It is the JR Sport Brief show on the Infinity Sports Network. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to everybody tuned in all over the country coast to coast. This is where I'll be for the next three hours. This show gets started every weekday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific.
I'm in Atlanta, our super producer and host Ryan Hickey is holding it down in New York City. We've already talked about a lot. Chidor Sanders not competing, participating at the NFL Combine, at least not the workout element. He ain't throwing the football.
He's just gonna have some meetings. Nothing wrong with that. You got leverage, you use it. Your last name is Sanders. You get treated different.
Why risk falling? You're projected to go one or two anyway. No big deal on that one. We talked about Joel Embiid. They're exploring shutting him down. It's Joel Embiid. Just shut him down, okay?
Like what are we really thinking about? The guy is always hurt. Just shut him the hell down and bring him back in October.
It's simple as that. Season done. Talked about Giancarlo Stanton.
His, well, this season isn't even starting. Can't swing a bat right now. His elbows hurt. Baseball player, elbows hurt.
Doesn't work, right? Anyway, we got more to get into. In a few minutes, I'm going to tell you about someone whose elbows do not hurt because he's looking for 50 million dollars a year. It's Matthew Stafford. And 20 minutes from now, we're going to talk about a team. They're paying a lot of money to be good but not good enough. Christian Winfield is going to join us from the New York Daily News to talk about the New York Knicks. We were embarrassed yesterday by the Celtics.
Packers are trying to ban the tush push. Lakers look good over the weekend. And I mentioned this, you know, I talked about how we got these athletes, Giancarlo Stanton, Joel Embiid, never healthy. Zion Williamson is healthy. What a world.
If he can do it, you can too. 855-212-4227. That's 855-212-4227. And then we talked about Dustin May. One of the worst injuries ever in the world of sports. This man tore his esophagus eating a salad. And now he's back on the mound for spring training.
Good for him. Salads can be dangerous. The next time your doctor tells you you need to eat more greens and leafy vegetables, just show him that article. Look at this guy.
The salad almost took his life. Anyway, you can find me online. I'm everywhere at JR Sport Brief. You can call up if you'd like. 855-212-4227. That's 855-212-4227. If you happen to be a doctor, please don't bother calling and telling me about the benefits of a salad.
Don't need it. Anyway, before we move on into Matthew Stafford and what his future might look like or may not look like with the Los Angeles Rams, I do have to talk about Greg Popovich. You know, back in November, not too long after the start of the season, November 4th, Greg Popovich had to step away from the San Antonio Spurs for what we ultimately found out was a stroke. Greg Popovich turned 76 years old in January. This man has more wins in the NBA as a head coach than anybody who's ever coached. This is 29 seasons that he coached as a member of the San Antonio Spurs.
Five championships. Greg Popovich has been around a long time. Let's keep in mind, back in 1996, he fired Bob Hill. Greg Popovich was an executive at the time and not too shabby. He went downstairs and coached David Robinson, ultimately Tim Duncan, and it worked out real well for Greg Popovich. Well, the Spurs have had a rough week. When Benyama goes down with the blood clot, they have a record of 24 and 31. The season is basically over.
I don't give a damn what the Iron Fox is doing. And they've had Mitch Johnson, who's a Spurs assistant, take over. We got news over the weekend that Greg Popovich, he might be done.
And I mean, at 76 years old, after suffering a stroke, knowing how difficult and arduous it is just to coach an entire season, the travel, the hours, it has to be taxing. And so we haven't gotten an update, not that it's anybody's business, but apparently Greg Popovich is going to be gone the rest of this year. This is what Shams had to say over the weekend on NBA Countdown. Greg Popovich is not expected to return to the team this season. He is not going to be back.
That's what the Spurs are operating under. And his future is clearly under some uncertainty right now. He hasn't coached since he had that mild stroke in November. And he continues to progress in his rehab from a human perspective. He is getting stronger and stronger. There will be a time and place in the future where he will make determinations and address his long-term future. Yeah, God bless him. He should, as he can do it on his own time.
But I mean, for all the success that Greg Popovich has had, who am I to say anything but from the outside, looking in? Hang it up, right? Like, I get it.
It's time. Unfortunately, his wife had passed away a years prior. I'm sure that doesn't make going home any easier. I can only imagine.
