Dalvin Cooked With Vikings (Hour 1)

Live from the play show yet not overly ostentatious studios of CBS Sports Radio here in beautiful New York City, sitting on top of the 10th floor of 345 Hudson Street. Welcome on in to what is a Thursday edition of the Zach Gelb show across all the great local CBS Sports Radio affiliates, Sirius XM, Channel 158, and that free Odyssey app. 855-212-4CBS, number to jump on in.

855-212-4227, you can always get at me on Instagram where I'm straight forward. You can also follow me on Twitter at ZachGelb, that's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. Alan Shipnuck is going to join us coming up at 820pm Eastern, 520pm Pacific.

Had a really good article today about the future of golf, so we'll delve into that with him. And then Ben Lieber is going to join us coming up at 920pm Eastern, 620pm Pacific on the day where it appears that we finally have an answer on what the heck is actually going to happen with Dalvin Cook. But first up, producing this extravaganza for the next four hours is someone that I got to give a standing ovation to. And I'm really happy with him, I'll tell you why in a second. That's the mother then, Hot Take Kiki. He's the producer, Hot Take Kiki. So Hot Take Kiki, we have noticed he has been a little bit of a mush, and he has put on the hickey hex. So instead of just hearing some of these predictions, and not actually capitalizing off of them, I elected to change that last night. And these are the first two bets that I have taken to just purposely fade hickey, and they both ended up hitting. So thank you very much Hot Take Kiki. I took the over last night on Jamal Murray and Jimmy Butler, both at 24 and a half.

You thought the under would hit on both, and I made a little dinero. So I do thank you right out of the gate, hickey. And I'll get to something in just a second that we both ended up getting wrong, but I just wanted to acknowledge you to start off the show today because your predictions ended up helping me last night. And I'm going to follow this now maybe for a while. Not every prediction that you make I'm going to bet, but ones that I potentially think are going to be following the hickey hex, I may put some money on them and then keep track of this moving forward. That is what I'm here for.

Well, we appreciate that. Now, I got to be fair here because I got something wrong, hickey got something wrong, and it seems like right when we kind of said this the other day, then shortly after that this news did happen. With the no movement on the Dalvin Cook situation, it appeared that maybe Dalvin Cook was actually against all odds going to stay with the Minnesota Vikings because we've now heard about this for several months that Dalvin Cook was going to get released. There was potentially a deal that was maybe close to be getting done with him and the Vikings on Miami Dolphins to send them to Miami by the draft you heard the talks from Albert Breer it was a third round pick, and that didn't end up coming to fruition.

And we were sitting here and waiting, and nothing ended up happening. So, hickey thought this I thought this as well, where maybe Dalvin Cook. If you're not going to get anything back for him is actually just going to be on the Minnesota Vikings this year I know they save money. But you have a team that just made the playoffs just won their division.

You have a loaded offensive roster the defensive side of the ball is an absolute disaster. But now you don't have Aaron Rodgers in that division and you just won that division. A year ago, so I was kind of looking at it as if we've been waiting and waiting and waiting for something to happen, maybe something wasn't going to happen because Joe Mixon was the same way. A lot of people were saying, don't be surprised if Joe Mixon is not in the Cincinnati Bengals this upcoming season. And then there was a report about a week, week and a half ago that now it's looking like Joe Mixon is going to be on the Bengals for 2023. And right after we both said that, boom, 2448 hours later, whatever it is, you get the report today that Dalvin Cook is going to be released, it will become official tomorrow.

Now you know how this does work. There could be a deal that gets done at the last second, and maybe Minnesota will actually get something back, but if that does not come to fruition. By tomorrow, then Dalvin Cook is going to get officially released at some point tomorrow. And that's the Vikings plan right now.

That's the way that it's being reported. The plan is to release Dalvin Cook. So this is the last ditch effort by the Minnesota Vikings to say, hey, if you want him and you don't want to get into a bidding war with someone else, he is available.

And here's what I don't understand about this, Hickey. I don't really outside of the money part of it. I don't get and we're so late into the process anyway, and I know the running back position is undervalued in this sport and the shelf life is very short for a running back. But Minnesota, even though I don't think they'll win a Super Bowl, but they should be going for it this year. You look at the NFC, you have Philadelphia, you have the San Francisco 49ers, and then it's everybody else. You can make a case that the Vikings are just as good as teams like, if not better than some of these teams, Dallas, Seattle, Detroit, when you start to look at who's the third best team in the NFC. And when you just developed a lot of credit inside your organization, bring in a new coach and Kevin O'Connell that everybody loves and is the complete antithesis of their old coach and Mike Zimmer.

