This is an I Heart podcast. Guaranteed human. Thanks for listening to the Heard podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports Radio in noon to three Eastern, 9 a.m. to noon Pacific. Find your local station for the herd at foxsportradi.com or stream us live every day on the I Heart Radio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Now let's get this party started. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Here we go. It's a Tuesday. We are live. It is the herd. Wherever you may be, however you may be listening. So many thoughts, so many angles. Thanks for making that part of your day. Spurs take game one on the road. Double overtime. Watching that game last night. Various times. I thought it makes everything else in the West so irrelevant. Really think Austin Reeves and Luca are going to take down Wemby over the next five years? I mean, that is unbelievable. Mark this date down last night. May 18th, 2026 last night. Wemby officially became the face of the league. He did. Before the game, SGA won the MVP, motivating him. Wemby won the night and the game. He is now the movie poster for the NBA. Shooting from 30 feet, you got a little stuff. Blocks like Wilt, alley-oops like Shaq, 24 rebounds. Humiliating the other bigs like he did Rudy Gobert or the T-Wolves. Folks, I don't know how many more boxes he can check. We're creating new ones. I've seen a unicorn. I'd never seen a Wemby. I don't know what the series is going to be. Eventually, I don't think SGA, my guess, won't have the worst plus minus of anybody on the floor. I took San Antonio to win it. I think it's going seven. But you are watching two things happen simultaneously. The beginning of a dynasty and potentially the blooming, the beginning of the greatest basketball player we've ever seen. He's not there yet. I don't think he's fully refined offensively. Dylan Harper, his running mate, you know, Magic got Karim. Got to have somebody else. Shaq, Kobe, MJ Pippen, Dylan Harper's 20. I've never seen a rookie guard this good since Magic. Seven steals, 24 points, 11 rebounds. He never turns the ball over. Lightning quick. He'll be all NBA either by next year or the year after. So we've had great tantams in this league. Dylan Harper and Wemby is all time stuff. The only question for the Spurs, and you're thinking the same thing I am, they're much more entertaining to watch than OKC. OKC honestly feels like they feel like a supporting character. As defending champs, they do. They're just not that entertaining. I cannot keep my eyes off San Antonio. And the only question is, number one, when does the dynasty start? And number two, cross your fingers at 7 feet 4. Can Wemby stay healthy for 12 years and become the greatest basketball player of all time? That's one of the magic gifts of LeBron. Dude never gets hurt or Brady. I mean, the rest of the West, I'm watching last night, the rest of the Western conference feels so inconsequential. Where is Yannis going to end up? Who cares? Is LeBron coming back? Yeah, whatever. How long is Steph going to play? Neat. Feels like a local story. Wemby, Stefan Castles, they're bully. Dylan Harper, more draft picks, pick swaps coming. I mean, and this is the bottom of San Antonio's powers. Their three stars are 2021 and 22. I feel like I'm watching a galaxy form. It's beginning to orbit around Wemby's gravitational pull. It's just crazy. He humiliated Rudy Gobert, four time defensive player of the year. They don't even want to put home grin on him. Put Alex Caruso on him. We don't want to humiliate home grin. It's incredible. And I don't think the NBA needs a face of the league. I never have. I don't think there's actually been that many. Magic and Bird felt like it. Shaq kind of felt like it. I don't think it was Duncan face of the league. Jordan was clearly, clearly, but boy, you get it with Wemby. Good looking, stylish, cool, confident, outspoken. Like he is everything you could ask for. We get so lucky sometimes in sports that our best stars, look at him pose there. Is that the best or what? Look at his teammates. They love him. There's no animosity. There's no jealousy. And I'm looking at the numbers this morning. Since early February, if Wemby just gives you 15 minutes, just 15 minutes, spurs are 37 and three. What? What? Look at the post-season numbers. It's wilt plus. In fact, last night, I looked this up, 41 points, 24 rebounds, three assists, three blocks. It's the best game since 1962, wilt against the Celtics. I mean, last week, our government released UFO files and I was skeptical. I watched last night and I'm thinking, oh, they are among us. It's Wemby. Here he