251. Baker's Latest, Pulling Kershaw and Chris Webber on NBA Playoffs, Lakers

Get started now, sign up promo code Colin so they know we and I sent you. The Colin Coward Podcast presented by the Fan Duel Sports Book. Hi, everybody, Welcome in to the Thursday Morning Podcast. Chris Webber Seaweb will join us his thoughts on the NBA Playoffs and the play game so far so Baker Mayfield did an interview on a podcast and he just sort of let it rip, let it fly. At one point he said on the field, I'm a dickhead that's never changed. He admits he's got

a Napoleon syndrome. He says he felt disrespected by the Browns, and he says he liked to go into somebody's office and boo them to see how they crumble. He admitted his critics also got to him. You know, Marshall McLuhan is a famous scholar of communications. He famously said the medium is the message, meaning not so much what you say, but how you say it and where you choose to say it. Baker was lake house with a bunch of buddies. Host is there camo hat drinking a b're very casual,

it's very let it rip. This is where I think Baker Mayfield's personality has never been right to be a quarterback. My wife's an artist. I'm more the compartmentalizer, the observer. We have different personalities. We make it work, but I will never be able to paint like her, and she won't be able to do certain things I can do. I think the greatest quarterbacks have talent, but their personalities match the position. Tom Brady obviously is a great example.

So is Peyton Manning. Very calculated, obsessed with preparation, from the podium to a podcast, to preparation to the sidelines to pre snap. You'll see very brief emotional outbursts a fist pump by Brady. Peyton manningle ocasionally bark at his center, but they're very much under control. Baker's personality is much more comedian, surfer artist, highly emotional letter rip. That, of course is a big advantage in surfing or a comedian. You lean into your talent, don't overthink it, and just

let it go. But the Russell Wilson's, the Peyton Mannings, the Tom Brady's, they understand being a franchise quarterback, everything has to be planned. It's not a letter rip position. Jay Cutler, Cam Newton, Baker, Mayfield sort of letter rip personalities. Don't think before they speak, often way too casual. It's one of my knocks on Drew Locke, the now Seahawk quarterback. I don't need to know. Baker's got a Napoleon problem. Right now, he's interviewing for a job with every other

GM in the league. Do you think they want a quarterback with a short guy complex. Do you think they want a quarterback who says he was bothered by the criticism and how to get off social A quarterback who said I'd like to go into fans cubicles and boo them. He's showing weakness, He's showing an inability to control his emotions that he doesn't have control of them. They control him. Again, There's a reason certain people flourish in certain jobs. I talked to myself all day. I was meant to talk.

It's what I do. I could never have been an artist. There are certain positions I just don't have the right emotional state for. I think Baker's talented, but he almost has a linebacker's personality, a wide receiver's personality, highly emotional, very casual, says the first thing that comes into his mind. There are a lot of great jobs for that quarterback. In my opinion, it's not perfect. So there was a baseball situation yesterday. They got people really worked up. Clayton Kershaw,

perfect game, after eighty pitches, he was pulled. And this is something that's important. First of all, it was game two. He's six months off surgery. He's an older pitcher. He's very valuable of their World Series chances. It was under forty degrees under forty degrees, and this is an older picture. Now, managing that arm and his health becomes really important. We know this in all sports. I totally understood why the Dodgers did it. Folks. Sports are not just there. Athletes

are not just there. For your personal and enjoy Colin, There's only been twenty three perfect games and Clayton Kershaw only has one left arm this franchise. The Dodgers are favorites to win the World Series. Okay, the perfect game is like an award. It's cute. Kershaw's a Hall of Famer first ballot, his legacy is set. Got one World Series, would like to have more over one hundred million dollars in the bank. Okay, to win an award, throw a no hit or perfect game is wonderful. But Clayton Kershaw

totally understood the situation. Sports is not just there for your enjoyment. Big picture. If Clayton Kershaw's twenty four and plays for the Mariners or A's with no shot to win a World championship, the Royals or the Pirates, and he's a kid not coming off surgery and it's game two, you go for it. But the bigger picture for the Dodgers is we're not risking an injury. I'll give you an example. Kevin Durant. Remember years ago he got hurt.

