7.8.24 - JR SportBrief Hour 3

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AutoTrader. It is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. Coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to everybody locked in, listening all over North America. You could be in Canada. You could be here in Georgia with me. You could be in New York with super producer and host, Ryan Hickey.

This show gets started every single weekday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. I appreciate you. Hope you had a good holiday weekend. A good holiday week. Hope you had a good Monday.

A good everything. Okay? If you want to holler at me, it's simple. The phone number here is 855-212-4227.

That's 855-212-4227. You can also find me. I'm online. I am everywhere. I'm at JR Sport Brief. We've had a busy show already. We talked baseball. We talked football. We talked MLB All-Star game. We've talked WNBA All-Star game. We talked about Brandon IU complaining, trying to complain his way out of San Francisco. We talked about Joe Burrow. Looks like he has not missed a day in the gym.

Guy's actually trying to stay healthy. We talked about Paul George. And Bronny James. Angel Reese and Kaitlyn.

Just a lot. You can always listen to the show on the free Odyssey app. Go ahead, hit rewind there too. Thank you to people listening live and local on their local affiliate. You got Sirius XM and Channel 158. If you got a smart speaker, be smart about it. You don't got to push a button. Just ask it to play the Infinity Sports Network and boom. Radio pops right on up.

As simple as that. I told you, next week, we have the WNBA All-Star game out in Phoenix, Arizona. You got Angel Reese. You got Kaitlyn Clark. You know, they are going to be on the same team for the first time ever. And they're going to be competing against Team USA basketball. And so the WNBA All-Star team is comprised of the women who basically didn't make it for Team USA. And I said, I would love to see Angel Reese and Kaitlyn Clark whoop that ass. I would love to see him do it. I would love to see a scenario where Kaitlyn Clark and Angel Reese put on a show to say, y'all are stupid for not adding us to the team. It's simple as that. Am I going to get that wish?

I don't know. I would love it if Kaitlyn Clark was, I don't know, dropping logo threes against Diana Taurasi in her face. I'd love it. I'd love to see Angel Reese. Not that I got a problem with Asia Wilson, who's having an amazing season. I'd love to see her, you know, give her idol the business. I can only ask for it, right?

855-212-4227. I'm going to get to the phone calls, speaking to Team USA. And the men are out in Vegas right now having training camp. All of the superstars that you've been watching for the past million years. Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Steph Curry. Being joined by even a new guy. A young guy, I should say.

And Anthony Edwards. We're going to hear some of the comments that they've made over the past several days. It's still kind of crazy to believe that Steph Curry, for as long as he's been in the NBA, he's had so much success. It's going to be the first time he's going to be competing for a gold medal at the Olympics. I'll explain why. We'll hear from Kevin Durant.

It's the first time he's going to be competing for a gold medal at the Olympics. I'll explain why. We'll hear from him.

And of course, he has some words about his former teammate, Klay Thompson. Yeah, the Splash Brothers are done. It's finished. 855-212-4227. J.D. is calling from Alabama. You're on the JR Sport Reshow. What's up, J.D.? What's happening, bro? I'm very good. How are you? Man, I listen to your show all the time, buddy. I'm on the road.

I listen to your stuff all the time, so it's just good to talk to you, man. I just want to tell you that I got a question for you. I can't remember the girl's name from Point Guard, South Carolina, but her along with Angel Reese and Kaitlyn Clark, that would be just bomb, would it? Camila Cardoza from South Carolina? Yes, yes. Camila Cardoza from South Carolina. If you had those three together playing against the Olympic team, man, they'd smoke that ass, dude. Yeah, well, we may have to wait another four years. Now, my question for you is, because I was talking to your brother Hickey up there, and I said, I want to know what is your favorite team, what is your favorite sport of the whole year, period?

What gets you turned on at the time of the year that makes things great? And I'll hang up and listen, man. Again, I appreciate your show. You do a great job. I love you to death, bro. Well, thank you, JD. I appreciate you. And you call any time. That's a that's a difficult one. Like, what is my favorite time of the year on the sports?

