JR SportBrief Hour 3

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Financing subject to credit approval. It is the JR Sport Reshow on CBS Sports Radio. I would happen to be JR. Thank you for listening to the show.

I thank you for it, okay? I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. I'm right on Peachtree Street. The main one.

There's like 50 of them here. I'm on the main one. I'll be rocking with you for the next two hours. I've already been hanging out for two because the show gets started every single weeknight. Every weeknight.

Or weekday. Depending on where you live. At 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. Thank you so much to super producer and host Ryan Hickey holding it down for us in New York City. And thank you to everybody for listening. Wherever you at. Wherever you're at. You're at work, you're at home, you're at school, you're on the highway, the byways, you're zooming down the road, you're delivering stuff, you're packaging stuff, you're moving things from place to place.

Let's have fun together. If you missed any of the show, or any of the show, you can hit rewind on the free Odyssey app, A-U-D-A-C-Y. Thank you to everybody tuned in on our local CBS Sports Radio affiliates. And shout outs to everybody at the radio stations.

Everybody in the studio right now. Making sure that this show gets broadcast. Thank you. Thank you very much. I appreciate you. Much love to folks over at Sirius XM 158. People listening on smart speakers all over the country. And however you're listening.

Thank you very much. As I said, I'll be here with you for two more hours. And we've discussed a lot. Right before we went to break, we talked about Justin Fields and the Chicago Bears. Justin Fields unfollowed the Bears on social media. People are starting to think about, well, is he leaving? Is he staying? Is he going?

Is he coming? And I'm saying, man, they just need to trade him. It'd be stupid to hold on to him. It's a risk. If you think it's a risk to draft another quarterback, it's a risk to keep this dude around and give him weapons and then have to pay him like he's a top quarterback. It's not just a risk.

It's stupid. We talked about that. We heard from J.J. Riddick. J.J. Riddick can't stand Doc Rivers. I don't know what Doc Rivers did to him. But J.J. Riddick says that Doc Rivers is always, he's always passing the buck. Hey, we spoke to Jeff Kerr. Jeff Kerr joined us from CBS Sports, writes all things NFL. We talked about the franchise tag, the fact like someone like Mike Evans could potentially move on from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Saquon Barkley might be moving on from the New York Giants. We went there. So there's so much going on.

And how about this? In about 20 minutes, we're going to be joined by Gary Washburn. This man covers the NBA. This man knows all things Celtics. He knows everything. So we got Gary Washburn coming our way to talk about not just the Celtics, but what the rest of the NBA season might look like now that we are post All-Star break.

And so there's so much to do. And in this day in sports, the legend was born. Charles Barkley. We're going to talk about Charles Barkley next hour.

Happy birthday to Sir Charles. 855-212-4CBS. I'm going to pick up the phones. I am going to tell you about some news that came down the pipe today as it relates to the college football playoff. And then we're going to have this chat with Gary Washburn.

855-212-4CBS. Let's go ahead and talk to Dave from Miami. You're on the JR Sportbreeze show. What's going on, Dave? Miami, JR.

The liberal legend of CBS radio. It feels so good to talk to you again, bro. The thing I think feels is to either go to Atlanta or New England and to the call that said that New England develops quarterbacks.

It's like saying that about the Jets. And the only real callback they had was don't name it. So my last thing I want to mention, sir, before I go, I know you pressed for time, is that I'm coming out of witness protection probably in the next few months. So I'm going to try to stop by ATL.

I got a girl in LaDonia. I'll try to look you up. Thanks. Have a good night, sir.

Love the show. OK. Thank you, Dave, for calling. Hickey, do I want to meet up with that man? Is he serious?

Who are you hiding from? What? That's the most natural I think I've ever heard. That is a great joke. That's a great joke, ain't it? That's a great joke.

Has to be, right? Wow. I also I didn't know you can get out of it.

I thought once you're ready, you're in it for the rest of the time. That's a great. What am I supposed to say?

