No JR tonight. You guys deal with me for three more hours. I'm the sports machine Sean Levine right here on the Infinity Sports Network. We're about to have some fun.
The number is 888-710-4ISN. If you bought, let's say, Jimi Hendrix's guitar that he used for some tour or whatever for, I don't know how much that would cost, a couple of hundred thousand dollars. What would you do with it?
Like at that point, you just hang it on the wall. Do you put it in a case and just brag about it when the boys come over, or do you play it? I never had that type of money to spend a couple hundred thousand dollars on another person's guitar just for play, but I think that I would have to play it.
I think I'd be too tempted to know that his greatness part of it came from that act, so I gotta give it a shot. If you're wondering what I'm talking about, Rafael Nadal had a racket from some, I think it was a French Open several years ago, that sold at auction yesterday for $160,000. For me, I'd prefer to have, I mean, not the biggest house in the world, but I'd take a house, or I don't know, like a Ferrari. Whatever $160,000 gets you, to me the best use of it is probably not getting Rafael Nadal's used racket from the French Open, but here's what I want to know. Whoever got it, they gotta play with it, right? You don't just put a nail on the wall and then hang up a $360,000 racket, and when people come in, you go, yeah, that wasn't Nadal's. You take that thing down to the club.
Plus, you know you belong in the club, because you got a little bit of money if you can spend the $160,000 on a racket. At that point, you gotta use it. You gotta bust it out, and you gotta see if it has some sort of magic powers in it. I don't think it does.
I don't know. I used to play Little League Baseball with a Major League Baseball player's glove. If you're like, what, how the hell did that happen? It was Gary Thurman that played for like two or three years, and I'm selling myself out here, but I figured the statute of limitations is over with, and Rudy snuck into Gary Thurman's garage and stole one of his gloves, and like all Major League Baseball players, it had his name ingrained into the glove, which is pretty dope. It said Gary Thurman, and I played with the glove for years and years and years, and right now if he's listening, Gary Thurman's like, damn it, I couldn't play that night because I couldn't find my glove, but anyway, yeah, you know, it's kind of cool sometimes to have the memorabilia, and to actually use it to play with it.
I'm not saying, I'm just saying. I saw one time somebody bought a piece of the old trough from the Metrodome after it got knocked down for $375. You know they're planning on using that. First of all, you're disgusting if you wanted that. Can you imagine how much filthiness? Twins games, Vikings games, concerts, vomit, every liquid known to man, and somebody decided to buy that for $375. They're going to use it like that currently is in somebody's man cave. I'm just saying, if you're going to buy it, use it.
888-710-4ISN is the phone number. So we're seeing the changing of the guard in the NBA right in front of us. I'd be very surprised if you ever see LeBron James in the NBA Finals again. I'd be shocked if you ever see Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, all these dudes we've got used to.
The post Jordan era. There have been some great ones. Some first ballot hall of famers. All those guys that I just mentioned. But I do think that all of those guys' days are behind us.
Right? We're kind of seeing the changing of the guard with the Shane Gildas Alexander's and the Anthony Edwards and the Jalen Brunson's. Which made me think, since Michael Jordan retired.
So played with the Bulls, played baseball, played with the Bulls, played with DC, and then he retired. Since then, who would we put on our Mount Rushmore of NBA players that have come along post Michael Jordan? Mine's pretty obvious, but something tells me yours is not going to be the same.
888-710-4ISN is the phone number. Ryan, let's just do this together and see if we can agree on at least the beginning. If we're starting to carve the first statue, and I don't know if that's how they do it with the biggest head or most important or anything, since Michael Jordan, LeBron clearly is on the Mount Rushmore. Right? If somebody doesn't have LeBron, there's an issue. Turn off the radio.
Actually, my boss is going to like that, but turn up the radio and kick yourself in the back because that's ridiculous. So, LeBron, for sure. That's a lock. We all agree with that. We can move on.
That's one head carved. Kobe? Any problem when I say Kobe Bryant? Or is he also a lock that we can just move past?
I had him as a lock, yes. Okay, so we got LeBron. We got Kobe.
Again, if you're just now tuning in. They were to carve a Mount Rushmore of NBA players since Michael Jordan. LeBron and Kobe. Now, before I tell you my other two, are your two, in your opinion, obvious? Or are we getting into the, I don't know if that guy or maybe this guy, conversation?
One of them is obvious, and the other one can be debated. Alright, give me your third gun. Let's see if we got the same guy. Steph Curry.
Yeah. Yeah, I got Steph Curry also. I will say, and not that, again, order really matters. As long as you get on the statue, you're there. I had Steph at four, not for nothing, so I had one other guy.
So we can at least agree on three. That makes me feel a little bit better. So, LeBron, congratulations.
