JR SportBrief Hour 1

It is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Much love that everybody tuned in and locked in all over North America. Much love to super producer and host Ryan Hickey holding it down for us in New York City. We got a busy night. It's hump day, hump night, whatever you want to call it. It's the middle of the week and we got a lot to discuss. Obviously on a Wednesday night I'm bringing you a new top six list. I'm going to share that with you two hours from now.

Understand this. It's about broadcasters because ESPN is shorter broadcaster because Doc Rivers decided to take a new job with the Milwaukee Bucks. We're going to talk about that momentarily. In 20 minutes from now we're going to have a conversation with someone who knows what it means to be a player and a coach in the NBA.

He also got fired while having some success. It's the little general. It's Avery Johnson. He's going to come through and join us 20 minutes from now.

So I'm going to give you a top six list of some of the best announcers. We got Avery Johnson coming our way in 20 minutes. We have some updates on Jim Harbaugh. We have some updates on some coordinators.

There's just a lot going on in the world of sports. We got you covered. You can always listen to this show on the free Odyssey app. You can always lock in on your local CBS Sports Radio affiliate. Much love to people listening on Sirius XM channel 158 and everybody listening on a smart speaker.

All you have to do is ask it to play CBS Sports Radio before we do anything else here throughout the show. I got to start off by asking my main man Ryan Hickey. Ryan, how are you this Wednesday? JR, doing well. Doing well today.

Oh, it's that simple? Just doing well? Nothing better?

That's it. You know, I mean, yeah, I got nothing to complain about. I got nothing to over, you know, rejoice about. It's a solid Wednesday. Nothing to rejoice about? Outside of the fact that I'm living and breathing right now, it's just a normal day. Okay.

As long as you are living and breathing, I guess that's a minimum of what we can ask for. So we got a busy night, a busy afternoon, depending on where you live. If you want to holler at me, it's real simple. You can hit me up. I am at JR Sport Brief everywhere. Twitter, X, Facebook, my face, your space, your face, whatever you call it, I am there. And if you want to give me a holler, you can also do so. The number here at CBS Sports Radio is 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4CBS. We know it's been a busy 24 hours. We know it's been ridiculously nutty here in the NBA over the past just whole entire week. We've had trades and coaches being fired, and now we have a coach who has been hired. His name? Doc Rivers. The same Doc Rivers who used to play point guard in the NBA. The same Doc Rivers who at one point led the Orlando Magic, also led the Boston Celtics to a championship. He's also the same Doc Rivers who just got fired last season by the Philadelphia 76ers. This is the same Doc Rivers who went ahead and threw Ben Simmons under the bus. This is the same Doc Rivers who James Harden did not want to play under.

And Doc Rivers has a new job. He's the new head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks. He is taking over for Adrian Griffin who we all know. I think at this point, Giannis Atteracumpo did not like the man.

Damian Lillard did not like the man. Terry Stotts was let go before the season even got started because he couldn't get along with the head coach who he was supposed to help. And so at the end of the day, yeah, Adrian Griffin after being an assistant head coach in the NBA for what felt like 16, 17 years, he gets a job. He doesn't even last basically half a season. He lasts half a season.

And this is kind of creepy. I don't know if you you want to be friends with Doc Rivers. He might steal the job from right from underneath you. Doc Rivers was consulting unofficially Adrian Griffin.

This was his this is the guy he went to for advice. A first year rookie head coach would go and talk to Doc Rivers and Doc Rivers is helping him out. And Doc Rivers takes his job. Can you be mad at Doc Rivers? Maybe he got sick and tired of sitting on ESPN next to Doris Burke. Maybe Doc Rivers was sick and tired of sitting and listening to Mike Breen or maybe Doc Rivers is like most of us.

He said, wait a minute. I can get 10 million dollars, 11 million dollars, 12 million dollars. I can make millions of dollars coaching again and I don't got to sit down and watch these games and I could potentially win another championship with Giannis and Lillard. Sign me up.

Not that difficult of a decision. And so as we move forward, Doc Rivers has coached personalities, right? Doc Rivers has coached the Kevin Garnett's, the Ray Allen's, the Rajon Rondo's.

They've won championships. Doc Rivers has had success there. But more recently, people talk about Doc Rivers like he's something at the bottom of your shoe. People talk about Doc Rivers like why the hell are we recycling this guy? People talk about Doc Rivers like he's out of touch. And we're going to find out sooner than later whether or not Doc Rivers is a fit here with Giannis Atetokounmpo and Damian Lillard.

