Did Clippers New Arena Flaunt or Flop? (Hour 2)

It is! The JR Sport Brief Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia.

Thank you to everybody tuned in in Lockton, all over North America. You could be in California. You could be a fan of the Rams. You could be in Minneapolis or St. Paul.

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You could be in Florida. I don't know where you're at, but thank you for listening. The show gets started every single weekday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. You can always listen live on the free Odyssey app. You can listen on your local Infinity Sports Network affiliate. You can listen on Sirius XM Channel 158. You can listen on a smart speaker. Ask it to play the Infinity Sports Network.

What a day, what a day, what a day. Yeah, we're getting ready for Thursday Night Football, Minnesota, Los Angeles Rams, the return of Puka Nakua and Cooper Cup. There's some, you can only play football with those names, right?

You got to run people over and catch the ball. Let's see what these two wide receivers returning from ankle and knee injuries can do. Be talking some World Series. Scott Miller is going to join us from the New York Times.

Talk about some baseball. What's Judge going to do? What's Otani going to do?

Who's feeling more pressure, right? Otani is the best player on planet Earth. Judge plays for the Yankees, but then he stinks in the postseason.

There's so much to get into, so much to talk about. We got into DeAndre Hopkins already. He spoke to the media today and said, hey, it's finally good to play some football that matters.

Jamison Williams suspended from the Detroit Lions two Detroit Lions two games because of a drug suspension. He's like, man, I don't know what I took. I don't know what's going on. We talked about the New York Liberty's parade. None of their players were drunk.

Good for them. And we have so much more to do. Victor Wenbanyama is going to be making his season debut against the Dallas Mavericks.

That's always fun watching that 7 foot 5 giant go out there and play. And so we'll get more into the football and the baseball and the basketball and it all. We got you covered here. If you want to be a part of the show, it's simple. The phone number here is 855-212-4227. That's 855-212-4227. You can find me online.

I'm at JR Sportbree. Tell a friend to tell a friend to tell a friend. Do it. One hour down.

Now it's time to have some more fun. 855-212-4227. That's 855-212-4227. We got Darryl. He's calling from Chicago. You're on the JR Sportbree. Show us up, Darryl. Hey, what's up, JR?

I heard you guys talking about the best American born NBA Caucasian player. And I'm wondering if you figured it out yet because I got one for you. Okay.

Thank you, JR. Nobody, man. I've been thinking about this for a minute. Go ahead. Okay. Here we go. Tyler Herro.

Although I'm from Wisconsin, I'm living in Chicago. Tyler Herro from Wisconsin. What you think?

What you think? Tyler Herro? Who's better than him?

That's what man can jump. Is he the best? Damn. I thought that there'd be somebody better.

He's the best. I'm thinking. I want you to up me one, but right now that's all I could think of. That was without a search. Let's do this.

The process of elimination. We obviously have to think about the best teams, right? Yes, sir. Okay. Boston Celtics are the best team.

Their best white player is from Latvia. Okay. Doesn't count. Who's in New York Knicks? They don't have one.

Let's see. 76ers. They're guys from Cameroon.

They don't have a great white player. Yeah. I guess the Miami Heat. Yeah.

You're right. Best teams in the West. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. There's one on the Lakers. No, one on the Lakers? Connect? Reeves?

No, no, no, no. Okay. Oklahoma City. Okay. Good one.

Gonzaga. You know what I'm talking about? I know he's in the commercial with the all leather outfit with the other brother, but yeah, I don't know his name. What are you talking? What commercials are you watching? People in leather outfits?

It looks like an AP&T, some cell phone commercial from last NBA playoffs. Yeah. I don't know what you're talking about. I'm talking about Chet Holmgren. Okay. Okay. He might be, he's better than Tyler Herro. He might be the best American born white player in the league right now.

It's probably him. Okay. A Google search came up with Devin Booker, but I'm pretty sure he's a little bit black, right? A little bit? Yeah.

I think he's a, he's a, I think he's a little bit of both. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Down. Well, thank you, man. I appreciate it, man. I'm gonna listen off air. Thanks for taking the call, brother.

No doubt. Thank you, Darryl for calling from Chicago. Hickey Chet Holmgren consensus. Is it Chet?