You made it. We carved your head. You the king. Kobe, good for you. Rest in peace.
You're on the statue. Steph Curry still doing his thing. Greatest three-point shooter of all time.
Completely changed the game. You, sir, since Michael Jordan have made our Mount Rushmore. That other guy, though? I think that here's where we get into our debate. Who do y'all have?
888-710-4ISN is the phone number. Ryan, before you take phone calls, who's your guy? Who's your fourth guy on the spot? Okay, I'm really torn between Nicole Jokic and Tim Duncan.
It's basically splitting hairs. I think I'm gonna go with Jokic just because of the MVPs. Three to two, but you can't really ignore the five-time champ. It's gotta be Tim Duncan. It's gotta be Tim Duncan. Jokic is the toughest one to figure out here, because if you just look at his individual numbers, right?
They're up there. Nobody has had these 40-point triple-doubles like he's doing. If you just look at his MVPs, right? He's got pretty much more than all these dudes on this list, but at some point, you have to break it down to championships, and we're also kind of trying to project forward what he's going to be, because we can look back at Tim Duncan's career, as you point out, and say, well, he's already got the, what, one, two, three, four, five different rings that he wears, so it's tough to leave him off, although I feel like there's a dude that you forgot.
He's got the same name in the book, and he probably was the most dominated NBA player of all time, and he played with a guy you've heard of named Kobe Bryant. We gotta put Shaq on there, right? I mean, you would think that Shaquille O'Neal, you put his entire career from the very beginning to the very end, he was so dominant the entire time, all the championships that he won, even the one toward the end with the Miami Heat. That's my four. That's my list if they were to make a Mount Rushmore of NBA players since Michael Jordan retired, and I know there's a little bit of crossover between Jordan and Shaq, but I think you get the name of the game. I got Steph Curry, Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James, but I'll throw a little bit of an asterisk in there for Nikola Jokic.
Like right now, I've got Tim Duncan as the first guy left off. That had to have happened at some point when they were carving the actual Mount Rushmore. They were like, what do you think, boss? Five? Five head? Six head? Seven? They were like, nope, we gotta cut this thing off, let's just make it four.
Then they agreed with who they were gonna carve, and they went with it. That's who I'm going with. LeBron, Kobe, Shaq, and Steph as the four best basketball players since the Jordan era. With Nikola Jokic, as soon as he wins another NBA title, I'm willing to kick one of those guys off.
I don't know who it's gonna be, I'm glad we don't have to figure that out right now, but to me, Nikola Jokic has to win at least two rings. Because, I think we've got Peyton Manning to blame for this, but at some point, as an American sports viewing society, as American sports fans, we decided one championship for our all-time greats isn't gonna do it. That's not good enough.
That's what it used to be. It used to be, hey, you won the title, you got the monkey off your back, and now we can put you in the Hall of Fame right away. But let me ask you this, if we're talking NBA and NFL for the sake of this conversation. How many of the all-time greats, the who's who of the who's who of the first ballot Hall of Famers, the no doubters, haven't won at least two championships? Joe Montana did, John Elway did, Patrick Mahomes did, Tom Brady did, Michael Jordan did, Magic Johnson did, should I keep going?
Kareem did, Bird did, all of the all, Shaq did, Kobe did, all of the all-time greats in the NFL, and eventually Peyton Manning did, have won multiple championships. So if Nikola Jokic retires, and Nikola Jokic to me is a guy, even though he's only, what, 30 years old, 31, that probably retires a little bit sooner than he has to. He's got other hobbies. In fact, it feels like basketball is kind of a hobby, and he's got other things that he would rather do with his career. He just happens to be really good at basketball.
I can't be the only one that sees that. When he's doing the ponies, doing the dancing and all that, he just looks very happy when he's back home. On an NBA court, he just kind of looks like he's working.
To me, that's what his body language tells me. He's great, but even Andrew Luck at some point decided, yeah, screw it, I got enough money. You'd be that shocked if in two, three years, Nikola Jokic just says, eh, whatever, I don't care too much about my legacy, I care more about my ponies.
And he goes back home? So if Jokic does retire with just one ring, I don't think that we can take LeBron or Kobe or Shaq or Steph off. Because all those guys have a handful of rings each.
888-710-4ISN is the phone number. Duncan is definitely an interesting one. Because Tim Duncan, though, for being honest, had the benefit of playing with Hall of Famers all around him his entire career.
When he was a rookie, oh cool, David Robinson. Oh, and my head coach is Greg Popovich. A couple of years later, they drafted Tony Parker.
They get Amanu Ginobili. Now, he was the centerpiece for all those championship teams. But he also, it's not exactly like, I don't know, Dirk Nowitzki when he won his championship with a bunch of old ass, washed up, veteran players. Jason Terry, Jason Kidd, I think Sean Marion was on that team.
