No JR tonight, you got me. Sports Machine Chong being with you and Ryan, right here on the Infinity Sports Network. The number's still the same though.
888-710-4ISN. And I definitely just spilled a bunch of orange Gatorade all over myself just before this microphone went live. And I'm not even upset that I'm going to be sticky and that maybe this shirt's going to be ruined. I'm upset because this orange Gatorade is just hitting the spot.
Damn, that stuff is good. Welcome into the show. We'll be here for the next four hours. We've got plenty to talk about. We've got a couple of baseball games about to start. Cincy in Cleveland, Miami-Pittsburgh, Chicago and Philly.
The first pitch all within the hour when we go to the football side of things. Pittsburgh thinks they got their guy. I think that the Steelers, front office, thinks that they got their Tom Brady. And I think they got Marsha Brady and Aaron Rodgers. So we'll talk about that.
I've got a Levene's List for you. You know how we do this. But before we get into the NBA, did you guys hear the big news from the last 24 hours? If you didn't, let me tell you. Ed the Zebra, after being on the run for eight days, has been trapped and is officially back home. So if you were nervous about that like I was, if you were curious and you couldn't sleep for the last eight days as Zebra was out of his enclosure. He was found near a highway in Tennessee and he's been taken back to his enclosure. Here's what I want to know. First of all, I'm under the impression that this Zebra was privately owned.
Like this was somebody's pet Zebra. And I've been through Tennessee a couple of times and you guys are great people out there, right? I've been to where I go, Cookville. Don't call it Cookville. Cookville, Tennessee, right?
Instead of Nashville. And I didn't see any Zebras in people's backyards where I was. Now, I was in Texas one time and a buddy of a buddy had a pet tiger. So I had to do a little bit of research and I was like, do people in Texas have pet tigers? And apparently that's a thing.
I'm not making that up. Apparently, like pet tigers are somewhat common down there in Texas. If I had land, Brian, tell me the legality of this. If you can check the Internet because the Internet's never been wrong. Is it legal to have a giraffe? That's what I want. I don't know if I'm ever going to have the money or the land for it.
But if I do, just let me know. Look it up. Cut me off whenever you find out.
Because I just want to know if I'm breaking the laws or not. Because that just sounds like a fun thing to have. You are not allowed to have it unless you own a private zoo license.
Ah, damn man. That's way too much work for me. I'm good. Let's get a private zoo. No, I don't want a private zoo. I saw, what was his name?
Joe Exotic or whatever. It just doesn't turn out well. But the giraffe, and you can't hide a giraffe, can you, huh? Maybe I'm going to have to move on to something else. People are weird, man. Pet gators and everything. Anyway. We move on. Let's talk some basketball.
888-710-4ISN is the phone number. Don't tell me it wouldn't be badass if I had a lot of money and you pulled up and I was showing off my cars in my house and I took you out back and I had a giraffe. You wouldn't be like, oh my god, this guy's a giraffe. He's the man. Oklahoma City has the man. And his name is Shay Gilges Alexander.
You've probably heard of him. He leads the NBA in scoring this postseason. He is the current reigning MVP. And you know why it's so important that the Thunder actually cash in, win three more games, and are called NBA champions?
It's to keep that guy around. Because if you think about a market like Oklahoma City, the only way that you can build a team is the way that they built this one, where you drafted pretty much everybody. I know they added Alex Caruso and a couple of these other pieces, but Chet Holmgren was drafted, SGA was drafted, Jalen Williams was drafted. All these different dudes that make up the team that won 68 games this year and 65 games in the regular season a year ago, pretty much were just straight through the draft. And you've got to give the general manager Sam Presti a ton of credit for that. He's the best in sports, not just in the NBA.
He's probably the best in sports. Because they had to do this same thing 15 years ago. If it just would have been Kevin Durant and they screwed up the next couple of drafts, well then they probably weren't going to win that many games with just a young KD. But three drafts in a row. They went Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden.
I'm not sure if I got those in chronological order, but you get my point. That's how you have to win in a place like Oklahoma City. But you know what ends up happening? Those guys bounce if you don't win a title. And that's not me just saying that. That's the evidence of Kevin Durant stuck around for six, seven years, and then he said, I'm done being called the best player in the NBA that doesn't have a ring. And he went to Golden State. And James Harden thought, you know what? I could end up being a four-time scoring champion in league MVP, but I can't do that here in OKC. And so he took the money and bounced to Houston.
I'm not mad at either one of those guys. I'm just kind of stating how it happened. And Russell Westbrook's actually the one that held out the longest and they kind of built the franchise around him. I want to say it was eight seasons that he stuck around in Oklahoma City. And again, there were some good teams. They went to the Western Conference Finals.
