Kyrie Gamble Pays Off For Mavs (Hour 1)

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Price and coverage match limited by state law. Live from the play show yet not overly ostentatious studios of the Infinity Sports Network sitting on top of the 10th floor 345 Hudson Street in beautiful New York City. This is a Friday edition of the Zach Gelb show across all the great local Infinity Sports Network affiliates.

Sirius XM, Channel 158, the free Odyssey app, and of course streaming live on YouTube. 855 212 42 27 is the number to jump on in 855 212 42 27. You could always get at me on Instagram where I'm straight flexing or via the good old cesspool of Twitter X at Zach Gelb.

That's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. Randy Moeller is going to stop by coming up at 5 20 PM Eastern Time today, 2 20 PM Pacific. He is the longtime Florida Panthers analyst, used to be their play by playman and played in the NHL for a bunch of years. You know, I understand that hockey isn't for everyone and I know I'm an enormous hockey fan. If you listen to the show, you know that. So I'm not going to lead the show with hockey today, but I just want to warn everybody. I don't know when it's going to happen, but there is going to be a moment during this show today that the volcanic eruption of Zach Gelb is going to occur because I am P.O.d and I am angry today with that Rangers performance that I got to witness last night at Madison Square Garden. So I'm not going to put the listener in Texas right now or the listener in California or, you know, Des Moines, Iowa or Oregon through the first 20 minutes of the show, just being me complaining, ranting and freaking out over my hockey team, who is one loss away from getting eliminated. And that could happen as soon as tomorrow evening. So put that on tap.

All right. A Zach Gelb rant is coming today because there's two things in the reaction to last night that I do want to emphasize. And you know me, I will emphasize it on this show. Stuart Kovacs and Moist Mike here with me. I got to start off with the NBA finals that we now know is going to happen. It was inevitable. I did think Minnesota was going to win last night and then Dallas would take care of them in six games and we would have Dallas going up against Boston. Well, you are getting Dallas going up against Boston, but it ended up being in five games that Dallas was able to take care of Minnesota. What an embarrassing performance number one by Minnesota.

You finally get on the board in this series. It's 3-1 and you're just trying to send this baby back to Dallas to try to maybe put some fear in the Mavericks. And that game was over at halftime. You could even argue that game was over at the end of the first quarter when Dallas is up 35 to 19. I know basketball is a game of runs, but with how flat the Timberwolves were and what Dallas did with Luka Doncic and Kyrie Ervin going off, that's why even when Minnesota got one on the board, I said it's pretty obvious why Minnesota was able to get one on the board. It's because Kyrie Ervin didn't play well. He had 16 points in game four and you knew eventually that there would be one game with opportunities potentially in game five, six or seven and only needed one more opportunity where Luka and Kyrie were both going to be clicking at all cylinders. And that was last night with them both finding a way to get 36 points as Dallas is off to the NBA finals. Here's my biggest point though on Dallas getting to the NBA finals.

And I'll just say it right out of the gate. The Dallas Mavericks displayed, even when you have elite talent in Kyrie Ervin, like let's just isolate Kyrie Ervin. He is an elite talent.

He is a stud when he's locked in. But for a bunch of years Kyrie Ervin has been a malcontent. And I could see why many teams around the league after the disaster in Boston and the disaster in Brooklyn wanted nothing to do with Kyrie Ervin. But the Dallas Mavericks did something that was smart. You gamble on talent.

You always gamble on talent. It was a high risk, but there is also a high reward in acquiring a player like Kyrie Ervin if in fact he is focused on basketball and he's locked in on basketball. Because in Boston he wasn't locked in on basketball.

In Brooklyn he acted like a jackass. He was not locked in on basketball. And you would have been a damn fool to expect Kyrie Ervin to go to Dallas and give it his all and be the Kyrie Ervin that he was earlier in his career that a lot of us fell in love with when he was a part of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Because why would I trust someone to change when the last few years Kyrie's actions were disgusting and they were inexcusable.

