Yeah, and I happen to be JR.
It is the JR sport re-show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia, wherever you might be. Whatever you might be doing. I hope you're safe. I hope you're well. I hope you had a tremendous Thursday.
I'll be hanging out with you for the next three hours. Shout out to everybody on the highways, the byways, all my Uber delivery drivers, my postal workers, my Amazon folks, my door dashers, my everything. My officers, my hospital workers, my security people, the police officers, people in the military, the chefs, the cooks, the cleaners, everybody. You making that money? Thank you for listening. You not making that money?
Get to that money. I got your back. I told you I'd be here with you for the next three hours. I've already been hanging out for an hour.
We've talked about a lot. The Sixers, Tyrese Maxey hurt. Dak Prescott hurt both of these guys with hamstring issues. Trevor Lawrence hurt.
Injury to his non-throwing shoulder. And then speaking of Florida, hey, how about this? A gator, head coach of the Gators, Billy Napier, not going anywhere. Athletic director Scott Strickland says nowhere.
I might be in Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to super producer and host Ryan Hickey in New York City. Thank you for Chris helping to hold things down on the board. We have so much to get into over the next three hours. How about this? In an hour from now, we got a good Thursday night football matchup. We have the Super Bowl contending Baltimore Ravens. We have the Bengals who have been surging, I guess. I guess they're surging.
Yeah, they won three out of the last four games. We'll dive a little bit deeper into that in a second. But this is not, I don't know, the let's say, hmm. It's not the Jaguars taking on the Browns. That'd be a craptacular Thursday night game.
Nobody, nobody wants to see that. And so we have so much to get into. How about this? In about 20 minutes from now, we're going to be joined by Derek Bodnar from PHLY Sports. We're going to ask him about the Sixers and how they could turn things around now that the most reliable star that they have in Tyrese Maxey is out with a hamstring issue.
So we'll do that in about 20 minutes from now. We're going to get into this Lamar Jackson versus Joe Burrow matchup. They just played in week five, probably one of the more entertaining games of the season. Ravens knocked off Cincy 41 at 38. We'll talk about what this matchup and what this game means tonight.
Certainly means a whole hell of a lot more for the Bengals as they're just trying to stay alive and stay relevant. If you want to talk to me, it's simple. Phone number here is eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven.
That's eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven. You know what? Let's go to Texas right now. And let's talk to Charles.
Charles, you're on the JR sport ratio. What's on your mind? How you doing, Jay? I tell you, I love listening to you, man. You keep me going in the truck down through the night.
No problem. A little bit. Yeah. Just talk a little bit about my Lions. You know, it's it's it's a different era. We've got different mindsets as a long suffering fan. We get to enjoy games now. We actually get excited. We expect to win. We don't hope to win. We don't have to bite nails no more.
We just lift hands and we rejoice. And I'll tell you, there's the most excellent team in the NFL right now. No, I don't have to say they're number one.
They're excellent. I mean, what? Where's the weakness?
There is none. And they're playing like a team, like a team should play a complementary offense, defense, special teams. I mean, golf is just playing out of his mind and the whole team is. And as injuries come, we just put another man up. That's the mentality.
And that grit, that long suffering, hard work. And then Jameel gets suspended. People start getting on, man.
Leave the young man alone. It'll be just fine. Well, I don't know about that, Charles. I mean, he's got in trouble for gambling. He's gotten in trouble for performance enhancing drug use.
He's now in trouble potentially for a gun issue. I don't know if he's going to be just fine. He may crash out of the NFL before we know it.
I hope not. But he might. Well, J.R., I understand your point about these things, but he's 22, 23. He's so young, you know, and we all made mistakes when we were young.
And you move on and coach talk to him like a father. And, you know, Jameel, he owned it. He didn't try to hide it. He didn't deny it. He owned it. And now during the two weeks he was suspended, he's been running, hit the jug machine. He could part everything except on the game day.
He's going to break out again when he comes back again. And we're going to get the number one seed. I tell you that right now.
All roads will go through these roads. Well, I mean, it's seven and one, so that's not much of a shot. Hey, Charles, thank you for calling from Texas. Go ahead. OK. I was going to just say, J.R., I put money down on my team before the season started. I told everybody they're going to go 15.
They're going to get at least 15 wins, get the number one seed. I'm going to cash that baby for seven grand. You hear me? OK.
