It is the JR Sportbrief Show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to everybody tuned in and locked in all over North America. I'll be hanging out with you for one more hour.
This show gets started every weekday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. In about 20 minutes we're going to have a conversation with Major League Baseball legend Johnny Damon. Johnny Damon is going to be here with us. Of course, I'll ask him about the Dodgers. I'll ask him about the Yankees. I'm going to ask him about the Mets spending. I'm going to ask him about the Oakland A's. I guess at this point they're just the A's used to play out there as well. And so I'm going to ask about the Yankees and the beard, the hair policy. So that'll be a fun conversation with Johnny Damon in about 20 minutes. We've already had some fun convos taking a look at T. Higgins and Cincinnati Bengals saying that they're going to they're going to hit them with the franchise tag tomorrow. Now they got until the summertime to figure out a long term deal unless they unless they trade him. But who want who realistically wants to trade for a wide receiver and then pay him 30 something plus mill?
I don't know about that. What a wild day. Dallas Mavericks in order to punch and punish their fans some more. The Dallas Mavericks are raising ticket prices next year. Yeah, we just traded away our superstar.
But we want you to pay more money to watch Anthony Davis sit on the bench in the shades. What a world Cam Ward making a great impression over the weekend at the NFL combine. Sam Darnold thinking about his next destination.
Davante Adams trying to figure out where he will go as well. Thank you so much to Jeff Howe for joining us from the athletic covers all things NFL spent the entire week in Indianapolis. And then we had a great chat as well with Justin Termini from Sirius XM NBA radio. So we've we've had a full show. If you've missed a minute or second, go ahead and hit rewind on the free Odyssey app.
A U D A C Y. You can find me online at J.R. sport brief. I'm in Atlanta.
Super producer and host Ryan Hickey is in New York City right before we went to break. We talked about how miserable some of these basketball teams are looking. Phoenix Suns look bad and just just an embarrassing even even Kevin Durant said he's embarrassed. And then you got a team like the Los Angeles Lakers that are basically there on the the up and up right now. The Lakers look like legitimate contenders and they don't even have no seven foot guy flying around.
I don't know if Jackson Hayes counts because, I mean, outside of catching a lob or an alley you piece, I don't want to say kind of useless. But the Lakers are moving like the Dallas Mavericks just gave them the gift that keeps on giving. And even if you you're a fan of Hickey, do people really like the Rams out in Los Angeles? Do people care?
I think they care more than they care with the Chargers. Oh, well, of course. So they got that going for them. But in terms of, you know, a passionate national fan base. No. Oh, yeah.
It's well, I get it. I understand that they love St. Louis. I know we got a lot of angry listeners who are not happy about that. They could have stayed in St. Louis. Instead, they put up that stadium in L.A. and decided to make money off of it. You know, every week. I mean, you got the Chargers, you got the Rams out there. And I still feel like there's a huge segment of diehards that specifically for the Chargers is still down in San Diego.
But L.A. sports is moving around right now, especially with the Lakers. Even last night, Luka Doncic looks like he's been off a while. Looks like he's finding his stride coming off of that calf strain and following the trade. Luka, 29 points, nine assists, six rebounds. He was five of 12 from downtown.
He was nine of 17 overall. The Lakers win again and beating the Clippers 108 to 102. This is now a five game winning streak for the Los Angeles Lakers. And Luka, LeBron, if they're healthy, I think you would be hard pressed to find a team outside of the Thunder who can just go ahead and and put them down. J.J. Redick, what a great job he has. He gets to coach Luka and LeBron. He just he's kissing his ass right now. Listen to this.
He played fantastic tonight. And again, it was that that verve in that spirit of competition, but also just something that is maybe it's an inner demon. I don't know, but it comes out and it's it is fantastic for us when it does.
It's an inner demon. Well, that's tough. Hickey, one of the highlights I saw, he got a technical foul for rubbing his sweat on the basketball. Did you see that yesterday? I did.
How funny is that? He was he who was taking a free throw? James Harden, right? I don't recall.
