Dame Time Over In Portland? (Hour 1)

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Peloton app available through free tier or paid subscription starting at $12.99 per month. Live from the police 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 another week and a Monday 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. And you could always get at me on Instagram where I'm straight flexing or via the good old cesspool of Twitter at Zach Gelb. That's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. And producing this extravaganza for the next four hours is no other than Haute Kiki.

Haute Kiki. Sean Hyken who covers the Portland Trailblazers for a long time going to join us coming up at 9 20 p.m eastern 6 20 p.m pacific because according to Chris Haynes who covers the NBA for Bleacher Report and also NBA on TNT, Portland Trailblazer star Damian Lillard and his agent Aaron Goodwin are meeting with the team today to discuss the franchise's direction. League sources tell Chris Haynes. Now let me just be clear right out of the gate. I think Damian Lillard is staying with the Portland Trailblazers.

I know we have both, Hickey and I, have probably vacillated on that 9,000 times in the last month. But this is starting to get really obnoxious. So the reporting going into the draft was that Damian Lillard wants the Portland Trailblazers to use that number three overall pick to go get a veteran player. And he doesn't want any youngsters or rookies on the roster anymore and he wants to take that next step and expedite if you want to call it a rebuild or just their road to going out there and winning a championship. And Damian is at a point where he's starting to reach the end of his prime.

Like he's got two, three more years left, probably a prime really great basketball. And I don't want this to become a situation where it's three years from now where he's lost this step when he finally realizes that he needs to leave Portland. But I don't think he realizes that he needs to leave Portland.

And we've said this now so many times. No one is going to say a bad word about Damian Lillard if he came out later this evening and said, guys, I love Portland. I wanted to win a championship here, but I need to now depart Portland in order to go get that title. Because the organization has stabbed him in the back over and over and over and over again. And I appreciate Damian Lillard being as loyal as he has. But right now, we're at a point where I said this before, I'll say it again, the loyalty is just insanity. So I think Damian Lillard should depart Portland.

I think he should file a trade request with the management of the Portland Trail Blazers. But I don't think that will happen. Because how many times are you going to keep on giving this team the benefit of the doubt?

Like this is simple to me. You wanted them to use that third overall pick to go get proven talent. They didn't do that. They drafted Scoot Henderson. So what is going to change from now until Friday when free agency gets underway or now until a month into the future when you can maybe get some more trades to go down and you have free agency? What is going to make you think, Damian Lillard, that the Portland Trail Blazers are really going to be competitive for a championship and are really going to have a chance to go win a championship? Because like, just forget about the Easter conference where Boston already got better getting Kristaps Porzingis. I don't know what Philadelphia is going to do. We'll see what the Milwaukee Bucks look like.

I know that you had Chris Middleton opt out of his contract. The Miami Heat, if they go add Damian, they'll be a championship team. Heck, they just got to the NBA Finals. But just look at the Western Conference and I'll just ask you this. What are the Portland Trail Blazers going to do in the next month, let's just say, that will get them to a level in the West, which is open outside of Denver, where Denver is the only great team that you say, oh my goodness gracious, I think this Portland Trail Blazers team has a chance to go compete for Larry O'Brien Trophy? Because the two best teams right now in the Western Conference, it's Denver. And you know, they just won a championship. And I'll give a tip of the cap to the Phoenix Suns, even though I didn't love the Bradley Beal trade because a lot of the same pieces, now you hear the report that it's most likely that DeAndre Ayton's going to stay. I didn't factor that in when we were breaking this down a week ago.

I thought he was as good as gone. If you have a new coach, which you do, and we'll see what Frank Vogel could do with DeAndre Ayton. You have Bradley Beal, you have Kevin Durant, you have Devin Booker. If you can fill out the rest of that roster, and even if you can't, it's already a better team than Portland. So like, just for starters, you have Denver 1 and the Suns 2.

And now you know John Marantz only serving a 25 game suspension. The Sacramento Kings took a big step last year. Can they take an even bigger step this year? I can't trust the Clippers to stay healthy. Golden State, as long as they have Steph Curry, they'll always have a chance. They're not going to be an easy team that you're just going to be able to force out of the postseason. If you get LeBron and AD healthy, they're capable of going to a conference finals.

