This NBA Player or That NBA Player (Hour 2)

Yes, yes, that is us. That was number two of our radio program.

It is the Zach Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network. Coming up 20 minutes from now, a little college football fix. We'll tap into a team that really came out of nowhere last year. They had 10 wins, the Syracuse football program.

Elijah Robinson, their assistant head coach and defensive coordinator is going to join us. We will learn more about this upcoming season of Syracuse football and Robert Horry, the seven time NBA champion, is going to join us at 5 p.m. Eastern, 2 p.m. Pacific. If you had seven NBA championship rings, and I'll ask this to Robert Horry, do you ever wear them all at the same time outside of just being a douche and basically just doing it to show off? Do you think Robert Horry ever just walks out and wears the seven championship rings if he's like going out for dinner or something like that, Stu?

I don't. I think he would wear one, maybe two at a time, but I don't think the seven at a time ever comes out, honestly. The crazy part is that career was so long for Robert Horry and he won so many championships, seven of them, two with the Rockets, three with the Lakers, and then two with the Spurs. If you look at the timeframe of them, 1994, 1995, 2000, 2002, 2005 and 2007, you know, I would imagine the rings in the 90s were very small.

In the early 2000s, they got a little bit bigger. But it's not as if you won a championship in 2014, then with the rings just got stupid big. But I wonder how big that 2007 championship ring is because I saw Clyde Frazier wearing his two rings and they're like very small rings. So I wonder what a 1994, let me look it up, 1994 NBA championship ring did look like.

Let's see if anything comes up. NBA 1994 championship ring. All right, Rockets. Yeah, it's a smaller ring. Now, 2007 Spurs, NBA championship ring. Let's see how much bigger it is.

Oh, yeah. It's not on steroids, but that's a fat ring with a lot of rocks in it, no doubt about it. That's a nice ring, that 2007 Spurs championship ring. Seven rings is a lot.

It's a lot of rings. I'd imagine Steve Kerr. Better than Jordan, by the way.

That's right. Robert Horry, the GOAT. Him and Bill Russell, right? I'd imagine Steve Kerr, who has the three with the Bulls in the late 90s and then has some of them with the Warriors recently as of like three or four years ago.

The difference between that first one with the Bulls and then that last one with the Warriors must be pretty big, too. Yeah, so let's do Steve Kerr. So Steve Kerr, he has, well, did he win? Oh, man. He won the last, he was on the second three with the Bulls.

Okay. And I thought maybe he won one in San Antonio. Yeah, he won some in between. 2003. So he has five as a player.

Oh, my. And four as a coach. So because they won the one before KD, two with KD, the one after KD. So he has nine rings. Nine rings. So let's just look at this real quickly. 1996 NBA championship ring.

And let's see how big or really how small this is. This one's actually not that. It's not a a teeny ring.

It's not. It's it's definitely an antiquated ring. But when you go to 2002 or 2022 NBA championship ring, I feel like this one's going to be obnoxious. Yeah, it's obnoxious. Oh, my. You have the Golden Gate Bridge with all the it's a big giant gold circle.

One, two, three, four Larry O'Brien trophies. Yeah, that's an obnoxious ring. And I'm pretty sure it's one of those rings that pop up and there's something in the middle, too. So, yes, his first ring was a two star motel. This is staying in the fountain blue down on South Beach.

I would say that's the equivalence in terms of. All right. Nice little two star motel right up the highway and run down. Looks a little bit shady.

Fine. You know that you're going to get in and out, maybe have some interesting characters next door to you. Maybe it could be a robbery in the middle of the night. Who knows? Or someone didn't pay a bill if they were doing a little hanky panky time late at night.

And then you get upgraded to a five star hotel. I'm sorry. It was on my algorithm today.

I don't know why. A random real popped up and it was two guys trying to avoid paying a bill of a little hanky panky time that was going on in a motel. And they were running out and you just see four or five women just chasing after them with their pimps. That's what I saw. That was I don't know how that came up with my reels today.

No clue whatsoever. Santa said, they're saying, sure, sure, sure. Now I have no clue how I went from a sports video to that.

I think I went from a Maggie and take about their Mount Olympus rankings and something like that to then two guys just trying to avoid paying a bill. So not last time I checked that I pay all my dinner bills. Right. We're talking about dinner here.

