Jokic is the Best Player in the NBA (Hour 1)

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Daddy, I just want my soup. Oh, sorry. Sport app says it'll be here in a few minutes. Instacart for the win. Live from the play show yet out 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 Wednesday edition of the Zach Gelb show across all of our great local CBS Sports Radio affiliates, Sirius XM Channel 158, the free Odyssey app, but of course, streaming on YouTube, youtube.com slash CBS Sports Radio. You can always hit us up 855-212-4CBS. That's 855-212-4227. Or 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.

We have a loaded, I mean a loaded guest list for you taking you up today all the way until 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 p.m. Pacific. Coming up 20 minutes from now, the men's head basketball coach at Creighton. They had a huge win last night. Remember Greg McDermott's team last year. They did go all the way to the Elite Eight. Well, for the first time in program history, they have taken down the number one team in the country.

That happened last night as you did have Creighton beating UConn. Greg McDermott going to join us 20 minutes from now. In the four o'clock hour, we will have the newest member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Dwight Freeney stops by. The commissioner of the NHL coming off a very successful stadium series, Gary Bettman is going to stop by for a few minutes at 4 20 p.m. Eastern, 1 20 p.m. Pacific. And we had to push back Winkler Wednesday. It's still going to be today on Wednesday because we have to do it on Wednesday. But instead of his normal spot, we'll do Bart Winkler today at 5 20 p.m. Eastern, 2 20 p.m. Pacific. Got Moist Mike and Stuart Kovacs with me and away we go after all those programming notes.

Alrighty, let's start the show actually with some audio. I will say this right out of the gate. I believe Nikola Jokic is the best player today in the NBA. Let's listen up to Jason Tatum though. He did an interview with Malika Andrews of ESPN and that question of who is the preeminent player in the NBA did come up to Celtic superstar Jason Tatum. Who do you think's the best player in the NBA right now?

Uh myself. Is that you always had that kind of confidence? Because I don't, I asked you that question a year ago and you said it was Giannis.

So what's given you that confidence? I got a lot of respect for a lot of guys in the league. Giannis for sure.

Jokic obviously just won. The league is in a great place. I truly do believe that when I step on the floor, I'm the best player. So I don't have a problem with Jason Tatum saying he's the best player in the NBA because he's in the conversation of top five top 10 players in the NBA. However you find a way to number your lists, there is no way you can't put him outside of the top 10. Like he has to be in the top 10.

That's not even debatable. So when you're in striking distance of being one of the better players in the league and you're perceived to be a top 10, top five player in the league, I'm okay with you having confidence in your abilities and you saying that is your spot. Now if this was someone who was like the 30th best player in the league, or if this was like Kyrie Irving for example, who used to be one of the better players in the league but he's no longer a top 10 player in the league. Like if he said he's the best player in the league, I think we all roll our eyes at that. Or if like Klay Thompson who years ago was phenomenal and now injuries have derailed his career, if he came out and said hey I'm the best player in the league, we would all have problems with that. But I think we could all agree even though I don't think Jason Tatum is the best player in the NBA, he has a right to say it because he's in striking distance.

And we have seen in the last 10 to 15 years, the best player in the league baton be handed off. Where it was LeBron for so many years, then it goes to Kevin Durant, then at times back to LeBron James, then back to Kevin Durant. For a little bit you had Steph Curry, one of the greatest players of all time, making that case as well.

And really after his latest championship, that's when Steph, even though Steph has already received an abundance of praise and deservedly so, that's when Steph started to get that tag as maybe being the best player in the league. But recently I think this has become a two-man conversation and that's with guys that have won multiple MVPs and also both recently have won NBA championships in Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokic. And for Giannis, he is a better defender than Nikola Jokic.

Let's just address that right off the bat, right out of the gate. However, the reason why I go to Nikola Jokic is even though you may have Giannis as a more prolific scorer where Nikola Jokic's average is what 26.1 points per game, that's 13th in the league and Giannis Antetokounmpo's 30.8, which is third in the league, for me what is the difference is how well-rounded from an offensive standpoint Nikola Jokic is. Because if you say who's the better, more well-rounded player and you factor in right offense and defense, well we all know offensively Giannis Antetokounmpo, even though he doesn't have the best jump shot in the world and he doesn't have the best outside shot in the world, he is a phenomenal, unstoppable force on the offense side of the ball and his defense is just absolutely sensational and this is a guy back in 2020 that won defensive player of the year in the entirety of the NBA. But this is a league where I'm not trying to undermine defense because defense is so important, but defense doesn't need to be all the way at the top of the list for you to be the best player in the league and I would say Giannis's biggest detractor, where I'm putting him as number two in the league, it's not like I'm slapping Giannis Antetokounmpo here, heck I love the guy, but Giannis's biggest detractor is the jump shot where when you look at Nikola Jokic, his biggest detractor is defense and I don't think Nikola Jokic is as bad as a defender as people make him out to be.