I already mentioned to you some of the players that he's had some issues with, some of the players that he's been beefing with. Someone like, I don't know, Ben Simmons, who deserves beef because Ben Simmons really doesn't play basketball anymore. Ben Simmons is a guy who sits on the bench with shades and a back problem.

Ben Simmons makes 177 million dollars on his current contract and Ben Simmons doesn't even show up. He can't shoot a free throw. It's the same Ben Simmons who years ago against the Atlanta Hawks, he forgot how to play basketball.

He had Trae Young at his feet. Ben Simmons did not want to shoot the rock. He was afraid of being fouled. Yes, a basketball player afraid of doing their job.

It's like me walking into a studio and being afraid of a microphone. And it was pretty hilarious when the Sixers were eliminated and they went home. I guess Doc Rivers a little too honest at this point. He was asked whether or not Ben Simmons could be a championship point guard on the team and coach Doc Rivers a little too honest for Ben. Well, David, I don't know that question or the answer to that right now.

You know, so I don't know the answer to that. I'm sure Ben Simmons. Well, that was one of the reasons that his feelings got hurt. I know the fans started to burn his jersey, you know, outside of Wells Fargo Center, Wachovia Center, whatever the hell they call it in Philly. Ben Simmons got his feelings hurt and Doc Rivers was criticized for being too honest. This guy makes one hundred and seventy seven million dollars, is afraid to take a free throw and got the nerve to be mad at the coach for calling him out. And where have we seen Ben Simmons?

Nowhere. On the bench thinking that he's on the runway for Fashion Week and he's not the only dude that got a beef with Doc Rivers. How about Mr. James Harden? James Harden, the man who I mean, he balled out when he was with Houston. He didn't ball out when he got to let's be real. He didn't ball out when he got to Brooklyn.

Well, he did. And then he pulled his leg and then his usage went through the roof and then he got hurt. And then he also didn't want to play with Kyrie Irving. And then he finally got moved to Philadelphia. Playing with Joel Embiid, playing for Doc Rivers.

This was supposed to be a match made in heaven, right? Until James Harden didn't move the ball the way that Doc wanted him to. Until James Harden didn't appreciate the way that Doc Rivers coached the team. Until James Harden said, I am not staying in Philadelphia.

If Doc Rivers sticks around. And so who got the boot? Doc Rivers got the boot. And then James Harden realized he still wasn't getting paid. And then he left. He's now playing for the Clippers alongside Kawhi and Paul George and Russell Westbrook. And somehow, someway, they're winning basketball games with only one basketball.

But let me tell you this. Another case of Doc Rivers being maybe too honest and hurting feelings. You know, after James Harden, you know, was still on the team and Doc Rivers got the boot. Doc Rivers was on Bill Simmons podcast.

And Doc Rivers basically said, in certain words, that, yeah, James Harden, he's kind of old. Listen. It was challenging. More because we were fighting two things. And not like visually fighting. Is that James is so good at playing one way. And the way that I believe you have to play to win in some ways is different because it's a lot of giving up the ball, moving the ball, coming back to the ball. I would have loved to have him younger when that was easier for him because giving up the ball and getting back the ball is hard.

Like it's physical. It's exhausting. So it's been interesting if I had him younger, where he could have done that more, you know, coming off dribble handoffs, going down the hill. You know, he didn't finish as well as he finished because he's older. And that happens. It happens when you get old. Right. We all get old. You lose the step.

Something might hurt a little bit more, a little bit less. At least at least the Clippers look good right now. Right.

They they got a record of twenty eight and fourteen. They are the better basketball team in Los Angeles right now and not the Los Angeles Lakers. So things might work out for James Harden. But for all the criticism that Doc Rivers has received over the past several years, people look at what he does come playoff time. People think about blowing three one series lead, of which he has blown three of them. People look at Doc Rivers and and taking on the Celtics and losing and being eliminated. Doc Rivers, I got to tell you, I think he's unfairly targeted.

I really do. I just gave you two examples of pretty much the only two players I've ever heard of, at least publicly. We know have a fit with Doc Rivers. Are you going to trust James Harden? This is the same James Harden who publicly threw the general manager, the boss, the president, the CEO, the top dog down Maury under the bus.