Quasi Adolpho Mensah, a new general manager in the National Football League, that regime did a lot of good things and had a successful year one, even though in the postseason it ended in disastrous fashion. And we kind of talked about this yesterday when we were discussing Tennessee, just because a team may say they're going for it doesn't mean that they're actually going for it. And the direction of this football team in Minnesota, Minnesota is a much better team than Tennessee, and I'm just trying to figure out what is their direction right now. Defensively, they stink.

They've been bad defensively for a while. But on the offensive side of the ball, you have Kirk Cousins, who say what you want about Kirk. He's a good quarterback in this league.

He's not great, but he's good. You have Justin Jefferson. You just drafted Addison, the wide receiver out of USC, who went in the first round.

You have KJ Osborne, friend to show, who I think is very underrated. And now you're taking and getting rid of a guy that's had four straight 1000 plus yard rushing seasons and has been a really good player for you. And I like Alexander Madison. I think Alexander Madison is an underrated player in this league and have given more of an opportunity.

He'll be solid. And I know teams rotate through running backs just so easily. But when you're a team that could be the third best team in the NFC, you're really going to hit your wagon to Alexander Madison. And I know that when he's filled in for Dalvin Cook, he's done a nice job. But now you're asking him this late in the process with the draft already over the thick of free agency already done.

The trade market cooled off. You're asking Alexander Madison, the Boise State product, to be your number one back. So I kind of look at this as a move today that I don't like it. If I'm a Minnesota Vikings fan, I'm agitated by this.

And you could talk to me about the finances and the money that you save. The Minnesota Vikings this year, even though I don't think they could win a Super Bowl, they should be trying to go for this. When you have an NFC that is open and outside of Philadelphia and San Francisco, you don't have any other great team in the NFC. And you know how year to year football could be. The NFC could be right there for the taking. And if you're the third best team in the NFC, who knows what could happen with upsets and once you get into the postseason. But this move does not make Minnesota better today. And if you really don't get anything back in return or in the 11th hour, you get a deal done and get like a fifth or sixth round pick. Is this worth it?

I don't think so whatsoever. I would have gone back to the well with Dalvin Cook on the team this year. And have an offense with Justin Jefferson, KJ Osborne, Dalvin Cook, TJ Hockinson, Addison out of USC that you just drafted, and maybe you give more reps to Alexander Madison too. But I would not have outright released, which the way that it looks like it's trending, Dalvin Cook Hickey.

I didn't like this move whatsoever. Yeah, I'm with you just because again, what are you using the money for that you save? They have now the ninth most cap space in the league at just about under $20 million. What are you using that for this year? It's June 8th. It's not before for agency. It's not before the draft and maybe you're getting ready to pull off a big time trade and you're ready to give an extension to Justin Jefferson. It's right now late in the year where that $20 million is just going to kind of be sitting there and probably carried over to next year. And maybe they're looking to just save every penny to eventually get that Justin Jefferson deal done, but it's nothing that's going to affect the team for this upcoming year if you kept Dalvin Cook on the roster. So keep him this year and trade him next year. If you really want to move off of him that bad, I just don't understand why cutting him for nothing and basically saying we'd rather have you not on the roster and not have your four straight thousand yard seasons not on the team when we're competing and going for it rather than having him on there with his current salary. And even if you got into a situation where you kept him for one more year, it's the same outcome pretty much as it would be next year. If you try to trade him and no one really bites or if he has a down year, odds are that you're going to be releasing him tomorrow.

So you may as well just keep him around to the roster for another year and then release him after the season if that's really the way that you want to go. Now when you get into the next team for Dalvin Cook, and let's just assume that a trade doesn't get done in the 11th hour and he does become a free agent. I thought of these five teams as potential destinations for Dalvin Cook. And these are the first five teams I thought about in order where I think that there's a chance that he could actually go. Number one, it's Miami. The Dolphins have been linked to him and maybe there was a deal that was close to getting done right around the draft, which has been reported once again by Albert Breer. Already with the news today, he posted a photo of him playing at I think it's called Hard Rock Stadium now. They change their name like every third year or whatever it is.

