JR SportBrief Hour 2

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Subscribe to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast. This is sports radio coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to everybody tuned in and locked in all over North America. We got people listening on their local radio stations, their local affiliates. We got people locked in on the free Audacy app, A-U-D-A-C-Y. All my friends on the road, maybe not on the road, listening on Sirius XM Channel 158.

You can listen on a smart speaker and you can always, always lock in anywhere you want in any type of way. Super producer and host, Dave Shepherd, he's holding it down in New York City and we've already had an interesting night. Mark Cuban is mad at the NBA.

What else is new? I'll explain to you why Mark Cuban is mad in a few minutes. John Moran is back. John Moran returned this evening for the Memphis Grizzlies. He decided to come off of, well he didn't decide to come off of the bench.

They decided to pull him off of the bench. The Memphis Grizzlies, they had a home game against the Rockets. Everybody beats the Rockets. The Grizzlies won 130 to 125. John Moran off of the bench decided to score 17 points and also contribute five assists and four rebounds in 24 minutes. John Moran was flying all over the damn place, had an acrobatic layup, had an acrobatic dunk, was out there dunking on folks.

A matter of fact, before he even touched the basketball, John Moran entered into the game and received a standing ovation. Take a listen to this, courtesy of the Grizzlies Radio Network. Grizzlies Live presented by Ford and your Mid-South Ford Dealers, featuring Pete Brannigan, Brevin Knight, Chris Vernon, and Rob Fisher.

Check local listings and bristolings.com for channel guides. Eric. A round of applause. Here is John Moran checking into the game.

He has the custom made masks. That's the fracture that he suffered. 12 is back. I believe in the game in Houston if I'm not mistaken. Correct?

Yeah. Last time he played. John Moran, he didn't just get a loud ovation. Everybody was standing up from the floor seats all the way to the top of the arena as John Moran was welcome back and then he scored 17 points. I am almost certain the reception isn't going to be as kind when the Memphis Grizzlies decide to go out there on the road. He is one of the most exciting players in the NBA.

No one can doubt that. Their next game, the Grizzlies next game, will actually take place on Friday. That will be a road game against Houston.

So they get Houston back to back. And John Moran, a part of that 17 points off the bench tonight, he had a big old dunk. What else is new? Take a listen to this, second quarter. Moran drives left baseline into the room. Oh, he jams with two hands and gets fouled. Moran with an explosive move left baseline brings the crowd to their feet as he dunks it through contact, and he is back and better than ever.

No, he did not. That was impressive. Oh, here we go with the Homerism. Oh, he's back and better than ever. Stop it. Come on now. John Moran was out there dunking on people before he became a, well, before he made his public dumbass decisions.

He ain't better than ever. Stop it. He did talk to Bally Sports and South and Grizzlies station after the game. He had his daughter with him. And they, it was sweet.

Just listen to this. Congratulations on the win. Oh, that's sweet.

It's nice. Good for him. John Moran's dad and uncle were also at the game.

They were courtside. John Moran's dad doing what he does, you know, just having a good time. And both he and his uncle had on sweatshirts that basically said redemption. And so I guess we are now witnessing the redemption story of John Moran. I certainly hope he can redeem himself and not for the betterment of me, but for the betterment of himself and those that are close to him.

So John Moran returns tonight. Warm welcome, as you can expect from the hometown fans in Memphis. And let's see how brutal they are when he gets to Houston. Let's see how brutal the fans are when they actually get to the playoffs. I hope his, I hope the worst is behind him.

Fingers crossed on that. At the same time, I told you Mark Cuban, not the happiest of campers tonight. And well, you can think of one reason. His team lost. Yes, the Dallas Mavericks lost at home to the Golden State Warriors.

Sure, he'd be upset about that. They lost with the final score 127 to 125. Luka Doncic having to go out there and do it by himself with no Kyrie Irving. Luka had 30 points, even though he only shot two of 10 from downtown. But there was a play in the third quarter that the Dallas Mavericks feel that was unfair. It didn't go their way. Mark Cuban went on Twitter and basically said it was our ball. There was a timeout called. The referees said it was our ball.

They didn't tell us that it wasn't our ball. And the Warriors had one of the easiest two points that you will ever see or witness in your life. I want you to take a listen to this play. This description. This is this is the Golden State Warriors. This is courtesy of NBC out in the bay. Warriors basket in the second half. There's no defenders.

