JR SportBrief Hour 3

The Sultan of Sizzle. The Titan of Toastiness. The Kingpin of Kindling.

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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 returns. That's one retired quarterback. Read the script.

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 you. It is the J.R. sport brief show here on CBS Sports Radio. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia.

Super producer and host Ryan Hickey. He is joining us live from New York City. Thank you to everybody listening on the free Odyssey app, your local CBS Sports Radio affiliates. You can tune in on CBS Sports Radio dot com. Yeah, you can go to the website and listen. Sirius XM 158. If you have a smart speaker, got one of those Alexa, Amazon, Siri's, Google, whatever the heck you got.

Just get its attention and say, hey, play CBS Sports Radio. I appreciate you. This show gets started every single weekday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. This is halftime of the show.

Two hours down, two more to go. We've had some damn good guests. First of all, thank you so much to Mark Schlereth. Three times Super Bowl champion, multiple time Pro Bowler helped make way for John Elway and Terrell Davis. And now he's an analyst for the NFL.

He took time on his birthday, by the way. He came by and gave us his perspective on all the coaching changes in the NFL. We talked about the fact that Bill Belichick realistically might not coach this year. Dave Canales is moving on from offensive coordinator with the Buccaneers. He's now going to be leading the way as head coach of the Carolina Panthers and trying to fix Bryce Young. And then we talked about Raheem Morris, Raheem Morris, a former defensive coordinator for the Los Angeles Rams.

Raheem Morris is moving on. He's going to be the head coach of the Falcons. And he did coach the Falcons at one point on an interim basis after the firing of Dan Quinn.

And then we had another guest. Thank you so much to Jake Butt. Jake Butt played for the Michigan Wolverines.

He played in the NFL for the Denver Broncos. And he talked to us about the changes at Michigan post Jim Harbaugh, as well as what he expects to be the positive changes for the Los Angeles Chargers with Jim Harbaugh at the helm. So it's been a busy day. It's been a busy afternoon, a busy evening for all of us here at CBS Sports Radio. If you want to participate in the show, it's very, very simple. You can call up. It's 855-212-4CBS. That's 855-212-4CBS. I am also everywhere online.

That's X slash Twitter and Facebook and IG. If you're a creep and you want to look at pictures, I am there at JR Sport Brief. We're going to talk more football as the night continues on. I'd be remiss amongst all of the coaching talk and the hirings and the firings. If I didn't take some time to discuss what just took place in the NBA. No, there were no firings.

Nobody else got the boot. Draymond Green did not get suspended. But the NBA just released its All-Star starters for its All-Star game this season, which is it's bananas to think about. The All-Star game is going to take place next month, February 18th in Indianapolis. And the starters were announced and I can go ahead and share with you some of those names right now, this very second. So the shock of absolutely no one, LeBron James is an All-Star.

And why is, you know what, a matter of fact, I'll get some more of that. Let me just give you the starters and then tell you about the record that LeBron James broke. So, Shay Gilgus Alexander, All-Star starter representing the Oklahoma City Thunder. Kevin Durant is going to make his 14th All-Star appearance. Luka Doncic, crazy to think he's been around this long.

I guess he has. And we'll get to him because he's a whiny cry baby. Luka Doncic making his fifth All-Star appearance. That's for the West. Luka, Shay Gilgus Alexander, LeBron James and Kevin Durant.

And then you can't forget about the center, right? Reigning NBA Finals MVP, Nikola Jokic at center. And then for the East, the man of the hour, Tyrese Halliburton starting for the All-Star team this year.

Game will take place in Indianapolis. Damian Lillard makes it as a starter from the Milwaukee Bucks. Giannis Atetokounmpo makes it to his eighth All-Star game. Jason Tatum back in the All-Star game as well.

No shock to any living human being there. And then Joel Embiid. Not really a surprise when you are the reigning MVP. And you just dropped 70 points on Monday. And so those are your NBA All-Star starters for both the East and the Western Conference.

