2024 NBA Champion Draft (Hour 3)

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Visit your neighborhood store to make the switch today. That's what I'm talking about. It is the Zach Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network, 855212. 4227 is how you jump on board with us as you are tuned in across all of our great local Infinity Sports Network stations, Sirius XM, Channel 158, the free Odyssey app, and of course streaming on YouTube if you do want to watch the show. So we had the initial phase of the play and tournament, and that did commence on Tuesday evening. And last night we did see the Chicago Bulls survive. We did see the Philadelphia 76ers punch their ticket as the seventh seed, and they will go up against the New York Knicks. The Celtics are waiting to figure out who they are going to play.

It will either be the Bulls or the Heat, and that will come your way on Friday. And then also on Friday, we already know that Stu's Lakers are going up against the Denver Nuggets, even though Stu is disgusted by that. And Stu was one of those insane asylum patients that Darvin Ham was like, maybe you should go back into the insane asylum if you said that we should have lost the playing game to the Pelicans so we could go get the Oklahoma City Thunder. I happen to agree with Darvin Ham, because the Lakers, quite frankly, just aren't that good enough to pick and choose when they want to win a game this year. And we know that the King's Pelicans winner will go on to face the Oklahoma City Thunder. The unfortunate news for the Pelicans is the injury with Zion Williamson. And the injuries are always a big part of the NBA postseason. You have some uncertainty with Kawhi Leonard. Now you know Zion Williamson. Once he gets injured and it's a hamstring injury, there's just like, I don't expect to see another game as Zion Williamson for the rest of the year, quite frankly.

Even if they win the game, they get into the actual playoffs. I'd still be surprised if we see him just with the past with his injuries. And then you know that Jimmy Butler injured his MCL. Giannis has a calf strain. Clearly, Joel Embiid's not 100%. And then you have Julius Randle out for the season too.

So injuries playing a big role this time of the year. We're going to connect in a few moments with Avery Johnson, the former NBA and also college basketball coach. And you also know he was a pretty damn good player himself. And now he does a great job obviously as an analyst for CBS Sports Network. And when I was at the Super Bowl, I was like walking around the concourse and I saw Avery Johnson in line trying to go get some food.

I know he was enjoying the NFL as well on a Super Bowl Sunday. And coach is kind enough to join us right now. Avery, appreciate it as always.

Thanks so much. How you been, my man? I've been great.

I've been great. Just back here and after my daughter's wedding in New Orleans this past weekend. Been on the road for the last three weeks, basically with March Madness. I called the games in Omaha in the round of first and second round. And then I went to our CBS Sports HQ studios in Fort Lauderdale to work some of the Elite Eight and Final Four in Phoenix, New Orleans for a wedding.

It's been a busy three weeks. Well, congratulations. Give me a little recap of the wedding. There's always some drama at some weddings. I've been involved in those weddings, but you got a big smile on your face as always. It looks like the wedding when A plus all hit it out of the park was awesome. Yeah, it was awesome.

It was a three day event. And thanks to my friends at the New Orleans Saints who hosted us in their practice facility for the rehearsal dinner. And Mickey Loomis, the general manager, Gail Benson want to thank them. My old buddy, Sean Payton made it to the wedding. He obviously is a busy time for the NFL draft, but he took a couple of hours to pop in for a minute and breathe for a second. And we just had a tremendous time.

And my daughter Christiane and Austin, her now husband, I got to get used to saying we had wonderful support from friends and family. Well, when you guys were cutting the filet mignon, did you get us any intel on what Sean Payton's going to do in the draft? He's trading up for a quarterback. What are the secrets here, Avery? What are you guys talking about behind the scenes? I know all the secrets. I can't let you in on that, man.

I can't. I know all the secrets, but it was a fun time. And, you know, it was just great for both sides. Avery Johnson here with us is a great job as an analyst for CBS Sports Network CBS Sports HQ. Let me start you off with the playing tournament.

So a reaction I've seen in the last two days. Lakers win some of their fans and even Darvin Ham respond to this are saying, oh, they should have lost. And then they could have got the eighth seed and they could have played the Thunder.

And it's better go up against the Thunder and the Nuggets. And you have a lot of Sixers fans who are happy. They're going up against the Knicks. What do you make of that with the six or fan being happy? They're going up against the Knicks and then the Laker fan that maybe is annoyed that their team won to secure a playoff berth.