But anyway, that's a little bit of a championship rings. Robert Orejo, seven of them is going to join us coming up at 5 p.m. Eastern time today. Elijah Robinson at 420 p.m. Eastern. Stu has assembled a list here. And the list is going to be a bunch of NBA players and we're going to pin them up against one another. And I'm going to pick this NBA player or that NBA player.

So, Stu, take it away. All right. So how about Cooper Flag, who could be who will be the number one pick in a draft or Giannis Antetokounmpo?

Yeah. So I see a lot of people when the number one pick was made, was it J Will? I think it was J Will who said, oh, maybe the Dallas Mavericks should trade that pick. And if you were trading that pick, you'd probably trade it for a Giannis Antetokounmpo. I don't think it's crazy to suggest that.

I don't. And San Antonio, they're another teammate. The second overall pick. If you get Giannis, I would give up the second overall pick in part of more to go get Giannis. I would give up the number one overall pick to get Giannis as well.

If I could get Giannis on to the Kupa, I think Cooper Flag's going to be a star. But there's a lot of times people are kind of pegged a generational talent and we think they're going to be great. And they go on to have good careers, but not these all time great careers. Some as they do reach their all time great careers. Some as they're a bust. But if you ask me right now, would I rather have Giannis or would I rather have Cooper Flag, even with the age difference, I'd rather have Giannis on to the Kupa.

All right. What about two guards who have had pretty high rises the last five or six years? Scoring first guards, Jalen Brunson with the Knicks or Donovan Mitchell with the Cavs? Both excellent players. I think the and and Spider Mitchell had some clutch shots, especially when he's with the Utah Jazz. I just think Brunson, who was voted the most clutch player in the league this year, is slightly better. And I'm impressed with the way that that Brunson creates offense. So I will go Jalen Brunson over Spider Mitchell.

All right. What about the last two NBA MVPs? Obviously, you had SGA this year and then you had Jokic who won it last year in three of the four years before that.

Yeah. And Nicole Jokic easily who averaged a triple double this year could have won it. If Nicole Jokic has never won an MVP before, I'm not taking anything away from SGA.

SGA was definitely deserving of it. But I wonder if there was little voters fatigue with Nicole Jokic this year since he already won three NBA MVPs because voters get this way. Writers are extremely weird. They're important, but they could be weird with the battles that they choose. For example, Stu, if I were to tell you that LeBron James won four NBA MVPs and his last one was in 2013.

That seems ridiculous. Yeah, that LeBron hasn't won an MVP since 2013. And let's let's be fair about this. If you just look at the guys that won MVPs since LeBron, last one is his NBA MVP in 2013. KD, Steph back to back years, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Giannis Giannis, Nicole Jokic, Nicole Jokic, Embiid, Joker, SGA. You know, you tell me LeBron James can win one more MVP in his career. So I do think Nicole Jokic will win another MVP. Nicole Jokic will probably finish his career with more MVPs than LeBron.

You tell me this guy, as long as he stays healthy, doesn't get two more NBA MVPs. SGA is a phenomenal player. SGA is probably going to do what Joker's done, right? Win an MVP, win an NBA championship, win a finals MVP. Joker, though, has two more MVPs than SGA. I would rather have Joker over SGA, even though SGA is a phenomenal player. That is obviously a number one in a championship team or about to be a championship team, in my estimation. All right. What about the two players that were traded for each other this season in one of the most shocking trades of all time, Anthony Davis or Luka Doncic?

Are you trying to get my blood to boil here? Like, AD is the better defender, duh. AD has the ability to be one of the best players in the league. AD, at times, he's kind of a little Karl-Anthony Towns-ish, right? Where AD defensively blows Karl-Anthony Towns out of the water.

But the point that I'm making here is there are moments, right? And you know this too, watching AD, where you see him be a little lethargic, a little lackadaisical. And you know that there's a different level that he could get to, and you see that level at times. You go, wow, this guy's incredible. Wow, this guy's sensational.

And then you see other moments where you go, hmm, where is that version that we're used to seeing? Now, the irony of me saying this for AD is Luka's also lazy at times as well and, by the way, plays zero defense. But Luka is top five great. Anthony Davis, we say he could be top five, but he doesn't show it to you consistently enough.

So I'd easily go Luka Doncic, and also he's younger. All right, what about two players that have had very interesting careers so far, both selected back-to-back, one and two in the 2019 draft? John Moran and Zion Williamson, which one? I think you got to go Ja now, especially I don't know what's true or not with the off-the-court accusations here with Zion Williamson. There was a case to be made even before this that Ja was the better player than Ja had his off-the-field issues. Ja's off-the-field issues or off-the-court issues, I should say here, which was stupid, right?