What do I what do I say to that? Nothing. That's a great.

You know what? I got to give him. Welcome.

Welcome on down. I don't know. I got to give him credit. Right. That has to be. And I don't know if it's clear. I'm thinking about I don't know if it's clever or if it's just terrible.

That has to be one of the great radio jokes that I've ever heard, to be honest. Right. Let's go with that. I like that.

He's like, yeah, yeah. I can't wait to meet you. I'm just getting out of witness protection. J.R., I'm coming through to Lathonia. Lathonia is a city here. It's close by.

Very close. And he's like, I can't wait to meet you when I get out of witness protection. The first thing I'm going is like, why the hell would I want to meet you if you're hiding from somebody or you're being hidden? I don't want to be seen with you. I don't want to go eating with you.

I know. Hickey, if I disappear, we know what happened. OK, I was going to say, Dave, indirect was putting a big target on your back now. I don't I'm sure I've sat down with somebody in witness protection. I don't purpose now. OK, I don't need people coming after me for no damn reason.

No, thank you. Eight five five two one two four. I forgot everything he said before that. Well, do you remember what he was talking about? I got I got now he's talking to me about Justin Fields. He agreed with you.

Patriots or Falcons. So maybe you, Fields and well, I guess we'll put Dave in air quotes now. Dave can all meet up for lunch one day.

Well, Justin Fields is from right here in Atlanta out in Kennesaw. He's. Yeah, we we we can all go to lunch. How about that? Let's. Let's let's all go to lunch. Justin Fields will he'll pay for the protection.

Well, that's anyway, I've lost my train of thought trying to think about my my future and my life. Well, we got Gary Washburn coming up in about 15 minutes. So let's let's get to this. Earlier today, there was some news that came down the pipe or at least some news that was finalized. We knew this was coming and it has to do with the college football playoff.

Listen to this. This popped up CBS Sports HQ earlier today. Well, we got breaking news in college football. The CFP board of managers have unanimously approved to switch to a five plus seven model for the playoffs. Under this format, the playoff will include the five highest ranked conference champions followed by the next seven highest ranked teams as determined by the selection committee. The Pac-12 now down to just Washington State and Oregon State have been the lone holdout before voting approved on Tuesday. Today, of course, the new expanded playoff begins next season. So we're getting we're getting 12 teams.

We already knew that. And the reason why they changed it from my hey, every power five gets a chance to go in is because let's be real. What what is the Pac-12? What is the Pac-12? Like two teams getting ready to float into the ocean. That's what the Pac-12 is.

And this ain't this ain't nothing new. Do we need that? So let me put it this way. There is no perfect college football playoff system. There is not.

All right. I feel like we went from the BCS and then we moved to the college football playoff where you have a selection committee. And Hickey, correct me if I'm wrong, I feel that the selection committee basically uses the same data that was from the BCS, except for humans are picking the teams now using that information. That's what it feels like. Same, because any time they explain their reasoning, it makes zero sense. I don't get it here. This is where I guess people can relax now. And now that we've expanded to 12, somebody will bitch moan and complain about, well, we we needed to be in there. Are there 12 teams that legitimately can really win a championship? No, no, I don't think so.

Is there a shot of any given quote unquote Sunday or this is why they played a game? Yeah. Yeah. But to do this in college football, you can't recreate March Madness with college football teams. It's not going to happen.

It's not going to work. Are we going to have upsets? Yes.

There's going to be some upsets. Do I see more ass whoopings? Oh, I do.

I do. Are we seeing more T.C.U.s and Cincinatti's getting smacked around? Oh, yeah. I think that we might get that on a a four to one ratio. I think we will see four ass whoopings to every upset.

And I think the ratio might be larger than that. And so if there's one thing that expanding the college football playoff pacifies. It's people complaining about who didn't get in.

And I know I know I'm here in Georgia. OK, the Bulldogs went back to back and they don't even get a crack at it because Alabama came through and smacked them. Didn't even get a chance.

