Adam Silver Is WORST Sports Commissioner (Hour 1)

Live from the police show, yet not overly ostentatious, studios of the Infinity Sports Network here in beautiful New York City sitting on top of the 10th floor 345 Hudson Street. Welcome on in to another week and a Monday edition of the Zach Gelb show across all the great local Infinity Sports Network affiliates, Sirius XM, channel 375, the free Odyssey app, and of course streaming live on YouTube. 855-212-4227 is the number to jump on in. That's 855-212-4227. You can 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. Legendary college basketball coach at Kansas and UNC. Roy Williams is going to join us coming up an hour from now and then the final hour of the show at 5.20pm Eastern, 2.20pm Pacific time. The head men's basketball coach of the number one ranked Auburn Tigers in Bruce Pearl who had a big victory at Alabama who was number two in the country this past week.

He's going to join us as well. So a lot of people are irate today. A lot of people are annoyed with the garbage product that was the NBA All-Star Weekend. I think a lot of people would expect me to go crazy, go nuts, lose my mind, and rip the commissioner. Don't worry. I may try to be calm today.

You may try to have a little Zen Zach today. But no one should be surprised with what has transpired with NBA All-Star Weekend. And here's what I don't get. What else were you expecting?

I understand the weekend sucked, right? When Victor Wambunyama and Chris Paul are trying to basically rig what was the skill competition. The three-point contest, whatever, I usually like it. And the slam dunk contest, how many times are you going to see Mac McClung participate in it? And you have no star presence in that dunk contest.

And you need star presence. But here's why I am not furious today where I'm going to yell. Like, internally, I'm furious. It was a garbage product. It was a garbage weekend. The format makes absolutely zero sense on the All-Star game where you have something where a lot of these players don't want to participate in. They don't want to give Mac's effort.

So stop trying to fix it. Just go east-west, have him play, and if the final score is 222 to 210, whatever, so be it. But to come up with this tournament where you have the OGs and then you have the rising stars, it's like too much. And then you have these half-times for a game that's just a 40 between one game to the next where you just delay, delay, delay.

And how many times? This is what really pissed me off the most. I like Kevin Hart, but can we stop dragging Kevin Hart out each and every All-Star weekend? His jokes aren't funny. He's used all of his material already. And I don't need to hear him and Shaq and Charles Barkley make 10,000 short jokes and tall jokes. It's like enough for Kevin Hart already.

That was like a bad Saturday Night Live skit. That's what it was watching the NBA All-Star game. And Draymond's ripping the product. You got LeBron, by the way.

Here's what is ridiculous. LeBron James, right? You can never criticize the king. You can never have anything that makes LeBron James look bad. Think about how selfish he is. Even though this is a joke, and I mean a joke of an All-Star game, and the weekend is a bunch of nonsense now. He tells you a few hours before the game, oh yeah, I'm not going to play. I'm dealing with an injury. Like he woke up that morning and was like, oh, I'm in pain.

I can't play. Give me a break. So that's LeBron James.

Go there, right? Everyone, give him a standing ovation, genuflect, take all your photos. And he's entitled to it, right?

He's the second greatest player of all time. But that's just typical NBA, where they just, that's what annoys me the most. And this is why I'm not surprised by it. And I said I wasn't going to yell. I said I wasn't going to go crazy.

I'm just a New Yorker. This is how I speak. It's very loudly. But the NBA constantly just spits in the faces of their fans. And that's something I won't tolerate. So if you have NBA players that don't give a rat's ass about the regular season, what am I, supposed to be outraged that they don't give a rat's ass about the All-Star game? And they don't care about All-Star weekend?

And think about this, right? Look how we look back on the life of Kobe Bryant, which I still can't believe Kobe unfortunately lost his life in that tragic plane incident and accident. I still can't believe it. But Kobe Bryant never took a day off. The All-Star game trophy is named after the MVP, is named after Kobe Bryant. And all these players sit there and they talk about how they idolized Kobe Bryant. Well, you know what's the best way to show your respect and pay your respects to Kobe Bryant and honor Kobe Bryant? By actually giving a rat's ass during the All-Star game.

So the whole thing's a joke. And we could sit here and when I saw the front office sports column, that's like ways that we could change the All-Star game. Does anyone actually think they're going to do this one-on-one competition?

