00

and it isn't that rare

1:02

to have that happen in baseball, but it happened.

1:05

And he followed that

1:07

by saying, Casey Close knew Freddie

1:10

would have taken the Atlanta deal.

1:12

Let's bring in the great baseball

1:14

writer Tom Berducci Sports illustrated

1:16

kind enough to join us. Tom, thanks

1:19

for joining us. Let's go back to the World Series.

1:21

It felt like it's a foregone conclusion that Freddie

1:23

Freeman was going to leave the

1:25

Braves, or certainly it was talked about a

1:27

lot. What do you remember about that covering

1:29

the World Series. Yeah,

1:32

I think all of us in the media kind of took it for granted

1:34

that Freddie was just a brave for life right

1:36

team drafted him at a high school, basically

1:38

grew up there. But

1:41

you know, I started to hear from other people.

1:43

Freddie was telling people that, Hey, you know, if

1:45

the Braves don't treat me right, if they

1:47

kind of dragged their feet on this, I

1:49

wouldn't mind going back to southern California. It's

1:51

from Orange County, obviously, and that had

1:53

an attraction to him. It wasn't his goal. I mean,

1:55

he made a plane. He wanted

1:58

to remain a brave for life, and

2:00

the Braves said they wanted to keep them. So based

2:03

on what the motivations were, at least publicly,

2:05

Dan, we all thought this was a marriage just

2:07

waiting to happen, to get it locked up. But it kind of

2:09

reminds me of the Albert Poole situation right

2:12

and Cardinals win the World Series. We all think

2:14

Albert's going back to Saint Louis, and Saint Louis

2:16

made an offer that really it

2:18

was easy for him to climb based on what the market

2:20

was, and Albert left.

2:23

But I wonder do

2:26

you think the Braves wanted Freddie Freeman

2:28

back? Is there is there? Maybe?

2:31

Like the Cardinals, I think we're thrilled at Albert

2:33

pool holes, Hey we tried, we couldn't

2:35

keep you. You went to the Angels, you got paid, they

2:38

got the ten best years. Could

2:40

this be similar that the Braves said, hey,

2:42

thank you, Freddie. Do you take

2:45

that offer? You can't turn that down. I

2:48

think it might have gotten to that point, Dan, I don't think

2:50

they started that way. I do believe that they

2:52

wanted Freddie Freeman there. And don't forget we

2:54

had the lockout. We'll put everything on hold.

2:57

Now. When you got a franchise player like that, it

2:59

shouldn't get to the situation where it's on

3:01

hold through the lockout. That should have been done before

3:03

the lockout. It wasn't. But

3:06

I do believe the Brave's initial plan

3:08

was, yeah, we want to keep Freddie Freeman, here must

3:10

be a way to do it. But on the other

3:12

side of the lockout, Remember everything now is

3:15

under fast forward, right, it's not business

3:17

as usual opening days just a three weeks

3:19

away. You got to ramp up and figure out what

3:21

your roster is, who's going where. There

3:23

was a little bit, you know, planned negotiations

3:26

under a gun at that point. Again, shouldn't have

3:28

got there, but it did. So now everything

3:30

is sped up, and I do think at that point

3:32

the Brave started to consider, what

3:34

if we can't resign this guy, We've got to

3:37

pivot now. And obviously Mett Olson was

3:39

a great way to pivot, but I don't think

3:41

that's how they started. Yeah, probably didn't,

3:43

but they probably got to the point where they said, look,

3:46

you're gonna make They're gonna offer you more money

3:48

than we can offer you. And then you start to I

3:50

think that preemptive strike with getting

3:52

Olson in, and then maybe Freddie

3:55

Freeman says, wait a minute

3:57

here, what just happened? And I don't

3:59

know, you know, why

4:01

does he fire his agent? Why does he fire

4:03

Keys? Well,

4:06

I mean he said in a tweet. I'm not

4:08

sure he could acknowledge. Freddy put out a statement

4:10

that he didn't say he fired him. He's

4:12

basically said it's on hold right now and he's working

4:14

through some issues based on what he heard

4:17

over the weekend in Atlanta. I'm sure he heard from

4:19

Braves people, probably a different

4:21

story than what his version

4:23

was or what he understood it to be. And the truth is

4:25

probably somewhere in the middle. But he's got to sort this

4:28

thing through. But yeah, I

4:30

think it's heart of heart. Freddy wanted to be a Brave and I

4:32

think he was blindsided when the Brave is

4:34

pivoted to Metals and the Braves

4:37

are listen, they're a smart organization, as

4:39

every team is these days, and realized we

4:41

can get a guy who's younger, cheaper,

4:44

we're buying the best years of metals and

4:46

we're, let's face it, with Freddie, you're buying his decline

4:49

in his thirties. From a purely

4:51

analytical business point of view, it

4:53

was easy for them to pivot at that point because

4:55

they had a good option right there, and on a bonus,

4:58

the kids from Atlanta metalson, so

5:01

that would help people get over a kind of the

5:03

shock. Really, I'm losing Freddie, But what

5:05

do you think happened? This weekend where you

5:08

know, I was told that Freddie was aware of this in April

5:10

but didn't want to make a big deal out of it, and

5:13

then the wave of emotion when he went

5:15

back to Atlanta. It's one thing to get

5:17

that response welcome

5:19

home, but do you think somebody

5:23

throw out a name from the front office, pulled

5:25

him aside, just say hey, just so you know,

5:28

we did want to keep you. I

5:31

could have been that. It could have been a player, it could have a

5:33

staff member, it could have a lot of people who maybe

5:35

he was getting stories secondhand. But I do think

5:38

being back in Atlanta, and

5:40

let's face it, everybody was revisiting why

5:42

is it Freddie in a Brave's uniform? So

5:45

a lot of info or semi info

5:47

was churning at that point, and I'm sure Freddie heard about

5:49

it. So yeah, I think this had a lot

5:51

to do with it, Like he probably heard

5:53

something that he had not heard before. And let's

5:55

face it, the Braves want a relationship

5:58

with Freddie Freeman going forward, right.

6:00

You know, he's not going to finish his career as

6:02

a Brave, but when he's done, he's still

6:04

gonna be thought of as you know, the world champion

6:07

with the Braves and an MVP with the

6:09

Braves, probably going to the Hall of

6:11

Fame as a Brave. All those things

6:13

are important, right, so that relationship doesn't

6:15

need mending, and I think Freddy

6:17

and his heart felt it emotional, as you said over

6:19

the weekend, very emotional. So the easy

6:21

way out is blaming on the agent,

6:23

right, And we don't I don't think we really know what actually

6:26

happened, what the final figures were. But

6:28

I've seen this happen a lot before where

6:31

where you want to mend a relationship, the agent is

6:33

the easy one to blame. You don't need a relationship,

6:35

or at least an emotional one going forward where

6:37

I think Freddie wants to repair it with the Braves

6:39

and the Braves want to repair it with Freddy.

6:42

Do you think Casey Close goes

6:45

after Doug Gottlieban sues him.

6:47

I don't know about legal. I mean people say

6:49

that we'll see I mean, you

6:51

know, obviously based on the words

6:53

he chose, he's extremely angry. Listen, case

6:56

He's been doing this for a long time. This is not

6:58

someone who just woke up and there's an agent last

7:00

week and was in over his head. He's

7:02

got a sterling reputation of the business.

7:04

He's been doing it, I think at least thirty

7:06

years, and there's never been an

7:09

instance that I can remember where he went's

7:11

call going rogue on a player where

7:13

you actually, it's unbelievable to think about

7:15

this could happen where any agent

7:18

would have an offer from a team and the team

7:20

where the player wanted to play and didn't tell him

7:22

about it. And again, Dan, we're not in a

7:24

situation where you could slow play things. Things

7:26

were moving very quickly. There wasn't time

7:29

to slow play things. It's hard to believe

7:31

that scenario happened. Maybe it did,

7:33

We don't know. I think we

7:36

need and I think we will hear more from Casey

7:38

close because we haven't heard, and I think it's

7:40

time somebody does, and probably Casey, to

7:43

really define what went down.

