LeBron James is Full of it! (Hour 1)

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Additional terms apply. 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 a Monday edition of the Zach Gelb show across all of our great local CBS Sports Radio affiliates. Sirius XM, Channel 158, the free Odyssey app, and of course streaming on YouTube.

YouTube.com slash CBS Sports Radio. 855-212-4CBS is numbered to jump on in. 855-212-4227. You can 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. Got Stuart Kovacs, Moist Mike, rocking a roll with me all the way up until 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Pacific. Paul O'Neill will chat a little baseball as we gear up for the season. He's going to stop by at 4.20 p.m. Eastern, 1.20 p.m. Pacific today. I got to start the show with some of the conversation that I've been hearing in the last 24 hours about the NBA All-Star Game.

And I'm going to do this in a very peaceful way. I'm in a very good mood today. It's a holiday Monday. Most of the people that usually work here are not here. It's just me. It's Santa. It's Stu.

It's a few other people in the newsroom. I'm in a very calm mood to start off this week on a Monday. I'm not going to be here Thursday and Friday taking a little trip to Orlando. So I'm looking forward to the rest of the week. But I am just amazed. And it's tough for people to amaze me these days because a lot of people do many stupid things. But it's amazing to me how so many people are losing their damn mind over the pathetic product that the NBA put on their basketball court on Sunday evening. And people are freaking out saying the All-Star Game has to get canceled. They should never do the game ever again. And it's an embarrassment and it's a complete and utter disgrace to competition in the sport of basketball.

Like, why are people losing their mind? What were your expectations going into the All-Star Game? The All-Star Game for a long time, minus the first year that they did the Elam ending, has been a disaster. For like the last 10 to 15 years, the All-Star Game, quite frankly, just sucks.

And it's not an NBA issue. Like the Pro Bowl in the NFL, that's now a flag football game where I don't even understand the scoring process. So All-Star Games aren't made for me. All-Star Games aren't made for you, for the most part.

This at least is my understanding and my take of it. All-Star Games are kind of for kids to see all the stars and play together and you see them on the court, you see them on a field. And it's an event pretty much for kids and for the younger fans. That's the way that I've always taken the All-Star Game. And if you disagree, to no surprise, when you were young and innocent, the All-Star Game was something that you enjoyed. I enjoyed All-Star Games when I was a kid. As I got older, I have no longer enjoyed All-Star Games. So I don't need to hear what you think is your revolutionary idea today and how you're going to basically be the commissioner and how you're going to save the All-Star Weekend.

Because here's your problem. And here is something that is a part of the spineless silver era with Adam Silver in the NBA. When you run a league where players and a lot of players bitch and complain about having to get to 65 games a year now to win awards, or you have regular season nights when you don't have a damn clue who's going to be on the court. Like if you can't get guys up for the regular season and you can't have them play with enough intensity where the regular season product is actually a good product, which it's not, when they're getting paid for that, what makes you think in a wave of a wand because you think you're a brainiac and you think you have these great ideas compared to everybody else, then all of a sudden you're going to fix the All-Star Game? There's not a damn thing you could do to fix the All-Star Game. And the reason is because players don't care about the regular season, so why are you going to have them give a rat's ass about an exhibition game? And don't sit here and call me up at 855-212-4CBS, 855-212-4227 and say, oh well home court advantage for the NBA Finals should be decided by the All-Star Game. Because I've seen that take. Like do we just live in a society where we all like to say things for years and then years later when something doesn't go our way we like to be hypocrites?

I think that's what our world is. Because not that I'm ancient, but I'm old enough to remember when Major League Baseball made their All-Star Game, which got stale, which got boring, and it tried to mean something and that's how they dictated who had home field advantage for the World Series. And then guess what? We all complained about that. And we all said that's stupid. So that's actually the one that I laughed about the most last night. When I saw someone tweet out, oh home court advantage in the NBA Finals should be determined by is it East or West that wins the All-Star Game?

That person, there's no way they could be a baseball fan. And you know, it's just wild to me. And you guys know me.

I love Hot Take Hickey. He was my producer for a while. But he was on last night. And he was on CBS Sports Radio. He moved into a new time slot Sunday evenings from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Eastern.

I'll be a good company guy and give my guy Ryan Hot Take Hickey a plug. But I tuned in to his show last night. And he's not surprised that the All-Star Game sucks. But he was like, and I think he's more in line of my thinking, where the All-Star Game is just a bad product and you should just accept it because the regular season is a bad product. And some people have accepted that.