Well, I'll start with the easier one. The Sixers should be thrilled. They got obviously the reigning MVP back. And if he's available for, you know, the first six games of this series, I can easily see Philadelphia winning this series for two.

I just think overall they have the better team. That's if Embiid is available to play his normal minutes. Tyrese Maxey's playing at a high level. I think Kelly Oubre was a nice little sneak signing there in the off season. Nicholas Batum, if he's going to make six threes and 46 threes and career high, this lights out.

So they should be happy. I believe that's a favorable matchup for Philadelphia, unlike had they lost to Miami and then beat the Bulls and have to go up against the Boston Celtics in the first round. Now, let me touch on the Lakers for a minute.

I played 16 years in the NBA, coached for close to 10 years, both in the NBA and in college. So there's, I don't want to say preposterous, but to think that somebody would even suggest that the Lakers should lose. And we don't play the game to lose. NBA players, we don't do that. Now, maybe if a general manager and a coach at the end of the season have to make a decision and they're not a playoff team and you got to figure out how to position yourself for the best opportunity to get a better draft pick.

That's, I can understand that. That's the game within the game, but we don't play to lose. You're playing against a team against the Pelicans that the Lakers had dominated for the most part.

I was there on the court in Las Vegas doing the end season tournament. They played well against them during the regular season. You play to win and you don't know what's going to happen the next game against a team against Sacramento that played lights out against the golden state warriors. So I don't like the suggestion that the Lakers should have lost and tried to avoid the nuggets.

Yeah. One of my producers, Stu, he's a big Lakers fan. And that was his take. He was like, Oh, now we're going to get swept by the nuggets.

A bunch of idiots. The Lakers are. And I go, Stu, your team's not good enough. You guys aren't good enough to pick and choose this year when you're going to win games. That to me is the crazy part about it. Cause like you said, they could very easily lose that eight seed game.

And then they're at their home instead of having an opportunity to go play for something at the end of the delegates game. Zion Williamson was having his best game of his career. And he had struggled against the Lakers.

Who's this? We don't know from an injury standpoint, what's going to happen with the nuggets. Okay. We don't know from a mental standpoint, you know, you look at Michael Porter, his brother's gotten banned from the NBA. You don't know how he's going to respond.

There's too many variable factors. LeBron James, if you want him to play against the nuggets, you probably do want him to play against him in the first round rather than go through two exhausting series and then meet them in the Western conference finals. So I think this is their best opportunity. I believe they have a better roster, much better shooting around LeBron and AD. So I think this is a better team going up against the nuggets. Whether they win, who knows, but the idea that they should have lost to avoid the nuggets, that's insulting LeBron James and his legacy. Talking to Avery Johnson right now.

Get back to what you said about John Day Porter in just a second. But when we look at this NBA postseason, I think it's going to be Celtics and nuggets. I would be surprised if the nuggets don't get there. But where's your confidence with the Celtics, especially in an Eastern conference now? Man, it's like the walking wounded with all these injuries some of these teams have. Yeah, I just think the Celtics are too, they're just so balanced. And the quality depth, when they go to their bench, there's really not too much of a drop off. And then they have so many different, so much versatility within their rotations. They can play Harford and Brzingis together.

They can downsize. You can put different guys on and off the ball. But Drew Holiday makes a significant difference. That's why he was one of the guys on our national team to play in the Olympics. He's a guy that I think should start on that team.

But that's another story for another day. But just the depth, now the coach has a year under his belt. They added two assistant coaches with a tremendous amount of experience, specifically Sam Cassell on that coaching staff.

I think that helps Missoula out. So I just think they're just too good for anybody in the Eastern Conference. I don't believe that they're going to lose more than two games in any series. And I believe the first series is going to be a sweep. When you look at the West, if Denver does not get to the NBA Finals, who's then the team that you have the most confidence in? I believe if they can really pick it up defense, pick it up defensively a little bit. And from what I'm hearing, Kawhi Leonard is still banged up. I wouldn't be surprised if the Mavericks can make a run.

Luca is a problem. He and Kyrie Irvin, I'm here in Dallas. I'm looking at the American Airlines Center as we speak.

I'm here in my office a block away. This team is deep in the trade that they made at the trade deadline. Added more depth in terms of front court depth, shot blocking, defense.

P.J. Washington had some really breakout games. Daniel Gafford is a lob guy.