I mean, come on now, there's a difference between how good the whole team is versus just the superstar. So, again, I think LeBron, Kobe, Shaq, Steph would be my list. I'd have Duncan next, followed by Nikola Jokic.
And then the other names that I kind of considered but moved past pretty quick. Kevin Durant. People always want to throw Durant's name in with Steph Curry and LeBron James.
Like, those are the three dudes from this generation. All the scoring titles, all the accolades, all the championship brings. There's a huge separation between Steph Curry, LeBron James, and Kevin Durant. Don't get it twisted.
Please. I think there's a chance if Kevin Durant would have stayed with Oklahoma City and just rode it out for another two or three years and not went to Golden State, or he went to any team that was not the Warriors, we'd be talking about Kevin Durant right now the same way that Charles Barkley was talking about at the end of his career, the same way that Patrick Ewing and Dan Marino. We would be saying right now, how far into his career is he? He's 0-8, 17 years into his career, we'd be saying Kevin Durant is the best basketball player to ever pick up a ball that hasn't won a championship. And he didn't want to hear that crap, so part of me thinks that's why he decided to go to Golden State.
But ultimately, are we going to give him that much credit? Are we going to put Kevin Durant really in the same breath with LeBron and Steph Curry? If you want to put LeBron one, Curry two, or Curry one and LeBron two, that actually doesn't bother me. If we're talking about who's the best player of the generation, I think there's an argument to be made and it's a fun one. But to include Kevin Durant's name with those other two is just, it's kind of crazy. But I thought about his name, I thought about Allen Iverson, but didn't even win a title, so what are we really doing?
Dirk Nowitzki, James Harden, Giannis is creeping up on this list, maybe Dwyane Wade, what say you? 888-710-4ISN is the phone number. Alright, coming up on the other side, we're going to get back into the NFL because the over-unders are out and some of these look way, way too low.
But I want to start with some that look way too high. Like, wait until I give you the number for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Bears fans, if you actually want to bet on your team this year and cash your ticket, wait till I tell you how many games Las Vegas thinks y'all are going to win this year and Cincinnati turn your radio up. This number makes absolutely no sense for the Cincinnati Bengals.
San Francisco, New Orleans, Las Vegas, there's some money to be made. I'm telling you, the over-unders are out, we'll play a game of true that or screw that and then we'll get back into the baseball as well. I am personally offended that Rob Manfred came out five or six days ago and said that, you know, it's now time for Pete Rose and he was wrong and all these different reasons why. Dude, Pete Rose cared about being in the Hall of Fame. I'm not saying he was the greatest guy, but he cared about being in the Hall of Fame. And baseball knows damn well what they did, which was they waited until the minute that that guy passed away to decide, almost laughing, almost laughing at Pete Rose. Right after he passes away, putting him in the Hall of Fame to me is the most offensive thing they possibly could have done. You either could have put him in the Hall of Fame when he was alive, you could have put him in the Hall of Fame a few years later. If I'm his family, I'm having a great internal debate right now when they call me and they're going to eventually, now that he's been reinstated, it's going to be a matter of minutes, weeks, couple of months. We're going to get, hey, Pete Rose is now going to be in the next Hall of Fame class.
If you're the family and they treated your guy like that for that long, do you even want him in at this point? I got some thoughts on that. We'll get back into the NFL as well and take your phone calls. 888-710-4ISN is the phone number. I'm the Sports Machine Sean Levine on a Monday in for JR right here on the Infinity Sports Network. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief. Thanks for checking us out tonight.
No JR, you got me, Sports Machine Sean Levine. This segment brought to you by O'Reilly Auto Parts. Thank O'Reilly for all your car care needs.
Get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Welcome back into the show. Ryan's spinning the wheels back in studio.
The number is 888-710-4ISN. I was just out in the hallway grabbing a soda, you know, like an adult does at work, and there's a guy sitting there. He works in the building, so I'm not going to like report him or anything, but I feel like I should based on what he's eating. He's eating, guy's got to be 53 years old. He's eating a Lunchable, which, okay, like if you want bologna and crackers at 53 years old, do your thing. And then I was kind of eyeballing the side eye and I'm like, you're eating Lunchable, dude.
And then he pulled out the animal crackers. And I was thinking, this guy's messing with me somehow, until he pulled out a Sunny Delight. I was like, this has to be his kid's meal, or maybe I'm just food shaming an adult that likes little kid's food.
But like, you would think that we all grow out of those things. Now, if it's a Capri Sun, I'll cut you a little bit of slack. That's the one thing, I don't care how old you are, you look like an idiot jamming that straw on the side, but still, it's just so delicious. That's a good dinner, I don't care.