He's like, Hey, thank you very much. This is I've never seen this in my life. So the Dallas Mavericks were on one side of the court. The Golden State Warriors won the other and basically the Warriors inbound of the ball for an easy layup and the Mavs were just on the complete opposite end. And so Mark Cuban and the Dallas Mavericks are actually protesting the results of this two point game.

It's crazy. They plan to file a formal protest with a focus on the referee mistake that led to two free Warriors points late in the third quarter. And Mark Cuban, always colorful, went on Twitter and said. The ref called the Mavs ball.

The announcer in the arena announced it. Then there was a timeout. During the timeout, the official changed the call and never told us. Then when they saw us line up on the other side of the court like it was our ball, he just gave the ball to the Warriors.

Never said a word to us. The Warriors got an easy basket. Crazy that it would matter in the two point game.

Can you sense the sarcasm? Mark Cuban said worst officiating non-call mistake possibly in the history of the NBA. All they had to do was tell us and they did it. And Shep, you said that the Mavs and Mark Cuban protested a call, what, three years ago?

Yeah, 2020. It was originally a John Collins goaltender offensive interference, which they rescinded. And so obviously the Mavs at the time lost by one possession.

Same thing, same action. And then the result, which is going to be this instance too, JR. The NBA is not going to give the Warriors a loss because of this and the Mavericks a win.

And they're certainly not going to replay the final two minutes of the third quarter. This is just him having sour grapes and being bitter. That's all this is. Yeah, it's politicking. But to lead where? Nowhere.

To lead absolutely nowhere. I mean, if we could hit the fast forward, but is that Dwyane Wade's? I think I saw Dwyane Wade's daughter in a commercial. Really? Yeah, I think I did. The second oldest, right? I believe. Her name is Zaya. Yes, I'm pretty sure.

Yes, yes. I looked up on the screen and I said, wait, I'm in the studio. I looked up and I said, wait a minute, that's Dwyane Wade's daughter. That's right.

That is the second oldest because they have the little girl and then they have the, where's the oldest boy? He didn't end up doing nothing, did he? No, he played with, JR, correct me if I'm wrong, I could have sworn he played with, right, he played with Bronny. But he never, yeah, he never- Zaya. Zaya Wade, correct.

He never went the college route and I don't, it backfired. Wow. So now there is no Zaya Wade, okay.

Right, unfortunately. American professional basketball player. Oh my God. Zaya is a basketball player who plays for the Cape Town Tigers of the Basketball Africa League.

Wow, the more you know. He's not even in the G League? He is, whoa, he's older than what I thought, oh my goodness. His oldest, he's 21, he's gonna turn 22, well no, February passed already, how about me?

He just turned 21. Yeah, when Dwyane Wade, remember Dwyane Wade had that triple double in the Elite Eight back in 2003 when he was with like Deener at Marquette? Yeah, I remember that from Marquette. Right, so he was, he was a dad while doing that.

You don't hear that too often. Yeah, I do recall that. Wow, he was on the Salt Lake City Stars in the G League.

What a shock, right? Dwyane Wade, part owner of the team. Wow, and now he's playing in Cape Town. Wow, you heard so much about Dwyane Wade's son. But anyway, good for Dwyane Wade. He witnessed the Miami Heat beat the New York Knicks in Miami. Dwyane Wade decided to pop up and make a cameo appearance down in Miami, good for him.

And yeah, congratulations. Anyway, Mark Cuban ain't going nowhere. Dallas Mavericks aren't going anywhere. You know, while we're on the subject of teams that are going absolutely nowhere, let me bring you up to the Portland Trail Blazers because the Blazers are playing basketball, or they did, they're pretty much finishing this up right now.

Oh, poor Damian Lillard, this guy. Portland has taken on Utah. The score right now, the Blazers are leading 118 to 105. But despite this, they still ain't going nowhere. The Portland Trail Blazers have a record of 31 and 40. Damian Lillard is one of the NBA's top 75 players of all time.

He's one of the best clutch shooters that you will ever see in your life. And we know they are going nowhere. And there are conversations now about what happens. Do we sit Damian Lillard out the rest of the season? Does he stick around past this season? Are the Blazers rebuilding?

Because he's playing with, I'm sorry to say it, I watched my words carefully, that they ain't nobody, man. They winning. Cam Reddish and you got Grant. Okay, Grant is the best guy there. Nurkic is whatever.

