JR Sport Brief Hour 3

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You're listening to the J.R. Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. Coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to everybody tuned in and locked in all over North America. We have had callers so far tonight from San Diego, Nova Scotia, Atlanta, Georgia, New Hampshire, and a bunch of other places that I can't remember off the top of my head right now because I've talked to so many damn people. I get started every week night at 10 p.m. Eastern, 7 Pacific. Thank you to our producer doing an excellent job tonight holding it down.

Andrew Scarpaccio. You can listen to the show if you missed a minute on the free Odyssey app. You can hit rewind. You can hit pause. Thank you to everybody listening live on their local CBS Sports Radio affiliate. So whether you're tuned in on the ticket, the score, the loop, the game, I don't know what the hell your local station is called.

I could roll through them all, but that'd take quite some time. I'll be here for a minute. Just thank you for listening. It's really that damn simple. You can also listen on Sirius XM channel 158, and if you got a smart speaker, if you're, and what is that stupid thing?

Siri, Alexa, whatever the heck it is, you can just ask it to play CBS Sports Radio. I'll be hanging out with you for two more hours. Tom flies when you're having fun. We've had an opportunity to talk about the return of Ja Morant tonight. This man comes back and the Grizzlies beat New Orleans 115 to 113. Ja Morant drops 34 points in his return, and he also scores of a game-winning layup, darting and driving to the basket like the crazy athlete that he is. Pretty amazing to see him return after 25 games, that 25 game suspension that pretty much ran into last year. So hopefully he has learned his lesson. I will say it again.

Hopefully he has learned his lesson. Also tonight, not just the return of Ja Morant. Last hour we talked about Kaitlyn Clark and Angel Reese being named the Sporting News Athletes of the Year. A pretty cool conversation there, especially when you think about the impact that they've had on women's basketball.

Not just on the college ranks, but potentially the impact that they could have in the WNBA. Pretty remarkable what they've done this year. We talked about Tommy DeVito and his little pizza debacle. Looks like his agent maybe tried to jump up the cost to book him.

Maybe reneged on the price and now Tommy DeVito feeling a little bit of heat. He ultimately showed up to the place for free, and I know he just probably wants to focus in on football, and football only. We had an opportunity and chance to talk about Kalen DeBoer coming out of Washington. This man is now the AP Coach of the Year for college football. And as we continue on, I want to get more into the NFL.

We'll talk about the best team not in the NFC, or the best team in the NFC not named the 49ers. I'll give you a couple of entry updates when it comes to CJ Strout and Jamar Chase. And so we got a whole lot more to do over the next two hours. We do have a whole lot of folks who have been waiting patiently on the phone lines, and so I want to make sure that we go ahead and get them in before we continue on. If you want to talk to me, it's 855-212-4CBS.

It's 855-212-4CBS. I want to remind you as well folks, listen to me very carefully. I ain't going to be here next week, okay? I ain't going to be here on Friday. If you want to talk to me, you got something on your chest, on your heart, on your soul that you've been wanting to say to me, you better do it tonight, and tomorrow, or Thursday. You got three days to do it.

Two and a half days, so get with it. Let's go to Chad. Chad is calling from Charlotte. You're on CBS Sports Radio. What's up Chad?

Hey Chad, you're live on the radio. What's up? Hey, what's going on man? Can you hear me? Yeah, what happened? What happened to your phone? I don't know.

Every time I try to call you, something happens, man. I don't know. Last time I talked to you, you told me I sounded like I was in a Fiat. A Fiat?

Nah, I wouldn't say Fiat. I probably said something more insulting, but go ahead. Probably, but it's okay. Listen, I got a quick question. I just want to get your thoughts on it. I heard Shaq say something one night that caught my interest.

I don't know how long ago it's been since I've heard it, but I did hear it. He said the way to fix women's basketball, and I don't necessarily think it's fixing, but maybe to help it out a little bit more, to get it more noticeable. He said they have the passing, they have the shooting, now just lower the rim a little bit and let them have the dunking too, and it'll make it more... Interesting, entertaining, pickleball anyone.

