6.4.24 - JR SportBrief Hour 3

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Auto Trader. It is! The JR Sport Brief Show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. We've got people listening coast to coast. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Much love and many thanks to our super producer and host, Ryan Hickey, holding it down for us on the boards in New York City. You can always listen to this show on the free Audacy app.

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We've talked about a lot. This is halftime of the show. Two hours down and two more to go. I want to give a big thank you to David Sampson, former president of the Marlins, current host, nothing personal with David Sampson, host on CBS Sports HQ, to come by and talk to us about everything going on in baseball. Tusa Peter. This man is banned from baseball for life.

Ipe Mizuhara. He is, well, dammit, he might get deported. This man pled guilty for stealing Shohei Ohtani's money. Did not use Shohei Ohtani's name at all.

Just called him victim, the victim. I wonder if that'll look nice on an Ohtani jersey in the future. They do all these customized jerseys.

Maybe in the future they'll sell victim on the back. I doubt it. But thank you so much to David Sampson for joining us earlier in the show. A lot of NFL talk. Christian McCaffrey picking up a new contract extension. So things are busy in the world of Major League Baseball and the NFL as they're in OTAs. We know things are very busy right now as well in the world of the NBA. Media Day tomorrow. We got Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday. You know what? Let's talk to someone who knows the ins and the outs of the NBA and someone as well who has a new series that's premiering on FX tonight.

It's time to have a conversation with a senior writer covering the NBA for ESPN. Ramona Shelbourne is here with us. Ramona, thank you for taking the time. I appreciate it. You got it, guys. How's it going?

No problem. I know it's a busy, busy night. What you have coming out on FX, clipped.

Tell us about that before we talk about the Finals in a couple of days. I'm sorry if I have a little party voice because we had the premiere last night and you know when it's loud and it's somewhere where the music's loud and your voice goes. Yeah, and I have a couple glasses of whiskey. I know.

I just had one drink, but it's not bad. It was just that it was so loud. That was fun. The show is something we...

I've been working on it for 10 years. I covered it when it happened in 2014 and it felt like we were living in a movie. Just all the fun little details of the show and all the fun little details. At the time, it was just a story, right? This strange Viviano character who was making her appearance on roller skates and the turtle, right? Do you remember all that?

Yeah, I do. And I was a reporter who kind of had to figure out, okay, well, why did this happen? Why were these tapes made?

Why would they leak? Why did they come out on TMZ? What was the backstory behind it?

And the more I dug into it, the more it just felt like the experience. It was like, oh, well, he was his assistant, but he had other assistants before it. It may or may not have been sexual. They had just been close to this, whatever, but he gave these lavish gifts upon her and his wife found out and did not like how pushy she was and how aggressive she was and she sued her to get the money back, to get the gifts back. When have you ever heard the wife suing you as the husband's mistress? It's not normally how things go. Usually your husband cheats on you or something happens and it sucks.

Maybe you might get divorced, but to sue to get the gifts back is something to do. And I think that is what put a lot of this stuff into motion. It set everything off into motion. And the more I got to know Shelley Sterling, the woman who kind of kicked this whole thing off, and the more I learned about Viacitiano and her role in this, and then I covered up close how the effect it had on that Clipper team. That was a lot of city Clippers, right?

It was Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan and Chris Paul, probably their best chance ever to have won the championship and it just took the wind out of their sails. It felt so strange you couldn't make this stuff up, right? There's all these fun characters you're going to get to meet in the show, like Shelley Sterling's lawyer, this guy named Pierce O'Donnell. He's such a character. He's such a good character.

They actually got Corbin Bernsen from LA Law to play him, right? And so I think it's... And I think when you watch this or when you have a chance to, what I love about the show so much is it brought the reporting I did to light, but also it illuminated the backstory and who this Viacitiano was in a way that I was never able to do. And by reporting a podcast, like I have sketchy biographical details, but it was the fact that Viacitiano is like a real life person in the show and played by this amazing actress. If you don't know who Cleopatra Coleman is yet, you will after this show. She is unbelievable as Viacitiano and I'm really happy that that is done so well because it's the part that I never could get to as a reporter.

The Ramona Show, born from ESPN, is joining us. Clipped starts on FX tonight, runs through the beginning of July. I've seen the trailer.

