It is the JR Sport Brief show on the Infinity Sports Network. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to everybody tuned in and locked in all over North America. I hope you are amazing. I hope you had a great Monday. I'll be hanging out with you for one more hour. This show gets started every weekday at 6pm Eastern, 3 Pacific.
I'm in Atlanta. Thank you to our producer helping to hold things down tonight in New York City, Nico Scarlatos. And thank you to you for being here, wherever you might be, hanging out on this Monday.
You at work, you at home, you on the highway, the byways, you're holding it down, you're helping people, whatever you're doing, delivering. Thank you for being here. You can call me up anytime. Here's the phone number. Are you ready? 888-710-4ISN. That's 888-710-4ISN. You can find me on the internet.
I exist on Facebook and Twitter and X and Instagram, all of the things, whatever the hell they call it. I am at JR Sport Brief everywhere. Of course, at the end of the show, we'll talk about a few things that took place this day in sports history.
We've already talked about a lot. Fred Warner getting a contract extension from the San Francisco 49ers. The 49ers basically made Fred Warner the highest paid linebacker in the NFL.
This man can crack skulls and he's also great in coverage. And so after giving Brock Purdy $53 million a year, Fred Warner gets a three year $63 million contract. Hey, we talked about Nick Sirianni. Nick Sirianni also after winning a Super Bowl. Nick Sirianni now has himself a multi-year contract extension. The full details obviously not announced. We never get the full details on a coach's extension. And then we also learned that the NFL owners later this week, they're going to sit down together and they're going to figure out and vote on whether or not they want to ban the tush push, which I go, hey, no big deal. We don't see the play a lot.
Go line this, go line that, like keep it moving. Like y'all don't got nothing better to worry about. And then also the, the idea of why they want to ban the tush push is saying it's not safe. It's just rooted in ridiculousness. A lot of that. Yeah. Ridiculousness. You heard me. 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. We're now less than 24 hours away from the start of the Western Conference Finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Minnesota Timberwolves. We're 48 hours away from the start of the Eastern Conference Finals between the New York Knicks and the Indiana Pacers. We talked about both matchups. Thank you so much to Andrew Schlecht for joining us from the Athletic. He came on by. He thinks that the Oklahoma City Thunder are going to move on to the NBA Finals.
And I would agree with him. I like their depth. I feel like if Anthony Edwards is not really hitting on all cylinders and I think their size and their length. I get it.
You got go bear out there. I just like the Thunder. I think the versatility of their players, their size. You got Hartenstein.
They're just, they're unique. I don't know if, I don't know if Minnesota is going to have enough scoring punch. We'll see what happens. I just, I see what Randall is doing now. Here's 30 points. Here's 31 points, etc. I just don't.
I don't trust him in a full series. We'll see what happens. 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. I also told you about Shaquille O'Neal, who has some interesting thoughts on whether or not the NBA draft lottery is rigged. So we'll hear from Shaq as well, who's kind of piling on right now about the legitimacy of the NBA draft lottery now that the Dallas Mavericks ended up with the first overall pick. Let's go to Green Bay, Wisconsin, and let's talk to Tommy. Hey, Tommy, how are you, man?
You're on the chair of our sport brief show. I'm doing well. How about you?
I'm excellent. What's on your mind? Well, you know, I'm just listening to people talking about, you know, and again, I'm Green Bay.
I'm a Packer fan. The whole idea of the push, push and it being different. And I just have two things to mention, one being the forward pass. Don Hudson, can you imagine the receivers going out and exposing themselves to the possibility of injury going up to catch a pass?
The other point that I want to bring up the idea of two pulling guards stepping out and running around at full speed around and leading a fullback or a halfback on a sweep. Two things that these are part of Packer history. So the idea that the Packers are going to be stepping up and taking a stand against the push, push, push to me just is a little bit. I don't know.
I just can't get behind that. Well, I'm going to hang up and let you talk. Well, thank you, Tommy. Appreciate you for calling from Green Bay. He talks about Don Hudson.
