It is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to everybody listening. People at home, people at work, people driving, people on the highways, the byways, protecting people, helping people, saving people, delivering things, delivering packages.
Maybe you're delivering a person as in an Uber, as in a Lyft. I don't know. Well, thank you for being here. This show gets started every weekday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific, and it's been a busy day. Michael Malone fired his head coach of the Denver Nuggets. Last night, we saw the Florida Gators with a big comeback, another comeback, to become college basketball champions.
So we've had a busy show already just in the span of an hour. Thank you, oh, oh, oh so much to Mike LaTulip from the field of 68, former college basketball player for Illinois, also now an analyst. Thank you for coming through to talk to us about all things college basketball.
And how about this? In about 20 minutes, we're going to be joined by someone who won a championship with the Florida Gators. No, not last night. He was on the team that went back to back in 2006, 2007. He won an NBA championship. His name, Corey Brewer. Yeah, I'm looking forward to having that chat with Corey in about 20 minutes.
Get his thoughts on the Gators, what they did, get some experiences about what it feels like to go back to back. We'll talk some NBA, a lot to do. Corey Brewer joining us in about 20 minutes.
And then to break down all this craziness in Denver, they fired the coach, they fired the GM. We are going to be joined by Vinny Benedetto. He's going to come through and have some fun with us next hour. Or maybe it's not fun when the coach and the GM both get fired, but I try to have fun in everything that I do.
I'm in Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to our super producer and host. I think he's having fun in New York. Hank, are you having fun? Of course. Why wouldn't I be? I don't, I don't know. I don't know. I heard the weather's crap in New York, isn't it?
No, is that bad? Cold. Let's just say the temperature starts with a three. Oh, what? It's April. Come on, man. What are we doing?
You're telling me we had an 80 degree Saturday like two weeks ago, and here we are back in the thirties. It's awful. There's a lot of plants are confused. They're going to die. It's just like, like what's going on out here?
Yeah, it's the press run. You get the fall spring and all of a sudden the blooms up and then it's dead. Yeah, that stinks, man. Stinks, man. What a world, cold world. You miss it? You want to come back? No, no, thank you. It's a cold world literally and figuratively.
Okay. It's cold here in Georgia right now. You want to know how cold, Hickey? Oh boy, let me guess, like 70, 67. 60, 65, something like that. Right now as the sun, the sun is not even setting yet. It's a breezy 58.
Our high was 63. Yeah, cold front coming in. Bundle up.
Yeah, what are you going to do? Is that sweatshirt short weather for you? Hey, exactly what I have on right now.
You hit the nail on the head. What do I have on? I have on a hoodie and some shorts. You are damn right and comfortable. Good for the beginning of the day. Good for the end of it.
Yes, very comfortable, but it's still a cold, cold world, especially if you're in Denver and we discussed this. And by the way, if you want to be a part of the show, you can do that too. You can call me up 888-710-4ISN. That's 888-710-4ISN. Let me get to brass tacks.
I'm going to get your thoughts. If you are in Colorado, if you're in Denver, if you're in the Midwest, if you're a fan of the Nuggets, call me up. Let me know your thoughts on what the hell the Denver Nuggets did today. That's 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. We learned that Michael Malone fired as head coach of the Denver Nuggets despite winning a championship two years ago. We learned that both he and Calvin Booth, they hate each other. They didn't agree on how to utilize the roster. Calvin Booth apparently wanted to utilize some of the younger talent on the team. And then Mike Malone, like most coaches, he wants to go with the veterans because he wants to win today. You figure out the roster. This is the roster you gave me.
I will do with it what I please. Well, management, they said to hell with both of y'all. And they fired him. Like three games before the regular season is closing while the Denver Nuggets are here on a losing streak.
And a few minutes ago, no, not even. Last hour, the Nuggets released a video. Because what are you going to do?
Let's release a video and explain to our fans what the hell we did. So we'll hear from their owner. His name is Josh Kroenke. His dad owns everything. He owns the Rams. He owns the Nuggets. He owns Arsenal Football Club.