I can't even I can't even say like it's impossible. And especially especially for this line of work and to talk about sports. Super Bowl time is awesome. March Madness is great. I guess any any championship season that said it's nice every four years to have the Olympics. Also alternating years when you start having the World Cup.

I know we got to wait until 2026 before we get that back. I think by the time you get to October postseason baseball, the edge of your seat, even with some of the rule adjustments still drives me up a wall. It's really difficult to pinpoint, like, what's the best time of year? We literally if you start rolling from January, you know, January to January, you start you hit those gaps.

College basketball and got college football starting in January. Then you roll into the Super Bowl. It just there is no like ideal time. You know, right now, this might be the quietest time before we get into NFL training camp in a couple of weeks. But it's hey, it is my favorite time of year. It's tough.

It comes in pockets. And it's typically associated with championships because people want to know, hey, what's the biggest game? These are the best teams. Like, I'm not sitting around like a guy called earlier.

Sorry, Greg. He called for Michigan about the Tigers. When there's so much going on and I'm here when the games are on, it's tough to say, hey, I'm going to watch the worst teams. I'm going to watch this team like I know what's going on. I'm watching the best of the best of the best.

And if it's not, I'm not I'm not bothering. And typically the best of the best of the best. You want to know when they're playing? They're playing for championships.

They're playing in the playoffs. Those are the teams that the majority of the country are heavily invested in. Hickey, is there is there like a favorite time of the year for you? Um, for sports wise, it's the fall. I love college football. Love obviously the NFL playoff baseball.

I would say for me, the fall like that September, October time is is truly one of the best. Get no Saturdays out the way, huh? Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. Lock in from 12 noon to two to midnight. Wall to wall chaos. It's the best. Well, it's going to be real interesting. I haven't thought about this.

Now I have to. Now that the Pac-12 basically is falling off of the face of the earth, they've had teams that are now in the Big Ten and what have you. Is that not going to change part of the schedule like those late night West Coast games that would finish at like two in the morning on the East Coast? Is that not going to be adjusted? You would think it is, right?

Yes and no, like the frequency I'm sure goes down, right? But like, I mean, you still have to have USC play home games, you know, Oregon still has to play at home. But are you know, are you not going to adjust it knowing that they're now going to be taking on more East Coast teams?

I think part of it is I'm not sure if TV cares. Like I know one of the games that's scheduled, it's like a Friday night game on Fox. Rutgers at USC kicking off at 11 p.m. Eastern.

Oh, my God. Why do people got to see that ass whooping that late? Well, so I guess Rutgers fans may be thanking the Lord for that one. You know, you can go to bed early and just read about it the next day.

But like that's one example right there at the top of my head that shows you that at least, again, maybe the frequency will change. But those like late night, I mean, I guess you can't call it Pac-12 after dark anymore. But now I guess Big Ten after dark, it's still going to happen at some points this season.

Yeah, everybody has to have their own, you know, you got to have your own windows. And so I guess that makes all the sense in the world. That is just 11 o'clock Eastern time. Eleven p.m. Eastern on Friday.

So there you talk about not being able to watch a lot of games because of the time slot with Iran. There you go. Friday night.

I think it's like sometime in October. Cross out the rest of your Friday night USC Rutgers kicking off right as you get home. What is that? What is that score going to look like? Oh, my God.

What is that? Is that going to be a fifth? You know, Rutgers has gotten better with Chiano since he's returned. But but still, these are the type of ass whoopings that that USC is just like, OK, we get a chance to for all of this, they should let the guys stay in New York. Right. No, that's a bad idea for college.

I forgot. These guys are pros, but they're still quote unquote college students. I was going to say for all of this, just bring the guys over to New York, let them stay in midtown, let them play the football game, have a mini vacation, beat Rutgers by like 30 points and then fly home.

