Okay, we continue on Fred Rugan Rodney Peach on AM five to seventy LA Sports. Hey, do you have the app, the iHeart Radio App? Hopefully you have it, hopefully because if you do, you can stream the show wherever you go. We are live on the iHeartRadio App. Anywhere you go, anywhere in the city, anywhere in the state, anywhere in the country, anywhere in the world. All you have to do is have the app. Get the app, listen to the show wherever you go. You can never miss a minute.
But if you should occasionally miss a small portion of the show, all you have to do is listen to the podcast because Kevin will put it up the minute you get off the air. And today, if you missed our one, Apparently I was on trial, at least that's what Chris, one of our callers said. I was on the witness stand dancing. I was dancing on the stand. Now I thought the jury bought my argument. No one seemed to agree, but you can judge for yourself. Go on back and listen to our one today. All right,
more on the Lakers. Bill Plaski the LA Times joins the show and Bill, thank you for joining us and.
It's a crazy time for the Lakers, that's for sure.
Yeah, I'll tell you something right off the top. Uh, they have reconstructed the roster. I think they're giving fans hope. What do you think.
I think it's huge, I think, but I think the hope, the hope is not for this year though. I got to cuture Laker fans. Mark Williams is a nice kid, but Ad dropped forty two and twenty three on the last time he played about last week. He was ripped for his effort by the Charlotte broadcast just two days ago. He's been a completely underachiever. So I worry that Rob Plinker took a big swim with this when hitting Mark Williams. But I think for the future, with Luca and gain
Ad out of here, it's huge. The next step and I know you're not going to probably agree with me on this, Rodney, the next step has got to be Lebron's got to opt out after this year and give him more space and more room to more flexibility to make this Lucas team.
Yeah, I'm not I'm not disagreeing with that.
I think that if they're going to rebuild, they got to rebuild but I think what I've been saying is that to your point of just Laker fans, you got pumpy breakes a little bit because it's it's not gonna, first of all, happen overnight. And secondly, we got to be sure that that first of all, Luca's going to be around. You gotta sign again and is he Is
he the guy that you want to build around. He's a super talented I mean super talented like we've never seen before scores mind you of the way Larry Bird used to score at will on people. So tremendous talent. But there's a reason they shift him out of Dallas. Bill, there's a reason motivates him.
I'm thinking this, this is tremendous motivation for him. You could tell when the press conference on Tuesday he was very motivated. This, This is exactly what he needs to get off his butt, was the way get in shape, being the leader he can be. I think this he wants to prove the Gallas they that they're wrong. He wants to prove the whole NBA, NBA that they were wrong. This is perfect with Luca. So I'm not worried about Luke at all. I think he's gonna be just fine.
He's gonna be a great leader. There was such a great move. It's it's an incredible move. It's incredible, they got it great. It's just just incredible. But again, that's not capa the last big move. I say it again, You don't.
You don't think Mark Williams.
You don't think Mark Williams is the guy kind of compliments him going forward.
He would be if he played more, if he played harder, if you played defense. Again, AD dropped forty two and twenty three armers just last week in Charlotte. So I mean he's not He's only average, like twenty games of the year, and it's three years there in the league. He hasn't he hasn't proven to have the stamina or the physical capability. Is estallis. He almost had another AD, but a lot worse. So I worried about him. I worry about Mark Williams. I wonder about giving up Dalton connect.
I love him. Can you guys love him?
Yeah?
Yeah, So that hurts. So I don't think I think Rob wanted a big band for Lebron. I think this is probably Lebron's consolation prize. Lebron Lebron can't be happy, right, I mean, he can't. He can't be thrilled. That's no longer his team, he's no w to call in the shots, he's no longer in charge for the first time in his life, right, this is Luka Dantic's team. Lebron can't be thrilled. So I think Rob is trying to tell him, we're going to compete while you're here. We're still trying
to win a championship. I can't. I just don't believe listening to Lebron the other night saying he's he's here for now, he's he's committed for now. I can't believe. If they don't win this year, which they're not going to, I don't think he's still I don't think I don't see him staying around after this year.