He owns a lot. But let's listen to Shams because he spoke earlier today on ESPN after the news broke and he said what went wrong in Denver. The way the season was going, four straight losses in a row. And just what has gone on the last couple of years with what's been described to me as a cold war between Michael Malone and Calvin Booth, the Nuggets believe that something needs to change now. They were likely going to dismiss one or the other come the offseason. So Josh Kroenke and the Nuggets decided to just get it over with now, seeing how the team is performing. But listen, everyone was shocked by the timing of this.
That includes Michael Malone, Calvin Booth themselves. The players, I'm told, had a meeting where Josh Kroenke addressed them after the dismissal. He decided to flip the culture, didn't want to wait. He wanted to inject some life into this going into the playoffs.
OK, well, that's what Shams said what took place. Let's actually listen to Josh Kroenke. This is the message that they just posted on Nuggets.com and all of their social media as to why they just fired one of the best head coaches in the NBA.
This is what Josh Kroenke had to say about why they fired both of them. Now we've lost our last four and we're trending towards a direction that I thought would probably be a very, you know, near end to our seat, a very near end to our season in the near future. And so all that taken into consideration wanted to try to figure out a way to potentially squeeze as much juice out of the rest of the rest of the season as possible. And I think that, you know, after talking with my father in recent days, we came to the decision that we were going to be changing these roles at the end of the season. And that, you know, with that thinking in our mind that we know that we're going to be changing these roles at the end of the season, then your mind then turns to what is the best decision for this group right now? And, you know, from from that point forward, I think that, you know, I became comfortable with the thinking of, you know, let's try to shake this tree and squeeze, squeeze as much out of this as we can. Oh, boy.
I have a feeling I'm going to be playing this every now and then or maybe into the future, because this is one of the dumbest decisions I've ever heard in my life. Y'all getting new players like is I can't even say is Russell Westbrook going into a time machine because even now I don't think would help them out. Are we getting back Bruce Brown? Are you getting back Kentavious Caldwell Pope? Are you getting back guys who can shoot the three ball and play defense? Like, are we really going back in time? But the last time I checked, the second best scorer and player on the team is Jamal Murray. Both his mind and body has been out to lunch for the better part of, what, two years now.
And now he's out with a bum hamstring. Like, is he coming back to help things like you? You can change whoever the hell you want in management. But to fire somebody just now today, they either stupid as hell, the Kronkies, hi Stan, hi Josh, or they're just lying to the people. They actually said, Josh continued on, he said that this team, this Nuggets team right now is still capable of big things this season. Like what?
Yeah, hopes of a spark. I think that there's more to that group than has been accomplished so far. You know, how much more is in that group? I don't think that, you know, I know the answer to that. I don't think anyone knows the answer to that, but I think I have a belief that there's more in that group that, that can be accomplished.
And I look forward to seeing what they can do. Man, I could believe in Santa Claus. Hickey, Santa Claus is real, right?
I don't want to ruin anything for anybody. Santa's real, right? He's absolutely real.
He's probably ending the vacation right now and starting to get real. And get ready for 2025. Yeah, you could believe in Santa, but Santa's real. So let's forget about that. You could believe in the Easter bunny. That doesn't mean that the Easter bunny is going to come crawling or walking down the backyard or hopping, whatever he does. I mean, I could believe in world peace.
I wish we had it. That doesn't mean that it's going to happen. You can believe in anything that you want. That doesn't mean that there's justification in doing so. That doesn't mean that there's legitimacy.
It doesn't mean that there's common sense behind it. The Denver Nuggets are good because of a guy. He's almost seven feet tall. He's from Serbia. He's one of the best basketball players I've ever seen on TV. He's one of the best basketball players I've ever watched with my own eyes in person. His name is Nikola Jokic.