Yeah, we talk about a wide receiver from the Packers from almost 100 years ago. So, yeah, things change. Rules change. Ideas change.
It's normal. Sports change. You know, there was no three point line until what, 79, 80 in basketball. So, yeah, rules change.
But when it comes to what the Green Bay Packers have pretty much said and done, led by Mark Murphy. It's almost akin to yelling, teacher, teacher, teacher. Well, well, we got to change the rules because one one kid is doing something and now he's beaten everybody in the race. OK, like, like what are we doing here? Now, we had a band dunks.
We can't have dunks because we got that one tall kid who can dunk the basketball and all he does is win. It's like playing a video game. And I'm sure maybe at some point in time, maybe you have, maybe you haven't. It's like somebody who plays a game.
I don't know. Maybe it's a it's like maybe it's a basketball game or football game. And somebody just is like, hey, I'm going to choose the Falcons. I'm just going to take Michael Vick and I'm going to have him run around the edge every time. And I know it's a guaranteed score. It's like that kid who picks up the video game and I don't know what it is.
A street fighter, a Tekken or whatever the hell it might be. And all I do, you practice for your whole damn life. And all they do, they come through. They're just mashing buttons and they win. And you're just like, hey, where's the skill? And then you just complain instead of figuring out how you can get better and how you can win. You're just out here just just crying the blues. Like everybody got to complain about something.
Just go out there and get better. Ban this, ban that. Bunch of crybaby ass people. How about that?
8-8-8-7-10-4-I-S-N. That's 8-8-8-7-10-4-I-S-N. I just mentioned the Western Conference final starts tomorrow between the Minnesota Timberwolves. And then also the Oklahoma City Thunder. We got Anthony Edwards, who I think at some point in time is going to win himself an NBA championship. And then we have the Oklahoma City Thunder led by Shay Gilgus Alexander, who just dropped 35 points in helping the Thunder eliminate the Denver Nuggets. Anthony Edwards going to the Western Conference finals last year, losing to the venture Western Conference champion Dallas Mavericks, who, by the way, as we know, don't have Luka Doncic anymore. Anthony Edwards, he talks about what he might have learned, if anything, from last year's experience.
It's not really, there's no benefits of going through it last year. Just trying to be more prepared this year and not come out sluggish in Game 1 with all this time that we have. Five days.
Five days. Minnesota Timberwolves have been off as they awaited the victor. It took them seven games between the Thunder and the Nuggets. Meanwhile, you got Chet Holmgren, who I think he's going to be a key part. And he frustrated just the size that's out there between Chet Holmgren and Hartenstein.
You're able to just tell them, gigantic guys, hey, man, just go out there and put your hands up, make things difficult. I mean, even yesterday, you still have a veteran like Caruso flying all over the place when he wasn't out there defending Jokic. Chet Holmgren is going to be a key piece for this Oklahoma City team if they are going to go ahead and knock off the Timberwolves. And I guess there's some added benefit that he's going to be in his hometown in Minnesota.
Is that going to make a difference? A little bit of a homecoming for Chet when they get there in Game 3. This is what Chet had to say. Anytime I go home and play, it's great to be able to play in front of friends, family, old coaches, old teammates. You know, I never take it for granted and it's definitely kind of full circle.
Yeah, full circle. Man, every time I see this man, I'm just like, I hope he does not snap in half. Because watching Chet Holmgren run up and down the court is just like, can I throw him a sandwich in the process?
Like, can I do something? I mean, this guy, would he break his foot just running around playing pickup basketball before he even got to the NBA? I got to give this guy credit for just being durable. This is like 7'1", 7'2", and he's, I don't even know, barely 200 pounds.
8, 8, 8, 7, 10, 4 ISN. I'm not, I like the depth on the Thunder. I do.
I don't know if I can consistently get Julius Randle to just drop points. Anthony Edwards is going to do his thing. I don't, I'm not a fan.