The game, as I mentioned, will take place on February 18th. Now, here is some record-breaking news. LeBron James now has appeared or will appear in more All-Star games than any human being in NBA history. This is his 20th All-Star appearance.

He is breaking another tie. We know about a year ago, he broke and surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the most points all-time in the NBA. And now LeBron James just broke another tie with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar when it comes down to NBA All-Star appearances. And so we have the starters that are set.

This is going to be the 66th edition, or excuse me, this will be the 67th edition of the NBA All-Star game. And we're going to find out who the reserves are next week. You know, some of the names of people who are probably maybe potentially going to join the team. You got Jalen Brunson of the New York Knicks. I know there's a huge kind of push to get him on. Trae Young did not make it as a starter. It'll be interesting to see if he makes it with how bad the Hawks have been sub.500. Jalen Brown likely to make the team. Donovan Mitchells, Devin Booker, Kawhi Leonard, etc. We're going to find out the reserves next week. The reserves will be voted on by the coaches. And when it comes to the starters that I just named, they're voted on by 50 percent or it's weighted 50 percent of fans, 25 percent of the players vote.

And then you also have the other 25 percent, which is made up of the media. A matter of fact, the Boston Celtics are playing the Miami Heat right now in Miami. Terry Rozier is making his debut for the Miami Heat.

See what he's doing. He already has four points. Boston leads 34 to 23. And Jason Tatum is out there on the floor. Someone expected to help take these Celtics to a championship.

He has eight points. And before the game, TNT caught up with Jason Tatum in the locker room before everything got started. And Jason Tatum talked about why it is still special to be named an All-Star. You never want to take it for granted, right?

It's 450 guys in the league. And for the fans to, you know, consistently vote me, you know, it's truly an honor and something I don't take for granted, right? You know, I grew up wanting to be an All-Star weekend every year. And to live out that dream in real time is, you know, it's pretty cool. So I'm very grateful and thankful for that and excited. Yeah, good.

It's good. I enjoy watching Tatum play. He's just he's not seven feet tall like a Kevin Durant. He's not a traditional shooting guard in regards to he's 6'5", 6'6". He's 6'8". He reminds me of a slightly less athletic Tracy McGrady from his movements, his shot selection.

If he was high flying a little bit more, you know, I'd say he's reminds me really of Tracy McGrady. But Jason Tatum is one of my favorite players to watch in the NBA, especially up close in person. This is Jason Tatum's fifth All-Star appearance. Someone else making his fifth All-Star appearance is Luka Doncic. And we know the NBA has pretty much exploded from an international perspective. OK, it is bananas when you think about some of the international players who will be participating in the All-Star game. You have the Giannis Atetokounmpos, you have Nikolai Jokic, a Joel Embiid.

I know he's going to be representing Team USA in the Olympics, but he is originally from Cameroon. And so the game continues to grow and Luka Doncic is here as well. And we're going to get into Luka Doncic and some of his let's call them personal issues. But Luka Doncic was just in studio minutes ago with TNT talking about his fifth All-Star appearance. And he talked about why it's special to make the All-Star team.

Listen to Luka on TNT. Every time I'm there, you know, I remember when I was a kid, I always tried to watch the All-Star game, but they wouldn't let me. My parents would let me. It was like 3 a.m. I had this cool. I just wanted to be an NBA.

That's all. First year, I didn't know what to expect, where I'm going to be. But I was just happy to be here and to play basketball at the highest level. It's happy to be here and play basketball at the highest level. Well, next next break, we'll talk about that, because when Luke is playing basketball, to be honest, he he doesn't appear all that happy. I mean, he's one of the NBA's best players, one of their best point guards. But throughout the course of the game, he's quite miserable. I'll explain next break about how Luka had a a fan tossed from the game last night in Dallas and how he even seemed pretty miserable with a particular member of the media after the game.

