Damian Lillard On The Move? (Hour 1)

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That's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. Cameron Young, the reigning PGA Tour Rookie of the Year, is going to stop by 20 minutes from now. We'll do a little college football fix at 7.20 p.m. Eastern, 4.20 p.m. Pacific with Elijah Warner of the Temple Owls football team.

Of course, his father is the legendary Hall of Fame quarterback in Kurt Warner, and then at 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 p.m. Pacific. I gotta investigate some of these rumors going around the NBA, so we'll bring in our NBA insider and talk show host here at CBS Sports Radio in the great Bill Ryder. But first up, producing this extravaganza for the next four hours is no other than Hot Take Hickey.

This dumb producer, Hot Take Hickey. Hickey, I have a big revelation to say right out of the gate today. And I'm very close, and I think this is going to surprise you in a big way. Because you've heard me now for years tell anybody that would listen how much I love Damian Lillard and how much Damian Lillard is my favorite player in the NBA. But I am inching closer and closer.

I would say I'm on about a 95-yard drive right now, and it's first and goal, ball is at the 5-yard line. That is how close I am to denouncing my fandom for Damian Lillard. Because I am sick and tired of, is Dame going to stay?

Is Dame going to go? And at one time, the reason why I really did enjoy Damian Lillard is because of that loyalty that he had to Portland. But at this point, the loyalty is stupidity.

The loyalty is insanity. You have given everything you can and then some to Portland. And I love Portland. I love it. I vacation there.

It is an awesome place. But Damian Lillard keeps on giving that organization the benefit of the doubt, and they keep on wasting his prime years. And if the NBA draft comes and goes, and Damian Lillard is still on the Portland Trail Blazers, I will be severely disappointed. And then, if we are sitting here for the first game of the basketball season this year, and Damian Lillard is still on Portland because a trade could still happen after the draft, I will no longer be a fan of Damian Lillard.

And these reports are all conflicting. People have him getting traded. People have him staying.

Like, we don't know how this is going to go. But the latest stuff that I've read today from Draft Express, that the Trail Blazers intend to hold on to the number three pick and select Brandon Miller or Scoot Henderson unless they receive an incredible deal. Portland's goal is to remain competitive with Damian Lillard and build a future with Anthony Simmons and Shaden Sharpe and the number three pick. Then you get from Jake Fisher that the Blazers are prepared to make a significant offer to the Miami Heat for Bam Adebayo. Portland, according to Jake Fisher, is targeting either Bam Adebayo or Clippers all-star guard Paul George.

That is from Yahoo Sports' Jake Fisher. So let me just go through this. If your plan is to draft either Brandon Miller or Scoot Henderson, fine. That's what you should do if you're Portland with the third overall pick. And if you want to continue to build around this young core with Anthony Simmons and Shaden Sharpe, no problem with that. But are you really going to remain all that competitive?

Are you really going to, if you're Damian Lillard, are you going to sit there and go ahead with this? Because I don't think that group is anywhere close to contending for a championship. And they may only have two to three more really good prime years left. And are you really going to sit there and wait for all the youngsters and wait for this team to get ready to go win?

And by the end, you're going to be past your prime. And it's almost as if Dame is apprehensive of being the bad guy. Logically, we're right past that. You're not going to be the bad guy.

You've stayed in Portland longer than anyone could have expected you to. So why don't you just say it's over? It's done. Use the number three overall pick. Go on out there. Go select Brandon Miller and Scoot Henderson. Build with the guys that you have and I'll get dealt somewhere else.

You'll get a whatever resources back to continue to build this thing. You get the best for you guys moving forward and I get the best for me moving forward as well. And I like how John Fanta put it last night. If Portland or Charlotte trades the second or third overall pick for Zion Williamson, it would be idiotic. And Zion Williamson could be a great player. Zion Williamson, I'm going to use a word that I hate to use, has a very high ceiling.

I feel dirty just saying that. But the problem with Zion Williamson is the dude is never healthy. I don't want to hear all this nonsense off the court, whatever's going on with Mariah Mills and 9000 different women.

That stuff doesn't annoy me. That doesn't impact him on the basketball court. But you also then see today Damian Lillard liking a tweet where Zion Williamson, according to Bill Simmons, is expected to be on the move.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And some fan tweets in. Get him to the trailblazers, Damian Lillard. And Dame likes that tweet. So what is Portland's big grand plan where Damian Lillard should want to stay? And Dame is just so easily convinced to stay because they get Zion Williamson. Or if you want to recreate what Miami could do, where you just get to a championship and you don't win it when you get Bam out of bio there, God bless. And if you wanted to get Paul George a few years ago, OK, I'd be all ears. And Paul George had a nice playoff run finally a few years ago.