It makes you go, oh man, I gotta watch this. I even saw that Lawrence Fishburne is playing everybody's favorite coach in Doc Rivers. Yeah, I mean like when we thought about doing this in the show, I was excited about the casting.

I always wanted to, I watched people versus OJ and that was an amazing show and I just thought it would be the same thing. Who should play Doc Rivers? Who should play Adam Silver?

Who should play Donald Sterling? And just hearing the names that they talked to or they thought about or debated about and then seeing how Ed O'Neill becomes Donald Sterling. I mean, Ed O'Neill, that's Al Bundy, man.

I grew up watching Ed O'Neill. He's selling shoes, yeah. He's amazing in this show. People think, oh, you know, Sterling's a bad guy or he's an old guy who says all this stuff.

No, man. Sterling is living, breathing, interesting. I mean, Ed's going to get nominated for some awards. I'm telling you, that character is amazing and his role in it is amazing. And so, I think when you watch the show, you'll see him in a different light.

You'll see Lawrence. You had to play Doc Rivers in this role at the time. The way that Doc Rivers handled this, he had to be able to command the room in the locker room. I know Lawrence Fishburne, you know, he's not a basketball guy.

He's not an athlete or anything, but he's got some gravitas, right? No, he did not do the Doc Rivers voice, okay? He didn't try to, but he did Lawrence Fishburne and that's enough. I didn't mind it for one second that he didn't try to do the gravel voice, right? He just did, you know, he had a deep voice and he commanded the room and huddle. I think he's a revelation in this. You haven't seen him in a role like this before.

He nailed it. I'm looking forward to it. Talking about rewards, Ramona, I think you might have some coming on down the line as well. Ramona Shelbourne is here with us, the JR Sportbreeze Show, Coast to Coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Before we get into some finals talk, I don't even want to say where there's smoke, there's fire. We've heard so much over the past month now about J.J. Reddick becoming the next Lakers coach. What's the hold up until after the finals, after the draft?

What's the deal here? It feels like that, right? I mean, they're obviously taking their time. They're talking to everybody. I actually think that's good because, you know when coaches, like when teams hire coaches, they'll do like a million interviews, you know what that is?

That's information. Every single one of these interviews is getting somebody else's take on your team and how it should play and how it did play. The guys that they've interviewed are all really accomplished assistant coaches and they're looking for their next head coach. They're looking for their first head coach in the game, but they're really... I mean Mike Inouye and Dave Edelman and Chris Quinn from Miami, like those guys have great, great basketball knowledge and takes on what the Lakers are and who they've been. So I think it's really...

I think they're taking their time with it because they don't have to be in a hurry. And also, I do think that J.J.'s timeframe himself, like he's called in the finals, like he's busy. I will say this. I was laughing last night because we have an actor who plays J.J. Reddick in the show. His name is Charlie McElveen. And I was like, hey, you know what? We're going to call you pretty soon. And he's going to say, coach for the Lakers. We can't get J.J. for a little while.

So he's like, can you stand in? Hey, J.J.'s, he's pretty occupied. This man did a podcast and potentially parlayed it into a coaching job. So I guess the power of LeBron James. Ramona Shelburne, a lead ESPN writer, covers all things.

NBA is here with us on the JR Sport re-show Coast to Coast. We know LeBron James wields power, but what's the latest when it comes down to LeBron? Do you believe that he'll get drafted at the end of the month? I think he's going to get drafted, yeah.

I don't know if it'll be first round or second round. I know he didn't get rave reviews from that combine, but I think there's a lot of people that, and this is how I felt about him since I saw him play when he was a freshman in high school. And, you know, when I first saw him, I was like, ooh, a little small.

It's not big like his dad, right? But then I saw him again a couple years later, and he's like, he'd grown into his body more. He had that same athleticism.

He had that same bounce. And you just look at him and you go, okay, you know, LeBron was obviously more developed and ready for the NBA coming out of high school. But, you know, I just need a little time to bake, but if he's in the right situation, the kid has some good raw materials to work with. And I think somebody's going to take a chance on him, not necessarily in the first round, but maybe somewhere in the second round. And I think it's going to be real interesting to see how it plays out because of the tie-in with LeBron. Like if people decide they want to, you know, take a chance on Bronny and see if LeBron will come with him.