I have not. But let's start with the regular season before we fix the All-Star Game. But Hickey even was losing his mind.

He was doing his high pitch screaming last night, which is just crazy to me. Like, why is anyone screaming about this innocuous All-Star Game? And I just wonder what your expectations are.

Because I like to think I'm realistic. My expectations going into All-Star Weekend was the dunk contest was going to suck. I would enjoy the three-point contest.

I was curious and thoroughly enjoyed Steph versus Sabrina. And I'll get to that in just a second. And the actual game, I'm going to be fully transparent. I didn't turn on the game for a second. Now, it doesn't mean that I wasn't plugged in. It doesn't mean that I didn't do my research before the show started. But why would I waste my time caring about something that isn't marketed towards me, nor do I know that the players actually give a damn? So why would you get so incensed about that?

Like, if you were actually shocked at the lethargic putrid and terrible performance in the NBA All-Star Game, and you are genuinely shocked. You know, meet me after the show. I have a bridge to sell you. All right? Because no one should be shocked by this.

This has been this way for a very long time. So I'm not going to raise my blood pressure today. And trust me, I could scream with the best of them. Trust me, I could rant with the best of them.

I could go off on a topic with the best of them. But I only do that if I genuinely feel that way. I don't scream just to scream like I get it.

I'm a loud New Yorker. So by nature, even when I'm not trying to scream, some days it does sound like I'm screaming. But that's when I am actually worked up about something. That's when I'm actually hot about something and annoyed about something. How can anyone actually be annoyed with this All-Star Game?

Because to be annoyed about something, you had to expect something great. And if you expected this to be a great All-Star Game, you're just a damn fool. And actually, I actually think All-Star Weekend, not the game, but All-Star Weekend exceeded my expectations. And I'll even say from where my standards are, I look back at All-Star Weekend and the NBA as a positive. And don't get me wrong, Jaylen Brown was disappointing in the dunk contest. Mac McClung won and his best dunk wasn't even his highest rated dunk.

Jacob Toppin probably should have been in the finals over Jaylen Brown. The three point contest was fine, but that's Sabrina versus Steph three point competition. That should be the new featured event of All-Star Weekend. And I don't know how long it's going to be well received.

I don't know how long people will be entertained by it, but bare minimum, the next five years, I want to see. And it doesn't just have to be Sabrina UNESCO up against Steph Curry. But how about next year we incrementally improve it, enhance it and just add Damian Lillard and then also Kaitlyn Clark. Like, could you imagine that three point competition, which was by far and away the best point and the preeminent take away from All-Star Weekend? Could you imagine you throw Stephen Sabrina into the mix, but you already had them there and then you add Kaitlyn Clark and Damian Lillard into the mix and you just have those four decided next year.

And I'll even take it a step further. I've always had respect for Steph Curry, but I and I now like Steph Curry even more and have a newfound respect for Steph Curry. And Steph Curry, quite frankly, could be the most likable athlete ever. Like, I'm not saying that Steph Curry is is is the greatest athlete ever.

No, ever. But to see how he changed the game and how many people can relate to Steph Curry and how dominant he's been as a three point shooter. And what is the blunder on this guy's resume?

Think about it. This guy played for a team when Kevin Durant joined that there was reasons to hate the Golden State Warriors. But there's never really been a reason to hate Steph Curry outside of the one time his wife was basically saying that the refs rigged the NBA or when he threw his mouthpiece that one time and it hit a fan by mistake.

But when you look at someone that's been in the spotlight forever, those two things really are minor things and not actual things where you grow a hatred to this man. And I saw Sean Pendergast, who who hosts a bunch of shows here on CBS Sports Radio from time to time. And I put this tweet out last night that I don't get how anyone hates Steph Curry. And even Sean agreed. And he's a Rockets fan, right? He covers the Houston Rockets and the Warriors derailed the Rockets season many time in the postseason.

Even he agreed. You know, outside of just that natural jealousy and that natural animosity that happens when a star player continuously beats your team over and over again. There's no legitimate reason to dislike Steph Curry. The guy always has a smile on his face. He does something with the basketball that's so unique. It's fun.

It's energetic. When he makes some of these shots from the distance that he does. You know, your jaw hits the floor and he's just so likable.