Send me some, OK? You got that right, brother. All right. Thank you so much. All right, Charles.
Thank you for calling from Texas. Appreciate you. Look, man, I like the I like the Lions, too. I do.
I do. I'm not going to look at Jamison Williams and go, hey, man, he's going to turn things around. Like, why? Like, what the hell is he doing? It makes me go, hey, you know what?
I believe in him. Why? Because 22 year olds make mistakes? No, no, no, not at all. I know 22 year olds. At one point, I used to be 22. I wasn't making mistakes. I wasn't in the NFL, but I wasn't getting suspended for gambling. I wasn't taking performance enhancing drugs. I wasn't taking no drugs. I could do my what was my job?
What the hell was I doing at 22? Damn. I was I was I was a producer. Yeah.
I was a producer at Viacom in 2022. Yeah. Come on now. No. When I was 22. Yeah.
I know how to do my job. We can't just put age on folks, you know. Hey, back in this person, every no, not everybody makes mistakes. How many NFL players amongst all of them think about this?
Hickey, every time we because it happens, sometimes we don't give guys enough credit. Out of every NFL player that we have, you got 53 guys on every team. You could actually say. The NFL players, quote unquote.
They don't get in as much trouble as people think. Think about that. Right now, you get what I'm saying? Oh, I do know. I think you're right. I mean, you hear about it right when it happens.
It's loud, obviously, because they're famous. But it is few and far between. And again, I would agree when you're 22, 23 and you have now millions in your bank account.
The world's at your oyster. And we've seen unfortunate guys like, you know, Rashid Rice, for example, may not handle out the best way. Jameson Williams, another one just talked about.
But yeah, I mean, for the most part, it's 85, 90, 95 percent of the league. Nothing. Not right. You don't hear a lot.
Anything about it. And so I think it's difficult to say, oh, well, he's 22. He makes mistakes. It's not like half the NFL, half the rookies, half the guys who are in their second and third year out here just. How many NFL players active right now have been suspended in consecutive seasons? You probably, I don't know, counted on a hand, maybe less. I don't know.
I have to look it up. My point is, when you got 32 teams and every team has 53 active players, you got another, what, 10, 15 guys on a practice squad. You don't hear anything. I know in certain jobs, depending on what you do for a living. And then sometimes it's a joke or maybe it depends on what you do for a living. You got that sign that hangs up in the back and it's just like, hey, no incidents in, you know, X, Y, Z days. I don't know. The last time we talked about an NFL player being suspended outside of two weeks ago with Jamison Williams.
What are we doing? We can't look at age and just go, oh, well, he's 22 and guys make mistakes. It just, it doesn't work that way. Cop out, cop out. Man, old people make mistakes, right? Everybody makes mistakes.
It don't have nothing to do with an age. 855-212-4227. That's 855-212-4227. Greg, he's calling up from Michigan. You're on the JR Sport re-show. What's up, Greg? JR, Mr. Positive. Hey, I like what you said about JMo. You're right.
22-23, two years in a row. I appreciate him. I hope to God he can learn and realize, like Hickey said, the world is his oyster.
It's his to claim. But here's the thing, JR, that people have to understand. The Lions and the Chiefs are ascending. We are a little bit better. The only thing that we're fighting is the resume of the Chiefs winning two Super Bowls, three Super Bowls in four or five years, whatever it is.
That's what we're fighting. I cannot look at the Chiefs right now and state that they are better than the Lions. I just, I mean, don't get me wrong. Gonzalez is a beast. Their defensive player, number 95, if that's his name, I think, if I'm not having a brain fart, I think that's his name. I think he's unbelievable. But I think we can contain him.
But I really do, JR. I think the Lions can beat the Chiefs, and I think the Lions might have a problem with the Commanders. You said something about the Commanders yesterday, and I think I'm a little bit more nervous about them than I am with the Chiefs. Well, why are you worried about the AFC? Worried about the NFC first? How about that, right? What are you worried about the Chiefs for? Well, I don't think we have any problem with the NFC, really.
I really don't see it. Okay, so, well, you just brought up the Commanders. I mean, you thinking about something there, right?
Right, right, right, right. Yeah, I wouldn't worry about the Kansas City Chiefs. Maybe if you should be so lucky, you'll see them in the Super Bowl if the Chiefs make it that far.
