Dray-Gone Green (Hour 1)

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Additional terms apply. Live from the police show, yet not overly ostentatious, studios of CBS Sports Radio here in beautiful New York City, sitting on top of the 10th floor of 345 Hudson Street. Welcome on in to a Wednesday edition of the Zach Gelb show across all the great local CBS Sports Radio affiliates, Sirius XM, Channel 158, and that free Odyssey app. 855-212-4CBS is numbered to jump on in. 855-212-4227. You can always get at me on Instagram where I'm straight flexing or via the good ol' cesspool of Twitter at Zach Gelb.

That's Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B. Coming up, hour 20 from now, played his college football with the Wisconsin Badgers, getting set to find out when and where his name will be called in next week's NFL Draft. Nick Herbig will join us. And then later on in the show, the play-by-play voice of the Los Angeles Clippers will go all around the NBA with him.

Noah Eagle will join us at 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Pacific. But first up, producing this fine extravaganza for the next four hours is no other than Hot Take Kiki. Hot Take Kiki. So here's the shocking news. And the reason why I say that it's shocking and surprising is because there's two really trusted insiders in the NBA.

When they put something out, 9.9999999, nine times out of ten, it is right. And that's Adrian Wojnarowski and Shams Sharania. Now, yesterday, and we talked about this on the show, Shams had a tweet that it was unlikely that Draymond Green was going to get suspended. Now, Shams saying that it's unlikely that something is going to happen, the way I take that is, well, Draymond Green wasn't going to get suspended. We then found out late last night in an NBA news dump, I was watching Stanley Cup playoffs, I had the NBA on as well, the postgame reaction as well. And on another computer, because I had two TVs and then a computer, I was watching a little Ted Lasso.

So it was an active TV night. And I look it down on my phone, and when I looked at my phone, all of a sudden, I saw a tweet, wow, Draymond Green got suspended. I'm like, what? Shams Sharania just said it was unlikely that he was going to get suspended. And then the tweet that I clicked on went away. So I thought maybe someone got duped, who retweeted it onto my timeline, that someone got duped, especially with, I guess, for the ninth time, all the blue checkmarks are supposed to go away tomorrow.

So maybe there was some funky blue checkmarks that were going on that were trying to get someone in this situation. And then I saw more and more of the tweets, and I kept on clicking it, and in a bizarre way, I don't know why this was happening, anytime I would click on the tweet that Draymond got suspended, it was like, this tweet got deleted. And then it was confirmed that Draymond Green has been suspended for the third game of this series between the Golden State Warriors and the Sacramento Kings. And I am surprised by this.

And the reason why I'm surprised by this is I went back to what I said yesterday. When I first saw the play, I was like, okay, there's probably going to be double technicals. Then when they showed the replay over and over and over again, you see that it was clearly intended by Draymond Green to stomp on the bonus. And you knew that he was going to get thrown out of the game with whatever it was, like seven minutes left. But I thought that would be the end of it, especially in the NBA, when it seems like the league is afraid and apprehensive to discipline their players and it also being in the postseason.

I really just thought that missing the final seven minutes of the game, getting thrown out of the game would have been where that story stopped and then did come to a close. But you see this take a turn and where now Draymond Green is suspended. And even though I didn't like what Draymond Green did, and Draymond Green loses all the benefit of the doubt with his past history. I didn't think this was going to get to a level, especially with it being the playoffs of the suspension. Now I'm well aware, we've seen Draymond before get suspended in the playoffs at a much bigger stage than the first round. When you go back to that great 3-1 comeback that the Cavs had up against the Warriors where Draymond Green was suspended in that NBA Finals. And I'll just be clear right out of the gate, when I saw that he was suspended, my reaction was this, wow, I'm surprised and I don't love it. I didn't love the suspension.

Now it's tough to argue it. The NBA operated the way that they wanted to operate clearly here. And it's like weird that they were trying to bury this story this late at night.

What do you think people aren't going to react to it the next day? We're talking about a player getting suspended from an NBA playoff series for one game. So I didn't get why the NBA tried to hide this and just kind of sneak it in.