Honestly, when you look at sports the next five years. Right now, the two most likable stars have to be Steph Curry and Patrick Mahomes. You know, I guess if you want to throw a hockey player in there, it's Connor McDavid or Hughes in New Jersey. I think both those guys are extremely likable. And then for baseball, it's Shohei Ohtani. But from what Steph and Mahomes have accomplished and also the championships that they have won. I just can't sit here and say that I dislike Steph Curry. And there was nothing to gain really for him going into this weekend.

Like he didn't have to do. And I know NBA players feel really close to the WNBA and they try to help the WNBA all they can. And the sport of women's basketball has really taken a big leap the last few years. And remember, go back to the Angel Reese, Kaitlyn Clark National Championship game, how much we talked about Kaitlyn Clark in college basketball.

And we all know how great Sabrina UNESCO is. And to see her in that moment against Steph and the final score be twenty nine to twenty six, both of them shooting from the men's three point line. I thought it was really cool. And it made me walk away from All-Star Weekend with at least something that was positive. And that simple event exceeded all my expectations to make me look back at NBA All-Star Weekend. And I say, OK, I was fine with it because I thought my expectations were fair, but Steph didn't have to do that event.

And I know that this may not be the right way to look at it, but I think this is just a fair way to say it. Like, imagine how much Steph would have got clowned on social media. Oh, you lost to a girl. If he lost to Sabrina UNESCO, like the greatest three point shooter of all time.

Could you imagine if he lost to Sabrina? But he didn't care because it was for the better part of the game of basketball. And that was the one moment that we should encapsulate from All-Star Weekend. And that's the thing we should talk about instead of every Tom, Dick and Harry doing lazy radio today, getting on the radio or getting on television, just screaming and losing their mind and giving their great ideas, which aren't actually great on how to save NBA All-Star Weekend, NBA All-Star Weekend. The actual game sucks. The slam dunk contest.

It's past its prime. But that three point contest between Steph and Sabrina should continue in this format and you could just add more to it. I like the crossover of WNBA and NBA players in that way. And there's no reason why next year, bare minimum, it shouldn't be Dame, Steph, Sabrina and Kaitlyn Clark.

And I think that would be phenomenal. So if you want to chime on in on the NBA All-Star Game, 8-5-5-2-1-2 for CBS, 8-5-5-2-1-2, 42-27. Let me start things off with Stanton in Indiana.

First up on the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Go ahead, Stanton. Yeah, man. Can you hear me? I can hear you.

Go ahead. Great. I'm kind of with you.

I mean, you're hitting all your points. Like the regular season is trash and why do we expect the All-Star Weekend or at least the game to be much better. I have an idea. Get rid of the game and implement a three-on-three tournament in its place.

Make it, take it to, you know, whatever. You don't need to add more players. Just kind of break it down into teams and give these guys something to play for. They can be competitive for something. So you just want all the All-Stars to just participate, but you break it up into a three-on-three tournament is what you're saying? Yes, sir.

Every person who I've talked to thinks this would be a phenomenal idea and something they could get behind watching. Yeah. No, I don't think it's bad to necessarily come up with something else. And I know I was just clouding that a few moments ago. But do I think it's going to change the root of the problem, which is to get people to compete more on All-Star Weekend?

No, I don't. Because players are showing up, they're doing their appearances, right, they're making their money, and then they just dog the All-Star game. So now you're going to ask them to do three-on-three and have them compete even harder.

And maybe there's a greater risk for injury. I just don't see players really opening up, the All-Star players opening up to that idea. Let's remember what this is for the NBA players that go.

I don't want to say it's a vacation because you still have to do things work-related, but All-Star Weekend has kind of turned into a vacation for some of these players. And I'll go as far to even say this. You know why people are, and I said this last week, and I'll say it again because I see it's making the rounds again today. People that are complaining about the slam dunk contest blame LeBron. Like we had to celebrate Jalen Brown just participating in the slam dunk contest, and he was terrible. But we were like, wow, I can't believe Jalen Brown's doing this. Well, when LeBron, who was the leader of the sport for 20-something years, refused to do the slam dunk contest, why should I be surprised that a lot of other people don't do the slam dunk contest?

Because even though they don't have the same, they shouldn't have the same right to stand on something like LeBron does, a lot of people then are going to say, well, if the best isn't doing it, then why would I end up doing it? So yeah, I'm not, I will say it again, and I'll say it 3,000 times today. I'm not getting mad over All-Star Weekend. And I actually don't think All-Star Weekend was that bad because of what happened with Stephen Sabrina. Alrighty, we'll take a time out of this Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. There was something else that was pretty juicy to come out of All-Star Weekend, and it has to do with LeBron James. Is anyone buying what he's saying?

