US Open, USMNT, and NBA player moves...

They're off. Wyndham Clark. That is not a hotel chain. Wyndham Clark is your 2023 U.S. Open champ. I mean it surpasses all of them because when I was dreaming of it usually it was just me on a putting green by myself.

You know I made the putt maybe but there's no one around so having my friends and family and then obviously in front of thousands of people and then the cameras and everything there was as good as I could have ever imagined. A couple of things about this about Wyndham Clark. First of all, if you watched I mean he seems really really good. Of course, we're judging him after winning a major so everybody who wins a major is going to look good but he does appear to have a ton of game. He is long.

I wouldn't call him straight but he found a lot of fairways. Short game is really good and that was I think the difference in him winning this game winning this tournament. He won his first tournament less than a month ago.

Oh wow. Yeah he won, well it might have been a month ago, Wells Fargo in Charlotte, right? So that was his first PGA Tour win and then he gets into this event. Not getting it although that probably got him into the event based on his world ranking but you look on the leaderboard going into Sunday and it's got Ricky Fowler, Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Dustin Johnson, Xander Shoffley among others and it's Clark who hoists the trophy. I have a bunch of confidence in myself and belief that I'm just as good as those players if not better and obviously there was a bunch of fans pulling for those three guys but it just kind of fueled a fire in me that I could do it and I've always thought of myself as a great player so to finally win something like this is just a testament to all the hard work and belief I've had in myself and I'm just so grateful and blessed to be you know a United States Champion. So look he played great.