Are you serious? You don't like to eat those. No, but even if you want to do that, like, you don't want a hungry man?
You ever had a hungry man? I feel like Lunchable is more convenient in work, you know? A Lunchable? You don't need Lunch-a-Wave, you know?
Oh, where's your applesauce at, sweetheart? Like, you want some cottage cheese? By the way, cottage cheese as an adult, we can't be friends if you eat cottage cheese. And I always find it really weird when you're out at a restaurant and they offer you cottage cheese. Ryan, be honest with me, even though I just said we can't be friends, do you eat cottage cheese? Not at all. It's nasty.
You swear? Never had it, never will. Okay, good. I mean, it is one of those things that never had is a perfectly acceptable answer. Because if you look at it, that should never go inside of somebody's mouth. That's one of those things that's like, and by the way, what is cottage cheese?
Now that we're having the conversation. I don't know what cheese is, and I think I've figured out, like, the blue cheese and the mozzarella cheese. What the hell is cottage cheese?
It's a completely different form. Is it just, like, moldy, old, gross, worn out? What kind of a cow produces the milk for cottage cheese? A nasty-ass cow. It's curdled milk.
Get out of here. Yeah, so it's just expired milk, it seems. It's curdled milk? Yep. That's what cottage cheese is?
Yes. I thought that's what cottage cheese was. Made from skim milk. Dude, I thought that's, honestly, that's what it looks like. It looks like nasty-ass, old, expired, probably should've got rid of this a couple of weeks ago. And you're telling me that at some point, people turned that into a product and started serving it to children?
What is the matter with us? Yes. Seriously? Supposedly, it's like yogurt. And it, I don't know. Like yogurt in the sense you can eat it with a spoon? That's it? It's got similar texture. Dude, that's like saying it's like jello. Basically jello. It's not like yogurt. You've never had it. I've had it. It's more like, like eating somebody else's vomit. Is the best way that I would describe it.
Yeah, which I've never done, but something tells. Cottage cheese? They're just certain things as an adult. Again, if you want to eat animal crackers, if you want to, like Ryan, have yourself a Lunchable and a Hungry Man, fine, I won't judge you.
Capri Sun, cool. Do you like applesauce? Do adults eat applesauce?
Yes. Ryan, do you eat apple, you do eat applesauce? Applesauce, cinnamon applesauce is amazing. Do you eat apple sauce? Applesauce, it works. You eat applesauce, dude? Yeah.
Oh, wow. I mean, good on you. You know what, if you like applesauce, you might be in the crowd that likes cottage cheese. So, I guess, don't knock it till you try it, Mr. Applesauce, you weirdo.
888-710-4ISN is the phone number. I'm looking at some of these win totals in the NFL, and some of these just look way too high. And if you ask, hey, sports machine, put your money where your mouth is, I already did. I already bet on all of these, so this isn't me just saying, hey, I think this could happen. This is me betting my hard-earned money that this actually is going to go down, because these numbers just look way too high. So, let's start off with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
They have a number sitting at 7.5, so they got to win 8, and then you get to take your ticket to the window. Trevor Lawrence sucks at football. Let me say it again. Trevor Lawrence sucks at football. One of the worst contracts that was ever gave out in the history of history was Deshaun Watson and his $200-plus million contract with the Cleveland Browns, the guaranteed money.
We all know that. In fact, I think we could agree that's probably the worst contract that we've ever seen. Not too far after that is what Jacksonville decided to do, this time last year. It was last offseason, around minicamp time, the Jags looked at Trevor Lawrence and his beautiful head of hair and said, you know what? Let's call his agent, because we got some good news. We're about to make Trevor Lawrence the highest-paid player in NFL history. Now, since then, I think a couple of other dudes have signed contracts, and now he's third.
That makes absolutely no sense in the world. Now, it's Jacksonville. I get it. If it was the organization, if it was Green Bay, who's had Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers to Jordan Love, or San Francisco that went from Joe Montana to Steve Young, I'd be like, what is that organization thinking? It's Jacksonville, and the best quarterback that organization's probably ever had is, what are we talking about?
What are we talking about? Mark Brunel? And then we get into the Blake Bortles and the, what was my guy's name?
David Girard conversation? So I understand, I guess, why Jacksonville did it, but as soon as that ink was dry on the contract, Trevor Lawrence started getting even worse at football. And last year, yeah, he got hurt, but that's not why Jacksonville was awful.