7:46

I'm talking about revealing some of the offers

7:48

or at least the parameters of it, so

7:51

that people have a better idea, especially Freddie

7:53

has a better idea of what happened. Yeah,

7:55

I wonder if there's paperwork, emails,

7:58

Well, they keep notes d Yeah, I mean don't

8:00

know about emails, but they definitely keep notes

8:02

and figures at every agent, every club

8:04

has a written account of all the talks

8:06

that go on. How do you think this is going You

8:08

know, he homered last night Freddie Freeman,

8:11

and then now and he's batting over three

8:14

hundred. The hometown crowd

8:16

gets to cheer him or welcome him

8:18

or whatever they do starting tonight. But

8:21

how do you think this is going over with the Dodgers

8:24

the locker room itself? Because Clayton Kershaw

8:26

kind of hinted at you

8:29

know, you're with us now? I

8:31

saw that that was interesting, right, he said, I hope

8:34

we're not second film. I mean,

8:36

you did sign a six year deal there, you are

8:39

a Dodger. As you said, he's hitting well. I

8:41

just think last weekend was just so emotional for him

8:43

to be back in Atlanta. You

8:46

know, there's still not closure to what happened

8:48

in Atlanta the Freddy Freeman, so I think he still has

8:50

to work through that. But I

8:53

think the feeling of, you know, having an attachment

8:55

to the Braves will not be as strong as it

8:57

was last weekend, just because physically he was in

8:59

Atlanta and hearing some things. But I did

9:01

catch that quote from Clayton Kershaw

9:04

was really pretty telling, and I think the players

9:06

have to say and the Dodger clubhouse, hey man, you

9:09

were in a Dodger uniform. Now, let's get over this. If

9:12

I gave Freddie Freeman and Mulligan, what

9:16

do you think he'd do. I

9:18

think he'd be wearing a Brave's uni right now. And

9:21

again I say that because you saw the emotions

9:23

over the weekend. That wasn't somebody would turn the page

9:25

or that closure a closure. This was someone

9:27

who had real strong attachments to that organization.

9:30

And listen, it's pretty cool for

9:32

him to be playing in La. You know, he's

9:34

got his wife, his kids, his dad are up in the

9:36

suite watching him every day. He's got

9:39

a I think apartment in Studio City,

9:41

ten minutes in the ballpark. It's

9:43

not a bad place to play and live, right, playing for

9:45

the Dodgers in La. So I think over

9:47

time he's over it. But Freddie's

9:50

an emotional guy and it wasn't just over the weekend

9:52

that you saw that Dan, So that attachment

9:54

is real. And I think if he had to do over

9:57

for the right money, of course that's always the deciding

10:00

factor. I think he would be a Brave I didn't

10:02

cry like that at my dad's funeral. Well,

10:06

I mean, I thought, you know, one off, Yeah,

10:09

he's in that first press conference. I thought,

10:11

okay, I get it. It's really reality is hitting

10:13

him. But reality kept hitting him all day long,

10:15

all night long. It was weird. But that's Freddy.

10:17

You gotta love him for that because he doesn't try to hide

10:20

anything. Everything's real with Freddy. Before

10:22

I let you go, I know, Rob Manford,

10:24

the commissioner, did an interview with the ESPN,

10:26

talks about robot umpires

10:29

by twenty twenty four and also expansion.

10:32

Is this inevitable that we're

10:34

gonna have the automated strike zone? And if

10:36

we do have expansion, where are we going? Well,

10:39

first of all, you have to resolve Oakland and Tampa

10:42

Bay their ballpark issues before we expand.

10:44

You've got options in Nashville and Montreal,

10:47

Las Vegas. Those are probably the top three

10:49

for me, and I think those two teams, they

10:52

don't solve their issues locally, they

10:54

wind up filling two of those three spots. The

10:56

owners do want to get to thirty two, We're a long

10:58

way off because I think the open and Tampa

11:01

Bay needs to be resolved. Robo strike

11:03

zone not robo

11:05

strike zone. I think it is definitely happening,

11:08

but I'm starting to think they really like this

11:10

challenge system that's in place in the minor leagues.

11:12

They use it as a hybrid. Then. I don't know if you've heard

11:14

about this. It's sort of like hawkeye and tennis and

11:17

you're watching Wimbledon. It's great, right, there's a line

11:19

call, the guy said that was out. Everybody

11:21

looks at it. In three seconds, you realize whether

11:23

the ball is in or not. The crowd gets into it.

11:25

The visuals of it are great. You could

11:27

do the same thing, and they are doing that with baseball.

11:30

So the batter gets punched out on a pitch that's a foot

11:32

outside, he says, well, I don't want to challenge that.

11:34

It pops up on the screen. You can see

11:37

it's a ball, redo and not redo

11:39

the pitch now it's a ball. I like that

11:41

system rather than going full on robo,

11:44

because I'm telling you, if you want that

11:46

system, it's going to cause a lot of problems. You

11:48

know, watching a game when it counts three and oz, is

11:50

the strike zone the same as when it's owned too,

11:53

No, of course, not umpires.

11:55

You know they're arbiters of the game. They move the game

11:58

along. That breaking ball is a

12:00

six that catches a robo strike zone and

12:02

it's not a strike as we stand here today.

12:04

That's going to create huge problems. So I kind

12:06

of like this challenge system. I'm coming around to that where

12:09

you do have the strike zone to

12:11

get the right, biggest, to

12:13

get the biggest calls right right. Maybe

12:15

it's not important to get one hundred percent right

12:17

every tikie tach call and is seven and nothing

12:19

game on a three no count, but

12:22

that call that changes the game. And you watch

12:24

games, Dan, you realize that, you know,

12:26

you realize some counts actually change

12:28

the outcome of game. Get those ones

12:31

right, and I'm telling you, in the minor leagues it happens

12:33

in three or four seconds. It doesn't slow the game.

12:35

Now, I'm starting to think that's the way

12:37

forward. The technology is there, and

12:40

so far the reviews have been good for the players in the minor

12:42

leagues. I know you're busy. Thank you again

12:44

for joining us. Time you got man anytime

12:46

at tom Verducine Sports Illustrated Baseball

12:48

Senior writer. I like Tommy speaks

12:51

in sound bites. That's what we like. We get

12:53

somebody ask a question, get a nice sound

12:55

bite there. I

12:57

do think that, you know, robot umpires

12:59

are and they're trying to

13:01

speed up the game. I don't know if adding more

13:03

teams more baseball helps,

13:06

but they're trying to speed up the game, trying

13:08

to cut off about thirty minutes and

13:11

pitch counts. So there's a lot of things

13:13

that are involved there. As far

13:15

as the Freddie Freeman stuff, you

13:18

know, my gut feeling is and

13:20

that's just a gut feeling of trying to read

13:22

this. Now. I do have a source on

13:24

this, but I don't want to

13:26

be I don't want to be loose with this because

13:29

that you know, there's a lot going on

13:31

here, a lot of emotion

13:33

going on here. But you know,

13:35

if you want to blame the agent, Okay,

13:39

did he get the final offer? Did

13:41

the Braves want Freddie Freeman back? That

13:44

would be something that I would keep an eye on if

13:47

that could, if that ever emerges, that

13:50

did they want him back at that

13:52

price? Now you do maybe initially you're

13:54

like, you're Freddie Freeman, we just won the World Series.