Like I think he's actually a solid defender and because you have someone that's such a perfect specimen, we look at the minor weakness or the minor flaw in his game and then we try to make it out to be worse than what it actually is. But when I evaluate Nikola Jokic, it's the well-rounded repertoire that he has on the offense side of the ball because yeah, if you just did points and rebounds, you would see Giannis has more points, 30.8 to Nikola Jokic's 26.1. Rebounding, Nikola Jokic has a slight edge, he's fourth in the league with 12 rebounds a game, Giannis Antetokounmpo's 11.2, that's six in the league, but the big disparity is what Nikola Jokic does passing the basketball to. Nikola Jokic, as a big man, is 8.9 assists per game, that's fourth in the league. Now Giannis is still in the top 20 at 18th, but that's at 6.4.

And when I try to see who is the tougher player to slow down and whenever you have these conversations, let me just preface it by saying it's kind of like the goat conversation where, and this is why I hate some of these conversations, but you have to have them. When you try to prop your guy up, then you have to talk negatively about the guy that you are picking against and I'm not criticizing Giannis Antetokounmpo, I want to make that abundantly clear. I'm not saying Giannis sucks, but sometimes it does come off that way. But for Giannis, even though he has made great strides at the charity stripe, you saw what he did to close out the NBA Finals. Bucks in six, Bucks in six a few years ago, up against the Suns.

He was magnificent at the charity stripe and he did it both ways, offensively and defensively. When you look back at the stellar play from that Bucks loan championship with Giannis Antetokounmpo, but you know the deficiency in Giannis' game, even with the improvements, is the command of the jump shot and his jump shot not being great. When you look at Nikola Jokic, I don't know how you stop him.

I really don't. And this was the confusing debate that we got into last year during their run. It's like, do you try to stop him from scoring or do you try to stop him from passing?

That's what the debate became. And you could try to say, all right, let's take away his passing ability and let's try to contain everybody else and let him just go off and have 45 points, 50 points. But he's still capable of putting up those stellar numbers on a basketball court where he could go be the highest scorer on the court on any given night. So if that's the approach, you could go win a basketball game containing a lot of other guys and you're not going to totally keep them off the board and Nikola Jokic is going to go get his. But a lot of times then people think you have to stop him individually and then that elevates him so much more because I really do believe Nikola Jokic gets more enjoyment off of dishing out the basketball and assisting the basketball compared to getting the individual praise of, oh, look at the big fella.

He put up 40, 45 points on any given night. So it's a tough conversation to have, but in a league now where it's shooting, shooting, shooting, shooting, shooting, and we know that Nikola Jokic can shoot the basketball. We know Giannis Antetokounmpo has made strides in that department.

It is funny to me though, when you think shooting, right, you think players that are in the back court. And now we're talking about who's the best player in the league. And it's between two bigs in Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokic who are untraditional players.

And that's really what the league has turned into where you had these enormous guys that you look at and you go, oh, there's no way that they're going to have a well-rounded game. And not only do they have a well-rounded game, they have a well-rounded game at an elite level and also factoring into this conversation. Now I'm not going to say he's the third best player in the league, but it goes off the big man conversation.

It is Joel Embiid with what he does on the defensive side of the court and also on the offensive side of the court as well. So Jason Tatum, he's not wrong for saying he's the best player in the league in terms of, I understand why he's saying that he's in the conversation. So if you're in the conversation, it's like any year where you have a quarterback or a wide receiver who's perceived to be one of the best quarterbacks or wide receivers in the NFL draft, they always come out and they say, hey, I'm the best wide receiver. I'm the best quarterback in the draft. But like I remember when I was interviewing Gabe Davis, who's had a nice NFL career and he's about to become a free agent and it looked like he already said his goodbye to Buffalo. When Gabe Davis joins us and he says, oh no, I'm the best wide receiver in the NFL draft.