They went to the NBA Finals, but never were able to have a parade. If Shea Gilges Alexander and this group of Oklahoma City Thunder are able to win three more games and cash in, then they're going to stay. And in the current landscape of the NBA, that doesn't really happen. I mean, how many superstars currently in the NBA are still with the team that drafted them? We can go – obviously LeBron isn't and Kevin Durant isn't. Steph Curry comes to mind. Nicole Liokich comes to mind.
If I'm missing somebody else, hit me up, 888-710-4ISN. I'm going to talk about Anthony Edwards, who's only been around for a few minutes. Generally, guys, once they get into year 7, 8, 9, if they haven't already won a title with their current team, they try to go somewhere else to get that ring.
And I think as long as the Thunder win with this group, with Shea Gilges Alexander and this entire crew, they're going to re-sign and they're going to be a problem for years to come. Because not only did this team win 68 regular season games, did they have the most wins of any NBA team ever by double digits, but on top of that, they're the second youngest team in the NBA. I mean, you take old man Alex Caruso, who – by the way, like, what? How is he all of a sudden balling out and scoring 20 points in NBA Finals games? You guys know how many points per game Alex Caruso scored in college? Do you even know where Alex Caruso went to college? Texas A&M is the answer, and 7.5 points per game his last year. Like, he wasn't crushing it at the college level. Guys like that generally don't make it to the NBA, and then make it to the NBA through the G League, play for a bunch of different teams, and then somehow end up in the NBA Finals. And damn, he's not going to win MVP in the Finals, that's for sure. That's going to be Shea Gilges Alexander if the Thunder win, but he's not going to be that far behind. Kind of crazy.
Anyway, 888-710-4ISN is the phone number. If they're to lose – and I don't think it's going to happen. I think the Thunder got right yesterday, and to me, this is going to be a gentlemen's sweep. I said a couple of days ago when I was on Sunday morning that that Game 1 win from the Pacers, where they were trailing literally the entire game, and then came back and won literally the last second of the game. It reminded me a lot of the Allen Iverson 76ers that won Game 1 20 – holy crap, we're getting old, guys – 25 years ago. You guys remember that Philly team with Allen Iverson and has the crossover and steps over, Tyron Lew, that's the Kobe and Shaq team. Iverson's team wins Game 1, easy for me to say, of the Finals, and everybody was kind of going, uh-oh, watch out.
I think that's kind of how this is going to turn out. We're going to look back next week, and the Thunder are going to wrap this thing up in five. Maybe I'll give the respect to the Pacers of giving them one more game.
I'll give them one more at home, so let's call it six at the most. But it's clear who the better team is in this series, who the best player in this series is, because the problem with the best player on the Indiana Pacers – and Tyrese Halliburton is the best player, and he's an Olympian, and he's an All-Star, and he's a dude that when he's at his best, we've seen him have these 30-point triple-doubles. But that's the problem, is that whole at-his-best thing. Is there a more inconsistent superstar in basketball? Is there a more clutch player in basketball than Tyrese Halliburton? How are both those guys wrapped up into the same body?
But am I wrong? Doesn't it feel like Tyrese Halliburton? And maybe it's because I keep playing his prop bets, and I look at the numbers, and he's at, like, 17.5 points per game, or 3.5 rebounds, and I remember a couple of 40-point games he had in some triple-doubles, and I'm betting the overs on it, and then you look up and you go, what do you mean he's only taking nine shots in an NBA Finals game?
How does that happen? But at the same time, in that game where he only takes nine shots, his team makes this crazy comeback at the very end, he's the dude who ends up taking the shot and hitting it. Honestly, I cannot remember a more clutch basketball player this side of Robert Horry than Tyrese Halliburton.
People always get it twisted whenever you talk about greatness, and whenever you talk about Alzheimer's. Clutch is different. Clutch is who's the guy that I want at bat with the bases loaded down by three and two outs. It's not necessarily who's your best home run hitter, or who's the guy that's definitely going to get on base. It's who's the guy that comes through in that situation. And Tyrese Halliburton has come through in, quote, that situation every single time this postseason. Now, unfortunately for him, I don't think his team's going to be put in that position again where he's got a chance to hit a game-winning shot in this series.
Because I think that OKC probably, like I said, ends up running away with it. But I've been wrong before. Twice. Once in 88, once in 94. 888, by the way, is the first three numbers.
888-710-4ISM is the phone number. I'm leaning toward this offseason, that the biggest thing that's going to be talked about is Giannis Antetokounmpo, especially if he ends up signing with the New York Knicks. If Giannis does end up with the Knicks, that makes them better than both of these teams immediately. I honestly believe that if they replayed that Knicks-Pacers series again, Knicks in six, maybe the Knicks in seven with home court advantage, that's not how these things work.