Nico, what do you think? You going with the Minnesota Timberwolves? You going with the Thunder in this series? Man, I'm such a big Anthony Edwards fan. I really am. But I think it's got to be the Thunder.
Any reason why? Well, so I think what happens is, and I could be completely off on this, but it seemed as though they steamrolled through the Grizzlies and then they got pushed around a little bit by the Nuggets. And I think that was almost like a wake-up call for them.
And then you saw that yesterday. That was a dominant performance in Game 7 from start to finish. So I think they got the kinks out of them a little bit. Now they're ready to go where now they're just going to take down the Timberwolves with ease.
I don't know about with ease. I think they're going to give them plenty of resistance. I just think they have so many players that they could throw out there in waves. I don't know if Minnesota has that same depth. I think more things have to go right for Minnesota if they want to go ahead and win this series.
You have to have a consistent effort. We know we ain't getting no points out of Rudy Gobert. It's not like the Thunder are a small team. They got centers to go out there. Big guys they can kind of occupy him with. I'm just not enamored with the scoring from Minnesota. I think we're more likely to see runs from multiple players on the Oklahoma City Thunder.
If I got to look at Minnesota, if there's one guy I'm expecting to go on a run, it's really only Anthony Edwards. 888-710-4ISN. That's 888-710-4ISN. Craig is calling from Wyoming. You're on the JR Sport Reshow. What's up, Craig? Hey, JR. Can you hear me? I got you loud and clear, Craig.
What's on your mind? Word. Awesome. You're so cool, man. You all have a great perspective on sports no matter what. I appreciate that.
Thank you. What's up? What's your perspective?
What's on your mind? What I was going to say about the tush push is I think the big thing, because obviously there has been no injuries, at least as far as I know, from the tush push, right? Yeah, and the NFL doesn't have any data on it, too.
They've openly said. Right, right. So my thought is I was thinking about the Broncos game between the Falcons, and there was a pass out of the backfield to Javante, and he caught it at the 10-yard line, got hit about the 7-yard line, and then he got tush pushed almost like seven, six yards into the end zone. So I think that's where the injuries might happen, and I think that's where in the future we might see that they actually abolish it, even though I think they're probably going to do it anyways.
Yeah, likely. But that would be more of an exception, would it not be? Most people think about the tush push, and it's like, hey, here we go, straight out the gate, snap the ball, push the quarterback. You know, over the linemen, boom, we got our one yard or our foot or whatever the hell we need. So, I mean, they can find workarounds and find exceptions, but as you said and I said, there is no injury history, and the NFL has pretty much said the same thing. Well, there's also about the concussion thing, too. Like, I mean, for a long time, I mean, it was just like kind of swept under the rug, too, so I might think this might be a thing like that, but like I was saying, I think they're probably going to come out of this meeting tomorrow. I think it's tomorrow, whatever it is, and abolish it just because, like, oh, we can't beat it, so, you know, get it out of here. Well, they always got to make it seem like they care, and we know they do not.
They don't. Hey, Craig, thank you for calling from Wyoming, man. Hey, man, thank you for taking my call. Absolutely. It's the JR Sportbree Show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network.
I got to tell you, who, well, let me not say that. The NFL doesn't care. Does the NFL, does anybody really sitting around watching football, does anybody really care or really think the NFL cares about player safety? Outside of, hey, let's add a baseline, keep the players safe because we need healthy players like to actually go out there and play. When it comes to anything preemptive, like the first idea is money. That's it.
Like, how can we make money and keep this sustainable? Like, they don't want to be liable, and it may not so much be about money, but it's about being liable. And I felt I want to write checks for negligence. That's just flat and buried. So a tush push, man, they do not care. 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. When we come back on the other side of the break, I'm going to tell you what Shaquille O'Neal had to say about the NBA draft lottery. I'm going to show some love to my friends and family up in Toronto, Canada. Not the happiest right now with the Maple Leafs blowing it. Of course, at the end of the show, we'll talk about a few things that took place this day in sports history. It's been May 19th all day long.