Didn't even get a crack. I thought they they would put up a legitimate fight. Well, you know what? Next year, we won't have to worry about that. In future years, future seasons, maybe we won't have to worry about. Oh, well, is it is it going to be Ohio State or is it going to be Michigan? We might get both. That's what this stops whining, complaining, selection Sunday, people tears down their eyes.

Oh, it's not fair that we didn't get in. All that stops. Play the game.

Are you going to get your ass destroyed or are you going to go out there and put up a fight? Congratulations. And we talked about this earlier this week. So many changes in college athletics. So many changes in the college football playoff is one of them. And so at least now that we got 12 teams, maybe some of the crime will get chopped down.

Hey, Hickey, what are your thoughts on this this playoff now that it's 12? Is it too many? I think it's too many.

But at least people stop complaining. I don't think it's too many because we may get a few blocks. I'll live with that. I rather have a few blocks and then have to have the committee decide the four teams. I am over the committee less now.

Expanding the playoff lessens their power in a way. So I'm all for that. So I love it.

I'm excited. I think it brings, you know, a little bit of a renewed sense of excitement. Maybe this, you know, as a Penn State fan, now them getting the class easier.

Maybe that's a little bit of bias on my part potentially. But I think it does bring some excitement. It can now you at least in the beginning of the season get more fan bases to believe their team can at least make the playoff.

From there, it's obviously a, you know, different discussion, but at least making it, I'm in for. Do we need more enthusiasm? Like, I feel like in college athletics, it's not like the pros where you got to sell tickets and you have to sell enthusiasm. You have to sell a personality.

I feel like at college, if you have talent there, I think part of the sales job is already it's the experience. I don't think you have the ups, especially if you're already a good team. Do they really need more of an incentive to get Juice behind them? Not that it's, I guess, Juice.

I mean, that was a poor choice of words, but I think it helps promote parody, which I think is better. Like we just saw this past year, I thought the sport was pretty wide open. Like usually going to most years, it's OK. You know, Alabama, right. Georgia now, recent times, Ohio State, like half the playoff field had already basically be filled or maybe even three quarters of it be filled before you kick off a game. Because it's like these two, three teams are ahead of everybody else. Now, at least with more teams, if you're a coach, you can recruit better players because, hey, look, we can make the playoff and, you know, have a chance to compete. I think it helps spread talent out, which promotes parody, which I think in turn brings excitement because now teams can actually or more teams can believe, hey, we can win a championship or go to the title game more than really more than ever before. Yeah, whatever helps people, quote unquote, believe. I guess that's all it boils down to.

What is going to help people believe? Well, I guess a couple of seasons ago, Kirby Smart, two years ago, a matter of fact, Kirby Smart team, I remember this, they beat the living hell out of TCU. How, a national championship game, they beat them 65 to 7. Kirby Smart was just like, yeah, expanded playoff would be great for everybody.

Listen to this. If we're going to do it, I would be much more in favor of saying, all right, let's go to 12, you know, and have eight teams play out and maybe the first four get a bonus or a buy or something like that. But I certainly think that if they did that, somebody within that back five, six, seven, eight is going to win a national championship at some point. And that's giving everybody a realistic shot. I mean, at the end of the day, how are all college sports decisions made? You know, they're done on the field, they're done in a championship environment, and we're one of the few that's not done that way.

So it makes it different. OK, Kirby Smart is like, yeah, yeah, yeah, one day one of them back end seeds is going to win going a little bit of a of a Cinderella run. I guess why not give everybody a chance and an opportunity? Well, now that Nick Saban is gone, I think everybody does have a little bit more of a chance and an opportunity. And now that we have NIL, I think everybody has a little bit more of a chance and an opportunity. But also, it makes plenty of sense now that they've expanded the field to 12 teams. Everybody's going to have a little bit more of a chance and an opportunity.

