Hard to See Celtics Winning Championship (Hour 1)

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See site for details. Live from the police show yet not overly ostentatious, studios of the Infinity Sports Network. This is a Thursday edition of the Zach Gelb show across all of our great local Infinity Sports Network affiliates Sirius XM Channel 1 58 the free Odyssey app and of course streaming live on YouTube 855212 42 27 is number to jump on in 855212 42 27. 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 got a whole lot to do today. We'll talk some pucks and ponies with Eddie Olcheck coming up at 4 20 p.m. Eastern time today, 1 20 p.m. Pacific and we have a lot of basketball to discuss. I will be in attendance tonight for the Sixers Knicks Game six in south Philadelphia.

Thankfully, at first I was bitching and complaining about that start time of 9 p.m. Eastern, which means the ball probably won't get thrown up into the air at the earliest 9 10 p.m. Eastern. A buddy called me this morning said I got two tickets. You want to come on down and make the trip? And I said, Let me make a few phone calls. Let me make sure we got a rental car.

Let me make sure that I'll have enough time to get there. You know, cross the T's dot the I's and 20 minutes later I said, Yep, I'm in to go to the game. So right when the show does end, I'll be driving down the turnpike to Philadelphia for the game. Can't wait to be in attendance of what I think is a Sixers home game. But the six or ownership group is fearful of those big bad New York Knicks fans that they had to give out 2000 tickets.

They bought 2000 tickets and then gave them out today on the streets of Philadelphia. So we'll talk more about the pressure on Joel and bead. We'll talk more about the future of some of these teams with their seasons coming to a close or getting close to coming to a close. But I need to start off right now with the Boston Celtics. And when we start off with the Boston Celtics, we need to get into what did transpire in their series up against the Miami Heat. So in Game two up against the Heat, we saw Miami shoot the lights out of the gym and we saw this Miami team steal a game to and it was Oh, here we go again with the Boston Celtics whenever they're supposed to do something whenever they're supposed to make something easy.

No Jimmy Butler for the Miami Heat in this series. Boston isn't making it easy. And that's why a lot of people were dealing with the little skepticism with the Celtics. Even when you had a Boston team just be so dominant in the regular season and you had a Boston team that was just absolutely sensational in the regular season, people were talking about them like we talked about some other teams that are so dominant in the regular season, but come postseason time, they come up really, really, really small in the postseason. So when you look at what the Celtics said after that, they played with aggression, they played with physicality, and they ended up making this series be a gentlemen's sweep.

And they ended this series quicker than what people thought was going to happen after game number two. So when you take a glance back at this series, yes, I'm not going to praise the Celtics for wrapping this up in five. I'm not going to say okay, I view the Celtics differently. But this is a Celtics team when you see the current state of the Eastern Conference. It would be an absolute joke if they don't find a way to get to the NBA Finals. And I know it is championship or bust. I know the Celtics have to raise the Larry O'Brien trophy this season and anything short of that would be an epic failure.

And it would be a disappointment. But you look at the Eastern Conference, it really doesn't start for the Celtics either until they face an elimination game inside the East or quite frankly, their postseason doesn't really start until you get to the NBA Finals. And you look at their next potential opponent with Cleveland being up 3-2 up against the Magic, which by the way, has anyone said a word about the Cleveland Magic series? I haven't heard a single person utter a single word about the Cavs or the Magic unless it's been has anyone talked about that series?

That series is the NBA TV series. They have an early start time in that like no one is talking about the outcome of that series. And it's happened to be a good series with the Cavs lead three games to two and you have a young up and coming Magic team.

And then there's a Cavs team that you think they just sort of reached their apex. Will there always be a playoff team, but you're not going to look at them as a serious threat to do damage in the postseason. So yes, Kristaps Porzingis goes down with the injury for the Boston Celtics. But with that being said, when you take a look at their next opponent, I don't think they need to play Kristaps Porzingis up against the Cavs or the Magic to secure a victory. And maybe at most that series for the Celtics up against either Orlando or Cleveland would go to six games. I would be very surprised if that series whenever Boston finds out who their opponent will be would be going to a seven game series.

