After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 2

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That's betterhelp.com slash positive. I'm pretty sure Jay and I could be an answer to this question. What other teams in pro sports have indelible chemistry?

What other teams in pro sports have struck it rich when it comes to the combination of personalities and roles and of course winning? It's synergy. I love that word. I learned it when I was in school. Synergy meaning that the total sum is greater than the individual parts. Now it doesn't make math sense but it makes people sense. It's corporate synergy.

In this case it's team synergy which loosely translated is chemistry. We've got a couple of good answers already. Did you put the post up on Facebook? Okay. A couple of quick answers on Twitter after our CBS as well as on our Facebook page.

I haven't had a chance to check there yet but I like these answers. First from Rob, the Tampa Bay Rays. Truth. The Tampa Bay Rays have found a way to be the best team through the first quarter of the Major League Baseball season even though they have the lowest payroll in the world. They do not spend money on their roster. They never have.

This is the Rays formula. Instead they bring up homegrown talent. They have incredible scouting and they use that scouting. They rely on that scouting to find talent that they can draft or sign to their minor league system and then their coaches develop them to the point where they are not just viable big league players but they fit exactly what the Rays want to do. So here are the Rays sitting on 32 wins.

Most in Major League Baseball. In fact they're the only team north of 30 wins. I guess that chemistry failed them on Wednesday.

No that's not the case. But they would be sitting on 33 wins if not for a long poke by Pete. Fairbanks holds the set. The 0-1. Swing and a high fly.

Deep left field. Pete Alonso has won the game. It's a three run walk off home run. 8-7 New York in 10 innings.

Alonso rounds third. Takes the turn. The Mets waiting for him in their blue unis. The polar bear has done it tonight. 8-7 walk off winners. What a night for the New York Mets. Hey thanks for coming out guys.

Let's f***ing go Mets. Oh what? Alright there. Alright there.

I like how he says it and then gets a little awkward and has to cover it up with something goofy. Alright there. That was actually Steve Gelbs, the sideline reporter he was with on the field as trying to make it an awkward transition back to the booth. Oh I didn't know that.

Okay wait play it again. I didn't realize it was a different voice. Hey thanks for coming out guys.

Let's f***ing go Mets. Alright there. Oh it is kind of a different voice. I mean it's pretty similar if you weren't actually paying attention. Okay so producer J was watching this live. I'm going to assume that the f-bomb was not bleeped out on live TV. Oh no it came well into the living room. Loud and clear?

Very loud and clear. Did you laugh? I was on the floor. I was laughing so hard.

It was pretty cool. The thing is the more it happens the more that athletes do it the more athletes are going to do it. So networks either have to be on a 15 second or 30 second delay and that's what we have here on the radio or they just have to ride with it and pretend to apologize because if they were really sorry they wouldn't actually carry these interviews live. But they're not so sorry.

It's just one of those obligatory oh we apologize if you were offended. Yeah SNY didn't really handle it the best I would say. They were just kind of like silent and like awkward. It wasn't like so just kind of like weren't sure where to move on from there. They're probably laughing like you were.

They just weren't going to indicate that. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio before Pete Alonso had the chance for his three run shot that gave the Mets an 8-7 victory over the Rays. It was Francisco Alvarez actually who had a three run homer with two outs in the ninth inning and this is a rookie catcher.

I said to producer Jay too bad that he doesn't have any quality starting pitchers in his rotation to work with but at least he's got a bat in his hands. So yeah Alonso polar bear Pete with the poke. He actually has a sinus infection. I don't know if you noticed but his nose is all red poor guy.

It is still yellow season in the New York metro. So poor guys dealing with a sinus infection and allergies. I'm not laughing because of that just it's funny because these athletes are paid so so so much money right and he still as as popular and as larger than life as Pete Alonso is he still has to deal with a sinus infection. If I wanted to put someone in the hospital I easily could. By breathing on them.

Please don't do that. Yeah it's pretty evident that this walk off win for the Mets could not have come at a better time at the expense of the race. Sure but the Mets care most about the Mets right now. We had plenty of comeback wins last year and every every season we have some pretty pretty awesome comeback wins. But I mean we're a different team and we need to establish we need to establish that identity. So for us we're just really excited that we're able to get the win.

I just you know for the players I know how they how painful you know you know the stretch has been for them to have a moment like that it's they deserve it takes that off of and what for about 12 or 14 hours then everybody goes and gets their four hours of sleep and comes back and does it again. It can and I don't know we'll see. We'll see I don't and we're facing one of the best teams in baseball again tomorrow. Bug show Walter saying that this could be a spark.

