JR SportBrief Hour 2

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Additional terms apply. It is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to everybody tuned in and locked in all over North America.

I appreciate you. You can always lock in, tune in on the free Odyssey Odyssey app, your local CBS Sports Radio affiliate, Sirius XM Channel 158 for everybody who has Sirius. You can always tune in by asking a smart speaker to play CBS Sports Radio.

Lots of ways. CBSSportsRadio.com. However you listen, thank you. Thank you very much.

My main man, super producer and host Ryan Hickey is holding it down for us on the boards in New York City. So wherever you happen to be, anywhere, I don't care where you're at. I just hope you're well. I hope you're safe. I hope you're good.

And thank you for being here with us. OK. The phone number is here and it works. Phone lines work. It's 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4CBS. You want to talk to me. I'm on social media at JR Sport Brief and speaking of talking to folks and speaking to individuals. John Gonzalez, CBS Sports HQ is going to join us in 20 minutes to talk some NBA action to open up the show, because we get started every weekday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. We talked about Mike McDonald, a former coordinator, defensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens. He's now the new head coach of the Seattle Seahawks. We talked about the rumor of Bill Belichick potentially being in the mix for the Philadelphia Eagles if Nick Sirianni gets the boot. And then speaking of coordinators moving and what have you, Ben Johnson, offensive coordinator for the Detroit Lions. He is not going anywhere. He's sticking around in Detroit. The past two seasons, Detroit has been fifth in the NFL when it comes to scoring offense in this past season with Jared Goff at the helm.

Jared Goff threw for 4800 yards and Jared Goff and the offense, the passing offense, it was second in the entire NFL. So Ben Johnson potentially sticking around towards next year to, I don't know, see what what greener pastures, you know, might exist. And so we got a lot to do as we continue on with the show in a second.

Speaking of Philadelphia, I want to talk to you about Joel Embiid. And in an hour from now, I'm going to bring you a new top six list. We know we are now what, a week and a half away from the Super Bowl. There's so much conversation surrounding quarterbacks, whether it be Patrick Mahomes or whether it be Brock Purdy.

And so I'm going to get in on the action as well, except for I'm not just going to focus in on the now. I want to focus in on reality and have some fun here. I want to take a look now that we've switched the errors here when it comes to quarterbacks. Now that we've gone from Tom Brady to Mahomes, I want to share with you a top six list. The best quarterbacks over the last 25 years, who are the best quarterbacks over the past 25 years? That top six list is coming your way an hour from now.

855-212-4CBS, 855-212-4CBS. We talked about Nick Sirianni, talked about a hot seat for Nick Sirianni. We got to wait an entire season to see how they start off and who would be shocked if they get fired or he gets fired if the team stinks to start.

Not me. 76ers here. They got themselves a new coach. Nick Nurse comes over as their new head coach of the Sixers. We know Doc Rivers is gone.

Doc Rivers now, after only a few days, is now the head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks, replacing Adrian Griffin. But Philadelphia has been pretty good this season, right? They have a record of 29 and 17. Unfortunately, they're on a West Coast swing right now where they are 0 for 4.

And I guess you could say their worst case scenario has come true. And it's not that Joel Embiid, the reigning NBA MVP, is gone for the next, I don't know, gone for the season. But as of right now, Joel Embiid is hurt. Joel Embiid has missed games this season, especially more recently over the past month, with a sore knee, with knee swelling.

And so I guess it's an awful, terrible thing when Joel Embiid doesn't just have a busted-up knee, but a gigantic 6'7", 6'8", 220-pound human being falls on said knee, that's not going to end well. And that's exactly what happened yesterday for Joel Embiid, who once again is leading the NBA in scoring. And right now, his scoring average is leading the league at about 35 points a game.

We know he dropped 70 points last week against the San Antonio Spurs. He is already a two-time scoring champion. But with the NBA's new rules saying that you have to play in at least 65 games to get any awards, Joel Embiid is basically cooked. He's only played 34 games this season. If he misses five more games, he wins no awards. That includes MVP, All-NBA.

He's basically asked out. But more importantly, how long and how much time is he going to miss? Last night, the Sixers were taking on the Golden State Warriors in the Bay.

