Rafael Devers Revenge Series? (Hour 3)

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We've had a busy day, a busy show. We talked about Game Seven of the NBA Finals that's going to take place on Sunday. We talked about the Stanley Cup finals, one of the lowest-rated finals.

Well, the ratings are dropping. Let's just put it that way. Not good. Hey, we talked about Sammy Salsa back in Chicago, fully embraced after being a cheater. Uh Shador Sanders, he's not cheating anybody but potentially himself.

Driving one hundred miles per hour.

So slow down, man. Slow down. We're going to talk about Raphael Devers. He's getting ready to take on his old team, the Red Sox. What interesting timing.

Hey, we've even had some suspensions with the Dodgers. and the Padres. They were throwing baseballs at each other last night and Mike Schultz got suspended a game. Dave Roberts suspended a game. Robert Suarez suspended three games for thrown at Otani.

Surprised they didn't kick him out of baseball. You got to leave Shohei Otani. the hell alone. And we got so much more to get into. In about 20 minutes, we're going to have a chat with Andrew Schlecht.

He covers the thunder, He covers the thunder all over the place. He covers the thunder for the athletic. And so we got a lot to do. Probably get into the Friday funny later in the show. few things that took place this day in sports history.

We got a lot to do. I'm just here. It's Friday. I'm having fun. Eight eight eight seven ten four ISN is the number.

That's 888-710-452. four I S N Follow me on the Internet, I exist. I'm a human being, but I'm on the internet too. I'm at JR Sport Brief, okay? Inside Charles Sport Brief.

I'm going to be mad. I'm not going to be here when this comes on. I'll be gone. But later tonight, as I just mentioned, We got some baseball. We have the San Francisco Giants Taking on The Boston Red Sox And that simply means that Raphael Devers has the opportunity So beat the living hell.

out of his former team. The Red Sox. Yeah, the Red Sox, the team that traded him. The team that wanted him to try playing first base. The team that wanted him to move from third and be a DH.

And then we all know that he's the man who just didn't want to do it. You asked me to do it? Nope, didn't want to do it. And now they sent him out to San Francisco. Apparently the Red Sox screwed this up, right?

They didn't communicate that they wanted Alex Bregnant. They didn't communicate enough that day. You know, we're thinking about bringing him in to take his spot. They brought Breckman in, and then they said, Hey, can you move? He said, No.

And then when he did move, he said, I'll be DH. And then when Casas went down, they said, Oh, will you play first? He said, No. They were asking him to do too much? I don't think so.

Apparently, they were poor in their communication. I think I would agree with that. But I still think it, you know, you want to be a team player. But anyway, he's in San Francisco. And uh there's a lot of people who are saying some interesting things about him.

David Ortiz Not too long ago, a couple of weeks ago, he's just like, Yeah, Red Sox, they communicated this poorly. David Ortiz also recently put up a post on social media that seemingly referred to Devers and basically said. Everybody isn't built to be a Red Sock. Ouch. And even Pedro Martinez.

Just a couple of days ago. He was on TBS because Pedro loves to talk. He gets paid to do so. Good man. This is what he had to say about Devers deal on TBS.

I was shocked. Just like everybody else, I was shocked because if you try to sell to me, knowing rough endeavors, that Rafi is a bad teammate or he's not a team player? You're lying. You're going to tell me he's a bad influence in the clubhouse? He's not.

Does he want to play every single day? Yes, that's probably why he was mad.

Well, The thing got mishandled from the get-go. And I think if I'm Jimmy and I'm Grandi, and we have an ex-teammate or a teammate that's not doing things. like they should be doing. We pull him aside, all three of us, and we convince him to to come into the the the you know the things that we want to do together. This should have been in the hands of Baseball people.

not thrown off his people. not leak leaking it to the media. Not Having a back and forth between the media and Alex and Sam Kennedy and Breslo.