Going back all those years ago when he said that to me, you kind of roll your eyes and you're like, eh, you could, you could say that, but no one's really going to take that argument seriously. Like there is an argument to be made for Jason Tatum, but when you fully delve through the list, I don't see how when you're doing a top five list in the NBA, how right now it does not start with one of these guys being one and the other being two with Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo. And for me personally, because of how much we put a priority on the offensive side of the game now, I think the well-roundedness, especially in the assist department gives the edge and making it difficult, more difficult to slow down Nikola Jokic compared to Giannis Antetokounmpo, even though most teams can't find a way to slow down either.

And wouldn't that be something this year? I know the bucks are struggling right now. Denver's coming off a championship, but the bucks are still, if you take out the Celtics, you would still say the bucks have then the best chance to go to the NBA finals. Wouldn't that be something if we could see coming up in June an NBA finals between Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo, I think that would be one of the best things that could happen to the NBA this year. If you get the two best players in the sport, competed it out. First of four, first to go win a second NBA championship, because both of their careers are very similar.

Both overlooked, both had a tremendous amount of success. Then boom, both have won two MVP awards and then both got clown for their teams not going as far in the NBA playoffs. And we saw Giannis a few years ago break through. And just last year, we saw Nikola Jokic break through and call themselves NBA champions. So who's the best player in the NBA?

855-212-4CBS, 855-212-4227. We'll get to Greg McDermott in just a second, but I just want to open this up real quickly to my guys behind the glass, Samter and Stu. I'll start off with Samter. Who do you think is the best player right now in the NBA, if you just had to give me a name? To me, it's Jokic, then Giannis. I don't even think Chase and Tams in the top five.

Okay, so then who's three, four, and five? You're going Embiid, Jokic, Giannis, Luka, and then... Steph? Could be Steph. I could still have LeBron in there. You can still have maybe Devin Booker, even KD when he's healthy.

But I think maybe even Shane Gilch to Alexander. I mean, the guy's been averaging 30 points a game for two straight years. The guy's a beast. So Embiid, Jokic, Giannis, and Luka for sure.

And then there's like a plethora of guys. I would probably have Tatum in like that 7, 8, 9 range. Maybe even 10. I would have to put him in my top seven. I still put him in my top five. But he's definitely, definitely top 10, just with that natural scoring ability that he has, that you even saw in that closeout game, where he just went off and he was unconscious up against the Philadelphia 76ers. Stu, who is your best player in the NBA? For me, it's between Jokic and Giannis. I will give the slight edge to Giannis. I just think he's a better all-around player when you include the defense and everything. I just, I'm in love with his game.

I think he's just phenomenal. I think it's between those two. Yeah. And that was what the difference was for me. It was defense. And then it was the assist. And I gave the edge to Nikola Jokic in the assist department just because it's a more offensive league now. And people care more about offense now come playoff time, just like how you do in the NFL. Then all of a sudden everyone starts caring about defense and running the ball, which for most of the year, no one in the regular season in the NFL cares about defense.

And then we trashed running backs an entire off season. Who's the best player in the NBA? 8-5-5-2-1-2-4. CBS 8-5-5-2-1-2.

42-27. This is Zach Gelb's show on CBS Sports Radio. Fresh off their program's first victory against the number one team in the nation, Greg McDermott of Creighton's going to stop by in five minutes. When the whole family comes together to watch the game, nobody wants to miss a second of the action to run to the grocery store. With Instacart, you can get all your weekly groceries in as fast as an hour.

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$10 minimum per order. Additional terms apply. 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. Oh, should we start this show? Yeah, I'm down. Just buying a car on Carvana first. Oh, for real? Yeah, it's super convenient. I already got pre-qualified in two minutes.

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Financing subject to credit approval. Alrighty, rocking and rolling on this Wednesday, this is the Zach Gelb Show Coast to Coast on CBS Sports Radio. We all remember Creighton's run to the Elite Eight a year ago. The Blue Jays had an enormous victory last night. For the first time ever in their program's history, they have taken down a number one team in the country, defeating the number one at UConn Huskies, who are the defending national champs by a final score of 85 to 66. Now joining us is the head coach of the Creighton men's basketball team.

