It is the JR Sportbrief show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. I am coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to everybody tuned in and locked in all over North America. Happy Wednesday to you. Thank you for listening on the free Odyssey app, your local Infinity Sports Network affiliate Sirius XM 375. And if you got a smart speaker, ask the speaker to play the Infinity Sports Network. Today is a holiday in Dallas.
Maybe, I don't know what you'd call it. It's the day that Luca returns with the Los Angeles Lakers. There's about four minutes to go here in the first quarter. The Lakers in Dallas are tied at 21 all. Luca Doncic in the first quarter already has 11 points leading the Los Angeles Lakers. Next highest scorer, Ruhi Hotrimore and Jackson Hayes both have three. Luca says, I got this.
I got 11. I'm going to go off. We'll keep you up to date on Luca's return as the night continues on. Already, he shot a three over Anthony Davis. He's being Luca.
And then he made the guy cry during his pregame introduction. And maybe he doesn't curse people out tonight. I don't know.
We'll see. Anyway, it's been a busy day. It's been a busy evening. Shout outs to Cory Brewer. You know, he used to play for the Dallas Mavericks, won a championship in 2011, won two championships with the Florida Gators in 06 and 07. Cory Brewer came through and joined us last hour.
Thank you for that, Cory. We talked about Geno Smith hooking back up with Pete Carroll. Geno says they have unfinished business.
We talked about Chidor Sanders and where he might slide when it comes down to the NFL draft if he's going to slide. And John Moran is throwing hand grenades instead of busting guns. It's just a wild world. Wild things everywhere. And today's top six list, which I'm about to share with you in a minute, also involves a bunch of wild things. Wild instances where coaches in the world of sports have just been given the boot. Coaches that you thought were good. Coaches that were successful. Coaches that won championships. Coaches that you thought were doing a damn good job.
And they still got fired. And so every Wednesday I give a top six list. And today we're going to give a top six list of coaches who should have never been fired.
We'll do that in a second. A big shout out to super producer and host Ryan Hickey in New York City. Luka Doncic of 14 points in the first quarter. He is three or four from downtown. He is five of eight from the field.
Yeah, this guy's kind of hot to start the game. We'll keep you going and up to date there. I need you to think O'Reilly Auto Parts for all of your car care needs.
Get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts. NBA season is almost coming to a close. Gotta wait for the playoffs. See if the Boston Celtics can repeat. See what the Cavaliers can do. What's going to happen with the Oklahoma City Thunder? There's a lot of question marks.
What are the Lakers going to do here with Luka Doncic on their team paired up with LeBron James? A lot of questions. Tons. But one of the biggest question marks is what took place yesterday. When the Denver Nuggets decided to let go of Michael Malone. When they then decided to let go of their general manager Calvin Booth. When the Denver Nuggets said we have the best player in the league in Nikola Jokic. We have one of the best records and certainly are going to be on the best records and certainly our team is currently on the slide as one of our key players is out Jamal Murray with a hamstring issue. So how do we fix all of this in order to maximize what we can do the rest of the season? We'll fire everybody. That is stupid.
Not as dumb as what the Mavericks did by trading Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers, but it's stupid. And so for tonight's top six list. There is a full list and is even more than six. But today we got a list inspired by the Nuggets. Of top coaches, a top six list of coaches.
It doesn't matter the sport. Guys who should have never been fired. And you know what? I'm going to give you that top six list starting now. It's time to get JR's latest top six list only on the JR Sport Brief.
It is the JR Sport Reshow here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. It's time for a new top six list. We're taking a look at the top six coaches who should have never been fired, never been given the boot, never been given their walking papers. I wonder where we're going to start. Hmm.
Number six. How about the guy I just told you about? How about the guy in the team that inspired this list tonight? How about the Denver Nuggets? How about Mike Malone is one of the coaches who should have never been given the boot? This man is universally recognized as one of the best coaches in the NBA. He just won a championship two years ago with the Denver Nuggets.
Twenty, twenty three. He looked like he was going to be a lifer with the Denver Nuggets. I mean, he tattooed their mascot, the little guy, a little picky. Is he a gold digger? What is he called? I don't know. Gold diggers go like that. Yeah. He tattooed a little gold digger with the championship trophy on his body.
What a cold world. You got a mascot on your body with a championship and then they fired you. You would think you'd be there forever. It's like getting your ex's name tattooed on your body. And now they're your ex.
