JR SportBrief Hour 4

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Find out more at T-Mobile.com. That's S-E-E-W-H-Y. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio.

It is the JR Sport Brief show on CBS Sports Radio. Damn it, I've been here for three hours already. I don't know how that happened, but it's three hours. I'm only going to be here for one more hour. Thank you to every person who's been locked in for the past three or maybe two or maybe one. Thank you for being here.

And if you want to lock in, get every minute, every second, go ahead, get the free Odyssey app and you can hit rewind or you can listen live. I appreciate you if you're tuned in on your local CBS Sports Radio affiliate. Shout out to all my folks up in Massachusetts on WEEI.

Oh, they're getting ready for the Eastern Conference Finals. Much love to all my folks down in Miami. Thank you to people in San Diego, everybody up in Seattle, and everything in between.

Hey, me? I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. I think this is the whole country that we have covered. And hello to everybody in Canada as well. From Vancouver to Montreal to... damn it, let's go even further east and all of that.

Let's go out to Nova Scotia. Shout outs to people listening overseas too. We've got people listening all over the damn world. You can always tune in on Sirius XM Channel 158 and if you have a smart speaker, you can ask it to play CBS Sports Radio.

Super producer and host Dave Shepherd, he's coming to you live from New York City. And yeah, I'm waiting for the Eastern Conference Finals. We'll talk about that more in depth tomorrow as Game 1 will have taken place. And then tonight, Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals is done. The Denver Nuggets hold on to beat the Lakers 132 to 126.

This looked like it was going to be a blowout. At halftime, the Denver Nuggets led 72 to 54. They switched up, they being the Lakers, switched up some of their defense. Anthony Davis, not the sole defender on Nikola Jokic.

They threw Hachimura out there and things changed up. At one point, the Lakers got to within three but the Nuggets held on. And Jokic, he had an amazing night. 34 points, 21 rebounds, and 14 assists. 12 career triple doubles in the playoffs. He's had six of those triple doubles just in this playoffs alone.

The Nuggets are 7-0 in the playoffs at home this season or this postseason. Murray chipped in 31. Kentavious Caldwell Pope gave you 21 points. And in a losing effort, Anthony Davis had 40 points, 10 rebounds.

And LeBron James gave you 26 points, 12 rebounds, and 9 assists. The Lakers tried but it wasn't good enough. LeBron James said it doesn't matter how much we tried, we didn't get the win.

If you lose, you lose. They're a 1-0 and we have to come back with desperation going in the game too. We have to play better, we have to rebound better. I thought we did a good job of not turning the ball over and that's one thing we've been very conscious about in the postseason. We've been better in transition tonight. We wasn't that great in the first half. We cleaned up in the second half. So we need to be better at all facets of the game. Let's hear what his head coach has to say about being better.

Darvin Ham, let's see if the comments align. A lot, a lot of long rebounds. We gave him way too many second chance points, offensive rebound and opportunities, and 50-50 balls for that matter. We got to be better in transition and we can't foul them. We got to be more disciplined showing our hands when we're guarding the ball and guarding those guys around the rim in the post and whatnot.

Okay yeah, so the comments do align. Hey, Austin Reeves, he was a Laker that decided to chip in tonight. He gave them 23 points. Not like D'Angelo Russell who only had eight and Dennis Schroeder who only had six.

Austin Reeves, he found a silver lining even though he took an out. I mean obviously never want to lose. First half was really ugly to say the least, but like you said we, you know, got it going in the second half and really just played harder. It was the common denominator at the end of everything was we went out and competed in the second half and gave ourselves a chance. Like I said, never want to lose but this is serious for a reason. Yeah, it should be fun and that's why I think it might go all seven games. I got the Lakers winning out or maybe the Nuggets win it all because of home court but it's going to boil down to who else outside of Anthony Davis, LeBron, Jokic and Murray decide to step up game to game.

I think that's weird really, really boils down. I spoke about Kentavious Caldwell-Pulp, 21 points, two rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block. He used to be a Los Angeles Laker. Won a championship with those Lakers but he's a Nugget now.