That'd be cool if you did 1v1. And ironically, you saw James Harden and Kyrie Irving, two guys that don't give a rat's ass about the fans, they actually threw their support behind it. And I saw Giannis Antetokounmpo sort of did so as well. But this is a sport, and this is because of the commissioner. This is all in the commissioner.

And there's a reason why, and I'm glad a lot of you were finally starting to see what I saw years ago. Well, I have called the commissioner spineless silver. This commissioner had the easiest start to his tenure and the most obvious decision that was made possible when you had that racist pig and Donald Sterling said what he said. And he got praised so much in Adam Silver, like he actually did something that took balls. And he actually did something that was tough to do by kicking out Donald Sterling out of the sport.

You had no choice but to do that. But since he started his tenure out that way, we have overrated this commissioner like no other. I'm not a fan of Rob Manfred. I can't stand Rob Manfred's guts and I know Rob doesn't like me. Rob Manfred is a better commissioner than Adam Silver. For years, I hated Roger Goodell.

It's not even close. Roger Goodell is the best commissioner in sports. Gary Bettman, who's had 7,000 lockouts, he's the second best commissioner in sports. And because Manfred had this pitch clock that's actually worked, he's the third best commissioner in sports. And then where's Adam Silver?

Let me look below. Can I find him? How's the weather down there, Adam Silver? That's where he is.

He's fourth. And this dude has just allowed the players to walk all over him. I've never seen a sport that spits more in the fans' faces than the NBA. And it's because of one man and one man only.

And that is Adam Silver, who has these innovative ideas, spineless silver. Oh, we'll change the all-star game format. Yeah, that was a real success last night. It sucked.

And why did it suck? It's because why should I expect players to go all out in an all-star game? Why should I expect them to actually care when your regular season product is a joke? And that's the real root of this issue. If you don't get players that care about the regular season, why would they care about some bullcrap exhibition?

Why? Why would they? They don't. But, you know, good on this commissioner because he has an in-season tournament. You know, oh yeah, it's wonderful that the Lakers and the Bucks the last two years won the in-season participation trophy tournament. Because these players get paid enough money. You know, hockey players aren't making this. NFL players aren't making this. You look at what a middle-of-the-road NBA player is making and collects a paycheck and never plays. So why should anyone be shocked by this?

And you know what? I like hockey more than I like basketball. I'm not anti-basketball. I love March Madness. I love college basketball. I look at the NBA. I love the NBA offseason. I love the NBA playoffs. But the regular season? Yawn. The regular season? Boring. The regular season?

It blows. That's just the truth. And I'm very happy that the NHL, and it's so on-brand for the NHL and it's so on-brand for the NBA, the NBA is going to take a beating for what happened the last 72 hours. And you know what? Kevin Durant, do us a favor. Shut your mouth.

Alright? I see KD get it on social media and it's like, oh, you know, everyone's just complaining instead of watching. What do you want us to watch from All-Star Weekend? The court gave you a headache when you had a blue court with blue jerseys. You had Mr.

Beast out there and he was terrible live. The only good thing about that All-Star Weekend is that kid at the half-court shot because Damian Lillard couldn't make three and I think Damian was trying to help him out and this kid, as they were about to go to commercial break, drills a half-court shot to win $100,000. And you have this sendoff for inside the NBA when they're still going to be around.

Nothing was right. And you know what, KD? It's not the fans just bitching. Draymond Green, right?

Who you pretend to like, but we all know you don't actually like. Draymond Green said this was the worst thing he's ever seen and the format was terrible. It's just amazing how there's no accountability amongst the NBA players and KD's tweet, that's what annoys me. I think it's more fun to complain about the NBA than actually to watch it.

Crazy. Cancel All-Star Weekend and let's just give everybody a break since we're so miserable around this time. You know what?

There's actually some truth in that. All these players would want a break, but what do you need a break from? Can you guys take a break for 82 games in the regular season? Come on. I promised myself I wasn't going to yell.

I promised myself I wasn't going to freak out. But it's amazing. And why does this happen? It's because this commissioner has no backbone. This commissioner has no spine. This commissioner has no balls. He doesn't. And Spineless Silver lets the players walk all over him. And guess what happens when that transpires?

You get a lazy, crappy, putrid product. The regular season blows. The in-season tournament blows. The regular season is terrible.

So wake me up when it's Real Housewives of the NBA and we all pay attention to the drama show that is the offseason, which I like. And then the postseason, that's one too. But the regular season, you may as well trim it. You may as well cut it down to like 65 games.