is after. The game like tonight is the best way to get experience. We paid five quarters. So, we're learning and by the time we get the experience, we'll compensate with our effort. We want to win everything. And we have the chance to have people above us in the organization that know how to do that. I mean, the whole MVP thing is so absolutely crazy. I love SGA. SGA only led the league in one category, free throws. I mean, the bottom line is everything moves around Wemby. You could say, well, the defense does. Do you realize the Spurs led the NBA in corner threes? You have to collapse on Wemby. He changes the calculus of everything. Everything, everything they do offensively, you have to account for Wemby. That's why Staphon Castle, Dylan Harper, these guys are gonna get open jumpers for the next decade. Man, if you're a shooter, get to San Antonio. Do the Heedles. Go get a Mike Miller and a Shane Badier and a Ray Allen. Don't bring on these, bring a veteran who can't do much but hit threes. Hey, Steph Curry, play a couple of years in San Antonio. I got an idea where you could go after that. I mean, it, and I like SGA a lot. It didn't lead any major category. I mean, they subbed him out late. They didn't want him on the floor defensively. And I, I'm not picking, yeah, I'm not taking sides here, but Wemby is so good, so refreshing, so fantastic, so likable, so confident. I mean, I just never, I'm sitting there thinking to myself, the, if you, if you're a team like the Lakers and you're the new Dodgers owner, you have to be thinking the only thing we can do to compete, we got to go get you on us. That's it, that's all we can do. And that'll help us for two years. I mean, I'm sitting there watching all these teams and I'm like, if you're in the West, I mean, forget Oklahoma City. And again, Oklahoma City may win the, they may win the series, right? I mean, they're so deep. I mean, they have like, they go 10 deep, but Hartenstein and Holmgren, I mean, they put Caruso on Wemby. It's like, yeah, we're not, I mean, we're not even gonna try to put a big on him. Rudy Goldberg was four time defensive player of the year. They took, he basically Wemby played Rudy Goldberg off the floor. I mean, don't get me wrong, Gary Payton couldn't stop MJ, but he made him work for it. Or we get to a point, nobody can even make Wemby work for it. I mean, that was Wilt. Everybody goes, oh, Bill Russell, the Levin Rings. Wilt dominated Russell. I mean, 50 rebounds. It just didn't matter. That's what we're looking at here. I mean, it's just crazy what we're watching. And he's, I mean, I really like, he does a really good job. He toes that line between confident and arrogant. He's not arrogant. He is confident. You can tell the way his teammates rally around him. They really like him. They really appreciate him. And that's not always the case. We know the Shaq Koby thing was, that thing was a combustible dynamic that's not going to happen with Wemby. We know the Celtics loved, loved Bird. We knew the Lakers loved magic, but you get into these dual star combos. It's not always great. You can really tell a lot about Wemby by how that picture of him posing and all his teammates, like laughing and they love this guy. Sometimes in live folks, it's, I mean, look at him. They love this guy. You know who else loves him? Adam Silver. I can't take my eyes off him. Oh, eight teams, eight teams started their OTAs yesterday. Michael Pittman said of Aaron Rodgers arriving, quote, yeah, he never told me anything. I learned from Twitter. And Alex Highsmith said this. It's awesome having him back. You know, he's a, he's a mysterious guy. So having him back is, is awesome seeing him in the building today. So, yeah, it's awesome. It's great. So he was out there, obviously getting a lot of rest with the guys and whatnot. And so really, we're really excited to have him back, you know, leading our group. He said he's mysterious. I'd rather have my mystery in my latest Netflix series. I'd prefer my quarterback, not be DB Cooper and JFK and Satoshi, just me. But I will say this, Aaron Rodgers about six years ago in Green Bay changed course. And whereas Tom Brady's football career was singular, winning Super Bowls, Aaron suddenly was divergent. He wanted to be known for more than football. Mission accomplished. Mysterious, curious, controversial, lost his endorsements. Fascinating, interesting. I can take my eyes off him, but not everybody chooses the same path. And when I think of Aaron, I think of a lot of things and I think of football. With Brady and Manning, I thought of football. That's okay. He's become sort of that great friend you