We know he had a stretch there where he made 30 straight field goals. So I really like the Mavericks. I think if the Mavericks don't make it at least to the Western Conference Finals, they might look back on this season and say, you know, we underperform. I saw the other day that Mark Cuban was on a podcast and he says, I know Dirk is not going to like this, but Luca is a better player than Dirk. What did you make of that comment? I don't know if you saw that.

I did see that and I know what he's saying. I believe that Luca needs a little bit more body of work. You know, give it five or six more years from a pure talent standpoint.

You know, just talented. Luca has the ball. I understand what Cuban was saying. He did a little bit of a different skill set. Dirk needed more people to get him the ball, but Dirk had a 20 plus year career and won a championship, a championship loss in the finals. He was a, you know, MVP. You know, so I just think we just need to give Luca a little bit more time.

And when he finishes his body of work, then we'll be able to make a decision on who's who's the best all time. Now, it's one thing for you to get on here and say that you could see the Sixers taking care of the Knicks in six games. But I did see that Paul Reed of the Sixers, he said that they're happy to face the Knicks and they wanted to avoid the Celtics. It's one thing for you to say it.

It's one thing for myself to say it. If you were still coaching and a player said that, what are the behind the scene conversations that go on? Is Bolton board material and actual concern for a coach in the NBA? I don't have the exact number because I don't have my I don't have the research material in front of me, but I would be curious to see how many playoff games Reed is played in. It sounds like a guy that's not really astute to consistent deep playoff runs being a significant starter and having a major role on a championship caliber team on the consistent basis, because if he did, he would have never shared those comments publicly. That sounds like somebody that's really inexperienced. And you don't want to give the other team, especially Jalen Brunson.

I wouldn't I wouldn't want to say anything. The really good teams that I've been on, we knew how to handle ourselves with the media and what comments that we wanted out there for public consumption and what we wanted to keep private. Yeah, he played in twenty six playoff games, only average eleven minutes per game, though. So, OK, tells you all you need to know about that one. Avery Johnson. Alrighty, the John Day Porter situation.

I thought about this the other day. You kind of alluded to it. How much of an impact do you think that will put on Michael Porter Junior as he's trying to navigate his brother's situation, but also try to go win another NBA championship? Yeah, I think it's it's a tough it's going to be in the back of his mind. That's that's his brother. But I believe Michael Porter is a pro. He's a he's on the team that won the championship last year. He owes it to his team, you know, really not to bring any family situations into his performance. He's got to go out there and play.

I believe he's going to be fine. It's just an unfortunate situation. That's one of those lines that you just don't cross as an NBA player. We know it when you sign the handbook.

And even if it's not in the handbook, it's one of those unwritten rules. How do the Warriors get this thing right? Moving forward.

The war has got to think the war has got to trade. Draymond Green. I believe his time is up. He's been a he's been the ultimate warrior. You know, this guy's been so good for this organization. But I think the minute the minute that he punched Jordan Poole, his time was up.

But that's the crazy part to me, Avery. They could have got out of business with him last year. And they gave him the new contract. It was almost as if they were saying, we know what you did in the past. I don't think the juices weren't the squeeze anymore, but they still rewarded him for the past and not what he could do into the future. Yeah. And I think at that point, you know, you look at Bob Meyers deciding to move on.

That probably was a telltale sign. But the Warriors just looked a little old. You know, Klay Thompson didn't have his best game.

You know, 0 for 10. You know, Draymond, Steph Curry, they trapped him and forced him. He exerted a ton of energy trying to get the ball back. Some of their young guys haven't made significant progress and improvement enough to carry this team. So I think outside of Steph Curry, they probably need to move some of their key core guys on, get some new blood into the team. Chris Paul, he's another guy that's at the tail end of his career. You can tell you need energy. You know, Davion Mitchell, when he comes off that bench with Sacramento is energy and force. They just didn't quite have that with the Warriors. I'll tell you what they need.

And I agree that they should get younger. But if they're going to continue to go with this older method, let's get LeBron and Steph on the same team. How fun would that be, coach?

Yeah, I guess that would be fun. And then LeBron can bring Bronio. He's Avery Johnson. We all know he played in the NBA for a long time. Coaching the NBA, coaching college as well. He does a great job now for CBS Sports Network and CBS Sports HQ. Avery, always great to have you on.

Thanks so much for doing this. Zach, stop stalking me at the Super Bowl, please. What a line. There he is, Avery Johnson, here with us.