And unless you are going to get him better basketball players on the court, there's not a damn thing that's going to happen this year. So either the cronkeys, you can put them in two categories. Ultimately, I think the biggest one is just foolish. They're either dumb or they're lying. I think it might be dumb. You can't do the rest of the season.
And then also, don't you want to have some stability somewhere? Is Mike Malone, do the players hate him that much? Has Calvin Booth done such a terrible job that you need to get rid of both of them? You know, maybe this will work out in a year or two. Maybe the Nuggets will be back to contending as Jokic is now thirty two, thirty three years old. What a way to screw things up.
It's absolutely ridiculous. Eight, eight, eight, seven, ten for ISN. That's eight, eight, eight, seven, ten for ISN. Michael is here from Milwaukee. You're on the J.R. Sportbree show. Michael, what's up? Hello? Yes, you're live on the radio, Michael.
Go ahead. Yeah, I agree with you, man. Mike Malone, he's a good coach, man. And I guess, you know, the tail end of the season, Jokic was out a little bit. Your boy Murray was out. And it is just that I think they got the players because what, didn't they win a couple of years ago? They still got most of the core players still there. Well, a lot of the core, a lot of the the I don't want to call them the side pieces or the side players, but a lot of the supporting cast is gone. Bruce Brown is gone. Kintavious Kollman, Polk is gone. Jeff Green is gone. OK, but then they still got, like I said, they got Murray, they got Yoke, they got Michael Porter, they got Gordon.
Man, that's going right there still. I ain't giving up hope for my boys because they're game playing, this playoffs coming. You're game planning for a particular team. All they got to do is make them adjustments. Man, I'm not counting them out because, you know, when those players were out, they went in there and beat who they beat, Golden State. That time when Murray didn't play, Yoke didn't play, about three, four guys didn't play and they went in there and beat that squad. OK, well, that was with Jimmy Butler. Well, it's just got Jimmy Butler. It's a whole hell of a lot more than doing it one time. You get into the postseason, now you got to do it four times, four times with someone who is now leading the course and now steering the ship with only three games left. Thank you so much, Michael, for calling from Milwaukee.
It's just it's a tough charge. And let's be real. Has Michael Porter Jr. lived up to his contract? No. Jamal Murray just got his deal. Is he living up to his?
No. Aaron Gordon, God bless him. If he's healthy, I think you can go ahead and count on and appreciate him. But outside of those guys, the fact of the matter is there's there's no depth. There's no replacing that hasn't been replacing those core players who helped on the defense and then also did their job by just knocking down open shots and threes. And that's the consistency that you don't have in some of the younger players that they have. Julian Strothern and Christian Brown. God bless him. And I can certainly understand why Michael Malone and and then also Calvin Booth ain't get along.
It's like, hey, play to young dudes. No, I don't want to. I'm going to run these other guys until I can't run them no more. Lee is here from Cincinnati on the JR Sport re-show. Go ahead, Lee. Hey, thank you for taking my call, JR. First of all, what Denver needs to do is they need to bring Alex English out of retirement. OK.
Put the uniform back on him. But in all seriousness, though, let me ask you this. What do you think the chances are that the Gators can repeat next year?
I mean, they're losing Clayton, they're losing Richard and Martin. Lowly, low, low. I mean, that's almost an impossible question for me to answer. Not knowing who's going to be on the team next year.
It's impossible. You might as well ask me what the weather is going to be for April 8th in twenty twenty six. Well, you probably do as good as any weatherman there is out there.
Now, whether the weather people, God bless them. I actually I know Al Roker. He'd been on TV forever. Can he predict the weather?
Is he right or wrong most of the time? I don't know. Beats me. I'll tell you this. Keep the guys that they had. Well, I'll tell you.
I'll tell you this, Lee. And then I got to I got to let you go because we have Corey Brewer, a former gator who's going to join us in a second. If you're a good program and we see the basketball, the great basketball that we now have down in the SEC, like if you're a good program, you're a good program. And so Florida is not going to be lacking in talent after winning a national championship.