It could be. I mean lesser moments have sparked teams to incredible runs but yeah sometimes it's about the emotion. It's about watching a ball leave the yard and knowing that you still have the ability to win and in this case two outs in the ninth inning. They need the game tying home run before they can even get to Pete Alonso in the tenth but yeah it can certainly be a confidence builder.

The call on the Mets radio network with Keith Rad. Funny enough the pitcher for the Rays who gave up the three-run shot to Pete is also a Pete. Just a very unfortunate time to be the lesser Pete and we'll get back out there tomorrow and try and get him in the same spot uh it's you know I went the cage and hit some as hard as that one was hit and you know processed it now it's you know time to get ready for tomorrow. I was trying to get him a swing and miss.

I got you where you wanted it to go. I might not have been high enough because he's a big old dude but uh you know I'm trying to go up trying to you know get a swing and miss and go back from there so he got it this time you know we'll move on. At least Pete Fairbanks has maintained his sense of humor. The Yankees are going to need to maintain their sense of humor because it's kind of going from bad to worse. Now they ended up losing in a walk off to the Toronto Blue Jays. That happened on Wednesday night but just as importantly or I say just as notable starter Domingo Hermon did in fact receive the 10 game suspension for Major League Baseball and a fine because he had sticky substances on his glove and his hand and other parts of his body when he was pitching I guess this was Tuesday right right so so today was Wednesday he got ejected Tuesday. Now here's the part that is is kind of suspicious well and also not not not super smart the same umpiring crew that was in place for his last start was actually the crew that was working this game on Tuesday they checked him and gave him the evil eye and the eyeballs and gave him a warning in the last game that he pitched again with this crew and yet somehow he didn't learn his lesson I don't know it was evident it was evident you could see it the discoloration but the umpire James Hoy told the pool reporters on Tuesday night something similar to what we heard about Max Scherzer going back what was it a month ago or so the pool reporter who talked to Tim got this quote Tim sorry who talked to James got this quote it the incident I looked at his hand it was extremely shiny and extremely sticky it's the stickiest hand I've ever felt oh dear my fingers had a hard time coming off his palm now Hermon gave the same answer that Max Scherzer did it's just rosin it's just rosin it was clumpy rosin it was clumpy rosin and sweat so maybe there's something in the rosin then that makes it even stickier or here's a thought I'm just saying is all it may be rosin and sweat but what if you touch a bat that has pine tar on it what if you give a high five or get a high five give one get one what if you get a high five from a teammate who's got pine tar on his hands oh well I didn't actually grab any sticky substance but whoopsie just happened to be on my teammates hands or hat how often do you see a hat that has the discoloration all kinds of ways to whoopsie it was just natural transfer but yeah the discoloration was there you could see it with Domingo Hermon so through a translator on Wednesday he kind of well he kind of says he's confused and what are the rules exactly I don't want this to happen again you know and you know I followed instructions I'm not using it you know now I use it too much and there was a problem because it was too much on my hand I think they've all experienced this enough and what it is to be a pitcher and you know what the differences are so the reality is we should all have a very good idea what the line is and apparently Domingo crossed it tonight so that was Aaron Boone and I do appreciate him not passing the buck or excusing her pitcher her his pitcher I'm sorry I don't even know where that came from I'm sorry Aaron not E-R-I-N-A-A-R-O-N maybe because I was gonna say Hermon and then I said yeah I appreciate that Aaron does not excuse Hermon oh that's where it came from because I was gonna say Hermon and then I said I went pitcher his pitcher and then it came out her pitcher it all makes sense in my spaghetti plate brain right in front of us thank you I appreciate that Aaron Boone that you're on my star star no I can't I can't say anything right now that's mean stop it Aaron Rodgers does not make me feel better producer Jay knock it off are you still looking at candy warehouse in there I mean it's up so I'm not looking at it at the moment but it is not going I'm not closing the page the website's still open yes you should see the categories no no we're talking about Domingo Hermon her pitcher I'm just I have it here I wasn't looking at it but now I am oh my goodness well at least it opens up a spot for Luis Severino because that might be the answer for the Yankees he hasn't pitched in quite a while maybe he's ready to go yeah it's supposed to take the spot for Domingo on Sunday Severino has been dealing with a latte issue I love that word it's a latte it's a latte would you rather have a latte or a groin it's a groin or a hammy would you have rather have a latte or a ham hammy or a groin or a glute probably a lot you'd rather have a lot it sounds like a dairy product or something cow will be out with like a lot injured latte you know how we got on to this like into the baseball category is because I initially started out with a Tampa Bay Rays as an answer to our show question and over the course of the entire segment I got seamlessly from one topic to another including her pitcher from the Tampa Bay Rays and it went Rays to losing in extra innings to the Mets to the Mets not having you starting pitching to the Yankees losing a starting pitcher to a suspension to lats for Luis Severino my effort level was outstanding it all makes sense in my brain I hope you're able to follow along I like that answer from Rob