The Pacers were the better team the same way they were in their first two series, and Rick Carlisle's a great basketball coach. But if the Knicks were to somehow add a piece like Giannis Antetokounmpo, that very rarely happens, where you can get a guy in his prime. Giannis is 31 years old. So his style of play, I think he's still got another three or four years left before his body starts to kind of break down and slow down a little bit. And you then, at that point, could argue the best big little combination since Kobe and Shaq.
Was that going too far? If we put this version of Giannis Antetokounmpo on the Knicks next year, with this version of Jalen Brunson, that's kind of Kobe and Shaq, isn't it? And again, I'm not saying either one of those guys is the other one, but compared to other duos that we've seen in the NBA, the problem with that comes the expectations. And it would be expectations for a brand new head coach.
Who's looking for that? Who would leave their current job? Let's say for the Jason Kidd, because his name's been floating about. Why on earth would Jason, even if Giannis ends up with the Knicks, why would he end up taking that job where it's championship or bust?
Where every single time you lose, it's what's the problem? Where you're expected to go out there and win 70 games and blow your way through the postseason, and if you don't, it was a failure. Why would anybody want that type of job expectations in the biggest media market out there when the alternative for a guy like Jason Kidd is you got the number one overall pick, you're going to get Cooper Flag, you bring back at some point a healthy Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving, and maybe you go back to the Western Conference Finals. You keep your gig in Dallas where the fans aren't even mad at you. They're mad at the general manager anyway. Why would you possibly go to New York?
That's the problem is New York's floating these names about there, the front office. Hey, well, maybe Jay Wright. Jay Wright came out before he could even get the offer and say, nah, I think I'm good. I don't want that job. Rick Pitino was just doing some other TV gig and he was asked in passing, would you want the Knicks job?
He was like, what are you serious? Because none of these guys that have a good job right now want the Knicks job. On the surface, is it a good job? It's a great job, right?
You're in New York City. It's one of the NBA jobs. There's not a bunch of them. And like I just said, you get the next Kobe and Shaq. But also, if you don't win, you're probably in the unemployment line in two or three years. Which brings us to what type of a coach are they actually going to be able to hire? I mean, you've seen some of those names that are floated out there the same way that I have. Are they going to be able to somehow pull away an Eric Spoelstra? I don't think so. From Miami?
Nah, come on. Are they going to go back to the old and call up Jeff Van Gundy or get a Taylor Jenkins? Mike Malone? I don't know that any of those names take them over the hump to make them necessarily a championship caliber team without Giannis. But man, you put Giannis on that team and all of a sudden, they're better than this Thunder team. They're better than this Pacers team. And they're much better than that Knicks team that we saw a year ago.
I would bet everything that that team wins a championship. So, I don't know if I want the job. Not that they're going to offer it to me.
888-710-4ISN is the phone number. We'll talk some football on the other side. Not for nothing. I was looking at the NBA Finals odds for next year. Because I was just kind of curious like if Las Vegas and the odds makers actually believe in the Indiana Pacers long term. And they're in the Finals right now. They're tied one game to one. They were in the Eastern Conference Finals a year ago.
As long as they just came out of nowhere. The Pacers odds to win the Finals next year are the same as the San Antonio Spurs. If that gives you any indicator about their staying power. 25 to 1 odds right now to win the title next season. Same as Golden State. Same as Dallas.
You're probably not surprised. The favorites are the Thunder at 2 to 1. And Boston at 4 to 1.
I guess a couple other ones that kind of stuck out to me. The Lakers at 20 to 1. They should be a billion to 1. They got no shot. And Houston.
16 to 1. Houston feels like they're just a move away. Nobody talks about them.
Nobody put their money on them. But don't forget they did win the second most games in the West. We always talk about how great the Thunder were this year. The Thunder had a better record than the Houston Rockets in the Western Conference.
And that's it. I don't think that team is too far away. They make the right move. They get a big free agent.
I don't know. Maybe James Harden goes back there. Kevin Durant ends up with Houston.
I don't even know if those teams would want those guys right now if I'm being honest with you. Anyway we got plenty of NBA conversation as the show rolls along. But coming up on the other side. Pittsburgh thinks they got their guy. And I'm the guy to tell them that they did not get their guy. I'm the Sports Machine Sean Levine with you on a Monday right here on the Infinity Sports Network. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief. No JR. Tonight you got the SL Sport Brief.
I guess. I'm the Sports Machine Sean Levine with you right here on the Infinity Sports Network. Tonight we got some hockey. Panthers back at the crib hosting the Oilers. Panthers minus one forty five favorite. Over and a half. Six and a half. You've been watching this series.