He's been the HC since 2010, and that of course is Greg McDermott. Coach, appreciate the time as always. Thanks so much for making a few minutes and congratulations after a big win for your program last night.

Well, thank you very much. It was a great night for our program and our community. The arena was absolutely hopping last night. It was a lot of fun for everybody involved and a great win for our program, especially this time of year as you move closer to the Big East tournament and the NCAA tournament. We know this group is experienced. I'm not saying they needed more confidence, but when you get an enormous victory like that, does it just provide naturally some more confidence to your group?

I don't think there's any question, Zach. We've won some road games this season against some good teams, and I think that in itself probably gives you more confidence than anything when you could go into a very difficult place at Nebraska who hasn't lost a home game this year except to us, going to Butler, going to Seton Hall, and find ways to win. I think that validates a lot of things that you're doing on a daily basis on the practice floor. Our home court's a great home court, and we've been fortunate to have a lot of success there, and last night certainly fell in line with that. Like you said, your program has had a lot of success. People have a lot of respect for you and what you've done at Creighton, but you've been there now for at least over a decade since 2010 to get that program's first win ever against a number one team in the nation.

How do you put that moment, especially being at home, into perspective? I think it's historic. Anytime you're able to do something that's never been done, it's a really cool experience for the guys on the team. They're never going to forget it. I think our fans that were at that game last night are certainly going to remember the experience last night, but it was a game between two really good basketball teams, and obviously UConn has certainly earned all the attention they've gotten this year in the number one ranking because of how well they've played.

Danny's done an unbelievable job retooling part of that lineup to get to the point where he's got a team capable of winning a national championship again. We're really happy for our program, really happy for our guys and for our fans, but not surprised that we won. We felt like we had a good enough team to win that game. Were you surprised that you blew them out?

That was a surprising part, right? Yeah, we shot it extremely well. We knew we were going to have to. If you're going to make a living of challenging Donovan Clingan at the rim, it's going to be a long night. We played more outside in than inside out. Usually Kalkbrenner is someone we try to establish, we try to establish the rim a little bit more.

We just stayed away from that last night and tried to make them chase us around the perimeter. Then defensively, UConn's only scored under 70 points four or five times all season, twice it's been against us. We've had two defensive plans that have been executed by our guys that at least are going to give yourself a chance against an elite offensive team. Talking to Greg McDermott right now, you look at your three leading scores from a year ago, all back, Shireman, Kalkbrenner, like you mentioned, and Alexander.

They've all gotten better this season and you see it from a statistical standpoint as well. What did you kind of challenge those three coming off the elite eight run a year ago to kind of do this off-season to get those results that we're seeing now? Baylor went through the draft process two years ago before he transferred here when he left South Dakota State. He had been through that process and when he made the decision last year to come back for one more year, it actually was a surprise to me because when we recruited him, the plan was one year and he's going to go back to the draft. Baylor really thought he could get better. He thought he could grow.

He thought he could be more impactful if he added some strength to his body and really transformed his body. Worked to get his shot off a little bit quicker and then tried to get a little bit more agile on the defensive end and he's done that. Our conversations with Trey and Ryan throughout the draft process as they were trying to figure out what was going to be best for them and their career at that point in time, if you're going to come back, let's make sure we take advantage of it. Let's really work.

Let's get better. Let's make sure that when we go on the floor in November that everybody's seeing a better version of Trey Alexander and Ryan Kulkbrenner because of the work that you put in in the off-season. To their credit, they've both done it and those three have been terrific examples and mentors and leaders for this team. Then you add in Steven Ashworth who's a natural leader in his own right and we've been able to kind of grow as the season's gone forward. Talking to Greg McDermott right now, his program got a victory last night up against number one UConn. When you get all these guys back, it's awesome, but then it's a new year and I think that's always tough when you have so much success which you want because everyone feels like not only you have to replicate it, but you have to take it even a step further. How did you guys, once everyone came back, started to put what happened last year in the rearview mirror and not get people caught up too much in last year to make this year a little bit different? You know, we lost some pieces with Nembhard and Kaluma deciding to transfer, so we had to replace them with the Portal and Steven Ashworth and then within our program at that power forward spot with Mason Miller, Isaac Trout transferred in for Virginia and now Jason Green is playing really well. I think our fans understood that it's probably going to take a little bit of time, but we were also, I believe, preseason top 10-ish a year ago. Trey Alexander, Baylor Shireman, Ryan Kalkbrenner, they'd already been through that and understood that while it's nice to get the attention in the preseason and when you're playing bi-games in November and December, it really doesn't mean anything.