Me, I'm not necessarily in favor of it, but I am happy to a certain degree. This is going to curtail and stop some of the whining, crying and bellyaching when it comes to not just a power five or power four schools who don't make it in, but teams that are right on the edge and decided on just by a committee. And I don't know how much football this committee is watching. Like I said, I think they rely on a damn computer. Maybe they've got BCS files or programs still sitting around somewhere. It's the J.R. Support Reshow here with you on CBS Sports Radio 855-212-4CBS.

It's 855-212-4CBS. We come back from break. We're going to have a conversation with Gary Washburn. He covers the basketball, covers the basketball. He covers basketball for the Boston Globe. He doesn't just know Celtics. He knows everything.

Gary Washburn on the other side. It's the J.R. Support Reshow on CBS Sports Radio. Selling a little or a lot. Shopify helps you do your thing, however you cha-ching. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business.

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You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. Oh, sense to some of the nonsense. I'll take it. It sounds nice.

So why not? I appreciate it. Thank you so much. It is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. Yeah, the NFL opened up the franchise tag window.

Yes, so what? Major League Baseball has started spring training. Yeah, we're getting ready for March Madness. The NBA is getting ready to roll into the stretch run now that we are post All-Star break.

And yeah, the All-Star break, not necessarily the most interesting or greatest thing, but we're going to have some real hoops action the rest of the way. To talk about what has happened and what is likely to happen as we move on, it's time to have a conversation with someone who knows it all. He's a contributor to the Boston Globe.

He knows everything with the NBA. We're being joined right now by Gary Washburn. Gary, thank you for taking the time to hop on. Hey, great to be here.

No doubt about it. I guess, first question, coming off of the All-Star break, which wasn't given high ratings, what are your thoughts on what we saw over the weekend? Well, I think there's obviously something that needs to be done to increase the excitement and the competitiveness of the All-Star game. I just think it's kind of a situation where this has been coming and happening for years now, and it just kind of finally came to a head the other night where basically the two teams just kind of had a pickup game where they scored on each other the whole night, and East scored more points in the West, 211, and that's a record number of points, and it just was no defense, no real competitiveness, and it got boring. I don't know what can be done besides encouraging the players, and I think it's got to come from the older players, the veteran players, because obviously coming from the commissioner didn't do anything. The commissioner had said all this season that there was going to be a more competitive All-Star game, that the players should be inspired to play harder, and they'd give the fans entertainment, and it did not happen.

They played exactly how they played the last few years. So something's got to be done. I still think it's a fun weekend, but it's a lot going on.

There's marketing, hanging out, the parties, the dinners, and these guys get tired, and I don't know if capping it off with a highly competitive game is ever going to work, because by Sunday these guys are ready to take a break, and it's hard. Gary Washburn from the Boston Globe is joining us. No one's jailing Brown, and we saw him pull out the glove and what have you, and so was it really an emphasis that he doesn't have a left hand? Is that the deal with the Michael Jackson glove? Well, he told us that it was a tribute to Michael Jackson because Michael Jackson's from Gary, Indiana, and they're in Indianapolis.

So I thought that was pretty unique. I thought he tried. I thought he did okay. You know, obviously he lost, and he should have lost to Mac LeClung, but I just think that just says a lot about the league, that none of the veteran guys besides him want to participate. So what you have is you have two G League players and a guy who has played four NBA games total compete in a dunk contest against a veteran. None of these guys who can fly out of the gym and dunk reverse and dunk all seven, go do 720s, and you know, well, I don't know what's more than 720, a 1080s and all that, they don't want to participate. So this is what we're left to, and the league and the players have to do something about that.

They've got to get over the prospect of being embarrassed on social media or being a meme on TikTok or something, and they've got to do it. So Jalen Brown tried. He lost.

I know a lot of people were kind of ripping him on social media, but I give him credit for getting out there and being a current All-Star and trying to put some pizzazz in the dunk contest. Well, Gary, with your work, speaking of Brown, covering the Celtics, we know that they're the favorites out of the East. Probably a good chance that they are going to go back to a finals, depending on what takes place. What is it contingent upon?

