JR SportBrief hour 3

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Price and coverage match limited by state law. It is the JR Sport Brief Show here on the Infinity Sports Network. Happy Thursday to you. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to everybody tuned in and locked in all over North America. You can listen live on the free Odyssey app. You can listen live on your local Infinity Sports Network affiliate. You can listen live on Sirius XM Channel 158. You can also listen live on a smart speaker. You got one?

Ask it to play the Infinity Sports Network. Thank you so much to Jack Hardy, our producer tonight, holding it down in New York City. And thank you to you, every listener with an earshot of my voice. I don't care if your speaker in your car is booming, your radio at home, your cell phone, your headphones, whatever it is, thank you for listening. I'll be hanging out with you for two more hours.

The show gets started every single weekday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. The NBA draft is done. Bronny James gets selected at number 55 overall to guess who?

The Los Angeles Lakers. And that was the news for today. Like, for real. That and Kyle Filipowski, who had to sit around from last night. There's some rumors going around that he's engaged to a 26-year-old woman. And maybe that's why he kind of slipped in the draft.

And that and no relationship with his parents. Ouch. Ouch. Hey, thank you so much to our guests from earlier in the show. Caleb Johnson joined us.

No issues here from this Frenchman, Zachary Recherse. Selected number one overall by the Atlanta Hawks. Caleb Johnson from 92-9 the game. Beat reporter covers the Hawks. He came through and talked to us about what the Hawks are going to do now. He feels that they've got to make a decision. Are they going to keep Trey? Are they going to keep DeJounte? Do they have a choice? Like, what happens?

We don't know. We've got to stay tuned. Also, Caleb Johnson, he said the drafting of Zachary Recherse is like buying socks. Like you need socks. Socks aren't the main thing. These are his words. Shout outs to Caleb.

That was pretty amazing. You need socks. Like Jack, you got socks, right? You like socks? I am a big sock guy.

I feel like I can't wear sneakers without wearing socks. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I get it. Me too. As I stand here in the studio, I have on socks with my kicks. Yes, I hear you. I guess I wouldn't wear socks with flip-flops.

I don't know if I'd wear that, but I think people would kind of. Well, Jack, you're making these socks sound more exciting than Caleb's point. His socks are supposed to not be exciting, okay?

Fair enough. Yeah. He's like the socks that your grandma got you for Christmas. Okay, there you go.

And shout outs to Zachary Recherse, a fancy pair of French socks here in Atlanta, Georgia. Good for him. Let's see how he works out. A matter of fact, let's listen to Zachary Recherse as he pretty much explained last night how he planned to fit in with his new teammates like Trae Young and Dejounte Murray, if they even still happen to be his teammates in a few months. Listen to this. I will be ready to do, you know, whatever it takes to gain the respect of those guys, of my teammates for sure, but to also like really help them to win, you know? And that's the most important in basketball, in sports, in general, that's winning. Okay.

It sounds, have listened to him speak and it's not because, you know, English is his second language. Just listening to him talk about being on a Hawks is as exciting as getting socks from grandma. I'm just being honest, okay? And I'm here now. Listen, I'm going to see the guy tomorrow and maybe I can have a more engaging conversation.

I will come back tomorrow with a report for everybody. And so we'll see. Speaking of being exciting, was there anything more exciting than the selection of number 55 in the draft?

I don't think there's anything more exciting than that. Let's go back to a couple of hours ago because typically, you know, the holidays, the whole point is a surprise, right? You don't know what you're going to get. That's why we do secret Santa and all these gifts. You never know what you're going to get. Unless you're the Los Angeles Lakers, unless you're a basketball fan and the Lakers are selecting a number 55, everybody knew what the gift was. Take a listen a couple of hours ago from ESPN.

The man selected at number 55. One time your dad was like, Oh, like my dream to play with my son. But I don't know if like anybody had ever asked you, like, did you ever like dream about playing with your dad? Like, for you?

Or like, what, what went to it from your perspective? No, I never, you know, all my dream has always just been to put my name out, make a name for myself. And of course, you know, get to the NBA, which is everyone's angle is here. And, you know, I never thought about just playing with my dad. But of course, he's, he's brought it up a couple times.