So I'm not going to sit here today and tell you, oh I expected this Kyrie Ervin run to happen because that would be disingenuous. And I think there will be people that will say today, oh many owe Kyrie Ervin an apology. Why do they owe Kyrie Ervin an apology? Why would people believe in Kyrie Ervin when he was the reason it didn't work out in Boston and then when he got to Brooklyn he did antisemitic things which were highly offensive and he always created distractions.

Let's just call it what it is. Kyrie for a three, four, five year period, he was the reason why we weren't seeing the old Kyrie Ervin. Now I guess you could say to his credit, he made the focus basketball again. And I think a big reason because of that is the great admiration and respect that he has for Jason Kidd.

And that's such an underrated part of this story. Jason Kidd deserves a lot of credit and the most credit for Kyrie Ervin getting back to form because Kyrie can be arrogant, Kyrie can be selfish and Kyrie could be his worst own enemy. And when you're in a position of success that Kyrie has been in, you sometimes allow yourself to operate in this belief that you've done nothing wrong and you start to point the finger that it's always somebody else's fault and everyone's out to get you and you don't show accountability. But you have to remember Kyrie Ervin grew up in New Jersey, Kyrie Ervin grew up as a Nets fan and Kyrie Ervin, his favorite player growing up was Jason Kidd. So I think Kyrie thought to himself after last year getting dealt there and at the end of the season, it looked like it wasn't going to work out. Remember they missed the playoffs outright. Kyrie wasn't even playing. They were tanking to try to get themselves in the lottery and maybe get a better draft pick.

It seemed like that it seemed like that wasn't going to work. And then this year, in the last few months, you started to see the chemistry develop between Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving. They made the right moves at the deadline. And now this team is representing the Western Conference in the NBA Finals and they are four wins away from winning an NBA championship. And sometimes you get to the NBA Finals and you go, oh, you don't really have a chance. I think the Celtics are the better team. I think the Celtics should win the NBA Finals, but it doesn't mean they will. Like it's not inconceivable to me to say that Dallas is going to win the championship because they have the better dynamic duo and the NBA now is a league of dynamic duos. And even though Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown has been a very good dynamic duo, Luka Doncic is the best player remaining in the postseason. And Kyrie Irving is a top 10 player in the sport when he's locked in.

So there's many reasons why this has worked in a small sample size. Jason Kidd is an enormous one of them. But you have to give credit to the Mavericks organization because this is what was on the line. And they took a gamble. And you take gambles on elite talent, even when you've been showed year in and year out for a five year run that the elite talent, the juice wasn't worth the squeeze because he was acting like a fool over and over again. But the reason you take that risk is if it can come together. And this has come together in Dallas in a short amount of time.

And I don't know when the expiration date is. I'm not going to sit here like a blind dope and tell you that Kyrie Irving is going to finish his career in Dallas and he's going to go play for another five, six years in Dallas. I'm not going to say that. But they're taking advantage of the opportunity now. And now they're four wins away. But they gambled on Kyrie and what was at risk was Kyrie repeating his actions and his poor, inexcusable actions that occurred in Boston and in Brooklyn. And if that version of Kyrie popped back up in Dallas, you run the risk of Luca Doncic, the best player on the team and the face of your franchise right now in a league where a lot of people, when things don't go their way, bolt to another team. That's the risk that you were running, that Luca would look there and say we had Jalen Brunson even when Brunson wasn't a star. But they didn't offer him enough money early on in that contract when he's looking to stay.

Brunson has gone on to start him. Then your next guy to try to have as the running mate to Luca Doncic is Kyrie Irving. And if Kyrie didn't give us this version of Kyrie, there was a legitimate chance, whether you want to admit it or not, if you're a Mavericks fan, that Luca Doncic would have said, my career is getting wasted here in Dallas. Because Luca Doncic is a top five player in the sport.

Luca Doncic has the look and the feel of a championship player. But rarely in this league do you get a championship with only having one star. In recent memory, Kawhi Leonard with the Raptors, one star. But in a bunch of different years, it's multiple stars. You know, Giannis Antetokounmpo, even though a lot of people don't consider Chris Middleton a star, he played like a star. And he's been a multiple time all star. We know the Warriors had countless amounts of stars. The Heat, the Cavs, wherever LeBron was, wherever LeBron was, countless stars. You need not just a star, but stars to win in this league. And right now there's no super team. And there's a reason why I said it going into the playoffs.