And he's trying to be something that he's not with the guns and all that. But that pales into comparison with some of the things that Zion Williamson is accused of. Zion Williamson had a quiet year up until as of late.

He was someone that played well this year, but you didn't really hear much about him. And you thought it was starting to turn, and his career was starting to turn around. And then you get these off-the-court accusations. So who knows what's true? You read what I read, and it is extremely ugly. But as we've learned, just because you read it doesn't necessarily mean that it happened.

Not saying that it didn't happen fully, to be clear. But even with the immaturity and Ja trying to be someone he's not, I think Ja's the better player. And now Ja has the lesser off-the-court distractions than Zion Williamson.

So I would go Ja Morant. Alright, two players who were drafted first overall in back-to-back years, 2021 and 2022. You have Cade Cunningham with the Pistons or Paulo Bancaro with the Magic.

Oh, this is the toughest one, because both are so similar just in terms of their production. Like Paulo Bancaro, 25.9 points per game this past year. Cade Cunningham, 26.1. Paulo Bancaro, 7.5 rebounds per game. Cade Cunningham, 6.1. Assist, Paulo Bancaro, 4.8. And Cade Cunningham, 9.1.

Oh, man. Bancaro is phenomenal. Cunningham had the better year, so I'll take the recency.

If you asked me this last year, I'd easily say Paulo Bancaro, right? But now off the recency bias of what Cade Cunningham and the season he just had, I would go with Cade Cunningham right now. Alright, how about these two players, both towards the end of their careers, you have Kevin Durant, who is now 36, or James Harden, who is now 35. Yeah, KD's a pain in the ass, but I would rather have KD over James Harden. Had a good year this year, give James Harden credit. I think James Harden has become a better teammate as of late, and I think that started when he was just in the same locker room as Kyrie Irving. You can put anyone in there and they'll be a better teammate pretty much than Kyrie Irving. But I would still go Kevin Durant, he's the better player at this stage of his career, so KD.

Alright, how about these two centers? I guess an argument can be made that both of these guys have really not lived up to their expectations yet. Joel Embiid with his injuries and Karl-Anthony Towns with his defense.

I don't know if this is a hot take or not. I'd rather have Kat. I'm not saying that Kat's the better player than Embiid. Embiid has won an NBA MVP, but Joel Embiid has never got out of the second round of the playoffs. Joel Embiid is constantly hurt, and as series go on and you get into Game 6, you get into Game 7, Joel Embiid commits a lot of turnovers, and Joel Embiid continuously looks out of shape and just gasps in these series. Now with Kat, he has these stretches where he looks like he's unstoppable.

Right? The 20 points in the fourth quarter up against the Pacers. The intensity that he displayed and the fire that he displayed in that closeout game in Game 6 at Madison Square Garden, up against the Boston Celtics. But then there's moments, and he plays little defense, which does not help, but when he's bitching to the officials and it's taken him 3-4 seconds to get back on the defensive side of the ball, and there's just some lethargic moments. But at least I know what I'm getting with Kat. Yes, there are some lows with Kat, and yes, there are some inconsistencies with Kat, but at least I know that Kat's going to be on the court. At least I know that Kat's going to be someone that has the ability to take over, and Embiid has that ability, but he doesn't show that in the postseason.

And I don't know when he's really ever going to be healthy. I know Kat's dealt with his fair share of injuries, but in this year, I think there's, in a weird way, less wear and tear on Kat. And I think I could get, even if it's not more out of Kat in terms of the high quality of play, but I think that there's just more games that Kat will play than Embiid.

I take Kat over Joel Embiid. Alright, two of the all-time greats who are near the end of their careers, you've got Steph Curry or LeBron James. So both still playing at a stupid high level, and both have suffered their fair share of injuries later on in their career. If you're asking me who's more likely to win a championship again, I would say that it's Steph Curry. So I would go with Steph at this stage of his career. I think both players need to lead their current teams to go win another championship, and I do think that Steph's career could go longer than LeBron's, just because there could be a time where Steph doesn't have to be the number one, and you basically just throw him in that Ray Allen role down in Miami. He was just sitting in the corner, popping three after three after three, and ends up winning you a championship that way.