Is it mostly health? Is it Porzingis? Is it too many threes? What's going on with the Celtics? Well, I think they're in line to basically get back to the finals the first time in two years. They just have to play the right way, and I think they've done that. I think they had a little kind of a mini slump, if you want to call it, in late January, early February, where they got blown out by the Clippers, and then they lost to the Lakers really short-handed without A.D. and LeBron. And I think since then they've won six in a row, and they're trying to get back to that style. I think they like to take a lot of threes, obviously. They lead the league in attempts. But they also think they like to pound the paint, use Porzingis, and get some easy baskets also. So I think it's just a matter of them playing the way they're supposed to play, playing strong defense, their top three in defense, top two in scoring, offensive efficiency, and keep it moving.

But it's going to be a challenge. I mean, the East is filled with teams that might have, you know, Milwaukee's got its issues. So does Philadelphia. New York's got to get healthy. But Cleveland's a team that's been hot. And the Celtics are always looking over their shoulder at the Miami Heat. You don't know what they're going to be capable of when the playoffs come around, because obviously, as you know, they made the finals last year as an A.C.

So there's a lot of challenges left for the Celtics to overcome, but I think they're capable. Gary Washburn is here with us, covers the NBA for the Boston Globe, the entire league. When you look at what's going on with the Milwaukee Bucks, and today J.J. Reddick took a blowtorch to Doc Rivers, what's the deal? Why is Doc being eviscerated the way that he has been, given that it's only been a few weeks?

Well, one, they're three and seven. Two, I think there was a perception that Doc was kind of, you know, waiting for Adrian Griffin to get fired. He wanted back into the coaching game, and he takes a job from a guy who was 30 and 13, and in his first NBA job, and here comes Doc kind of swooped in to save the day. And I also think that the days of Doc's effectiveness, you know, obviously we remember him coaching the Celtics in 2008, and having the, you know, great chemistry with Rondo and Ray Allen and Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett.

That was 16 years ago. Current players, and some of you don't respond to him in particular as well as those guys did. And I think that there might be kind of a generational gap building. You know, Doc is, you know, he's a great guy and makes you feel like a million dollars.

He's a wonderful coach to cover when I covered him. But I think the younger players are kind of not believing some of the things he says and going by what he says, as much as the veteran players, the players he did 15 years ago. And I think he's got to figure out how to get through to Giannis, how to get through to some of the players that were literally maybe in grade school or middle school, junior high or high school when the Celtics were winning that championship, right?

They don't have vivid memories of that. So I just think it might be that Doc's going to have to maybe, if not change his style or adjust his style a little bit to get through to these players. And also Milwaukee is damn old. I mean, Giannis is 29, but Damon is 33, Jay Crowder is 33, Brooke Lopez 36, Chris Milton's kind of a 33 and been injured the last few years. So this is not a young athletic spry Milwaukee team. This is a team that is old for NBA standards. Well, Gary, we know who the oldest guy in the league is.

His name is LeBron James. Los Angeles Lakers not making any moves. We know that they can win an in-season tournament. I don't know about them winning a championship. What do you think happens with the Lakers as this season moves on and then we move on into the offseason where LeBron can pick up an option?

He can do what he wants. What do you think is going on there? I think that they're going to have to obviously now, I mean, the buyout market's kind of drying up and they already picked up Spencer Dinwiddie. They're going to try to make a run here with the current roster.

Guys are going to have to step up. They're going to try to see, hey, if we can stay healthy, get into that, maybe try to get that 6 seed to avoid the play in, but try to get in and then pull off, you know, a couple of upsets. Last year's team got to the Western Conference Finals, so it's possible, right? But now I think the West is a little stronger with the Clippers, the Oklahoma City, Minnesota, and Denver. It's kind of the top four locked in. Then you've got Phoenix, who's still really yet to get fully healthy. And you've got a couple other teams in there. Dallas, after the trade deadline, made some moves.