You know, we've kicked this around a little bit, and I made the same point you did. The Lakers now need to get on with it. I mean, I think it's it's remarkable that during.
The season get on with it. I agree, that's a great way. That's ware way to put it.
During the season, they've changed the entire complexion of the roster. Now good or bad right or wrong. During the season, they have said because of the moves they've made, like them or not, we're going this way now, we're going this way. That's done, and we're going the other way. And if that's the case with Lebron, you know, I think I think for him, and I said this to Rodney, go in another one. You've you deserve the right go you should, You've earned that. You are one of the
greatest of all time. But as for the Lakers, let them get on with their business, let them go forward, now, let them move in a different direction. I'm not arguing.
And I was surprised, as I was surprised. I know, Lebron's got his family here, it's businesses here, it's stuns here. I'm surprised he meant they didn't trade trade ad, he didn't askalt. I'm surprised he didn't try to get out before the trade deadline. I'm surprised he's I'm surprised he's still here, I really am. I know he's committed to LA he committed to his business and his family. He's a great family guy. Everybody loves him.
But I think, I know, I think, I think, if if, if this thing didn't happen in the middle of the night. You might be right, but it happened so quickly that I don't think you know. And Lebron's not quite a knee jerk kind of guy, so I think he was. He is continuously for the rest of the season gonna
weigh his options. But it was just I think the way it went down, and basically nobody knew uh the Luca ad trade, that it it hit everybody kind of by surprise that I would have been shocked if he did asked out at that point, because it just didn't give him the time. Now, if they had said and been negotiating and been talking about this for weeks, then maybe and then and then they completed it, then maybe yeah. But I wasn't shocked. I think he's weighing his option.
He's got the wheels turning, and I'm sure he's gonna land someplace where they can win a title where they just need one player away something like that.
Do you think Rob did it without Lebron's knowledge because he wanted Lebron to ask out? Do you think he was Do you think Polka had in his mind as I've been riding for two years, he was gonna do it an Ad and Lebron in one flop, and he thought this was the best way to do it, and Lebron didn't bite.
Can I tell you something, Bill, Bill, I thought about that this morning. That actually popped in on my mind this morning. Given what he's done. I mean, they just changed the entire complexion of the team. There's a reason Lebron didn't know. There's a boom ad gone. Okay, here's Luca. That's the future. We're going forward now, good bad, that's it. Okay, but we didn't tell Lebron. And after the season, Lebron can opt out. Somebody will pay him. If he demanded
a trade. The Lakers wouldn't get much back for him of the open market, because, after all, he makes too much money. And who would give somebody a lot up or a forty year old guy. He's a piece that can help you in a title now, that's what he is. Very good, very good, but not the guy to build around. And I started thinking this morning maybe this was orchestrated.
Oh, I think it possibly could have been. It was so weird. At the Tuesday press conference, it's the first press conference in seven years. There for everybody who's been head the press conference that Lebron wasn't either lurking in the background, lurking in the shadows, or his name was mentioned ten times, It wasn't mentioned as brilliant. It was mentioned once and only when a question was asked about it. He wasn't brought with the press conference. This is not
his team anymore, and he's got to realize that. I'm sure obviously he does, and I think that impacts to move forward.
Yeah, I I think that he did not know.
I'm leaning that way, And I don't know if it was trying to do a package deal or not, but you couldn't have involved him because I think they would have run the risk of him trying to blow it up.
Oh exactly.
You know a boy. Yeah, you know what I'm saying, ads his boy. They're the same agent and the whole deal. If they would have, you know, had this conversation with Lebron a week before it happens, I think that it could have got ugly.