You could be right. I don't remember who is. I think I think it was James Harden at the free throw line and Luca got the ball after the shot. He took the ball and he wiped. He took the ball and rubbed it on his face and just rubbed the sweat all the way around. And then he dropped it towards the official who happened to be a woman. And she she saw him do this and she she whistled him for a technical like, bro, I'm not picking up this basketball that you just wipe your sweat all over. And she had one of the ball boys wipe the ball.
What a nice job. And Luca got attacked. LeBron James couldn't believe that, you know, Luca got a technical foul and it's just picky. I don't know. I don't want to rub a basketball on my face that everybody has touched for the past, I don't know, 45 minutes.
I just not my thing. You know, I respect the creativity in terms of trying to get under an opponent's skin. I would never have thought about that. But hey, you know, if the ball is a little extra slippery because of the sweat. And all of a sudden James Harden misses a free throw. You know, that's I think it's gamesmanship.
I like the creativity. Well, next time Luca can just spit on a basketball, spit on it next time. Is that is that overboard? Is the sweat enough? I would say anything over sweat is is crossing the line, spitting on it, pissing on it, you know, anything in that realm, bleeding on it probably is a little too far as well. Yeah, yeah. But sweat is OK.
Sweat's OK. The referee, she didn't think so. So she called attack, which I get it. I get it. I get it.
I'm like, man, why are you? But how he threw the ball over to her, too, is just like, I'm just going to put my bodily fluids, you know, on the basketball. I'm just going to toss it to this lady. You put it like that. Well, I mean, come on.
Injected. Come on, Hickey. You know what I'm not going to do?
I'm not going to run 10 miles. And then when I see you, Hickey, I'm not going to just walk from outside and go give you the biggest bro hug ever. I'm not going to do that. And bury your forehead, like in my shoulder to wipe your sweat on like my shirt.
I'm not going to do that. It was a great wipe, too, just right across the forehead. I mean, that ball, if it absorbs water, it got all the sweat off of Luca. And then the ball boy, she says, hey, wipe the ball down, OK? Snap it or get over here. Yeah, wipe, wipe Luca's sweat off of the basketball.
So I know we had a caller in the last break. He's not all that enthusiastic. And there's a lot of people who are just ready for March Madness. But I like basketball. I don't care who the hell is playing. It's not like football.
I ain't watching that spring stuff, OK? Does that still exist, by the way? We haven't heard much about it. That's a great question.
I feel like usually the advertisements are like through the roof. I you're right. I've not seen maybe not. I don't know. I think it is.
I think it is coming back. But it's already a question of what is this now? Is this year three?
I don't know. What is it called now? I feel like they merge every year. And the guys from Birmingham call us and tell us how great their team is. It's is it the AFL? It's not the XFL anymore. It's the AFL, right? I was going to say UFL. I truly have no idea what the actual league is. It's some football that I will not see unless I happen to just walk by a screen on like a Saturday at one o'clock. It's I'm not going to be parked in front of my my set at home watching whatever the hell it is. No, thanks.
No, thanks. Yeah. I think we got a lot better things to do on a Saturday. March then watch UFL. I mean, XFL, WFL, whatever.
World Football League, United Football League, Extreme Football League is just all of the things, whatever the hell I are. Anyway, this is the football I'm interested in. The fact that Matthew Stafford is going to be returning to the Rams.
But we don't know the number yet. We had this conversation earlier in the show with Jeff Howe as he joined us from the Athletic. And it was just odd to think that Matthew Stafford was just going to up and leave. He's just going to go to the Raiders and ages, going to give him a crap ton of money and he was going to enter into the great unknown. It just always seemed like a massive negotiating ploy from both sides to just try to figure out what his true market value would be. Matter of fact, Sean McVeigh spoke today.
He was on a Pat McAfee show. Hopefully he's not taking over for Aaron Rodgers and Sean McVeigh says, yeah, we always wanted Matthew Stafford here. Listen, it's about communication. Let's be clear, open and honest.
