Zion in the Dunk Contest? (Hour 2)

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Visit Carvana.com to shop for thousands of vehicles under $20,000. Alrighty, our number two of our radio program. It is the Zach Gelb Show on CBS Sports Radio. It is a Wednesday. Samter's birthday today, March 6th, so happy birthday to Moist Mike. It is a Winkler Wednesday too, so we'll chat with Bart Winkler.

Coming up 40 minutes from now. Before we get into what Zion Williamson had to say about the future of the dunk contest, which, it's in like a miserable spot. I know it's bad, but it makes it worse when everyone is like bitching and complaining about All-Star Weekend and they're just slamming the dunk contest. I'm not making excuses. The dunk contest was horrible. But with what we got to see with Stefan Sabrina, my standard was so low for NBA All-Star Weekend that that at least gave me something that I said, okay, I enjoyed at least one facet, one phase of NBA All-Star Weekend.

But I have three players that need to participate in the NBA dunk contest to save the future of the dunk contest. But before we get to that, hey, Samter, for your birthday. And I know you're not going out for dinner tonight.

I think your wife, you believe your wife is cooking something up for you and you guys are gonna have a nice night with the baby and all that in your New York City apartment. But let's say you're going out for your birthday and you're at a restaurant. Are you a fan when, I don't know, like mom and dad or your significant other gets up, I'm going to the bathroom and then they go find the waiter or waitress. They go, that person over there, it's his birthday. Let's bring out a cake and sing to them.

Or maybe they placed the phone call before. Are you a fan when you get the group happy birthday singing in public at a restaurant? Not only am I a fan, I sing along.

I'm all into it. Dancing, I get up onto the table. I'll sing along if I know what they're doing. Yeah, you sing happy.

There's difference in you getting up on the table and dancing. But you start singing happy birthday to yourself? No, because usually they're not singing happy birthday. Usually they come out with some like, you know, cheesy song that they made up and they're just like, they're clapping along. Happy, happy, happy birthday, happy birthday or whatever it is.

Where do you go? To Friendly's? They used to do that at Friendly's. Friendly's has a birthday song. It's not too short.

It's not too long. There you go. And then something with the wishes and then or like we will make you clean our dishes.

And it's like sound off happy birthday to you. No, but I enjoy all that. Yeah, absolutely. Stu, what are your thoughts?

What's your verdict on this? Yeah, I'm fine with it. I mean, it's okay. I don't like being the center of attention always, but you know, it's a fine 30 seconds. I do.

And you get through it. I hate it. Ooh, hate it. I love being the one singing happy birthday. And I love embarrassing the person whose birthday it is.

Like going all baritone. Happy birthday to you. And really embarrassing them in the restaurant. But then when it happens to me, I just can't stand it. Because then like everyone else in the restaurant and it's a birthday. Like if it's a big birthday, like 30, 50, double nickels, 60, 65. Okay, I understand it.

But when it's just like, like, for example, last year I went out for my 29th birthday and the old morning show here. I don't. Yeah, D.A. Marache. They were still here. A D.A. was at least.

They were like making fall. Gel's making a big deal out of his 29th birthday. All right, whatever.

Like they're not wrong. But if you have like a big milestone birthday, it's fine. But when you're like out for like your 29th birthday or 28th birthday, something like that.

Or a number that's not significant. And then everyone in the restaurants going up to you saying, oh, happy birthday. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It kind of does annoy me. So I am a fan if I'm doing the group singing of happy birthday.

But if I'm the one whose birthday it is, I like kind of cringe. And there's one spot actually on Long Island. There's a place called Ropke's where they have like an opera singer. Like the owner of the restaurant, he sounds like an opera singer and he belts out happy birthday.

And I swear to God, every time he does it, there must be glasses that are breaking. I actually have two opera singers in my family. Now, they're both women and they have great, great voices. My cousin, Amanda, and then my aunt, Deb.

They are phenomenal opera singers. So like when my grandpa, you know, when his birthday is actually coming up the end of March, when my aunt Deb is there singing happy birthday, it's pretty cool. But I don't know. In a group setting and it's my birthday, I can't stand it. I just feel so awkward about the entire thing. Note to self, when's your birthday again? Oh, you don't know? It's a crushing moment.

That's not a big deal. April, August 9th. August 9th, I'm going to embarrass the absolute crap out of you. I will not be here.

You want to know why I'm not going to be here? Because one of my best friends is getting married on the 10th and I am at the rehearsal dinner on my 30th birthday and I am ordaining the wedding. First time in my life, I'm ordaining the wedding on August 10th. So it's nice of my friends to get married and throw me a birthday celebration because this isn't their wedding.

