Is Heat Culture Dead? (Hour 1)

It is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Earlier this morning, as I said in the last break, we learned that a certain 49ers tight end got himself a new contract. George Kittle, who's going to be 32 years old in October, he's not going anywhere. This man is probably going to fulfill one of these deals where he is with the same team for the entirety of his career, a four-year contract, $76.4 million, $40 million guaranteed.

What's the significance of these numbers? Outside of this is money that's not going into my pocket. George Kittle is now making more money than Trey McBride, who's 25 years old and just got a big contract extension from the Arizona Cardinals. You want to know the deal they gave him? Four years is $76 million. Basically, George Kittle is making about $100,000 more per year. $19.1 versus $19 for Trey McBride. Boo-hoo.

I'll take a small fraction of all of that damn money, okay? And so George Kittle can walk around and now say he's the highest paid tight end in the entire NFL. This six-time Pro Bowler. This man has four seasons of, you know, here a thousand yards and a bunch of touchdowns.

He's an exclusive company when it comes to tight ends all time. George Kittle, he spoke today. The 49ers, their social media captured it.

And of course he said, oh yeah, I'm ready to ball out here in the Bay Area or something like that. What's up, guys? George Kittle here. How you doing? I'm doing great. We got that four-year extension. Going to be your plus 10 years. Have a good one. A lot of good times. Get the faithful fired up.

Don't you just love good 49ers football, sweetie? Let's go. Okay. Hickey, why didn't he give the number? He said the years. Why didn't he want to give the amount of money? It's a good question.

It's a great question. Little obnoxious much, you know, maybe. Also, you don't want to just give the, not that the numbers aren't out there, but hey guys, I just signed a four-year, almost $100 million contract. Well, excuse me, almost $75, $80 million contract.

Just don't ask me for a loan. He said, I'll be here for four years. We'll see. The way that all these NFL contracts are pretty much put together, I'm sure that George Kittle is realistically looking at a two-year front-loaded contract. And if somehow, some way he falls off of a cliff, the San Francisco 49ers will just help push him off the edge.

But if he is still performing, then I'm sure they'll have another contract negotiation. Earlier today, both George Kittle and John Lynch, the general manager, the man who's running the show for the San Francisco 49ers, they talked about getting this deal done. Listen. Pretty happy.

Why not? Third contract, same football team, great foundation, great organization. I'll pitch myself right now. Happy to be here. We're watching film with Skinny Kid at Iowa. I'll tell you, one private workout with CJ Beathard got me a job. It's been a good thing for us. Great thing. I'm proud of you.

Yeah. You want to talk about a Skinny Kid from Iowa. This might be a message for everybody that just got drafted into the NFL. George Kittle was a fifth round pick out of Iowa in 2017. Let me say that again. He was drafted in the fifth round.

You can go ahead and find talent every and anywhere. And the way that George Kittle is currently performing, the only thing missing on his resume is a championship with the San Francisco 49ers. And outside of that, I mean, if he keeps balling out the way he is just this past season, 1100 yards receiving to go along with eight touchdowns, he tacks on a few more seasons of that, regardless of whether or not the 49ers win a championship.

This man is going into Canton. Now here's the situation. The man that delivers him the football, Brock Purdy, what's his deal? You have to imagine now that George Kittle got his contract done, now that George Kittle is locked away. And now that the 49ers have, by the way, they readjusted the contracts of Juszczak. Now that Dre Greenlaw is gone and Leonard Floyd is gone and Hufanga is gone to the Broncos and Charvarious Ward is gone with the Colts and Deebo Samuel is gone down in Washington. You would think with all of these players gone that Brock Purdy is next to be paid.

There's a reason why they cleared out all of these veterans in their contracts. And you got to keep in mind, by the way, that Christian McCaffrey as a running back who was just injured to high hell last year, the calves and the ankles and the Achilles. And they basically told us everything in his legs hurt except for his damn toes.

He said he's healthy, by the way. You could imagine that Brock Purdy is going to get paid major money. The highest paid quarterback on an annual basis right now, the NFL. Well, his name is Dak Prescott.

I think most people would agree. I mean, given production and injury history, he ain't worth being the highest paid QB in the game. The Dallas Cowboys are just stupid when it comes down to handing out contracts. So he's making $60 million per year. If you happen to be his agent, Brock Purdy's agent, then that might be something you push for. If you are the San Francisco 49ers, you just go, that's a dumb ass contract.

Don't go ahead and look at that one. I think it's more realistic if you take a look at Brock Purdy as someone who was drafted last in the NFL draft back in 2022. Someone who's been making pennies only a couple million dollars a year, sleeping on friends' couches and whatnot. You would think that Brock Purdy would be happy to get anything.