And then you look at the other part of the Easter Conference bracket. We'll see if the Pacers can eliminate Milwaukee. It is unexpected tonight and doubtful that you're going to see a return of Giannis Antetokounmpo or Damian Lillard.

But as you know, with the NBA, even if someone is listed as doubtful, sometimes there are surprises that do occur. And I don't want to take anything away from either of those teams. I think the Bucks are more dangerous than the Pacers because if they do get through, you're going to have what we think is the pending return of Giannis Antetokounmpo and of Damian Lillard as well. I know the Pacers have Siakam.

I know they have Halliburton and the Pacers are a damn good team. But really, I don't view the Pacers as a threat to take down the Boston Celtics in a seven game series. Boston, they could have a chance to lose up against the Bucks, but I don't think the Bucks are going to get through. I really do believe the Pacers, they understand the moment. All right, you allow Milwaukee to win game five. I would be very surprised if Indiana on their home court tonight, probably without having to go up against Giannis or Damian Lillard if they drop this game. Because if you then go back to Milwaukee for a game seven, man, all the pressure shifts right to you because you were the team that was playing with a big lead, a 3-1 lead in this series. And then it's do or die. And who knows, maybe Dame, maybe Giannis plays in a game seven and maybe you get one of them.

You don't even need both. If you get one of them with that building in Milwaukee, that would be very tough for the Pacers to go in and secure a victory. And then you look at the Knicks and the Sixers. It's like, I do think the Sixers win tonight. And I do believe that the Sixers force a game seven.

I'm not gonna sit here though and say that's a stone cold lock. And that I would be shocked if we're sitting here tomorrow where the Knicks wrap up this series. Because the Sixers, you could trust Tyrese Maxey, but I can't trust Joel Embiid, even though he's been an MVP in this league just as recent as last year, in a big spot to extend the series or to show up and prove his worth. And I get it, the Knicks are a gritty team with Jalen Brunson, with Josh Hart, with Dante DiVincenzo, with Mitchell Robinson, now you have Bogdanovich who's gonna be out for the season. But I'm looking around up and down this Eastern Conference.

There's a reason. I know we could sometimes say, and a lot of times I do echo this sentiment, that when you take a glance at the Eastern Conference, there's a lot of teams, not only the East, but in the NBA, where they don't take the regular season serious. And for the Celtics, they did take the regular season serious. So you always try, when you're looking at the dominance that they had, where they were the number one team in the East by 14, 15, 16 games.

Well, how much of a product is that? Because the Celtics really damn great. And how many of these teams weren't trying as hard in the Eastern Conference?

And you look at the East this year, you can't really make that argument. You could make it for Miami, but you can't make it for Cleveland. You can't make it for the Magic. You can't make it for the Bucks. You can't make it for the Pacers.

You can't make it for the Knicks. The Sixers, it's not because they weren't trying in the regular season. It was because Joel Embiid got hurt. Before Joel Embiid got hurt, they were a top four seed in the Eastern Conference.

So Boston was that much better than all these other teams in the Eastern Conference and heading into the postseason. I don't think anyone expected Philadelphia to get to the finals. People lost their love for the Bucks because of Doc Rivers.

And then you have the injuries to Dame and Giannis on to the Kumpo. And Miami's always that team that you say, oh, you don't want to play and there'll be a tough out. But once Jimmy Butler goes down with the injury, outside of what they did in Game 2, no one really feared. And no one really sparked fear in the eyes of the Boston Celtics.

Like none of those teams the Celtics should fear going into a seven game series. But just dominating this Eastern Conference and getting to an NBA Finals is not going to elicit praise, nor should it. Because we've seen this Boston team with this core go on deep runs, get to Eastern Conference Finals sooner than expected, get to an NBA Finals. We've seen them get to the championship round, but we haven't seen this core together win the four games and the last four games that they need to win to raise another banner, to hoist that Larry O'Brien trophy. And I sit here and ask myself this season, even with the Celtics, where I don't want to say they have a bye to the NBA Finals, but they have a pretty easy road to the NBA Finals. And even with how people doubt Boston, it would be a shock if the Celtics aren't the Eastern Conference representative in the NBA Finals. But just because I think that doesn't mean I expect them to win a championship. Like I look at the Western Conference, you listen to this show, you know me. Denver with Yochitl and Murray, they are my pick to win it all.