Oh, I forgot about Chet. Yes. Seven four. Does he seven two? He can shoot threes. He can block. This is going to be what? A second year? Like, I mean, he was hurt that first, right? Cause his feet are too big. The same problem that I hope, man.

I hope, I hope women Yama never has this problem, man. It seems like it's almost bound to happen, but I hope it never, it has to be Chet Holmgren has to be the best white player, American white player in the league has to be in terms of active player and accomplishments. I was thinking Brook Lopez, though he's not at the top of his game now. Is Brook Lopez white? He's not Latino. Is he? Yeah.

Lopez. I guess you're right. Wow.

This is a lot more difficult than I thought. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I think it has to be Chet. Yeah. Especially with the potential, what he's done so far last year, especially one season. Look what he did is, well, it's 17 points, eight rebounds, two blocks, 80% from the free throw line, a 37% from three. This guy is still only 22 years old and he is, he's going to get bigger. He's going to put on some weight.

He's going to be an amazing player to watch. And the thunder they play tonight as well, who they play to start this season up. I think Sacramento.

Yeah. They play the Kings tonight and it should be fun. 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27. Oh Denver. My apologies, Denver 8 5 5 2 1 2 1 2 42 27. Ben he's calling from Montana. You're on the JR sport. We show us up, Ben. Hey, Jr. A long time listener, man. I thought that was awesome. I kicked the racist guy off the show.

That was pretty funny. I had a couple of questions for you. Yes. So I got Aaron Jones tonight playing against a pretty bad Rams defense and they, Javonte Williams this weekend.

I got a pick between the two of them playing against the terrible Carolina Panthers. Yeah. So what are you, what are you asking me?

What, what are you asking me for fantasy advice? Yeah. I think you said it was cool, but it's cool. You can ask me anything.

I don't mean, I have to give you an answer. Hey, let me ask you this, Ben. Are you going to win money as a result of this?

That's a hope. Well, because of this, or you got to wait until the end of the season to pocket some money. No, I got to wait until the end of the season, but you know, trying to get the win. Now who, who, who, the Broncos are playing who? The Broncos are playing the Carolina Panthers. The Broncos are playing the Carolina Panthers.

Oh my God. You know, that might be a safer bet than, than tonight because the Minnesota Vikings, we know, yeah, Aaron Jones is a dual threat as a wide receiver, but, oh man, that's, that's tough. You know, Aaron Jones could go a game where he doesn't do anything because they're just throwing the ball out here, you know, to Justin Jefferson. So I think I would say Javonte as opposed to Aaron. Okay.

Cause he sure did ball out on my bench last week. And I think I'm inclined to agree with you on that. The next question I had, who's going to win in a grudge match between Robert Sala and Dan Campbell? Cause they're both stacked.

Yeah. I think Dan Campbell would, would, would win. I think Dan, he's crazy. You heard his opening press conference, biting ankles and wall this up. What did he say?

Biting ankles and snapping kneecaps. And we're going to get up and gouge like this was the guy's introductory press conference. Okay. Yeah. And to come into an organization like that, that had just suffered for so long and turn it around would just require some grit. Well, that's his, that's his key word. He got grit tattered all over the building.

He has grit painted all over the building is, I don't know, he's chewing screws and nails for breakfast. So yeah, I'm going with Dan Campbell in the street fight over Sala. Okay. Thanks for your time. No problem, Ben. And good luck with your league, man.

Appreciate you. Yeah. Rob Sala, by the way, he was working out with the Packers. Coach Lafleur was the best man in his wedding. And you can't sit around New Jersey with your eight kids all day. So he went to Green Bay, Wisconsin. I mean, pick your poison. You want to be in Green Bay, Wisconsin with the Green Bay Packers. Do you want to sit at home with your wife and your eight kids? I think we have the answer there. 8-5-5-2-1 and still get paid.

New York Jets are still paying this man. Okay. To hang out in Green Bay. Sign me up. 8-5-5-2-1-2-42-27. That's 8-5-5-2-1-2-42-27.

You know what you can sign me up for? And he's looking for fantasy advice and asking for this and asking for that. Vikings are taking on the Rams. Vikings are now five and one. Lost to the Lions. Now they're second in the NFC North.