You have to hook it up. You have to really be married to daily improvement and daily growth if you want to be playing your best basketball in March. I don't think the expectations were negative to this group at all. We played in a game last year against San Diego State where we're one possession away from the Final Four and their focus has really been understanding and making sure the rest of the team understands the importance of one possession because we were one possession away from the Final Four and if we get back in that spot, we want to try to kick that door down. The transfer portal at NIL has changed the way of college basketball, college football, college athletics.

You mentioned Steven Ashworth and some other transfers as well. It's kind of like speed dating to try to find the right fit for your program. You don't know if it's going to work.

You hope it's going to work. When you guys are looking at bringing people via the transfer portal, how do you know if someone has a chance of being a right fit for your squad? For us, Isaac Trout, we recruited out of high school and I'd recruited him for a few years so we're very familiar with his skill set and what we think he's going to be able to bring to our program long term which we're very excited about.

When Nembhard decided to leave, it was a surprise. When you try to fill in a spot like that, there's a lot of things at play. Certainly, you need someone that's talented enough but with us, because we play a very unselfish brand of basketball, the culture fit is really important as well and finding someone that would complement Trey Alexander and not take away from Trey Alexander. A ball dominant point guard was not someone that we were in the market for because part of what we talked to Trey about when he went through the draft process is putting the ball in your hands more, showing people what a great decision maker you are. That was a little more difficult to do when he was on the floor with Ryan Nembhard but it's really happened seamlessly with Steven Ashworth. There's a lot of things that go into play and with us, it was finding the right person for that point guard position as much as the right player.

Steven Ashworth has been absolutely terrific. You've adapted. I know there's been some legendary coaches in football and basketball to walk away recently and a lot of people feel like that's because of the changes in the sport. At the age of 59, do you still love this sport? Do you still see yourself coaching for maybe another five, ten years or more than that? Yeah, you know, I love practice.

I love teaching and that's why I got into it. I love the relationship piece of my job and if we ever get to the point that it becomes all transactional, that's probably the point that I really think about walking away if relationships don't matter anymore. But in our program they do and not just coaches relationships with players but it's our staff relationships, it's players with relationships with one another and being able to put together a group of guys that truly likes to celebrate each other's success. To me, that warms my heart in coaching when I see that.

Teammates are really, really happy when something good happens to one of their buddies. So, as long as we can keep accomplishing that and bringing in the right people, this has never really seemed like a job for me in the 35 years that I've done it. So, I don't really want to start working now. Do you feel like this is your last stop? Because I know the history with Ohio State, naturally your name gets thrown right at the top of their list with their vacancy. Do you think Creighton is your last stop as a coach?

Yeah, I mean you never say never. Obviously, I met with them the last time and had a tough decision to make at that time but I've always said that if I had my choice it would be to end my career at Creighton. And the last thing I'll ask you, Coach Greg McDermott here with us after his team's sensational victory over UConn. When you were going through all that madness, when the game was ending, trying to get back to your locker room and all that euphoria is unfolding, just what was going through your mind in the moment fresh right off that blowout victory?

Well, as you said, I'm 59 years old. I was trying to get the hell out of the way so I didn't get ran over. I'm not quite agile enough to dodge those bullets when those students kept come flying on the court. But we haven't had many court storms during my time here. We've had a pretty good basketball team, so the Seton Hall game in 2020 when we got to share the Big East title was the last time we got a court storm in our building.

So it doesn't happen very often and to see the joy on those students faces and there was a few adults out there jumping around as well was pretty cool. But the scene in the locker room to celebrate with a group of guys that has really given you everything that they have was really special and certainly a night I'll never forget. Coach, your team's fun to watch. Excellent victory last night. Congratulations and appreciate you. I know it's a busy day. Make it a few minutes for us. Thanks, Zach.

Anytime. You got it. There he is. Greg McDermott, the head coach of the Creighton Blue Jays off a very impressive victory last night up against Danny Hurley Squad, the defending national champions in Yukon.