It's still a business. I think he's going to fall in that north of 50-ish range per year. I don't think Brock Purdy is going to be the guy who's going to be greedy.

He's going to be happy with what he just got. Joe Burrow is making $55 million. Is Brock Purdy better than Joe Burrow?

The answer would be no. Josh Allen is now making $55 million. Is Brock Purdy better than Josh Allen? No. Jordan Love is at $55 million. Is he better than Brock Purdy?

Incrementally. Trevor Lawrence is making $55 million. Tua is making $53 million. Jared Goff is making $53 million.

I think that might be the range. Come on now. And maybe the 49ers just go, you know what, let's throw and give this guy a bone. Brock Purdy was fourth in MVP voting in 2023. Last season with a lot of his weapons hurt and missing in action, guys breaking legs and having bad achilles, Brandon IU blew out his leg. Brock Purdy still threw for almost 3,900 yards, 20 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. Like a lot of QBs, if he has weapons, if he has guys he can go out there and work with, you're going to get results. I don't think Brock Purdy is the type of quarterback to get you over the hump or get you over the edge by himself. If you think about some of the QBs that we just named, Hickey, let's do a quick exercise.

I'm going to try my best here. I think I know what I'm talking about. Hickey, does Dak Prescott have a title? No. No, he does not. Highest paid in the league.

Does Joe Burrow have a title? No. Okay.

It's tied for second highest paid in the league. Josh Allen, has he been to a Super Bowl? He is not.

Okay. Jordan Love, what about him? He's won a playoff game. Trevor Lawrence, he's in the same boat, just won a game, right? A playoff game.

Okay. And then we got Tua Tongaveloa. He's been in the playoffs. It's comical to even put Tua and Super Bowl in the same conversation. So, I mean, Brock Purdy has, he has some reasonings and lines to say, hey, I want this type of money.

Like I want the 53, I want the 54, I want the 55. And what difference does it make to me? Not a whole hell of a lot. He's going to land somewhere between that 50 and 55. I don't think he's going to touch Dak. Even though the last time I checked, let's see how much of my job I know Dak Prescott has a record of two and four and maybe worse in the postseason. I don't think Brock Purdy is going to go past that, that 60.

Yep. Dak is, he is worse. He's two and five in the postseason. He's making 60 mil a year. You could realistically say that Brock Purdy, this man might've helped deliver the 49 as a championship one year if the Eagles Hassan Redick didn't slap his arm to high hell.

But we don't live in a world of what ifs. I think one thing for sure for certain, at some point over the next several weeks, maybe it'll take longer, maybe it'll take a month. Maybe we'll go into the beginning of training camp. Brock Purdy's going to get paid. He's not going anywhere. He's going to get a long-term deal and he's going to be happy that they gave it to him, especially for a guy who had zero expectations being drafted last in 2022, that he was even going to be in the NFL. And some people, and I'm going to be mad if I was making 50 plus mil a year. Yeah. Just tell me when and where I could sign his leverage. He actually has some, unlike what your door did good on a Brock Purdy. He's going to be the next 49 to get paid.

And they had to let go of a lot of people to go ahead and get him that money. It's the JR sport re-show here with you on the infinity sports network, 8 8 8 7 10 4 ISN. That's 8 8 8 7 10 4 ISN. When we come back, we got four basketball games that are in action tonight. We already got one of those games that are underway. We'll talk about the heat. We'll get into Jimmy Butler's big game.

We'll talk about Brandon Bean. He wants to keep one of his players with the Buffalo Bills and we got more NFL, more NBA. You're listening to the JR sport brief.

It is the JR sport re-show here with you on the infinity sports network. Man, George Kittle got paid. Brock Purdy about to get paid. But as we sat here last night, we had a bunch of guys who get paid a lot of money. Man, they quit. They got smacked around. They didn't have enough talent. I'm talking about the Miami Heat.

Yeah. Jimmy Butler decided the bail left the team high and dry. Bam out of bio and Tyler Hero, not enough. And yesterday they got smacked around in historic fashion. The Miami Heat end up losing to the Cleveland Cavaliers 138 to 83. That is a 55 point beat down. We haven't seen a beat down like that in NBA history. The Miami Heat are now swept.

And Tyler Hero, they're yelling about Tyler. He can't play defense. Bam out of bio is letting everybody know that Pat Riley is going to make major changes. And we all know this season was going a whole lot of nowhere from the minute that Jimmy Butler said, Oh, you're not going to pay me? Then I'm not going to play.

Then get me the hell up on out of here. And we'll get to Jimmy Butler in a second. While the Miami Heat were suffering down in Miami on their home court getting swept, Jimmy Butler was playing one of the games of his life. One of them for the Golden State Warriors, as they went ahead up on the Houston Rockets 3 to 1. In the Miami Heat, this is no LeBron James team.