So it's going to be hard. But I think this summer, they're going to go to LeBron and say, listen, opt in and we'll make sure we'll get you a number three. We'll get you a third superstar.

We're going to do whatever it takes to get that third guy in to make next year the year that we can win. And I just think that's probably what they've got to sell LeBron on because it just did not work out. They have more trade assets in the offseason, a couple of more first round picks that they can offer to a team. And they're going to go after the Trae Young, Donovan Mitchell or someone of that ilk who is an All-Star caliber player who can come in and join them and help them win right away.

Gary Washburn here with us, the JR Sport Reshow on CBS Sports Radio. You mentioned the Nuggets. You talk about the Suns. The Nuggets, you can discuss their depth. The Suns, you can think about some of the injury history of their stars. Who do you think is best and well equipped to potentially come out of the West?

That's a great question. You got to think Denver because of their experience. Obviously they're defending champions and now kind of getting everything together. But I'm going to say Minnesota or Oklahoma City.

I'm just going to go grain here. I think Oklahoma City has just got a bunch of young athletes. They can wear you down.

Obviously experience could be an issue. And Minnesota is a team that's been, you know, we've expected more from over the last maybe 10 years, right? Since Carl Anthony Towns was there and they got all these guys around him and they're thinking okay.

And they've never lived up to expectations that this might be the year. And then, I mean, you can also say the Clippers, you know. You kind of wonder if a team with James Harden running it, is something going to actually go wrong? Is James' playoff James Harden going to show up in the playoffs and let them down?

So that's a good question. But I think I'm going to say the Timberwolves at this point. I just think that they picked up a couple of guys in the buyout market. They picked up, they made some deals. I think this team is fired up and motivated to make a deep run. Hey, every now and then we have to have somebody that breaks through the glass ceiling, right? We've got to have a new team on top. So, hey, who's to say it's not the Wolves, Gary, right? Yeah, I mean, it's about time, I think.

You know what I'm saying? Look out for Oklahoma City, too. They could be a team to break through.

Let's see what happens with the young teams. Hey, Gary, thank you so much for the time. Where can people follow you and your work covering the entire NBA with the Boston Globe?

G. Washburn Globe on X or Twitter, however you want to call it, and then the Boston Globe Sports Department, you know, Celtic and NBA coverage every day. Hey, Gary, we appreciate you joining us here on CBS Sports Radio, man. Thank you. Let's talk down the line, all right? Oh, no problem.

Looking forward to it. Hey, thank you so much to Gary Washburn for joining us, the JR Sportbree show here on CBS Sports Radio. The good thing about this NBA season that it comes across, and not comes across, it is.

It seems open. I mean, outside of taking a look at the Boston Celtics and saying, hey, they're sitting atop the East right now, and they have. Everybody else is playing catch-up.

This, this is good. It's nice to go into a season and not just proclaim someone as the champs. We know the Nuggets are the defending champions, and to be the man, you got to beat the man. Woo.

Yeah, it's all good. But the fact is, there's no dynasty here that anybody's looking at. Every team is flawed to a certain degree. Every team, you look at it and go, oh, man, they're one sprained ankle away from things being curtains.

I'm going to enjoy the rest of this NBA season and what it looks like. It's the JR Sportbree show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. It's 855-212-4CBS.

At the top of the hour in about 30 minutes, I want to celebrate someone who has a birthday today. It's not me. It's not Hickey. It's the round mound of rebound. We're going to talk about Charles Barkley at the top of the hour. But when we come back, I want to give you an update on this NBA All-Star game that was a disaster. You know, Gary told us that Jalen Brown was trying to show love to Michael Jackson. It kind of fell flat.

Well, let's just say some of the All-Star ratings fell flat as well. We'll talk about it. The phone lines are open. If you want to talk to me, 855-212-4CBS.