have who's a great hang and interesting, disappears for a while. You're not gonna rely on him, but you love being around him every couple of years. Where you been? I haven't heard from you. I would prefer my quarterback, not be that, but that's what he is. Early schedules, very workable for the Steelers. Aaron is officially back. Just nobody quite knew where he was until he put the helmet on and walked out to the practice field. J-Mac, I don't mean to gush and I don't know who's gonna win that series, but I had so many thoughts watching the game. I think that was a really tough game. You got the defending champs with a lot of experience, older players, maybe the best GM in all of professional sports. And just the spurs kept coming back and back and back. And you're just sitting there thinking, is this the year it's gonna start? Right? Two things jump out, Colin. First, listen, we've now got five games of data. Okay, the last regular season game, the guys didn't play. And the spurs own them right now. Okay, they've won four of five. And Wembenyama is unstoppable. There is nobody who can guard them. You mentioning Chet, not guarding, is Chet afraid of him? Like Chet Holmgrenad, eight points, took seven shots. He was invisible in that game. Why wouldn't you put him on, on what is it? What does it tell you? What does it tell you that Oklahoma City a brilliantly coached and run and own team is like, one of their great assets is they have two legit bigs, Hartenstein and Holmgrenad. And they're like, let's put Alex Caruso on. I mean, Michael Jordan as great as he was, you know, you'd go put your best guard, Gary Payton on him. You'd put a guard on him. You can't even put a big on him. So by putting the guards on him, Wemby's not just settled, he took two, three pointers last night. He's like, oh, Caruso on me? I'm just going to go inside and catch lobs. And it was game over. And Colin, I know you don't want to bang on SGA. I've been yelling about this for months. He is not built to handle Castle. And I didn't think Harper was that good of a defender. No, Castle, Castle's giving him problems. Major, Harper had seven steals, seven. He was everywhere. So if he can't get by those guys, by the way, SGA one for five in both overtime periods, blew a layup at the end of regulation. SGA is not Michael or Kobe. He's not going to jump over you. He's also not physically going to bully you. So it's like a running, but Adrian Peterson, remember the great running back for the Vikings? He could run over you, run past you. Right? He had like Walter Payton could do that. Walter Payton could make you miss, could bowl over you, could outrun you. Best back I ever saw. That's what made Michael so great. Michael could maneuver around you. He was quick. He was vertical. He could also bully you. Charles Barkley had that. He could run you over, run past you for a forward. Wemby can do multiple things. SGA, he's got kind of a singular dimension game, which he's quick and he's kind of long, but he's physically not a terribly strong player. You can bully him and that's kind of what Staphon Castle is a perfect remedy for SGA. What's SGA's superpower, Colin? And don't give me the mid-range because he's not getting the mid-range anymore. We've seen it for three years. The guy's known not to jump, not to bite. He's got good timing, good touch. Yeah, that's not a superpower. His superpower is getting in the line. And if he's not getting to the line, maybe he is Alex English, like you said yesterday. Not to diminish him, but he did not look like the best player on the Thunder. He's more like Batman. He doesn't have a superpower. He's got a good teammate and he's got good gadgets around him. Yeah, Alex Caruso hits eight threes, the best game of his career by a mile. And they lose without De'Aaron Fox? Unspurred in four? No, I'm kidding. That's a bit much. All right. So, okay, and you think I'm crazy saying Wemby is the face of the league? I'm gonna give you, I said last night is the beginning of Wemby being the face of the league. I'm gonna take you back to the LeBron night where he became face of the league. We'll talk about that next. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in Newnister, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1 and the iHeart Radio app. Hey, it's Ben, host of the fifth hour with Ben Maller, would mean a lot to have you join us on our weekly auditory journey. You're asking what in God's name is the fifth hour? I'll tell you, it's a spin-off of the Ben Maller show, a cold-hit overnight on FSR. Why should you listen? Picture if you will a world where we chat with captains of industry, in media, sports and more every week, explore some amazing facts about human nature and more. Listen to the fifth hour with Ben Maller on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. The Herd Weekdays on Fox Sports Radio, FS1 and the iHeart Radio app. Nick's open there Eastern Conference finals tonight. You know Connor two hours away, great New York sports writer. Nick right top of the hour. Victor Wembyn Yama is 22 years old. I said last night he officially became the face of the league. I think there's only been four or five. I think we overstate that. He's the face of the league. Does anybody remember the first LeBron moment when he officially had no peers? I would argue LeBron was 22 years old just like Wembyn. It was the Eastern Conference Finals 2007. Like Wembyn, LeBron had battled older teams in the playoffs like Washington and the Nets. And then he met like Wembyn, a number one seed. It was the Pistons. 48 points, two overtime win just like Wemby on the road. Just like Wemby scored the last 25 points in the game. It's one of the greatest basketball efforts I've ever seen in my life. Again, 22 like Wemby on the road like Wemby, facing the number one seed like Wemby. And LeBron was exhausted after the game. From that point forward, he was a class of one. There were no peers. Didn't mean he'd have great games every night. Didn't mean he'd win every playoff series. I mean, he left Cleveland because he couldn't get a running mate. That's why he left, went to Miami, running mate. Michael Jordan didn't do anything till Pippin. Wemby's got his guys, Dylan Harper and Stefan Castle. But I remember that night because I remember watching it and thinking, okay, you've just done something. Even your predecessors who were all timers could not do. 25 straight points. He blew past people, he jumped over people, he beat them down the floor, he knifed through traffic, he used his left hand, he dunked with his right hand, he hit threes, he hit mid-ranges. They trapped him, they double teamed him. You could not stop LeBron. I'm showing the video, it's just insane. Insane how dominant he was against a great defensive team. Oh, that's interesting. Wemby faced a great defensive team last night on the road and humbled them. LeBron was exhausted, here's Wemby after. Do you feel like, especially after this game, that you're the best player in basketball? Do I feel like it right now? I feel tired. But it's not a question I'm wondering right now. We'll see, you know. The world is eight billion people, so it's eight billion opinions. That was something else. That was a good night, by the way. I was watching Sabres Canadians. It was a good sports night. On a Monday night, J-Mac with the news. No, no, no, no. Turn on the news. This is the Herd Line News. All right, Kyle, let's start with tonight's NBA action. Nick's hosting the Cavs in the Eastern Conference Finals and good news for Nick's fans. OG Anno-Novi, according to multiple reports, is expected back tonight. We'll play in game one. They're probably gonna need him. Somebody's gonna guard Donovan Mitchell. Somebody's gonna guard James Harden. It probably will be OG and Mikhail Bridges kind of toggling between the two. They've also got Josh Hart and of course, Jose Grand Theft Alvarado. Coming off the bench. I don't think I honestly do not know how Cleveland stops Jalen Brunson. Like he's gonna score 34 a game. He's gonna have his way. There are other things they have dynamically, but I think Jalen Brunson's gonna completely control this series. They don't have anybody they can put on. I agree. Remember, VJ Edgecomb of the Sixers was supposed to do that. He had no chance. He cooked him, the rookie. However, however, some of the Cavs guys who were trying to pump up this series did note that Brunson shot 34% against the Cavs this year, which is terrible. And then the stat that blew me away. So Dean Wade, the kind of taller white guy who guarded Cade Cunningham last round. Pretty, he did a good job. He's not an offensive guy at all. He defended Brunson this year. Great. Brunson shot, are you ready for this? One for 16 this season when being guarded by Dean Wade. Now that stat blew me away. You know, I don't expect the Knicks to struggle, but oh, okay, that's interesting. Wade really a non-shooter, so you don't really have to guard them. I don't know how much you'll play. Cleveland's got Donovan Mitchell, Harden, Jared Allen. They can score points. Evan Mobley? They're gonna win a game at home in this series. I just think the matchups, to me, favor New York. I, yeah. After watching last night, I feel like I was just watching a different galaxy of talent, but I