13:56

We'd like to have you back. But then all of a sudden

13:59

you start to that that hot

14:01

air balloon is floating further and further away,

14:04

and it's got a big dollars sign on it. You're like, do

14:07

we want to spend this money? Is

14:09

he the right guy for us as we move forward.

14:12

I'm just I'm curious about that. If

14:14

maybe the Braves said, you know what,

14:17

Casey, you should tell Freddie to sign

14:20

that deal with the Dodgers, right, and

14:22

they found a cheaper backup

14:24

option and jumped on it. And

14:27

I think that's when reality set in.

14:29

And maybe Freddie Freeman, now

14:32

I would say, and I did say this

14:34

before to my agent when I was at ESPN,

14:38

whatever happens, I still want

14:40

to be here. You can give the indication

14:42

that maybe I would go elsewhere,

14:45

but I always wanted to stay

14:47

there. Not one of those

14:49

hey, don't let it get out of hand where they go

14:52

all right, see you later.

14:54

I never wanted it to get there, and I

14:56

gave those directions

14:59

to my agent. I don't know if Freddie

15:01

said, look, whatever happens, bottom

15:03

line, get me top dollar,

15:05

but give me top dollar from the Braves. That's

15:08

what I'd be curious about. And Doug

15:10

Gottlieb does cite a source and

15:12

maybe another source on this with Freddie

15:15

Freeman, but I don't know, you

15:18

know, is the agent going to produce anything

15:21

an email, a text? But

15:24

I was told that Freddie was aware

15:26

of what happened in April but

15:28

didn't want to make a big deal out

15:31

of this. So I think there's

15:33

a lot of you know, the brave side of this, Freddie

15:35

side of this, the agent side of this, the

15:38

Dodger side of this, Doug Gottlieb

15:40

side of this. There's a lot of semantics

15:42

that goes that appears

15:45

to be going on here. But I think

15:47

it's it's emotional. Even

15:49

when I went back to ESPN for

15:51

the fortieth anniversary, it

15:53

was emotional, but I didn't

15:55

want to be back there, Like I just

15:58

okay, this is emotional, and I

16:00

like what I'm doing now, love what I'm doing now.

16:02

But in the moment, I'm emotional.

16:06

But at no point did I go I

16:08

want to stay here, Well,

16:11

I go back to my hometown. I don't want to go back

16:13

to my hometown and move back there. Jenny

16:16

Batch, Jenny BATCHI is not

16:18

there. She moved north in Ohio.

16:21

If she was there, yeah, well that Ohio doesn't

16:23

exist anymore. Dan, No, it just not No,

16:26

it does not. I'm actually going back to my

16:28

hometown. My hometown. What

16:35

are you going back? What are you going back there for? Uh?

16:37

See my brother, see some friends, you

16:39

know, just uh, you're gonna hit the pleasure

16:41

In. I might, I

16:44

might from high school back together. No,

16:47

No, there's there's no road trip there,

16:49

not, not with the shorties. But um

16:52

my dad went to a bar called the pleasure

16:54

In and

16:57

it was just a bar by the way, you know.

16:59

I mean that I've been outside

17:01

the pleasure In and it's

17:03

phenomenal. On the train when we did

17:05

the road train, Yester, dude, I went through all

17:07

a year old. That's how King's Island, the whole

17:10

Mason, Ohio. Yeah, went through the whole back

17:12

then. I was an Indian on the train ride.

17:14

I don't know if they even have it. I'd

17:16

be a Native American on the train ride

17:19

and it would be frowned upon where you had.

17:21

You know, there'd be a train that went around and then

17:23

we act like we were attacking the train. That

17:26

was I got dressed up. That was my job at King's

17:28

Island. I'm I guess they don't do that anymore, right

17:31

many Yeah, yeah,

17:34

Daniel Snyder would do that if he had an

17:36

amusement. Oh he does, doesn't he have six flags?

17:38

Um? But yeah, going back

17:40

there, Yeah,

17:43

pleasure in My dad would take us to the pleasure

17:45

in what he gets, like a beer in a hook.

17:48

Beer in a hook, first time I ever heard

17:50

of that. You got a beer and then the hook

17:52

would be the top that was

17:54

on the whiskey when you pour it.

17:56

It has a hook to it. And we'd

17:58

sit there and my brothers, I'd have a

18:01

Fanta orange and um,

18:03

we played bumper pool. I was probably

18:05

seven or eight, had a boy I'm bellying

18:08

up to the bar the best. Yeah,

18:10

and my dad would be there and he'd walk in.

18:12

They go, hey, Jack, how are you go give

18:15

me a beer in a hook? And uh,

18:17

to this day when I say to my brothers,

18:19

Hey, how about a beer in a hook? Like,

18:21

yeah, I'm all in. Yeah, Paul, I remember

18:23

that first time your dad cracked like a Hams and let

18:25

you just sip the foam off the top of all right, give

18:27

it back? You know that. No, it was always bad beer.

18:30

It was blats Weedeman.

18:32

Well, I don't know that Hams was considered. Well,

18:35

you're right, you're right. That was

18:37

like the yeah, you know Filet Mignon of beers.

18:40

You know what it might have been in the Midwest.

18:42

My dad was big on Hams old style strows.

18:44

Strows. We never took

18:47

my dad his beer. He who put

18:49

it in the refrigerator and we would

18:51

never take it. And he go, why do you guys don't

18:53

Why didn't you guys never take my beer?

18:55

And we're like, no, we're not gonna drink

18:57

that. We had free

18:59

beer in the refrigerator. He thought we would steal

19:02

it, and I was like, no, well, I'm not taking your

19:04

strows. Your blats. It

19:06

doesn't blats sound like it's not

19:08

gonna taste well. Sounds like what

19:10

you get from drinking too much beer rather

19:13

than what's going He's out there blast

19:15

the rough

19:18

nights. Thanks for listening to The Dan

19:20

Patrick Show podcast. Be sure to catch us

19:22

live every weekday morning nine to

19:25

noon Eastern or six to nine Pacific

19:27

on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local

19:29

station for The Dan Patrick Show at Fox Sports

19:31

Radio dot com, or stream us live

19:33

every day on the iHeartRadio app by

19:36

searching f s R, or

19:38

stream us live on the Peacock Act eight

19:41

seven seven three d P Show email address

19:43

DP at Dan Patrick dot com Twitter handle

19:46

at DP show. Kevin in Ohio

19:48

joins us on the program. Good morning,

19:50

Kevin, what is uh? What is on your mind?

19:54

Good morning DPH. Just

19:56

want to thank you guys. You guys bring us

19:58

a lot of joy here at all, and I want

20:00

to welcome you back this weekend. Well,

20:03

thank you. My question to you,

20:05

Dan is who do you most think

20:08

your jump shot is? Like? Um,

20:11

I'm a unique fan. Would it be more like Jack

20:13

Zimmerman or a Jim Packson?

20:16

Um, I'd

20:18

like to think I was a better shooter than Jim Packson.

20:21

What of course you do? Who wouldn't

20:24

want to think they're better than Jim pack Jim Packson didn't

20:26

have range. Jim was a spectacular

20:29

player. Jack Zimmerman had range. I'd

20:31

like to say, Clay Thompson. You know now

20:33

you're a friend of the Jim Packson who did play

20:36

thirteen years in the NBA. Yes,

20:38

half of him as a starting shooting guard. Yes,

20:40

he was a scoring guard, not a shooting guard.

20:43

Big difference there. Yeah, yeah,

20:45

it's twenty two a game win. It's okay. There

20:47

are a lot of guys that you know average

20:49

points? Are they great shooters? Nick

20:52

Wright joins us, co host Fox. First

20:55

things first, what

20:57

are you talking about? Dan? Just

21:00

talking about my jumper? No? And

21:02

I know it's your favorite topic, but at

21:05

some point, you know, reality's

21:08

got a set in. I mean, Jim

21:10

Packson hit a jumper to win a championship?