That's a good line there by Avery Johnson. Congratulations to his family, by the way, on the wedding. That's pretty damn cool too.

You have the wedding at the Saints practice facility. That's pretty bad ass. That's pretty cool. So good stuff there with Avery Johnson. And no, I was not stalking him. I just I know Avery Johnson. I looked up and I go, Oh, that's Avery Johnson coach.

Zach, how are you? Got a good little chat there at the at the Super Bowl this past year. I ran into Stu's guy too a few years ago at the Super Bowl. Rich Gannon ran into him again this year at a restaurant we were at. But a few years ago I was sitting down and two seats over was Rich Gannon.

So you never know who you're going to pop into at the big game. All right, well, come on back. We're going to do a draft. Stu, Samter, yours truly, Zach Gelb.

Gonna have three picks each on who wins the NBA championship, the Larry O'Brien trophy this year that at least Adam Silver doesn't refer to as a piece of metal. Have you heard of Nordic Knots, the Scandinavian rug company that has become the insider brand gracing some of the most beautiful homes around the world with rug designs by some of the world's leading designers and a signature collection of wool and jute rugs in modern colors. But Nordic Knots is not just about great design. Their mission is to make quality rugs at last with no compromises. Good weave certified handmade pieces woven in all natural materials. At nordicknots.com it's easy to find a rug that's just right. A curated collection in lots of colors and sizes to choose from. Even custom sizes are possible. So whether you're the type who loves the understated elegance of their luxury essentials or the bold statements from their top designer collaborations, you can't really go wrong.

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This is the Zach Gelb show. Alrighty. I think there's two teams that if everyone said, who's going to win the NBA championship right now? Most people would be able to name the one team in the East than the one team in the West.

I might even say there's a ton of confidence with a team in the East, but the team in the West is the team that everyone has the most confidence in. Now I think you could figure out who those teams are, but for the sake of this exercise, I don't want to give any answers to the test out. That just wouldn't be right by me. So let's do a little NBA championship draft here.

Hmm. Do I want to go first? I want to go second. I want to go third.

What do I want to do? Hmm. I'm going to go first. I'm going to take Denver Nuggets because that team's going to win the championship.

If Denver doesn't win the championship, I will really be surprised. Hmm. Sanctor Stew. Who should we put as the frosting of the Oreo pretty much right here? You know what? I'm going to go I'm going to go with Stew here. Stew, where do you want to go?

Oh goody, because after two, it's interesting. You're taking the Lakers, right? Yeah. Oh yeah, definitely taking the Lakers. No, I will go with the Celtics.

I think they're the best team in the East and I think they have the best chance to come out of East, so I'll go with the Celtics. Okay, so those are the two teams that I was alluding to. Denver and Boston off the board. Sanctor, you get two picks here. You look befuddled. I got eight teams in line for the number two pick.

It's impossible. Like, I want to say the Bucks. I would have the Bucks as the clear three, but you can't because you don't know Giannis's status.

I want to say the Sixers because they're red hot and they're smoking and I think they're going to kill the Knicks. And they're going to kill the Knicks? Yeah, with Embiid back. I mean, they've won eight in a row, nine in a row, whatever. I mean, this was the second best team in the East before Embiid got hurt. I still think they are the second best team in the East with Embiid. Now, maybe not kill the Knicks, but as good as Jalen Brunson is, I mean, Julius Randle has been out and everyone else has been hurt. Here's the thing though that I'll say about the Bucks and I'm not going to hold your hands here. You can make your decision.

You're a big boy, obviously. It's like, yeah, Giannis is out now and I know you're going up against the Pacers and you should never overlook an opponent. And I know that last year they lost in the first round to a team that's a lot better and should have never been where they were seated in the Miami Heat, but this is what the Heat do each and every year. I know Giannis is dealing with the calf strain. When he needs to play, he'll play. I just don't think he needs to play yet in the first round. Like put it this way. If this was Damian Lillard, right, which the Bucks do have in Portland going up against the Pacers. I know it's an East-West, so it would never happen.

I think a lot of us would be like, all right, yeah, Halliburton's good. Obviously you look at the Pacers route, but we would all be slobbering over Damian Lillard. So I think the Giannis thing is a concern, but I don't think it's going to come back where the Bucks don't end up winning that series up against the Pacers. But you have two picks here. I'll let you make your pick. Yeah, I guess I'm just worried because it sounds so similar to what KD had a few years ago where he came back, maybe rushed it back a little bit and then pop, there goes the Achilles. You always have to be passive. This is just the reality.