And I'll continue to say it. Well, it was actually once when Denver got eliminated because of just where the chemistry was with the Koliokic and Jamal Murray. But pound for pound, it's tough to find a better duo when everyone's in. In the NBA, then Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving. So Dallas is taking advantage of the opportunity now.

And it's because Kyrie is present in the way that he was present for most of his time with LeBron James in Cleveland. And this NBA Finals, it's going to be a good one. I don't think this is going to be one of those series where it's over in four or five games. This is going six games, bare minimum. And right now I give like probably like a 58 percent edge. Like that's how close this is, a 58 percent edge to the Boston Celtics.

But think about what the story is going to continue to be. Like you look at the NBA Finals. Sure, you got Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown going for that ring.

Boston trying to get Banner 18. Luka Doncic, will he become the face of the sport if he gets a championship this year? And how important a championship would be to his career. But I don't think there's a story that is bigger going into the NBA Finals than Kyrie Irving of the Mavericks getting to the finals and now going up against the team where he didn't treat them correctly.

And he thinks he's somehow a victim in this. But Kyrie going to Boston started the derailment and the four or five year derailment of his career. Because Kyrie went from Boston where, OK, he wasn't happy, wanted to get away from LeBron and he wanted to be the guy, then he realized it wasn't working out in Boston. He wasn't happy. So then he goes to Brooklyn, gets everything he wants, and it still wasn't good enough. And he had actions that were just flat out ridiculous and absurd with things that he were doing that were extremely hurtful.

But now he's regrouped. Now he's back in on basketball and you are reminded of the player that Kyrie Irving can be. But that story, it feels like this NBA Finals, even though Luka Doncic is the biggest player in this series, it feels like this finals is going to be marketed as Kyrie up against the Celtics.

That's the way that I feel it is. But even though at times when Dallas made the move for Kyrie, I thought they were crazy, because how could you trust that he could, you know, he could change? It shows you how important it is even when someone acts horribly in sports, because if you won't, someone else will. It's just the reality of the situation that you gamble on talent. Because if you had that rare chance where that talent goes down a different road and gets back to where they were, these are the results being four wins away from hoisting another Larry O'Brien trophy.

It is the Zach Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network. We'll take a time out. What do you think is the biggest story of the NBA Finals? And what's your feel on the entire Kyrie Irving situation when we return? I think a rant is brewing. I really don't know how much longer I can hold this off, because I feel like I'm playing hurt today.

I'm trying to give you the basketball takes, but my mind is in a different direction. We will tell you why next. Worried about letting someone else pick out the perfect avocado for your perfect impress them on the third date guacamole? Well, good thing Instacart shoppers are as picky as you are. They find ripe avocados like it's their guac on the line. They are milk expiration date detectives.

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It is the infinity sports network. 21 past the hour Zach Gelb show. I like to thank our colleague, Tiki Barber, Tiki Barber. Everyone needs a good pick me up around here today. He brought in a big charcuterie platter.

So we had all different types of cheeses and pepperoni and crackers and all that jazz before the start of the show, which was much needed. Cause I ain't gonna lie to you guys. I wear my emotions on my sleeve. I'm annoyed to be here today.

It has nothing to do with still, it has nothing to do with Sampter. It has nothing to do with me disliking anybody at this company. Like I love what I do. I love the people I work with, but I'm annoyed today because I'm a hockey team. Went to the game last night with Mraz who worked here for many years.

Now he works down the hall. We had a very good time. Fun time. We stopped off before the game. We got a few drinks. We had a luxury suite.

We went in, had some more drinks, some more food, great group of people. And I thought this was going to be somewhat of an enjoyable night. Obviously you can't control the outcome of the game. The ranking is going to be Rangers get the first goal, short-handed Chris Kreider. And where we were, where we were behind the net in the luxury box, it came right to us. That goal, there's alcohol flying everywhere.