But Paul George has his own injury problems. So I look at all these potential options out there. None of this makes sense. Like if you're Portland, sure.

You want to try to elongate this window and you want to try to rebuild quickly. And you think getting Bam and or getting Paul George or getting Zion is going to help increase your odds of winning a championship. Sure, you become a better team. But all three of those guys like Bam is really, really good. I don't think he's great. Paul George has injury problems. Zion Williamson, you think Paul George has injury problems? Zion Williamson has that and then some.

It's the perfect time where everything's lining up. Where the way that people talk about Scoot Henderson and the way that people talk about Brandon Miller, even though they get overshadowed in this draft because of how generational Viktor Rambunyama is supposed to be. It's almost as if we forget there's other players in this draft outside of Viktor Rambunyama. And there is serious words of praise being said for basketball wise with Brandon Miller and Scoot Henderson. But to expect those youngsters to come together right away and compete for a title with Damian Lillard, I just don't see that.

And it's amazing to me. How in an era of player empowerment now where NBA players run the league. How they're allowing how Dame is allowing Portland to call the shots.

See what you could do and then we'll have a conversation. And, you know, they've had to had names behind the scenes that they floated to Dame that Dame obviously likes. But right now. Where I'm disappointed in Dame is he's giving this organization the benefit of the doubt once again. And I don't think there's going to be enough that could happen from now until Thursday night or after Thursday night, we look at Portland and we say, wow, Dame has a great chance to contend in the next year or two. And that's why I'm getting disappointed with Dame, because for so many years we've appreciated and loved his loyalty. But now this loyalty is just insanity. I don't want to hear about Portland maybe getting Bam out of bio.

Bam. Stay in Miami with Jimmy Butler and the heat. I know Pat Riley's gassing up Tyler Herro today, but get rid of Tyler Herro and picks whatever you have and go get Dame Lillard.

It just makes too much sense. For Dame Lillard to leave and for him to go to Miami. And it's almost as if Dame is just saying, I'm going to trust Portland to figure this thing out.

And I just can't understand that, Hickey. And that's why I'm sitting here today. And I'm not totally jumping off the Dame bandwagon just yet, but I'm entering closer and closer and closer. And I am at the point where if Dame is still on this team. By the start of the season, I just don't get I'm going to root for him any much longer moving forward because it frustrates me that a dude that is that great is not going to have a legit shot outside of getting to a Western Conference Finals where they got swept to go win an NBA championship. He's been so loyal. We all tip our cap to him because of that loyalty. But it's time to end this relationship with Portland and go to Miami.

And it seems like everyone can say that. I think a lot of people understand that's the best thing for his career. But Dame doesn't get that. And I don't know why Dame doesn't get that yet.

And that's the confusing and that's the frustrating part to me. And you look at it from the Blazers perspective, I mean, from from their view, trading Damian Lillard is the best thing for their future because, yeah, you trade the number three pick for who? Zion, for Bam Adebayo, for whoever right now. You're not getting a piece back that you feel you can absolutely in a short window capitalize with it and go to multiple Western Conference Finals and maybe reach the finals and win a championship. Your best route is exactly what the Wizards just did. Trade away your best player. But unlike Washington, you can get a lot more back for Dame Lillard. Plus, use that number three overall pick to kind of now build your team around that guy you take if it is a guy like Scoot Henderson or Brandon Miller.

And now hit the reset button and kind of get off to a quicker start in terms of rebuilding faster than you would if you try to basically, you know, superglue this broken team together when it's not going to actually work. Which report do you believe more in? The one by Draft Express that says the Blazers intend to hold on to the number three pick and select Brandon Miller Scoot Henderson unless they receive an incredible deal. Or the one that says the Blazers are prepared to make a significant offer to Miami for Bam Adebayo or maybe even to the Clippers for Paul George.

Definitely the first one. Makes too much sense. I don't think they're that dumb to take a chance and almost throw away the third pick on a guy like Bam Adebayo or a guy like Paul George.

Especially with Paul George who has shown you he can't stay healthy. I don't think they're that dumb. So I will say first one. And then the follow up on that first report, because I agree with you.

