Double Dose of Fanta (Hour 3)

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You know, there's not every day where the three hours of a show is basically just one or two topics, but today is one of those days. And the two topics that we have really discussed in almost every segment has been Dan Hurley turning down the Los Angeles Lakers to stay with the Yukon Huskies. It ended up being a six year, $70 million offer. According to Adrian Mosinowski, I don't think that was nearly enough for Dan to take it, even though it would have made him a top six highest paid coach in the sport. And he says, thanks, but no thanks.

And he stays at Yukon. And then the other story is the Boston Celtics are up 2-0 in the NBA finals, and you'll have game three coming up later this week on Wednesday evening. And the Celtics didn't play a great game last night, and it was still better for them to control the tempo of the game in the second half and get that victory to take a lead in this series of two games to none up against the Dallas Mavericks. And Kyrie Irving did not really show up in the first two games of this series, and there was so much about him and the fans, and I think the fans got to him.

And I would have anticipated a better effort and a better performance by Kyrie Irving. You know, going home, do I think Luke and Kyrie will get on the same page and they'll both drop 30 plus points in a game and they'll win one game? Yeah, I do. Do I think they're going to both win games three and four?

No, I don't. And I think this is going to go back to Boston with Boston up 3-1 and having an opportunity to close it out in game five. But let's get back into the Dan Hurley news, which is he's staying with UConn, and he said thanks but no thanks to the Los Angeles Lakers. Jon Fanta has been all over this. There's a great job, play-by-play insider for Fox, and he's once again kind enough to join us. He had a lot of good stuff with us on Friday, and Jon Fanta joins us once again on the Zach Gelb show. Jon, appreciate it. How you been, my man?

Zach, I'm doing well. It's great to be with you. As I talked to you seconds ago, UConn has put out official statements from Dan Hurley and David Bendix. If you want me to give you those statements here right off the bat, Hurley is saying, I am humbled by this entire experience. At the end of the day, I'm extremely proud of the championship culture we've built at Connecticut.

We met as a team before today's workout. Our focus right now is on getting better this summer and connecting as a team as we continue to pursue championships. UConn AD Dave Benedict saying that they are thrilled by Hurley's decision and grateful for his loyalty. He says in a statement, as we navigate the rapidly evolving college athletics landscape, I think it's interesting that he said this, Zach. Your donations more than ever will be necessary to sustain our success.

The continued financial commitment from loyal and new donors to both departmental operations and NIL activities will be paramount to remaining competitive on the national stage. That's really interesting language as I join you for a release that's sent right off of a coach recommitting to his school, to the place that he's been at. Because as UConn tries to get this deal done with Dan Hurley, he does not have a new contract that's signed and done. It's going to be interesting to see how that process goes because earlier before Hurley said he was saying at UConn, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont told reporters that it is their goal to make Hurley the highest paid coach in college basketball, that he would like to do that. Well, this past November, two-time national champion Hall of Famer Bill Self signed a five-year $53 million deal with the first season, 2023-24 this past year.

Self got paid $13 million. So Lamont said that publicly. Hurley stays.

Now, Benedict makes a no to donors in a public release. Now the question for UConn and Connecticut is going to be how are they going to be able to reach the point where they give Hurley the deal that he deserves, the deal that he would like? You know, it's a good point and we haven't talked about his contract. So they obviously made him a very respectable offer from what has been out there.

And he didn't take it. And then the Lakers stuff comes out and a lot of us are thinking, oh, maybe he's going to take the Lakers job. How long of a process do you think this is going to be? Because when you turn down the Lakers deal, which was reportedly for most 70 million over six years, you know, it makes you think that, okay, he was just going to take what was out there from UConn, but you're saying this could be a little bit of a longer process than what people would assume. Well, I think it's been a longer process already than what anybody would assume.

I mean, it's surprising to begin with. Take the Lakers aside that we'd be talking right now on June 10th and the head coach of the back-to-back national champions and the school wouldn't have that done. But Zach, you know, I think that there's a couple of things to look at with these variables here that went into this decision because Friday I came on your show and told you what I was talking with sources on good authority about. And I'll say the sources that I still trust very much. Dan Hurley was given a very nice offer by the Lakers. It was not 100 million dollars, it was 70 million dollars. In this process, I'll admit it, nobody wants to admit it, you're not going to bat a thousand.