That didn't make sense to me. But with what happened, even though it was bad, I don't think it was that egregious in where it needed a suspension. But on the other end, I can't sit here and tell you that the NBA is wrong for using past history here. Because Draymond does this over and over and over again, whether it's kicking people in the cajones, whether it is stomping on a player's chest or just being a royal pain in the ass.

Draymond Green, as good as he's been, and Draymond Green is someone that you really like him if he's on your team and you can't stand him if he's not on your team and he plays this certain role. And sometimes it works, most times it works, and resulting in four championships and in other times it comes back to burn you. And you look at Draymond, whether it was punching Jordan Poole, whether it was getting into it with Kevin Durant, whether it was the incident with LeBron James in the final, and now this, he brings this upon himself.

All those situations that we just mentioned were avoidable. There's no reason why Draymond Green had to punch Jordan Poole this year. There's no reason why Draymond Green had to stomp on Zabonis. There's no reason why Draymond had to have his issue with LeBron James.

All those things, you could only blame Draymond. And it's weird because I usually advocate for the league to take control and not let the players run the league. That's why I'm a little bit surprised that the league actually did something here. And that's where you get this one game suspension. And it's clear that the past history, when it says the suspension was based in part on Green's history of unsports and like acts, did definitely play a role here.

And I'll give credit to Charles Barkley, who I loved two things what Charles said last night. The one thing that relates directly to this conversation is that Charles Barkley brought up the point that you have Adam Silverstein in what, like 10 rows away from Draymond Green? And he's acting like that with the commissioner in the building?

And you're egging on fans and you're cursing at fans and you're stomping on a player? It is fair to wonder if the commissioner wasn't in the building, if this would have happened. And clearly, you've got to think that this annoyed the commissioner in Adam Silver, because even though I think he's spineless, you've got to have some emotion.

And you've got to be annoyed when you're in the building, even if you weren't, that this stuff is going on. So I'll give credit to Barkley for pointing out that. And Ernie Johnson, who kind of usually is the checks and balance voice on that show, where he keeps everyone in line and he is the voice of reason. Sometimes you have the great personalities of Kenny and Shaq and Charles, and especially when Shaq and Charles go after one another. But it's not like Ernie Johnson disagreed with Charles.

He said, yeah, that could be a reason. So I do think that there is some merit and a lot of merit to the claim by Charles Barkley. And I also love Charles Barkley saying something that I said yesterday, and that the unfortunate part of this jackassery of Draymond Green is it's taking away from what should be the focus. And we know we're going to talk about this today. Everyone's going to talk about this today and drama. It's not bad for us, but in an ideal world, yeah, you'd much rather talk about this great story of the Sacramento Kings.

And when you look at this story, Charles is right. We're not talking about the Kings kicking the ass of the Golden State Warriors. We're talking more of just Draymond Green acting like an ass.

So when you look at this once again, I was surprised that he was suspended. I don't love it. But even though I don't love it doesn't mean I don't understand it. And you really can't argue it. Because at this point, Draymond Green has lost all the benefit of the doubt.

And if you have a big problem with it, tell Draymond Green to avoid these sticky situations that he's constantly in over and over and over again. Hickey, when you saw that last night, I know we exchanged a few texts and I was surprised. You were even more surprised.

I could really sense it with the way that you were texting me. Take me through how you processed it and if you thought it was the right call by the NBA. Yeah, I was surprised that I did not think a suspension was coming. I did not think a suspension should have been levied down until I saw the wording of the NBA's release and why they did it. And it was more, at least the sense I got, it was more about past actions, everything kind of coming to a head compared to just the individual action of stopping on Sabonis' chest.

And I agree with that. I think when you add everything and you add all the past histories together of Draymond, you just ran through the numerous incidents that Draymond Green has been associated with. I think it's absolutely right to use past history here and to levy a suspension because nothing has changed.