Like Stanley cup playoff hockey. When a goal scored, you have a drink in your hand. Everyone's throwing alcohol up into the air. I actually felt bad for the person sitting in front of us because Mraz had a full glass of Tito's. Kreider scores, throws it up in the air and the Tito's goes right on the seat in front of us.

But like you needed to bring a poncho because the entire stadium just had alcohol flowing everywhere and you're holding it in your hand and the team scores and you go nuts. But after that, the Rangers allowed a goal. It's 1-1. Then going into the third Florida strikes, they make it 2-1. Rangers pull the goalie with like two and a half minutes left. Panthers get the goal and they are down 3-1. They end up losing the game 3-2. But here's why I'm upset today. The series isn't over. The Rangers have been thoroughly outplayed.

They're down 3-2. But once they go down 3-2, I log on social media and I'm seeing all this stupid commentary from everybody and people keep on bringing up 1994. 1994 was 30 damn years ago. I know it's the greatest moment in franchise history. I don't care about 1994 anymore.

I don't. I wasn't even alive. I was in my mother's tummy when Marc Messier had the guarantee and then Stephon Matteau won it in game seven in the double overtime and then they had one more hill to climb, baby, and that's Mount Vancouver and the Rangers beat the Canucks. It's 30 damn years ago. A lot has happened since 1994. So don't just tell me because in 1994 the Rangers were down 3-2 and they won six and seven. It's going to happen again this year because that's a bunch of bull crap if that's your analyst. You know, that's your analysis.

Think about it. In 2012 against the Devils, they were down 3-2. They lost game six. In 2015 against the Lightning, we're down 3-2. They won game six. I was at game seven.

They didn't show up outside of Lund Quest. They got shut out of the game. And then in 2022 after being up 2-0, they lose three straight. They're down 3-2. This dope goes down to Tampa and they lost the game. That's three damn times they've been in the Eastern Conference Finals and they've been down 3-2 and they did it in advance. So stop telling me about 1994.

It's 30 damn years ago. This is what needs to happen on Saturday night. They need to go to war for Igor Shostakin because 31's getting the same damn treatment as 30 did in Henrik Lund Quest. He shows up but the rest of the team doesn't. The only way this team will win this series is if the forwards for the Rangers and the defenseman look at their goaltender and they say, we've sucked so far.

It's time for our cajones to drop and we need to go to war for this guy. And if they don't go to war for Igor Shostakin in game six, then the season's over. Win game six. Force a game seven.

Make me spend a ridiculous amount of money on Monday night to get my fat ass in the building. That's the bottom line. But if I have to hear about 1994, one more GD time, you think I'm blowing a gasket now, I won't even be able to make it to this microphone because my head will literally explode. Enough with 1990 damn four. Let me tell you about 94 though actually. Shut up.

So Marc Messier and the Rangers were down three two to the devils. Do me a favor. Go get Richard Ackerman right now. We are going to the update early. I know Ack will be frantic.

It'll be all annoyed because he has to scurry on in here and do the update. Get Ack in here. I'm not in a joking mood today. I'm sick of hearing about 1994 and I'm sick and tired each and every year. The Rangers have an elite goaltender, the best goaltender in the league and they always screw him come playoff time. Igor Shostakin has been standing on his head and you only get one. I know they had LaFreniere scored late. That was garbage time. You got one lousy goal at home.

One. Give me a damn break. Where's Ack? Where is he? Where's Rich Ackerman? I'm not kidding around. He's coming. He's coming.

He needs to run faster. This is right. I'm not even talking about anything else in this segment. I said what I had to say. I said my piece. We'll get to Ack and then we'll come on back and we'll do the rest of the show.

But 1994 it like Ack will come in here and be like, hey chief, you know, 1994 this team did this, this, this, this, this, and this. Like enough. If Ack doesn't get in there in that minute, we'll find another update anchor.

Seriously. Like that's where I'm at today. Let's go get them in there.

