Colin Cowherd Podcast - Nick Wright Part 1: Nothing Wrong With LeBron Helping Bronny, Caitlin Clark Won’t Struggle In WNBA, Continuity Matters In Sports

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Here we go.

Lebron James Son is an NBA athlete. I don't think right now currently he's quite an NBA player. I think they would draft him, send him to the G league, give him a year and he Mick Cronin said the other day, the UCLA coach, he's not as quick or as fast as he was pre cardiac arrest. He's not quite the player. But I watched him. But I've watched him enough, seen his hops, seen his handles. Hes got a beautiful jumper. He's got a beautiful looking jumper. I like he's jumper, but better right.

It looks good he is.

For his shooting percentages not good, but it doesn't look like there's a problem with no.

In fact, I like it better than his dad's. I think his shooting is very natural. Bigger players don't yet generally, you know Larry Bird, Katie the exception. A lot of times the six or four guys got the perfect jumper, the perfect look, the perfect hand size. But here here's the thing, and I don't know how necessarily to explain this is that this is the worst draft, maybe as bad as the Anthony Bennett draft. So as more mothers are telling their kids do not play football, more mothers,

I was at the sidebar to it. I was at.

A card game with some Hollywood and finance folks, low stakes for they by their standards for sure, or else I wouldn't have been able to play in it. And there was a very very smart guy there who had enough money that he when I was like, how do I know this name? I didn't know who he was at the time, but I was like, I know this name's Drafter. I left the card game, I googled his name and I was like, oh, you almost bet you almost bet you almost.

Bought this baseball team like six years ago.

I won't see the but he said that like he and he was a very sharp guy, and he was like, yeah, I don't think football should be legal.

Under eighteen years old. And I didn't agree with him.

But Mike, I'm just echoing your point that there are a lot of people that are not letting their kids even consider playing tackle football, particularly I bet it Skew's higher income and things like that. But go ahead, as you were saying about.

Brownie, Yet you can get brought pretty in the final pick. Half the league is undrafted, Kurt Warner, Tony Romo and drafted.

Yeah, the NBA is.

A global game, and people are suggesting they're not three surefire NBA starters in this draft. There's two rounds. There's almost no players after the twelfth pick. It's a cheaper sport to play. Hockey and football are expensive. It's a global sport. Is that saying that the NBA is so good it's impossible to make it? Is it saying our domestic culture is broken and our players are distracted and not skilled enough. How in the world could you have a global sport. We don't have a shortage of great

Yeah, but I so I think it's actually more the first than the second, because the league is more talented now than at any point in my lifetime.

True.

There, And so I think it is less that, oh my god, there's not good players. It's that the bar for being considered a good player these days is so much higher than it once was. And your pou Bill Simmons talks about this a lot. But like the guys who are now ninth men, you know, not that long.

Ago, would be good starters, good like good.

And if you look at some teams that we thought of as very good teams twenty years ago and look at who they had after their top four guys, it's a bunch of huh. And so that it's an argument for expansion. It's an argument for adding teams to the league because the talent level right now is so high. Like you look at the Western Conference in the NBA right now, we have as we record this, the Lakers

I'm just gonna go down the standings.

Denver is here to stay, Oklahoma City's only getting better. The Clippers maybe take a step back, but if they bring everyone back, why with they not maintain about where they are. Dallas seems to have figured out the Luca Kyrie thing.

They're even playing defense in Dallas. They're playing defense. Luca's top three player in the league, hands down. They're fine. Phoenix.

Yeah, okay, so Phoenix could go backwards because of the age of their guys, but it's not like they're going to be a disaster. New Orleans is a young team, Sacramento is a young team, the Lakers, the Warriors, and then you have Memphis with John coming back, the Wimby is coming for everybody, and Houston was an exciting team.

That's thirteen teams. It's fifteen teams in the conference.

So there's just the teams are so talented and so loaded.

I think that's about the draft.