I think the first report just sounds more right than the second one. But the follow up, the next line on that first report is Portland's goal is to remain competitive with Dame Lowett and build for the future with Anthony Simons and Shaden Sharpe and the number three overall pick. Well if I'm Dame, the goal isn't to just remain competitive. It's to go all in to go win a championship. So how does that line up? If you tell the organization pretty much the ball is in your court, they make a pick at three. You have two other younger players as well that are highly regarded. But how does that make sense if you're Dame to then say, oh yeah, I'm still on board with that and I'm going to stay with the Portland Trail Blazers.

That's the part that I can't wrap my head around. If he does that, where he stays with these youngsters just to remain competitive, then he really lost me. Because I hate to say it, then it feels like, and I know this guy wants to win a championship, but then it looks like a move where you're just going to eliminate your prime window and your prime years to really go win that championship. This is really the first offseason where actually push is coming to shove where it sounds, again from Damian Lillard's perspective, and he's put this out there, the ball is in the Blazers court. If they pick number three, and if you're Portland and Dame doesn't say I want out, I think you're rolling with Dame.

I don't think it's the best thing for him, but I don't think picking number three, if he doesn't say anything, if he doesn't actually say I want out of here, I don't think if you're Portland and you say okay, we're going to trade you after you take the number three pick, I think you've got to hear it from him. And then that's truly where words and actions will come to a head. He talks a big game of wanting to win a championship, and Portland does what's right for their future and drafts at number three. If he doesn't say anything, he's all talk, no action.

If he does, then you'll finally see him kind of back up his words. You know what would kind of be the perfect ending for Dame here? If like in five years these youngsters, let's say, are at an elite level, and then Dame is kind of old and still playing a role, but not what he once was, and that's when they finally win that championship. I kind of feel like that's when Dame would want to win the championship when he's 37-38 past his prime, but he stayed in Portland, and finally the organization got their damn act together. Props to him that he would get his championship. He would have his cake at that point, and he'd eat it too.

Oh my God. Victor Wambunyama, by the way, we all know he's a large man. He is holding a baseball as he's throwing out the ceremonial first pitch this evening at Yankee Stadium. That baseball, Hickey, looks like when you hold a grape in your hands. He's holding a baseball. You could barely even see the baseball because his fingers are pretty much covering the entire thing in the palm of his hand. I really hope that this guy turns out to be as great as how people are hyping him up to be. I've seen very little of him. But I really hope he's as great as what they're saying because we've never seen a guy this big, and I know he's very skinny, and he's going to have to put on some weight. But I've never seen a guy that is supposed to be this great at, what is he, like 7'3", 7'4", whatever he is.

It's just incredible. It almost looks like a video game, Hickey. He is holding what would be our equivalent of a pool ball. A pool ball is smaller than a baseball.

We all, for the most part, can wrap our hands around it. His entire hand is wrapped around the baseball where his thumb and his middle finger can touch around the ball. I know he's tall, and you see him against other players he's tall. That is the first time for me where I'm looking at him compared to other things we normally hold.

Like, wow, this guy is huge. Remember at the NBA store? Is the NBA store still around?

I think it is in the city. I may be wrong on that, but they have the handprints of the guys on the basketball. They've got to get his handprint in New York City, and maybe we'll do a little show trip out there, a little show field trip out there to just see where our hands line up with Victor Wambunyama.

Because that's crazy. If my entire palm is able to reach the base of his middle finger, I'll take it. Like, if my entire hand is able to just meet where the middle finger starts above the palm, I will say that's a win. Do you have small hands, by the way?

No. Let me see your hands. I have pretty big hands. Yeah, you actually do have pretty big hands.

That was kind of surprising. I work with you every day, but I've never looked at your hands, really. Pretty big hands.

It was good in high school when I was a receiver. Now, not so much. Probably a lot of jammed fingers, broken fingers that you had as well. A few. A few, but tough to match. Didn't miss a game.

Not to brag. I was out there. Yeah, because they only had, like, Cal Ripken on the roster.

Cal Ripken Jr. The Iron Man is what they called me. Yeah, sure.

Dislocated, pinky, jammed fingers. Still out there. Real tough guy.

I'll take Kiki. The definition of a Long Island tough guy. That's right.

You said it, not me. Cameron Young will join us next at the Zach Gelb Show right here on CBS Sports Radio. And now joining us is the reigning PGA Tour Rookie of the Year in Cameron Young. Cameron, appreciate the time as always. How you been?