So take that for what it's worth when you want to delve into all how we're trying to interpreting people and what they post on social media. But where there's smoke, there's usually a fire. There's been a lot of smoke with the Miami Dolphins.

That's one. Two of the New York Jets. You want to talk about a team that you may be iffy if they're a Super Bowl contender or not. The Jets have told you they're all in.

They think they're one of the teams that are a Super Bowl contender. If that's the case, I know you just drafted Breece Hall and then he got hurt and he was off to a really good start. I don't know what Breece Hall is going to be coming off this injury. And you could get a proven running back in Dalvin Cook. That would make a lot of sense to me and Hickey, maybe, just maybe, this is why Robert Sala the other day was saying that he had no interest in DeAndre Hopkins pretty much. And he loves his wide receiving room because maybe he had an inkling that this was right around the corner, Dalvin Cook being released. And maybe that's why he said that, because the Jets could potentially be more interested in Dalvin Cook than maybe DeAndre Hopkins is the way that they view that internally.

I hope not. I think if you're the Jets, I'd rather have DeHop than Dalvin Cook. If you're going to spend equal money-ish, I would rather have Hopkins. Well, is it going to be equal money? Dalvin Cook's not getting as big of a deal as potentially DeAndre Hopkins is looking for, I would imagine.

I don't know. The running back position is so undervalued right now in terms of paying running backs. And we see teams that win Super Bowls.

You need to run the football. But Bell Cow backs. We haven't seen one win a Super Bowl in a while.

Like, look at the Patriots, how many running backs they used throughout the year. Kansas City, Philadelphia, when they won a Super Bowl as well. Really, the last Bell Cow back, I guess you could say, to win a Super Bowl was Marshawn Lynch back with the Legion of Boom.

And still, that team was viewed more as a, you know, their big praise was really more of their defense, but Marshawn Lynch was absolutely phenomenal. So I look at the Jets as a potential destination, and it's not going to cost you as much as it would for DeAndre Hopkins. Another team that I'll throw out there, the Denver Broncos. You have Russell Wilson. I know there's been encouraging news on Javonte Williams.

I like Javonte Williams, but he's on a surefire lock to be a great player in this league. You go get Dalvin Cook. I think that's a good move by the Denver Broncos.

And I'll give you two more here. The Dallas Cowboys. You have Tony Pollard with one year left on that franchise tag. There's been some rumors. Maybe they're going to bring Zeke back.

You go get a nice little one-two punch of Pollard and also Dalvin Cook. That would be a good move for the Dallas Cowboys. And finally, the fifth team was tough because once you go through and rattle off four teams, it's like, okay, who else?

Money-wise, does it make sense? And who else could be interested? I'll give you another team that I like their roster. I just don't like what they have at quarterback because I don't know what they have at quarterback in Sam Howell.

It's the Washington commanders. I know that they have a little bit of a crowded running back room already with Bryan Robinson Jr. And you also have Antonio Gibson, but I don't think they love Antonio Gibson. It would not surprise me if, let's say, you do have the Cowboys maybe interested, that maybe the commanders tap into the Dalvin Cook market as well. So those are the five teams to me. Dolphins, Jets, Broncos, Cowboys, and commanders that I think could be interested in Dalvin Cook, assuming that he does get released at some point tomorrow. Hickey, for you, who are the teams that stand out to you? Who jumps out to you? To you, listen, Miami, for obvious reasons, that's been the team where, you know, that's been the most connected to him. And they obviously, they need a running back of his style.

It's more of a bruiser in between the tackles sort of guy. And also, I like the Broncos a lot as well. That's one where I don't think you can have enough talent in that room. Especially too, we've seen Russell Wilson, that's the guy who has most of his success off play action.

And if you get Dalvin Cook rolling and get the defense now starting to worry about the run, play action pass should open up right back for him and kind of get him back comfortable to what he was used to running in, in an area where he had a lot of success in Seattle. There's one team that we haven't mentioned. Probably one team that we should mention, but I don't think a lot of people are confident that team is going to make this move. So I'll tell you who that team is when the Zach Gelb show does continue in five minutes. You're listening to the Zach Gelb show.

How about that? I know that voice. That's Taylor Swift. Now, Hickey, I don't want to get attacked by the Swifties and canceled by the Swifties, but I'm going to ask you a question here and I hope the Swiftie group doesn't come after me. What's the name of that song, by the way? Anti-hero.

