Best Of - LeBron James IS BACK, reaction to Shedeur Sanders first game, NFL Week 12 picks | Nick Wright

in the NFL. It was a game that the Browns could have in. One would correctly argue what even should have won with just typical bad quarterback play. Instead, Gabriel was terrible, and then Shador came in and was somehow worse, and they lose and the Ravens escape with a win they didn't not really deserve, despite Miles Garrett, who might get twenty five sacks this year, just playing at an

all time level. But the reason I'm starting with Shador is because this morning Twitter was down for a bit, and I think Twitter has I want to make sure

I use the right word warped. People's brains and ability to discuss Chador Sanders in a way, it's such an what you have and what Twitter has rewarded from content creators is the most idiotic Chadore Sanders takes being so amplified and being so force fed to anyone who has any type of sports algorithm that you have folks who know better, or at least should know better, polluting the public discourse with just nonsensical misinformation. And so you've got and it's on. And this is one of the rare

things where it is really a both sides problem. You have folks who gain traction and get engagement by finding anything imaginable to criticize Shador for up to an including where he's sitting on the bench during and after a game,

because that gets in engagement. And then you have on the other end of it, folks acting as if it takes a grand conspiracy for a fifth round pick, third string quarterback to not have reps with the starting offense, when it is totally reasonable that during training camp a guy who was not actually ever maybe you think he should have been competing for the starting job he wasn't the Browns. Again, you can make the argument that the

Browns simply don't know what they're doing. I don't know what the biggest Shador fans out there how they they can make that argument. I don't know how they square the fact that the entire league said he's not worth a first, second, third, or fourth round pick, and I understand it. There was some league wide conspiracy talk. It's all so stupid, but set all that aside. In training camp, the Browns looked at Joe Flacco as their starter and Dylan Gabriel of the two young guys, as the higher

priority because he was the higher draft pick. That's how that works. And then once Dylan Gabriel became the starter, they looked at their third round rookie as a guy who needed as much practice reps as possible, so they were not splitting practice reps, which is totally and completely reasonable. Life is a fifth round pick in this league is hard. It is supposed to be hard, and it's not always fair.

You get thrown into action and you have to look better than Shador did, and it feels like, deep down, people who know better know that, but deep down folks also know, oh my god, this really gets people going, and it's just so dumb. And so now what we will get is this week Schador is gonna get a real look. He will be the starter against the Raiders. He will get the full week of practice, he will get a game plan to his strength, you know, catered

to him, and we'll see what he looks like. And typically in sports, if you're good enough, none of the other stuff really matters, and you don't have a lot of as a fifth round quarterback, you're not gonna have

a ton of better opportunities than this one. Knowing you are the starter all week long, going against a bad team that is on a shorter week themselves, and an opportunity to remake at least temporarily that Brown's quarterback discussion, because Gabriel has been really bad and if Shodor goes

out there in balls, maybe he gets another week. But the my colleagues in the media that know it's not at all outrageous for should or to have no reps with the ones and implying or outright saying differently because either they want to be in good with Prime, or it's what they think their particular fans or followers will appreciate, or just because they think it'll get the most motion on the Internet. It's so bad and it really is a good example of this is a real example of

social media at times making the discourse dumber. And so that's why I want to spend a few minutes on it. Off the top, we don't have to spend more time on it. We will see what he looks like against the Raiders. I think Dylan Gabriel has been the worst starting quarterback in the league this year. And the only reason that you wouldn't bench Gabriel for Shador is if when he has a full week of reps in practice and is ready to go against the Raiders, he looks

at all like he looked in that Ravens game. Because in that Ravens game, he looked like a guy who was wholly unequipped for the job. And I didn't listen. I didn't love him coming out of school, but I certainly liked him more coming out of school than Dylan Gabriel, and in that game, he looked like a guy that was a ways away from being a ways away. And this show is brought to you by our friends at hard rock Bet. Great week to try out hard Rock

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New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, or Virginia. Lebron's back and I have a lot of takes. So no athlete in my lifetime has generated more idiotic and immediately self refuting opinions than Lebron. And it's because I think it's because he's been for basically as long as daily sports television has existed, Lebron has been one of, if not the main character.