But we'll get into that. The All-Star game, I must tell you, is also going to be a little different than past years. This season, traditional East West format.

We're not going to have dudes voting on teams for the past six years. We've had the look at the NBA All-Star game as kind of like Streetball captains. LeBron James was your top vote getter. And for the past six seasons, LeBron James has been one of the captains. Giannis was a captain. It seems like three other times.

Steph Curry and then also, I think, Kevin Durant one other time. That is out of the window. No captains, traditional East versus West. And then at the end of the game, where we've had a target score for the winner, that's out the window as well. We're going to have a traditional game. It'll be all four quarters, 12 minutes. And then if we go to overtime, we go to overtime. And damn it, I hope that we do. The NBA has really been trying to emphasize that the All-Stars go out and try to play in the game.

Don't just coast through the game. Joe Dumars, who now is pretty much the enforcer in charge of the NBA under Adam Silver. Joe Dumars says, man, when you turn on an NBA All-Star game, I think people expect to see some competition.

And Joe Dumars official title league executive vice president and head of basketball operations and last year's All-Star game. Sucked. It was one of the lowest All-Star games, least watched, least viewed All-Star games in NBA history. Only four point six people. Not four point six, excuse me, four point six million people tuned in to watch the damn game. That's that's pathetic.

And so I'm very interested to see what it looks like in Indianapolis. Congratulations to LeBron James once again for breaking another record. He has more All-Star appearances than anyone else in NBA history. And just to have 20 All-Star appearances flattened period, there have only been a few other players in sports period in professional sports who've had that many All-Star appearances. And they played in other sports. Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Stan the Man Museum. These are the only individuals to have played and been an All-Star in 20 different seasons.

Also the great Gordie Howe. Hey, Ryan, are you a fan of the NBA All-Star game? Have you enjoyed it? It has lost some of the pizzazz, man. It's not just the dunk contest that's lost it. The All-Star game is typically been second rate. I have not been into it. I'm not a big All-Star game like the actual game itself. I like baseball because baseball is really the only one you could still try because it's kind of impossible not to. But like football, I mean, even at the Pro Bowl, I know it's not going on or it's flag football. But even if it was going on, never cared about that. Hockey, same thing.

NBA, same thing. I'll probably put it on, to be honest. It's my job, so I'll watch. But I'm not carving out, let's say, Sunday night to say All-Star game is on.

Got to watch it. Yeah, it's lost some of the juice. I mean, years ago, we've seen some competitive matchups. But to even think about it, some of the competitive matchups are from like 20 years ago. I remember there was one All-Star game that ended with Allen Iverson and Stephon Marbury helping to lead the way back for the East. And that sounds so long ago because it is. I mean, the players kind of sleepwalk through things. All-Star Saturday night with the dunk contest.

The life has been sucked out of that one. To be honest, who won the dunk contest last year? It was the white guy from the G League, right?

He wasn't even really an NBA player. Oh, good. I honestly totally forgot. You're right. Mac McClung.

Good call. Yeah, I don't even remember the guy's name because he's not even in the NBA. The NBA has a pluck a dude out of the G League to help put on a good dunk contest.

So, pretty bad. I couldn't tell you who won a three-point contest. I heard a rumor that the Giants' 7-foot-4 Victor Wenbanyama out of San Antonio is going to participate in the Skills competition.

So, that might be something worth watching, but you can catch it on social media. So, let's see what the NBA does with this All-Star game knowing that there are going to be some changes. We're back to the traditional East versus West format. We don't have players operating as captains, you know, picking guys like they were on the street.

I appreciate that. And then we're getting away from this Elam ending where you have a target score to win the game. It's going to be traditional. They're going to be four quarters. You're going to have 12 minutes. You'll have an opportunity to beat the team in all four.

And if you're tied up, you just go straight into overtime. Congratulations to the NBA All-Star starters. Once again, Nikola Jokic, Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Shea Gilgas, Alexander Lukadancic representing the West, Tyrese Halliburton representing the Pacers.

