JR SportBrief Hour 1

Okay, 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 available early 2024.

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. 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 with you on CBS Sports Radio. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Much love to everybody tuned in and locked in all over North America. I'm being joined by I'm being joined by super producer and host Ryan Hickey.

I'm being joined by you. Yeah, you everybody tuning in and listening all over North America. This is when the show gets started every single weekday.

6 p.m. Eastern 3 Pacific. Hope you had a good weekend. Hope you had a good Monday.

I hope you are good. This is where I'm going to be for the next four hours. You can always listen on the free Odyssey app. Your local CBS Sports Radio affiliate Sirius XM Channel 158 and everybody locked in on a smart speaker where all you have to do is ask it to play. CBS Sports Radio. It's an interesting time in the sports calendar, right? NBA All-Star Weekend.

Spring training is upon us and Major League Baseball. We had we had some hockey in what I was going to say, New York. We had some hockey in New Jersey.

Nothing wrong with a little bit of hockey. And so we got a we got a weekend to talk about because to the shock of nobody. The All-Star game in the NBA. It sucked.

It really did. I mean, next hour, we'll talk to someone who was on on hand, live and in person for the suckage. Justin Termini from Sirius XM NBA radio. He's going to come through and join us and tell us about not what we missed, but what might actually happen with an All-Star game that was just breaking every record imaginable. When it comes to offense, we're going to get into that and talk about that momentarily. Today, there was additional news in the NBA. The Brooklyn Nets did everybody a favor. And at least they waited until after the All-Star game to tell everybody that Jacques Vaughn is no longer their head coach, that Jacques Vaughn has gotten the boot. I told you about spring training in Major League Baseball.

Anthony Rendon from the Angels. This man said baseball is not a top priority for him. He said, obviously it is a priority, but it's not a top priority. And for a dude who's never healthy, a man making two hundred and forty five million dollars, you would want to think that baseball is a priority for the dude.

We'll actually hear that out of his mouth next hour. And then he has another teammate. What a disaster the Angels are.

He got a guy and Mike Trout, he can't stay healthy either. Russell Wilson, he was hanging out at All-Star weekend as well. And there was some comments that Russell Wilson might need to be a, I don't know, a backup in the NFL. Russell Wilson, a backup.

Somebody said that on television this morning. Speaking of a backup, LeBron James, we know he's at the back end of his career. Over the weekend, he was asked about retirement. How is he going to retire? When is he going to retire? Rick Pitino, St. John's basketball coach. He sounds like he's ready to retire. Mike Evans, Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver, might be a former Buccaneers wide receiver. We're going to talk about Mike Evans.

Juan Soto also popped up introductory press conference spring training with the Yankees. So we got a lot to do. If you want to participate with or in the show, it's simple. The phone number works.

We paid our bills. It's 855-212-4CBS. That's 855-212-4CBS. You can also get ahold of me. I am everywhere. On the internet, online. I'm all over the place.

X, Facebook, and Instagram, all of that stuff. I am at JR Sport Brief before we do anything else. Hey, Hickey, how you doing, man? You good? JR, I am doing well.

I'm doing well today. Anything for the weekend besides, I don't know, maybe a little basketball, a little hockey here or there? It was a relaxing weekend. Nice family dinner.

I did see some fan, which was a lot of fun, and wasn't stressing about the lack of effort or participation in the skills contest or the game itself. It's pretty normal at this point. First of all, nice that you sat down and had some quiet time with the family, a beautiful thing.

This is like old hat at this point, right? You sit down. I watched the All-Star, what do you call this thing? All-Star Saturday night, and then last night, I kind of watched in the background. I was running around, and I was watching, I looked up, I was thrilled to see Sabrina get so close to Steph Curry.

We're going to talk about that. But ultimately, this is what the NBA All-Star Weekend is right now, and I hate to say it, and I'm going to ask Justin Termini next hour what his opinion is, but it's almost like background noise. Okay, we got Jalen Brown in a dunk contest. I'm watching with the sound off in the background, and I'm like, why's he got a glove on his left hand?