Yeah, no problem. Doing alright. Just got in nine holes here at the Travelers. Just trying to get my work done after getting in last night from US Open. Well, it's a beautiful golf course, and I've been to Cromwell, Connecticut a bunch for the Travelers.

They do a wonderful job. I know you got the Pro-Am tomorrow, and then the big tournament gets underway on Thursday. How have you been enjoying the experience so far?

It's good. I'm playing it for the first time this year. I came and watched the tournament when I was in high school, but I haven't played the golf course. So I saw the back nine today, and I'll play the front in the Pro-Am tomorrow.

But yeah, it's a beautiful spot. That back nine, I feel like, is a lot of fun. And I'm excited to see the other side tomorrow and kind of get my work done and then ready to go Thursday.

You've had a lot of immediate success. I'm just wondering, when you talked about that this has been a place that you've been a fan of before and you've gone to as a fan, how surreal is it now when you actually get to be a part of all these tournaments and you see kids kind of screaming your name trying to get your autograph and all that stuff? Yeah, it's really cool. It does feel like a very short time ago that I was kind of just a golf fan. I was playing many tours and stuff like that, and it's been two and a half years probably since then, and obviously a lot has changed for me in a very good way. But one of the fun things is seeing those kids, and I try really hard to take as much time as I can to even practice rounds, going over the ropes and signing some things and spending some time each day just interacting with some fans, especially the kids, because that's what it's all about, and that's a lot of fun for me.

Cameron Young here with us. Looking at your roots and your origins, I know that your father is the head golf pro at Sleepy Hollow Country Club in Scarborough, New York. Just speak to me a little bit about how you fell in love with the game and then when you started to realize, okay, this is not something I just enjoyed doing with dad.

This is something I could one day maybe do for a living. Yeah, it started just like you said. My dad was in the business and my mom played golf, and it was a great way for me to spend time with the two of them. So they always took me out and said, you don't have to play, but you're going to come out with us anyway. And I think some days, some days I kind of just picked up sticks in the woods and some days I'd hit a few, but it started just a good way for me to hang out with my family. And then probably, I started playing tournaments maybe when I was nine or 10, and started really taking it seriously, probably 13, 14 years old.

That's when I started to really practice and obviously kind of right around then is when college stuff starts, you know, 14, 15 years old, early high school. So I was kind of thrown into that world pretty quickly realizing that I could go play in college and kind of once you realize that, then you start looking at, you know, could be a career, depending on how that goes. And I feel like it came at me pretty quick and I've been very blessed with the opportunities to play, you know, in school and then I was around the PGA Tour. We've mentioned that you were the reigning PGA Tour Rookie of the Year. We know last year at the PGA Championship, you tied for third, you finished second in the Open Championship this past year at the Masters, you finished tied for seventh. When you look at this journey so far professionally, what have been some of the things that you're most proud of, Cameron Young?

I think that major performance. I've pretty much either been like close to winning or missing the cut. I think last week at the U.S. Open was probably my most middle of the road finish.

I finished 32nd. But I think that tells me a lot about what I can do going forward because those are, you know, the best fields in golf and the hardest tests. So I think proving to myself my ability to compete, you know, on that stage has been a lot of fun. And I think I would love to bring a little bit more consistency to what I do throughout the year, but being able to perform it in those events has been a lot of fun. And I think really good for me to, you know, just have the feeling that I can, you know, stay around the league for four days in a tournament like that.

It's been an awesome experience for me. So many people just focus on if you're able to win a major championship or not. With those previous experiences, I got to imagine you have that confidence that you feel like you're close to getting a major championship. Yeah, for sure. I think I've proven to myself well enough that I can win on the PGA Tour and win a major.

I haven't done it yet, obviously. But I think being that close enough, you have to believe that, you know, it's just a bounce here or there or a putt throughout four days. And if you're that close, your game's got to be good enough to win when it's your time. I've definitely had some struggles this year. I feel like last year was a little bit easier, honestly.

I've had some struggles mentally and haven't played quite as well, especially recently. But I feel like I'm really coming out the other side of that. Last week was a huge step in the right direction. So I'm excited for the upcoming events this week at the Travelers.

And then, you know, I've got one more major left. So I'm excited for the next few weeks and to kind of finish my season off the way that I can be proud of. You know how up and down this sport can be when you talk about those struggles. Just how do you kind of work on fighting through those struggles to get the best version out of yourself? I'm still trying to figure it out.