So it's like, you just look around. It's not like any team in the Western Conference outside of Denver is this team that you're like, oh, I'm shaking my boots, but this is open. But all those teams that I just mentioned, I don't really see anything changing in the next 30, 31 days that makes me say, oh, Portland's going to be on par or Portland's going to have a chance come playoff time, if they're in the postseason, to go on out and defeat this team or that team four times in a seven game series. So I can't stress this enough. Damian Lillard should leave, but I don't think he will because right again, after you had the whole leverage play at the draft with the third overall pick, we're now in a scenario where he's meeting with the team and it's not as if he's made a decision, okay, you guys did this. So now I'll do that. You didn't listen to me.

So now I'm out. He's opening the door once again for Portland to win him over. And quite frankly, Hickey, I don't think it's going to take all that much because of how much love Damian Lillard has for Portland, where he's going to say, yeah, okay, even though I didn't get this, you gave me that. And even though we all know that that isn't enough to go compete for a championship, he'll somehow in his mind spin it that it is because we just all have to understand this, that Dame, even though he says he wants to win, he really just wants to win in Portland. And it's almost like he's afraid to go anywhere else and to actually go through and leave Portland, even though he has to know down deep that that's the best road and the best way for him to go get a championship. It's stupidity at this point. He keeps on giving this organization the benefit of the doubt.

I don't get it. But if I had to make an official prediction as of today, and don't hold this to right, whatever we said in the past, both Hickey and I, we have changed this numerous times until I see him get traded. I am not going to believe that he will actually get dealt this off season. So that's the poll question today at CBS Sports Radio at Zach Gelb. Do you think Damian Lillard will get traded this off season? Early returns, 56.8% say yes, 43.2% say no. I will cast my vote right now that I don't think Damian Lillard will get traded.

What say you on this, Hickey? I shouldn't, I guess, I mean, benefit of the doubt is a weird word to use here, but I guess I'll use it here. I shouldn't give him the benefit of the doubt that common sense will prevail and he'll ask for a trade out just because we've talked about this now for three or four years in a row and nothing has come to mind.

So I guess I'll use it here. Nothing's come to fruition. I do think that this is the year when push comes to shove, you will be traded. But why? Because now you finally see the Blazers to their credit, I think rightfully so, going down a direction where they are getting younger. They made the pick at number three. They didn't make any stupid trades and panic and give away a huge asset to placate Damian Lillard.

Dame put it out there. Look, I want that number three pick. I want a proven veteran. I want someone I can win with now. And they listen to him.

It's okay, we're still going to take Scoot Henderson. They to me have established their identity moving forward and the path they're taking. And now I think Damian Lillard, if he truly is serious at winning a championship, which I still think he is, the way he's made the decision for you. You made your demands known.

They listened, they did the opposite. You almost have no choice just cuz you put it out there so long. You gotta follow through now.

But if that's the case, you gotta follow through now. Then by tomorrow, cuz this meeting's happening today per Chris Haynes. Then shouldn't by tomorrow we hear from Damian Lillard, guys, I no longer wanna be there.

Cuz what's the point of him putting it out there and talking to reporters? I don't wanna be a part of a youth movement. I want veterans in there. I wanna go win a championship now. And I want that third overall pick to be used and traded to go get a proven player. They didn't do that.

As you said, they did the opposite. So shouldn't this meeting be Dame walking in and saying, guys, I'm done. Thank you, but I want out. And it doesn't seem like, we'll play some of the Chris Haynes audio in just a second, Nikki. But it doesn't seem like Damian Lillard's going into this meeting saying, you didn't do A, so now I'll do B, and that's the trade request. And he's still giving this team an out where Dame will say, okay, I think we have enough, or okay, you're listening to me. And that's the part of it where I don't wanna say that it scares me. But in this term, I'll say it, that's what makes me think. And that's what scares me into thinking that Damian Lillard just doesn't have it in him right now in the year of 2023 to say, I don't wanna be a part of the Portland Trail Blazers.