This is the same dude who called the boss man a liar. And Ben Simmons. Did it seem that Doc Rivers was telling a lie about whether or not he could be a championship point guard?

Ben Simmons has proven that he cannot even play, not even stay healthy enough to play in a game. If I'm going to believe anybody about Doc Rivers, I'm going to look at maybe some of the folks that he won a championship with. I'm going to take a look at a Kevin Garnett. I'm going to take a look at a Rondo.

I'm going to take a look at an Allen. I'm going to look at the success that he's had. Some of the teams flawed. I'm supposed to believe in Blake Griffin flying all over the place and catching alley-oops from Chris Paul. Flawed team. Chris Paul himself.

I don't want to call him a choker, but kind of old and broken down now at this point in time. But Chris Paul couldn't get the job done. Sometimes it comes down to the players. A lot of times it comes down to the players. Doc Rivers, I think, puts these players in a good enough position. His experience running the point in the league, his experience babysitting superstars. And yeah, he might be honest, but the dudes that he's been most honest about, let's be real. They got issues. They got problems. Whether or not the Milwaukee Bucks have success this season, I don't think it's going to hinge on on Doc Rivers.

I think it's really this simple. Are Damian Lillard and Giannis Etetokounmpo going to be able to mesh in jail as the season goes on? Are they going to be able to overcome Damian Lillard and his defensive deficiencies? Or is Chris Middleton, is he going to have life in his legs at the end of the year?

Is Brook Lopez, his big ol' seven foot behind, is he going to have life by the time we get to the end of the season? Doc Rivers has to figure it out. I think any decent head coach who's not a novice like Adrian Griffin would be able to go out there and figure it out.

From everything that I've read, from everything that I've heard, Adrian Griffin tried to make the Milwaukee Bucks fit into his system instead of building a system around the talent that he had, yes, had as in past tense. I think Doc Rivers, coaching in the NBA since 1999, I think he has enough experience to stay the hell up on out the way. And let's be real, the coaches always get blamed.

Budenholzer got blamed. Gone. Still getting paid by the Milwaukee Bucks. Just got fired last year. Adrian Griffin, still getting paid by the Milwaukee Bucks, just got fired two days ago.

And now they are paying. Doc Rivers just officially got hired today. If three coaches don't work, who you going to blame next? Doc?

No. You ultimately got to point the finger at the players, but they make too much. Or I guess at that point, Giannis Atteracumpo will finally decide to leave. Give Doc Rivers a break. I know he used to play.

He doesn't play anymore. It's the J.R. Sportbree show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. If you want to holler at me, it's simple. It's 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4CBS. We got a busy Wednesday. I got a top six list coming your way in about an hour and 45 minutes. And you know what? Even sooner than that, in about five minutes, we're going to have a conversation with someone who's familiar with coaching and playing point guard in the NBA. His name? It's the little general. It's Avery Johnson. It's the J.R. Sportbree show.

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Because businesses that grow, grow with Shopify. Sign up for a one dollar per month trial period at Shopify dot com slash Odyssey podcast all lowercase go to Shopify dot com slash Odyssey podcast now to grow your business no matter what stage you're in Shopify dot com slash Odyssey podcast. You're listening to the J.R. Sportbree on CBS Sports Radio. It is the J.R. Sportbree show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. A lot of news going on in the NBA, especially with Adrian Griffin being fired and let go and Doc Rivers taking over.

It's been a wild 48 hours to talk about it all right now. Joining us, we have someone who has played, someone who has coached in the NBA, even won a championship. It's the general.

It's Avery Johnson. Avery, thank you for taking the time to hop on. Oh man, happy to be with you tonight. Thank you.

I appreciate it very much so. I guess the simple question is you get rid of Griffin. You now have in a new coach, the players are the same. What's expected of Doc Rivers to move this team towards a championship? Well, I've been talking about this all day on CBS Sports HQ and I'm going to stay consistent. You know, it's championship or bus, even though, you know, he's picking up this opportunity after 43 games when a coach went 30 and 13, second in the Eastern Conference, third best record in the NBA.

It's championship or bus. They're not bringing Doc Rivers in to slow walk this thing and and, you know, give Damian Lillard a year or two and see where it goes from there. No, this is about this year, about this team improving defensively, whatever communication breakdowns that they had behind the scenes, improving the communication, especially with the two stars and Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard. If there were any issues with game planning, whatever it is there, Doc Rivers is being hired to solve problems. So he's a problem solver. That's why he's being hired.