Alright, last one here. We have two pretty young players who are coming off injuries. You have Wen Binyama trying to overcome the blood clot injury, and you have Jason Tatum, who will have to overcome an Achilles injury. This is a tough one, because Tatum won a championship. Tatum plays like a top five player in the league, and he's coming off an injury that is an Achilles injury that you just don't know how you're going to bounce back from, but then in the other breath, right, Wen B has blood clots, which is just absolutely horrific. Now, Wen B could be right now the best defender in the league, and if he didn't get hurt with the minimum games, probably would have won defensive player of the year.

Tatum, I think, is underappreciated a little bit, even with how great he is, but I'm going to go with the younger guy here, Wen B, because Wen B has an Otani type of ceiling where he's just an alien, and you're like, wow, we've never seen anything like this, where Tatum is just great, but it's not sexy great, but it wins. So I don't know if Wen B will ever win a championship. I don't, but I will slightly, just because of the Achilles, go with Wen B here, and that he is just scratching the surface of what he potentially could do in the NBA. All right, this is that Gelb show right here on the Infinity Sports Network. Robert Orie is going to join us at the top of the hour. We will preview the NBA Finals with him, also continue to touch on Tom Thibodeau getting fired and some potential offseason storylines in the association, but when we come on back, there could be a guy that's getting already compared to Travis Hunter, like who's the next Travis Hunter, right? It's a copycat kind of league, especially in college football. Well, Syracuse football may have someone that could be the next Travis Hunter. We'll learn more about that player when we come on back. Eliza Robinson, the defensive coordinator and assistant head coach for the Syracuse football team after a 10-win season will join us on the other side as we do a college football fix next.

We miss college football. Jenti, his first touch. And typical Ashton Jenti. Look at him go. You can't bring him down. Is he?

Yes, he will. We can't wait for the 2025 season. And we're counting down the days to kickoff. Are we there yet? No. I said no.

What's wrong with your ears? Here is your college football fix only on the Zach Gelb show. All right, it is a college football fix right here on the Zach Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network. Eighty-seven days until Syracuse kicks off their football season in Atlanta, Georgia, going up against an SEC power in Tennessee.

The Orange last year were 10 and 3, and it was a very successful first season at Syracuse for Fran Brown and company. And now joining us is an old friend in Eliza Robinson, who of course is the assistant head coach and defensive coordinator at Syracuse, and he's kind enough to join us right now. Elijah, I know it's been a while.

Appreciate the time. How you been, my friend? I've been good, man. It's been a while, man. You're right about that. I got a lot more gray hairs. You know, you got a few coming in as well.

Yeah, 100%. I'm gray all over the place. Let me start you off, though. Year one for you guys at Syracuse. You guys really made a statement going 10 and 3.

I know that you're on to the next season, but first off, start off for me, just looking back at how you kind of recap year one. Like I said, I think Coach Fran did a tremendous job as leading this program, and you know his background and how he is with the players and the things he can do to motivate the players, but also motivate our staff just to get us to buy into what the program is all about, being dark, being committed to each other, caring about each other, and trusting each other. So he did a great job just leading and pushing that, and our players did a tremendous job just fighting a good fight every day, doing what we asked them to do, and the fans showed up, and this is a great program that people support us. So I'm just happy that we can give them something to be proud of.

But like you said, it's short-lived. You know, we're on to the next season. So this is a new team and a new season, so we're just working hard to try to change the standard.

The standard can never stay the same. And like you know, there's energy now around Syracuse football. People are excited. People are looking forward to what you guys are going to do coming up in year two. What do you think you guys are building right now at Syracuse as you get ready to go through a second football season there? That's the stage we're in, the building stage, you know, and when I say that, you know, we're worried about today and being where our feet are and locking in today for today's meetings, walk through, lift, run, whatever it may be. They said one thing we preach around here is lock in to the right now, you know, and be where your feet are and get better at that. You know, we continue to get better every day. We'll be fine.

And you know what happens when you're trying to build something. You're number one, right? You put a lot of people in Syracuse on the map, and then people look at it and they'll go, oh, maybe that was just lightning in a bottle. Are they going to be able to repeat? Are they going to be able to improve off of that? What do you say to people that are kind of doubting that just think this was a one-hit wonder for Syracuse football and you guys can't have sustained success?

That's what fans are for. They're there to make predicaments and have their own opinion, and all we can do is control what's happening in this building. Like I said, our kids are working hard. Our staffs are together and pushing each other to get better.