It's been awesome. Both game one and two went into overtime. Panthers actually won in double overtime in game two.
So that's how we got to one game apiece. It did make me wonder though why the Florida fans at home games throw rats on the ice. Because I understand like the octopus and Detroit thing that's been explained to me but. Rats like if they threw rats in New York. I guess that would make a lot of sense to me because there are big rats in New York.
But in Florida. So I asked my friend Brendan Tobin. He hosts a radio show down there. And he explained it to me. He said apparently where the old arena was.
I think it was called Miami Arena when they first started. They. There was rats ran around it. And there was a player that slapshotted. The rat into the wall. And apparently that stuck both literally and figuratively.
I'm sure PETA doesn't love that story. But you know I was thinking that happened to me one time. Sort of. Me and my boy Nick Hatch. You guys remember the game 007. Of course you do. GoldenEye.
One of the greatest video games ever made. Nick had just got this hamster. And we were playing Golden07. And we were listening to some. What would it have been at the time. Probably like some.
I don't know. Red Hot Chili Peppers. Peppers Dream of Californication. And he gets his hamster. And he thought it'd be fun to take a pillow sack. And to you know kind of let it act as a trampoline. So one of us on each end we'd let it loose. And we'd pull it tight. And the thing would go up in the air. And it would come back down. And we would catch it. And it would go back up in the air. And we'd go back up. And then one time it did not come back down. And we were like whoa. Because it got caught in the fan. Flung against the wall.
And it was not a pretty sight. I don't know if I'd be thinking that. I guess I do.
The Florida Panthers throwing the rats. Yeah no. That's. Yeah PETA doesn't like me either now.
But it happened. RIP Harry the Hamster. Hopefully things go better for Aaron Rodgers. Both then Harry the Hamster and they did in New York. Because they didn't go great for him as a jet. I think that Pittsburgh thinks that they got the next.
I was going to say. Peyton Manning when he went from the Broncos to. Or I'm sorry when he went from Indy to the Broncos. I think that they think they got more like Tom Brady. At the end of his career going to the Bucks. Where he won a Super Bowl immediately. I think that's what Pittsburgh's plan is.
Because if not. If Pittsburgh genuinely thinks that all that they're going to do. By getting Aaron Rodgers is win a playoff game.
What's the point of all these shenanigans? They've been in the playoffs the last couple of years. Whether it was Mason Rudolph or Kenny Pickett or Justin Fields or Russell Wilson. Whoever the quarterback was.
They won 10 and 11 games respectively. If the whole point of this whole thing is to win a playoff game to get Aaron Rodgers. I think the point is. They think they got a guy that can take them to the Super Bowl and win the whole thing.
I think they're crazy. We'll talk more about it as the show rolls along. Let's take some phone calls. Let's go out to Maryland. Where Chris joins us here on the Infinity Sports Network.
What up Chris? Hey I appreciate your show. Appreciate the way you phrase it and do everything. Sure. I got a couple for you. But there's one guy. But I'll give you a couple and then I'm going to give you the ultimate.
Anyways. The first one hopefully you'll appreciate is George Brett. If I needed to count on anyone. George Brett in the clutch. George Brett was. You know George Brett's my guy. I feel like you're trying to butter me up. Yeah George Brett was his clutch.
No I'm not buttering you up at all. No. I appreciate him and him and Tony Gwen.
Then I got. Then of course Michael Jordan. Of course Tom Brady.
But the ultimate's got to be Big Shot Bob. That's what I'm saying. But that's the weird thing is we have to separate clutchness from all time greatness. He's not a hall of famer. He's not a guy that averaged 20 points a game or anything like that.
No I know. But I'll be damned if he didn't gotten that on my life I've seen. So you know how far I go back if I can pull up Tony Gwen and George Brett. But Big Shot Bob. What's not to like.
What's not to like. I appreciate that guy. Love that guy. Thank you man. Appreciate the phone call.
Chris leaves the line free at 888-710-4ISN. I think that when you just talk about clutch. When you talk about Jordan and LeBron and Kobe. Those guys each got 100 game winning shots.
I'm exaggerating a little bit. They made some. They missed some. When you think about guys that really didn't miss. I'm sure Rob already missed at some point.
But when I think of him in my head right now. He's knocking down all these shots at the end of the game. When it should be another dude with the ball in his hands. It was Big Shot Bob.
And same thing with Tyrese Halliburton. I'm sure you probably saw the same stat that I did the other day. That in last minute shots in the playoffs. He's 4 for 4. I mean and everybody else I think was something like 3 for 18 in the entire playoffs.
Like look. The guy is clutch as they come. Call him overrated. Say the Pacers shouldn't be here. Whatever. Tyrese Halliburton probably has proven that he's the most clutch player in the NBA.