I don't care if people go, oh, that's the easy pick. Oh, that's chalk, even though they're the two seed in the Western Conference. You watch ball, you watch the NBA, you understand it. Denver should win the championship again.

Doesn't mean they will, but they should. But in this first round, you saw a Thunder team sweep the Pelicans. And I know there was no Zion Williamson, but still, they took care of business as quick as possible. That is what a great team or a very good team does. You then look at the Dallas Mavericks, who dominated the Clippers in game five. And just when you think, by the way, James Harden showing up, he goes missing. But that Mavericks team with Kyrie and Luca in a league of dynamic duos, they got a shot to go on a run here.

But I really cater my center my attention if it's not going to be Denver to Minnesota, because if it's not Denver, I think it's because Minnesota takes him out in round two. Like can the Thunder get there? Yes. Can the Mavericks get there?

Yes. But I do believe the toughest test for Denver in the West to get to the NBA finals is actually the three seed Minnesota Timberwolves. And it's all because not only have Timberwolves fans fallen in love with Anthony Edwards with that team and that roster and how well rounded it is, but the entire league, if you don't have a dog in the fight, is falling in love with Anthony Edwards. And we talked about this earlier in the week, like future faces of the league, guys that are under 30 years old. And oh, yeah, you have Giannis. Yeah, you have Joker. Yeah, you have Luca. Yeah, you have Victor and Benyama. But do those guys have great personalities?

No. Anthony Edwards is an assassin on the court. And then off the court, he has a great personality. He embraces the stardom. He wants to be the star.

He wants to be the center of attention. So kind of the way that I look at it right now, if you said, Zach, who are your three picks to win the NBA championship Denver? I'm going in order here. Denver would be one. And if it's not Denver, then I think it's Minnesota. And if it's not Minnesota, then the Celtics took care of business and defeated either Denver or Minnesota.

That's where I'm at. The Celtics will be in the NBA finals come June, but I'm not there yet where I am trusting them, even though they just quickly dispose of the Miami Heat in five games. I'm not there saying that I can envision and I actually believe that they're going to find a way to raise that trophy this season. I'm trusting more of what I see right now from Denver and Minnesota.

Just for starters, eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven eight five five two one two forty two twenty seven. Where is your belief level in the Boston Celtics? All I'm willing to say is I believe the Celtics will get to the finals, but I don't believe the Celtics will win the championship this year. We'll take a time out when we come on back. Is it time for the Miami Heat to trade Jimmy Butler?

And what is the future of Paul George in L.A. as the Dallas Mavericks are one win away from eliminating the Los Angeles Clippers? That's not just the sound of that first sip of Morning Joe. It's the sound of someone shopping for a car on Carvana from the comfort of home.

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Visit Carvana dot com or download the app to experience car shopping the way it should be convenient, comfortable. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Whether you love true crime or comedy, celebrity interviews or news, you call the shots on what's in your podcast queue. And guess what? Now you can call them on your auto insurance too with the name, your price tool from Progressive.

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Doors take us to summers away or winter adventures and afternoon getaways. Your dedicated Fidelity advisor can help you open those doors by working with you on a comprehensive plan to help you reach your wealth's full potential because doors were meant to be opened. Visit fidelity dot com slash wealth investment minimum supply Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC member NYSE SIPC. All right, it is the Infinity Sports Network. It is the Zach Gelb show, and this portion of the program is brought to you by Netflix. Jerry Seinfeld stars in Unfrosted, a film that follows sworn cereal rivals as they race to create a pastry that will change the face of breakfast. Tale of ambition, betrayal and sugar. Don't you love sugar?

Unfrosted is rated PG 13 and premieres May 3rd only on Netflix. Is this a read for like a pop tart? I know it's cereal, but when you call a show unfrosted. For some reason, I think of like frosting on a pop tart.

I don't know why. Maybe this is an anti pop tart kind of show by Jerry Seinfeld. I have seen a Jerry Seinfeld commercial where he is talking about pop tarts.

Are you serious? Yeah. So I think that there is a pop tart reference. I'm actually looking at a picture and a video of Jerry Seinfeld sitting next to a pop tart mascot. So I'm assuming there must be some sort of pop tart connection here.