Let's have the dialogue. Let's understand the end goal in mind is always to get you back here. And so that's really what that entailed. I think there was a lot of narratives out there. And because of the caliber of player he is, there's a lot of stories. But I don't think either Matthew or myself ever really felt like this was a direction we weren't going to go.
And sometimes when you really care about people, you can have real conversations. And I think it's going to be even better moving forward. And when you see what ends up coming of it, you're going to really see, man, this is a selfless decision on his part.
And this is really good for the Rams for how we move forward and keep building around him. And so basically he's taken a pay cut. What he's not taking. He's not going to take 50. He's going to take 40. Is that what it is?
Is that where we're at? Yeah, that wasn't wasn't this the whole kind of reason for him looking around in the first place is that he wanted to get a higher pay raise, feel respected. Rams felt hesitant. They looked around the market and I think he realized, well, OK, I can get a lot more money from the Giants and the Raiders. But then I got to go play for the Giants or the Raiders. I'll stay here for less money.
Yeah, it sounds it sounds about right. And now we have to see how they decide to fill out the rest of the team. We know that Cooper Cup, they want to go ahead and trade and move him. We heard over the weekend at Deebo Samuel got moved for a fifth round pick and he's heading into the final year of his contract.
And then we also know Davante Adams. Well, he's going to be a free agent. So there's going to be some wide receivers that are out there and available. And it sounds crazy to think about it in the year 2025 that we got guys like Amari Cooper and DeAndre Hopkins, who may not even be like the first first choice by a lot of teams when it comes to wide outs.
And then it comes down to the price. Hopkins will be cheap, relatively speaking. Amari Cooper, I think, will be cheap and expensive.
Davante Adams. Hickey, would you say both he and Kupp would be the top guys that I mean, we even got Godwin, but I don't think he's going to leave Tampa. Would you say Adams and Kupp will be the best wide outs available? I think so. And to Godwin right coming off that injury last year, just another gruesome leg injury for him, which also, again, just makes it, I think, tougher for teams to sign him for a bigger number. Yeah, I think so.
Davante, Cooper Cup, 1A, 1B, 1, 2. I agree with that. And we'll see how we'll see how things shake out on that side of things. And Debo Samuel, he he gonna be playing his behind off for the new contract, whether it comes from Washington or elsewhere. And I think Washington would probably be best situated to kind of keep him around, especially as you want to develop your young quarterback in Jayden Daniels.
It would be natural to think that, you know, he goes backwards. And so why would you bring in Debo, have him on a trade him for fifth round pick and then not keep him around? So I think I think we'll see more Debo in Washington, D.C., you know, outside of this year. And then, of course, we got the big news earlier today about T. Higgins and how they decide to keep him or keep him past this year.
I have no idea. The Cincinnati Bengals just historically cheap. How you signed Burrow and Chase and Hendrickson and T is just beyond me. Absolutely.
Take a listen. This is from CBS Sports HQ letting everybody know the Bengals are hitting T. Higgins with the franchise tag tomorrow. We've got some breaking news out of the NFL where the Cincinnati Bengals have placed the franchise tag on T. Higgins for the second straight season. The Cincy Whiteout confirmed the news with a tweet that simply says, quote, tag and quote.
Nice and simple. Higgins is coming off of an impressive year. Seventy three catches for nine hundred and eleven yards in 10 touchdowns, despite missing five games. Now, under the franchise tag, he said to make twenty six point two million dollars next season. The Bengals will now have until mid July to work out an extension with T. Higgins before that tag becomes official. Cincinnati Bengals seem like the type of NFL team that they they wouldn't they wouldn't afford porta potty rentals.
Like if they had a family event, they'd be like, ah, we could have everybody wait, you know, 20 minutes. Who needs to who needs to use the restroom? Everybody can wait for what we have here. We don't need no porta potty. So I'm supposed to think that they're going to pay the top dollar for a wide receiver. T. Higgins would be a number one elsewhere. But the Cincinnati Bengals are just they're going to do Bengals things like not spend money.