So like I said, all we can do is handle the work that we can control, and if we got out there, it was time for us to go out there for the first game. Talking to Elijah Robinson right now, the assistant head coach at Syracuse, also their defensive coordinator. Clearly you and Fran Brown have known each other for a long time. I've known Fran for a long time.

I've known you for a long time. So I know what Elijah Robinson's about. I know what Fran Brown is about, but it's sometimes different when you transition from a coordinator or positional coach and you end up becoming the head coach. What did you observe of your close friend in Fran Brown in your one, how he made that transition to head coach? Because really he took the nation by storm.

A lot of people talking very positively about Fran Brown after year one. Yeah, he remained who he is. He's true to himself. That's all you can ask of a man. You know, all he has is his name and he takes pride in his name. And he said he's always been a leader of men, a great motivator, and a guy who's always been up front.

And how can you not want to play for someone that way? You know what you're going to get every day from him. He's going to work extremely hard. He's not going to just ask people to work hard. He doesn't do it himself. So he's a guy that, as I said, you can watch.

And he's practiced what he preaches every day. And I think people gravitate to that once real. And we know the stops that you've made, Penn State, Temple, Baylor. You were at A&M. You were their interim head coach. I know that there's a trust and a special brotherhood that you have with Fran.

But why was Syracuse and this opportunity the right opportunity for you in your next chapter of your career? Like I said, from day one, we spoke. We talked about this for years.

We never had an opportunity with each other. And we had a chance to coach together at Temple and at Baylor. And it was a great opportunity for us to get back to the time when it was just right.

I knew he would do a tremendous job here. We take pride in the Northeast and the kids that we recruited, the kids that we coached, the children, the kids we brought down to the South during our time at the SEC. We had a chance to get back in our background, I mean, in our backyard, and build something special at a place that was a unique program.

Mayor Syracuse, like I said, has great history, great tradition. So you go back to the guys we watched playing football in the NFL and shooting from our city who had great successes. So we're honored to be able to be here and help build this program to where it once was. Recruiting has changed so much. Not only is that a high school now, but you're basically recruiting your kids each and every day with the easy access to the transfer portal. You've always been about relationships, Elijah Robinson. Fran Brown has always been about relationships.

Just what is that pitch? How do you sell kids on relationships right now when there's so many other reasons why a kid could pick to either stay or go to another school? Yeah, I don't think you can sell a relationship.

That's built. Like I said, you always hear about people saying, hey, we're a family. This is a family. It's not truly a family until you've been through something. It's not truly a family until you've built that relationship.

That's it. At the end of the day, we've got to show people that you're committed, that you care, and that you trust them. And vice versa. If that's not part of it, then it's usually not real. And like you said, relationships are stronger than words or slogans or any type of things like that.

So it has to be built. It has to be genuine. And that's not just with the players, but their parents, high school coaches, and whoever else is an influence in their life. I saw the way that you were able to recruit a temple. I saw the way that Fram was able to recruit at Temple. And you're always able to bring in some guys that people go, wow, impressive that Elijah and Fram are able to get them. I keep on hearing about Demetrius Samuel Jr., right, enrolled at 16, just turned 17 a few months ago.

I'm reading these articles. Is he the next Travis Hunter? Because he could play both ways. What do you think he could bring to your program over at Syracuse? Well, he's a great, great young man. He calls him a great family, a great high school program. He's just really mature. He's really mature. He's willing to put the work in, doesn't complain. He just goes out and busts his butt every day. And that's all we can ask from him. Like I said, I don't like to compare people. I don't want to call him the next Travis Hunter.

I think he is who he is. I'll tell you what, we had a freshman years ago back at Temple who was really mature and locked into what was asked of him from Fram Brown. And that was Champ.

You know, Champ when I think I asked. So that was really early. So this kid's special, which is really special.

I just want to fill it off the field. So I'm looking forward to watching him. It's funny when I was going over some notes for this interview. I wrote down Champ and his name because I remember the way that you guys talked about the work ethic and how much he just wanted to be around the team and the motor.

But you look at it now. I know you want to do the comparisons. You look at what Travis Hunter did, that motor to play offense and defense. You think that Demetrius has has the motor to really go both ways at a high level?

I'd read you the special talent. You know, he has pride. He's tough.

So he's going to fight his tail off and do whatever we can do to help this program. Elijah Robinson here with us for a few more minutes as a preview. Syracuse's football season.

