JR SportBrief Hour 2

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I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Glad to be broadcasting out to you, yes you. Everybody tuned in and locked in all over North America.

People at work, people at home, people at school, people in the back, people in the front, just people who have it. I don't care. Thank you so much to super producer and host Dave Shepherd holding it down in New York City for us. You can always listen to this show on the free Odyssey app, your local CBS Sports Radio affiliate, Sirius XM channel 158. And if you got a smart speaker, good for you. And thank you to that guy who's listening on the radio who called up last hour on his rugby flip phone. I had to Google that. I used to have a flip phone. It was a Nokia. I had to look up rugby. I think rugby is a Samsung device. However the hell you listening, however you're calling, thank you.

I'm going to be with you for three more hours. Thank you to everybody who was listening into the first hour of the show as we listened to Roger Goodell basically explain away everything. That's what he gets paid the big bucks for. He's leading the biggest and most popular sport here in America, making all the money, getting all the eyeballs, making all the deals, everybody from NBC to Disney, ESPN, Amazon. Everybody wants a piece of the NFL. And so why should they care about the players and their turf and their grass? They're not going to disintegrate on the turf.

No, they won't. NFL is interested in one thing, making money. You might as well ask Roger Goodell how he feels about running backs.

He's going to say, I don't care. He's running backs. They come a dime a dozen. Have you seen college football?

I can pluck them in, get them ready, and then we got the next generation. They don't care all about the money. NBA is no different. Adam Silver had some news today. I'm going to share that with you momentarily as Adam Silver is trying to find a way where the NBA can actually get its stars to show up to work and earn their paycheck.

NBA is going to get ready to punish some teams if they don't make players available. So from one commissioner to the next, I got to share this with you. Last night I told you that he's now former NFL Network analyst Jim Trotter, now part of the athletic. He is suing the NFL for racial discrimination. He says the league isn't living up to hiring practices. He says that he was let go or not renewed. His contract not renewed because he decided to speak up against such. And so Roger Goodell, while he was on his crusade about the NFL and its field conditions across the league, Roger Goodell also answered a question in relation to Jim Trotter, said he has a lot of respect for Jim Trotter, said that his release or not signing him has to do with budget cuts and then said, yes, I am proud of where the league is going when it comes to hiring practices. Take a listen to Roger Goodell on ESPN.

First off, I have a lot of respect for Jim. And, you know, from my standpoint, you understand because you all at this network have been through it. A lot of our media businesses are going through significant changes. Unfortunately, everyone's making business decisions about layoffs and how they're going to go forward because the business is changing so quickly. Those decisions are made by our business people at the NFL media.

I'm confident they make those decisions in the best interest of the NFL. So we dispute, obviously, his claims. He's brought this into a legal forum and we'll deal with them in that legal forum. We are we feel strongly about the progress that we're making. Obviously, we're always going to try to get better. We're not satisfied where we are, but we'll deal with those charges in the court of law.

Is ever that presented to us. So many directions where the conversation could have gone, it could have went into comments made by Gruden. He was certainly asked about alleged racist comments made by Jerry Jones and Pegula from the Buffalo Bills. And he pretty much said that, yeah, the accusations, which is true.

And he says that they just have to be found to be true in a in a court of law. And so we'll see what happens here with with Jim Trotter. I wouldn't be surprised if they came down to a settlement because for all of the progress that the NFL has made when it comes to hiring practices and having representation and ownership groups that there's still more to be done, obviously, in the coaching ranks. But when you have these lawsuits that come out from coaches. From media members who work for the league, it just it's ugly. It comes across as the NFL doesn't care and that they're just involved in the legalities of it.

And from their perspective, they would be almost a 20 billion dollar business. It's just a lot of things in life aren't fair. And this is certainly one of them. We'll see how this this plays out with Jim Trotter. I'll tell you I'll tell you something else that's not fair. Anyone who has ever spent a dollar, a nickel, a penny of their hard earned money to go to an NBA game to find out that their favorite player isn't available. Whether you're traveling three hours or three days, three miles, three days, 30 days and 30 nights to see particular player and then he doesn't show up.