Because you're going through a bunch of people for a bunch of different pieces of information. Now, who's to say that if Hurley started to win, it couldn't get there, but that point stands. I think as you're going throughout the weekend, Zach, this did not come without serious thoughts and serious deliberation from Dan and his wife Andrea. And the first step of that was it's really hard to stop the ball from rolling when you made the decision to fly all the way out to the West Coast and to meet with those people Friday night, which he did. And I was told that those meetings, those talks went very well.

And Adrian Wojnarowski reported that last night as well publicly on the finals pregame show that those talks went very well. At the end of the day, I think what this comes down to is what we're also discussing with the contract, Zach. Dan Hurley in Los Angeles would be going into the job still not fully knowing the answer, because you don't know it until you get into it, of how much control would he really have? How much control would he really have? Whereas in Storrs, Connecticut, he has all of the control in the world and has the unlimited power to just get the governor of the state to say we'll make him the highest paid college coach at a school that doesn't have football money.

Not the football money that the football, big time football schools have where they're in conferences. So I think at the end of the day, you don't mess with Happy. You take what you're going to get. You've built a top five roster. You convinced Alex Caravan to come back for this venture.

I think that that personal relationship really did play a factor in this. And he has achieved college basketball nirvana. And Zach, he will continue to be the face of college basketball for the foreseeable future. You and I both know in the NBA, coaches are not the faces.

The players are. John Fanta here with us. When you get into the control part of it, and you talked about how he would still not know how much control he would have when that came up in conversations. And I don't know if you know the answer to this or not with how connected you are.

But what was Rob Polinka? What was Jeannie Buss saying about the control part of it? Yeah, I'll be candid here. I don't know what exactly was said there. So not going to guess on that. I think that that's a question that, you know, hopefully Dan answers.

I could tell you right now, Zach. You know, for what it's worth, Dan Hurley is going to get on a plane and he's going to fly to NBA camp and he's going to do some recruiting over the next two days. And then he is going to see the media on Thursday.

So he's going to do media on Thursday. You know, what I can promise you is I'm going to make the drive from New Jersey to Connecticut and get as many more answers on this subject as we can. Because I think that that's a really important element to this. And I think it's the type of thing that doesn't come out right away.

But it's my understanding fully that those conversations were intense and interest from both sides and very healthy and very productive. It just wasn't meant to be in the here and now. And I think that, Zach, one of the things is that, you know, the Lakers have had six different head coaches since Phil Jackson, none of which have lasted more than three years.

And, you know, I think that that weight on Dan, even though, you know, I think he went through the people are saying to me, I can't do it in the NBA. You know, he sees the noise. Excuse me. He hears the noise. He sees what's out there. He's fueled by proving people wrong. And he's only 51.

That day may come. And I still think that that's more than on the table. You're telling me that if the New York Knicks didn't open and had a little bit of interest and maybe a lot of interest in him, you know, what if he wins a third straight? Then at that point, what else does he have to do?

But I think that it came down to those elements of he was motivated by that. But he looked at the situation that the Lakers were in an organization that because of LeBron James Anthony Davis contract situation, Zach, you look at the rest of that roster. There's a whole lot of unknowns and it's not a championship roster beyond those two. And oh, by the way, we don't even know what what's in LeBron's future. We really do not know what the next step for LeBron is going to be. I know I can tell you that sources told me LeBron was OK with this. His his camp was OK with this because Hurley could develop Ronnie. That was that was a big thing here that had the potential to occur. And that's why a lot of the tea leaves were reading. There's real interest here.

This has a real shot of happening. Look at the money potentially. But I think it's time as time went on here. Now you take a look at the money. Seventy million is a couple of people told me not fully worth it. When you look at some of the unknowns here with the Lakers and some of the other NBA teams he could potentially could potentially look at here in the future. That's why when we had John the other week, I was just spitball and I said, look at the Monty Williams deal for reference. Like if that ended up being the offer, which was put out there, 70 million dollars over six years. That's an offer that you could refuse when you're Dan Hurley and you're sitting at UConn. That's a blue blood and you've won back to back national championships like they said to watch. Oh, that's our guy.