Cuz if that was me, Hickey, if I put up this much of a stink before the draft to get what I want with the third overall pick, and then it didn't happen, I'm walking into the boss today and I'm saying, guys, trade me, I'm done, goodbye, you had your opportunity, you didn't listen. But that's not the way that it seems like he's going about this. Well, you can have a cordial, who knows exactly what they're talking about. Maybe now they're trying to figure out trade parameters. I do think the Blazers would work together with Dame to talk about where he wants to go and some sort of trade package.

So maybe that's where the discussion is divulging too. But it's one of those things where you can't have it both ways. I feel like Dame's trying to get both ways where he wants to win in Portland. And there's nothing wrong with staying with the Blazers your entire career.

You can do what you want. This is a different conversation from where it was three years ago to where it is now. Three years ago, I was on board with what Dame was thinking about. I like what Dame was thinking about. It's a big reason when people said, oh, Giannis can't win in Milwaukee.

I was like, why not? And he did. I'm okay with someone staying in a quote unquote, smaller market to try to go win a championship. We all appreciate that.

I think we all admire that. But at this point, when the team has taken no steps closer to that, and you're still an elite level player, you got to do what's in the best interest for you in order to get that championship. Because if Dame doesn't get a championship, he'll be one of those players, great player, phenomenal player. He's one of my favorite players ever in the NBA. But you'll always say, didn't win a championship.

And that follows people. Look at Charles Barkley, for example. Now, I know Charles Barkley has gone on as great as he was at the basketball court, and we all know how all-time great he was. A lot of people now, if you didn't see Charles Barkley play, will remember him for being an icon in television. But even Shaq on the desk is like, you're different than me because I won championships and you didn't win a championship.

So that follows you if you don't win a championship in every sport. But Dame isn't giving himself a chance to go win a championship because he keeps on going back to Portland, Portland, Portland, do this, do that, do this, do that. And I think he's just trying to delay time and really just push this forward where you get to a point in the offseason where it's like, oh, all right, you didn't trade me or we didn't come to this discussion. We didn't come to this decision yet. And it's so late in the game.

Now this team can't go get me. Now this team already made different moves. And it's like, all right, maybe he's just delaying. So the decision could already be made where the well just dries out. And I know this could always pop back up at the trade deadline, but it just gets to a point where so many teams that he would be interested to don't want to wait anymore. Because I really don't think this guy wants to get traded. And once again, it goes back to, if you were so adamant about that third overall pick being used or something, and they do jack the way that you want it to go down, this should be a quick meeting today. I'm done.

I'm out. But as you hear from Chris Haynes, we'll play this for you right now via Bleacher Report. Chris Haynes, on what Damian Lode is looking for from the Trailblazers in this meeting. One thing I can say about him, he doesn't want to be on a team that is just stacked. He doesn't want to have a team where it's just three all-stars or three superstars.

Then they go and battle that way. No, he just wants a team that has a shot. And if you look at the teams that he's been on all throughout his career, he's never really had a shot.

And now Joe Cronin, I believe Joe Cronin just finished his second year as general manager. So this is a different regime, but they're kind of selling the same or going over the same talking points. And so Dame is trying to give the organization time to come up with something. That's all Dame is asking for, come up with something. He doesn't want to go younger. He wants to get older. He wants to get older with proven veteran players. He wants to win now.

So is there a middle ground? Is there a middle ground that can be reached in this meeting with Damian Lillard and his agent? And let's also hear Chris Haynes say that the Trailblazers believe they aren't in a rebuild right now, Bleacher Report. We saw Joe Cronin and general manager of the Trailblazers last week say that Scoot Henderson, they feel was the best choice to pick in that draft.

It felt like picking him was better than any other trades that could have been had. And so that's what they're trying to sell to Dame. They're trying to sell to Dame that they're not in a rebuild. They're getting a little bit younger, but they're not in a rebuild. And so they want Dame to continue on with the process of them still trying to talent seek and still trying to figure out ways of making moves, whether that be a free agency or trade scenarios. After listening to all that hickey, you know what this seems like? Dame seems like the dude who had his wife cheat on him and you guys thought you had like this unbelievable, awesome marriage.

And then most people would expect, right? If your wife cheats on you, you leave and that's it. It seems like Dame has got cheated on in terms of the way that the Portland Trailblazers have treated him. And he's willing to kind of work this thing out right now and get back to a point where they're on good terms and they don't file for a divorce.