Okay. These Taylor Swift concerts, by the way, are crazy. How they have like 30,000 people outside the stadium just trying to listen to the music is something that I've never seen in my life. I've seen too many Instagrams now where mostly girls, but some guys, well, call it the best day of their life going to this concert.

So it is, I guess you could say, life changing. I guess, well, probably most of those people don't have kids, I would imagine, right? You know, or got married.

I would have to imagine if you... I know some got married and they would say sorry, you know, whoever their husband, fiance is. That's how powerful these Swiftie or the Swift concerts are. I feel like the Taylor Swift concerts, the majority of the crowd, probably girls like 22 and younger, I would say. 25 and younger.

Oh, no, no, no. This, she spans... No, no, I know that there's more people than just that. But if you had to say the majority of people, I would say that it's girls, what, 25 and under?

I'd probably say 40 and under? That's a much larger range. Yeah, no, I think it's way... It's not just teenage girls are in college and high school.

Like this is... I feel like I see a lot of photos... She's a close following. I understand that there's 30,000 people outside the stadium, but I feel like a lot of photos that I see, it's like teenagers going a lot with their fathers, too. I've seen a lot of fathers and daughters going.

Like Ray Martello works here. He was telling me about the ticket process and how he got tickets for his daughter. And he was even telling me, he goes, a lot of father and daughters at these Taylor Swift concerts. I think about when we were 10 years ago in high school and early college, she was still a big deal then.

Yeah, obviously. So it's like I'm saying, I think it's not just young girls. It's just, I think she's someone who, again, like majority of her fan base is a massive audience. I mean, you don't tour a lot.

I understand. Well, she's selling out stadiums that are 80,000 people. I'm saying if the majority of fans that are there, I'm saying I wonder what the age, what the majority of people there, if you had to break it down, what's the majority age group?

Like if you did 25 and younger, 25 to 40, 40 and up, I would imagine that the majority of the people, if you broke it down that way, would be 25 and younger. I'm probably, you know, maybe I'm wrong on that. Maybe I have no clue what I'm saying here. But anyway, I did see that there's a rumor about Taylor Swift. Now, she did break up with her boyfriend. I'm assuming that's been confirmed by now. Do you have any clue?

It's been rumored out there what NBA player she was seen out with in Arkansas this past weekend, or people are claiming she was out in Arkansas with someone. Oh, Austin Reeves. Mm-hmm. Wow. Now... Good for him.

Maybe not, though. Why's that? So his brother, Spencer Reeves, saw the article and quote-tweeted it with a bunch of laughing face emojis and then wrote, Austin going to the bar is the most unrealistic part of this whole thing, and then said, people believe everything.

Huh? If I was Spencer Reeves, and even if this wasn't true, that my brother is getting rumored, being rumored going out with Taylor Swift, I would let that kind of circulate a little bit. I wouldn't be so quick to shoot that down, Hickey. That would just be me. And I would agree.

Yeah, I definitely absolutely would let this marinate and have someone else kind of turn it down, not be the wet blanket per se. I'd be great if that's Austin Reeves. Good for him. I just wonder if it's true, though. Yeah.

What a rise for Austin Reeves, by the way. How old is Taylor Swift? Do you have any idea? Uh, no. I can look it up.

Around, like ballpark. I don't know. 35? Okay.

Let's see. Taylor Swift age. Taylor Swift is 33 years old, and Austin Reeves, 25?

All right. That's in dating range. That'd be a huge win for Austin Reeves. I mean, he's about to be a free agent, so we'll see, you know, if maybe his future is dependent on where Taylor is posted up.

I think she used to or still does have an apartment in New York City. So maybe all of a sudden the Knicks now are in play more than anyone thought. All of a sudden, if he goes to the Nets out of nowhere. Did you really just make this into a Knicks point? No, I said the Nets, too.

If you want to put the Sixers in because it's regional. But I just wonder now if you're Austin Reeves, and if this story is real and you maybe are seeing Taylor Swift, maybe now all of a sudden your decision this offseason becomes a little more complicated. If you're Taylor Swift, I don't know anything about her dating history in the past.

I know that it's like in every one of her songs. Are you really dating undrafted Austin Reeves? I know he's paved out a new path for you, but is that really your rebound right there?

That's what you're doing? Why are you talking with Austin Reeves? He's on the come up now.