We got so much more to do. It's the JR Sport Brief Show, the Infinity Sports Network. Yeah, I guess when I'm not being crazy and saying nonsense myself. Every now and then.
It is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. Banning the tush push sounds like a bunch of nonsense to me. And I can't believe and I can't believe because I think I've lived long enough to see a lot. I'm not surprised by anything. We talked about some nonsense. Banning the tush push. Here we are again. Just basically a week following the NBA draft lottery. Having discussions about the draft lottery being rigged, not being authentic, that teams are getting basically handed out the number one overall pick based on whatever business initiatives or issues that the league wants to take place and wants to happen. OK. A couple of weeks ago, about a month ago.
Damn it. Well, more than that, I guess at this point, a couple of months ago, LeBron James was sitting down with Pat McAfee and the thought and the idea came up. Well, it was a topic of conversation. LeBron, you know, starting his career off at home in Cleveland, it being too good to be true. And LeBron James was basically saying that, hey, this isn't the only coincidence that we've had in the draft lottery. Listen to what LeBron said a couple of months ago. During the ball drop, you know, during the lottery drop, Cleveland got the number one pick.
I just don't think that was a coincidence. Let's keep LeBron home. You know what, Patrick, you went to the Knicks, you know, Derek Rose to the Bulls. I understand the assignment, guys. You know, so, you know, I had to make sure that, you know, I had to do my part.
Oh, man. He talks about doing his part by going to Cleveland and performing, which he did. Eventually, he left and came back and won a championship.
Good for him. And of course, last week, Dallas Mavericks, despite trading away. Luca and one of the worst trades ever in sports history, the Dallas Mavericks, who had now just been kicked to shreds. All of a sudden, they end up with the number one overall pick. LeBron James was one of the first people, well, not one of these, just one of the most famous, to go online and basically just laugh.
He put up laughing emojis like, hey, ha ha ha. I told you. So this thing is rigged. Hi.
Look, look, look. Now we got Shaquille O'Neal. Not necessarily, you know, putting his two cents in on this specifically, but now we got Shaq who told his own story on the courtside bus show. He's basically saying that, wink, wink, when I went to Orlando, the former commissioner, David Stern, pretty much asked me where I wanted to go. Listen.
The draft was in June or something. I meet Mr. Stern in March. And he says to me, hey, no, you are can't wait for you to come to the NBA. Then he pulls me to the side.
You want to play where it's cold or it's hot? Yeah, he did. He asked me that. And I was like, hot.
And he smiled and I smiled. And then a couple of days later, they had the draft thing and, you know, the top three things. And then Minnesota was number three. I was like, and then Charlotte was number two.
And then Orlando, Florida was number one. I was like, I didn't think anything about it. But, you know, you hear a lot of these conspiracy theories and there's a lot of situations that could make these things sound good and sound true. Like, OK, Dallas gets rid of one of the best players, but oh, we're getting a new one. Oh, come on.
I get all the the jokes and the hee-hees and the ha ha ha's. There's just too much at risk. From the NBA, from a financial perspective, and you can look at it the other way. Oh, the NBA should rig this. So what part what part is rigged and what part isn't? Like the NBA is going to rig the draft lottery. And then they're going to rig the games, too.
And so where does your level of confidence in in the leagues? And I'll say the NFL, too. Like we just went through an entire NFL season until the Kansas City Chiefs lost in the Super Bowl. People were screaming and yelling. About how it was rigged. All the refs are looking out for the Chiefs, the NFL wants the Chiefs, too. Everything is Chiefs to Chiefs that until they lost.
And then when the Kansas City Chiefs lost, oh, it's back to the offensive line and they need to go out there and protect Patrick Mahomes. And so don't fall for the okie doke. And then in a bigger, wider scope of things. Man, this is a business like I know it's difficult for people to understand, like there are human beings. It's not like a back room.
I'm going to do this. Multiple people involved. Ernst and Young is out here helping to make sure that this is done correctly. I mean, there have been writers who I've spoken to and that that are just widely here.