Yeah, more entertaining. Yeah, I remember Shaq said that a few years ago, and I remember Candace Parker pretty much taking a big dump on him for saying that. And what a surprise, right, that Shaquille O'Neal would be the dude to say that they should lower the rim so we see more dunks. I think it's cool that we've seen a natural evolution in the women's game.

I mean, let's be real. In the NBA, it's taken decades. It took decades for us to see a natural evolution of the game. Whether it's the banning of the dunk at the college level or going into the NBA, I think it's good to see a natural evolution of the WNBA. There was a point in time where you wouldn't see a woman dunk. Now it ain't all that out of the ordinary. And so I think it's good to see the game evolve by itself without having to adjust it. I mean, the basketball that they play with is smaller.

What else do we need? Let them ball out. Right. I don't necessarily think it's taking a shot at the women's league by lowering the rim. I don't have a problem with women's basketball at all. I actually watch it.

Me and my kids watch it. But yeah, man, that's all I have. I do have one other thing, man. You are the only person that I know that can tell someone to shut up and they apologize to you, J.R. You've got a God gifted talent, my man, and you are amazing. Love listening to you. Enjoy the holidays, my man. You as well, Chad.

Thank you for calling from Charlotte. Yeah, it's just it's that's called respect. That's all that is.

And most, if I'm telling somebody to shut up, then you really you really going out on the deep end, man. You really are. 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 CBS says 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 CBS. Let's go to Chicago. And I think this is my my main man, the Uber driver. It's Daniel. Hey, Daniel, you're on CBS Sports Radio. What's up? Hey, J.R., how are you? I'm amazing.

How are you this evening? The guy that just talked to me now, what he said, he said you're a man of respect. What did I say? I said you're a man of respect, right?

Oh, I got to put that on the T-shirt and I'm gonna walk around with it all day. I told you you're a man of respect. You're a man of integrity, too. Yeah, thanks. I appreciate it.

And except for when I'm like punching old ladies or pushing them across the street. Thank you. Yes.

Yeah. The only question I got for you is that what do you think the Chicago Bears need to do with number one? Well, assuming that they get number one and assuming that they also keep number five there and end up with both of them, I'm in the I'm in the camp of, hey, move on from Justin Fields.

That's just me. I think you let him go ahead and succeed somewhere else. I think you go ahead and restart the clock because if you keep Fields, the next thing you're going to have to do is pay him. You're going to have to start paying him probably in the amount of 40 million dollars a year. I'd rather go ahead and grab the picks.

If you think there is a similar talent between like him and Caleb Williams or maybe not similar talent, but if you think you can get the same results in a few years and get it cheaper while filling out the roster, I think you go ahead and do that. Well, OK. All right. Did I answer your question?

You sound disappointed. Yeah. Yeah. You asked my question, but it's like I like I like I like Justin. Yeah. Well, I like him, too.

I think it's a smart move for everybody to move on from each other. But what do I know? I'm just sitting here making educated thoughts. OK. And you're safe out there. That's right. Thank you, Dan.

Thank you. I don't know what happened. Daniel's always so talkative.

Sometimes he has his passengers sitting in the back of the Uber. I don't know what the hell's going on. Hey, let's go to Steve from Oregon.

Your CBS Sports radio. What's up, Steve? Hey, I got it.

I got to say what the other caller said, that anybody that can cap that can captivate retain an audience of millions just by talking to a microphone for four hours is amazing. But you, sir, are very good at what you do. Very good. Well, thank you.

You're welcome. Hey, what part of Oregon are you calling from? I called last week. Remember where I was talking about the glittering town of Philadelphia and why why they're getting all the stars while they don't come out here?

I'm not going there tonight. Yeah, you crapped on the city of Philadelphia. I remember you. I remember you.

It was it was nice. I like when cities beef. You're so far away from Philly. You can say it. But I remember you.

Yes, but it's thousands of miles from San Francisco. But I'm still saying it. But anyway, I'm going to sound like an old man on a line here. But first of all, the NBA knows when to stand tall when it counts. Morant can't run into a locker room with firearms. Draymond Green can't be choking people.