Simons is good, but he's young. It's a nothing team to win. And so Damian Lillard talked about this at a press conference the other day, and he addressed the concerns and thoughts about his immediate future. Listen to this. You know, we've pretty much fallen out of the race for the 10th spot, you know, unless we go out there and win every game when you really look around and really look at it truthfully. So, I mean, right now I'm just not ready to not play.

Last season I missed, I think, 52 games or something like that. So I love to play. I love the competition. And, you know, I just haven't been ready to give that up. But it does come up a point in time where you look around and you like, you know, when do you stop putting your competitive nature out front and look at, you know, what a game of chess would look like at that point? You know, you got to make your decision based on that.

So, we'll see. Man, people have been begging Damian Lillard to leave this team forever. Like, fine, you're getting contracts.

Oh, you could make 50 per to do what? Lose? I'd have loved to see Damian Lillard on a New York Knicks from a few years ago. Like, can we free this man? Can he go somewhere else? I understand he's loyal and he enjoys it. And winning a championship is difficult and people don't understand everything that goes into it.

And you're not a complete loser if you don't win one. But damn, can we give him a chance? Everybody in Oregon loves him, by the way. Portland loves him. I didn't take two steps in the city without some type of acknowledgement of Damian Lillard.

They love him out there. But it's time to go. Please do it before he's a washed up bum. He's 32 years old. And then we've seen what other guys, well, he's not Russell Westbrook. I feel bad for Westbrook. Anyway, speaking of Russell Westbrook, one of his teammates actually went down with an injury. This is another update.

Sorry. It's Paul George. Paul George went down with that hyperextended knee yesterday.

He was carted out of the building, not like into an ambulance or anything. But Paul George is going to be out probably the rest of the season and he's going to be reevaluated in two to three weeks. Can we wipe out the Clippers, please? Hey, Shep, can we wipe them out? They're done, right?

I don't know if they're quite done. If you have a healthy, and healthy is the operative word here, Paul George and Kawhi looks like he's back, JR. Like, first half of the season, he was not typical Kawhi Leonard. But he has found the rhythm of what we saw in 2019 and then 2014 with the Spurs. If Westbrook can keep playing efficient and Powell can give them the minutes off the bench and Gordon can give them good minutes and Zubac plays the way we're accustomed to seeing from him the last two years, they're going to be a dangerous out in the West. You got any more ifs?

Well, I mean, that was a lot of ifs. It's time to lose the one coach LeBron has had that he didn't have to carry to the finals. So I like the Clippers, JR.

I do. I don't give a damn about them until I know what happens to Paul George. That's fair. I ain't thinking about them. Yeah, if Paul George was healthy, they would have a chance because the West is open. Exactly. I'm not. I ain't think about these bums until another month.

That's it. And even if Paul George comes back, I mean, unless he has some type of Giannis at that Akumpo comeback, it's it's it's hard to knock life out here. Paul George, the poor guy is finally well, he's finally healthy for a decent stretch this time this year. He's been out years before he's been hurt in the bubble.

He was complete ass. And now Paul George here, hyper his knee bent the wrong way. It was just uncomfortable to watch. I'm like, damn, if my knee went that way, I would like he stretched out his ligaments. He got a sprained knee.

Your knee is not supposed to bend that way. But good luck to the Clippers. They are just one of these sports franchises that are cursed in an ideal world. Paul George can come back. The Clippers can be competitive. Maybe we get a West finals with them and the Nuggets and all as well.

But these guys haven't even played together. And then here, let me just give you this update on this guy. They got the nerve to tell us that that Zion might be coming back.

I'm like, get out of here with that. Willie Green, the coach of the Pelicans. He spoke to the media and he was asked about Zion and his return. And he's like, yeah, well, he trying and I don't know. And I don't know. And listen to this crap. So the news just came out about Zion.

Just as far as you know, what what is it to do for all court activities? Not not a ton right at the moment. I said it before, but because of the injury, we're just taking a slower approach with this rehabilitation. He'll get on the floor and starting to move a bit, starting to do some running, doing some shooting.

But we're taking it kind of slow. And the belief as of right now is that you guys are hoping he will be back before the end of the regular season, correct? We'll see. You know, I can't confirm if he will be back or not, but we'll see. Man, I am waiting on Zion to play basketball like I'm just waiting to hit the lotto and I don't play lotto.