Is 76 coming off of a stroke? Could be 77 next season? Like, I want to coach Victor Wambenyama too. And we know this as long as Greg Popovich is able to do so. It's not like the San Antonio Spurs are kicking him to the curb. He's going to have carte blanche inside the organization.
He basically already does. And so I wish him nothing but the best in his recovery. And if he wants to come back and he can do it, God bless him. But I say this, man, the NBA and basketball and life is stressful enough.
He's been one of the most successful individuals in his line of work. There's nothing wrong with just saying, all right, I'm good. I'm done. I'm going to go to sit upstairs. I mean, I think it might be time for him to focus in on himself.
I mean, a couple of weeks ago, we saw Hubie Brown basically call it a wrap on a broadcasting career. And it's just amazing. Yeah. One guy's 91. The other guy is 76. There's a difference there. Big difference.
But nothing lasts forever. Nothing but the best to Greg Popovich and his recovery. It'd be nice to see him out there yelling at Wimby. It'd also be nice to see him in good health.
And then the same thing for Wimby and Yama as well. 855-212-4227. That's 855-212-4227. I want to pivot here before we have a chat with Christian Winfield of the New York Daily News to talk about how miserable the Knicks look against actual good competition. You know, earlier today and over the weekend, we started to hear more and more about Matthew Stafford and his contract situation with the Los Angeles Rams. The Rams, to my surprise, maybe not to yours, maybe you just see everything coming. The Rams are good last year. A bunch of good young players led by Jared Verst, defensive rookie of the year. Rams finished 10-7. They knock off Minnesota in the playoffs.
People in Minnesota don't want to hear that. And then they ultimately lose to the Super Bowl champs, the Philadelphia Eagles. All the while, Matthew Stafford just turned 37 years old. He completed yards, or excuse me, he passed for more than 3,700 yards, 20 touchdowns, and eight interceptions while trying to get the ball to guys who they can't be in and out because of injuries.
Puka Nakua, most definitely Cooper Cup, who they are basically trying to move. And so Matthew Stafford coming off of a Super Bowl, kind of kicking the can on down and trying to be a good teammate, he's continually restructured his contract. He says, yeah, give me money now and y'all figure it out later. Well, he's reached a point, and we can thank his wife for this as well, who talks about all his business online, of whether or not he was going to retire or not. Well, he's going to return.
And why would he leave? When you're playing football, maximize these earning years the best way that you can. Because when you quit and hang them up, unless Matthew Stafford knows something that I and a lot of these other athletes don't know, your earning potential decreases when you stop playing. And so we got a report now that Matthew Stafford, who the Rams have basically said, yeah, man, go out, see if you can get a trade, see if you can get a contract somewhere else. It's been said that Matthew Stafford wants $50 million a season. Let's think about these teams that want to bring him on. The New York Giants, it's a young crap rebuilding team with a general manager and a coach who are hanging on by a thread.
If you're the Giants, are you investing 50 mil into Matthew Stafford for what? He's 37. The rest of the team is young and bad. That's just, that's a bad combination. I was going to say someone being old, being with somebody young is a bad combination, but that's Bill Belichick is seemingly having success right now.
So I won't go there. Outside of Bill Belichick, another team that could certainly use a quarterback, someone who's won a Super Bowl, the Pittsburgh Steelers. But since when have the Pittsburgh Steelers been out here flashy? You think the Steelers are giving somebody $50 million just to show up and play QB?
I think not. And so Matthew Stafford and the Rams, they got a decision to make. He is owed a $4 million roster bonus on March 19th.
The league year starts on March 12th. That's the first day that Matthew Stafford can be traded. Ultimately, I think they'll come to an agreement. I think they're trying to temper his expectations to say, hey, man, we can't give you $50 million and nobody else wants to give you $50 million.
So just pack it in and shut up. On an average basis, he's making $40 million a year. He needs to shut up, take the $45 million and keep it moving.
But there's nothing wrong with negotiating. He's trying to raise that price up high and high and high. Peter Schrager was on Good Morning Football and he basically talked about Matthew Stafford and his future with the Rams. This is a money issue and Matthew Stafford wants to be paid what he thinks he's worth. He wants to be paid more than $50 million. There are teams that are willing to pay him more than what the Rams are currently willing to pay him. The question is, does Stafford want to go to those teams? And what are those teams willing to give up? The issue with this year for Stafford is if they do trade Matthew Stafford, there are quarterbacks who would likely love to play for the Rams. Aaron Rodgers lives in Malibu in the offseason. You don't think he'd want to just mix it up for a discounted price and play with Sean McVay for a year? Of course he would. I don't know if I could envision a world where the Rams go on without Stafford, but I don't think the Rams are going to break their back to pay Matthew Stafford top dollar. If he was younger, yeah, not not at 37.