We've been targeting them all along. When you make that kind of offer and you're the Lakers and we know the coach's salary is it impacted by the salary cap or anything like that? I actually think it's I know it's talked about all the top six highest paid coach in league. It's kind of insulting offer to Dan Hurley, in my opinion. Zach, I thought it was a totally I really did think it was an insulting offer.

And that's why I go back to what people that are plugged in in the league were telling me. And oh, by the way, like and I have immense amount of respect for both. Sure. But he did come out and say right off the bat that the Lakers were we're putting together a package that was highly, highly lucrative, that that this was going to be the most that they had ever compensated the coach. True is that might be here. That was not the expected avenue that anybody had thought going into this. If he was going to become the next head coach, the Los Angeles Lakers.

So let me ask you this. What was your understanding on how everything went down today? Because the moment I saw and I'll raise my hand, I'll be the first one to say when I left Friday, I thought he was going to take the Lakers job. That's what I thought.

I think I said to you was 85 percent. But today, when that press conference or the practice time gets reported to move back from 12 to two, as much as I love Hurley, I thought it would have been a really rotten move. When you move everything back, everyone's waiting and guessing on what's going to happen.

And then you tell your kids, hey, I'm not staying. So what's your understanding on how everything played out today? Yeah, well, his wife, Andrea, and him, they showed up here shortly before that two o'clock practice. He wasn't on campus in the morning.

You know, he wasn't he wasn't hanging around campus. You know, it's my understanding, Zach, through people that I talked to at UConn. There are a wide variety of people that work with the program that work within the program that woke up this morning and did not know what was going to happen. And these are people that I trust.

These are people that I spent a lot of time with in the recent years. They did not know what was going to happen, what he was going to say. Now, Hurley is very calculated. And I said this from the start of this process, he knows exactly what he's doing. That's part of what makes him great.

Like, honestly, Zach, I love the show and he knows how to put a show on. And good for him because we don't have enough of it in college basketball. We're all talking about college basketball on June 10.

That's never happened. And the time that I've talked with you, if I've come on your show this time of year, we're talking NBA draft. It's good to see it's going to be good to be talking about it right now.

And maybe we will talk draft in a week or two. But the point is like. This is a situation here where there was he kept this tight to the best. He kept this tight to the best.

And when we were throwing out percentages on Friday, nobody's throwing stuff off the wall. You know, those were informed things where he was meeting. Things were looking good. It's just the assurances, the financial capabilities now of Connecticut. They're going to have to piece things together here. Their state school, they're in debt. They've got their own battles.

The Northeast, the family roots, all of that. They were again, if they weren't entertained and if they weren't into the idea. Right.

Then they would not have gotten on a plane and flown to Los Angeles. But I came on your show Friday and said 75 25. Twenty five is not zero.

Seventy five is not 100 either. And so I think as the weekend went on, you know, Saturday night. I scaled this to 50 50 because I truly think that he contemplated it. I believe that that yesterday, Sunday after he went to Billy Joel on Saturday, took his mind off some things.

Might have had an instinct, but I think on Sunday he came with his family to a decision. His family matters. His wife, Andrea, his sons, Andrew and Dan Junior, his father, Bob Senior.

All of his mother as well. All of these people have a say, have weight in this. And I think for all of them and for his situations that, you know, one thing you got to look at with Dan. Dan has been outspoken about some of the challenges he's gone through in life.

Right. And he's an inspiration to people, people that don't talk about mental health, that they've been afraid to talk about it. Dan has not been afraid to talk about those battles that just over 800 days ago. He lost to New Mexico State in an embarrassing loss in the first round, the NCAA tournament. Some people were calling for him, doing this, that.

They were really criticizing him. He changed some things. He dug deep. He looked at life.

He looked at the challenges. Two years later, he's had one of the most remarkable rises in the history of college basketball. That happiness, that money, the convenience factor doesn't have to get up and move everybody. His parents have lived in the same home for decades and decades. And his father could have had a lot of jobs, too. And he stayed.