They lost 119 to 107. Joel Embiid left late in the game, four minutes left. He dove for a loose ball. He dove for the ball. Jonathan Kumenga, he dove right on top of his leg. Take a listen to this. This is from TNT.

A great deal of pain here, excellent defense by Kumenga. Oh, landed right on his leg, probably hyperextended. Yeah, it is a hyperextension.

That's exactly what it is. And if you're not familiar with a hyperextension, let's be honest. Your knee typically bends one way. And your heel towards the back of your knee at a 90-degree angle, you can bring it up more than that. But when your toe starts pointing out further and your knee goes back, that's a hyperextension. That's the wrong way. And so he had his leg extended out straight in the ground, and Kumenga basically fell on his leg. Think about it like a WWE move.

And I don't even want to think about having that much pressure where your knee goes the wrong damn way. But that's what happened with Joel Embiid. And so the update as of right now is that Joel Embiid is not going to play in Utah in the Sixers next game on Thursday. And so I think at this point in time, Joel Embiid, let's be real here. He has had a series of injuries throughout his entire career. Joel Embiid was drafted in 2014, missed the first two years of his career with foot issues. He has had a ridiculous amount of injuries. And I just saw Joel Embiid up close and personal here in Atlanta, Georgia, watched him warm up.

I watched him play. And it is ridiculous how good he is given and granted his size. Joel Embiid is more than seven feet tall. Joel Embiid is a heavy individual.

He is a big dude. But when he's out there on the basketball court, he can move around. He kind of moves at his own pace. He's not fast, but he's quick. And there's a reason that he's MVP.

People cannot handle him on the inside. He can shoot. He can move. He's become a much, much better passer and facilitator, even with Tyrese Maxey, and especially now that James Harden is gone and he's out in Los Angeles. But the bugaboo for Joel Embiid, the bugaboo for him and his entire career as he moves forward is his body. How is he going to hold up? I'm expecting Joel Embiid to get better, his body to hold up better as he gets older.

He's going to turn 30 years old in March. The 76ers need to strike while the iron is hot. And they can go ahead and stay through the regular season. We need him for the postseason because let's be real. What the hell else is there for Joel Embiid to do? He has improved from early on in his career. We've seen Joel Embiid crying after playoff victories. And last season we saw him cry after he won an MVP as he was surrounded by his family. Seven time All-Star, two time scoring champion, MVP.

What more could you want but a title? And a matter of fact, you want to talk about his body? The fact that he's had a sore knee and dealing with swelling? His head coach Nick Nurse said, well, before we played Golden State, yeah, he missed the past two games, but he's feeling good. Obviously medical cleared him.

Joel obviously is a big part of that. He said he was feeling good. He said he's more a little rusty and he hadn't been on the court for five days. But he said he felt good. Yeah, he felt good.

And I know there are a lot of people that were upset. A matter of fact, the NBA is investigating the 76ers because of Joel Embiid missing that big Saturday primetime game in rivalry week against Nikola Jokic. Okay, it was like Joel Embiid went out there to warm up.

He did not feel good. And they said, all right, we're not playing. Joel Embiid hasn't played in Denver against Jokic in years. And we know East goes West one time and vice versa.

East Coast, West Coast teams play each other once and that's all she writes. And so unfortunately, we didn't see that match up, even though Joel Embiid just won the last game. And so injuries are the name of the game when it comes to this dude.

And I don't expect it to improve as he ages up. Nick Nurse continued on talking about Joel Embiid and his injury and he says, you know what? Yeah, he hyperextended his knee. His knee was swollen. He had knee soreness. His knees sound like they're my knees.

My knees hurt all the damn time. But Nick Nurse says, no, it's not related. Obviously, he got landed on. So they're going to do an MRI tonight or tomorrow. It's kind of unrelated to what's been bothering him.

So we just wait on that. Yeah, so he probably saw the play. He was laying there and he got landed on. Yeah, unrelated.

But it sucks. First of all, a little reckless there by Jonathan Kamenga. Just flying all over the place. Yeah, you want your guys to go out there and play hard. I'm not insinuating that it was a dirty play. I don't think it was dirty. I just think it was a little reckless. You had no idea that like Joel Embiid was on the ground. You had no idea that a human being was there. I know these dudes, they want to die for the ball.