There most certainly is going to be on a lot of people's radars to attract guys like that. That's the best I can give you. But to think about who's going to be on the team next year and what they're going to do. I don't know. Maybe Corey Brewer will have a better answer for that than I do. But me to start thinking about a repeat. Man, have you seen the status and state of college basketball? It's tough.
A matter of fact, we are going to take a break when we come back. We'll have that conversation with Corey Brewer. This man won two championships for the Florida Gators in 06 and 07. I'm going to ask him about the victory last night.
I want to ask him about his own victories almost 20 years ago. We'll talk about what the program looks like in the future for the Florida Gators. He's a skills developer, NBA coach for the Pelicans. We'll get into that.
There's a lot to do. We're going to have a chat with Corey Brewer. Yeah, a gator, a champion. On the other side is the JR Sport Brief Show, the Infinity Sports Network. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief.
It is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. And we talked about the firing of head coach Michael Malone. We talked about the sadness of Kelvin Sampson.
Somebody got to be happy, right? Todd Golden, he's happy. OK, I told you that we'll be having a chat with Corey Brewer, former two time champion with the Florida Gators. We'll go ahead and track him on down. But in the meantime, I wanted to let you know about the Defensive Player of the Week sponsored by the Navy Federal Credit Union, who probably serves the armed forces, DOD veterans and their families. Their members are the mission.
You can learn more at Navy federal dot org. Florida's Will Richard. This man got the job done last night. He was vital to the Gators winning the national championship. He led the team in scoring by dropping 18 points, grabbed eight rebounds, also had two steals and he had a block. In Florida, 65-63 win over Houston, the title for the Gators. It's the third in program history and the first since the year.
In 2007, we got to have balance here, right? It can't all be about, you know, sad Kelvin Sampson. It all can't be about, you know, sad Michael Malone or maybe you can. There's so much information that's that's come out about all of this. I mean, you start I was reading some more information during the course of the break. Apparently, you know, Calvin Booth felt that he's proud of the job that he did. We just heard from Josh Kroenke on the other side of the break. He thought, that this was a good time to, you know, go ahead and pull the plug on the situation, to get a lead on firing them, you know, whenever the season concluded.
And I'm just like, okay, that sounds stupid to me. I don't see anything changing. But ultimately, I don't want to say that Michael Malone predicted his own fate or foreshadowed his own fate, because it was only a few months ago. Where Michael Malone was being asked about questions surrounding Mike Brown and him being fired from the Sacramento Kings.
And Mike Brown literally just conducted practice. And the Kings gave him the boot. You might recall Michael Malone used to coach the Sacramento Kings, used to work for Vivek Ranadive, who's the owner of the Sacramento Kings. And it was just pretty wild that Michael Malone, back in December, he pretty much said the Kings organization, that they're classless, that Vivek Ranadive has no class. I wonder how Michael Malone feels today about the Kroenke family. This is what he had to say in December about his fellow coach, Mike Brown, getting the boot. And at first I was really shocked and surprised that I caught myself.
So why am I shocked and surprised? For two reasons. One, because as an NBA head coach, ultimately, you're going to get the blame. When they win, it's going to go to Sabonis and Fox. When you lose, it's going to go to Mike Brown. That's the way it works.
And two, who he works for. So I'm not surprised that Mike Brown got fired, because I got fired by the same person. And what really pissed me off about it was the fact that they lost last night, fifth game in a row, I believe. Tough loss, fouling a jump shooter. They had practice this morning.
He does his postgame media and he's in his car going to the airport to fly to LA and they call him on the phone. No class, no balls. That's what I'll say about that.
Oh, you don't have to imagine Nada. He might have the same type of words for the people who fired him today. And Michael Malone, never shy, never shy. They won the national, won the national championship.