It sounds very similar. So I'm worried about Giannis. I love Giannis.

He's probably my favorite player in the NBA right now. Onto the Kumpo. Yeah. So I want to take the Bucks. It's just, I'm a little bit hesitant. You got two picks, you know.

I'm just going to go chalk. I'm just going to go with the one seed in the West and the three seed in the West. I'm going Thunder and T-Wolves. Thunder and the Timberwolves.

You know what? I thought the Timberwolves were not getting selected. I thought with the first pick with Denver, when Samter gave, Stu would give a pick, then Samter gives two, then Stu gives another pick. I thought the Timberwolves would still be there. That's how highly I thought or could potentially think of the Minnesota Timberwolves.

So they're off the board now. And I know you love Anthony Edwards and who doesn't love Anthony Edwards? That's a good pick by Michael Samter. So Stu, what do you got cooking here? Okay. I'm going to stay in the West.

I'm going to kind of piggyback off of what A.V. Johnson said. And I think Dallas has a chance to make a run. I like where they're seeded. I think they could beat the Clippers. I think they could beat the Thunder.

And then you have a guy as good as Luca who maybe hasn't proven it in the playoffs yet, but he's a superstar player. So I will pick. I will go with the Dallas Mavericks as my pick. So this is where it's tough because now it's Western Conference, Western Conference, Western Conference, Western Conference, Western Conference once the Celtics go off the board. So like from an odd standpoint, it probably makes more sense for me to end up taking a team in the East. You know what? Oh, Samter went to Thunder. I'm like, Thunder? There's a one seed, but they're already off the board.

All right. I will take the Bucks. And the reason why I'll take the Bucks is everyone's concerned about the honest injury. And then also everyone thinks that Doc Rivers, because he's not a he's an overrated coach. Everyone thinks that they're definitely going to disappoint in the postseason.

So when I look here at this next selection, I will go with Milwaukee because usually when everyone thinks one thing's going to happen, the other thing happens now for the next pick. This is where it gets difficult. I'll hold my nose when I do this. Should I physically hold my nose?

Yeah, I guess so. I'm going to go take the Phoenix Suns. I got to go the Suns. I know that the Clippers probably should be the pick here, but I want to see Stu squirm and have to take the Clippers because he can't stand that franchise. And also, I never trust the Clippers to actually stay healthy and you already have the Kawhi Leonard injury that they're dealing with. I don't like the Suns. I don't want to see the Suns win. It's nothing against anyone in Phoenix, but the whole Kevin Durant stuff, I'm over KD. I really am. Charles Barkley has never had better analysis than when he said, as great as Kevin Durant is, and we all know how great he is, but he is the passenger on the bus. He's not driving the bus.

And that's been proven to be true throughout his career. So I will take the Bucks and the Suns and feel just absolutely disgusting about both those selections. Stu, what do you got in your final selection? I genuinely do not know what to do here because I'm not picking the Clippers. There's no chance that they win the championship. I will not pick the Clippers.

They had a good coach in Ty Lue. Yeah, I don't trust any of those guys in the playoffs. So any of those star players. So I will not pick them.

Let's just call it what it is. You hate the Clippers. I also hate them, but they're because they are a little brother to you. You're the Lakers, but the Clippers are better than the Lakers this year.

They are. And you are rooting for one thing this postseason. That's where the Clippers to lose. That's what you're rooting for.

Yes, that's accurate. All right. Who's your pick here? I'll go to Knicks. I mean, I don't think they're going to win the championship, but it's really between the Knicks and Clippers and the Cavs.

I don't know. Yeah, I'll go to Knicks. Gotcha. And by the way, Avery Johnson, Avery Johnson, not going to start. Pat Boyle won't be a fan of Avery Johnson.

Let's just say that. What do you think Avery Johnson picked? He just joined us. Who do you think he picked between the Sixers and the Knicks Sixers?

How many games? Uh, got a broom. No, I'm just kidding.

I'm kidding. I'm going to say seven Sixers and six four to clap your hands. Everybody fill it up. Bad math by Gelb. Oh, four plus two. That's tough, man.