Well yeah. I think it should have been handled by baseball people, Pedro, Big Poppy. Man, what Man, what What are they besides ambassadors? Like, what what are they but if I'm paying you, I can't talk to you? What to fix it?

Maybe En Pedro wasn't clear. What, to fix the situation after it already was screwed up? I gotta call David or hey, David, go talk to him. Maybe. The owner showed up.

He's the one paying them $31 million a year. I mean, sheesh. What more does he need? They need the. Send a gift basket to his house?

Like, what are we doing here? Anyway, He's in San Francisco. his former manager, Alex Cora. Uh he was on uh Mad Dog Radio on Sirius XM. And he says, uh, yeah, he's a member of the Giants.

But we are the Red Sox and it's time to move on. I'm not going to hide the fact that we we traded one of the best hitters In the big leagues, right? Rafi is a special hitter, but there's something that as an organization we decided to do. And I think the guys have done an outstanding job under the page. You know, it's not about we don't like Rafi, we actually love Rafi, but Our job is to show up every day and try to win games.

And the one thing we can do is. turn the page as soon as possible. We love Rafi, like I told you before. Our job is to show up and play games. We owe it to the franchise for the to the organization, and we owe it to the fans.

Oh, how sweet I love it.

Now it's a love fest. I don't know too many well, I guess yeah, I guess that would be the case, huh? Oh well, oh boy. Uh Yeah, after a divorce she feel happy. Yeah, you do.

I don't know. I'm not speaking from experience, but I You go your separate ways after you're miserable and you you feel better.

Now how about this? Raphael Devers, he feels better. He actually spoke to the media. not too long ago. And he was asked about the last time he felt this happy.

Listen to this. It's been a long time. I mean, I don't know how to explain it, but the few weeks that I've been here, yes, I've been happy. I feel very relaxed happy. I love the translators.

I love 'em. Bacha, I need a translator. For what language? I don't know. English to English?

I don't know. That'd be pretty cool. English English. What say who? English to like British English?

British? Oh, to have a Shakespearean Shakespearean translator? That'd be cool, right? You up on you up on a a Shakespearean English? You up on that?

Why art thou sad? Oh, well Devers? Yeah, that's that's the way you could ask. Yeah, let's ask this one.

Well what is this? Uh here's one. Here's one for you. Translate this one. Raphael Devers He pretty much said that he played first base for San Francisco, but not in Boston.

Well, what let's listen to his answer and then you translate it, okay? I would say that I have put some good numbers over at Boston, and I think that I do feel that I have earned some respect. And I if they would have asked me at the beginning of spring training, yes, I would have played. Oh wow.

Okay, Bacha, your turn, go ahead. thou deserve king treatment. Over thy Uh The ruler. Oh boy. The ruler.

The owner. I don't know what what was it? What is that? Slick Rick? I don't know.

I'm trying to. What's the word for like a like a like owner? Governor? Yeah. Thy shall deserve owner.

Respect By thy owner. Yeah, owner. I think n owner sounds too plain, but whatever, we get the drift. Um Yeah. Didn't this take place in spring training?

Like, did he need them to go up to him the very first day? Am I bugging? This was in spring training, so what's the difference? Am I wrong here? What do you think?

Well, first base, I don't even think that was in the cards.

So he was like, oh, I'm going to be DH now. Right, right. They told him to DH. Right, right. So he was like, I don't even care about first base.

No, wait, wait, wait. Apparently, they told him to take grounders. They asked if he'd give it a go and try and take ground balls. in spring training.

So I highly doubt that that's a lie. Right. Why not? I would think if you are someone in his position, And you know that Bregman is coming in and now you know that you're moving. And if necessary, the next time that it's just natural, you're playing DH now.

The most likely job that they would ever ask you to do next is to maybe put the first baseman glove on all the time. And you played baseball, man. I didn't grew up playing baseball. You play a position. Don't you want to be out on the field more often than not?

