JR SportBrief Hour 2

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For the ones who get it done. You're listening to the J.R. Sportbrief on CBS Sports Radio. And we are coming to you live from the Rocket Mortgage Studios. When you need cash out of your home in a simple way to get it, Rocket can. I'm all about getting it. I don't know what it is, but I'm going to get it. And I'm going to be here with you for the next three hours. It's a four hour show. I get started at 10 p.m. Eastern Time at 7 p.m. Pacific. I'm being joined right now by super producer and host Dave Shepherd.

And I'm being joined by you. Everybody listening all over North America. It's true. We opened up the show kind of talking about Jerry Jones. Be nice if he would just shut up.

Helps him brand the team all the talking that he does, but it doesn't help the actual team on the field. Sucks. In a few minutes, we're going to talk about NBA Media Day. There was so many Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants comments last night. We had to wait 24 hours. What can I say? I'm here every day, every weekday, every weeknight. So I got plenty of time. So we're going to get into some of the interesting things said by some very powerful NBA players.

Some of them. Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Kyrie Irving, James Harden. I can't wait to fill you in on some of the things that were said by these guys. Speaking of James Harden, I'm currently occupying the same city, the same space. I am in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The next stop on my media for the movement tour last week out Fordham University in the Bronx, New York City. And now I'm going to be at Drexel University tomorrow, spreading the good news about sports media and just inclusive sports and inclusive health with Special Olympics and an experience who helped make this entire tour possible. So it's always a beautiful thing. I can't wait to share with you tomorrow some of the just some of the amazing stories and commentary that will come out of Drexel University.

And I can't wait to share with everyone just how great that will go. But if you want to give me a holler here at CBS Sports Radio, the number is eight five five two one two four CBS. You can also find me online.

I'm on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. That is at JR Sport Brief. It's been a busy day. New York Yankees were able to go ahead and clinch their spot officially in the playoffs here. The American League East Aaron Judge is stuck at 60 home runs.

So, yes, get used to it. You're watching something on television and Aaron Judge is going to pop up. Miles Garrett busted up his shoulder and his bicep in that car crash that he was in. And so we're going to get into some NFL football. We're going to get into the Eagles. They played here in Philadelphia, by the way, the Cardinals. They also clinched the National League Central. So baseball season is coming to a close.

And the NFL season, it's just it's all starting to heat up. As I told you, we opened up with Jerry Jones and the Cowboys were going to get into media day momentarily. I want to get a couple more calls in here on Jerry and and whether or not he needs to just shut up. He just digs a hole.

And I think he makes things worse for all of his employees. Let's go ahead and check in here. We got Mike calling for Michigan. You're on the JR sport reshow. Hey, JR, it's good to talk to you.

Thank you. What's up? I want to remind people of the way the Cowboys were. OK, I'm a little bit older. I remember the Cowboys back with Roger Staubach and Tony Dorsett and Drew and Preston Pearson.

And when every year they were fighting the Vikings to see who could play the Steelers in the Super Bowl, you can't even name the owner of the team back then. Sure. Yes. Was it?

I'm sorry. Who was the owner of the team of the Cowboys back in the 70s and early 80s when they were fighting the Vikings to see who could play the Steelers in the Super Bowl? Oh, I can't tell you that off the top my head. I can tell you that's the problem with Jerry. That's exactly my point.

That's my point. Back when the Cowboys were doing their thing, getting things done, making things happen. Roger Staubach.

OK. Drew Pearson, Preston Pearson. The defense had some guys that were just outstanding. And you didn't even know who the owner was. You didn't even know who he was.

Because he never said anything. He just let the. Tom Landry would wear that hat on the sideline and everyone would respect him. And it's like, OK, it's Tom Landry and the Cowboys. Here we go.

Well, that's that's where the problem started. The fact is, Jerry Jones came in. He got rid of Tom Landry. He brings in Jimmy Johnson. He lets Jimmy Johnson play around in the playpen a little bit with with who the players are.

They start beefing over whose team it is and who has the success and who brings the players in. Jimmy Johnson is like, I don't want any piece of this. And we've heard the same damn story for the past twenty five years.

Yes, I do agree with you. He should shut up. He should shut up. You shouldn't know who as a sports fan, as a football fan, you shouldn't know the name of the owner of the team.