And let's also be clear. Good teams already have a quarterback. Bad teams aren't trying to overpay for an older quarterback. You're making 40 a year on average. You want to know the QBs making more than him or the quarterbacks in the $50 million range?
Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson, Justin Herbert, Jared Goff, who got traded for him is not as good. Tua, 53. Trevor Lawrence, 55.
Loser. Jordan Love, 55. Hasn't won anything yet. Joe Burrow, MVP candidate on a losing team.
And Dak Prescott making 60. If you're Matthew Stafford, you can certainly look at this list and go, man, I did better than that guy. I was healthier than that dude, which he certainly is. I've accomplished more than him.
Like if you're Matthew Stafford, you can look at Trevor Lawrence and say, hey, he's making 55. I'm better and I'm more accomplished. But here's the thing. It's like everything else in life.
You're older. Instead, and you're playing and you're playing a sport, you're participating in something that lends itself to you. And so I can see if there was just a team that felt that they were a quarterback away and they say, oh, we need to break the bank for Matthew Stafford.
But that that's not the case. I just named you a team in the New York Giants. What are they paying that man $50 million for? They already made enough dumbass mistakes with Daniel Jones and Saquon Barkley. They're going to bring in Stafford to do what? Hickey, that's like that's I don't even know that that's like that's like somebody who is in. I got to I got to use my my relax on my analogies.
Hickey, it's like putting a giant Band-Aid on a paper cut. It does nothing, man. It's a waste of time.
You don't need it. Having a nice sports car if your house is falling apart, right? Like it's just kind of one of those things where, sure, it looks great on the outside, but are you accomplishing anything? No.
Is it helping anything? No. You're right.
So you mean that's like someone it's like someone trying to buy a Lamborghini and they live in a studio apartment? No. Right. Yeah.
With a crumbling foundation, barely paying their mortgage, you know, and just getting by. Yeah, you got to have that fresh Lambo in the driveway. You know, I got to let people know, hey, I'm doing OK. All right.
It's really going to help. Well, I was going to maybe it's cost efficient. I don't know. You know, but you got to park it somewhere, right? Yeah. I mean, I hope if you got a Lambo, you park it somewhere nice where people are, you know, coming close to it, not putting on a street, not allowing that thing.
People, parallel parks, get little bumper tap here. No, thanks. OK. I hope not, at least.
Is there a guy in Manhattan living in a studio who parks his Lambo outside? No. Right. No, no.
And alternate side parking in the village? No. Right. Oh, here we go. I got to pull out. Oh, someone's trying to sneak in behind me. Not on my watch. I'm pulling in here. As people know, that Lambo is not going to not going to push it too much. Can't can't get a ding here.
I'm sure there's some young, stupid, rich kid in Manhattan doing that. Maybe not. I don't know. It's been a while.
Putting in garage, I hope, bare minimum. But I don't think Matthew Stafford is going anywhere. You think this guy's leaving? They're just trying to chop his price down to show him, bro, nobody's paying you this money.
I'm with you. I just don't see the point of of how it makes sense in the Rams perspective. Who are you bringing in? Like, this is a team that was one play away from going to the NFC title game last year, hosting the game. And maybe when they came, go to the Super Bowl and you're going to trade Matthew Stafford and any other possible quarterback you can get.
Sam Darnold, Aaron Rodgers, like these guys aren't as good. I don't see how it makes sense from L.A.'s perspective. They're trying to scare the living hell out of him to bring the price down. And they want him to realize we ain't paying you 50 and no place that you want to go to is paying you 50 either. So just lower your expectations.
The grass isn't always green on the other side. I expect Matthew Stafford. It's a lot of huff and bluff. I'd be surprised.
Of course, it's not impossible. I'd be surprised if he was gone and moved elsewhere. Good luck to him and good luck to the Rams trying to get us together. It's all business. Just playing a game of tennis, going back and forth on the money.