What in the Michael Jackson garbage is this? We got Mack McClung running around, and he ends up winning the dunk contest. Mack McClung isn't even an NBA player.

He's a dude out of the G League. You got Anthony Edwards shooting left-handed three-pointers. All-Star Saturday night, waste of time. And then, then we moved to the main event, then we moved to the main attraction last night in Indianapolis, the All-Star game. Records were broken on offense, okay? The East beat the West 211 to 186.

This is bananas. 211 points. What basketball game is that? Was it a basketball game, or was it a slam dunk contest slash three-point shootout? 196 points.

That was the last high. The East had 211 last night. There were almost 400 combined points total. 397. There was 193 points in the first half.

This makes no sense. How about the East? They took 97 threes. 97. They made 42 of them. These are all records. How about both teams? Last night in an All-Star game, they shot 168 threes. 168 threes.

Was last night the basketball game, or was last night the three-point shootout? This is not interesting. It's not. This is not fun to watch.

It's not competitive. Nobody gives a damn. And it's not a shock. It's not a surprise.

You know anybody running around feigning ignorance? This isn't something brand new that fell out of the sky. This is normal. Last year, the score was 184 to 175. Come on. Karl-Anthony Towns, in a losing effort, the man had 50 points. Lit it up at the end of the game. He had his own mini slam-dunk contest.

Nobody cared. Shea Gilgus Alexander, nobody remembers. He had 31 points. Tyrese Halliburton, this man, was the quote-unquote host for NBA All-Star Weekend. He had 32 points and had 10 threes. And then the man who won MVP, Damian Lillard, 39 points, 6 assists. He hit 11 threes. And I guess Damian Lillard won MVP because his threes came at the end of the game from half court. While Tyrese Halliburton, he knocked down his threes early to pretty much start the game. This was nothing but a glorified track meet slash three-point contest slash every now and then get a dunk. No shock, no surprise. Waste of time.

And you know, later on in the show, we'll talk more about some of the ideas that have been bandied about to remedy this. But think about it this way. First of all, Adam Silver, on TNT, getting ready to congratulate Damian Lillard and give the East the trophy and MVP and all this other nonsense. Adam Silver sounded so enthusiastic about the way his All-Star game just went. Listen to this crap. To the city of Indianapolis, thank you for the fantastic hospitality.

To Herb Simon, he's owned this team for 41 years, the longest standing governor in NBA history. Thank you very much. And to your son Steve as well. And to the Eastern Conference All-Stars, you scored the most points. Well, congratulations. Well, congratulations.

This is what you tell somebody who barely passed the test. Hey, well, congratulations. At least you tried. Hey, Hickey, that reminds me of that meme with Bart Simpson. He's handing somebody the cake and it's just like, congratulations.

At least you tried and the cake, I think it slipped off. You've seen that before? Yes. Very similar.

Yeah, this is what it is. Adam Silver's like, congratulations. Like, nobody cared. Y'all sucked. There was nothing entertaining about the All-Star game.

Not at all. I mean, even I guess maybe Charles Barkley telling a joke on TBS was maybe the funniest thing about the All-Star game. And so everybody always goes to the players. They have to be the ones to hype things up.

They have to be the ones to quote unquote get the people going. Well, it doesn't sound like the players give a damn either. How about this guy, Anthony Edwards, Minnesota Timberwolves, one of the young, exciting players in the NBA. Does Anthony Edwards care? He played 12 minutes last night.

He only had four points. And after the game, Anthony Edwards was just like, man, I don't think I'll ever take it seriously. For me, it's an All-Star game, so I don't think I will ever look at it like being super competitive.

It's always fun. But I don't know what they can do to make it more competitive. I don't know. I think everyone looks at it like it's a break. So I don't think nobody wants to come here and compete. It's a break.