Now, there's nothing wrong with what we are promoting, but I will say it is a very interesting read. I mean, who isn't aware and intrigued by the war of cereal? Tony the Tiger versus Count Chocula? I mean, I'm in.

Count Chocula. Jerry, when he creatively writes this stuff, is he doing a little puff puff pass these days? Because this sounds like an idea that if you are dabbling into the puff puff pass world, that that's how you come up with a war about like cereal with rivalries in the cereal world. That's what one would think, that there has to be something involved in there. When you have the munchies, you want to create a war of the munchies.

I want to create a war of myself and the pantry. That's about it, if we're being honest. But man, I thought the craziest read we've ever had here was there was once a company that sponsored at the time CBS Sports Radio, where it was trimming the hair down there. I won't say the name of the product, but I remember there was a big burly fella who used to host here on the network in the mornings, former wrestler, good guy in Taz. And the first time, because I was doing the weekend overnights, so they weren't doing this sponsorship on the weekend overnight, but they were doing on the big morning show here on the network. And the first time I filled in, they were playing over the Taz read like lawnmower sounds. You couldn't even hear anything that Taz is basically saying, because that's how loud the lawnmower sound was.

And it made you remember what the product was. But man, the first time I sat in and filled in for the morning show and they were playing that. And when Taz and Moose were here, like sometimes the morning show, the lights are on, it's all bright.

Now we stream it on YouTube. So you need a lot of lighting in the studio, but I'm not kidding. The first time that I sat in for Moose, when it was Taz and the Moose, it was like a morgue in here. It was like pitch black.

You would have been no surprise that there was like three or four dead bodies in here and they had a freezing cold, which I'm good with it being freezing cold, but it was a real depressing scene. And the first like liveliness that occurred was this lawnmower that was just going off in the first live read of the program for a company where they were asking you to buy their product, which helps assisting in safely trimming some hair down there. I've used it.

I like it. Yeah, did you? You didn't cut anything off? You weren't like the Van Gogh of radio where you cut off down there instead of here? Does my voice sound any higher than it used to? I'm sorry. You can't do that voice.

You can't. Because after you dressed up as Mickey Mouse for Halloween and you did that voice, every time I hear that voice, I get creeped out Santa by you when you do that high pitched Mickey Mouse voice. I'm just wondering, do you pretend to be Mickey Mouse when you are hanging with your beautiful young daughter? Just wondering, do you do the Mickey Mouse voice for her?

Because the first baby, that would be good. No, no, no, no. Not yet. She's starting to get into Disney, but we do do a lot of Disney stuff with her. You do do.

She does probably do a lot of Disney stuff. Oh, so much doo doo. So much. How mortifying is that, by the way? Changing a diaper. You know what? The first couple of times you're like, this is not fun.

After a while you just get so used to it that it doesn't even bother you anymore. And there's wipes and hand sanitizer everywhere in the house. So no matter what happens, you're always covered. Yeah. I was going to say, is the splash zone real? You're wearing a poncho? You know what? It's a girl.

As Matsu? No, it's a girl. So you know, there's less of a splash zone than it was if it was a boy.

Less projectile of things. But yeah, no, so far it's been okay. There've been a couple of instances when she was really young, but I mean, she's almost two now, so she's a kid. I thought there was something on your lip the other day. It looked a little dirty.

That's my beard, and that's disgusting. Alrighty, this is the Zach Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network. Let's get to the future of Paul George. Let's get to the future of Jimmy Butler. I did see that the Miami Herald was talking about Jimmy Butler's contract, and Jimmy Butler has a year left in the contract already locked in for next year, and then a player option the year after that. And they were reporting that Jimmy Butler's gonna seek a two-year extension this offseason from the Miami Heat for two years worth $113 million. As much as I like Jimmy Butler as a player, I think you would be rewarding Jimmy Butler here for his past and not how he projects to be in the future.

Jimmy Butler turns 35 in September. Jimmy Butler, it's kind of funny because we talked about the Heat, and let me just see if we're in lockstep here. Stu, when I say the Miami Heat, what's the first two words that come to mind just wondering? That would be heat culture.