But you know why you won't do that? Because you love spinning the fan's face. You love making the fans pay for those 82 regular season games. And I don't know, you got players with load management, players not caring, players going through the motions.

It's just a joke. You know, out of the four major sports, say what you want about the NHL. And I get it, the NHL is not the most popular. The NHL regular season is awesome. The NFL regular season is awesome.

Major League Baseball, it's long, but you never know what to expect. And no team is ever out of it. The NBA's biggest problem is they allowed, right, in a sport when it was eight teams that only make the playoffs, and you felt like you didn't need to see half of them in there anyway, they said, oh, we're going to reward losing even more. So we're going to have a play-in tournament because 82 regular season games isn't enough when it's more than enough.

So we're going to have a play-in tournament and reward losing and reward people half-assing it. And right, wasn't that supposed to stop tanking? Oh, Adam Silver's a genius. He will prevent tanking. Had that worked a few years ago with the Mavericks.

How did it? So is this Commissioner Adam Silver? I'll ask you a simple question. Has he done anything right since Donald Sterling? Has there been one thing?

You know, dead air and radio's not good, so I'll just say Bueller, Bueller, Bueller, Bueller. He's done nothing right. This Commissioner is horrible. This Commissioner just lets the players walk all over him and embarrass him. And when you do that, and when the players are running the show, you get a regular season product that's a snoozefest.

You get an all-star game that's a snoozefest. And you know why they all love Adam Silver? Because he's a doormat. That's what he is. He's a doormat. David Stern had control of this league. Adam Silver, he has zero. Zero. I'll say it again.

Zero control. And he's terrible. Like, just look at the bleep show this weekend. From the skills competition to how long the all-star game actually went, the Fugazi format, and Lebron. Lebron just hocking a loogie into everybody's face and screwing over another roster spot.

Someone else could have taken that spot. And I get it. All hail the king.

The king could do no wrong. Oh, please. Pathetic. That was a joke. And good in the NHL with this tournament that they created. And that's been fun. Right?

USA and Canada. And something that's really meaningless. Right?

If you think about it, you put that together on Saturday night. You had an awesome game. You know, people weren't talking about the dunk contest. I'll tell you that. People weren't talking about the three-point competition.

My social media was hockey hockey hockey hockey. And those Canadians that I know we're on in Canada, you don't boo our national anthem. And if you do, we kick your ass.

Three fights, right, to start up the game. And then we beat you. That was redemption when I was a kid and I saw Richter lose the gold medal game. That was redemption after Parisi scored and then Crosby.

Doesn't it suck, Sidney Crosby? You lost to the USA. USA, USA, USA. I'm proud to be an American. And I love beating up on the Canadians because we never do it. And that's their sport. And we stomped you out. And probably coming up on Thursday when you play us in the gold medal game or whatever, it's called the championship. You'll probably beat us.

But guess what? If we beat you, your little brother, your little brother, in your sport. So the NHL, those players care. The NHL, those players have pride. Most of the NBA players, they just collect the paycheck. They have no pride and they spit in the fan's faces.

And that's what they constantly do. And the guy that I'm going to go after is Adam Silver. That's spineless commissioner.

Spineless Silver. Because this dude has no control of his league. I don't think he could fix his league even if I gave him the answer. This dude right now can mess up a one-car funeral procession.

But you know what? I would love to be as incompetent as he is if I got paid his salary. And everyone, all the players, they love him. They love him. Oh, he's the greatest thing ever. We love Adam.

He's wonderful. Seriously. I'm trying to think what are the things that Adam Silver has done outside of Donald Sterling that was good for the league. The only other thing I can think of, and I didn't care, right, if people were going to protest or not, that's your right. But when you had the national anthem controversy and all the other sports had protests, for some reason you didn't really see that in the NBA.

So maybe that was the one time the commissioner actually put his foot down and didn't make something an issue that to me wasn't really that big of a deal. But this commissioner, he stinks. He sucks. He's terrible. And I love today that people are saying, hey, Zach, you're right.

I love that. Because I pointed this out years ago. People go, oh, what's your obsession with hating this commissioner?

I go, what's my obsession? He sucks. And there's nothing that he does right. He is miserable.

Miserable, miserable, miserable. Alrighty, Zach Gelb Show, Infinity Sports Network. I don't think I yelled too much there during that segment.

