Colin Cowherd Podcast Prime Cuts -  Coach K on NIL Explosion, Epic ‘91 UNLV Upset, Nick Wright on Lamar Landing Spots, Reese/Clark Aftermath

I want to start with some thoughts on Caitlin Clark, the Iowa basketball star and Angel Reese, the great player for the national champion LSU Club. Sometimes social media is truth serum. People show you their lack of discipline by what they post. People show you their politics, their leanings, They show you their temper. I'm always amazed at people who think they're invisible on Twitter. For the record, folks, we have thirty employees now and growing at the volume.

I've literally not hired people because of how they act on social media. Watching the media on this Caitlin Clark Angel re situation was really striking. One of the reasons I think women's basketball is so much better today than twenty years ago. Is because it's feisty and there's a little trash talk, and it's a little chippy, and there's a little more physicality pushing and shoving from time to time. That's the ultimate sign of growth because we've had that

men's basketball forever. Women's basketball, more than any sport in this country, has improved over twenty five years. More young women are being encouraged to be athletes. It's always been cool, but a lot of people didn't get it and didn't encourage women. When you watch LSU and you watch IOWA, the people that rushed to Caitlin Clark's defense because of some taunting by Angel Reese timeout, that's called one road trip for Patrick Beverley. We don't rush to NBA men's defense.

It's part of au it's part of college basketball, it's part of now all basketball. Nobody took a swing, Nobody tried to physically intimidate Caitlyn Clark, and let's stop there. Do you understand to get to the highest levels of any form of basketball, women's basketball, do you understand how tough you have to be, how resilient you have to be. Do you know how competitive Caitlin Clark can aim Jel Reese are Since they picked up a basketball, people try

to intimidate them, box them out, get chippy. That's called basketball. I watched Larry Bird trash talk and Gary Peyton trash talk. If you really respect women, then allow them the same freedoms that we allow men. Verbal sparring is part of the sport. I watched Doctor Jay and Larry Bird throw punches at each other. It didn't end their careers. They were able to overcome it. Ten minutes later, Caitlin Clark when asked about Angel Reese, I'll read you the quote.

We're competitive, we shore emotions in different way. She's tremendous. I have nothing but respect for I love her game. The way she rebounds, scores the ball incredible. I'm a big fan of her. Stop pandering. She's okay, she's tough. She can handle it. Show the same respect you would a guy playing basketball. He can handle some trash talk, you know. Years ago, I worked with somebody named Christine Leahy.

She did the herd Line News Update, and she was in her mid twenties and LaVar Ball came on the show and started took some verbal shots at her. Didn't try to physically intimidate her, but took some verbal shots at her, and I didn't rush to her defense because she immediately landed two or three of her own verbal shots, and I didn't want to make her look weak. I thought the ultimate sign of respect to either Jason McIntyre, Christine Leahy Joy Taylor is their equals. They can handle

some sparring and trash talk. I mean, I have strong opinions about athletes. Can I not handle a strong athlete having an opinion about me. The point is, if you really respect women, then you have to respect them enough to understand and they can handle it right, They can handle it. Caitlin Clark's fantastic Angel Reese is fantastic. I don't want to hear about Well, when's the last time that you saw a winning team taunt a losing player? Oh?

I don't know. All throughout the college football season. I mean, you kidding me? In these rivalries, I remember Baker Mayfield grabbing his junk on the sideline. I got guys at the coin toss talking trash in college football one of the most amazing parts of the women's Final four. What about chippiness, Well, intimidation people trying to get into each other's heads. Women's basketball's officially arrived. They can defend themselves. Caitlin Clark's going to come back. She's going to be

an All American. I will probably be one of the if it's to win the national championship, but to get to the top of even college sports, college baseball, college women's men's basketball, college football, college wrestling, it doesn't matter what it is. Do you know how tough and resilient you have to be as an athlete, a man or a woman. Show the women respect. I probably like the business side of sports more than you do, but I

like it. And one of the cool things about owning this company the volume I can talk about what I want to talk about, and a lot of this stuff I don't talk about on FS one or Premiere Radio. So the WWE has been purchased by a company that had previously purchased the UFC. Now the w w E and the UFC together will form a separate company. And

here's why it's interesting to me. I know Nick con and Dana White, who run the WWE and the UFC respectively, and boxing, because it's been so poorly managed forever, has really wilted and mostly vanished. There are occasional fights I like, but it's just not consistently delivering entertainment. And I said this years ago and I covered boxing in Vegas, that the UFC took advantage of the scarcity of boxing matches

the cost whenever there was a good one. So UFC, whether you like it or not, just delivers a more consistent product. WWE same delivers a more consistent product. And so to combine those two for a new business, to me is utterly fascinating. And I went to the WrestleMania with my son on Saturday night. At so far I knew I could watch on YouTube TV highlights of the

college basketball games, which I did Sunday morning. So the best way to describe eighty thousand people at Rustlemania is if you take yourself or you take life too seriously, you're probably missing the point on Rustlemania. I don't think my son, who's not a big sports fan. You know, he likes to ski, he likes to water ski, anything in the pool. He's good with a you know, he's played a little basketball, a little soccer, a little football, but not really a team sports kid. The environment. I

haven't seen him laugh like that. I haven't seen him smile like that for three straight hours. I couldn't tell you when it's just a spectacle. And you know, I watched it as a kid, and then he used to lampoon make fun of wrestling fans. But then when you have kids, things change. And as a dad, I'm always looking for connecting points with my son, who's very much into science and tech, two things I'm not necessarily into.