Yeah, you you can't stay focused. That's all that much when you're in the dugout DHing. Like, you can go to the batting cages and whatnot down at the major level and just hit. And watch video, but it's not the same as playing and being in every pitch and staying focused. Yeah, so I mean why I don't know.

He's just a different cat, man. Why I'm going to play? I play because I'm Sanford. If Boston would have asked me at the beginning, I would have done. Man, that's a cheap ass.

Excuse. I I really don't even buy that one. Maybe we doing all this translation. I don't know. That one might be uh lost.

And translation. Devers has been on this team for a couple of games now, only three. He has three hits and 11 at bats. He has two walks. And he says, now that I'm here.

Offense is goin' be better. We will improve. There's a reason why they're brought in here. We're going to improve. Our office is going to get hot and we're going to start anymore yet.

Oh, he said it. We're going, we're going to get hot, start winning some more games. Oh, man. Come on. They will, they ain't gonna beat the Dodgers in nothing, but they will.

Congratulations to him Does he hit a home run today or tomorrow? Botcher. Is there a chance he hits three home runs tonight? Ooh. And of course there's not zero chance.

I've given him you giving him one more than one. I'd say won this series. Ouch. I gotta look to see who's on the mound. I look that up.

If it's crochet, I would say under. But if it's anybody else on that rotation, I would say over. Go ahead and light them up, yeah. Oh, you know what I forgot to do? Because Crochet is a big dude.

I forgot to look up Soriano. I'm sure Marco's already found him by now. Wow. Yeah, ain't no lo ain't no love loss between Devers and that team. He's going to smash a home run.

But Alex Cara, I told you what we just heard him on Mad Dog Radio. He said he still loves the guy. Good for him. I love the kid. The kid is a great person.

He's an elite here. We've been through a lot. If you think about it, me and Rafi are the only, well, he was the last one of the 2018 World Series champs. We've been through a lot, not only as an organization, together as an organization, but also as a manager-player relationship. Like I always told him, you know, and this is something that I always tell my players, you know.

The business is a business. The game is a game. The personal side of it can will never change. And this is a kid that I like. I appreciate.

He did a lot of things for me and for us. Like I said, you know, hopefully this weekend he doesn't have a good one and then from Monday on, he becomes the best DH in the in the National League. Eh, he may not feel that way about you, though. That's how people say things, right? That's like any breakup.

It's like, oh, I still love them. Oh, I still have feelings for them. Oh, we're friends. And another person hates that person's guts. I mean, that amounts to a whole lot of nothing.

I still love it.

Well, let's ask Rafael Devers. He's like, I don't care. It so it doesn't amount to anything. I'm interested to see what this series looks like over the weekend. Devers is going to.

He's gonna mash. Just go ahead and say that. It's the JR Sport Brief Show here with you, Coast to Coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Yeah, that series starting over the weekend should be. A lot, a lot.

of fun, but I told you, on Sunday There's a lot of fun to be had if you're in Sunrise and out in Fort Lauderdale. You can go to the the Panthers parade for the Stanley Cup. And then late at night, I guess all of America, you can sit down and watch the NBA Finals. Game seven. We're going to come back and have a chat.

With Andrew Schlecht. He covers the Thunder. He covers the thunder, he's writing for the athletic, he's hosting podcasts. I want to get his thoughts. On whether or not the Thunder are going to close this out.

where the hell they were last night because they were not playing the Pacers. and just what the implications are for this series now that we are down to one more game. In the NBA season. Andrew Schlecht is going to join us on the other side. You're listening to the JR Sport Reef Show, Coast to Coast.

on the Infiniti Sports Network. Don't move. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief. It is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you coast to coast on the Infiniti Sports Network. We got a big Sunday coming up.

Well, down in South Florida they have a celebration. for the Stanley Cup finals. An' out in O. K. C.

They hope a few days after that they have a celebration. For their first championship. They did not get the job done last night, getting blasted by the Indiana Pacers. And what went wrong? What do they need to do?