There's no guarantee that they do so. And I'll tell you this, the Lions are a solid team. They've improved their defense from last year, even though Aiden Hutchinson is going down. We see them bringing in Zadarius Smith, bringing him over from the Browns, him and his five sacks. But the idea, and we're going to find out if this is going to be the quote unquote killer for the Lions, and maybe it's not, the aggressiveness of Dan Campbell. Is he going to burn you down in a big spot? And this is what I... Good point.
This is what I love and appreciate. Everybody is an armchair quarterback. You make a decision and it doesn't work, you're the worst. If it works out, nobody says nothing. But in a lot of cases, coaches are damned if they do, they're damned if they don't.
But we know that Dan Campbell typically does not take the conservative approach. He will go for it. And is he going to cost them a game by not giving, let's just say, the Lions a chance or extending a game? I don't know. We'll find out.
Things will be interesting as they move forward. JR, you've done your homework. Thanks for taking my call.
Everybody go for your dreams. Thank you, Greg, for calling for your homework. Hate homework. Do no homework.
Hate it. Hated homework, didn't do it when I was supposed to do it. Homework. Hickey, I got in trouble once. Did I tell you in college? I think I did tell you this. The professor, is it called homework in college?
I'm so removed. Is that what they call it in college? Homework? Yeah, I think so.
I don't think the terms change too much. Assignments? I don't know. I just remember one day a professor came over to me and just like, why didn't you do this? And I was like, well, I kind of calculated that I didn't need to do it to pass the class.
Like, what a jerk ass thing of me to say, right? Very. I will say, if I was a professor, I don't even know what I would be able to respond back to that and be just furious. Furious? For what?
That he designed the course to where you can make a business decision. Well, they should be furious with themselves. That's what I'm saying, furious with themselves. Oh, I thought you said, meant like furious with me.
No, no, because there's nothing he could say. You got him. Man, I'm paying for this education. I will do what I want, okay? I'm paying to make sure I don't have to do the work I don't got to do.
Exactly. According to your syllabus and your coursework breakdown, I do not need to do this assignment because it's worth this much of my grade. And so, yeah, OK, if I don't want an A or whatever the hell they hand out in college, I don't remember.
If I don't want that, then I don't need to do the assignment to get it. I don't remember the response, but the professor, let's just say, wasn't wasn't happy. And I think I should have respond.
I'm a little older now, much older, bolder. I would tell the professor, I'm paying your salary. You know, you're a little too close to the situation. You don't think about things like that.
That would have been the response. Why didn't you do it? Well, I didn't feel like it because I'm paying your salary. You actually work for me. I make the rules. Yeah, I should go back to college just to try this. I should.
That's a hell of a line. That is great thinking. I think some I think me and some of the professors will be the same age, the young ones. I'll be one of the young, cool professors. I'll be hanging out with the students in the cafeteria, parties on Friday nights.
Oh, professor, sport proof over there. What's he doing? I don't know about that one.
I don't know. Pass the funnel. Come on. Who's next? He's a little too wild. We did have that young man who called. Was he from Baltimore?
He called from D.C. last night and him and his friends are getting together to lock each other in cages and throw things at each other. I don't know if I'm ready for that type of fun. I'm still the I want to have a drink and then go to sleep before midnight type of guy.
So no, no, no, thanks. Good on everybody having that fun. Shout outs to all the college students out there.
Tell your professor that they work for you. Shout outs to all the educators out there. It's the J.R. sport show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We're going to take a break when we come back on the other side. Yeah, we'll get into Thursday night football between the Bengals and the Ravens. We'll we'll talk about some of these injuries. We got Drake May and Caleb Williams. We got Matt Leinart.
Son is playing football. We got a lot to do. We're going to talk to Derek Botner from PHLY Sports. Yeah, Philly sports.
So just I don't want to eulogize the Sixers, but to talk about how they can turn things around, if at all. Derek is coming up on the other side of the break. It's the J.R. sport we show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. You're listening to the J.R. sport brief.
It's the J.R. sport we show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Man, so many damn injuries. I mean, all across sports we talked about Dak and his injury and Trevor Lawrence is dealing with an injury. And I don't know, maybe hamstrings are in right now. We got a Philadelphia 76er who typically just goes out there and balls leads the NBA in minutes played.