I think at this point in time, you got a lot of NBA fans who are pretty much I think they understanding of the fact that if you buy a ticket more recently, it's been buyer beware. Is your whole squad going to sit down? Is it the playoff time? Is it the end of the season? Are they going to rest, dudes? This has been a problem, not just for the fans, but by the NBA, its partners, its sponsors, its television distributors who now spend billions of dollars to broadcast the games, but may not have the premier talent out there pretty much on the court.

This is almost like the old switcheroo. If I am paying money to see, maybe not this year because they stink, but if I'm paying money to see the New York Yankees and they got the AAA team out there. If I thought I was going to see Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter and they had a Jorge the plumber out there on the field, I wouldn't feel so confident.

I wouldn't be thrilled about what they're putting out there. And that's what the NBA has done for quite a few years. The players make a lot of money.

The owners make a lot of money. The owners want to protect their investment with the players. And the players want to ensure that they're healthy enough throughout the duration of their careers, not for a season, but for the duration of their careers where they can still keep cashing checks. We saw the San Antonio Spurs implement this with older players, and then we started to see other stars across the league feel that they needed a day off. Well, the NBA has recognized this problem and the NBA and its owners actually voted today to implement some new rules to try to protect against players going out there and sitting out.

I'm going to detail to you momentarily what some of the potential punishments could be and then how the NBA actually plans to enforce this. Before that, I want you to take a listen to Adam Silver. This is what he had to say on getting the players to actually go out there and play.

Listen. It's a shared view by everyone in the league. It's not just coming from the league office. I think whether it's our teams, our players association, individual players, I think there's an acknowledgment across the league that we need to return to that principle that this is an 82 game league. And that, of course, doesn't mean that we're turning the clock back, that players are expected to play through injuries or that players, frankly, never need rest. But I think it's there's a statement of a principle that if you're a healthy player in this league, that the expectation is that you're going to play. Well, that's that's nice. Then these new rules that I'm about to detail to you, they're supposed to kick off this upcoming season, which happens to start next month around Halloween.

Now, here's the deal. The new rules when it comes down to rest and there are more intricacies that I'm not going to bore you with here. But this is this is the overall. This rule or these rules are for star players in the NBA. For the purpose of rest, the NBA has determined that anyone who has made an all star team over the past three seasons is considered a star. This will also kind of tie in to guys who will make the all star team maybe for the first time here in 2024.

But we're not there yet. And so if we have to think about who constitutes being a star player in the NBA. That boils down to 50 players across 25 teams. Apologies to the teams that don't have a star yet, but might have one, maybe the Orlando Magic.

They're an emerging team. And so this is 11 percent of the NBA. This is 11 percent of the league out of 450 players.

Boom. 50 players are considered stars. Here's some of the rules. No more than one star player. Can sit out for the same game.

And so this is simple. We can think back. Maybe you saw Tatum and Brown play and ball out for the past few seasons. You can't sit both of these dudes out in the same game. Star players have to be available for nationally televised in the NBA end season tournament games. We know this is going to be the first year that the NBA is pushing the end season tournament. The last thing they need is some ridiculous shenanigans where a team is just deciding to sit.

I don't know. Giannis Atetokounmpo. That won't be going down. Also at the same time, I think more importantly, the games that people are accustomed to sitting down and watching saying, Oh my God, I can't wait to see, bad example, not the Clippers, but I can't wait to see, oh yeah, maybe the Clippers and the Bucks on Thursday. And the Milwaukee Bucks say, yeah, there's no Giannis tonight. He needs to rest. And the Clippers just say, oh yeah, well Kawhi and Paul George are healthy and we're going to sit them both out.

You can't do that. Not at all. The NBA is hedging against long term shutdowns. What's a long term shutdown? Oh my God, this team got eliminated from the postseason and now their star player has an ankle injury. He has a calf, a la Damian Lillard, who didn't play at the end of last season, pretty much in a precursor to getting the hell up on out of Portland.

Here's another little piece to this. Players who are resting have to be present. You can't be hanging out in the hotel. You can't stay on the road or stay back at home. You have to be visible for the fans to see you in the arena and I guess acknowledge that, oh my God, this guy actually cares about his job.