They have they have sports writers who are there in the room, a couple of them to make sure that there is no funny business. And so I get it that everybody wants to run around and say, oh, this is too good to be true. It's rigged. And what happened?
I said this last week. What about all the times where things didn't work out? Like if the draft was was so damn rigged for the New York Knicks. Patrick Ewing to the New York Knicks in the 80s, why haven't the Knicks won a championship since 73? Well, they were just getting a little bit of a boost in the 80s and then, oh, well, it didn't work out.
So sucks for you. Why they suck for the past forever? I mean, if I have my biggest market, how come the New York Knicks could could never catch a break? And then with all the money, I said this with all the money that people are out here gambling with.
Do you really like that lack that much faith or you really want that much money? Because I'm not gambling on something that I think is for Gazi. I'm not gambling on something that I think is is made up like there's a reason.
And Nico, maybe I'm missing something. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Like I can't go on draft kings and gamble about a WWE match. Can I?
No, as far as I know, you cannot bet on that. Yeah. It's there's a reason because it's scripted.
OK. The wrestlers might be out there kicking each other's asses, but they know at the end of the day who's going to win and who's going to lose. And so I mean, there's just too much money on the line for the NFL, the NBA, Major League Baseball, the NHL.
Yeah, you're going to have guys who go rogue. We had a whole conversation last week about Pete Rose gambling on his own damn team. And now he's gone. Now he's off of the commissioner's ineligible list. We had Tim Donahue in the NBA like we just had. I don't even know the bum G League players name off the top my head. We had that guy from the Toronto Raptors was over here.
This guy's facing prison time for, you know, discrepancies. And hey, well, by the way, you may want to put me in because I'm I'm Betty Under. It's like, what are we doing?
We got Calvin Ridley was just a whole ass gambler when he was hurt for the Atlanta Falcons. And so you're always going to have people that think they can get by. You know, my friends can go out here and do the gambling for me or I can give somebody the code to this. Like people are always going to find the work around. But to think the commissioner of these leagues or the NBA is running around trying to dictate who gets what and where guys go. It's too easy to pin it on anybody. And it's not the case. We're talking not one dollar on the line here on a bet you made with your friends.
We're talking billions and billions of dollars. Nico, do you think there's legitimacy to all these reports about this stuff being rigged? I think there's no chance that any game has ever been rigged. But there are some things that are a little weird to me with this lottery. I also, for one, don't like that they don't show you the balls actually getting picked. Like, why are we just seeing the envelopes? How do I know what's going on behind closed doors?
That's my thing. Like with the game, you're watching the game. Like you can clearly see that nothing is rigged with this lottery. How do I know what's going on back there when they're actually picking who's who's going when? Well, as far as my understanding from a television perspective.
Like these guys. Oh, boy, here we go. What a shock. Why? Why is Tyree?
Sorry to deviate from the conversation. Tyree's Halliburton is on Monday Night Raw. What is he going to moon? Is he going to he's going to fight Jalen Brunson after the Eastern Conference Finals is done? I'd love to see it. Let's go round two.
Didn't they do that already? Yeah. Round two.
Let's run it back. Nobody got physical. All right. Like didn't didn't Jalen Brunson grab a steel chair and prevent Halliburton from hitting somebody or something like that?
Yeah, I don't think it was it was that bad. Oh, boy. All right. Well, for all of this, I hope Tyree's Halliburton loses just for being on Monday Night Raw. Like, why are you being a ham? Like, just go play basketball. Why? Why you got to be on on Monday Night Raw?
Like just you play basketball in two days. Oh, maybe I'm maybe I'm being too much of a of a grouch here. Marco, am I am I am I being a grouch like why is he on Monday Night Raw? He should just be getting ready to beat up on the Knicks, right? No, I'm with you. I got to be fair. Look, maybe I'm old school when you've got an opponent opponent that you got to face in a couple of days for a chance to go to the NBA finals. I'm not saying that you got to stay in your bed. I'm not saying you got to stay in your hotel, but don't show up on my TV.