This is Zach Gelb's 30th birthday celebration, right? Well, before you go, when you get back, you are going to be embarrassed. Okay.

Absolutely just made to look completely uncomfortable. Hey, Spike, how you doing? Oh, yeah, let's get those applications out for a new Zach Gelb Show producer. I'll pass it along. Whoever takes over from me is going to, this is going to be their responsibility.

I don't know. I feel like you're the only producer around here that would actually embarrass the host. Oh, I thought you were going to end the sentence right there.

That's what I thought too. I feel like you're the only producer around here. I'm like, well, thank you. No, no, I mean that would embarrass the host. Producers around here, but all right, cool.

Thanks. Like EJ would just embarrass, like, purl off over a take. I don't think EJ's belted out happy birthday. Oh, I'm not going to sing. I'll do way worse things to you. What are you going to do, the Mr. President song? I'm going to get a restraining order, I think, out against you.

That's what I think I'm going to do. From the week of my 30th birthday, I think I'm going to get a restraining order. It begins with an S, ends with a pedo. Huh?

Just saying. I don't even S and ends with a pedo. Oh, no.

I don't understand this whatsoever. Put those two things together, S and pedo. S and pedo? Oh, a speedo. Oh, yeah, baby.

Jeez. Bow tie, speedo, oh, yeah. Let me tell you, the last thing we need is Sampter walking around here in a speedo.

That, you know what, do that. I got HR on speed dial. If we have Sam, you don't even own a speedo.

On speedo dial. You don't even own a speedo. There's no way you have a speedo. Oh, I definitely do not, but to embarrass you, I will go get one. Santa's going to put a banana in his pants when he's walking around with that speedo. I'll go get one, and then I'm going to return to the store after I wear it.

There's some things in life that you shouldn't be able to return. A speedo is one of them. That's disgusting.

And with a cold banana hammocks for a reason. Oh, could you imagine actually the goal if you bought a speedo, wore it once, and then put it back in the packaging and then tried to return it? That's disgusting. Like the fact that they let you try on underwear and socks at some of these stores are gross because you know they're not cleaning them off and then putting them back in the packaging.

They're just stuffing them right back in that packaging. Oh, absolutely horrendous. Anyway, let's hear Zion Williamson. He may know a thing or two about a speed up about the NBA dunk contest, and he was asked if I ever participated in it.

Listen up. Do you see yourself taking part in the dunk contest in the future? I got to do my part and make the All-Star game. If I'm in the All-Star game, I'll do the dunk contest. But if I'm not, I'm not doing it. Here's what I'll say to Zion Williamson.

You can't dangle that carrot in front of us and then pull it away. You make the All-Star game. You have to. And I mean have to do the slam dunk contest. And I'll give you my names in just a second, but the Pelicans and Zion Williamson kind of haven't been talked about that much this season.

And you know what? That's actually a good thing, because it means he's playing and he's leading the team in scoring as well. And right now that team is in fifth place in a Western conference where there's not a lot of separation.

And they're 37 and 25. So that's been Samter. I'll get back to his dunk contest point in just a second. And hopefully he's not like LeBron is like, Oh, I'll do the dunk contest and then don't do the dunk contest. And LeBron's the reason now why the dunk contest sucks. But the Pelicans have been a very underrated and not talked about story this year in the NBA.

And that wasn't always the case to start the season. But we haven't heard really anything from the Pelicans front as of late. And that's a very good thing for the NBA, because that means Zion is playing. That means Zion's on the court and they're putting out a quality product for right now. It's not a good thing that we're not talking about the Pelicans, because when Zion came into the league, he felt like the guy that we were kind of grooming to become the face of the after LeBron left. So he hasn't because he's always been hurt and the fact that he's healthy and the team is doing well and we're not talking about or hearing about the Pelicans at all.

It doesn't that's actually probably a bad thing for the NBA. That Zion star has kind of fallen that shine and that shimmer has kind of fell off a little bit from what we kind of hope that he could be. Well, the standard was so low, it was he's out of shape, who was that Mariah Mills lady that he was involved with. And she was just put in too much of their personal lives on social media and all of that. And it just got to a point where it became so insufferable. But I get what you're saying. And the point that you just made isn't wrong, because where the stardom is. But the stock of Zion for two, three, four years was just up out of shape, up not playing, up a disaster and all that.