That that's the overarching element. And so how is the NBA going to look to enforce this? Well, it's simple via punishment, via a fine system.

One hundred thousand dollars for the first offense, a quarter million dollars for a second offense and one million dollars on top of that for each additional fine. And the NBA will look to enforce this by looking at medicals. Yes, the NBA will plan to look at medicals and utilize research to determine whether or not XYZ player would have been capable of playing. Do I think we are going to move into a space where said player will say my back hurts and no one will be able to justify it?

I don't know. What I'm positive, what I feel good about isn't so much that the NBA wants to enforce this or feels that fines will enforce this. I think the NBA has the next generation of stars who want to play. Jason Tatum has made it clear he feels it an obligation to go out and play basketball, whether he's at home or away for the people who invest their money, who buy his shoes, who buy a ticket to see him. He finds it robbery to not go out there and put on a show. Anthony Edwards has spoken up already and his star continues to rise. Anthony Edwards has made it clear. Man, I think it sucks when you got dudes who are trying to sit down and rest and they don't want to play when they're capable of doing so. And so when you have that type of attitude, it fosters competitiveness.

It does the opposite from what we saw 10 and 15 years ago. Oh, my God, the San Antonio Spurs are sitting down and San Antonio Spurs, them old players, they need rest. Well, I'm a star. I need rest, too. It's almost a matter of I see this guy doing it.

I'm going to do it, too. And so if we have more players who are pushing the limits of I need to go out there and bust ass, I think we're going to move into an era where, hopefully, along with the NBA and its rules, that the players push each other to play so they're not viewed as as weak. So they're not viewed as, oh, my God, I'm not capable of toughing things through. They still make a lot of money. I don't think it's so much always about the money.

It is. But it's about the competitiveness. And I hope guys like Jason Tatum and Anthony Edwards can help drive things home so we can actually have players who can play who are out there on the court. There are also some smaller intricacies, you know, players who are older, 35 and older, they can have a waiver sent over to the NBA in the case of back to backs. But look, send these dudes out there, get them on the court and make sure that the fans who are paying their hard earned cash can get their damn money's worth. I think that's most important. Shout outs to Anthony Edwards, shout outs to Jason Tatum. I think they're helping to lead that more so than the league could do. 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4CBS. I'm going to get to your calls on the other side of the break. Do you think these rules are going to get the players out on the court some more? I'll get your thoughts. We know this is Wednesday night. In about 45 minutes I'm going to deliver to you a new top 6 list. We're going to look at some of the biggest and best returns from injury that sports has ever seen.

We got a lot to do. It's the JR Sport Brief show here on CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. I appreciate you being the show for the people. I stumbled on your show one night and I've been listening to it for about two months now.

I draw a trust at night and I appreciate that. Call in now at 855-212-4CBS. It's the JR Sport Brief show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. Earlier today Adam Silver had a press conference following the NBA owners meetings in Manhattan and New York City. And the NBA owners pretty much agreed on some new rules that will be implemented starting this upcoming season when it comes down to players in rest. Star players who happen to be considered stars, guys who have been to at least one all-star game over the past three seasons. There's 50 of those players. And so the NBA now has rules in place where if you have more than one star on your team, two of them can't sit out in the same game. Stars have to be available for national TV and tournament games. There can be no long-term shutdowns.

It's the end of the season. We're going to shut you down or you're not going to play. And yes, there's caveats and carve-outs here for some of the older players. The NBA is going to institute financial punishments and fines for teams who have found to jump over the rules or disregard them. And the NBA is going to look into their own separate medical reports when it comes down to the players if need be, if they find out that, hey, this needs to be investigated, that XYZ player did not play.

I think it will help. I don't know if we're going to see some massive fines thrown out there and some massive punishments. I don't think that will be the case. But overall, I think the players are going to be the ones who drive this. Guys like Anthony Edwards, Mikel Bridges, Stars, Jason Tatum, who just always make it clear, they want to play. And they're not a fan of this sitting out nonsense. Do you think this is going to work? I think it will help, but I think the players are going to drive it much more.