It sucks for you. You got to cover it up now. Anyway, Mike Malone, about a decade in Denver championship, best player in the league. And they got rid of him because he's a mean guy. They got rid of him because he got a beef with the GM. And so now you've ripped the complete team, the shreds and then the owner. Well, the family, the guy who spoke on behalf of the whole family, Josh crank cranky. This guy spoke and he just tried to explain why they fired Mike Malone. And he had the nerve to say it was gonna make them better this year. What?
Having observed our group over a very long period of time, um, you know, what I would say is that, you know, having observed that group over a period of time, there were certain trends, um, that were very worrisome to me at different points in time. Um, but they would get masked by a few wins here and there. And, you know, in, in the world of professional sports, when winning and losing is, is your currency. Um, you know, winning can mask a lot of things. Man, winning can mask all you won the championship, man.
Like, does that not count? You don't like the dysfunction. I'd rather take the championships into dysfunction. Give me better players.
How about five Calvin booth? You need to fight a head coach. Denver Nuggets might recover in a few years, but I mean, damn, this sucks for Nicole Yoko just sucks for their fans. And yeah, they can officially put a fork in this year. Not that they were going to win anyway, but Mike Malone getting fired.
Stupid. I got him a number six on my list of coaches who should have never been given the boot. What's next number five. This is a number five. This is a number five. This is another guy.
They say they mutually agreed to part ways. Yeah. That's what happened with Bill Belichick. Sure. Right. He got fired too.
Anyway. Number five on my list. He's back in the NFL. His name is Jim Harbaugh. He should have never left the San Francisco 49 is never, ever, ever, ever. This man started with the Niners in 2011. He went 44 and 19 and a tie coaching the San Francisco 49ers. You got a lot of coaches who would die for that record. Who has that type of success?
Get this, understand this in just four years. I mean, in his second season, he took the 49ers to the Superbowl to take on his brother and the Baltimore Ravens. It didn't work out for him. The Ravens ended up winning the Superbowl. We saw the end of Ray Lewis. He took them there in his second season. Jim Harbaugh is known for turning around teams. I mean, he even did it at Michigan after they tried to get him the heck up on out of there. He chopped down his salary and then he ultimately still won. Whether or not you thought he cheated or not. Anyway, Jim Harbaugh went to the NFC title game at minimum.
At minimum, listen to me, at minimum for his first three seasons. And they still let him go. Why? Because apparently Jim Harbaugh was beefing with Trent Balkey, the same guy who was at the Jacksonville Jaguars that their new head coach, Liam Cohen, was just like, I'm not going to join the team if he's there. Nobody likes Trent Balkey.
Stop giving them jobs. The San Francisco 49 is screwed up by letting them go. Yeah, they were able to get a guy in and Shanahan and continue on with great, amazing talent. But letting go of Harbaugh?
Just a bad idea. And now the Chargers will probably reap the benefits of some of his availability after winning a championship in college. You know what? Let's go back to a few years ago.
Damn it, I can't believe it's almost 10. As Jed York, the owner, and Trent Balkey, the man running the thing, they explained while moving on from Jim Harbaugh was, was good? What? Our mission is very simple. The San Francisco 49ers win with class. We haven't won. And I don't think we've conducted ourselves with the level of class that I expect of our organization. We've had off the field issues. That's, that's going to happen in sports. The level that it's happened here is not acceptable. The bottom line is the relationship between a general manager and a head coach have to be in sync.
There's going to be disagreements and there's going to be a competitive balance to it, but they have to be in sync. And I know Jim would say the same thing. I don't want to put words in his mouth by any stretch, but coming to work day to day in this, in this organization for the last four years has not been as reported.
Oh my goodness. Well, we see what's going on with Trent Balkey. Nobody likes him. And I know Jim Harbaugh is a weird dude. He's interesting. He says wild things. He's eating hamburgers for breakfast and he's just a weird guy.
Okay. That man can coach a football team. The 49ers, they screwed up by giving him the boot. Jim Harbaugh, number five on my list, top six coaches who should have never been fired. He's five. What's next?
Number four. Man, let's go back to this. Let's go back to basketball.