I'm going to break as early as possible today. I said my piece. I erupted. I gave you the Gelb volcanic eruption and I'm just sick and tired of it because 1994 this 1994 that it's, it's crazy. It's stupid. It's and trust me, I've been the dope that have tweeted that one time. It was back in 2012 though.

It didn't work. Stop, stop telling me about 1994. So do you remember Valerie Zalapukin, you know, uh, forward for the devils with seven seconds left in game seven.

He tied the game in the third period, sends the game into overtime. I need you to do your job. Go get Ack.

I got Ack twice. Go get him now. This is ridiculous. Every day this guy complains how late I get to the update. I want to get to the update early.

It's three 29. He's nowhere to be found. I need to act in here. Get him in here. What is he doing?

Making a sandwich or something like that. Come on. Sorry. Act to put you in this spot, but I had, you know, went nuts about the Rangers and we just got to get to you.

I got to get off the air. Keep going nuts. Come on, get it out.

It's healthy. Well, can I have, can I ask you a serious question? All right, sure.

Please tell me you're not one of these dopes. And I know 1994 is probably the best sports moment of your life. Correct? It's right there.

It's in the top two. Okay. You're not one of these people saying, well, in 1994, they came back from down. Okay.

That's, that's night. That's 30 years ago, different team, different game, different time. Doesn't, doesn't mean anything. Does not mean anything.

I think any coach will tell you, I mean, the best is Tom Thibodeau at this or Bill Belichick. You know, it's, it's, it's in the moment. Nobody cares. The players don't think that way. There's nothing to it. You want to believe that?

That's fine. But there's nothing to it. Cause that's the root of my frustration. Yes.

It's just so stupid. Here he is. We'll see if he gets the updated.

I think we rushed him a little bit. Your frustration with the Rangers has carried over to my frustration with our wonderful printers here. Oh, the printers aren't working? Yeah.

No, they're not working. You know what? I could let some rage out today. Give me a baseball ball. Smack the fricking printer. Like office space. I almost just did that. Yes.

Okay. Cause you press print, you go to the printer and it's not there. And you're like, what happened? And there's like, then you press print again and it says out of paper.

So I go, okay, let me go to the next one. And then I do print that one and nothing comes out. So now I got to walk back again, hit it, print again.

And it doesn't print. It's a disaster. Yes. It's like the Rangers offense, like the Rangers play right now.

Exactly. We both have, so we have a commonality right here. All I will say is because, you know, I know I just went nuts for about eight minutes on the Rangers. I got to give credit to the Panthers. They're a very good team. Look, they were in the Stanley Cup finals last year. I said going into the playoffs, I thought they were the best team in hockey.

I really did. Well, you know, they're, they're showing it right now. But how much they dominate the puck. And like that one point last night I looked up, the Rangers actually had a pulse. It was 17 to 12 in shots.

And then you blink and the next thing you know, it's like 30 to 18. How long they control the puck and the Rangers can't get a shot. It is a disgrace. Well, the one thing, and this is being as a Ranger fan that worried me and coming into the series and that has become reality is Florida puts a body on you all the time.

Whether it's warranted or not. And you know, you see, you see Florida try to clear the zone and the Rangers come close. And as soon as the pucks off the stick, they skate away, you know, and you know, that's, that's all well and good, but you feel, you feel the Panthers on every play. And in some cases like Barkley Goodroy taking a penalty in game four because he flipped it over the, the, the glass accidentally. It was Russia. Yeah. That was, and I mean, part of it was, you know, the ice wasn't great. So the puck jumped a little, but you know, here comes Dimitri Kulikov and you got to get rid of that puck. And that's what he did. So I said, actually, I think he calmed me down a little bit. You know, it's all, you know, in with the good air out with the bad in with the good air out with the bad. I may need you to be my therapist on Saturday.

I don't know if I can, you know, things I say, not as I do. Here he is the act man, rich Ackerman. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.

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Price and coverage match limited by state law. All star closer. Kenley Jansen, we have a question. What's the best podcast of all time? Baseball isn't boring, baby. I'm Rob Bradford. And every single day I'm sitting down with the biggest names to show you this great game is the greatest game. It's my podcast. It's my passion is a cause I started more than two years ago and is now the most prolific national daily baseball pod.