And maybe we go shoulder to shoulder and I push you out the way. He kind of threw himself a little blindly onto the ground and he hurt another dude. The biggest dude out on the floor in Joel Embiid. And so now I would expect, to be honest, I don't think we're going to see Joel Embiid for a few weeks. I wouldn't be shocked if we don't see Joel Embiid maybe until after the All-Star game. I don't know.

Maybe I'm wrong. The All-Star game is supposed to take place in Indianapolis on the 18th of this month. Or excuse me, next month.

I'm trying not to fast forward to February. What's the rush here with Joel Embiid? You want the man healthy for the postseason. You want a Joel Embiid who will help you go out there and win a title. There's nothing else for the Sixers to do.

Yeah, they're on a little bit of a skid right now. But if Joel Embiid isn't even healthy by the time you get to the playoffs, the Sixers definitely got no chance. And I know with the NBA's new rules, if a player is healthy, he has to go out there and play.

I guess for the benefit of the Sixers, Joel Embiid is naturally going to get hurt. The man has never played more than 70 games. Never played more than 70. Last season, when Joel Embiid won the MVP, he played 66 games.

The year before that, 68. He doesn't even pass 70. He's a low to handle when he actually plays, though. Why is it important to have him out there? Well, let's take a listen to Draymond Green, who, by the way, had to defend this man yesterday before he got hurt. And Draymond just talked about how tough it is to just put a stop to this man. You don't lock a player like Joel Embiid down. You try to make it tough, and he either make it or miss it.

And you live with those results. I think one thing we did a good job of is not putting him on the free throw line. You know, he's an animal and very tough to guard. So if you're putting him on the free throw line and allowing him to get a rhythm, you have no chance. And so I thought we did a good job of defending him without fouling.

But like I said, it's a total team effort. There's never going to be one guy that's going to shut Joel down. And more times than not, there won't be a team that will be able to shut him down. Yeah, the only thing that shuts Joel Embiid down is his own body. Shut him down on his way into the league as he gets older and approaches 30 and goes past 30.

I don't think it's going to be something that improves. It would be awesome to see Joel Embiid win a championship and win a title. I just don't see it happening. Not with the Sixers team and not with a center who can't stay on the floor. Not with a center who can't play not even 70 games. And Joel Embiid, yeah, he didn't get shut down yesterday by the Golden State Warriors, but they did make it tough for him. A guy coming off of a sore knee, missing the past two games. Joel Embiid last night, only 14 points with eight turnovers before Jonathan Kuminga ended his night with that knee injury. Joel Embiid going back to Philadelphia to be reevaluated. He will not play on Thursday. And I think at minimum, Joel Embiid is going to be out a couple of weeks.

Let's see. It's the J.R. sport re-show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. So much going on in the NBA. We have the All-Star game coming in a few weeks. We have the NBA draft, which has now been expanded to two days. Yes, the NBA draft will be two days. LeBron James is looking pretty miserable.

He looked miserable here in Atlanta last night against the Hawks. We got Hawks rumors and trades. There's a lot to discuss on the other side of the break. We're going to talk to someone qualified to talk about it all. Joining us from CBS Sports HQ is John Gonzalez.

I'm going to ask him everything that we just discussed and get his insight. Don't move. Here on CBS Sports Radio. When the whole family comes together to watch the game, nobody wants to miss a second of the action to run to the grocery store. With Instacart, you can get all your weekly groceries in as fast as an hour.

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Oh, sorry. One retired quarterback returns to claim what's his. Um, that's claim a ring with diamonds made from M&M's peanut butter.

But you're on a roll. The Ring of Comfort, coming soon to a Super Bowl New Year. You're listening to the J.R. Sportbrief on CBS Sports Radio. It is the J.R. Sportbrief show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. Right before we went to break, we talked about Joel Embiid not going to Utah, but going back to Philadelphia to get his knee examined after Jonathan Kuminga decided to take a dive into it last night out in San Francisco. There's a lot going on in the NBA outside, of Joel Embiid's injury on the heels of the NBA trade deadline.

In a few weeks, we have the All-Star Game. We got players griping about money. What else is new?