Clutch Sports has never been more powerless with the Lakers than it is right now, and I have to think I think that's a good thing. I trust Jeanie knows the organization she knows, she knows what's best for the Lakers. I trust her, and I trust play will do her bidding. I just I trust him more than I trust Flut Like, the Lakers are better hands. Now they're in Laker hands, and that's huge.
You know, I had this conversation with Rodney the other day and it was really weird.
Bill.
I don't know if you felt this way. I always thought Lebron played for the Lakers, but he didn't seem like he was really a Laker.
Now agree, all right?
After this trade, Now Lebron is a Laker. It's not the Lakers and Lebron, it's it's Lebron is on the Lakers. Does that make sense?
Yeah, it makes it make total sense. He's not separate, He's just He's just a piece that had to learn learn how to play with Luca? Did you learn how to play with Mark?
Luca? Laker? Is Luca a Laker?
Lucas so unhappy? Lucas Stop Luca. Luca. Luca's not happy to be here. You gotta know that, right. You can tell he's not through. He doesn't want to be here.
Definitely not happy to be here. He's definitely not happy to be there. That's what I'm saying. It may not, it may not be.
This summer.
Yeah, he's really he's been humiliated publicly, naturally humiliated, and he's got to figure that out. And I think it's good. I think I'm glad. I wrote that he brings a lot of bad baggage. Was well, that's good because you want a superstar motivated, you want a superstar who wants to prove somebody wrong. And he's got a hell a lot of people to prove wrong right now. And that's a good thing.
All right, that's a good thing, Bill. Or it could be a bad thing. You know, it could go either way. It's not gonna be. It's not gonna be in the middle. It's gonna be he goes off because he's done. He does have that dog in him that he's got. He got a tremendous amount of fire in him, and he takes nothing from nobody. But also it could be one of those just a disaster where he's in the tank and he's pissed off and he's mad about the situation and it doesn't end well. I don't think it's gonna
be average. I think it's one way or the other.
I can't take that. I suffered through the Lakers so much the last few years. I can't take that. Don't say that, Ronnie, Just don't say that.
I'm not even it's not gonna be a middle of the road.
It's kind of pretty good. It's average, or it's better above average. I think it's either going to be great or it's going to be one of those. Man, I don't know about this.
Well, I'm gonna choose to think it's gonna be great because I'm so sick of Watsover Lakers and worried about him and ripping them and writing is your trade a D and right is your trade? Lebron and I like to write one time and they ought to keep somebody And I don't think I've written that in a while. So I hope hopefully this works out. Because Laker fans are so fit up, there's so they so want a chance in the championship again. I think they have one now,
but it's not gonna be this year. Warning them it's not gonna be the Shore, They're not gonna beat up for the city. They're not gonna be Denver, They're not gonna be Houston. They're not gonna They're not gonna win it this year, but they got a chance in the future. And that's allybody can ask for.
Agreed. All right, Bill, thanks for jumping on. We appreciate it today.
Thank you, you got great. Thanks for having me see you.
All right, plan ahead for the big game this Sunday and pre order a platter of for Castia sandwiches piled high with the best cured meats, punchy cheeses, and tasty spreads. You can own all of that today and eat at vesty dot com. Okay, uh, when we come back helping the enemy, let's talk about it.
Oh yeah, come on, Freddy sing this with me?
Yeah, righty beat fred Rogan throw back thirty y'all count it down, Count it down to Super Bowl Sunday. It's almost here. Yeah, your goal got Freddy? Who you got? You're going? I am going. I am going down there. And then you know, it was kind of up in the air whether I was going to go or not.
And then.
The right folks called with the right the right dollar them out, Freddie, and I am on a plane, you know what I mean.
So I'm going down.
There to hang out a few days and then uh, yeah, actually gonna gonna actually go to the game too.
So New Orleans is a great town.