But I don't know how far back you go. But in the 70s and 80s, I remember when players were rarely suspended for any reason. You know, you didn't have that weird scuffle between Green and LeBron James in the 2016 finals where that that ejection spoiled an evening.

It is spoiled. It spoiled the finals. Players threw punches.

There was no such thing as a flagrant foul. Referees were thick skinned. They took a ton of abuse, but they maintain complete control. Just seems like everybody is overly sensitive. And well, and wouldn't you wouldn't you say that it is a from a fan and a consumer perspective? Wouldn't you say it's a good thing that the NBA has matured over the past, let's say, 35 to 40 years?

Yeah, yeah, no, no, no, I have. But it's little things like a player that stands over a fallen opponent in defiance, throws up his hands, mutters an obscenity that only a few people can hear, and then they get tossed out or they get attacked. Oh, yeah, I agree. That's that's that's where it's going.

And, you know, look, I totally agree. The league has to stand up. People have changed. Times have changed. But at the same time, they're going the pendulum is going way too far.

I don't think so. I think what happens is I'm glad you use the example of a pendulum. It swings back and forth. It's it's all about it's all about balance. It's going to swing one way and then it's going to swing the other way. And it never stays right there in the middle.

And so I agree with you. And I don't know where the hell he went. Maybe he got to call me from one of them track phones. I don't know what happened. But the fact is the NBA right now. Yeah. Come on. Dylan Brooks got ejected the other night.

And I have to say to myself, I don't particularly care for Dylan Brooks and all of his personality and all this other nonsense that he does. But the man got shoved in the back. I forgot who won the Bucks. Middleton shoved them in the back and the referee looked at Middleton and said, hey, man, you flopping. And he's like, what are you talking about? I just got shoved in the back. And so, yeah, I saw Tim Hardaway Jr. go up for a dunk the other day and they called a tech on him for hanging on a rim for too long.

I'm like, what are we doing here? It wasn't one of them Shaq hang on the rims from 30 years ago. And yes, sometimes the referees, they doing a little too much. Nikolai Jokic got thrown out of a game.

He's like, why am I getting thrown out? And so I think sooner than later, we'll get a correction. I'm not overly concerned that everybody is way too sensitive. But yes, right now, they're making a lot of calls. And I think as we get further into the season, I don't know if we'll see the same stupidity because everybody gets graded. And I think, yeah, we went from a day where the referees would curse right back at the players.

And now the referee's just throwing up teas. 855-212-4CBS, 855-212-4CBS. Mike is here from Cleveland, Ohio.

You're on the JR Sport Brief Show. Hey, just one thing to correct the record. In 2016, after Draymond got kicked out, Braun still did get the block in Game 7. And Kyrie dotted that I.

And Kevin Love got the stop on Steph Curry. So all that happened, OK? Just so we correct the record about softness. Hold on, hold on, Mike. Oh my God. Sheesh. Like, Mike, we know who won the championship. Correct? What, you represent the whole city of Cleveland?

Here's a simple answer. Draymond Green is an ass. He cost his team a championship. And Cleveland won. We know what happened.

We know what happened. I mean, sheesh, let's slow down. Is that OK, Mike?

Is that all right? Oh my God. Goodbye, Mike. Sheesh. Mike, who doesn't love Mike?

Damn. Let's ask our producer, Andrew. Hey, Andrew, who doesn't love this guy? Somebody doesn't love him. Do you know who?

I have no idea. He was still going that whole time where you were talking. Yeah, let's see if he's still going. I didn't hang up on him.

You still going? Yeah. Oh, well, you see, he slowed down a little bit, Andrew.

He slowed down just a little bit. I mean, sheesh. He's like the townsman for Cleveland, Ohio. Man, they won the championship.

Like, who's arguing? He came over here throwing darts. Damn. What a rough day this guy's had. Barry from Boston, you're on CBS Sports Radio. What's up, Barry? Yeah, how are you, brother? I'm excellent. How are you? Good. So before I get to sports, I just want to say Merry Christmas and Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Hanukkah, and whatever else you celebrate. Neither.