You keep thinking about college basketball. They won the NBA championship. And he was pretty, pretty loud about beating, you know, the Los Angeles Lakers to get there. And he's always pretty critical outwardly to the public about his players and their performance. It can be tough playing for, for Michael Malone. Apparently, Nicole Jokic wasn't happy with the team's defense and how they were performing. Well, it doesn't say whether he was mad at, at Michael Malone or whether he was just ticked off. Ultimately at the man who put the team together.
It's kind of wild. I mean, just a couple of days ago, Michael Malone was, was having his postgame press conference and he was pretty much, I'm not saying killing his players. He didn't name anybody. He's like, these guys, I got to sit down and explain to them about defense. Listen to this. The defense, you know, I've talked about it a ton. You know, that's been the most disappointing part of this year is just the, the huge drop-off.
You know what I mean? You're talking about, we didn't go from eight to 12. We didn't go from eight to 15. We've gone from eight to, I don't even know what it is right now.
Maybe like mid twenties. And that's a, that's a severe drop-off and you just can't rely upon your offense to outscore teams. We have to get this bad taste out of our mouth because I hate losing and it's, I know it's driving me crazy. Man, it doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter what you just won.
You can get the boot. This man won a championship two seasons ago. He was up on that stage. He was yelling and screaming and cursing and he was enjoying himself. And now he can go on a vacation. I'm pretty sure maybe he was, well, I'm not going to say you're happy you got the boot. Maybe he thought that was his forever job.
There's gotta be a punch to the gut. And let's put it this way, let's be honest. I don't care who you are or where you work or what you do. If you have to work in an organization that is a collaborative space, people at work are going to be, they're going to be upset. One person isn't going to like the other. People are going to talk behind other people's backs. People are going to insult each other.
Just a bunch of stupid garbage, a waste of time. Like I'm showing up to make money. Not to worry about you or what you're doing. But when you got to work together, this is almost like Bill Parcells years ago, especially in sports. He's like, you want me to coach and run the team. You have to allow me to go out there and buy the groceries. You want me to be the chef and you want me to prepare the meal. But you got the food, I don't know, at Dollar Tree?
You can't do that. You can't ask me to make you the greatest steak in the world and then you're picking it up at Dollar General? Hickey, do they sell steak at Dollar General? I don't know. I don't think so.
If they did, I would not trust it. It may be the frozen dinner. Maybe, right? Maybe.
You're right. But I'm not getting a fresh. Could you imagine if you went to Dollar General, they were chopping up fresh meat? Best steak you ever had. Where is it from? Dollar General?
Dollar Tree. Why not? Yeah. Why not them? Yeah. Why not them?
It could be, but this is almost what it's like. And so, yeah, you're always going to have coaches who are upset with the talent that they have. You're going to have GMs who put the team together.
They're unhappy with what they got. The Denver Nuggets are just the first stupid team to decide to fire both of them while the team is A, winning, B, just days away from the postseason, and then C, having one of the best basketball players that have ever walked and graced the face of this planet. Which is why I'm putting the Denver Nuggets in the stupid category. You got to at least keep some form of stability for the roster.
Whether you want somebody else to build it. I mean, do you want Michael Malone to have say so? Do you hate the guy that much? Is he that much of a jerk? You don't want him leading the charge or leading the way.
It is just a real tricky situation. I feel bad for the fans in Denver. Obviously, they still have their superstar player. We know the entire league, it revolves around the stars and who you have. And the Denver Nuggets, they still have the same talent. They just need somebody else new to come through to lead it and also add to the talent that you have on a roster.
So things aren't all that in the toilet. This is not a Dallas Mavericks situation. And so the Nuggets, their fans know they weren't winning anything this year with or without Michael Malone or Calvin Booth. Hopefully whoever comes on and takes over next can add to the team and not take away. But the Nuggets have come through with one of the dumbest things I've ever seen in my life. At least let them get through the season. Unless you hated their guts so much that you did not want them to have success.
Because then you couldn't fire them. It's a possibility as well. It's the JR Sport B Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. We're going to take a break when we come back. We're going to talk about more how you can win. You can be a good coach. You have zero job security.