I don't know, I've been watching you know, people down there, shows going on down there. It is crazy crowded down there now, I mean people go in that usually get to town now today Thursday usually the day most folks come to town in the Super Bowl week. But man, it's New Orleans is uh it's a great town. I'm just hoping that uh no, craziness goes off there in uh in New Orleans like it did during a college football playoffs.
There are exactly three cities in America, three cities that if you survive them, you're lucky. There are three cities in this country. If you go to these cities for longer than a day, two days, and you survive, you're lucky. You come out alive, You've done a good job. You've made it. Those cities are New Orleans. If you go to New Orleans and you get out of there, you've done a good job. Because that is a party twenty four to seven.
Yes it is.
And you can find trouble wherever you want.
At every turn, Absolutely you can.
The food is incredible, there's no shortage of drinks. So if you've got to New Orleans and we talked to you Monday and you're okay, congratulations, you made.
It, I'm going.
I'm going and coming back and going straight to the doctor Fred our guy, because the food I'm about to eat.
I don't drink, but food I'm about to eat.
Is going to make my blood pressure just boil over, Fred, because it's everything's fried, dried and laid to the side. So I'm gonna kill it though, I'm gonna kill that in New Orleans food.
Okay.
So anyway, tell our guy hello. I will when you see him on Monday. Good New Orleans is one of the cities. Number two.
What's the other city here? There's a total of three.
Now I'll give you another city, Nashville. If you go to Nashville and get out of there, okay, you've done a terrific job. Nashville is New Orleans. Not with that food, but Nashville nine in the morning, bars are open, live music's being played, and you can just start drinking at nine am. I'm sure some places don't even close. You walk down the street and it's like you're on Bourbon Street. You are, you are in it. So if you go to Nashville and you make it out of there, congratulations,
you've done it. And lastly on the list, in no specific order, of course, is Vegas. If you spend more than a day or two in Vegas and get out of there, okay, then you again have accomplished something incredibly wonderful because those are three cities that are designed for you to lose your mind. Those are three cities designed for anything goes whenever you want it to go. Those are the three cities in this country. Now I might be missing so and people that have traveled perhaps no more.
I mean, I'm sure Pullman, Washington is very much like that. Oh Pullman is crazy this time of year, friend, yeah, Pullman.
Sure.
You know what else is crazy this time of the year, This this weekend that coincides with football.
What in the Super Bowl is Phoenix, Arizona. Phoenix Arizona. Waste is the Waste Management Open. If you have not been to the Waste Management Open on the PGA tour, you're missing out on one of the craziest best events there is.
Now, didn't they exact think we talked about this last year guys too, like they have to change a bunch of rules because they got so rowdy last year. People were like throwing beers at players and it was a whole thing. So they like, I know, it's kind of like a free form and you can heckle the players and all that. There's like a designated alcohol area or something. Now you can't just walk around the course drinking and start throwing beers at people because it's got way to out of hand.
Last year, people got drunk and were rolling down hills. Right, I think somebody ended up in the sandtrap. Oh yeah, it's the best. And see, that's the way I think golf needs to be.
What I was gonna say, fresh shouldn't every tournament be that way?
Yeah?
They really should.
Change the rules for everything else and make them like that.
Right, And I actually brought that up to some people at one point and they said, you're insane. I don't think I'm insane. Granted, you probably don't want anybody yelling and during your back swing or when you're putting.
Why not? Why not? Why not? Why not? Every other sports has crowd noying, you got to deal with it. Why not have it in golf?
I think that should and at the very least maybe like every other tournament is like that where you can you can yell and scream. But but I think it's certain tournament they have more like the Phoenix Open. Have more tournaments like that that. I'm certainly all the you know, most of the players would want to show up. You wouldn't have You wouldn't have a problem getting those guys
to show up to those tournaments. But yeah, I think I think the golf's to revisit that whether you crowd can have noise or should have noise.