Were they too relaxed? Are they winning at home? This is a team with a lot of potential. It'll be a massive disappointment. If they lose, to talk about the thunder and what we've seen and what we can expect moving forward is someone who covers the Oklahoma City Thunder, someone who podcasts for the Athletic.

Joining us right now is Andrew Schleck. Andrew, how are you, man? Uh I'm doing great. How are you? Excellent.

Thank you for the time and joining us. Not the result that a lot of Thunder fans expected or wanted last night. Did they take things for granted that they were just going to wake up and close things out? You know, I mean, you talk to the guys after the game and They certainly Talk about how they didn't bring it like they needed to. They didn't bring the intensity.

They didn't bring the attention to detail. And, you know, you can't do that against the Pacers. I think that. It's hard to say that, like, oh, they came in with big heads or anything like that. You know, we're not.

so inside that we feel that way, we would just or that we can like actually see that, but You know, I do think that This it's hard to win an NBA championship. And I think that they're learning how hard that is. And you can. You don't learn that until you're actually in the process of trying to do it. You can never take your foot off the gas.

It doesn't matter who the opponent is. You have to be out for blood. And I just don't think the Thunder were last night. I think the Pacers were. I think they had the crowd behind them.

I think that was a piece of the puzzle. But They were paying attention to the detail. They made adjustments that Thunder weren't ready for. And the Thunder did not make the the proper in-game adjustment to them and they just didn't didn't ever match their attention to detail or energy and so If the Thunder want to win a title, they're going to have to bring those things to the table on Sunday.

Well, Andrew, typically when we get to these game sevens, a lot of coaches tend to overthink the situation or maybe get too cute. Could you see any adjustments to tinkering with the lineups that Mark Dagnaught may move forward with? Yeah, I mean, there are other things that they could go to. One would be just start Alex Caruso from the start. In place of Hartenstein.

That's it seems like that is the lineup that they want to go to as kind of their silver bullet. And he, you know, Caruso allows you to do a lot more switching. He allows you to play an aggressive form of defense. And so I do think that that's possible. They did start Caruso.

They did start Caruso at the start of the second half. Um I kinda still expect them to play Hartenstein, because if they do. If they don't start him, I think it's harder to get him into the game. Yeah. But I.

I think there's more stuff to go to. Um However I don't know that Mark is going to do that in a game seven. But we'll see. Mark is not afraid to make any adjustment. He's not afraid to play.

Different lineups. We talk about like getting too cute. Mark just does that all the time. Like, that's just how he is with the lineups. with the thunder throughout the season.

You know, they'll be Portions of the season where, like, Dylan Jones will play big minutes. And you're like, what's going on here? Um And so I do think that he's not afraid to play different combinations of these guys for sure. Andrew Schlucht is joining us from the athletic. Isaiah Hartenstein has brought a different dimension to this team.

We know the Pacers like to go up and down the court, they spread the ball around. Why hasn't he had the same type of impact? You would think that their size and defense would be a benefit, but apparently it hasn't been. Why not? Yeah, I think he's been effective in spots.

I think that that two-man lineup with he and Chad are like a plus twelve over the series, so it's been effective. But one thing that the Pacers have done really well is they've taken away kind of that mid-paint area. And that is essentially where his offense lies. You know, it's either a putback or a dunk or a layup. of course as a big man but You've watched Isaiah Hartenstein for any length of time, you know that his floater is like h his biggest weapon.

And he made his first floater of the series last night. and it was on a broken play. Like they've taken that away. Like they're just like, hey, Bose Hartstein's out there, that mid-paint touch, you are there. You are not giving him any space.

So I think some of that is he doesn't have space to get that floater off. is part of it. Um And then they j they just play such smart, fast basketball. That it's it's hard to f to function out there with two bigs. And so I do think they've had some success.