Not going to happen. But it's I don't want to say it sucks. Could you imagine flying from USC and what is it? Piscataway? What is that out there?

Piscataway, New Jersey. What are they going to do? Put them in a holiday? Well, no, they're not going to put them in a holiday in. That's not so glamorous.

You got to fly cross country. This is this is this is the world we live in right now. I still can't believe that the Pac-12 is down to two teams that have to go play in two different conferences just to have competition like this is this is all screwed up. And yet it's great in the fall.

You're right, Hickey, but 11 p.m. for an ass whooping. We'll see what happens. I'm here for everything on the calendar. I just like the championships. Give me the college football championship.

Give me bowl season. I wonder if are we going to have a return? We got the pop tart has to come back, right? Oh, without a doubt, it has to return. They set a high bar for themselves.

So good luck trying to clear it. But wow. What the pop tart? Come on. Somebody is going to try to one up the pop tart.

Most definitely. This has been correct me if I'm wrong. Has this not been this is only July. This is like the year of the mascot.

We open up the year with a pop tart that was somehow some way this pop tart was very it was a frisky pop tart. And now we move to Grimace. Is Grimace done?

Is that passé already? No, still alive and well. Mets are still in it. Grimace is still around. So when the Mets for the life of me, when the Mets go on another five game losing streak, is the is the Grimace thing over? Are people getting over that already or what? Maybe if a second five game losing streak does come about and the Mets season is over, their sellers at the deadline, maybe we could put Grimace to bed.

What will they think of next? What month are we in? It's July.

We've got baseball season. Next up is the NFL. What's the most famous NFL mascot?

What would you say? Oh, mascot. Mm hmm. Most famous NFL mascot. Oh, wow.

I am. I mean, here we got Freddie. He's a falcon. I don't know if he's the most famous. The Jaguars mascot also does similar stunts, although I can't tell you his name. So how famous can he be if I can't tell you his name? The one who walks around in a thong?

Yes. He did Ozempic. I saw him before.

Like one day he'll be like 400 pounds and the next day he's just in a thong and a head. This surper. I don't know if he's the most famous. There's the the gold rush guy with the forty niners. I'm sure he has a name.

Of course he does. I don't know it. You have the dolphin. Oh, the dolphin has to be the most famous. Right. Do you know the dolphins name?

Because I don't. Does he? Does he need a name? I guess you're right. Has to have a name, right?

The sea. You would think so. Seahawks got a bird, right?

Am I making this up? No, they got a bird. They got two birds, right? I think they have a real one and then the mascot. No, no, no, no.

Forget the real animals. No, man. Oh, OK. It's just the mascots. The Eagles got the bird. They got the eagle.

They do. I couldn't tell you his name. Oh, the Patriots mascot. That guy with the chin. Yeah, the chin. Yeah. Hmm.

I don't know. Maybe maybe one of their mascots will do something stupid by the end of the year. I don't know if it'll catch up to the pop tart or grimace, but we'll get there soon enough. Now, I know the Olympics is very straightforward, but the Olympics has one mascot. Could you imagine if they allowed the teams to bring mascots? Could you imagine that?

They should. I don't know a team. I guess team USA's mascot have to be the bald eagle, right? Well, they would just make one up. I don't know. Like, what else would it be?

We can't bring in and exist like an existent. Would you bring just the Eagles mascot and just kind of take off the Eagles jersey, put like a team USA jersey on and go? He'd have to be a basketball mascot.

It'd have to be the Phoenix Suns. No, that'd be I don't know how how the rest of the world would understand the gorilla. The gorilla in in red, white and blue. I don't I don't know how that would go over. Yeah. Let's take that. Take the mountain lion from Denver or whatever his name is. Rocky. Rocky. OK. Just take Rocky, put him in some red, white and blue. Call it a day or maybe Harry the Hawk.

Slap him in some. He's already he's got the red part covered. So I don't know. Maybe mascots representing countries is a bad idea. I think that'd be a bad one. Anyway, it's the J.R. sport we show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network.

Eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven. We come back. Who needs mascots when you got the real thing? Team USA has a mascot. His name is Joel Embiid. I'll tell you why.

On the other side of the break is the J.R. sport we show the Infinity Sports Network. Don't move. Hi, I'm Angie Hicks, co-founder of Angie. When you use Angie for your home projects, you know, all your jobs will be done. Well, roof repair done. Well, kitchen sink install done. Well, deck upgrades done. Well, electrical upgrade done. Well, Angie's been connecting homeowners with skilled pros for nearly 30 years.

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Member NYSE SIPC. You're listening to the J.R. Sport Brief, the J.R. Sport Brief show on the Infinity Sports Network. You know, I was asked my favorite time of the year when it comes to the sports calendar. It wasn't difficult to just say, hey, championship season for really any league. You could start me off in January and bowl season and then I can blink and then boom. The next thing I know, we're looking at the Super Bowl. And then after that, we get into the NBA playoffs and March Madness is going on. March Madness before the playoffs. I'm here for it all. World Series in October. I'm here.

I'm here. But things are real special every four years when you get the World Cup. And then you get the Olympics.

Well, it's twenty twenty six. You could think the pandemic a little bit. It feels like the Olympics have been a little bit closer. Last time it took place in Japan. No spectators, no humans, no nothing. Just just athletes.

Now the world is back open. And we're going to have the best athletes in the world competing out in Paris. And so that it happens to be Simone Biles. We also got the roster announced for the U.S. men's soccer team.

Who's going to be out there? But one of the marquee events, I would say for people who live stateside is gymnastics, swimming and what have you. People paying attention to the basketball because a lot of folks are trying to figure out and see what is Team USA going to do against the rest of the world? And so Team USA basketball, everybody from Kawhi Leonard to LeBron James, even a first time participant in the Olympics and Steph Curry.

They're in Vegas right now. They're practicing. They're getting warmed up and ready to, I don't know, beat up on Canada, which is actually fielding a pretty damn good team. They're getting ready to beat up on Giannis in Greece, who made it to the Olympics. Even Puerto Rico made it into the Olympics.

And we'll get into all of that. And so Team USA basketball, they're scheduled to have their first exhibition game, a showcase against Canada in a couple of days. And so we've actually had a little bit more media availability with some of the superstars of the NBA with Team USA basketball.

They typically haven't spoke. And so we've gotten some interesting things from someone like Steph Curry, who's participated in a world championship back in 2014. But because Steph Curry had a habit of going to a lot of finals. This is his first time that he's actually going to the Olympics. This is first time.

It's crazy to believe this is first time. But all anybody wanted to ask about, of course, is Klay Thompson, who's now a member of the Dallas Mavericks. Even Steph Curry spoke to Yahoo Sports and Steph was just like, hey, it doesn't even doesn't even compute that the Splash Brothers are done. Listen to Steph. Not having Klay, man, it still hasn't really sunk in just because you've been doing it for 13 years together. And, you know, coach made a joke. He's like, sometimes you can't really find Klay in the offseasons and you don't really hear from him as much. And then he shows up at training camp, ready to go. I kind of have this idea that in October, he'll still like, oh, hey, guys, what's up? But I know it's not happening.

So that's that'll sink in a little bit. OK. And so Steph Curry, it might be a dream for Steph Curry. But the reality, as he knows, is that Klay Thompson is done. He's in Dallas, where I hope he can stay healthy alongside Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving. We can hope we know he's gone.

Someone who's used to leaving. Is Kevin Durant. Kevin Durant spoke to the media as well. Kevin Durant spoke with Yahoo. And this is crazy. We know a couple of weeks ago at the conclusion of the NBA season, Boston Celtics were crowned as champs.

It's like 25 hours later. It's like, hey, Kevin Durant wants to leave Phoenix. He wants out. Phoenix wants to trade him. Matt Ishbia, the owner of the Sun, said no. Kevin Durant is on social media saying this is crazy.