And it just became a sad story. Now, when you look at his stat lines and I know he's only playing like 30 minutes a night and what he's played in 51 games this year, but it's even the team in scoring 22 points per game. It's not been the explosive Zion Williamson that we've expected, but I'd rather have this Zion where he's at least on the court and we're not talking about him rather than the Zion Williamson where it's just, oh, wow, he's not in shape.

Oh, wow, he's not playing and it's turning into I never called him a bus, but it was turning into an NBA bus. But he could be someone that could say the dunk contest because there's still an appeal and there's still a chance to salvage the career of Zion Williamson. And look like Jalen Brown is a very good player, but Jalen Brown going to the dunk contest was the big name that popped this year and he was terrible.

But I at least appreciated that he participated in the dunk contest. Zion, I think not only would be good in the dunk contest, but his name, not a better player than what Jalen Brown has been so far in the NBA, but his name would add more sizzle to the dunk contest than what Jalen Brown did this past year. So I still think there is an appeal for Zion and that would be awesome if he one day does do the dunk contest, but it's got to happen soon. Like it's got to happen in the next three years because if we get three more bad dunk contests, it's just going to be like death taxes and the NBA dunk contest sucking.

Now there's two other guys, two other guys that we need to see. And to the Zion point that we were just making, this would be good if we're even in a position where this guy can do the dunk contest. And that's Ja Morant, like Ja Morant would be sensational in the dunk contest. But a year ago, Ja was acting like a knucklehead.

And then this year, once he goes through the suspension and he gets back and I know his team was in a bad spot, but then he gets hurt and he's out for the season. So I just want Ja to get his life in order and I want Ja to be back on a basketball court and I want him to be healthy. But if we could get to a day where maybe we have, especially from that draft class, a Zion and Ja both participating in the same dunk contest, that would be a reason to tune in. And then the biggest name that the dunk contest needs to get, it's Victor Wambunyama. The NBA is now Victor Wambunyama's world. And for Victor Wambunyama, he's going to be the face of the NBA once LeBron walks away. Like, Nikolay Jokic is a stud. Nikolay Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo are the two best players right now in the NBA. But, Nikolay Jokic is not a personality guy. Like, he won a championship.

He didn't even look happy. And for Giannis Antetokounmpo, I think he gives you very good moments at the podium. But I don't think he wants to embrace being the face of the NBA. Now, I don't know if Victor Wambunyama wants to do that, but Victor Wambunyama, what stood out to me was when he was at his pre-draft press conference, they had their own press conference from him. Like, they usually put every rookie that's going to the draft at a dais, and they gave just a regular table to Zion Williamson a few years ago, this enormous crowd. There were so many people that want to talk to Victor Wambunyama.

They had to do their own ballroom press conference for him. And one thing he said that day, because a lot of people thought the size was going to be a problem, just because he's very tall, but people thought he needed to put on a little bit more weight. And he was basically like, no, people should get skinnier. You know, people shouldn't fatten up.

They should thin up a little bit or something like that. So there was like a little, I don't want to say attitude, but there was a little personality coming from Victor Wambunyama and pushing back. And Wambunyama is kind of like Otani, where it's so unique and it's such a one of one thing.

And you heard so much about him where he's basically, you thought like, was he even a real person? And now you're already seeing that success in year one, but now the Spurs have to get their act together, the rest of the team, and then take off because the best way for a player to get marketed, I know the NBA has a good marketing plan, is to get that player in the postseason. So I think those are three guys that could save the NBA dunk contest. You got to get Victor Wambunyama, you got to get Zion Williamson, and you got to get Ja Morant in the mix. And just don't do what LeBron did. Like Zion Williamson, I'll be so disappointed in you if you do what LeBron did, where you dangle that carrot, you basically give us what we want, and then you pull it away and you say, nah, I told you I was going to do it, but then you don't actually do it.

Alrighty, this is Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. We'll take a time out when we come on back. There are five teams right now in the NFL that I think have absolutely no direction. Is there anything in sight that we could see with those teams where you could give me something positive brewing?

We'll get to that on the other side. Sorry, sport app says it'll be here in a few minutes. Instacart for the win for the past 20 years, you've enjoyed the refreshing tropical lime flavor of Mountain Dew Baja Blast. So in celebration of this milestone, we're bringing Baja Blast in stores nationwide and for a limited time with every purchase of Baja Blast, you can collect coins for a chance to get Baja Gear or a Taco Bell deal. 2024 is the year of Baja Blast in stores. Now no purchase necessary open to US residents 18 plus subject to official rules at Baja Blast.com and 61524 void were prohibited. Yo, next round is about to start.

You ready? Yeah, yeah, just shopping for a car in Carvana. For real?