How could an NBA player in Game seven of the NBA Finals stand at the free throw line with people screaming and throwing thundersticks and all sorts of stuff, God forbid, at the at the thirteenth hold, somebody yells something while someone's in their backswing.
This just doesn't make sense to me.
No, I understand, I understand. I think the traditionalists would have a problem with it. But I love you, you know me. I love anything that's new and different. I think it should be a free for all. I think tennis should be the same way. I think people should absolutely be able to lose their mind. I think it should turn into the World Baseball Classic. Oh, yeah, I think wimbled I think the US should be the World Baseball Classic. People bringing drums and chanting.
Singing and yelling and screaming the whole nine innings. It's been great.
That's what we need more of. That would see. That would address a number of issues with golf, and it would address a number of issues with tennis. Both sports are trying to figure out ways to attract a bigger audience now or at the very least hold on to what they have, and the feeling is are just too many events period, too many golf tournaments where the top players don't play. Same thing with the NBA, same thing in everything. When you have a lot of something, it
doesn't create a scarcity. The NFL is perfect because there are only so many games. But when you're playing one hundred and sixty two games in baseball, unless you're the Dodgers and you want them to play three hundred, but that's probably too many games. In the NBA, it's way too many games. Probably in hockey it's way too many games. You just don't have that sense of urgency and importance when there are that many games. Now, it can't change.
We know that because of television and media rites deals. But in golf they're talking about reducing the number of tournaments and they're saying live in the PGA, it's convoluting everything.
Tennis.
They just think there are too many tournaments, too many, so if you have fewer, they mean more. But I think if you had the same number and treated everything like the waste Management Open, it'd be great.
Hey, listen, you didn't get any argument from me. I think it's great.
I love that Phoenix opened, and to a certain extent, I think the players do.
You're right here there are, Fred.
There's going to be those traditionalists, those older cats that no, please be quiet. What are they gonna do with all the retired men and women that walk around the golf course with the quiet signs?
What are gonna do with them? Fred?
They'd have a heart attack. You know what, I think everybody should be given an air worn. When somebody is running feet out right to the left to win the tournament, hit the air horn.
It'd be pretty funny, but it'd be pretty messed up too.
I don't know if they everybody.
You know, every player's got their heckling crowd that follows them around with their own little shirts and stuff like that, like you said, air horns and all that, and you know it's it's it's a close match, and you tell your your your army or your crew member.
Palmer had the Arnie's army, and then you just follow him around.
You tell that Crey, hey, uh, Roy, Michaelroy's he's uh, he's only one stroke behind me. Man, he's on sixteen right now, Go heckle him. Go, And you send a crew over there just to heckle Rory till he can miss a shot.
A man.
I love it that Rory makes it and he turns around and gives him like the you know, the crotch chop or something like.
You tell me that wouldn't be entertaining.
That'd be great, It would be the best. Can I just tell you something? So if you've been to a golf tournament, I'll make this real quick, you know, and you have to stay along the ropes and you can't go inside the ropes, right. So recently I went to a golf tournament and it was the American Express Tournament
out in Lakingto. So I'm walking around and I don't really know where I'm at because this tournament is on PGA West and there are homes surrounding it everywhere, So if you're in one of the houses, you just start walking around.
You don't even have to pay.
So I'm walking around. All of a sudden, I'm standing in a place and I'm looking around and there's nobody near me. I am right next to the green. I'm like a caddy.
Oh god.
So people are now looking at me like what are you doing there? And of course I take the position I should be here, so I just kind of look them off. Do you know I actually walked in a pairing of golfers for like two holes like.
I was in.
This is the same you wandering into a locker room, Freddie. Yeah, you can't help yourself. But once I started, I here's the problem. Once I started, I didn't know how to get out. You know, when you're in, if you run out, you look guilty. So if you stay in, it.
Looks like walking with the golfers in the in the in the pairing. Yeah, just walking with a group of two or three or four guys. It was tight. You were just walking with them.