You know, I mean, that's a possibility. I think LeBron stays in Los Angeles, but nothing would really surprise me this summer with him. There's a lot up in the air for him and for the Lakers and for Bronny, but nothing towards the end of his career would surprise me what he did. We've been shocked a couple of times by LeBron. It'd be a little bit more shocking this go round as he's sitting on 39 years old.

Ramona Shelbourne is here with us at the JR Sport Reef Show. LeBron James was also very complimentary today in the latest edition of his podcast of Kyrie Irving. We know the NBA final starts in two nights.

What are your impressions? Who do you kind of favor as we kind of get towards a new champion? Yeah, you know, they asked me to make a pick and I almost like as a reflex said Boston in seven just because they were the best team. They got home court. They got Porzingis.

I don't know. I've been thinking about it more and more and I kind of think Dallas is going to take this. Like I feel like you have these two generational talents in Luca and Kyrie and I'm not saying like, I mean, I think Jason Payton's up there. Okay, but just look at the two best players. I think Dallas has the two best players, right?

And I think that they're at a stage where they... I think they can...when they have them playing at this level and I think now that Luca's had a week off to get right, um, the way they've been playing defense, the way that the pieces that they acquired like PJ Washington and the way that those Daniel Gassard has been such a good fit. Like they just have that look, you know, and sometimes I just get influenced because that's the team I covered. Like I went to a bunch of those Western Conference Finals games and it was, um, Dallas was impressive, um, really impressive. I know that and I did a couple of Dallas games in the first round too. Um, I don't know, they have that look and they have the two best players.

So I think my official pick is going to be Boston 7 in respect to the 64 wins and the home court advantage, but Dallas and 6 may not be far off. It feels like they're close. His senior writer from ESPN, Ramona Shelbourne, is here with us as we start to wrap things up. You talk about the time you spent covering these Dallas Mavericks. Kyrie Irving, what happened between Boston and Cleveland and now? Just maturity? Just 32 years old?

What's changed? Yeah, I mean, he grew up, right? But also, um, you know, his mother-in-law, her name is, um, Shekeli O'Reilly Irving. She took over handling his career. She became his manager. Um, and she's, you know, they're very close. He's known her since she was a kid, right? I think she chilled him out a little bit. I think he also just found a place, an organization that was very supportive and he has done a very good job of just focusing on basketball. He's minimized the distractions. He's bought in and I think Dallas is a place where, like, he wasn't in that hot media glare every second, you know? Like, he wasn't Brooklyn or Boston or any of the places he was, right? He was, like, you know, he missed a big chunk of the season this year with an injury.

He wasn't under pressure to come back. There wasn't that much heat on him, so I think he was able to kind of recalibrate. He has grown. I've talked to Ky a lot lately. He really has grown and is a different perspective on things. This is probably who he wanted to be, you know, three or four years ago when he went to the Celtics and just wasn't right there maturity-wise yet.

Oh, well, nothing wrong with change. Sometimes it takes all of us a little bit longer than others. Hey, Ramona, I want to thank you for the time. Fill us in one more time on Clipped on FX, how we can watch, when we can watch.

Give us the details. Okay. So, the first two episodes are going to drop today. I think they're actually already out.

They sort of drop at midnight. So, the first two episodes drop on Hulu. Everything is going to be on Hulu. And FX and Hulu are basically owned by the same people, right?

And Hulu is a streaming service. So, the first two episodes drop tonight. Every Tuesday, we drop another episode.

We run through the end of June, a little bit into July. So, the six episodes total, each about an hour. I think it's a fun watch. It's a good story.

These characters, you literally could not make them up, but they're all true. And some of the performances in the show are great. Plus, for NBA fans, you're going to love all the little Easter eggs. There's just a lot of little Easter eggs if you really know the story. Well, that's cool. Well, Anthony Edwards is too young, but he's not cursing anybody out, is he? No, no, no, no. It's a lot of on-court stuff.

We don't have to give it to what's on-court, you know? Okay, I can dig it. Well, Ramona, thank you so much. Tell everybody before you roll where people can follow you.