Well, this is the first time he addressed it publicly. Kevin Durant said people just use my name for rumors. Listen to this. It's hard not to hear what they got to say about you. You know what I'm saying?

It's like, yeah, because especially then you could just make up lies like everybody don't believe you. Like you could just press the Katie want to leave button anytime you want some attention. It's a button. Yes.

It's a for sure button. What else is going to get people going around this time? Besides, oh, the the the journey man is leaving again.

That storyline will always hit. You know, the people. Yeah. You know what I'm saying?

That's why they see the alerts on ESPN on your phone. OK, he's thinking about leaving. That's how big that story is, which is whack, because I'm talking to Phoenix every day. You know, since the season ended, like our GMs, coaches, everybody, we've been locked in.

So it's like to say here, somebody say, well, Phoenix, Phoenix wants to get out of the Katie. So I'm sitting there like, where is this coming from? Now, it can come from anywhere, right? We don't know. We have no idea. It could be made up for many.

It could. But Kevin Durant does have a history of leaving places. Kevin Durant also this is and I like Kevin Durant.

I love him as a player. The fact that he just shows up and plays basketball is not into a lot of other stuff is fine. But I think his history of using the Internet is what goes against him.

That's it. Like, I don't want to say you can't have it both ways. But when you got a burner account and no matter how many years it could have been 10 years ago, the five years could have been yesterday, like people don't forget that. And so the idea that Kevin Durant is sensitive. Come on now. Is this not something that. That is just crazy.

Is this not a reason that people look at this and just go, well, when you think about him leaving teams, whether justified or not, why wouldn't there be some type of reality? This is somebody who requested a trade from Brooklyn twice. Had to stick around twice. Had to wait until he was moved.

Like, let's just come to earth. It's been tough. Anything that I hear about him want to leave, why would not believe it? Maybe if he sat tight and didn't respond to everything, maybe things would be different. Nikki, what are your thoughts on what he had to say?

I'm like, I do. I'm with you in the sense of I believe Kevin Durant, where now he doesn't want to leave, and I think he'll be in Phoenix for at this point the rest of his career. But like also, like you said, like, I mean, these rumors are out there in part because it's been a trend for Kevin Durant his entire career. And ever since he left OKC, he's bounced around frequently.

And he's you know, his name has always been kind of attached to trade rumors because he's never really. He's a guy that will blame others before he blames himself. So if things go wrong, even though he picked the players and he picked the coach and he picked the GM.

Well, if it goes wrong, it's their fault, not my fault. So I got to get out of here because, you know, I want to play competitive basketball. This team stinks. He has a habit of kind of running teams into the ground and then leaving.

And so you look at Phoenix right now with how kind of they are stuck with some of the moves they made in the salaries they have. It's not I mean, it's not crazy to think that with his past history that this guy won out again. Do you would you I wouldn't go as far to say running, running teams into the ground.

What's had one chance. Right. Really. With the Nets. And I would say he did that. What now was that more so him? I would say that was more so Kyrie.

Yes, but I would also say Kevin Durant chose Kyrie to be his running mate and had plenty of opportunities to wrangle him in and or move on, essentially, and let Kyrie contagious to cause destruction. Yeah, that was just that was like a I don't want to say a perfect whirlwind. And I guess I guess it would be a perfect whirlwind and pretty destructive, who would have thought. And I remember when they got together in twenty nineteen, it was like a Sunday. I was on the air somewhere here in Atlanta. I was on the air and it was like breaking news. It's like, whoa, I forgot which one came first. And it was like that together. It's like, whoa, it made no sense. It was like the NBA needed to be on notice. Who would have thought that that, OK, yeah, Kevin didn't play the first year, but how could anybody think that we would move into covid and then moving from covid to the government stuff?