Listen to what he had to say. I mean it's a whole new team from the championship team that I was on but just knowing them guys is an advantage. Been on play with them for four or five years but I love our team here. The toughness that we come out with and we play with throughout the game, we're going to need it throughout the series. Jamal Murray, 31 points tonight. He never played for the Lakers. Came back from a torn ACL and he talked about worrying a little bit about the Lakers going on that run or maybe he wasn't worried at all. Take a listen. I mean just weather the storm, not foul, rebound, not turn the ball over. Those are the things that were going through my mind at the time.

Oh, oh so simple. Hey Shep, what's the deal with with Jokic? He continues to put his name in the category of Giants.

What's the deal with this man? I mean JR, I mean this is a who's who. I mean what he did against the Lakers on Tuesday night. Obviously a 30.20 rebound tennis playoff game. There have been four of those in NBA postseason history. Nikola Jokic has two of the four. The other two, one took place 53 years ago, a guy by the name of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

The other guy to do that who has the literal autobiography of the NBA on his resume is Will Chamberlain who did that three years prior to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. JR, I gotta ask you this question. If Nikola Jokic, and I know I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself, if Nikola Jokic wins an NBA championship, do you finally say, and when I mean you, I mean in general, that this is now the best player in the world? Yeah, why not?

Yeah, at this moment in time, yes. I don't think that's something to dispute, yeah. Oh, well good.

Oh yeah, no, I don't think it's that difficult of a question. You read the numbers again, they are godlike. 34 points, 21 rebounds, and 14 assists. De'Jaunte Murray, who is, well he's been watching the playoffs now for a couple of weeks, De'Jaunte Murray pretty much posted on social media as well. He's like, oh my god, well, a center who's putting up these numbers and he's not the MVP, he said Jokic is different. And so, I mean, no, of course, if he wins a championship, go ahead and crown him. You know, I don't agree with Giannis about his whole failure thing. Giannis said it perfectly a couple of seasons ago. He's like, hey, the best players are the one who just won the championship.

And so, I think in this case, you look at Jokic, he's dominating right now. 855-212-4CBS, that's 855-212-4CBS. Ted is calling from Boise, Idaho. You're on the chair of sport re-show.

What's up, Ted? Hi, JR. Hey, I just wanted to, you had a caller earlier that said that John Morant should go to court and I just wanted to go off of being in law enforcement for 31 and a half years. You might not have committed a crime. I've just got what everybody's saying that happened. But his conduct was detrimental to his team in the NBA. So, I agree with you 100%. They should probably suspend him for at least a year. Cool. No, listen, I'm with it.

Yeah, it's wild to me and thank you, Ted, for calling from Boise. It's wild to me how many people go, he's second amendment right. He can, he can have a gun. Yeah, he can have a gun. Yeah, he sure can. But for his job, his job isn't to wave it around. He's being irresponsible towards his, his employer.

What's so difficult to understand about that? We're going to talk about Victor Wenbanyama in the next break. But before the NBA draft lottery took place, Adam Silver addressed this whole John Morant situation. And Adam Silver basically said, man, we had a big ol' conversation before his last suspension. And Adam Silver was talking to ESPN. He thought that, that John took it seriously.

Listen to this. An eight game suspension was pretty serious and something that he, at least to me, seemed to take incredibly seriously in that time. And we spoke for a long time about not just the consequences that could have on his career, but the safety issues around it.

Could have injured, maimed, killed himself, someone else with an act like that. And also the acknowledgement that, as you said, he's a star. I mean, he has an incredibly huge following. And that my concern, and I thought he shared with me that millions, if not tens of millions of kids globally would see him as having done something that was celebrating in a way, you know, that, that act.

It doesn't stop there. Adam Silver says, I was, I was actually surprised to see Morant with another gun video. I at least was left, um, with the sense that he was taking this incredibly seriously. So honestly, I was shocked when I saw this weekend, that video now we're in the process of investigating it. Um, and we'll figure out exactly what happened to the best weekend.