We'll discuss in five minutes on the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Okay, picture this. It's Friday afternoon when a thought hits you. I can spend another weekend doing the same old whatever, or I can hop into my all-new Hyundai Santa Fe and hit the road. With available H-Track all-wheel drive and three-row seating, my whole family can head deep into the wild. Conquer the weekend in the all-new Hyundai Santa Fe.

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That's Stamps.com code program. Alrighty, Zach Gelb shows CBS Sports Radio. Adrian Wojnarowski is reporting after Jock Vaughn has been fired as the head basketball coach of the Brooklyn Nets. The Nets are talking with assistant Kevin Ollie on the interim head coaching job and are expected to talk more today. Ollie, who had a 13-year NBA playing career, won the 2014 NCAA title as UConn's coach and joined the Nets this season after two years of running overtime elite.

And as you all know, Kevin Ollie is practically like banned from college basketball with how that ended at UConn, but now it's looking like he's going to be the interim head coach for the Brooklyn Nets. Who cares? Seriously.

I don't know if I'm in this mood today and maybe I'm just on one today because it's the first 20-something minutes of the show, but there's so many stories today that I have to talk about that I'm just like, who actually cares? And the whole Jock Vaughn thing too. Like this dude, you could say he never got a chance, but now actually finally getting the organization back where you didn't have to cater to every one of Kevin Durant's needs and Kevin Durant was just a terrible general manager. Yeah, the team underachieved this year. This should have been a team that should have been gritty enough where they should have been a shoe-in, especially with 10 teams basically making the playoffs now with the playing tournament, to make the postseason. Like they had some talent on this roster, starting with Mikhail Bridges.

You don't have enough talent to go win a playoff series or go win an NBA championship, but there's enough there where you have to perform better. But I can't excuse the coach because you don't have the fallback now where the blame should have probably be placed on Kevin Durant or Kyrie Irving. Like when things didn't work with Steve Nash. Well, that was on KD. KD wanted Steve Nash as the coach and he wasn't qualified to be the next head coach of the Brooklyn Nets. And when things weren't working out well last year or a year and a half ago and people were like, oh, you got to get rid of Jock Vaughn.

I'm like, why? We all know who ran that team. It was Kevin Durant and it was Kyrie Irving. And the biggest problem with Kevin Durant is he couldn't be honest with Kyrie Irving. Because it was clear he needed to abandon Kyrie Irving, but he didn't have the guts to abandon Kyrie Irving and he knew he had to leave Brooklyn, so he didn't look like he was quitting on his friend in Kyrie Irving.

I guess an early congratulations. It could be premature to Kevin Ali, but it looks like they're at least talking with him to be the next interim head coach, so there you go. An opportunity for Kevin Ali maybe to rewrite history on his basketball tenure as a coach. I'm not expecting anything to change because the Nets are going to be a problem. And I have no problem with the Nets going all in. The Nets should have gone all in, but now this is what happens when you have a star or stars and they couldn't get on the same page. Now the next few years are going to be extremely ugly and it's not as if the Nets have this great fan base and the Nets are this popular team. There's not a lot of reasons why you want to join the Nets, but everything they almost built with Sean Marks and Kenny Atkinson.

I'm not saying that they should not have pursued Kevin Durant and Kyrie, they had to. But you also then can't be surprised when Bleep hits the fan. Now maybe Wyatt hit the fan, that's a different reason. And this is what you have, like the house burnt down last year.

Now you just have to try to build it back up and it's going to be tough to go through all that crap to build back up a good new house. So Jacques Vaughn now out as the head coach of the Brooklyn Nets. Anyway, I got to get to LeBron James.

And sometimes you hear BS and then other times you really hear things that are just full of BS. This is LeBron James when asked about it All-Star Weekend, how he will retire. Will there be a retirement tour? Let's listen up to King James.

I was asked this question a couple days ago. Will you kind of take the farewell tour or will you kind of just Tim Duncan it? I'm 50-50. I'm going to be honest because there's times where I feel like I guess I owe it to my fans that's been along this journey with me for two decades plus to be able to give them that moment.

You know, where's every city and whatever the case may be, you know, to give you your flowers, whatever the case may be, you know, and that seems cool. Just insufferable. And when I hear that, all I could say is what a douche.

Seriously. And I happen to be more of a LeBron supporter than a LeBron hater. But LeBron really says some stupid, unbelievable crap.