The young stars are going to drive this much more than the NBA. 855-212-4CBS, 855-212-4CBS. Ramon is calling from Indianapolis. You're on the JR Sport Brief Show. Hey, JR. How you doing? Good. Go ahead. Appreciate you. Great, great, great points here. I haven't been to an NBA game in years, a couple of years.

That ticket was given to me by a doctor's group that went to the hospital. Ramon, you sound very distant. Are you on speakerphone? I'm going to change it.

I'm going to change it, right? Yeah. I haven't been to an NBA game in a few years, and that ticket was given to me by a doctor's group that works at a hospital.

So, face value on it was pretty high, Indiana Pacers ticket. So, they need to play. I don't understand why they think that they can work and don't get paid for not working.

They have to work. Look what happened with the Clippers. Paul George Kawhi has sat out, sat out, sat out, and been given all this rest, and they still haven't been healthy at all the last four years. So, Tom Glavin said years ago in the baseball realm that the reason why the pitchers aren't having more problems is because they don't throw enough. They don't throw enough long, because he grew up throwing a lot.

You know, John Smoltz, John Smoltz threw a lot back in the day. And so, they need to play. Playing helps, especially in younger ages, helps build those muscles, get those bones strong and stuff like that. So, they need to play, and we don't want to see people not playing. So, I think the players will drive it.

I hope they will drive it. If you're legitimately injured or hurt, I'm sure Adam Silver is not going to override a reputable doctor or nothing like that. But they got to get out there and give the product out there.

You cannot work and get paid anywhere in the country. A good part of that, and thank you Ramon for calling from Indianapolis, it doesn't just, and it hasn't just fallen on the players. The owners and management have as much to do with this as the players, because they're the ones who are writing the checks. And so, I don't know if it's equivalent to saying, you know what, if you want to make your money, you got to go out there and play.

This isn't working at the post office, this isn't working at the restaurant, the bar, the office, the factory, whatever the case might be. It's not the same. And so, we can't compare it. You know, the fact of the matter is, when you're getting these gigantic paychecks, and you got players who are now making 50 plus million dollars a year, we've now approached the realm of 60 million dollars a year. You have someone like Brown, Jalen Brown, he's now in the space of making 300 plus million dollars a year. And I'm not saying this specifically to the Celtics, but the approach is, okay, yeah, if he ain't feeling it or he need a day, we gonna give it to him.

Why? Because we have guaranteed a whole hell of a lot of money to him, and we want to get what we can out of our investment. And so, it's not just on the players to say, well, I need a day, I'm taking a day. A lot of the owners, a lot of management has taken the approach of, we got to be careful with this dude. 855-212-4CBS, Rick is here from Toronto.

Thank you for taking my call again. Basically, I think this is a smokescreen, basically, for people like Bob Iger at Disney and both, and David Zaslow at Warner Brothers Discovery, basically trying to end their contract, and they had to do something because they're having financial problems in their mind, and what happened was Adam Silver, whose contract is going to end in 2024, the 12 of the contract ends 2024-25, and they had to try to do something about that. And I think he wanted to do this because he wanted to save the league in this case, and that's why they did that. And the second question I want to ask about Roger Goodell.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. You didn't ask a first question. The problem is I'm asking you do not believe that the television executives at Warner Brothers Discovery and Disney were trying to do something because the ratings were going down, and that's why they did that. The second part of the question is about Roger Goodell. No, no, no.

Let me slow down, Rick. Let me respond to the first part of it. It has less so much to do with the ratings.

Here, listen to this. Professional sports, and I referenced this in the first part of the show when it comes down to Roger Goodell, the popularity of the NFL. Sports here in North America is one of the last things that is appointment viewing and actually has value here to sit down and watch. I made it very clear in the points that I made that stars, this is the NBA's rule, there's a reason for this. Stars have to be available for nationally televised and tournament games. And I mentioned this last segment in the last break that a big part of that is the premier games that people tune in to watch for the most part happen to be the TNT games. So whether you want to sound smarter than everybody and call it Warner Discovery or whether you want to go into Disney and Bob Iger instead of saying ESPN or ABC, the fact of the matter is yes. When you're paying billions of dollars for games, you want to see the best talent out there on the court.