21:13

No, and you just no, no, no,

21:15

no no, oh John Packson.

21:18

Yeah, I thought you're talking about John Packson. Okay,

21:21

all right, Jim Packson. You know what is

21:23

out of my purview? Okay. I think the

21:25

caller was was would

21:27

be more interested in John Packson, To be

21:29

totally honest with you, Jim Packson. Okay,

21:32

you know what, I started off on a bad foot. I thought

21:34

you were talking about John Packson. I realized it as I said

21:37

it, saw a little twinkle in your eye. Are like, oh

21:39

I got nick in the jackpot. Okay, yeah,

21:41

my bad, Yeah, my bad. Because you're an NBA

21:44

historian and the historian yea, that

21:46

is true. Okay, it's a bad job by me. But

21:48

you also did just say you like to be more like Clay

21:50

Thompson, who might have the prettiest jump shot in NBA

21:52

history. Thank you, No, that's

21:55

not a note. What do you mean think I've

21:57

been saying Clay Thompson might have that, all

21:59

right, Not you have that? Okay,

22:01

if you're going by just looks of

22:04

jumpers, just the cosmetics

22:06

of this. Um, you

22:08

put Reggie Miller's in Last Play,

22:14

all right, Ray Allen, Clay,

22:17

Steph, Um,

22:21

I don't put Steph there. You don't

22:23

think that's I don't think

22:25

like his form and release

22:28

are as pretty as Clay or Ray Allen.

22:30

And I'm trying to find other guys. I think

22:32

Steph, it's just it's just

22:35

the best, you know what, it's just the

22:37

best jump shot ever. But as far as

22:39

like when you watch it and you're like, oh

22:41

that is that is picture perfect,

22:44

like King Griffy Junior swing, Ray

22:46

Allen and Clay are the two guys

22:48

that come to mind ahead of everyone

22:51

else. Uh, I think.

22:53

I think Steph has to

22:55

shoot that way to get his shot

22:58

off. He does have to take different

23:00

angles. Clay as a catch and shoot,

23:02

Ray became a catch and shoot. Steph

23:05

is not a catch and shoot player

23:07

yet, but he you know, he might emulate

23:10

his father later in his career. Well,

23:12

yeah, I was gonna say Dell kind of had a

23:14

prettier jumper than Steph.

23:17

And again I'm not listening. I'm not Draymond

23:19

Green. I'm not taking shots at Steph Curry. You

23:21

know then, I'm that's not my place right now. I

23:24

think it makes it more remarkable what he's

23:26

able to do. But also because

23:28

of the different angles and

23:31

the because of his size,

23:33

he can't do it as traditionally

23:35

as some other guys would. But this isn't what you wanted to talk

23:37

to me about, So go ahead. Is everything okay with

23:40

you and Draymond Green? That he called you,

23:42

called John called jan Nikki? Give

23:44

us a summary of why Draymond Green has a

23:46

problem with you. Well, because

23:48

Draymond Green's true passion is media criticism,

23:51

not basketball discussion, and

23:54

Draymond like, let's let's be very clear

23:56

here on what's happening with Draymond Green.

23:59

Draymond Green finds

24:01

does not see the obvious hypocrisy

24:04

in his opinion that

24:06

if you didn't play in

24:09

the NBA, you shouldn't

24:11

have a seat at the table at

24:13

discussing or criticizing

24:16

or critiquing NBA players. However,

24:19

if you have no training whatsoever

24:22

in journalism, commentary, or media,

24:24

you of course are able to criticize

24:27

professionally trained journalist commentators media,

24:29

and by the way, I think athletes

24:32

turned commentators is a great thing.

24:34

I am not trying to exclude anyone from the group.

24:37

I think there's an obvious hypocrisy in

24:39

those trying to exclude others not

24:41

wanting that same exclusion to happen to them. But

24:43

the other thing is this, like Draymond

24:46

is, he's running out of content.

24:49

And so Liz, we talked about my Andrew

24:51

Wiggins thing. He had a lot of my Andrew Wiggins stuff

24:53

wrong. That is saying that I need to

24:56

own up to the opinion. I tweeted out

24:58

the Andrew Wiggins the moment the

25:01

Warriors beat the MAVs. I'm the one

25:03

that put it back into either But that's fine. But

25:05

that got that got him some traction. People

25:07

are like, oh yeah, kill Nick on Andrew Wiggins.

25:09

So he does it right after they wins the championship,

25:12

and then he goes on a little ten day break and the

25:14

next podcast and it's like, oh boy,

25:16

this time a year, the sports commentary game's

25:19

a little tough. So no the no games

25:21

going on, no sports, no stories, so

25:23

let's just run it back. But then

25:26

Skip was on vacation. Stephen A's on vacation,

25:28

and all of a sudden, it's like, oh boy, you know what,

25:31

what if I run that same Nick almost

25:34

word for word, the same Nick right opinion,

25:37

but I'll call him Nicholas.

25:39

Who Oh, that'll get him.

25:42

That'll get him. So listen,

25:45

I get it new media and

25:47

so you know, I mean, they're coming for all of us.

25:49

But I just you know, I'm excited to see what the next

25:51

chapter is. We're talking to Nick

25:53

Wright. He is a co host

25:56

of First things First, you don't take time off

25:58

like Skip and Stephen are you

26:00

guys are always there grinding? Well,

26:02

no, that's I mean. No, I'm gonna take time off

26:04

here and a skip Steven And by the way, it don't take

26:07

time off like Skip or stephen A or

26:09

Dan Patrick. You know what I mean. Who I believe

26:11

is about to go on a quite the vacation. Um

26:14

No, But I'm gonna take time off just later.

26:16

I'm gonna take some time off in July and August

26:19

and so, but not right now right now. You know, with NBA

26:21

Free Agency, I need to be on the air. I need

26:23

to be discussing the Knicks

26:26

giving jail and brous million

26:29

dollars. But I did wonder though, that I

26:31

wonder what Luca thinks about this, that

26:34

that it feels like he needs He

26:37

can't afford to lose players like this now

26:40

Mark Cuban can afford. Maybe that you

26:42

know, they don't want to spend that money. But if you're Luca,

26:45

are you closer or further away?

26:48

Listen? I think that and the

26:50

maps are smart. I think they go to Luca

26:53

and they say, listen, let

26:55

me show you what happened with Anthony Davis. He

26:57

was great at a young age, so

27:00

the team overreacted,

27:03

traded a lot of its future for a good

27:05

but not great at the time player Drew Holliday,

27:07

gave him a defined ceiling Lebron

27:09

James great at an early

27:12

age. The team then tied,

27:14

you know, said Moe Williams, come on down,

27:17

if you're good, If you're so great, sometimes

27:19

would hurts you is we feel

27:21

like we have to microwave it. And we

27:24

get a second player who is not

27:27

a true difference maker. Pay him like

27:29

he isn't relocked into the team. We've

27:32

got, you know, a ten year plan for you.

27:34

And by the way, we went out and got

27:37

Christian Wood, Tim Harway, Junor is coming

27:39

back so we're not going to be worse. But

27:41

what we're not going to do is

27:44

is make it so the hour

27:46

big two is you and Jalen Brunson. We

27:48

want the secondary player to be better

27:51

than Jalen Brunson is. I think Lucas

27:53

smart and I think he would understand

27:56

that. I like because or else you're

27:58

getting a bit of a situation. Dan. The

28:00

Hawks found themselves in. The Hawks

28:02

tricked themselves a bit by believing

28:05

that that conference title run was who they

28:07

were and they locked everybody up.