Okay. And no Dwayne Wade here. There's no Alonzo Mourning. Shout outs to Alonzo Mourning for joining us last week.

And this is not Pat Riley coaching the squad. There's no Tim Hardaway coming through to save the day. There's no Ray Allen, big shot. No, no Chris Bosh, big shot.

It's none of this. And by the way, over the years, this is also a team in an organization that couldn't swing a trade for Damian Lillard. We saw that that guy's, well, he's pretty much done with the Bucks. Maybe they're going to shoot for Kevin Durant.

Who knows? Miami is a destination that people want to go to. Why the hell not? But for last night, you got Floyd Mayweather sitting courtside. You got a bunch of other celebrities I've never heard of sitting courtside. Thank God they got the money. Cause they paid the watch a bunch of crap. If they paid at all. I mean, even the crew on TNT last night. And they said, well, we all saw the Miami Heat. They quit.

At least they're already in a vacation destination. This reminds me of a karate movie. When a guy comes into the town and just start beating everybody up, that's just like people coming through there. This is what this looks like, man. This might be the worst game I've ever watched. Ernie, I try not to ever use the word quit or choke. Uh, cause you can see I'm not very Southern music. This is quitting at its finest right here. This like, I bet if we went to their house, all their stuff is already packed.

Well, no, it is not packed. They live in Miami. They live in Miami. You lost about 38 to last game.

You can't stay in Miami. Yeah, that was the last game. And then they lost about 55. They got smacked and Eric Spulstra, the stoic head coach of the Miami Heat, basically given the blessing from Pat Riley to run the organization for perpetuity.

Eric Spulstra said, yeah, we got slapped up. It was like being served a lot of humble pie, but damn, it was humbling. You know, this series is humbling. These last two games are embarrassing. Um, but Cleveland's also a very good team. We won whatever we won. They won 65. Whereas irrationals, we usually are thinking that we have a chance to win this series. And, um, they showed us why, you know, we weren't ready, you know, for that.

Oh, come on. The Miami Heat didn't have the talent. The Miami Heat were basically sabotaged from the minute that Jimmy Butler said, I don't want to be here.

The Miami Heat, this was just a wasted season. And people can look back at all how you treated Jimmy Butler, man. Jimmy Butler got paid. And so he then quit on the Miami Heat and the Heat pretty much had no choice the rest of the season. And I don't blame him for not having a 35, 36 year old dude get another two or three years on top of his deal when he shows up and plays only when he wants to. I don't blame him. I don't blame Pat Riley for actually having cojones last year and telling everybody that, that Jimmy Butler, man, shut up.

If you're not playing like being adult. Yeah. Jimmy Butler's a great basketball player when he actually plays, but all the nonsense outside and off the court just demanded money. Yeah. He knows how to stick you up and rob you.

If you're asking me, look, there's a lot of things that aren't ethical in life. How he handles business is he's a mercenary. And I don't know if he'll be able to do it again because he'll probably be cooked at the end of his time with the Golden State Warriors. But he has stuck up a bunch of teams all over the NBA and the Miami Heat.

Yeah. They had success going to finals, unfortunately not winning one. They were the last victim. And I don't blame them for not sticking up and, or actually, you know, bowing down and paying this man, bam out of bio. He might be done with the Miami Heat. Like how the hell do they rebuild without moving either him or Tyler Herro as somebody has to go? Because these two dudes are like fringe all-stars.

Neither one of these men are going to take you over the mountain top to help you win a championship. The Miami Heat, not a team known for rebuilding either. So, you know, what they do after this is going to be very interesting. Bam out of bio said, look, man, Pat Riley, that old man who sits over there with the gray and silver hair, he's going to make some changes. What needs to change?

I don't know. It's going to be a lot of changes this summer. Just from my point of view, understanding how, you know, the guy with the silver hair works.

So just be prepared for that. Yeah. I remember Pat Riley, that hair wasn't silver.

That hair was black as hell and Italian suits. Times have changed. Pat Riley is 80 years old and I'm not, I'm not putting him in Jerry Jones. He sounds kind of crazy. Pat Riley, I guess being down in Miami will do it for you, but Pat Riley looks just cool, calm, collected. He's aging gracefully. Jerry Jones is what, 83?

He looks like he got stepped on. I'm just being honest, right? I mean, you know, people are always disheveled. Yeah. Lifestyles will do that.

Lifestyle, genetics, things like that'll do to you. Pat Riley doesn't look like he's one step away. Jerry Jones looks like he's one step away from, you know, from what? From having another McDonald's McGriddle? Yes. He's one step away from leading an even longer rough life.