And that's like right at the top of the list. He's 50-50, 50-50 on the idea of doing a retirement tour, just Tim Duncaning it. Come on. LeBron wants all the praise. LeBron wants everyone to bow down to him and basically kiss the throne of the king and he deserves it.

I have no problem, but just own it. When you're at that legendary status, I don't care if you want to walk away and have no fanfare or have all the fanfare in the world. But him saying that it's 50-50 on that decision is like me saying, oh, yeah, I have, you know, I have a 50-50 desire to date Margot Robbie. Like, of course, if Margot Robbie wanted to date my pathetic ass, it would be 100%. I wouldn't even question it. But he's 50-50 about the retirement tour.

And I also love how he sets it up. Oh, the only reason I would consider doing it is for the fans. Oh, the fans. So they could say goodbye to me.

And how many people loyally supported me throughout the years. I just want to thank the fans. No, you want everyone to kiss your ass and it's deserved. We should have to kiss your ass for the way that you dominated the sport for the last 20 years. But someone that's all about himself, don't give me this pathetic bullcrap that, yeah, I may want to be like Tim Duncan. You're nothing like Tim Duncan. Tim Duncan hated doing media. Tim Duncan hated the spotlight. You love doing, you know, having conversations with the media. You love the spotlight. There is no way LeBron James retires and just walks off.

He is going to make this a year's spectacle. Now, when that's going to happen, I don't know. But here is LeBron James also talking about his future with the Los Angeles Lakers as there is a player option after this season. But I am a Laker and I am happy and been very happy being a Laker the last six years. And hopefully it stays that way. But I don't have to I don't have the answer to how long it is or which uniform I'll be in. Hopefully it is with the Lakers.

It's a great organization and so many greats. But we'll see. I don't know how it's going to end, but it's coming.

So, Stu, let me ask you this. What not a full year left on the deal because it's a player option. So LeBron's going to opt out this summer.

Let's just say it that way. Do you have the expectation that LeBron is going to be back with the Lakers next year? And if you do, do you believe that LeBron is going to end his career with the Los Angeles Lakers? I think he'll be back next year. I think he'll be back maybe one more year before Bronny comes into the league. And then when I think Bronny comes into league, he'll go with him for a year, wherever that is. Probably not the Lakers, maybe Lakers.

Who knows? Maybe he forces the Lakers to draft him high or something like that. So maybe in that case he does. But I don't think he ends his career in the Lakers.

I don't. So here's the thing that I'll say is that's LeBron's vision to play with Bronny. I don't know if it's Bronny's vision. And remember how adamant LeBron has been about this. And there was some moment last year where he said, you know, this is what I want to do.

I don't know what I'm paraphrasing here, but this is the gist of it. I don't know if this is what Bronny wants to do. So maybe through the back channels, this is kind of LeBron's way, even though you may roll your eyes at him saying, oh, I want to finish my career with the Lakers and that's my intention because of everything he said about Bronny.

Maybe this is him starting to soften the blow a little bit more to his idea of playing on the same team with his son. And the other part is his son's going to get drafted if it comes with the assurance that LeBron's going to be teaming up with Bronny wherever Bronny gets drafted. Then that does definitely improve the draft stock of Bronny James. But is Bronny James ready?

Yeah, I know he just went to the serious heart condition and wish him nothing but the best. He's now playing for USC. I saw there was some alley-oop that was thrown his way the other night and he tapped the ball in. Under Andy Einfeld at USC, is he necessarily ready to go to the NBA after this year? I would probably say no, but just because Zach Geldt doesn't think he's ready doesn't mean that he actually will. Because if that's still the plan for Bronny to team up with LeBron, well Bronny will go somewhere in the first round.

Because how many times after like the first five picks of the NBA draft that we're like who the heck just got drafted and who the heck is that person? Some team will take a flyer on Bronny even if Bronny only plays in the league for two, three years if it means they get at least one full season with LeBron James. But kind of him saying that he wants to stay in Los Angeles, I don't think Rob Polinka, who I'll give Rob Polinka and the Lakers credit. Out of all the organizations that LeBron's probably played for, we know the Cavs did everything pretty much to appease LeBron. The only time Pat Riley said no was when he wanted him to fire Eric Spoelstra.