Let's go back to 2020. I know 2020 sucked, but right before the world shut down, the Brooklyn Nets got rid of their head coach that Kevin Durant said was an attractive thing for him to even join the squad, except for Kevin Durant never played because he was still recovering from a torn Achilles. I'm talking about Kenny Atkinson, the man who has the Cleveland Cavaliers at this moment right now with 63 wins. He has them clinched as the number one seed in the East. Kenny Atkinson has been known as one of the best coaches X's and O's in the entire game. He didn't even get a chance to coach Kevin Durant. Kyrie Irving was hurt, and then they still gave him the boot. It's kind of crazy what they did. And of course, they said this was a, an amicable parting of ways.
We hear that a lot when the, well, the boot is unjustified. Let's listen to the next GM, Sean Marks. This is back in 2020, March 7th of 2020, a couple days before the world shut down. Maybe it didn't matter at the end, but Sean Marks, he explained why getting rid of Kenny Atkinson was the right move, despite Kevin Durant never even suiting up for the guy. The position that we find ourselves in now is what helps us get it to the next level.
And I think what we debated and what we deliberated on was this was the time where, you know, the team needs another voice and that's where we're at. So, you know, man, the world shut down. Basketball was done. Jacques Vaughn took over. They wanted a fancy name. That's just what it is. Steve Nash came on as head coach.
That didn't work. They didn't care about Steve. The Brooklyn Nets were just a disaster. At least Kenny Atkinson, maybe, maybe, hopefully he'll find some success here coaching these Cleveland Cavaliers.
I gotta be honest. I think the Celtics are still better. But anyway, Kenny Atkinson should have never been fired. I laughed. Kevin Durant was just like, hey, he's one of the reasons why I want to be a Brooklynette. Until he wasn't.
And nobody cared. And then Kevin Durant didn't want to be a net. And then James Harden didn't want to be a net. And Kyrie Irving didn't want to be a net. Hickey, am I missing anybody that didn't want to be a net after they wanted to be Nets?
No, I think he nailed it. And now we don't even know who's on the Nets. What a world.
What a world. Top six coaches who should have never been fired. Kenny Atkinson is four. What's next?
Number three. I gotta tell you, man, you want to talk about a good coach fired because he's too good because he knows more than the people that employ him. Mike Vrabel. I got Mike Vrabel on the list. And yet he just got a brand new job coaching the New England Patriots.
Oh, I think that's going to work out swimmingly for everybody in New England. This might be the job that he keeps for the rest of his career. But when Mike Vrabel was fired a little more than a year ago by the Tennessee Titans, like the writing was on the wall because the Titans are stupid, like they don't know what they did.
I'm sorry, Amy Adams. I'm not calling her stupid, but I'm just saying the organization and whole why you would get rid of a guy who's the smartest voice in the entire building, both played at a championship level, is renowned for for understanding the clock. And and this guy was out here just getting penalties on purpose to manipulate the clock to help win games like you don't see things like that. We got guys who can barely manage the clock.
And Mike Vrabel is manipulating the clock to his benefit. That lets you know that this guy is all about the details. He's all about the intricacies of the game.
This dude is a winner. They didn't give him the pieces to win. And ultimately, you knew that he wasn't happy with what they gave him and he was still maxing out. This man started off with the Titans in 2018, his pedigree with the New England Patriots, his three championships.
He was 56 and 48 with a mediocre roster. And then they gave him the boot, even though he's one of the best of the best. And then Amy Adams, I don't know how much football she knows. First down, I guess she knows. First down, third down, touchdown.
But anyway, she sat down on titans.com last year and she gave one of the silliest explanations ever as to why they fired him. I have high expectations and I'll never apologize for that. And these fans deserve a great team and they deserve a championship brought to the city. And that's what we're going to work towards. And I'm prepared to make the hard decisions to hopefully get us there sooner. This team has a bright future. We have ran. We have a promising young quarterback. I mean, the sky's the limit.
Oh, my God. Hickey, Will Levistate, they basically fired him already, right? Didn't they fire fired him or will in about two weeks when Carthon fired, they fired him to. Yeah, they got Borgonzi in. And that was only last year. That was last year.
Yeah. Promising young quarterback in the GM, both five. I mean, so who's going to fire her? Anybody need to fire her? Unfortunately, for Titans fans, no, no.
Okay. Look, Mike Vrabel is going to be successful with the New England Patriots, Tennessee Titans. They hope that they get lucky with the quarterback. They hope it ain't going to be because of her and her decision making. Let's just go ahead and put it that way. I got Mike Vrabel getting fired and number three on my list. Top six coaches who have never been fired. What's next?