The game will take place in Indianapolis. Damian Lillard, Giannis, Jason Tatum, and Joel Embiid are your East starters. Next Thursday, we find out who the coaches vote in as reserves. It's the JR Sport Brief Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio.

We're going to take a break. And on the other side, I have to talk about one All-Star starter in particular in Luka Doncic. I wonder if they're going to put Crybaby on the back of his jersey because that's what the hell he seems like. I'm going to explain what he did to a fan last night. And then we'll also hear from Luka as minutes ago, he just spoke to the NBA on TNT Crew.

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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 returns. That's one retired quarterback. Read the script.

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. Ring of Comfort, coming soon to a Super Bowl new you. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. It's the JR Sport Brief show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. I want you to know that this portion of the show is sponsored by the new Hyundai Tucson, available with complimentary class-leading Blue Link Plus. Now, it's easy to use your phone to control your Tucson. 855-212-4CBS. That's 855-212-4CBS. Speaking of control, right before we went to break, I shared with you the news and the NBA All-Star starters.

You can always hit rewind on the free Odyssey app. LeBron James, God bless him, he has now made his record 20th NBA All-Star game, the first due to hit 20 in NBA history. Dare I remind you, the NBA has been around for what now? 76?

77 years? And LeBron James has been to 20 All-Star games. He just broke a tie with Kareem at 19. Now having said that, we have an individual in the NBA who is only making his fifth All-Star game.

He's going to be 25 years old next month. He is the Dallas Mavericks starting guard. He is also a starter for the West in the All-Star game next month.

It's Luka Doncic. There's no disputing how great and how amazing of a player that he is. This is someone who at the point guard position is big as hell. He's not the most athletic dude in the world.

He's coming over from Europe and he is a bully. He is second in the NBA in scoring right now to only Joel Embiid who's averaging 36, 37 points a game. Luka is giving you 33 points, 9 rebounds, and 9 assists. What Luka is also giving you is complaints. What Luka is also giving you is an earful if you happen to be an NBA referee.

Luka Doncic has been unhinged. He has nine technical fouls so far this season. He's tied with Bobby Portis who they call Crazy Eyes. And he's also tied with Trae Young for second in text this season. The guy who has the most technical fouls to the surprise of nobody is Dylan Brooks.

Which, excuse me, is Dylan Brooks who they nicknamed, or he's given himself the nickname Dylan the Villain. And Luka Doncic last night didn't just complain to the referees about the play on the court, the lack of fouls. Last night, Luka Doncic decided to argue about a fan. Last night, the Dallas Mavericks, they took on the Phoenix Suns.

They went out there and they lost. And Luka, well, Luka was upset with a fan in Dallas who happened to have a Phoenix Suns jersey on. Who reportedly was arguing or yelling at Luka, heckling him throughout the night. And then, Luka had enough. Luka Doncic basically had this fan ejected for saying, well, you're looking kind of out of shape there.

Get your fat ass on a treadmill, dare I paraphrase. Luka Doncic had the fan ejected. And the person who decided to report this was Tim McMahon. Tim McMahon has covered the Dallas Mavericks for several years now. He covers them for ESPN and Tim McMahon reported this. So after the game, after the loss, Tim McMahon asked Luka Doncic about why he had the fan ejected. And Luka went right back at Tim McMahon. And he was just like, well, he did more than tell my fat ass to get on a treadmill.

He was cursing me out all game long. But he didn't disclose what and why. This is an interesting interaction.

This is Luka Doncic and Tim McMahon going back and forth about why Luka had enough and gave a fan the boot. I know I saw you when you said about the fan, you know. That was not a true-all. That was not the only thing he said. But I knew you would be the first one to point out something like that. Because I'm not going to say what he said, but I knew you were going to be the first one to put out something like that.

So I just saw it, man. It's just funny. You always seem to be the first one to put some bad stuff about me.