28:10

And then this year is maybe more realistic

28:12

to who they were, and they're like, oh, we're not even close

28:14

to Goodman, and now what do you got to

28:16

do? Your trade? Three

28:18

drafts unprotected

28:21

And I like de Jontay Murray a lot. I think he will

28:24

really help them. But now they're all in that's

28:26

their team. Now it's gonna be Tree, Dejonta,

28:29

you know what I mean. And there are other pieces like that's

28:31

gonna be for the bulk of the next five

28:33

years. Who the Hawks have? They have no flexibility.

28:36

I like teams that have the flexibility for

28:39

if and when Dame says, I'm sick of

28:41

this. If and when somebody who's a

28:43

real difference maker asks out

28:46

better move. The Lakers didn't get

28:49

Kyrie or the Clippers got John

28:51

Wall. Oh, I think I

28:53

wish the Lakers had gotten Kyrie. Kyrie

28:56

and Lebron work flatly. It works,

28:58

So I think I think it's a bad that they

29:00

didn't get Kyrie. And I

29:04

am the John Wall thing.

29:06

I'm not against. I think anyone

29:08

acting like they know that John

29:10

the John Wall thing is going to work is

29:13

being disingenuous. But I also think anyone

29:15

acting like they know that he's cooked

29:17

is being disingenuous. I he

29:19

was on the shelf last year, not for injury,

29:21

but because the Rockets just wouldn't

29:24

play him. We saw al Horford

29:26

that happened with him in OKAC and

29:28

then how horror that actually did his body good.

29:30

He was good for the Celtics. I

29:32

think Clippers are going to be really good, and

29:34

I think anything they get out of Wall as a bonus.

29:38

I was just you know, Kyrie going

29:40

back to the Nets. I think people are like, yeah, let's

29:42

move on to the next story. I'm like, no, no, this

29:44

is still a story. This is fluid.

29:47

Yeah, because if I'm kde, I

29:49

don't know what I got here, and at what point

29:52

do the Nets know, Hey, he's gonna play

29:54

play for that next contract? Are we

29:56

gonna trade him? It just

29:59

feels like, what do you think? Thinks more likely, more

30:01

likely than not, Kyrie finishes the season

30:03

with the Nets. Even money

30:05

bet you can take yes or no. I

30:13

would never know. I would never bet

30:16

on him to

30:19

do what is logical, Like when he said, oh,

30:21

you know whatever, great people or

30:23

different people and you know, we change the world.

30:25

And then he opts in like he didn't do anything

30:27

daring, Like, dude, that was

30:29

the greatest plea. They're like those

30:32

who dare to be different change the world by

30:34

daring to be different. I'm doing the most basic

30:36

thing imaginable. Um No,

30:39

listen, Kyrie's a different cat obviously,

30:42

But I don't I agree

30:44

with you. The story's not over. I think there are a lot of

30:46

interesting pieces of it. One that the Nets

30:49

offered him longer term contract he didn't

30:51

take. Two that the Shams

30:53

reported, well not Shams reported. He

30:56

told Shams he was opting in not telling

30:58

the Nets. Three Wendy

31:00

reported that Joe's

31:02

that Sean Mark said the okay from Josie,

31:05

even if it meant losing Durant

31:09

it rather than give Kyrie the MAX.

31:11

All of those things lead me to believe that

31:14

Kyrie is on his last strike and

31:16

now that he opted in, he has no leverage

31:19

they send him anywhere. So I think

31:21

that he's got to be on his you know best

31:24

behavior, and that includes no sabbaticals,

31:26

no paid time off. Like I

31:29

don't know, he's not a reliable guy.

31:32

I'm guessing that he'll be traded. I don't think

31:34

he ends the season unless they're playing so

31:36

well and there is chemistry

31:39

and that it feels

31:41

like they're just waiting for Katie to give

31:43

the sign like, you know what, go ahead,

31:46

because Katie's been there for four years.

31:48

It doesn't feel like they're gonna ship kad after

31:51

if they trade Kyrie. No,

31:53

and Katie's excellent, I mean, and Katie doesn't

31:55

want to leave. And the other thing is this check

31:58

the Nets roster. Something will

32:00

jump out to you. They don't have

32:02

any forwards but Durant

32:05

they have. They have a few centers, a

32:07

bunch of guards, and Durant is the

32:09

only guy on the roster listed as a forward,

32:12

small or power. The reason I mentioned

32:14

that is this, they

32:17

even if Kyrie were on his best behavior,

32:20

one could argue that trading

32:23

him for some wing depth. You know, Durant

32:26

tweeted during the draft, it's a wings

32:28

league, and I think that was about

32:30

the players are being drafted, but it also was an

32:32

interesting comment on his team that has no wings

32:34

other than him. It's got small guards

32:37

and shooters and then Claxton and you

32:39

know bigs, and so I

32:41

think there is an argument to be made even if

32:43

Kyrie doesn't do anything, that the Nets

32:45

might look at it and say, we have even with Ben

32:48

Simmons, we have plenty of shooting. What

32:50

we need is more wing defenders

32:53

out there, and maybe Kyrie can get us

32:55

some of those. And

32:57

I misspoke yesterday because I

32:59

thought Ben simm is going to be healthy,

33:01

but I don't know mentally physically. He went

33:04

through back surgery and is not

33:06

going to be available this summer until

33:09

I guess training camp at

33:11

the earliest. Here, So factor

33:13

that factor that in. He's

33:16

not gonna play in the summer league. He's not gonna have any

33:18

run. Thing's not great, which is

33:20

by the way, did you see the Vegas

33:22

odds on this. The Vegas odds on the Nets

33:24

have been more skewed than any

33:27

team I can ever remember seeing they are the favorites

33:29

in the East. They

33:31

have better odds than than

33:34

Milwaukee does. I don't get

33:36

that at all, flatly don't understand.

33:38

Yeah, the Celtics. I mean, why would they

33:40

have better odds than the Celtics? The

33:44

public loves them. I don't know. It makes no

33:46

sense to me. Great

33:49

to talk to you as always, you

33:51

two. If it was my internet connection

33:53

screwed up here at the end. No, you're not even mess

33:55

something up for you. No good, Okay, I

33:58

was worried about that. Okay, you enjoy your vacation.

34:01

I um, I've got something

34:03

that I'm sending to you, Dan, but

34:05

you're not gonna be there to receive it. And

34:07

now I find out no one's gonna be there to sign

34:10

for it. So I got a big problem that I

34:12

got to take care of that. I might

34:14

need to hit Fritzie offline on I might

34:16

need I might need one of your guys to sign

34:18

for something. So I'm just letting

34:20

you. You want to give me an idea of what it is. It's

34:24

a it's a token of

34:26

my appreciation of our friendship, and

34:29

I you and the crew can share

34:32

it. That's what I will tell you. Is

34:34

it something that if we wait a

34:36

week then it might spoil?

34:41

It's something I would prefer not to be left out

34:44

in the sun for a week. Yeah, it's that

34:46

is true. Um and so yeah,

34:48

but I didn't time this right, and you

34:50

know shipping delays and you know infrastructure

34:54

plans, and I don't know until

34:56

we're back and then send it.

34:59

It's already, it's it's en route. Is

35:01

the problems? Do you want me to give up my vacation,

35:03

not go on vacation just to get

35:06

the gift yet you're gonna send me? No?

35:09

But I might want someone to

35:11

hang out at your studio tomorrow for a few

35:13

hours to sign for a patch. All right,

35:15

okay, but you don't owe

35:17

me anything, you don't. I don't know.

35:20

No, No, it's a token of my appreciation

35:23

of our friendship. That's all. Okay,

35:25

that's all it is. Okay. How much is it worth?

35:32

I don't know. Is it more than my

35:34

token of appreciation of

35:36

our friendship? No? No, I don't know.