Then it's, again, it's the video's a bit grainy and all that, but I'm assuming the worst, you know, and at the end of the day, uh, but we'll, we'll figure out, you know, exactly what happened there. As the world turns, I'm just waiting, I'm waiting on the suspension. And I actually read you all and maybe I think the beginning or maybe an hour and a half ago, I read the statement from John Morant, which is just even more lip service.

He might've just copied and pasted what he said the last time. I know I've disappointed a lot of people who have supported me. This is a journey and I recognize there's more work to do. My words may not mean much right now, but I take full accountability for my actions. I'm committed to continuing to work on myself. And so if you were still trying to figure out, was it him, did he have a gun? Did he have a weapon? I think his statement absolutely just says, yes, I made another mistake and you got to pay for it. God, just, just don't play basketball.

Is it not that complicated? It's the JR sport reef show here with you on CBS sports radio. I can tell you someone who will be playing basketball.

And if he's on American soil, brandishing a gun, he, his ass is just going to get kicked out the country. His name is Victor. When Ben Yama San Antonio Spurs got the number one overall pick.

And of course it was them, right? We're going to hear from Victor when Ben Yama on the other side of the break. And then we'll even hear how the draft lottery went. Plus we'll get into the Celtics and the heat Eric Spulstra spoke, and he didn't just talk about the matchup in the Eastern conference finals. Eric Spulstra talked about doc rivers.

We'll play all of this on the other side of the break. It's the JR sport ratio, CBS sports radio. You're listening to the JR sport brief on CBS sports radio. Hey, how are you doing, man? I'm a big fan. I like what you do, man. I enjoy your show.

You'd be on point, brother. You're doing the same, man. Just wanted to commend you about that. Hey, John, I love your show, man.

I really appreciate what you're doing. You're like the Webster of sports. Call in now at 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 CBS.

It's the JR sport brief show here on CBS sports radio. We witnessed, we watched, we listened to, well, just let's put it this way. LeBron James is someone who actually lived up to the hype regardless of how you feel about him and his accomplishments for what he was expected to do. He might have surpassed what the expectations were. He is one of the greatest basketball players the NBA has ever seen.

And there's some people who believe he just flat is tonight. There is another prospect, Victor Wimbenyama. You've, you've heard about him now for maybe a few months. Maybe you've heard about him for a few years. Well, he's now on the way and tonight during the NBA draft lottery on ESPN, it became very clear where he was going to go.

Take a listen. The fourth pick in the NBA draft goes to the Houston Rockets. The third pick belongs to the Portland trailblazers. The second pick will be made by the Charlotte Hornets. And that means that the number one pick in the 2023 NBA draft goes to the San Antonio Spurs. It's just, it's wild. And I know it's, it's so easy to say it's rigged, it's rigged. The Spurs got it.

It just seems too good to be true now, doesn't it? San Antonio Spurs end up with another French player. You go from Tony Parker and Boris Diao. And, and now you have Victor Wimbenyama. You think about the Spurs history of drafting big men. And this man is certainly tall. He ain't big at seven foot five, but you go from David Robinson and then you go to Tim Duncan and now you got Victor Wimbenyama and he's supposed to be Anthony Davis and Kevin Durant and one guy who's seven five.

It's pretty ridiculous. Now, having said that, Victor Wimbenyama is 19 years old. He's been a pro for the past four years, and now he's going and now he's going to go to San Antonio and what is probably the most stable organization in the entire NBA. And I think this is a good look for him. It's a good look for the league. And I can actually sit down and watch a Spurs game again.

It's been a few years. I think the Spurs fans certainly understand. Victor Wimbenyama, he was up at two 30 in the morning. Of course he would. He wants to know where he's going to play.

And Brian Windhorst from ESPN was there with him, and they had a whole conversation about the Spurs ending up with the number one pick. Listen to this. It's two 30 a.m. here in Paris. Victor, you found out a couple of moments ago you'll be following the footsteps of David Robinson, of Tim Duncan, great French players, Boris Dio and Tony Parker. What are your emotions right now?

Can't really describe them. You know, it's just my my heart's beating. I got everyone. I love everyone I know around me. It's really special moment.