And because he has played, you know, throughout the entirety of this medium, and because he has been at the eye of the NBA storm, which while the NBA has never in his career been the country's most popular sport, but it has been at various times in his career the country's most talked about sport When it comes to sports debate and sports TV and sports talk radio. Lebron is the Lebron commentariot has spawned just some truly ridiculous

and upon reflection, hilarious moments. And these are from for me, friends and alike. I mean, we are twelve twelve, Is that right? No, it's not right. Thirteen years ago, my dear pal Dan Lebotard announced Lebron was on the downside and Miami had gotten the best of him. That was thirteen years ago. And I'm going to talk about guys that I love and adore, so it doesn't seem like

I'm trying to take cheap shots here. Famously, the owner and founder of this company, my mentor Colin, eight years ago said Lebron, hanging up whenever you want, We've got the NBA's got it from here. It was actually nine years ago, and that that's an all time clip. A because Lebron would go on to win multiple championships after that, but b because he was saying that Ben Simmons is gonna take over. I listen, Colin, I was as high on Ben Simmons as about anybody. I have to hold

that l as well. And there, of course is all the Skip stuff with the clutch, and then the latest steven A stuff with the real personal I don't like that cut so much of it just outright silliness. And then we got an unexpected dose of it in the week's lead in the week or so leading up to Lebron making his debut, which was, hey, will Lebron be able to fit in with the Lakers? Even though we saw Luca and Lebron and Austin Reeves play together last year? Hey,

will Lebron actually make the Lakers worse? Screw up what they have going on? These were real conversations, real discussions about the most malleable, most flexible as far as how he can help your team player in NBA history, about arguably the only guy in the history of the league that can legitimately and has literally made an All NBA team at all five positions on the court. Check his Basketball Reference for that was an All NBA center one year for the Lakers and an All NBA point guard

the year after that for the Lakers late stage. Lebron was an All NBA shooting guard as a young player early and then obviously All NBA small forward and power forward throughout his career. That that guy that can play all five, and certainly the younger version of him, and to a degree, the older version of him can guard all five, that that guy was going to screw up

a team. And then Lebron comes in keeps his double digit point streak alive, which is going to be a very fun and funny thing to watch this year because it's obviously an untouchable record and we'll get more on the Lebron untouchable record stuff in a moment. But he wants to keep it going. But he is, I believe, going to play a very different style this year. That game to Tuesday Night, that's the fewest shots he's ever

taken in a game he didn't leave with injury. And speaking of the double digit point streak, one of those games that he left with injury, because there's only been two games in his career he took fewer than seven shots, which is what he took Tuesday Night. One. He didn't play the second half because he took an elbow from to Kim Big Matumbo and one he left early when Solomon Hill fell into his ankle and derailed the Lakers

title defense in the twenty twenty one season. But that game involves one of my favorite Lebron moments of all time, which is Solomon Hill falls into his ankle, Lebron recognizes he has suffered the first truly significant end of his entire career up to that point and is going to be out months and is sitting at seven points and the streak is dead, and despite suffering an injury that is going to knock him out for the next two months, he pretends he's not hurt badly, stays in the game,

gets the ball, takes a corner, three hits it keeps the double figure point streak alive, and then is out for the majority of the rest of the season. But that's sidebar Lebron being dropped in as a team's ultimate Swiss army knife and Lebron taking pride in that ability, and Lebron then saying after the game with a smile, Yeah, I heard what was being said. I've been you know, you could put me on any team and I would

make it work. Is just obviously true. And people's you know, people say that about Kevin Durant all the time, like, oh, you just drop him in anywhere, And yes, that's true about other players, great players, You drop them in and they would make any team better. The distinction is, can you drop a player in and can they instantly do at a high level the exact thing that team needs them to do. This Lakers team right now might need to be more facilitator, cutter, screener than scorer. Unlike some

of the other great players in this league. He has the skill set at forty in year twenty three to be excellent all at anything. Now, is he the best player in the league anymore? Of course, not see a top five player in the league anymore. No, But is he still have a legitimate shot at being right around top ten And is he, assuredly when he's healthy, still a top fifteen guy in the league. Yes? And that guy with that malleability helps any team in the history

of basketball. Now, is it all right? Now? A moot point for the whole NBA because of who and what OKC is. Maybe everybody might be playing for second this year, but we'll see things happen, and there's an element of I don't want to say lack of appreciation, but numbness to what we are seeing at this moment. And this is something that you know I've said before, but I don't know that people like fully take it in. And especially because you know Steph is playing at such a