But yeah, I don't think about it. That was Bronny James, a pre draft. I think we have the Hey, Jack, we got the clipper when he got drafted, right? No, we got that one. We got that one as well that I got you. I got right here.

Yeah, let's hear that one. With the 55th pick in the 2024 NBA draft, the Los Angeles Lakers select Bronny James from the University of Southern California. Yes, it's like it's like spoiling the book before the look the book has been spoiled for months now. Everybody knew what was going to take place and it happened. Bronny James is now a member of the Los Angeles Lakers and the draft is done. There was more excitement, more anticipation for the back end of the NBA draft than there was for the beginning.

What a world right what a new world that we live in. To talk about the draft and everything going on. Hey, we got a guest coming through and about 15 minutes from now, Zach Cohen is going to join us from VSI in. He's covered the draft. He knows what's going on.

And I'm going to ask him about everything that took place, including all these European players that have just come over and took the league by storm. 855-212-4227. That's 855-212-4227. I'm going to pick up these phone lines. I'm going to tell you about a matchup going on right now between Asia Wilson and Angel Reese.

Do that in a sec. Let's talk to Noah also calling from Arkansas. You're on the JR Sport Reshow. What's going on, Noah? What up, JR?

How are you? Well, I'm not very happy because you were kind of talking down to my Arkansas Razorbacks. So help me out. How did I talk down about your Arkansas Razorback? What did I say? You just you just said that we hadn't produced draft picks. No, I said tell me about what's going on with them now. I said tell me about what's going on with them now in comparison to what has taken place with UConn. Fill me in.

What have I missed? We got Coach Cal. Help me out. What does bringing on John Calipari have to do with producing draft picks right now, today, yesterday, and today?

I mean, he's going to produce a million. No, no, no. I didn't ask you about the future. Noah, let me ask.

I know it's Thursday. It sounds like you're in your vehicle. You have not drunk anything tonight, have you?

Hell no. Okay, good. Thank you, Noah, for calling from Arkansas. You have me confused, man.

JR, I don't appreciate you talking down about my Arkansas. Well, what did I say? Well, you said they haven't produced, haven't in his past tense. They haven't produced draft picks. I didn't say they haven't produced draft picks. I'm talking about what draft picks that they've produced in comparison to UConn. Well, we have Coach Cal.

Well, what does Coach Cal have to do with the past that you just brought up? Nothing. Well, he's going to, so which one is it? I don't know. Maybe Noah is drinking something, or I don't know.

It's Thursday. Take it easy, Noah, okay? I'm glad he said hell no, but I don't know if I should trust him.

It doesn't sound like a man that should be trusted. Anyway, going on in, well, this is actually taking place in Chicago. We got so much going on in the NBA, Bronny James getting drafted, 55 overall. There's a basketball game in Chicago. This is crazy to even think about this.

This is actually a good thing. The WNBA has moved on into a space and a place where you can talk about it. Right now, the defending champions, the Las Vegas Aces lead Chicago 50 to 48. Why is this a game of significance? Because Aja Wilson is taking on rookie Angel Reese. Angel Reese has been on a double-digit, double-double streak. Tonight, she has four points and six rebounds.

It's the third quarter. I don't know if she's going to get there. She better pick it up on the points point things. Now she has seven rebounds, but she probably get there. Aja Wilson, well, she don't got to worry about nothing. She's just out there beating up on everybody. The two-time MVP and finals champion MVP, everything.

Just got a new shoe, new Nike contract, 25 points, four rebounds. She has been lighting it up. I know we've heard so much between Angel Reese and Kaitlyn Clark and Aja Wilson. Hasn't been getting her chest due.

She's also a New York Times bestseller. These two women, they were throwing roses at each other before the game. Between yesterday and today, I mean, typically it feels like in a WNBA, everything is a hate fest. These two are having like a love fest on, you know, who they are and what they feel, how they feel about each other. You have to be confused for a minute just with all of this damn love. I mean, listen to Angel Reese talk about Aja Wilson being an inspiration to her.