That's just not what they do. It's the J.R. sport we show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. We talked about this time of year. It's March.
Today is March 3rd. We're getting ready for college basketball. The season is concluding. We're getting ready for conference championships and tournaments and we're getting ready for it all.
Maybe you're looking forward to spring football, not me. One of the things that I'm really looking forward to is baseball. And so we're going to take a break and when we come back on the other side, it's time to have a chat with someone who's real familiar with baseball. He is a two time World Series champion.
He's a multiple time All-Star. We're going to have a chat with Johnny Damon. You're locked into the J.R. sport brief show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network.
Don't move. You're listening to the J.R. sport brief. It's the J.R. sport brief show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. And right now we're being joined by someone who is very familiar with the springtime. He's very familiar with baseball. He's very familiar with World Series championships. He has two of them. Right now we got a legend on.
It's Johnny Damon. Johnny, how are you, man? I'm doing fantastic.
Thank you for having me. And yeah, everything is going great down here in Florida. Spring training is on the way and these guys are getting ready for that long, grueling season. So it's going to be a nice and fun season. And right now I've got the Dodgers and the Yankees getting back to the World Series.
Oh, my good. Johnny is already hitting us with a little bit of a prediction. We're going to get into what you got going on with a game as well. Why do you feel so confident when we see what the Dodgers have? They just signed the entire world.
Why do you feel confident that we're going to see a rematch, Johnny? Well, I believe the Dodgers obviously were the best team last year. I believe they may have improved as well. I seems like they have depth.
They have confidence. And the Yankees, I feel like they added more depth as well. I know they lose the great Juan Soto, but they add other pieces that can help get them through a bunch of tough games. I know they blew a bunch of saves last year. Hopefully this year it won't be the same. And hopefully that grind during the 162 game season doesn't catch up to them.
And hopefully they'll be fresh for the postseason. Baseball legend Johnny Damien here with us on the JR Sport Brief Show. Before we get to Juan Soto, we know you're a former Yankee. You went from the Red Sox to the Yankees, had to shave off that beard. Did you have to go a little bit, hey, why is this 20 years too late for me? Like, what are your thoughts there?
You know, my thoughts? Whenever the Hal Steinbrenner wants now, for sure, he makes the rules. But I respected George Steinbrenner.
He was a great boss. Respect his rules. I had an appearance a couple of days ago at George Steinbrenner Field, and I shaved. I made sure I kept up with tradition. It was a no-brainer for me when I made the move that I was going to cut my hair and not fuss about it.
Because the boss pointed me, the boss has his rules, and if he wants to pay me a lot of money to abide by his rules, absolutely. I'm going to follow his orders and go out there and play some winning baseball. Johnny Damien here with us. You mentioned the Yankees losing Juan Soto. You know, the Mets have always been little brother in New York City without a shadow of a doubt. What do you think this does for the organization moving forward? Steve Cohen has certainly shown that he'll spend. Yeah, that's the kind of owner that us players really like.
He's going to go out and get the very best. Even the year before, he went out and got Scherzer and Verlander. He said, I'm going to get two of the top pitchers in the game.
Didn't work out for them last year, but guess what? This year he says, I'm going to go all in for Soto. We like it as players and we want to play hard for him because he's going to do everything to give us an opportunity to win a World Series. And that's all you can ask for from an owner. And I know the guys are very happy that he's out there throwing his money around and putting a great team together.
Johnny Damien here with us on the JR Sport Reshow Coast to Coast. When you think about teams that spend, there's always a conversation about now the Dodgers, the Yankees, the Mets. There's teams that spend hundreds of millions and there's teams where you go, how are they doing that? What are your thoughts on on that balance? Nobody's guaranteed a championship, but there's a discrepancy on how some team owners spend.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, L.A. and New York, two biggest markets. They're going to have that extra money in their pockets. It is unfair for the small market teams and what happens, the small market teams fall into last place or whatnot. And then they have to rely on the draft and they can't get the draft wrong because they can't live in free agencies. So the Tampa Bay Rays got very good in a short time because they did have a lot of top pitchers who came out of the draft and they were able to use them in the big leagues instead of wasting their time in the minor leagues. They brought them straight to the big leagues and these guys dominated exactly what the Oakland A's did back in the day. They had Mulder, Hudson and Zito, three of the top 10 pitchers in the game. So does Moneyball work?