That's the way that this really seems like to me. And I think Dame in the back of his mind does not want to leave Portland. And even though the organization hasn't done right by him recently to go get that championship and go get that ring, he's willing to listen what they're going to do.

And I really don't think it's going to take much for Dame to look at that team. If it's all of a sudden he doesn't want to go to a super team. He doesn't want to do that. He just wants a chance.

If that's all it takes is you just need a chance. How many times do we talk about players in other sports or in the NBA saying, oh, they want to go to a championship contender and then they make a move and you're like, oh, that's not a championship contender, but they talk themselves into it being a championship contender because it meets their other needs. And that's what I think Damian Lloyd is doing here. He's playing a little hard ball, but his need and his want is to stay in Portland. And I really think it's not going to take much for Portland to do something minor where he goes, okay, I have a shot, even though when we all know he doesn't have a chance to win a championship in Portland.

Which at the end of the day is fine. Do what you want to do, man. It's your career, but this is what drives me crazy is don't in one breath say, oh, I just want to give Portland a chance. I want to get more time. And the next breath be on podcasts, talk about, well, I'd love to play in Miami.

Loved playing Brooklyn. I want to win a championship. I got to go. I got to get out of here. You can't have both ways.

He loves the drama. You are fine with being important the rest of your career. And you know what? If your only goal is I want to be a Portland Trailblazers legend. Just say it. And if that means not winning a championship, fine.

But if I'm revered by a city, that's all I want. Fine. That's fine.

Go for it. But don't talk in one breath. I want to win a championship. I got to leave. The next breath, well, I want to give them time. Next breath, well, they got to do this for me to stay.

The next breath, well, they didn't do that. But you know, maybe I'll still say anyway, just figure it out, man. Put it this way. Damian Lillard right now is like a fat guy who says, I want to lose weight, but for dinner tonight, I'm not going to eat something healthy. I'm going to go eat some greasy, disgusting, fast food. And then for dessert, I'm going to eat a big fat bowl of ice cream. I'm going to have like 10 cookies.

And then late night, I'm going to go make myself some nachos. That's what Damian Lillard is right now. Do you actually want to go win a championship? Well, if you do, you need to leave Portland because Portland right now is not putting yourself in a position for you to go out there and win a championship. So don't tell me you want to win a championship.

And when the organization has done wrong by you year after year after year, you keep on giving them the benefit of the doubt just because you don't have it in you to actually say, I want to leave Portland. It is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. They had some season ticket holders out there after they introduced him, or if they were just doing a little bit of a photo shoot, but they had him dunking the basketball a few times and then they had him shooting the basketball. Did you see any of those videos that did circulate around the Internet this past weekend?

I did not know. He missed like every shot that he took bust. What is Prelov calling him? Victor when bust Yama? Yeah. Is Victor when been Yama bust eight five five two one two four CBS.

It's a Saturday night huge show looking for huge opinions. What was the name of that guy that used to do the show on Saturday nights around to your bill? What was his last name? Simonson Simonson.

Yeah, that would be a Bill Simonson. Is Victor when been Yama already a bust? Did you see a photo though of Victor when been Yama over the weekend? Are you totally just plugged unplugged from the Internet because you were as drunk as a skunk celebrating your birthday? I pretty much sit off social media this weekend.

Well, that's not that true. Anytime you had a beer, you posted about it on Instagram. I'm at beer four, beer 15, beer 22. You were like a 21 year old in college over the weekend.

Well, we're going for a record. You still do that? Yeah, of course. No, I mean like drink competitively with your buddies. Like all we need to drink as many beers as we like. Just have a few beers. You'll get drunk enough. It's not like college when you need to go.

I drink 23 beers and I'm the best. Like I thought you were past that stage in your life, but I guess not. Little competition didn't hurt anyone. I know, but to be posting about it everywhere.

I thought that was ridiculous. There was one video. I don't know. I don't know where the heck you were. Were you in a shower at a bar or something like that? No, it was at my friend's place.

Oh, okay. Shower at a bar? What bar are you going to? I'm sorry. You were at a bar all throughout the day and then you're like, oh, I'm in a shower. Here's like beer 13. I had to keep the people updated.

It's not unbelievable to think that you found some shower at a bar or something like that with the way that you were posted about it. So you had a fun birthday? It was a good time. It was a good time.