think the Knicks are a great story. Every year we have a team in the East, usually the East that pops. Miami a couple years ago, eight seed got to the finals. Pacers last year with Halliburton. I, that's what the Knicks are. They have tweaked their offense. They're fun to watch. I'll argue that all day long. OKC is not a good watch. I love watching the Spurs. I love watching the Knicks play. They're a fun watch. You see on the screen there, seven and oh in their last seven games, just bludgeoning teams. However, I will point out OKC had been doing that as well. Eight wins, six of them by double figures, and they lose at home. Unfortunately, Cleveland does not have Victor Wemmianma. All right, let's move on to the NFL and the Vegas Raiders. Interesting team this year, although they got no prime time games. Fernando Mendoza, your quarterback. He's been a hard at work learning Kubiak system. Here's what Raiders new OC, Andrew Genoko, had to say. He's asking questions that you might not have thought about in a couple years, working with some more veteran guys, but now you have a guy that's fresh into the league that has some different questions. And what it does is it makes you be on your toes for everything, but it also makes you evaluate everything. And hey, maybe we could get better if we did. Yeah, I know we've had some success doing it one way, but we could do it another way and be even better. I can't wait to watch. Well, I don't know if you're gonna have to wait a month or not because, you know, we had Haselbeck and some others coming on saying, yeah, you gotta start her cousins. I think you and I are in lockstep here. I'm going Mendoza from week one. Play the kid. Miami at home. Come on, that's a layup. Well, Miami's defense is gutted. They got nobody. No, they're gonna start. I mean, Miami could start eight rookies from the draft and it wasn't a good draft. They don't have, I mean, honestly, I mean, it's not like it was a great draft. And they got, I mean, Cleveland went and got really good players, the Jets. Like there were certain teams in the NFL that got like really high end starters. Cleveland got four that'll play day one. The Dolphins draft was, remember they kind of reached on a tackle and then it was an inside linebacker and it was, they took a receive, the first receiver they took, it was one of the weaker draft selections in that round. So I think Miami, new staff, new offense, new everything, that's about as, and that crowd's gonna be crazy in Vegas. By the way, Fox gave, obviously we'd love Mendoza, but look at the schedule for the Raiders. So you got Dolphins, Chargers have a good defense on the road, back to back road games against the Saints. But after that, Chiefs, Patriots, Bills, Rams, like if you start Kirk Cousins for the first three, he's probably gonna play the first seven games. I don't want that. I mean, Jets at week eight is probably the next good win for the Raiders, but I'm starting Mendoza week one. I don't think there's any, a barring injury or a catastrophic in the preseason and he can't tie his shoes and run at the same time. Like, I don't know, I just can't envision a scenario where Mendoza's not the week one starter. All right, let's go to the final story column. That's Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals. Very excited for a return to the postseason. Got that cushy schedule and Burrow's out there saying, we have everything we need. I'm seeing as many as seven new defensive starters. Obviously the Dexter Lawrence edition is a big one. Well, they needed seven new starters up front. Couldn't stop anybody. Remember, there was a lot of chatter at the end of last season about Burrow, you know, demanding a trade and being unhappy. We might have to put that on the shelf for a little bit because this schedule and the new talent they've got on the defensive front, they, if they don't win 10 games, you know, Zach Taylor, come on. Yeah, I mean, I think, I think people look at the Bengals as and the Packers as two teams that kind of benefited from the schedule. But they don't have a lot of back to back toughies. Again, Jaguar is tough. Then you get Miami Ravens are tough. You get a buy. I mean, then you, then you go to Kansas City is tough, but you get them at home and the Raven, you get them at home. This, this is screaming 11 wins. I mean, it really is. Sometime we said this last year, the two easy schedules, New England. There's no question it better fit in New England. They got a home playoff game. Cincinnati is going to be a New England. They're not really a top four or five team, but they're going to win 10 or 11 games. I think the overs