Fill us in. Oh, you can find me on Twitter, Instagram at Ramona Shelburne. Yeah, I forgot to spell it, but if you type in Ramona, it'll probably come up. Good luck. Congratulations on the series. And yeah, I think you might have another piece of hardware coming your way when this is all said and done. Thank you, Ramona.

Thanks, bud. No doubt about it. That Ramona Shelburne, senior writer for ESPN. Ramona also, hey, she's a contributor and producing for this on FX. It's called Clipped. So make sure you go ahead and check it out.

I don't think anybody would have forgotten at all the story of Donald Sterling. It's the JR Sportbreef Show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. We're going to take a break. The phone lines are open if you want to give me a holler. That's 855-212-4227.

That's 855-212-4227. You heard Ramona. She's picking the Mavericks to win the championship. Okay, we're going to talk about that. Get some more of your calls. Oh yeah, super producer and host Dave Shepherd is coming our way this hour as well.

It's the JR Sportbreef Show. Don't move. Call from Mom. Answer it.

Call silenced. Instacart knows nothing gets between you and the game. That's why they make ordering from your couch easy. Stock up today and get all your groceries for the week delivered in as fast as 30 minutes without missing a minute of the game. You have 47 new voice mails. Download the app to get free delivery on your first three orders while supplies last.

Minimum $10 per order. Additional terms apply. 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. Look around. You can find cars like these on Auto Trader. New cars, used cars, electric cars, maybe even flying cars. Okay, no flying cars, but as soon as they get invented, they'll be on Auto Trader. Just you wait.

Auto Trader. You're listening to the JR Sportbreef. It's the JR Sportbreef Show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. Thank you so much to ESPN's Ramona Sherbourne for joining us on the other side of the break. Yeah, go ahead. Check it out.

Clipped on FX and Hulu. Taking a deep dive into something that happened about 10 years ago with that man, Donald Sterling and his mistress, V. Stiviano. Yeah, don't have a mistress, folks. Get you in trouble, like him.

But if you're a piece of crap like him, then maybe you deserve it. Anyway, thank you to Ramona for coming through. She said she got the Dallas Mavericks winning the NBA playoffs this year, winning the championship over the Boston Celtics. And she says it boils down to having Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving. And I would subscribe to that, too, except I think the Celtics are a deeper team. I think they got more to throw, you know, at the Boston Celtics.

So if things don't work out, then it's going to be tough, man. We'll see what happens. We got some call this year. 855-212-4227.

That's 855-212-4227. We got Dan from Wisconsin. Dan, you're on the JR Sportbreef Show. What's going on, my man? Hey, JR.

Thanks for taking my call. I mean, I'm just blabbergasted on this Otani deal. I was listening to your sports show this weekend, and the guy hosting it was saying about one of his teammates in the Angels was batting on baseball.

That new Otani interpreter was batting on it. Now, the other day I went to Walmart. I couldn't get a driver's license or a money order without having to give information. You don't have an accountant. The bank doesn't know this.

You change your password on your bank account. Nobody knows about this. Do you speak Japanese, Dan? Oh, no.

No. But you can't tell me. This just boggles me. This is a cover-up. They're covering something up. I cannot for the life of me believe that this went on without Otani knowing it.

No, I just think he's a man. He comes to America. He doesn't speak English, and his friend that he thought was going to help him screwed him over. You never got screwed over by a friend before, Dan.

A friend never screwed you over? Yes, I have, but not through a bank. Not through a bank. Don't you have accountants? Doesn't he have accountants that run it?

Maybe they run it like a mom and pop. Look, he had one guy he wanted to trust, and the guy he wanted to trust robbed him. I would think that the FBI did a thorough enough investigation. Look, it's the FBI. I think if they wanted to get Otani and they had something on Otani, Otani would be one of the biggest gets in the history of the FBI. And so I think he's kind of free on that one, Dan. But let's stay tuned.

Do you have finances to do your own investigation? You could. You make me laugh, Dan. You're welcome, Dan. Well, thank you for calling from Wisconsin. You too.

You too. Hickey, how much money do you think it would cost to investigate Shohei Otani? How many millions? A couple hundred? Oh, yeah. 6,100 million? That'd be a big operation.

Yeah. I don't know if Dan would be able to finance that himself, but he can always look into it. He could. If the FBI couldn't find nothing, then maybe Dan could do better, if possible.