It's yet to be seen. Oakland hasn't won. There is a lot of people who said I brought it over to Boston, but at the end of the day, we had Big Poppy and we had a strong team that loved each other. So it's really difficult to say if it's a Moneyball thing. But these small market teams, they develop their players and then they're going to lose out on them when they turn into their prime, going to the Dodgers, going to the Yankees.
And it happened with me. I mean, the outfield we had in Kansas City, you had Carlos Beltran, Jermaine Dye and myself, possibly the best threesome out there. Oh, yeah. The defense was elite, Johnny. Yeah. Yeah.
Tough to beat. And we all ended up winning championships, unfortunately, outside of Kansas City. Well, Johnny, you talk about your time in Kansas City.
I remember you also had that year out in Oakland. And to think about that team having to go play in Sacramento and go to Vegas and just all the sports that's been taken out of Oakland. How does that make you feel seeing what the fans have had to go through?
Yeah, I think it's awful for the fans. I mean, you lose out on the Raiders, you lose out on the A's and the city is not great. I mean, the politicians need to try to clean it up, clean up the streets. There's a lot of crime and a lot of these big market or big league teams, they don't want to be around that. So, I mean, we have to look towards our government officials to make sure they do everything possible for the people who live in their cities.
And unfortunately, Oakland, they're not being taken care of at all. Johnny, Damian here with us, the J.R. Sport Brief Show. Well, let's talk about how you're helping to take care of the people, keeping people fit and hydrated. Tell us about A-game.
What's the latest? Yeah, absolutely. So, A-game is a clean hydration drink, no unofficial flavors, coloring, no forever chemicals, just only the good stuff in here. You got to bring your A-game every single moment of every single day, whether you're an athlete, a teacher, a parent, a doctor. We have a strong team with us. We got Bo Jackson involved. We have Tyler Adams with the World Cup coming next year to the Americans, Americas. And, you know, we also had Caleb Downs.
He just won the national championship. Just a lot of great people. And we also have one of the biggest health nuts in the world with us, Gary Brekka. He loves our ingredients. He's part of that Make America Healthy philosophy. And here we are.
This is very clean and it tastes great. And as I mentioned, you always got to bring your A-game. Well, listen, Johnny, man, you don't look like you've aged a day. Is A-game putting you back out onto the field? Are you going to get that call? Oh, man, I've been playing soccer on Sundays for the past 12 years and my team's looking really good this year. I've got Melissa Griffey on the team. Ken comes out sometimes and takes pictures of us, but we have a blast out there. We call it Sunday Fun Day and just the way us older folks can go out there and get a sweat in, get a nice workout in and have some fun and stay somewhat athletic. But it's it's been a fun 12 years since I've been retired and I'm going to continue to play soccer until I can't walk anymore.
And that might be next week. Hey, listen, Johnny Damon, keeping up everybody on his toes, including himself. Tell everybody where they can follow you and then keep up with A-game too.
Johnny, go ahead. Yeah, you can follow me at Johnny Damon on Instagram. You can follow at Drink A-game on Instagram, DrinkAGame.com.
You can find out about us and you can go to Amazon as well. So hopefully we'll be everywhere soon. You heard it from Johnny Damon himself. It's the J.R. Sportbree show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Good to chat with a baseball legend because that means spring is right around the corner. Same with the baseball season.
You're listening to the J.R. Sportbree. Hey, good luck to them. That's my advice. There's some J.R. wisdom.
Good luck to them. Hey, shout out to Johnny Damon for joining us in the last break. You missed that conversation with Johnny.