Yeah, Carvana makes it super convenient to shop whenever, wherever. For real? That's a ton of car options. Yep, and these are all within my price range. For really real? You can afford that? Yeah, with Carvana and boom, just like that, I'm getting it delivered in a couple days. So really, really real? You just bought a car. For real, and you just lost, my turn.

Visit Carvana.com to shop for thousands of vehicles under $20,000. Bart Winkler is going to join us coming up in 20 minutes from now. I think we have a locker room problem here at CBS Sports Radio. I think there's some inner fighting that's happening here.

And it's inner fighting between a show. So it's not our show because I got Sampdur donuts today on his birthday and it's his 44th birthday. But I did see earlier this morning that The Morning Show, Maggie and Perloff, finally got Andrew Bogusch some cinnamon rolls. But his birthday, I guess, was in February and Bogusch tweeted out, a huge thanks to the Jaguars, who birthday snafu and social media led to my passive aggressive reminder that the crew forgot my birthday. So Bogusch looked very pissed in this photo. They have the cinnamon rolls to his right, but he looks and there's a kind of a look of someone that goes to Fordham, where there could be like a little bit of a snobby nip, a little bit of a snobbiness. I don't think Bogusch is a snobby person.

But in this photo, he kind of looks like an annoyed Fordham snob. Like he just has this disgust to him where it's like, these people, they gave me these cinnamon rolls weeks after my birthday. That's a bad job by The Morning Show. It's a bad job by Our Morning Show for getting long time update anchor Andrew Bogusch's birthday. Sam, they're like, would you have been annoyed if let's just say, you know, today we know is your birthday and happy birthday once again, that the show came and then we left. And then at 6 p.m. Eastern, no one acknowledged that it was your birthday. And I'm not saying like you had to bend over backwards and get someone like a crazy gift. Like, I just got you a box of donuts. But would you have been annoyed if no one, like if Stu didn't acknowledge it or I did not acknowledge it? Well, Stu only acknowledged it when you brought the donuts around. You're like, oh, happy birthday. He's like, oh, it's your birthday.

Great, thanks. Do you hear that noise? It's the bus backing up over Stu right now, the Samter bus. Yeah, I don't mess around. Yeah, it is a little bit disappointing that Stu wasn't rifling through Facebook.

I'll be honest, the only way I know who anyone's birthday, including my parents, is when Facebook tells me it's so-and-so's birthday. So no, I wouldn't have been upset. I was actually surprised that you knew. I was very appreciative that you brought in donuts and I've eaten two of them and now I can barely see straight.

But no, I wouldn't have been upset. I also give Maggie, Andrew and EJ a little bit of a pass. I mean, they're fairly new on that show, right? They haven't had a full year with Bogish. So, you know, they've been there since, what, middle of September. So what are you supposed to do? Like, you start a new show, you're focused on all these new things.

I don't know. If you don't have Facebook reminding you, you just go around asking, hey, when's your birthday? So eventually when it happens, like, I can surprise you with it? We start a new show within a week.

We went out to a nice fancy schmancy dinner. I'm just saying. Right, but did you ask me when my birthday was then? No, I just knew.

Yeah, you knew. I did my homework. I did my Facebook homework. Yeah, you did your Facebook homework. I got the alert this morning. It's Samter's birthday.

There you go. So if we're not friends on Facebook or if I didn't have a birthday reminder on Facebook, you wouldn't have known. And so, like, I don't blame them for not knowing. Now, if it happens a second time, right now, they have to save his birthday in their phone and save it in their calendar.

Otherwise, there's no excuse. So here's the thing. His birthday, Bogish's birthday, is February 25th.

So that's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. They acknowledge it today. That's 10 days after his birthday. I think it's better to not even acknowledge it than acknowledge it 10 days later. Like, for birthdays, I give everyone a 24-hour grace period. Like, after my birthday, 24 hours.

If you don't reach out, don't reach out. I hate that, like, the next day is fine. But after the next day, the happy belated birthday message is too much for me.

Way too much for me. It's, like, kind of like at this point saying, happy new year, when we're two weeks into the new year. Another thing that annoys me. Yeah, but everyone knows when the new year is, right? Like, if you, like, woke up out of a coma and you're like, oh, it's February, whatever. You may not know then. You know, then, oh, happy new year, since I missed it, you know, three months ago. Yeah.

Why do we have to go with the coma there? Whatever. How else are you going to miss the new year? I'm just saying, though, like, to reach out to someone and wish someone a happy new year. Like, there's some, like, emails.