Like is there certain guys I got no hope or faith in? If Zion came back and played in 40 games, I'd be like, man, I'd be looking at my watch. OK, he's about to be done in five. Like, come on. And he's an exciting, fun player to watch. He just can't stay healthy. Lose some of them LBS, man, it's possible.

Still be dominant out there, bigger than everybody. It's the JR Sport Brief show on CBS Sports Radio. Let's take a break. And when we come back, we'll talk about people that are actually playing basketball. The Sweet 16.

I can't believe it. We're getting ready to move on with March Madness. And we are going to have a conversation with college basketball expert Deshaun Tate on the other side of this break. It's the JR Sport Brief show CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio.

It is the JR Sport Brief show on CBS Sports Radio. I can't believe it. Last week we started with 68 teams and then we went down to 64. And here we are about a week later in March. Madness is down to the Sweet 16. We got a full slate of games on both Thursday and Friday to chop things down to the Elite 8.

And back with us another week to look at some of these cool matchups taking place in Madison Square Garden and ultimately out in Vegas, etc. Is Deshaun Tate from Tate's Take Hoops, basketball analyst and the only college basketball expert I go to. Deshaun, thank you for taking the time to hop on right in front of these Sweet 16 games.

No worries. Thanks for having me, JR. I'm right here in the heart of Times Square Manhattan.

I don't know if it's on the same thing or not, but I decided to do it outside of the hotel room so you can get a little bit of the ambiance to go along with it. I don't know. Maybe you need me to bring you a cheesecake or something, JR? What's going on?

No, no thank you. I could give a damn about Times Square and enjoy that hell hole as much as you want. But on the basketball side, someone who's looking for a slice of pizza and also looking for a cab ride happens to be Tom Izzo. We know that he is certainly looking forward to being in New York City and taking on Kansas State.

He's back here. He got a lot of New York City players on his team. And then we got Kansas State, who obviously knocked off Kentucky.

And John Calipari wasn't necessarily happy about that with Marquise Noel. What are you looking forward to? What should we look out for in that game tomorrow?

Man, a lot of horn-punk and I hope it doesn't make for bad radio, but I'll tell you what. This matchup, it reminds me a lot of how I thought about last year. We had an instance, and just walk with me for a second. At the very beginning of the season before any game was played, I decided to take Duke to win the whole thing and get to the Final Four. I say that because my biggest concern was in the Sweet 16 matchup with Texas Tech. If they found a way to get past them, I felt really good about their chances to get to the Final Four. Just based off of the matchup alone, and that's how I feel about Michigan State playing against Kansas State on this one. Kansas State maybe not necessarily coming with some of the size, not that Michigan State has a lot, but coming with some of the size that Michigan State, or not coming with some of the size that Michigan State does have.

We started talking about those guards, especially based out of New York right here at home. That is where you have Tyson Walker from Michigan State playing up against Noel. In that phenomenal matchup, Noel, I've seen him put up 20 points, 30 points, maybe even a 40 ball earlier this season. Then you have Keontae Johnson, everybody understands, or overstands rather, the unfortunate set of circumstances. When he was at Florida State a couple of years ago, he passed out on the floor and so forth.

He's now at Kansas State. They have some of the experience that you need around this time of the year. Maybe not as much the coaching in comparison to Tom Izzo who has the resume in his first year and Jerome Thang. But he's done a phenomenal job and this is expected to be a really, really good matchup. Both teams, very good balance between offense both and defense.

Talk to me about heading out west. We know the nightcap for tomorrow's start of the Sweet 16 will be UCLA and Gonzaga. That should be a highly or hotly contested matchup. Who should we look out for to come out top there?

Can you even lean one way or the other? It's really going to be difficult too, very much like Michigan State and Kansas State. It's kind of going to be a 50-50 who wants it more potentially coming down to the last possession of the game. Both of these teams who made it to the Final Four a couple of years ago where Gonzaga knocked off UCLA to make it to the title game are returning some very key contributors to that Final Four run that both teams made. So that's going to be relatively interesting if you will. We always talk about Drew Simi who is one of the players that obviously seems like he's been part of college basketball for quite some time.

But I think it's going to be good. I'll give you one name that you want to keep your eyes and your ears open for. A phenomenal player named Julian Stravitz. Now I'm not saying he's going to accomplish all the same things that this guy has on the collegiate end or the NBA side. But he reminds me of Draymond Green in terms of his style of play and so forth.