And if you truly, if you're the NBA one Draymond to tone it down, I don't think it's ever going to happen. But if you want to try, I think you have to impose penalties like this is get your message across instead of just simple ejections because those are not worked. So when you see the NBA kind of using the caveat of this is basically all previous acts have been taken into account, I think it's the right move. You know what's also bizarre here too, because we've talked about this a lot on this show before how the NBA has no control of their league and a lot of times players don't get punished for things and players get off with a lot of things as well when it gets to the NBA. It didn't seem like yesterday, and correct me if I'm wrong, Hickey, that there was really that much of an outcry for a suspension to be had. Like it would be one thing if everyone's saying you got to suspend him, you got to suspend him, you got to suspend him. But maybe I'm wrong in this, at least what I was listening to yesterday, and what I was hearing yesterday, I didn't really hear that much of a push for a suspension. And that makes me wonder, it's like, is the NBA trying to show that they're stricter than what they actually are?

Because maybe they're sensitive to that perception that is out there that the players run the league? It was just weird to me that all the things that sometimes they don't do, this was the one that they end up suspending someone for. Where, let's be real, I don't think there was a big push yesterday for Draymond Green to be suspended. So sometimes you kind of cater to public pressure, but you tell me if I'm right or wrong in this, I don't think there was a lot of public pressure for a suspension yesterday.

You know, I didn't see any either. I thought for the most part, everyone was in agreement that I think everything that the referees did was fine on Tuesday night or Monday night. Monday night was the right move, right? Where you give Sabonis a T because he absolutely had an involvement in it. You eject Draymond and then, okay, you move on from there. Do you think the commissioner being in the building, because I thought it was a good point by Charles Barkley, do you think that played a role here in this?

A little bit, yes. I don't think it was the deciding factor, but when you're sitting there, and again, you just have a player stomp on the chest of another player, then stand up on the bench, start cursing at Kings fans and kind of getting them riled up, I absolutely could see why Adam Silver would say, ooh, this is not a good look. Poll question today, you can find it at Zach Yellbat, CBS Sports Radio. Do you think the NBA made the right call in suspending Draymond Green? 67.7% say yes, 32.3% say no.

So your answer was kind of a little bit of both. It was, you didn't think it was the right call, but then after reading through the explanation, you were like, okay, this is the right call. So you would vote in the yes here that you do think it's the right call? Absolutely right call, yeah. Okay, I don't think it's the right call if I was, I understand it, but if I was in charge of the punishment, I would not have suspended Draymond Green. But it's one of those things where I can't sit here and say, hickey, you're an idiot, a moron and a dope for saying it's a right call because I can't understand it.

Because like you said, when you talk about the past history, this isn't the first time. And we made the joke yesterday, it doesn't seem like the playoffs officially start until Draymond does something that's stupid on a basketball court. Now the other thing here, yesterday we led the show with, I said that if you're a Warriors fan, you should be imploring that he opts out of the contract Draymond Green because he has a player option, and he leaves the team this summer.

Hickey, I'm going to run this by you, you let me know what you think here. I believe now since there is a suspension, this is going to make me even more right in terms of that the Warriors should even hope more. And this could maybe force the change this summer, as long as Draymond does opt out that they won't make a serious push to bring him back because here's the reality of the situation. If they win, let's just say game number three. That's the first time they won this series.

They won without Draymond Green. If they lose game three, then it's basically insanity. I know he's won four championships, but with how many times he's done something like this, it would be insanity to then what? Triple, quadruple, down, whatever the number would be on it, and he burns you once again in a big spot when you're trying to come back and win a series. So I think either way, this even probably further, if the Warriors are going to operate this from a logical standpoint, which that I don't know, this even further makes the case even outside the outcome in game number three, of the Warriors not bringing back Draymond Green if it's up to them this upcoming summer. Duffin doesn't help make his case, that's for sure, especially with the money. I'm sure that's going to be the biggest driving factor, but yeah, if you're not, if you're constantly putting yourself in jeopardy, where last year you get ejected in the Memphis series, now he was not suspended, but he was ejected from that game. I'm pretty sure they lost that game as well. You now get ejected in a game you lose, and now we're going to miss the next game in a game three that is obviously a must-win. This is the biggest must-win the Warriors are facing in the first round, maybe ever since their dynasty started.