8, 8, 7, 10, 4 ISN is the phone number. Let's get back to the NFL talk. Pittsburgh to me made a giant mistake. A couple. They did a couple of things wrong.
One. They held out for Aaron Rodgers. And you know what Aaron Rodgers has? Aaron Rodgers has what I like to call. And I think I made up this term. Prime guy syndrome.
And if you're like what does that mean? Well remember when you were in your prime guys? Like you went out to the bar and you thought you could pick up any girl.
Right? You thought that you were smooth. You thought that your hair looked good. You thought that you dressed nice.
You were just Rico Suave bro. But you realize that 10, 15 years later if you go out to the bar. The girls aren't looking at you the same. And you kind of have to flash your wallet a little bit.
Like it's going to take a little bit more game. Because you're just not in your prime anymore. And that's okay. We all get old.
Happens to all of us. Aaron Rodgers doesn't understand that. Aaron Rodgers still sees himself as discount double check Aaron Rodgers.
As what do you go? Four time MVP. That's crazy. Four time MVP. As a guy that's going to the Super Bowls.
He hasn't been that guy in a long time. I mean if we really look back at the last 3, 4 years of Aaron Rodgers career. The numbers dip down a little bit. They dip down enough where Green Bay went.
Now's the time. We got to make the move. The same way they eventually did with Favre to Rodgers. They did with Rodgers to Jordan Love. They had the guy in waiting.
But they didn't want to cut the cord too quick. And with Aaron Rodgers. You look at his numbers the last year.
It's like 20 something touchdowns to 10 interceptions. You could tell he was tapering off a little bit. He couldn't run around the same way that he used to.
And they decided to move forward with the cheaper option. So Aaron Rodgers's last year in Green Bay. You could tell was starting to maybe not be elite anymore. Maybe we could say he went from being the number 1 quarterback in the NFL. To the number 5 quarterback in the NFL. To the time even if he was healthy year 1 with the Jets.
Maybe 10, 12 something like that. At that point he was 37 years old. And then he got hurt. And I feel bad for him. And I feel bad for Jets fans.
But again it happened. And when you get hurt as a football player. It's a little different than if you get hurt at whatever your job is. Like I'm a radio host. So if I tear my ACL. It doesn't really affect my voice.
And shouldn't affect my job too much. As long as I can show up and just elevate my knee. If you know what I mean. A little bit of ice or something.
He's a football player. Right? So when you go down and you're that old. And you just change teams. That's a lot of new stuff. That's a lot of unknown going on for Aaron Rodgers. So again last year in Green Bay. Started to taper off a little bit. First year in New York. Got hurt. Last year in New York.
While he's only getting older. The team won 5 games. And by the numbers. I'm not going to pretend like I understand QBR.
I'm just not that smart. But it tells me that he was 22nd. Among starting quarterbacks last year. In the NFL.
Which means there are only 10 dudes that were worse. So this version of Aaron Rodgers. Now he's on another team. Now it's another offseason.
He's gotten another year older. I think that Pittsburgh believes that they got a quarterback. That's going to go out there and win 13 games. And compete with Cincinnati and Baltimore to win the division. And win a couple of playoff games. And play my Chiefs in the AFC Championship game. And I'm here to tell them. Whatever you're smoking. Send some of that my way. That is unbelievably delusional. To think that because you get this version of Aaron Rodgers.
All of a sudden. You're going to be better than Kansas City. Or Buffalo. Or Baltimore.
And we can keep going. Houston. The Chargers.
I think at best. Pittsburgh to me is pretty much what they've been the last couple of years. But I do think Pittsburgh believes they got their guy. They weren't going to hold out for Aaron Rodgers this long. Overpay for him. Even though it was only like 13, 15 million dollars.
Something like that with incentives. And pass up on all the different dudes in free agency and throughout the draft. I mean they could have just said you know what Russell Wilson come back. Or Justin Fields we never really gave you a fair shake so you come back. Or Jameis Winston we'll sign you up for a year. Or Shadore Sanders everybody passed up on you.
We'll use our fourth round pick on you. There were a bunch of different choices for Pittsburgh at quarterback. And they chose Aaron Rodgers. So they believe that he is their guy. And I'm here to tell them I just.
I don't think he is. I know that the last couple of times it's worked out for teams. When the Broncos got Peyton Manning it took them a couple of years. All of a sudden they won the Super Bowl. Tom Brady won with the Bucks in five minutes. I think this is going to look a little bit more like when Russell Wilson went from Seattle to Denver that first year. Not awful. Not like you want to vomit in your mouth or anything like that. Probably a little bit better than the one for the Jets but what's that really mean?