Uh but when it comes down to it The way that the Pacers play, you want to play more guards than wings. And the Thunder have a plethora of those guys. And so I think they're going to continue to kind of favor Caruso and Kason Wallace and Lou Dort and guys like that over Hartenstein just because you know styles make fights in the playoffs and This is kind of where they're at. And the Thunder like to play fast too. It's not that just the Pacers like to play fast.

The Thunder like to play fast too. And so I do think that it's it's you know, there's series that really favored Hartenstein, and this just isn't one of them. When you think about what we're going to see on Sunday, I'm happy. I want more basketball. Seven games is fine by me.

I thought it would be done in six games. I gave the Pacers one or two games, and here we are. They're tied at three games apiece. What do you anticipate to happen on Sunday? I mean, we had a caller early in the show.

He's like, hey, all the momentum is now towards the Pacers. And I'm just like, I don't know about that. What are your thoughts on what we can expect on Sunday? Yeah, to the momentum point. I mean, if you just look at this series Momentum doesn't exist in this series.

You know, what's happening with this series is that you have two. really intelligent coaches and two really intelligent rosters. that are adjusting to one another and it's this like nip and tuck throughout the entire series. And so I The Thunder haven't lost consecutive games in the playoffs yet. And especially when they get their butts kicks.

They bounce back in a big way. We've seen that happen against Denver. We've seen that happen against Minnesota. And I I expect the Thunder to bounce back in a big way.

Now, does that mean they're going to blow them out? I I kind of doubt that. But I do think like they're gonna play better overall. You know, if you look at the history of game sevens, like you mentioned, like those games are in played in the mud. Yeah.

You know, it's played it's played with a lot of nerves. And so my expectation is that this will be a close one that will come down to the shop making of your stars and You know, I think that, you know, Shea Has all the accolades behind him except for one. And I th I think that Shay will deliver on Sunday. Andrew Schlucht here with us from The Athletic. Regardless of how this series goes, of course, if it goes bad for OKC, it's going to be a massive.

Massive disappointment. But this is a young team, and we know that it's prohibitive to move forward future years with paying everybody two hundred thirty million dollars. What can we expect with this roster going forward? It will, for the most part, we can expect them to to be together for a while, no? Yeah, for sure.

I think that they. Yeah, especially the big three. I think the hope is that you get to play they get to play together through their overlapping primes. and they get to have a lot of success together.

Now things that will come into question are like can you keep Kason Wallace down the road whenever he comes up for an extension? And can you keep Lugan Stort when he comes up for an extension? Isaiah Hartenstein has a team option on his deal your next season. Are they going to pick that up? Are they going to try to give him a smaller extension?

You know, what does that look like? I think those are the peripheral pieces that. they'll have to make some hard decisions with. But that's also what the draft picks are for. You know, they have two first-round picks, you know.

The draft is Thursday. They have two first-round picks in that draft. You know, the following year, they could have up to. Four different draft picks in the first round. And so I think that the hope is guys like Nikola Topic, who hasn't played in this whole rookie season for him.

that he can be a guy that can play and that they can select somebody at fifteen. In the draft that can play. And so, whenever you do have to let go of a case of Wallace, Isaiah Hartenstein. You know, maybe you have to trade Isaiah Joe or Aaron Wiggins. Um but you can supplement it with cheaper players that are ready to play now.

You know, maybe you can draft like the future Kayson Wallace. You know, Kaysen's been a valuable member of the team, and he is on a pretty small deal because he's on a rookie scale deal.

So I think that. You know, as Presti set this up really well for them to keep their big three and then kind of supplement around them with. draft picks and affordable players.

Now Andrew, last question for you. If they win this championship on Sunday, How long is it going to take before they put a a statue of Sam Presty up outside Paycom? Oh man.

So they're building a new arena. That will go up in 2028. And they're actually going to, I believe the plan is to demolish PACOM. And so I would put one up pretty quick because he has been he and Clay Bennett have been the constant for this organization. It's been successful through so many iterations.

You know, you even had like this one year with this Chris Paul team that overachieved. Like you just They have done so much for the city. That I do think they deserve some recognition. They The the thing is, it will probably never happen because Sam won't let that happen. He's like, okay, we need one of Russ.