He came back in for the Warriors in the playoffs, and there were going to be minute limitations, but he came back and he was on fire, and they stretched how many minutes he played and he got hurt. Big Picture should have pulled him out earlier. You can't just go with an older, somewhat brittle athlete. You can't just go on current momentum. You have to go into games or series with pitch counts or minute limits. So, yes, it drives you crazy. Kershaw agreed to it, understood it.

They have bigger goals here than perfect games or no hitters. It's game two, it's thirty eight degrees. He's just off injury, and he's an older pitcher. In the NBA Plan Tournament, there are no sure things except one bet at least twenty bucks in same game parlays on fandel Sports Book. You'll get an instant bonus win or lose twenty bucks. That's right. Not only do you get to enjoy the NBA's best duking it out for the right to advance to the playoffs, but FanDuel's giving all customers a bonus

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Virginia one eight seven seven seven seven zero. Stop in Louisiana one hundred and two seven oh seven one one seven for confidential help in Michigan one eight seven seven h O p E. N Y or techs Hope, n Y. Four six seven three six nine in New York, Tennessee Redline one one hundred eight nine nine seven eight nine Tennessee visit one eight hundred Gambler dot in West Virginia. All right, let's bring in Chris Webber, the Hall of Famer, Fab five, five time All Star, number one pick Rookie

the Year, one of my favorite people. I get him about once a year and I love it. So I want to talk to you about Patrick Beverley. And I know it's a weird place to start, but but but you know, Bill Lambier tackled people, Dennis Rodman was a pain in the ass, and you know, as a Fab five guy, as a Michigan guy, is that there is absolutely in my opinion room for Patrick Beverley. But what is the line, Chris, between being physical and screwing with guys knees, hurting them like as a pro athlete, I

don't know what the line is. What is it with Patrick Beverley? What does he do that bothers you? And what are you okay with? Man? That's a great question. Thanks for having me on, I think first, I think everybody would want to play with them. In a quick Bill Lamber story one of my favorite players ever growing up in Detroit, and I used to love it. He's one of the reasons why I love playing on the road and would do like this, the booze, the antics.

He really taught us to embrace. You're gonna get hated anyway. However, when I played against some true story my first time in the NBA going home, I knew the guy. I go up and get a rebound. Happened against the backboard to show how high it could jump and go down to the court. You know, it's like old trick and catching tapped. The next time I go up and I see him, he sticks his leg out and I twist

my ankle. I think maybe seventeen seconds or two minutes into the game, something like that, and I was out probably six games my rookie year. And so even though he's one of my favorite players, it's one of the dirtiest things that I've seen. So I did the game. I believe I commentate the game when he and Westbrook pumpans like after a late time out, I don't think that was dirty. Because I've seen players do that their

whole careers. However, I think the answer is not saying anything and maybe taking one technical with a quick elbow. It's really it's really easy if you don't get caught up in an antic, especially in the two three game series, it's really easy to shut them down because then they start looking like a little clownish. The only way they don't look like the clown is when they bring you into the argument and you have to try to figure out who's really you know, active who's the bad actorings, Yeah,

I know that's what he did with Morris. He got him worked up, he got into his head. Was there ever a guy in the league that was a talker with you and try to reel you in? Not a talker? Because you couldn't get me that way. So if you wanted to slide under the Collins brothers, I hated playing them Naharah Mattson. Any guy then that would fly smarten, use their brain, get in front of you. But I hated those guys because they got the benefit of the doubt.

They're beating you up just as much and they're getting the benefit of the doubt. And to me, those guys were I'm gonna say just as a fact that they don't have the winning record of a Rotten and but in games they're just as you know, as effective as a Beverty as well. So yeah, those guys I used to I used to hate hate playing this stuff guys. So I'm not going to ask you necessarily to pick a series, but I want to talk kind of fundamentally holistically about the league. So I don't buy the Celtics

and I don't buy the Heat. And my reason is, and I do buy Brooklyn because my theory is when the playoffs start, refs swallow the whistle, they get out of the way, and this is when stars can really manipulate marginal players and average players. And outside of Jason Tatum, Celtics don't have a closer out. I don't think Miami does have a closer. I think Jimmy's just a great athlete, same with Bam and so Brooklyn's got so many things. I don't like, their size, their bench, the lack of chemistry.