I think it was pretty calm, right? You tune into the show, you get a boring monotone radio host that has zero energy. Roy Williams going to join us coming up at the top of the hour. Bruce Pearl will stop by at 5.20 p.m. Eastern, 2.20 p.m. Pacific time today. If you want to jump on board 855-212-4227, you could always tweet me at Zach Gelb, get me on Instagram too, at Zach Gelb, Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. When we come on back, there's a lot of smoke when it comes to the Rams trading Matthew Stafford.

Well, I'm not buying it. We'll get into that next. Alrighty, 23 past the hour, Zach Gelb Show, Infinity Sports Network coming up at the top of the hour. Roy Williams will stop by at 5.20 p.m. Eastern time today, 2.20 p.m. Pacific.

Bruce Pearl, the number one ranked Auburn Tigers, their head men's basketball coach, will join us too. So, Stu, you're a Laker fan, but from our conversations, I think this is a fair assessment. With all the drama with LeBron James, you kind of went into last offseason not really caring if LeBron was back or not. And I think you've kind of reached your limit of LeBron James. You weren't upset when he came back.

No. But to see what he pulled yesterday, the king, and I know the king could do no wrong, and how dare you tug at the throne of the king. But for him to tap out of this All-Star game, oh, we got a second half of the season, we got a big push in the Wild Wild West and all that stuff. Why didn't he make that decision on Tuesday? Why didn't he make that decision on Wednesday? They could have given that spot to another person. I know this All-Star game is a bunch of bullcrap anyway, but there's someone else that probably would have wanted that spot. And LeBron James was like, nope, you're not getting it because I'm going to be selfish and then announce two or three hours before the game in a press conference that he's not playing.

Just crazy. I think he just wants the attention. That's why he waited. If he announced three, four, five days ago he wasn't going to play, then there's less attention on LeBron. LeBron isn't there.

All that stuff. Yeah, I'm really tired of LeBron. I don't blame you. Here are the two things that annoys me with LeBron. I did not care about him going to the Miami Heat. Right.

That never bugged me. I didn't like the way that he announced it, but I understood what he was doing. He thought he maxed out in Cleveland and he went to Miami, won two championships and then came back to Cleveland and won it all.

So I think we look back differently at that. But and also give credit to LeBron. And I know recently in L.A. he's had some injuries, but he's never really participated in load management. I've been very, very pro LeBron.

But I think the biggest problem that he has, the two biggest problems that he's had, the two things that I'm annoyed about is one. He was a little puttycat when it came through the dunk contest and never did that, which I just think is disgraceful. And this is what happens. Not everyone is LeBron James. But when LeBron James doesn't do the dunk contest, there's a trickle down effect where there's people that think they're in the same class or because Bron didn't do it. That means I don't have to do it. So I thought it was always gutless that LeBron James never did the dunk contest.

And you know what also annoys me? I don't want to call him a phony, but I like a superstar that has a little bit of a chip on their shoulder. Like, I love Kobe Bryant. I love Kobe Bryant because he wanted to step on the court and he wanted to beat the start out of you. And did he have friends in the league?

Yes. But he wasn't looking to make friends. He was looking to beat your ass.

That's what he was doing. You look at someone like Michael Jordan, right? Michael Jordan would make up stories about, you know, people being in the restaurant, slight in him. And then he would use that as motivation.

And none of those stories were ever true. But Michael Jordan wasn't playing the game to be buddy buddy with people. Have we ever heard LeBron James ever say he dislike a player, a player that's actually worth a damn? And that's a trickle down effect, too, because now this league is buddy buddy. There's not a lot of animosity, right?

Like Memphis with the Warriors was like one of those things which is actually good to see. It's a bunch of hold me back, bro, fights that people think they're going to happen that never end up happening. When you have large guys that have one guy holding them back, like, come on, it's ridiculous. And I don't think it's a bad thing if you have a few little fights here and there.

Not malice at the palace, but a few little fights here and there are good. But LeBron James just tries to be friends with everybody, friends with everybody. And it creates this culture of the NBA where there's no great robberies. There's no real animosity.

And it's just a buddy buddy club. So those are the two things, too, that really annoys me with LeBron James. He never did the dunk contest. And I respect LeBron, but I don't respect LeBron for that. And then also him just trying to basically be a politician with all the other NBA players.

And he doesn't say a bad word about them. Like, who is LeBron said a bad word about? And maybe who is it? Lance Stevenson or Stevens, whatever his guy's name was when he was blown in his ear with Indiana.