First of all, 99% of the stuff I've written about you has been good. I don't know. I was sitting two rows behind us. All right. So it was the only thing. That time he said something?

The only thing? That was what you reacted to. Yeah. I was hearing the whole first half, right?

Or you didn't hear anything? It was definitely all or nothing. Okay.

There we go. You put out something that was just the only thing. What was the final straw?

What was the final issue? It's not the issue. I'm just saying you seem to be the first one to always put something bad about me. It's fine.

It's all over. Why did you ask for the fan to be ejected? Because he was cursing me the whole first half, too. Why didn't you ask for Logan to be ejected in the first half then? Because I never would have jacked a fan.

They pay for tickets. But I had enough, you know. It's a little bit of frustration. You turned your head and looked over at him after he said that. That's, I mean, that's what we saw. Yeah, that's fine. The bad guy in the media, right? It's all right.

You don't think you're unfairly portrayed in the media? No. Oh, man. I love it. Beef.

Ryan, I love beef, man. I love it. Like, I understand. Nikola Jokic made it very clear. He said so much more to prompt the ejection. Luka also said he got frustrated. He had enough and he had the fan thrown out. And so I guess the question that everybody wants to know is, what else did he say?

What did he say that was so damn bad? I don't think telling him, hey, man, you're out of shape. Go hit the treadmill.

Get your ass on the treadmill. I don't think that's the worst thing. Is it obnoxious? Yes, it's obnoxious. But is it the worst thing?

I don't think so. I mean, if you're Luka Doncic, if you are an MVP caliber player in the NBA, just suck it up and go play. Go bust ass on a basketball court. Are you taking your frustrations at losing to the Phoenix Suns? Are you now putting that on the fan?

How about this? If Luka Doncic was out there and the Dallas Mavericks were on their way to winning the game and Luka was absolutely on fire, would Luka Doncic be ejecting the fan? Or would he be knocking down the shots and pointing at him to shut up and sit down? You know, for all the crap that Reggie Miller got from the fans at Madison Square Garden, I never saw Reggie Miller, who was hated in Madison Square Garden.

You might have had to respect him, but he was hated. I never saw Reggie Miller say, hey, Spike Lee and that nobody up the road got to go. I think Luka is being soft. What do you think, Ryan?

I'm with you 100 percent. Again, we don't know what exactly was said. So maybe the ejection, after all, was warranted. But if not, if it wasn't, you know, there's a line, right? If it wasn't one of the magic words that everyone would would would condemn.

I mean, it saw Delfish off by Luka. I get if you're security, you got to probably just take his lead and not ask a lot of questions. But soft by security for ejecting a guy that's sitting there just trying to chirp like it's part of the game. Again, there is a line to be respectful.

Absolutely. And there's things you can't say. But if it's in the realm of, hey, you look a little slow, work out more, get on a treadmill, whatever. Like, come on, man. Like you can't allow that chirping to get in your head.

It's it's a loser mentality from Luka Doncic. Yeah, we know the NBA is is so much different. You can sit near home plate off the first base line, third base. You could be near the on deck circle and you could yell at the at the players. You know, I've seen Bryce Harper get chirp that and chirp back and then hit a home run.

And that's how you answer. You know, in hockey, unless you're sitting near the bench or the, you know, the penalty boxes, it's hard to have an interaction with the players, let alone when they're playing. They're just moving around too fast behind that glass to have that interaction in the NFL. I mean, you really have to be at the bench or be running towards the end zones to to have an interaction with the fans. But at the NBA, the players or the fans are right on top of them. And so last night, the Suns, the final score was 132 to 109.

That's an ass whooping. Kyrie Irving did not play in the game. Luka Doncic, he had 34 points. He was 11 or 24. He didn't have a bad game, but he was the only dude out there doing work.

And so last night he didn't want to provide details outside of the fan was chirping and I was irritated, aggravated. Luka Doncic being announced as an All-Star starter. Luka is here in Atlanta.