But also look at the team that they formed in Miami. I kind of feel like the Lakers have been the team that have given LeBron the most pushback in his career with the teams that LeBron has been on. So I don't think or I would not expect that Rob Polinka already made a guarantee to LeBron James. Hey I'm going to draft your son so go sign a long term extension with us because you can't even guarantee that because who knows where you'll fall in the draft. And maybe some team wants to take Bronny and they actually believe in Bronny and they take him earlier. So I think we need to stop in terms of predicting how much longer LeBron's going to play based off Bronny. Because we don't even know if Bronny wants his dad on the same team as him. And I hear that answer from LeBron and that's the first thing that I wrap my head around is maybe they've had that conversation now, father and son. And this is LeBron starting to shift away from that idea of playing with Bronny because maybe Bronny doesn't want to do that.

And that's the case, I can't fault Bronny then if Bronny wants to play with his dad I can't fault him for it as well. But I just don't know how much longer LeBron is going to play and I think LeBron likes when we're all guessing about it. And the only thing I do know for sure is that there's going to be a barring injury where your career just ends off of one injury. Barring injury you will know when it's LeBron's final season or you at least know when like halfway through the season of LeBron's final season because there will be some big retirement tour. I will say this, a month ago I would not have said LeBron finished his career with the Lakers. I now think that he is going to finish his career with the Lakers. I think he'll sign one more deal with the Lakers and that will be the final deal that he signs.

Because maybe behind the scenes Bronny kind of told dad, hey I know this is your dream and your vision but I want to kind of live my own dream and my own vision. And I don't want you on the same team as me whenever I do enter the NBA. This is Zach Gelb's show on CBS Sports Radio, we'll take a break, we'll come on back. Santa's got some questions for me, I'll try to give you some answers, we call this segment Onsite, Offsite, we do it every Monday and Friday right here on CBS Sports Radio. Update time first, here he is the Ackman, Rich Ackerman.

Zach, listen to and follow Superfly on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcast. Zach's taking on the most polarizing issues in sports, which side of the line of scrimmage will he end up on? Offside, defense number 69. It's Onsides, Offsides with Zach Gelb on CBS Sports Radio. On the tag of the pros, where you the listener gets asked us a question and it's brought to you by O'Reilly Auto Parts. Simply tweet your question at CBS Sports Radio or at Zach Gelb using the hashtag askthepros. You'll be listening later in the show when we might answer your question.

Think O'Reilly Auto Parts while your car care needs get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Moist Mike, what do we got brewing today on this special President's Day edition of the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio? President's Day, speaking of a president, Thomas Jefferson, I'm sorry, Justin Jefferson. I got confused. It's President's Day.

I can't remember anything. Justin Jefferson, Jetta, is set for a huge extension, but our buddy Mike Floyer laid out one issue that could derail a deal while joining Paul Allen on KFAN in Minnesota. They are playing with fire here, Paul, on multiple fronts between Justin Jefferson, whose patience is eventually going to run out.

That is not just me spitballing. And I can confidently say that JJ is very patient, but his patience will have its limits. And the problem continues to be not the dollars, but the structure. The Vikings are one of the few teams that will not fully guarantee beyond the first year of the contract for anyone other than Kirk Cousins. And if you're not going to make that same exception for Justin Jefferson, you are going to have a problem with Justin Jefferson eventually. So onside, offside, the Vikings need to do whatever it takes to keep Jefferson, even if it means hurting their chances of keeping Cousins. Onsides, they don't want Kirk Cousins back. They may get Kirk Cousins back, but that's not their first option, is to bring Kirk Cousins back. That's been so clear with just the reporting that we've seen in regards to Quesi Adolpho-Mensah and Kevin O'Connell, even going back to last draft where they tried to move up to draft Anthony Richardson in some of these reports. There's going to be a new quarterback in Minnesota, but I said this to JJ at the Super Bowl and I said it countless times last year. They should have got this contract done with Justin Jefferson last year because you didn't know who was going to be your quarterback. And then you could run the risk that Jefferson doesn't like what you decide, and then he doesn't want to get a deal done with you.

But think about this approach, if that's true what Florio is saying. Outside a quarterback, Minnesota doesn't want to guarantee money after the first year of a contract? Well then, what players are going to want to go there? And I'm not saying that to fully guarantee Justin Jefferson, but guaranteed money does matter.

And that's a new level to front-loading a deal to just basically make it one year and then the other three don't matter. Justin Jefferson is the identity of that team, he's the face of that franchise, and he's worth every damn penny. And the fact that they haven't got a deal done yet, you just always feel like Minnesota is going to find a way to mess this up. So when you say to me the Vikings are going to do whatever it takes to keep Justin Jefferson, even if it hurts their chance of keeping Kirk Cousins, absolutely onside. Speaking of Cousins, Vegas odds have come out for where he'll play in 2024.