That's what you're paying for. What is your second question? About Roger Goodell, I think basically for the spirit of George Preston Marshall, what he's doing with the Jim Carter thing is basically Jimmy Jones and Terry Baku are basically apologizing to George Preston Jones. They believe in Jim Crow laws and that's why I think that's what's happening with the NFL. That's the truth about the NFL. They are against African Americans.

Okay, thank you very much for your time and good night. Okay, you had two questions for me and you didn't have a second question for me there either. You said the NFL is basically under Jim Crow. Now look, there's a lot of people who would certainly believe that. There's a lot of people who think that is certainly the case. There's no denying that if you want to take a look at just structurally here in the United States of America, laws that have existed that still kind of permeate into society today, that that is true. A lot of people still argue that point, unfortunately. But if you want to go ahead and make that statement today and draw that direct correlation, then knock yourself out.

That's a conversation that I could sit here and have for a whole week and people would still not necessarily understand, agree, or want to hear it. 855-2124 CBS, Ray is here from Charleston, South Carolina. You're on the JR Sport Brief Show. Hey JR, just a quick analysis and maybe an answer to it. I'm paying the salary as a fan, so if I'm not seeing a star player, why aren't my ticket getting cut a certain percentage? Base things off a percentage.

It's in their contract, they get guaranteed money if they're injured, and I get that and that's fine, but that could drop down. Make it so the fan gets a fair shake at season ticket holder. That's all I got. Thank you.

Thank you, Ray, for calling from Charleston. Ain't nobody making you buy a ticket now. Nobody. And it's been quite some time since I've bought a ticket or had to look at a ticket, but I'm sure it most certainly comes with fine print. Hey, yeah, this is what you paying for. There ain't no guarantees that this is going to happen.

And if that were the case, I think the NBA would have been giving away a lot of money back to the fans. Chris is calling from California. You're on CBS Sports Radio. Well, how are you doing? Very good.

What's up? I just wanted to comment on your monologue. You're talking about again about the commissioners, both on today. I thought Adam Silver was doing his job pretty much. And I also noted, and I'm cool with it, put in basically a broad role.

You know, guys, 35 or older who have done so much, played so many games, you know, so many playoff games. You know, rules going to be a little less stringent on that. And I'm cool with that, you know, kind of like the Joker blows into town once a year, you know, and I'll pay for a ticket.

I want to see the joke. So I'm fine with everything that Silver laid out. Goodell, on the other hand, you know, gambling as you came up with the world Supreme Court legalized it.

So, you know, I immediately adopted. And so when the players gamble, you're immediately suspended for one year while I make, you know, $100 million a year of it. And, you know, I mean, come on. Injuries, Tua, last year. The guy who was interviewing him asked him about Tua, you know, bouncing off the ground three times on his head. He got up and then came back in the game. He said, well, hey, I'm not a doctor.

You know, doctors make these decisions. Come on, Rods. Go back to the pad in Clarksville and have yourself a good night, man. Great show, JR. And I love your colors.

They're the best I've ever heard. Well, that's you, Chris. I appreciate you being a part of that. Mike is calling from Michigan. You're on CBS Sports Radio. Hey, good evening, sir. And thanks for taking the call.

My whole position on, you know, the low management is simply this. You know, most of the games are advertised ahead of time and you have to pull the ticket, pull the trigger on those purchases ahead of time in their premium games. You know, it's always come see LeBron James and the Lakers is not saying come see the seventh guy, eighth guy, ninth guy on the bench and the Lakers.

And when I'm in Michigan, so we're East Coast. So that means they're going to make a swing to my side of the world once or twice. You only got one time to see those players and you take your grandkids, your kids to these games only to find out they're sitting on the bench looking healthy to us. But they're not playing. It's almost like my dad used to say, would you buy a ticket to go see Michael Jackson in the end of Jackson five only to find out that Tito's going to be singing all the songs?

Mike just sitting up on the stage. You wouldn't do it, you know, so you've already pulled and pulled a purchase on those tickets. It's like a bait and switch, right? And I have no problem with gay gay games being taken off is just to find a home game stretch for your team to take those games off. But when you're making that one time trip to the East Coast or my guys, the Pistons making a one time trip to the West Coast, you know, in our heyday, everybody wanted to see the bad boys. But if Isaiah sat out every time he went out to go see the Lakers, you know, you're taking the product.