I'm going to remember for the rest of my life. There's American fans and NBA fans across the world are still learning about you. What is the NBA? What are the San Antonio Spurs getting with Victor Wimbenyama? You know, a team player. I'm going to make everything to win as many games as I can. And I'm trying to win the ring ASAP, so be ready. So the Spurs were tied up in knots. I talked to their general manager Brian Wright today.

He's been not able to sleep for a week. Now that you know where you're going, what do you think you can take this for? What do you think you can take the Spurs next season? You know, I'm going to try and bring my talents here. I love Texas.

I've been there before. I'm really, really happy and I really can't wait to meet the fans and to meet hopefully the team I'm about to join in June. Well, I don't know how much of an impact he's going to have for the the Spurs or early on. If he's able to give you more than let's even say 14 or 15 points, I would be pleasantly surprised. I don't know how easy he's going to be able to compete in the league.

This is not the beat-em-up NBA from 25 years ago, but I want to see what the adjustment is like. Is he going to come out like a house on fire or is he going to be a very good player right out of the gate? We know playing against some of his peers in the G League Ignite team, he was lighting them up. 36 points, 37 points, 11 rebounds, four blocks.

He was just out there doing it all. And for the San Antonio Spurs, when David Robinson finally arrived onto the scene after serving in the Navy, when Tim Duncan showed up, both of those both of those squads improved by like 30 plus victories. I don't know if the San Antonio Spurs are going to go from 22 wins.

I don't know if they're going to move into the 50 win range. I think that would take a whole hell of a lot, but Victor Winbenyama, seven foot five. If you've seen the highlights, he is certainly fluid. He's not a relic.

He's not in a mummy. He can move. I just hope that he can stay healthy. Hey Shep, what do you think success would be for Winbenyama in the first year?

Success for Victor Winbenyama. I mean, I would say they're not bottom dwellers anymore. So meaning they're at least above 30 wins.

15 is fair. There is no template for this guy. Yao Ming, bigger guys. And when we say bigger, we mean guys who are 7-3, 7-4, 7-5. They take a little more time to develop than the LeBron James that come in with an NBA ready body. And so success for Victor, I think if he can play 60-70 games in the regular season, Zion Williamson still finding a way to do that. And if he can average 15 points per game, I would say seven rebounds per game, maybe three or four assists per game.

That would be a success. But if you are the San Antonio Spurs, JR, I mean, you talk about being lucky. My God, have they picked themselves the right number one overall picks? My God.

Yeah, this is why we have folks saying that this is rigged. Oh my God, how did the Spurs end up with another center? Oh my God, how did the Spurs get Victor Winbenyama? It's like, there's certain things you can't make up. You can go back in time and we can go back to at this point, the early nineties, there's a guy out of Michigan, his parents, his grandparents live in New Jersey. He spends the summers at their house. He loves baseball. He becomes a Yankees fan from Michigan living in the summertime with his grandparents in New Jersey becomes a Yankees fan. And he becomes one of the most popular Yankees, one of the most successful baseball players of all time in Derek Jeter. How do you have a guy named LeBron James? This is a phenom from high school age. This guy is from Ohio and he ends up playing for his hometown team has to leave, but eventually comes back, helps them win a championship. Like there's just some stories that just don't make sense or they're destined to happen.

And with Victor Winbenyama, man, Tony Parker, Boris De Al, the Spurs obviously for years bringing in international talent, playing basketball, no attitudes, no egos. You got to appreciate it. You got to love it. 855-212-4CBS. Lucky is calling from San Francisco. You're on CBS Sports Radio. What's up Lucky? Hey, what's going on, J.R.? How are you doing tonight? Very well.

All right. Well, shout out to the young man, Victor, man, for making it onto the NBA team. I wish he would have came to my squad, but you know, shout out to the Spurs, man. They got a good young rookie.

Yeah, no doubt. That's it. What else you got? What do you think he's going to do this season? What would success be for Victor Winbenyama?

Success, I would think, first of all, health, and from what, you know, I've been watching clips of him. I think he could probably come out with a double-double, maybe 15 and 10, and nine rebounds. I said that'll be a good start for him.