Go ahead and hit rewind on the Free Odyssey app, A-U-D-A-C-Y. Hickey, for some reason, after that conversation with Johnny, I am feeling parched. I need a drink. A A-game drink or an alcoholic drink? No, no, no. An A-game.
Oh, OK. I'm gonna get it at my local, I don't know, Publix or something like that. I will. And maybe it'll help you run faster and be more athletic, keep you hydrated, keep you on the field more. Will it allow me to hit like Johnny Damon?
I guess you don't know what you won't know until you try, right? May as well get in the batting cage. He says he plays, he plays soccer, he said every week. Is that what he said?
Yeah, every Sunday, fun day. Listen, man, he's in amazing shape. So God bless him. Whatever gets the job done.
I thought I was gonna say softball or something like that. You figure I kind of keep it going. Do you know he has eight kids? Really? I did not. Wow. Busy man.
It's in his social media bio. So there you go. Wow. Eight kids. If you got eight kids.
Well, if you got eight kids, you can actually play a game of baseball. Can't you know? Well, hmm. Almost. Yeah. Throw your wife out there.
Tell a wife you make a. What does she play? Pitch? I don't know.
Left field, first base catcher. Yeah, you take the whole family out. But I guess soccer is a little bit easier. You just everybody run around and this is a good part. Everybody gets tired at the end. All right. Those are some makes it easier for the kids to bed about.
Absolutely. Nighttime. Think about this. If you got eight kids and you got to stand one in left field, you got to put another in right and center and the kids just standing around. What is that doing to them?
Nothing. Yeah, that's true. No, you're right about the laugh, especially if some of the kids think and there's again, there are no action in the outfield.
There's picking daisies standing. Yeah, that's not going to tire them out. Come bedtime. Some of my best videos that ever exist are the ones that are like kids playing, you know, the little league outside and they're just being ridiculous. You know, they're hitting home runs and it's the kids are amazing.
It's only when they turn out to be adults with things just go left. But hey, shout outs to Johnny Damon for joining us in the last break. I need you to think O'Reilly Auto Parts for all of your car care needs.
Get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Now, before we share with you a few things that took place this day in sports history. If there was a way for things to get worse for the Dallas Mavericks, apparently they have. So earlier in the show, we told you that they're in priests, though they being the Mavericks are increasing ticket prices for next season.
Well, as of about 20 minutes ago, as a Sacramento Kings and a Dallas Mavericks are playing at its halftime now, Sacramento leads 60 to 50. Kyrie Irving went down and had to be helped off of the court with a leg injury. It appears that he went up for a layup, went to went to shoot the ball, landed, planted his leg.
It just I don't know, look like a hyperextension. We have no idea what's going on, but he was helped off of the court. And at least Hickey, at least Anthony Davis was there to help him. OK, is that is that good? Did he get hurt helping Kyrie off the court? Well, we'll find out tomorrow, I guess. That's true.
This is bad. Mass fans chanted MVP for Kyrie Irving while he was at the free throw line before he exited the game. So he was fouled. He shot his free throws. Kyrie Irving called for the trainer after suffering an apparent leg injury.
He was on the floor. Oh, my God. This is Hickey, this doesn't get whose work. Is it the Sixers or is it the Dallas Mavericks at this point?
Wow. Like if you're the 76ers, you got to pay Paul George for the next three years. He looks cooked. This guy said, I'm going to stop podcasting when it was apparent that the Sixers suck. Joel Embiid is is out. He's been shut down for the season.
I think he's played 19 total games. I think it's worse for the Mavs. You know, I think it might be worse for the Mavs. Like if Kyrie is hurt. Well, forget it. It doesn't matter. And then Kyrie is actually up for a contract extension at the end of this year.
I don't know. I just think the Mavs got it worse. The Mavs fans got it worse than the Sixers right now.
And to also like just forget about your own team for a second. That Luca deal is obviously going to hang over their heads for essentially the rest of his career. And so if we see I mean, hell, if we see a finals run by the Lakers this year, whatever happened to the Mavs.