I do it all the time. Like, hope all is well. Oh, happy new year. If you really cared about that person, you would have reached out and wish them a happy new year. I'm just saying, I think it's a humbling moment for Bogus, where he probably thought he was really close to EJ and Maggie and also Perloff, where he just realized the way that he values their relationship with him may not be evaluated, really valued by the others on that show.

So I'm going to say, like, Pete, the body, bloody. He's worked with him for, like, 10 years. Pete wished him a happy birthday.

Bogus made it clear in the tweet that he wished him a happy birthday. And Maggie and Perloff, like, the two nicest people I've ever met in radio. I thought Maggie, you know, maybe Perloff would forget. But Maggie, no chance that she would forget a co-worker's birthday. So I'm just saying, I'm just wondering what's going to happen with that show.

You can't forget it if you never knew it. But is this the start? Is Bogus now the Aaron Rodgers of that show? Where what Aaron Rodgers was in Green Bay, where you knew there was an expiration date, is Bogus. Now, the Aaron Rodgers guy where you know he's going to be annoyed, he's going to be arrogant about it, he's going to be contentious, he's going to be passive aggressive. He already is with this tweet. Does it escalate into something where two, three years from now, we're maybe making, like, an act for Bogus trade and we have to, like, include, like, a box of donuts or a box of cinnamon rolls or something like that. Is Bogus Aaron Rodgers? That's all I'll ask.

The big question. And it's going to be something just to monitor here. We're going to need, like, a CBS Sports Radio insider to give us daily updates.

If there's maybe some icy stairs tomorrow at the first update that comes your way at, like, 6 25 a.m. Eastern time. I mean, a Bogus for act trade sounds interesting. Like, what would be involved in that? Would we have to give up assets along with ACK? Because, I mean, ACK's experience, he's been around the block. I mean, he's got the connections with Kenny Albert and he's got the old school.

He's got all the different stories. You know, we may need to get something back in return. And it's not saying that one's better than the other, but we could look at the situation and if they're begging to get rid of Bogus, we could leverage something out of that, like, a throw in that we could get as well to maybe enhance the show.

Maybe, like, some new decorations around here, some air fresheners around here. Can we can we have Maggie get rid of her Fred Jackson framed jersey over there? Yeah, that's got to go. I mean, Fred Jackson, come on.

Fred Jackson is great, but there is too much Bill's stuff around this. Like, we have a Brooklyn Nets jersey. We could tear that thing down. But I love the Mets, but they're a disgrace. The Ranger jersey we could keep up. The Buffalo Bill's thing we need to get rid of. I like the Vikings gear in here. I think there's Anaheim Ducks gear.

I think that we could use a little bit remodeling of the city or Gelb stuff in there. It's fine. I'm not an ego guy. Just show up, do the job, do the show. That's it.

I don't need a big, fancy studio with all this stuff. But if it ends up coming out, that Bogus's situation gets so contentious with the morning show that they call us up and they're begging us to trade act to the mornings and we get Bogus. I have a no trade clause. Oh, you do? Yeah. Oh, and you would be stubborn about that. You would.

I'm a five and ten guy. Yeah. But would you want to do the morning show? Would you want to do the mornings? No, it's way too early.

Okay. So they would need to give ACK. They would actually have to Sweden like an offer to ACK or something like that. Maggie may need to go give ACK an NIL deal and like give extra $25,000 or something like that. You know what?

I'm just going to say it. I think we need a locker room leader around here at CBS Sports Radio with Marash. Not that he was a great locker room leader, but he was the locker room leader with him now no longer working at CBS Sports Radio.

It was addition by subtraction for us. You said that I did it, but Marash kind of like was a little bit of the glue around here and he talked to everyone from mornings to overnights. Talk to everybody. I mean, he's the locker room leader, but he kind of means he's friendly. He did a good job connecting all the day parts. I will say I think there now needs to be a new locker room leader around here because right now we have a morning show that's very successful, but it seems like there's a fight between Bogusz, Maggie and Perloff because they forgot the birthday of Andrew Bogusz. Now here's a big moment. There's some beef between you and the morning show, too.

No, no. I love the morning show. Bogusz is not a confrontational type of person. Did you see his Twitter? He seems annoyed.

Oh, he's very annoyed. I called him. I called him. I texted him that day. Well, I will say this is how you know your birthday really means nothing if ACK doesn't reach out to you. I don't think there's a person or if ACK doesn't know your birthday, you did something wrong in life. Did you know today that it was Santa's birthday? Of course.