I'm sure they will fall somewhere in the range of forty five ish million dollars a year. He's 37, not 27. It's the JR Sportbree show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We're going to take a break. When we come back, we're going to go from Los Angeles to New York. Yeah, we'll talk about some young idiot parking his Lamborghini outside to get hit by the taxi cabs. We're going to have a conversation with Christian Winfield of the New York Daily News. No, I'm not going to ask him about Lamborghinis or traffic. I'm going to ask him about the health of the Knicks. I'm going to ask him about Tom Thibodeau. I'm going to ask him about why they can't beat good teams. I'm going to ask him about a Hartenstein and hard and and OG and an obese health status.
Everybody's health because the Knicks seem like they've fallen apart a little bit. Christian Winfield joins us the other side. It's the JR Sportbree show coast to coast. You're listening to the JR Sportbree. It is the JR Sportbree show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. 855-212-4227.
That's 855-212-4227. We got somebody in the lodge on us right now. We're going to go from the West Coast to the East Coast. Talked about Matthew Stafford and his contractual situation trying to get that money from the Los Angeles Rams. Right now it's time to talk to a team that, well, they won national television yesterday. They didn't play all that well. They played over the weekend on Friday night. Didn't play all that well. I'm talking about the New York Knicks.
They're good enough to be good, not good enough to beat the great teams. Joining us right now from the New York Daily News to talk about what these Knicks are, what they are not, what we can expect is Christian Winfield. Christian, how are you, man?
Thank you for taking the time. Thank you for having me. I'm doing well, man. How are you feeling?
I'm better. I think I'm better than a lot of Knicks fans. Look, the Knicks, they're 37 and 13 in the season, but against Boston, Cleveland, Oklahoma City, they're 0 and 7. They're getting smashed. I mean, what could Knicks fans possibly expect to change?
Is the answer nothing? Oh man, it's a tough question, right? One thing you can expect to change is the roster in terms of Mitchell Robinson coming back, and I think that's a big piece of the puzzle for this team. Remember, when you trade for Karl Anthony Towns and you start in that center, you understand that you're able to space the floor.
You're getting all the offensive gifts that he comes with. You're getting the rebounding, but the Minnesota Timberwolves winning got really good. That's because the defense, the paint needs protecting, and that's not cat strong suit. That is Mitchell Robinson strong suit. So I know we're talking about the defense and we're going to get into it, and the transition defense has been terrible. The three-point defense might be worse than the transition defense, but the paint protection, I do think there is an answer to.
Right. Well, Mitchell Robinson comes back provided he can be healthy and stay healthy. Remember, two ankle surgeries after getting stress fractures last season alone, he's got to kind of take his time, and that's why the Knicks are taking the cautious route, excuse me, to bringing him back.
But if he can stay healthy, he's going to be somebody who kind of solved some of these paint problems. The Knicks allowed, what was it, 66 points in the paint in the loss of the Cavaliers. Yesterday, the Celtics were getting into the paint. It's just the resistance hasn't been there, and he helps with that, but there are other concerns with the team in terms of the mileage the guys are accruing in terms of whether or not these guys, you know, half of the issues yesterday were offensive. You know, the Knicks didn't score 25 points in three of the four quarters.
So, you know, the team has some kinks they need to work through, and I don't know that Mitch alone is going to solve these issues, and you pointed it out in the intro. You know, this is a very good team. This is one of the most successful Knicks teams that we've seen in the last 20 to 30 years, but at the same time, the team doesn't want to just be good. They want to be great. They want to be where the Celtics were in the NBA Finals, hosting the trophy at the end of the season, and they're not there yet.
It's clear. Christian Winfield is joining us from the New York Daily News. This is the JR Sport Reshow, the Infinity Sports Network. You talk about Mitchell Robinson, and the first thing that comes to my head is some other people I think New Yorkers are familiar with. John Carlos Stanson, never healthy. Right down the right down the road, you got another giant, and Joel Embiid, never healthy. Is it a pipe dream to even mention Mitchell Robinson in health?
Oh, man, you know, I'll say this. If he gets hurt again, then you have that conversation, right? I think the long road that he's had to recovery has been because the Knicks know what's at stake here. If you rush Mitch back and he's not ready to play or he hurts himself trying to get back, that's it. And in terms of trade, in terms of salary cap and why they weren't able to move him by the deadline, it's, you know, when you trade a guy of that caliber, we all know what Mitchell Robinson is capable of when he's healthy. We're talking about a guy last season who was mentioned next to Moses Malone in terms of offensive rebound and rate to start the season. But we're also talking about a guy who when you got opponents who are driving to the lane, they're thinking twice about going to the rim versus when you got cat in the paint that they're trying to drive right by him and get to the basket.