Vikings, I don't want to say they're coming back down to earth, but the Lions, you know, they're the best team. I know Sam Donald has been able to light it up all of a sudden now in place of J.J. McCarthy. And let's be real, Sam was always going to get the chance. He was always going to get the, he's going to get the ball first. I don't want to call this a Russell Wilson, Justin Field situation, but Sam Donald was going to get the opportunity.

And so this year, 12 touchdowns, the five interceptions, he has a passer rating of 104. This is not the same Sam Donald that we saw with the New York Jets. The Minnesota Vikings are going to go into the postseason and when they get there, they just have to hope that Sam Donald isn't throwing a football to the wrong damn team. I got the Minnesota Vikings winning tonight.

I do. Now don't be shocked if the Rams with the returning Puka Nakua and then also Cooper cup, who's basically auditioning to leave town. Don't be surprised if they put up some points as well, because the Vikings for as great as they are upfront, their pass defense stinks. Minnesota Vikings pass defense is ranked 30th in the NFL. They're giving up 260 passing yards a game. And so old man, Matthew Stafford, he might find some holes, even with two players that are returning from injury. I'm still picking the Vikings, the Rams sock.

Come on now. They would trade Matthew Stafford if they could, but who's taking a 36 year old quarterback with his salary? Who's bringing him on in the middle of the season?

The answer is nobody, nobody. And Sam Donald, all of a sudden he might win comeback player of the year. They got to figure out another name for it because he ain't coming back from nothing. He's always been ass. Now he's playing well, but Sam Donald, he said the Rams, he says, yeah, they're going to be tough to play against. Does he know? Does he know that?

Nevermind. Listen, challenging week for us. Obviously a great LA team. Um, Sam just told me to, uh, I'm excited to excited to go home for the first time with fans, uh, in attendance.

I went back in 2020. Um, but, um, yeah, just, just excited to play these guys. Another really great opportunity for us to go and play a, play a really good defense, a really good team.

Yeah. Sam Donald, you remember Sam, he played at USC through turnovers over there too. Not afraid of turning the ball over that Sam Donald. Now he's back in Southern California. So far stadium Hollywood, right? Going to be a lot of fans in attendance. A lot of, a lot of Rams fans because all those fans in Southern California, they love football. They do. Justin Jefferson is just happy to be on TV.

Amazon prime. We felt like we, we've been, should have been, you know, put on that, that platform, but we're going to have to wake some people up. You know, we're going to have to be that team that, uh, no one is counting on to, to be good and expecting to, to come out and, and be the team that we are today.

You know what? We also have to take into account for tonight's Thursday night football matchup. Kevin O'Connell was the offensive coordinator for these Rams. He got this job because of the work that he did with Sean McVay.

And so now he's the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings. And because Kevin O'Connell and Sean McVay, because they're friends, he's about to tell one of the biggest lies that you will ever hear this football season. Listen to this man and what he has to say about the Rams. It can be a challenge to play against those guys. And I'm sure they'll be ready to go.

And being well coached is one thing, but I think their players definitely led by Matthew Cooper, Rob Havenstein, you know, they've got some guys that have been through a lot of plays together and they'll be ready to go. Yeah. Yeah. They're just, this is not good. Come on now.

It's two and four. They ain't got no talent. They've lost talent since they won the Super Bowl. Aaron Donald is gone. Von Miller is old suspended and gone. Jalen Ramsey, gone. Odell Beckham, hurt, gone. You guys are gone. Matthew Stafford is still there.

I'm 36 years old. I told you Cooper Cooper's coming back from that ankle. Puka Naku is coming back from that sprained knee. Matthew Stafford said, I'm happy that Cooper's back. He better be happy. He's here for now. I'm excited for him. He loves football. He's missing being out there. So I'm excited for him.

Excited for our offense, our team. You know, he's a great player. Yeah.

Yeah. He's a great player. This might be the last game that he plays. This might be the last game that he plays together with him.

Come on now. Cooper cup knows he's about to get traded. I don't know how many snaps he's going to run, but I don't think they're going to run this guy into the ground. They better hope that he has one good highlight play and the team says, okay, we'll trade for him tomorrow.

Oh yeah. You paid for him another week. Now we'll trade for him less money. That's really what it boils down to. It's a matter of economics. You pay another game salary and we'll trade for him after.

What's the rush. Let's listen to Cooper cup tell a lie. Cooper cup says the defense of the Vikings is good.