Yeah. Ricky Fowler unfortunately didn't play well on Sunday he had a great tournament and maybe stamped himself back it sort of did feel like that was Ricky Fowler but good for him he played well and he's had a good year and I think we'll continue to see more from Fowler coming up and he's headed to a place where he has played well before when the Open Championship goes to Royal Liverpool in Hoylake and so Fowler was in the final group but shot a 75 didn't didn't fare very well. Was the 75 or something like that he was he finished well back. Rory McIlroy who of all the majors he did not win this is this one or the last one I'd rather uh the um the Open Championship at St Andrew's last year those are two that really sting. So McIlroy played about as solid an even par round as you're ever going to see but 70 while it got it done for Wyndham Clark for Wyndham Clark it was a little bit of a different 70 than Rory McIlroy as I'll explain in a minute um and I'm not sure this won't be remembered as a tournament that Rory McIlroy didn't win as opposed to one that Wyndham Clark did Clark played great I'm not knocking it but McIlroy had so many chances to make birdies the one bogey was an unforced error on his part. I mean this is one that because we always view these things through stars this is one that Rory probably feels like he should have won and he didn't and part of that is part of that is that's kind of who Rory has become we'll talk about it with Shane Ryan in a little bit McIlroy had seven birdies on Friday in a 67 and he had four combined over the weekend the one that he blew more than anything was the one on eight par five where he he three putted for par which is the worst I I know a I know a caddy seriously I know a caddy who fired his player oh wow over three putting for par you can do that you can absolutely you can do that I know a caddy who fired his player and he told me I was tired of three putting for par oh no kid you not anyway um good job for Wyndham Clark who might find himself on the Ryder Cup team I believe Ricky Fowler will probably find himself on the Ryder Cup team as well I mean a name like Wyndham he's destined isn't he to be successful you would think you would think my friend Mark the Canuck had the I thought the tweet of the weekend how is it possible that Wyndham Clark didn't go to Broughton I know what are we doing I said you're you know and you more you think about it you go yeah I don't know how that didn't happen anyway uh congratulations uh congratulations to him was dynamite player and I think we're gonna hear a lot from going forward there's so many good young players so many of them um but that was a great leaderboard and for all the people throwing shade uh at LA Country Club and I thought it was gonna be a a birdie and well there were a lot of birdies I thought we were gonna see scores get to and I said it closer to 16 under then then 10 under yeah 10 under won it and eight under was tied for the lead after the first round and 10 under won it because the course did get more difficult as the um as the tournament progressed and the pressure ratchets up and the only reason why the winner was 10 under was because the scoring on day one was historically great if it was normal then we would have seen the winner be around six or seven which nobody would be bitching about but oh my gosh we had put because at one point there were three players double digit under par yeah we had a 12 and 11 and a 10 like I can't have that at us open like how hard are they gonna make it at Pinehurst I'm like weather weather it makes an impact yes and as soon as the sun came out even though it wasn't you know really warm as soon as the sun came out and the course dried up it just became harder and harder so that's what's going to happen all right uh moving on to last week the fact that the U.S. dominated Mexico in the semi-finals of the CONCACAF nations league three nothing it was rendered a footnote because as the game started or sorry as the match started the news broke that U.S. soccer had my opinion here inexplicably rehired Greg Berhalter Greg Berhalter to manage the men's national team through the 2026 world cup remember the United States Mexico and Canada will jointly host the world cup but I think that finals are going to play in the U.S. so it overshadowed the absolute thrashing of Mexico Mexico's this is not the golden age of uh Mexico as a soccer nation last night in their second straight performance for interim manager BJ Callahan they outclassed Canada 2-0 and they claimed their second title in the CONCACAF nations league here's BJ Callahan looking ahead I would say the last two games embody what we're trying to challenge our players with as we continue to evolve this team and and we're looking even bigger we're looking beyond to the 2026 world cup and we need to perform in high intensity knockout games you know and that's something that we learned from the world cup and maybe we didn't you know we we left there a little bit unsatisfied from the world cup because of the knockout game and the performance but we don't look at it as a setback we look at it as an opportunity to grow and now for us we came in here motivated as an entire group that we want to get better we want to get more battle tested we want to be more experienced in knockout high intensity games and this just gives us again the confidence that you know two good moments to do it and we can look forward to the gold cup to again expand the amount of player player pool that can experience tournament style play and not and hopefully knockout tournament play um and that'll like you said that'll continue through the Copa America and that's the message is to continue to battle test this group so that when we get to 2026 the players can perform with at the highest level with the highest level of confidence that they can that they can accomplish it all right couple of things real quick before we continue with this uh this um the Copa America next summer would be the America's version of the European championships and for those people who those people who are interested I would say as great as the world cup is and it is a world event I think the better football is played in the in the European championships so this would be the North America South America version and it for the most part Copa America has not been not really involved North America but it's going to and it's going to be here in the US next summer and so we'll see the likes of Argentina and I don't believe we've heard whether or not Lionel Messi will play for Argentina he's already said he's not going to play in the world cup but you know Brazil's going to be here and Argentina's going to be here and some of the other best South American nations Uruguay uh and Colombia there's going to be a very very good it's going to be a great tournament and the US I mean I don't know if they're going to win it I wouldn't put them as the favorites but what we saw the last two matches I think should give a lot of people a lot of optimism for what the US will be going forward real quick about the gold cup which starts Saturday I don't know why these two competitions are on you know on top of one another but they are but gold cup which starts Saturday it's not going to be I don't know that there's any players that there's other than the goalkeepers I don't know that there's any overlap in the roster like I mean there might be there might be a couple of players who will be on that roster that were reserves on this but for the most part I think we're going to see a whole new group of players and some of which might be first team Americans when we get to something like Copa America um anyway here's the other my other thought it scored five goals in two