And what's it? A bum Brooks, too? Yeah, Dylan Brooks.

Yeah. And like those two guys are a pimple on LeBron James's ass, if we're being honest. Can you have another top player that there's some animosity with? Rivalries are good for sports. You don't have to hate someone, but rivalries are good. You know, you look at Paul Pierce. He's ridiculous. Paul Pierce hates LeBron. He hates the Heat.

I think that stuff's good for sports. So those are my two biggest gripes, too, with LeBron's career, the dunk contest. And he just tries to be buddy, buddy and shake everybody's hands. Yeah.

And I think also I'll add that it's always drama. I feel like it's not Cowboys level, but it's always like just case in point last night, like all that wasn't necessary. I'm sure he didn't wake up Sunday morning with the injury.

I'm sure he had it for a few days. If he knew this, he should have bowed out and let someone else have the roster spot. One hundred percent.

And you know what annoys me? This is where I at least respect Jerry Jones. Jerry Jones knows what he's doing. And he admits he knows what he's doing.

Right. Jerry Jones doesn't. He may sound clueless, but he doesn't. He doesn't act as if he's clueless when people call him out in his B.S. LeBron, if you ever call him out in his B.S. is.

Oh, how could you accuse me of doing something like that? And he's a drama whore. You know, he's a heck of a father. Right. Great family man.

Won all these championships, one of the greatest players of all time. But you know what you're doing? And that was a drama whore move by LeBron James yesterday. Anyway, I got to get to this Matthew Stafford stuff. Now, the Rams have had a lot of drama as of late. Right. Even before Donald retired, there was rumors for years that Aaron Donald was going to retire.

Right. That Super Bowl that they won. I don't know what was true, but Rodney Harrison said, I spoke to Aaron Donald and he said this may be his last game.

Things like that. You know, Sean McVeigh, Mr. GQ won a Super Bowl. He's going to go to Fox or he's going to retire, reset the market, come back like five years from now. There's been retirement rumors about him. Matthew Stafford. There's been retirement rumors about him. Matthew Stafford's 37 years old. And I feel as if right now people expect him to get traded. And I hosted locally yesterday on the fan in New York and their giant fans that think Matthew Stafford's coming to the New York Giants.

So two things. Number one, why would the Rams trade Matthew Stafford? And two, if they trade him, why would you go to the Giants?

Like you have control of where you're going to go. The Giants right now. Sure, you got Malik Nabors, who's a star. Yeah, you got the young running back, Tracy, who did a good job this year, Tyrone Tracy. You don't have a good offensive line. You got a coach who's in the hot seat and you're nowhere close to actually winning.

So I said this last week, I'll say it again. The only thing I can think of why Matthew Stafford would be interested in going to the New York market is maybe that helps him down the road in the Hall of Fame. Get in the New York media behind him. But if that's the case, wouldn't you rather go to the Jets that have more talent than the stinking Giants who also have a need at quarterback because the Aaron Rodgers split happened? And also, if I'm Matthew Stafford, I'm getting traded. Sorry, Jets. Sorry, Giants. Pittsburgh. Well, wouldn't you rather go to Pittsburgh? You got George Pickens there. You got a professional coach in Mike Tomlin. You know, Aaron Glenn, people like him, but he's an unknown. And you look at the Giants, Brian Dables in the hot seat and Matthew Stafford with the Steelers, can he win a playoff game there?

Yeah. Gives the Steelers the best chance to win a playoff game since the last time they've done so in 2016. But I once again go back to this root of the question. Why the heck would the Rams trade Matthew Stafford right now?

Where are you going? If you get rid of Matthew Stafford, I think this is all contract negotiations. That's what I think it is. Stafford's trying to get more money. The Rams are probably playing a little hardball with him and they'll eventually be in the middle and they'll restructure this deal and they'll make it work for both parties. It makes too much sense. But if you're the Rams, why would you move on?

And if you do move on, where are you going? You're not bringing in Kirk Cousins when he becomes available. That's not an upgrade. Matthew Stafford right now is probably the seventh best quarterback in football, right? Mahomes has won, Allen's two, Lamar's three, Burrow four, Jalen Hurts five, Jaden Daniels six, and then I would say Stafford seven. And if you go, oh, you want to put one more person in there, then at worst he's eighth. He's still the eighth best quarterback in football at the absolute latest, probably seventh.