Right. That's also now adds insult to injury, where at least for the Sixers, you only got to worry about your own team. At least you have Tyrus Maxie, who's young and promising and exciting.
You know, if you can ever get out of the contracts of Paul George and be to maybe actually start to build around them. But at least there's a ray of hope versus like, I mean, truly, what is the ray of hope for the Mavs going forward here? None.
None. I mean, you can't sit there and actually say with a straight face that it's AD at his age and especially with his injury history. Kyrie's getting older. And like you said, for a contract, we'll see if he wants the number one stay in Dallas. And where that goes, like now with the need, we don't know the extent of his knee injury.
Nico Harrison is trending on social media. Let's just say nothing for positive reasons there. I'm sure. Hey, by the time we're back on air tomorrow, we'll have an update on on Kyrie Irving.
I will assume that he'll have some have an MRI and some imaging on his knee. Some of these things you just you can't you can't make up. You can't eight five five to one to forty to twenty seven.
It's eight five five to one to forty to twenty seven. Speaking of Dallas, I guess this is this is positive. This is something to celebrate. Earlier today, we learned that a Dallas legend is going to be hanging it up. And no, it's not someone who played. It's not someone who's active.
Well, he was active on a television set. Jimmy Johnson is done on Fox. And I know we talked about this last week.
How many people can you fit up on that stage? Well, you can now take one away as Jimmy Johnson was on the herd with Colin Cowherd and he let everybody know. I'm done.
I'm finished. Probably the most fun I've ever had in my career. And that's counting Super Bowls and national championships was at Fox Sports. You know, I have an absolute ball with my friends on the set and the best friends I've ever had there with Fox. And and then I tell you, on top of that, you know, I love working for Eric Shanks, our CEO and our producer, Bill Richards. But I've made a extremely difficult decision. I've been thinking about it for the last four or five years and I've decided to retire from Fox. And I'm going to miss it.
I'm going to miss all the guys and I'll see them occasionally. But it has been a great run starting back 31 years ago. Well, it's tough to believe.
Hard to believe. He's been there for 31 years. It's crazy to think he is 81 years old. Like watching Jimmy Johnson on Sunday, he looks like I'm back in the 90s. And God bless him.
Whatever whatever he gets into next. We know about those two Super Bowl championship wins. We know about the egotistical owner and we know about Switzer picking up the other one.
But to not have Jimmy Johnson, I could say that he's one guy that I will I'll miss him. Eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven. William is calling from Arizona.
You're on the JR Sportbrief show. What's up, William? Hey, I just say you're talking Sixers, Mavs, who's the worst team. And it's like, you know what? It's the Phoenix Suns. They got everyone. They're healthy as can be. They got what they want, what they went out to get in the offseason.
All the superstars, whatever you want to call them. They suck. I'm a huge Suns fan.
It hurts me to say that, but I turned it on. Are you guys talking about Mavs, Sixers? And I'm like, wait, you guys just say the Suns. Well, I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
If it's not if it is, they are. Oh, stop. William, relax. Hold on a second. If it makes you feel any better. We had an entire 10 minute segment last hour about the Suns, and then we also had a chat with Justin Termini from Sirius. Excuse me, Sirius XM NBA radio about how bad they are. Does that make you feel better?
OK, well, hit rewind is good, OK? I will check it, but I just had to call and say that and get off my chest because I'm just super irritated about my team. Well, here's here's here's here's some positivity, William. They're going to move Kevin Durant for some assets like that's that's positive, like what they decide to get back. Are they going to be championship contenders? Are they going back to the NBA finals?
The answer is no, they're not. But when you think about the Dallas Mavericks, they have wholly punched their fan base in the face. And the 76ers are just it's like they're out at sea with the world's biggest anchor that they can't move. At least the Suns have some hope. You know, Bradley Beal's contract will ultimately expire. Kevin Durant will ultimately be moved.
At least you have an idea of where they're going to go. Dallas Maverick fans just traded away a generational star. And now Kyrie Irving just got hurt in their raise in ticket prices like they are in athletics territory of being bad.