in play here, simply because of the schedule. Go find one two game stretch. I mean, one two game stretch. I mean, again, Texans week two at Houston, Roth, maybe that's it. They get a host, get a host Tampa before it and they, you know, play a Steelers after it. So, you know, we love prop bets on the show. You could bet in Vegas, one of these props last undefeated team. Now the Bengals first five you face, Houston was a playoff team, Pittsburgh Jags. People are going to be like, no, but I'm just telling you this offense, those teams are not going to be able to hang with the Spurrow's offense. So I might take a flyer on Bengals last undefeated team. Not all the odds are up yet, but they could be interesting this year. Yeah. J. Mac with the news. Well, that's the news. And thanks for stopping by. The Herd Ly news. Listen, Belichick, Bill Belichick's had a pretty rough last several years. And I've said one of my criticisms, even in his heyday, is at the end, last seven, eight years in New England, I thought he had too much control of the draft and they drafted very poorly, especially an offense. And he's grumpy and the hoodie. And I, you know, like the lot of you, I was such a Brady fan. I was always like, can you give Tom a hug? Can you occasionally just pat him on the back? And I thought Bill Belichick said something really instructive and really smart. And it was, I'd never heard him say this. And it's not that I turned on Belichick because I didn't know how it was going to work in college. But in the end I was like, come on, you're naming a defensive coordinator and offensive coordinator and you're treating Cam Newton better than you treated Tom Brady the last year. And it just didn't sit right with me. But again, I was a Brady, a little bit of a Brady fan, right? But Belichick was on the Sean Hannity podcast. And I thought he made a really, really great point that some of it was a little performative. We won almost every game. We were favored in almost every game. Everybody expected us to win every game. And so externally, everybody talked about how great we were or how great we were gonna be. And it was all, you go to the store, go get gas, go do, and if you're great, you're great, you're great, you're great, you're great. And so I always wanted to have balance. And I didn't want, they heard how great they were, but at some point you gotta hear, you suck. Well, here's how we can do better. It's not as good as it could be. I didn't mean it that way. No, that's the truth. That's really smart. I mean, young, rich, talented men probably don't need more affirmation and praise. So Bill Belichick, there you go. And it's the first time I've ever heard him say that. You know, I mean, Bill was not gonna open up a lot with a general Boston media, but it was the first time I'd really heard Bill explain, like, this is what I was doing. And he is so right. Everywhere you went in the New England region, it was Dunkin' Donuts and the Patriots are great. Not all the Bruins teams were or Celtics teams were. And I mean, and I'll say this, is I've always wondered, why didn't the Legion of Doom, Legion of Boom win another Super Bowl? Was it Ego? Shaq and Kobe should've won five. Katie and the Warriors should've won six. How come Jimmy and Jerry and the Cowboys didn't win more and they won a lot? A lot of times, a lot of times it's like, you win a championship, maybe two. And everybody's like, we've arrived. And Bill's take was, no, we're not gonna do that. You're getting praise everywhere, not in the building. And let's be totally clear with Belichick. He's been an assistant with the great Bill Parcells. He's coach Lawrence Taylor, Brady and Grant. Like the greatest of the great. Matt Slater, best special teams player ever. So the fact that you come in and have a two touchdown playoff game, Bill's not blown away by it. So I mean, you know, part of what ends dynasties is you don't sustain it, you don't feed it, you don't grow, you don't, everybody wants a car commercial, everybody wants a book, everybody wants affirmation and praise and Bill came out and said, you know, I was, I went 20 years of pushing back and balancing the scales. You've seen that scales of justice. Bill's like, I had to wait the other side. I thought it was really, really smart. And I'd never heard him say it. He kind of explained the grumpiness. In Chicago, it's the herd. Be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays in New Nester, 9 a.m. Pacific. The greatest spectacle in racing is coming. It's the 110th running of the Indianapolis 500. Don't miss the pageantry and tradition of the biggest race in motor sports. Coverage of