They're so KD Kyrie centric. Would you rather play a Boston who grinds your ass on the defensive end? Who has they don't have the star power, but every time down the floor, or would you rather play you know, that kind of team but they don't have stars or a Brooklyn who's got two guys that are unstoppable, but all sorts of holes all over the team. I remember playing against Dallas, who at the time had the fastest pace. It was Finley, Nash and Dirt. Remember those teams, you

don't want to play them. You just don't because you just have no rest of thought because when those three on the court, you really have to be engaged every single player, every because every play is a threat. I really thought Cleveland could have come back. I told someone I called him early in the second half. I said, Cleveland's going to come back and win this game. But I didn't take into effect that Duran is one of

the best shooters ever to play, right. But yeah, I could definitely, you know, I'm like you, I would take them, but I would rather, you know, play a team that doesn't have those options in the Boston and that as well. I agree. Yeah, so you're basically what you're saying Brooklyn does is they put such immense pressure on you because if you're not alert, they will score it. Well, I mean the shots that Katie was hitting into me and basketball the hardest shot in the game. And Jordan Master

m k D Master. You can Curry's mastered every shot. Kobe Master is too dribble pull up going baseline because you really don't know how to check the guy if you pump fakes, can you continue to go? And the shots that Kade was hitting, you know, it was terrible. It was great defense, and he pulls up and shoots that tough shot that really if you're another team, if anybody else but those two, I'm taking my chances with that shot, making the guy take a shot off the

dribble fading right too. And so I just yeah, I just it gets so deflating. It's almost like a dump used to be worth more than two points because it would take the air out of your team. And it's it's the same way as a bomb. It's seven points, but you know it hurts more than the one yard running. So you know, I totally agree with you in that theory. And I think a lot of people you know, are over they have two high expectations on Boston. I feel

you that way. I think people don't take for granted you need a couple closures in the playoffs, and you know, one of those guys get cold, you can go to another. And that's why Brooklyn and he has, you know, definitely advantage. What tell me the difference between regular season and playoff basketball, Like last night, they don't count the playing game as the playoffs. And I said on the air, I said, that's playoff basketball. You can call it whatever you want.

But even the officiating they were letting guys bump, you know they I felt watching and I'm like, oh, that's playoff basketball. You can call it whatever. So you tell me go back to your career, Like where could you really tell because you notice rookies getting tighter, young guys

getting tighter. I think two things for me, how loud the fans were, Like everything was just over exaggerated, Like now's the time you become a start, Like the guy off the bistic gets one minute and one still there's a hundred people outside waiting for him if you get to win. So just that you feel you WWF. You know you can cut the intensity with a not if you really feel that. I always used to really notice that.

And then second, how tired you would get in the first quarter, Like I can't explain I don't know what that is, is that nerves enginer, is that how you're boring up is everything? But it was almost like, you know, you have no more excuses and you've been waiting, even emotionally,

to put everything into this moment. And so I think it really is the energy and how do you make sure you give your all the times but still conserved at times you don't need to waste it pumping up the crowd, you know, so you know the crowd, and then kind of how your body reacted to the moment. You know, it's it's kind of special. So when you go over to the Western side, a team that I find really interesting, Golden State. So Jordan Pool is now

emerging as a star. Clay Thompson's not quite what he was off injury, and when Clay plays a lot of minutes, I think it hinders Jordan Pool. And I think everybody knows that on the roster. But Clays your guy, Okay, Clays, you're dude. You travel with them, You've probably got into weddings, you get into a weird situation where everybody in the damn rooms like, should do Jordan Pool needs to play

forty two minutes? Tell me how difficult that is when one of your guys, you know, he's eroding, he's not ascending, and here comes the young buck. Can it screw with chemistry? So I heard you today, and I hope that for fans sake. You know, I love it when you go off on tangents or rabbit holes, and I hope that you really go down the rabbit hole of the draft. Pick does not mean as much in big cities anymore, and you're so right, you need to really go down

that rabbit hole. I'm sure the researchers can get you a lot of them. LA didn't get shocked, you know, they didn't draft, So I totally you know, I agree with you on that. However, I don't know if I can answer this question and not be sentimental. I think that's the problem that Clay gives. They are a dynasty.