You should know the name of the quarterback. I don't think so. I think we're in. So Jerry Jones has taken that to an extreme. Like we're in a game.

Yeah, but we're in a we're in a different time in a different era. So granted, I talk about sports for a living. Unfortunately, I can probably name three fourths out of every owner. Unfortunately, it's probably it's not a proud fact.

I probably will be able to name most of them. Major League Baseball, the NFL and the NBA. And so to say that it's not the average sports. You're not the average sports fan.

If I go, I'm not a jerk. Well, I'm not a journalist. I'm just some guy that they thought was good enough to be on the radio.

But I digress. You're a journalist. Oh, no, I'm not, man. I'm not a journalist. I'm a smart guy who sits here and talks about sports.

You always turn over the news to the other guy. Yeah, Marco Balletti. He's more than a journalist.

He's just he's a he's a philosopher. But anyway, my point is, when you go city to city to city, I would venture to say fans that are truly invested in their local sports teams. They know who the owner is because. Well, yeah. You know who your team's owner is, but you don't know all 30 of them or 32 of them.

You know, I mean, you don't want to sport. Yes. I mean, who owns the Miami Dolphins? Oh, Stephen Ross. He's a real estate magnate. Yes.

From Ann Arbor, Michigan. Yes. Why?

He wanted to hustle Tom Brady into the team. Yes, correct. He also owns half of the West Side of Manhattan. All right. Who owns the Billie Check team? The New England Patriots?

Oh, come on. Yes. Robert Kraft from paper industry.

Yes. He also likes everybody knows Robert Kraft. They know Stephen Ross. They they know George Steinberg.

I mean, wait a minute. Steinberg. Yes. He has a son. One of them passed away, but the other one runs the team.

Yes. I think that the New York Yankees owner should shut up just as much as Jerry Jones. Oh, my God. Hal Steinbrenner. You know who he is? Well, he's the grandson of George.

No. See, Mike, now you're screwing up, man. Mike, come on.

Now you're screwing up. Nobody knows what Hal Steinbrenner sounds like. He's not his dad. George Steinbrenner didn't shut up. George Steinbrenner was out here trying to get dirt on his own players. He tried to he tried to get out of Dave Winfield's contract, so he hired some bum off the street to dig up dirt. Could you imagine if that happened now? George Steinbrenner wouldn't be banned for a little while.

He got the boot. You'd have to sell the New York Yankees for all of this crap. Come on. How Steinbrenner needs to shut up. Who in the Yankees front office talks? It's like night and day versus when George Steinbrenner was around. Hey, Shep, do you know what Hal Steinbrenner sounds like? I could I could pinpoint it if if you narrowed it down to two choices. He talks once a year and when he speaks, he says nothing.

Yes, I would agree with that. He talks once a year to Michael Kay for probably 20 minutes and then he disappears. And he says, hey, Brian Cashman. Hey, this is you, man.

I ain't doing this crap. And I'm sure he goes into wherever he goes and he counts his money. Or the money that will be going to Aaron Judge. Well, he needs to he needs to go. How Steinbrenner. Jerry Jones needs to go. But give how Steinbrenner a break. And it's true. People know who the owners of teams are nowadays.

They really do. And I don't want to say it's just your local team. You know, if you just say, hey, who owns? And people in Toronto know, I know you say, hey, who owns the Blue Jays? You know, people go, oh, no, I say, hey, who owns, you know, the Raptors? Oh, no, I don't know who owns it. It's an entity, a corporate entity that owns it. Maple Leaf Sports Entertainment owns it. If I ask somebody and I don't know, the Seahawks fan. Hey, who owns the Braves? They're not going to tell me Liberty Media. You know what's crazy, J.R.?

What's up? If you really want to be objective about this, Dallas may have the two most notable, well-recognized owners in all of pro sports. Okay, excluding Michael Jordan. Yeah, Mark Cuban and Jerry Jones. They might have two of the most three recognizable owners in all of sports.

You see, but that's that's the beautiful thing. This is why you can't take away from what Jerry Jones and I'll get to Mark Cuban, but you can't take away from what Jerry Jones has done for his own bottom line. You can't take away from his his branding, how he's branded the team, how he has sold the team to the public, how he has built the team up.

And it's right there in the valuation. He makes money. Opening up his yap makes him money. And he's not cashing out. He's not selling. But man, he's leaving a whole lot of money for a whole lot of Joneses.