So I'm always looking for like connecting points. And so I told him, I said, we're gonna go to this, and I have a feeling you're not going to know all the storylines, but you're just gonna boo and share thumbs up thumbs down. And we got pretty seats, and i gotta tell you, it was as good a night as I've had in a long time. And I've said this before. My wife isn't into sports. She loves going to UFC because she likes the spectacle, the crowd, the glamour,

the cocktails. My favorite sports to go to for years and years was boxing, but there's just not that many fascinating boxers or boxing matches. So I just found that story at WWE and UFC being combined. I can't wait. My wife and my son's favorite thing to go to, and now they've morphed. Can't wait. So Mike, I thought it was It's an interesting year. I follow recruiting, so Kentucky, Duke,

Michigan State, Yukon or having very vibrant recruiting years. So I imagine next year the big brands will be back at the Papa College Basketball, that's my guest. Or or has the transfer portal created a new phenomena where the San Diego States, the Florida Atlantics are going forward going to have older players, elite transfers. How do you view this wacky kind of unique March madness this year. Well, I think it's a sign of the times. I think there's going to be a mixture and they're going to

be more more really good teams. I'm not sure how many great teams, because to be great, I think you have to be together for a little bit more than one year. And so over the years we've had good recruiting classes and we've been able to try to mesh them in one year and then a lot of them go. Well, now when they were talking about one and done, they're about eighteen hundred one and duns in the transfer and so now each year in the last few years, so probably be more this year. And so how how can

people build chemistry in one year? And so the people who go to the transfer portal a lot. Uh, they're gonna have to spend time trying to figure out how they how they developed culture. I just think, like when the year started, I said, it's going to be wide open, and I didn't think it would be this while, but it's it's wide open, and I don't I don't think anything's going to change next year. You know, Um, replacing a legend is hard. I think you did it the

right way. You gave it a lot of thought, right and John Shire, to me, really works. But have you ever thought, okay, because if I'm John Shire, I'm like, okay, I want to be respectful to coach k and the culture. But what if there's something I really like? It really is different than than Mike, Like, have you ever thought about replacing you? Is not the easiest thing in the world. Well, I've talked to my wife about it, and that time she said that it wouldn't be that hard. But most

of the time she said it would be hard. You know, it's not just picking the right person, but giving the amount of time that's needed. John was with me for nine years and when he was announced as the head coach, we had a runway of about seventeen months before he ever coached, so he could recruit two classes on his own. In other words, were with them knowing that I'm not going to be the coach, and the developed of relationships that were needed. And I think you saw it this year.

He had great relationships with his team and we had an outstanding year. I've always told me, just be you man, being you. A lot of what you are will be us because we've spent so much time together. But you can't fill some on shoes. Just be comfortable into shoes you're wearing, and you know our culture and you develop it the way that you think is right. I have all the confidence in the world and John, I am a big fan of new things, but also regulation, be

at Wall Street or tech. I am for the transfer portal and nil. But there needs to be guard rails right for everything. It doesn't matter if it's our freeways, our government, Silicon Valley, or college sports. It was a little to me wild wild West for the first fifteen months it was just the gold rush? Right, Is there anything you see so far? If you could make a change and go, like on the NIL, let's start with the transfer portal, because the NIL some schools are just

not going to partake in it. But transfer portals here for everybody. Is there anything you would say, hey, let's be very careful of this or maybe alter this. Yeah? I think first of all, both concepts are really good. There were intended consequences that are easy to see. You know, an athlete should be allowed to benefit from their name, image and likeness. An athletes should have the opportunity to

move and so okay, that sounds really good. Yeah, But if it's a business, you say, okay, these are the intended consequences, what would be the unintented In other words, put the guardrails up before you let the horses out, and once they're out, like, I don't see how you can control NIL completely. And it's a pre market. Yeah, if you have a better NIL than meet, what are you going to give it up? Is someone going to put a limit? Where do we put a limit on

anybody in our society and how much they make? And so the transfer portal, I think it's been confused a little bit with the extra year of COVID. You see, I mean that combination Nil, you add that to it, add that to it, and so you have guys who you know, there are three different schools. You know, they're in a five year year period. I think the average age was a year and a half older this year than it's normally been for college and for college teams.