Nobody wants to compete. It's a break. It's a break in a regular season, right? It's a break to highlight the game, the best of the best. That's what it's a break for. I'm sorry.

I like Anthony Edwards, but I don't know. I don't want to say youthful exuberance, but youthful ignorance. Like, yes, it's a break. You wouldn't have this break.

You wouldn't be exalted. You wouldn't be highlighted if it weren't for the fans. Okay? It's an exhibition. Yes, it's an All-Star break, but go out there and put on a show. Come on, now.

He's not the only one. Anthony Davis, poster boy of, well, at least this year, he's healthy. Anthony Davis last night, he showed up and gave you six points. Anthony Davis, surprise, surprise, he said, nobody wants to get hurt during the All-Star game. You know, the fans and the league and everybody wants to be competitive, but then you also, you know, as players think about, you know, trying not to get hurt, you know, obviously it's a part of the game and, you know, no one wants to get hurt in the All-Star game, especially going back. I mean, all these guys here are very valuable to their teams. So, you know, some mixed emotions about it. You know, you try to go out there and compete a little bit and not just be, you know, a highlight show, but at the same time, you know, do you guys really want to see, you know, somebody going out for a dunk and somebody want to contest them and, you know, God forbid something happens, like, in the All-Star game when it could have been avoided.

So, it's two-folded. But man, come on. These dudes, Hickey, they sound like punks, man. They sound like punks. They sound like punks. I can't say no other way. And I don't mean punk, they sound like scared little punks.

Like, this is where we're at? Like, you can't give the fans a show? They sound like punks. Is that too strong of a word?

I don't think it's too strong of a word if you feel that way. I do side with the players, to be honest with you. I don't think that this game actually matters, so why try?

But if you, like, if you are on the side you are on, which is frustration and disgust, then no, to answer your question, punk is absolutely not too harsh of a word to describe how players are kind of viewing this game. Yeah, I get the premise of it, but it shows how the mindset has changed. Like, I'm not outraged that they didn't play hard because it's not a surprise. I would have been surprised if they did play hard.

But the fact of the matter is, they didn't. But what we're finally now hearing, and more vocally than we have over years, or I'd say a decade now, maybe more, is the dude's actually standing in front of cameras and going, why we going to play hard? It's a break. You know, what would you think about us if I went up and I sprained my ankle and now I'm out for the season? Like, I can't imagine some of the generations before saying such a thing. And I get it.

Every generation is different. And it's not just about, oh my God, what would Kobe say? Or what would Michael Jordan say? Or what would Larry Bird and Magic Johnson say? Like, I could not hear.

I can't imagine hearing such a thing. Maybe five generations before this. The NBA has been around, what, almost 80 years.

I can't imagine five or six generations saying crap that these dudes just said. A matter of fact, I just told you about Larry Bird. They always have this amazing legends brunch, you know, prior to All-Stars Sunday night before the game. And Larry Bird spoke, I believe he spoke to Justin Termini, I think, who we'll talk to next hour. And Larry Bird, he was like, man, he wants a competitive All-Star game.

Listen to this. The one thing I would really like to see is they play hard tonight in this All-Star game. I think it's very important when you have the best players in the world together, you've got to compete. And you've got to play hard. And you've got to show the fans how good they really are. Yes, that's the point. It's the fans, man. Do they know that?

I guess it's not drilled into their heads enough. I mean, the comments made by Anthony Edwards, it's a break. Yeah, so why don't we just have a break in the middle of the season and instead of having an exhibition, we mail you a medal and you get to go on vacation because this might as well be what we got. And the man who won MVP, Damian Lillard, he spoke as well. And he had some thoughts on how you can increase competitiveness in the All-Star game.

