Kawhi Not (Hour 1)

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 Thursday edition of the Zach Gelb show across all the great local CBS Sports Radio affiliates, Sirius XM, Channel 158, and that free Odyssey app. 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. Whole lot to do today on the show. We'll have two guests for you. Stanford wide receiver slash tight end Elijah Higgins is going to join us later on in the show.

And then we're going to do a little fun exercise coming up at 9pm Eastern, 6pm Pacific. Chris Trapasso does a great job covering the NFL draft for CBS Sports. We're going to do a mock draft only in the top 10. I will take the odd picks and Chris Trapasso will be responsible for the even picks and we'll see how the top 10 does play on out. So a whole lot to get into today, but first up producing this fine extravaganza for the next four hours is no other than Hot Te Kiki.

I don't know about that Hot Te Kiki. I do see that Kawhi Leonard has been ruled out for tonight's game number three between the Suns and the Clippers. This series all tied up at one game apiece as it now goes to L.A. It is a right knee sprain. Now he aggravated his knee and this doesn't have to do with the ACL, but that's what reports said. He aggravated the knee in game one, played through it in game two. And now they're resting him and he's expected to be day to day, but he's out tonight because of the knee injury.

Just my first thought and I know Kawhi missed all of last year and he's back and he only plays like 50 something games a year. This just screams to me and I hope this is not the case. And I know what they said about the knee injury that's aggravated in game number one. This just screams to me like a load management night.

And if that's the case, I hope I'm really, really, really, really wrong. And I hope that isn't true because we're having load management being done in the postseason. You're basically just punting on game three tonight and then the Suns, maybe they will, maybe they won't because last night you saw. No Giannis Antetokounmpo, no problem.

No Ja Morant, no problem as the Bucks and Grizzlies got a victory. But with no Paul George, now no Kawhi Leonard, I'm assuming he'll be back and playing for game four. But it's tough for me to take this knee injury really all that serious until we find out if he's going to play in game four or not.

And if he does play in game four, it makes me feel even better about my fear that this is kind of a load management night in the postseason. You know, Kawhi Leonard, he operates at the beat of his own drum. He, from a medical standpoint, when he was the Spurs or he was the Raptors, now with the Clippers, he calls the shots, he runs the show. You remember when he was in San Antonio and the Spurs came to visit him when he was in New York?

And he basically hid from the Spurs and his camp told the Spurs basically to go kick rock. So I hope this isn't a load management night. Maybe this injury is more serious than what is being led on to believe, but it's impossible for me not to think that maybe this is a rest night in what is a very important game number three in a series tied up at one apiece. So that's where we start the show. We'll get into two other NBA points in just a second.

But, Hickey, I believe in checks and balances and sometimes I say things and the listening audience obviously disagrees, you disagree. Do you think there is some merit there to my fear and to my thought that maybe, just maybe, even in the postseason, which would make me sick, that we may be having a load management night and that's why Kawhi Leonard is not playing in the contest? I wouldn't dress it up as load management.

I would probably dress this up as pain management. And Kawhi is someone to me that if you look at his body of work, any time there's even the slightest of injuries, it's put the kid gloves on, let's sit him down. I think, like you said before, Kawhi is the one making this decision. I think Kawhi is not comfortable enough playing in the pain he's in for game number three. So I think it's legitimate and a legitimate injury, I think, for most other players they would have pushed through. To be honest, if you play through game one, you hurt at game one, you play through game two, look fine to me for the most part. So we're in the right ballpark. Yeah.

I would say it's legitimate. I would just say that his pain threshold and what we've seen, it's a lot lower than a lot of other players. And Kawhi has been the best player in this series so far. So maybe Kawhi is thinking about it from this standpoint. I am injured. Or I am hurt.

However you want to differentiate the definition of both those worlds. And I know that gets words and I know that gets done in the sports world. But maybe Kawhi is saying, I think I'm the best player in this series, even though I think it's Kevin Durant. But we've seen the dragons that Kawhi has slayed before on the biggest stage. Maybe Kawhi is just thinking to himself, we're going to split these next two games.