They kicked things off up against Tennessee and Atlanta, Georgia, 87 days from now. Who else should we keep an eye on on your defense as we get set here? I know there's a lot of changes, a lot of turnover. But as you guys get set for your number two at Syracuse. Yeah, I mean, if you look at it, you got some guys that come back to have some success for us.

Do chestnut, you know, Devon Grant tank as well. Teng Wilson, you know, very bucks. And there's a lot of guys that's back that was already here. Kevin Jobeys of the world. Let me ask some guys that we had a chance to bring in, you know, in my appeal. And David Reese, Chris Thomas, you know, Rokes, you know, we had some guys that had a chance to come in to help us. But they said we had a good nucleus of guys that came back. And we're looking forward to all those guys. Just give them a chance to help us.

I think the more healthy we can stay and we continue to work hard. These guys can show you their value here on this team. Last year, Kyle McCord did wonders for you guys. Now, when you look at the quarterback position, it's a battle with Steve Angeli and Ricky Collins. I know that you're on the defensive side, but you're also the assistant head coach. Just when you go up against those two right now in practices, how's the QB competition looking?

Well, I'll tell you what, Jeff Nixon, his staff does a tremendous job creating issues. And Coach Nozmann has been doing a great job of quarterbacks for years. So like I said, both of those guys are great competitors. I mean, that room alone with all those guys in there, they come out, they compete, they give us issues.

So I was looking forward to watching the battle. And whoever we decide is our QB one, I'm looking forward to supporting them. And I know the rest of this program will do the same thing that we did with Kyle. For you guys, was the Miami win last year? Was that the most special part of your season, just looking back at it? I'll tell you what, that was the last game of the season, and it was important for us. That was the game that we were in. By then, the most special game was the last game we played in.

And that was obviously the goal game, Elijah Robinson with us. Last thing, though, just Cam Moore, since you were able to go up against him, now he's off to the NFL since we're a national show. Just what do you think he can maybe do at the next level for the Tennessee Titans as he was the number one overall pick in the draft a few months ago? Well, I'll tell you what, it's the reason he was the number one pick.

It's more just having the challenge. That kid was a – yep, not a kid, but that young man, a tremendous talent, a really good quarterback, did a great job controlling that offense, you know. He gave us a challenge. But you watch him go up to his background, you know, it wasn't how he recruited. So that takes some toughness there to still go out there and compete. Everywhere he went, he was successful, you know.

So I don't think he's going to say NFL is going to change. I think he has a chance to continue to be special. He's Elijah Robinson. Elijah, great to connect up with you once again, and good luck this upcoming season. Thank you, brother.

Appreciate you. Extra, extra real about it. Extra, extra real about it. Time for your daily news brief. We get you caught up on the rumors, reports and reconnaissance from the day in sports. Alrighty, news brief time on the Zach Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network. Let's start things off with Charlie Batche, the former Steeler quarterback.

He was on up at Adams with K Adams. Who should be the Steeler starting quarterback, assuming that Aaron Rodgers is there, right? You think it's Aaron.

Charlie has a thought. For me, it depends on when Aaron Rodgers gets here. If he shows up the day of training camp, that means there's about four weeks before he actually gets ready for the start of the season. If that is the case, I still believe that Mason Rudolph should be the starter as the season opens up. And, of course, allowing Aaron to now work through the nuances of the offense.

That's just my personal opinion. But if he signs prior to training camp starting and allowing him a couple extra weeks to learn his offense, then Aaron Rodgers will be the starter heading into training camp. Unless if Aaron Rodgers' arm falls off or he goes to Egypt and just never comes back, as long as he's signed to be the Steeler starting quarterback, he's starting week one. And this is what drives me bonkers here, is that you'll have people that will go after Aaron Rodgers for this. And, oh, Aaron Rodgers is holding the Steelers hostage. Oh, Aaron Rodgers hasn't made up his mind yet.

Aaron Rodgers, Aaron Rodgers that. And I think all this stuff is lame that Aaron Rodgers isn't with the Steelers yet. The Steelers are good with this. You don't think behind the scenes the Steelers have been like, okay, Aaron, this one, you want to do this?

Okay, boom, we're going at your pace. So the Steelers are enabling that. So when Aaron Rodgers says, okay, I'm going to show up, he then becomes a starting quarterback.

There is zero reason, zero reason. I don't care if Aaron Rodgers is going to show up until August 1st. There is zero reason to start Mason Rudolph, Mason Rudolph, as your week one starting quarterback if Aaron Rodgers is in the building.