855-212-4227. Let's go to Colorado and talk to Jim. Jim, you're on the JR Sport Reshow. What's going on, man? Hello?

Yeah, you're live on the radio. What's up, brother? Can you hear me? Sure can. We can all hear you. What's up? Hey, not much. Hey, I have a couple questions for you, please.

Go for it. LeBron being 40 years old and he's going to be demanding this type of money or trade or whatever, now bringing in his son, don't you think it's time maybe to have the Lakers move on from him? No. The Lakers... They're going to free him?

No, man. The Lakers are a glamour franchise. The fact that they've invested this much into LeBron James for so long, they're not going to get better without LeBron James.

So here's a couple of options. They can bring him back and he can come back on what could at longest be a three-year contract that's going to pay him, I think, approximately 50 plus million dollars over the next three years. LeBron James can say, hey, I want to go ahead and give you guys a discount. LeBron James can say, hey, I want to give you guys some freedom and a salary cap. But from the Lakers' perspective, man, these are the Lakers. Like, they want the stars. There is no bigger star, even at his age in the game, than LeBron James.

And they've already invested a crap ton into having him be a part of the squad. It's hard to just say, hey, bye, see you later. That's not the Laker way. And by the way, for a guy at the end of his career, if you want to think about this in dollars and cents in business, who the hell would not want to monetize a LeBron James farewell tour?

You want him in the uniform, and so he decides that he doesn't want to play anymore. Okay. Okay. I understand.

No problem. I agree with you on that. My second question is, getting back to this Russell Wilson signing and trading to the Broncos, why do these GMs do this type of deals? If you understand what I'm trying to say on some of these trades and signings, I live in Colorado and I'm a big Bronco fan. And still to this day, after two or three years of him coming here and playing the way he did, I just don't understand that the players that they gave up, the signing that he did with all this money, and now all of a sudden he's gone.

Why do these GMs do these type of things, if you can explain it? I love your show, man. You are awesome.

I'd like to hear your comment on that, okay? Well, thank you. Absolutely, Jim. Thank you for calling from Colorado. No, you are the best, bud.

Seriously, you are. Well, thank you, Jim. I got your answer for you. It's called job security. And if you don't got a quarterback, you don't got nothing. And as much as Russell Wilson might have been damaged goods with Seattle, in order to bring him in, you look at his resume and say, hey, this might be the guy. That's it. If you don't got a quarterback, you don't got nothing. You might as well take the shot.

I mean, what are we going to do? Look at Drew Locke at that point in time. We're going to look at Drew Locke for the next million years?

The answer is no. And if the ownership group is willing to eat the money, then why not? Let's remember it was the I don't I don't know everybody in the group. It's the Walton family who decided to go ahead and say, oh, yeah, let's let's give Russell Wilson all of this money. Let's give him a four and five year deal. And it didn't work. And they ate the money.

They moved on. And you want to know whose head will be next on the chopping block if this doesn't work? Sean Payton.

They're going to tell him to take a hike and go back to television. Wild stuff. Anyway, Hickey also, by the way, mentioning LeBron. He asked about LeBron James and and all of this. Did Trae Young just just put out one of these convoluted messages? Would not be the NBA offseason, right, with some ambiguous tweets from two hours ago on Trae Young's official Twitter, quote, expect the unexpected nowadays, end quote.

OK. All right. Well, the countdown is on for him on his way out of Atlanta. So either that or the request is coming or the request is going to come because he feels that they don't want him. Something is going to happen. And it's just it's inevitable.

Everybody has to be the center of attention. The J.R. Sport Reshow here with you on the Infinity Sports Network.

We're going to take a break when we come back. We're going to talk to someone who broadcasts here on the Infinity Sports Network. It's my old producer and NBA aficionado, David Shepherd.

You're locked into the J.R. Sport Reshow on the Infinity Sports Network. Hey, this is Matt Spiegel, and on my podcast, The PBP Voices of Baseball, we learn how the best broadcasters in the game, like the Reds, John Sadak, try to capture the greatness of the best players like Elie Dela Cruz. He's a video game character.