So let me sit at one. I'll come back, be the hero, win game four. Now I can backfire if you don't win game four. And then it just turns out to be a best of three series where I know I just have to win two out of three games. Maybe Hickey just walking through this and thinking about this in the moment, maybe that's more of the feeling Kawhi knowing that his team is undermanned.

His team on paper is not better than the Phoenix Suns. Maybe that's his way of thinking, okay, I'll miss one of these games. Personally, I'd rather have you play game three than miss game four if that's the way that you're going to do it.

But as we said, Kawhi operates at the beat of his own drum. And then the next thing you know, he comes back for game four. If you win, okay, then it turns out to be a best of three and you saved yourself for one of those games. Maybe that's the way that Kawhi is thinking about it, or I could be just doing way too much analysis in there.

I hope you're wrong because if you're playing that game, it's stupid. You cannot be playing any sort of games in the playoffs. It's such a close series in general that you cannot say, okay, I'll set out game three, I'll get my knee better. And then game four, okay, now it's a must win if we lose that. Now we're going back to Phoenix down three to one. But it's okay, I'll be fine. No games, come on.

If you could play, play. I would hope, but would it put it past, and you just even said it, you think it's pain management? I said it's load management. I would not put that past Kawhi Leonard. And that's a big fear that I have because it's one thing when in the regular season there's load management. And for a player like Kawhi Leonard, who when he was in Toronto, no one complained when they won a championship, when he only played in 50-something games and he missed 20-whatever, 30-something games a year that he normally does. When you win a championship, it works. But we've seen how lenient the NBA has been.

And what was it? For the awards, they came up with this rule you have to play in like 65 games? Like that's a pretty low number when you have 82 regular season games that you're already going to allow your players to miss that many games in order to still like just play 65-66 that you could still qualify for all the awards.

Like I get it in the numbers error that we're in now, in science, in data. I don't usually expect players in any sport to, you know, football is different because there's fewer games, but then there's so many actual injuries that happen in football where you're not, for a lot of times you'd have a player go through the entire season. But there's only one game a week, like outside of football, it doesn't surprise me when you don't see a baseball player play all 162.

Or a NBA player play 82 games. Hockey a little bit different, but their injuries, you know, you have to literally drag a player off the ice for them to miss a game. When we saw the player the other night get a skate to the face, the next thing you know he gets 75 stitches and come on back. If that was in the NBA, if that was in Major League Baseball, we wouldn't see the player for two months. And that's just, it's something that stinks about this sport and we really haven't seen it taken over in the postseason because everyone should be all in, in theory and logic like you're using, Hickey, in the postseason, but I wouldn't put it past one player in particular in Kawhi Leonard who has that kind of mysterious view.

Like the way that I view Kawhi is a very mysterious way because he's, not that he's irrelevant in the regular season, but you associate Kawhi Leonard for being this all-time great player in the postseason with what he did up against Miami, the way that he won a championship being the only star on a Raptors team when it's usually two, three players that are stars that you need to win a championship, and Kawhi has this formula where he's not going to play all these games. And I would hate for this to pop up in the postseason, but Hickey, I know these injury reports are bizarre all the time when it comes to the NBA, like we talked to this before, guys are doubtful, they end up playing all the time. But in this case, this kind of seems like it popped up out of nowhere where we had Noah Eagle on yesterday, he's the voice of the Clippers. There wasn't even a mention that Kawhi Leonard was in jeopardy of missing this game tonight, but whenever we do find out injuries with Kawhi, they really do pop up out of nowhere. Remember the ACL from two years ago? We thought that he was going to be able to come back and play and the next thing you know, it's not that serious, and the next thing you know we find out that he has a tear in his ACL. So it's always mysterious with Kawhi, for good and bad, the good part about it is we've seen him just kind of out of nowhere, and we know what he did at San Diego State, and with the Spurs, he had that great run, but you really don't hear much about him in the regular season, in the postseason he's so dominant, but then the mystique is also there with the injuries, because there's always drama attached to these injuries with Kawhi Leonard, and that's why I think all options into speculating on what's actually going on with Kawhi here are fair, but a few years ago we speculated, and I remember people speculating, and it ends up that he had a torn ACL, so who the heck knows really hecky on this one? Do you remember what the diagnosis was two years ago against the Jazz?