There is another fact. So jump aboard the BIB express follow and listen to baseball isn't boring presented by Wasabi hot cloud storage on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm finally in a good mood.

Well done, Stu. You play a little DMX party up. This is my bar mitzvah entrance song. They had to play the clean version of this, though, because there's like a curse every fourth second in this song.

That even makes sense. Every version of this song. Yeah, they well, they had to make it like a radio version. So, yeah, every four seconds. There's a there's a curse every other four seconds is I think what I meant, but I thought it was very therapeutic last segment just being able to yell and I walked out into the break of the newsroom during the break. And there was someone that was sitting there and they were like, I've never seen that move that quickly because I guess after went into the newsroom, I was like, we need to do that.

We need you to do the update. Zach's freaking out on the air. He wants to go to break.

And there was a printer problem here, of course. This act was trying. I saw him moving in and he kept going back and forth, back and forth. And every time he went back, he was getting more and more frustrated. You would not think would be a fourth liner in hockey by the stereotypical definition of a fourth liner.

But that was acts fourth line moment. You know, it wasn't probably a lead to a goal, but he did the gritty work. He did the toughness and he tried his damn this to get into the studio here in an efficient amount of time. Anyway, it's time to ask the pros where you, the listener gets us a question. It's brought to you by Raleigh Auto Parts. Simply tweet your question at INF Sports Center at Zach Gelb using the hashtag. Ask the pros.

Be listening later in the show. We might answer your question. Think around the auto parts where your car care needs guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts.

O'Reilly Auto Parts. Let's get to the Cowboys. So. Micah Parsons has not showed up for voluntary OTAs.

Let me emphasize the word voluntary. Because the way it gets reported now is Micah Parsons is not at OTAs and people freak out and they go, man, Micah Parsons with how much smack that he talks and the Cowboys coming off another season where they were good in the regular season. But then that defense looked like Swiss cheese up against the Green Bay Packers and they got dominated and people go, and people go, oh, it's a bad look for Micah Parsons to not be at OTAs or, oh, how committed is Micah Parsons to the Dallas Cowboys? I know that there's a report that there may be trying to get rid of OTAs and would just be a longer training camp. The way the CBA is designed, and this is agreed upon, it's almost unfair to the players.

And the reason why I say that is for most people, not all, but most, because we do have some strange birds out there. If work came to you and said, you don't have to show up today, this is a voluntary day or a voluntary week to work. Most of us aren't showing up. Like if Ryan Hurley, our great new boss who I love, if he came up to me and he said, hey, Zach, if you don't want to show up this week for work, you don't have to, I probably wouldn't show up.

Stu, I would imagine it's the same thing for you if the boss has said, you still get paid, you don't got to show up to work, you're probably not showing up and you're probably gonna do something with your girlfriend and have fun, right? Absolutely, sounds fun. Sander, after basically being out for three weeks, I don't even think I have to ask you this question.

I disagree 100%. You would be a hard hat on? I'm here. Yeah, please. Sander, we all know that if work said to you, you don't got to show up, you ain't showing up. Hey, between having car troubles moving and having COVID, missing time was more than apt. I'm a worker, I'm a worker bee, I'm here every second of every day.

You got it. I don't think the listening audience could hear this, but I'm gonna say it anyway, because my headphones are like jacked up. When your microphone popped up there, when the microphone moves, I thought Stu was playing like a small violin for a second when you were going through all the troubles that did occur, like it was right on cue, you know, the car, the tree, and then I heard the microphone pop up and it made that little like squeaking noise and I go, is Stu playing a small violin? Because if so, that would have been hilarious. But that's like the problem now with the way that I think things get reported.

Things just get reported in a vague way for a tweet. And that's why we're very fortunate to have the platform that we do, where it's three hours every day, Monday through Friday. And I could sit here and explain something for 15 minutes, right?

A segment if I wanted to. But now, things just get thrown out there on X, on Instagram. Do people still use Threads, Santa? I've never been on Threads. Is Threads still a thing?