Money officiating trades. There's a lot going on. So to discuss it, we're bringing on someone certainly qualified to do so. Joining us right now is John Gonzalez from CBS Sports and CBS Sports HQ. Knows everything going on with the league and the NBA. John, thank you so much for taking the time to join us.

My name is John Gonzalez. Thanks for taking the time to join us. My man, thanks for having me. Without a shadow of a doubt, when you take a look at what's going on in the Eastern Conference right now, we have the New York Knicks on an eight-game winning streak. Unfortunately, we got the Pacers hitting a little bit of a skid. We have this recent injury to Embiid.

We know about what's going on with the Bucs. I mean, even the Celtics have their concerns, if you ever take a look at Christaps Porzingis. What do you take of the East right now with all of the injuries, the adjustments, and the changes? Crazy time in the East, right? I mean, all of a sudden, I still think the Celtics are clearly the best team in the Eastern Conference.

Their first six are really amazing. You saw what happened last night when they were playing the Pacers. They put up 81 points. The Pacers come back in the second half and give them a real game, but they didn't back down. So I still think the Celtics are the team to beat for sure. They have been all season long.

Now, after that, after that, it's anybody's guess. I mean, you toss the rest of those teams in a bag, pull one out, and if you told me, hey, you know, team X, Y, and Z is going to face the Celtics for the conference championship, I wouldn't be surprised. And I wouldn't also be surprised if one of those teams beat the Celtics before they even got to the conference championship. I think it's that wide open.

John Gonzalez is joining us here at the JR Sport Reshow on CBS Sports Radio. Specifically, as it relates to the 76ers, they've taken a little bit of a dive with no Joel Embiid, losing four straight. They're heading to Utah without him. We know about his injury history.

What are your thoughts? Do they stand a chance even in the postseason? It just seems less and less likely the more that he gets dinged up.

Yeah, it's brutal, right? I mean, I'm from Philly. I covered that team for a very long time.

I covered him since he was a rookie. And it's always this, right? Every year you start to get your hopes up a little bit. Even last year when he was MVP, get your hopes up a little bit.

If you follow the pictures of your Sixers fan, you go, hey, maybe this is the season they finally get out of the second round. And then his injury history pops up. I mean, we saw what happened. He caught a lot of flack for not playing at Denver against Joker. He seems to always, something pops up when they go out there and he hasn't really played in Denver on Joker's floor. But clearly he wasn't right to play in that game. Clearly it was good that they held him out in Portland. And he shouldn't have played last night. When he started to play, there was a moment, I don't know if you saw it, where he went to load up to jump and he just crumpled to the ground.

And still they kept him out there for 30 minutes. And now we're looking at an MRI, who knows how long he's going to be out. And then all of a sudden this once promising season for the Sixers after they get rid of James Harden, now it's back to more of the same. Is Embiid going to be healthy as to how much of the playoffs and can they finally get out of the second round?

And once again, it feels like not looking good. Yeah, I don't want to say pretty bad, but it is bad for the 76ers. I don't have a crystal ball, but I wouldn't be surprised if Joel Embiid even misses the All-Star game.

But hell, what do I know? John Gonzalez, a CBS Sports analyst, is joining us here on CBS Sports Radio. Speaking of the All-Star game, we know it's going to take place in Indianapolis.

Tyrese Halliburton still looks like he's favoring that hamstring just a little bit. What are your thoughts on the All-Star rosters, the release tomorrow? Is there anyone who you think is close or going to miss out? There's so many guards in the East as well.

What do you think is going to take place? So many guards in the East. For sure, I think you're going to get Donovan Mitchell and Jalen Brunson.

And then after that, coin flip. I think Maxey has a case that's deserving. There's a lot of people that would look at the different players. So many guards in the East where you go, I don't know.

Trey Young, last night, he ends up going out and they beat the Lakers. And he's had a good statistical case, but that team is really bad, right? So I think that's where it's going to be really eye of the beholder.

Which one would you rather have? So there's going to be somebody somewhere who's going to be upset. Because that happens every year where somebody gets laughed out and you go, oh, that's going to be a stuff. I think more, though, there's so many players in the Western Conference compared to the Eastern Conference that you're going to go, wow, there's three, four guys who absolutely could have made it in any other year that are going to get laughed out.