They're going to be swimming in dough generation after generation after generation. And for that, he deserves credit. But he hasn't moved out of the way when it comes down to football.

And that's why we get a mediocre product, because for him to run all this crap on a day to day basis is like it's the worst. You know, sitting around saying, oh, yeah, I'd love a quarterback controversy. Oh, yeah, I got you know what? And this is one of my favorite clips of all time when he talked about Dan Quinn kind of being in the background. And then you got, you know, Mike McCarthy obviously is the current head coach and Jerry Jones is kind of he sounds like a guy who's married to someone.

And he's just like, yeah, I chose you as my wife, but I can go get another one right. Listen to this from a few months ago. He's certainly qualified. He's very qualified. OK.

Yes. I would consider if I didn't have a coach, I would have been interviewing him for coaches. Stop that. It's a good problem to have in a good situation. It's wonderful when you say that.

Make sure that not that I said it, but that the facts are nobody hard works harder to keep Dan here than Mike. That was the plan. That's what we that was the plan. And so pure and simple. And I've seen some people say, well, what was the rationale behind that?

The rationale behind that is or not rationale is that that was a highly competitive way. And I wanted them to be thinking about that they were talking to a guy that could be head coach, the Cowboys. Good. That's enough of that. Mike, say when you do that, huh? He's like, it's fine because I know. Well, Mike, Mike knows that someday somebody will be coach.

The Cowboys other than him. Oh, he could be. Oh, she could be my next wife. Well, she could be my next girlfriend. Yeah, babe, I'm sitting here with you, but you might not be here forever.

I may have to move over to her. He's done amazing with the business of the Dallas Cowboys. He has made himself buckets of money. He's made his family buckets of money.

He's his own worst enemy. 8 5 5 2 1 2 for CBS. Dave is calling from Alabama. You're on CBS Sports Radio. Hey, how's it going tonight, man? It's going very well. Hey, you're in my hometown of Philly, man. Hey, I'm gonna tell you just like this comment on Jerry Jones.

Yeah. If you decide to get a cheese steak. There's a place called Max's that Bar Street, Germantown here. It makes the best cheese steaks in Philly. You do not want cheese with on your cheese steak.

You want melted provolone. They cook it for you. They put the mayonnaise on the bread. They melt the cheese on the meat, put the meat on top of it. They put the bread on top of that meat and cheese, scoop it up, put it on that bread.

And if you want topples on you to get lettuce, tomatoes, green peppers, onions, the whole works. How far away is the restroom? Oh, it's like about 15 to 20 minutes, give or take how fast you drive up Bar Street. Oh, okay. That's nice to know.

Well, thank you. And another thing about and one more thing before I go. Yeah. Hey, Joe. Joe is an egotistic, narcissistic, arrogant old.

His ego is about as big as AT&T Stadium. And all the other owners are like behind the scenes. They're like, hey, look, let's do this, that, whatever.

Monitor operations or whatever and not get in front of the camera, but stay behind the camera and out of sight and out of mind. If you want to have if you want a good owner and everything, they're not going to put that business out there or tell the coach that somebody is going to come in behind them. You want to have a good relationship with your coaching staff and everything else, as well as the player.

Well, if you're an egotistical and narcissist and everything, that relationship, you're going to tarnish that relationship. How many owners have the most valuable sports franchise on Earth? This is a good number, but I just can't name them off my head. It's Jerry Jones. It's him. He owns the most valuable sports franchise on Earth. Who's the most powerful man in the NFL?

His name is Jerry Jones. Yeah, I mean, so I mean, you can be another owner in the NFL. But unless you out here just winning a Super Bowl every year, which no owner does. If the idea as a businessman is to make the most money and damn it, if I can make the Super Bowl or win the Super Bowl as a plus and get in that vicinity, then who's the winner? Jerry Jones is the ultimate winner. It may not be on the field, but he is certainly building up his own his own wallet.

That's the that's the crazy thing. Like, let's let's think about some of the teams and franchises here. The premier teams in North America. You can look at the Yankees, the Yankees, their entire brand is built on tradition. And sure, they haven't won a World Series since 2009, but they just won the American League East again.