Number two. Oh, we got to throw it back. Well, not throw it back that far. We got to take it back to the 80s. I got to go to 1984. I got to go to one of the most quotable individuals ever on planet Earth. I got to tell you about Yogi Berra. Unfortunately for Yogi, he worked for George Steinbrenner. God rest his soul. God rest both of their souls. They're no longer here with us. But everybody loved Yogi Berra.
They love them. Forget the championship rings with the Yankees. He managed the Mets. He managed the Yankees for three seasons. 1964 and he came back 20 years later, 84 and 85 in 1984. He went 87 and 75 in 1985. The Yankees started the season six and 10.
The Orioles started off hotter than them. George Steinbrenner told Yogi Berra, Hey, man, I'm gonna let you let you manage the whole year. He fired him after 16 games. He fired them after they went six and 10. And he didn't even fire him personally. He sent the assistant GM to go tell Yankees legend Yogi Berra. You're fired. Yogi Berra packed up his bags. Yogi Berra was gone from the Yankees organization for felt like almost 20 years. Didn't show up, didn't talk to the boss, didn't want to go to Yankee Stadium. He's like that. You know what? He lied to me.
Didn't even tell me to my face. This guy, George Steinbrenner, this man in his first 23 seasons, his owner went through 20 managerial changes. The New York Yankees won a championship in 78.
They didn't win again until 96. And then George Steinbrenner, he was banned for a little while. Yeah, George Steinbrenner was an interesting fellow.
Yogi Berra, when he was still alive, he explained why he did not like how George Steinbrenner gave him the boot. I got mad at him when I got fired in Chicago. I didn't like the way I got fired.
Usually the owner calls you up and tells you I'm going to make a change in the team. But he sent Clyde King to tell me that I was fired. And I didn't like that. I got fired other places. I got fired by the Yankees in 64. I got fired with the Mets, but the owner called.
And I didn't like the way he said it. That's when I said, I'd rather come back to the Yankee Stadium. Ultimately, Yogi did come back to Yankee Stadium. I'm glad that he did. A lot of time as a coach with the media, it was good that Yogi did come back. Yogi Berra passed away.
Wow, I can't believe it. It's 2015. He passed away at 90 years old. Time flies. I feel like Yogi passed yesterday.
Damn, time flies. It's the JR Sport Reshow here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We're going to take a break. When we come back, I'm going to tell you the number one coach who should have never been fired. I'll let you guess who it is.
I'll tell you number one on the other side. It's the JR Sport Reshow on the Infinity Sports Network. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief.
It is the JR Sport Reshow here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. I'm giving you a top six list. We're talking about coaches who should have never been fired.
I'm about to share with you who I have at number one on the list. At number six, I gave you Mike Malone. Yeah, he just got fired yesterday by the Denver Nuggets. He won a championship two years ago and he got a beef with the GM. GM got a beef with him and they were just like, uh, both of y'all are fired. Stupid. Who cares about Nicole Jokic? We'll figure it out. Okay.
Maybe they're smarter than us all. At number five, I gave you Jim Harbaugh. This man was only with the San Francisco 49ers for four years. He took them to a Super Bowl in his second year, helped unleash Colin Kaepernick.
This man at minimum, at minimum, went to the NFC title game. His first three seasons, he could not get along with management. And one of the managers of the team, Trent Baalke, ultimately he couldn't get along with anybody in Jacksonville. They just fired him. And now here we got Jim Harbaugh, who's climbing the ladder of success once again in the NFL, this time with the Chargers. And number four, I gave you Kenny Atkinson. This man is leading and has led the Cleveland Cavaliers to the best record in the Eastern Conference.
They have clinched the number one overall seed with 63 wins. But back with the Brooklyn Nets in 2020, before even Kevin Durant had a chance to suit up coming off of his torn Achilles, they fired him. And why did they fire him? There's no reason because they wanted to go for a fancy splash. I did. There was nothing.
Nobody was playing. He was actually developing a roster of, you know, also rands and bums for when Kevin Durant was healthy enough to come back and they just fired him anyway. Thank God, Kenny Atkinson found some success here with the Cavaliers. And number three, coaches who have never, excuse me, who should have never been fired, Mike Vrabel. Tennessee Titans gave him the boot last year.
And why? Because I'm sure Mike Vrabel was telling them off. You don't know what you're talking about. This is a ridiculous move. You want me to win, but I don't have the talent. And then the owner, Amy Adams, was like, oh, we have the quarterback to win. We have the GM to win.