Keep your eyes and ears open for him. I'm going to pick Gonzaga to go ahead and advance on this one. OK. Deshaun Tate, college basketball expert, is joining us live from New York City right ahead of the Sweet 16 matchups in New York City at Madison Square Garden. Let's go out to the Midwest though or I should say the South region. On Friday we're going to have San Diego State taking on Alabama. We know all about Darius Miller and unfortunately the incident that he was involved in now having to walk around with security. We know about San Diego State.

We've received a ton of calls over the past several days. Excited San Diego State fans about potentially what they could do in knocking off Alabama. What do you think about that matchup in particular? I know that's going to sound crazy and may not necessarily be a popular opinion, but I am going to go with Kansas. I'm sorry.

Excuse me. I am going to go with San Diego State on this one. I think, you know, even when you're dating back to the COVID year. And of course, I definitely hate to be a reminder of the year that it was supposed to be the final four in Atlanta. They had some of the best chances to be able to get there. They're returning a lot of the same players from that particular year. If you can remember back, that was the Dayton, the Kansas, the Baylor and San Diego State expected to be all number one seeds at that time. Remaining players there from that particular time.

When you're talking about Brandon Miller, obviously a lot of attention is going to be paid on, paid attention to him per se. But you also got some other interesting pieces there. They got some experience. Javon Quinterly amongst some other guys. But they do have some useful pieces that they do rely upon quite a bit.

Some of the key contributors and so forth. But I do like San Diego State to go ahead and advance. But it's going to be really tough, obviously, with somebody like Brandon Miller on the floor who I think is completely blasphemous that he is not in the same conversation for National Player of the Year. At least, you know, within three, four, five finalists. Him not even being on that list of ten.

I think that's somewhat un-American. Deshaun Tate is joining us here. The JR Sport Reshow CBS Sports Radio. Between Thursday and Friday's games, we got some teams that folks did not expect to be here. We're obviously taking a look at Princeton. If we look at the games that will take place tomorrow. Florida Atlantic is here.

They're talking about how they're going to get ready for a rugby-type game against Tennessee. What team do you think that shouldn't quote-unquote be here has the best chance of surprising everybody moving on to the Elite Eight? Yes, that team could be San Diego State.

I'm not, maybe not necessarily as much Princeton. But I will say Florida Atlantic. Without Zakai Ziegler, the starting point guard for Tennessee, I think that is going to be a difficult task to overcome against a very confident Florida Atlantic team. You know, we pay so much attention to Princeton and Fairleigh Dickinson in this particular tournament. But don't forget, Florida Atlantic is a mid-bager themselves.

But they've kind of been overshadowed a little bit. They've got great guards. They're very well coached.

They go very deep onto the bench. They've got a 6'9", 6'10 guy in addition to a seven-footer as well. That could be very difficult for a very experienced, however, Tennessee team. Without the starting point guard, and everybody knows that you're filling out that bracket. You're talking about surviving. You're talking about advancing. That's something that you have to have is that experienced leadership and that experienced guard play.

Tennessee doesn't have that, but they do have grown men. They're going to be willing to muck it up. Not a lot of offense, a ton of defense, and be a very, very physical team.

It's going to be tough. My answer to that question is definitely Florida Atlantic. I can definitely see them getting all the way to the Elite Eight.

Final question here, and quickly for Deshaun Tate, college basketball expert. Who do you now have readjusted here heading to Houston, Texas in the Final Four? Now that the dust has settled a little bit and we've narrowed things down, who do you see advancing? I'm going to go Houston onto the Final Four, playing their own backyard.

I know that it's a lot of pressure on them. Could be potentially matching up with Texas in the Elite Eight to decide who goes on to Texas. But even more so, I'll go with San Diego State on the other side. I'll go with Kansas State over Michigan State. Shh, don't tell anybody. I know you're not used to hearing that from me, JR. And then the last team is Gonzaga, the sneaky team. Everybody is kind of X'ed and crossed them off of the list in terms of making it to the Final Four and winning a national championship because they've disappointed so many people in the last X amount of years.

This could be the year that they do it and it wouldn't surprise me the least bit. Okay, Deshaun, appreciate you checking in with us from New York City. Enjoy the basketball at the world's most famous arena tomorrow. Where can people follow you and keep up with all of your tweets and musings?