It is upfront, but not, not them defensive backs. They play hard guys fly around. They've even been able to adapt some of the injuries, some of the things I've come about and found some creative ways to continue to get pressure on, on offenses and things like that. And obviously you create a great challenge.

So I'm, I'm excited about being able to go through the short week and, um, you know, find ways to attack it. And, um, yeah, it's obviously going to be a great council, man. Come on. I got the Vikings winning this one. Minnesota Vikings are going to go six and one, the Rams are going to fall to two and five.

And the only way that this happens, the only way the Vikings lose this game is if Sam Donald loses the game. That's it. I just, I don't, I don't see it. Is it's Cooper cup and Pukanukua. Are they enough to kind of light things up?

I don't think so. It'll look nice. It'll be a close game. We'll see some deep passes.

There's going to be a ball in the air type game, just flinging it all over the field. Uh, I got the Vikings winning this one. Hickey, what are your thoughts on the Vikings and the Rams tonight?

I am with you. I do like Minnesota in this game. I know they're coming off a loss, but I thought for the most part, they played well against what is arguably the best team in the NFL right now in the lions. Um, offensively, Sam Donald, uh, I do, or I am at the point where I do trust him. I don't know how LA is going to really slow down this offense. And then even, you know, with the secondary concerns from Minnesota, Cooper cup, like how healthy is he actually going to be? How much is he going to play Pukanukua? Same thing. He's acted off IR today. How much either, or I guess both will play.

I still have a huge question mark about of its lines, a little influx as well. That defense at least gets after the quarterback, which is not good for Matthew Stafford. I'm with you. I like Minnesota here, not a touchdown or so. I think that feels fair.

Minnesota on the road folks, put some money on it. Just don't blame us after if you lose. Okay. Don't ask us for money.

Don't do it. It's the JR sport pre-show here with you coast to coast on the infinity sports network. Yeah. We got the Minnesota Vikings over the Rams tonight. We got them winning. Now they're going to win a championship.

I don't think so. When we come back, we will talk about the world series. Let's do that on the other side of the break. We got game one of the world series. It goes down tomorrow in Los Angeles. Everything is in LA, right?

Everything. Yankees, Dodgers, Lakers. We got USC football tomorrow. Everything is going on in LA. We'll talk about the Dodgers and the Yankees on the other side of the break. Shohei Ohtani versus Aaron Judge. They should put them in a wrestling ring at center field before the game actually starts and sell more tickets that way.

We'll get into the world series. Don't worry. It's the JR sport pre-show on the infinity sports network. You're listening to the JR sport brief. It is the JR sport pre-show here with you coast to coast on the infinity sports network. 855-212-4227.

That's 855-212-4227. We're getting ready for Thursday night football. Yeah. We got less than an hour to go, right? Minnesota Vikings are out in Los Angeles to take on the Rams. Minnesota Vikings on their way to the postseason. And meanwhile, the Rams, well, they're probably on their way to trading Cooper Cup. Cooper Cup and Pukunakua expected to play tonight for the Los Angeles Rams.

They have been MIA out of action. Pukunakua hurt himself in the first game of the season, sprained a PCL in his knee and Cooper Cup, this man hasn't played due to a busted up ankle. What else is new? Every year he's busting up his ankle. He's busting up his hamstring. He's ripping this. He's tearing that same high ankle that he always has an issue with. Cooper Cup has only been able to play two games this season. So Matthew Stafford is going to have somebody to throw the ball to a wide receiver, not named Tutu Atwell.

Okay. So we'll see what happens tonight. Both Hickey and I got the Minnesota Vikings going out there and winning this game. Winning the championship?

Not so sure about that one, but still picking them to win this game. Speaking of championships, the World Series, it gets underway tomorrow. We got Garrett Cole on the mound for the New York Yankees.

We got Jack Flaherty on the mound for the Los Angeles Dodgers. This is going to be the 12th time that these two teams have met in the postseason. And yes, that's a whole lot of times for two teams that have been around for a very, very long time. No two teams have met in the postseason 12 times. The Yankees and Dodgers, uh, they got the record and they got us beat there. And so it's not just the teams. It's not just the cities. It's not just the names. The payrolls are astronomical.