888-710-4ISN is the phone number. Like I don't think Pittsburgh is anywhere near the hierarchy in the AFC. And the AFC hierarchy is much easier to figure out than the NFC. It goes Kansas City. It goes Baltimore.
It goes Buffalo in some form or fashion. And then I think we can throw the Cincinnati Bengals in there. I'm pretty sure that team wins 12 or 13. But you look over in the NFC, the only team for sure that I can tell you is great. A bunch of teams are going to rack up wins.
That's how it goes. But the only team right now that I can tell you for sure is a lock. They're going to win their division. They're going to win at minimum 12 games and they're going to be a problem when the playoffs come around because it's probably going to go through their backyard. It's the team that won the Super Bowl last year. The Philadelphia Eagles to me are the... would it be the most flawless or the least? There we go.
The least. They're the least flawed team in the NFL. And that's what's important, right? It's not just how much top end talent you have. It's coach, quarterback, defense, those type of things. And they're set everywhere there and they're coming off of the championship so they know they can do it. But you look at the rest of the NFC. After Philadelphia, who are we sure is going to win their division? Is going to win 12 or 13 games?
I think I'm confident to say Detroit. But Detroit feels like the team that the last couple of years. So they sucked our entire life.
Nobody ever talked about them unless they played on Thanksgiving. And then all of a sudden when they got good, they got great really fast. And they won 13 games and they won 14 games and they had home field advantage last year until they lost in the playoffs. All I'm saying is it feels like Detroit has been going so hard so fast.
They've been on Adderall, the high milligram. Where they just like, it feels like they might slow down just a little bit this year. I still think they win the division. I still think they win double digit games. I still think they probably win a playoff game or two. But to me, you could argue Detroit's chances, their best chances over the last couple of years compared to now. What did they really do this offseason? It's not like they had this crazy draft or made this crazy trade.
Jared Goff got a little bit older. So I think that Detroit is still elite but I can't swear on it. And then San Francisco? Who knows? DC?
I think? But they just got to the party. Now they showed up with girls and a keg. Like we're going to let them stay.
But the commanders just got to the party. So look at the AFC and I feel very confident telling you playoff teams. Chiefs, Ravens, Bills, Bengals, probably even Texans because their division sucks like a straw. And the NFC? Philly? Philly?
It's kind of it. I mean, you didn't expect me to say the Bears, did you Bears fans? Because Bears fans are going to be sick this year, I think. Because you know what I believe is going to happen this season?
I think the Bears are going to be in the same position they were in last year. Where you got to have a grace period for your first year head coach the same way you did for a quarterback. Ben Johnson comes and only wins six, seven games. I don't think all of a sudden the fan base is going to be going, oh we got to bring somebody else in the same way.
They're not that harsh on Caleb Williams yet. Because when you're a first year quarterback, a first year coach, you get a little bit of time with the fan base. Well let's see how that fan base reacts if they're not winning games this year. Especially if it's because of the quarterback.
Especially, especially if the quarterback is struggling and he has to look in all directions. And all these other dudes like, oh I don't know, Jayden Daniels is going off again. A guy that was drafted a pick after him and took his team all the way to the NFC Championship game.
And basically stole all of his thunder. How about Justin Fields? What if Justin Fields, I mean worst case scenario for Bears fans.
They're losing games and Justin Fields and Jayden Daniels are both balling out with their current teams. And I think it might actually happen. I'm not saying, I'm just saying I think it might actually happen. I'm going to give Caleb Williams three full years. Most of the time it's like, alright we got to start judging these guys because we throw them right into the fire.
It's a little bit different with him, I feel like. And Bears fans, hopefully you can stay patient as well because I look at the over under. We're going to get into NFL over unders a little bit later on in the show. Have you guys looked at the Bears number? You'd be crazy, absolutely crazy to bet the Bears number.
I'll tell you what it is, like I said, a little bit later on in the show. On the other side, I got a Lavine's List for you. Shane Gilders Alexander is the best player in the NBA.
That's no breaking news, he's the MVP, he's in the NBA Finals. He's just one of 41 first round draft picks that John Calipari coached in college. Lavine's List coming up in just a few minutes. Cal's best NBA players, SGA believe it or not, he made the list. But before that fun, let's get a sports flash with my guy Rich Ackerman. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief.
No JR tonight, you got me sports machine Sean Lavine. And I have come up with a new way to give gifts. So if you're like me and you struggle in birthdays and weddings and bar mitzvahs and anniversaries and all those things come around. It was like a couple of years ago, had a girlfriend at the time, she really liked squirrels. And I was having trouble finding a squirrel stuffed animal until I finally went to the store and I found one. I thought I gave her this great present and I gave it to her and she unwrapped it and she squeezed it. And it went squeak, squeak and she goes, oh my God, you bought me a dog toy.