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It's the J.R. Sport Reshow here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. And thank you to David Sampson for joining us. Former Marlins president, baseball expert. Thank you to Ramona Shelburne for joining us, ESPN senior writer. And right now, we're being joined by somebody who's also an expert at the NBA. This man I've worked with, he was my former producer here on the Infinity Sports Network in my old time slot. He's also a host as well, fill in and on the weekends. It's another super producer and host.

It's Dave Shepherd. Hey Shep, how are you, man? I'm doing good, man. It's great to hear you on the other side of this thing for a change, man. How you been, my friend? The other side of what?

Well, you know, the other side of being a guest instead of just being the annoying guy in your ear or trying to retort one of your positions. So it's great to be on with you, man. How you been, my friend? Not at all.

I'm good. Well, I mean, we talked about this from even earlier this year. It's like, hey, by the time we get into the nuts and bolts of the postseason in the NBA and here we are staring at the finals, we were going to have this chat on air instead of doing it privately. And I guess the first question to you is, Ramona Shelburne, a few minutes ago, she used to say, hey, I got the Mavs because they got the top two players in the finals.

What do you see out of this finals, man? Well, JR, we're talking about an individual that has seven 50-point games for the Boston Celtics. He's an all-MBA first team guy for three straight years. I would hate to say that Jason Tatum is not one of the top two guys in this series.

I understand the clutch factor of Kyrie Irving, but Jason Tatum is still second banana in this NBA finals to, of course, Luka Doncic. But JR, to me, it's about the role players. It's about Derek Bively. It's about Daniel Gafford. It's about P.J.

Washington. It's about Derek Jones. And the Mavs have a better supporting cast. Not to mention, JR, the path to getting to this point. The Mavs have played three 50-win teams while the Celtics have played a loaf of bread and, you know, some healthy guys here and there, right? So we're talking about the conventional wisdom is going to tell you the team that has a tougher path, they've been challenged more. I'm not going against the Dallas Mavericks squad.

You saw what they did to the up-and-coming Minnesota Timberwolves. Yeah, I would venture to say that I would look at the Boston Celtics as having more depth when you immediately think about the guards that they have and whether it's White and Drew Holliday and then, you know, Porzingis. I mean, I don't know if I should expect anything from him, but I think the Celtics might have a more well-rounded, experienced team. So my thing is, besides Al Horford, who can you trust off that Celtics bench? You know what Harding's going to give you. You know what Josh Green's going to give you.

You know Derek Lively, what he's going to give you. Yes, JR, the Celtics are top-heavy. They have the best starting five in the NBA. But outside of Al Horford and Peyton Prichard, what are you getting off of that bench? And not to mention the fact that Jason Tatum is afraid of the big moments and Jaylin Brown has butterfingers more than he does clutch fingers in fourth quarters of NBA Finals games.

So I'm going with the clutch factor. And you know Kyrie Irving, at 25 years old, was delivering multiple 40-point games, something Kareem, something Kobe couldn't even tell you. And so with that in mind, JR, yes, the Celtics are a 64-win team. Yes, they had a 14-game gap between them and the New York Knicks. But there's something about playing in the big moments on the final stage that outside a true holiday, I don't exactly trust in anybody playing in Boston right now. Yeah, David Shepherd is joining us, an Infinity Sports Network host.

You talk about the depth of both teams and franchises. You talk about Kyrie Irving. What are you expecting from this man here in this series? This is almost a second lease in life for him.

What are you expecting from him? JR, I'm talking about a guy who was averaging 16 points per game in the Western Conference semi-final that figured that the Thunder had his number and then this guy twitched it on a different gear. And we knew when the pressure was mounting and the heartbeat was moving a little faster and the bounce of the ball was going a little higher, it was Kyrie Irving that came up with 24 first-half points in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals. JR, that's what set the tone for the Dallas Mavericks in that series. Kyrie Irving knows when to pick a spot. We're talking about an individual that went for double-digit fourth-quarter points in both Game 2 and Game 3 in the Western Conference Finals.

And so what that tells me, JR, is this guy is cold-blooded. He will get it done. He will elevate his game. And there's a reason why he had a ho-hum 36 points in the closeout game versus the Minnesota Timberwolves. We're going to get the guy that should have been honored as one of the top 75 players of all time. I still believe the NBA is kicking themselves for not making that decision happen. O'Shea, when you talk, well we know there's quite a few reasons Kyrie wasn't put in that list and a lot of it is, let's just say some of his stances and behavior. But LeBron James made it very clear today that he missed his plan with Kyrie Irving. And LeBron James sat down and said this on his podcast with J.J. Reddick.