And also, you think Aaron Rodgers, who loves to just create a grudge and loves to just create some sort of fake contrived kind of fight, you're telling me that Aaron Rodgers is going to be fine and is going to go down with no fight if Mike Tauman said, oh, you missed some time, Aaron, so we're going to start Mason Rudolph when they're going up against the Jetson week one? Oh, give me a break. Charlie Batchett. I like Charlie.

I like when he comes on the show. You can't be serious with that take. You can't. I know it's Kay Adams.

I know it's up in Adams, right? You say something, it's a big deal. You become a big headline on June 4th. Charlie, you're better than that, Charlie.

Come on. Let's go to Jim Schwartz. What are your expectations for Miles Garrett this year? I really think Miles is going to have the best season of his career and has to, right?

You know, I mean, with, you know, I've told him before, you know, what's that Spiderman quote, with great power comes great responsibility, right? You know, and that's with the big contract, with the notoriety that came along with that, and, you know, the process it took to get him to that point, there also comes, you know, you know, what's, I mean, there's always pressure in this league, but probably a little bit more so. And I think that that brings out the best in players, and I know that'll be the case with Miles. Miles Garrett is 102-and-a-half career sacks. The most sacks he's ever had in a season were 16. So if Miles Garrett has 16-and-a-half sacks this year and has a career year, are we sitting here and we're like, oh, my goodness gracious, Miles Garrett. Like, sure, we'll be complimenting him. Sure, he'll probably win another Defensive Player of the Year award. But Miles Garrett now, his career kind of seems irrelevant, where he's not an irrelevant player. He's one of the baddest dudes on the planet.

He's one of the most ferocious dudes on the planet. But this was a guy that paraded around Radio Row saying, I want to be on a winning team. I'm forcing out. I'm leaving Cleveland because they're not going to win a championship, and I'm out about the money. I'm all about putting myself in a situation to go win a championship.

And then he took the bag. So Miles Garrett, do I ever think he's going to be a winning player, like where he wins a championship or even gets to an AFC Championship game? No. Is he going to win another playoff game in his career?

Probably not. So you go out there, go get your 16-17 sacks. Yeah, we'll praise you.

Yeah, we'll recognize you're one of the best players in the NFL. But what does he really need? And that's why I was disappointed that Miles Garrett didn't stay true to his word and go somewhere else. God bless him. He's allowed to do it. Heck, he won't pay me $40 million to go play for one of the worst teams in the league. Fine. If he can pay me $40 million a year.

But after the show that he put on, a little disappointing that he ended up going about it this way. Let's go to Saquon Barkley. Saquon Barkley.

He was on the Green Light podcast with Chris Long. This is Saquon on talking about potential retirement one day. I'll probably be one of those guys that it would be out of nowhere. I'll probably just wake up one day, whether it's next year or two years or four years, and just be like, yeah, it's over. I don't think I will ever lose that passion.

The competitive nature is always going to be there, but I like probably my favorite play all the time is Barry Sanders. So probably similar to that. Maybe one day it'll be out of nowhere. I'll probably be balling and just be like, yeah, call it quits. You know, I'll say a little bit. Tiki.

You know? You retire a little bit earlier than you should. I get that Barry Sanders is the most famous one, especially when you talk about the NFL. But the whole Tiki Saquon feud from a year ago, that'd be very Tiki Barber-like, which I don't fault you.

Make all your money, right? Saquon already has a championship, just had an MVP caliber type of year. So you look at Saquon Barkley's deal. He's an unrestricted free agent 2029. Is this the last contract of Philadelphia? You know, if I'm doing radio in Philadelphia today, is this his last contract in the NFL, this one that he just, you know, they added on to in Philadelphia? And could you be seeing, right, 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028? Do you even get four more years of Saquon Barkley? I don't know.

What else is there really? Hey, you guys have two more great years, right? What else is there really more to do for Saquon Barkley? Because Saquon's a guy that when he left the Giants, I don't know if he was a Hall of Famer, right? I think he was good, but he wasn't viewed with this much praise because there were some up and down years, some injuries and everything. But now after having this season, offensive player of the year, Super Bowl, you know, performance, a three-time Pro Bowler, led the league in rushing this past year. He'll have two more good seasons he probably ends up getting in the Hall of Fame. Saquon Barkley right now has 7,216 yards, 48 touchdowns, 2,378 receiver yards, 14 receiver touchdowns. Yeah, he needs a few more good years, don't get me wrong. But I think what he did this year was just this iconic that you start to now think more about the Hall of Fame with Saquon Barkley.