His name is Tyrese Maxey. And now Tyrese is also out with a hamstring issue. The Philadelphia 76ers are now one in six. That's bad.
That ain't good. And that's ugly, especially given their history of injuries to, I don't know, guys like Joel Embiid. To talk about the Sixers, what has gone on so far this season, what we might expect moving forward. Joining us here is Derek Botner, who covers the Sixers for PHLY Sports. You might have seen him writing for the Athletic.
You might have seen him with Draft Express USA Today. Derek, how are you, man? I'm doing well. Thanks for having me.
I appreciate the time. Worst case scenario for the Sixers, right? The most reliable guy goes down. There's still time to turn this around, right? You got a little bit of hope?
Yeah, no, there certainly is. But you just have to get some players on the floor. Obviously, Joel Embiid has missed all of the first seven games. He will miss two more. Paul George missed the first five, and now Tyrese Maxey is out at least a week, but probably multiple weeks after the latest injury.
Yeah, it's tough. Whenever Joel Embiid plays, they win at least 60% of their basketball games. So if he comes back, even without having a full supporting cast, I expect them to start winning some games.
They've put themselves pretty far behind the eight ball, obviously, with that one in six start. I think there's a little bit of comfort in the fact that there's only two teams currently in the Eastern Conference with an above 500 record, so they haven't lost as much ground as you would maybe expect. But they are not playing good basketball. They are not, obviously, going to have Joel Embiid for the next two games. Paul George is still getting himself acclimated after missing the first five games with the Bone Brews, and now you get the Tyrese Maxey news, and Maxey was the one guy. Obviously, you're banking a lot on two injured stars in Embiid, or off injured stars in Embiid and Paul George. Maxey was sort of the one reliable one, and now he is going down. It has been pretty much a disaster start for the Sixers so far.
Well, Derek, you see everything and follow firsthand. Are the Sixers not just rolling the dice to try to get to the end of the season and just say, hey, let's see what we can do in the postseason? Are they kind of skipping out on the regular season? Well, they certainly are prioritizing the playoffs and getting everyone there healthy.
There's a fine line to walk. You don't want to fall too deep into the standings. You would prefer to get a top three seed so you could avoid Boston until the conference finals. But none of it really matters if Joel Embiid is not healthy, and he's really the only one that they have sort of taken a slow path with. Paul George had a Bone Brews in preseason.
That wasn't planned. Tyrese Maxey, obviously, his injury, the hamstring injury, that wasn't planned either. Joel Embiid is the only one where they are slowly ramping him up, and he's the one who's never really been healthy in the playoffs. So I sort of get why they are trying a new tactic. But you do at some point have to win games. And starting off one and six, they are, like I said, they've blown a lot of really good opportunities. They've had some very winnable games against the Raptors, against the Pistons, last two against the Suns, and the Clippers for the first half at least.
There were some winnable games that they let slip away, and you hope that doesn't come back to bite them. Derek Bodnar is joining us from PHLY Sports. When you think about prioritizing the postseason, certainly you want to get as much as you can out of Joel Embiid, how in the hell does Daryl Morey and Elton Brand, how do the Sixers organization, how do they sell this to the fan base?
There are 41 home games, and how do you get these tickets across? What is the fan sentiment right now? Yeah, I mean, I think fan sentiment is frustrated in large part because of messaging coming out of training camp.
Nobody really expected Joel Embiid to not be ready for opening night, nobody really had any great explanation for why he wasn't. I think the fans, for the most part, are actually pretty okay with a, you know, a cautious pro. Like, if he comes out and he doesn't play in, you know, the back-to-backs, he only plays in, like, the front half of all of the back-to-backs throughout the season, I think the fan base is actually relatively okay with it because they've lived the experience, they know the injury history he has had, they know the struggles they have had to have him healthy in the playoffs. I think, for the most part, they're okay with that. They just want a little more communication, a little more transparency on what is going on. I think it's a lot more, you know, the uncertainty and the lack of communication with regards to his availability to start the season than it is actually him missing games.
Because, like I said, I think that not everyone, there's always going to be differences in the fan base, they're never a monolith. But I think, for the most part, fans are okay with a strategy to try to get him healthy for the playoffs. They just want that communicated a little more clearly. So, Derek, you talk about the lack of communication when it came down to his availability. We know about the situation last week, the shove, the suspension. Is there a change in, I don't know, attitude towards Joel Embiid?