And at that point, I knew this lady didn't know what the hell she was doing. And oh, yeah, by the way, that quarterback, well, they don't want him as well. Levis and that GM. Oh, yeah, they ultimately fired him, too. And so, yeah, let's just fire everybody. But Mike Vrabel, the smartest man in the room, he's about to have success in New England.
I could feel it in the air. Top six coaches who should have never been fired. And number two, I gave you Yogi Berra. He was promised by George Steinbrenner that he would see an entire season. George Steinbrenner fired him after 16 games and didn't even tell him to his face. Yogi Berra left the Yankees for almost 15 to 20 years. He didn't show up for 15 or 20 years. They eventually made amends. And God rest both of their souls, they're both gone. But at least Yogi came back for the Yankees dynasty.
Good on them on that. And so a lot of these cases, you've got owners, hot shot owners. You're just out of control. George Steinbrenner, I just mentioned in his first 23 seasons, he changed managers 20 times. And Billy Martin was in and out about five times.
Damn. Gotta be a nutty owner to give somebody the boot. And so if we're talking about the top six coaches who should have never been fired, that leaves us with this. Number one, Jimmy Johnson, the former head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. Jerry Jones becomes owner in 1989. He brings on his old Arkansas buddy and running mate, Jimmy Johnson, to run this squad.
Jimmy Johnson is a coach from 89 to 93. The Dallas Cowboys win a championship. They win another championship.
They win another championship. And then Jimmy Johnson is fired after winning. They gave him the, he got the boot from his buddy.
He got the boot from his friend. And I mean, yeah, the Dallas Cowboys were able to win one more championship with Barry Switzel leading the way. But that was with Jimmy Johnson's team. And since then, you want to know what the Dallas Cowboys have won?
Nothing. Jimmy Johnson went and coached in Miami. The guy's been on TV for, I don't know, 20, 25 years.
He just recently retired from that. And the reason why they didn't keep things together, I don't know, maybe the Dallas Cowboys dynasty could have kept on rolling. Or maybe, I don't know, Troy Aikman with those concussions, I don't know. But either way, getting rid of Jimmy Johnson was the first sign of ego. Well, not the first sign and he just gave Tom Landry to boot the men he showed up.
But it was the first sign of what the hell is this guy doing? The Dallas Cowboys have not had the ultimate success, really, the stretch since they got rid of Jimmy Johnson. Troy Aikman, I just mentioned him.
He was on The Undeniable Show. And Troy Aikman explains why Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson, why they were beefing. You know, they were young, they were brash, they were confident guys. And I think both of them thought that they could do it, you know, again, and do it under their terms. And they realized that what they had was something that was really special.
And that's hard to get. There was never any jealousy between Michael, Emmett, me, any of the guys. You know, we all sacrificed. We all gave up something to be good and to win. But the two guys leading the organization, they didn't. And they couldn't. And yet they were the ones telling us that's what we needed to do. And so that's the that's the part that really bothers me.
And it should never have happened. Man, wow. He goes. He said they were young. They were younger. Okay.
Young girl. That's what Troy Aikman says. Yeah. Hey, how about this on the same show on The Undeniable Show? Jerry Jones, he had some thoughts as well. Does he agree what went wrong with him and Jimmy Johnson, or did he just say a bunch of did it say a bunch of drivel?
Bill Walsh, the great coach of the 49ers said this is a classic case of a couple of friends who grew careless with their relationship. And I'll accept that responsibility because I was the boss. And I should have. If anybody had to give a little in terms of anything to do with a relationship, then I agree with it.
Then I accept that very much. Somebody has to say yes or no. In this particular case, it happened to be the one that risked the hundreds of millions of dollars to buy the thing. That was the one that basically made the call on how we were going to get it done.
But do you hear that? Jerry Jerry Jones took responsibility. He accepted responsibility. Jerry Jones admitted he was wrong. What? What he didn't say is we haven't won because we we gave that guy the boot or I gave him the boot.
What a world. Jerry Jones actually agreeing that he screwed up. Yeah, I got him a number one on the list. Well, Jimmy Johnson, number one on the list. Top six coaches who should have never been fired.
Here's a recap. At number six, I gave you Mike Malone and number five, I gave you Jim Harbaugh. Number four, I gave you Kenny Atkinson. Number three, I gave you Mike Vrabel.