Do you remember any of it? Oh, plenty, plenty. Come on, come on. You sure? I'm a seasoned vet.

Okay. But, Hickey, this whole, I could drink how many, all these beers, blah, blah, blah. I'm the greatest drinker ever. Trust me, I had that stage of my life.

But at eventually the age that we are now, not that we're ancient, I think you got to move past that. That's like college behavior. You've now been out of school for many years. What was that with my college friends? I'm telling you.

I saw some of those videos that you were posting this weekend. It was cringe-worthy. Wow. A little cringe-worthy.

Not changing my ways. You didn't see the video. I mean, the photo of Victor Wambunyama standing next to David Robinson and then also Tim Duncan. I did see that.

Yes. Very scary. Oh my goodness gracious. David Robinson and Tim Duncan looked like they were like 13 years old standing next to Victor Wambunyama. That's maybe the best photo I've ever seen.

And we saw him in person and still it's like one of the best photos I've ever seen that truly just highlights his height. That's incredible. So you had a fun Bertha?

Yes. What did you do outside of just get very intoxicated, which you broadcasted out for everyone to see? Marco Belletti.

Marco Belletti would have been like just appalled by your behavior. Like we all enjoy having a good time, but he's like, I'm 14 beers in! 14 beers! Look at me! My buddy's at 15! I'm at 14!

We're having a competition! I thought I was back in a fraternity, Marco. I didn't see that. I was unaware. I was unaware. Well, there's the hot take hickey birthday recap.

Well, that's also, I didn't realize it was your birthday, so happy birthday. I would say when you're going to do that, that's fine. You might want to put the phones away. I agree.

Just let you know. You might want to put the phones away. I'm looking for a reason to get hickey canceled. You've had a couple of incidents with the phone when you're not in your right state of mind. So when you're at a football game or you're at a place where you're not in your right frame of mind, put the phone away.

I think for work content, if you're going to give an instant reaction, video, fine. Just the post that you were like, 7,000 beers deep this week. And I could have done without it. Well, I will say a lot of people were very intrigued and were excited to follow along. So a lot of people, like your girlfriend who wasn't invited to this, probably she was following you on this? She was. All her friends were like, all her friends.

A lot of people were rooting me and my friends on. I did get you a birthday gift. Do you think this is a birthday gift that you'll enjoy or a birthday gift that you'll hate? This is not a disrespectful comment, but every gift you've got me so far has not been very nice. Oh, really?

That's a 1000% false. Russell Wilson jersey to make fun of my Broncos pick to win the Super Bowl, which did not go very well. Did you not get a Quinn and Nelson jersey, a Colts jersey from me? I forgot about that. You just forget about all the nice gifts that I give you.

14 deep, that's why. He can't remember much. This is a gift. I will make a genuine comment to you. I think you will be thrilled with the gift that I got you. I texted you this weekend. Happy birthday. I did think your birthday was on the same day as both of my parents and then also my aunt on June 30th. And after seeing some of the festivities that you were posting about, I said, is your birthday today?

And you're like, yep. And I go, happy birthday. And the moment when I wished you a happy birthday, all of a sudden I started to get all these ads for Indianapolis Colts gear.

So someone is always watching. And I don't know if you tapped into my phone, but I did get you something cult related that I think you will enjoy. And I was appalled this weekend, not only from your festivities on social media. My cousin stopped by this weekend. My cousin's 8 years old, second cousin. And we're going to play football. What did he show up in? An Indianapolis Colts jersey.

Really? Yeah, not a cult fan. He's a giant fan. But when you play youth football, you have the NFL flag football jerseys. And he was on the Colts. And I had to give him a little lecture on why the Colts suck.

And he said, don't worry. The Colts are last year. I'm going to have a new team next year. And then we threw on the football.

Kid has a cannon. So maybe Peyton Manning 2.0, huh? Well, here's what I'm just hoping for. You don't say anything positive about my second cousin. Because if you do, then that's going to just totally throw his football career down the drain. Because you have been terrible in predicting which quarterbacks will be great.

So I was very impressed by his arm. Some are saying that Nick Saban has already placed a phone call to him since Nick Saban said over the weekend that he's going to coach basically until he drops dead to a recruit. So I'm hoping he goes to Alabama and then I'm hoping he goes to the NFL.