And the thing that happens too when these kids stay, there are less scholarships for the high school kids. And so that was not an intended consequence I think. I think first of all, we think Congress is going to solve all this. We got to be Rooney Tunes here, and but the main thing Congress can do is to make it equitable in every state, which it isn't. Transfer portal is equitable, Nil is not. There's some states that don't allow it, and so it's got to be equal

for everybody. And you know, my big thing, I wish we could take men's and women's basketball and make it its own entity, just like football is, and be autonomous. Have a certain foundation of rules with the NC double A, but let our two sports, our sport be run like a business. Have a marketing plan. Have the autonomous Football is autonomous. The game of basketball is not speaking of the game of basketball. I just read where the NBA is proposing going forward a positionless all NBA team, which

and I remember years ago I worked in Portland. This is a long time ago. Bob wits. It was the GM and I remember Bob smart guy saying Colin, you guys in the media get too caught up on positions. I just one good, good, long, fast, twitchy basketball players. I don't care. So Bob was about twenty years ahead of me, right unintended consequence, I do like an old school point guard who distributes first score second. That's me. I'm probably outdated. What do you make of positionless basketball?

Or does it Lebron make everybody think it's easy? Or the truth is, positions are pretty good. It's just Lebron's blown it up because he can do anything. Well. You know your love for the point guard. I'm a point guard, so in some essence you have a love for me. But then maybe it's not that big. But the old fashioned point guard just doesn't exist, or it's so like an extinct animal. Run of it right now, you know, really in the late eighties and early nineties, we started

at Duke what I call positionless. I always used to tell my staff and family, Well, desistn't a baseball team. There's not a third baseman. They go to a position. Why the heck do we have guards, forwards and centers? You know? Just introduce him as as players and in other words, like you and I are two of the top four players on a team, and we are both the two guard. Am I only going to play one of us? Or am I going to play my four best players? I'm going to play both of us? So

why put a limit on us? Saying that, you know we're two guards, we're really good basketball players, and both of us can shoot. I always like saying that because ye wasn't I wasn't referred to as a good shooter. So's that analogy? Actually, I feel pretty good about it. Well, you were a defender, and you were tough. You had the many of the Chris Paul qualities I like, which is That's where I'm I'm very much about. I like

the new basketball. I think it's very very skilled. I covered Arvidas Sabonis, who was pre Yoki almost like a point now he would have been the greatest player, one of the great if he was here young, yeah, young boy and his in early twenties, he would be one of the top five or ten players in the history of the game. Uh yeah, no question about it. You got him later in his probably mid thirties or yes, yeah, yeah, But he was a great player, not a good Oh oh,

I mean Mike. He would hit a twenty four footer and he would make a behind the back pass. I got the heavy footed Arvitas Sabonis. Yes, remarkable player and a fun guy to cover. So do you remember, because really what you you you Nick Saban, It doesn't matter if it's Beheim Mark few your talent accumulators. So what you're doing is you're a and you're finding kids who aren't fully developed emotionally physically. It's very difficult to pro football coach. I get four years of film through college.

I know what he can and can't do. You're taking kids. I'm a late I'm a I blossom late. I think in my career, I think a lot of people do. Um, how often do you see a player and did you know instantly, oh, okay, that person will be a pro. Now at Duke I think a lot of people would suggest, oh, it's duke guys, but you've recruited some three star guys in your career. How follow it? How often did you see a lebron Ish player and go okay, that's done?

Or the players develop more slowly than most of us think. Yeah, well there are a few. I mean, you can see Scion if Grant Hill was in this time. Yes, you know, uh dose players, Uh, Jason Tatum, you know Bagley one, Dell Carter could probably say it another year, but you can see it. But you also you also can see like where their bodies. In other words, do they fit the dimensions of an NBA player wingspan? It's not just height, it's wingspan, speed, okay, And then are they where are

they emotionally? We try to recruit kids with good character because they're gonna in order to not just to get there, but to stay, they're going to have to have balance. And so we're able to see that pretty much with the guards. Like when I saw Tias Jones the first time, I said, Wow, this kid's like a machine. Now he is an old point guard, and when he has his name on that ball, you can't when he throws it you better catch it because he doesn't want to turn

it over. When I saw him the first time, I said, I gotta have him. I didn't know that he would be a pro rud away. I felt that he would be a pro after Awhile Mike Dunleavy. When we recruited him, he saw out of Portland and yeah, and he was six six and a half one seventy five, had no hair on his chest, did not shave. Three years later he was six to nine and a half and two thirty and so there's some guys brandon Ingram. When we recruited him, I told his parents they were going to

the McDonald's game. I said, we're not allowed the first day. The pro people will be there. Your son will be a top five draft pick after the workout. And they said, what do you mean. I said, he's got all the dimensions. He's got you. Not only that, but he can play any position. He can be a guard. And so you can see those those type of things and predict them,

and some kids you can't. Batty did not fit, and he wasn't a great athlete, but for a while he became he was intellectually ahead of others and in today's game, the younger players are not They're more athletic, but they're not as savvy about the game as the players even five years ago. That's something with all the workout guys and that they're great, but they teach you stuff with the ball. And if we're playing a forty minute game in college, if you have the ball three minutes, that's

a lot. So you better learn the game without the ball. You got to learn to get your shot before you get the ball. That's not taught to the level that it used to be. So I think we're getting better athletes, but more undertaught players as far as the game goes. I always love when the Patriots played the Chiefs. You got a I get a chess match between Belichick's brain and Andy Reid's I love that. I love when they play. Was there a coach and maybe it's a well known coach.