Listen to this. I've watched her since she was at South Carolina when I was being recruited by Dawn Staley. So just being able to watch her over the years, she helped me a lot when I was at Maryland and just being able to see how versatile she's become. In college, she was doing a little bit of it, but now you can see she's scoring all three levels. She's defending. She's putting the ball on the floor. She's shooting a three.

So me being able to just go out there and just dominate as best as I can, contain her as best as I can, force her certain ways, be aggressive with her as best as I can. So I've watched her for a really long time and I know I'm just going to go out there to compete. Oh, WNBA players, they love each other.

This is news. I didn't know they love each other. Aja Wilson, she took the opportunity to show love to Angel Reese. It's amazing. I feel like I said it around Super Bowl, I was just like, that is what's going to be Angel's biggest thing, translating over from college to the pros.

It's just rebounding the basketball. She has a knack for it. And that's not what a lot of people have. So it's pretty cool to kind of see her flourish in that situation and flourish in life. I know there's a lot that could be on her, a lot that could be around her, but yet she still comes in to be consistent for her team.

So that's huge. And you don't see that in a lot of rookies. So I'm grateful that she's doing that in her own way, in her own journey and in her lane. Yeah, Aja Wilson, a surefire hall of famer. And she's currently smacking up the Chicago sky. She has 25 points. Angel Reese has six and Aja Wilson is just out there giving her the business. I just wanted to highlight this because typically you talk about WNBA and everybody hates Kaitlyn Clark and she doesn't do nothing back. She just plays. What can I say? I guess we needed a couple of players to actually like each other.

Good for them. 8-5-5, 2-1-2, 42-27. That's 8-5-5, 2-1-2, 42-27. The NBA draft is done. The NBA stretched it out for two days. It's wholly unnecessary just to make the money.

And I think a lot of people are probably also maybe unaware. The second round of the draft started at one Pacific for Eastern. Why? Because in another hour, if you thought Kyle Filipowski's story with the potentials fiancé was crazy, the presidential debate is going to take place in about 45 minutes. And so the NBA decided to move the draft up so early because, well, who wants to compete with a presidential debate that may just devolve into being a primetime episode of Jerry Springer? Congratulations to Bronny James. Congratulations to all the guys that were drafted. The reality is you don't know a lot of these guys in a couple of years.

A lot of them probably still won't be playing. It's just the facts. It's the J.R. Sport Reshow here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. We're going to take a break. When we come back on the other side, we had a guest on earlier, Caleb Johnson, to talk about the Hawks. We're going to take a deeper dive into the entire draft.

Joining us is Zach Cohen from V-S-I-N. He covers the draft. He knows the odds.

He knows everything. We're going to get a better idea of everything that just took place over the past two days. You don't want to miss it. Zach Cohen joining us is the J.R. Sport Reshow here on the Infinity Sports Network.

Thank you. It is the J.R. Sport Reshow here with you on the Infinity Sports Network.

Coast to coast. Yeah, A'ja Wilson and A'ja Resa going at it in Chicago. Yeah, Bronny James got drafted. Yeah, it is NFL players complaining about their contracts. But yeah, more importantly, the NBA draft is done. It took place over two days up in Brooklyn, New York. Zachary Rissache drafted number one overall, but all anybody talks about is Bronny James at 55.

But there's a lot that happened at the beginning, the end, and also in between. To talk about it all right now, we're being joined by someone very familiar with everything going on in the NBA, including the draft that just took place right now. We got Zach Cohen joining us from Vison. Zach, how are you? I'm doing well. How are you? I'm excellent.

Thank you for taking the time to hop on. I kind of bookended the draft. We got Zachary number one. We got Bronny 55. What stood out to you the most over these past two days when it came to the draft?

I'll be honest. I think the biggest winner of the draft was the Utah Jazz, which is obviously not the sexiest team to start with. But I think that they went into the draft with the 10th pick and the 29th pick. They came away with players that I think are a lot better than that. I think that Cody Williams at 10 was my third favorite player in this draft.

I just think we've seen what his brother has become. Jalen Williams with the Oklahoma City Thunder, a big wing that could defend, score off the dribble, finish at the basket. Just a player that we've seen in the Boston Celtics winning the championship.