I just think it's just a, you know, just a disrespect to the consumer because, you know, we're sacrificing dollars. Like you say, you got a choice to buy the ticket or not to buy the ticket, but you're buying the ticket, you know, under the faith that they're going to play the game only to find out we're going to play against the 76ers. But the next night we're playing the Pistons.

We got to take a rest because I can't do back to back. This is, this is what the, the NBA, and this is what Adam Silver and thank you Mike for calling from Michigan. The owners, the players, the Players Association, him.

This is what they all agree needs to change. And so let's see if that takes place, because it hasn't been fair to the fans 855-212-4CBS, that's 855-212-4CBS. On the other side of the break, I'm going to get some more of your calls. I'm going to inform you of someone who actually showed up to work today for the Kansas City Chiefs.

And then at the top of the hour, it's going to be time for a new top six list as we take a look at some of the best injury returns that the sports world has seen. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. What's up, JR, man? I listen to your show every night, man. I tell you what, you miss your calling, bro. You miss your calling as a comedian. You are a funny dude, man. I don't mean that in no disrespect, but you are truly funny. Call in now at 855-212-4CBS.

Well, thank you for what I'm about to share with you and ain't a damn thing funny about it. It's injuries. Max Scherzer hurt again at the end of the season. Dodger fans might know and understand this. New York Mets fans might know and understand this.

And now Rangers fans know and understand this. He had the, well, earlier this week, he had the exit of the game about the sixth inning. Couldn't throw the ball anymore.

He's out for the season, the regular season with a strained arm. Texas Rangers acquired this dude from the New York Mets. He opted into his contract as a part of the conditions for the trade.

New York Mets are paying for half of it, but come on. Again, he's just old now at this point. When he pitches, he's great. His ERA right now is 3.77. It's not like when he was with the Detroit Tigers, but they said it's unlikely, or it is likely, that he won't pitch in the postseason either. Like, you can't count on Max Scherzer throughout the course of a year anymore.

Those days have been over. And you want to talk about someone else dealing with an injury? We know Shohei Ohtani. He tore the UCL in his arm last month. He hasn't pitched since then, but he's also missed the past 10 games with an oblique issue, an oblique strain from batting practice. And so Shohei Ohtani, he's been out of action for more than a week now as the Angels just continue to lose.

What else is new? They were losing before the trade deadline. They made all these trades. They were losing after. They've lost Shohei Ohtani. Mike Trout, you hear the rumors now that maybe, just maybe, if he wants to go away from the team, that they'll get rid of him as well. And the Angels lost today to the Mariners 3-2.

Congratulations to someone who actually won today, the Atlanta Braves, beating the Phillies to lock up their sixth consecutive National League East title. And then I also told you this is good news for fans of the Kansas City Chiefs, that their defensive tackle decided to show up to work. And he spoke to the media for the first time today. That's Chris Jones. He was asked specifically, now that you got this new contract, it's full of incentives. Do you regret holding out, not showing up to training camp, missing the first game of the season?

This is what Chris Jones had to say. I'll probably change some things. You know, when you have a lot of new guys, it's kind of tough to be away, especially in the D-line room. Building their chemistry is important to be successful as a group. But, you know, those are decisions you have to live with. I wouldn't probably change it, but I'm grateful for how it turned out.

Okay. Well, we saw how it turned out for the Kansas City Chiefs on the field. They got smacked around by the Lions. Lions walked away with that victory.

Thank you, Kadarius Toney. And so we have to see what they do against the Jacksonville Jaguars. That should be a fun matchup. And let's see if Chris Jones gets his hands ultimately on Trevor Lawrence. 855-212-4CBS. Let's get to your calls. At the top of the hour, I'm going to share with you a new top six list. Some of the best injury returns that the sports world has ever been witness to.

But let's go to Steven in Toronto. You're on the JR Sport Brief Show. Hey, JR. How's my sound? Is this okay? Yeah, you sound good, man.