They were awful because of Trevor Lawrence, because of signing him, because the quarterback's the most important position, and you put all your eggs into that guy. So right now, Trevor Lawrence is the third highest-paid player in NFL history. If we're listing the 32 best starting quarterbacks in the NFL, and we go Mahomes 1, Hertz 2, Burrow 3, Allen 4, I'm just throwing names out there, whatever, whoever you think your guy is, how far down this list do we get before we say the name Trevor Lawrence?
I honestly believe we get into, like, the, Jacksonville's not going to like this, mid-20s? Sometimes a quarterback had so much can't miss attached to him coming out of college that these NFL teams just hang on way longer than they should. In the case of Trevor Lawrence, he won the national championship at Clemson, Heisman Trophy, number one overall, did he win the Heisman? Number one overall pick, all these different things, right, the comparisons to Peyton Manning, he was can't miss.
Well, I'm here to tell you, he missed, you missed, he's not the guy. To me, it's the Trevor Lawrence that I see, and I'm far from an NFL scout, and maybe he's going to come out this year and throw 40 touchdowns and 10 picks and be the MVP, and I'm dead wrong. But I bet he comes out this year and sucks like a Hoover vacuum the same way he has his entire career. Trevor Lawrence had one pretty good season where he threw, like, 25 touchdown passes, he kind of hung with Patrick Mahomes in a playoff game, and everybody got super excited. I don't know why we do that as NFL fans. At the quarterback position, if we just see a little something, remember Anthony Richardson heading into last year? Oh, this guy should be a top fantasy footballer. What?
Why do we do that instead of just go with the known commodity? And the known thing, what we know about Trevor Lawrence, the sample size is big enough to tell me that he stinks. And I think Jacksonville is going to be in the conversation for the number one overall pick in the draft. I think they're going to be terrible. I mean, what are they going to do, put Travis Hunter out there? Honestly, what do we think Travis Hunter is going to do as a wide receiver, as a rookie in the NFL, while he's also playing on the side of the ball with Trevor Lawrence as his quarterback?
I don't know what you're expecting. I'm expecting 27 catches and three touchdowns. And maybe two interceptions and a couple of nice deflections on the defensive side.
But not this crazy impact where we're going to be talking about the combination of Trevor Lawrence and Travis Hunter going forward for years to come. I'm betting the unders on seven and a half. No way Jacksonville gets to eight. Guess who else's number is at seven and a half? The Raiders.
What? The Raiders? The Raiders decided that the best thing they could possibly do was bring back Pete Carroll, get Geno Smith, and basically do what the Seahawks thought was going to work about, you know, three years ago. Now, is it better than what they had last year at quarterback and they coach?
Yeah, I'll give them that. But the division that they play in, I'm looking at their schedule on paper, they've got the fourth most difficult schedule in the entire NFL. Yeah, no, the Raiders to me, I was talking about Jacksonville being that number one pick conversation. The Raiders win five games at the most this upcoming season.
Absolutely, they don't get to eight. All right, Bears fans, we made it here. I watched the Bears last year and heading into the season, their over-under was eight and a half. And I didn't bet it, I'm not going to lie to you, I didn't bet it. But I remember looking at that number thinking, what?
How? How is a Bears team with a coach that was on the hot seat last year heading into the season in Matt Eberfluse? Yeah, they made some moves for Keenan Allen, they drafted Roma Dunse, but I felt like because they got Caleb Williams, everybody got real excited. Bears fans and media members and certainly the people that laid the numbers in Las Vegas. So they put this big number out there at eight and a half thinking they're probably going to get a lot of Chicagoans money on it. Now, I don't know anybody that was actually a big enough sucker to bet on the Bears overs.
If that's you listening to me right now, I apologize for calling you a sucker, but that's what you were. You probably should have seen this coming last year where Caleb Williams had all this pressure. He was playing in the most difficult division in the NFL. Now, we didn't know Minnesota was going to be as good as they were, but I remember last year at one point, the division, besides the Bears, was 38-9 with like a couple of weeks left in the regular season. So the Bears were looking up at everybody, largely because of Caleb Williams, and obviously they didn't come close to that eight and a half number. Well, guess what the number is right now that they have to win this year? The Chicago Bears win total for 2025 is back to eight and a half. And let me tell you the same thing I told you last year. Nuh-uh.
Free money, guys. They ain't getting there. Sorry, Bears fans. And I don't even think it's going to be that close.
Some of these numbers you're going to sweat, right? What they want to happen, the odds makers, is the Bears were 8-8 going into the last week of the season, week 17. And if they win, you cast your ticket. If they lose, you don't. And that's good for the bookies. Well, the bookies.
You know what I mean. So the Bears' number is eight and a half. What did they do this offseason?
What moves did they make? Because I look around at the rest of that division, and you still got to play everybody twice. And while Minnesota, I think, is going to take a pretty big step back, Minnesota's number, by the way, is also eight and a half, and I'll play the unders on that.