But they couldn't have gone, you know, not that they couldn't have stayed there, but it would have been harder to get out to L.A. every now and then. Situationally, family-wise, the fact that Zach, he's kind of blue blood in the palm of his hand now. Yeah. And here's one more thing that I'll bring up to you, Jon Fanta, just from a coverage standpoint. And I thought because, right, people are wondering what was the state of the Big East going to be all those years ago? And then we know what Villanova did and we know what UConn has done. But I always say this about college coaches.

That's what gets really the sport going. And we know the personalities that used to be in the Big East. But you look at the last three, four years, Shaka Smart goes to Marquette. Jay Wright retires. Sean Miller returns to Xavier.

Thad Motta returns to Butler. The whole Ed Cooley thing with Providence and going to Georgetown. Patino coming into the Big East with St. John's. And now Dan Hurley turning down the Lakers. Man, I've never seen anything like this the last three, four years with all those storylines. Zach, the Big East is on fire right now.

It's got its most drama since the 80s and 90s. Dan Hurley and Rick Patino are rivals. That's a good thing. UConn, St. John's matters again.

That's a good thing. And oh, by the way, this all comes while the Big East is in negotiations for a new television contract. You think Dan Hurley staying at UConn helps the causes, helps the dialogue?

You bet it does. So him staying at Connecticut, UConn, I just wrote this for FoxSports.com. And I know I'm working for the company that works with the Big East on their TV primarily. But Connecticut is going to be on big broadcast TV every weekend, if not almost every weekend through conference play. That matters too.

Hurley's not lost. Like we could talk about the ESPN. This is a whole separate thing. And how they cut off the Big East in 2013 when the conference breakup happened. But the Fox platform for UConn matters because they get on big broadcast TV almost every weekend. More than any other program really I would say in college basketball with all those exposures. Hurley's going to be the king of that. He's going to be the king of that. He's going to be desired by any MTE. He's going to be desired by any TV partner. During a time where Jay Wright, Roy Williams, Coach K have said goodbye, somebody had to say hello and bet on college basketball.

Now of course he's going to get paid. But Hurley's loyalty to the sport today is college basketball's biggest win in quite some time. Especially when you consider how chaotic the sport is in the offseason.

Perfectly said. Last thing I'll ask you John Fanta is always great when he joins us. There's a lot of reasons why maybe he didn't take it like we talked about. You know right now you're out of blue blood and you have it humming and you won back to back national championships. The offer only being 70 million dollars and it not being an offer you can't refuse.

We talked about the control element as well. What do you think is the number one reason why Dan Hurley right now is not off to L.A. to go coach the Lakers? He has total control at UConn and there's zero guarantee you're going to have anything close to that in the NBA.

Not even that it's not just the Lakers, it's just the style. And the man has pictures of John Wooden in his office. If he can say, myself and John Wooden are the only two coaches in men's college basketball history to win three consecutive national titles, which is impossible.

UConn is number two in my preseason top 25. Zach, if he says that, start building the statue because it'll go up very soon. He is John Fanta of Fox Sports. John, always appreciate your insight and your passion. Thank you for doing this again.

Zach, fun to talk with you at midnight late at night during this process. This was a wild ride, my friend. It was a wild ride.

Definitely was. There he is, the great John Fanta where he had many conversations on and off the air about everything that was going on with Dan Hurley and the UConn Huskies. But great for the sport of college basketball that Dan Hurley is staying with the UConn Huskies. An unfortunate situation for the Lakers because now it may be J.J. Redick. Now it may be James Borrego. And even though there was questions about Dan Hurley, still those two guys aren't Dan Hurley. And that's a problem for the Los Angeles Lakers.

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Go to TuneIn.com or download the TuneIn app to start listening. All right, it is the Infinity Sports Network, so I asked the question to John Fanta because everyone is going to have their two cents and everyone's going to have their opinion on why Dan Hurley didn't take the job. And you can have many differentiating opinions. And there may be a little bit of truth in all those reasons why Dan Hurley didn't end up taking the job with the Los Angeles Lakers.

But let me just lay them out to you real quickly. And here could be some of the scenarios. One, this could have been used as a move to get more money out of Yukon from the way it's been reported and what others have told me.

And I didn't always think that this was the case. And then I put out a video which was, I think, Thursday when I was leaving work and what I said in the video wasn't accurately portrayed in the tweet that I wrote, to be fair. And people thought like I was calling out Yukon. No, all I was asking was, you had a guy that just won back to back national championships.