Can you pretend like you're getting prepared for this game? Yeah, I know he was on Pat McAfee earlier today. He got that fan that he's a firefighter about. Is he a New York City firefighter? That guy? Oh, I don't know.
Who got the track? Did you see? Oh, is he a firefighter?
OK, I know what you're talking about. The tickets, right? Oh, I don't know if he's a firefighter. No, the guy was in a Halliburton jersey walking down the street. And then Nick fans just started throwing bags of trash at him. Now Tyrese Halliburton is getting that guy.
He's flying him to Indianapolis to see it, to watch a game. Because, like, who deserves trash thrown at him? Some people, but not that guy, you know? Fair. Yes.
No, and that's a good deal. See, stuff like that I'm fine with. That's great. There's nothing wrong with. Look, you're going to do what you're going to do. But for me, when you're in the playoffs, this is not regular season.
This is a playoffs with a chance to go to the finals. Pretend like you're studying. Pretend like you're getting yourself ready. Pretend like you're working out instead of doing Monday Night Raw. I mean, like, that's where you need to...
The tickets for the guy, that's great. You want to do Pat McAfee in the middle of the afternoon after practice for, what, 20 minutes? Fine. Fine. At night, look, don't show up in the clubs. And if you are, don't let anybody see you on the cell phone. And just try to lay low for a week.
Is it that hard? For a week. Well, I guess he got free time. Why not talk to Pat McAfee again on Monday Night Raw? Even more... He gives... Every day, he gives a new reason not to like him.
And you know what? And after game one, if he scores six points on two of 12 shooting, are we going to hear him speak? Or is he going to avoid the press again and tell me that it was the PR department they said to not speak, so I figured I'd just go home? No, he'll talk on Monday Night Raw instead. Yeah, right. So you're good there, but you're not good after the game if you lose. I'm just trying to follow the rules.
It's like Andrew Rhys, right? I talk when I want to talk, and then when the criticism is there, I don't want to say anything. And then don't ever criticize because then you don't know, and you don't know what it's like to walk in my shoes. I mean, stop.
Just stop. Yeah, this is a long-ass second. They spent five minutes here with Tyrese Halliburton on Monday Night Raw. I have no idea because obviously I'm in the studio. I have no idea what the hell they talked about. What could they possibly discuss with this man for five minutes on Monday? He looked like he was in his basement.
And they were just doing an interview with, like, what could they possibly be saying to him? What voice was he into? Did he go back and forth with the voices? Was he Urkel? Was he Suave?
Was he both? Which voice did we get tonight? I think on Monday Night Raw, you got to do the deep voice, right? You can't do hot pitch. He claims he doesn't know when it goes from one voice to the other.
So I don't know. I don't know if he can control it. He has difficulty controlling things, JR. I do remember that one video at, like, 3 o'clock in the morning, he decided to post with, like, four women.
I think his voice was deep that day, okay? Again, he can't always control. So we didn't get the whole video, luckily.
We only get parts. So sometimes he can control it, sometimes he can't. Thank God he didn't give a Shannon Sharpe in that video.
He gives a lot of reasons not to like him. By the way, speaking of Shannon, Marco, I'm not going to get us in trouble, trust me. You sure? Positive.
I know there's no NFL going on. He's been gone, right? He's laying low? Well, he got sent home, basically.
Okay. But even with the whole Nightcat thing, I mean, I don't watch, but I would always see the clips. I haven't heard anything about that. No, they're doing the show. They still do that?
They definitely do. I've seen a bunch of clips come across. So they're definitely still doing that show. I don't think it's getting the traction that it was getting beforehand. Yeah.
Can I interrupt for a second? We have some news on this Tyrese Halliburton thing as to why he's on Monday Night Raw. Is it a good reason?
I'll leave that up to you to decide. Apparently he's going to be in the new WWE 2K25 video game and they wanted to make that big announcement tonight. He's in the video game doing what? Apparently it's part of the Dunk and Destruction DCL pack or DLC pack, whatever that is. So that means you got to pay five bucks and now you can play with Tyrese Halliburton. Now how that works? I guess. I've never played the WWE video game, so I am not trained on that, but it sounds right.