That's why they've lasted so long, I think. I think everybody's different. I've gone through it before. And I really think I'm coming out the other side.

So it's all very individual for me. It's just a lot of work on acceptance and realizing I've put in enough work to be proud of. And I've prepared myself as well as I can.

And at some point, you don't have control over everything that happens. That's a very hard thing for me to accept because I think, like all golfers, you want to be perfect at everything. But feeling like I'm doing my job well and I'm preparing myself well and eventually kind of the results take care of themselves. So I've been working on trying to think better in that way.

I think it's going to help me a lot. And I think sometimes people forget you're only 26. You've had so much success and so many accolades thrown your way. You've still got to kind of navigate and figure out how you handle all that success and all that praise. Yeah, life's definitely changed a lot. My family has changed a lot, too.

I've got two little kids at home. And learning just to manage life is difficult. I obviously am still pretty young. I definitely don't have everything figured out, not even close. So I'm still learning every day. And this job is different than a lot of them. So it's hard to find people to ask for advice sometimes. But it's been a lot of fun.

And I think as I get more and more settled out here, life gets easier. I think that'll show in my golf as well. Talking to Cameron Young. So we've all seen people tee off and hit the ball way left. I've never seen the ball land in a golf cart right where the ball is supposed to go. Like what happened to you Saturday at the U.S. Open. How'd you react to that one? Because as I said, I've seen people.

I've done it 9,000 times. Bowl goes all the way left. Never land where you hit it, though.

Yeah, that was that was very far left. But yeah, I mean, initially reaction is kind of like. I feel like everybody's kind of laughing and like I'm in the middle of Saturday at the U.S. Open, like playing OK, and I've just hit it like 50 yards left. So I'm upset. I was able to get a chuckle out of it, thankfully. But yeah, I mean, it's one in a million.

I don't know how often that's happened. And for the relief actually worked out really poorly. I still had some like boxes in my way and a shot like tower.

So I got to drop it there and it was still a bad spot. But thankfully managed OK. I think I made it four, which was a pretty good accomplishment. Yeah, I was just going to say people go out there on Twitter and say, see, he's one of us.

And I go, no, he isn't. He ended up par in that hole. It would have taken me another six shots, probably. Yeah, no, it was honestly I really couldn't have done it. I couldn't have played it much better than I did from there.

Took one of the easiest goals, probably on that off course and made it really, really hard. But yeah, no, that was actually actually a really big momentum wise. I made probably like an eight or nine footer for par after playing a really nice front nine. And I feel like I didn't get a ton out of. So that would have been a huge bummer to make bogey there. But yeah, I mean, that's kind of what those what the U.S. opens are about. You make some good pars to keep your momentum.

And that was one of them for sure. I've always wondered the impact of a crowd. A lot of people said the crowd wasn't as great and other U.S. opens that they've seen because there was a limited amount of tickets being made to the public. Does not having a big crowd at a big event like a major championship, could that all impact a golfer?

I'm sure it does for a lot of people or some people. I'm honestly like really oblivious to what's going on around me most of the time, especially when I'm like fighting during a golf tournament. So I feel like I don't notice some things like that very much. I heard a lot of comments about it.

I felt like. For the most part, there were some good golf fans. I don't know if there weren't as many as they would have hoped, but I didn't notice anything major.

It wasn't something that I was focused on on the way out with Cameron Young. A big topic of conversation currently has been the merger PGA Tour live golf and European tour had a few weeks to digest that. I know there's still a lot of unknowns, but how do you look back when you found out about that news and what are your thoughts on it?

You know, it's I think it's right now. It's a hard thing to have many thoughts on. Nobody seems to know a lot. And I think it's just one of those times you have to exercise some patience and kind of see what comes of it before you can make a great judgment of it. You know, there's there's some smart people on both sides there and obviously don't have all the information. So it's really hard to say what I really think of it.

I'm just kind of taking the approach of being patient and waiting to see see what comes of it. Were you at the meeting with Jay Monahan at the right before the Canadian Open? And if you were, what can you tell us about it? I was not at that player meeting. No, I figured it was going to be a lot of yelling, so I just didn't attend. And I just wonder, because for two years, people tell you, don't take the money, don't take the money. Now, everyone looks back at it and said, see, the guys that took the money ended up winning. Is there regret that you didn't end up joining live golf? I mean, I think I'm I'm happy where I'm playing.