Those are the types of players you need. I think that Cody Williams landed in a really good spot with the Jazz. They also drafted Isaiah Collier, who is a player that was viewed as a top five pick before this season.

Obviously, things didn't go very well for him at USC. He measured a little bit small at the combine, but at the same time, it's a really talented player, a top five guy before the season, getting him at 29. I think the same thing goes for Kyle Philipowski, who they got at 32. Just a player that I thought could have been a borderline lottery pick, a big man that can shoot, dribble, defend a little bit, moves really well for a guy that's six foot 11. They just kind of made a similar move work where they traded for Lori Markenen, turned him into a star.

I think that Philipowski has a very similar skill set. I think that that was a really good draft for a Utah team that kind of deserves a little bit of luck because they're one of the few teams in the league that does not tank. Is Zach Cohen joining us from Vison? When you take a look at the draft, we know that the league has changed over the past, we can go into 15 to 20 plus years when it comes down to the international players. When you look at the guys who were selected, who do you think has the best chance of having a winning impact, a big impact this upcoming season on whatever team they got drafted onto? Yeah, I mean, this season, it's hard to say because, you know, Risa Shay is joining a Hawks team that is potentially going to look to rebuild. I mean, we've heard a lot of talk about Trae Young being traded, Dejounte Murray being traded, but if they do end up keeping one or both of those guys, Risa Shay should at least be, you know, a shooter and defender on the wing for them. I'm not as high on him as a number one pick that, you know, you normally would be, but at the same time, yeah, if they do opt to try to win this season, he's going to help them a little bit.

I think SAR will probably be the best of the international guys in year one, but at the same time, it's a wizard's team that looks pretty lousy heading into next season. So I don't know if we're going to say he's going to impact winning, but he will have the opportunity to grow his game this year. Obviously, as a tremendous skill set, one of the best defenders in the draft potentially has the ability to shoot the boss, you know, at seven feet tall. So that's obviously a guy that should be pretty good.

It's just, it's hard to find someone that's going to impact winning because most of the international players did land in losing spots. I will say Nikola Topic who got to the Thunder at number 12. That's the player that I think is going to end up being the best player in this draft. He's going to have to sit out one year because he has a partially torn ACL, but a lot of similarities honestly to O'Shea Gilda's Alexander in that he's a six foot six guard, like a really attack downhill. His jumper is a little bit further away than you want it to be, but at the same time, it's, he's going to have a year to recover from that ACL injury. He's going to be doing a lot of shooting in an NC gym, a lot of working out on that body.

I think that he's going to come back and be a great, great player for Oklahoma City. Zach Cohen, joining us from Vison, quite, quite ironic, of course, that the Oklahoma City Thunder get their hands on yet another young player. What do they, what do they got like a secret recipe? Like how do they keep doing this? Yeah, it's almost not fair.

Like I, I really thought that there was no chance that Topic would get to them. And then once I saw him drop there, I'm like, yeah, Preston's not passing this up, even though they do need some help this year as they try to compete for an NBA championship, but he's not going to pass from, from taking the best player on the board and that you really can't blame him for it. Not at all. Not at all.

You talk about impact. This was a little bit of a surprise yesterday as well. Zach Eady going at number nine to the Grizzlies. What are your thoughts on, on where he got drafted and what he can contribute to this team? I mean, they're not going to ask him to go out there and just, Hey, get us some buckets.

They, they got enough guys to do that. What do you think about how he fits in with this team? Yeah, that was an interesting one because I think that they were really trying to move up and get Donovan Clingan, who I think is going to be one of the best players in this draft.

And I think that once they were not able to get him, they kind of panicked a little and, and Preston's back Edie button. I think that Edie is a player that can probably give them 15 to 20 minutes a night, just because he is massive. He has some ability around the basket, obviously a two-time college player of the year. He's going to be ready to go right away, but it's an interesting fit because he's just, you know, it's a team with a point guard that wants to play fast. And it's a team with a point guard that does not play defense. And I worry about what's going to happen when him and John Moran are on the floor together. And, you know, teams are just going to push off rebounds and just trying to, you know, attack a Moran who might not be paying attention and Edie, who might not be able to get back on the floor.