But that sounds what they do in basketball too. I can't keep up anymore. They sell five different editions of a game. They want you to spend and buy this one and now you got to add this one.
I'm like, whatever happened to buying a game for 20 bucks and then just playing the hell out of it for five years? Those days are over. Halliburton. And there's no Brunson? Not him?
I guess he's got better things to do, huh? We have reports here in the control room that there are two other stars that will be announced, but they are not yet named. So Brunson is still a possibility. You mean tonight? Announced tonight or announced in general? We are not sure.
I guess in general. I'll be the first one to tell you now. I would be surprised if Brunson showed up on Monday Night Raw two days before the Eastern Conference Finals. No, not happening.
But if he did, I would blast him just like I did Tyrese Halliburton. Pretend like you're getting ready for this game against the team that knocked you out in seven last year. Mass shooter or not. Broken hand or not. Don't care. You lost.
You want to make up for that? Don't show up on Monday Night Raw. Wow. Here we go. Josh Hart three hours ago. Josh Hart predicts lots of NBA players trying to get on WWE like conference finalists. OK. All right. He said WWE writes a great script.
There's going to be a lot of guys that are going to try to get on WWE this summer. OK. Here we go. Josh Hart. He knows.
Another reason not to like Halliburton. And only if he got hit by a steel chair. And wrestling, of course.
Not in real life. Anyway, it's the JR Sport re-show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We're going to take a break when we come back. We'll talk about a few things that took place this day in sports history. I want to show some love to the poor Maple Leaf fans up in Toronto.
We'll get ready to roll out. It is the JR Sport re-show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. You know, earlier in the show, I got to get this out the way before we talk about a few things that took place this day in sports history. We talked about the Pittsburgh Pirates and Jeff Passan was having a chat with Pat McAfee today and he basically said, don't be surprised if some point in time before he hits free agency in 2030. If the Pittsburgh Pirates decide to move on from Paul Skeans and it's just like, man, are we here already?
Like, can the guy, I don't know, go to a couple more All-Star games, maybe win a Cy Young before we even entertain the fact that they're so cheap that they're just going to move on from him for assets? It's just, it's nuts. But then I also got to tell you about a team that lost last night at game seven. I feel so bad. They're not miserable in the same way as Pittsburgh, but I feel so bad for my friends in Toronto who are rooting for the Maple Leafs to actually have a turnaround. Hopefully getting them to their, or actually winning their first championship since 1967. They lost game seven to the Florida Panthers last night, six to one. God forbid the Florida Panthers go and win the Stanley Cup again. The Maple Leafs are now 0-7 in game sevens since 2018. Like, that's some bad luck. Like, you want to talk about the draft lottery being rigged? What the hell? We're not going to say that this is rigged.
But what do we call this? They failed to get past the second round for the ninth straight year. You got big guys like Marner, who's going to be a free agent.
I think Tavares is going to be a free agent as well. And Marner after the game was like, man, this loss sucks. We lost in the game seven, six to one.
The fans were throwing crap and he didn't want to talk about it. Yeah, I mean, you know, we'll see what happens. Like I said, it's devastating right now. We had a great year. Everything was going right. It was great game six and I fell short again.
It's tough to really put emotions or anything forward to think about future. Yeah, he's probably gone. You got Leafs fans. Man, they were dejected inside the arena. They were mad outside. Listen to this Leafs fan from the Fan First Network. Let's just say he wasn't happy. The Leafs just had people sit there for 60 minutes and we watched one goal.
The hockey team with 60 million dollars of forward. It's 65. Even worse. Even damn worse. How is that justifiable?
One goal to show for in two games. What is wrong with you? Oh, my God. People in Toronto are going through it right now. It could be worse. I mean, you could be the Pirates. It could be worse.