Well, Jon, you talk about the West. You talk about the Hawks. Here in Atlanta, LeBron James rolled into town.

Uncompetitive game, terrible game. LeBron James looked absolutely miserable. We saw the Post a couple of hours after the game.

I assume they either stayed in Atlanta or flew out almost two, three in the morning, just sweeting out an hourglass. Is there anything that you believe the Los Angeles Lakers can do to help salvage the season? Is there a move?

What happens? It doesn't look good. I think they're correct.

I really do. I mean, I thought what LeBron said after the game was about right, where he goes, well, what's our record? And the media told him, oh, you're a game under.500.

There's.24 and.25, right? He goes, that's about right. That's what we are. On any given night, the Lakers could beat any other team in the NBA. And then they could lose to some bad teams.

And we've seen that this week. I mean, they had that double overtime thriller where they win in Golden State. They look like they're getting right.

Maybe they've got some momentum at their back. Then they go to Houston and get blown out. They were down 30 at one point.

Then they got to ATL. That's not a good Hawks team. Now, granted, they didn't have Anthony Davis, but the Lakers are not good right now. And, you know, they're talking about adding De'Jaunte Murray if the Hawks would maybe go for it and the Hawks want somebody back who's better than De'Angelo Russell in that deal. And I don't blame them for that, even though De'Angelo has been playing better lately. Even if they can get De'Jaunte Murray. I don't know that that moves the needle for them. Is this team all of a sudden with De'Jaunte Murray appreciably better?

They're still really thin. At present, their third best guy is Austin Reeves. Austin Reeves had a good season last year, played well for Team USA. But I don't know that Austin Reeves can be the third best guy on a team that has championship aspirations.

So I think they're in trouble. CBS Sports NBA analyst John Gonzalez here with us on the air. What trade do you think is most likely to happen? What player in the league is likely to get moved? We saw Rozier get moved to Miami last week. What do you think might happen most likely as we move towards the deadline?

I'm going to go with Bruce Brown just because there's so many teams that could use a Bruce Brown. We saw what happened in the playoffs last year when he had that run to the championship at the Denver Nuggets where he was bringing the ball up at times and switching one through four, sometimes even one through five defensively and giving them a huge spark in all those intangible ways that sometimes don't show up in the box score. Toronto has already made its intentions clear.

They move OG Ananobie. That's worked out for the Knicks. They move Pascal Siakam. I think that's going to continue to work out for the Pacers. Now all of a sudden, what's the incentive for them to keep Bruce Brown around? They have so many suitors. That'd be my guy that I'd think I'd be shocked if he's still on the Raptors after the trade deadline.

It's kind of crazy how fast Tom flies. The NBA trade deadline is next Thursday. I don't know how we got here in February already, but it is upon us. So talk about the West. We know Bruce Brown won that championship with the Nuggets last year. We got what should be an interesting game and matchup tonight. Kevin Durant is back in Brooklyn as the Suns take on the Nets. We know the Bucs are taking on the Trail Blazers.

Damian Lillard are returning, if you want to call it home tonight, to play against the Blazers. What are your thoughts on who emerges out of the West? The Clippers have looked pretty good, but the Suns, I can't believe it when I see Beale and Booker and Durant on the floor at the same time, but maybe they can do it. What do you think about the West? When we were talking about how wide open the East is, I think the same is true of the West. I think if you're going to handicap it, you still have the Denver Nuggets, the defending champions, as the team to be.

As LeClair said, you've got to beat the man to be the man. But beyond that, it's been really bunched up. Tonight you've got Denver at OKC. That's a really tasty matchup. You've got Dallas, who's struggled a little bit lately without Kyrie Irving around. They're going to Minnesota.

Minnesota just picked up a big win at OKC. No doubt they have their doubters, but hey, they've been at the top of the conference all season long. As you mentioned, the Clippers are on the come. The big three for Phoenix, they've been together. This has been one of those seasons where I still think Celtics and the Nuggets are the cream of the crop.

If you absolutely had to pick two. But we've seen as much parity in the NBA this season as we've really seen for a decade now, going back from before the Warriors really started their championship run, their dynasty run. So it's an exciting time for the NBA. Anybody can win it at West. Yeah, we don't have that clear-cut team just expected to just flat win the championship. It's to certainly make things interesting as we move towards the stretch run.