That's why they identified him to take on this challenge, especially with half of the season already complete. Avery Johnson is here with us, the JR Sport Reshow on CBS Sports Radio with your experience as both a player and a coach. And you've been through this with the Brooklyn Nets. What is going on or what could potentially have gone on behind the scenes that would cause a dismissal like this, especially with the success?

What type of politics isn't the public privy to? Well, when ownership decides that they're going to hire Doc Rivers at this point, which means that now they're paying Adrian Griffin, they're paying Mike Bootenoser. So you're paying three coaches. And when you're going to go down that route, when you obviously went through the interviewing process with Adrian Griffin, you're prepared to make sure that this just got to end well.

This is a new chapter that has been created surprisingly at this point of the season. So this is not necessarily an ownership deal. Historically, when I've seen this happen as a player and as a coach, this is because the players have gone to the front office and shared that we can no longer work with this particular coach. And it's either the coach or us.

But we must have a chance, a change if we're going to try to reach out for this potential. Avery Johnson here with us on CBS Sports Radio. We know that there are a few teams that Doc Rivers has coached, whether it be the Boston Celtics sitting at the top of the East. We know the 76ers are right there behind the Bucks right now. We know the Pacers have gone through some changes. The Knicks are looking for help.

How do you think this might have changed how things finish in the East? Boston is still a class for the Eastern Conference. I watched them the other night against the Dallas Mavericks. I've been watching them all year. They pretty much have a complete team.

They have the balance of outside, inside. They can post up Tatum and Brown against certain matchups. Porzingis stretches the floor for those guys. They can play big with Al Horford on the floor. They've gotten better and better.

And even a second year coach with Joe Mazula, he's gotten better with adding some really experienced assistants in Lee and also Sam Cassell. Really nice home court advantage. So Boston is a really complete team. They've gotten experience from going to the finals and Eastern Conference Finals over the last four to five years.

So this team is well positioned. I like what Philly is doing right now, especially the way Embiid is playing at another MVP level and the way they turn that James Harden trade into three good, really solid role players that can help like a Nicholas Batum. But again, with Milwaukee, if they don't improve defensively, they're not going to go very far. And remember last year what happened with them with the Miami Heat.

It was 88 out the gate in the first round of the playoffs. So there's a lot riding on the shoulders of not just Doc Rivers, but specifically Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard, guys that I know probably had some influence of the unfortunate firing of Adrian Griffin. NBA champ, CBS Sports HQ analyst Avery Johnson here.

Final question for you. I want to take a look at the Western Conference. We know we got a lot of young teams sitting at the top.

We do have some experience. We got another former doc led team, different iteration with the Clippers in the mix as well. What are your thoughts on the West and whose best position to come out of it? Well, to be the champions, you got to beat the champion and Denver Nuggets is still the class of the Western Conference. I don't care where they finish. They'll finish somewhere in the top four. And I know, you know, Minnesota and Oklahoma are the new kind of shiny objects right now in the Western Conference, but those teams don't really have the capability to win multiple playoff series. Maybe they might get lucky in the first round, but when you're talking about Denver Nuggets and teams like the Los Angeles Clippers, those teams right now are built to win multiple playoff series and have a chance to go to the finals. And you still can't sleep on the Lakers. You know, obviously they're, you know, one of the in the play in tournament right now, or they've been kind of going between 10 and 11. But the Lakers, if healthy, we don't know what kind of moves they're going to make around the trade deadline. That'll be another team that you can watch out for. And I think Dallas is probably one more piece away, especially somebody that can help them on a defensive end because Grant Williams hasn't really lived up to that signing yet.

So those are some of the teams that I think are really in play and who knows what's going to happen with Golden State. Avery, I want to thank you for sharing your expertise and your experience here with us. Where can people follow you and all your great analysis?

Yeah, I appreciate your asking. I'm on Instagram and Facebook, but I'm Coach Avery 6, the number 6. You can follow me there. I'm also on LinkedIn. And I'm on X, I guess it used to be Twitter, Coach Avery 6. So you can follow me on any of those platforms. I've really turned it up in terms of my social media over the last three months.