You're locked in to the JR Sportbree show on CBS Sports Radio. 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 available early 2024. Listen to and follow Superfly on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast. You're listening to the JR Sportbree on CBS Sports Radio. It's the JR Sportbree show here with you on CBS Sports Radio.

Thank you to Gary Washburn for joining us before we went to break. Covers the NBA for the Boston Globe. Doesn't just cover the Celtics.

Covers everything. So I appreciate him coming through. Gary believes that one of the younger teams in the Western Conference. He thinks both the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Oklahoma City Thunder have a real chance to finally break through.

And I think it might, might be time. You know, we're going to see if somebody like Anthony Edwards can step up in the most important time. We know he's an extremely, an extremely talented player. A lot of times he comes across as a goofball.

He doesn't take himself too seriously, which is a lot of fun. But let's see what he does when the lights shine the brightest come postseason. Because there are some real big expectations that the Minnesota Timberwolves are no longer going to just be a joke or a stepping stone here in the Western Conference. And then we know the Oklahoma City Thunder ridiculously young. One of the youngest rosters in the league. I'm not so sure certain that they're going to be ready for prime time.

But I wouldn't be surprised if they advanced around or maybe, maybe two. Let's see what happens as the West. Man, watching the West playoffs is going to be a lot of fun.

And of course, everybody, anybody wanting to win a championship is going to have to move Nikola Jokic out the way. I'm just reminded of the numbers that he put up last postseason. Man, just Wilk Chamberlain numbers.

He was just all over the damn place. 8-5-5, 2-1-2 for CBS. That's 8-5-5, 2-1-2 for CBS.

I do want to share this before we go to break. Last night we talked about how bad the All-Star game was. Well, the ratings are in.

And year over year or year after year or year over year would be more correct. The NBA, its ratings improved from the All-Star game from last year by 20%. So the ratings for the NBA All-Star game, they did go up. Approximately 5.5 million people tuned in to the NBA All-Star game this past Sunday. Okay?

That's fine. Two weeks ago, the NFL held its Pro Bowl games. And when I say Pro Bowl games, I'm talking about that damn flag football nonsense that they put on. That drew 5.7 million viewers. And so yes, it's only off, only differential, only difference I should say is about 200,000 people.

Two and a half, quarter million people. But yes, you can safely say that the NFL Pro Bowl games outdrew barely the NBA All-Star game. Let me say it again in a different way. The NFL's flag football game barely outdrew the legitimate NBA All-Star game. That everybody, by the way, is telling you is not competitive, it's not fun, it's a track meet, it's boring, and for all the reasons that we know the players, don't go out there and compete.

Pretty pathetic, pretty sad. Now having said that, the NBA All-Star game, it's on cable. Not everybody has cable, still today, sure, everybody doesn't have cable, not everybody is streaming.

The Pro Bowl is on cable, not everybody is streaming, not everybody has cable. Major League Baseball has the most watched All-Star game, but not by a lot. All-Star game still comes on broadcast television. Seven million people watched the All-Star game last year. And so when it comes down to interest for All-Star games, I don't care who and what it is. The viewership is not there, the viewership is plummeting. It's a tough one, and Major League Baseball, theirs is the most competitive.

I would think that being on broadcast TV that they would have even more viewers, but seven million? That's a tough one to scratch. 855-212-4CBS, Connor is here from Buffalo, you're on the JR Sport Brief Show. Hey, how's it going, man?

Going very well, Connor, what's on your mind? I just wanted to talk about the NBA and how they can make the All-Star game better. Another suggestion, go ahead. I know it sounds crazy, but add one more All-Star to each side. And then all you have to do is just break it down into conferences in this four. So you go three-on-three tournament, basically like the old Gus Macker. Make it like a three-on-three tournament, blacktop, just have him choose whoever.

Don't even discriminate by conference or whatever, just have him choose whatever player you like by whoever's best gets to choose last, I guess. So you want to do what they've already done the past few years, but make it streetball? No, no, no, not like that. You said blacktop.