35:38

Listen, man, I didn't want to. I don't. We can

35:40

talk about that or not. That's up to you. No, it

35:42

is not, But it is

35:45

it's worth more than I would

35:47

like to go to waste. Okay,

35:50

it's worth. It's worth enough that if you

35:52

wanted at a casino, you'd have to fill out

35:54

a form. Okay,

35:57

how about that. I wanted

36:00

to make sure that I showed

36:02

my appreciation for Nick, so I bought

36:04

him a watch. Okay, Oh, okay,

36:07

I didn't know if we could talk about this on the air. No, Dan,

36:10

okay, I didn't know it. I didn't know. Dan bought

36:12

me a Brightling. I'm wearing it right now.

36:15

Dan made fun of me. I did, wearing a fake

36:17

watch on TELEVI I did, and then said

36:20

told my wife he would buy her a real

36:22

one even though she owns one, in a very uncomfortable

36:24

moment, and then

36:26

talked about it all in the air, and then

36:29

I felt bad. Sent

36:31

me on Father's Day a

36:33

package that just said who's

36:35

your daddy? And it was a Brightling.

36:38

That's true story. And

36:41

now I'm like, god, dog it, Now I gotta

36:43

get him. So you didn't help, You didn't,

36:45

No, no, it was It was so great

36:47

to just send that and have you opened it up with

36:49

no no name attached to it, just said

36:53

your daddy. Yeah. And then I

36:55

called him and said what are you

36:57

doing? And do you know what he said? America?

37:00

What ballers? That's what

37:02

he said. You're like seventy

37:05

years old, Like what do you? Why

37:07

do you talk like this? It was such a such

37:10

a flex and so yeah,

37:12

so I I you know, I sent

37:14

something back. I have a good fourth buddy. Hey,

37:17

my best to the family. Oh

37:20

kids, do I

37:24

thank you? That's Nick Wright. Let's take

37:26

a break when we come back. Did you have an

37:28

I team report there, Polly people? A lot of people

37:30

are asking this, Nick right, have a ponytail or a man

37:33

bun going on? Because they couldn't tell with his hair situation.

37:35

It's getting longer, but it looked like it was in some type

37:37

of bun. Oh, I don't think he's a bun.

37:40

I don't want to as a journalist, how want I use anything? I think

37:42

it was more mullet than bun. Okay, I'm

37:45

seeing I mean having seen that in person

37:48

the story, Yeah I didn't. I didn't see a bun. But

37:52

it is getting a little bit longer for a guy who had

37:54

his head shaved there for a while. Thanks

37:57

for listening to The Dan Patrick Show podcast.

37:59

Be sure to catch us live every weekday morning

38:01

nine until noon eastern six to nine Pacific

38:03

on Fox Sports Radio, and you can find

38:05

us on the iHeartRadio app at

38:08

FSR or stream us live

38:10

on the Peacock app. Hey,

38:12

this is Jason McIntyre. Join me every

38:15

weekday morning on my podcast, Straight

38:17

Fire with Jason McIntyre. This isn't

38:19

your typical sports pod pushing the same

38:22

tired narratives down your throat every day. Straight

38:24

Fire gives you honest opinions

38:26

on all the biggest sports headlines, accurate

38:29

stats to help you win big at the sports book,

38:31

and all the best guests. Do yourself a favor

38:34

and listen to Straight Fire with Jason

38:36

McIntyre on the iHeartRadio

38:38

app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

38:40

you get your podcasts. Waiting

38:45

for Michael Wilbond to join us. More

38:48

of your phone calls as well. I was looking

38:50

at the top recruits. Everybody

38:52

assumes that Arch Manning is going

38:54

to be great. Right high

38:57

school quarterbacks, you know, I go back.

38:59

Vince Young turned out to be great, Kyle

39:01

Wright went to the U

39:04

in two thousand and three, Rhett Bomar

39:06

went to Oklahoma. These are the top rated

39:08

quarterbacks, Mark Sanchez,

39:11

Matthew Stafford, Jimmy

39:15

Clauson Notre Dame at O seven, Terrell

39:18

Prior, Ohio State, Matt Barkley

39:20

USC, Philip Simms

39:23

Alabama, Jeff Driscoll

39:25

Florida, Jameis Winston

39:27

Florida State, Max

39:29

Brown USC, Kyle

39:32

Allen A and M Josh

39:34

Rosen Shape Patterson Shaye

39:36

Patterson went to Mississippi and then to Michigan,

39:39

Davis Mills, Stanford, Trevor

39:41

Lawrence, Spencer Ratler,

39:44

Bryce Young, quinn Ewers. And

39:49

that's that's a hit or miss list

39:51

there. Yeah. Point It's also interesting a lot of these

39:53

top recruits they play a year or two to

39:55

school and then they're the hotter recruits

39:58

and they cool off. Remember the

40:00

guy at Clemson and Desha Kelly

40:02

Bryant. Yeah, you know he was playing great.

40:04

You know you look at DJE he

40:07

cooled off a little bit last year. If there's someone

40:09

who could replace him? J C. Daniels

40:12

remember read about him in high school? Yeah? How

40:14

many schools? Zon Uh?

40:16

Let's see h Ryan

40:19

and South Dakota. Hi, Ryan, what's on your mind

40:21

today? Martin

40:23

Dan? Ryan? Hey,

40:25

quick question for you and the Fellaws. Just wanted

40:27

a beer question heading into

40:30

the holiday. Here you or the

40:32

fellows have a beer that you've had a

40:34

bad experience with that you just can't get

40:36

in here anymore, whether you

40:38

had too much of it or what have

40:40

you. But for me, rolling

40:42

Rock would be that beer. Um

40:45

due to the fact that before the

40:48

the Oklahoma Texas football game in the fall

40:50

of nineteen ninety seven, you get

40:52

a picture of it for a quarter at a bar

40:54

down by the stadium, and uh,

40:57

you know, I don't know that anybody's been more banged up off

40:59

of two bucks than people I saw that. But

41:02

it's rolling Rock for me, all right. I

41:04

mind, I think would have to be hard

41:06

liquor. I don't think there are any bad beer

41:09

experiences like um,

41:12

remember what was the you

41:14

could mix it together orange juice

41:16

and a screwdriver.

41:18

Oh yeah, yeah, Boone's Farm

41:21

Mad Dog, Mad Dog twenty twenty. I was

41:23

big in high school. Yeah big, Yeah,

41:26

that's not good. Intelligence runs

41:28

in the family, Innovation runs in the family. Extraordinary

41:31

runs in the family. The twenty twenty two Mercedes

41:33

Benz range of SUVs every

41:35

member waiting to impress. Learn more at MBUSA

41:38

dot com. Jeff and Ohio,

41:41

Hi Jeff, what's on your mind today? Hey

41:43

Dan? There's one beer

41:46

that was manufactured in Cincinnati,

41:48

and I don't believe I heard you mention it yet, but that

41:50

is Little King Yeah, Little King's Cream Ail.

41:53

Yeah, the little seven ounce bottles. Uh.

41:56

Those things had several advantages.

41:59

One of them as they got

42:01

cold quickly because they were such a small

42:03

bottle. Two, they

42:05

never really got warm because they weren't

42:07

around long enough. Only took two

42:10

or three good pulls on a bottle to empty

42:12

them. And number three, you're

42:14

my age, So a

42:17

lot of us used to wear army fatigue

42:19

jackets, and those things had

42:21

about twenty pockets and

42:24

you could literally get a case of Little

42:27

Kings all around

42:29

your body and sneak into

42:31

the football game as long as nobody

42:33

bumped into you, because you would clank.

42:36

So if you could sneak in without getting bumped

42:38

into, you were good. Thank you, Jeff. Yeah,

42:41

it's like you're bringing in grenades.