the Indy 500 begins at 10 a.m. Eastern with the green flag at 1230 Sunday on Fox. You know, the media wants open, honest answers, right? That's what they tell you. But a lot of times when you get an authentic reaction, or an authentic moment, the media which has its lowest approval rating ever, I mean, like lower than Congress. And one of the reasons is they ask questions and they want predetermined answers. Or they take what somebody says on a podcast and they're being totally vulnerable and honest and they hammer them. And so LeBron James, who is now falling in love with golf, the end is near. Anytime he gets invited to play, he's like, let's go. Especially, you know, you have an off day on the road. Sometimes, well LeBron had this moment. You know, he's all over golf now and he's around some friends and he's, you know, he's holding court and he's making everybody laugh. And he got drilled for this, but he was insensitive to Memphis, Milwaukee because he was saying at his age, there's just certain cities he'd rather not go to. Random Tuesday in Milwaukee, you're saying at the, you're saying at the, at 41 years old, you think I'm gonna do that? Being in Memphis on a random ass Thursday. I'm not like the first guy I even talked about in NBA. Like we all like, you guys have to move. Just go over to Nashville. You got the, you got Vanderbilt over there. You got the ass car. You got a stadium. Don't they got a hockey team too? Yeah, they know. They're only chance was in 2003 if they ever won the lottery. And I might, and I might have pulled a Eli Manning and not showed up. It's guys on a golf course for the record. Nashville just got the Super Bowl in 2030. Nashville is the place to be in that state. Great city. My daughter lives in it's great city. So here's what's interesting. NBA just had an anonymous player poll that was released. What's the first team on your node trade list over three times more than second place Washington. Almost four times as many players would rather play in Sacramento, Memphis, number one. LeBron was speaking for the league. Memphis in a runaway vote. And I thought, I thought, you know, it'd be Sacramento. I actually think Milwaukee's underrated. I really, I think their downtown's pretty cool. Arena is great. But again, when athletes are honest and it's off the cuff and can we be honest about guys on a golf course? I mean, you're smoking cigars, you're having a good time. You're on a roll, you're telling funny stories. Guys are laughing. I mean, it's, and I know people say, well, Colin, it didn't land right. No, it landed like the truth does. Harshly creating some discomfort for somebody. Yeah, I mean, you could be Jay Leno or Letterman or Colbert. When people do their monologues to start a show, somebody's offended, but there's always a little bit of truth in the joke or it's not funny. So if you, you know, the media is trying not to get boring, repetitive, predictable answers. So they ask probing questions. Sometimes you're not gonna like the reaction. And sometimes it's at a podium. Sometimes it's on the floor. Sometimes it's out. But, you know, LeBron was basically speaking for the league. Yeah, these rich dudes, they want their glossy Miami hotel, LA hotel, Scottsdale hotel. Like, I get it. And I don't, like I start the end of the world, but I, and you know, maybe LeBron's a little tone deaf, okay, I mean, you know, maybe guilty is charged. But, you know, my take is there's a reason the NBA does an anonymous poll. Cause a lot of times people don't want to put their name on it cause they get hammered. I'm guilty of this. I've tried to change over the years where even if I, I said this about Aaron Rogers is that a lot of times, I think he's ridiculous and a little odd, but he is giving me content. And I do talk about him a lot and he lost all his endorsements. So he's mission accomplished. He's always discussed. Not winning the big games anymore. He doesn't have his endorsements, but you know, he's interesting. You fill a segment on the show, you're interesting. So, I don't know how many of you thought this. So when I watched the NBA, and I was talking about the NFL, when they released their schedule, I said, I think the NFL is a very well run league, but I feel like this year is the first year that the NFL got their holiday and international schedule right. I mean, the international games for years were Jacksonville and the Colts. It was so bad. And then, you know, Christmas, it was like, oh God, because they used to have a rule. Everybody's got to be on national TV at least once. And finally, the NFL cleaned that up. And I thought in my lifetime, this was the