He's just, doesn't have the foot speed required to just get back there. I think that offensively he'll probably make an impact from day one, but I'm interested in seeing what the defense looks like. Well, there's another team that's likely to be competing for a playoff spot.

I mean, it'd be a massive disappointment if they were not. And that's the Philadelphia 76ers. I mean, they didn't waste too much time at all in bringing in some backcourt help with Jared McCain out of Duke. How much do you think we'll see him play in that backcourt with Tyrese Maxey or maybe even backing him up? Yeah, I think he's going to play a lot. I actually thought the Miami Heat should have taken McCain at 15.

I'm really high on McCain's game. I think that he's one of the best shooters in this draft. He could create a little bit off the dribble for himself, really reminds me of Emmanuel quickly, offensively and defensively. You know, he's not the tallest guy, obviously with him and Maxey, you're going to have a bit of an undersized backcourt, but he plays pretty physical defensively.

When he first got to Duke, he really struggled defensively, ended up getting a lot better throughout the course of the season that ended up being one of the best defensive teams in college basketball. He played a big role in that. So I think that he's going to play a pretty big role for them right away. And I think he's going to really enjoy getting screens from Joel Embiid.

There's been a lot of shooters that have had success with Embiid as dribble handoff guys, and he can really knock them down. Is Zach Cohen joining us? Contributed a visa on the basketball side, selected right behind him was a Laker selection. We know what they did last night.

Dalton Connect out of Tennessee. We know what they did earlier today, a couple hours ago, drafting Bronny James. What say you about what the Lakers have been able to do over the past two days?

Man, that's a great get for them in Dalton Connect. I mean, the guy that everyone really thought he was going to go in the 6-10 range. I don't think anybody saw him falling all the way to 17. So you bring in a player that's ready to play immediately, you know, a big 6'7 wing that can shoot the heck out of the basketball. Obviously, JJ Reddick is going to like that quite a bit. He's going to have, you know, ways to get him open because it's going to look a lot like JJ and the way that he got open throughout his career. I think the Connect landed in a really good situation. I know it probably hurts, you know, you lose a lot of money when you drop out of the top 10 and go all the way out to 17, but you know, you land in a situation where LeBron James is going to be setting you up. There are minutes to go around for a shooter like him.

So that was a really good fit both ways. I think both of them should be really happy and with Bronny, you know, it is what it is. I'm not as mad as other people are about Rich Paul potentially forcing, you know, his way to LA or if you people want to say, you know, that they drafted him only because of LeBron. I thought that Bronny James, I had him at 52nd best player in this draft.

I think he coming out of high school, you know, this is a kid that was 20th in his high school class right around the range where Reed Shepherd number three pick in this draft way. And I think there's a lot of context surrounding what went wrong for Bronny James, USC, obviously, you know, the cardiac event that happened last summer. It gave him a really slow start to the season. He wasn't able to get a normal training camp under his belt. He had a slow ramp up to get himself started during the season and then he played for a USC team that just didn't really have a pure point guard.

They didn't have a lot of floor spacing. It was a really messy game that he tried to get himself out there for. I think you almost have to flush what you saw with Bronny in his first season and just kind of bank on the, you know, six foot two with a six seven wingspan really can defend on the perimeter and he's a guy that proves you can knock down shots of the draft combine. And so Zach, what is the expectation for Bronny? How is he going to grow? Is he getting garbage time? What should we or what can we expect?

It's interesting. I mean, I don't know if you're going to spend a lot of time in the G League. I know Rich Paul said that he doesn't really want to spend any time down there, but you definitely want to get him some big minutes when you can.

So I do think that they should send him down a little bit. I think you have him on the bench just kind of picking the brain of everybody in that Lakers organization. It's going to be hard for him to crack that rotation as they try to, you know, win games immediately. It's a team with championship aspirations, but I don't know. I mean, LeBron might insist that he gets to play with him at some point, but I do think Bronny is going to take some time just because I do think that last season he really needed bigger minutes, didn't get him.