The Vikings lead the way obviously at minus 200, with the Falcons, who I know is your pick, second at plus 300. Third on the list, however, is the Washington commanders, who as we know has the number two overall pick, and they were coming in at plus 500. So onside, offside, the commanders should sign Cousins rather than draft a quarterback number two. It's actually not a bad idea because then you could team up Terry McLaurin and you could team up Marvin Harrison Jr. because that's who you'd probably pick at two, or you could trade the pick and get more picks back for future years for someone that's going to want either Drake May or Jayden Daniels because Caleb Williams is going to go one to the Bears. But I kind of live this rule that once your ex is your ex, you don't go back to your ex for the long term. Maybe there's like a one night kind of stand situation where you go back to your ex, but you never get back in that relationship with your ex.

And that's why I don't think the commanders should do it, and I don't think they can do it. So the commander should sign Cousins rather than draft a QB at number two. Because of my rule about exes, I would say this is an offside.

Offside. Now the New York Aaron Rodgers is, I mean I'm sorry, the Jets. Your team, your squad. My former squad.

Go Chiefs Kingdom, back to back baby. Now hold on, I don't see a tattoo on you yet. Well you haven't looked in my lower back yet, have you?

I have not. Okay good. But Mike Pannell said, star defense alignment for the Chiefs, unsung hero of the Super Bowl. And if you actually want to go through and be a Chiefs fan, you got to get, as he said, a tramp stamp of him in that area. I actually offered the tramp stamp, he just had a tattoo.

I'll go, I'll figure it out. Now the Jets are going all in on surrounding their star quarterback with talent. Multiple reports, including ESPN and The Athletic, say the Jets were quote, married to Rodgers and quote, everything the Jets do revolves around Rodgers. Major roster decisions swirl around the quarterback, end quote. Onside, offside. Forget about Rodgers, but overall, no NFL quarterback should ever have this much input and power over roster decisions.

Onsides. I want my quarterback to be involved, but he can't make every final decision. And the Jets have lost all power of their organization because they have handed their organization over to Aaron Rodgers. And I'll go back to Green Bay. When Aaron Rodgers gave a press conference and he listed like 20 guys that he thought were all treated unfairly towards their end in Green Bay and how they should have stayed with the Packers, what did those guys go on to do once they left Green Bay? 99% of them basically did nothing and the Packers were right to move on from those guys. The Packers also ended up being right in drafting Aaron Rodgers' replacement. And I know some people may say that's a premature statement, but the Packers are better off now than where they were a year ago when Aaron Rodgers was still on their roster. They made the playoffs this past year.

They didn't make the playoffs a season ago. So I'm not saying don't give any input to your quarterback, but your quarterback can't make every decision because you have to manage a salary cap and do what's in the best interest of the team and not just what's in the best interest of the offense. So absolutely onside.

No NFL quarterback should ever have this much input and power. Now women's basketball in general has been front and center this week between Kaitlyn Clark's scoring record and Sabrina Ionescu's three-point shootout with Steph Curry. However, both of their feats were marred by odd comments from their former male NBA stars.

First, Jay Williams went after Kaitlyn Clark. I am unwilling, and maybe it's more the Kobe mentorship around me, to say that she is great yet. I think she is the most prolific scorer the game has ever seen. I hope great for the levels of immortality or the pantheon to when you win championships. That's just me. So Diane Taurasi, when you win three consecutive championships two-time National Player of the Year, it has to culminate with a chip.

It has to. I mean, Breonna Stewart, if we're talking about goat legends of the game, she's won four chips. Four chips, multiple National Players of the Year. So I'm not saying that she's not at a high, high, high level, but for it to go to the states of immortality, in my opinion, it has to culminate with your team winning a championship.

Then Kenny Smith called out Ionescu's loss to Steph. She should have shot from the women's line. That would have been a fair contest.

I still in for Sabrina. She should have shot from the three-point line that the women shoot from. Why are you putting those boundaries on her? That's not a boundary.

That's what the game is. She wanted to shoot. They have a smaller ball, don't they? WNBA ball is smaller. She shot with the WNBA ball. She should have shot from the line. There's a women's tee in golf and there's a men's tee.

For a reason. No. Onside to offside, Williams' comment was actually dumber than Kenny Smith's. So the order that you played that in was Kenny Smith first, I'm sorry, you had J. Will first and then Kenny Smith. Dumb and dumber.