I don't, off the top of my head, no. Knee sprain. That's right. Same thing, now he left that game and didn't return, so we saw it happen, we saw the play had happened, and from what all we've seen so far, it's not related to that ACL tear that he suffered two years ago, but yes, and I don't think it's that serious, but it is, to your point about the mystery, Two years ago it did start off like it was insignificant. Same exact diagnosis, it was day to day, and that was when the Clippers advanced to the Western Conference Finals, this happened the second round, so there was a lot of time, and everyone was waiting, so you're gonna come back, you're gonna come back, and the Clippers would say nothing, and then it came out eventually, torn ACL. Like put it this way, if you put a gun to my head right now, and you said to me, Zach, do you think Kawhi Leonard could play tonight? I do think he could play tonight. I'm not a doctor, I don't have the medicals, it's just based off gut feel, and if this turns out to be more serious, and he needs surgery in the offseason, and it's something else, I'm fully wrong, and I understand that, but I just can't give Kawhi, who has had serious injuries before, the benefit of the doubt for me to fully believe that he can't play tonight. Like I think if he could, I think he could play tonight, is what I'm saying here.

And to me, we'll never know the whole truth until you find out something okay at the end of the year, this is more serious than what it has led on to believe. Not that I'm rooting for him to have to go get surgery, but I kind of hope that is the case, because this would stink for the sport if you have a player taking it to this degree of potentially having load management in the postseason. But what I will also go off of on this, there's even, we know out of all the teams in the playoffs, the way that I viewed this first round, out of teams that I thought legitimately maybe could go down after the first game. Like don't get me wrong, I don't think the Heat are beating the Milwaukee Bucks, so take the Bucks out of this. But I think there's an enormous amount of pressure on the Suns, and now this puts even more pressure on the Suns, because Ryan, we saw it last night, where you had Ja Morant out and we know the Grizzlies play really well without Ja Morant, and you have Giannis Antetokounmpo out for the Bucks, and still the Bucks toyed with the Heat, they win 138 to 122, and Memphis ends up beating up on the Lakers by 10 points, 103 to 93.

I don't think tonight a lot of people, and yesterday, right, you kind of looked at those matchups, and you were concerned about those teams, but it wasn't like, okay, people weren't saying the Bucks couldn't win, people weren't saying the Grizzlies couldn't win. Tonight, I just really don't see how the Clippers win without Kawhi Leonard, because it's not as if a few years ago you still have Paul George. Is Russell Westbrook 3 for 19 in the first game?

I know he had those great hustle plays, is he leading you to a victory? I know there's other offensive pieces on that team, but with how much talent the Suns have, and we talked about this yesterday, the first two games the Suns weren't able to rest, because they were sluggish, they were lethargic, and they had to come from behind in both those games. If we see the minutes played tonight from the Suns, where KD is going 44, and you have also a guy like Devin Booker going 45 minutes, I would be surprised by that, because then that means this game is close. And tonight, I don't expect this game to be close, and I know anything can happen on any given night, but, Hickey, I can't even try to talk you into a road and a path other than the Suns just dogging it tonight, like the Heat did last night, to try to craft up an argument to tell you that the Clippers have a chance tonight. If you look at last night, how both the Grizzlies and the Bucs won without their superstars, the Bucs could not miss a shot. Can I interrupt you just real quickly? By the way, as I was saying this, the line went from Phoenix minus 7.5 to now Phoenix up to 8. And I wonder what that number is going to close at as we inch closer and closer to tip off at 10.30 pm Eastern.