Um we need one of of Nick Collison. He'll push off the credit to the players, which he always kind of does. Um but I think that you're on the right track with you know, Presti and and Clay Bennett, you know, as as a duo. There's probably not a better owner, president of basketball ops in the league, you know, that has been together for this long. I mean, they've been together since the Thunder began.

you know in 2008 2009 And That's just it's very rare. It's something very special that I hope Thunder fans understand, you know, what they have in those two. Yeah, Bennett and Presty could give the New York Knicks some advice, but it might be too late on that one. Ha ha ha ha. That may be too far down the road.

Yeah, I think so too. Hey, Andrew, thank you so much for the time. Tell everybody where they can listen and keep up with everything that you do at the athletic. For sure. You can I have a Thunder podcast called Down to Dunk.

I would love for people to listen to that. And then we have a show called The Athletic NBA Daily hosted by just a great friend of mine, Dave DeFour. and Esper Henny and Zena Keita, and they do a great job just breaking down the games every single night. It's a quick twenty minute recap of what happened in the NBA the night before. It's in your feed, six a.m.

Eastern time. You know, Monday through Friday, would love for people to pick that up and become a part of their routine. Hey, well, thank you, Andrew, for your perspective and your knowledge. Enjoy the game on Sunday and Good luck with the draft too, I guess. The Thunder always ends up picking up a new guy there, okay?

All right. Thanks a lot. No doubt about it. That Andrew Schlecht covers all things thunder. Make sure you go ahead and listen and check him out.

And thank you so much for coming through, courtesy of the athletic. It's the JR Sport Brief Show on the Infinity Sports Network, 888-710-4ISN. That's 888-710-4ISN. I need you to thank O'Reilly Auto Parts for all of your car care needs, get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts. We are going to take a break.

And we come back on the other side. The NBA season is about to finish. The WNBA season is still here. And of course, that means more news about Caitlin Clark. Apparently, liking Caitlin Clark can get you fired.

And we all know about liking Angel Reese. Um For the people I well they she got merchant Marco you want a me bound shirt? Yeah, I'm going to pass. But thank you. You're welcome.

Okay, just offering. Botcher, do you want a me-bound shirt? I prefer the Monopoly face of you.

Okay. All right. Well, I'm going to tell you about uh merchandise that neither botcher Or Marco Want from Angel Reese. We'll talk about Caitlin Clark, why. Why somebody I know?

Got in trouble. for supporting Caitlin Clark. It's the chair of Sport Reeshow, Infinity Sports Network. News Flash, here he is, Marco Belletti. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief.

It is. The JR Sport Brief Show. on the infinity Sports Network Hey, thank you so much to Andrew Schlecht for joining us in the last break. to talk about game seven. of the n B A The finals.

I'm goin' with the thunder. And Bacha, you said you're going with the paces, right? Yep, run the hot hand. Oh my goodness.

Okay, we'll see what happens. Speaking of the hot hand, Who would have thought? Angel Reese on a losing basketball team. would turn a negative to a positive. Here, let me tell you something.

for you uh WNBA experts out there. The Chicago Sky have a record of three and eight. Yeah, that that's that's losers. Angel Reese is averaging 11 points and almost 12 rebounds. Her shooting percentage is 38%.

And she is a forward, like she's grabbing the rebounds, and people make fun of her a lot of times. There's her shooting percentage, she has trouble getting a job done. People get upset about this. It's like you get all these rebounds because you got a lot of missed shots. They call them me bounds.

And so Angel Rees actually took it upon herself to go. You know what? People say, I suck, and I'm just grabbing my own missed shots. I'm just getting offensive boards.

Well, I. I'm going to make money off of this.

So she actually trademarked it. And now she's actually... is selling merchandise with me bounds on like l listen to this. Whoever came up with the mebounds thing Y'all ate that up because rebounds, me bounds, creeps, keybounds, keybounds, t-bound, read. Anything that comes off that board, it's mine.