I think I've gone from 7,000 followers to close to 28,000 followers now, and really some positive messages that I'm sending out there on a daily basis. Well, we appreciate it, Coach. We look forward to checking that out and seeing what happens the rest of the season. Thank you again. Okay, looking forward to talking to you maybe after the trade deadline or come playoff time.

Hey, let's book it and see what happens. We know the season goes by fast and always a lot of changes. Thank you, Coach.

Thank you. No doubt about it that Coach Avery Johnson, a former NBA player, former coach, now analyst covering all things basketball. He has had a hell of a basketball life, and it was great to have some experience here from Coach Avery Johnson.

It's the JR Sportbree show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. I find it pretty amazing to look at what Coach Johnson has done and his experience and everything that he's brought to the game and to really hear the inside of, wow, he thinks it's an inside job. And how can any of us be shocked?

How can any of us be surprised? In most cases, it is the players who go upstairs, bypass management and go straight to the owners. And even if they aren't the ones saying, hey, you need to go ahead and give this person the boot, sometimes all it takes is for the owner to come downstairs and say, I'm thinking about making a change. And all the player has to do is just go, OK, that says enough. And so, yeah, Doc Rivers is next in line to get the boot.

But I'll take it a step further. If this does not work out for the Milwaukee Bucks, the next thing you're going to hear is Giannis Teterucumpo saying that I want out. Giannis Teterucumpo has made it very clear over the past several seasons, even before signing his extension, that as long as we are a championship contender, I want to stick around. After going through three head coaches, after going through a defense that has hit the toilet. Giannis has said that I'm at fault here, too. But if this doesn't work, at what point does Giannis just go, this ain't my fault anymore. It's time to go.

We're going to find out sooner than later. Thank you again to Avery Johnson for joining us in this break. It's the J.R. sport brief show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. If you want to give me a holler, it's 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4CBS. When we come back on the other side of the break, we're not just going to have a conversation about fired NBA NBA coaches. There are offensive coordinators, defensive coordinators. There are new hires in the NFL.

We're going to give you an update there. You're listening to the J.R. sport brief on CBS Sports Radio. It is the J.R. sport brief show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. Thank you so much to Avery Johnson for joining us in the last break. Someone who played in the NBA, won himself a championship. He coached in the NBA. He coached in college.

And now he's an analyst here for us with CBS Sports. Thank you so much to Avery Johnson for coming through and joining us, especially with all this wild news when it comes to the NBA and its hiring and firing process. One thing that we do know, especially at this time of the year, the NFL is really no different.

We can go up and down throughout the course of the NFL. And at this time of the year, when you think about where the league is at right now, from a coaching perspective, guys are getting hired. People are getting fired.

People are being interviewed. It's just an odd time in the NBA season for a dude to have 30 wins heading into the All-Star break. And then he's about to get or he did get the boot. And so when you think about the NFL, there's a lot of teams right now that are that are hot. OK, we got four teams left in the league. We've had a lot of eliminations. And I guess after you go through an entire season, offseason training camp, regular season playoffs, people can get sick and tired of each other. And so we've had a lot of examples here of just offensive coordinators, defensive coordinators that were let go. So, for instance, today, Vic Fangio was let go given the boot or excuse me, not the boot mutually agreed upon. He is no longer the defensive coordinator for the Miami Dolphins.

What a hardcore shock there. I mean, even to think about this, Joe Barry, defensive coordinator for the Green Bay Packers, even after the success that they've had, they find their run defense to be pathetic. And so now Joe Barry no longer has a job. And we've had a lot of adjustments and we've had a lot of changes here over the past week when it comes down to, you know, who's O.C. and who's defensive coordinator and who works and who doesn't work and who can get along with who. There is so much more to coaching in the NFL than just who's on the field. A lot of it has to do with politics. I mean, Vic Fangio has been coaching in the NFL for the better part of 30 to 40 years, and he is no longer working with Mike McDaniel. You have to imagine a lot of that has to deal with politics. Me, I look at what's going out on the field and I think about some of the injuries to folks like like Chubb and Phillips. And I say to myself, how the hell is he supposed to go out there?

Or are they supposed to go out there and win games when even at the beginning of the year, Jalen Ramsey is dealing with an injury? And so so many changes. Let me give you a quick recap. First of all, Joe Barry gone. No longer defensive coordinator of the Green Bay Packers. Vic Fangio gone. No longer defensive coordinator of the Miami Dolphins. It's already been talked about how he is going to be a hot commodity. Teams wanting to go ahead and bring him in.