He was the second person to text me after my dad. Sometimes ACK will reach out 24 hours in advance. Yeah, I like to do that. I didn't get a chance to do that yesterday, so I was going to go with the night before type of text, but I was tired. I fell asleep. Yeah, that's fine. ACK has multiple times been the first person to wish me happy birthday, at least twice. It is crazy. So how about that?

Richard Ackerman wished Bogusz a happy birthday. Of course. But Maggie and Perloff didn't, nor did EJ. Well, maybe they forgot. Maybe they got a lot going on in life.

I don't know. Tom, they didn't forget. They just never knew. I can promise you if they knew, they wouldn't have forgotten. They just didn't know. They didn't wish me happy birthday either. I know, but you don't work on their show.

I did. When it was my birthday. Also, this is a common thing. They just don't care about birthdays.

Maybe they won't value birthdays. And that's no disrespect. Bart Winkler is going to join us coming up in eight minutes. By the way, late addition to the show, but better late than never. RG3 is going to join us coming up at the top of the hour. So looking forward to that conversation with him. Let's get the latest CBS Sports Radio update with potentially the new locker room leader here at CBS Sports Radio. Maybe he's finally going to get to see.

Maybe he'll be El Capitan. Actually, Marco Belletti may be the best captain here of CBS Sports Radio. See, he's a good locker room guy.

I think this might do him a disservice. Like a blue collar, gritty type of guy. He's like the guy. He's like the center on the team. He's like the Udonis has him. He doesn't just puts his head down and he works.

That's Marco. Do I need to be the locker room leader around here? Do I need to take that extra responsibility? You know what? Sometimes it's got to be your best player that does it. Well, that's a very nice compliment. You know, that's, you know, you got you, you know, we put you in in the spotlight.

Maybe it's on you. All right. Maybe I'll restore some order here at CBS Sports Radio.

Sometimes your best captain is your best player. You were the one who planned the Super Bowl Vegas dinner together. Yeah. I mean, you were the one who organized that whole thing and it ended up being all. It was phenomenal. 26 of us. A lot of people showed up.

It was a huge monster's room. Heavy bill. Can we get in that reimbursement? Bart Winkler's going to join us on the other side. RG3 at the top of the hour. Let's get to the birthday leader. Here he is. The great Richard.

Wherever you get your podcasts, you'll be glad you did. It's a battle for CBS Sports Radio. SAC. Lethargic. Putrid. Pathetic. Quitters.

They're quitters. What a joke, Bart. Something fun to talk about. That's what we do here. It's like, hey guys, it's like we're just hanging out at a bar talking sports. It's time for Winkler Wednesday. Only on the Zach Gelb show. All right, it is Winkler Wednesday. Zach Gelb shows CBS Sports Radio. The great Bart Winkler is here with us. You can catch him obviously weeknights on CBS Sports Radio. Many of these same CBS Sports Radio affiliates from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Eastern time. And I guess Bart is ready to go for baseball season as he's wearing a Milwaukee Brewers shirt today.

It's a very nice shirt. Bart's also a big deal in Milwaukee because when I was in town, he took me to the Brewers stadium and he gave me like a little private tour. He just walked in, said, this is my town. This is my baseball stadium. And no one kicked us out.

So that was pretty cool. What's going on, Bart? Oh, just getting ready for baseball. Oh, man, I am just a big baseball fan.

Yes, I am. I love my Milwaukee Brewers and how we kind of adapted this. Hey, just get hot in the playoffs and anybody can win.

And then we're the one team that that actually can't win by doing that. But I love baseball. So I have to ask you a CBS Sports Radio question here right out of the gate. There was an issue on The Morning Show where Andrew Bogusch got annoyed at his own co-workers, you know, Maggie Perloff and E.J. because they didn't acknowledge his birthday, which was 10 days ago.

Do you think that's an issue? Like, did you know when it was Shep's birthday? Did you make sure you wish Shep's birthday?

And is this maybe like an Aaron Rodgers 2.0 situation where now there is a little bit of feelings that are in the way and now they may not be able to restore that situation on The Morning Show? Well, it's that bad, huh? Oh, my goodness. Shep, yes, Shep just celebrated a birthday. He took off, I'm pretty sure. He was off, I think for other reasons, but either way, he was off.

Mm hmm. And I didn't know. I didn't know that was part of him being off. And I saw him post about it. And so immediately I saw it. And within seconds, I wished him a happy birthday. Gotcha.

And then it's it's very interesting. Are you bringing this up? Because today is my birthday. Oh, is it really? No, I was going to say, because I know people's birthdays around here. I would have thought I knew when your birthday was, but it is Sam's birthday today. So that would have been pretty cool if you and Santa shared the same birthday. No, my parents didn't get it on until August. So I'm a May birthday, so. Oh, OK.