Did you have a glove in your back pocket just to act like you could play the part a little bit?
No, but I can't.
But I didn't make eye contact with anybody and just kind of kept my head down because a minute somebody made eye contact with me, they go, what are you doing?
So I just acted like I belong there. It was this guy walking with us. He didn't have a he didn't have a golf bag. Where's his clubs?
They must have thought I was someone's agent or something. I don't know what they talked about. I just kept moving, and then when I could conveniently back out, I did.
Only you would find yourself behind the ropes walking down the street and uh, walking down the f away with two actual players.
I just I became confused and that I didn't want to look guilty. All right, when we come back, Do you help the enemy? Let's do it now? Yeah? Is you Darvash the enemy? We'll try to figure that out. All you want to know why you can't always believe what you hear? You know, you're always trying to be manipulated. There's an art form to manipulating people, getting them to believe what you want them to believe. And there are
some people that are really really good at it. They are pros at putting out a message and trying to get you to buy it. Now, let's go back to the Roki Sazaki situation. As the countdown was occurring and he was going to make a decision about what Klubby was going to sign with. What was one of the major arguments, Well, one of them was he's going to pick the Podres. Now, if we really thought about it,
that wasn't going to happen. For all the reasons why it didn't happen, Given everything he said and what he wanted, there was one place to go, and it was the Dodgers. But oh, it could be the Padres. You know what could happen. And oftentimes when that occurs, it's an agent or somebody or a strategist trying to plant information to try to sway people and at times even sway those who are making the decisions. So one of the big
reasons was he wanted to work with you Darvish. He admired him, He was his mentor, and you Darvish was the guy that would make the difference. You Darvish was the individual that Sazaki would be basically bonded with, and Darvish would help him, and that's why he would pick the Padres, which of course was not true, because then he would have signed a contract with you, Darvish and not the Padres. Anyway, to show you what kind of person Darvish is, to show you why initially those reports
were so fake. Darvis has now come out and said, look, I know that he signed with the Dodgers. I understand that, but there are things bigger than who he signed with. And that being the case, I am saying now that I am still willing to help him even though he plays for the Dodgers. I will still be there for him. I will mentor him, I will offer him advice, I will take his calls. It would be as if he
was on the team with me. But because he's not doesn't mean that I'm throwing him kicking him to the curb. I'm there for him. That is classy, that is big time. He didn't need to go play for the Padres to be near you, Darvish, because you Darvish is a quality guy, and said, I'll still help him. You know, if I'm his mentor, then I will be there for him. Now, I'm sure the two of them are not going to have a conversation before they play the Dodgers, no matter
when they speak. I'm sure it's not going to be okay, rookie, you're pitching tomorrow night against us, let me give you some tips. That's not going to happen. But Darvish is older, he's been around, and he takes his relationship with Sazaki very seriously. Darvish thought the Padres, by the way, did a great job in their presentation to try to get him to go to San Diego. And I'm sure they did. We know the Blue Jays did a magnificent job in
their presentation. It didn't matter. He was always coming to the Dodgers for all the reasons he listed. I want to be the best I can be. I want to be in a place where they'll make me better. I want to be in a place where I'll have a chance to win all the time. Well, there was no other place. I mean, certainly the Padres don't have the analytics and the infrastructure of the Dodgers, and honestly, we don't know what the Blue Jays have, but we can
only assume it's not the Dodgers. But really, as Sazaki goes through his rookie year, and there's so much more to it than a twenty three year old kid going out to the mound every sixth day, learning to travel, understanding what it's like to be a major leaguer, taking care of yourself, all of those things you Darvish will be there for him. It's really a very very classy gesture. Doesn't mean we're still not going to beat the tar out of the Padres, but still it really was a
very classy gesture. All right, Ronnie, thank you for a great day. Really appreciate it. Kevin, good work as well. Rodney. Safe flight to New Orleans and we'll all talk tomorrow.