Four plus two. That temple education. You can take a shot at my own. You know, I have one year left on this 30 under 30 list and they have still not put me on that list. So if you want to take a shot at my alma mater, that's fine because I've seen some people that get on this list and trust me, like, we're doing things in like the science field, like the medical world, you know, financial world. I get it. I don't belong in that category.

And when you're a professional athlete, I get it. I don't belong in that category, but there are some people that are in the media world that have graduated from temple that in the last few years that have been on this list. And I'm like, Oh, did not hire that person at temple to work for one of the student stations or, Oh, that person, that person rather have my job than the job that they have.

That's what I start to look at the list and I'm like, what are the politics on this list? I will always support the owls. I will always root for the sports teams. And trust me, I have made a donation. I had to make a donation to the NIL fund. When they had an upset in the American athletic conference tournament, I got in one of those things, but you know, I showed enough love to temple. I got to show some love back. Wow.

Some feathers being ruffled in the nest. I've been a good alumnus of the university. Every time I get asked to speak at a conference, every time I get asked to speak at a media thing, I am happy to do it. Talk to young students.

Happy. Can we get me on the list, please? Can we get me a list?

They asked me to do a lot. Where am I on the list? That's all I'm going to say. I'm going through the temple 30 under 30 right now to see who you're taking a shot at.

Well, no, no. So this year I didn't really have any gripes. It was previous years. This was like one year where I was like, okay, there was too many actual smart people that were on this list, but there were some other years where I'm like, eh, I don't know that person, a lot more eligibility left.

You know, I got to be like someone at the, at the final year of the ballot for the hall of fame that gets in. All right. Yeah. I mean, you're not getting in over Hassan Riddick. That I agree with. Now some could argue. I got Hassan his first marketing deal.

So where would he have been in life without his first marketing deal? I'm just saying, just saying. So anyway, Santa send us home here. Who's your final team.

Now I'm torn. I got either the Clippers or the Sixers. Uh, I want to believe in the Clippers. Cause like when Kawhi, if Kawhi is healthy, when he gets hot, there's nobody more dangerous in the playoffs, but we just haven't seen it in so long. So honestly, like I just, I can't trust the Clippers, even though they had a great year. I just can't trust Kawhi to stay healthy.

But I honestly think that I'm making a mistake here. I'm going to go with the Sixers because I think with the healthy MB and what's going on there in the East, the Sixers, once they get past the Knicks, have an easy path in, especially if Giannis isn't a hundred percent. Um, but the Clippers might be the one, I think we're going to regret not having the Clippers on this list. I can see them making a conference finals. I mean, I can't see them making the Raptors to a title with nobody else, but he's hurt right now. And we don't know when he's going to return whenever they say he's supposed to be back for either game one or game two. But there's been a lot of years where they say Kawhi is supposed to be back and then he's not. So I'm going to go Sixers and leave the Clippers off this list.

But again, I'm just stating my own personal protest against myself. Now you had three selections. If you really loved them that much, you could have picked one of them one, one time.

So here's the list. I had Denver first Stu then takes the Celtics. Samter then takes the Thunder. Then on the back end, he had the Timberwolves Stu takes the Mavericks. I take the bucks. I also take the sons. Stu takes the New York Knicks and then Samter takes the Philadelphia 76ers to win the NBA championship. Alrighty, we will take a time out. We'll come on back with a little report about the Denver Broncos that I don't believe. Update time.

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Talk to your pediatrician or visit Y vaccines.com brought to you by Merck. All right, he's at Gelb show on the infinity sports network. We are 13 minutes away from getting through this entire show without saying the old network's name. That'd be the first time this week. Pat myself on the back, maybe I'll take a quarterback out of the mug. Tony Pauline is reporting that he said Sean Payton, will he mortgage the future for a franchise signal caller for the Broncos next Thursday? Many tell Tony Pauline the answer is yes. So I look at a report like that and I'm like, okay, you're telling me he would mortgage the future to go get one of these top quarterbacks.

Okay. Like Caleb Williams is going to the bears. We know the bears aren't trading the pick. The commanders are taking a quarterback at two. So you're going to have to trade with the Patriots and I don't know if the Patriots are trading the pick.

I don't. And still you're gonna have to beat out the Minnesota Vikings. So I kind of look at that and I say, all right, he's willing to mortgage the future, but where's the cutoff?

And that's why I kind of roll my eyes at this report. Cause once Daniels and let's say Williams are off the board. If it does go one, two after that, the only person, if I were the Broncos, I would say, okay, I give him a King's ransom for would be Drake back.