It's a Jim Calhoun, Um, it's a Dean Smith. But is there a coach maybe that I wouldn't think of off the top of my head. That you love the intellectual chess match that he was just move for move. You always knew it was not only between Duke and a team. It was between you and that coach. Yeah, I think that the frequency of the time he competed against Dean Smith, you know, because he you know, he was a remarkable coach and he had immense loyalty from

his from his players. You know, he really really wanted a great coaches of any sport. Uh, my buddy Jim Valvano. Uh. The spontaneity of doing anything at any time. There was some predictable with some coaches up to a point, and then there was the unpredictability of like like Jim and uh. But you know, sometimes you play against your coach, against the team that you say, I don't know if I can coach a team better than John Becker at Vermont, you know, and who year after year just produced his

that that high level of team. I thought one of my good friends friend Dumphy, who got back into college coaching when he was the coach at Penn, he was on a decade movement of just he got it at a high at a high level. But now I think you weren't from coaching against all different types of people. But those are a few of the ones that made an impact on me. I remember covering I was a

young sportscaster. I was in Denver. Bobby Hurley had about with stomach sickness all ye that yeah, And so I remember you saying it could have been to me or a group because I was in Vegas as a sportscaster. You and this meant so much to Tark. I can't tell you how much this meant to Tark. You said, we play hard at Duke. I've never seen any team play that hard between Gurgerich and Tark, and I covered Tark. You have no idea. You and Mickey were very complimentary

of him. It meant so much to him, and I was. I look back at your career and I think that's one of your great moments because that team was stocked. They so you lost in Denver the following year. One of your stars was a true freshman. You'd been beaten badly by him the year before. There was a psychology there. Go back to the time you beat you and l v If. I said to you three or four moments

of your career. I remember walking out of that game and thinking, I don't think the media gets what just happened. I thought it was just an incredible moment. You know, I've done I've done a lot of speaking, and since I retired, I did a couple of commercials. I've done some things and one of the statements and one of the commercials has closed the gap, and we were able to close the gap from ninety to ninety one. Grant Hill helped us close that gap, but also the experience.

We were pretty good, but then we got to be really good. And the ninety one semi final final four game with Vegas, it's one of the epic games in the history of our sport. One I had Jerry Carcanian I were good friends and I had ultimate respect because anybody who can get his team to play that hard with that especially that level of talent, you gotta be crazy good. But we were really, really good, and I thought what helped us in that game was said it

was a semifinal, not the final. They had won forty five in a row. They had beaten us. Psychologically, we have an advantage, you know, we do have an advantage, and they had destroyed everybody, and no, not beaten, they crushed crushed everybody. So we got we were talking about if we can get them in the last few minutes.

We've been there before. They haven't been there before. And everyone talks about Latner shot against Kentucky and which they should, but one of the defining moments for me it was Hurley shot just over two minutes to go. I think they'd gone up by five and Tark went to as Amba defense and before I could say anything to call out anything, Hurley comes down and he jacks up at

three and he hits it. So for me, I think in possessions two points, there were three two point possessions, so his shot knocked it down to one two point possession. It was really wanted the biggest shots in my you know, for my career that a player took and I didn't call it. I didn't call it, and then we were fortunate we got their guard filed out, uh you know, and uh Greg Anthony and uh Laitner hit some free throws and God bless America. You know, we won a

lot of sad people in Sindon City. Believe me, I was a sportscaster there. So let's welcome to Nick Wright. Uh you know, I'm your love him. First thing first, what's right with Nick? Right? So I was standing in my six seven minute preamble to you, is the ultimate respect to women as they can handle themselves, and that Caitlin Clark is not a lamb to be able to get to the highest level of any Division one sport baseball, football, hockey, wrestling,

women's basketball. You've been mocked, you've been taunted, you've been boxed out, You've probably taken a punch. These women are feisty and they talk trash, and the ultimate respect isn't rushing to their defense, it's realizing they can handle that. She's nobody's underdog. Colin Listen, Angel Reese is awesome. Angel Reese is Some of the people commenting like, oh, who was Angel Reese to trash talk? She was the fourth

leading scorer in that game. She also set the all time record for double doubles in a season, was a first team All American, was the MVP of the goddamn tournament. So angrew Reese when they win the championships. Allowed to talk trash if she wants now. Caitlin Clark was the best player in the country, and I know for some people, because of Angel Reese's race and size, they looked at her talking trash different than cait Clark talking trash. It's

nonsense and Caitlyn Clark didn't ask for anybody's protection. Caitlyn Clark dished it out, knew she could take it the whole thing. And what I find so there is the reaction to the trash talk, which I know you talked about, We've talked about everywhere. To me, there was there were obviously an obvious, massive racial component to who is and who is not allowed to trash talk. But then there is the what could have been action of the trash talk.