I mean, he's always been a happy-go-lucky, but things have been pretty negative and dark here over the past couple of weeks. Yeah, I mean, they've never really been great at communicating his injury status. Like last year, for example, when he had the meniscus injury, they didn't even call it a surgery at the time. They called it a procedure. They didn't call it a tear.
They called it an injury. And you don't really know why they were messaging it that way. So they've always been a little murky in the messaging. You know, with regards to Embiid, for the most part, I don't think his attitude has changed. I think he had one real problem with a column that a specific columnist wrote. And that's where that sort of press conference came out when he said it was BS, you know, basically the way that column was written.
And that's where that interaction in the locker room came from. I don't think he's necessarily changed per se, but I think he had a real problem with the column, which basically invoked his dead brother and his son in a way that he didn't feel was appropriate. So I think it's more of an isolated incident, but certainly has not been a good week and a half or so for Joel. So, Derek, you talk about Joel Embiid, his availability. The man that has to answer the questions seemingly almost every day is a championship winning coach and Nick Nurse. He seems a little stressed at this point in time, granted what the record looks like, but also having to answer questions that don't relate to what's going on on the court. Yeah, he definitely does not enjoy giving the injury update every day, specifically because there's no really good way to he hasn't found a good way to phrase it and explain Embiid's lack of availability. And then they got the fine coming down for the way they spoke about it. And he's just gotten even more quiet at one point.
He refused to take any questions on it. Yeah, no, I think Nick is frustrated with the play on the court. I think he's frustrated with having to message the availability and the injury status.
He's frustrated, I think, with the you know, with the the fine that came down. And probably most of all, he's just frustrated because he wants to get back to coaching his full team and winning basketball games. When you get down to brass tacks, when you look at the Sixers and how they've been put together, we didn't even talk about Paul George and, you know, just came back, only played two games. What do you expect from this team? What, a playoff appearance and getting bounced?
I can't imagine anything else because they can never really stay healthy. Yeah, I mean, we'll we'll we'll see. We'll see whether or not like the Paul George bone bruise, whether that lingers at all. We'll see Joel Embiid whether or not he is able to with that meniscus injury stay on the court with any regularity. I can't really put an upside on the team because we haven't seen all three of them on the floor together yet. And we've only seen Paul George for two games.
And Joel Embiid is most important of three and he has not played. Certainly, if you're talking about probability. No, you would not go out there and bet on all three of them lasting throughout the season. That is a huge concern. But I still think the team has a lot of upside. Like I said, the the potential of the team, I think, is still really high and we haven't really gotten a chance to see that yet. The probability of it certainly you could call in the question. When you look at the contract that was given out to Embiid, he'll be thirty one years old come March. Contract is running to what, twenty seven, twenty eight. Did they have no choice but to hand this over to him?
They kind of hamstrung, no? Yeah, I think their whole philosophy is always that, you know, first of all, if he's going to win title, Joel Embiid has to be here. I don't think he sees a pathway to a title without Joel Embiid. I don't think he's necessarily all that interested in rebuilding. So even if the probability of Joel Embiid being healthy for the next five years is low, he wants to keep him happy because that title is the only thing he's really concerned about. So if this is what it takes to get keep Joel Embiid happy and in Philadelphia, I think, like I said, he will deal with the bad years on that contract. If he has to down the line, that's tomorrow's problem. He's going to do what he needs to, or at least what he feels like he needs to, to keep Joel happy and to give them a chance. Certainly there is massive risk in that contract extension, which was essentially a two year extension on top of the three years he already had on that contract. You know, he will be thirty five and you don't expect that need to be any better at thirty five than it is at thirty. But I think Darryl just views that as what he needs to do to, like I said, to keep everyone, keep everyone happy, keep them in Philadelphia and give them a chance to contend whether that's for a year, two years, three years, however long Joel Embiid and his body can hold out.
That's what Darryl is going to do. Outside of the three main players on the Philadelphia 76ers, what are your thoughts on some of the adjustments that they've made? Some stalwarts, Tobias Harris is now gone. This is a little bit different of a squad that they've assembled. Yeah, I mean, Tobias was a disappointment with that contract and they needed to clear that contract to go out there and try to get Paul George.