Number two, I gave you Yogi Berra. Number one, admitted by the owner himself, Jerry Jones. At number one, number one, Jimmy Johnson. Jimmy Johnson now done at Fox. He's done, right? He retired.
I didn't make that up. No, he is officially retired. He's done. You now sit on the boat.
Go to Dow. He can sit on Jerry's boat. I don't know if he wants to. And they've made amends. You know, I don't know if they're calling each other every day and patting each other on the back, but they're uh, they're okay.
As far as I know. Enjoy retirement, Jimmy. Hey, go, go tell, go tell Jerry that he should retire as well.
Good luck. It's the JR sport reshow here with you coast to coast on the infinity sports network. 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. Of course, there are more than six coaches that did deserve the boot. If you know a coach who got fired, he didn't deserve to get fired. You can go ahead and call me up like who's another coach that did a good job and he's still got the boot.
The phone lines open. If you want to give me a holler, when we come back, we'll talk about Luca, who is absolutely going off here in the first quarter against the Dallas Mavericks is not a shock. It's not a surprise. He is making sure that he gets his.
And then how about this? This is a coach who got fired. He's one of the most successful coaches of all time. He's rebranding himself right now in college.
He might even be cool or hip. I'll tell you who it is. I think you might know. 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. I need you to think O'Reilly Auto Parts for all of your car care needs.
Get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts. I just did give you a new top six list. And today we took a look at some of the coaches in the world of sports who should have never, ever been fired.
We're talking about individuals who had success, and ultimately they were still given the boot. If you missed the full list and all the explanations, you can go ahead and hit rewind on the free Odyssey app. And number six, I gave you Mike Malone, the inspiration for the list. And number five, I gave you Jim Harbaugh being fired or mutually agreeing to part ways with the 49ers. And number four, I gave you Kenny Atkinson with the Brooklyn Nets.
He's now a successful head coach with the Cleveland Cavaliers. And number three, I gave you Mike Vrabel. Just last year, the Tennessee Titans gave him the boot. And number two, I gave you Yogi Berra. And number one, I gave you Jimmy Johnson, that old crazy Jerry Jones saying, no, thank you.
Just a matter of egos. And now what are the Dallas Cowboys won really since Jimmy outside of Barry Switzer winning once with his team? The answer is nothing. The phone lines are open if you want to give me a holler. That's 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. We are talking about coaches who should have never been fired. And someone, as you just heard Rich Ackerman say, who he should have never been traded is Luka Doncic. Right now in Dallas at halftime, the Los Angeles Lakers lead the Dallas Mavericks 60 to 57. Luka Doncic, who had a big introductory video played for him, a big old thank you, a beautiful montage. He was visibly shaken and crying. He was shaking on the bench during that intro. Luka, 31 points, 31 points at the half. He has 31 points. He's shooting six of eight from downtown. Luka is feeling it.
And if I were him, I'm sorry, I'd be a jerk. And maybe he wants to save it for the end of the game. Nico Harrison, the guy who traded him away, the GM of the Dallas Mavericks, he's been watching the game in a tunnel. He's still kind of, you know, off the side of the court. It's not like he's way back in the tunnel. He's on the side watching, surrounded by security and executives and whatnot. Hickey, at the end of this game, Luka, he has to, if he hits a big, you gotta yell at Nico, right?
You have to yell at, you gotta stare down the tunnel with your hands on your hips. You have to, right? I hope so. Oh, I hope so. That would be great.
Yeah. The fans would love that too. That might be an iconic photo. He could, he should.
I'm always looking for a moment. Just one of the dumbest things that people have ever seen is this man being traded out to Los Angeles for a whole lot of nothing. A whole lot of nothing. So on emotional night in Dallas, a lot of Luka jerseys, whether they be Mavericks jerseys or whether they be Laker jerseys. I'm interested to see what the fan reaction is at the end of the night as this game appears. Well, it is close right now.
60 to 57. Here's the phone number again. It's 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. Yeah, I think we got, Hickey, who do we got on the line, Hickey? What do we got there? We got a favorite, Allen in Toronto. Yeah, let's, can we bring up Allen in Toronto?
Yes. Hi, JR. Always great to be on the line, Diaz. Thank you very much for taking my call.
Thank you. Joe Girardi had a winning percentage of 9-10 and 7-10, 5-62 percent winning percentage in Yankee Stadium. And they fired him.