Why hasn't his contract already been taken care of? And that was just a why question that I asked. It could have been on Hurley, it could have been on Yukon. But then a few people reach out to me and they told me what the Yukon offer was to Dan Hurley. And it's a fair offer. But then you hear what John just said where they're trying to make him the highest paid coach of college basketball. They would have to up that offer that they gave him. But the offer that they gave him made him one of the highest, would make him one of the highest paid coaches. Not they, but one of the highest paid coaches in college basketball. So did he maybe use the Lakers to expedite what was a long process in the contract negotiations?

Possible. The other things, was he concerned about the control? Was he concerned about the leap from going to college to the pros? The other potential part of this scenario for Dan Hurley was, hey, the offer ended up being $70 million over six years. The Lakers are the desperate ones. Dan Hurley is not desperate. Dan Hurley has it made for him right now. Even though I think it's an easier lifestyle to coach the pros than it is college hoops.

He's at a spot where he loves and he's very comfortable. So was it the Lakers offer where they could say, hey, it makes them a top six highest paid coach in the NBA. But they could have made that offer even better. Was it the fact that he was going for a three-peat? So there's all these different scenarios that you can throw out there. And I wonder where most people are at right now as to their reasoning on why Dan Hurley is not the coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.

The family component of it as well has been thrown out there. So, Sam, let me start you off and just ask you the simple. Well, it's not a simple question because there's many different potential answers here. In your opinion, why do you think Dan Hurley is not the coach of the Los Angeles Lakers? I think his wife, plain and simple, his family did not want to leave. I think that I kind of want to book now Andrew Hurley in studio.

Every indication is he hates the transfer portal. His team is being decimated by the draft. They're not going to three-peat. I'm saying it right now. They're a good team, but they're not going to three-peat. And if they do, it would be an amazing accomplishment. Obviously, yeah.

Especially with all the guys they're losing to the draft. I think it's his wife. And this whole idea that he wants to be close to his family.

Bobby Hurley's in Arizona. You'll be close to your brother. He might not be closer to your father, but like you said, they're millionaires.

They can go out there. So I think it's his wife. I think it's a wrong decision. I think it's clear that he hates the transfer portal. It's clear that he doesn't like NIL.

It's clear that college basketball has become more of a grind. He's going to regret this. Because if they don't three-peat, then nothing else matters.

I don't think he could regret this. If Dan Hurley in two years, let's say doesn't win another national championship. And let's say, I don't know, Tom Thibodeau and the Knicks end up parting ways. He could be the coach of the Knicks in a second. You know, let's say the Boston Celtics. Joe Mazzola is fed up in four or five years. And I know Mazzola's about to win a championship, but that's probably not a great example.

But there will be many jobs that come calling if the NBA is something that he is interested in, which he's talked about before down the road he is. But that's interesting. You'd think it's his wife and the family component of it. Chris Hess, let me ask you this. Same question. What's the number one reason why you think Dan Hurley is not the coach of the Los Angeles Lakers?

I think it's something that Jon mentioned on the very back end of the closer of the conversation. When you have that full control of a program, you can make it your own. And you have full say and full authority over it.

You're not an authoritarian, whatever you want to call it. You have full control of what's in front of you. You dictate how things go. In the NBA, you can't do that. Because if you try to run it your way, it's a player's league. And they're going to oust you, and it's going to be a whole situation. And I don't think he wants to deal with that.

So you think it's a control. Okay, CeeLo. CeeLo always is an astute observer. Crystal Pressley always trusts his sports opinions. And I think he usually gives you a very level-headed take, unlike some of these hot take hacks.

And all these bloviating, jackass talk show hosts, like maybe yours truly. But CeeLo, what's the number one reason, in your opinion, after you hear everyone give their two cents on this matter the last few hours, why Dan Hurley's not the coach of the Lakers? I think probably finances. I think he went out west and heard what the Lakers had to say and what they had to offer. And I think it probably had to have been an offer that he was absolutely blown away by to leave his current situation. And I'm sure, and it's already been referred to in the write-ups today, that he and UConn are working on some sort of extension and a pay raise.