And I can't wait for the Big East tournament, and I can't wait for March Madness as well. But that was a fun moment that kind of serves as an appetizer for all the mayhem that's going to go down in a few weeks. Okay, we'll take a time out. We'll come on back. We got a few would you rather questions when it pertains to some NFL quarterbacks moving forward for the next 5 to 10 years.

But let's get the latest CBS Sports Radio update in first with the act man, Rich Ackerman. 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.

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2024 Santa Fe available early 2024. Hey, Rob Bradford here. I have set out on a mission with my good friends at FanDuel to prove what I have known for some time. Baseball isn't boring. Now I have a daily podcast to prove it with some of the most notable people in the baseball world screaming baseball isn't boring for the mountaintops or at least agreeing to come on our show. Players, managers, GMs, and yes, even the commissioner of baseball, Rob Manfred. It has been a constant wave of baseball's most powerful voices. So join the revolution, subscribe and soak in baseball isn't boring.

Listen on your Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. You'll be glad you did. Dwight Frini, the newest member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame is going to join us coming up 20 minutes from now. The commissioner of the NHL, Gary Bettman is going to stop by at about 4.20 PM Eastern time today, 1.20 PM Pacific. By the way, I came in later today in terms of getting ready for the show. Like I was fully prepared for the show, but usually I get here at about 1 PM Eastern, maybe the latest 1.30 PM Eastern as there's a few things that we have to do before the show. Today I texted Santa.

I'm like, I'm not getting here until 2.30 PM Eastern time today. Well, no, it has nothing to do with that. I just had an issue. And the issue that I had was, and it kind of came up in the YouTube chat where Brian was bringing up the laundry rooms and he's at a laundromat, I guess right now. So my apartment complex is great. It has everything that you could want besides one thing, dryer washer in the unit. So it is a communal dryer washer and they have about like 20 machines for the entire building, which is a good amount of machines. So I did the wash today when I got on the elliptical. And then when I got off the elliptical, which was after an hour, I then put the clothes in the dryer. So the clothes were in the dryer, let's just say from about 11.30. I know it's about 11 because I got there at 10 today.

Yeah, I got there at 10 today, got off at 11. So put the clothes in the dryer at 11. So by 12, they would be ready. And by 12, they would be done. So I kind of slacked a little bit and I didn't go back into the laundry room until 12.45 where I was expecting my clothes to be dried all done and then boom, away we would go.

I would go quickly fold them and then bolt over to the studio because I'm only about like five to 10 minutes from the studio for it to begin with. So when I go to open the dryer door, soaking wet the clothes. So the dryer either shut off five minutes in or when I was pressing it, obviously there was something that maybe, and I've done this laundry now the same place for four or five years, you know, you have to hold down the button and then it started to go. I thought I heard it go off, maybe though it didn't.

So I don't know. Either it shut off like a few minutes in or I didn't start it correctly. So then I'm panicking because I know that if I have to dry this for another hour and thankfully it wasn't a lot of laundry, you know, I'm cutting it close here like 2.30, 2.45, something like that. So I ended up 40 minutes or 35 minutes into the dry since it wasn't a lot of clothes, going back downstairs and then thankfully everything was dried.

So I was able to then get here a little bit earlier than normal. So that was my mismanagement today. The dryer wasn't cooperating in my apartment complex. You know, they had these great services in the city of picking up and, you know, you don't have to worry about washing it, drying it, folding it. They pick it up, they wash it, then they redeliver it to you and they fold it back up for you.

It's a sore subject. Why did you have an incident where they ruined your clothes? Not only did they ruin my clothes, they lost my clothes. Wow. I use this service for a year because I don't like doing laundry.

Nobody does. I use this service for a full year and one day they lost it. They barely reimbursed me.

They gave me like a minimal reimbursement and now the guy that did the service, he used to be across the street. His place, he shut down his place and now he runs his laundry establishment out of our building. So this guy, let's just say, and I'm very patient, but when you basically tell me it's my fault that they lost the clothes and you didn't want to reimburse me after a four-month process, I may have lost my cool a little bit and now I see this guy every day because he's there seven days a week in the lobby of my apartment. So that's why I do not send my clothes out because it got lost last time. There's another place, but it's about a six or seven block walk and they will return the laundry to you, but you have to bring it there when you have a big bag of laundry and there's a lot of tourist attractions around me, to say the least, in New York City.

It's not the easiest to schlock a big bag of laundry around all these people that are just looking up and looking at the sight lines of the city. So that's my sensitive topic. I'll accept that. I'll accept that.