Speaking of the stretch run, as we move towards the stretch run of this conversation, John, I want to talk to you. One thing that we've also seen in the NBA this season, it's not just parity, it's a lot of scoring. Whether it's Luka Doncic or you think about Embiid, it's pretty wild.

And Joe Dumas actually put out a statement actually in an interview. He pretty much said that, hey, we're cool with the scoring. This is the way the game is now. People are launching threes.

And so it doesn't appear that there's going to be any adjustments into the future as of now. What are your thoughts on all the scoring? Yeah, we were just talking about this on CBS today. I like it personally. I mean, look, I'm a child of the 90s, watched the NBA back then, and there was hand-checking and hard fouls and guys, you know, fake fighting. This is more fun, right?

And also, not for nothing, it's content. What are we doing? We're talking about it right now. We're going, man, did you see the Celtics put up 81 and a half last night? You know, every team that plays the Lakers can get 130 on any night whenever they want. It's fun. I've enjoyed it. Prior to last week, you had three games in NBA history, three days in NBA history, where you had two guys go for 60 or more on the same night. You had two of those days last week when you had Embiid go for 70 and Kakko for 62 and then Booker go for 62 and Luka go for 73.

I enjoy it. Now, you also have to remember, once we get to the playoffs, that's got to tighten up, too, right? Because those games get scrappy, they carry on added weight. Regular season is a little bit different than the playoffs, so I think a lot of people starting their head in awe and threat overall is too many points. That's going to change once we get to the postseason. Oh, yeah, teams are going to hunker down. The players will actually look interested out there. What are your thoughts?

This is a final question for you. What are you thinking about the All-Star game? They've changed up the format. We back to east versus west. We got a straightaway fourth quarter. That's time. Do you think we're going to see a more competitive game or are we going to be disappointed, not just with that Sunday, but maybe the whole weekend again?

I've kind of given up on, like, expecting some big fireworks out of All-Star weekend. It's an exhibition. You know, you're going to have these contests. You've got Steph going against Sabrina Ionescu in that three-point contest. I think that could be fun.

Who knows what you're going to get out of the dunk contest? It used to be the preeminent flag pole, tent pole event. The game itself, though, that's never been good. That's been bad forever. So, you know, they had that U.M.

ending where nobody could ever figure it out. I think it just kind of makes sense to go back to east versus west. We're going to time it. Nobody's going to play defense. Everybody's going to grumble about it. We're back to the regular shoes and hat.

Yeah, it sounds like a good deal. Oh, I lied. Final question for you. Any hope for the Eagles to turn things around? As you say, you're a Philly guy. What's the deal there? You know what? I'm taking a sabbatical from the Eagles.

I'm in my office right now talking to you. There's Eagles stuff all over. I might pack it up for the summer, just put it in a box somewhere and forget about it. I think everybody needs a mental health break from that team.

We'll revisit it in the summer. Oh, my goodness. You've quit on the Eagles. Oh, my God. I need a timeout. It's the last time of this. Okay. Well, good on you, John.

You don't got to think about the Eagles. You're strictly NBA. Where can people follow you, John, and all of your coverage for the NBA with CBS? Yeah, I'm on CBS Sports HQ frequently.

We've got a new podcast coming out that people can be on the lookout for that'll also be on our CBS Sports slash NBA website coming up here with Bill Reiter and Ashley Nicole Boss. And then you can follow me on Twitter at John Gonzalez. Hey, John, thank you so much for taking the time to join us. And let's see what happens the rest of this year, man. And I'll bug you about the Eagles later on this year, okay?

All right, please do. Thanks for having me. Thank you so much, that John Gonzalez, NBA analyst for CBS Sports.

Thank you again, John, for hopping on to take some time with us. It's the JR Sportbree show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. At the top of the hour, I'm going to deliver to you a top six list. We're going to talk some quarterbacks in the NFL. We got a week and a half before we get to the Super Bowl. But I'm going to take a deep dive over the past 25 years and really take a look at some of the best of the best at the most important position out of anybody in sports, and that's quarterbacks.