I know, correct me if I'm wrong. Did you not say anybody could coach the Lakers, including yourself? You said that, right?

I think I heard that. JR, I said I could coach the Lakers. I didn't say I could coach them to an NBA championship. But what I will be able to coach them is getting past one game.

And that's what they won. More than you, more than Ryan Hickey, more than myself combined in these NBA playoffs. You talk about two top 75 all-time players. LeBron, I understand towards the end of his career, the guy's still at the tail end of his prime. Anthony Davis is in the smack dab middle of his prime.

What I'm saying is, you better believe that the second best player on my team in the NBA playoffs is not challenging the infrastructure of what we consist of defensively and offensively. That would never happen. That would never fly. JR, if a player talked about me like that in the middle of a freaking series, I would sit their ass down. I don't care if it's Mr. Anthony Davis himself. Okay, and David Shepherd is joining us.

Infinity Sports Network hosts. What do you think JJ Redick, and sure, the ink isn't dry and it's being alleged that they're still taking a deep dive. I think at this point we'd all be shocked if it wasn't JJ Redick.

What do you think about him getting a chance and an opportunity when he's really never coached anything? JR, Lakers are about stars. The Lakers are about individuals that ultimately, it's a Pat Riley-like move.

So they knew that Paul Westhead was an individual that was not going to move the meter. And so the Lakers, they did their thing in terms of really making sure that they had the right name and the right brand to go with the Lakers squad in the 80s to really fit the superstars. I've never heard of this before, but yet LeBron James, he's unprecedented to begin with in terms of his NBA career. So what he went out was he's going to convince Lakers fans through this podcast that apparently no one watches, but everybody watches, right, that JJ Redick is going to be the guy.

And to me, JR, everything I'm hearing, he is the favorite to land this job. You look at individuals like Steve Kerr, Mark Jackson, even to some extent Steve Nash, guys can make that transition right away from never coaching, never being an assistant coach, never being in the front office, to ultimately in the right situation doing well with the right players as long as the stars believe in said head coach. And you don't want anybody believing in you, but LeBron James and JJ Redick has that in spades. And the fact that you know Anthony Davis with clutch sports and him being so close with LeBron James, that's going to then follow suit. But JR, to me, if you are the head coach of the LeBron James team in the NBA, your shelf life is two years. Darvin Hand made the Western Conference Finals a year later, he's gone. Frank Vogel won an NBA championship two years later, he's gone. So JJ Redick, if you are listening to the JR sport brief right now, understand you may be the favorite to land this job, but you're also going to be the favorite to get the boot in two years as well.

And David Shepherd is joining us. And Shep, I gotta be honest here, you talk about getting the boot. There might be an opportunity for you to fight. You don't want Mike Tyson or Jake Paul, does it matter which one it is? So can I just say to your audience right now, you are such a freaking good dude and good sport for entertaining the notion of me thinking I can get in a ring with Mike Tyson.

And you put up with that crap for so long, me just talking out of both sides of my mouth with that. Let me just be real about that. There is no way in hell that David Shepherd could get in a ring with Mike Tyson if Mike Tyson trains, Mike Tyson would take my head off. Now where I'm coming from, JR, anything you do in life, you are a living testimony to this. If you are going to do something, you got to first believe that there is nobody out there that can do it better than you.

It doesn't even matter whether that aligns with actuality or not. That's the mindset you have to have. So I'm going to convince myself that if I ever have an opportunity to do an exhibition fight with Mike Tyson, hopefully it's for a good cause.

Special Olympics, I know rings near and dear to your heart, JR. That would be an instance where I have to convince myself before getting into a ring. So that's all that is. Okay. You hyping yourself up?

Okay. That's all it is because JR, let me tell you something. There is no way you could have told me that the Miami Heat as an 8th seed would have been able to beat the Boston Celtics last year in the Eastern Conference Finals.

And they'd see JR. But you know what? You've got to believe it before anything else comes to fruition.