Oh, it's tough. Calvin Sampson, this man just went out there and won a national championship. At least he'll be back.
We don't even know how many more chances he's going to get. It's the JR Sport B Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We're going to take a break.
We'll talk more basketball, college, and the pros. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief. It is the JR Sport B Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. It's a cold world. Mike Malone got fired today. Calvin Sampson is sad. And Corey Brewer was going to join us. Got caught up. That's what happens when you got a job working for the New Orleans Pelicans.
Hickey, maybe Corey. I know he's busy. He had a change of plans, unfortunately. I know he's training with the Pelicans. Did he maybe have to stop and help out Zion or something? Is Zion playing ball right now? What's going on?
I mean, I think especially now that he's not, don't you have to make sure that that diet is as restricted as possible? He's a grown ass man, Hickey. Come on. Yeah. Grown ass man. You're giving a lot of money to fund the Pelicans.
I'm definitely monitoring what you're eating. Well, he has Uber Eats. I mean, they can't babysit Zion. I mean, all off season, can they?
Can't do that. I mean, it's not ideal, but when you give them the contract that you gave them with the expectations that are, you know, on his plate, figuratively and maybe literally, I think you want to make sure that he's doing everything he can to make sure he's not only out there as much as possible, playing at as high of a level as possible. Man, this stinks. It's shout outs to Corey Brewer, but it's just, it's just bad that there's so many teams in the NBA that you can look at and just go, all right, so what? Like, like the Pelicans are unfortunately like one of those teams. And God bless Corey Brewer for the work that he does on the skills development side. I mean, they can certainly use better talent for him to go out there and develop like how many people we talk about coaches that get fired. People know Michael Malone is the head coach of the Denver Nuggets or was the head coach of the Denver Nuggets. How many people know that Willie Green is the head coach of the Pelicans?
There's nobody tuning in for them. We got, here's some teams that are just, Hickey, if I want to call them the all irrelevant teams, you got the Wizards, you have the Hornets. I think I can put the Brooklyn Nets in that category.
Definitely. I don't know if anyone that can name one net right now outside of Brooklyn. Cam Thomas. I, no disrespect to Cam Thomas. I bet you 49 out of 50 states could not name Cam Thomas. Pick him out of the lineup.
I'm sure. They do have Johnson. What's his name? What's his first name? Cam. Yeah, there you go. Used to play for Phoenix. Yeah, Cam. Right.
Sharpshooter. You have Nick Claxton. I mean, are any of these national names shared? They don't have any national names.
Zero. Brooklyn Nets. Who's the star on the Brooklyn Nets? Who's their star? I think you said him already.
Cam Thomas, right? Oh my God. I mean, wow. Wow. Ben Simmons was the biggest name for you. If we're talking like the biggest name on the roster begin the season is a guy more known for not playing than playing. Yeah.
Not good. I forgot Ben Simmons was on the Clippers. I forgot about that.
I was about to say how I phrased that. Yeah. So I, I believe, I believe I saw the Brooklyn Nets this season, Hickey. I think, I think.
In Atlanta? Yeah, I think I did. What? No, I just love the, like, usually you can remember the teams, you know, that you go watch, especially when it's up close and personal. The fact that it's like, yeah, I think it was the Nets that was one of the teams just says it all right there. It could have been this season. It could have been last season.
I don't know. What I do remember is walking by the team as they were in the back, as they were, you know, doing the huddle, getting ready to come out. And I did look at the guys in the huddle. And you know, when you look at people and you just go, Hey, that guy looks familiar, but I don't know who he is.
And then I'm looking around and I go, I don't know who none of these guys are. That's, that's how I felt looking at the Brooklyn Nets. So you're correct. They don't have anybody on that team.
All the relevancy. They are one of the all irrelevant squads. The Utah Jazz are relevant. They have players that I know, John Collins, who used to be Atlanta Hawk. They have a Colin Sexton.
They got that Filipowski guy. Is he still being? Oh, that's right. I got to say, allegedly, is he still allegedly being groomed by that woman?