That top six is coming at the top of the hour on the other side of the break, coming off of this conversation we just had with John. LeBron James is complaining about his team. Tyrese Halliburton is complaining. We got Anthony Edwards complaining. Is there anybody that's happy in the NBA? I guess not. We're going to hear from Halliburton and hear from Anthony Edwards.

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Yeah, Graybar does that. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. It is the JR Sport Brief show here on CBS Sports Radio. I think Anthony Edwards and Tyrese Halliburton, I think they want to call their accountants, but I'll feel you on that momentarily. I want you to know this, you should think O'Reilly Auto Parts for all of your car care needs. You can get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts.

Think O'Reilly Auto Parts. 855-2124 CBS is the number at the top of the hour and about 15 minutes from now, I'm going to share with you a new top six list because that's what I do on Wednesdays. I'm going to talk to you about the top six quarterbacks in the NFL over the last 25 years. It was easy to kind of narrow it down at the top with the kind of back end of the list.

Man, I had to go kind of back and forth on that one. We'll talk about that at the top of the hour about 15 minutes from now. Before we went to break, I want to say a big old thank you to John Gonzalez, CBS Sports NBA analyst for joining us as we took a look at really what's going on in the NBA right now. Joel Embiid, hurt again, has been dealing with knee soreness and knee swelling.

And then another human being, Jonathan Kumenga, fell on his leg. Joel Embiid is going back to Philadelphia to be evaluated. And we have no idea when we will see this man play basketball again.

I would assume, you know, probably a couple of weeks. We also got into what the deal or what's the deal with LeBron James and the Lakers. They certainly have not looked good.

Last night here in Atlanta, they got smacked around, uncompetitive game. LeBron James afterwards are pretty pretty miserable, not necessarily even having a message to his teammates, but show up and do your job. And we'll get into that later on in the show. But let's let's actually take a look at some of the younger guns. And a few minutes ago at the open of this break, I told you that you have Anthony Edwards and Tyrese Halliburton, who maybe probably want to make some calls to their accountants.

And why is that? We know NBA players, they make bucket loads of money. A matter of fact, Tyrese Halliburton is already signed to a Supermax extension.

It doesn't kick in until next year. It can be worth it where it is worth two hundred and four million dollars, but it could be worth two hundred and forty five million dollars if Tyrese Halliburton makes the all NBA team this year. Now, if you've watched Tyrese Halliburton this year, he's been a nut.

This man can go out onto the basketball court. And we know this is a world where the offense has exploded. But Halliburton can have a game where he just goes twenty twenty, not on rebounds, but with assists.

Tyrese Halliburton is a freak of nature and he should be leading the charge. But the Pacers at the All-Star break, which is going to take place in Indianapolis, excuse me, Indianapolis. It's a lot of I's and A's and D's and A's and O's.

So many damn vows in Indianapolis. It took me a minute to get it out there. Anyway, Halliburton has been center stage. He's having an All-Star worthy season. He's scheduled to start in the All-Star game should his hamstring be healthy. And we know about a month ago, while he was on this ridiculous tear, he strained his hamstring. He slipped.

He did the splits. And he's had to miss time. So Tyrese Halliburton, which you could probably say right now is the best point guard, at least passing point guard, efficient point guard in the NBA. He's only played in thirty five of the Pacers forty eight games.

And if you know the new rules in the NBA, trying to encourage the players to go out and play and be active. Tyrese Halliburton has to play sixty five games to be eligible for all NBA awards, all NBA teams. And the fact is, Tyrese Halliburton, he could be missing out on all of this if he doesn't make the marker. So Tyrese Halliburton is not happy at all that he is only four games away from being an all NBA player, which he would have been if he played.

He's going to miss out on approximately 40 million dollars. And Halliburton was asked about this rule and he told the athletic, I think it's a stupid rule, like plenty of the guys in the league, but this is what the owners want. So as players, we got to do our job and play in sixty five games if we're able to. So that's what I got to do.

Take care of my body to be able to play in those games. And I think you're seeing other players in the league kind of face the same thing as long as the owners are happy. Well, if you're not happy with that, then I think you should take it up with the union. I would assume that this is something that the union would have had to agree to or maybe not. We know the last extension for the CBA took place more than a year ago, and these new rules were voted on by the owners as recently as this past offseason. So I'd be real interested to see what input the players association has in this. But I think it is true. I mean, you ain't going broke by missing out on 40 million dollars when you're scheduled to make 200.