I don't know. LeBron James has complimented him. She's much bigger than Austin Reeves. Like she's a global icon, obviously. She's top, I mean, probably behind Beyonce, right? Like second biggest singer. Well, let's not compare different musicians and things like that, especially Beyonce.

I saw Stephen A. Smith got into some hot water for that. You know, going back to the Super Bowl and the halftime show this year and all that. And with Rihanna comparisons to Beyonce. So just be careful when we're throwing out these names here.

Beyonce, Rihanna, Taylor Swift. I don't want people coming after you, Hickey. That's a lie. I'm not I'm not going down that rabbit hole and I'm not going down that foxhole with you. If you start to annoy people in the music world.

That's fine. They want to come after me. That's you talk about things I do not care about.

If Swifties are coming after me or the beehives coming after me for alleged disrespect when it's more, I would say ignorance because I don't know a lot about music and pop culture. Go ahead. Go at it. If you want to swing your sticks and beat me like a pinata, I guess. Have your have your way. You be careful.

Next. Next thing you know, next time you do one of those shower no cap segments and you walk out of your apartment, you have a lot of people lining up, throwing like stones at you, getting ready to jump. I mean, the cops, they're throwing stones at me. I don't think the cops are coming to save you, honestly.

Are they better? I don't know. They better.

I don't think the cops want to want to deal with the with the Swifties. That that seems like, you know, he just said something stupid. He made his bed. Now he's got to lie in it. That's what that's how I think the police would kind of say anything.

All I did was just throw out just haphazardly. Oh, tell us. That's probably the second biggest thing right now behind Beyonce.

It's not a it's not a definitive statement. It's more just making a point of how she is a global icon and also raises now on the rise and not now delve into this conversation, though. I love Beyonce.

I've told you for years. Beyonce is my childhood crush. I absolutely love Beyonce. That was one of the few times I was ever starstruck when I was in the same room as Beyonce at Radio Row. I was absolutely starstruck by Beyonce. I know Beyonce fans are crazy and I love Beyonce. Is Beyonce, though, having thirty to forty thousand people stand outside the stadiums to hear her shows? Because what Taylor Swift is doing right now, I've never seen anything like that.

Hickey. Yeah, I don't I don't know. I've never been in Beyonce concert show, so not been in concert in a long time, which I think also probably helps and kind of same with Taylor Swift. So maybe she goes on tour next year. We'll see the same thing.

But boy, these these fans are die hard. That is for sure. So we were talking about destinations for for Dalvin Cook. And one we did not mention was probably one that if this happened, if he was released a month ago, we would have mentioned. And that's the Buffalo Bills. I know they are strapped for cash and they don't have a lot of salary cap space. But if you're just trying to bring in one player, I don't even know what Dalvin Cook would get when he hits the open market now, because it's so late in this process.

So you could probably find a way to get a deal done for one player and move money around in other places if it's restructuring other guys contracts and open up some money that way. But you have his brother on the team and James Cook. You also brought in Damien Harris this offseason.

Motor Singletary is no longer there. It feels like Hickey, the Buffalo Bills should be a destination for Dalvin Cook. But it kind of feels as if the last two years we keep on attaching players to the Buffalo Bills, whether it's Christian McCaffrey, Odell Beckham Jr., DeAndre Hopkins.

Now, maybe some filtering over and saying that it's going to be Dalvin Cook as well. And anytime we throw a player out there to go to Buffalo, I know Von Miller signed there last year. But it just feels like the Bills never end up getting that player where the Bills should be all in. They should not leave any stone unturned because it is Super Bowl or bust for them now for back to back seasons. And I can't sit here and tell you I would have any confidence at the Bills, assuming you do have Dalvin Cook getting released tomorrow, are going to go on out there and get a deal done for Dalvin Cook. Yeah, no reason to believe whatsoever. I've given up on it personally of putting them as a contender for any of these big time names that are out there. If it happens, I'll be wrong and say, wow, I was surprised the Bills actually kind of pulled the trigger on one of these offseason or free agent moves, I should say. But until it happens and we see it again, you just can't take them seriously.

It's like a legitimate contender in the Diop sweepstakes and the Dalvin Cook sweepstakes, you name it, they're out. By the way, I have a very awkward question to ask you right now. OK. Who's doing updates? Who's this guy that just walked into the studio sitting to the left of me? A brand new father of three.