Just wondering? I mean, it is. I got really into it for the first two- Oh, were you? Yeah, for the first like month, month and a half, I was really into it because I really thought that Twitter was going down. So I got really into Threads, but it never took off. They launched it too early.

There wasn't enough stuff. So I don't think there's a lot of people- And by the way, just to be clear, because the views of Michael Sampter don't reflect the views always of the Zach Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network. We are big fans of the X platform, especially with Jim's new partnership and how successful that has been and all the great viewership that has been thrown there because of what Jim's doing on X. I love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love X. But with that being said, there was a thought process once that X was going to go away and Threads was going to become this big thing. Listen, I love X. I was not, I'm not saying anything negative against X. I just thought that X was on the way out and Threads was on the way up. So I kind of jumped on the bandwagon right when they launched and it just did not take off. You didn't love X though when they banned you that one time. No, I thought that was hilarious.

It was like great on air fire. You threatened me over lasagna. It was low class.

You're lucky you didn't go to HR. I didn't fully threaten you. I had birds threaten you. Oh yeah, that is true. Yeah.

I said that you would get pecked by chickens. So the thing is though, what I'm saying is on social media now, things get condensed into a tweet or one post and there's not a lot of context. It's what can you do to provide the juiciest headline? So you get the most clicks, you get the most retweets and you get the most views. And if that's how you want to operate and that's how you get success.

All right. Everyone's got to make a living. Don't get me wrong. We are in a viewership business. Uh, we are in a listenership business.

We are in a results business, but I'm not like, I put things out there that I expect to do well on social media. I mean, we have a good track record of them doing well, but I always think the stuff I'm putting out is fair. And for people to just say, Oh, Micah Parsons isn't showing up to OTAs.

And that means he's not committed to the Cowboys. I don't think that's fair because most of us know that OTAs are voluntary. But when you don't write voluntary OTAs, I just think it's a little misleading. And people make this out to be a bigger deal than what it actually is. And that's all I'm saying. All I'm saying is simply this. If you are attacking Micah Parsons today, and I know that we separate athletes from the everyday man, but I'll separate.

I like, I won't separate it here and I'll just ask yourself this. If your boss said you don't have to show up to work, would you? Cause I know I'm not, even though I love this job and we're very fortunate to do what we get to do, especially in the summer when the weather's nice here in New York.

And I go down to the shore early. Like if they tell me, Hey, on a Friday, you don't have to show up to work. It's a voluntary day.

You bet your ass I'm not showing up. So that's my only thing with the Micah Parsons whole situation. Now we have audio from Mike McCarthy. This is at a press conference. This is Mike McCarthy discussing Micah Parsons not being at voluntary OTAs.

Listen up. I think anytime you have a chance to be together, it's an opportunity to improve, whether it's in the mental realm, the physical realm, which is limited obviously this time of year, but in the emotional connection and so forth. So it's a long year training camp is really the heightened focus for all that.

But yeah, it's definitely an opportunity that's been missed. So you hear that. And I saw that Clarence Hill covers the Cowboys.

He put out yesterday, and this is when it really started to go viral. And then you waited to hear the audio from McCarthy. It seems like Mike McCarthy is not pleased that Micah Parsons isn't here.

Sam, you've been doing this for a long time. You could usually decipher what's coaches speak and what's reality and what gets said. And if there's true meaning behind it, do you think that Mike McCarthy, when he says it's an opportunity missed, is actually disappointed that Micah Parsons is not showing up for voluntary OTAs?

I think if you were to ask any coach in the NFL, they want every player at every practice. Agreed. So do I think that he's disappointed that Mike is not there?

Sure. But I also think that he's not furious about it. He understands what the system is.

He also knows legally by the CBA. He's not allowed to chastise anybody for missing it. Well, that was pretty close. That was that's right on the borderline.

If he got fined, I wouldn't be surprised. You're like tiptoeing the line. All right. I'm not going to lie. If I'm the NFL PA, I'm following a grievance because at the end of that line by Mike McCarthy, he's like, yeah, what do you want everyone here? And it's a missed opportunity.