But the moment I hear Hickey get on the radio and go, oh, Zach, second cousin, he's the next Peyton Manning or he's the next Tom Brady. Then the career is over. Then a D3 school wouldn't even take him. So don't do that, please. Maybe I'll just give James Franklin a call then.

Come on down to Long Island, New York, which is home of elite D1 football recruits and start making offers now. Well, that's fine. James Franklin could come on down to Long Island, New York. That's not where my second cousin is from. It's not even the right state.

So that's good. I would not let James Franklin within five miles of my second cousin. We would not have him going to Penn State. Nothing against Pat Kraft.

Love me some Pat Kraft, the AD. But we could not have that kid going to Penn State. That would just be bad for the family. Really bad.

I would say great, especially if he's good. I think really have him root for a real football school. A real football school? You just call Alabama not a real football school? No, it's more take a shot at Temple. Oh, okay. Said your family. It was not going to be good.

Hence, because I'm sure the Temple fandom. I'm not like you. I don't force schools on other people in terms of, oh, I went to Penn State like your kid we all know is going to go to Penn State. He's going to have no choice.

No, no, no. You'll disarm him if he doesn't. I'm not going to be like Noah Syndergaard and put my imaginary kid out to pasture. I'm also not going to put him in Penn State 20 years from now. So you're telling me if your kid down the road comes up to you and says, Daddy, I want to root for the Tennessee Titans. You're going to be fine with that? I won't be happy with it, but I'm not going to force him. I would hope that he roots for the teams I root for. I definitely will be getting him or her Penn State close and raise them hopefully to be the fans of the teams I root for. But I'm not going to be like, you can't be a Titans fan if you want to be a Titans fan. OK, I would be upset, but I'm not going to say no, you can't do that. Daddy, I'm going to root for the New York Yankees, the team that you despise the most. I don't like it.

I guess again, I don't have any kids, so I'm not the right person. I just don't know how I could say no to that. We're going to say no. It's only to make them root for that team harder. Well, he will never stop drinking then because if his kid ends up coming into the house and says, I want to root for Tennessee, I want to root for the Yankees.

Hickey will go from 14 beers on a Saturday celebrating his birthday to about like 14 beers each and every night. Now, if he wants to go to Ohio State, I'll let him go to Ohio State. But I promise you this. Any time I go to visit him, I'm wearing my Penn State clothes.

Oh, you don't need it at any time. But any time they're playing, I am not rooting for my son or daughter's school. I thought he was going to go into the, well, you're paying for yourself, figure that out, you might want to get a job. I could work that way too. You can go to Ohio State, be my guest, go to Michigan, no problem.

There's one school you can go to for free, everything else, get a job. Whenever Hickey has a kid, I'm going to get in some khakis, a little Michigan polo as well, maybe like a Tennessee Titans hat since I just get you gifts that you don't appreciate. They're just evil gifts to you, according to what you just said a few moments ago. So we're going to dress my imaginary kid as Jim Harbaugh Jr.? Yeah, pretty much. Raised him as a Titans fan. Yeah.

Show him how to go about things the right way in life. It is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. So your birthday was good overall. I can't really imagine that you had that great of a birthday because with how much you were drinking, with the age that you are now, I would imagine that the hangover the next day was no fun. We're at the beach for most of the week, weekend. So it was a great time. No complaints.

Face in the sand, just like passed out drunk? No, I'm a professional. I'm a professional. What?

Yeah, period. Just a professional person. Professional d-bag. This is not how this is supposed to go. I would not embarrass myself.

The Zach Gelb show, CBS Sports Radio, Penn State, any affiliation. Well, that's the thing. What you put out there this weekend was an embarrassment to the network. It was. I thought it was an amateur hour from you.

Like a photo of one beer? Fine. We got a play by play.

I'm going to get the old 22 of your drinking experience from this past weekend. I feel like people appreciate behind the scenes or like following along. So, yeah, it was just me and my two buddies.

Not a lot of people around. If you wanted to follow along, follow along on social media. Gotcha. So just wondering, your girlfriend was cool with you not spending your birthday with her? Because like a birthday to you is like a big deal with the way that you celebrate your birthday each and every year. That was that was fine.