And it just it was messy. I mean, who's to say there's no revisionist history? But if we were able to operate in like a normal space, do you think that Durant and Kyrie would have had more success? I mean, I don't really think so, because you could blame like the, you know, the covid protocols and everything for stuff that's gotten Kyrie, you know, missing games and et cetera. But it's also like he chose to leave and not tell anybody. We saw how it ended in Boston when it was normal.

You're right. And he was a bad teammate there. So it's like maybe like he wouldn't have caused as much drama with the specific rules in that period of time. But Kyrie is I think a guy that, you know, kind of showed you by his actions for the most part outside of now this little stint in Dallas, he he'll find a way to cause drama somehow.

Touche, touche. And I guess that is a criticism of Durant is that when the going has gotten tough, you know, he's just like, I just want to play basketball, which is well within his right in Golden State. He's just like, man, I showed up here. Y'all asked me to come.

And then, you know, now this idiot Draymond is we don't need you so far. I'm leaving. I don't need this crap. And so I get it.

But you're right. Yeah. He's his full justification that if there's a rumor about Durant. You can believe it.

Like, let's let's be real. Do I think he's going to wear one more uniform before his career is up? If I were going to make a bet, I'd say yes, I would.

I would see what happens. Anyway, he's not the only person that said some well, not said something crazy over the weekend at Team USA's media availability. Everybody loves Anthony Edwards, right?

Anthony Edwards amongst LeBron James and Durant and fill in the blank for everybody else. He took some time to remind everybody who the hell he is. I'm still number one. I mean, y'all might look at it differently. Yeah, I just go out there and be myself, shoot my shots, play defense.

You know, they got to get in and play around me. OK, nothing wrong with confidence. I don't think that's how things are gonna work. I mean, if he got things going, then then so be it. But. Hey, Anthony Edwards, full of bravado.

Maybe he wouldn't have had the success that he's had even recently if he didn't feel that way. I'm the number one option. OK. Team USA is going to be fun. Probably wax the floor with with most teams.

I think Canada will give them a run and we'll have a chance to see what that looks like in two days as they have an exhibition. The J.R. sport we show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. I told you that Team USA has a mascot. His name is Joel Embiid. He says he's more than a mascot. He gave an explanation as to why he decided to play for Team USA as opposed to, I don't know, France or Cameroon. And we've had some other NBA players, international players who've made a splash.

And Joel Embiid, he's been criticized for hooking up with Team USA like he's some type of front runner, is he? We'll get into it on the other side. Listen, as Silenia tells us why she chose to vaccinate her daughter. I definitely felt like the pros far outweighed the cons, the diseases that I am protecting my child against.

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Get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Talked about the Olympic Games coming up and Team USA basketball. And there's been a little bit of a story about one of the stars on Team USA. Even though this man is an MVP, future Hall of Famer, sounds crazy to say. Hickey, Joel Embiid's going into the Hall of Fame, right? He has to. Has to. I would agree, yes. Has to.

Will. He might play 30 games each over the next five seasons, but he'll get in. Joel Embiid is playing for Team USA. Joel Embiid had options.

He had choices. He could represent his native Cameroon. Joel Embiid could have gone over and played for France. They granted him citizenship. Just pretty much so he could play for Team France, which is going to have Rudy Gobert and Victor Winbenyama.

Maybe he's just like, I don't. Well, he joined an even more crowded team. OK, so let's put it that way. He decided to represent Team USA. Joel Embiid has been here. He went to Kansas here in the States, came over and went to high school here in the States where he pretty much started playing basketball not too long after coming over from Cameroon. His son is born here. This guy's been in America a very long time. Almost at this point, half of his life, he started a family here.

He got roots here. But there's a lot of people who look at Joel Embiid and go, man, why are you front running? Why didn't you just play for Cameroon?

And, you know, you were granted French citizenship. Why are you joining a team that doesn't need you? And Joel Embiid made it very clear that he wants to honor his son. And take a listen to what Embiid had to say about playing for Team USA.