Well, I guess it depends on who you're asking. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because according to him, that's just his loving girlfriend. You're right.
According to her, she just loves her boyfriend that she used to babysit as a kid. Right. Yes. Yep. Yes.
Okay. They have Kessler from Auburn, right? From Auburn guy. Walker Kessler. Yeah.
Man, they stink. I'm pretty sure I'm pretty sure there's other guys on the team, but there's a lot of dudes who are happy that their season is basically done in a week. I saw Drew Timmy from Gonzaga is on the Brooklyn Nets. Tiki, did you see that? I forgot about that.
You're right. He may be the biggest name, honestly, at least nationally. Oh, on the Brooklyn Nets? People know him from Gonzaga. No, his mustache. I heard he got an Easter wearing that headband.
I heard he got a double double the other day. Watch out. There we go. Now that's the guy's going to put some button seats here for the last week of the season.
How about that? You got so many NBA teams, season almost done. If you're the Utah Jazz, you got three games left.
Three meaningless games. They got the Trailblazers. They got the Thunder. They got the Timberwolves. These teams that they're playing against just have a. Yeah, it's about that time, folks.
And just that's why it makes no sense for the Denver Nuggets to do what they did to Michael Malone. It stinks. You know, at some point in time, I don't know what the hell I was listening to. Oh, I was here. I just sat down to work.
I just sat down here. And Zach was finishing up his show, Zach Gelb, who joins us, not joins us. He precedes the show. He was asked a question about or he posed a question about whether or not Todd Golden should, you know, maybe potentially look or entertain an NBA job.
And I'm like, no, for what? This guy got it good in college. Why the hell would he want to go to the NBA? He's 39 years old.
This man has never played in the NBA. These grown men are supposed to listen to him. And then you think about all the guys who are actually having success, who have been fired.
It makes no sense. You want to talk about the players? Just it's not even that they're running these teams.
They just make so much money. You can't move them. And if you move them, all you do is move them to another team.
And I don't I don't know the last time I don't even know if it's ever happened. I guess I got to think about it. You can trade players if you don't want them anymore. You got to fire the coaches. The coaches not out here being traded. I've seen coaches get traded in the NFL, the NBA.
I never seen that before. So even if you think about the coaches who recently got the boot. You got Frank Vogel. The Lakers fired him in 2022 after they won that bubble championship and had one of the best defenses in the entire NBA. Mike Budenholzer. This guy was fired in 2023 after the Bucks won the championship in 2021.
And now you got Mike Malone. This dude just won a national champ. Hickey, why keep called national championship?
I got Calvin Sampson would punch me in the face right now. Well, we heard that, you know, heard that phrase a lot the last 48, 72 hours. It's natural.
It's I guess it is natural. This man won an NBA title two years ago. He got fired. Why anybody would want to move from college where you're having success? You can be the toast of the town. You can be the town.
You'll always be the creme de la creme. You know, I'm not saying that Gainesville has good food. They got some decent malls.
I mean, you can get around the malls. OK, but why you would leave to go coach grown ass men who have all the leverage in the world and then have to you got to listen to billionaires like you're just you're a cog. That's it. If you're a coach in the NBA, you're just a cog. And ultimately you get replaced. Somebody looks at you, they remove you, they shine you up and then they move on.
They discard you when they feel that you don't fit anymore. In college, the importance of the basketball coach is paramount to the success of the organization, short term and long term. And I know that every team has to think a little bit different. Every school has to take a little bit different how they want to how they want to build their program.
At this point in time, with the transfer portal, you just got to go ahead and and bring in mercenaries. That's it. Like to think that you can maybe build a program like Hickey, was it didn't Auburn the average age of their starting lineup was older than the Oklahoma City Thunder, right?
It was pretty similar. They were just under a year younger than the youngest team in the NBA. So they're right there. I think the Thunder is like 24 and change, Auburn 23 and change. And so do you think that's a better way to build a program as opposed to, hey, let's just get in all the one and done talent we can?