It it's it's Not Anything that comes off the board is hers, is hers. And now she today she released merchandise with me bounds on it. And t-shirts and caps, and like good for her. I'm happy for her. Make all your money.

But these are the type of things that I look at and just go But your team sucks. Like a lot of what she does, and I'm not mad, but a lot of what she does is self-serving. Like throughout the course of a season. I mean Paul George. This guy sucked too.

For the Philadelphia 76ers. He wasn't healthy. And so you wanna know what he did? He stopped podcasting. Oh no, no podcast P.

I realize we suck. The Sixers are garbage. Maybe I should slow down and give it a break. Maybe I should give it a rest. That we we can't have that in the WNBA?

Ain't nothing wrong with Angel Reese. A team is just bad. I mean Hey, could you imagine a player in the NBA? Whose team is ass? Could you imagine a star in the NBA?

Whose team is bad just all of a sudden wakes up and says, You know what? I'm going to do I'm going to figure out how to make money on this. In the season, Like last year she started podcasting. This is like But then she has an issue at times when she's criticized, or people want to come to her defense. It's a cold, cold world.

I don't know. She's 23 years old. She's the same age as Shadora Sanders, who's driving 101 miles per hour. At what point Does Angel Reese just go? You know what?

I'm going to stop. I've made money podcasts, and I sold my MeBounds merchandise. At what point does she go? Damn it, let me become a better basketball player. Let me get my shooting percentage.

I don't know, maybe somewhere close to 500. I don't know. Bacha, how long? Two more years? I'd say three.

Three more? That's when it's all juiced out. That's when what? It's all gonna run out, you know. What, her passion, I don't know.

Her passion. Maybe marketing gets bigger and she doesn't really need basketball. Oh, you think she's gonna walk away? Maybe. Yeah.

Seems like it's on the track, isn't it? Yeah, I mean she's she has two jobs. She's operating as an influencer. and a basketball player. Is she the basketball player or is she the influencer first?

Which one is it? Right now, it seems influencer because her team's not doing that great. But I'd say. For the next couple of years I think she'd focus on basketball, hopefully. Yeah.

Grown up with it, you played in college. Hopefully, you still have a passion for it, and then maybe you can settle down and do the media thing. Uh media thing. Maybe she could. I don't know.

I mean... I I would think you want to take advantage of basketball for as long as you can. Maybe she pushes it to thirty and I don't know. Maybe she's on the team that ultimately wins a championship. She is one of the most popular players in the league.

She is one of the most famous players in the league. I'm not sitting around evaluating everybody's social media reach. I would imagine. that she is outside of probably Caitlin Clark, which whatever, maybe not. She's one of the most followed players.

In the entire league. And so if you take basketball away, That eliminates a good portion of her reach. Like, that's the platform.

So, you're right. Maybe she does do it. I don't want to give her a couple years.

Well, I think she'll do it until maybe she finds success and leaves. In all honesty, let's be real. She is making more money Away from the WNBA. than she is in the WNBA. She has cereal.

And she has a deal with Shaq and Reebok. I'm sure that's not a crap ton of money. She has endorsements. I just hope sooner than later that it's like, hey, you gonna play basketball, be better. Who the hell has a shooting percentage of thirty seven percent as a Quote unquote.

Big. That's what she is. I mean, if you'd act damn close to the basket, get us over fifty. You're not shooting three-pointers for God's sake. You're out there just.

Doing that. And good luck to her and her Me Bounds merchandise. Good luck to her. Also, news because you can't have Angel Reese without Caitlin Clark. Whoever knew that supporting Caitlin Clark would get you fired.

Well, for one person that did. Uh I don't want to say shout outs, but Rachel Demeter. Used to play basketball. A very sweet woman. I've met her a couple of times at different events and what not.