The bigger story, which is the success of this tournament and can women's basketball at the collegiate level become women's tennis, which is on par, if not at times exceeded the interest in men's tennis, because we as a country have shown we will watch women's sports if there is it's not an inherent sexism, like we won't watch women's sports. What we need is to feel like we're watching the

best product possible. And I feel like in tennis, the men's serves became so powerful that there wasn't serve and volley plus then all of a sudden, Serena comes around and you have a massive American starts like a perfect storm. It's like it's a better product. It's more entertaining, all

of it. Women's college basketball is a better product than men's college basketball, Flatland, because the things you need, which is consistency of roster continuity stars are there in the women's college game in a way they're not in the men's game. And I think women's college basketball can have a huge moment here because that LSU team scored one hundred and two points in a regulation college basketball game.

San Diego State one going to score one hundred and two last night if they got a third half by themselves, and no disrespect, but I guess that's a little dispect to them. It there is just it's a hell of a product. The shop making awesome. And yes, we understand you're not gonna get the same level of athleticism you get from the men's game. We can go to the NBA for that. And I like the attitudes, I like

the personalities, I like the stories. I really my daughter and my youngest daughter, who's of my two daughters, a bigger sports fan, has asked me, you know, why don't I watch more women's sports? And I've never had like the greatest answer for her. She's nine, and I was like, we can go to some w NBA games, but the w NBA versus the NBA one is just clearly from basketball wise, a superior product. But the female college games were awesome. They were. And here's the other part of it.

I wonder if with Nil Colin, if there's not way more money playing in college then going to the w NBA. I wonder if for Caitlin Clark, can she not make more money like whatever her sponsors will be, wouldn't they prefer she be staying in college as long as possible because those ratings are more viewers, more everything then at the w NBA level. So I think that sport can really have a moment right now. I really do. Yeah. And I think the men's final four, the women blew

out ratings. The men's was one of the least watch because you had underdogs and beat Between the transfer portal and men's college basketball and the one and done culture, you can't name any starters. The average college fan this morning couldn't name two players for San Diego State and they were in the title game. So and I do think that doesn't it doesn't completely puncture the NBA. But mobility, Adam Silver's always been more concerned about it than I would.

But I think one of the reasons the Warriors continue to get the best TV ratings and the Celtics are right behind them is because it's the same group of core group of guys for like six years, and that really matters. That's why Brooklyn had all these stars and terrible ratings. By the way, the Lakers last three years I've had terrible ratings because the rosters constantly influx well and the NBA doesn't need to do a better job in my opinion of marketing its next generation steps thirty

five Lebron's thirty eight, you know what I mean. Durant's an old thirty four because of the injuries, Like you're gonna you're really living ratings wise off a group of players who should not still be excellent. You know, they're very the fact that Lebron's going on twenty years of super high level play and relevance. That's borrowed time and now maybe they're gonna try to transfer that to Bron, But that's a hell of a bet they're nat Well.

The other thing, what can we take Sometimes I will see a business out there with the volume we have over thirty employees now, but I'll see a smaller business and I'll say, oh, I like what they're doing. So I think you see this with big companies all the time. They look and see what young ascending companies do. And what can the NBA take from college sports? Well, the

quality isn't close, but the urgency is amazing. And if I was Adam Silver, you cannot have seven game first round series if you're looking for upsets, which clearly clearly the urgency and the sudden death nature of college men's basketball. Some of these ratings in the early part of this

tournament between no name teams get huge numbers. So I think if you want to pass the baton from the ters to the kids, you gotta have some shorter series where sometimes a young team comes in with hutspun energy and upsets Memphis and upsets a really good team that now we know over time that young team in the NBA won't win for a series. But I do think the NBA playoffs could use more upset well, or let me give because the counter to that will always be

how much more? How much benefit are we getting from less revet and less inventory of our most valuable time of year? Which is postseason games. Right, Someone give me an actual answer why of all sports the NBA has not gone to drafting your playoff opponent. You want the regular season and matter if you are the one seed, if you are Dinnbert, if you have earned it. Once the field is set, you pick who you play. That would be a massive reward. And if you're the two seed,

you get you get to pick next. As opposed to what we're gonna have happened, which is now, all of a sudden, you're gonna have I can't it's gonna be unbelievable to watch. In these finals, one hundred and twenty hours of the season, the Lakers have been fighting like hell to avoid the play in, and now, honest to God, I believe they might on the final day of the season be the sixth seed and risk falling back into the play in to avoid moving up to the five

where they have to play Phoenix. You know what I mean, You're gonna have the Lakers, Warriors, Clippers in like this staring contest of who wants to play, like who wants to guarantee they're not in the play in. But if you do that and the other two teams take the night off, you now all of a sudden, congrat you avoid the play and here's Kevin Ryan, Devin Booker in round one. Let these teams draft their playoff opponent. It would so let me get in the East a team

that I know you've liked historically, Boston. Boston has been better than Philly. Boston has not, over the course of the year, been better than Milwaukee, but they did beat him twice by forty points. You know what, Boston's big reward for their season is going to be Miami in round one. Congratulateuculations Boston. You know what I mean? Philly, who's been worse than them. Philly's gonna get a shell