It's like here come the Yankees. It's almost like their birthright to go to the playoffs. You think about the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers are the glamour franchise for the NBA. Even when they are just running to the ground, they don't stay there for long because you get a superstar who says, I'm going to go play in Los Angeles. They are a glamour franchise. And so you you have some teams that are just it. They're marketed well.

They're sold. They have history. The Cowboys are no different. But Jerry Jones is in the way. Are they accidentally or maybe not accidentally.

I give them that much credit. Are they going to win one Super Bowl over the next 10 years? Ten years is a long time, but I don't see one in the immediate future.

Not at all. And if I don't see one in the immediate future, then why should I be confident in the long run, five to 10 years from now? Because if I don't see a championship with Dak. Let's let's ax off for four years right there.

And then you've got to get another four years to bring a guy and that's almost a decade right there. If I got to think about almost a decade. Where's Jerry Jones going to be in a decade? I don't know. I don't know where he's going to be. Let's leave it on that note.

It's the general sport we show here on CBS Sports Radio. We're going to take a break. I know where I will be in five minutes right back here with you. We're going to be talking about NBA Media Day.

You'll hear from someone else who's kind of out there. He's a player. He's Kyrie Irving here on CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the J.R. sport brief on CBS Sports Radio.

You're listening to the J.R. sport brief on CBS Sports Radio. What you have, you can't even put a price on it because you have a platform and you always handle your platform with responsibility. And for that, I look up to you and I respect you and I appreciate you. Call in now at 855-212-4CBS. Isn't that what Uncle Ben told Spider-Man? Shep, it was Uncle Ben, right? Uncle Ben?

I'm pretty sure. With great power comes great responsibility. Yeah, that's Uncle Ben told that to Peter Parker. You have a favorite Spider-Man. Do I have a favorite Spider-Man? There's a bunch these days. Oh, here we go. I can't keep up, man. Didn't they just have, they just did like black Puerto Rican Spider-Man, right? Did they do that?

I didn't know that. Zendaya, if Zendaya's in it, sign me up. Zendaya?

She's in? I haven't seen Spider-Man since Tobey Maguire. Oh, no kidding. Really? You didn't see the one with Tom Holland. Who's Tom Holland?

Who's that? Okay, fair. Point taken.

Got it. You've never heard of the name Tom Holland? I don't know who that is.

No kidding. The name sounds semi-familiar. I don't know who. If Tom Holland could walk by me right now, I wouldn't know his face or his name.

I don't know who the hell he is. Zendaya's boyfriend. Why would I know her boyfriend? It's Zendaya. It's like, it's her, she's the Beyonce of her generation. She ain't dating me.

I don't know. Is she, she's probably, what is she, what is she, 20 years old? I know who she is. No, no, Zendaya's not 20. She's gotta be close to 30. I would never be talking about that like a 20-year-old. She's not, yeah, but she's- She's close to 30.

Let's, Google is amazing. Who the hell is this? She's gotta be close to 30. I know she's on that HBO, is it HBO or Showtime, whatever. She's 26 years old. Okay, that's closer to 30 than it is 20. It is. She just turned 26.

God bless her. Yeah, I don't know who Tom Holland, I don't know who the hell these people are. Does he catch a touchdown? No, I don't need to know who he is. No, he doesn't. He'd block a shot?

I don't need to know who he is. You know James Harden. He ain't blocked a shot in 15 years. James Harden doesn't jump.

Yeah, that's true too. Here's a funny story. I don't know what year this was. Doesn't matter. Whenever the All-Star game was in Toronto, you know, they do the clinics, the kids are walking around and you get the superstars and I guess, yeah, he was. He was with the Rockets at the time. And James Harden was leading a portion of the clinic on defense.

That's hilarious. And so I remember walking, I'm minding my business. I'm not thinking about nothing. And the place isn't, it's not ridiculously crowded.

It's not teaming with a million people. And I'm just like, I've spoken to James Harden a million times, don't need to stop and say hi. And I just walked by and I'm recording. And so kids are like dribbling past him and he's supposed to be, you know, a little bit of resistance so the kids can go by.

And he was just kind of waving his arm out because he's not so, if he wanted to defend a child, he could just smack the living hell out of all of them. And so I just, I just recorded and I said, hey, James Harden is playing defense and it just, it just went viral online and everybody and their mother picked it up and just, and now I'm the jerk because I recorded James Harden playing defense. But to your point, Shep, James Harden can facilitate an offense.