Okay. Yeah, I think, listen, if this man just walks out onto an NBA court and is averaging a triple-double against the Jokic, not a triple-double, but a double-double against guys like Jokic and Anthony Davis, then good on him. I don't know. He gonna have to be reaching over people's heads, but I can imagine they're gonna try to just keep him out the paint, and I don't know if he has the body to go in there. We'll find out soon enough.

Yes, we will. I think he needs to bulk up a little bit, but just coming in off talent, man, good luck to him. Yeah, no doubt about it.

Thank you, Lucky, for calling from San Francisco. Victor Winbenyama might surprise people initially, but it's gonna be easy, I believe, from the onset, kind of put an elbow, put a forearm into him and move him out the way. The guy's, he's light in the pants.

He's 7'5", but he's built like a string bean. And so we know Victor is gonna go number one overall. What happens after that is now gonna be up for debate. You got a whole bunch of other teams here lined up. San Antonio one, Charlotte two, Portland three. You got Houston coming in at four. I know a lot of Rocket fans are certainly disappointed. Just be happy you got Victor Winbenyama and hope that James Harden does not come back.

Or Ime Udonka, excuse me. At number five, you got Detroit. Six, Orlando. Pacers select at number seven. Washington, the Wizards.

Just the model of mediocrity, even in the draft. The Wizards will be selecting at number eight. Utah, growing team at nine. Dallas at 10. Orlando, Oklahoma City, Toronto, and New Orleans.

New Orleans ending up with the last pick, number 14 in the lottery. Question for you, JR. Yes. You talked about can't miss prospects. I believe you said LeBron still was going to be more of a luck to be destined for greatness at the next level as opposed to Victor Winbenyama. Do you have him second behind LeBron? Where does he fall in that order in terms of guys that they were going number one overall from the day they became a teenager? Guys like Kareem, Shaq, Timmy D. Where does Victor Winbenyama fall in that hierarchy to you?

I don't know. I think from a hype machine, I think all things considered, I would probably put him behind LeBron James just because of all the social media and context that we have today. But that's just hype. What about Zion? And I know that's tough to ask now that we're four years removed from where he was at Duke. No, Zion was hyped up because of social media. I mean, you can run around and look at how dominant he was in all of his dunks on overtime. I would venture to say that the entire...

I know the guys who own the company. Over time, I feel a lot of it was built off of Zion and highlights. He was the prototype there.

And so I think there's a point in time where you have to be able to discern what's internet hype and then what actually has substance. Zion can be a dominant player in the league. Do I think that Zion is going to change basketball where you have hall of famers and legends, living legends, calling him an alien and saying that, my God, he's the evolution of the game?

You know, Atenta Kumpo was saying that in 2045, we're going to have more dudes running around like him. Look at how much the league has already changed over the past, you could say 20 and 25 years where you have seven footers who are handling the basketball like guards. And we have moved away from just static positions here and we're in the year 2023. What basketball looks like in another 20, 25 years from now? Yeah, I'm sure we're going to have taller athletes. The dudes will continue to be longer. The average height is probably going to continue to stretch.

And so when Benyama as a prospect, I would say, yeah, he's behind LeBron. Is he going to live up to it or surpass it? I doubt it. That's a difficult thing to do.

And so I don't think it amounts to nothing. I would love to just see him healthy to see what he can max out at. And I think that's more than half the job because seven foot five dudes, unfortunately, they don't last.

The bigger they are, the harder they fall. And we've seen that a lot when it comes down to NBA talent. It's the JR Sport Brief Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio, 855-212-4CBS.

It's 855-212-4CBS. We know the Western Conference Finals Game 1, it's a wrap. It's in the books tonight. We got the Eastern Conference Finals starting up tomorrow. We're going to hear from Coach Eric Spoelstra on the other side of the break. He spoke earlier today, not just about the heat. He also talked about the firing of Doc Rivers. We'll do that.

Talk to you before we roll out. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. Hey JR, how are you? You know, what I wanted to say was that I love your top six list.

Those things are awesome. I don't call into radio stations, but this is the second time you've made me call in because I just love your list so much. It's fun to listen to. Call in now at 855-212-4CBS. It's the JR Sport Brief Show on CBS Sports Radio. Well, I guess that makes two of us. I don't be calling into radio stations either.