of a Brooklyn team. And it's like, Okay, Michael Bridge is a nice player, but that's fine, that's absurd, it's ridiculous. Let and that would add intrigue and it would add import to the regular season, and every first round series would feel like a grudge match because the team would be like, you picked us, why'd you pick us? Why didn't you be it? So I wish they would do that. I've encouraged that for all across all sports, but nobody,

the leagues don't want to do it well. I do think they're going to do a midseason tournament in the NBA. I think what's happening. Analytics, to be honest, do not always help sports. In baseball, it slowed the sport down right. It was home runs, it was strikeouts. It was like, does anybody hit a single anymore? So they finally got rid of the end by the way, more singles, more stolen bases, more plays at the play, more action. The ratings are up, the games are better, more of everything.

But I do think the NBA, the analytics are telling general managers rest your stars because this sport is so taxing. So in baseball you go into a town and you hang out for four days and a third of the team doesn't play. They're in the bullpen. But in basketball and hockey, and especially basketball, because you're not on the ice for forty five seconds, then off a player who's abnormally large anyway, right, like a seven foot one guy who travels, gonna be harder for him, regardless of the plane.

So he's going to play forty minutes both ends, burn through seven thousand calories, get on a plane, land in a city at four in the morning, go to bed quickly, get up, shoot around. Frankly, have you seen old basketball players? They're all bent over, they all look like hell. So the analytics are telling you play stars less. So even though this minimum number of games for awards sounds like on its face it will solve it for a veteran player, he's not gonna a veterans by the way, Yannis. He

doesn't care about awards anymore. He wants to be healthy for the Celtics, gona play. I don't know that there's a solved. It is because it's the constant conflict between the GM and his cross sports, the GM slash head coach, who's own only incentive and obligation is winning an ownership in the league, Who theoretically should the only incentive should be we're an entertainment product. How do we maximize our entertainment value? Like? The only thing I could compare it

to is the schedule. I live in New York City. The Broadway schedule is insane. You get Mondays off, still do seven shows a week? Hey, there're two and a half hour shows, right, and a lot of these. There's a show I went to with my You know, my daughter's a senior in high school. She's a theater major. It's what she wants to go into. Show called Funny Girl,

the Fanny Bright Story. The main character, the star of it now is this girl from Glee who is legitimately fuhnomen And the moment she signed up to do it, tickets through the roof. They you know, they announced she's not doing Thursdays or whatever, but she's doing every other show they do. My guess is I can't prove this, but she probably would be slightly better if she was only doing three shows a week. But Broadway understands our

entire purpose is entertainment. We're not competing, you know, we are here to entertain the audience therefore make money. So you are out there every single night. Can you imagine if a Broadway had the same type of thing in the NBA, It's like, well, you know, we've looked at it, and she's really only going to be able to peak performers on three days a week, and we're not going to tell the audience any idea what three days those are going to be until they show up and kill him.

And so I don't know what it is. I don't know what the solve is. If the NBA keeps trying to do it, but I don't think Adam Silver is quite a harsh enough hand to force it because he's in a partnership with the players. But this does go ahead because I have a different question. But go ahead, well, because I don't think there is a solve, and that's okay. NASCAR's audience is old. Every sport as a whole and a problem. NASCAR's sport is old. How solvable is it.

NFL's got a concussion issue, it's grown men tackling each other. It's not going away. Baseball's got a pace issue and a lack of scarcity. There's a billion games that's not going away. Hockey relevance. Gretzky helped a little briefly college basketball one and done culture. The truth is the NBA problem like every sport. Cricket had a pace problem. Soccer, there's just so few elite players that if you get one and you face teams that don't have one, you

just dominate for a decade. So I don't feel bad for the NBA because I think you can mitigate some of the issues. But every sport has an issue. This is really the primary one for the NBA stars sitting you won't completely solve it, but I think like concussions, less hitting in practice, better helmets, it will take out about thirty percent of it. And for the record, if you give me thirty percent more stars playing, it won't be on talk shows. It will give ten years ago.

And it was never a topic. That's right. You know that's one hundred percent correct. All right. One. I don't know where else you want to go, but when you're talking about college basketball and then resting guys brought me to something that I mentioned on TV today that I want your thoughts on. All right, So everyone saw the Victor winban Yama highlight, the seven foot five alien did a step back three missed it, went and got his

own dun got his own foot back dune. I also saw a video of the pregame workout he does for his feet. He does like these foot stretched things to whatever to try to keep his feed healthy. And then I heard saw this quote from a Western Commerce general manager saying, we're all going to feel like idiots for not tanking for this guy. I am quietly very concerned, and my entirety, the entire reason for my concern is literally never have I ever seen someone taller than seven