But go ahead, sorry. But you look at yesterday, you have the Bucs, unconscious from 3, everyone is contributing, and everyone is scoring. They scored an NBA playoff record for you having your regular season scoring leader out of the game. And in the other game, the Grizzlies won without John Morant, mostly on defense.

Now, the Lakers missed a ton of shots, and that was kind of on them, but you saw kind of two different styles where everyone on the Bucs stepped up, and it was 6, 7, 8 guys deep scoring double digits, whereas the Grizzlies played really good defense. You look at this game tonight, and like you said, is Russell Westbrook going to drop 35 points? Is Norman Powell scoring 40 points tonight?

I don't think so. Even if he does, how is that going to be enough to get past Durant, Booker, you also have CP3, DeAndre Aiden, and other guys too on the Suns team. Goes back to the second point I was going to make was yes, can they play defense?

No. Yesterday, the Grizzlies held the Lakers to the lowest point total of the season, 93. Can the Clippers hold the Suns to 105? Right, without their best defender?

No, I'm with you. I don't see a path, I think the Suns win this game pretty easy. Real quickly tonight, Nets and Sixers, Phillies only a 4.5 point favorite, who wins the game? Sixers.

I agree. Kings and Warriors, who wins this game tonight? Kings.

Oh, wow. I know no Draymond, but I did pick the Kings to go up 2-0. You said it was going to be even at one apiece. You now think this is going to be 3-0 in favor of the Sacramento Kings. How about that?

That's right. I think it's going to go 2-1, but then I think the Kings end up winning game 4. I think this is going back one way or another to Sacramento 3-1, not 2-2. I will take the Warriors tonight. And then Suns-Clippers, you would hammer the Suns by 8. I hate betting the NBA, but I would look at the Suns. I don't know how you don't lay the number tonight. I would take the Suns. Minus the 8?

Minus the 8. Okay, Zach Gilp shows CBS Sports Radio. We'll take a timeout when we come on back. Even though I just said that the Kings are going to lose tonight, go Kings go. And also, I'm rooting for the Lakers in a big-time way. I'll tell you why on the other side.

It is the Zach Gilp show on CBS Sports Radio. So, here's where I want to get into right now, and it's two topics here. One is on Dylan Brooks' nonsense. We'll get to that in just a second. But the Golden State Warriors continue to just defend, defend, defend, defend Draymond Green. And it's amazing to me, and I understand he's won four championships. He has been an imperative part to their team success. He's a player you'll love him if he's on your team.

You can't stand him if he's on another, you know, if you're rooting up against him, going up against him. But the thing I'll say with Draymond, these three instances, and there's others, you can't defend him. What Draymond did in the NBA Finals, that a lot of people argue, lost them in the NBA Finals and gave the Cavaliers a ton of momentum and shifted momentum in their 3-1 comeback. You could then also talk about the punch to Jordan Poole and how that organization in Golden State, which is a good organization, didn't really punish him at all, was gutless.

And then the other night, you're asking for it. I understand Zabonis grabs her ankle, but folks, let's stop comparing what Zabonis did to what Draymond Green did. I'm not saying what Zabonis did was right, but it wasn't egregious. And anyone that is looking at Draymond Green and actually thought he was just breaking free and didn't try to intentionally stomp on Zabonis' chest, you're just either a damn fool or you just carry Draymond Green's water.

That's the only thing I could say to you. And I've been someone that has said on this show, if I was running the league, I would not have suspended Draymond Green, but I really can't argue it. And I can't say the NBA using past history is crossing the line because if the Warriors aren't going to send a message to him, then why is the league going to continue to allow this stuff? We may find it entertaining, but when you have the commissioner in the building and he's sitting there and he sees Draymond Green stomp on another player and then run around like he's Hulk Hogan and this is the WWE and use profanity to fans, I'm okay if you get suspended. Once again, I would not have suspended him, but I understand why the league suspended him.