I don't think anybody's going to play it. It's the playoffs, but it's a way to get guys to come to the table and just play a more solid game, I guess. I thought it was enough moments to be excited about it, to enjoy watching it. It was just too many probably leak out, you know, go get it done, go get the layup type of moments. And I think if we could just limit those, you know, people probably wouldn't feel the way they feel sometimes about it. If we could just try to limit it. But it's going to happen sometimes. It probably just can't happen as much. It's going to happen sometimes. It just can't happen as much. These dudes don't care.

They don't. Luka Doncic was running around out there yesterday and maybe his perspective is different, right? He's European cat. Well, he ain't played too much either.

Luka had seven points in 22 minutes. And when he talked about the competitiveness, is he playing the blame game? Listen. You feel like you defer to those guys a lot?

I mean, them being older. In terms of offensively, you're not like in All-Star games. I mean, you're leading the NBA in scoring, but you're not very assertive in All-Star games. When people come here playing 40 minutes, you know, they don't want to get injured. Everybody just, you know, just get out of the way.

I don't know how to fix that. I just follow the lead. Oh, he follows the lead. Oh, the reporter's asking him about older guys like, I don't know, let's say the most famous basketball player, richest, wealthiest, successful basketball player on earth right now. Like LeBron James. LeBron James, we know he's dealing with an ankle issue. Fourteen minutes from LeBron.

Eight points. He wasn't going to play. He got a busted ankle. And so, yeah, you heard from Damian Lillard. You heard from old Mr. Glass, Anthony Davis.

You heard Luka. He's like, I follow whatever the old guys do. Well, what does the old guys say? LeBron James was asked, is there a way to improve the competitive nature of the All-Star game? Listen to LeBron.

I don't know. I think it's something we need to figure out. You know, I don't know where's the median because this is what a lot of the games are starting to look like now, too. You know, we wanted to, you know, get more, you know, more pace into the game. We wanted to get more shots. We wanted the game to be more free-flowing. We stopped letting the game be, you know, free of a movement. A lot of free of a movement now and that's what a lot of our games is in the regular season now. And that has tightened up in the postseason. So, it's a deeper dive into a conversation of how we can sure up this game. Obviously, from a player's perspective, you know, it's fun to get up and down, but at the end of the day, our competitive nature don't like just being able to just have free-flowing scoring like that. So, I think the good thing that came out tonight is none of the players were injured. Oh, okay.

He's right. This echoes the games. A track meet. A three-point shootout. Up and down, no defense. Damian Lillard said it himself.

You can't expect to see, you know, playoff caliber action and I don't think anybody is. But at least play the game. Have some type of pride. But here's the thing, folks.

I'll say it again. I'm not saying they shouldn't make the money that they make, but they make so much money. They are so Teflon that there is no impetus for them to go out there and compete. They're not trying to show up the next guy. They're not worried about their next meal. They have money. Their families have generational wealth. They are not worried about a damn thing.

They don't care. It's the same reason why we don't have anybody in a damn dunk contest. Sorry, Jalen. Jalen Brown. My apologies. I guess you were the biggest star.

And Jalen Brown, not the most interesting of stars. Anyway. 855-212-4CBS. That's 855-212-4CBS. Yeah, what a shock. Eastern Conference beat the West 2-11 to 1-86 and the players are complaining.

855-212-4CBS. We'll talk about Jacques Vaughn being fired. We'll get into Russell Wilson, at least Sabrina UNESCO.

That was good news. Anthony Rendon, he plays baseball, but he doesn't like his job. We got a lot to do. On a Monday, just getting warmed up.

The JR Sport Brief Show, CBS Sports Radio. Okay, 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-Track 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 available early 2024. 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.

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It's the J.R. Sportbrief show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. No shock, last night the All-Star Game sucked in the NBA. The dunk contest was ass. It's just, there's no surprise. You know, everybody's now having a yearly debate about what you should do and what they shouldn't do. Let's get the outrage out the way.

And let's think about what really matters. Is this going to change? It's going to take a player to change it, right?