It's been a dream, you know, for a long time. So if you like to work with us, especially with these great players, especially with the type of talent that you have, it's just fun to be around. He's just having fun. Let's be real. What the hell else is Joel Embiid going to win? Like he got an MVP award already. Sure.

Fine. Is Joel Embiid going to win a championship? Maybe now with Paul George?

Am I going to trust? I would not be surprised if we get to the postseason and Paul George is hurt and Joel Embiid is hurt because this is what we've seen for the past forever. I'm supposed to trust that the two of these dudes are going to be healthy. Joel Embiid is like, I got an MVP.

Might as well get myself close to a guaranteed gold medal, right? I don't know about no championship. And Joel Embiid also spoke to ESPN and he said that Paul George on the sixes match made in heaven. As far as the fit, it looks amazing.

It's great. Especially when you got a big, you need to have willing shooters and guys that are not afraid to pull the trigger and, you know, PG, great shooter, 40 percent, then 45, catch and shoot. You know, Tyrese Winnow, great shooter, off the dribble, catch and shoot. So I think, I think we got a pretty good chance. Yeah, good, good chance. Can show up to work, be available, be healthy, actually be able to stick around, not have some knickknack injury.

I mean, this is this is what we've seen from Joel Embiid. Specifically, is it going to be his hand? Is it going to be his back? Is it going to be his knee? Like, come on, you just you just never know with this man.

Good luck. I wish the sixes nothing but the best of luck. But when it comes down to Embiid, I got no problem with him playing on Team USA.

This guy is not any less American because he was born in Cameroon and chose Team USA. Is it the most challenging of spaces? No.

You want to tell me it's not going to be rewarding? I mean, people are like, oh, my God, look at what's what's going on with Giannis and Greece. Giannis is crying after winning. OK, Giannis is helping Greece go to the Olympics. He beat Croatia yesterday, 80 to 69. Giannis had 23 points and Giannis is in tears. All he wants to do is go to the Olympics and represent his country. Greece ain't walking away with a gold medal. Is that supposed to make things better?

Well, I don't know. Giannis said that he's going to enjoy every minute of it. Now, if I'm the flag barrier, great. If I'm not, it's OK. I'm just I'm just happy, man. I'm just happy that I have a good coaching staff, a good team. I'm in the Olympics.

I just want to go compete, be more healthy, compete and try to make something happen. You know, but again, as coach say, I will enjoy. I will enjoy every moment. I will enjoy every moment because you never know in life.

I will enjoy every moment. Yes, he should. And Giannis is a superstar.

Now, this is somebody else. He's he's going into the Hall of Fame. They got a championship. MVP is defensive player of the year.

Come on. That is Giannis is the guy. He just wants to compete for Greece.

OK, we got another dude. He's not even a superstar. Jose Alvarado. You can consider him to be one of the scrappiest dudes in the NBA.

He's stealing the basketball on inbound, sneaking behind guys. He played for Puerto Rico. He's from Brooklyn, New York. Play for Puerto Rico.

Went to school here in Atlanta at Georgia Tech. Had 23 points. Puerto Rico hasn't been to the Olympics in 20 years playing basketball. Alvarado's 23 points helped him get there. And he was celebrating with his kids. And he talked afterwards. And he's like, yeah, this is amazing to help out Puerto Rico.

Listen to this. The game was amazing. The atmosphere was great. You know, obviously, you know, this game was very important for for us and Ireland. But we knew it was more than just basketball. We knew how great we had to be to represent this island. And the love they gave us was amazing.

We just want to do as best as we can for them. As a kid that wasn't born in Ireland, I'm learning so much from this game and from all the history that came with it. And it's amazing. I'm just so happy to be part of it.

Like, obviously, the 20 years wasn't a very long time. But, you know, J.J. Carlos and all those greats was in the building. They created this path for us. And I'm just happy to be part of the team that got to make history today. It's talking about a former maverick, J.J. Berea, Carlos Arroyo, point guard bounced around. And so the 12 the 12 team slate is set for basketball. You got USA, who's the favorite. You have Canada. They got a lot of guys.