I think he's seventh. And he was just on a divisional round team that almost in the snow in Philadelphia pulled off the upset in the comeback up against the eventual Super Bowl champions. So why wouldn't you run it back for one more year? And the Rams, where are you going if you get rid of Matthew Stafford? You know, you're not bringing any of these older guys like Rogers, Kirk Cousins, Russell Wilson. None of those guys right now today are better than Matthew Stafford. So is your grand plan, Sean McVay?

This is the only thing you can think of. And I'm going to table maybe moving up in the draft because that's a lot of moving pieces. Is it to go get Sam Darnold? And why would you bring in Sam Darnold, who just showed you in Minnesota, he could have a very good regular season, but at the end of the season when the games matter more and then come playoff time, he went back to be a mono Sam.

He went back to be seeing ghost Sam that he was with the New York JTS, jets, jets, jets. Matthew Stafford, say what you want about him. The guy recently won you a Super Bowl. He won you a Super Bowl.

He was your missing piece. You say goodbye to Jared Goff. Hello, Matthew Stafford. You won a Super Bowl. And he could probably play for two more years.

So I'm just surprised by all this all around. Why the Rams didn't even contemplate this and why Stafford would ever want to leave. And if he does want to leave, you know, I was talking to Herm Edwards yesterday was on the fan in New York City. And he was like, hey, the Giants go get him, give up whatever it takes and load up the private jet. And I was like, really?

And he goes, yeah. Have you seen the Giants record the last three or four years? And that's tough to debate. But why would Stafford want to go there? Why would Stafford want to be a New York football giant? So I think this is a lot of bulge.

I think this is a lot of hogwash. And I do believe that inevitably you're going to see the Rams and Matthew Stafford come to a new contract agreement to alter that contract. And they will have him be a ram for the rest of his career because there's still a window to win.

And Matthew Stafford with all the available options out there is still the best option for the L.A. Rams. Zach Gelb Show Infinity Sports Network will come on back. It is a Monday. We'll do some onsite offsite questions. Update time first.

Here's Zach. And it's time to ask the pros. Will you, the listener, get to ask us a question brought to you by O'Reilly Auto Parts? Simply tweet your question at INF Sports Center at Zach Gelb using the hashtag Ask the Pros.

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O-O-O-O-O-Reilly Auto Parts. Roy Williams is going to join us coming up 20 minutes from now. The legendary Kansas and UNC basketball coach Bruce Pearl will stop by at 5.20 p.m. Eastern time today, 2.20 p.m. Pacific. But without further ado, I'm not talking about Freddie Adoost who's got some questions for me. I'll hopefully give you some answers.

We'll get to a little onsite offsite on this Monday right now. 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.

Alrighty, Stewart, what do we got cooking today? Alright, so the Myles Garrett sweepstakes are heating up as teams get ready for the combine and start preparing for the draft. According to DraftKings, the commanders are currently the favorites to land Garrett at plus 300, followed by the Eagles, Bills, Lions and Bears. Onsides offsides, if the commanders land Garrett, they will be a top two team in the NFC. They were just in the NFC championship game.

Now we'll see if they're going to be able to not only replicate that, but improve off of that. If they get Myles Garrett, they'll be a top two team in the NFC. See, I still think the Eagles will win that division. And I still think the Lions are slightly better. But what I like more about the commanders compared to the Lions is I trust Jayden Daniels a lot more than I do Jared Goff. I also think, though, that the commanders need to add another complimentary piece to Terry McLaurin on that offense and go get another wide receiver. So I think that they would be in the running to be one of the top teams in the NFC, but I would still say the Eagles and the Lions would be one two in my book. And I'm curious to see also how the 49ers bounce back this year. So they'd be close, but I would still lean Eagles and I would still lean Lions. When you ask me at the commanders land, Garrett, they'll be a top two team in the NFC. I'll slightly, just slightly go offside. Next question.

All right. The Jets are still looking for a quarterback and Miami booster Nevan Shapiro was revealed. Gangrene was being aggressive in their pursuit to trade up for Cam Ward. Now ESPN's Jeremy Fowler added another name to the list, saying, quote, the Jets once upon a time wanted to sign Kirk Cousins. He's going to be one of the best options.

End of quote. Onto offsides, Cousins is the best option for the Jets in 2025. I'm going to go offside here and I think Kirk Cousins could bounce back and have a solid season.