And I did and I didn't know I bought her a dog toy but it was so embarrassing. I'm like, you know what, cash. That's it. Going forward, I'm just giving everybody for everything cash.
And if they complain, then I don't want to be friends with that person anyway. Because if you give somebody a gift card, that to me is like somewhat offensive. You're going to tell me where I have to spend the money? And if I want to spend the money there, cash would have worked also, by the way. I feel like cash always works. The reason I bring it up is this.
Ryan, I need your help. I assign kind of cash value to whatever the present I'm giving. So like if it's my niece's 16th birthday, she's probably only going to get 16 bucks. So it's a big anniversary.
Maybe you're good for like 50. My dad turned 70 the other day and I feel like I'm going to give the old man 70 bucks. But I also, we're going out on Father's Day. What cash value should I assign for Father's Day? What are we talking, another, what do you think, 15, 20, 30 bucks? It's a made up day, right? Come on.
That's a hallmark. I would go gift, if not, I would go like 50 bucks. 50 bucks? Yeah. So I'm giving the guy 120 cash? Yeah, if he's 70 and it splits two. And a father?
Yeah, it's like 60, 60, you know? Yeah, no, I don't think so. He's definitely not getting a gift. I'm done putting in that type of effort for anybody. Again, if you don't want cash, then I don't want to be your guy.
120 bucks? My dad's going to look at me sideways. Yeah, I'm just going to give him, I'm going to give him 70 cash and I'm going to give him a Father's Day card. I think that's the move to make.
Father's Day card with the cash inside of it and say, happy birthday, old man. Anyway, give me some beats if you got them. Today's Levine's List. Shane Kilters Alexander is the best player in the NBA. He's got his team in the NBA Finals. He's the NBA MVP.
He's the leading scorer. But is he John Calipari's best player to ever play in the NBA? Dudes had 41 first round draft picks. People always talk about John Calipari like he's super overrated as a college coach because he only has one title.
And I would say a couple of things. There are plenty of great coaches. Guys like Tom Izzo that only have, I mean, Bill Self just got his second a couple of years ago. There are a lot of great college coaches that only have one ring. And on top of that, we all know the game has completely changed, especially with the news a couple of days ago that colleges are now allowed to directly pay their players. The great college coaches are going to be NBA coaches going forward. The college game completely sucks now to be a coach.
It's not what it was 10, 15, 25 years ago when John Calipari first took over. But the Dudes had 41 first round picks in the NBA. So even though he hasn't had the most success in the NCAA tournament, he has by far put the most players into the NBA.
And not just Dudes, but first teamers, Olympians. Wait till you hear these names. First honorable mention before we get to Cal's best five players in the NBA. We're talking about names like John Wall.
John Wall, John Wall, John Wall. DeMarcus Cousins. And if you're thinking, hey, DeMarcus Cousins, do you remember how good DeMarcus Cousins was in his prime? He got hurt, so it didn't last very long. But there was one season where he finished second in the NBA in scoring.
It also didn't help that he did that out in Sacramento. Julius Randle was his guy, Tyler Hero was his guy, Jamal Murray. I mean, you just put those five guys together that I just named, they probably win the title. De'Aaron Fox, Bam Adebayo, Tyrese Maxey.
I'm going to take you in the wayback machine. Marcus Camby, remember that guy? Anyway, here's my list. Cal's best players in the NBA. Number five, Devin Booker. I almost called him the Bucks. The Suns completely screwed this thing up. They played the Bucks, what was it, four years ago in the NBA Finals. The Suns were up two games to zero. The Bucks came back and ended up winning that thing. And then for some reason, the Suns thought, you know what we should do?
Let's just completely rearrange this whole thing. Let's just break it down, build it up, let's add Kevin Durant. Ah, Bradley Beal, we'll call him the big three.
Why would you do that? When Devin Booker is clearly the best player, and if you build around Devin Booker, you can get yourself to a title and, in my opinion, win the whole thing with the right pieces around a guy like that. Instead, you get Kevin Durant and bring him in and make him your guy?
Yeah, how'd that go? I got Devin Booker at number five. And I think the Suns get right. I think they get rid of Durant.
I think they trim some of the fat. They rebuild around Booker. I think they'll be fine. At number four, Karl-Anthony Towns. Karl-Anthony Towns, to me, was a guy that, when he was in Minnesota, he was really good, but you could tell there was something missing.
And that something is Jalen Brunson. There's a chance if those guys stay together for the next three, four, five years that they actually win a couple of rings in New York. Now, I don't think that's going to happen, because I think that Giannis Antetokounmpo is going to end up in New York. And he's not a free agent, so it would have to be via trade. And if you're going to trade, the Bucks aren't just going to give him up.