From that standpoint, he'll probably end up closer to where the Laker offer was to stay where he is and hunt that three-peat in a familiar setting. Yeah, I've been told, I don't want to reveal the number, it may be out there, but I was told the ballpark range, I'll guess, of what the offer was made to him more than a few weeks ago. From UConn.

From UConn. Let me just say, it's not per year what Kentucky reportedly offered myself. Forbes said it was like 11-something million. I think it's that the Lakers only offered him $11.6 million a year. Like $70 million over six years. They said to Woge, oh, that's our top target, right? Dan Hurley is our top target.

He's the guy. If that's the case, how is that contract not 90, 95, 100 million? If they would have given him 100 million over six years, I think he's the coach of the Lakers.

Hard to turn that down, yeah. Monty Williams, who's a good coach, is not going to win Jack with the Pistons, but did a very good job with the Suns, makes $13-something million a year. That's what the offer should have been here by the Los Angeles Lakers if you were really trying to go out there and get your guy. So I think it's the Lakers offer wasn't strong enough.

Yeah, which is odd because this was sort of like a back-channel thing that was going on, right? We didn't hear Hurley's name, you heard J.J. Redick, you heard James Borrego, and then all of a sudden it's, well, here comes Dan Hurley and you're figuring, oh, he's going to go out there and they're going to make him an offer he can't refuse and that's not really the way it went down based on what we're hearing and what the numbers say. Now, you know, and Fanta kind of alluded to it and, right, the politicians have even said, oh, they want to make him the highest-paid coach in college basketball. What that offer was a little while ago, I would think after the Laker opportunity, say no to the Lakers and Kentucky, it's going to augment even more.

And we'll see how swiftly this does get taken care of because that was my thing from the jump. And that's, I kind of asked it on Thursday and some people got annoyed to me because they thought I was taking a shot at UConn, it wasn't, which is me asking a question. This guy just won back-to-back national championships. How wasn't this contract already taken care of and there was an offer out there, he just never ended up putting the pen to paper.

Yeah, the offer was out there, but perhaps he thought there was a little bit more to be gained and here come the Lakers and the next thing you know, I'm sure UConn will be increasing that initial offer. Yeah, and I'm sure that that is the way that it's probably going to end up playing out. Alrighty, it is the Zach Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network. We will take our final break of the day when we come on back. Samter's got some questions for me. I'll hopefully have some answers for him.

We'll do a little on-site offset. Oh, by the way, CeeLo. Huh? I should have asked you about this. You live in Jersey, right?

I do. We could talk more off the air, but I am forming a charity kickball team to play in Dion Dawkins' charity kickball tournament in New Jersey at the end of the month. We have a few spots available. You know, we could question some people that are on the team's athletic ability. You would not be one of them being a stud former college baseball player.

Is that right? I would say I'm in if the dates align. I don't think I've played kickball since, like, middle school, but I've given it a shot. Yeah, I haven't played kickball since, like, the fifth grade.

I always enjoyed it when I did get a chance to do it back in the day. So we have 12 people that are going to end up being a part of this team from the company. That's awesome. If I set the over-under, well, the team limit is also 12.

Okay. But if I set the over-under of one and a half injuries. Oh, I'll take the over-under.

Right? If I lose, I take my money, but I felt good about which side of that I was on. I just hope it's, like, a stubbed toe or, like, someone sliding into a base and they, like, fracture a pinky. Nah, you get a pull, you get a hammy. I don't want any Achilles or ACLs.

Hammy, a quad. Someone opens it up for a sprint that hasn't done that in quite some time, they could go down easy. I'm very concerned about Perloff, because Perloff carries himself like he's this big athlete, like, plays a bunch of basketball. That dude walks around this office with a lot of tape, and it seems like he gets hurt a lot. It seems like he could snap in half at any moment. Yeah.

Like, brittle. Yeah. Hickey's not participating. Not participating? Yeah.

Lame. What else has he got going on? He's probably got to gel his hair or something like that.

Come on. But Hickey, like, he was once competitively swimming against his friends. He's basically drunk at a bachelor party. He, like, fractured his finger or something like that. Swimming? Yeah, he slammed it on the concrete and he fractured his finger.