I've heard a lot of horror stories about some of these pickup drop-off services. So what do you think is more embarrassing for Justin Fields, by the way? Before we get to this, would you rather? Justin Fields revealed to the St. Brown brothers why he unfollowed the Bears on Instagram. He basically just said, actually, do we have that audio?

Just one, we do? Let's play that audio. This is Justin Fields, courtesy of the St. Brown's brothers podcast on why he unfollowed the Bears on social media. What's with the unfollow with the Bears?

What's up with that? Man, bro, I'm glad we're talking about it because people, why do people take social media so seriously? Like, why are you unfollowing the Bears? Like, I still mess with the Bears. I'm just trying to take a little break. I unfollow the Bears and the NFL, bro.

I'm not just trying to have football on my timeline. I know y'all mess with a girl, E.Q., especially you. Just because you don't follow the girl on IG don't mean you're not messing with her. That's true. That's true. That's facts. That's facts. Oh, so you're saying you mess with the Bears more now that you unfollow them? Man, it's not even like that.

Ah, okay, okay. It's something that I don't want to see in my timeline. I'm about to go on vacation. I don't want to see no football. And guess what? Just get away, get away for a little bit. It's either Keith Fields. We want Fields to the draft, Caleb. So it's like, bruh, man, I'm tired of hearing the talk. I just want it to be over. So here's the thing.

And maybe this is a technicality. You got to know that this is going to be a story and some loser's going to find that you unfollowed the Bears from social media. Why not just use the mute button? The mute button is one of the greatest inventions ever, because someone could keep on tweeting or Instagram posting to you.

You'll never see it. And you just mute the person and you don't have to deal with their crap. And they don't know that you basically unfollow them, even though you didn't unfollow them by muting them. But they don't know that you didn't do that. And they think you're still following them and then you're just ignoring them.

So I don't get why Justin Fields just didn't mute the Bears and mute the NFL. And also, you could have just deleted your Instagram app. You're going on vacation for a week, two weeks. Just delete the app.

Who needs it? Like, I'll be on social media a little bit when I'm in Orlando starting tomorrow and then I'm in Puerto Rico next week, start on Thursday. But I'm not going to be that active on social media. But it's I think that's kind of weak that Fields unfollowed the Bears and unfollowed the NFL.

And he's just like, oh, yeah, the reason I did that is because I'm going on vacation. I don't want to see that crap. Just mute them.

But that's the miscalculation there, Sam. They're all you have to do is just mute them. Yeah. And the reality is, by taking off the bear stuff from your feed, doesn't mean that you're not going to see. Yeah, someone's still going to post.

Bears trade Justin Field stuff. It just means they're not going to see your bear stuff. So I don't understand what the difference is. Like either you're all if you're on social media, you're going to catch all the stuff.

You're going to catch all that heat. So it makes no sense to me. It's the worst excuse I've ever heard. It's absolutely nonsense. So Justin Fields is gone.

Man, why are you so forceful with that? We all knew he's getting traded anyway. Well, honestly, I didn't think 100 percent that he was getting traded.

I thought that there was a chance that it's like some team came with like a multi first round pick offer, like a three first round pick type offer because they wanted Kalen Williams and they can move back and still get Marvin Harrison Jr. or like a star and just build a depleted roster out and keep Justin Fields. And I thought that maybe it made sense, but once he took off his social, it's done. Yeah, but once you start overly praising your player, that's the writing on the wall that it's not going to be a reunion. So Carl Dukes, who I love in Atlanta, he's become a friend and he does some work for us here on the weekends on CBS Sports Radio. He responded to this video that was put out with Justin Fields responding and he said, Come on, Justin, I still mess with the Bears. That's like saying used to holla at a chick like you used to kick it with her.

Bring him home. Now, I responded to Carl Dukes going off of this. Fields can also look at the Falcons as the girl he wanted to be with, but got rejected. And now years later, that girl's begging for him to go out with her, because that's basically what happened in the draft. Back in that twenty twenty one draft, the the Falcons could have taken Fields at four. They elected to go Kyle Pitts. And now, according to Jordan Schultz, who was on with us yesterday, there is buzz buzz that is building throughout the league. Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz.