OK, sure, that's a portion of the tax money, but even with taxes, I think you will be just fine. Tyrese Halliburton. And let's also be real. This is probably going to be his first supermax contract. Wouldn't shock me that by the time his career is all said and done, that Tyrese Halliburton is someone who could make close to a billion dollars if he stays healthy.

Tyrese Halliburton was born in the year 2000. Come on. He got plenty of time to make money at 23 years old, but he's not the only upset. I don't want to say sad. This guy wasn't sad.

He was quite ticked off the other day. Anthony Edwards, not a happy camper. Oklahoma City Thunder, Minnesota Timberwolves, the Minnesota Timberwolves actually end up winning the basketball game. Anthony Edwards still wasn't happy. Anthony Edwards drove to the basket.

Big old slam dunk at the end of the game. Anthony Edwards took his time to let the officials know that he wasn't happy. And then after the game, Anthony Edwards took it a step further in his postgame interview on the court with Bally Sports North. Anthony Edwards let everybody know how he felt about the officials and Anthony Edwards also knew by opening up his mouth that a fine was likely going to come his way. Take a listen to this.

How did you get it done in this environment? I don't know. I don't know. And I'm gonna take the fine because the refs did not give us no calls tonight. We had to play through every bump, every grab.

I don't know. I don't know how we won tonight. Big shout out to my team.

Big shout out to my coaches for sure. He finished the game with 27 points. He had a big dunk late in the game. He felt he was grabbed and they didn't give him a call.

And so he was not happy about that. We know that he complained a couple of weeks ago about Shaquille Alexander and his ability to get to the line. In that game in particular, he finished with 37 points. He went to the free throw line 16 times. In that game, Oklahoma City, they went to the free throw line 22 times.

Minnesota went 15. So I don't know if he had the best, you know, kind of, you know, stats or backup to his point. But the criticism? He was correct. He will take the fine. The fine is and was forty thousand dollars.

So, hey, publicly critical of the officials. He gets kind of punched in the wallet just a little bit. Anthony Edwards also someone if he can stay healthy enough in the NBA.

He can go out there and clock almost a billion dollars in salary if he can play, you know, deep into his 30s. So I'm not too worried about Anthony Edwards and you know what his his wallet looks like. So I'm sure he made a nice call to his accountant.

I'm sure it's been done. And that is a small, small drop in the bucket for the man who was probably has a television on his wall that costs much more than that. Hey, Hickey, any any opposition to the fine?

Only 40K criticizing officials? No big deal, right? No, no big deal. I think he'll be OK. Just like David Tepper with his fine. They'll live. Oh, yeah.

Just throw a little drinky drink on somebody. Was it three hundred thousand dollars? Yes, sir. And David Tepper is worth what less? Is it 20 bill or am I being cheap here? I know. I think that sounds about right.

Yeah. The 20 billion dollars net worth. What's the three hundred thousand dollars going to do? Just I guess you can't buy a Bentley that week. Maybe anyway.

Buy Bentley every day of the week if he wanted to. It's the J.R. sport reshow here with you on CBS Sports Radio. We are going to take a break when we come back on the other side of said break. It's time to get back into some NFL talk. Yeah, we got a week and a half to talk Super Bowl. But I want to talk about a bunch of dudes who have won Super Bowls quite a bit. I want to take a look at the top six quarterbacks in the NFL over the past 25 years. We're going to do that right here on CBS Sports Radio. It's the J.R. sport reshow. A peanut butter M&M's production in a world where Super Bowl winners get the world's admiration and a fancy ring.

But the runners up get nothing. One retired cop. That's one retired quarterback. Read the script.

Oh, sorry. One retired quarterback returns to claim what's his. That's claim a ring with diamonds made from M&M's peanut butter.

But you're on a roll. The Ring of Comfort coming soon to a Super Bowl. For details. Hyundai. There's joy in every journey. Twenty twenty four Santa Fe available early twenty twenty four. Nobody wants a surprise in their jelly donut.

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