I think you're starting to see that the answer is yeah. You know, because even if it is one and done, but it's in the transfer portal, and you're bringing in a third or fourth year guy still more experienced in the college basketball, college basketball realm than a high school freshman, right? So even though it is still your new, whether it's new to the school, new to the team, whatever, the adjustment period and the ability to gel is a lot quicker than it would be trying to get up to speed.
If you're just someone who just graduated high school a few months ago. Even even for a team like Duke? Like should Duke start going, hey, let's get some old guys from the YMCA in here and stop messing around with NBA prospects? For them?
I mean, no, I will say I'll argue against what I just said, in part because they're about to have three lottery picks go and they should have won the national title. You know, they blew it. That's on them. Probably because they're young too, right? Yeah.
And that's, that's also fair. Like, you know, the experience of Houston worked out, the experience of Florida after being down almost, you know, the last three games by almost double digits worked out. Maybe I think chalk up youth to, hey, it's Cooper flag, let him go. Maybe kids panicked.
I think they definitely panic in some situations that maybe three or four year veterans wouldn't. Wow. Yeah.
It's, it's, it's tough. I don't know. Did we, did you and I discuss this publicly over the air last night or did I say this private?
I think I might've said it privately. I said, these guys look old. They do. Like some of these college basketball players, they look older than me out there running around, man. Like what are, are they old?
Like, what are we doing? I think, yeah, maybe that was private, but yeah, they, even some of the young guys look old, but still with that said, like, yeah, I think just players in general, when you're in your physical prime like that, when you're a freak athlete, like these high level basketball football players are boy, do you mature quickly? Yeah, I guess it has something to do a, with the, uh, they're still in their, their physical development at that age. You think about the testosterone that's, that's going, Hickey isn't, I've been to school in a long time. And maybe you know better than I do. And there's something that leaks out of your brain, the pituitary gland and something makes you grow and all of this stuff. I don't know. I have no idea. Get your face. Aren't things released when you grow in that part of puberty or something like that?
I have net wall. You never went through puberty. I've never heard that, that part of class before.
I know, I guess if you use the word release in a different form, I know that for men helps with, with puberty. But other than that, I don't know about, you know, any glands or nothing like that. Oh my goodness. Something happens, Hickey. Well, yeah, I guess it's, you start growing facial hair, your voice gets deeper and you become LeBron James one day.
Right. You know, in LeBron's case, like what, eight years old, you started shaving in eighth grade or Greg Oden. Was Greg Oden never a baby? Probably fourth grade.
That guy had a razor to his face. Oh my God. How many pounds do you think Greg Oden was when he was born? I don't even want to, don't even want to imagine. Greg Oden birth weight.
I'm pretty sure you can't find that. 13 pounds. Oh, not really. He was born at a weight of nine pounds, 12 ounces. Yeah. That's still decently big. That's a third of a toddler, man. That's, that's a big baby. That's, I mean, nine pounds, 12 ounces. That's a big baby. Now this is a lie. While at Ohio State University, Greg was usually described as being between seven feet, seven feet, one inches and weighing roughly 250 pounds.
Now that I do not believe. That man was running around with more than 250 pounds on him. Damn. That's another case of, of what could have been that big, man.
Your knees ain't destined to work. Shout outs to Greg Oden. I don't know what, I think he's teaching.
Is he teaching or coaching or something like that now? I hope so. I mean, that'd be good story arc for him. Yeah. I'm gonna look that up in the break. Yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna look up something. Whatever he's doing has to be positive.
It has to be. It's the JR Sportbree Show here with you, Coast to Coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We are going to take a break. When we come back, we're going to look at someone who unfortunately lost yesterday. His name is Kelvin Sampson. He is an older head coach. I feel bad for him. If I smoked cigarettes, I'd smoke one for him right now. We'll talk about him on the other side. It's the JR Sportbree Show on the Infinity Sports Network.