That would be correct. And if I asked that to Samter, I'm sure Samter would say heat culture as well. I would have said Pat Riley, but heat culture works too. But Pat Riley is the leader of the heat culture.

So when you think heat culture, what do you think of? You think of a player giving max effort for the full 82-game regular season. Jimmy Butler hasn't played at least 70 games in a regular season since the 2016-2017 season with the Chicago Bulls. And in most years, he's in the 50s.

The last two years, though, he was 64 and 60 in terms of games played. So we talk heat culture, and we all think that's like maxing out for the entirety of the season. But Jimmy Butler, even though he has taken that heat team twice with that group that they have, farther than what people could have imagined, got to the finals twice with them, didn't win a championship. But that's where Miami is right now. They are stuck being that team where their better days are behind them. And you always know that if they're healthy, sure, with Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, you don't want to have to go up against them.

But they're not an easy out. But I do believe that their apex is just being a team that gets to the finals. And when they get to the finals, it's not expected that they get to the finals. So when I look at Jimmy Butler now, who has suffered injuries, has missed a lot of games, he's about to turn 35 in the fall. So you would keep, I guess, this year of the contract, and then you attack on two more years. You're looking at paying him when he's 37 years old, like 57, 58, 59 million dollars a season.

I believe it's time to reset in Miami. Because even though I'm saying this, I don't think the rest of the league is saying this, and the rest of the league is thinking this. Jimmy Butler becomes available, whether it's New York, whether it's Philadelphia, Orlando, the Lakers, Golden State, whoever the teams are that are star hunting this offseason. Those teams are going to be interested in Jimmy Butler. So you could get some assets back for Jimmy Butler. But I do think it would be a mistake, and I don't think it would age well if this offseason, the Miami Heat go, Jimmy, we're rewarding you for what you did in the past.

Not what you projected to do in the future, but what you did in the past. And we're going to give you what the Herald was reporting, a potential two year extension for 113 million dollars that he's seeking. And we know the Jimmy Butler playbook here. You don't give Jimmy Butler what he wants this offseason. You got to make this decision now, because if you don't give Jimmy Butler what he wants this offseason with the year left on his contract before the player option, he'll turn out to be a royal pain in the ass. So I would look to trade Jimmy Butler this offseason if I was Pat Riley and if I was running the Miami Heat. Now, let's get to the future of Paul George, who has a player option this offseason.

I looked at the Clippers. They have a ton of talent. They're always trying to assemble this team.

That's going to be great. They either can't stay healthy or they don't get the job done when it matters the most. It's a shame what has turned into the career of Kawhi Leonard whenever he gets injured now and they go, oh, there's a chance he's going to be back for this game.

A chance to be back for that game. I just expect him to be done for the season. Paul George, who had that terrible knee injury, that leg injury when he was with Indiana, he has, I know, suffered some other injuries. But this year he did play 74 games in the regular season. That's a heck of a number for Paul George. Paul George could still be very effective as a player. And I was reading from Ramona Shelbourne that there's two teams that could potentially be of interest in Paul George this offseason. One was Orlando, who's a young up and coming team and needs another piece to take that next step. And the other are the Philadelphia 76ers.

And I know Paul George is getting up there in age. And I know Sixers fans probably have PTSD when it comes to players with injuries because they've had some bizarre injuries and beat to start his career. Remember, Markel Folt either got hurt, then forgot how to shoot or forgot how to shoot, then got hurt. Ben Simmons, tell me a day that guy isn't injured. And it's probably easier than rather discuss the long injury history of Ben Simmons. So I could understand the Sixers fan skepticism with Paul George.

But you know, and beads a walking injury. You have Tyrese Maxey, who is a budding star in this league. I don't think at this point with how many times we have seen this Sixers team come up short, that I know the contract will be ridiculous.

But I don't think there's great risk here, because if not, you're just gonna be the same team that it's always gonna be. Oh, what could have been or what should have been with the Sixers because they failed with Ben Simmons had Jimmy Butler than he left. You paid to buy his Harris. He's not been worth the money that you gave him. Markel Folt.

That's one of the greatest mysteries in the history of sports. So Philadelphia is trying to get a star. This off season down more.