This is still the greatest place in the world to play golf. And like I said, I think one side or the other winning, I think, is kind of a preemptive judgment. I think it's really hard to tell at this point what's going on.

I don't think anyone knows that. Well, I think a lot of that is speculation on how everything's going to work. So like I said, I think it's just a matter of waiting to see to see what's real and what's just on Twitter.

So just one of the signs, I think you have to wait and see see what what comes of it. And, you know, obviously, I hope it works out well for for us in the PGA Tour in the long run and we'll see what happens. And who knows what the future of golf is going to look like?

You could only control individually what you can control. Let's just say we're talking 10 years from now. How do you hope people are talking about Cameron Young and and what do you hope to accomplish in the next 10 years? I mean, golf is a lot of things I'd like to accomplish.

I think it's hard at this point to really put any numbers on anything. You know, I would love at some point to be the best player in the world. I think there's unfortunately quite a lot of competition between me and that at the moment. But I don't know. I think I think if I could do that at some point in my career, I would feel like I've you know, I've I've accomplished what I set out to do.

And then a lot of this little stuff. I'd like to, you know, be remembered. I think I have a reputation for kind of being pretty unhappy and I'm not unhappy on the golf course. I'm especially not unhappy off the golf course. But I would like I would like to kind of better express that. I think I keep a very stoic demeanor just to keep myself in a mental space to do my job.

And I feel like sometimes it's taken kind of the wrong way. But I'd like to remember someone that was great to fans and, you know, fun to watch and good for the game of golf. Yeah, well, I've enjoyed this conversation today.

It's been great to get to know you. I don't want to put any extra pressure on you, but Zander Shoffley joined us last year right before the Travelers and he won. So we're going to be placing some money on you and hoping you do that this weekend. Fair enough. I need to do a lot more of what he does.

He's pretty good at golf. Well, good luck coming up at Cromwell, Connecticut. Enjoy the Pro-Am tomorrow in the next few days and really do appreciate you stopping by for a few minutes. No problem.

Thank you for having me. You're listening to the Zach Gelb show. It is Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio.

So, Hickey, did you do a topic on Friday? From my understanding that you went through the last college football championship winner, the Super Bowl winner, NBA world champion, Stanley Cup final champion, and then the World Series championship. I almost forgot the name of the trophy because Rob Manfred refers to it as a piece of metal. Isn't that the commissioner's trophy? I'm pretty sure is the name of it. That's what it's supposed to be called. Yes, that piece of metal right by that lovely renamed piece of you-know-what commissioner. So you did this as a topic with all the championships that were just one who's most likely to repeat.

That is correct. What was the order that you had them in? Because I have one, two, three, four, five of the teams in front of me and I'll just scramble this around not to reveal what I'm actually going to do.

Nuggets, Golden Knights, Georgia, Kansas City with the Chiefs, and then the Houston Astros. So I have my order most likely to least likely in terms of repeating what was yours. And actually when you do this, do five to one. I actually did not do an order.

I just talked to one team. Oh, really? Yeah. I mean, I can do a quick order of two to one. What do you mean two to one? I'm saying I have the top two in my head.

I guess I can do it on the fly. Five would probably be just from the randomness of the postseason, which you saw this year especially, I would go Golden Knights five. Okay. Astros four, Chiefs three, Georgia two, Denver one. Wow. I'm actually surprised by that. Now, I've been a big proponent of the Denver Nuggets here for the last four years on CBS Sports Radio. Many people have eventually joined the Gel Bus here and the bandwagon. You think Denver is the most likely to repeat out of any of the champions this year from the four major sports and then college football.

Why is that just wondering? I think overall they have the best team of the five, most well-rounded, and I also think they have the easiest path. Chiefs, I'm very concerned about the AFC.

That's a gauntlet to go through. We talked about the Stanley Cup playoff. It's truly almost random, if you will, where it's just like we saw the Boston Bruins historic and then all of a sudden boom, first round, see you later.

That's tough. Astros right now are banged up. Don't love their team. They've lost a lot of stars. This feels like the first year where they're kind of coming back down to earth after losing a big star each offseason.

Who else am I missing? Georgia, I don't trust their quarterback situation right now. I think they'll be in the college football playoff. But to win three straight national titles, I don't love Carson Beck on the offense. Which means Carson Beck is going to win the Heisman this year. Which maybe, if that's the case, maybe put some money down on Carson Beck. Probably is good odds right now until I just said that and Vegas is listening.