And it really probably is. It's going to take one player one year to just go out there and be like, screw all you. I'm going to dunk on somebody. I'm going to embarrass you. Maybe the most embarrassing moment, I know Trae Young nutmegged Kevin Durant.

Dribbled the ball right between his seven-foot legs and went up for a floater. 8-5-5, 2-1-2, 4-7. 8-5-5, 2-1-2, 4-C-B-S. Paul is here from Massachusetts. You're on the JR Sport Brief Show. Hey JR, not used to hearing you this early in the evening. How are you? I'm amazing. How are you? I'm good.

Thank you. Keep in mind, please, that I'm a very casual basketball watcher, but I was asking your producer how long the three-point shot had been in effect, and he said it's been around 30 or 40 years. In 79.

And I'm just wondering if anybody at that time played the tape all the way through and said, you know, if we institute this, there's going to come a day where nobody goes inside. People are just going to go up and down the court, stop at the three-point line and shoot threes. And then I was saying to your producer also, you can go to any schoolyard in the country and you've got 16-year-olds, 18-year-olds that can hit it from half court.

So what's next? Five points if you hit it from half court. Seven points if you hit it from three-quarters of the court.

Ten points if you hit it from underneath your own net. You know, it was meant – I miss the days of the 76ers when they were the version of the New York Yankees. They had a little bit of everything. They had chocolate thunder, breaking backboards.

They had Dr. J working his magic, George McGinnis with his one-hand shots, world free. You know, I don't know. It's a different world. Well, I put it to you – I put it to it a different way. And thank you so much, Paul, for calling from Massachusetts. I'll respond to you off air.

Okay. It's – it does suck. You know? I mean, who could have imagined that there would be this many threes taken? The NBA has pushed back the three-point line to make the shot more difficult. But what difference does it make where now you have individuals like Steph Curry and Damian Lillard? Damian Lillard, at the end of last night's game, he went all the way to half court and shot a jump shot.

Not a heave, not a toss. The man set his feet and knocked down a three from half court. Like, this is the NBA that we're in right now. I couldn't imagine seeing anybody pull up from half court taking a set jump shot three. Nobody would even think about doing it because they would have got pulled.

The coach would have destroyed them. And I don't know where the adjustment is going to come from. Is the NBA going to move the three-point line back more? Maybe. Is that going to increase interior scoring?

I guess at some point, and I don't think it's going to be five years, but maybe over the next 10 to 20 years, I guess something's going to have to give if there isn't some type of, let's just say, natural correction. 5-2-1-2 for CBS. David is here from Massachusetts. You're on the JR Sport Brief Show. What's up, David? Oh, my God. Happy New Year, boy. My God, man.

What happened? Hey, Shep, Noah, I mean, I've been listening for you and I haven't heard you. Hey, Shep, I mean, JR, you are good, man. You go from moving to Jesus Christ himself, huh?

You go from Shep to the guy you got now. I know him, man. He's right here. He's not a guy.

He's an amazing guy. It's Ryan Hickey. Yeah, yeah, Shep. You're good. You're good, Shep.

Shep? Hey, I mean, JR, JR, you're good, man. Hey, look, keep it cool and keep it going, man. Happy New Year. To you as well, David. Thank you. Appreciate you. Okay. Yep. All right, my man. My man.

Hickey, what can I say? He sounds like he's lived life and he's a great listener. He's a great listener of CBS Sports Radio, right?

I got to give David a lot of credit. He was hell-bent on wishing you a Happy New Year. I said I could pass the message along and he said, no, no, I want to tell JR myself.

Okay. Passionate about wishing you a Happy New Year. Well, that gentleman, God bless him.

He sounds like he's, you know, a little up there. So I will take a Happy New Year from him even though it's almost March, right? Never too late.

Never too late. Give me a Happy New Year in June. In July.

September, August. I'm fine with it. 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4CBS. We're going to take a break. On the other side of said break, I want to tell you some good news and I want to share with you some bad news in the NBA.