So I certainly can't fault them for that. You know, a lot of the role players they brought in, whether it's bringing back Kelly Oubre, signing Caleb Martin from the Heat, they have not played well so far. And they're shooting poorly from the perimeter. They're struggling to sort of ramp up and take on a bigger role offensively with Joel out. And they've just really not played well so far. So far at this point, I don't think they are, like I said, a lot of the moves around the edges are not playing well. I think Darryl will argue that he needs to see them around Joel Embiid and with a much larger sample size to really gauge whether or not they were good signings. But the early returns for sure have not been great.
No, not at all. Philadelphia 76ers currently with a record of one and six. No Joel Embiid yet.
Paul George just came back and now Tyrese Maxey is out. Hey, Derek, thank you so much for taking the time to join us. Where can people follow you and all of your work with PHLY Sports? Yep, it was my pleasure. Just go to allphly.com.
Hey, simple as that, Derek. Thank you so much. This is going to be an interesting year. We'll catch you down the line. Yep, thank you. Appreciate it. No doubt about it. It's the JR Sport Reshow here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network.
I will be much more straightforward. I think the Sixers, we can think about the upside. I think the reality states that they're going to suck. Like, I don't know how many games are these three guys going to play together? They're going to get together and form like Voltron, I don't know, in March and April and run towards the title?
I think not. Speaking of running, Joel Embiid, he can't even run up and down the court. You see a blown out ankle, blown out knee, blow out a hand. How you blow out a hand, I don't know, but he'll figure out a way.
Blow out an orbital bone, a hamstring, knee, a foot. Let me tell you something. If anybody ever really wanted to be creative, if anybody in Philadelphia wanted to be creative, they would make a game of Operation and it would feature Joel Embiid.
Hickey, we should create that as novelty gifts. Sell it in Philly. Sell it here in New York. Sell it in Miami. Sell it in Atlanta.
I think a lot of rival fans would buy that up and bring it to the games when they come to town. Oh, my God. Oh, man.
That would be hilarious. Did you play that game as a kid? You ever play that, Hickey? Of course. It was fun. You get the little buzz on the side. I need to try that as an adult, because I think when you're a kid, you got your hands small, hands not steady. I don't know.
I think I'd do a good job as an adult, I think. That's good. I want to see. Do they only have Operation with that one dopey looking guy?
I don't know if they branched out. Stupid patient. Did he even have a name? We don't even know. Just trying to dig in his breadbasket. Yeah, I think people are too busy digging around to even worry what his name was. Operation guy. Google Operation guy. See if he had a name. None.
Nope. He just looked like what's his name from the Three Stooges. He had this stupid partners here. Does it bother anyone else that the guy from the... Hickey, this is hilarious.
The internet is a crazy place. Does it bother anyone else that the guy from the Operation game was clearly wide awake? That's funny. Hey, Ack, you played Operation? I did. Oh, man. I loved it. I hit the buzzer all the time.
No steady hand? Nope. Nope. Oh, man. I got to buy this game. I guess I was going to say, hey, I wonder where I could buy it.
I just answered it in two seconds. It's called Amazon. What a world, right? Either that or eBay. One or the other.
I don't want nobody's used Operation. They're going to be missing pieces. Breadbasket will be gone. Charlie Horse will be gone. We'll see.
I'll figure it out. It's the JR Sport Reshow here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. 855-212-4227.
That's 855-212-4227. In 30 minutes, we got Thursday Night Football. We got the Bengals and we got the Ravens. We have two well-established quarterbacks. We have two MVP caliber quarterbacks going at it tonight to try to bolster their playoff chances. We'll get into that game when we come back on the other side. How about this?
I'm going to hit the fast forward button. We got another quarterback matchup upcoming between two young quarterbacks, two rookie quarterbacks trying to make some noise as well. We'll get into that. Talk some more football. We got everything.
College. It's the JR Sport Reshow on the Infinity Sports Network. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief.
It's the JR Sport Reshow here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Thank you to Derek Bottner from PHLY Sports for joining us in the last break as we needed to take a look at these Philadelphia 76ers. It's just comical to me what they're doing.
Comical. Joel Embiid not healthy enough to play. Given Paul George a contract, damn it, outside of last year, he's really never healthy enough to play. And now you got Tyrese Maxey out. Fine, it's a hamstring.