Yeah, it's not helping his case whatsoever. It is the Zach Gelb Show on CBS Sports Radio. We'll take a timeout when we come on back in five minutes. A guy that Hickey was talking about winning a Super Bowl one day could be on the move, and I mean could be on the move very soon. We'll tell you who that is when the Zach Gelb Show comes on back in five minutes. You're listening to the Zach Gelb Show.

Zach Gelb Show, CBS Sports Radio. If Trey Lance is going to be winning a Super Bowl, maybe for another team. Yesterday we did quarterbacks that don't have a ring that are going to win a ring first, and we were going through a draft, and when we got towards the end of the draft, we only had five selections each.

I was not considering this player, but Hickey was because he was more considering the team. He goes Trey Lance, and then you had that guy Ryan in California call up and go off, and then he went to go make his second point. He used the word on the radio that you can't use when he said bowl bleep, so we had to let him go and say goodbye to him. Something about Ryan's, by the way.

They like to curse on the radio. You cursed Hickey a few weeks ago, Ryan Hickey, and then Ryan in California cursed as well. I don't know what the heck is going on with you, Ryan.

It's just innate for anyone named Ryan. You take no accountability. It's out of my control, sorry. No accountability. You always blame someone or something for your problems. I would say it's a good talent I have.

I don't think that's a good talent, to blame others for you misspeaking or you just doing stupid things. But anyway, the Hickey hex is real, because one day you go, okay, yeah, he's going to go win a Super Bowl. I intended to get your point in terms of you're buying into the 49ers, even though I've said numerous times, I don't believe the 49ers, even though they have a great roster, will win a Super Bowl until they solidify their QB position. And it's even more and more clear by the day that Kyle Shanahan, and he's talked about this before, and this has been talked about before. Kyle Shanahan did not want to draft Trey Lance initially. And he was talked into drafting Trey Lance, where when they made that move originally, it was for Mac Jones, believe that or not. And then it was okay, we're going to take Trey Lance.

And now after what, two years? Trey Lance is looking like he's on his way out or the Niners are at least willing to listen for offers for Trey Lance with this news today from Ian Rappaport, that sources say the 49ers have received inquiries from several teams, looking into a potential trade for former number three pick in quarterback Trey Lance. The conversations have been the result of San Francisco fielding the calls, not making them, with teams aware that Brock Purdy is likely the future starter.

So Hickey, we've seen before, and this is what the alarming part to me is about this one. We've seen before quarterbacks quickly get dealt or quickly have to find the new team, but usually see them play. Like you look in recent memory, Sam Darnold, third overall pick. You had Baker Mayfield, number one overall pick.

Those guys are on different teams. You can even go back to Jamis Winston, number one overall pick. He played four or five years with Tampa Bay. So there are teams that take quarterbacks early, even Marcus Mariota played a while in Tennessee, and you usually see that they're not good enough, and that's why their tenure comes to a close. But for Trey Lance, the first season, the goal wasn't really to play him.

And then when he finally got the opportunity to be the starter, he got hurt. So it's odd to me that they're willing to give up this quickly, but I do think that it goes back to, and it kind of shows that inside a decision-making process, even when you have guys that are highly respected in John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan, if there's disagreement there and you don't see immediate results, when you look at Kyle Shanahan, who did sign off on Trey Lance, but he was talked into it. The fact that he was talked into it, I do believe those feelings pop up when initially you see the way that things are playing out and the guy's just not available, or you don't feel good giving him the opportunity or whatever you evaluate from his time in practice, where Kyle Shanahan is just quickly wanting to turn the door and turn the wheel and move on to someone else being the quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers.