Anyway, it's the end of the show. It's time for a few things that took place this day in sports history. Back in the days when I was young, I'm not a kid anymore.
But some days I sit and wish I was a kid again. It's time for this day in sports history. You see, back in those days we had radio and you couldn't see anything.
And it was primitive and lousy and we liked it. On the J.R. sport brief show. I wish I was 50 years younger and I'd kick your ass. It is the J.R. sport brief show on the Infinity Sports Network. Today is Monday, May 19th. The year is 2025.
May 19th, 1984. The Oilers, they beat the Islanders in five games to win the Stanley Cup. Wayne Gretzky. This was his first of four Stanley Cup trophies, victories. Listen via CBC as the Oilers won the Cup in 84.
In Wayne Gretzky, he has seven goals in the finals. The Oilers ended up winning that game five, five goals to two. They won in 84, back to back in 85, and then they went back to back again in 87 and 88.
May 19th, the year is 2017. The Cavaliers, they tied an NBA record with 13 straight playoff wins. They did it in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals. They smoked the Celtics, won 30 to 86.
Let's listen to TNT, the marvelous one, Marv Albert. The Cavs have now won 13 consecutive playoff games. That goes back to last season's NBA Finals when they were down 3-1 and took the final three. 13 straight actually ties the NBA record held by the Lakers of 1987-88.
It's a record breaking night. Yeah, and then the Cavaliers, well by the way, LeBron had like 30. He had 30 points in that game. He had 30 in eight straight playoff games. And then the Cavaliers went on to get smoked by Golden State 4-1. Thank you, Kevin Durant, for what you did there. Thanks. That's sarcastic.
Hey, May 19th, 2021. Corey Kluber, pitching for the New York Yankees. Yeah, I know that one was weird, wasn't it? He threw the 12th no-hitter in Yankees history. The Yankees beat the Rangers 2-0. Kluber struck out 9 and walked 1, so he was very close to a perfect game.
Let's listen courtesy of the Yes Network. Ground ball to Glaber Torres, and that'll do it. A no-hitter for Corey Kluber. On a Wednesday night in Texas, Kluber becomes part of forever. Yeah, the Klubachs, they called him Corey Klubach. Hey, look, that was the sixth no-hitter in Major League Baseball that season. And it was in May.
OK, there was something in the water. Baseball's trying to figure it out. Baseball's always trying to figure things out. Spencer Turnbull actually hit a, well, he had a no-hitter the day before. He no-hit the Mariners the day before. And there you go. There are a few things that took place this day in sports history. It's been May 19th all day long, and we just went back in time.
Just a little bit. What a full show. What a busy show.
Hey, thank you as well. Thank you so much to Andrew Schlecht for coming through to join us from the Athletic. Break down the Oklahoma City Thunder, a team that he's covered all season long.
Yep, less than 24 hours away. Western Conference Finals. Oklahoma City Thunder, Minnesota Timberwolves. I think we're going to see the New York Knicks in the Thunder. I don't think it's going well for the New York Knicks, but it's actually great that we see some teams that we're not accustomed to seeing. Outside of the Knicks winning a championship in 1973. The other three squads, no titles. We're getting down to the nitty gritty.
Same thing in the NHL. If you missed a minute of the show, you can go ahead and hit rewind on the free Odyssey app. I'll be back with you tomorrow at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific.
You can find me everywhere at JR Sport Brief. Hey, Nico, thank you so much for your help and a great show, man. I appreciate it.
Pleasure as always working with you. No doubt. We'll see about these draft lotteries being rigged. We got to pick up that conversation another time, OK? Yes, sir.
Sounds good. No doubt about it. We'll also see what other NBA star ends up in a WWE game. Congratulations, Tyrese Halliburton. Let's see if he gets hit with a chair in a game.
I don't know. JR Sport Brief Show is done, folks. I'll catch you tomorrow at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. Thank you to Nico. Thank you for listening. Don't move here on the Infinity Sports Network. Why? Because Bart Winkler is coming up next. Be safe, y'all. Thank you.