They were a dynasty. You're right in every way, but I'm just adding the motion which you're gonna have to take an effect for fans and other things, especially if you don't win one and you're betting on Pool, who is gonna be great. But you know you would do that to Clay and he's not yet a full year in Uh. You know he this dynasty never got a chance to win once we saw a team get hurt

or Katie get hurt. You know, this unfinished business. He's you know, of course Draymama, the last vestiges of that soul. If you are right, I would not want to be part of that. I was in Detroit again Pisiness band when we had a parade, and I think the next day and Rick Moore said, oh, thank you for helping

me lose all this weight. I love you. Like three days later he was trading for I believe Mark require and I mean as a pistess bander and we won, but I was just hurting man, and I would not want to be the man that trading play Thompson because if it what works, like there's anything but a championship works, And if not, I think keeping him around still trying to win a championship may be the best. But I do think that makes sense. Yeah, I mean, listen, this

is all It's a relationship business. I mean, the truth is Steph Curry has made the owner a billion dollars easily in in value of franchise. In marketing sales, you do sometimes have to go to your star and say, hey man, this is this is a go either way decision, you know. I mean, I think I gotta get more form though, I gotta get more and I think you said Athony Davis earlier, I'm not I'm not taking him.

I don't, I don't you know, I'm not. I'm not taking him for Clay for the community because it is relationship. So right, if we're gonna do that, we gotta go. We gotta go get maybe Bill and someone else and give up our picks. Because I really believe you on that. But I just don't think you know, we're gonna have to go for a super superstar because that's who I believe he would. I still believe he has two years is left to be ever, so let's go to that.

Let's pivot to the Lakers that I'm I think people tell you are who they are. I think it was Maya Angelo who said that people tell you who they are, believe them. So when Ad came in out of shape off the Bubble Championship, I mean, Lebron is sitting everything in time out. I'm obsessed with this sport, dude. I just need you to be in shape as a pro athlete, I would have moved off him there by low sell high. Now with the injuries, this is who he is. He's

showing you who he is. He's not a workout fiend. It's not really a leader. He's hella talented, but he's hurt increasingly more. What was your feeling when you were in the game about athletes that get hurt? Is it bad form to move off them? Or did you always feel like, hey man, some dudes they just they can't give you eighty two. They can mean how did as a pro athlete, how do you view that? Yeah, and I was plagued by injuries or like ankle injuries, things

like that. So AD's last injury you can tell like it wasn't as fault, you know, like Curry suffered injuries. But I think you know, if you're gonna get injured, I want to know what guy will work is, you know, tail off to come back the fastest. So then I have to take your work ethic into a kind And so I do think some guys is unfair. And I do think as an athlete, you work out a lot so that you can feel confident that you won't have those breakdowns, and then you look at guys that don't

work out, and you say, see, that's why. And so it's not even the injuries, you know, I just I just go back to the previous memory of anybody playing with Lebron. That's how I just played because I know it's a different day and you can win championships, and I think, you know, my generation should kind of admire the fact that you can go play with friends and

free agency. But at the same time, you know, watching a guy like Dirk even though he won a championship, but you knew he was a winner even before if he would have never won one because of how you knew he put Dallas on his back and he could trust that he just needed help. I never felt that way with a d that he just needed help. I felt that he could be that missing piece for someone else, but that no one else could be that. And I don't know when he's proven that. That's why he's a

wonderful talent. But you know, I I'm just looking, you know, and he had some big shots with Lebron. I get that, but you know, we're talking about him being an outfit, and I don't I don't know when when that's worked. So I'm not as high on an injury or not being the number being the number one guy. If Lebron's number one team Lebrons on the team, he could be