high level at an advanced age. Durant is playing at such a high level at an advanced age. But see whether you want to focus on the age forty part or the year twenty three part. The it being without precedent is such a wild understatement. Like Kobe Bryant, the late great Kobe Bryant. How old do you think Kobe was when he played in his final playoff game with the Lakers. I'm gonna give it a pause so you can actually think about it. How old was Kobe in

his final career playoff game? Are you shocked when I tell you the answer to that is thirty two. Kobe Bryant did not play in a playoff game with the Lakers after the age of thirty two. Like a little context to that, Lebron joined the Lakers when he was thirty four, So obviously, Jordan Fit, you know, stopped with

it was done with the Bulls at thirty five, thirty six. Obviously, we've never seen a player play in a year twenty three, and the only one to get to a year twenty two was Vince It's I said this a couple of years ago and people laughed. I think we are now seeing it in real time. He'll simply never be bad, and he could easily play at again, not an MVP level, but a high level throughout his forties. Barring again, barring, you're always at this age of a catastrophic injury away.

But he's ducked that up to this point in his career, and people can have the argument about the greatest player of all time that is going to age so well on my end and so poorly for so many other folks, because it is when it does come to and this isn't the whole discussion, but it is at least a

piece of it. The record books. With the way things are going right now as far as injuries, load management, guys not being able to make it through a full season, Lebron's longevity records are going to when people look back on him in forty years, it's going to be like if you look at complete games in baseball right now and you're like, wait, a guy had forty in one year. Like all of these games, minutes, points, the playoff records are going to be Chamberlain esque, untouchable and farcical in

the numbers to future generations. And I'm very, very interested to see the full role bron takes on with the Lakers, because in game one of year twenty three, he was like, Okay, I'll be late stage Magic Johnson. And that's pretty damn good. By the way, if you're thinking about upgrading to the all new iPhone seventeen Pro, designed to be the most powerful iPhone ever, but you're also thinking about the traffic on your way to the store or transferring all your data,

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mobile dot Com. Terms of course do apply. There's one other Bron adjacent thing I wanted to talk about, and this is one of those things that I imagine will do well on social media or YouTube or and might cause me a little grief, but I just I can't leave it unaddressed, and I don't. I'm not I'm not trying to start anything, but this is so it was

maddening when I heard it. So the greatest sports podcaster of all time, the guy who in some ways invented the medium, and a guy I like a lot, Bill Simmons, brought the mail bag back, which is awesome. It's vented Simmons.

It's part of the reason that he's who he is, and it's awesome, And because I'm a fan who's listening, And he gets asked about the biggest sliding doors moments in NBA history, and he goes to the Draymond Groin shot of Lebron in Game four of the twenty sixteen Finals, which is a legitimate sliding doors moment, there's no doubt about it. And he talks about how if the Warriors win that title, Durant can't go, you know, to Golden State. So then who wins the next two? Does Lebron ever

win in Cleveland? Does Lebron ever go to the Lakers? There's that is you know, what does it mean for Steph back to back Champ and Chips, he and Lebron Then at that moment would have been two to two. He would have had back to back league and MVPs, including a unanimous There are it's He's Simmons talks about all of it, and he's correct about that being a

sliding doors moment. But there's two pieces of that commentary that are just one is enraging and it's not about Bill, and the other one is, I he just must talk to very different NBA people than me, because what Bill said was the conspiracy theory that people believe more than any other conspiracy is that the NBA suspended Draymond because they wanted Cleveland to win the title. And I've literally

never heard that. Now. I certainly have heard the conspiracy that they suspended Draymond because they hoped the series would go longer than five. But the idea that in real time, anyone outside of the Calves locker room, me and Zach Lowe. We're all on the record during this everyone's doing media. Nobody else when that suspension came down said oh, well,

now I think the Calves are gonna win. That Warriors team was considered the greatest team of all time and had dominated the Calves through the first four games of that series. So the first point is the idea that it is widely thought in NBA circles that the Draymond suspension was going to lead to the Calves winning the championship. We were all there in real time that was not

a thing. And then and then to the opinion piece of it, nothing is more maddening for me as a Bron fan then the fact that when that happened, and then the Calves win Game five by fifteen and Lebron scores forty one points, the entire media asserts that would have never happened if Draymond was there. The Calves winning by double digits and Lebron scoring forty plus never happened if Draymond's there. And then in Game six, when Draymond is there, Lebron scores forty one and the Calves win

by fifteen points. Game five of those finals, no Draymond Bron scores, Bron gooes. I'll give you his exact stat line, just so we all are on the same page. Forty one, sixteen and seven on fifty five percent from the field, sixty three percent from three and the Calves win by fifteen. So again, forty one sixteen seven fifty five sixty three splits, fifteen point win. Game six of the Finals forty one eight eleven on sixty five seventy five splits and the