Definitely sounds alcohol-induced. It shows you how pathetic the athletic state is of our squad. I think CeeLo would bring a little toughness and a little extra juice to the squad. Oh, I'll bring toughness and juice.

There's no doubt about that. You'll probably take out the first baseman, too. I might.

Or my own teammate. You're a Jets guy, though. I covered the Jets, but I come from a Giants fan. Oh, okay. I'm a Giants fan. Because my concern was, you know, Deion Dawkins being a close personal friend. No, no.

You maybe go, like, you know, try to take him out or something. No, that's not how I roll. No way. No way. So, clean player, Christian Presti.

Yeah, definitely. Alrighty, this is Zach Gelb's show on the Infinity Sports Network. We are wrapping up shop on this Monday. It's time to answer Ask the Pros question of the day. And it's brought to you by O'Reilly Auto Parts. We have Bill in Boston who says, Zach, are you happy that Dan Hurley said no to the Los Angeles Lakers? You can submit a question by tweeting at INF Sports Center, at Zach Gelb.

He's in the hashtag Ask the Pros. Think O'Reilly Auto Parts where all your car care needs. Get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people.

At O'Reilly Auto Parts, O'Reilly Auto Parts. Yeah, I'm happy. Because it would have been fun to have covered it and see what would have happened with him going to the NBA. But it's great for college basketball. And it's great for UConn that Dan Hurley's saying. So, I'm not upset that he didn't take the job with the Los Angeles Lakers. And I do find it very funny to see what is going to transpire now on who the Lakers hire. Because I hope, I hope it's James Borrego.

I really do. Oh, it would be such a humbling, fun moment for J.J. Redick knowing that Hurley was the guy. And then people thought he was the guy. And then, oh, we end up hiring James Borrego. But whoever the hire is going to be, whether it's Borrego or Redick, it is not going to be met with a positive reaction from Lakers fans.

Nor should it be. If you were told, hey, we're pursuing Hurley. We want Hurley to be the guy. Well, if you offered Dan Hurley $100 million and he turns you down, I could live with that. Even if you offered him $95, $90 million and he turns you down, I could live with that. But when you only offered him $70 million over six years, it left me saying, hmm, the Lakers said they were all in, but they weren't really all in.

The Lakers kind of like the Cowboys. They told you this offseason, hey, we're going to be all in. And then Skip Bayless says, all in, pause, pause, pause, pause, pause, pause. Need a comma, comma, comma, comma.

My ass. Lakers said they were all in on Dan Hurley. The offer, though, that's truly $70 million over six years, not really all in on Dan Hurley. They could have significantly made him a better offer, and they didn't.

All righty. Sam has got some questions, I'll give you some answers, let's go to onside, offside to end this show on a Monday. Chris has.

Hit it. Zach's taking on the most polarizing issues in sports. Which side of the line of scrimmage will he end up on? Offside, defense number 69. It's onsides, offsides with Zach Gelb.

All righty, Samter, what do we got cooking today? Well, the Brownies got a scare this weekend. It's a Sean Watson was hurt in David Njoku's celebrity softball game after colliding with teammate Zaire Mitchell-Payton.

Is that right? Yeah, he flipped in the air and landed on his surgically repaired shoulder. Now, Watson got right up, he was talking and playing with the fans, and he later told our friend Mary Kay Cabot that he was good and totally was fine, but still a very scary situation if you are the Browns. Now, onside, offside, we hear a lot about players getting hurt doing other things other than football. Teams should prohibit all players from participating in any other competitive sport during the offseason. So I'm going to say offside with one caveat. Offside. When I first read this question, I thought to myself, yeah, they should prohibit players from participating in any other competitive sport during the offseason.

I didn't read the buildup, I just read the question. So, you tell me like a player wants to go surfing or a player wants to play basketball on their own, like I'm not necessarily thrilled with that with how much money that they pay these players to be ready for football. But, this is where I can't say that you should be able to prohibit someone when it's for good. He got hurt in David Njoku's celebrity softball game. And that makes me think there was a charity component to this and this was a charity softball game. So, assuming that's true, which I bet you it is, I don't think that's something the Browns can really do. Tell Deshaun Watson you can't play in a charity softball game.