She was a commentator starting last season for the big three. That's Ice Cube's basketball league. And so the big three just got started. And last week, like while she is live at a game, She is common she's tweeting uh about Caitlin Clark. And apparently Is she gone?

She doesn't have a job anymore. The big three. has a left Her or has let her go. Yeah, I didn't know Caitlin Clark could get you five. Maybe Caitlin Clark could get her a job now.

A matter of fact, and maybe there's a deeper reasoning here. You might recall. Ice Cube, who's the face and then one of the owners of the big three. They offered Caitlin Clark a deal. To play in the big three.

And of course, Caitlin Clark was just like, too gimmicky. Uh No. Listen to what Ice Cube said last year. It does still stand. You know, if she's on the fence, you know, we could talk about anything that's concerning her.

I think we. We will accommodate her. in any way, shape, or form. Allowing her to play in the WNBA. Um You know, a guy from Barstools offered her $10 million to play in his rec league, and she can go do that too.

So. We're not gonna, you know stop her from pursuing her other goals Yeah, but why why would she want to do that? Uh, why why would she want to water down who and what she is? Apparently Ice Cube offered her five million dollars. just for a few games last year in the big three?

And she said no. What does she need that money for? It's like Nike just gave her, what, $30 million? And she doesn't even have a shoe yet. And one of the reasons she doesn't have a shoe is because people are like, oh, Asia Wilson needs a shoe.

I mean, Come on. Botcher, when Caitlin Clark's shoe sells. Is she not going to have? She might have the most popular shoe from the men and the women. And that's a crazy thing to say.

Depends how it looks. 'Cause 'cause we all support players, but sometimes if it does look a little wonky, we won't buy it. A lot of these shoes look wonky to me, but I feel like there's now a little bit of a template and the traditional basketball shoe. You could either wear something that looks like a a sock, A space boot? Or a lot of the shoes are kind of clean now.

Like going from Kobe's to the old Kyries to now the John Morants. Like, I feel like there's a little bit of a template. If it is anywhere in that range. where you can get a man and a woman into the shoe who's playing basketball. I I I think it goes without saying.

We are she gonna she's gonna sell some shoes they're gonna they're gonna make sure that this shoe is widely available For every and anybody, regardless of their taste. Here's Ice Cube again. He talks about Caitlin Clark and that offer. Even though that was last year, what about now? Yeah, it was a little offer.

You know, we prepared to fulfill the offer. You know, we just wanted to have a conversation with her and her family about it. That didn't happen. I think the agents kept us away. And, you know, we moved on and she's doing great in the WNBA.

We wish her well. Oh, good for them. Congratulations. It's a nice thing to say, hey, I don't need $5 million from. Ice Cube's big three league.

Where who the hell was fighting the other day? Is Stephen Jackson angry at Bantra, who was out? Do you remember Dwight Howard? It was Dwight Howard and Lance Stevenson, right? Michael Beasley.

Oh my god. Was it beat? No, no, no, no, no. Wasn't he is in it. I know that.

Yeah, but it was Dwight Howard. I think it was Dwight and Lance. They were trying to kill each other. That checks out. Yeah.

Yeah, a lot of it does. It's a world. And shout outs to the big three. Shoutouts to Caitlin Clark. She doesn't need them.

She doesn't need nobody. She might as well be the WNBA. It's the JR Sport Re Show here with you Coast to Coast on the Infinity Sports Network. 888-710-4ISN. That's eight eight eight seven ten.

We're going to take a break. We come back on the other side.

Well, We want to take a look at all the things that we discussed so far in the show. It's been a busy one. We're getting ready for the NBA Finals. At the end of the show, we'll talk about a few things that took place this day in sports history. Rafael Devers is getting ready to beat up on the Red Sox, his former team.

So we still have so much more to do. Let's give a quick recap. and talk some more. You want to call me? You can do that too.

888-710-4ISN. That's 888-710-4ISN. You're locked in. It's the JR Sport Reef Show, the Infinity Sports Network.