number one and Sid I'm not the Clippers. I had a good source inside the Clippers that told me when a D was on the market, they didn't think he was a a leader or be top. They thought he was gifted, and they didn't think he would play through injuries. They didn't think he worked out enough. Now they've had their own troubles with Paul George and Kawhi Leonards staying healthy, but they the idea was everybody loved a D and the Clippers have a very shrewd, very deep roster, very

shrewd front office. They didn't love him and and their their takeaway was he has to be led. He can't lead. I mean, listen, Chris, all years you played, how many guys were great leaders? Truthfully? Not maybe maybe to a roster amen and maybe and sometimes the best player when I was younger. Maybe he didn't want to be the leader because he was figuring out some other things and was like, I'll let you guys kind of figure it out.

I don't want to you know, or maybe they just let individually saying, hey, this is how you stay in shape, but you know, I'm not going to the team signings and things like that. So when you find a guy like that, when you find someone that you admire, they have game and that is very rare, and usually it's the star player and a guy that has been through

everything and doesn't want you to waste your chance. And so no, it's it's you really have to learn that as well, because every guy, no matter how confident they are, you know, with the most confident in sports. But again we're still fans of the game, and therefore there's that insecurity. You follow sport a long time, whether leagues out of enviews, whether leagues out in the way you treat people, where

the leagues out of something. After the game, you know, you can kind of see those areas, so to say, great leaders man, yeah maybe maybe yeah, yeah, maybe two or three a team okay, HBO winning time, Not sure if you seen it. It's the Jeff Perlman book on the Championship Lakers. Speaking the leadership Magic Johnson, you had prickly stoic Kareem, you had a crazy owner, Norm Nixon, and here came Magic, big personality, budding heads, a lot

of pushback, obviously a great leader. As a Michigan kid, yeah, as a Pistons fan, how how did you view he went to Michigan State, he was he was on the other team, the Lakers. Did you hate Magic as a player? I remember I remember Michael Jackson coming out in nineteen eighty four, and I remember screaming to my mom, like, please do Billy Jane. I remember that. I think it was more Time twenty fifth. I remember remember where I was.

I remember where I was when Magic got out of the limo and Saftbird and I ran around the house screaming. I remember it, like, oh, what's going on? Like I was the biggest Magic Johnson fan in the world. His father worked in the factory. He was from Lansing, Michigan. I got to meet him in seventh grade. His smile, he was tall in the point guard, he got to push the ball. He was in the video with New Edition. I think it was secret like a video, but this

is my favorite. You know, he was cool and he was like a man of the people, and so I loved them, I you know, and growing up, you know, I grew up loving Michigan and Michigan State, so I knew, you know, who he was. As a Pistons fan, it was like the only situation where you could like the Lakers in their fake Hollywood ways because you knew they had sincerity from Michigan there. But when we beat them, I wanted to beat them more than anything, and I wanted Isaiah to get off. I wanted to beat them.

But you know, he has to be him Bird a couple other guys has to be my favorite players of all time. So he was our doctor Jay. He was the world of basketball. And I mean, you know, I love La. I remember, like, you know, putting in the BCR watching tapes, watching tapes in the VCR of just the opening scene of we Beat La Beat La from the Screams in Boston and those type of things. So yeah, magic Magic was you know, we're always point. I used to take my fingers like him because I don't know,

I thought maybe that could make you drive them. But yeah, he was. He's magic man. So yeah, I haven't seen a series that I'm trying to wait so I can bench watch it all. I can't wait. But yeah, man, and you know, to have leadership like that as well, from getting in the seat to and also I say one more thing. The best leaders to me are the ones that like shut up when it's time to work. And from what I know about Magic, the practices were legendary because as hard as Riley and others work on him,

he was always ready in the shape. Some people just had a motor like that, like Jordan stay able to do all that. And part of that leadership is not just being able to be a row rock guy, but then trusting that you're gonna get on the line with him after a rough night and run some express as well. So the other day I had former Metal World Peace I think his name is Meta Santa for our test. Now. I hope I got that right. And I said to him, I said, man, we can't normalize all these stars missing games.