The stars are astronomical. We actually have a World Series featuring two men who are likely going to win MVP. Damn it, they will. Shohei Ohtani is going to win MVP in the National League. Aaron Judge is going to win an MVP in the American League and it's going to be fun.

It really is. Aaron Judge, he didn't waste no time. Aaron Judge said Shohei Ohtani, best player in the game. It's for average hits for power, the speed, you know, doing what he did this year with the 50 stolen bases. That's, um, it got talked about a lot, but I don't think it got talked about enough.

It's just, he's an impressive, impressive athlete, you know, the best player in the game and, um, you know, what an ambassador for this sport. Yeah, this is going to be tough. We got Scott Miller joining us from the New York Times. He'll be here next hour to really break down, you know, this World Series matchup. Yeah, I didn't think the Dodgers would make it this far. They've had so many injuries to their, their, their starting rotation. Walker Bueller all of a sudden can go out there and pitch. The Dodgers are pulling guys out of the bullpen. Pull this guy here, pull this guy here, here, you pitch an inning and just a batter could get four different looks throughout the course of a game and just be flummoxed. I don't know if it's going to work against the Yankees. Both teams have a lot of offense.

I don't know. This, this might be one of those seven game nail biters. This is going to be a crazy one. Somebody who will be biting his nails is Brian Cashman. This man has been a part of the Yankees organization for almost 30 years. He's been the GM for the team. Well, damn it. Wow. He's been a GM for longer than that now.

Damn it. He's almost been in the organization 40 years. He's almost been the GM for 30. People are sick of him in New York.

They always want to fire him. And people look at the New York Yankees in their drought, not winning a world series since 2009. They point at Brian Cashman and they say, look at all the players that you brought in. Look at all the money that gets spent. Anybody could spend this Don Brunner's money and you don't have a title to show for it. Well, Brian Cashman was on MLB network and he didn't take too kindly to hearing about a drought because he feels the New York Yankees got cheated by a certain team in Texas. Listen to this.

It means a lot. And I hate the 15 year thing because it doesn't it completely forgets and discounts that that some other organization cheated us when we were all the way in the end. You know, if you knew what was going on, I don't think they would be advancing at that during that time thing.

I think we would have been advancing. So I hate that 15 year thing because I don't think it accurately reflects history. Oh, shots fired at the Houston Astros. He's talking about 2017 when Major League Baseball found that they were banging on things and making noise, signaling the pitching.

And they were cheating. Major League Baseball said they were cheating from 2017 to 2018. Is it necessary for Brian Cashman to bring that up, though? He's brought it up in the past. You got to bring it up again. Like talking about the Astros isn't going to change anything. And you did it when the World Series. So it really doesn't matter if you got cheated out of it or not.

You didn't win. You know, we don't live in an alternate universe. I think it's time to let sleeping dogs lie. Leave the Astros alone. God bless the New York Yankees. They didn't have to face off against the Astros this year because knowing the Astros, they would have beat the Yankees. Leave it alone.

The drought is the drought. There's no magic wand to take us back in time to see what would have happened in Game 7 if all of a sudden there were no cheating. Just leave it alone. It's not going to bolster or boost your resume by saying, yeah, well, we got cheated in 2017.

We were the team, the team that we took on in the ALCS. They were cheating. Leave it alone.

Hickey, am I alone? Like, why is Brian Cashman bringing this up? That's such a loser comment. It's so long ago. And look, not trying to defend the Astros at all, but they did go to the World Series in 2019 after they were, you know, outed for cheating. Won it in 2022. So let's not pretend like the only reason why they won was because they were cheating. They had a lot of talent on that team. They probably didn't need to cheat to win.

And like you said, the ifs and buts, you know, were candy and nuts, then we'd all be happy. If the Astros didn't cheat, maybe, maybe the Yankees are in the World Series instead of discussion. But that's not what happened.

We live in the real world. It didn't happen, Brian. Leave it alone. Leave it alone. The New York Yankees need to be focused on the Yankees, not Brian Cashman bringing this up. Brian Cashman shouldn't even be a thought in anybody's head right now, but he is.

Get over it. I mean, what is he going to do? Is he going to go to Houston? Does he want to, like, kick, I don't know, Hinch and Cora and go to every city and kick these guys in the shins? These guys got jobs.