I think about one of the three for Christmas, but thank you. OK, so to the other caller's point, I was going to talk about something a little more boring, but to the other caller's point about how things have changed so much in the NBA, in the NFL, you know, Tom Brady and every quarterback couldn't be touched anymore. It's so much different than the 70s and 80s. Well, hockey, for instance, I'm a hockey guy, number one. And all the sports have changed, and I think change is good. But hockey tried to implement no more fighting. And what happened to the ratings when there was no more fighting in hockey?

Can you tell me? Man, I don't know. As long as I look, these dudes are still punching each other in the face. So for a small period, let's say five years, they said zero fighting. And, you know, guys are literally getting tossed, not just getting sent to the penalty box and in the ratings plummeted. So so they said, OK, let's bring it back to how it was in the 70s and 80s.

Let's bring it back to like real hockey where it's competitive, you know. So I agree with that other guy that was calling from Oregon. I've never been Oregon, but I completely agree with him. Are you a hippie? Yeah, I am.

Yeah. Maybe I will go to Oregon. But I like it out there, too.

I'm half. You need you need you need competitiveness in any sport. I don't keep you playing basketball, playing soccer, football, hockey, baseball, it doesn't matter. Competitiveness and the fight.

And I don't necessarily mean, you know, like a barbaric third world country where you're just fighting each other because that's silly, obviously. But the competitiveness of hockey and basketball and football is what makes people watch the sport. OK. No.

Yeah, it's true. I don't watch no damn blowouts. Hey, Barry, thank you for calling from Boston, man. You take it, brother. I'll talk to you next year. Yeah.

No, damn. He's like, I ain't talking to you the rest of this year. OK, fine. And next year. Well, that'll only be two weeks from now, so that'll be fine.

Eight five five two one two four CBS. I agree with him, though, like change is good. A lot of people can't deal with change. Like, I don't like the changes in baseball, but I understand them.

I deal with it. I could have addressed and probably propose additional changes in baseball. Like how they market their players. But hey, I'm not sitting up in the CMO's office. I could tell you what changes.

I don't know is good. All these changes in the NFL. Like you can't even tackle a dude in the league anymore.

You know, I touched on this last night while we were having all these these technical issues, but there's like a real issue. If you want to talk about something that's really going to change, it's going to be football. Like we've seen rule changes. We've seen the league get sued. We've seen the NFL have to shell out money due to concussions. This is the NFL doesn't look like what it looked like.

I don't know. 20 years ago, 40 years ago, 50 years ago, 60 years ago, the NFL has been around for 100 years. They don't look the way it did a century ago. And what is it going to look like in another 20 years? It's not going to look how it looks today.

The game that I'm watching now doesn't look like the game I watched growing up. We're going to talk about that more on the other side. I'm going to get some more of your calls. 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4CBS. This is an interesting game right now. The Golden State Warriors and the Boston Celtics are trying to win.

121 all. Get some more of your calls on the other side on CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the J.R. Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the J.R. Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. Hey, J.R., thanks for taking my call. You have a great show.

I listen to you on my midnight shift every night. Call in now at 855-212-4CBS. It is the J.R.

Sport Brief Show on CBS Sports Radio. And this portion of the show is brought to you by Wesley Financial. Are you stuck in a timeshare and want out?

You can contact Wesley Financial Group now and you can get a free timeshare exit information kit at wesleyfinancialgroup.com. See, the Golden State Warriors and the Boston Celtics are in overtime right now. Oh, well, damn, I don't know who the hell blocked Andrew Wiggins, but he blocked the hell out of that guy.

125 to 121. Golden State Warriors leading the Boston Celtics. About two minutes left in overtime as Klay Thompson misses a three. Anyway, we got a lot of callers here and then I want to talk about how the NFL is changing and maybe not for the better.

855-212-4CBS. Let's go ahead and talk to Mark from Sacramento. You're on the J.R. Sport Brief Show. What's up, Mark? Hey, hey, hey. Well, I'm glad to hear that my Warriors are up by four.