I think they're like a... I'll go with seven and ten, maybe an eight and nine team. You would have to sweat that one if you're going to bet the unders for the Vikings at eight and a half. But the Bears got to play them twice. They got to play the Packers twice. They got to play Detroit twice. Maybe I give them one win out of those.
So, yeah. Sorry, Bears fans. It sucks, because almost every time you get a rookie quarterback, it's the same thing. You ask the fan base to be patient for one year, and then by year two, we can start to judge this guy.
The eye test, the numbers, the win losses. Did he take us to the playoffs? That's generally how it works. Year one, we're just going to let it slide. If he's good, cool. If he sucks, cool. By year two, we're going to start to hold his feet to the flames. In the case of Jayden Daniels, you don't need to do that, because he was already awesome in year one.
In the case of Bo Nix, in the case of Drake May, all those guys were pretty good. We're heading into year two. There's a lot of optimism. When it comes to Chicago and Caleb Williams, I think there's fear. What animal can sense fear? Can smell it? Is it dolphins? Is it dogs?
Is it sports machines? I feel like I smell fear right now from Chicago. Partially from Caleb Williams. From a fan base that knows there's a pretty damn good chance that your team's going to suck again. Because the same way the quarterback gets that one year honeymoon, now you're bringing a new head coach. So it's coach number three, coordinator number four, year number two for Caleb Williams. I add all that up, I don't get to eight and a half wins, I get to like, I don't know, maybe six? Seven?
I'll go seven at the very most. And then one more before we get a sports update, which just looks way too high. San Francisco's number sitting at ten and a half. What did we see last year that makes us think, even if they are significantly healthier?
And they will be. Most of the 49ers were as beat up and bruised as any NFL team that I can ever remember. But that's also why I was very harsh on Kyle Shanahan. Like this is football, y'all. This is professional football. Outside of maybe hockey and mixed martial arts, it's the most violent sport going. Guys are going to get hurt and they do on every single team.
You've heard it, next man up. And then you've got Kyle Shanahan. When these guys go down, it seems like it's an excuse for San Francisco. The reason that they weren't part of the playoff picture was because all these dudes got hurt. Well, what happens if a dude gets hurt again this year and San Francisco goes out there and poops the bed?
At that point, are people going to start to kind of jump on board with what I've been saying? That Kyle Shanahan's a good coach but not a great one? How can we say he's a great coach before he wears a Super Bowl ring with all the opportunities that he's got? His team was up 28-3 when he was the coordinator of that Falcons team, and I'm not blaming him for that. But he's been the head coach of two different 49ers teams that have a fourth quarter lead against my Chiefs in the Super Bowl. And the Chiefs end up winning both of those games.
What I'm saying is Kyle Shanahan's a good coach but not a great one. And if anybody gets hurt and it's not absolutely perfect, it feels like the whole ship goes down in San Francisco. Ten and a half? Absolutely not. If it goes perfect, maybe they win ten.
But it's not going to. I think that team goes nine and eight. Not for nothing since his number is ten and a half. That's too high also. And New Orleans is at five and a half.
I know that's not a lot. All they've got to do is win six. But you know their coach is Kellen Moore, right? And you've seen New Orleans' quarterback room. New Orleans' quarterback room, and this is partially their fault because it would have sucked even if Derek Carr didn't retire. But once he did, it didn't just become the worst in the current NFL.
It's the worst quarterback room in the history of the NFL. When you've got Tyler Shuck, who nobody heard of if you weren't a Louisville or a huge college football fan or maybe a big gambler. You didn't know that name. Rookie quarterback out of Louisville that played seven years of college. You've got this Jake Hainer, who I could Google him right now and I'm not going to believe whatever it tells me. I don't know who that is. I don't believe that's an NFL quarterback. And Spencer Rattler, who we saw last year?
Like, it didn't look great. That's your choices? And you're telling me with the rookie coach and those quarterbacks, somehow you're going to win six games? I feel like that's the easiest one. I was talking about Jacksonville might be the number one pick in the Raiders. Let me back up just a little bit. Beep.
Beep. This ain't you're going to get the number one pick. The Saints are going to be awful. The Saints might not win a game this year. They're going to be putrid.
888-710-4ISN is the phone number. We'll get back in the basketball on the other side. Ryan and I are going to play the game of True Dat or Screw Dat. But let's get another Sports Flash with Rich Ackerman. You are listening to the JR Sport Brief.
No JR tonight. You've got Ryan spinning the wheels and me. I'm the sports machine, Sean Levine. And you, of course, on the Infinity Sports Network.
The number is 888-710-4ISN. We're moments away from first pitch. Yankees in Kansas City taking on my Royals.