I want to defend the brownni thing for a minute if I could.

So what if this is?

Can everyone, even the biggest Lebron James critics, acknowledge the guys all time bassketball IQ wise, Can we at least acknowledge that that the guy understands how the game is played and understands the NBA as well as anybody ever has.

Okay, for folks arguing, oh my gosh, Lebron's putting his finger on the scale. He shouldn't.

Why would he do it. He's hurting his son long run, he's undercutting it. I don't know that this is the math Lebron is doing, but it's just an idea. What if Lebron's thought process is on this current trajectory in today's college basketball climate, my kid is not going to get the development and improvement that he needs over the

No, do I think that is fair? I don't know. Define fair.

Is it absolutely what I think I would do if I were in Lebron's place, am I like? Of course, if I can help my kid achieve his and he might not be able to without my help, of course I'm going to and uh and and folks whining about it, like people in the NBA sell second round picks for two million bucks.

These are not like the hottest.

Come out of thees, like, oh my god, you're gonna waste a second round pick. Teams throw them in, willy nilly, teams sell them and so yeah, I mean, I listen, Bron. What's gonna hurt Brownie is he's six to two, and I I know Mannis and Shams and other people have said he's an NBA level defender. It's just hard to be a great defender in this league at that size.

I'm not saying he can't be, but I don't.

I don't think Lebron is doing is being unfair to anybody in this circumstance whatsoever.

I think my my example that makes me laugh the most is every time you're driving and you see a plumbing truck at oh, says Johnson and Son.

Yeah, of course, I mean this is we can talk about it being problematic, but we've only had forty six, forty seven presidents in this country. One were father and son, but the other one we're uncle and nephew. Like even up to presidential the level of this country, there's nepotism. The NFL and NBA front offices and coaching staffs are

So I thought there was sort of an ugly moment with Caitlin Clark when some former Yukon players you know, on a telecast were kind of taking shots at her and I'm like, ladies, what this comes across so petty, Like she's dominant at college. And I've always had this basketball vibe is that as long as you're a reasonable height. Now there are high school guys that are five to nine average thirty a game. They get to college they're

He's looking up the court.

She reminds me of the mahomes where she's scrambling, never really to run. It's a last option. He is always looking for people. A lot of guys just the smaller guys run to not get hit. Kyler Murray's looking to not get hit. Patrick's looking to hit somebody downfield.

Big difference.

So the first couple of times I watched her last year, I'm like, boy, she is. That's like NBA, Like that ball is even college guys. Sometimes you can see they're protecting the ball. She's magic that that ball is connected to her. Her court vision because of that is substantial. Like and again this sounds like, well everybody can dribble without watching. There are players that are connected to the ball. It's by the way, the go way.

If you think everybody can dribble without looking at it, go watch. Celtics might win the title this year. The second best player can dribble his left hand, Like, I mean, the idea that everybody can do it, No, they can't.

Isaiah Ryder I covered had no left hand. He could not dribble with his left hand.

I stay a writer, and so listen. Prior to Caitlin Clark, I thought Diana Tarrazzi was the best women's player I've ever seen. Cheryl Miller for me, right, and I just didn't see Cheryl. Yeah, like the and so I trust everyone on Cheryl. But I just didn't see.

Last year of high school eighty two for me eighty three, she was the twhen you're in college she was. There were arguments could she make the NBA?

We would argue in college, right.

The and Griner was the most like Awspiring, But I thought Tarazi was the best, and so I have mass respect for Tarazzi. But and this is I don't think anything Tarazi and Sue Bird said was out of bounds. I didn't think it was unfair. I don't think they need to apologize any of that, I think. But I think real equality comes with me being able to say that's a bad take. You know what, you had a bad take, and the idea and listen, a lot of it is just as simple as those are Yukon folks.

Durant and that's one year in college.