He's the least of anybody's worries. Sad how this year is going to look. Hickey, you got any hope in them of doing anything? I think it's going to be another. Hey, here they are. Oh, there they go. Season over. I don't have any hope, but I will say to I guess to their credit, I think how they're approaching the season is the right one.
No, damn out. Just because like it does feel like the definition of insanity to run and beat out there for forty five, fifty, fifty five games. Have him get hurt and then lip into the playoffs.
Like I respect the fact, you know what, like we got to change something. That change is playing Embiid less. And so if he plays, I mean, what at this rate, maybe thirty five. Like I guess they'll be lucky to play half the season. But if you monitor it to where he actually is getting rest and is healthy, come playoff time.
I don't trust him to come through, but at least you're giving yourself the best chance. I mean, right. Like every year is hurt. So you can really say you have the best chance to win a championship if you have your best player on one leg or seeing out of one eye.
If you can limp him or wheel him, I guess to the post season to the postseason. Well, how are you going to get ready if you if you haven't your body isn't a little shell shocked, if it's not a little warm, if it's not conditioned. That's fair. Fair. I don't I don't know.
I don't have an answer to that. Like, I think that's like I guess that's one of the risks you have to take and hope that he can withstand it. Power through me. This is the biggest F you to the fans ever that a team can deliver. That's what they did. And said, who can't don't buy a ticket, don't show up just to see Tyrese Maxey and maybe Joel Embiid. But I mean, we're Raptors fans in twenty nineteen complaining when Kawhi Leonard was sitting all these games.
What do you miss? Twenty two. Right. Something like that.
Twenty five. Like, I know it's a little different. A little. But like, like they were cautious with them. They knew the guy was a rental.
The guy was coming off of a busted up leg for years. They won a championship. This team ain't winning no title. Come on. I would agree. And I think winning does cure all right. So if the Sixers miraculously win this year, then I don't think any Sixers fan will complain that, you know, Embiid played thirty five games, maybe 10 home games and they didn't see him.
No one would complain. But, you know, it's kind of you got to thread the needle through the haystack where if you hit it, tremendous. If not, you're kind of damned if you do, damned if you don't. You know, I appreciate what Derek was saying about Daryl Morey's thinking. He's thinking about his own ass. He can't get rid of Joel Embiid. Like, we know that. But if you have to think about what is most likely and in the best interests of the Sixers, I got to be honest. The odds are that they're wasting their time. They lean more in that direction than we just have to go for. They're going for it because they've invested so much into it. It just they're just beating up on a dead horse. They're eventually going to have to pull the plug. And they got this guy signed for the next four years. What are we doing? This stinks for them. I feel bad for the Sixers fans because they ain't going nowhere.
No where. Highly unlikely. Let me put it that way. And speaking of Joel Embiid, he's going to hate this guy's name. OK, because the dependable player of the week is sponsored by depend and the Prostate Cancer Foundation, reminding you that health is a long game and screening for prostate cancer is easier than ever.
You can learn more at depend dot com. Let me tell you something. Joel Embiid is not going to hate that.
He's going to hate this. It's Nuggets star Nikola Jokic. This man had a big old game. This is Jokic, 23 points and 20 rebounds, 16 assists.
What else is new? Another triple double Denver. They handed the Thunder their first loss of the season, 124 to 122. The Nuggets erased a 16 point third quarter deficit to move to five and three on the season.
Unfortunately, that's another team that I look at and just go, oh, man, it's it's going to be ugly. Have you looked at Russell Westbrook's shooting stats? They are not good. This guy is like shooting 18 percent. He might be cooked at a big game, but I mean, damn, his his overall numbers is just not good.
What is this? Twelve points a game. These shooting numbers look like.
Oh, my God. Thirty five percent shooting from the field. Twenty eight percent from three.
Seventy percent from the free throw line. It's just not not good. I feel bad for Russell Westbrook. One of the greatest athletic guards that the NBA has ever seen didn't amount to wins.
It stinks. You'll go to the Hall of Fame, though. MVP. Good for him.
Good for him. Hey, Monday Night Football. Well, not Monday. Today's Thursday. Thursday Night Football getting underway. I don't know about 10 or 15 minutes from so we'll talk about the Baltimore Ravens and the Cincinnati Bengals at the top of the hour.