I was going to say, I thought that meant you were born in August, but I understand what you're saying there. Anyway, Bart Winkler is here with us. Bart's doing a good job, tap dancing around, trying to get into any more fights or start any more fights here at CBS Sports Radio.

So let me start you off with your bucks. I know Giannis is dealing with the injury. It was very negative heading into the All-Star game.

Now it's starting to get back into a little bit of a positive direction. Do you think your bucks, when all said and done, when you get to the postseason of the best team pound for pound in the NBA? As much as I am a Celtics hater, I do have to acknowledge what they are doing and how good they are. I do think that the Bucks are very good also. I think that this Bucks team has been good throughout the year. They've got Dame and Giannis, and I think that that's a pretty good combination. And for a while, they weren't getting the most out of those guys. Obviously, there was a coaching change and that has helped.

If anything, the vibes seem to be much better. I'm eager to see how they do in Golden State tonight. I think it's going to come down to those two teams in the east and the Celtics are probably going to have home court. Sometimes that matters in that matchup. Sometimes it doesn't. There'll be a game where the Celtics do go up by like 30 points in the first before the first time out. That always happens.

That sucks. They're good enough to win a title. They are good enough to win a title. It's just, can they overcome Doc Rivers historic blunders? Can they overcome or get the most out of this duo? And can they overcome the Celtics?

I don't know. Again, I'm a huge Bucks homer and I'm a huge Celtics hater, but I think like that series is going to go, I think, five times out of ten, each team wins at this point looking forward. So they're good enough to win.

It's just a matter of, are the days going to roll that way? The only team I trust in the NBA this year is Denver. It's the only team that I look at and I say, that's the team that I feel most confident about in winning the NBA championship for the Bucks. I feel like the regular season was kind of irrelevant and then they made the coaching change and then it turned into being relevant. And for the Celtics, I know that they've only lost 13 games in the season so far, and it's remarkable that that's where they're at. And they've just been absolutely just dominating as of late as they had through the entire season. But the Celtics kind of give you that Buffalo Bills kind of feeling if you want to compare them to a football team where regardless of what they do in the regular season, we've seen them in the postseason before. And I know they've been to an NBA finals, but until they hold that trophy, there's always going to be that, yeah, but feeling with the Boston Celtics. Yeah, I've been comparing them a bunch to the 49ers because that's actually probably a better comparison than the Bills because the 49ers have been at least in the Super Bowl now twice.

Yeah, and between those two teams, the Celtics won in 2008 and that was it. And if you were to take a survey or a heat check or whatever you want to say, and just like this should be somebody in college, if you're a senior, do a research project, do your senior project. I did mine on Jack Bauer. I did mine on the masculine and feminine. Yeah, the masculine and feminine traits of Jack Bauer on 24.

I got an A. There were feminine traits of Jack Bauer on 24? One season ended with him just crying in his car.

Not saying that that's masculine or feminine. I'm just saying that was how season three ended. He just cried in his car. Spoiler alert.

You better start giving me the answers right now or I'm cutting off your fingers. That's always what I remember about Jack Bauer. I feel like that was every scene in 24. Who is it, Bill Buchanan that died? When he died, I cried.

I think I was in high school. I was so emotionally attached to that show. When Bill Buchanan died, there was actually tears running down my face.

I've never been more emotionally attached to a TV show than 24. The George Mason death was hard. The Curtis Manning death was hard.

I thought Tony died, but he came back strangely enough. So anyway, if you're doing a senior project, do one on the type of coverage that the Niners and the Celtics get. That's undeservingly like praise. These teams don't win. They get far and everyone's like, oh yeah. Everyone right now is going to do the same thing. Oh, it'll be the Celtics. It'll be just like they did. Oh, it'll be the Niners.

It'll be the Niners. They don't win. So yeah, they get there. They get far, but then they don't win. So the Celtics are an interesting case too, because I feel like the red carpet has been laid out for them for years. We're trying to ask who's the next face of the NBA going to be after LeBron and Steph. And everyone's trying to give it to Jason Tatum, but he can't take it. He won't take it.

They don't win a title. You know his odds. You know that he had about the same kind of month as Luka or Jokic or Giannis or all these guys, same kind of month. But because the media started saying, oh, I think MVP should be best player on best team.

His odds went from 80 to one to like 19 to one. But I don't find this because that's what the media wants. I don't find the Celtics polarizing like the Niners Purdy in a weird way became polarizing. I know the Celtics have the history and a lot of people just hate them from many decades ago, but the Celtics team, I know maybe different from your perspective because you're a Bucks fan, but I don't find the Celtics team a reason to hate them. Like Jason Tatum is a good dude.