He knows they need to get another star. I would run next year with Embiid, Maxey and Paul George. So that's how I evaluate the future of Jimmy Butler and Paul George.

The heat. I don't. I don't give him an extension.

This off season. I trade him in for Paul George. You want to leave L. A, which we don't know if he does. He'll opt out.

Get a new deal, maybe from L. A. But if the Clippers don't want to tango with you anymore, look for the magic and look for the Sixers. It is exactly showing the Infinity Sports Network. We will come on back. We'll date you with some of the biggest stories in the world of sports with some audio.

We call that segment the news brief update time first. Here is the act man, Rich Ackerman. Look around. You can find cars like these on Auto Trader like that car riding your tail. Or if you're tailgating right now, all those cars doubling as kitchens and living rooms are on Auto Trader, too.

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Auto Trader. Listen as Selenia tells us why she chose to vaccinate her daughter. I definitely felt like the pros far outweighed the cons. The diseases that I am protecting my child against, they're still here. And at the end of the day, it's my job as a mother to keep my child safe.

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Try their sheets with a 30 night guarantee plus 15% off your first order at bowling branch dot com code Odyssey. Exclusions apply. See site for details. Time for your daily news brief. We get you caught up on the rumors, reports and reconnaissance from the day in sports. Alrighty, and this portion of the show is sponsored by the new Hyundai Tucson, available with complimentary class leading Blue Link Plus.

Now it's easy to use your phone to control your Tucson. Alrighty, let's start it off with the news brief. This is Chad Reiter, long time NFL reporter. He is an expert, as they like to say when it comes to the NFL draft.

He was on orange and blue today via Denver Sports, and some people asked him about maybe the Broncos who a lot of us thought reached for Bo Nix at 12. Maybe they could have traded down, got some capital and still got their man. This is what Chad had to say to that. With the way the board went realistically, could they have moved down?

And no, here's here's the thing. Teams don't move down and pick a quarterback. It doesn't happen.

It's very rare that it happens. They're moving up to get a quarterback or they stay put. A lot of people like, oh yeah, they can trade back to 22 with Philadelphia. No, the Rams were taking Nix at 19. Absolutely.

If he's available. So no, that's that was not going to happen. It doesn't happen and it wasn't going to happen. If you believe in him, you take, you don't screw around.

So I understand what Chad is saying and I do think that resonates to be true. Like remember when the Giants, it was a bad decision. Everyone knew it at the time when they reached for Daniel Jones at six and everyone's like, oh, you could have traded back.

You don't want to run that risk of losing someone. And you hear Chad say, oh, well the Rams would have taken him if he was there at 19. Kind of does make sense that the Rams were in a business for a quarterback because you know, you had Aaron Donald, right, who flirted with retirement that was like, no, I'm all in. And then he retired. Matthew Stafford two years ago seemed like Florida with retirement.

Now he's like saying he's all in, but I don't think he has that many years left in the tank. And you know, Sean McVeigh is an offensive guru and he probably extensively every year scouts these quarterbacks. So if he really did like Bo Nix and you could get him at 19, I don't think anyone would have made a big deal about it.

Like we would have just said, oh, okay. Matthew Stafford probably has a year or two left. Bo Nix is what, 24. So that's going to be the guy that succeeds Matthew Stafford in LA. But it wouldn't have been the reaction, even though it was earlier than any of us would have thought Bo Nix would have got selected, it wouldn't have been the same reaction as, oh my God, the Falcons just took Michael Penix at eight because you just gave Kirk Cousins a four year contract worth a hundred million dollars guaranteed. Could they have moved back a few slots? Like maybe Indianapolis want to come up to get a defensive player until they ended up getting the first defensive player on the board.

And I guess it's a possibility. You know, the Vikings did move up from 23 where they willing to go up from 23 to 12 and they were willing to go 23 to 17 because you've got something back. But then what happens at the Rams are like sitting there after 15, he's still there and they moved up with the Seahawks at 16. And it's like, oh, you're trying to move back and then you don't get the deal done.

So I understand what Chad's saying. I still think it's a reach by Denver, but Sean Payton fell in love with this guy. And he wanted to get this guy in his organization because he thinks he's going to be the franchise quarterback for the Denver Broncos.