Brock Purdy was what, eight, nine games or whatever it was with the playoffs? And we don't even know if he's going to be ready for week one. And there's a chance that at some point this offseason, now just because you're getting phone calls doesn't mean that you're going to get a deal done. But it wouldn't shock me if coming up on Thursday or maybe after the first round on Friday, when we're doing the draft show out in Kansas City, if we get news that Trey Lance gets traded. And usually through time we've seen that it shouldn't be that surprising when a player doesn't end up sticking with the team that drafted him and how quickly that can turn. But usually you see enough game reps and enough games played to make that decision. Here the 49ers feel pretty content in maybe getting a deal done, and they really haven't seen much on the field, Hickey, for Trey Lance.

I don't get it. You know me, I've stood by Kyle Shanahan's side. I'm a big believer in this 49ers team. Hey, you are a Kyle Shanahan sycophant at times. I think he's deserved it. I think he's a very good coach.

He's an offensive genius. He's won with any and every quarterback he's had. But when you look at Trey, Brock Purdy has made five starts in his career. Trey Lance has made four.

How can you make sweeping declarations on both guys in such little time? And like you said, we've seen two starts each year from Trey Lance. The first year he played because Jimmy G got hurt. The second year he broke his ankle. He's like, okay, I mean, unfortunate, but it happens like one of those freak injuries or his injury prone.

And now that's enough to truly say you don't know what you have or you know enough to say that this is not the guy. I don't understand it, especially when we're talking about Brock Purdy and him possibly not being ready for week number one, maybe not being ready for the first month. I know he's got Sam Darnold there, but we're really Sam Darnold casting Trey Lance off to the side this fast when there's so much uncertainty.

And it's no sense. I'm sorry, because I know we had a debate on this and I had it with Bonta Hill. And he said, don't be surprised when Sam Darnold start in week one. And it shows you they have zero confidence in Trey Lance. And if Purdy isn't ready, you know what, Hickey, even if Trey Lance is on the roster, Bonta may be right that it ends up being Sam Darnold.

And that to me is the definition of stupidity. Sam Darnold. I know he wasn't put in a great spot in New York, then goes to Carolina. When I think of Sam Darnold and I was wrong. I thought Sam Darnold was going to be a good pro. But when I think of Sam Darnold, all I think about is either him seeing Ghost and admitting that in a game.

And then also him getting mono when he was the quarterback of the Jets. And I know you're someone that believes in Sam Darnold. But even you have said he's been given enough opportunities and enough times in games to at least give you a few tangible moments.

And he hasn't been able to do that. But like if you ask me today and I can't believe I'm saying this. But if you tell me if Brock Purdy is not ready for week one. And I would not have said this last week, I wouldn't have said two weeks ago whenever we were talking about this. But now with even more of it being out there, that they're taking phone calls for Trey Lance and at least having dialogue on it. I don't even know if Trey Lance is going to be there come week one.

And in just a bizarre, stupid, idiotic world. It now would not surprise me if Sam Darnold is starting week one for the San Francisco 49ers. It almost I cringe when I say that because it's so dumb.

Which look, I think he will have success if that's the case. But how can you come to the conclusion that with all you've seen of Sam Darnold, he is going to be a better option than Trey Lance? That to me makes zero sense.

I can't comprehend it. By the way, I was going down the rabbit hole today on Twitter. Where I was searching Trey Lance and our Twitter handles just to see what the conversation has been like throughout the years.

I found the I don't want to call it a legendary debate, but it is one of my favorite moments and I thought it was one of our better conversations in the show. When we were talking about or you were talking about Trey Lance having the highest ceiling in the draft class. And then I was saying, no, no, no, no, Trevor Lawrence is the ceiling. And that's why there's one point ago, I'm not yelling at you, Hickey. I'm just yelling at how dumb this draft conversation becomes, because there was a lot of people like you at the time. That thought that Trey Lance had the highest ceiling. So it was about like a 90 second clip that was out there on the Internet.

And I meant to send send it to you, but I was listening back to that today. That's why he was that's why number three was because he could play right away, wasn't because he was the most polished. It's kind of like Anthony Richardson in this year's draft.

Is Richardson the most polished? Absolutely not. But he's going to go in the top five because you think if it all works out, all pans out, now he could be one of the best quarterbacks in the league. Same thing in here with the trail into the forty niners. I still hate this conversation. You have everything there you need and it's caution.