That's what he looks like. Yes. Pat Riley, I know Pat Riley, he's not going to be doing this forever, but I don't feel the same type of urgency.

Of course you want to fix things. But this was, this is unfortunately a team. They shot their shot with Jimmy Butler and they missed.

And unless there's some type of magic bullet, I don't like, like what? You're going to get Yanis? How and for what? You got to have multiple teams involved. You, you're going to bring in Kevin Durant, another guy, how old is he?

36, 37. Every year he has a foot or ankle injury, despite how amazing he is. And when he's still healthy enough to go out onto the court and score the Miami Heat are going to have to have some type of miracle. And there, if they want to shoot their shot, it's going to have to be on a shortened window. You know, are they going to be a team to say we're going to fix fat Zion Williamson or is, is, Oh, cause you imagine this Pat Riley decides to bring on Ja Morant and bring him to Miami?

What a disaster that would probably be. So I don't know what quick fix the Miami Heat have. I think when you take a look at the Heat, you also take a look at the Milwaukee Bucks. I think both of these teams are, are cooked unless they just get a magic bullet somehow, some way.

Hickey, what are your thoughts? The Miami Heat not looking too good for them right now. No, yeah, I agree. They're in a long rebuild. I don't even know if one star is going to change it because like, it's not just, Oh, they're one player away. I mean, you don't lose by 55 points just because you're one player away.

You're Janus away. I think you got to look at the whole organization right now. Look at how you're doing it. I think they have, like you said, they refuse to tank them. I mean, not that they can trade away a lot of players in general, but that may be the move for them for the next two or three years. You move, move, let Hero, move Bam out of bio and, and I don't know, maybe you move Tali, Hero to some sucker team, keep out of bio and just suck for the next three years, huh? Rebuild, hit those draft picks, trust in your development that they've done before and try to be an attractive landing spot for, I mean, one of the, you know, Brown or Tatum in three years, will they be playing together?

I mean, it's probably gonna be Brown on the move, like. Yeah, it's just bad the way it happened with the whole Jimmy Butler situation. Meanwhile, last night against the Golden State Warriors, Jimmy Butler, he helps.

Oh, well, what am I talking about? Jimmy Butler now plays for the Warriors against the Rockets. And last night, the Warriors beat the Rockets 109 to 106.

And Jimmy Butler, who was running around with a bruised tailbone, he couldn't move for the beginning part of the game. He ended with 27 points, six assists. He had this big rebound at the end of the game to help seal it along with some free throws. Draymond Green plays some defense and the Warriors now lead the series against the Rockets three to one.

Their next game with an opportunity to close it out is tomorrow. On one hand, you got Jimmy Butler's old team that they're suffering as a result of how he decided to leave them high and dry because they didn't pay him. And then his new team, the Golden State Warriors, they are certainly reaping the benefits right now. Even Steve Kerr, someone who's won championship after championship after championship, playing and coaching with some of the greatest players ever. Steve Kerr is like, man, we needed Jimmy Butler, like, I don't know, like humans need air. We had to have him. I mean, if this were the regular season, he'd probably miss another week or two. But it's the playoffs and he's Jimmy Butler.

So this is what he does. The rebound at the end was just incredible. The elevation, the force, then of course, knocking down the free throws to clinch it. Jimmy was just amazing. Okay.

All right. Yeah, honeymoon is still going on out in the Bay Area with Jimmy Butler. And we know Jimmy plays when he wants to. This is the honeymoon period with the Golden State Warriors and playing with Steph Curry.

You got a new paycheck. So Jimmy Butler's happy. So let's ask the guy with the bruised ass bone. That's what happened. Jimmy, how did you able, how were you able to go play with your bruised backside?

Tell us. I thought it was winning time, you know, doing certain things that the team needed me to do to go out there and help win. Finally, sort of moving a little bit better and happy to be able to go out there and compete with my guys. All right, whatever. Yeah, just a couple of months ago down in Miami, oh, I got to find some place where I can be happy.

I can play. Oh, oh, they don't want to pay me $121 million. Oh my God, I have to go somewhere else where I can be happy making millions of dollars playing basketball.

Oh no, woe is me. Man, it's so easy to root for Steph Curry. He was just named and the NBA has given out all types of crazy awards. Steph Curry was just named like the best teammate in the entire NBA. They gave him like the sportsmanship teammate award. Meanwhile, he got to play with Jimmy Butler, who I think is one of the premier jerks in the league.

Captain Selfish. It's the JR Sport Reshow on the Infinity Sports Network. We're going to talk some Cavaliers, talk some NFL. We got a lot to do. The other side is the JR Sport Reshow, the Infinity Sports Network.