But Kirk Cousins isn't mobile and that Jets offensive line is still a problem. If I'm the Jets, I do one or two things. I'd either trade up in the draft. If you love Cam Ward or Chador Sanders, because either Tennessee or Cleveland, I think one of them will pass on a quarterback. And if one of them passes on the quarterback and you love the other. And hey, maybe Tennessee passes on a quarterback and then you try to go jump to where the Browns are. Or if Tennessee takes a quarterback, then you've got to go jump to where the Browns are to prevent the Giants. Because if the Giants have a chance to get Chador or Cam, they'll take a quarterback at three. So if you fall in love with either Cam Ward or Chador Sanders, go get them. But if you don't, then I would do the low risk, high reward option of Justin Fields where you don't have to pay him that much.

And you see if you get something out of him in one year before you make the big decision next year. If you're bringing back Kirk Cousins, and I don't think they should have kept Aaron Rodgers because he would have undermined, intentionally or not, Aaron Glenn and the new GM Daramucci. But if you're going to bring in Kirk Cousins, you may as well just have kept Aaron Rodgers. So Cousins is the best option for the Jets in 2025.

I'm still going to go offside. I think they either should go get a quarterback in the draft or you bring in a younger guy like a Justin Fields or even maybe a reunion with Sam Darnold. I don't think Sam Darnold would contemplate that, but the Jets could contemplate it.

Offside. All right, Justin Tucker is embroiled in a major massage parlor scandal. And despite his emphatic denials of the allegations, things are getting worse for the Ravens kicker. This weekend, seven new victims stepped forward, accusing Tucker of inappropriate sexual behavior during massages, increasing the total number to 16 accusers. Onsides, offsides, the Ravens need to cut Tucker now. This is probably going to sound insensitive. And I realize that when I'm saying this.

But for what should be a big story, it does not feel as if there is national outrage with this story and public perception plays a role in that. So if it was every day and I'm not saying that you should enable Justin Tucker, but I don't know what he did or what he didn't do. If I'm just being honest, I have no problem if they do elect to cut him. But since people aren't talking about this daily, I don't think there's any pressure on the Ravens to get rid of him right now. So the Ravens need to cut Tucker now. I wouldn't trust him. I wouldn't believe in him. But no, I don't think they need to cut him right now.

I would go offside. The Warriors are three and one since acquiring Jimmy Butler, moving up to 10th place in the West, just six games back of the four seed. Now, the always brash Jamon Green is feeling himself making a bold prediction.

We were kind of headed in the wrong direction, thinking we're figuring it out and never figuring it out. And since he's been here, we walked into every game thinking and believing that we're going to win that game. So he's brought back that belief. And I think we're going to win the championship. Say that one more time so that everybody can say that. I didn't hear you.

My earpiece because they added Jimmy Butler to third. I'm sorry. I said, I think we're going to win a championship, but I lied. We are going to win. Now, yesterday, Steph Curry responded and seemed to brush off his teammates guarantee. I'm excited. I got Draymond on the telecast guarantee winning the championship.

I love expectations and having something to play for. So he's lighting the fire for sure. All right. So outside, all sides, the Warriors with Butler are a top five team in the West.

That's a great question. So, like, I don't think they're better than the Thunder. I don't think they're better than the Nuggets.

After that, it's open. And I know you could talk about the Grizzlies and the Rockets and the Lakers. And we'll see what happens with the Mavericks after this trade.

I don't think they're going to be all that good. Timberwolves last year went on a nice run. But to his point, even though it's insufferable how it happened, because Jimmy Butler just completely lied. You know, the only reason he was upset in Miami was because they didn't get his contract done and nothing to do. Right.

What's best for his family and all that nonsense. He didn't like that Pat Riley tried to play a little ball with him. But the Warriors talking about getting their swagger back. I guess I got my swagger back.

I could kind of feel it as well. And it would be fun to see because I love Steph. Draymond is just a great villain. And Jimmy Butler is a very good player. You don't want a championship with Jimmy Butler as your one. But you can win with him as a complimentary piece.

And there's some excitement. So we'll see what happens right now to the 10 seed. But in Adam Silver's NBA, that gives you a fighting chance to get into the postseason. And if you're a team like the Thunder, the Grizzlies, and they end up being on that 7-8 line. Yeah. I don't know how comfortable you feel about seeing the Warriors with that championship DNA that they have. So the Warriors and Butler are a top five team in the West. I think this may be wishful thinking, but I'll go onside. I like wishful thinking.