He can take step back threes. His MVP days are behind him. That's not what is necessary of him right now with the Philadelphia 76ers and James Harden, like many NBA players of the past two days, just like Jerry Jones, he's done some talking. Media day for the NBA is underway or it's taken place.

Practices are now underway. And we're going to have the first preseason games take place, especially overseas for certain teams, the Warriors, Hawks, also the Wizards, just overseas, which is fun. And so media day is good because we have images like, I don't know, Russell Westbrook in a team photo with LeBron James and Anthony Davis. And the photographer literally has to tell Russell Westbrook, can, can you slide over, just slide over a step? LeBron James doesn't look interested. Russell Westbrook doesn't look like he wants to be there.

And it's actually hilarious. Because Russell Westbrook was asked by the media on whether or not he feels wanted by the Los Angeles Lakers. Take a listen to Westbrook's response. I mean, whether that they want me here or not, it doesn't really matter. Honestly, my job is to be a professional, show up to work like I've always done thus far, do my job the best way I know how to.

And that's it. I mean, we all have jobs that sometimes people at our jobs don't like us. So don't want us there, as you guys probably can attest to in any other job across the world. And as a professional and as a working man, I have to do my job and do it the best way I know how to be able to support and take care of my family.

And that's what I would do. Can't relate. I work with Shep. I mean, who the hell am I working with that I don't like at work? We like Marco too. Yeah, I like Marco, but I like him too. Can't relate.

Maybe that's a Russell Westbrook thing. Nobody bothers me at work. I show up, I do the show and I'm left alone. I love it.

Absolutely amazing. Sorry, you're on your own there. And it sucks for Russell Westbrook. He's playing at home. Fans don't want him at home. LeBron James doesn't want him home. At this point, Russell Westbrook doesn't want to be home. It sucks for him. Meanwhile, speaking of not wanting to be home, it's not home for him.

It's called DC. But here you got a guy, Kevin Durant. He chose to play where he's at. And then he wanted to bail. He didn't want to be there anymore. And so he was asked, Hey, man, why the hell did you even ask for a trade? This is what Durant said. Just a lot of uncertainty, which built some doubt in my mind about the next four years of my career.

I mean, I'm getting older and I want to be in a place that's stable and trying to build a championship culture. So I had some doubts about that. And I voiced them to Joe.

And we moved forward from there. Joe Cy being the owner of the Brooklyn Nets. Well, we know this for sure. He pretty much alluded to it. He was not happy with the fact that James Harden was no longer a member of the team.

He didn't feel that the players were committed. He felt like he was doing too much work. And Kevin Durant is just he's like he's like a mystery box. He's like, what's that game? I used to play this one. Mario Kart. He's like a Super Mario. You know, when you get chef, you know, when you got the question mark box and Mario hits it and you don't know what's going to come out.

I do. Yeah, that's like that's like Kevin Durant trying to think about even when he explains himself. It's just like, is Mario going to get a mushroom? Is he going to get a flower?

What else comes out that stupid box like a turtle shell? Right. Yeah. Yeah. Is that it?

Did I run the gamut? Oh, the invincibility thing, too. That was pretty cool. What was your favorite course? Was it the Bowser obstacle course or the or the Bowser castle?

Which one was it? What game are we talking about? We're talking Mario Kart. In Mario? I don't remember.

Out of space? I don't know. Gotcha.

Then he goes in outer space. That's cool. Sounds about right. Yeah, I like that one. Well, that's like Kevin Durant's brain.

You never know what you get when you hit the box. But anyway, Kevin Durant, you didn't get traded. Why? From your brain, Kevin Durant, we know why you didn't get traded.

But why didn't it happen? That's what he said. I know I'm that good that you're just not going to give me away.

So that's one thing I did appreciate about Sean and Joe is like, yeah, you're too great for us to give you away. Just that easy. That's simple. So I get that. I know who I am. He had a little bit of a giggle there.

The only time he sounded like he was having fun, he was talking about himself and how good he is. And so you didn't get traded. You got Ben Simmons as a teammate. Kyrie Irving is back. How you feeling about that, Durant?

How you feeling? I wasn't disappointed. I still love to play. I knew that wasn't going to be affected. You know, regardless of what happened in the summer, I was not going to let it affect the work that needs to be put out on the court when it's time. So, you know, that's what I lean on, just having fun playing ball.