Let's go to something that will be in the Hall of Fame, definitely. That's Derek Henry. He was in the Dan Patrick show. Derek Henry Lamar Jackson in a race. Who ends up winning that one? What about 40-yard dash? What would you run it now? Probably the same run I ran it during the combine.

It was like 4, 5, 4, 4, 5, 2. If I had you in Lamar's race? Oh, I like me. I'm going to guess he likes him. Yeah, for sure. He's going to say he likes me.

He's laughing at me. Lamar Jackson ran a 4.34 at the 40. Lamar wins in a race up against Derek Henry, right, still?

I think so. He just feels faster, but Derek Henry is very fast, but I don't think he's Lamar Jackson fast at this stage. Now, if it's a 40-yard dash, I'd say Lamar, right? I'd take Lamar. If it was someone had to run into me, who would I rather have run into me? Lamar or Derek Henry would be Lamar all day. I would not want that. If Derek Henry ran into me, I think I would just poof into thin air, and there would be a lot of me to just poof. I'm a large guy.

That's one big dude in Derek Henry. Let's hear Rick Carlisle react to Tom Thibodeau getting fired. I get asked frequently about these things, and I always say shocked, you know, and then sometimes you get numb and you're not shocked, but, you know, the Knicks have such a unique situation. It's one of the most difficult jobs to take.

There were a lot of lean years, and, you know, Tibbs went in there and changed so much, and so when I first saw it, it came over one of the, you know, I thought it was one of those fake AI things, you know. There's no way. There's no way possible, you know, and I know how the players feel about him, too, and so Tom will certainly be fine. I don't think he's going to have any problem finding his next job.

This is going to depend on when he's ready to jump back in again, but I was surprised. I don't know if he's a head coach again, though. I think he may have to be an assistant.

I don't know if he'll be a head coach again in the NBA. Let's go to Pablo Torre. So him and Bill Simmons had this big beef, and then Bill Simmons had Pablo Torre on his podcast. You know, Pablo Torre, he's doing his job right. He's creating a lot of news. This Jordan Hudson, Bill Belichick story, all right, it is what it is. Get me to the football at this point.

Pablo Torre, it's a very good journalist, right? Enough. That's enough of Jordan.

I'd be fine. I don't ever have to hear Jordan Hudson's name again. Here is Pablo Torre, though, defending his reporting about Belichick and Jordan Hudson. What if I told you that Bill Belichick's own family has been deeply concerned about this?

No crap. What if I told you that his inner circle of actual coaches on staff, including a certain Mike Lombardi, is deeply concerned about Jordan Hudson? Lombardi probably jealous, because Lombardi has basically been in bed with Belichick for years, not actually being in bed. But has anyone sucked off the teat of Bill Belichick more than Mike Lombardi? Oh, he's one of the more insufferable human beings. Mike Lombardi. Oh, so arrogant. So insufferable. And this guy, if it wasn't for Belichick, he wouldn't have a job anywhere anymore, if we're just being honest.

But, man, yeah, he's probably jealous, just basically. What Jordan Hudson is is basically what Mike Lombardi is, right? The same person, except Mike knows more football and then Jordan just sleeps with Bill. That's pretty much it. Both of them need Bill, all right?

That's the bottom line. So I don't think Mike Lombardi will be coming on this show anytime soon. I'm not a fan of Mike Lombardi. He came on an interview with me when I was on 920 The Jersey, a little small radio program. And after like seven minutes, he goes, Zach, you're wearing me out? It's a long interview.

I've never done interviews this long. Talk to you next time. And I go, I only have one more question.

You're boring me to death anyway. Mike Lombardi. And that guy, see, my problem with Mike Lombardi, who, right, has been around for a long time, but he talks about the game as if he invented football. And then when he got to run the show by himself, how'd he do? Not that well. But you would think the way he talks, he's Bill Walsh or he's, you know, Vince Lombardi or he is Belichick.

Oh, man. Just hearing that guy speak just drives me nuts. Yeah, Belichick's kids should be concerned. Mike Lombardi, be fortunate you got a job, all right? Be fortunate that Bill still likes you. Enough of Mike Lombardi. But Pablo Torre. What if I told you this? What if I told you that? I ain't Pablo. Great. Riveting stuff.