And that's the key to life. How else do you explain how Snoop Dogg became a Minnesota Timberwolves fan all of a sudden? That's your boy, by the way. What's he doing moving for the Timberwolves? He's not jumping.

He's just enjoying a basketball game just like everything else. Hey, Hickey, you got any two cents you want to kind of put in here? This is a meeting of the mind set. I don't want to interrupt and be the kind of third wheel here. None? No third wheel?

Go ahead. None? You don't have nothing? The guy said he had to hype himself up to think he could beat Mike Tyson.

Nothing. I'm afraid. I don't want to say anything now. All of a sudden, now I find myself learning with Mike Tyson. So I'm going to let Shep take that battle by himself. I appreciate that.

You know, JR, it's funny, man. I just got back from my sister's wedding. And I'm going to say this on the air on your show. If I'm never lucky enough to be privileged to walk down the aisle and have somebody that I want to invest and spend the rest of my life in, more importantly, you and Ryan Hickey are both coming.

So just be prepared for that. For a wedding? You invited Hickey and I to a wedding live on the air? I am inviting you guys to my wedding whenever that happens.

You guys are both amazing dudes. Is it going to happen or is this lip service? No, it's a great question. You know, I'm going to have to do a quick Q&A with Sophia in order to really come to a conclusion with that. But in all seriousness, man, I'm on such a high right now because I just watched my little sister get married. And so of all times to ask me about fighting Mike Tyson, there is no chance in hell I'm going to tell you, if you put me in a ring with I am Mike, that I'm not going to give myself an ounce of credit to be able to ultimately overcome him. I know Buster Douglas, everyone had him losing that fight.

We know 1990 was a very different story and circumstance than most anticipated. Okay. You said you want to hide for a minute.

I thought Aaron Rodgers, but I'm glad I'm glad it's because of the sister's wedding. Hey, Shep, I appreciate the time, man. Where can people listen and find you here on the Infinity Sports Network now? Well, thank you, JR. You can always find me every Saturday and Sunday morning, 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. Eastern time. You can follow me on social media at Shep On Air and just continue to listen to JR Sportbrief because I would not be where I am in my career, in my life, without this man.

And special shout out to Ryan Hickey and I love you both, man. Thank you for having me, JR. Well, now what's going to happen? We're going to hang up on you and now we're going to talk crap about you, okay?

You wouldn't do that, but I love you anyway. We're going to do it live on the air so you don't have to worry about it, okay? Shep, where can people find you online, man? Sounds good, man.

Shep On Air, any social media platform. I love you, JR. Thank you so much for having me.

I love you back, Shep. Enjoy and now me and Ryan are going to talk about your wedding on air, so just stay tuned. You can hang up and now we're going to talk about you, okay?

That's the deal, man. Have a good rest of your show, my man. You as well, Shep.

Thank you. Hickey, when he gets married, you want to go to the wedding? Let's go. You want to go?

I'm in. I was going to ask you, is that the first time you've ever been invited to a wedding on the air? Yeah, I think so, I think. I was going to say, I mean, that's what Shep's bringing to the table. We've said that, I mean, but me and him have had that conversation before, you know? Oh, that's not new. Okay. No, it's not new. It's just, that's why I asked him.

I said, well, when's the invite coming? You know, I don't know. Is it going to be a year?

I feel like he's been talking to, none of my business, but this ain't brand new, you know what I'm saying? I was going to say, I don't know much about this gal, but I feel like she's been around for a little bit of time now. Yeah, I heard she's a model, man. You heard that? Wow.

I don't, wow. Look at Shep. People say that, you know, ugly guys work in radio.

Look at Shep putting that stereotype to bed. That, see, that's good radio. I just paused.

I had no intent on saying anything. I just let the pause go out there and speak for herself, the pause and the laughter. No, it's two beautiful people together. That's all it is. Shep and his model girlfriend, soon to be future, possibly wife.

Good for him. Thank you so much Shep for lending your musings and thoughts on the NBA. Always, always great ones. Go ahead, check them out. Shep on air. Catch them weekends here as well. It's the JR Sport Reshow here on the Infinity Sports Network.

855-212-4227. When we come back, yeah, we'll talk about the finals and what he just said. And there is an athlete. He does have expectations. He wants to get paid. I'm going to tell you who he is. A couple of them.

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