Oh, that's Marco Belletti. Congratulations, by the way. Thank you. So I did not know this. I knew obviously your wife was pregnant. You told us that and everything. But I was like two days late on finding out that your wife gave birth. And then I realized because we were talking about the morning show here, you had you then Pete the body Bellotti's wife and then D.A. 's wife, I think gave birth back to back to back days. If that was the three days in a row. That's what he told me.

I don't know. And I'll be fair. I actually just texted Bellotti today because I was kind of. You were busy. I was off the grid. I joked with him.

I was like, look, I was off the grid. I just I knew that he was soon. I knew D.A.

was coming soon. I haven't reached out to D.A. yet.

I should. I just found out today that they both had their kids because I was off the grid for a couple weeks. So I wasn't paying attention. I didn't realize. So if they were all three days in a row, that's actually that's kind of funny. I didn't know that. It was funny because we were sitting here and we found out about D.A.

and Pete the body Bellotti on the same day. And as I was saying this, I go, oh, do we ever find out if Marko's I know Marko's been out the last few days of Marko's wife gave birth yet. And he was like, yeah, two days ago.

I go, oh, nice that someone actually told me. And then I immediately I texted you because I felt bad, even though you're probably waiting and holding your breath for my. I mean, both you guys reached out. It was nice.

It was cool. Look, it's been it's crazy. Like the first couple of weeks, like it's not like it's, you know, now it's the third go around. I mean, they don't really do a lot.

Guys are vets. But I mean, like they don't do a lot when they're first born. So like that's not it's just getting the other kids and then, you know, corralling the situation and trying to keep up with everything. So I was a little slow on some of the other news that was going on. But that's kind of cool. There used to be a time around here whenever someone would give birth or someone's wife gave birth that they would send out an email and we would know there's been three babies that have been born.

That are associated with CBS Sports Radio talent and no emails about any of the three. Now, I will say this is child three for me. So you don't I've been here for all three. No, no, no. I've been here for all three.

There was never an email that was sent out for me. So but now you're full time. So I think it's different. Oh, really? Is that how it works? Because it didn't come out for this one either. So I think you're all your little things kind of fallen through here.

And again, that doesn't matter. A lot of people reached out and I appreciate it. But again, it was we knew it was coming. It was a little unexpected exactly because I was here at work and I got the text from my wife.

Hey, can you come home? So that was fun. And we're joking about actually happened to a point. It was now to be clear, Marco was hosting. That was your first ever show on W.F.A.N., right?

Correct. Couple of days before. So I was saying the best thing for Marco would be if right as he gets on his on the air, his wife calls the hotline or calls the newsroom, however, get in contact with Marco and says, I'm going into labor. My water just broke or whatever. I thought that would have been great.

It would have made all the sports radio blogs and everything. So you were here for I was here Tuesday night. It was 140 in the morning and I got a text from my wife. Hey, do you think you could make it home a little earlier? Because normally I get I leave here for I'm home by five. And it was like, can you get here a little bit earlier? Could somebody cover you for the rest of it? I think you need to come home. So again, I wrote I was like, are you telling me to come?

She's like, yeah, I think I'm telling you to come home. So within 15 minutes, put a bunch of stuff on tape out the door, flying, ran home, got home by three. Got my other kids to my mom's, got to the hospital by four.

Someone was born seven thirty in the morning, so it was kind of a frantic few five, six hours. I didn't do anything, but and the name of your son, Matthew. Matthew. What's the middle name? Vito. I like that. Matthew Vito Balletti.

Yeah. What's the middle name of your other son? We got Michael Emilio Balletti. OK. Madeline Rose Balletti. Now Matthew Vito.

How about that? So the Marco Balletti kid grouping is is growing. The roster is growing.

Yeah. Well, I think the roster needs to be set at this point. I don't think we need to be adding any people to the 40 man. I think we're set here. I think we're done. I think we're done.

You don't want to add two defenseman for the for the. I think we're good. I think we're good.

We're already got one in the shed and, you know, one on the roof. I think we're good. How's your son doing? Because by the way, you're your first son. I feel as if he's like a 40 year old man already. He's so mature.

He's going to be nine going on to going on 45. You know, he's got all three personalities wrapped up into one. And he's good.