Why would I? I'm sitting here taking the calls and I appreciate you for participating in the show. It's been a busy show.

Just talked about Victor Winbenyama. Tonight, the Western Conference Finals. Game one underway a good one. Looked like it was going to be a beat down. The Nuggets were just going to run the Lakers off the court.

The Lakers fought back, but still they lost 132-126. We talked about John Marrant. He put out a statement.

We talked about Doc Rivers. Oh yeah, by the way, if you missed John Marrant's statement, you didn't miss nothing. He basically said, I apologize.

I know my words don't mean anything, but I'm sorry. Sure. Brandon Marshall says, yeah, he's jokingly. If Aaron Rodgers calls him, he'll come back.

Sure, Brandon Marshall. Joe Burrow spoke today. You know what? Matter of fact, let's hear that. Joe Burrow spoke to the media today about his contract, about his money, and he's just, he has mastered the art of saying nothing, which I love.

Listen to Joe Burrow from earlier today. Yeah, we're, you know, I'm involved. That's, it's in the works. That's not really something that I like to play out in the media. That's something, just the way I think they want to do business.

I want to do business. We prefer to keep that between us. Oh, okay. Well, tell me more about your contract. You, you want to, you want to make so much money that nobody else can get paid, Joe?

What do you think? Yeah, it's definitely, you know, whenever you have guys on the team that need to be paid, that's always on your mind. You want that to, to be a focal point. And so we're, we're working to make that happen. Okay. And by the way, Joe Burrow is speaking of Victor, when Benyama needs to put on some weight.

Yeah. We all know that Joe Burrow looks like he has been in the gym. And after, I guess, a couple of appearances and AFC championship games in the Superbowl, Joe Burrow is like, man, I'm trying to take things to another level. Joe Burrow looks jacked and he looks ready to go. So good on him. And if I'm a Bengals fan, I'm like, man, we, we finally got our guy for a very, very long time. And so good on Joe Burrow. It'll be very interesting to see how much money he nets. Is he going to break the bank and make more money temporarily than Lamar Jackson?

We'll get there. Joe Burrow wasn't the only person that spoke by the time we have this conversation tomorrow night, game one of the Eastern conference finals, it will be a wrap between the Boston Celtics and the Miami Heat. I believe the Boston Celtics will hold on to win that series. I think they have too much depth and I know the Heat are going to scratch and claw and battle.

I, I just think the Celtics have the, the advantage here with depth and they have the most dynamic player in the series. And that happens to be Jason Tatum, that much we know. Eric Spolstra talked about this. He said, look, this is different than the game seven and Eastern conference finals we played last year.

Listen to what Spolstra said. Everybody wants to make it the exact same. You know, there's different experiences and there's slightly different personnel and different rotations and slightly different styles of play for, for both teams. That's why you just have to be open-minded to the competition. You know, we're grateful for this opportunity, you know, to be in the conference finals. And, you know, just grateful for everything that we've gone through, you know, that, that it turned out this way and I'm just looking forward to the competition.

Just looking forward to the competition. Eric Spolstra didn't just stop talking about his own series. He talked about someone who is no longer going to be in competition. That's, that's Doc Rivers. Doc Rivers was given the boot and Eric Spolstra had an opinion on that. Take a listen to this.

Right when practice started, staff let me know. And yeah, it's, it's disturbing. Doc's a hall of famer. You know, that's what Andy always says too. Like, you know, you get past the first round, there's going to be some really good teams, great players, great organizations, great coaching staffs. They're going to lose just by the nature of this, this beast. And there's only so many teams that can advance.

It's just a really hard thing to do. Yeah, it's, it's been a, it's been a tough couple of weeks here in the news of, you know, some just really surprising fireings. Yeah, well, Nick Nurse is gone and Boudin Hoser is gone. Monty Williams is gone. Doc Rivers hasn't necessarily had the same type of success as they have recently. We know about his championship with the Celtics. Doc Rivers is gone.