No problem? No. My birthday, I don't tell anyone it's my birthday. So what do you mean? My two friends that I hung out with, they found out the day before that it's my birthday. So I kind of keep it on the down low and really tell a lot of people. These are your close friends? Yeah. They don't remember like exact days.

So, I mean, I think I know both their birthdays, but I can't exactly say that's 100 percent. Marco, can I ask you a serious question? You think he's still intoxicated after just hearing what he just said the last minute? No, I think I know where he's trying to go.

He's just failing to get there. That's what Facebook is for. What do you mean? No, we don't know. What do you mean?

Birthday reminders. Alrighty. We will come on back. You will hear a little bit from Draymond Green. You're listening to The Zach Gelb Show.

It is Zach Gelb Show on CBS Sports Radio. By the way, Hickey, before I play you this Draymond Green audio from 2020 talking about Chris Paul and how he does not like Chris Paul, what did you make of the Jordan pool trade where Jordan pool is going to be getting traded to the Washington Wizards and CP3 is going to be going to the Golden State Warriors? I know there's some other details and moving pieces in the deal, but the main part of it from what we're talking about in this conversation, your reaction to that trade was what? In one word, idiotic. I just don't like the fact that the Warriors are moving off of their only really future piece to get extremely older with a guy in Chris Paul, especially that's had trouble staying healthy in the playoffs recently in order to go for a championship. But personally, I think their window is closed. So I think that right now they're chasing ghosts in terms of going all in with this core to get him a fifth title and getting older and again, kind of basically throwing your future away in order to do that.

I just think it's foolish. I don't think their window is closed because two playoffs ago they didn't play their best brand of basketball and they still won a championship. So as long as Steph Curry is still an elite player, they'll always be a tough out.

But where I do agree with you is I thought they were at a point where they needed to move forward and not look at the past. And I thought their best way to move forward and get closer to winning another championship would be to get out of business with Draymond Green and Draymond did opt out and stay with Jordan Poole. Cause I think a great question here is when it's when Draymond says that the incident with Jordan Poole derailed the season, it's not him saying that, Oh, that was his fault. And if he didn't do that, that they would have won a championship and he didn't really take ownership of it. It was almost like, Oh yeah, I punched Jordan Poole.

And because no one did anything about it, that derailed the season. So I just wonder what the Warriors would have looked like this year if Jordan Poole could have got in a good head space, because I don't think Jordan Poole Hickey was as great as the way that he played two post-seasons ago, where we were calling him a third splash brother, but I don't think he is as bad as the way that he played in this post-season. And I really do believe the Warriors would have been better off moving forward, getting rid of Draymond instead of getting rid of Jordan Poole, but that's not the way that they elected to do so. And what I don't get to is after their loss to the Lakers, Steve Kirsten, basically this group collectively maxed out their town and basically going to the second round of the playoffs as far as he thought they could go. And again, you moved off Jordan Poole, so maybe that's what he's talking about, but you're basically doubling down on this older set of players.

I just don't see the correlation of, in one breath, the talent is maxed out and also we're going to now double down on the same group, basically. But then also just like Dave Muller, where you say 9,000 things, Steve Kerr also did say that if this team wants to go, paraphrasing it, but if they want to win a championship, Draymond needs to be on the team for them to go win a championship. So it's at a point where I don't get what the Warriors are doing, but I think we're all assuming and expecting that Draymond is back, but I do find it funny how Draymond did opt out of the contract and then, right, they already had their meeting. I think Draymond has gone on vacation. Is he in France? Is that where I did say? I believe Paris.

Yeah, me bouncing around France, but you're up somewhere. So he's in Paris, okay. And they had that meeting, then Jordan Poole gets traded, so they're going to extend Draymond Green. I think it would be the funniest thing in the world though, Hickey, if Draymond leaves them at the altar, where they traded Jordan Poole, he opts out. You know he's close with Mike Brown and the Kings are probably driving up the price for Draymond Green. I know that if you stay, you get more money anyway, but I would love for the Kings to go make a serious run at Draymond Green and it would be hilarious to me if he goes to somewhere like Sacramento, where I saw Windhorse was saying that there's other destinations, but it's unlikely he'll leave Golden State, but he threw out the Kings and also the Detroit Pistons. You do have Chris Haynes reporting that Draymond is open to taking free agent discussions and talks with other teams. Yeah. Could you imagine?