And then this this is a wild one for me. And I guess he'll work as an offensive coordinator. He didn't work as a head coach. It's Cliff Kingsbury. Yes, Cliff Kingsbury. His name now being bandied about as someone who could potentially take over as offensive coordinator for. The Philadelphia Eagles. Yes, the last time that I heard the name Cliff Kingsbury, he was just traveling the world. Sitting around on vacation, hanging out with, I guess that is his wife, taking pictures, putting them on Instagram. And now he's ready to be back in the NFL.

I guess it's true. And he has worked with tons of quarterbacks. Maybe Cliff Kingsbury can be the dude who goes out and fixes Jalen Hurts.

Cliff Kingsbury has worked with I don't know if this is good or bad. Johnny Manziel, Case Keenum. He worked with Baker Mayfield before he went to Oklahoma.

And how about this? Mr. Red Raider himself. He did work with Patrick Mahomes. Patrick Mahomes last week was actually asked about Cliff Kingsbury and Patrick Mahomes bigged them up for helping out his career.

Listen to this. You see with a lot of young quarterbacks is whenever they get to a coach, they kind of try to restrict them and kind of make them be this model of how the quarterback position is supposed to be played. And I think he was early in the game of just saying, hey, let's let's maximize your strengths. And he would teach me here and there how to kind of be more mechanical and get in the pocket in the fundamentals of the game.

But he didn't he never restricted who I was. And I think that's kind of, I mean, obviously, amplified with Coach Reed now, but it was something where I could have went somewhere. They could have tried to make me this pocket quarterback who kind of had the right fundamentals. But he let me be who I was kind of on and off the field and it helped me become the player that I am.

Oh, that's nice. I would think Patrick Mahomes dad had a lot to do with that. I'm not taking anything away from Cliff Kingsbury. I'm just saying, yeah, he can be a great quarterback, Mulder, great quarterback developer. Yeah, I guess he would be fitted for an offensive coordinator role. Cliff Kingsbury as a head coach.

I guess it's different. Maybe I'm being too harsh on Cliff Kingsbury. Somebody who, when he was with the Arizona Cardinals, couldn't finish a season to save his life. It's like every single year, Cliff Kingsbury just fell apart.

The team would start off hot and then they would fall directly into the toilet. Someone else who thinks he is a good man, at least from a football perspective, to help out is A.Q. Shipley. Talked about Cliff Kingsbury as an offensive coordinator, spoke to Pat McAfee and said everybody should want him. He's exactly what you want. You want to basically infuse the new age scheme into that Pittsburgh Steelers locker room.

They haven't had it in years. He's so good. There were so many times he would come up to us and be like, Hey man, this is what I do. I get guys open. And when you turn on his tape, there's guys open all over the field. He's in there at 3.30 in the morning.

All the time. He's a grinder. I don't think anybody talks about that about Cliff because of how cool he looks. He's in there early, getting his workout in. He's watching tape by 4.15. Oh wow.

Wow. Maybe the Philadelphia Eagles need him. I mean they just let go of Ben Johnson or excuse me, Brian Johnson. Why don't they go ahead and add him? Wouldn't that be interesting? Nick Sirianni brings in Cliff Kingsbury to fix the offense.

And what a world. Wouldn't it be wild if Cliff Kingsbury was next to have the job? That the offense performed well. The defense wasn't fixed.

The team as an overall is a disappointment. And then both. Nick Sirianni is gone. And Cliff Kingsbury takes over. I feel like this is the world that we live in.

Where every time you just turn your damn head. There's some new hot shot comes through, takes over and takes your job. I know.

Go ahead and ask Doc Rivers. And speaking of big news. It appears that we have additional news that has just come down the pipe.

Hickey, what's going on, man? Fill us in. According to many insiders, I'll give Adam Schefter credit first since that's where I saw it from. The Chargers have a new head coach.

It is former Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh. Jim is back. What a shock, right? Is anybody surprised? I wish this was when you have news like this. You want it to feel like it's breaking news. As I'm standing here in the studio right now, I I see it on ESPN. I see CBS is starting to hit it.

And this all the messages are going off. Is it really breaking news? Jim Harbaugh is going to be the next head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers.