And I knew that's one thing that wasn't going to stop regardless. OK. Oh, they're going to be fun this year. Ben Simmons is going to be back and added guys like Royce O'Neal. T.J. Warren is on the squad. Still have Patty Mills. Joe Harris should be back to knock down threes and rebound and play defense like the Brooklyn Nets should still be a dangerous team. And then you got Kyrie Irving. He's he's trying to play for some money. And a matter of fact, we're going to take a break when we come back. I want you to hear from Kyrie Irving because Kyrie said that he lost some money due to not being vaccinated.

It's like he got an ultimatum and he chose not to be vaccinated and he lost out on some major bread. We mentioned James Harden. We will hear from him as well. And then even Greg Popovich. What else is new? Greg Popovich has a nice one liner in there, but trying to figure out Kevin Durant.

Yeah, we're done with that guy. His brain is like the mystery box. It's the JR Sportbrief show here with you on CBS Sports Radio eight five five two one two four CBS. You're listening to the JR Sportbrief on CBS Sports Radio.

You're listening to the JR Sportbrief on CBS Sports Radio. Thank you for having me, man. Enjoy your show, man. I've been I've been doing this for about a month, man. I've been locked in.

I would appreciate your work. Call in now at eight five five two one two four CBS. It's the JR Sportbrief show here with you on CBS Sports Radio.

We're talking about NBA Media Day. It has taken place. It has come.

It is gone. And you've got a lot of squads that have already started to practice. And so in a few seconds, I want you to hear from from Kyrie Irving, also James Harden and. I don't know, Greg Popovich is fun. We'll hear from Greg Popovich as well.

You just heard from Marco Belletti tonight. We had a couple of teams go ahead and clinch playoff appearances and their divisions. Got the cards locking up the NL Central and then we got the Yankees taking care of the the East AL East.

And I just just so happen to see and this is what we have now in 2022 cameras everywhere and social media. The Yankees are celebrating. And by the way. Aaron Judge did not hit number 61 tonight. But the Yankees are celebrating in Toronto five to victory. And there's a camera. And then you see Nestor Cortez, probably the best starting pitcher for the Yankees this year. He's having a beer. He's has his goggles on and somebody sneaks up behind him. And they they pour a beer down the back of his pants and you don't see who it is.

It's just like a five second clip. Here's Nestor Cortez. Here's someone pull his pants away and pour beer back there. And it's going viral. It's just like Nestor Cortez is taking a beer down the back of his pants. And I'm not even going to start to tell you what some of these. Some of these comments look like.

I'll let you use your imagination. But meanwhile, Aaron Judge did not hit home run number 61. But John Sterling. Radio voice for the Yankees. I guess he's getting that practice in. This is what the game sounded like when the Yankees clinched another division title. Trevino deals a ground ball in the infield. Gleyber Torres throws the first in time ball game over Eastern Division in the American League over Yankees win. Yankees win. It doesn't sound the same if it's not a World Series.

And don't waste your breath next time. John Sterling 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 CBS says 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 CBS. Moe was calling from Miami.

You're on the JR sport brief show. How's it going, sir? It's going good, man. What's up, bro? When you basically said the three names, the three amigos, the original Amigos, Westbrook, Durant and Harden.

It's crazy how these guys don't even think about, you know what? Let's at least try one more time and do something because it's like it's always a different drama with each person, especially with Russell and the Lakers. He definitely don't like Patrick Beverley and he got to play with them and the stuff in practice. You got Katie that basically just took the whole world that took the whole summer over with his request to trade. And you got James Harden, who's basically not the same Houston. James Harden.

That's not really doing nothing. So it's just so crazy right now in Kyrie Irving. I don't know, man. Like you said, he's the enigma.

He's just a mystery. He's like he's like that Rubik's Cube that you trying to do your best and it's not working. Oh, yeah, I quit. I quit Rubik's Cubes in the third grade. I see these little kids try to with the with the Rubik's Cube. I see the little kids do it.

He doesn't in like three steps. I want to kick them. Sorry. I'm not supposed to say I want to kick a kid.

You get my point. It's like you can't do that. I'll never be able to, you little kid. Never mind. Let me get away from that.

855-212-4CBS. He talked about the three amigos and these guys just is always something new. And so Kyrie Irving had a chance to speak.