That would be awesome. It does feel like basically unofficially official, he is going to re-sign with the Warriors at some point this off-season, maybe sooner rather than later, but could you imagine full heal, especially for a team like the Kings, where you beat them in seven, they're in your state, that's a team that's on the come-up, that would be... It would be another punch.

Very funny. It would be another punch by Draymond, this time in the gut, that would derail their season. The last punch derailed their season, Draymond's words?

If they trade Jordan Poole and then Draymond signs elsewhere, that really derails the Golden State Warriors' season in back-to-back years. I wonder how the Warriors fans would respond to Draymond, his first appearance back in Golden State, what they do play. They wouldn't boo him, but I wonder if he would boo him initially.

I wonder if they would. Now, I know that guy's won four championships there and he's a legend in that franchise and he could do no wrong, but if they trade Jordan Poole because you didn't want Jordan Poole there because of you punching Jordan Poole and then you left them, if I was a Warriors fan, I would boo Draymond. I would. You're telling me you wouldn't boo him if you made that move to get rid of Jordan Poole to get an aging Chris Paul who's way past his prime and then he left you?

You catered to his needs and then he pieces? I'm not saying that it ruins his Warriors' legacy, but I would I would boom a little bit. I would think like 25% of the crowd would then boom.

I would be in one of the 25%. You're still going to celebrate him, he's still going to be looked back as one of the best Warriors of all time and that trio winning four titles total, but the first initial return? I think I would agree with you.

Boom and then obviously later on once time does heal the wounds, you welcome back, you cheer him, you get in the respect he deserves, but that would be a very interesting first reaction back to the Bay. I do find it funny how the team picked Draymond over Jordan Poole because Draymond and Jordan Poole could not get along and deservedly so, and then the person that they trade Jordan Poole for, they end up getting back Chris Paul, who by the way Draymond Green does not like. This was from All the Smoke, the podcast with Steven Jackson and Matt Barnes back from 2020. This is Draymond Green on why he does not like CP3. I don't like CP at all, like we don't have a good relationship at all, but I respect his hustle and I respect his IQ. He's smart as hell. And CP was kind of using it like CP saw stuff coming up and you know, once you start to get older in this league, you start to realize like, okay, this guy is coming.

Eventually he may catch me because I'm gonna start to decline at some point. And so I would kind of see CP kind of keeping stuff at bay, but yet giving him a stiff arm at the same time. Now stuff, you know, stuff ain't, you know, stuff is stuff like we all love we all love stuff, right? He ain't cut like he ain't got the street part to it. And so He ain't confrontational at all. He ain't confrontational. Exactly. And so with me coming from where I come from and the way I grew up, I'm kind of watching like, yo, he kind of rock with you stuff, but he kind of don't, he kind of keeping you at bay.

And so I took it upon myself to try to create the vision there. So the first time CP3 disagrees with Draymond Green, if Draymond Green told Kevin Durant, we won before you will win after you after Kevin Durant won two finals MVPs and, and two championships with the warriors. What does Draymond say? You've never won Jack in your life, shut the bleep up and go grab some bench and go carry a Steph's coattails, right? Isn't that what Draymond's going to say there, Hickey? And I think there's nothing really Chris Paul for how great of a career he had. Nothing you could really say to that.

Okay. Also had a fake laughing incident with Steve Kerr when they had a little interaction. That's also gone viral. I don't think that will be that big of a deal, but if we do get to a point of contention, I can't wait for the Draymond Green, Chris Paul fight. And that won't even be a punch this time, right? That will just be a verbal altercation. Definitely. And I don't think Chris Paul is winning that one. Oh yeah. For sure.

He's he has no chance. By the way, when you train producers here at CBS sports radio, I know you have burped on the air before. Do you train them to burp on the air?

No, that's one of the things not to do. Okay. Oh boy. I'm just making sure. Cause Chris has left his microphone on last week when he's filling in for you, who you trained then may hurt a belch may have hurt a belch. Oh boy. Is that guilt show CBS sports radio.