I'll explain on the other side. 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. You know, for all the negativity, for all the negativity, for all the negative talk that we've gotten now that NBA All-Star Weekend is done, I've found some positive.

I've found a silver lining. We talked about this on Friday, Ryan and I, and I think Marco Chomden as well. It's the three-point shootout, not the one that Damian Lillard won. Yeah, Damian Lillard won the three-point shootout and he also won All-Star Game MVP. I'm talking about the one between Sabrina Yunescu and Steph Curry. Like, it was actually close. Steph Curry beat Sabrina 29 to 26.

How about this? Sabrina Yunescu, her 26 points is the same 26 points that Damian Lillard scored to win. That was the max. And so only Steph Curry scored more than a three-point shootout than anybody else. And I mean, combining both contests. And so shout-outs to Sabrina Yunescu, you know, all the hate and vitriol that I thought might be there.

Hickey, it did not exist. Maybe I wasn't looking hard enough. And for whatever reason, I mean, I guess at minimum, more people did find out about Sabrina. More people have found out about the WNBA. And maybe folks will say, oh, man, Sabrina's on. Let me see what she can actually do against the competition. So I think all things considered, to me, this, that might be the most successful thing that they did the entire weekend.

What do you think? Oh, without a doubt. Like, that is the highlight. That is the takeaway in terms of excitement, fun. And I hope, like, I think to go back to your open, like, we can kiss the competitive All-Star game goodbye. I would be shocked if we ever get another competitive game again. But what I thought Saturday night showed is that you can have creativity and still get viewers to watch and still be enthralled. But you just got to be outside the box and just realize it's got to be different than just a 48-minute game with the best players in the world. You can still generate excitement just in different ways. And I thought Saturday night stuff for Sabrina absolutely nailed that to a T. Oh, so you mean to tell me we are on our way to NBA tug-of-war, right? NBA tug-of-war, dodgeball. Does takeover what the NFL has done? You know what, let's talk about that later in the show.

That might actually be a good point of note. The NBA, are they going to scrap the game? It's so traditional. To me, it has always held more value than the Pro Bowl, which takes place kind of postseason. The teams that don't go to the Super Bowl send their stars there. It's kind of a wash, but the NBA All-Star Game historically has had a little bit more juice than the Pro Bowl. So I don't know if the NBA would want to go ahead and scrap it.

Let's get into that later in the show. Speaking of Sabrina, we both agree that this was the best moment, best just entertaining anything over the course of the weekend. Sabrina Yunescu, she spoke afterwards and said the event was great for basketball, flattened period. Just basketball as a whole I think, being able to have this crossover and understanding the respect that I've been able to receive from a lot of the NBA guys. Just knowing that Steph wanted to do this as well in terms of just respecting another shooter.

I think it's going to show a lot of young kids out there, a lot of people who might have not believed or even watched women's sports that were able to go out there and put on a show. So it was really exciting to finally be able to do this and like Steph said, it happened perfectly. Yeah, it was nice. Speaking of what Steph said, Steph spoke to TNT afterwards. He's the king of the 3's, right? Steph Curry said, yeah, she had them sweating out there.

This was on TNT. This couldn't have gone any better in the sense of us two taking the chance in front of this stage, one round, with all the hype. And to deliver like that, she set the bar, it was unbelievable to watch.

This might be something, I don't know if anybody can feel these shoes, but it might be something that you need to do more often. Yeah, why not? She went first. She scored 26. He went second and looked for a while there until the last rack. It's like, oh, wait a minute, she's going to beat Steph Curry in his three-point contest? And then Steph Curry came through and he scored 29.

So it was a lot of fun to watch. 855-212-4CBS. That's 855-212-4CBS. Mike is here from Connecticut. You're on the JR Sport Brief Show. Hey, what's up JR? How you doing, brother? Excellent.

What's going on? I hear you guys talking about the whole thing about the three-point shot. I'm old school.