And what you keep on hearing, and I said this earlier in the week, and then we kept on hearing more and more audio come on out. That moment when he was in the war room and they thought they were going to draft Patrick Mahomes and then Kansas City jumped them. This is him learning from that, where you don't want to play this chance game where if you really believe in a guy, you go, you be aggressive and maybe you have to take him earlier than what people didn't anticipate. Because, hey, we could all criticize this decision. We could all lambaste the Broncos for taking Bo Nix.

But at the end of the day, you got a guy that plays 10 years for you. That's a great quarterback. Everyone's going to then make the Broncos look to be geniuses. And those Broncos fans who are criticizing this pick or even someone like me is criticizing the pick will eat the words.

And that's just the way that this works. Here is Jalen Warren. This is on the Not Just Football podcast with Cam Hayward.

So I saw the headline of this today and I'm like, let me hear how this audio sounds. They were asking Jalen Warren with the new kick return rules to be interested in returning kicks. And in an unsolicited fashion, Jalen Warren offered up. But maybe the coaching staff is thinking about now potentially special teams player Justin Fields.

I mean, I would think it's pretty cool. As soon as you touch the ball, that's when everything, you know, starts to happen. Our offense, our special teams coordinator was talking about Justin Fields being back there. Wait, hold on, hold on. Whoa, whoa, breaking news already?

We looked at him like Justin Fields about to beat that back there. And, you know, it's, I don't know. I think it's, I think it's cool. Let me just say this in a nice way. The Steelers are a smart organization. The Steelers are a well-respected organization. I understand Justin Fields is a great athlete. He has a tremendous amount of speed. Justin Fields could potentially be your guy at quarterback. Russell Wilson does this Mr. Unlimited crap and is more focused about how he presents himself off the field that actually play on the field. And four or five games into the season, a team with a ton of talent isn't getting to production at quarterback.

Who are the fans going to call for? Justin Fields. And could you imagine they have Justin Fields do a kickoff return in week two and he tears up his leg and then Russell Wilson stinks up the joint the first five, six weeks of the season and you don't have Justin Fields because he's out for the year.

I don't buy that whatsoever, but it's so bizarre that maybe it is true. Maybe Jalen Warren didn't understand sarcasm because there's no way you could actually put Justin Fields back out there to return kicks. And if they do, he returns one kick this year for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

It tells me everything I need to know about their view of Justin Fields. And they don't think that Justin Fields has a chance to be a successful starting quarterback. You don't do that with quarterbacks. You don't see the Baltimore Ravens saying, oh, Lamar Jackson has speed. Lamar Jackson's one of the quickest dudes on the planet. Let's put Lamar Jackson back there to return kicks.

It would be the definition of stupidity. Here is DJ Moore. Remember, he was a big time advocate for the Chicago Bears to keep Justin Fields. Now they have Caleb Williams.

This was on the Mirror Us and DJ Moore says he's been working with Caleb Williams early. Anticipation is there. You can tell that bad that he's expecting us to be open at a certain time. So that's going to be one of the things that's better. But just just got to be on the same page with him going forward. And this is going to take some time.

Maybe it's going to be fast or it might take some time, but I'm hoping it's faster. I really like this Bears team. I do. I'm thinking they're nine and eight. I'm thinking they're ten and seven this year. I think they're making the playoffs for the Bears. And it's tough to not want to see that franchise succeed with how many years they haven't had a quarterback. But I said that with the DJ Moore and then with the corners. Well, Jalen Johnson, how much they were defending fields.

I appreciate that, but I thought it went a little bit too far because you really understood the situation as well as being a good teammate. But now you have to kind of say all these positive things about Caleb Williams because how much you pumped up Justin Fields. But didn't you know down deep that it was going to be Caleb Williams anyway? Like even though there was times throughout the season last year where even I said, oh, maybe they keep Justin Fields.