I'm driving home from a basketball game I just officiated. I know high school has nothing to do with the NBA, not even the same stratosphere. But I think people lose perspective. If you watch any of the 80s or the 70s clips of basketball, you had two referees running down the center of the court.

They all seem to be about 80 years old. You think, you talk about calls being missed back then. It's not even the same as it is now, this amount of training that these guys go to.

And I want to talk about the technicals real quick. So at the end of the day, I know they're making a lot of money, the referees, and there's good ones, there's bad ones. But man, you can't take out the human emotion of it when you're just on the court, the things that they're being said and the things they're being called. I don't know why we're taking the pressure away from the players to adjust versus putting it on the officials. I think that's the big issue that I have.

I think it's on both. And I don't think it matters what sport it is. I mean, everybody, I think it's readily acknowledged that everybody's a human. Unfortunately, we got social media where a bunch of idiots can run around and scream whatever's on their mind. I think it's this, and this is my approach when it comes down to officiating.

They're human beings too. And when you sit down and you play a game, I don't care if it's the NFL or the NBA or hockey or what have you, Major League Baseball, yeah, you can have a crooked umpire, what the case might be. But you got nine innings to do some damage, right? You got 48 minutes to do damage. You got 60 minutes to do damage. It doesn't just boil down to that one play, that one call. I know it's real easy to look at what took place with New Orleans and the Rams and go, oh man, well the refs blew it. Well, what about the other? I don't know.

59 minutes and 59 seconds. And so that's my opinion in sports and that's my ideology in life. You can always look at what somebody else is doing.

What the hell did you do with what you had control over? So that's my own personal feelings when it comes down to sports. Now having said that, everybody can do better. And you do have a lot of referees and God bless you for what you do. I'm sure it's not easy. You said you ref high school basketball? Yeah, high school basketball.

Yeah, I'm sure it's not easy. I'm sure the kids are saying ridiculous things and you got to listen to their parents act like belligerent children themselves at times. But in the pros, man, like I think a lot of the referees for what you just said, a lot of their training and I've talked to NBA refs, you know, it's like, do you got to be so damn sensitive all the time? And the players can do better.

They don't got to yell at them like they're, you know, just a bunch of Neanderthals running around. But sometimes these referees right now have gone real overboard. It used to be the referees would talk back and tell you relax, chill out. But I think that, that the refs now, a lot of them seem so much younger, so much younger. And they just, they just throwing people out where in the back in the day, the referee be like, man, shut up, like go over there.

And we don't have that right now. Yeah, you know what? That's a great point about the referees being younger because the thing is, is I think they're training them to be obviously a little more robotic. As far as them telling the players to shut up, the referees would get reprimanded in a heartbeat by the people that are running their association. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. But that's, that's why we, listen, if Nikola Jokic is going to run up the court, off the court and say, hey, make the call, bleep bleep. And the referee should be able to look at him and be like, yo man, get your ass over there and cut it out before I tech you up and throw you out again.

Like that's what we need. But everything is so PC right now, man. It's, it's kind of nuts. Well, go ahead. No, I was going to say, I do appreciate you saying to, you know, I teach sixth grade. My kids come in every Monday morning, like, hey, how's your weekends go?

Soccer, basketball, football, man, the ref, this, that, and the other. They know what I do. I don't ever let them go there. How many shots did you miss? Right. You know, your basketball game was 32 to 74. Right.

Okay. You had the 42 point back call that they made, right? Like just constant, like, get it away from the ref.

What did you do to impact the game? And that's just a life thing. Everybody is always looking to blame somebody else for what their problems are. Well, look, we all ain't going to have the same access. We all ain't going to have the same things at the tip of our fingertips. But it's just like, with what you had control over, what did you do?

That's it. Let me ask you this, Mark. How do you feel just as a ref? Like, do you feel that the kids now are feeling more entitled? Do they have respect for what's going on?