So you know what you're getting in this. It's just a matter of can he stay healthy, right? And from what I've been told and what I've heard and just seeing him walk around in the locker room, the guy looks light. He looks fit.
He's practicing full five on five. You know, he's taking contact, so he's coming back soon. It's just a matter of can he stay healthy and how much time do you have left to get him acclimated to get him up to game speed? The end of the season or the regular season is coming that fast.
So these guys have got to get ready. That's great. Well, he's a Twitter MVP, probably second behind Kevin Durant. That much we know Twitter fingers or X fingers are healthy. And speaking of health, you had mentioned Tom Thibodeau and some of the, you know, banged up here or there. It seems like everybody on the Knicks got a busted up knee.
They got a foot. Call Anthony Towns now with his knee. People are like, why did he go back into the game? We don't know his status.
OGN and OB just comes back. Josh Hart now they're just like, this guy's knee's been hurting forever. Is the criticism surrounding Thibodeau, is it fair? You know, that's a tough question, right? Because part of it is on the front office and the way that this roster is constructed. You look around the NBA, you see teams like Indiana, you see teams like Orlando when they're healthy. We saw what Oklahoma City is able to do.
We do Cleveland. You know, these teams have, you know, 10, 11, 12 players that they can put on the floor for you at any time. They can rotate through versus the Knicks. You know, you look at the bench for Tom Thibodeau. You've got a three guard lineup of Landry Shannon, Deuce McBride and campaign.
And then from there you've got pressure to tour. Yeah, I really was getting minutes not too long ago, but in these high pressure moments, we don't know if the trust is there yet, which is why it's so important that Mitchell Robinson come back and be able to stay healthy because not only is he giving you an extra body, but he's giving you a way to now stagger these rotations so that guys like Mikael Bridges and Josh Hart and OGN and OB are picking up all these minutes. If you're able to put two big men on the floor, if they were to put Mitch and Carl Anthony towers on the floor, for example, and then you have Jaylen Brunson right there with them, there's only two more spots on the floor, which means one of those three guys who are leading the league admitted have to be on the bench, catching the brick.
And sometimes it's that simple, right? If you're able to add another body out there, maybe some of these minutes start, they don't start accruing. Now, to be fair, the bench yesterday, you had campaign and you had Landry Shannon hit some shots, but this is a mixed bench that ranks dead last in scoring by a margin.
It's not really close between 30 and 29. So, you know, Tibbs is trusting his starters and he's leaning on them because quite frankly, the numbers show the benches and producing at a high enough rate. So that's the way this roster is constructed. And, you know, we'll see what, if these guys wear down towards the end of the season. But one thing that I do want to note is that you've got guys, like you've got a guy like Paco, who you drafted in the first round last year, who hasn't really seen the floor. And he's probably not going to see the floor in the second half of the season because he's not ready because he didn't play at the beginning of the season. So, you know, there is criticism there in terms of using the players at the end of the rotation, but at the end of the day, Tibbs is going to use the guys that his front office gave him and he's going to do what he thinks is going to get the win.
And that's playing his starters and his key role players, heavy minutes. We all saw what the Knicks did in the off season. Okay, they re-signed O.G. and an O.B.
coming back from a foot. You think about getting bridges over from Brooklyn and the picks that they had to give up for that. You talk about the lack of depth that this team currently has. Is this roster obviously for the rest of this season? But going into the future, isn't this kind of what it is? There's not we see anybody can get moved, but there's little wiggle room. Yeah, you make a great point. You know, when you trade five draft picks for a guy like Mikel Bridges and then you trade for a guy in Carl Anthony Towns, who's making, what, $50 million or more every season.
And then, of course, you just gave, as you mentioned, O.G. and an O.B., the biggest contract this team has ever given anybody, five years, $212.5 million. You're kind of boxed in with what you've got. And then you've got Jalen Brunson's extension that's going to kick in.
Right. So in terms of the salary cap, yeah, you're going to see this new broadcast rights deal money come in. But because the cap's moving, the cap's only going to go up 10 percent every year. And now you've got all these guys.