thank you Rob also got an answer from I don't know who leaf Viking I'm gonna assume that's not his real name the Sacramento Kings they right now are showing the chemistry they're developing the chemistry that we can see that's palpable with the Miami Heat I like that so the Kings in basketball the Rays in baseball who else what other teams are pro sports have the type of chemistry that actually gives them an edge it actually gives them an advantage those are a couple of answers from Twitter a law radio we've got some answers on our Facebook page to after hours with Amy Lawrence now coming up do I feel like doing quite a few things actually back of the hour you're gonna hear some I think very smart and pointed advice for John Moran who we hear is facing an extended suspension to start next season but two veterans well-respected voices in the sports industry they've got great advice for job I wish he didn't need it again but they do so you hear that bottom of the hour following the update straight ahead though Daryl Morey explains the firing of Doc Rivers and how much were the stars involved and will they have any impact on the new coaching search it's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS t-mobiles network can help keep you connected to all your favorite podcasts when you're out and about whether you're an early bird looking to dive into a daily news podcast or a night owl who wants to catch up on the latest reality TV drama t-mobile will keep you connected on their strong and reliable network t-mobile covers more highway miles with 5g than anyone so if you need great coverage especially when you're on the go check out t-mobile find out more at t-mobile.com slash cy that's s-e-e-w-h-y I'm pleased to announce that radio rental you are listening to the after hours podcast hey doc are you planning to be the coach of the team next year yeah you know I got it I think I got two years left so given the tenor of what you've seen happen in the last two or three days where coaches of the year guys with titles yeah no one's safe in our business you know and I get that this is after hours with Amy Lawrence Doc Rivers may have seen the writing on the wall the same as the rest of us or at least many people in the wake of the Sixers dropping another heartbreaker in the second round this time in a game seven and doing it when they had two chances to close out the Celtics he gets fired on Tuesday and around the league coaches like Eric Spolstra reacting to the number of veteran coaches championship coaches of which Doc Rivers is one Mike Budenholzer is another I know Monte Williams hasn't won a title but they at least improved in Phoenix every year that he was there Nick nurse also fired this year you could go on and on Mike D'Antoni he's available too it's been a few years for him but the run of veteran coaches that have just been fired these days it's almost as if you don't win a championship well you're expendable Daryl Morey is the president of basketball ops for these Philadelphia 76ers and he had both the positive and the negative to share as part of his exit interview on Wednesday he was asked about firing Doc Rivers and and why make that move my job to evaluate everything and we felt like that was the best move for helping us get to our goals going forward he was carefully thought out and I recommended it to ownership and they accepted it Doc Rivers becomes the fall guy he's not the only reason maybe he's not the reason at all but he wasn't the solution in the eyes of the Philadelphia 76ers and as it turns out Daryl Morey also had to explain it to his MVP Joel Embiid they had a strong relationship I mean they're you know I have to make tough calls all the time with trades you know Joel was disappointed in you know some of it was he didn't know the player we were getting in the trade who ended up helping us but he was disappointed in the players that went out I think it's natural to be very close with the people in the locker room he was very close with Coach Rivers and yeah he was shocked about the change and you know and it's my job to help convince him that the new coach is someone that he'll have a great relationship with as well interesting to hear that Joel Embiid now this is the word it's the verb that Daryl Morey chooses that Joel was shocked by the move by the firing of Doc if that's the case the Sixers locker room is much more insulated than I would have expected because whether or not Joel listens to sports media radio TV whether or not he hears from other players they speculate about coaches getting fired I would think at some point I mean that's got to happen in most industries right I know what happens in my industry when there are layoffs coming or there are financial changes there's always questions about who's going to get let go who's potentially going to get fired so whether or not Joel had heard the suggestion from external sources it kind of surprises me maybe he did consider it but thought the Sixers wouldn't go that route no once again here's the evidence for doc keeping his job I know again they lost in the in the second round but they had 54 wins the most for the franchise going back to the turn of the century they were one of only three teams in the entire NBA who were in the top 10 rankings in both offensive and defensive efficiency they had the MVP of the league they had the third best record in the NBA or I don't remember if their record was better than the Nuggets maybe not maybe not exactly but they were third in the East only because the Bucks and the Celtics set some kind of meteoric pace this year I mean there's a lot of reasons a lot of reasons that Doc Rivers has set this kind of track record of success and a lot of reasons that you could make to keep him or you could use to keep him but more he says yeah ultimately it comes down to we need to bust through and get farther we need to get past the second round we need to take advantage of not only the players that we have but the opportunities when they're in front of us though he he tries to take the positive to