And man, how, how fast things can change. I actually want you to listen. This was Doc Rivers in the pandemic three seasons ago, three years ago, really, at his introductory press conference.

There's no media there because it's social distancing. Listen to Doc Rivers when he was introduced. I just want to say how thrilled I am to be here.

This is a historic organization and historic town that I want to be a part of. I love the pieces here. I love what we have to work with. And with Elton, I am looking forward to turning this into a championship team. Oh, that, that was when Ben Simmons was still there. We see what happened there.

And then you can move that on to James Harden. And so that was three years ago. This is a question asked to Doc Rivers this past Sunday.

Listen to this. Are you planning to be the coach of the team next year? Yeah.

You know, I got, I think I got two years left, so. Given the tenor of what you've been seeing happen in the last two or three days, where coaches of the year, guys with titles. Yeah, no one's safe in our business, you know, and I get that. Yeah, it's, it's, it's nutty. You just pretty much heard similar from Eric Spolstra. It's a wild world out here. 855-2124 CBS. Alan is calling from Toronto.

Go ahead, Alan. Yes, you're absolutely right. Somebody that big, seven, five, probably won't last very long. An example of that is Yao Ming. He was first overall back in 2002, and he only lasted 2011. And he had all kinds of knee and ankle injuries. And look at how many games he missed.

250 games in his entire career. So, you know, I don't, I don't get on cloud nine either with first overall picks. Look at Blake Griffin was one of the first overall picks. Look at Blake Griffin was supposed to be the greatest player of all time in 2009. He's a major disappointment. He's only played one game for the Celtics this year so far. And he's not a major disappointment, but he did not live up to his high event. Well, in the post season, possibly, but he played plenty of games in the regular season. But I understand what you're saying. There is no surefire thing when it comes to the draft.

But when you select someone that high and you look at the physical gifts and tools, that's, that's why it's, it's, it's fun to evaluate. The difference here between Victor Wen Banyama and Yao Ming would probably boil down more so into just, just athleticism and, and body type. Yao Ming was, wasn't fleet of foot. And Yao Ming was also, as he got older, he looked predispositioned to being heavy. Victor Wen Banyama is ridiculously fluid, given his current size. I don't ever see a situation or scenario where he is going to just put on too much weight.

And so the fun part is now we just, we just wait and see. We just got to hold on. And since Carter was supposed to be the greatest player of all time back in 2002, his slam dunks were just out, just out of this world, you know, and he's a star, but not a superstar. He was supposed to be the greatest of all time. Zion Williamson is a major disappointment too.

Look at the hype in his bench. Well, there's, there's a lot of guys, I don't know if I'd go on greatest of all time. We can, thank you Alan for calling from Toronto.

And thank you Alan for calling from Toronto. Yet we can run down the gamut from the past forever as to who is supposed to be the next big thing. And, and we'll actually play this tomorrow.

It's pretty funny. You had DeMar DeRozan sitting down with, uh, uh, man, what was his name, Shep? P, what's his name from the Clippers? Oh, the, uh, the, the, the P, uh, Paul George. Oh, Paul George.

Cause he never plays it. And they're sitting down and they're, they're saying that a lot of players in the NBA don't even care. Like they said, there's about 60 to 75 players in the NBA that just don't care. No, I ain't calling them that. He could call whatever his show is Paul George. There's a bunch of players in the league that just don't care that operate off of their physical talent and ability and are only there because they are tall.

And I mean, what a shock that would be. How many people just get up and show up to work just because they can just get a check. And so it's, it's, it's prevalent everywhere and we'll play that for you tomorrow.

Pretty cool to hear DeMar DeRozan, not someone who typically speaks, you know, talking the truth really, uh, about how lazy a lot of players are. Listen, folks, we're done for tonight. Be back tomorrow, 10 PM Eastern time, 7 PM Pacific. Uh, we'll have an Eastern conference final game to talk about. We're going to bring you a new top six list. Uh, maybe there will be some other news that will break. Maybe Dwight Howard will recruit more people to Taiwan. We'll find out soon enough. You can find me everywhere at JR sport brief, but the JR sport brief show right now on CBS sports radio. It's done, but don't move.

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