Everybody has moved on. Hickey, where's Beltran? What's Carlos Beltran doing right now? He's a part of the Mets. He's in the front office, right? Yeah, he has a role.

He was out there for some of the celebrations the Mets had in Milwaukee and at Citi Field. I thought he wanted to be a manager. Well, for a hot second, he was a manager. What happened? Refresh my brain. The Mets fired him.

Well, well, well, help me out here. How long was he the manager? Two weeks, somewhere in that time frame. They hired him. And then that's when the story came out about the Astros cheating. Oh my God. And, you know, then it was reported that he was the ringleader of the scheme.

And they said, well, we can't do this. Oh man. I thought, I thought the Mets only hired like, you know, guys in the, nevermind. Yeah.

Well, they hire, yeah, some, some bad guys as well. It was a GM that was taking the photos and sending them to people. Okay. Yeah. And a manager was hitting on folks, another GM that was drunk driving. Oh, Mickey?

Mickey Calaway was creepy. Yeah. Do you think Carlos Beltran will get another chance in the dugout? I hope so. I'm just, at this point with how long he's been removed, I just wonder if that ship has sailed now. Cause you do see it all coaches, right?

Like once you kind of, you're out, you're out. And I just, I wonder now if it's too late for him to get back into the managerial game. I forgot that he was the manager. Wow. That's right.

That was what, 20, 19, somewhere in that frame. Wow. Hello.

Goodbye. Yeah. And at one point, Oh yeah.

I remember this. At one point he was a Yankees announcer. That was terrible. Terrible. He was not good at that. He was awful.

He was not good. Not for everybody at the broadcast booth. Yeah. Great baseball. Carlos Beltran was a great baseball player.

I always enjoy watching him. Yeah. But calling the game.

Yeah. Don't, don't do that. Good for him being a part of the Mets. 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27.

That's 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27. We're going to take a break. When we come back on the other side, you know, there's so much going on in LA.

Got the world series starting tomorrow. The other day we saw Bronnie and Bron and is that right? Hickey, Bronnie and Bron. Is that correct? I like that.

I've not heard it that, you know, phrased that way, but I think that could stick. Well, that's what he calls his dad, right? He calls him Bron. I also like how you put Bronnie first, then Bron. Bronnie. Bron is an afterthought. Bron's an afterthought. Bron and Bronnie just sounds too anyway. Yeah. LeBron and LeBron. How about that?

Also, also accurate. LeBron and LeBron Jr. Hickey, like all the, all the sons we, we talked about yesterday, it seemed like everybody was a, a junior except for the Mannings. You're right. Archie said, we're not going to have an Archie Jr. Good for him. We got an arch now.

Maybe be lighting it up at Texas, but they said, nah, we going to put Quinn Ewers back on out there. We're going to take a break. When we come back, we're going to go back to Los Angeles because the Clippers, they debuted a fabulous new arena, the Intuit Dome. And then speaking of Los Angeles, the guy who hits all the home runs, the 50 50 guy, his home run ball, it went for a pretty penny.

That's why I said, I would want a percentage of it. I'll fill you in on the other side of the break. It's the JR sport re-show here on the infinity sports network. You're listening to the JR sport brief. It is the JR sport re-show here with you on the infinity sports network. 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27.

That's 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27. Getting ready for some Thursday night football, the top of the hour, Minnesota Vikings in Los Angeles against those Rams. Things are crazy in LA. The sports scene is crazy in Los Angeles. The streets, the highways, the bar, the road, everything is going to be packed in LA tomorrow. This USC is playing. The Lakers are playing. Everybody's playing concerts. College so far has a high school game. USC is everybody's playing. LA is the center of the universe tomorrow.

Hickey, it's not too late. Let's fly out there, let's fly out there. Do the show from LA. I think we would not make it in time. The traffic will be too bad. Oh, traffic.

Okay. That's three o'clock local. That's I mean, peak rush hour for tomorrow.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Uh, what time is it? Well, our show right starts out there at three. We can get a flight after the show.

You leave New York, I leave Atlanta. And we'll just sleep with the studio. When? When we land.

Yeah. We just sleep. You sleep on a plane.

It's an overnight. Oh, okay. Excuse me. Can't do that. You just leave. You said you can't? I can't.