He wasn't too keen on another edition, I will admit. And he's the first one to tell you that. But I can tell he's starting to warm up, you know, catch the glimpse. You know, he's helped him with the pacifier. I saw him like playing with his foot like I could. I think he's now now that he's here, now that he sees him in front of him, I think he realizes, oh, man, I got a little brother that I got to take care of.

So I think he's been good about it. And my daughter is following him around like a puppy. I can't go.

I can't do anything. She follows him up the stairs to be like, oh, change. Yeah. No, I mean, she's like almost like she's had a baby, like she feels like it's hers. You know, she says, is my baby brother.

So she follows him around everywhere he goes, which has been fun. Well, congratulations to you and your family, obviously. And it's good to have you back. Appreciate it.

All right. He's at the show CBS Sports Radio. We will take a break when we come on back.

The Nikola Jokic Jamal Murray show continues to roll two wins away from Denver, getting the Larry O'Brien trophy. You're listening to the Zach Gelb show. By the way, a little update on that Beyonce conversation. Hecky Beyonce is back on tour. She has a bunch of stops scheduled here in the U.S. football stadiums, MetLife Stadium, also Lincoln Financial Field, Nissan Stadium, Soldier Field in Chicago, going to Huntington Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Ford Field in Detroit, Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Acresher Stadium in Pittsburgh. I think I said FedEx Field. FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland. Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

And we could just keep on going. Levi Stadium, SoFi Stadium. So Beyonce is back on tour. I wonder, since we've seen, we were talking about the Taylor Swift thing and how she may or may not be dating Austin Reeves.

And I just said, I've never seen it. And I love Beyonce. I've never seen so many fans that don't have a ticket stand outside the stadium. If the next time Beyonce goes on tour, if you'll have fans like that standing outside the stadium without a ticket. I thought the Bruce Springsteen ticket process was crazy, but Bruce doesn't have as big of a star Bruce is. And it's also the leg of the tour that we were on already was inside, you know, indoor stadiums. But even when I've been to countless amount of outdoor stadium shows for Bruce, there's not 20 something thousand people standing outside the stadium. That scene that I saw of the Taylor Swift fans, the Swifties at Lincoln Financial Field was something that I've never seen before. There must have been 20, 25 thousand fans standing outside the stadium without a ticket. I mean, she single handedly crashed Ticketmaster. Yeah.

Like that's how for like how many people are on the website at the same time? I can't tell the last time. Maybe it's happened. I don't know.

I've heard that before, but that there's like trying to like be reforms about this. That's how big of a deal this was. It was.

Well, I'll tell you this. So I know someone that bought two tickets for Taylor Swift when it was here in New Jersey and they walked up to the gate to get in. The tickets were fake. Whoever sold them to them, they were fake.

And it was a scam and all that. The security then said, you have to leave the parking lot, not because they had fake tickets, just because they did not have a ticket. So they were enforcing that at MetLife Stadium, because I guess they didn't want I didn't think there was anything wrong in it. But you have so many people there as is. They didn't want those crowds of people forming outside of MetLife Stadium. But how much does that suck? You go, you buy the tickets, thinking you're going to the concert, you're all pumped up and you get right to the gate.

Uh, ma'am, your your tickets are fake. That's just miserable. There might not be a worse feeling. Ozzy, you're excited. You're looking forward to it.

And literally what? An hour-ish before this event that I'm sure you're looking forward to spend a lot of money on. You get the news that, by the way, what you did, you just got scammed. And those tickets are so tough to get. It's not as if you just go on your phone and you could easily purchase two other tickets. With already spending an arm and a leg as you already did, you'd have to spend another arm and a leg to get those tickets last second as well. You may have to put your house up for sale immediately, get some sort of down payment immediately, and then use that to buy two more tickets before the show starts.

You would probably have to take out a loan. So last night was awesome in the NBA. I know that the game was a blowout once the Nuggets did take over in the third quarter. But what Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray did, no one has ever seen before where you have two players on the same team. And I'm actually shocked by this, Hickey.

I know it's so tough. But to have a 30-plus point triple-double? When I heard that last night, and I first heard it from Mike Malone when he was going after the press room in Miami. He wasn't thrilled with the setup of the press room. He said it was a historical night.

And I go, oh, why? Because Denver took a 2-1 lead. And I knew both those players had triple-doubles, but I didn't realize that that was the first time ever in the sport that you had two players go for 30-plus point triple-doubles.