three not be ravaged by injuries ever? Not once? And this guy is going to be playing on the perimeter on that type of wear and tear. Colin, I don't care how far back we have to go. Ralph Sampson his feet, it killed him, Rick Smith's or Vias Sabonis, Yao Ming Sam Booth and I don't know if he was seven of the A's quite as tall, but yeah, Greg Odin who wasn't quite as tall. Durant even had the Jones fracture and now seems to be breaking down

a little. Or zingis por zingis all of them? Forget the super tall guys you minute Ball and some of those guys that dealt with some tragic stuff. I everyone is talking that. People are like, he would go number one in the draft if Lebron were in it. Guys, the thing is, I get it. If you tell me Wimban Yama's gonna be healthy for fifteen years. Yeah, he's one of the three greatest prospects ever, maybe the best

prospect ever. I don't know, but I have seen I am so when Chet was coming out, I was like, yeah, it's the skinniest player I've ever seen, and we got wild and Brew killed me for it on the show.

I was like, skinniest player I've ever seen. He played one summer league game against Lebron and we've never do We've never seen him yet since then, Wimby concerns me because when you're so tall, your agent is lying about your height in the other direction, alarm bells go off for me because I don't know, man, I just what makes him so special is what would terrify me. And here is the reason I was thinking about it. Team. Have the Pelicans helped or hurt Zion? I don't know.

I know they've been as cautious as possible. He's played one hundred and twenty games in four years. Maybe you can tell me if they were, you know, more old school with him, he'd he'd be out of the league by now. Hard time believing it. I think maybe that the being so cautious with everything with him has not been the best for him. I can totally see the same thing happening with this kid. He comes into the league, has a little minor thing, they're like, oh, give it

six weeks. Like, I don't know. It makes me nervous. It makes me nervous. Yeah. Yeah, we just recently came to terms with size matters for quarterbacks. I remember pushing back on Kyler Murray and like, guys, he's significantly smaller than everybody else, Russell Will, anybody's ever been. And I remember very early an All Pro defensive lineman in the NFL who I know played him year one and said, brother, he's not going to be in this league seven years.

He does not like to get hit. He goes. I hit him, he went absolutely, But I have another theory on that. So people were very uncomfortable. I didn't like Baker Mayfield. I said, as a one, he's too small. He's not that. So we're coming to terms with Drew Brees was the outlier that size matters and quarterbacks. I said the same thing about chet Holmgren. I said, up, I had one pick, I wouldn't take him, but Oklahoma City had so many picks. So he's such a physical

uniform unicorn. You owe it to yourself to take take the take the flyer. I'm fine with it. I just I don't like most or least biggest or smallest anything basically, right, Yeah, I like that, and I know I can get aren't on it, but this is. And I'm curious what your theory on Bryce is because Bryce is clearly the best on film prospect, it's not even arguable. But then I'm like, wait,

they're saying he's thinner than Guyler. I don't know if I think he might be undraftable for me, Like he's so small, So I that he's too small, like the biggest or the smallest just concerns me. I want to see someone else do it first. What's your theory on Bryce? Okay, okay, So my theory is you can't treat every investment like a four oh one K. So a four oh one K you put money into and never take it out until you retire. But you can also day trade stocks.

You can buy stuff and sell it. You can flip houses. There's a lot of equities, and there's a lot of investments that aren't built for long term, and those are also excellent investments. So not every quarterback you draft is for ten years. But if Carolina said to themselves, listen, our doctors say you're going to get three really good years out of him, and by year four Hill deteriorate. To stabilize the organization, wouldn't you still take him? Oh

that's interesting. Yep. So what you don't want to be in the NFL is Indianapolis a wreck. But in that division in the NFC, Frank Reich's a good coach. You bring him and by the second year, you draft a quarterback in the sixth round. The third year you draft one in the fourth round, the fourth year you draft one in the second. The Patriots every other year drafted a quarterback with Brady. There's an argument to be made

you should draft a quarterback every year anyway. But if you believe Bryce is the best quarterback, and if you just got three years, which for any size is small, I mean, I think two is going into year four. Let's say you let's say realistically, Kyler gives you two more years and then retires and goes, I'm done. Well, he had Josh Rosen and everybody was getting fired and

Kyler got into the playoffs. And so it's like chet Holmgren, if you told me where you're gonna get four really good years from him, the first round of the NBA's a bust. Sure, So that's interesting that if it's just you're looking at it as and three years, I don't know. If it's just three years, I think that would concern me.

But if you're like, hey, this guy's going to give you his full rookie contract, his fifth year option, and one franchise tag and you're never gonna have to give him the massive deal and you're going to instantly be relevant, have the quarterback on the route on the cheap deal, That's something I've never really considered that idea, but that I just and by the way, and maybe he defies

the odds. Maybe he is Drew Brees, and you know, because he has so accurate and seems like such a good kid, it just seems like so small in a big man's game. You mentioned the Colts and you asked me on the show today about Lamar. Would you Peter King said that he believes that the Ravens would just give you Lamar straight up for the fourth pick. Would you do that if you were Indie, just a four pick for Lamar Jackson, number four overall pick this year's draft.