I'm a diva. I can't sleep on a plane for six hours. It's five hours. Well, maybe five for you, six for me. Shorter further and further north here.

It's shorter. Not six hours to go that way. No. Yeah. Oh, into the crosswind. Oh yeah.

When you come back, it's five. Yes. Yes. It's four hours from here. Short flight.

Yeah. Fly to Atlanta first to tack on another 90 minutes while you're at it. Why the hell not? Sleep on there for 90 minutes. Sleep on a five hour flight.

Wake up refresh, ready to go. And just we'll talk LA sports in LA. Easy. Done. Piece of cake. How about we just go to Dodger stadium? Screw it.

Yeah. Let's do the show line from there. Don't let me see Otani. What are you going to say to him? Nothing.

I'm not. Well, what's he going to say to me? Nothing. What are we going to say besides hello?

Hello. Well, you said don't. I wasn't sure if you're going to ask about E-Pay or throw any accusations his way or give me some money. Give me your, give me your credit card number, right?

You give it out to everybody. He understands that, right? If I went up to Shohei Otani and I said, Hey, give me some money. What would he say? He goes, no, he said, no.

Right. He knows that one. He's a, give me some money. Those are probably some of the dumbest things you can ask him right now. One or as, Hey, give me some money. And where's E-Pay? I don't know.

He seems too dignified to curse you out or punch you in the face. But, uh, I think one of the two of those would, would, would be likely. But speaking of money, that, that home run ball and a couple of people done sued over it, but it went to auction. Shohei Otani's home run ball. It has been sold. I want you to listen to this from my good friends at KTLA. They tell you about that Shohei Otani, a 50 home run ball. Listen to this. Sold Shohei Otani's 50 50 home run ball sold at auction.

Forget this. If you haven't heard $4.39 million, that shatters the record paid for a baseball or any sports ball for that matter. The previous most expensive baseball was Mark McGuire's 70th home run ball from the 1998 major league baseball season, which went for $3 million.

Otani made history on September 19th by becoming the first player in baseball history to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a single season. A legal battle over who actually owns this ball remains unresolved, but a judge allowed the sale to go ahead and proceed. $4.39 million. Uh, I wonder who bought it. It's somebody with $4 million to spare.

What the hell? What do you, what do you do with that? You just put it in your living room. You put it in a case and put it in your living room.

You want to flip it and sell it for $8 million in a couple of years? Like what are you doing? What are you doing with that? Definitely having it sit there right for a long time.

I'm with you outside of that. Like, I mean, I don't know how this stuff works, so maybe I'm just an idiot here. Does it actually, does the value increase like the longer you hold onto it? I would think if somebody wants it, right.

But like what if someone else, what if he has a 50 50 season next year? And I would think the ball would decrease in value, but it would still have value because it's the first, right? Sure. But if you buy it for four, I mean, how much can you actually sell? Like if it happens again, sure. It's the first still, but like, are you selling it for five? I don't know.

I don't, I don't know how much you can sell it for. I don't know if you have, if you, if you have one, you hope he doesn't do it again, right? I'm sure he's really let's show. Hey, now let's also think about this next year. I don't know if he's going to start the season pitching, but you would think he'd get what 10 to 15 starts next year to kind of get warmed up and ready. True. What are the odds that he has another 50 50 season? I mean, definitely slim ranges in general, considering the odds and how tough that is, period.

And on the pitching, you're probably right. It's probably not likely it happens again. And didn't somebody at one point in time, somebody bought, uh, there's somebody buy baseball and shoot at the outer space. Was that like Elon Musk or something like that? What? No, you never heard about that.

No from earth shot into space. Why for what? Vote to send Barry bonds ball into space. Oh, Mark echo fashion designer, Mark echo. He bought Barry bonds.

Record-breaking home run has decided to let the public vote on his fate. I don't know. I guess it wasn't shot into space. So 7 56. I don't, I don't know which one.

I don't know if this is from the year or the, the, the home run, uh, the total. That's how, you know, you're rich by the way, let me buy, buy this ball. And then, yeah, if people want to say, send it out of space, I'm going to do it. That's crazy. Yeah. This it w yeah.

7 56. Wow. He purchased the ball from the fan who caught it before personally branding it with an asterisk and sending it to Cooperstown up. So it exists. Huh? It's not, it's not space junk.