Just kick him to the curb reportedly before, you know, you even get a real chance to see what the kids got. Now, I only talked to Trey Lance once and this was when he was still at North Dakota State, even really before we knew that he was even going to be a first round pick. And I remember it was it was in twenty twenty and you weren't even produced in this show. It's Mike Basaglia. Like we were blown away because sometimes you get college kids on the phone and they're just not ready to do media or they're just not good at doing media yet. Trey Lance was as polished of a college athlete as I've ever talked to.

So it's weird for me to say that in one sentence and then go to the next sentence. How bad is this behind the scenes? Like, what is Trey Lance doing behind the scenes that the forty niners appear to just be fine with giving up on him?

And this is just not speculation. John Lynch and Kyle Shannon have said it, that this is Brock Purdy's job with what he has shown in such a condensed sample size. And then you get this news today for Rappaport that they're fielding phone calls like they're not making them.

But teams are calling that you want to. Are you going to trade Trey Lance? Are you interested?

OK, let's see what it would cost. I kind of now expect next week we're in Kansas City, Hickey, that he's going to get traded. I really do. I don't know where I know Florida was talking about the 49ers and Vikings talked about Trey Lance at the scouting combine. But if that's the case, wouldn't you involve Kirk Cousins in that deal? And we know how much Kyle Shanahan has always wanted Kirk Cousins back as his quarterback in San Francisco. I feel like that story we've already seen a pop up this offseason.

Every year that Kyle Shanahan has been in San Francisco, I feel as if there has been a Kirk Cousins story. What do you think Trey Lance goes for? Not a first round pick.

Probably not even a second round pick. Well, Carson Wentz, he went for a swap of twos and then two threes. I'm talking about the second time around.

And it was two threes that one could turn into a two. And it didn't because he got hurt, right? Yes.

Yes. It was conditional and it was it stayed a third round pick. But it's like, look, I know you don't and I'm not defending Carson Wentz. I think the best I think the best let me just finish this thought. I think the best that you would get back for Trey Lance. In the absolute best world second round pick. I don't I don't think that I think it's more likely a third that maybe it could be a conditional that turns into a two. But I would say a second round pick if all things go right for the Niners.

I bet you, especially if he's trading next week, day three. So you're saying a fourth round pick? I just don't see how the 49ers could have any leverage in holding out because at least like with Carson Wentz.

But here's what you're forgetting. Not good, but at least he showed you a flash with the eagles of there's MVP talent somewhere. We've seen nothing with Trey Lance. They're giving up on him already. Where's your leverage to stand on to get a second round pick or a third round pick? Two things that I think you're forgetting here. He's only 22.

And number two, I would also say. How many times do we see a situation where it doesn't work out somewhere? And then there's another offensive mind around the league that goes, I know what he's capable of.

He really didn't get a fair shake in that spot. So I'll go trade for him. I think it's either a second or a third round pick that you would get back for Trey Lance.

I think there'll be interest for sure, but it's just like if you're another team, I get the age. But you can call the 49ers and say, well, right now you think he's bad enough that you're going to move on from him and prefer a guy in Sam Darnold, who we've seen every single stop of his career so far stink. And Brock Purdy, who we saw playing five starts and is not even going to be healthy enough to start the season.

That's who you're going to go with over Trey Lance tells you all I need to know was already knocking down the stock of trends in terms of what you're going to get back. Now, would you say that Sam Darnold, his stock was in the in the gutter when he got traded, right? I'm talking about the first time from the Jets. His stock wasn't in a good spot, but it is kind of a similar situation. Young quarterback, maybe you blame the past environment.

I know San Francisco, from all things, has a much better reputation than New York. But if you're talking about one of those teams, Darnold, the Jets ended up getting back a sixth round of the twenty twenty one draft. A second round and a fourth rounder in twenty twenty two. And that was for Sam Darnold, who also was a third overall pick and did nothing, absolutely nothing in New York.