hey we're so much better off than we were I don't accept that we haven't advanced I do think we're a much better team than we were the prior year or the year before that we've set sort of a arbitrary line that I understand I'm not like rejecting that that's obviously to win the championship you have to make it farther than the second round so I understand the math of that Maxie taking big steps forward Joelle progressing to the MVP I think James Harden is better than the second best player we've had this year we lost to a heck of a team then the Boston Celtics who have a very good chance to go on go on to win the championship and yeah so I like progress is there in my opinion and if we I promise you next year if we make the conference finals but fall short Howard or others will be writing how we just have never made the finals and so we and look our goal is win the championship it's not to make the second round or third round so I would understand that as well well that's the case and you can say we're in a much better place than why does doc get fired that's the hard part if you believe the franchise is better now than it was a year ago and certainly better now than it was when doc was hired then what then why that's the question and get this I told you this was gonna happen they were going to consider guys like Monty Williams and Mike Budenholzer but also this was a name that I hadn't heard before Kelvin Sampson interviewed for the Bucks job right so now you've got this college guy in the mix with it and the reason I bring this up with the Sixers is because I believe that if one NBA team is interested and he does have NBA experience if one NBA team is interested and thinks he might be available then you would expect that other teams would consider interviewing Kelvin too so initially Kelvin's met with the Bucks and remember he was with the Bucks as an assistant coach going back I guess it was before he he went to the University of Houston so it would have been oh gosh maybe not quite 10 years ago but 8 years ago maybe so he he's got NBA experience and certainly knows the NBA circles and I wonder if as I say other teams think he's available and can be pried away from Houston from Houston Texas that he will potentially get other interviews too all right you're answering our question on Twitter and Facebook across the board in sports what other teams show the winning chemistry they've captured that chemistry in their locker room or their clubhouse the way the Heat have it actually turns into an advantage for them got some great responses already on Twitter after hours CBS and on our Facebook page and Marco Belletti is here in studio I'm not going to say anything else because I want his answer to come first I'll give you three I'll give you one from from different sports okay basketball I'll give you the Warriors which is pretty obvious for obvious except for when one teammates punching another but yes fair football give you the Chiefs again I'm not breaking ground here with any of this stuff and in baseball the Astros because what they've been able to do with their core but still rearranging pieces around their core to be consistently one of the best teams and obviously winning a couple of World Series over the last I guess six seven years it's impressive isn't that exactly what the Chiefs have done and the Warriors to come to think of it right and the Warriors it's been that nucleus and then you know whether it's KD and KD out and you know the Jordan pools and different pieces along the way and Iguodala going to the bench and not being really part of the run the last couple years yeah and the Chiefs again they're when you got Patrick Mahomes and you got Andy Reid you've got a hell of a start and then on top of it you throw in Travis Kelce and again they've gone through a lot of different changes the wide receiving core was basically entirely different this year and still able to not only get back but win another Super Bowl yeah I mean the core is there and then they move pieces around it but it starts for them of course Mahomes, Kelce and Reid the Warriors everything starts with Thompson and Curry and Green and don't forget Steve Kerr yeah it's good stuff those are three great answers from three different sports we're seeing some of your unique answers as well it's unique producer Jay is retweeting them from our show account and then on Facebook you can go and you can be part of the conversation super cool like this question Miami always has an answer in part because of their chemistry and their confidence and their culture who else out there reminds you of what the Heat have done with this formula straight ahead advice for Ja Morant and I think advice that he should listen to you are listening to the after hours podcast obviously you know super excited to be back with my teammates you know that's you know the main thing right now so by now for me it's just you know keeping the main thing the main thing and continuing to you know go through my process of you know becoming you know a better me this is after hours with Amy Lawrence Ja Morant already went through a major separation from his team he already went through what was essentially a two-week hiatus with what turned into an eight-game suspension he was away getting some counseling for his mental health Jay if you have any other of those reflections on what happened while he was gone he's indicated or he did indicate at the end of the run by the Grizzlies and it was a it was a wah wah wah run that he wanted to work on his leadership and that was one area that he felt as though he had to step up but he talked about his mental health and how the counseling provided him options and ways methods to deal with stress that's what he pointed to his stress he at the time took responsibility now it was delayed but he did take responsibility for the video on Instagram live in Denver that showed him waving a gun around in a nightclub now this was on an NBA business trip if you will a road trip with the Grizzlies meaning this happened during one of their trips so