All right. Mike Trout played just 29 games last year and has missed 491 games over the past five seasons. Now the three time AL MVP is making a big change that he hopes will help him stay healthier.

I'm not going to lie. When I saw breaking news about Mike Trout today on social media, I go, Oh, what is he starting the year out in the 60 day injured list? Yeah. Well, instead, he is healthy for now. And he is announcing that he is moving from centerfield to right field in 2025. So onside to all sides, Mike Trout should move to a full time DH role. Um, and it eliminates the risk, half the risk of him getting hurt.

I would go onside as well. And he was he's so good with the glove in centerfield. And where we've seen guys move from centerfield to right field as they get older in their career. But with how often he's injured, I don't usually like to say, oh, basically take away half a player's game. But in this case, I would just make him a full time DH. And about Mike Trout, it is pointless with him being the Angels. Can we get you on a team that we actually give a rat's ass about these days? So I'll go onside.

You should make the full time move to DH. The Boston Red Sox, they won the Alex Bregman sweepstakes, signing the former Astros star to a three year 100. Did anyone actually win this? He was on the market for so long. You have to sign somewhere. It's like when you keep on applying for something, they eventually go, oh, we'll give you the award.

That's what this is. He ended up with Boston on a three year 120 million dollar deal. However, the move did create a log jam at third base with three time All-Star Rafael Devers already occupying the position. And today, Devers was asked if he'd move for Bregman, saying, quote, third base is my position, end quote. But skipper Alex Cora shut that down pretty quickly.

He said when he signed the long term extension that you guys said that he'd be the third baseman long term. Do you think the relationship is strained right now? He doesn't seem happy that, like, the team has gone back on their mark. There's different people here, right? There's a different leader here. So, you know, Haim is in San Luis right now.

All right. So onsides, offsides, Devers should move positions because Bregman is a better fielder. So this is tricky because it's Devers team. And I want to say it's like A-Rod and Jeter. But Jeter wasn't the better player and Devers, I still think, is the better player. But Bregman has the better glove. And A-Rod also had the better glove compared to Jeter, too. So there's some similarities, some differences.

It's not apples to apples, but it's in somewhat of the same zip code. I don't, like, you hear the way Cora said it. I don't know how much of a choice Devers is going to have. But this is Devers team. Devers is the better player. Devers is a superstar in that lineup. But Bregman is the better fielder, and it's not even close. So if I'm just doing it based off merit on who is the better fielder, Devers should move positions because Bregman is the better fielder, I would say, yeah, be a better teammate.

So I would go onsides on that. And what Khaim Bloom once said, well, he gone. He no longer there. So what does his word mean? All righty, next question.

All right, last one. Since we know how much you love college football, playoff expansion, well, Pete Thamble, he joined ESPN Game Day and said that in college basketball, the NCAA tournament is like... I was talking to a source.

Is like... Pete Thamble, the cadence on him is just crazy. Likely to expand from its current 68 team field. NCAA president Charlie Baker is on the record.

Charlie Baker. There's been discussions about growing the tournament to either 72 or 76 teams. I had multiple high ranking sources tell me this week...

Multiple high ranking sources? The more likely option if the tournament were to expand would be to 76. NC has been in discussions with its media partners for a while on this now and a decision on whether it does go to 76 would come in the next few months.

All right, as of right now, Joe Linardi has two double digit loss teams, 15 and 10 Arkansas and 16 and 10 Georgia as the last four teams in. Onsides, offsides at this point, you don't care if the tournament expands from 68 to 76. Oh, offside I do. Stop. Enough. 68 is enough. My Temple Owls can't even make it into 68. Am I supposed to feel better about myself if they make it into a 76 team field? I know that the postseason is the most important, right? March Madness is the most important for college basketball. But it's just too many teams. Does anyone after March Madness end say, hey, we need more March Madness? We need more teams in the tournament?

I think most of us don't say that. I think right now the number is fine. They've expanded it before. It is fine where it's at. We don't need to see it go any further. So at this point, you don't care if the tournament expands from 68 to 76.

I know I do. So that's an offside. Offside. We'll talk about that with Roy Williams next. We'll also look back at his illustrious career. Roy Williams, legendary college basketball coach for UNC in Kansas, joins us on the other side.