They're going to want a big guy. And the way that NBA trades work, you have to basically match salaries. And Katz got a big one of those the same way that Giannis does. So, if Giannis does end up in New York, that means bye-bye to Karl-Anthony Towns. But I do think that he's a great NBA player who, at some point, could win a title.
He's just a little weird and a little inconsistent. At number three, already got a ring, the brow, Anthony Davis. And I think going forward, Anthony Davis and the Dallas Mavericks are in a better position than the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers, when they made the move for Luka, thought, hey, you know what, we'll give Dallas a call and we'll see if they even answer.
They're going to say our name on call waiting or whatever, and then we'll see if they pick up. And they picked up, and the Lakers said, hey, would you be interested in giving us Luka Doncic? And the Mavericks actually did it. I think the Lakers were as surprised as anybody.
I think that was just a call that you're supposed to make as a general manager, and it ended up getting you back Luka Doncic. But in hindsight, I don't think the Lakers are in that good of a position. I don't think they're in as good of a position as the Dallas Mavericks. Now, part of that is absolute dead luck that the Mavericks, with a one percent chance, ended up getting the number one pick in the draft. But going forward, if I said the next three, five years, who's more likely to win an NBA title? Is it the Luka and LeBron getting old right in front of our eyes, Lakers? Or is it the Dallas Mavericks, where if he can get healthy, Kyrie, Anthony Davis, and again, let's see how good Cooper Flag is right away with some of those other pieces.
That team is not very far away. I got Anthony Davis as the third best player that John Calipari has ever coached. At number two, I said one thing one time bad about this guy, and for the next two and a half hours, we took phone calls here on the Infinity Sports Network.
People were calling me an idiot, a dumbass, people were talking about my dog, my mom, my car, everything, so I'll never do that again. That's why I put this guy at number two, Derrick Rose. Y'all happy? People love them some Derrick Rose, especially Chicago.
All I said, this was like a year ago, maybe even a little bit less. The Bulls were retiring Derrick Rose's jersey, and somebody called in, they said, hey, sports machine, do you think his career was maybe a little bit overrated because he wasn't around that long? And I go, yeah, that's probably fair to say.
Literally for two and a half hours, we took calls from every single person in Chicago. Talking about how he wasn't underrated and he was hurt and how great he could have been. Fine.
Alright, you're right. Derrick Rose, number two. Best player that John Calipari ever coached.
And at number one, it's SGA. It's got to be Shay Giltis Alexander. You've got an MVP, you've got a scoring title, you've had your team with the best record in the Western Conference back to back years, and now you're on the cusp of winning an NBA championship?
Like, I'm trying to think of how many players have those type of accolades five, six years into their career. The best player that Calipari ever coached in the NBA is the MVP, and he goes by the name of Shay Giltis Alexander. 888-710-4ISN is the phone number. One hour almost down here with Ryan and myself, sports machine, Sean Levine, and you. Coming up on the other side, we're going to get back into the NBA and we're going to have some fun. I think you guys are going to like this one. I think we're going to go back and forth a little bit. I'll take your phone calls again.
The number is 888-710-4ISN. Here's what I want to know on the other side. Since Michael Jordan, so post-Jordan, it almost feels like religious, like AD, right? After Michael Jordan, if we were building a Mount Rushmore of NBA players, again, that came along after Michael Jordan, who would be on that statue? I actually think that there are five answers that are right, but last time I checked, Mount Rushmore only has four heads, so we're going to have to get rid of one of these guys. You guys know who I'm talking about, right?
I'm going to give you the names coming up on the other side. I think we're probably going to agree, disagree a little bit, because some of these guys had unbelievable careers. I'm talking about an Allen Iverson, doesn't come even close. A Dirk Nowitzki top six all-time NBA score, doesn't come close. To our post-Jordan Mount Rushmore, we've only got room for four players. Kevin Durant? Absolutely not. And I got five.
I need your guys' help to narrow it down to four. So we'll do that in the second hour of the show. We'll talk some NFL over-unders, and then we've got to play a game, as we always do, of True Dat or Screw Dat.
I've got a guest coming up for you along the way. We'll get into some baseball talk as well, because the games are now underway in the first Chicago. The Cubs, that is, up 1-0 on the Phillies. Miami and Pittsburgh is in a rain delay in the first, and after one, Cincinnati tied up at nothing with Cleveland. New York and the Yankees and Kansas City first pitch about an hour from now. Tampa and Boston 20 minutes from now. We'll keep you updated on the baseball, get into the football, but on the other side, let's talk NBA Mount Rushmore since Michael Jordan. We've only got room for four. I'll tell you what I've got coming up next right here on the Infinity Sports Network.