I like Jalen Brown. They don't give you a reason at all to want to root against them. So maybe that's why they get the benefit of the doubt.

But I also don't know why they give you a reason to want to root like forum. Like, yeah, they're not polarizing, but they're also why does everybody rush to say it's the Celtics are bust, you know, the Nuggets earned a title last year. We should be talking about that. The Bucks earned the title a few years ago. I think, you know, just these teams, like that's who we should be talking about. But it's always about this, this fantasy team that hasn't won since Doc Rivers.

And now he's in Milwaukee. So I just, I don't like, this is their best chance that they've probably had even the year that they went to the finals and just kind of gave a freebie to the Warriors. This should be their best chance. It's pretty open for them outside of whatever Milwaukee can do. And it seems like everybody else in the East is like getting hurt outside of games for whatever, like whatever's happening with the Cavs, it's kind of sucks for them.

There's just random injuries popping up. But if they don't win, I'm curious to see, like, is there a change? Is the Brown Tatum duo a great duo, but not a championship duo?

You don't move on from Missoula at that point after two years where you did well, but just don't get it done. Because we see so many teams, especially in the NBA, like Volgo won a title three years ago. He ain't coaching in L.A. Nurse won a title.

He's not there. Bootenholzer, they win a title two years later to get fired. Yeah, hockey coaches and basketball coaches, I think they coach at like seven or eight different stops before their career is all said and done. I do think the best thing for the NBA, though, Bart, for this year with the way that it's so wide open would be that we get the two best players in the league representing in the NBA finals. And that would be Nicole Jokic. And that would also be Giannis Antetokounmpo.

You give me that NBA finals nuggets and bucks. I don't know nationally where the appeal would be. But for me, I think that would be a great thing for the league. Well, there should be a lot of good national appeal. One of the things I was ranting about last night was they were talking on a different network about how. Yeah. They're talking about Victor Webb and Yama and like, how much patience should he have with the Spurs?

Why are we doing this? What why in the NFL? It's like, could you imagine if the NFL media covered the league like the NBA does?

It'd be like, oh, geez, Jordan loves pretty good. But how long is he going to want to play in that small market? Well, they need to do it in the NBA because the NBA product now stinks. The regular season is atrocious, where the NFL, every regular season game, even if the quality of play is not good, it matters. So that's the NBA. It has become such a drama league where all the drama sells.

And that's really what makes the league rather than anything from the regular season in terms of on the court play. I think Adam Silver might be the worst commissioner right now in sports. I'm not a fan of him. The only thing that Spineless Silver needs to thank, the person needs to thank is Rob Manfred because he stinks. Both those guys, they're terrible. Like Goodell and Gary Bettman, who a few years ago, if you would ask me who are the worst commissioners, it's Goodell and Gary Bettman. I think now they're the two, out of the four major sports, they're the two best commissioners. They're better than Silver and they're better than Rob Manfred. I don't even know what, outside of the pitch clock, Rob Manfred has done nothing.

And outside of the most obvious thing ever, getting rid of the terrible, despicable Donald Sterling, Adam Silver has really done nothing other than just kind of make this a player driven league and basically just disrespect the fans, quite frankly. So anyway, Bart, this is always fun. Just real quickly. I got about 25 seconds. You in or out on JJ McCarthy?

I don't think we know enough. I'm in on Michael Penix Jr. That's the guy who should be top 10. MPJ. That's my guy.

Got it. There he is. Bart Winkler joining us on CBS Sports Radio for Winkler Wednesdays. Anytime there is a polarizing question about a quarterback, we go to Bart and then he gets referred to as someone that was so disrespectful to Brock Purdy and now being disrespectful to JJ McCarthy. Bart, we'll talk to you next week. Thank you, my friend.

There you go. Bart Winkler. Make sure you listen to him later this evening, 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Eastern Time and many of these same CBS Sports Radio affiliates. We go from Bart to a Heisman Trophy winner and a man that has opinions on quarterbacks.

That, of course, legendary Baylor Bears quarterback played in the NFL with the commanders and the Ravens. RG3 Robert Griffin III will join us when we return in five minutes. You can collect coins for a chance to get Baja Gear or a Taco Bell deal. 2024 is the year of Baja Blast. In stores now. No purchase necessary. Open to U.S. residents 18 plus. Subject to official rules at BajaBlast.com.

And 6.15.24. Void where prohibited. It's that time of year. Cash the ticket.

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