Mikel Bridges has to get paid. So you've got all these guys are going to make money. So theoretically, the only way this team can improve, if they were to maybe go back to the second round and not make it to the college finals or something, if it's either where to cut sooner than there, you're going to have to look at a team. And if you're going to do this, you're going to look up and down at that roster and say, we need to get better.
And the only way to do that is by trade. The Knicks aren't going to be any major players in free agency. They're not going to have enough cats. They're not going to have any cat players.
They have to go further into the tax to do that. So you're looking at a team where if this doesn't work out, somebody is going to have to be on the move. Right.
And then from there, you start looking around at guys. You look at Jalen as a captain, you just traded for cat. You traded five picks for Mikel Bridges. It would be a terrible look to then turn around and try to trade them a year after for less than you paid for them. And now you're just looking elsewhere on the roster.
What can really move? You don't. You just gave up all your draft capital. The Knicks are in a tough spot right now. Right. So if this season doesn't go according to plan, if it doesn't even look close to like, these haven't been close games against the Celtics or the Cavaliers or the Thunder, like there's nothing that tells me in a seven game series from what we've seen against the Celtics. Now, the Cavaliers are a different story because we don't know about them in the playoffs. The Celtics, if the Knicks have to play the Celtics in the second round or whatever it is, good luck to this team getting a game based on what we've seen.
So it's tough. And the outlook further than this season in terms of improving the roster, you're going to have to trade somebody and you don't have any draft picks to add to that trade. So, yeah, the Knicks are in a tough spot for sure. And Christian Winfield joining us from the New York Daily News in finality.
Christian, you may not have your pulse on this one. Are the Knicks fans going to shut up now or are they going to relax, right? What do you mean shut up? Why would the Knicks ever shut up? We talk about the same fan base.
Bing bong outside and oh, we got bridges. Oh, now we can compete with the Celtics and the expectations have been tampered now, right? The expectations coming into the season were championship, right? That's like, we will say it again, when you trade five picks for somebody, right?
And then you make another move for a guy like Carl Anthony Towns. You know, this team and I always bring this up. I was in the press conference last season game seven Knicks get eliminated by the Indiana Pacers and they just won 50 games.
Despite all these injuries, they get the number two seed. I sit there, I asked Jaylen Bronson, do you look at the season as a success based on what you guys had to go through? He said no, because we made the second round the year before that and we lost.
So we didn't improve on that. So it can't be, this has to be a failure. If the Knicks go to the second round again and they get bumped, that's in the after making all the moves that they made in the summer. It just, it's like, why did we even go and do all of this and mortgage our future if this is the ceiling of this team? So there's a lot at stake for this team right now, actually an off season like that.
And you know, some people say this is a multi-year plan. We can't look at just this game. I would disagree, you know, so we'll see what happens. I think this, this front office is going to be under pressure if this season doesn't, it'd be one thing if these games were close, right?
If it was competitive, but we haven't seen anything remotely competitive outside of that third quarter in Boston that shows us that this team that has currently constructed can improve to compete with these guys because they can't. Yeah, I know fans will be yelling for Tibbs to get fired, the easiest guy to get the boot. Hey Christian, thank you so much for the time. Where can people follow you and all your work and coverage of the Knicks? You know, if you're in the area, go grab a New York Daily newspaper from your bodega or from wherever you get some newspapers. You know, I'm obviously in there every day or every other day, whatever there's a game. And I'm on Twitter on all social medias.
I'm at Chris Flash. So hopefully I see you. Hopefully you guys enjoy my work. I love what I do. Well, thank you, Christian. We'll catch you on down the line. Okay.
My guy, anytime. Thanks for having me. No doubt about it. That Christian Winfield of the New York Daily News, the New York Knicks, they seem like they're in basketball purgatory. It's like they're good enough to be good. They're good enough to have 50 plus wins, but to win a championship?
No. And unfortunately, this is a familiar place that the New York Knicks have been. If you think historically, it's like, hey, not good enough to beat the Bulls, not be good enough to beat the Celtics, the New York Knicks. They've always tried and tried and tried to get into that top spot, be competitive for that top spot. But there's always 18. There's always somebody that's right there in front of them, chopping them down, not able to compete right now with the Cavs, not able to compete right now with the Celtics.
And damn it, that was a whole goal and bring it in and somebody like Bridges and resigning and a nobody. So New York Nick, I think you have the Nick fans relax today. They're kind of scared right now.