They didn't want to renew his contract. And five of the 10 years he had over 90 wins, they captured the 2009 World Series. And every year they were in the postseason, as far as I remember. And he was above 500 every year. And October the 26th, Yankees announced that they're not going to renew his contract.
You know, I felt it very bad. And then he was also fired in Philadelphia, too. And it's 2002 after 51 games. He has 2022, I should say.
Everything that you're saying is wholly accurate. There's no disputing the success of Joe Girardi as a manager. And now he's back to being an announcer. That's pretty much what he's done since he's retired as a catcher. He's been an announcer, he's been a coach, he's been a manager. And he's just pretty much done the tangle there.
But one thing that you hear that is consistent with Joe Girardi, people hate this guy's guts. You know, the way he's described, it's like, hey, I'm going to work. And who are you working for? The dentist. It's like going to the dentist every day. You know, I can stomach it once a year, twice a year. I could do a cleanup here or there.
But I don't want to go to the dentist every single day. And that's the way it was described with Joe Girardi. So they got rid of Joe Girardi and they bring on someone who's a little easier to work with. We don't hear the same things about Aaron Boone that we hear with Joe Girardi with the Yankees. So, yeah, he was a winner. And Brian Cashman felt that he could win with anybody. And he certainly did. He's still winning with Boone. Joe Torrey, he had very big shoes to fill with Joe Torrey.
I could say that much. And Joe Torrey was more laid back. And I guess it was a conflict of interest, you know, with personalities. Laws of balance. Joe Torrey was getting older.
He was relaxed. The Yankees needed somebody with fire. They bring in Joe Girardi has too much fire. They bring in somebody relaxed and Aaron Boone and Aaron Boone. He yells at the umpires and he has a pacemaker.
So everything's about balance. OK. Yeah, he's Joe Girardi, the commentator and Joe Girardi as a manager. I guess they're two different people. You can't be can't be cursing out the listeners, right? I guess you can.
But why not? Hey, thank you, Alan. Yeah, always great being on the line with you. Thank you very much for taking my call. Sure.
Sure. Hickey, as a commentator, you can be next. Hickey, did you hear Charles Barkley? Can we play that later in the show? Did you hear what he said about the women's dance? At the concert outside? I did.
Oh, oh, my. Are we allowed to play? We got to play with a bleep, right? Yes, yes, we could play it.
Yeah, I'll make sure it's ready and I guess FCC approved. He said that there's some he said he had another way of saying it. He said we still got y'all still got some big old women down here in San Antonio.
He stood on a stage and said that in San Antonio. Oh, my goodness. Do they still do the Hickey? I don't know. Maybe maybe you don't remember.
Maybe this is not even a good thing to talk about. Remember when they used to do the classes like I don't feel like we have that anymore. Now you have individualized fancy fitness classes. But there was a point in the 80s and 90s where like the big weight loss studios were a thing.
Remember that? Somewhat. Yeah, they had these studios. Fat camps?
Similar, yes. OK. Like Jenny Craig. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Everybody signed up come to Jenny Craig and, you know, every ball of women would show up.
And it was it was a thing in the 90s and the 80s. Right. Like like why doesn't Charles Barkley, I dare him to go say something like that. Why is he saying at a concert? Damn. He is cut through. He's the Hickey. He might be the only guy that could say that in public and get away with it.
I think he's definitely the only one. Oh, my goodness. Eight, eight, eight, seven, ten for ISN. Matt is here from Buffalo. Go ahead, Matt. You got to go quick.
Hey, J.R., just two things real quick. One, I totally agree with Jimmy Johnson being on that list because he basically got run out of there because Jerry Jones Eagle couldn't handle him being a bigger star than he was in Dallas. And look where that's got him now. Second, sometimes I think that, you know, sometimes the coach just runs out. His message gets old or, you know, he has to reinvent himself and he maybe can't do it or he doesn't do it well enough. And, you know, maybe he has different ideas of how to how to make things work. Once the team goes down or like the talent, they have to kind of reload.
And maybe that's part of the reason that, like, someone like Prable would be gone. Yeah. Yeah, I think it. And thank you, Matt, for calling from Buffalo. I think it has a whole hell of a lot more to do with stupid ownership.
Is it? He's the smartest guy in the building and ownership didn't know what to do because I'm the boss and I make the decisions. So you're taking me off. So you got to go. Simple as that. I'll get some more of your calls on the other side. It's the JR sport. We show the Infinity Sports Network.