But you just said it before. There was that thought of, oh, the Jets screwed him up. We see that, like, we'll fix some sort of thing. There's still hope there that I could buy in Sam Darnold. He hasn't he hasn't been able to show anything. Guys barely been on the field here in Trey Lane.

That's what I'm saying. I don't know how you can, if you're the 49ers, can hold a high price on Trey Lance if you've shown if you've shown nothing. And again, the options that you're willing to go to, like at least to the Jets, it was, oh, we got Zach Wilson, so we're moving off him because we're restarting. The 49ers are telling you, we're going to Sam Darnold and Brock Purdie. Those are the two guys we prefer over Trey Lance, which should tell everyone else what they need to know about how they think of Trey Lance, which should then, if you're talking about trade conversations, knock down the price because you are basically saying this guy is no better than seventh, the final pick in the draft and Sam Darnold.

Now, also, it's a quarterback position and you look at someone that's only 22 years old. I'm not saying that he's definitely going. I said at the best he would go for a second. Well, probably what happened is would be a three and a conditional two, depending on how many teams that are interested.

And what I mean by three and a conditional two is a three that could turn into a two, probably be that that one draft pick. All righty. Let's get the latest CBS Sports Radio update in.

Oh, look at this guy. He's wearing his pick here today. He came prepared. He came to dance on the grave of hot take kicky double whammy by Dexter Henry. Pit hat.

Let's go, Pat Narduzzi. And also a pit sweatshirt. I love it.

I absolutely love it. You missed out on something else, though. What?

I said this to Maggie earlier. You didn't see the kicks. Oh, wow.

You got the blue and gold. What are those Air Force ones? Dunks.

That's dunks. Gotcha. Why don't you dress like this? You usually have fashion here. He has this.

I've seen him come up in here with the Penn State sweatshirt. I've seen you with the gear. Right. Yeah. But I don't have swag different. You got the swag.

I do not know about that. I don't appreciate. I appreciate the love. I think, you know, he comes in with the Penn State, you know, nice colors, blue and white. It's a great color scheme. It is a great color scheme. I love Navy.

Navy is my favorite color scheme. Like this pops when Hickey wears his Penn State garbage. It looks like toilet paper that I use in the bathroom. Man, you're giving Hickey a hard time, man. You're really giving him a hard time. That's a logo talking more than the actual trip itself. Say it again.

So that's the logo talking. You hating Penn State compared to the actual clothes. Oh, OK. Not me. I'm not no hate here.

No, no, no, no. I know. I know you're not saying that. I was saying we are a few weeks ago when they were in the NCAA tournament helping you secure Penn State a basketball victory. I was I was cheered for Penn State. Don't be giving me that nonsense that I'm always a Penn State hater. What is this place?

There is no second looked right through it. Looked right through that. Oh, he said you were Penn State. He said you were suspect.

Politicians that are more honest than you these days. You're listening to the Zach Gelb show and the biggest sham in the NBA, the NBA injury report. Yesterday, Giannis Antetokounmpo, doubtful. I said, I guarantee you, with no sourcing, just based off of the way that this usually goes, that he was going to play tonight. We don't have an official announcement yet because the game doesn't start until 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Pacific.

Heaton Bucks. But Giannis today was upgraded to questionable. So, Hickey, I told you yesterday I thought he was going to play when he was doubtful. So now I even feel more compelled to say that he is 1000 percent going to at least try to play with this back injury coming up later tonight.

Are you thinking that he is there when the game starts and the ball is thrown up in the air and play is tipped off between the Heaton Bucks tonight in game number two? Without a doubt. Zero doubt in my mind.

And I also think you got to play him too. Because even though they should beat Miami in this series, it's not like Miami is just some pushover. They do have pedigree. They do have really good players as well.

I know it is not all clicked for them in the regular season, but they're up 1-0 in this series, the Miami Heat. I think you got to play him tonight. The MRI came back clean from everything that we saw. There's really not that much concern, I guess you could say. Back injuries are tricky, but I think you got to play him tonight, don't you? Oh yeah, absolutely. And look, I'm no doctor, so I'm not trying to be, but you look at how he fell. I think it's pretty easy to diagnose. He fell on his tailbone.