matches in the span of three and a half days can we simply retain BJ Callahan as the manager I mean maybe I'm wrong here I'll talk I'll talk about it a little bit later on but I mean they just played with some with some freedom and some creativity that we had not seen a lot of that has to do with new player Fuller and Balagoon who came over from League One in France he is via the Arsenal academy and it's still property of Arsenal he is on loan to the French league and he finished second in that league in goals and he looked excellent yesterday Giovanni Reyna was awesome yesterday uh corner kick for the first goal that was headed in by Chris Richards who is another young American center back who plays at Crystal Palace who was not healthy for the World Cup this year but looks like he is a difference maker for them but Balagoon, Reyna, Richards, Joe Scali they didn't have Tyler Adams this entire tournament tired two games uh they didn't have Tyler Adams Christian Pulisic was the best player actually was voted the best player in the event but Pulisic who was who scored both or two of the three goals in the Mexico match uh was again very very good American showing a little depth no no Sergino desk no Weston McKennie it was very cool so they are building depth and confidence as and they are scary young Balagoon is 20 Gio Reyna just turned 20 Richards is 22 yeah uh Reyna has now in two major finals the uh Nations League in 2021 and this summer remember he was 18 in 2021 has four goal involvements a goal and three assists which like a lot it well it's yeah it's a lot it's also the record for an American player ever good for him actually can I spin that the other way that's horrible for the United States we are we are you serious that in major finals that the record is a total of four yeah that's one way to look at it gosh it's terrible but anyway I think there's a lot of a lot of reason to be optimistic for uh for the way they play uh all right to uh to the NBA and a huge trade about to go down it's not final yet we don't know when it's going to be final remember the NBA draft is coming up on Thursday night Bradley Beal one of the top scoring guards in the league is headed from Washington to Phoenix for a package that includes future Hall of Famer Chris Paul Landry Shamet a bunch of second round picks multiple pick swaps between the Suns and the Wizards which if you're Washington man do you really think you're going to be uh picking behind Phoenix anytime soon are you serious uh but that's what they'll be able to they'll be able to swap picks just in case uh here is Evan Sittery who is the Suns beat writer on the risks that the owner is taking with the Beal trade he's kind of going against the grain against what everyone would recommend at this point the new CBA which is avoid that second apron avoid all the penalties but Matt Ishby is going superstar hunting since he got in as the owner of the Phoenix Suns he's gotten Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal in his first four months he's traded away all their first round picks throughout until 2030 they have swap rights for other picks but they gave it up really their entire future for the next seven or eight years for these two players and you have to get a championship off of this because if not if you don't get a title the Suns are going to be looking at a really really odd future here with not a lot of draft capital not a lot of future to look out for so this is a big all-in bet on Matt Ishby that he made for the Phoenix Suns that this three they seem to be paying over 150 million dollars combined for for three years between 2024 and 2026 that they might get a title or two over that span think about think about that um I believe the NFL salary cap is like 150 million wow and the Suns are paying that to three players yikes yeah part of the reasons why Phoenix struggled in the playoffs yeah there was some continuity issues they did lose Chris Paul to an injury but they also traded away almost all of their depth all almost all of their bench strength in order to bring Kevin Durant in and like Durant is a I mean he's a top 10 player in the history of the game but they traded away some really good valuable pieces just to get to rant and now they're trading away two of two more of those pieces to get Bradley Beal I'm not knocking Bradley Beal he is a dynamite player but you better be able to find some depth somewhere you have to otherwise you're just not gonna win on top of the fact that a certain mr. Durant has a hard time staying healthy let's say I just I just thought I'd bring that up Kendrick Perkins from ESPN on the deal Bradley Beal Katie and D Book three of the most prolific scores in the game today on one team hey listen James Jones is out here selling used cars for Rose Rogers because that's exactly what just happened the fact that he was able to keep DeAndre eight was huge look the Phoenix Suns with this big three should be the favorite of coming out of the West and winning next year's title now I don't know what's gonna happen throughout the course of the offseason and I know we just getting started but at the end of the day currently constructed this is the best team in basketball when you have this much offensive firepower it's going to be hard to beat this team in a seven game series on postseason time the great thing about it is that they get to jail from training camp DeAndre eight finally have a new coach and coach Vogel so we don't have to worry about the tension that him and Monty Williams hey it's about to be fireworks this next upcoming season Kendrick Perkins may be right he may be right but right now they have four players I mean they they need a lot more than that to to win an NBA title and it is interesting how fast we've moved away from the Denver Nuggets who actually didn't play all that well as a team but won the title beating the Miami Heat the deal will probably stay on hold for my guess is through the draft because Washington is trying to expand the trade to include to be able to off offload Chris Paul so they don't have to buy him out Washington doesn't want Chris now it's not that they don't want Chris Paul what is Washington who is a complete rebuild again what are they doing with somebody like Chris Paul so they have to offload him somewhere so they are either they're they're basically going to wait this trade out until they can either find another piece of this trade to maybe get more out of it but certainly to to offload Chris Paul here's Bobby Marks because I don't think they got a ton here there's Bobby Marks from ESPN who's like a front office insider on this being the best Washington could do that's probably the most they could get for Bradley Beal I mean it's certainly it's a new front office so there's no ties to Bradley Beal he's got 200 million dollars left he's got a no trade which makes it extremely extremely difficult here so I just thought that I think people were fooling themselves that they thought there was going to be a Donovan Mitchell Rudy Gobert type haul and I said it during the week I thought if you can get an expiring contract and draft picks within a deal then that's something that you're probably going to have to do but yeah I mean hey the likelihood is it could be up to six second round picks and pick swaps in a couple years here and you get all that money off your deal and obviously the message in Washington is that they are willing to go in a full reset moving off that deal money is is the way to do it Washington has not been good in such a long time keep in mind that John Wall and Bradley Beal were both top five picks and they have I bet they've basically had one winning season not great I mean some teams just don't get it some teams just aren't good at this