Like I said, it was a weird situation. So I think Bronny probably wants to play 25 to 30 minutes somewhere. That's probably going to have to happen in the G League. Zach Cohen joining us from Vison. Well, I think we've talked about everybody from the top of the draft to the bottom when we look at next season and they have to hand out a rookie of the year award.

I know this is a tough one. Who do you think is the favorite? Like who is Vegas saying this is the guy who's likely to win the award?

Like who the hell is it? I think that SAR is the betting favorite, but if I had to pick somebody, I'd go with Stefan Castle with the San Antonio Spurs. I just think that they desperately needed a point guard in this draft. They drafted Castle to be the on-ball creator. I think that Castle is a really good defender. He will get a lot of praise for the way he defends immediately, but offensively there's going to be a lot of opportunity for him to just kind of get downhill, create for himself, create for Wemenyama. I think that there's a lot of opportunity for him. I think he's a great player. So I thought he's one that's stepping immediately into a big role. There's going to be a lot of eyeballs on him because of Victor Wemenyama.

I feel pretty good about Castle as a bet in that market. Oh, you think about another Spurs draft pick that they did not keep. Rob Dillingham goes over to the Minnesota Timberwolves. With Michael Conley getting older, is this a slow burn for Rob Dillingham? Do you think this is going to take a few years for him to grab the reins or should we see a healthy dose of him this year? I think you're going to see him because one of my biggest criticisms for the Timberwolves last year is I thought they needed a shot creator off the bench that could come in, give him 20 minutes of just instant offense.

So I do think that he's going to be able to do that right away. He's a fantastic shooter, can create off the bounce at will. I mean, he's a guy that creates separation like nobody else in the league. Obviously he's a little bit smaller, but like you said, he's going to be sitting behind Mike Conley. He's going to help them with the nuances of being a smaller point guard. So I do think that he's going to play a lot as a score right away.

And I do think he's going to take over for commonly eventually. I really liked Minnesota, the whole draft, honestly, they were aggressive and going out and getting at some help in that backcourt for the long term. Terrence Shannon Jr. is another player that I do think is going to help them as an older college player that is a good shooter on the wing, a lot of energy, a good size. I just thought that they really went for it in this draft. I think it's going to pay some dividends.

Zach, final question for you. With all of the changes in college athletics on this side of the pond, I guess we can call it, and then you think about how overseas is continuing to develop. Is the draft that we've seen this year more of the norm? More players that we've never seen and less of guys just lighten it up in college? Should we get used to what we saw the past two days?

I don't think so. I think this is a strange year where there were just not a lot of great prospects playing college basketball. And I think that the G League Ignite program ended up folding. So you're going to see some of those guys like Rod Holland, Matas Buzellis, Tyler Smith. Those guys are going to end up playing in college basketball. Now that they're able to pay players, they don't need to take these alternative routes like the MBL also, overtime elite.

These are things that people were taking because they wanted money immediately. They're now going to be able to get that in college basketball. So I think it's going to start bouncing out.

I think we're going to see the top prospects in the college game again. Excellent conversation. Zach, where can people follow you and all of your work? On Twitter, I'm at betting on X and at bsyn.com.

You can find all my stuff. I'm doing basketball. Once the season starts back up, we just released our NFL betting guide and I'll have a lot of Wimbledon picks over the next two weeks.

I do a lot of tennis. Oh, you know what? At least some of the older tennis guys are gone, man. It's time for some new blood, Zach. I've been waiting on it, man.

Yeah, we got Sinner and Alcaraz now. No doubt. Hey, Zach, thank you so much. We'll catch you on down the line. All right. Yep.

Thanks for having me on. Absolutely. That's Zach Cohen of Beeson. Breaking down every single one of these draft picks that really people give a damn about. A lot of them are anonymous and he came through and he dropped the information that guys from overseas, the people that are domestic here. And who knows? He makes a good point.

Like now that college athletes can get paid, they're going to be playing in college, making that money unless college decides to screw things up again, which I wouldn't I wouldn't put it past them. Let's see what structure they put in place. Eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven. That's eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven. I'm going to get to your calls on the other side of the break.