I do want to mention this. We had a caller this week. He asked specifically about the New England Patriots and the Titans like I was sitting down. Would just, you know, I don't even know, not enthusiasm, like I was just sitting down watching this awful football game.
No, no, thank you. I did see the pass from Drake made touchdown at the end because I saw the highlight on X. I saw it on Twitter. But this is actually going to be an interesting one because we got the Pats taking on the Bears. And it's a miracle that Drake May has been able to stay upright, something that Jacoby Brissett was not able to do. And we got the third round pick.
We got the first round pick in Caleb Williams. And even the Bears have been disappointing recently. And they just lost to Arizona. Twenty nine and nine. And we know the Cardinals, they don't do nothing but let everybody into shootout.
So when you got number one versus number three, people are going to pay attention. The Patriots are not going anywhere. The Bears are still kind of trying to hold on to hope that maybe they could get a wildcard spot.
We know they are not catching the lines. Here's the cool part. These guys growing up in the same area, the mid-Atlantic, D.C., Virginia and Carolinas. They know each other. Caleb Williams and Drake May, they have competed against each other. Caleb Williams says, hell yeah, I know this guy as a kid. I've actually known Drake for a while.
He's a lead 11 guy. I'm in the same class as me since since then. And so, you know, I've known him for a while. Good guy. Country dude.
And, you know, a competitor. What do you make of his game? Yeah, I mean, I think his game is exactly what y'all saw in college. I think he's explosive.
I think he's accurate. I think he's a tall, strong figure back there in the pocket. I think he makes plays for his team. Yeah, he actually moved. Moved around better than Jacoby Brissette.
This guy is six foot four. That's what they list him as. New England Patriots hope that they got a guy of the future. There's no magic eraser to get rid of Mac Jones, who, by the way, is going to start this weekend because, you know, Trevor Lawrence is out with that shoulder issue. And Drake May, he's looking to face off against, you know, the guy that he's seen as a kid. He's ready for Caleb.
Both as rookies, you know, coming out as quarterbacks. You spend a lot of time with those guys. You see them, some on visits, some at the combine. Really, with Caleb, I've seen him since high school. You know, going to the same camps. Was at the lead 11 with each other. We got some college visits together.
So kind of the whole thing, kind of going through the process again. You know, we kept up with each other in college. You know, we were friends and and, you know, enjoyed watching him do his thing. And now I get a chance to compete. So, you know, anytime you're going to rookie quarterback and in the same class or quarterback in your class in general, you know, it's it's a little extra. So looking forward to go out there and get a chance to play the Bears. Yeah, I'll watch. I'll pop in on this game here and there. The Bears got to take care of the Pats. Come on. They have to.
They have to. And we have an interesting week, week 10 in the NFL. We get things started in a few minutes, about almost 30 minutes from now. Cincinnati at Baltimore Thursday Night Football.
The week continues on Sunday morning. We got football. You can have football and eat your breakfast. We got the New York Giants in Germany taking on the Carolina Panthers. Don't throw up your breakfast.
Try not to. New England and Chicago, the game that we just mentioned. That's an early game. Buffalo and the Colts.
Hickey, you can enjoy that by yourself. No, thank you. We got Denver at Kansas City.
No, thanks. We got Atlanta and New Orleans. I'll be watching that game.
A, because I'm here in Atlanta. San Francisco, San Francisco at Tampa Bay. Nice to see Christian McCaffrey coming back, hopefully. This one I will really be watching. Pittsburgh at Washington.
That's a good one. The commanders, the Steelers. Let's see if the Steelers try to make things real ugly against Washington.
They most certainly will. Philadelphia at Dallas. Cooper Rush will embarrass everybody. New York Jets at Arizona and Sunday Night Football. The Detroit Lions taking on the Houston Texans. We got some ugly games early in the day.
NFL needs to do better. No, no, thank you on some of these games. No, thank you. Minnesota at Jacksonville.
No, no, thank you. I'll pass on that to the J.R. sport. We show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We're going to talk about the upcoming Thursday Night Football matchup next.
This should be a good one, especially if what we saw a few weeks ago is a preview of what we got tonight. We got the Ravens. We got the Bengals. You got me. The J.R. sport. We show the Infinity Sports Network. Don't move.