Sounding different? Yeah, there's no bing bong outside MSG. There's no flash mobs, if you will, after beating the Bulls. It's quiet. Spiderman. That Spiderman is gone. The guy when the Spiderman with the Timberland boots and the Hennessy, he's gone.
I wouldn't say gone. He's in hiding, waiting for an opportunity. Ready to save Gotham. He's, he's, he's fighting crime and not rooting for the Knicks. Good man. Exactly.
A little preoccupied right now. I forgot. He's not, he's not Spiderman. He's Spider cuz, cause he's your cousin. Okay. I get it.
Spider cuz. All right. Good stuff. Nick fans are kind of crazy. It's the JR Sportbreeze show here with you coast to coast on the infinity sports network. 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, the New York Knicks are trying to win a championship. Even saying that sounds odd, but they're trying the team that just won a championship in the NFL. They got a hater. There's an NFL team who wants the Eagles push, push to be banned.
Phone lines open. If you want to give me a call, I'm going to get into what NFL team is trying to hurt the Philadelphia Eagles. We'll talk about the Lakers. They're trying to be future champs. We're going to get into Kirk cousins.
We have so much more to do. You're listening to the JR Sport brief. It's the JR Sportbreeze show here with you coast to coast on the infinity sports network. Thank you so much to our guests on the last break, Christian Winfield for joining us from the New York daily news to talk about the New York next to appear to me to be in purgatory. Good enough to be good, good enough to go to the post season, good enough to win 50 plus games, but not good enough to win a championship. Must really suck to always be in second place instincts for them. They got nowhere to go. They got no assets unless they got to start trading players. Who are you trading for? What?
Right? Josh Hart, OG and an OB just gave him a deal. Bridges. He looking for money soon. This is just not good for the New York next.
A lot of expectations, a lot of happiness when they got in all these assets, but they're not ready. And Mitchell Robinson, man, if you got a hope for him to be healthy, good luck. Picky, how long Mitchell Robinson could you see him plant coming back and playing the rest of the year through the post season?
Could you really see that? No, you can't because his entire career has said otherwise. And so like it's just he's to me, he's like such an afterthought and someone you can't even rely on. Like if we're talking about the Knicks fortunes and maybe being more competitive against the best teams in the league, hinging on the health of Mitchell Robinson, I mean, to losing proposition. Yeah, none, none. I got less hope in him than Joel Embiid.
It's just the reality. I mean, he's not as good. He could block shots and stand around. But he does he have does he even have an offensive move? He just plays defense, just defenses, offensive move is catching lobs and dunking.
There's no shot from him coming from anywhere further than three feet from the basket. Yeah, that's a true like 80s, 90s center right there for you. Yeah, it's kind of wild stuff on that. And what a guy. Like you said, though, his Twitter fingers are top of the league. Yeah, he took a photo of his his practice jersey. I know everybody can't wait.
All right, whatever. Good luck to the New York Knicks. 855-212-4227. That's 855-212-4227. We're going to get into the I never thought that I'd have a segment on the the tush push, but we will. But let's get to the phone lines. Mark is here from Nova Scotia. You're on the JR Sport Reshow. What's up, Mark? Oh, hey, Jer.
Thanks for taking my call. I just wanted to completely change the topic and talk about Alex Ovechkin for a second. So the reason I am a hockey fan would be anyway, I'm sure. But the reason I became a hockey fan is because of Wayne Gretzky and the fact that like Ovechkin had a hat trick against my Oilers yesterday. He's 13 goals away from a record that I swear that almost anybody that was following hockey at the time was like, that can't be broken. And the fact that it could happen this year is just unbelievable to me. I actually I'm going to put it on. I'll ruffle some feathers.
I'm putting this on par with somebody breaking Pete Rose's hits record. I know what your take is. It's wild. Well, well, Mark, you beat us to it. You didn't change the subject. We were going to talk about this. Oh, OK. Perfect.
I don't. Pete, Pete Rose's hit. I mean, there's records that we probably won't see broken. I don't know if I go as far to say Pete Rose's record, I guess somewhere down the line, maybe 56 game hitting streak.
No, you know, forget that. Cal Ripken. No, nobody's nobody's playing 20 years consecutively.