I grew up in the 80's. Like, I like the three-point shot. I'm not against it.

I'm not trying to say get rid of it. But it used to be the three-point shot was a compliment to your inside game. You would always have such dominant big men. But what happened was, with the evolution of basketball, you just see how soft the game has become. Like, in the 90's you had, that's when you kind of saw the beginning of the stretch four. Like, you had Bill Laimbeer that could kind of do it.

But then Terry Mills with the Pistons. You started seeing guys just hitting 200 three-pointers a game. The NBA got sick and tired of the 80-76 Knicks versus Heat games. They took away the defensive rules so the guys couldn't play, you know, physical defenses.

No more hand checking. The malice at the Palace got the NBA all petrified and nervous about what happens if you allow the physical play. I think it goes, I think it goes further. I mean, there's many factors. We just talked about one of the factors in Steph Curry. I think the other element is that there's so much data and analytics when it comes to the sports and what's a good shot and what's not a good shot. And then I think this also plays a huge role. It's how developed the players are. And so, yes, today the players are more skilled. We have larger players who are asked to do things that you typically wouldn't see a big man do. For instance, a Victor Wabunyama or a Kevin Durant.

Now, having said that, I find it hilarious. At some point over the weekend, Kawhi Leonard, I don't remember exactly, but he was asked about something. And then his response was, yeah, you know, the league is less skilled.

I have to try to find and identify, you know, what that is. And this is like, well, damn it, if you got someone who's one of the best players that's ever been, ever picked up a basketball in the NBA saying this, like that's a massive problem. And it doesn't just start in the NBA.

It starts at a grassroots level. I agree. I actually think the league is less skilled because you see such an emphasis nowadays put on athleticism. You know, everybody loved the high flying and the crossovers and, you know, the N1 thing had an effect on it. Players today aren't more skilled. The game is just so much easier for these guys to look better in that it's, you know, like, not to sound piggish. It's not the man's game that we grew up with. That's just the way it is.

Well, I think a lot of it also boils down to is what you just said, like where everything with basketball at every level is almost microwave. And I forgot who I've had this conversation with and I think multiple times. And thank you, Mike, for calling from Connecticut.

I appreciate you. Eddie Johnson was here with us a couple of weeks ago. Eddie Johnson, who played in the NBA, one of the prolific scorers in the league, never made an All-Star game, now calls games for the Phoenix Suns. Played for the Rockets, Seattle.

Eddie Johnson said, and I've seen this with my own two eyes, a lot of grassroots basketball here in the United States of America, like these guys, these young men, like they're playing three and four games. Here we have someone like Imani Bates. Imani Bates, I don't know if he's in the NBA right now or if he's on the G League team for the Cleveland Cavaliers. I watched Imani Bates when he was 16 years old. Imani Bates, they basically built an entire AAU team around him to highlight him and his skills so he would be drafted.

This is not, that's not how basketball works. Like they built everything around him. And so what do you think that does to his head? And now we got Imani Bates and I don't know, maybe the Cavs hope that he works out. Maybe he has motivation, like what adversity has he faced and where has he actually learned? And are you learning how to play basketball when you're playing, I don't know, three and four or five games in two days over a weekend?

It's no shock. If you look at some of the best players in the league right now due to a winning championships, finals MVPs, MVPs, it's not a shock that it is someone who is not athletic. Or he hasn't won one yet, but a Luka Doncic dominating the league or someone else. Yeah, Nikola Jokic. Or you look at someone who isn't afraid of what people say or think about him. And Ayana Satara Kumpo, man can't shoot a free throw for his life. You're not afraid to go to the line because he doesn't give a damn what people think.

You can laugh if you want. Joel Embiid, he didn't play basketball until he was in high school. But man, he comes from overseas, comes from Africa and comes over here and mindset is different. He had to take his lumps. He can play inside and outside, so I just think we need to have more development of the actual players. That is lacking.