And this feels like something like realistically, this is this is something we saw coming for years. Not necessarily the Chargers, but Jim Harbaugh has been openly flirting with the NFL for years. This is someone who was at Michigan in the off season. He was running over to the Minnesota Vikings trying to get himself a job. He thought he had himself a job with the Minnesota Vikings. And now Jim Harbaugh is going to be tasked with leading a Chargers team that, quite frankly, has been a disappointment. The Chargers have been a chokeshop.

The Chargers have been good enough to be good enough, but they've been too damn hurt and have had bad coaches to actually go out there, win and accomplish anything. Anthony Lynn. I feel like he coaches football games with an abacus.

My apologies. He knows more about football than I've ever known in my life. But still, Brandon Staley, I know a leader when I see one.

Nobody respect that man. Before he got fired at the end of last season, didn't make it to the end of the season. I felt like he spent all year long trying to remind everybody. We're not thinking about that, that show job against the Jacksonville Jaguars. And so here we have Jim Harbaugh coming on to lead the Chargers. And it's going to be real interesting to see what he brings to the table and how much influence he's going to have on the team as a whole. Is Jim Harbaugh going to be judge, jury and executioner when it comes down to the roster, or is Jim Harbaugh strictly going to be working with this squad in this team as its head coach? We discussed this yesterday with the Chargers beat reporter, made it very clear to us that Jim Harbaugh was likely going to work with someone who he's comfortable with from a general manager's capacity. But one thing we do know about Jim Harbaugh coach teams, he's going to go out there and try to run the rock.

Justin Herbert may not be too enthralled with this. Austin Eckler, I don't know, is he going to be gone? Is he going to have himself a job? Is he finally going to get the new contract that he covets?

We're going to find out sooner than later. But one thing we do know about Jim Harbaugh, I'm not expecting him to roll into Los Angeles and turn the Chargers into the Big Ten. I'm not expecting Jim Harbaugh to roll into the Chargers and say, hey, man, I'm going to make this feel like I'm back at Michigan. There are going to be some changes, but there's one thing we cannot dispute when it comes to Jim Harbaugh. He's won.

He has. If I got to think about the AFC West, there's one team that automatically comes to mind. It's the Kansas City Chiefs. Justin Herbert is getting paid like one of the best QBs in the game.

Because talent wise, let's be real, he is. Is he going to get the help that he needs? Are they going to dial back the pass plays? We're going to find out sooner than later, as Jim Harbaugh has been hired as the Chargers next head coach.

It was only a few weeks ago that he won that national championship with Michigan. And we know the expectation now for the Chargers. It's not to be a team that just makes the playoffs and doesn't choke. It's not to be a team that shows up and just goes to the postseason with Jim Harbaugh as your head coach. The expectation is now for them to compete for a Super Bowl. There's no more coaching gas. There's no more mistakes. Nobody cares about the injuries.

Nobody cares about clock management. People want to see Harbaugh do what he did with the 49ers. And that's at minimum, just take these Chargers to a Super Bowl. Yeah, we learned earlier in the day that Jim Harbaugh canceling, canceling a meeting, delaying a meeting here in Atlanta with the Falcons.

Well, now we know why. Because Jim Harbaugh, who has one of the highest win percentages by an NFL coach ever, fourth all time behind John Madden, Vince Lombardi and George Allen. Jim Harbaugh is back in California. He's back in the NFL. And now he will officially be leading the Chargers.

I wish it was a surprise, but it's not. Now we've got to see how he constructs the roster and what happens with Justin Herbert. What happens with Austin Ekler, how he builds that defense. And ultimately, can you get over that Patrick Mahomes hump?

Six straight AFC championship games. Lamar Jackson is trying to get over the hump. The Raiders are trying to get over the hump. God knows what the Broncos are doing, probably getting Rutter Russell Wilson to get over the hump. But at least these Chargers, they got a little bit more clarity moving into the future. It's the J.R. Sportbree show here with you on CBS Sports Radio 855-212 for CBS.

That's 855-212 for CBS. It is official. The Chargers have hired Jim Harbaugh to be their next head coach.

What are your thoughts? We're going to talk more about it on the other side of the break. Speaking of a California team, hey, there's another one. The Niners are actually playing. The team that Harbaugh coached last. We're going to talk about that. Harbaugh and more. You're listening to the J.R. Sportbree show here on CBS Sports Radio.