You give them that, and you got to give Lamar deal. Peter King says he thinks the Ravens would say yes to that. They wouldn't try to match. They wouldn't fourth overall. Pick Lamar straight up if I'm in the would heart beat yes, because I think in the NFC he would dominate.

In the AFC, he'll make you very viable. And and I also think that Indies in a situation now we're at best, they're going to get the third best quarterback unless somebody leaps them correct in a bad quarterback class or Lamore Jackson and you and you can take a deep breath and say we're off this damn treadmill. So I think the Lamar conversation has been so I don't know that any conversation has ever frustrated me more because it it seems like to me obvious where he is

as a player. He is clearly not a top five quarterback in football, just clearly not. And I understand anyone of un animas MVP get it. I understand that some of the folks will be like, here are just his passing stats, not his rushing stats. I'm like, honestly, I could give a shit. I watched the games. I know he's not a great passer. I know he's not I know there are you know, mahomes Borough, Trevor, Herbert Allen, those five guys are better than him. I understand Justin

Herbert doesn't. If Justin Herbert were, it's like, hey, you can have him for two first round picks. There is somebody would offer him a contract by now I know this to be true. Right, there's those five guys, right. I also know that right now, if you're actually ranking quarterbacks going down the list, Dak Prescott's like tenth and Dak, I think Lamar's better than Dak. You might say Dak Prett and Lamar whatever it is. At worst, Lamar's the tenth best quarterback. So he's not one of the absolute

no brainers. He's still better than twenty starters. So, like, let's all take a deep breath. Teams are so desperate for quarterbacks you give Daniel Jones forty million a year for four years. So again, so is he perfect? No? Is he hurting himself by not having an agent? I think unquestionably yes? Is it frustrating that he hasn't the passing wise, he's actually awesome, it's some of the really hard stuff. It's the layups that he's not great at,

has never gotten great at. And it's frustrating. Sure, But does it still seem baffling to me that a team like Detroit isn't like m We Dame nevermy the playoffs with Jared Goff. We have extra first round picks. We're in the soft conference, in a division that next year the most established quarterback is going to be Kirk Cousins. Yeah, we'll pay Lamar Jackson and maybe go to the super Bowl. Even though he's not perfect. I do think there's something else.

So we both admit his unorthodox personal representation hurts and that the injury is really hurt. There is a third thing that an executive in the league told me about a year ago is that if you bring him in, you better go find a backup that works for him if he gets hurt. And it's a different offense and your typical offense, so you've got to make some real staff changes. And if he's a franchise guy you got to sign, you got to bring in a whole new group.

And it's almost like in our space, there's people that do play by play, and there's people that are analysts, and then there's guys like you and I that are opinionists and generalists. Well, we don't work doing games or hosting a show, right, you have to bring in people who create topics for you. And I so Lamar is unique and that he's not your classic drop pack, but

he's a better thrower than you think. He does have an injury issue, one of them, kind of freaky in the pocket, but he's got such a dynamic style of which you should absolutely lean into that there is a okay if we bring him in an indie, Okay, Shane Steiken, what do you have to do to your staff to

do this? And so now I'm not saying there aren't a lot of things you can't do with Lamar you can do with our quarterbacks, but he is such I listen, I talked to Sean Payton about Russell Wilson when he was not the Broncos coach, and I said, what would you do? And he said, I'd get him back to playing basketball on grass. He goes, russells at his bass playing basketball on grass. Well, that's not Drew Brees, right. So you're literally bringing in staff and people and personnel

that work with basketball on grass. So Lamar's that, to I would say, an even hyper version of that. So he's a very I guess what I'm saying is The downside to Unique is that you have to build people to support Unique, correct, and it's not as easy's That's why listen, Do I think the league as a whole doesn't want to do guaranteed deals? Obviously? Do I think the owners might be, you know, at the owners meetings asking around, you're not gonna You're not doing guaranteed We're

not We're not going down there. You know, the Brown screwed us. We're not going further. Sure, So do I think there is that level of collusion? If you sure? But as I said before, if Trevor Lawrence, we're done with this contract, franchise tagged, and for the whole league it was like Trevor was like, Hey, I want a fully guaranteed deal and it's gonna cost two first round picks. Five of these teams would have said, I don't care

who gets mad at me, I'm doing it. So part of the reason there hasn't been a hot Lamar market is because of the things that you're talking about. There are some limitations and it is not simple, but there is still a massive instant upside, particularly for an NFC team where going into next year, the best quarterback in the conference I think Jalen Hurts has earned that, but he's only shown to us for one year, and then after that it's Kirk and I sorry, it's Stafford coming

off an injury, or Dak or whomever. We have no idea, and so that part of it is it is. And my theory on that is, I think most of the these teams are waiting until after the draft because if you're like, if we sign Lamar, we're going to be better, So our pick in the future years will be worse than pick this year, so might as well spend our you know, use our pick this year, and then the two first round picks we'd have to give up are going to be in the twenties or whatever it is.

I also think when I saw the report that the Patriots were shopping mac Jones, that I'd keep an eye on Belichick the volume. Make sure to check out the dram On 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,