Yes, a seven-footer can shoot and dribble, but yeah, I guess a seven-footer, he can't put the ball in the basket if he's two feet from it. 855-2124 CBS, Joe is here from Rhode Island. Hey Joe, you live on the radio? Yeah, how you doin' buddy?

I'm live on the radio, you are here with us too. What's goin' on? Alright, listen, they gotta get rid of the NBA all-star game completely. They gotta get rid of the hockey all-star game completely. They gotta get rid of the football, pro-ball completely.

That is an embarrassment yesterday. I would rather see the all-stars, these all-stars, do some kind of meet and greet with fans. You know, sign autographs, every single one that goes in that arena. Do something more like a meet and greet. They're playing that pathetic all-star game yesterday, man.

So if you are TNT and you are paying, I don't know, two and a half billion dollars to broadcast games and you want to broadcast a meet and greet? Listen, they gotta come up with something else, okay? This is what happens. The NBA should be called the prima donna league, okay? These guys, okay, who forget where they come from, right? They say they work out.

Once they get the bag, once they get the money in that bag, they don't. It's all about hanging out with the cool kids, the all-star NBA. It's all about hanging out with the cool kids. Well, Joe, they get the... That was pathetic, buddy. That was pathetic. I agree with you. Well, I'll tell you this much, Joe. They are the cool kids. No, they suck. They suck. No, I'm not going to disagree.

Thank you, Joe, for calling from down. I think the game sucks, and they are the cool kids. They want to hang out with the cool kids. NBA players are some of the biggest influencers and movers of culture here in the United States of America.

And if you're not aware, what moves here in the United States of America in a lot of cases moves to other places on this planet. Whether we like it or not, I can't stand what the game has become. I used to have to say, man, I can't wait.

I need to be home. I used to record the all-star game. I used to record the slam dunk contest. Now I'm just like, whatever. Just watching in the background. I don't care.

It doesn't matter. I'm not missing nothing. I saved myself, what, eight hours of my life between Saturday and Sunday?

I don't need this. Anyway, there's a guy that got fired today. Hey, Hickey, the Nets got rid of Jacque Vaughn? Oh, they did.

If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, did it actually happen? Well, the Nets, I know last week they got smacked by the Celtics, 136 to 86. Losers out of five of their last six games. It's crazy to think about last season, Steve Nash, he started the season off as the head coach of the Brooklyn Nets. And Jacque Vaughn has taken over a team, kind of ran by Mikel Bridges.

If I dare, I want to call it that. And so Jacque Vaughn, he's gotten the boot of the Brooklyn Nets. At least they were nice enough to wait until after the all-star game.

Because you don't make this type of decision and just wake up on Monday and go, oh, yeah, yeah, we want to fire our coach. They do it for reasons of honor and dignity to not disrupt the celebration of our all-stars who didn't feel enough to actually show up and put in some real work. And so, yeah, the Brooklyn Nets, not the New York Knicks.

I know it's the other team in New York, Jacque Vaughn, who used to play for the Magic. And he don't got to worry about showing up to work, at least good for him. Maybe not. I know his contract is expiring.

Well, it would have expired this year. So the Brooklyn Nets aren't going to be paying him for too much longer. 855-212-4CBS, that's 855-212-4CBS.

On the other side of the break, I'm going to take more of your calls. I told you Jacque Vaughn, he doesn't have to show up to work anymore because he got the boot. He got fired. And then I'm going to tell you about somebody else in Major League Baseball. He doesn't sound like he wants to show up for work at all.

Anthony Rendon. And the last time I checked, does he show up to work? Haven't seen a guy play. It feels like since he was, I don't know, in Washington when they won a World Series. And he took all this money to go out and play in Los Angeles.

And I guess he's just, let's just say, enjoying the weather. We'll talk about a man who got fired. We'll talk about a guy who doesn't seemingly like his job. And then I will talk to you. And then we got Justin Termini coming through as well from Sirius XM NBA radio.

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