Are the parents respecting you? How do you feel? So, I have 15 years in this, and I don't think it's any different now than it was then. And I think we as referees, and now I have an experience, I'm a veteran.

It's how we control the situation. You do need to understand what you're going into. But again, I'm a veteran. I've been doing it a while. I know all the coaches.

I know the communities. But when you're a new referee, it's pretty tough. Like, you've got to get through your first two or three years. Because if you're not able to handle it, what I think is the young referees aren't willing to do it. When I started 15 years ago, we had 400 referees in our association.

Right now, we have 180. But freshman games, JV games, are getting canceled all over the place. Because all the referees, I'm 50, we're all 50 plus.

We can't get any young referees to want to do what I do. And I think it's a shame. And why do you think that is? Because of the scrutiny?

Why do you think that is? I think it's because, again, you go onto YouTube clips and you type in, you know, referees fighting at AAU games. I think a lot of it's the AAU because those games aren't regulated. They're making 20 bucks and they're on these courts and there's no administration. There's no vice principal.

There's no athletic director. And the nonsense that's happening at those games aren't regulated by any sort of administration. And that's where these young officials are learning, you know, how to do it. And they're just getting bombarded, bombarded by all this terrible behavior. The high school behavior is not that bad because you have administration in the building.

It's all the AAU games where they're doing eight games a day. And the behavior there is unregulated. And young guys, they just don't want to do it. Like, you're making 15 bucks an hour in California minimum wage.

Why am I going to go out and do this? Because the money is not what it means to them as it used to be. So I think the young people of this generation, they just don't want to deal with it. And I'm trying, we're trying to get young people into our association.

We just can't get them. Yeah. Well, I mean, you named it. I can go on YouTube, as you said, and look at horror stories just involving referees. And you know what?

It's at all levels. I mean, last week we talked about the, I think it's the Turkish referee in soccer. He got punched in the head not by a player, not by a fan, but by the president of the squad. I mean, the team.

And he's punching the referees. So, I mean, we could all do a little bit better job with decorum. Hey, Mark, good luck to you the rest of the way and happy holidays. All right. Appreciate it. You too.

No problem. Yeah, it's tough, man. You look at some of the clips. We all know about like helicopter parents can't get out the damn way. Got to be involved in everything, yelling and screaming at the referee. And it's just like, well, now I know why the kid acts like a jackass because I can look at you. It's like it's it's a game.

I thought the idea of sports, especially with younger people, is not only to get them physically active and get them physically fit, but it's because of the values that they learn from participating in sports from, yes, teamwork and patience and working together, respect. And then you got a parent sitting up in the stands just going ballistic, just missing a complete point. I guess there are too many parents who run around thinking that their kid is going to be LeBron or Shohei Ohtani. It's like this.

Let's pump the brakes here. Marco, what do you think about like the the the development of where we see sports at and the parents losing their minds and the raps and stuff? I know your kids, they're still young, but they haven't reached that point where you could be an angry parent yet, right? No, but I mean, I wouldn't be that guy. But I got a better chance of being the guy by himself in the lawn chair and, you know, in the outfield by, you know, because I just I've been on both sides of it. I did some umpiring when I was younger and I've covered enough high school sports to be around this and to be close to the parents.

And it's hard, man. When you look around, you're just like, geez, like I know you think your kid is going to the professional level. But do you realize, like, what we're doing right now?

We're in a Tuesday in a gym with seven of us in the stands. Like, can you just calm the hell down? And it's really it's you wonder if it's just the idea that they're living their life through their right. And it's almost like it's affecting them more than it's affecting because the kids more looking like, can you please shut up? And it's hard to fathom where this mindset comes from. And I don't know if it's disappointment in your own lives and then you're taking it to this because you're afraid it goes to your kids. Like we talked about counseling, whatever.

There's some all kinds of couches that need to be done with this because I don't know what the reason is, but it's bad. It really is. Yeah.