The Phoenix Suns is just, hey, we got a rich guy who bought the team and he made it his toy. It's like I need all the toys. No, you don't.
You don't need just because you can afford it doesn't mean that you should buy it. Anyway, it's time for a few things that took place this day in sports history. Back in the days when I was young, I'm not a kid anymore.
But some days I sit and wish I was a kid again. It's time for this day in sports history. Back in those days, we had radio and you couldn't see anything.
And it was primitive and lousy and we liked it. On the JR Sport Brief Show. I wish I was 50 years younger and I'd kick your ass. Today is March 3rd, 2025. On March 3rd, 1920, do you remember this?
Probably not. The Canadians set an NHL record by scoring 16 goals. They beat the Quebec Bulldogs 16 to 3.
That's a beat now. How about this day in sports history? March 3rd, 2014, LeBron James scored a career high 61 points. For the Miami Heat breaking Glen Rice's franchise record, the Heat beat the Bobcats 124 to 107.
Let's listen to Fox Sports Miami. This is LeBron getting busy in 2014. They're looking for LeBron now. Basket would have counted. LeBron James would go to the free throw line.
That was on Kemble Walker. LeBron goes to the line with 59. We were waiting for him to get to 60 and solidify the game. 61 for LeBron James. First 60 point game in your career. First 60 point game in Heat history. And you finally get one of these 50 plus games at home. The first time in your career. My career. And to do it with these fans, man, they was here for the long, for the whole, all 61 and their excitement, man, which was able to get me through it.
I wouldn't want to do it in front of anybody else. So my first career, 50, which turned into 60, happened right here at home. That's great. And then he went back to Cleveland. And then he went to Los Angeles.
I think he just wants to go wherever he's happy. This sounds about right. Hey, how about this day? Another living basketball legend. I think I can call her that already. An icon.
How about this? March 3rd, last year, 2024. Kaitlyn Clark passes Pistol Pete Maravich to become the all time leading D1 scorer in college basketball history. OK, she passed Pistol Pete by putting up three thousand six hundred and sixty seven points. Iowa beat Ohio State 93 to 83. Kaitlyn Clark dropped thirty five.
Listen to this. For the record. She ties it with that one. This for college basketball history. She does it with a ball shot.
Becomes the all time leading scorer in major college basketball history, passing Pistol Pete Maravich. Well, this Kaitlyn Clark, yet an icon, iconic. They've already decided to move some of her basketball games into more arenas for this upcoming season. The Chicago Sky are moving her games into the arena.
Kaitlyn Clark is she's iconic, I think, as we we all know. We've had an iconic show here today. It's been a busy one. Hey, thank you to Johnny Damon for joining us this hour. About 20, 30 minutes ago, Johnny Damon came on through, had a chat with him about the baseball that we're about to see over the next several weeks. Thank you to Justin Termini of Sirius XM NBA radio for coming through to talk to us about the good and bad teams in the NBA.
And then even since we spoke to Justin Termini, we learned that Kyrie Irving had to exit tonight's game for the Dallas Mavericks with an apparent knee injury. We'll see what happens there. And thank you as well to Jeff Howe from the Athletic for coming through. He spent all of last week in Indianapolis and we talked free agency. We just went through the whole gamut. Stafford, Higgins. If you missed any of these conversations, just go ahead and hit rewind on the free Odyssey app.
You can find me online everywhere at J.R. Sportbrief and Hickey. I just feel real bad that we got to spend at least part of tomorrow figuring out what the hell is going on with the Dallas Mavericks. Hopefully Kyrie is just, hopefully it's a minor injury and not something major. That's my hope, man. Fingers crossed here.
Same thing. Yeah, it is not good for Dallas Mavericks fans. The J.R. Sportbrief show here on the Infinity Sports Network is done. Make sure you tune in tomorrow, 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. Please be safe, be well, be cool, be smooth. Don't move here on the Infinity Sports Network.
Bart Winkler is coming up next. Thank you for listening and thank you, Hickey.