Shay Gilgus Alexander, Jamal Murray, R.J. Barrett, Dylan Brooks. You got France, when Ben Yama is out there, Rudy Gobert, Germany, Serbia, Australia, Greece, Spain, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Japan and South Sudan. Now, you heard the you heard the pride in Yana Cetera Kumpo. You heard the pride in Jose Alvarado. Like is one thing to be proud to say, hey, I competed, I went and I did something tough to help my team get there. It's another thing. You only going to have one winner.

And so now does that really cheapen it? Like if you're Joel Embiid, you got two choices. Do you want to just compete knowing that, hey, the odds are slim, pretty low that I'm going to win? Or do you want to go and win? I'm not mad at Embiid.

Not at all. I think if I were Joel Embiid and I can't speak, I'm only American. I didn't grow up, live anywhere else. I wasn't born anywhere.

Born right here. I can't understand just, hey, I want to I want to compete. Like it's not going to be easy for Team USA.

Are they the favorites? Yeah, absolutely. He's going to be a piece of it. And come on, knowing Joel Embiid, if he's healthy, he may have a game where he just destroys everybody. I'm not mad at the dude for just joining the team that quote unquote doesn't doesn't need him.

Hickey, what are your thoughts on that? If you want to compete and be proud or do you want to win? I would like to win. I'm with you in the sense that I don't mind him playing for Team USA. And like also, I don't.

Maybe this is just me. Like, do gold medals actually carry a lot of weight when it comes to like basketball? No one's going to be talking about when Embiid retires 10 years from now, you know, his gold medal count.

So it's like if it's I get you could say it's like almost like irrelevant if he wins, irrelevant if he doesn't. But like, if anything, have fun. Play with guys that you compete against. I think it's like a different kind of way to, you know, different basketball experience. And I think it makes him a better player overall as well.

Just kind of learning from them in these few weeks here. So I think it almost benefits him more for his career and just, you know, making a better player playing with these guys instead of playing against them and kind of being a one man, you know, crew like Giannis is for Team Greece if he was on, let's say, Team Cameroon and trying to lift these guys to the Olympics, which I couldn't tell the last time they've been there. But.

Yeah, but I think it's a box to check. I think to your point at what other time besides an all star game, which we know is a whole lot of nothing. When are you going to spend time around a collection of talent like this?

Never. Like it's this is it. This is it for for Team USA playing, playing basketball to really say, OK, well, this is this is what LeBron is. It has to be a confidence booster. But you also hope that you could take something away from being around everybody.

Just this flattened period. But for a gold medal, it's it's a box to check. Like there's no reason, as we talked about, there's no reason for Steph Curry to be out here for what? Besides just saying, hey, I'm also an Olympic gold medalist. And even outside of that, I can tell you I don't have no damn gold medal. Going to the Olympics is pretty cool.

You know, I've been fortunate enough to go to the Olympics in London, go to the Olympics in Brazil. And I don't know, maybe the experience is different. Well, obviously it is when you win.

But yeah, it's it's a box to check. I think for an American, I think we all know playing basketball and coming back with a silver or bronze is a you're going to get trashed forever. Ask Stefan Marbury and Allen Iverson about that.

LeBron was on that team as a youngster. He knows. He knows. So look, I'm not mad at Joel Embiid.

Other people might be. Man, go win. And maybe you can actually win something good for him. 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27.

That's 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27. Now, Steph Curry, like what the hell else is there for him to do? Guy got four championships, finally got a finals MVP. Now he loses his guy in Klay Thompson. Lisa got buddy healed, right? He's a damn good shooter in his prime.

And Steph Curry did say that his last championship, like the Warriors, that dynasty might be the last one we see in the NBA. We'll talk about it. It's the J.R. sport re-show.

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