The Falcons, not the Falcons, so much Raheem Morris talk. The other bird team, the Hawks, will be hosting the Dallas Mavericks tomorrow. And so Luka Doncic, he stopped by the studio. And so TNT. Yes, Charles, Ernie, Shaq, Kenny, they asked Luka Doncic about why he snapped at that fan.

And this is what he told the folks over at TNT. It was the whole game, you know, a little bit. But I was really frustrated. You know, we were losing.

I twisted my ankle in the second half. So in the first half, it was just a lot of emotions. But yeah, probably shouldn't have done that. So when I'm wrong, I admit it. So probably shouldn't have done that. But it was just the whole game going on. Oh, my goodness. Ryan, did I just hear an athlete admit that he was did I hear an athlete admit that he was wrong? Sort of.

Probably shouldn't have done that. Can you take out the word probably? It's the closest that we're going to get, right? The closest. I guess.

I mean, I guess little is better than nothing, but geez. He just admitted. And we see this when it comes to his composure in playing the game. Like he's giving the referees, he's complaining about everything.

It's like, bro, go play basketball. And so to have a fan toss like, yeah, that fan paid money. And I know Devin Booker said, let me know who the fan is. Devin Booker wants to know who he is. I'm sure he's going to get him front row seats at a son's game and maybe get some photos, what have you. So don't feel all that bad for the fan.

If he wants to be identified, he will. But it just sucks that Luka Doncic can look in the stands and go, I'm frustrated. I rolled my ankle.

We're getting our asses whooped. This this guy in the second row, the third row, the fourth row is let me have it. So I'm going to toss him like that's not cool. Like this is a prime example of an NBA player or an athlete being too soft and having damn rabbit ears. This is like James Dolan, the owner of the New York Knicks, who wants to throw out fans who chant, sell the team.

Like, man, you're a billionaire. You're in the position of power. And as long as anybody isn't being overtly disrespectful, being a complete ass, let them voice their opinion. It's a part of the game. I mean, we got a lot of jerks out here who say awful, terrible things on social media who feel empowered to just be jerks. But at a basketball game, heckling is a part of sports.

And I don't think say, hey, man, you look out of shape, put your ass on a treadmill. Is it annoying? Yes.

Is it obnoxious? Yes. But as Luka said, is it the end all? I don't think so. Luka was also asked about whether or not he can control his emotions overall.

Listen to his response. Yeah. I mean, I have to do it.

You know, this is like I said on me and I have to do it. I got to play with the same passion. You know, I always always said to me, I like your game because you have fun out there. You're smiling.

And I just think I need to go back to that a little more. Oh, he needs to go back to having fun and smiling. Oh, my God. All of the joy has been sucked out of the life of Luka Doncic. Oh, my God. The man who is a max player in the NBA, a five time All-Star, someone who's one of the most famous athletes on Earth.

He's making two hundred plus million dollars overall with his new extension. Oh, it's so sad. There's no joy. He needs to yell at the officials. He needs to throw out fans. Somebody give Luka Doncic a lollipop.

He needs one. And somebody get one for Mr. Jason Kidd as well. I don't know what the hell Tim McMahon is doing to Luka Doncic and Jason Kidd in Dallas, but they aren't happy with him. I wonder if Luka Doncic will give a half-assed apology to the reporter. I doubt it.

It's the J.R. sport reshow here with you on CBS Sports Radio. Luka Doncic is someone who he could be an NBA MVP someday. I don't think it'll happen this season.

But how about this in the NFL? We've already learned some of the MVP finalists for this season. I'm going to share their names with you on the other side of the break. You know what? Speaking of the Dallas Mavericks hating Tim McMahon, I want to share with you some comments made by Jason Kidd as well from a few weeks ago. We got a lot to do.