No, you I think you you you nailed it, man. I think it's I mean, us as parents looking at what's going on with our kids. I don't know if it's yeah, it has to be living vicariously through them. And it's one thing to be out there on the floor. It's another thing to watch it from the stands. Like nobody wants to see their kid violated in any type of way, let alone to be mistreated on a on a baseball field or a basketball court or on the ice. And I think that sets people over the edge. I guess that defense mechanism pops up for the kid.

But that just still seems a little too overboard for me. Yeah. I don't know where the hell we're going as as society, but maybe maybe people have learned.

I doubt it. I also wonder, too, if it's I think this is in general, you know, the joke that like this person thinks of the main character. I almost feel like everyone has gotten too much with maybe it's the social media, maybe it's with the reality TV every way. It's almost like you think you're in a movie like everyone's watching you and everything's on this and it's on this play or this on this. It's not as serious or it's not as big as you seem to think it is. You're looking at all the bad calls with the official on Sunday that cost you money with the NFL.

That's got nothing to do with this kid that's 19 years old that's refereeing your nine year old's AAU game. Like, I don't know how people can't separate that stuff, but we're not. And I don't know if it's everything mixed in and it's all the big giant melting pot of all the problems that we have.

But I don't know how to correct it. But there's obviously a problem. Yeah, everybody. You said it too. Everybody is so into themselves. That's what it boils down to. Everybody's so into themselves. We're all into our kids and what we need to show and what we need to highlight.

And it's. We can do better as a society. We can go ahead and do better. It's the JR sport reshow here with you on CBS Sports Radio 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 CBS. Hey, if we got any refs out there and I'm sure we do. I mean, there's a sports station broadcasting all over the damn country.

Canada, too. If you're a ref. What the hell is going on out there? Why do I go on YouTube and see fights? Why do I see angry parents? Like what's going on with refereeing? Because I can turn on any game, professional, any league. And it just seems like there's there's new beef between the players and the refs.

And is this something that's starting at the lower levels and going higher? I'm going to take your calls on the other side. I want to hear from the referees. But let's hear from Marco Belletti. He got a newsflash on CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the J.R. Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the J.R.

Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. Hey, what's up, J.R., 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. It's the J.R.

Sport Brief Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. I mean, damn it, there's so much attention here on Jon Morant that. Yeah, I mean, Damian Lillard, 40 points joining the 20,000 point club. Wow. Big time. Not bad. A matter of fact.

So here's a little bit of background. San Antonio Spurs took on the what the hell do you call these guys? Milwaukee Bucks. The Milwaukee Bucks win 132 to 119. Pretty interesting game.

Pretty cool game. You think about Victor Winbenyama out there with Giannis Atetokounmpo. Oh, damn it, Victor Winbenyama didn't even play. What type of crap is this?

It's terrible. Giannis Atetokounmpo had 11 points. Damian Lillard, he went off all by himself. He had 40 points, 14 of 22, 7 of 12 from deep. And as an overall, Damian Lillard wasted no time. A season high 40 points. He pushed his career total over 20,000 points. Victor Winbenyama didn't play due to a sore right ankle.

I don't know if this is the same ankle that he twisted a couple of days ago and just continue to play. But Damian Lillard, he spoke after the game. This is what he had to say about getting over that 20,000 point marker.

Listen, I don't want to fake down play it like it's nothing. You know, I know it's a it's a big deal. It's a great accomplishment. You know, it's a rare space to be in, you know, in the history of this league to have only 51 players accomplish something like that.

You know, I think that speaks for itself. Yeah, Damian Lillard is the 51st person in NBA history to have more than 20,000 career points. The only other active players with 20,000 points right now.

LeBron James, Kevin Durant, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Steph Curry, DeMar DeRozan and Chris Paul. It's a nice company to be in 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 CBS 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 CBS. You know, before we went to break, we were talking about referees and the interaction between referees and players. And just I don't want to say how soft, just how sensitive everybody is. And then we had a referee from Sacramento call us up.

Thank you, Mark from Sacramento. And he gave us his perspective on even, you know, refereeing basketball games on the youth level as to why things aren't working out. And he says there's so much vitriol from a lot of the parents and you hear horror stories. It's so difficult right now to get younger folks into referee.