It actually exists. Imagine hating someone that much where you spend millions of dollars to tarnish a record. Is it hating somebody that much or is it just being rich and letting you, you know, you're rich. You do what you are, right? Yeah.

I mean a little bit of both, right? I mean, I don't, I mean, I guess Mark echo still has clothes. Do people still wear echo? Do they still sell it? I don't think so. I have not seen Mark echo clothing in 20 years.

Same. Oh, I'm sure you got some bread off of it and good for him. I told you a lot of things going on in LA. Maybe, maybe koala has bought the ball, you know, he ain't got nothing better to do. He can't, he can't play basketball. All he does is sit around and rehab and all these great things great things going on in LA. The Clippers debuted their new $2 billion stadium. They call it a dome, but it's a basketball stadium. It's a 20 seater, 20,000 seater. The Intuit dome is out in Inglewood and this place is unique because Steve Ballmer, the crazy man owner, multi-billionaire from Microsoft owns the team. You know, he owns the Clippers.

He's a wild dude. And so one of the features of this new arena Intuit dome is a wall, 51 uninterrupted rows. There's not a concourse.

It's steep. He wanted to model it after, after soccer slash football, you know, the wall behind the goal. And he just wants Clipper fans there. Like you have to wear Clippers gear and you have to be sure you're a fan. They have all these hoops.

You can't resell the tickets. There's a lot of different ways to ensure that you're a Clippers fan. And so this was the first time we had the wall last night, the Clippers, they lost to the sons in overtime, one 16 or one 13. You could thank Kevin Durant, but Kevin Durant actually missed. This is a 90% free throw shooter. It's one of the best shooters the league has ever seen.

This man missed two free throws. And Kevin Durant actually said, looking at the wall, having it there was pretty awesome. Incredible. Loved it.

I absolutely loved the water they got. Yeah. It's insane. I know in the playoffs and you know, once people get more and more comfortable with the arena, it's going to be insane here. So I always love when new venues go up in our league, it's always cool. It always sets the standard for what may come down the line, you know?

So Steve is doing a great job this franchise. Yeah. It was, it was crazy. I was just staring at it the whole time. You're not used to that. I think, I think I experienced it. Oklahoma State has somewhat of an arena like that. Obviously not that big, but the seats went straight up and always thought that was cool.

The noise sounds a little different from that vantage point. So it's going to be a tough, tough road environment for whoever comes in here. It's fun. Good. I just feel bad that the Clipper fans, they got to watch crap garbage basketball in that place because Kawhi Leonard is out indefinitely. You got James Harden now running the show.

I mean, he led the way last night for them with 29 points, but it's just bad. Hickey, you, you feeling the wall? I think, I think the novelty of it is I've seen it once and I'm like, all right, whatever. I love the idea. I love Steve Ballmer's enthusiasm. My only, I guess, concern moving forward is just like partly what you said of just how bad the team is, but also like, I just don't think there'd be enough people there to make it worth its while. Now when they're good and maybe two or three years from now, they're rejuvenated and this team is young and exciting, but at least right now with the debut of it this season, it's just hard to imagine that's actually going to stay just because if you're getting your brain beaten by 30 every night, it's going to take a lot out of the fans. Yeah. This is the fan.

It's tough getting around in LA. The fans weren't there early. They were certainly there late and the players talked about it having an effect on them.

Take a listen to this. Devin Booker about the wall. I missed the free throw, man. I was pissed. So I think K missed two down there too.

So it might work. It was pretty impressive. Hell yeah. He spent 2 billion.

Put a wall up. He did make some clutch free throws. So they didn't completely do their job, but we heard them. Yeah.

The stadium, the arena costs $2 billion. Steve Ballmer had that. Hickey, what did he, he just found that in the side of his car door, right? I think so. Yeah. Casual. Cool.

Yeah. Steve Ballmer's net worth is a cool, I'm going to predict $150 billion. Let me see if I'm right.

Let's see. Steve Ballmer net worth. Oh, he's poor.

I was wrong. Only $124 billion. I look for change in my couch. This guy has $124 billion of assets. I need to find my own Microsoft. I'm going to start right now. It's the JR Sportbree show on the infinity sports network. We're going to talk more world series, more NFL and more basketball on the other side. Don't you move.