What J. Will said was incredibly dumb. Don't get me wrong. Because you're saying she's one of, she is the most prolific scorer of all time, but you can't call her great. So Barry Sanders said isn't great because he didn't win a championship.

Dan Marino wasn't great because he didn't win a championship. So that was dumb. But it didn't ruin a moment.

What Steph and Sabrina did was so awesome and J. Will ruined the moment. He took away from the moment. Not only did he take away from the moment, Dame Lillard who won the men's three-point contest had 26.

Sabrina Ionescu had 26 as well. So your argument when it was close that she should have shot from the women's three-point line was just pointless, stupid and ruined the moment. Don't get me wrong. J. Will's was dumb too, but Kenny Smith was dumber. So when you ask me, Williams' comment was dumber than Kenny Smith's, I will go offside. I'm just surprised J. Will didn't say he was hacked on that broadcast because remember when he said that Imeu Doka was the first black coach ever for the Boston Celtics, he tweeted that out and then he claimed his Twitter account was hacked. So I guess you can't walk that one back when the words were actually coming out of your mouth, but maybe he'll claim that that was an AI version of him and not the actual version of J. Will.

Let's go, next one. Now the Oakland A's are set to move to Vegas but appear to be hitting a few snags. First, Vegas' mayor said she doesn't believe the A's should actually move there and now ESPN's Jeff Passan completely ripped the franchise and their owner in their attempt to relocate to Vegas. Tony, there are doubts everywhere about the A's because here's the one thing that they have proven themselves adept at, being completely incompetent. The whole process has been messed up from the start. You know, dating back 20 years to them trying to get a stadium in Oakland, failing to do so and now they're going to go to Vegas and all of a sudden it's going to be smooth sailing in a city that really hasn't shown a lot of desire to have you. The entire thing from the beginning, Tony, has been a disaster and if this thing fell apart it would surprise absolutely nobody.

Shrips. Onside, offside, the A's move to Vegas will actually not happen. Jeff Passan once blocked me on Twitter and I didn't even tag him in a tweet and I wasn't even mean in a tweet towards him and he saw it and he blocked me on Twitter.

He was actually seated right around me at the Super Bowl and someone, when I was walking up the steps, said, oh my god, it's Jeff Passan and he was walking right by me and I'm like, hey, Jeff, unblock me from Twitter and he kind of chuckled and then walked right past me. But even though I don't like Jeff Passan, he knows what he's talking about when it comes to Major League Baseball and this is what happens when you have horrible leadership and this all goes back to Rob Manfred. He has no control of his sport right now and that's why this A's thing, because you're allowing a bad owner be horrible, this is why it's got to such a mess. Since Passan's even talking about how this may not happen, I'm actually going to believe it, so I will go the A's move to Vegas will not happen. I will say onsides because the A's are such a dysfunctional mess that even though this seemed like a lock that they were going to Vegas, now since it's up in the air and it's debatable, I'm going to say that it doesn't happen and then you just wonder where the heck do they go. Maybe you just sell the team and you have them return to Oakland, which would be the right thing but also a bad look and baseball should get a team in Vegas. But man, it looks like the A's could mess up a one-car funeral procession right now. Alrighty, that's onside offside, it is the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. When we come on back, Sampton's going to give me a name, I'm going to give you a prediction on where that person is playing football this upcoming season in the year of 2024.

It is the Zach Gelb show right here on CBS Sports Radio, Paul O'Neill is going to stop by, 25 minutes from now we'll preview the baseball season with the former Yankees and Reds outfielder. Okay, picture this, it's Friday afternoon when a thought hits you, I can spend another weekend doing the same old whatever or I can hop into my all-new Hyundai Santa Fe and hit the road. With available H-Track all-wheel drive and three-row seating, my whole family can head deep into the wild, conquer the weekend in the all-new Hyundai Santa Fe. Visit HyundaiUSA.com or call 562-314-4603 for more details. Hyundai, there's joy in every journey.

2024 Santa Fe available early 2024. A peanut butter M&M's production. In a world where Super Bowl winners get the world's admiration and a fancy ring, but the runners-up get nothing, one retired cop returns. That's one retired quarterback, read the script. Oh, sorry. One retired quarterback returns to claim what's his. Um, that's claim a ring with diamonds made from M&M's peanut butter, but you're on a roll. The Ring of Comfort, coming soon to a Super Bowl new you. Listen to and follow Superfly on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.