And he says that it's a lot of vets and it's tough to get younger guys in. Let's get to the phones 8 5 5 2 1 2 4 CBS. Let's talk to Glenn from Toronto. You're on CBS Sports Radio. Hey, man, how you doing? Good.

Yes. OK, so I I obviously being being living in England. They the respect level for for referees in rugby used to be really low, like the players would go after them. Now, what happened was what changed was that they started to at the professional level, mic up the referee so that the referee could be heard throughout the stadium and on TV.

And now you've got it. If you've ever seen the size of rugby players, they're humongous. These referees are half the size of them. They'll call them over and sometimes call the captain over to stop that now. Otherwise, you go you're going into the penalty box for 10 minutes and the players go, yes, yes, sir. And it's yes, the referees aren't perfect and not only the most arrogant one we would claim to. But the respect level for the referees went up and the game is at the end. You know, the players are careful. They have to be careful because if they're within earshot of their referee and they swear and stuff like that, not only will they get in trouble, but they'll be heard around the stadium and they know that they're looked up to by by the fans. So, you know, I'm not saying refs are perfect and I would never want to do the job just because, you know, especially at a youth level, I would never in a million years want to do it. Yeah, well, we just heard from Mark from Sacramento the reason why.

Thank you, Glenn, for calling from Toronto. I don't know if professional sports here in North America would want to sign up for that. I don't know if we want to make the referees more a part of the show than they already are. To be honest, I don't need to see the refs get together on the field and you know, do a whole performance as to whether or not it was a catch or not a catch or pass interference. I'm like, come on, man, let's get this crap out the way and play the damn game. I don't need to see the NBA referees now pretend like it's the NFL and walk over to the scorers table and, you know, look into the camera and tell the whole arena it was a foul on this guy and we're doing this. Just let the let the PA announcer do it and just keep it moving. Like I don't need to know that the referees exist, to be honest.

If I'm being fully honest, and not that I want to take anybody's job away. Especially in baseball. I wouldn't mind if we had like just more of a use of technology. The NFL can certainly use it, but they don't want to because it's an entertainment product. You know, we don't need stupid ass chains to measure a first down. The technology exists to say whether or not the ball moved three inches or three yards. We don't need 360 year old men out there with sticks and chains trying to figure it out. We really don't.

We have the technology to use it. The NFL chooses not to do so. You know, I think we can pretty much probably maybe do the same thing with the NBA. I think a little bit more touch and go as to whether or not this guy touched the ball last or that guy touched. But I'm sure you could have a technology that does that in baseball.

How much more cut and dry can it be? This is a ball. This is a strike. But every umpire has to have his own strike zone. And so I wouldn't mind if we had referees, but just like any other technology, have the referee and the human oversee the technology, but utilize the technology as the tool to get everything right.

OK. I mean, if I look at tennis, if I look at soccer, it's pretty easy utilizing technology, whether you want to call it a Hawkeye or whatever the hell it is. Did the ball go over the line?

Was the ball hit and on the court of play? Like those are all things that technology can help with. And these are things that are going to happen at all levels across all leagues. It's just a matter of when.

You don't think Major League Baseball at the Major League level, not the minors at the Major League level, is going to use technology to call balls and strikes? It's going to happen one day. We all might be gone or might be gray, but it's going to come sooner than later. It's the J.R. sport re-show here with you on CBS Sports Radio eight five five two one two four CBS. I'm going to get some more of your calls.

Damn it. We'll hear again from John Moran. He spoke after the game about his return. And then we'll hear from Damian Lillard again as well.

Sock more football and referees and basketball and it all here on CBS Sports Radio. If you're a last minute gift shopper, then Instacart is your holiday rescue app this season. No more tracking packages, no more trips to the post office and no more Christmas gifts arriving in February. Instead, you can just download Instacart to order gifts like beauty, tech and gourmet goods from local stores and get them delivered in as fast as one hour. Plus, right now you'll get free delivery on your first three orders. This offer is valid for a limited time. Ten dollar minimum per order. Additional terms apply.

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