42:43

Just don't bump into me. Little King's

42:45

Cream Ail. The shorties would

42:48

like those as well. But that

42:50

was another green bottle, Little

42:52

King's Cream al Leah in New

42:54

York, Hey, Lee, what's on your mind today?

42:58

Warren Dan? Thanks for taking the cow. Yeah,

43:01

I was wondering you ever hear of Jenny red

43:03

Eye. No, yeah,

43:07

Genesee from upstate New

43:09

York. Okay,

43:12

Genesee Cremail also okay,

43:15

yeah there everybody's got a

43:17

local beer. But I remember

43:21

Jenny Cremel. I thought that was from

43:23

Pennsylvania. Jenny

43:26

Jenny Creemile or Genesee beer. H

43:31

James and Virginia joins us. Hi, James,

43:33

what's on your mind? Oh?

43:35

Thank you for taking my call? Brother, Happy Thursday,

43:38

Friday, fourth of July weekend,

43:41

Happy four July DP damn

43:43

that we are the commanders,

43:45

man, So Lucan commanders Man. I'm

43:47

just calling them man because the end of the day I wanted

43:49

to say happy four for July, of course, but the end of the show

43:52

yesterday nobody wanted to take

43:54

the commanders over eight wins man

43:56

and I caught him before about this, Batman,

43:59

But I want this to be the last time I asked

44:01

for it. This will be the last year. So I'm gonna

44:03

take it a step further. Then I'm

44:05

gonna say the Commanders win the

44:08

NFC East. Commanders win the NFC

44:11

East. If they win, I get to come

44:13

in for the day and hang out on a meet Friday.

44:16

If they lose. I whole sponsor and

44:18

meet Friday for y'all, man, So you

44:20

know I'm always loving to listen guys. Man,

44:22

y'all have a wonderful forth of July weekend in the

44:24

vacation, and I can't wait to see y'all after

44:26

the Commanders win the NFC A

44:29

great day, Marv, did you want a piece of James in Virginia?

44:31

There, I'm taking that all Okay, all right, Marv's

44:34

gonna take you up on man. James

44:36

loves his commanders. He

44:38

loves them, maybe a little too much. I wish

44:40

I loved anything the commanders.

44:42

Yeah, your wife wishes that you loved her

44:45

as much as James loves the commanders.

44:47

Oh. Absolutely. He's always looking for the positives.

44:49

There always Seaton

44:52

update the poll results while we uh if

44:54

Fritzie can't find Michael Wilbon, he

44:56

doesn't get any of the mini

44:58

hot dogs? No, no, well

45:03

the big segment, No, no will Bon,

45:05

no many hot dogs. Oh, Todd's

45:08

over there on the phone, will scrambling

45:12

scrambling. Oh okay,

45:19

Todd is uh see you don't want to do

45:22

this on the last day before you have vacation

45:24

where you're Yeah, you know your final guests

45:27

before Paul. He'll do is Fritzy.

45:29

It appears to the zoom is not working. We

45:31

can go to the phone. We'll go to zoom is not what. I'll

45:34

send you link it send you the link again. You have to link. I'll

45:36

send a link again. Uh,

45:40

Fritzie, we can do the phone with Will bon Yep,

45:43

he's efforting yes, yes, and

45:46

fritzye is the type where this is going to bother him.

45:48

Yeah, vacation, so it's not

45:50

like it's Thursday then you have tomorrow to redeem

45:53

yourself. It's Thursday. Then it's a

45:55

week off. And and you know, we would

45:57

never remind him of this during vacation.

46:00

Now where we would go h

46:02

Fritzie, pardon the interruption, but I just

46:04

wanted to see how your vacations. You

46:06

know what's going to happen Tonight, Todd's going to send a story

46:09

about like the Atlanta braves or something, and it's

46:11

gonna be like, Todd, what the hell are we supposed to do with this?

46:13

We're off for ten days? Oh, I know, I know what's

46:18

what's the story is?

46:21

Mike there? Michael Vonn's ready to go. Oh, Michael

46:23

will be elusive, the peripatetic. Michael

46:25

Wilbon is here on the program, Mike,

46:28

how are you today? Are

46:31

good? Am I on a speakerphone?

46:35

Not? Oh wait,

46:38

Ben, hold on for a second. Sounds a little

46:42

hollow there. He can't put that on you.

46:45

So there's

46:48

a few things that are a

46:51

sign of things going terribly than Todd running

46:53

between these two rooms. Yes he doesn't run,

46:55

yes, yes, fastly walking he runs.

46:58

He runs in the back where the big german and

47:00

Dylan are. It's more of a skipping walk.

47:03

Yeah, there's will Von. I

47:05

can see him right there on a zoom call.

47:08

I can see you. You couldn't

47:10

see me? No, I couldn't. How are you doing?

47:12

Got your Northwestern sweatshirt on? Looking

47:14

away? Yeah? Um? I.

47:18

The Freddie Freeman story is

47:20

kind of fascinating here because

47:22

I'm not sure what happens as we move forward.

47:24

He's playing well. But if you're a Dodger teammate,

47:27

how do you feel about Freddie Freeman with

47:31

what is now transpired in the last forty

47:33

eight hours? I think you feel like we think

47:35

Clayton Kershaw felt. But

47:38

Dan, you know what I mean. Think of

47:40

all the times, Okay, we know all the details.

47:42

We know a lot of details here. We know how

47:45

Freddie felt because he's Freddie Freeman, because

47:47

he's you know, MVP once you know, removed,

47:50

because they the Braves one. We know

47:52

all these details. How many times

47:56

does a player have regrets about

47:58

a signing, but when leaving

48:00

a place where he was a king, I

48:03

think it happens way more than we know. Because

48:06

we know the details of this, it

48:10

seems like, oh my god. I mean, Casey Close

48:12

has been an elite agent for a long

48:15

long time and so all you

48:17

have this confluence of circumstances, that

48:20

stance is that puts you in a position

48:22

where it looks like, oh my god, this is a I

48:25

don't think this is that rare at all, Dan. I

48:27

think people have regrets all the time about

48:30

where they sign and they usually

48:32

get over it, usually in a situation

48:35

like Freddie Freeman's. But it's clear to me he

48:37

didn't want to go. He didn't want

48:39

to go. But it's not the first time that's

48:41

happened either. But can you remember an athlete

48:44

this emotional? Yeah about

48:47

but yeah, I mean I remember

48:49

come up with like retiring, you would see

48:51

this, Yeah, I mean,

48:54

this was dick for Meal like, like, what's

48:56

going on here? He

48:59

didn't see you know at

49:01

did you did you question this in real

49:04

time? Like when you saw him

49:06

except the ring go to the plate hug

49:09

whoever it was at first base at the time,

49:11

Did you say, oh, something's wrong

49:13

here. No. I I just thought

49:16

okay, during the lockout and trying

49:18

to get this done, you know, it

49:21

felt like that's where he belonged, that he

49:24

loved the Braves and

49:26

he grew up in the organization, and

49:28

that Okay, he'll flirt

49:31

with somebody, but he's coming

49:33

back. It's like Chipper Jones

49:35

was never leaving, or you know, Dale Murphy

49:37

eventually left and went to the Phillies. But you

49:40

know, these guys, it feels like certain

49:42

Market Tony Gwynn wasn't leaving. They're

49:45

certain guns Tony Gwan,

49:47

cal Ripken Jr. I mean there, Yes,

49:50

it was a surprise, but

49:53

you know, so few people stay forever

49:56

in one place. Now that

49:59

you know, it just seemed like, okay, you

50:01

know, he got his ring, he won,

50:03

he's fulfilled, He's going to go on and

50:05

do this other thing. Yeah. Yeah, I

50:08

don't think I gave much pause to it, other

50:11

than I thought

50:13

of Pooh holes, because yes,

50:15

the Cardinals did the right thing. Let's

50:18

not embarrass him and not give him an offer.