That'd be it. Not McCarthy, not Michael Pennick's Jr. And still I have questions about Drake back. And also I hate to say this because I've had them on before and I guess we won't put them on ever again, but you won't care. But like Tony Pauline after he joined us and he's like, Oh, I've heard concerns about Michael Pennick Jr's work ethic. And I'm like, huh?

That makes no sense. I said to him, I remember I said, Tony, what exactly have you heard? Because all we've heard about is how hard this kid works, coming back from those injuries. And he's like, Oh, well maybe if he worked harder, he wouldn't have got hurt.

And when he said that, I'm like, Oh, you're getting used. That's what I just thought. So now any time, and maybe it's not fair, but anytime I hear a Tony Pauline report, I kind of just take it with a massive grain of salt. Maybe it ends up being right here though.

8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27, 8 5 5 2 1 2 42 27. Haven't heard from my friend John in Arkansas in a long time. John, how are you my man? John in Arkansas. What's going on John in Arkansas.

This is John in Arkansas. Yes. Zach, what's up dude?

What's going on? Oh, this is my Oh, this is my man Sully. Of course. Oh, sorry. It's Sully in Arkansas, right? No, it was John in Arkansas to get me on the air a couple of weeks ago before media week in the Super Bowl. And you were going on some rant and you mentioned something about Arkansas. So from that moment on, I've been known as John in Arkansas. Cause it's, you know, with my accent, you can tell clearly I'm from Arkansas.

Yeah. I'm hearing that you want the Patriots to draft JJ McCarthy because you're a Patriot fan. So you could say JJ McCarthy in your in your mass hole accent. I don't want JJ McCarthy. What I'm annoyed with Zach, to be honest with you, is that useless win on Christmas Eve that made the Patriots get the third pick and not the second pick.

Yeah, I despise it. That's why I was rooting for them to lose. And a lot of Patriot fans told me I'm an idiot. I'm a bad fan and I was right. Who cares if we're bad? That was the year we needed Zach.

We needed to tank and play hard but lose just so they could get an opportunity to get a good quarterback. Now, I don't know which quarterback you want to get. I would love Daniels to fall, but I don't know. I want Daniels too. But is he going to slide past Washington? I don't know, Zach.

I'm just trying to figure this out. You know what we need, Sully? We need Daniel Snyder to run the commanders again. Cause if he was running it, they would pick the wrong quarterback. And that means we would get Daniels.

They would take JJ McCarthy. So I wanted to call yesterday, but I didn't have the time because I was going to go meet up with... I was with our boy Evan yesterday.

Oh, nice. Wonderful. Love Evan. Pierros, my favorite. And Pierros is the best.

I was with them for lunch and then we went to dinner at Pierros before we went to the hockey game the other night. So my question for you was, is you were talking about all the foolishness that came out with the Belichick Kraft scenario. And I was talking to Samtha about this yesterday because Samtha being a Jets fan loves all the chaos that's being created. And I told him, I don't care about all this chaos because it's not going to steal the memories, Zach, that we got to celebrate.

100%. See, Samtha can't relate to us. Samtha doesn't know what it's like to be in the football penthouse. He does not know. He will never understand it. We'll never be able to comprehend it. So he could throw a victory parade, like a duck boat parade, a championship parade at our demise, but it doesn't take away from the joy that I've had for 20 years.

It sucks the ending of it because now everyone hates one another. And I think Robert Kraft is coming off as a petty jerk here and you should endorse Belichick and you should give Belichick your approval to get the job with the Falcons. I don't like that slimy business of Robert Kraft, but still, if someone asked me, do I love Robert Kraft? I would say, absolutely.

Yes. And I agree. And Samtha and I were talking and I want to bring this up to you because yeah. So what Belichick, Kraft, Brady, they all didn't get along, but they made it go for 20 years. And when I was talking to Samtha about the nineties Cowboys, what they did not do is put the egos aside for the greater good because all people talk about with those nineties teams that they could have gone on a longer run with Aikman, with Jimmy Johnson, with Jerry Jones.

So if anything, the Patriots learned is, okay, so what we didn't get along, but the greater good was what they accomplished with six rings. Yeah. That's why you're a sane human being.