What's up? Okay, so the NBA rules. Okay, I'll be fully transparent. I'm not an NBA huge fan, but I'm a sports guy. So I understand the consumer's argument. I think it's a little bit weak. Like, sorry.

What's your stance on this? Because I missed your beginning. That's my question. And my my comment is my go ahead. I detailed it for 10 minutes.

What's your question? And then I maybe I can give you a response. So my question is, what's your stance? My comment is as a consumer, I'm in it for the sports team on the long haul.

So, for instance, I'm an Eagles fan. So if Jalen Hurts isn't going to be on the field that day because they need to rest them. You know, let's say they don't make the playoffs. I'm in it for the long term. I want to see them rest him. They're not going to make it all good.

Let's save them for next year. That's my perspective, my comment. My question was just what side of the stance are you on?

And if you have any feedback to my comment. Well, I think every scenario and situation is different. The NBA is different from the NFL in the fact of on a game to game basis, especially when it comes down to winning or losing. There's typically going to be one or two players who are really being the driver for that.

You know, one of our callers mentioned this specifically. If I am going to see a Los Angeles Lakers game, you know, I ain't necessarily buying the ticket because I'm a huge Austin Reeves fan. For the most part, people are showing up because they want to wear their number 23 to the game. And so whether you want to wear a LeBron James jersey and 23 or six, whatever the hell number he's wearing, or you want to see Damian Lillard and whatever jersey he's wearing or Giannis or what may have you. The NBA is based solely and marketed for its stars. And so, yes, they're going to be circumstances where a player needs to rest for a particular reason. But the NBA has had too much of that taking place over the past, I would say, decade and change. A lot of it is driven or started with the San Antonio Spurs. Monkey see, monkey do. Those old stars are resting.

I'm a star I need to rest to. We certainly see the investment from the teams into the players. They want to make sure that they get bang for their buck in the long run. And the players want to be able to make money for as long as possible because the money is exploding. And so the NBA has made it very clear that we need to address this issue. And it's going on a whole hell of a lot more than, hey, we need to rest this dude for the long term when you got guys who are just sitting out because they can. It's yeah, it's it's always going to be a business decision. I'm a long term perspective guy and I just I don't know, like if a guy can play, sure, let him play. But if you need to rest them, rest them for the next year. Like, I don't know. It's it's so up in the air. It's tough to say rest them for the for the next year.

That's why I say each sport is different. If you got a quarterback who's been running around on a bum shoulder trying to get his team into the postseason and now they are eliminated. Oh, yeah.

That makes all the sense in the world to say, hey, man, sit down. If you're an NBA team like the Portland Trail Blazers and now you can no longer go out and make the postseason. But you're going to shut Damian Lillard down for the next 10 games. Man, that that's not necessarily the same. And I think that sucks for the fans. It sucks for everybody involved.

And I think that's the type of garbage that the NBA is trying to cut down on and avoid. OK, fair point. Yeah.

As long as the radio station doesn't cut you out or cut you down because you need a rest. I'm happy. Well, thank you, Steve. Hey, look, if I can work and hang out, then I'll be here.

OK. All right. Cheers, brother. I thank you, Steve, for calling from Toronto. Shout outs to all my folks in Toronto hanging out on Yonge Street. Greg from Michigan. You got to go fast. Greg, what's up?

Hey, Mr. Positive. Hey, playing devil's advocate real quick. The objective is to win the championship in the NBA. Are we selfish to say that the players should play for us as opposed to piggybacking off of what the gentleman just said? Are we selfish to think that players should play for the fans? But isn't our objective ultimately to win the national championship? And do we have the right to tell the coach and the basketball player to say, hey, we really can't play, but we're going to play the LeBron James because the fans want to see him? Are we selfish, my friend? No, I think if you're going to take the money, then I think you should at least be respectful for where the money is coming from. And in a lot of cases, the NBA players, their first objective isn't so much to play for the fans.

It's to play for their own pockets and while it's first. Greg, I appreciate you for calling from Michigan, my man. Love you. Bye.

Love you back. Thank you, Greg. This is the JR Sport Reshow here on CBS Sports Radio and we come back on the other side. It's a top six list.

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