An opportunity missed. And I've had those situations before. Like when I was day by day around the Eagles and I voiced this opinion before in the air. I think these OTAs are the most monotonous, pointless things to attend. Everyone tries to get a take or an opinion, and it's just grown men running around in shorts and a T-shirt. That's what it is.

They are so boring. You'll have those writers that will be like, oh, I'm charting what this player does and how many catches this guy does. It's practice.

All right. I don't want to sound like AI, but we're talking about practice here. The expectation and practice is to try things to get better. And when you try to do that, there's going to be some good moments. And there's also going to be a lot of failure.

Practice makes you better in essence. So when I was in Philly, there was a lot of times where people would talk about. And usually when it's juicy is like where it is here, where there's a contract situation. Because then you're thinking Michael Parsons, if he was taken care of and the long-term deal was done, he probably shows up even though they're voluntary and people try to put two and two together.

He's sending a point to the organization. You're not taking care of me yet. I'm not going to go above and beyond and show up to something that I don't need to, which is fair. But that's when these things usually get juicy. And whenever that was the case in Philadelphia, Doug Peterson would always say, hey, you would hope everyone would be here, but at the end of the day, it is voluntary. And those are the rules.

So I can't get mad if someone is not here because they're voluntary practices right now. But I thought that was getting very close to dragging your toe over the line into the danger category for Mike McCarthy. Also, since we're talking about the Cowboys, it got me thinking about this.

I'm going to go around the room here. Person in the Cowboys organization. Don't give me like a detailed response. I just want the name. Person in the Cowboys organization right now, whether it's Jerry Jones, Mike McCarthy, Dak Prescott, C.D. Lamb, Michael Parsons, and pressure is a very ambiguous term. But who is the person in the organization that you think is under the most pressure for this season?

I'll start with Stu. I think it is McCarthy, because I think if they don't have a deep playoff run, he will be fired. So he has one year to basically prove it as he's on a the last year of his contract. So he's a so he'll be let go. He won't be fired, but he won't be renewed.

Similarly, like what happened with Jason Garrett. Quack, quack. All right. Samter, who is the person in the organization deck? Yeah, I can't say you're wrong on that. And I can't say Stu is wrong either. And I think most people would think it's either the quarterback or the head coach. I actually think it's Michael Parsons. And the reason why I think it's Michael Parsons is there's no doubt in my mind the Cowboys are going to pay him.

And hey, we benefited from this five million views. Michael Parsons getting on the show and saying some of the dumbest thing things I've ever heard that TJ Watt wasn't a top five pure pass rusher in the NFL. But Michael Parsons, as great as he is, and he's a great football player with the podcast that he has, it's very Draymond Green, like, and he's a better player in his sport than Draymond is in Draymond sport.

But he's all I'm not saying he can't give an opinion because that would be fraudulent of me. But there's a lot now where Micah Parsons is saying things that don't really make sense where people will take the low hanging fruit and they'll say, well, is he really all in on the Dallas Cowboys? Whether you agree with that or not, I'm just telling you with covering this, how long as I have, that's just what people are going to start to say.

And they've already said it. And Michael Parsons now, right, there's a level of greatness that you expect. And I've already seen Dak Prescott kind of max out where I know he's just good and he'll never win a Super Bowl. You know, Mike McCarthy, I think he's restored his image a little bit since becoming the coach of the Cowboys, where I know he hasn't had the postseason success, but he's already won a Super Bowl in Green Bay. And the last three years, it's 12 wins, 12 wins and 12 wins.

But for Micah, he is the one Micah Parsons that since he's younger in the league and he's catapulted himself to stardom, now my attention goes to him. OK, can you be that true difference maker on the defense that only individually performs well, but you galvanize the rest of the group to do something the Cowboys haven't done in a long time. And that's get to an NFC title game.

I'm not even going to talk about a Super Bowl, but they haven't been to an NFC title game since the 1995 season. All right. This is that Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network. We will take a break. The Timberwolves after they beat the Nuggets. Many people thought they were going to win the championship. Now they're done in five games in the Western Conference Finals.

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