Everyone has done it. It hurts. It's a bitch. It hurts so bad.

It's one of the most excruciating pains. So it makes sense why Giannis didn't come back. But it's also just one of those bruises. You have, what, 72 hours to recover? I think he'll be fine.

You're going to be able to tell Durham Warm-Ups how big of a deal this is going to be. Because the worst back injury I've ever had was I herniated a disc. Oh, it was terrible. I was playing basketball, and I went up for a rebound, and I kind of just got crunched left and right by two people that tried to box me out. And I felt like a little twinge, and I felt a little pull, but I didn't think anything of it. And I kept on playing, and I'll never forget this, Icky. The next day, I woke up, and I physically could not get out of bed. And, oh, I was in so much pain, and I at one point just rolled off of my bed so I could kind of stretch on my floor.

This is back when I was living in Philadelphia. I played pickup basketball once a week, and I was in so much pain. Oh, it was brutal, absolutely brutal. And I ended up having to get an MRI, and they said, you had a herniated disc? Oh, so it's so painful. Now, this is a different injury, and it's also weird when anyone in the media goes, oh, I'm comparing myself to an NBA player because it's totally different to care and then also the way their bodies are compared to our bodies. But that back injury, any back injury, even a minor back injury, can be a major, major, major pain in the you-know-what. You have no idea how much the back is involved in every single movement we do until you hurt it. Whether it's a herniated disc, a spasm even, a strain, lower back stiffness, it ruins your day. So yeah, it makes sense that, again, Giannis couldn't return, and you think it's more tailbone than actual lower back.

If that's the case, it should be fine. If it actually is the back, then again, that's one of those where it's very tricky. We've seen Tiger Woods in another sport have back issues and have that really flare up and kind of ruin his career outside of other things. But back is tough, man.

It is something you don't joke about at all. And as I said yesterday, I do think he'll play. It's just going to be how long can he get through the game without something happening here.

But it was good news to see that the MRI was clean. Now, Ja Morant, we were both in lockstep here just hearing the way that Ja Morant was talking after game number one. He's not going to play.

And you know what, Hickey? I'm rooting for the Lakers in this series. I think the Grizzlies, you never want to see someone like Ja miss a game because of injury.

That stinks. But now they don't have Ja Morant for this one. I know they've been in this situation before without Ja Morant last year and this year. And the record's been pretty good. But I find the Grizzlies, they've become obnoxious very quickly with how much talking they do. And it feels like with how much talking they do, they would have won more.

But that's not the case. I know they're the two seed right now. But with some of the opponents that they talk trash, which which is fun. But I don't know, this year they became a little bit obnoxious to me. And I would like to see the Lakers win this series. I am so rooting for the Grizzlies. But yes, you're 100% right where they've acted like they've won a championship. They walk around like they have a ring on their finger instead of realizing they've won one playoff series. And that one playoff series they won last year was tighter than it should have been against the Timberwolves.

And then two other takeaways just real quickly from the NBA. Last night, Cavs-Nix was a blowout. We'll see what happens on Friday in game number three. Celtics beat up on the Hawks once again.

I'd be shocked if that series even gets to a game five, but at most it would go to a game five. The Celtics are just that much better. And the Hawks have a good roster, but it's just not clicking. You look at the Suns-Clippers game, even though the final score was 123-109, it was not as close as what that indicates. The Suns had to come back once again. It was a bad second quarter for Phoenix as well. I look at this series, it should not be this close.

Kawhi has been phenomenal. The Suns clearly have more talent. But you look at the minutes. KD had to play 44, Chris Paul 48, Devin Booker 45. And usually sometimes in these first round series they should be a breeze. This is the farthest thing from it through the first two games. And the Suns still should get to the finals, but you don't feel good about them with the way that they've been playing through the first two games of this series. And you just wonder, these early minutes now, with how long they have to have been on the court longer than what they've expected, how is this going to impact them down the road when you get further on in NBA postseason? Is Tua and retirement closer than you think? We'll discuss next.