That's why you make sense. Samtha can't comprehend that though. Well, Samtha, Samtha's highlight the other day was the release of the new, the new uniforms. That's what he was all excited about. Let's go Chiefs, baby. He already ditched the Jets. Sully, he ditched the Jets. He's rooting for the Chiefs. He's hitching onto that bandwagon and he can't even keep his story straight. We had Braden Fisk, a big defensive lineman prospect. He's like, Oh, Mr. Fisk, I hope my Jets draft, I go, I thought you were a Chiefs fan. So Samtha can't even keep his story straight. Anyway, Sully, I got to run because I got to get to the PSA.

Absolutely love you. Always love when Sully, John and Arkansas, whatever he wants to call himself does hit us up at 855-212-4227. Let's get to a Zach Gelb show PSA. It's a Thursday. What do you have to say?

It's the weekly Zach Gelb show PSA. Who's with me? Let's go.

Come on. Walking out of the Mets game the other night, going to the subway. And I saw about 15, let's say young adults.

They were like either 17, 18, 19, or maybe 20 or 21. And they all were jumping the turnstile. One larger fella tried to air Jordan dunk over the turnstile to make his way to the platform. Smack right on the turnstile, falls down. Now he was on the ground so he could have just crawled under. He gets back up, takes his credit card out and pays the fare. So I don't get why he didn't pay it in the first place.

I see this a lot. To take the subway, I think it's 275 or 320, but whatever. Don't jump the turnstile. Put your credit card up, get a ticket, whatever, and just simply tap and you'll walk through. It annoys me when people jump the turnstile. I know people will say, oh, I sound like a Karen, but here's my PSA. If you can't pay for the subway, then don't take it. Don't jump the turnstile.

Samter, what do we got cooking? I love the, I love the after effect here. The fact that this guy tried to jump it fell and was so embarrassed. He's like, all right, well now I'm going to pay. You already fell. You got embarrassed. Just roll under at that.

You're already on the floor. You know what? He took it on the chin like a man. He said, I tried, I failed, and now I'm going to pay my due diligence.

Good for that guy for at least, you know, coming to his senses a little bit after embarrassing himself. Here's my thing. Nothing worse than you're emailing back and forth with somebody. And the emails seem to be going really well. Everything is fine.

Everything's dandy. Are these my emails to you? Then you get off an email and they're going to get a phone call a day later from somebody else and be like, so-and-so said you did this and this and this, and they're pissed off about that.

And they're furious about that. I understand that things get lost in translation via email or text, but if you're upset about something I said via email, tell me via email. Are you talking to me? No, no, no, no. This has something to do with something that's going on.

You know, we're, we're in the process of buying a house. I was talking to our new boss, Ryan Hurley, about how terrible you are. Yeah. There you go.

That works. I'm just kidding. You definitely weren't saying that. No, we're in the process of buying a house and I was emailing back and forth with somebody and everything was going great. And then I get a call this morning from the lawyers being like, they're furious about this. And they're terrible about that. Where was this in the email? There were nothing pleasant and happy. And there was nothing I said that was even moderately.

So you know what, like, if you got something to say verbally, say it on the email too. Now we know why Santa's been so angry this week. I'm always angry.

I'm like the Hulk. All right. He's through.

Take us over. All right. I am sick and tired of sports television networks, not to be named, but the usage of breaking news or developing story ESPN. Um, things happen maybe four or five, six hours. They're not breaking news. We know about this for a while.

Uh, they just use it too loosely and it ticks me off. Sometimes I didn't need to see John Day Porter breaking news suspended six hours after the fact. It's crazy. It happened when OJ Simpson died. Samter walked into the studio and he's, we already found out he was dead for six hours and samples of all breaking news on the screen.

It was like OJ Simpson dead. Santa's like, that's not breaking news that happened six hours ago. I wonder if the Chiron's and stuff have changed or if we're just so quick to news because of social media and Twitter that we notice it more that were they showing breaking news six hours later, 10 years ago before Twitter, 20 years ago. I don't know.

See that's interesting to me. I do not know the answer to that question, but anyway, I do know that this is the end of the Zach Guild show today on the infinity sports network. I'm off tomorrow and then also Monday, but big thanks to Chris Jenkins. Big thanks to Eric Eager, Avery Johnson, each and every one of you. And of course my best team, Stu and Sam.

We out, buh-bye. Peace. You could spend the weekend doing the same old whatever, or you could conquer the weekend in the all new Hyundai Santa Fe. Visit HyundaiUSA.com for more details. Hyundai, there's joy in every journey. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.

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