first year that I looked at the Thanksgiving Eve, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Christmas, New Year's NFL schedule, international schedule, and went, wow, it took them a long time. They nailed it. First time ever. I didn't see a single boring game. Often they were the best games of the weekend. So I understand that it takes leagues time to figure out schedules. NFL has always been very intentional. The NBA has got to do something with the MVP award. Anybody who watched that last night before the game, SGA looked uncomfortable. Adam Silper was smiling, but I'm not sure how comfortable he was. And Wemby is watching the proceedings. Wemby is watching SGA when the award, you think SGA for the next five minutes wants to do this in front of the Spurs, they have got to figure out a time to, they've got to figure out a time to hand out this award. And they asked Wemby about sitting and watching this ceremony. Here's what he said. I was curious if that was in your mind at all, knowing that Shay had got that award and you were in the top three for it. And did any part of tonight feel personal? I thought some of your facial expressions kind of look like you were really, really going for it. Yeah, sure. Anything you just said. I still got a lot to learn. And I want to get that trophy, many times in my career. So SGA, I'm always, like the Heisman Award, you could give it to anybody, right? But the most valuable player award, what are the Spurs without Wemby? They're not 37 and three since February. And I love Stefan Castle, but I always said this about Yokic. You take him off the floor, are they a playoff team? You take SGA off the floor. And I believe this, I think their bench in the Eastern Conference would be a playoff team. I think you could take O.K.C.'s first five guys off the bench and they would be like a fourth or a fifth seat, I'm not joking. In, without SGA, without Holmgren, Lue Dort, I mean, they'd make the playoffs. Well, that's an advantage. You're not as valuable when you get beat and you've got two bigs. I mean, they took him off the floor last night, defensively. I'm not denying he's great. Given the scoring championship, is he most valuable? That's the downside to playing in a stacked roster is we don't rely on you as much. And I mean, the Spurs would be interesting without Wemby, but they did 37 and three. I'm sorry. It was almost, you know what it felt like to me? It was pre-voter fatigue. It was like, we know he's gonna win seven of these. We're gonna be exhausted in about four years. Usually, remember when Yokech kept winning them and they gave one to Embiid? And it was like, well, voter fatigue. This was pre-MVP voter fatigue. Cause everybody in the world knows he's gonna rattle off so many of these. But Wemby just, in my opinion, the word, the title is most valuable player. Wemby just has much more gravity than SGA. They lead the NBA in corner threes cause you have to collapse on Wemby. You don't have a choice. You don't have to collapse on SGA. I mean, they put Stefan Castle on him. He's not done particularly well. He's been off his game. I mean, they literally give up. The league gives up defending Wemby. They put Smalls on him. I mean, that is, so I, I mean, it's all, you know what it's like. You know what Wemby is? Wemby is AI. We all know we're doomed. It's just a matter of when. Like with AI, it's like, they're gonna be job losses. When does that start? And I feel like with Wemby, it's like, he's gonna run the league for about nine years. Does it start now or does it start in one calendar year? That's how I feel. It's got an AI feel to it. It's like, here it comes. Not much you can do. We're not sure how it's gonna end, but it's gonna be team GM, player, all-star, title displacement. Like we know what's gonna happen. Jay Mac. Yeah, so I'm looking at for your SGA take. The AI stuff is great by on Wendy. That's, is that your, your workers, comedian writer, what do you got? Someone's best work. Someone might have. That's good stuff. When SGA was defended by Castle and Harper, some of the tracking data says he shot four of 13. Okay. There's a guy who shot 55%. He gets to the midi, it's automatic. He didn't even wanna shoot it because Wemby was patrolling the lane. He's settling for threes. I'm just telling you, the MVP, that was a farce. And did you see the video of Wemby on the bench when they're giving it to him? Head down, locked in. And then he came out and dropped 41 and 24. He was laughing at SGA at one point in that game. It was awesome. I was loving that. Oh my gosh. And we still like SGA. It's just Wemby's different. This is an I Heart podcast.