it's under NBA jurisdiction now ultimately he was not charged with anything because there was no evidence that the gun was his and so not only did he get away with no legal challenges but the NBA went fairly light on him and he was away for the team from the team anyway fast forward to a couple days after the Grizzlies are done there's now another video of Ja Morant in the driver's seat of a car I'm sorry I take that back my fault the video is shot from the driver's seat of a car he's in the passenger's seat and while it's a grainy video once again it's on his friend's Instagram live and it sure the heck looks like Ja waving another gun now here's the thing they were in Nashville I believe or near Nashville in Tennessee there are no laws against them having the gun in the car okay so different laws in different states there are no state laws that prohibit a gun in a vehicle okay there's no way to know if it was loaded there's no way to know whose gun it was yada yada yada okay so he's not going to be charged with anything at least it doesn't appear so according to Tennessee state laws but the NBA reportedly Adam Silver is furious and Adam Silver himself told Malika Andrews on ESPN he was shocked when he saw this video why because Ja sat down and spoke with him in person and he felt like Ja Morant was genuine all right so I wanted to bring back some of the Reggie Miller conversation with Dan Patrick former colleague of mine obviously has the Dan Patrick radio show very popular Reggie Miller appeared on his show before doing the Wednesday night game on TNT with Kevin Harlan and he gave some great advice to Ja Morant but first I want you to hear why Reggie believes that the commissioner will come down heavy on Ja the second time he thinks the commissioner is going to feel like he was duped he was embarrassed by Ja and so he won't have it happen again we had a face to face we sat down and we locked eyes and I felt that we were on the same page because the commissioner only wants success for the Memphis Grizzlies and Ja and he felt the words coming out of Ja's mouth and he believed them and the old phrase bamboozle hoodwink led astray that's how the commissioner feels and he feels embarrassed that's why it'll probably be a heavy suspension coming the start of next season how often do we hear from Roger Goodell that when an NFL player is cooperative in an investigation it'll go well with you but if you're a repeat offender after you tell the commissioner that you're not going to do this again that this was a this was not who you are I'm going to make amends if you give me another chance I'm going to change my ways and then you become a repeat offender the commissioner's ticked and that's how Adam Silver is going to react not only because he had a face to face with Ja but because he stumped for Ja he stood up for Ja no we don't condone this behavior but we're going to give you another chance it's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio love this advice from Reggie Miller to Ja Morant on the Dan Patrick show I want you to look at your inner circle and I want you to write a list down of all your boys all your homies right and I want to look at them all and I want to I want you to burn it up right now you've got a clean house young man and look the people that he has surrounded himself with and some of this could be family involved as well you've got to look at the whole picture my friend and what you have and what you can achieve and right now what's being taken away from you which life do you want to live Reggie Miller does not beat around the bush write a list of all your boys all your homies your crew write them down it may be family as well write them down and cut them out of your life at least for now doesn't mean forever but it means for now because they don't have your best interests at heart they don't seem to care what you have to lose which ironically may mean they also have to lose a lot of times when a young athlete is making a lot of money there are people who hang around because they get a free ride or they get free stuff they're freeloaders Ja doesn't need that either but they need to have his best interests at heart he's got so much to lose and that doesn't appear to be the case at least with some of his friends one more from Reggie Miller take accountability Ja you are accountable there's cautionary tales all throughout this league there really is you know I can give you a handful of guys that I've played with or you've seen on other teams that have gone down this route where are they today Ja Morant before all this was being painted as one of the faces of the new league yeah of the new up-and-coming young players and now he's being vilified to his own doing you're right this is not us catching him doing something this is him doing it on his own phone he's self-induced all this I appreciate the the we'll call righteous anger there from Reggie Miller and I felt the same way when I was speaking to you on Monday morning are you kidding me Ja of all the mistakes that you can make of all the bad choices you can make how do you make this one again how do you decide to do this again maybe that and I do not know this okay hear me I do not know this maybe there is alcohol involved again okay so maybe that's a challenge for Ja because I can't imagine if you're sober you make this same choice again you almost hope that he was not sober and in his right mind except you don't because you that's all that's another problem in and of itself if there's an alcohol issue or there's a substance issue so I don't actually hope that for him I just don't think being completely sober and in your right mind you could possibly make this choice again I just appreciate what Reggie Miller is saying pay attention the road to NBA stardom the road to the NBA as a source of income and revenue that sets you up for life is littered with people who could serve as a cautionary tale for Ja it's after hours TBS sports radio surgeons keep our hearts today at your local CSL plasma center and be rewarded for your generosity