And that correct, that's the That's the other point I was gonna make. And for Lebron none, for Durant one. Duncan got four and was awesome year one and arguably the best player in the league. Year two was finals MVP year two, like four years, you know. And so Caitlin Clark is not gonna struggle. It's just it's just a bad take to think that she is gonna come to the WNB and struggle.

Will she dominate that way she did college basketball?

No?

But I I do think the South Carol let me like this women's that that South Carolina women's team is I think probably on par with low with some of you know, the bottom five w NBA teams. I don't think the w NBA has evolved to the level of the NBA were the worst in the team would roll the back and she didn't. You know, she didn't beat that team. But it's not like she looked in over death. I just I don't think she's gonna struggle at all. I think she's going to be really.

Good also and in short order be asome. Also, her WNBA teammates are gonna all be better than her Iowa teammates, meaning her classes the finishing, her teammates will finish at the rim. Her teammates will hit the shots, right.

I mean, Indiana got the number one pick last year and got a Leah Boston, who was the best player on South Carolina a year ago that lost Caitlin Clark. Yeah, I mean that is the other thing that is going to be Maybe her scoring is going to and field goal percentage is going to suffer in the short term, her assist percentage will not because she is going to be playing with the most talent she's ever played with.

By a by a mile.

And so yeah, I think I think this is a super exciting moment for women's sports. And I'm really and I I always here is where I think the American viewing public deserves credit. If it's awesome, we'll watch it blackly. If it's awesome, we'll watch it. Doesn't really matter the sport or the gender. If it's awesome and the stakes are high. We can tell that's dope. Let's get invested, yep. And so that is where the television ratings are pretty honest when it comes to big events and how much

People like the and.

Is the word this word is. I think I've said this before. The only time this word is ever used is in reference to college sports. But it's the right word. Pageantry. People do like the pageantry of college sports.

They like it.

They like the school spirit, they like the band. They like the fact that they're young people but old enough to not be, you know, making terrible mistakes, but young enough like yo, they might air ball this open shot, like he might miss this extra point. It adds a lot of drama.

Things to it.

And people like getting to know teams and players and going on rides with them. Yes, And the men's game it's gone, and so that void is now being filled by the women's game.

Like people like you.

One of the reasons this women's title did such crazy numbers is because we've been invested in Caitlyn Clark's IOWA team.

For two years. Now, yes, you know what I mean.

There was a story, Oh they beat South Carolina and Dawn Staley last year when they were undefeated. Now is they're going to get their get back. You get to go on the ride with them and so and the men's game doesn't have that coming back anytime soon, and people want it now.

I will say I want it.

I was talking to somebody yesterday who played college basketball. He said, the NIL. You know that the G League, Ignite got booted. The NIL is going to keep kids that would normally have not given college basketball a chance. I do think that will incrementally, perhaps granually help college basketball a little. Zach, by the way, Zach edy great for two years. Look at the ratings, Yukon great for two years. Look at the ratings. Ninety percent of money

Oh, I think, yeah, because if you can get people to stick around for an extra year and have more of continuity, that's what people want.

People want to, you know, go on these rides with you.

And it's something that I think the NBA suffers from a bit right now, which is people, you know, listen,

Quickness of player movement in the NBA.

Didn't win leave you don't you're not taking going on that same journey that we saw Dirt go on, that we saw these other guys go on.

And I think that has.

Probably hurt some of the popularity of the league a bit. And I, you know Clay he said on Draymond's podcast the other day. I thought it was really interesting. He's like, I want to stay with the Warriors, but I might have to prioritize my mental health. And I'm like, well, that's a weird that's a weird answer, because you would like what that's saying is, yes, ideally I'd stay here, but I might be happy or elsewhere. And so you know, we could be we we could have ten days left of Steph.

Clay and Draymond.

That's why I'm going to you know what I mean, I was gonna say, yeah, I'm one of the last right, this could be one of the last games they ever played together.

The volume. Thanks for listening to Part one of the conversations with Nick. Don't forget the check back for part two.