Like, a lot of these players have charity softball games. So, that's where I end up saying offside. Now, after much speculation, Giants tight end Darren Waller, in fact, did tell the team that he was going to retire. Before getting hurt in 2021, the 31-year-old Waller had back-to-back monster seasons with over 90 catches and 1100 yards for the Raiders. Now, onside, offside, I lost my voice again. Tough for you to do a Raiders. There you go, that's a little bit better.

When you have a voice problem. I know, it's getting better though. Come on, scratch it. Now, if he did stay healthy, you believe Waller would have been the best tight end in the NFL. Oh, offside.

Tremendous talent. But, he's not Kelsey just for starters. Like, if we just look at Travis Kelsey, that's the best tight end in the NFL. He's not Travis Kelsey.

So, that's where I go offside on that one. Paul George is one of the biggest names in this year's free agency class, with some linking him to the Lakers, Sixers, and maybe even a return to Indiana. I feel like Paul George has been linked to the Lakers for my entire life. I know, eventually he's going to end up, him and DeMar DeRozan have been to the Lakers every single year.

And Paul George is 43. He'll be linked. He'll finally go to the Lakers.

Maybe Dan Hurley will finally go there too. And LeBron will still be on the team too. However, Mark Stein reports- That'll be Bronny, not LeBron. Mark Stein reports the Magic are now a potential suitor for the nine-time All-Star.

Onside, offside. George would have a better chance winning a title in Orlando, with the likes of Paolo Boncaro, than he would with his current team, the Clippers. Onsides, because the Clippers are never healthy.

They're never healthy. Every year, Kawhi Leonard, who is a great postseason player, went healthy. He's won two finals MVPs. But every year now, it seems like an injury happens, he plays one game that you don't see in the rest of the postseason. So yeah, I would give him a better chance of the younger team in Orlando than in L.A. with the Clippers.

Now, the Pistons have the worst record in the NBA for the second straight season and haven't won more than 23 games in any of the past five seasons. However, despite their struggles, the Athletic reports the team is expected to give former No. 1 overall pick Cade Cunningham a max rookie extension this summer after he averaged nearly 23 points in eight assists this year. Onside, offside. Cade Cunningham can still develop into a star NBA player. Yeah, onsides. He's a good player.

That team just stinks. You know, is he a No. 1 pick where you're like, oh, that's going to be someone that's a top five player in the league? No, but he averaged 22.7 points per game this past year and he was top ten in the league in assists with seven and a half a game. So yeah, I still think he could develop into being a star player. Is he going to be a top five player in the league?

Probably not, but I still think he could be a star in the NBA, so I will go onsides. Now, I'll ask you a question here at the end. Onside or offside, Michael Sampter tonight will be drinking a cup of tea with honey in it. Cup of tea?

No, I've been drinking a ton of water. Whiskey? Little bit of whiskey with honey in it. You got it? I'm telling you. Little bit of whiskey, little bit of honey, a lot of water. Bad job out of you. You've got to have a few cups of tea tonight and put a lot of honey.

That will help your voice out in a big way. Are you a cough drop guy, I just wondered? Yes. Cepacalls.

All over the cepacalls. Okay. Yeah. No, but it's getting a lot better.

I think it was just moving to a new place, a very woodsy area. You stressed? No, not even stressed. How are you stressed? The stress was before the move. Now this is kind of like, now this is the calm after the storm.

This is more, I think, like different pollens, different trees, different things that is just kind of affecting me in a different way. My body will get used to it. I'll be fine. We may have to give you a little management day. You know, you weren't here for three weeks and you come back. I just think you're not used to the grind anymore. You're going to love it. It means I have to talk less.

You're going to love it. That's a good point. Maybe I should shut up.

Oh, we're running out of time anyway. Chris S, thank you. Michael Sampda, thank you. Antoine Walker, thank you. John Fanta, thank you. And thank each and every one of you for tuning in to this edition of the Zach Yelp Show.

We'll be back tomorrow at 3 p.m. Eastern, noon Pacific. Peace. Start your summer road trip at Midas and get up to $30 off your next repair service. Plus get a free Closer Look vehicle check to make sure you're road trip ready. So if you need to break service and alignment check or tune up, hit up Midas for up to $30 off.

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