Like I'm a kid from a small town. I went to a Sonics game every three years of downtown. Freddie Brown and Gus Williams and Jack Smickaman didn't play. It's bad man. It was sad for me. And he said, he said something very interesting, Chris. He said, listen, man, these guys now in the last three or four years are making thirty forty million dollars. They're young people like it's a lot, and they they are hanging out with

Hollywood A listers. They're making more than movie stars. And he said, I think over time they'll get adjusted to it. A lot thrown at him. They've never made more money. He's like, I mean, he goes, it was six seven years ago a guy could make nine million and that was money. Now it's thirty five, and the new CBA benefits the star player. They make more than ever. And it was an interesting takeaway. And I thought to myself, you know what, I remember my first big contract that

was like thirty two. Thirty two, not twenty two. You get ahead of yourself a little bit. You start thinking you're really, you know, a little bit greater than you are. Your takeaway on the missing of games by stars, do you think some of it is we're just transitioning a lot of money last four years. Guys, are you know what I mean, feeling themselves a little or are you genuinely long term worried about it. I'm a little worried

about it because it's part of the culture. So it starts with the team, you know, it starts with the team going from when I played. We would be in practice after getting hurt in a game a Wednesday. That doesn't matter in Milwaukee I'm talking about doesn't matter, but because the culture of it is to eat a steak and yell at a guy and feel good about yourself through that. Getting any better through practice but running lines and things that have nothing to do with getting in shape.

That mentality. Remember the joke, team takes years off of guy's careers. It was a joke, but it wasn't a joke. Guys were not joking about it, and so kind of that over exaggerated sense of man up and all that stuff, when really it should have been like, hey, guys, we just had a sixth game and seven nights when y'all need a day off. But it was always a bigg who so one that really messed it up. So two teams trying to fix it and then validating rest is

what opened the flood base. My friend, when you have a team saying you know, hey, guys, just let me know how you're feeling, then you know my loyalty to my feeling, not to getting through it. I don't want to walk the treadmail and get up every morning, but if I don't think about my feelings, I'll get through it and overall it helps my body. So I think

the team gave away out third. You know, when you did that at thirty two, or I did that in my twenties, we were like going against the grain, like you you knew there were better stories, or don't do this, don't do that. Well, now it's the culture of you know, why not? You know you should be doing this right, you know, And so I think anytime you're going anytime, the culture seems to be going in the way of rest or. You know, when I played with Ai, this

is so true. You know, so many things are over exaggerated, but he really played every game and you could say ego, you could say pride, but he always started with somebody in the arena that never saw it. And maybe you have to be that good sometime to realize, like I'm gonna make this kid's life. Maybe maybe it has to be that because sick when those guys knew it, because shoot, the game didn't come on TV. It was late and late, you know, you know, maybe it was more special, you

know what I mean. Yeah, I could a little worried about that, but I do believe, you know, in the optimism of meta. You know, I do think it can come back. But we used to be like, we make the money, money don't make us. Now we might do something stupid with the money and you know, lose our mind. But the principle was, you know, we played the game. Money doesn't make you good my paycheck. Matter of fact, you make one of me, I'm gonna show you by

like you know. So that worries me that the the spirit of the spirit of it has changed as opposed to what guys were doing. Yeah, No, I think there's been a lot of cultural changes. Um, it's harder to hard coach a player. I mean even I mean Chuck Daly had Hall of famers, he coached them hard, pat Riley hard. Yes, it's hard. That hard coaching thing, Chris, it doesn't it doesn't really exist anymore. No, No, thank you for coming to work today. Hey, it's great seeing him, man,

I appreciate it. Hey, thanks for having them all right sea web the volume, make sure to check out the Draymond Green Show. I brought Draymond Green into the volume because one of the more entertaining voices in sports, unique perspective understands behind the rope also chops up with guests like Gary Peyton, Zach Levine, Tracy McGrady. Make sure download The Draymond Green Show wherever you get your podcasts, only on the Volume podcast network.