NFL, NBA, Lamar Jackson in the news for some comments made by Cam Newton. We got so much. OK, picture this. It's Friday afternoon when a thought hits you. I can spend another weekend doing the same old whatever, or I can hop into my all-new Hyundai Santa Fe and hit the road. With available H-TRAC all-wheel drive and three-row seating, my whole family can head deep into the wild. Conquer the weekend in the all-new Hyundai Santa Fe. Visit HyundaiUSA.com or call 562-314-4603 for more details. Hyundai. There's joy in every journey. 2024 Santa Fe.

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That's 855-212-4CBS. We talked about so much tonight. Rahi Morris going to the Atlanta Falcons. Dave Kanellis joining the Carolina Panthers, former offensive coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Man, we talked about the NBA All-Star starters. LeBron James is making his record 20th appearance in the All-Star game next month in Indianapolis.

And next hour, we got so much to get into. I want to talk about Lamar Jackson. I'm going to look at some of the other quarterbacks who are left here in the Final Four of the NFL season. And even Cam Newton had some interesting comments about Lamar Jackson who, by the way, is one of the finalists for the NFL MVP Award, which is distributed by the Associated Press.

We're going to talk about the finalists. We're going to get into Lamar Jackson. I want to go ahead and get to the phone lines. That's 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4CBS. Tommy is here from Milwaukee. Hey, Tommy, you're on CBS Sports Radio, the JR Sport Brief Show.

Hey, what's going on, JR? Is Ryan producing the show? Shout out to Ryan. This is Ryan producing the show, too. He absolutely is. He is. Say something, Ryan. Go ahead, let him know. Tommy, you're the man.

Thank you, sir. Yeah, I got to shout out to Ryan every time I know he's on the show. Hey, you know, Milwaukee, I know we're talking about all these coaching changes in the NFL, like maybe the biggest one in, I don't know, years in the NBA right now. Doc Rivers coming over to the Bucks.

I guess I want to know if that moves the needle for you. In my opinion, you know, I was totally against the firing of Bud when it first happened. I think they did him dirty. They went to the NBA championship two years before.

And then they lost to the team, who ended up going as well. So I thought it was just totally BS when they let him go. Doc Rivers is that, I mean, I kind of see an idea where it works out well. Like he is, you know, the guy who gives up a lot of control to players.

But I don't see it as a much monumental move over Adrian Griffin. I was just wanting to hear your guys' thoughts on it. Oh, man. Well, I can't say such a thing. I guess, here's a question. I'm going to answer you. Why doesn't it move the needle? Well, here's a better question.

Why do you care? Well, my thought on it is that, you know, the last time this move happened, something very similar. I believe they were 30 and 11 when the Cleveland Cavaliers fired David Blatt and they brought in Ty Lue. And the Bucks are 30 and 13. They bring in Doc Rivers. Maybe it's something that the Bucks are trying to recreate, if that sort of situation.

I saw there was a huge viral clip of the Bucks being extremely happy before the game. So maybe it was a very popular decision by the players. But I don't know if it's, to me the move, like when you fire a coach in the middle of the year, usually that means there's turmoil. And I don't want there to be turmoil if this team wants to compete for a championship. Well, that's why there's a coaching change. And thank you so much for answering me.

I'm going to answer you now. It doesn't matter who the coach is, if the players don't want to play for him. Like, you may not have appreciated how the Milwaukee Bucks, you know, got rid of Coach Bootenholzer and he went on.

Well, I think it was apparent. Giannis, he made it very clear through his public comments. He felt that they were not making the correct adjustments. And so Bootenholzer went.

And so if you want to say that anybody did him dirty, I would look at Giannis Atteracumpo who wasn't shy in his criticism of Bud as they were kind of pushed out of the playoffs. I guess it didn't matter too much that Giannis was hurt and what have you. And in the case now of Adrian Griffin, if the players don't want to play for him, then what are they to do? I mean, obviously there's turmoil. You said that you don't want there to be any turmoil.