We get thought out the window. I agree. Records are records are made to be broken. And I've said right times on the air and taking a look at Wayne Gretzky, like I'm into hockey, not as much as you, but I'm into hockey because you're on Gretzky myself growing up. And to know and understand the fact that his record is ultimately going to be broken, potentially as soon as this season is something that makes me go, well, well, damn, like, I don't want to see this record broken. But Alex Ovechkin is going to get him.
I mean, the way that he's I mean, you talked about the hat trick he had last night. I think they got, what, 25 games left in the season. He has he has 13 to break it. I mean, if he's going to start hitting on a hot streak, he may do it this season. I thought it was something I would take until next year.
He may get it sooner than that. Crazy stuff. Crazy stuff. Hey, records are made to be broken. Growing up my life, I didn't know there was a point in time.
I know it sounds crazy. LeBron James wasn't around forever. And growing up as a kid, I looked at Kareem's record. I'm like, who the hell is breaking that? Well, we got a guy who came through and did it. And I mean, is there going to be another guy in, you know, 30, 35 years that that breaks LeBron's record?
However the hell else he pushes it? Maybe. But records are made to be broken. Gretzky said this as well recently. So he said he's looking forward to Alex breaking it. So we'll see how long it takes him, Mark.
We'll see. Thanks very much. It's still a while to me. Thank you. It is. We're in the same boat.
Thank you, Mark, for calling from Nova Scotia. Uh, Hickey, he can, he can hit one hot streak if he hits a hot streak, because there's not that many games left. If you had the bet, would Ovechkin break the record this season or next? I will say this season. It kind of is reminiscent of Albert Pujols when he was chasing, was it 500 or 600?
600. And he was old as dirt at that point, wasn't he? He just started cranking him.
Right. It felt like I thought for sure, but he's not going to get there. Then he's going to, like, he's going to be like four shorts. You're not going to retire four shorts. You're going to come back next year and he's going to play, what, the first month of the season, then just retire after you get there?
Like, I'm like, please get there. And then like the last month, he just got hot and one got there about a week left in the season, roughly somewhere like that. I feel like that could be fair for Ovechkin. He got three yesterday.
Just get a hot. I mean, one every other game. I know it sounds very difficult, but I think he'll get on a hot stretch here and break the record end of the season. 25 games left. 25.
25. He can, he can do it. I think he, yeah, 12 the rest of the year. I mean, before he broke his leg, he started off pretty hot and like scored a buck. Like he has been a street, he's been consistently streaky, but he's been a guy who's, who can put the puck in the net very frequently here.
I think he gets hot. That's possible. Let's see. What do we got here? Caps. 25 games. Yeah.
And they, yeah, they're good too. So they're going to just keep whooping ass. Hickey, I want to bet against him, but I think something tells me he may tie or get right there.
The world is for the dramatics. He'll probably tie the record, the final game of the regular season. Hmm.
Right. And then he'll have to break it every, leave everybody in suspense and then do it next year. Let's see, when did they end the year? So they end the season on the road. They take on the New York Islanders on April 15th. They take on Pittsburgh on Thursday, April 17th. And both of those games, Hickey, what a shock, what a shock.
You ready for this? Nationally televised games on ESPN. They know. Come on. Now I'm not one of these guys telling you that there's a script.
Okay. There's not some NFL, Roger Goodell follow the script type stuff, but it makes the most sense to, you know, get these games on the most widely distributed platforms possible. A lot of these games are just, I want to say local. What is it? Monu monumental? Is that what they call it? Monumental in DC, right? Yeah. That's new. I think this year or last year they started that string or not, but TV venture monument, everybody started some type of venture.
Yeah. The last couple of games that they play will be on ESPN. They got one on Turner property, one on ESPN plus one of their games against the Columbus blue jackets doesn't even have a television home yet. So I don't know. And how many games do they finish the year on the road?
Oh my God. Let's see. It looks like they're on the road quite a bit.
Just, just at first glance, it's a lot. They got a stretch where they have a West coast swing. Then they go North Winnipeg, Minnesota.
Yeah. At least they go West once. They got, they got quite a few road games to finish things up.
They don't make it dramatic. It'll get to the last second. I still say, oh, vetchkin one goal away from breaking a record.
He'll tie it this year. It's the JR sport brief show on the infinity sports network. We're going to take a break. When we come back, we're going to talk about the tush push and I'm talking about football. Don't move.