I also speaking of money to a tongue of Aloha, it appears that this man isn't happy with the money that he's being offered. I'm going to talk to you. We'll talk to we'll get into some football.

We'll talk more basketball. It's the J.R. Sport Preshow here on the Infinity Sports Network. Eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven. It's eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven. This portion of the show was brought to you by Wesley Financial.

Stuck in a timeshare in one out contact Wesley Financial Group now and get a free timeshare exit information kit at Wesley Financial Group dot com. So much talk about the NBA draft and Bronny James. Bronny James don't care about his contract.

Dad's a billionaire. Don't got to worry about a dime, a penny or nothing. Hey, Bronny, where are you going to live upstairs? Not going to move into your own house? No. You want some? I got my own money. I got two mil. I can move.

Bronny, Bronny is good. There are a few people worried about their contract with all of this going on in the world of sports. We've gone from championship season to draft season. NHL is having the awards tonight, NHL awards season. It's a lot going on. But we're also about a month away from the start of NFL training camps and with all this money talk.

How about this, folks? There's some NFL players. Damn it, there are some athletes who are still not happy with their pay or lack thereof. How about Tua Tonga Veloa?

We talked about this for a few weeks. Tua Tonga Veloa is entering into the final year of his rookie contract. He went to the playoffs last year and got waxed in Kansas City or freezing Kansas City. And he's looking at all of his contemporaries get these big old deals. Looking at Trevor Lawrence making $55 million a year. He's looking at the market.

He's saying, oh, yeah, Joe Burr went to a Super Bowl. He's making 55. And Lamar is making 52. And Herbert, who was drafted right next to me, is making 52.

I need to make 50. Tua Tonga Veloa hasn't publicly come out and said that. But it's been reported that the Miami Dolphins, I guess they're going to be one of the first teams that just puts their foot down and says, man, we ain't paying you that money. We don't care what the market is. We ain't just going to pay you because somebody else paid their quarter. But we're not doing that. That's the latest reports that they're at a little bit of an impasse because the Dolphins just don't want to throw him the bag.

And good for them. And I've said this, this is a Tua Tonga Veloa who just last year told everybody. I had to think about retirement, retiring, following my head issues. This is a guy that all of a sudden you want to commit like five and four years to for an additional 55 per. Come on now. A couple of weeks ago, Tua Tonga Veloa was making it very clear through, I want you to hear this. This is a series of answers from one of his last press conferences at OTAs where Tua Tonga Veloa basically said, yeah, the market is the market. We're negotiating. Yeah, like a deal, but the market is the market. Listen to his string of answers as he tries to justify how much he wants to get paid.

And I assume it's between 50 and 55 mil. Listen to this. Yeah, I mean, I'm, I'm not blind to, to people that, you know, are in my position that are getting paid.

Am I concerned about it? I'm not concerned about it, but there's a lot of discussion, you know, that we've, we've had that, you know, we just are trying to move that thing into the right direction where we can both be happy. Well, my, my agent updates me, but for me, I don't like updates like every time, like you don't got to tell me the little things, just tell me things that, that matter. Are we getting to where we want to or are we not?

That's it. Well, I think there's been a lot of progress at this point. From where we started, there's been a lot of progress. Now, you know, you can ask the other question, then why aren't we seeing, you know, an agreement? Well, that's the tough part about it. That's why it's, it's business.

That's why you got one side and the other trying to work to, to meet in the middle. I'll tell you one thing. The market is the market. If we didn't have a market, man, I don't mean that they need to pay you. None of that would matter.

How about you have some success? I mean, as agents, cause the market is the market. What I don't mean that we got to give him what somebody else has given another quarterback who didn't do half as much. Come on. If I were the Miami Dolphins, I'd say, Hey, hit me up when you don't talk about retirement. Hey, hit me up when all that weight that you lost, when it, when it shows that you can actually stay healthy.

Hey, let me know when you could play in the cold. What's too, what's too, we're going to say, well, look at what, look at what Josh Herbert got. Look at what Trevor Lawrence, the world don't work that way. Just because somebody else's idiot parents bought this stupid kid a Rolls Royce doesn't mean you need one to get a Toyota. There's a world that we live in and the Miami Dolphins could afford, you know, the Toyota and a Bentley in a bit. They can do all of that, but that's not the point.