But make it three-on-three. Yeah, I heard that, yeah. Remember Gus Macker? Who? Gus Macker, the tournament, like the old school New York tournament, the Gus Macker.

The Gus Smacker? Gus Macker, but it's an old tournament. They used to play it on the street, and it was just three-on-threes, and all these different cities, or towns in the area, or different areas in the city used to play on blacktop in three-on-three tournaments. And they would play three-on-three tournaments for their teams. There's five players per team, but you just, in the NBA, you only have three. And I would just be like, do it to 12. Each, every basket is a point, you win by two, you basically just play it all the way through until you win, you know what I mean? You have four teams of three, and then you play it. And then you can do, for ESPN 1, ESPN 2, TNT, TNT.

Connor, Connor, Connor, this is a long, I'm sorry, this is a long explanation. Do you think they're going to do this? I mean, it's the NBA. No, I didn't ask you that. Do you think that they're going to do this? I think they can.

No, I didn't ask you if they can. They can do whatever they want. Do you think that they would? On a scale of 1 to 10, what is the likelihood of them doing this, 10 being you, you feel very strongly that they would? Probably a 6, because they're not getting anything from it right now.

They're not getting anything from it. But like, having actual competition for like, if you have a captain... Connor, Connor, Connor, Connor, Connor, Connor, Connor, I'm just trying to save time here, because you went into the weeds. The idea of just having a three-on-three tournament, I think you could have stopped there.

I think we would have got it. No, I understand. I'm sorry about that, brother. No, it's okay.

You don't have to be sorry, but hey, how about this? A three-on-three basketball is something that they're looking to add. I think it might be added already into the Olympics. So, I do see... I mean, they already got that on the big three, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, we know that. I said, well, yeah.

Connor, gosh, sheesh, Connor, hold on. We know the popularity of the big three. Ice Cube was just here on the JR Sport Reef show last year talking about the big three. We know about three-on-three basketball. That might be something realistic. Let me put it to you this way.

I don't watch the crap, because it's crap. I do know that on All-Star Friday night, the NBA has already adjusted what you get when it comes down to the sophomores and the rookies. They now compete on different teams. They have a mini-tournament throughout the night, and so that might be something that's a realistic option. So, I give you a lot of credit for doing that. What it really boils down to is how far the NBA would typically want to break from tradition.

And thank you, Connor, for calling from Buffalo. The idea is not bad at all. The fact is, the NBA is rooted, tries to be rooted in tradition, and we know things change over time. And do they really want to tinker with the All-Star game? It's one thing to take a sophomore rookie game and mess it up, mess around with it over a few years, but an All-Star game?

That's tricky. And yeah, we can look at baseball and all of its changes. Could you imagine baseball changing its All-Star game?

I'm talking about the structure of it, not the results. Not waking up and saying, oh, whoever wins the All-Star game, the AL or the NL, will determine who gets home field advantage in the postseason. I'm saying if Major League Baseball said, hey, our All-Star game, we're going to play, I don't know, four and a half innings, and then play two separate games, four and a half innings each, and then we're going to break it down into four teams.

People will go, this is not baseball. I don't know if the NBA is prepared to say, let's just do three on three, because at that point, the NBA would not, there's already a full admission that the All-Star game stinks. That's why they've changed the teams who can select two. They did that, but there would be a full, I don't want to say bastardization of the game, but there'd be a big old, hey, we really screwed up if you got to now have three on three tournaments. I don't know if the NBA is ready for that.

That would even prove to, I think, be an even larger embarrassment, albeit realistic. It's a wild world. It's the JR Sport Reshow here with you on CBS Sports Radio, 855-212 for CBS. Someone who knows that All-Star game sucks is Charles Barkley, because he had the broadcast during it. And also, it's a special day for him. We're going to talk about it here on CBS Sports Radio.

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.

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