Yankees 39 and 25. And then we've got some hockey. 15 minutes from now they drop the puck in Florida. Oilers are a slight underdog in game three, of course.
Game one and game two both went into overtime. The Panthers, again, trying to become back-to-back Stanley Cup champions. We will talk plenty more.
Baseball, as the show rolls along, as well. Play a game of True Dat or Screw Dat. I feel like I've got to tell you the rest of the story. So if you were listening to me, I was here hosting on Saturday morning. And I kept talking about this hot dog eating contest that my buddy Ed was going to be in. So let me tell you the results of it.
If you weren't listening, I'll give you the Cliff Notes version of here. This is what happened. We went to this county fair type thing. You guys all have been to these type of things. They got the funnel cake and they got the basketball shot. And they got the little 15 different rides, the Ferris wheel and all that crap.
You guys know exactly what I'm talking about. It's a county fair. And there was a hot dog eating contest.
And the entire time we were there on Friday, Ed kept saying, Dude, I'm so hungry. I could win the hot dog contest. If I just got in, I could win it. But he didn't want to pay the $20 entry fee. And so when he was in the bathroom, I thought it would be funny to enter him into the contest.
So I paid the $20. I signed his name up. And then when the contest happened on Friday night, they started reading off the contestants' names. And he thought he was just there to watch. And they called his name. And so he was like, Ah, Sean, I can't believe you did that. And he went up.
Here's the crazy part. Out of 18 eaters, as they call themselves, he finished third. He ate like 22 hot dogs or something out of nowhere. And he had to come back the next day. And if he would have won the next day, the hot dog eating contest, I'm not making this up. He would have gone to the Coney Island actual big dog hot dog eating contest.
So this is like legitimate. So I was all pumped up for it. And I couldn't wait.
And Ed had a one in three shot the way that I saw it. There were a bunch of people there. And I got off the show on Saturday. And I'm there. And I'm in the front row. And I'm watching Ed eat the hot dogs. And it's not going too well.
And the other two guys are really down on these dogs, right? And then it happened. Ed pulled out a ketchup packet and thought that he could get away with it. My boy got DQ'd. They made him stop right there. It was unbelievable. He wasn't going to win anyway. And then it just became like an eater versus eater. But my guy went down in flames. Got disqualified.
I don't completely blame him though. It was the first hot dog eating contest that I've been to. A couple of things surprised me. One, they make you clean up your debris. Like literally, if you've got too much debris, which I guess makes sense, then you have to like scoop it off the table like a glutton and just like eat the buns and it's absolutely disgusting. Two, no condiments, so you're just eating these hot dogs dry? Who eats a hot dog? Who goes to the ballpark and doesn't at least put mustard or relish on their dog? You're a weirdo. And here's the craziest part. They brought the hot dogs out 20 minutes before the contest started.
So they were supposed to eat cold, unaltered hot dogs? Yeah, I'm good. I would have cheated too. Anyway, I could try it.
888-710-4ISN is the phone number. Give me some beats. Let's play a game, Ryan. True Dad or Screw Dad is the name of this one, NBA style. The Pacers, Ryan, are going to take the finals to seven games. True Dad or Screw Dad?
True Dad. It took a miracle for game one and it is basically a blowout game too. I do not see them even coming close to seven games. I wouldn't be surprised when they're in five.
I'm with you. Although you say a miracle, just to play devil's advocate, the Pacers had more turnovers in the first half than any team in NBA Finals history has ever had in any half, and they did still come back and win that game, so you would think that's probably not going to happen again. They're going back home. You're not even going to give them another game? I think I'll give them a game. Not enough to get them to game seven. That's the thing.
Yeah, I'm with you. I don't think they can go into OKC and win again. They're right.
Kind of like a, whoa, that came out of nowhere. They're a six and a half point favorite in game three at home. That's the one, right? It feels like they have to get that one.
If they do, they got their confidence. Then maybe you convince me it goes seven, but I think I'm with you. I'll go most likely five. Part of me thinks six.
No way this thing goes seven. If Giannis is indeed a New York Knickerbocker next year, they will win the NBA title, Ryan. True Dad or Screw Dad?
Depends on who, like, okay. Healthy, Giannis, Brunson, you don't have Karl-Anthony Towns anymore and they'd probably have to package either OG Ananobi or Mikel Bridges. I would say you still have OG Ananobi, you add Giannis and you still have Jalen Brunson and then a bunch of other dudes around him. Okay, so I'm gonna say Screw Dad just because I think the talent in the NBA, the field, is just a better odds compared to the Knicks. I do think they should make the finals if they get Giannis and keep one of Ananobi and Bridges.