No other place. We call it where basketball lives, the most entertaining, most informational, most educational basketball content on the planet in the form of a podcast. Finally, no other place than Tate State. Thank you so much to Deshaun Tate. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. When we come back, the phone lines will open if you want to give us a holler.

That's 855-212-4CBS. I know that there are tons of San Diego State fans who are feeling pretty happy about what Deshaun Tate just said. Someone who's also very happy, he returned to basketball. At one point in time, he was lighting it up in college and I guess a poor choice on words. He's back to lighting it up on an NBA court. He's Ja Morant.

He just spoke to the media. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. I even got my wife into listening to you, man. You know, like when I come home at night, she already have you on when I walk in the house. I'm getting out the car, you know, and then I'm walking in the house and I'm still hearing you, man.

Call in now at 855-212-4CBS. It's the JR Sport Brief Show on CBS Sports Radio. And there's another basketball game going. How about this team is...

I can't even keep up. The Lakers are 11th in the West. They're beating the Phoenix Suns at home right now, 72-60. Austin Reeves has 15 points.

LeBron James must love this guy. Congratulations to him. I already told you about another matchup that took place this evening. The Memphis Grizzlies beat the Houston Rockets at home, 130-125. This is a game of significance because of the return of Ja Morant. Coming off of the bench in his first game back since serving his suspension, 17 points, 24 minutes. And it appears that he's going to come off the bench for maybe a couple more games.

It wouldn't shock me or surprise me. No one should be surprised if he's inserted back into the starting lineup as he gets his wits about him. Ja Morant spoke after the game, and he talked about how it felt to finally be back on home court. It felt good, man.

Still a little bit of mixed emotions. I was excited to be back. I love these guys. I love our fans. I love the organization. They continue to support throughout this process I'm going through, and they help me a lot. I was excited to be back, happy we were able to get a win.

Just got to continue what I've been doing and be ready to go each and every night. Yeah, it's always nice to talk to the home crews. Ja Morant having a conversation with Valley Sports. And the Memphis Grizzlies, as it stands right now in the Western Conference, they're still seeded number two. They're three and a half games behind the Denver Nuggets, who are sitting in that number one spot. But for whatever reason, Ja Morant is interested in talking about the Southwest division and winning that.

Take a listen to Ja Morant. Big time. Pretty much handling business on that side, which we got to continue. Obviously, we love that we won the division, but we're trying to win the championship.

We got to continue to do the little things that was helping us win games and continue to do the things we've been doing good. Don't nobody care. Yeah.

Why they ask him that? Doesn't nobody care about no stupid division? Who's thinking about a division when it comes down? I haven't looked at a division. Shup, do you care about a division? No, I mean, God, silver medals seem like a dynasty compared to a division, right?

Yeah, I don't I don't hear anybody talk. Is that what the Memphis Grizzlies do? The Memphis Grizzlies have to celebrate? And this is even worse than a silver medal shot. Yes, well, JR, they haven't. So the one time I remember they made a Western Conference Finals and they got swept and it was against the Spurs.

And that was, you know, Marc Gasol and Conley and those boys. Yeah, grind. What do they call that? Yeah. Yep. Grind. Exactly. A grind house.

A grind house with Zivo. Zivo was the heart and soul of that team for sure. But listen, that's the most success they have ever tasted. And obviously with John Barrent, the best they ever did was make it to a divisional round game. You know, the semi-conference finals in the West and they got their ass kicked by the Warriors. So to them to win back to back divisions, if it's the Warriors, if it's, you know, championships, you know, teams, that doesn't mean anything. But for them, back to back divisions, it's probably the only time they've ever done that in franchise history. If they keep up that stupid attitude, we should send them back to Vancouver. Well, listen, considering where they were a month ago, winning this division again, you know, could be worse. Let's put it that way.

Yawn. Yeah, John Barrent needs to be happy that he's playing basketball. Even aside from that, Kyrie Irving did not play tonight.

I told you that the Dallas Mavericks lost to the Golden State Warriors 127-125. A couple of days ago, Kyrie Irving was asked about the return of Ja Morant. And I had to just scratch my head through his entire commentary because a lot of it was just jabs. He put himself in the shoes of Ja Morant and he's like, oh, the media can do this and the media can do that. And I'm just like, oh, my God, the lack of accountability is just always so striking.