When the season ended, no one was really thinking that Justin Fields was actually going to be kept by the Bears. Let's go to Matt Ishbia, the owner of the Phoenix Suns. Here are his long term goals for the Suns after they just got swept out of the postseason. You know, looking back 15 months in, you know, it's been a we set out some goals of originally be the best franchises, NBA and WNBA across the board. And when I talked about when I bought the team, I said, hey, listen, we want to affect the culture, you know, new headquarters, you want to affect fan experience, make it great. You want to do community, you know, got TV, the games on TV when affect the community with the All-Star Games done those things.

But the fourth one is winning. We want to win. We want to win the NBA Championship. And I love that people are frustrated that we didn't win the NBA Championship.

Guess what? So are we. We're disappointed. We want to win the NBA Championship. You know, it's one thing to win 49 games and everyone get knocked on the first round playoffs and everyone high fiving you.

That's not what we're gonna have in Phoenix. It makes me happy. So I'm actually happy where we're at from that perspective that people are disappointed because guess what? There's not someone in the organization that's more disappointed than me.

My GM, my CEO, my players, my coach. Everyone's disappointed. Just like the fans.

And guess what? I'm gonna own the team for 50 years and probably 45, 46, 47 of those years we'll probably have the same conversation like, hey, we didn't win the championship and we're gonna be disappointed then too. Nothing that he said is wrong.

But you can't say that. As a fan, nothing drives me crazier when your team doesn't meet expectations. And then you have an owner in a 45 minute press conference just bloviate and just talk in circles and just goes around and around and around and around and puts his foot in his mouth. Don't insult your fans.

That drives me nuts. I'm glad our fans are disappointed. It means that there's expectations. It means that people care.

No. And then the worst line, the line that makes the hairs on my neck stand up is whenever the owner says you think you're disappointed. Imagine how disappointed we are because nobody cares more than me. Even if that's true and it is your team, you don't say it because you're making it like you're above the fans.

It's making it like, oh, we can't understand your pain because we don't live in your world. You want to be like Matt Ashby is the guy that wants to be the star. He wants to be the owner with all the power.

Um, and also write a flashy kind of owner. You go out there, you say this is unacceptable. We got swept. This is embarrassing with the talent that we have.

We'll get it fixed. End of story. That's all you got to say. Not 45 minutes of basically saying that and then making it out that you're above the fans.

I don't like that. Here's Rashad McCants on the Gilbert Arenas podcast. He has a LeBron James JJ Redick conspiracy theory. JJ and LeBron started podcast. JJ says he wants to be a coach. LeBron knows Darvin's ass and his days are numbered. JJ gets hired by the Lakers. LeBron is still a player. JJ get to coach LeBron and bring in Bronny. Podcast thrives.

They're still doing, they're still doing the podcast. How does that not make no sense? Stu? JJ Redick gets hired by the Lakers.

What would be your reaction? All right, we don't need to spend any more time on this. Here is Roy Hibbert on Nikola Jokic, his former teammate briefly.

This was via YouTube. You know, I actually spent some time on the Denver Nuggets, my last season in the NBA. I was on three teams in one year and uh, I started off in Charlotte. They got traded to Milwaukee for like two or three weeks and I ended up in Denver.

I've only spent like a very little time there, but Joker was like, he, I remember he drove me to the airport because I was living out of a hotel basically. So after practice he would take me and I, the dude was like the most laid back, funny dude ever though. Always playing jokes, farting in the locker room and stuff. A good teammate though. Good friend.

Fart in the locker room. Nikola Jokic. That's a real dude. Also, what was that music in the background? Have you guys ever seen Red Panda?

Are you guys familiar with Red Panda? She's on a, what's that bike? She's like, she's on like one of these large solo bikes and she takes like all these bowls and she stacks them on top of her head. No, not a Peloton. Um, what's the, the singular bike in the circus? Oh, the unicycle. Unicycle.

Thank you. And she's on like a crazy unicycle and she has all these bowls on her foot and she like throws them on top of her head. And the song that's in the background sounds like the song that the great Red Panda does play. She's an absolute legend. She is an icon and at the Big East tournament they brought her out this year and then the ultimate hype man, John Fanta, going nuts and basically cheering on Red Panda as if it was the Packers going up against the Bears and you had 60,000 crazy screaming cheese head fans just going nuts as their players tumbling into the end zone. Coming on back, we'll see if Stu's gonna fart like Nicole Jokic during the break in the newsroom.