50:20

They got a Hall of Fame career out of

50:22

those ten years, and they probably

50:24

said, go get him, go go take

50:27

you know, take the Angels. We

50:30

would encourage you to take that. They were respectful

50:33

to him. I thought the Braves were

50:35

doing that. Let's be respectful,

50:37

but go ahead. I wouldn't turn down

50:39

that offer from the Dodgers. Yeah, and then

50:42

we find out the TikTok behind

50:44

the scenes of the entire

50:46

thing. I think. I guess my point,

50:49

having covered teams and people for

50:51

a long time is they're more

50:54

of these than we think. There's

50:56

something that happens in the

50:59

backgrounds that shoves

51:01

a person out a little bit more than

51:04

just oh, let me Joe. He's

51:06

Michael Wilbon, pardon the interruption with

51:09

Tony Kornheiser. Of course you're at the NBA

51:11

Finals and the greatness

51:14

of the Golden State Warriors was on center

51:17

stage. There is it

51:20

still Steph like? As Steph

51:22

goes because we look at when athletes

51:24

get a little bit older, can how long can Steph

51:27

be Steph? And what's that mean for the Warriors

51:29

When he can't be what he is right

51:31

now. Well, that's what was really interesting about Draymond

51:33

Greene saying they can win three of the next four.

51:37

You know, unlikely, people

51:40

get injured. Oh wait, they just had

51:42

that. People get old, other

51:45

people coming up, and other teams

51:47

become I mean, young studs are

51:49

trying to take you out all the time,

51:52

and that's going to happen to the Warriors

51:55

if they don't just retire on their own. So

51:57

do I think they can do this again next year? Yeah?

52:00

Absolutely absolutely,

52:02

and I think they're primed for it. When Steve

52:05

Kurs said you usually better the second year,

52:07

Dan, he was right on the money. I mean,

52:09

to me, the greatest Bulls team of all time

52:12

was the second one, not the one

52:14

that won seventy three games,

52:16

seventy two games, but the team that

52:20

Horace Grant before Dennis Robin got

52:22

there and Horace Grant John Paxson they

52:24

beat I think Portland that was the greatest

52:27

Bulls team. That was truly the second

52:29

team, not just the second of the two

52:31

three peats, but the second one. So I think

52:33

the Warriors have that in them. But

52:36

does it last or ever? No, But nobody ever

52:38

learns that and not in our business

52:40

either. I mean, I understand

52:43

athletes feeling this way, that's what they're supposed

52:45

to do. They better have

52:47

that irrational confidence that borders

52:49

on delusion. But when people in our

52:52

business just buy into it and

52:54

start saying stupid stuff and automatically come

52:56

with the question, it just makes me angry. And

52:59

I want to call every show that I see it

53:01

is happening and say, you're an idiot. Stop

53:03

being an idiot. Study sports,

53:06

study the history of sports, Study

53:08

the history of any sport, and you

53:11

don't just get people winning in bunch. I

53:13

know the NBA and NHL have

53:15

more multiples, they have more

53:17

repeaters, but they don't

53:19

just go, you know, eight and ten years

53:22

or whatever the suggestions are, and

53:24

it's not so easy. Just oh yeah, they're gonna win next

53:26

year, and the oddsmakers and then whose

53:29

favorite. All of this hype

53:31

makes me angry. Now I'm old Dan,

53:34

you know this, and I get

53:36

angry at the suggestion that

53:38

it's so easy to win championships. I'm not saying

53:40

dreamond Green saying that because he didn't say that. Do you have

53:43

a lawn in Arizona for people

53:45

to get off of? No? I know there's no

53:47

real you

53:50

know, no real grass. Get off

53:52

my rocks, you know, off

53:55

my dry straw or whatever it is. But

53:57

do you think you helped usher in the

54:00

takes you and Tony, No, because we don't,

54:02

because we don't do that. No. I

54:05

tell people, when they say something to me about

54:07

that's a great question, I say, no, I don't have a

54:09

hot take. I have an opinion, which is layered. Yeah,

54:12

it's usually nuanced. It may also be yeah,

54:15

I kind of agree with part of that, And

54:18

I don't have hot takes that actually hate them. But

54:21

it feels like though, Mike, your answers

54:23

are bite sized portions. Therefore,

54:26

it's almost presented in

54:28

a hot take fashion because you and

54:30

Tony split two minutes on a topic.

54:33

Yeah, but but two minutes are hot takes a

54:36

lot shorter. I don't

54:38

even know. I'm not a hot take guy. I got

54:40

no hot takes coming out of the oven, Mike. I

54:43

just don't. When people say you don't have hot takes,

54:45

I go, you know what, how about just an

54:47

opinion? Maybe there are

54:49

times when I go, I don't know, yes,

54:53

yes, or how about this? Yeah,

54:55

the other guy's right, you

54:58

know which I mean? Tony and I I

55:00

disagree a lot less than people think

55:02

we do. We're loud in

55:04

getting there. Ye, but but

55:06

but it's it's less disagreement. But no, I

55:09

don't because there are too many times that over

55:11

time I may also change or move that

55:13

position a little bit based on circumstances. So

55:16

no hot takes um

55:21

NBA free agency. The Knicks are back,

55:23

that got Jalen Brunson, No

55:25

they're not. And so

55:28

right now I'm in Chicago, right now where Jalen

55:30

Brunson grew up and played at a high school, where

55:33

you know, friends of the family are. I love Jalen

55:35

Brunson. Jalen Brunson has self made

55:38

more than any really really really good

55:40

NBA player, any player of his statue.

55:44

This kid did not have NBA

55:46

written all over him at all. Even know his dad,

55:48

as we know, played in the league. But

55:51

Dan, he's not. They're

55:54

gonna they're gonna put pressure on this kid.

55:56

This signing, this circumstance, the way

55:58

it went down, is gonna put pressure

56:01

on Jalen Brunson that he does not deserve. Is

56:03

gonna try to make something of him that he is not. He's

56:06

a terrific NBA player, but looking at

56:08

what happened with Julius Randall, that man,

56:11

Julius Randall, second team All NBA,

56:13

and then this last season they turned on him,

56:15

and I worry that they're gonna they're gonna look

56:17

at Jalen Brunson maybe for one

56:19

of the few times they've seen him, they're like, wait,

56:22

we've spent twenty seven million dollars a year

56:24

on this and he's not Clyde Frasier. Yeah.

56:27

No, And I feel

56:29

I feel for him already and love him, love

56:32

him, don't love the circumstance he's

56:34

in Dan And by the way,

56:36

he's not a one. I'm

56:38

not even sure he's a real two. I

56:41

think that he's a He's part of it ensemble

56:44

and you'd love to have him and you can win with

56:46

him, but not with him dragging a team

56:48

like the Knicks, the team

56:50

with more pressure usually than anybody

56:53

to be something that they're not. I

56:56

worry for him. It's a great kid, Michael.

56:58

Great to talk to him. It's always yeah, I

57:00

hope you're doing well. Thanks for joining me. No hot

57:02

takes now, don't give into that. No, No,

57:05

I give lukewarm takes

57:09

like a like a nice warm bath.

57:12

Mike I no, no hot takes, no

57:14

hot take. That's great, Thank

57:16

you, buddy. That's Michael Wilbon,

57:19

or, as Steve Spurrier referred to him,

57:21

wilbur We'll take a break. Last

57:23

call for phone calls. If you're watching on Peacock.

57:26

We are going to go out

57:28

and enjoy a fourth or July feast.

57:31

Everybody todd you

57:33

snuck in well because

57:36

I said, no Wilbon no many hot dogs,

57:39

but you get to have some hot No guest, no

57:41

squeegee all right here, No, no

57:43

guess, no squeegee