They're removing the centerpiece where that or the one that they can move. And so bringing in Doc Rivers, if you want to call him the next greatest coach or the next worst coach, how about this? He's going to be a 40 million dollar pacifier, at least for this season, to try to keep Giannis Atteracumpo happy into the future while they compete for championships. So, look, man, I am less concerned about who the coach is as long as the players respect that coach and are willing to go out there and play for him. And it's really only two guys that matter. Is it Giannis?

Is it Damian Lillard? And I think it's pretty apparent why they made the move. Those dudes did not respect them.

It didn't matter whether they liked them or not. If it's your argument on they wanted Adrian Griffin so badly, because I firmly believe that Giannis had a huge role in getting Griffin hired. Now, did he have a huge role in getting him fired then, too, probably?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this is a players league. The players call a lot of the shots, at least the superstar players.

I'm not going to sit here and tell you that Jalen Brunson communicates with the New York Knicks and says, you know, Tom Thibodeau is my guy. You know, it's been very apparent specifically when it comes to Giannis Atteracumpo. Budenholzer is gone because Giannis publicly chastised him and his inability to go ahead and adjust during games.

OK, but is gone. Adrian Griffin was hired because Giannis Atteracumpo wanted him. And from all indications, Giannis could have had Nick Nurse as his head coach. Giannis wanted someone who was a former NBA player. If we want to continue on, do I think that Adrian Griffin would still be the coach if Giannis wanted him? Yes.

I mean, it's twofold. Nobody has to call Giannis on the phone and say, hey, do you want this guy fired? Yes or no.

It's as simple as, hey, we're thinking, we're considering of going in a different direction. If I'm Giannis Atteracumpo, you know what I say? Hey, I just play. You guys do what you feel is best.

Done. That says enough. If you want somebody, if you want something, it's like any other relationship. If you want that girl, you want that man, you go for him. You don't dilly dally in the middle. You get what I'm saying, Tommy? There's no little bit of yes, a little bit of no. It's one way or the other. And I wasn't sold on Griffin. You know, I wanted to give him time, but I heard some rumblings that his seat was hot. I respect it.

I just want to know if the Bucks are in a better spot at the end of this. And I guess as long as morale improves, they are. Because, you know, they say the beatings continue until morale improves, JR. You can use that one whenever you want. Tommy, you know, I don't need to use that one. I have a better analogy. Tommy, you got a job. You work, you do something, you make money somewhere? Yeah, a couple of them.

Good. You got co-workers, you ever worked with co-workers in your life? Ever worked with anybody? All the time, yeah. You ever worked with somebody who just was a complete pain in your ass, made going to work unbearable? I might currently.

I might currently, JR, yeah. Well, imagine that on a few million dollars with higher expectations having to deal with that. And then you apply that to what might go on in an NBA franchise where there are external pressures. And I think you might understand what's going on. I mean, one of the cool things about going to work and enjoying it is going to work with people who you respect and who you enjoy working with.

And that that doesn't change, you know, at the NBA level where there are so many more politics and external pressures. Thank you so much, Tommy, for calling from Milwaukee. Yeah, it's been easy for me to go to work. I've had the pleasure of working with Ryan Hickey now and super producer as well and host Dave Shepherd. Hello to Dave.

I'm sure he might be listening somewhere in the bullpen and also Stu Kovacs. So these are individuals who've made it very easy for me to come to work. Hey, Ryan, I hope it's mutual. Oh, it definitely is.

Without a doubt. Very, very convincing. I still like you, Ryan.

It's OK. It's the JR Sport Brief Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. Morale is high here on CBS Sports Radio.

We're going to take a break. On the other side, I'm going to give you an update on some NFL quote unquote stuff. We're going to talk about the candidates officially announced for NFL MVP. I want to share with you some comments made by Cam Newton about Lamar Jackson.

We got a lot to do. The JR Sport Brief Show here on CBS Sports Radio where morale is high. 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.

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