I think I've covered all my bases there. Can we put your 401k down? I don't know how much Denaro is in there, but can we put your 401k down on Carson Beck to win the Heisman this year? Well, I'm young, so not a lot in there, so sure. I'm not going to risk a lot. Not putting my entire retirement at age 28 at Jeopardy. So sure, let's do it.

And if I hit, maybe I'll retire earlier than I thought. So, I actually liked what you just said in terms of one team where I'm going to bump them up higher than where I had. But I'll give you what I originally had jotted down. I had Georgia 1, and the reason why it's Georgia, I understand the skepticism in terms of them going back to back to back. But recently they've been the most dominant team in college football. People have doubted Alabama when they've won, and they've gone on to win. Even last year, people like you were questioning if Georgia could go win another national championship, and they did so. The thing about Georgia is if you don't pick Georgia, who's the team that you feel really confident in to win another national championship? I understand if you're saying Georgia's going to take a step back. If you want to tell me Michigan, and I don't think it's idiotic to put a future on Michigan, but we've got to see them get over the hump. If you want to tell me Ohio State, we'll see what happens with their quarterback position. Alabama's not going anywhere, but I can't tell you I love what Alabama has this year on the offensive side of the ball after losing Bryce Young.

They even have that many great pieces on the offensive side of the ball last year. But for me, you talk about parity, and really more so I should say how open it is in the NBA. You could make the case that it's open in college football, but they're still an exclusive club. And if Georgia's getting the college football playoff, I'm going to see, and I'm just curious to see who is that school that is going to rise up if you're going to tell me USC, okay? But I just want to see who that school's going to be that's going to be able to rise up on the big stage and dethrone Georgia. That's why I still have Georgia at one, because I don't know if I can really trust any of the other teams in college football. I'm choosing to trust one of the best quarterback and one of the best head coaches, and Lincoln Riley and Caleb Williams. Lincoln Riley has never won a college football playoff game.

That's right. And he's had some great quarterbacks. He has. Now, no one, as we have seen, as great as Caleb Williams, especially that's coming back.

So, I'll ride with the talent. Yeah, but it's not like he had a bunch of scrubs. Baker Mayfield ended up going number one overall. Jalen Hurts, you've seen what he's been able to do in the NFL. Kyler Murray did go number one overall.

Now, you're right. The way that we're talking about Caleb Williams is at a different level, and he's already won the Heisman, and now is coming back to now USC when all those players were at Oklahoma for Lincoln Riley. But it's just, I don't know who that team is if you don't pick Georgia, who you gravitate towards and feel really confident about. Two, I had the Chiefs because of Patrick Mahomes. Three, Denver. Four, the Golden Knights.

I like the way that you said it with how random hockey is, that they probably should be five. I just don't have a ton of confidence in this Houston Astros team this year. And baseball is also a little bit random as well. Like, who would have thought the Philadelphia Phillies would have gone to that run and got to the World Series last year? We saw how bad of a start the Nationals got off to, and they found the way to go win a World Series championship. Same could be said about the Atlanta Braves, even though they turned out to be now just this dominant team the last few years.

But that was the way that I had it. Now hearing the way that you gave your reasons for Denver, I think Denver and Kansas City is pretty damn close. We have a player that has a cheat code in Patrick Mahomes and Nicole Jokic. The AFC is loaded. The Western Conference is not.

So I would probably flop after hearing your actual good explanation. I'd put Denver 2, Kansas City 3, the Vegas Golden Knights 4, the Astros 5, and then in that number one spot, it would still be Georgia. And I'm not telling you Georgia is a lock to repeat as national champions, but if I had to pick anyone on that list to repeat, out of all those teams, I would go Georgia, just because if you like Michigan, if you like Ohio State, if you like Alabama, LSU, USC, Texas, whoever the team is, I don't think you love any of those teams. You could pick one of those teams and feel optimistic about them, but until they find the way to get the job done, and exclude Alabama from that just because of what Alabama's done for the last decade plus, I do think, though, just saying, OK, Georgia's going to take a step back is one thing, but then who's going to rise up to the top? And that's where I think that is a difficult conversation to be had on who you hone in on and make that guaranteed team to dethrone Georgia. And this is that Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Galvin Cook talking about teaming up with DeAndre Hopkins. Well, it ain't going to happen. I'll tell you why when we return in five minutes.