Cavs win by fourteen. Like, what are we talking about? What are we talking about? Oh? Hold on, I gotta do that, because I'm sure I have to fix that. I have to fix that. I apologize. I gave you the wrong field goal percentages. Let me let me do that again, because I want this to be accurate. I gave you so Game five of the Finals, No, Draymond forty one, sixteen and seven on fifty three fifty splits in a fifteen point win. Game six of the Finals with Draymond forty one to eight to eleven on fifty

nine fifty splits in a fourteen point win. It's just revisionist history. And it's the only other reason that's relevant to me right now is that game happened ten seasons ago, and this guy's still playing. It's just a a career that will never be even remotely approached. And it's if you're if you're listening to this right now and a

sports fan of this era. The fact that we got to experience Tom Brady going more than twenty years of elite in the mix every single year, ten super Bowl appearances across multiple teams, while experiencing Lebron doing the exact same thing in the NBA. It's just unreal, just unreal. Five games and a reminder, all of these lines are from our friends at hard Rock BET. I am rolling with Chicago laying two and a half at home against Pittsburgh.

I just you are either going to get Mason Rudolph or you're going to get Aaron Rodgers with a broken wrist. I don't I don't understand how this game is not three and a half. It feels like a Bear's ugly three point win. Also for Ben Johnson, this kind of you get a lot of internal credit with the fans in the organization for beating Aaron because in everybody's mind

he's still a Packer. I think Chicago is right now a the exact same caliber of team as Pittsburgh, but one team's quarterback has a broken wrist and the other team's quarterback doesn't, and Chicago's at home. All take Chicago minus to two and a half. The Jet yes getting thirteen and a half at Baltimore. This is an ugly one, I will admit. However, Lamar now is on the you know, mispractice again this week. Last week was for a knee,

this week is for an ankle. He has not looked like Lamar since he came back from his injury, and he is refusing to run the ball, which is super noteworthy because that has a knock on effect on how on his passing and on the team's overall efficiency. Also, I think the Jets are starting their best option at quarterback in Tyrod Taylor. For all those reasons and the fact that I get nearly two full touchdowns, I will take the thirteen and a half points while I will

lay the thirteen and a half points with Seattle. Seattle is at Tennessee. What that defense is going to do to cam Ward is going to be borderline criminal. I do not see how Tennessee can get to ten maybe ten, but not thirteen, and so can Seattle get to twenty four? Huge spot for Seattle after the very disappointing loss to the Rams bounce back, I still think they're an excellent team. I understand I am laying thirteen and a half points on the road, but Seattle prior to that Rams game

had won ten in a row on the road. Tennessee's the worst team in the NFL. I will take Seattle laying the thirteen and a half Arizona getting three at home against Jacksonville. Arizona has not been good. Jacksonville has been okay, But they are coming off Jacksonville their best win, their most dominating performance of the year. I should say their best win wis kons City. This is their most dominating and they are a very up and down team. We've seen it throughout the year that the Jags are

not really able to build on successes. They beat the Chiefs, then immediately lose back to back to the Seahawks and Rams. They beat the Raiders in you know, not miracle, but the Raiders have a two point conversion in overtime to beat them. They then respond by blowing a horrified by blowing a nineteen point fourth quarter lead to the Texans. They blow out the Chargers. They're now on the road, going cross country to the Cardinals, and I'm getting three

whole points. I will take Arizona plus three, and then, in a game that might shock the audience that I am including Cleveland in Shador's first start, getting three and a half at the Raiders. This is very simple. That Raiders offensive line against that Browns defensive line is the single biggest mismatch of the week. I do not care who is playing quarterback for Cleveland. Miles Garrett could set the single game and single season sack record in this game.

The all time sack record for a game is seven Derek Thomas, late Great kansaity chief. The all time sack record for a season is twenty two and a half. So if Miles Garrett got eight, he would set the season and game record. He could do that against this Raiders offensive line. I will take Cleveland plus the three

and a half. So my five picks this weekend are the Bears laying two and a half at home against Pittsburgh, the Jets getting thirteen and a half at Baltimore, Seattle laying thirteen and a half at Tennessee, Arizona getting three against Jacksonville, and Cleveland getting three and a half at the Las Vegas Raiders