It's not monkey see monkey do. And we've heard this from a few weeks ago, the NFL and some of the owners are actually exploring a salary cap for quarterbacks. I can imagine Jerry Jones is probably leading the charges. He probably doesn't want to pay Dak Prescott.

What a shock. Anyway, Hey, good luck to Tua. It would be a cool story for me if he had to go through this season on the final year of his deal.

That'd be great for me. Well, let's see if Tua Tonga of lower just decides to sign what they offer him. We'll find out soon enough. Anyway, speaking of, of Miami, there's another player in Miami. No, he doesn't play for the dolphins, but we found out about somebody else's contract status. It's been reported that Jimmy Butler will few seasons ago, took the Miami heat to the NBA finals in a bubble. Jimmy Butler pretty much is going to play out the remaining year of his contract. Try to have a big year and get a bigger deal. If this is not the most athlete thing possible.

And when I say athlete thing, no disrespect to athletes. Jimmy Butler is about to be 35 years old. Jimmy Butler doesn't play basketball. He's always hurt.

He's apparently worn down to the nubs at this point. He only played 60 games. We didn't see him in a post season. And then at the end of the year, after his team got beat by the Celtics and the Knicks move on to the next round and, and he's sitting around on the sidelines. Jimmy Butler is making all these flipping comments about, well, if I was playing then this team wouldn't have won and this team wouldn't have won and this team wouldn't have won. It's like, man, well, you ain't never healthy enough to do a thing anymore. And so the thought and the idea that Jimmy Butler wants to have a great season to get a new contract is comical. It's like, you don't want to earn your money any other day.

It sounds lazy to me. I'll tell you what I did love. I love when Pat Riley pretty much said, man, you don't play enough to be talking crap to anybody. Remember when Pat Riley said this? You know, for him to say that, you know, I thought, is that Jimmy trolling or is that Jimmy serious? You know, if you're not on the court playing against Boston or on the court playing against the New York Knicks, you should keep your mouth shut.

And your criticism of those days, they don't make them like that anymore. There's very few executives who could actually say that to a player and not get some stupid vague emoji back. A shout out to Pat Riley. You know, we lost Jerry West, who was never afraid to speak his mind. Knowing that Pat Riley is still here and it's like, Jimmy Butler, shut up, man. Like, shut your mouth. Like, go out there and play a basketball game first before you go out and talk trash. I appreciate that.

You better appreciate it, too, before it's just over, before it's done. Also, at the same time, speaking of contracts, let me slip this one in here real fast. It has been an ongoing saga about Brandon Ayute and his contract status with the 49ers.

OK, they're drafting guys out of Florida. They got to pay Deebo. Samuel Deebo wants more money. You think about the contract that's coming up with Brock Purdy. They ain't going to be paying him Mr. Irrelevant money for too much longer. And it appears that Brandon Ayute, who's pretty much said, oh, the Niners don't want me anymore.

Oh, they want to trade me. It seems that they've they've had some good conversations and moving towards a contract extension. So Brandon Ayute has also been playing the game, except for Brandon Ayute is probably not even in the prime of his career. Whereas somebody whereas somebody like Jimmy Butler is about to be 36. Brandon Ayute got the wide receiver position.

He just turned 26 years old. Yeah. So a lot of people always thinking about money, thinking about the coin, thinking about the cash.

Some of them a little bit more justified than others. 855-212-4227. That's 855-212-4227. What a day it's been. What a past 24 hours that it's been. The NBA draft is done. Bronny James is selection 55.

Zachary Risache is selection number one. We're going to take a break. And when we come back, we're going to walk you through the draft one more time before we roll out.

Speaking of quarterbacks, Patrick Mahomes might be in a little bit of trouble. No trouble. We'll talk about it. And then, of course, at the end of the show, I'm going to talk to you and share with you a few things that took place this day in sports history. It's all coming up in the next hour of the show. You're locked into the J.R. Sport Reef Show here on the Infinity Sports Network.