I know that's not an easy thing to do, but you would have thought at one point in the history of basketball you would have had someone, regular season, postseason, one team, have a duo that had 30-plus point triple-double. So it was a great performance. Joker's insane.

We all know that. Jamal Murray got that rebound right at the end. But what a performance last night from Joker and also Jamal Murray. And it shows, one, the selflessness that the entire Nuggets team plays with. Where they're willing to pass, they're willing to do the dirty work, they're willing to rebound. And it also shows again just how consistent and how well-rounded this team is. Where you can have your two biggest stars excel in two areas that are really kind of gritty and dirty in the sense of getting rebounds and then assists as well, finding teammates.

You see plenty of guys that have no problem scoring. And we've seen especially Jamal Murray and Nicole Jokic both light up the stat sheet in terms of points. But to again, dominate the glass the way they did to find teammates and get guys like Christian Brown going and have him have a really big finals game as well.

It speaks to why I think this Nuggets team is going to be champions soon is they are truly selfless. And then also for the Joker side of it, we talked about what they did as teammates, but he also becomes the first ever player with 30 points, 20 rebounds and 10 assists in NBA Finals history. So the final stat line for Nicole Jokic was 32 points, 21 rebounds, 10 assists. And for Jamal Murray, he goes for 34 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists as well.

And you know what's crazy about this when you talk about Joker having 10 assists and Jamal Murray having 10 assists? Just how bad can Tavius Caldwell-Pope and also Michael Porter Jr. have been on the offensive side of the ball in this series? Can Tavius Caldwell-Pope last night was 0-3 from the field. Michael Porter Jr., who was shooting a lot more in the first two games of this series, goes 0-2 from 3, 1-7 from the field.

Can Tavius Caldwell-Pope, 1-4 from the field. Those guys have not got going offensively, and still you have a Denver team that is up 2-1. And I know Game 2 they lost, but you see how they were still able to go in that 40-14 run Denver. And even Miami looked like they were going to pull away in that fourth quarter in the final two minutes. Denver still put up a fight, and if Jamal Murray hits that three, that game goes to overtime. And I can guarantee you this, if that game goes to overtime, we're probably sitting here today where this series is 3-0.

Because I don't think if that game gets to overtime that Denver was going to lose that game. And just speaks to the incredible depth that the Nuggets have, where again you can have two out of the four or two out of the five starters be almost irrelevant. Slash a net negative in Porter Jr. and KCP. And you still have guys like Christian Brown and Bruce Brown come off the bench and playing really well. And again, making impactful plays in the second half of a Finals game on the road. So many things going against them. And you usually see guys, especially Christian Brown's situation being just a rookie, guys shrivel up in that moment.

They play really well, they're really well coached. And again, I think the word I keep coming back to is selfless. They truly are excited to see everyone else succeed. There's no one who points a finger at themselves or says, I want to be the star, I want the ball. And I think that starts with Nicole Jokic just being a truly selfless superstar.

And that's what makes Nicole Jokic great. And I just think the commentary by some is just absolutely laughable when they say that this guy is boring. Or, oh man, I'd rather see other guys in the NBA Finals.

How much time do we spend bitching about how many guys quit on their team and things like that? Here you have a player in Nicole Jokic who is one of one, he's an absolute unicorn. He's the best player in the sport right now. And Hickey, I really do believe he'd be happier if you asked him, would you rather have 20 assists or let's say 40 points? I think he'd rather have 20 assists than 40 points in a game. This dude loves getting other guys on his team to eat and other guys to shine. And you can't stop him. We talked about this the other day, make him a scorer and try to take away everybody else.

And saying that's probably the best way to go at it. And I forget who we had on, but someone was saying just kind of try to take one or one and a half things away that he does really well. He never plays a bad game. This dude, even when he doesn't have a great game, it's still so impressive what he does. And last night you just saw the dominance of Nicole Jokic when he puts up 32 points, 21 rebounds in 10 assists. But you're right, that selfless mentality and that no ego really does resonate with this team and it's what makes this team so great. And it's just an absolute joy to watch Joker and Murray dominate at this elite level.

And there's no question about it, they are the best duo in the NBA right now. We'll get into that a little bit later on in the show, some other names that could be infringing on their territory. But right now the turf is theirs and they are now two wins away from hoisting that Larry O'Brien trophy. Zach Gelb shows CBS Sports Radio, we'll take a break, we'll come on back.

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