It's probably a bad thing. And he talked about returning. We know that it looked like he was on his way out the door. You didn't get a maximum contract extension.

You didn't play a good portion of last year due to not being vaccinated. And then he was he took a stance, which I am perfectly OK with. But then at times it was like he wanted to die on that hill and then not die on it and then speak for other people. And then other times he didn't want to.

And it was just a whole big mess. So I can't blame James Harden for wanting to bail. And yeah, as much of a sad move that it was from Kevin Durant, especially the fact that his contract extension didn't even start yet.

I can understand Kevin Durant being frustrated, even though, hey, man, these are your people, bro. This is what Kyrie Irving had to say about last season and not being vaccinated. And he revealed, hey, I got I got an ultimatum to either get paid and take this money or sit home and lose out.

This is what he said. I gave up four years, one hundred and something million deciding to be unvaccinated. And that was the decision because contract.

Get vaccinated or be unvaccinated and there's a level of uncertainty of your future, whether you're going to be in this league, whether you're going to be on this team. So I had to deal with that real life circumstance of losing my job for this decision. So I was dealing with all of those emotions while trying to.

Secure my future for my family. OK, now. I get it. He's a human being like everybody else. This man has made two hundred million dollars in earnings in basketball earnings.

He has made two hundred million dollars. Forgive me. If I'm not all that concerned about, oh, my God, the world, the weight of the world is now on your shoulders because you you didn't want to be vaccinated and oh, my God, you you got to think about your future and your. Oh, man, I get it.

You're a human being, but stop. And we got people out here and these are the same people, quote unquote, that Kyrie Irving wanted to speak up about. Well, the people don't have voices. Well, I'm going to use mine.

Well. Yo ass went back to work, right? What about all those people who did it? Did you speak up for them when you were going back to work? Did you champion their cause all the time where you cashed your checks?

No. A lot of people who had to make decisions as to what they wanted to do. And a lot of those decisions weren't coming with, I don't know, a 20 million dollar salary and playing basketball.

People had to figure out whether or not they were going to work, period. Just a. He's just an interesting fellow, and here's the thing, Kyrie Irving, he's going to go play. He's going to ball out when he's actually healthy. Outside of the whole vaccination issue, let's not forget, Kyrie Irving is and has been injury prone.

So this ain't say nothing new. Speaking of injury prone, James Harden, now that he's actually in shape, he says that don't expect injuries. Expect for him to ball out. This is what he had to say about looking more fit. At this point, his dieting, his proper rest, and then it's just, you know, for me, I think just strengthening my muscles, gaining more muscle mass, you know, which I've always had.

Wasn't healthy enough to put the proper work in like I'm used to. So this something was huge for me in that aspect of making sure, you know, the heel runs and the weightlifting was important. I don't know what the hell that man just said outside of saying he lost 100 pounds, which, you know, is a lie. I heard I heard fitness.

I heard exercise. I heard something about lifestyle. So what does that mean? Let's let James Harden in strip clubs. Are the strippers here in Philly, are they going to feel it in their purses?

Like what's going to happen? Is he not drinking on the weekends? I don't know. Maybe trips to Atlantic City less of though. I have no idea.

I know this. Joel Embiid was out there playing with a broken face and two busted hands. Joel Embiid is like one step away from it literally.

He's one step away from hitting a crack on the street and his whole body crumbling. James Harden better show up and rock it out this year. Let Maxie become an all star. You be an all star. Let Joel Embiid be in that space for MVP and let's see the Sixers do some damage. Let's see the Sixers go out there and beef with the Brooklyn Nets. Can I get that much?

Can I get that at minimum for this season? I'd absolutely love it. I really would.

It's the JR Sportbree show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. I'll tell you what else I love. I love winners. Greg Popovich. He knows that he's not winning the damn thing. The Celtics. They don't know anything. And then the Raiders. They're the opposite of winners.

They got zero wins. We'll talk about all of them on the other side. It's the JR Sportbree show CBS Sports Radio. Anywhere fans go to cheer on their team. There are behind the scenes MVPs ensuring everything is game day ready. We see you, Joe. Fixing seats so every fan can enjoy every game. And Allie, who keeps her stadium running smoothly from the moment the first game starts to the last play of the season. At Grainger, you're our MVPs.

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