This was Kyrie Irving from a few days ago before we saw Ja Morant back. When you're dealing with particular hardships in the public eye, especially with the media being attracted to, you know, just keeping up with what we're doing or what's the next kind of grab or story, I don't want to assume anything by every media member, but that's just the way it seems for me and my perspective is just there was an overload of judgment on Ja and there was an overload of judgment on what I had going on. And there's usually an overload of judgment from the public court of opinion. So with that working hand in hand and we're such a public league, we're going to deal with situations that may be very difficult to handle for the person going through it. But I think that's why we stretch our hands out to each one another so we can just be there for each other. At the end of the day, I wish we can say we can control what the media says or we can control what other people say, but we can't. So with Ja dealing with that, I think the initial shock was dealing with the public opinion and all of the extra hoopla that comes with it.

But then there's a real human being dealing with emotion. So I cared about that aspect. That's where I poured my energy to. So I wished his family well wishes. I wished him well wishes and I just pray for his peace of mind. That's all I really care about in this thing. The basketball thing is one thing, but peace of mind is everything. So I'm happy to see him out there today. I was happy to see him out there today and I just want to make it through.

He has a long career ahead of him and I don't think anybody should be controlling it but him. I need a drink. Like with the whole middle part of that, it's like saying, oh, man, the house is on fire, the house is on fire, the house is on fire. And then afterwards, everybody's okay. The next thing you do is go, well, what caused the fire? Like this man is only focusing in on the aftermath. But in the case of the fire, Ja Morant lit it. And then Kyrie Irving is mad at everybody or not mad. He takes issue with everybody going, oh, my God, well, it's on fire, it's on fire, it's on fire.

Well, stop shouting, it's on fire. He lit it. Like it's accountability and then for him to even put himself back in there. Kyrie Irving could have said, I am focused on him and his well-being. It's tough what he went through and the criticism that came with it.

I wish him well. But then he turned it into a whole diatribe on the media and the attention. It's like, man, do you realize this is what you signed up for?

You, you, yeah, you, Kyrie, and now nobody asked you about you. You're relating it to yourself. This is what you signed up for. It's like me sitting here on the radio and going, oh, man, I'm going to, I'm going to quit tomorrow because somebody said, oh, I disagree with you. That's like me saying, I need to take a personal day.

Someone told me that, you know, I didn't like this or I didn't like that or I don't like this guy and I just need to take a day off. Like all this, this soft stance. By the way, Kyrie Irving didn't play tonight. I'm just checking boxes right now. On teams, I'm waiting to be eliminated from the postseason.

I got no shame in my game. Dallas Mavericks, I don't expect them to do nothing this year. It's like Kyrie Irving and Luca flipping a coin as to who will be hurt and unavailable for a game. They ain't going anywhere.

Oh, I can go ahead and who else can I think about? Oh, we can go right to the Grizzlies. They are so difficult to root for. You got John Moran and I wish him nothing but the best personally, but professionally, the Grizzlies as a team, they're unlikable. Dylan Brooks is out here being a fake goon and getting suspended again.

Pushing camera man. He's like he's like fake Dennis Rodman. You want to hear him talk about Draymond?

What is he going to say? Let's hear him. You actually listen to that for the two minutes or whatever? Yeah, my teammates show me. I don't really watch those things. You know what I mean? Yeah, they showed me and then I watched the whole thing.

It was some funny stuff. Not a championship player. I feel like my stuff that I said was facts and we'll see at the end of the year what they do with him. Does it piss you off?

No, no, because I know I'm a better player than him. Okay, all right. When's something first, man? Just everybody yapping and chatting.

Saying a whole lot of stuff but saying a whole lot of nothing. I used to like the Grizzlies. Dylan Brooks is reason enough just to root against them. It's the JR Sport Brief Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. We're going to take a break and when we come back.

I'm going to do what I do every Wednesday night into Thursday morning. I'm going to bring you a new top six list. And we're not going to look at players who just say nothing or suck or a bunch of losers.

We're going to look at the opposite. I'm going to give you a top six list of some of the best captains and leaders the sports world has ever seen. Somebody like Dylan Brooks could learn a thing here on CBS Sports Radio. Hey guys, this is Keenan Thompson. I have a problem with you. Yes, you. None of y'all told me that Auto Trader has millions of new and used cars that I can shop from home. I thought we were friends.

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