Sounds like Samter when he talks a little bit. There is buzz building throughout the league that Justin Fields could be traded to the Atlanta Falcons, so we'll see if that ends up happening. Anywho, let's get to a few would you rathers here for quarterbacks in the future for, let's say, the next five to ten years. Samter has compiled a little bit of a list. I'll give you my answers right now.

All right. So if Patsy Wilhomes is number one, these two guys are probably two and three in the NFL as far as quarterbacks. Josh Allen and Joe Burrow, who would you rather? I'd rather have Joe Burrow because Joe Burrow has been to a Super Bowl. The only concern about Joe Burrow is the durability because in four years in the NFL, two of them, he's had season-ending injuries.

Josh Allen, for the most part, has been healthy and he's been able to play all the games. But for me, I just think Burrow is more of a winner. So I'll roll the dice with Joe Burrow.

All right. Now we're looking at the NFC East. Dak Prescott or Jalen Hurts?

This is a great one. This is a tough one. I'm going Jalen Hurts and it's just because of the upside. Dak has clearly had more time.

He's been the more consistent player. But I don't think Dak has ever been viewed the way that Jalen Hurts has been viewed. Where Jalen Hurts was perceived to be, you know, one or two last year in terms of the quarterback rankings, right? He took a team to a Super Bowl. And also, let's remember, he outplayed Patrick Mahomes.

They lost the game, but he outplayed Patrick Mahomes on the biggest stage. Now, Hurts has to reel it back in. Hurts has to get back to that level. I don't know if he can, but we know Dak Sealing is just being a very good quarterback. Jalen Hurts showed he could be an elite quarterback in this league. So I will take the gamble of the unknown for the potential payout with Hurts rather than Dak Prescott, who I pretty much know everything there is to need to know about the Dallas Cowboys quarterback. So these are two guys that you definitely don't know everything you need to know about them because one's only had one year in the league.

The other one hasn't even played down yet. But C.J. Stroud, offensive rookie of the year, and Caleb Williams, the likely number one of role pick. Yeah, it's Stroud because I've seen him play at an elite level in the NFL. Now, I know people say, oh, well, Caleb Williams hasn't played in the league yet.

Totally understand it. Some people are drawing comparisons to Patrick Mahomes to Caleb Williams. I'm not willing to go there yet, but we know the way that Caleb Williams can extend the play and the play is never over with Caleb Williams. But this past year, I thought USC and it wasn't all on Caleb Williams, more on Lincoln Riley and Alex Grinch. I thought that that team was underwhelming and I saw Stroud exceed all expectations this year. So since already seeing Stroud play at a high level and Caleb Williams expected to be great. But how many times are there generational players that don't get to be generational players and either good or bust? I will go with the guy that I've already seen play at the NFL level, Matt C.J.

Stroud. All right, now this one I think is a pretty is a gimme after what we saw in the playoffs. But earlier in the season may have been a little bit easier or tougher. Jordan Love or Tuatunga Valoa? Easily Jordan Love here.

But like two months ago, I think it'd be a much difficult, much more difficult conversation. Sure. I don't think Tua is a franchise quarterback.

I think Tua has limitations. I think he's good. Love showed in that playoff game that he could be great in those two playoff games, even though he made the mistake at the end. Once again, I'll take the higher ceiling player and I think the higher ceiling player is Jordan Love.

All right. How about Trevor Lawrence to Deshaun Watson? I will go Trevor Lawrence because I can't trust Deshaun Watson off the field. And also, we haven't seen for a long time.

Now it's three or four years to Deshaun Watson go back to that form because of the suspension and then also the injuries as well. So I will go with Trevor. Last one real quick, Purdy or Goff?

Oh, this is a good one. I'm going Brock Purdy. I'm taking Purdy because I trust what's around him more than I do with the Lions who build a really impressive team. But we did see Brock Purdy lead that comeback. And I know it wasn't really like golf's fault, but the Lions, they choked that away. So I'll go Brock Purdy.

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. That's claim a ring with diamonds made from M&M's Peanut Butter.

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Cash the ticket. Jim Costa with Mike Valenny. We shift the focus from football to college hoops.

Playing that system that's not a system, but sure plays like a system. Leading up to the tournament. We're looking for that value with the daily dimes. We look for the gross lines. Getting us ready for the tournament where we're going to break down all the matchups and have an eye on some future plays too. This time of year, baby. Search Cash the Ticket on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.