Here's the thing. They have the Celtics number. Everybody's all, what about Jason Tatum was hurt? That's like saying the Cowboys sucked last year because Dak Prescott was hurt.
We all know that they were going down anyway and that was just a convenient excuse. I feel like the Knicks got close enough this year where at times, the problem with Karl-Anthony Towns is kind of like Tyrese Halliburton. I would say they're both borderline superstars that when they're good, they're great, but sometimes they just disappear. That does not happen with Giannis.
He does not disappear. You're not always gonna get a triple-double, but if he doesn't have a triple-double, he's gonna have 40. If he doesn't have 40, he's gonna have 22 rebounds. Like, that guy, still in his prime, putting up those numbers with the healthy Jalen Brunson. Not only do I think, are they the NBA favorites, I think they cash in. I think if they can somehow make that move happen, the Knicks win the championship next year.
Dude, they weren't that far away. Um, Cooper Flag is gonna be better than Victor Wemenyama as a rookie. True dat or screw dat?
Screw dat. 1B is averaging 24, 10, and 4-4. Yeah, there's no way Cooper Flag is better than Anis Rokir.
Yeah, when you throw those numbers out there, it kinda makes it difficult to argue. I would say this though, Cooper Flag is in a better situation as a rookie than Victor Wemenyama was. Like, in San Antonio, yeah, you had Popovich, but at that point, he was getting a little bit old, and who else did you have around him?
Like, Victor Wemenyama, no matter what he did, the team wasn't gonna win any more than 20 games and find themselves back in the lottery, which is exactly where they were. In the case of Cooper Flag with the Mavericks, bro, they're not that far. Now, Kyrie's hurt towards ACL, and that could last anywhere from maybe he comes back at the All-Star game, maybe he doesn't make it back till around the postseason, but let's say that it's the latter. He doesn't come back till the playoffs, at least in theory, then he's healthy, and you get back a healthy Kyrie Irving. Anthony Davis, to say that he's gonna be healthy is kinda silly because he's Humpty Dumpty, but if he's healthy when the playoffs come around, and you get AD, you get Kyrie, and you get Cooper Flag, at that point, he'll have 80 games under his belt, dude, that team is gonna be a problem as soon as, I don't wanna say next year, but the next couple of years, like, and there's Dallas, we know they're gonna land a free agent. That team is going to be really, really good, although I agree with you, screw that, Cooper Flag's not gonna be as good of a rookie as Victor Winbanyama. How about Joe Mazula, true that or screw that? He's definitely gonna win another title as a Celtics coach.
I'm gonna say true that. I think the way they're set up, they're gonna be able to package some of their talent for younger pieces, and I think he's just gritty enough to win another championship with that team. Are we sure that he's anything better than just a pretty good coach? Like, when you're handed that roster, where they've already been to a championship, they've got, what are we talking about, three All-Stars, three All-Pros, four Olympians, coming off the bench, the sixth man of the year, Kristaps Porzingis, I'm just calling it like I sees it, dude, if I was the head coach and you were the assistant, we probably could win a title with that team, given the same opportunities that Joe Mazula has, and now he's been the head coach for three years, he's got one ring to show for it and two very disappointing finishes.
Dude, I don't think that he's the guy, I just think that he was placed into a perfect position. I'm gonna say screw that. I don't think, if they were to make a coaching change, which they're not going to, but if they were to make a coaching change in the next couple of years, I still think this roster could win a championship, but I'm not a huge fan of Joe Mazula, I just don't see it. This Pacers team is better than the Rick Carlisle team with Dirk Nowitzki that won the title, true that or screw that?
True that. Dirk just went on an insane run with Jason Terry and JJ Barrea and Jason Kent. Oh yeah, JJ Barrea. The team itself with the Pacers is much better, talent-wise, it's just they had the best player in 2011. So Dirk was way better than any player that this Indiana team has out there, it's not even close. I mean, Tyrese Halliburton, is he a superstar?
Yeah, he probably is. I think we can call him a superstar, right? You've been to back-to-back Eastern Conference Finals and NBA Finals and Olympics and All-Star, you get all these clutch shots. I think it's fair to say that guy is a superstar, but also I think that it's fair to say in the same breath, he's the most inconsistent superstar in the NBA. He's got a lot of games where you look up and you go, why has he only shot the ball eight or nine times, so obviously if we're talking about who was the best on the Mavs and who's the best on the Pacers, it's not close. Dirk Nowitzki, Dirk's the top 15, I would say, all-time NBA player.
Let's sneak one more in here. The next NBA franchise is in Las Vegas and it's there in the next five years, true that or screw that? True that. And LeBron is a player or a coach or both? Screw that. Neither. That's Ryan, I'm the Sports Machine, two hours down, two more coming up with you right here on the Infinity Sports Network.