And let's be real on this. Draymond Green, if he would have just stomped on him, that's probably the end of it. But it's everything after that that also factors into it, where it was an absolute disgrace. And I also don't want to hear when you have players and I don't say give the benefit of the doubt all the time to the fans. I know fans are idiots from time to time. There's some really good fans, some really bad fans. But anytime a fan screams something out to a player within reason, there are some moments that you see, whether it's Russell Westbrook, whether it's Kyrie Irving or others.

Remember, Klay Thompson last year in the finals. Oh, shame on those Boston fans. Real classy for chanting F Draymond and what Draymond Green's wife put out there, which I get, it's her husband.

You're going to be defensive. But when you fight back on that stuff, I'm talking about the players. You then as a player, when you're in the wrong and fans are booing you, can't call a fan a P word and basically egg them on. Because Hickey, they're actually lucky the NBA with how close the fans are and with the way that Draymond Green was antagonizing the fans, that something worse didn't happen. Because all you are, are one fan away from when Draymond Green is doing the Hulk Hogan and basically telling the fans to bleep off from one fan sitting six rows away, throwing a beer. And I guarantee you, and I understand Draymond Green doing this, then going into the stands and then that turns into an absolute mess. So I could understand why the league, even though I wouldn't have done it, I understand why the league did suspend him. Now, the Warriors reaction to this, I think is just pathetic. You have Bob Myers, the general manager, said each time he's messed up, my hope is he learns from it and becomes better. Bob! Like, is this what you do all the time?

You have loyal friends and they start stabbing you in the back and you keep on giving the friends the benefit of the doubt? Like, what are you, are you serious, Bob Myers? Draymond Green doesn't learn from this stuff because Draymond Green doesn't think he does anything ever wrong. He punched a teammate in the face and you guys did nothing. What, did he go home for a week during the preseason?

Like, come on! You let him get away with punching a teammate in the face. And Draymond talked about having to learn from the NBA Finals experience when he got suspended. Here we are, years and years and years later, and what did he learn?

We're in the same boat. And here's what I'll be curious to say. What will the Warriors do this summer? Because the Warriors, if he wants to opt into a contract, you can try to trade him, but there's really nothing you could do. If he opts in, we'll see what happens.

I don't know what the trademark it would look like. But if he opts out, I don't think he'll learn anymore. I think you thank him for the four championships. You say your number will hang in the rafters one day. We'll honor you. We'll have a big moment for Draymond Green, all that, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And we thank you for what you've done with the Golden State Warriors. But at this point, I think it's insanity if the Golden State Warriors bring him back, if they get that right to choose to bring him back or not this offseason.

This ship has sailed. You'll put the 23 in the rafters one day. You will. You will honor Draymond Green and will always be remembered for what he's done, which has been a lot of good with the Golden State Warriors. But Ryan, this organization, each time he's messed up, my hope is he learns from it and become better. Well, maybe then you should have suspended him for punching Draymond Green, punching Jordan Poole. Maybe you should have suspended him. And then the other thing, I saw the Ramona Shelburne report that a Warriors team source told Ramona, we are livid. We paid the price already when Green was ejected in Game 2. We get that.

No problem there. But this suspension was unnecessary. You're livid at the league. How would you be livid at Draymond Green? Because if Draymond Green didn't act like a jackass the other night, he's not suspended. And it's almost unbelievable to me, but very much so believable because they didn't suspend him and didn't give a serious punishment when he punched Jordan Poole in the face, that they keep on allowing Draymond to be Draymond.

And it's worked because they won four championships, but it's also burned them as well. And I don't think Jordan Poole's regression this year is just, oh, he regressed out of nowhere. Would you want to work with someone that punched you in the face? Would you be in a good mental space with someone that punched you in the face? You have to see him every day?

Come on, you wouldn't be. I'm not telling you Jordan Poole's as great as when he played last year, but he's not as bad as what he's playing right now. So this is a joke to me that everywhere you turn and every time Draymond, even with all this past and his great success, that the Golden State Warriors continue to turn their head and turn their head the other way and make excuses for it. I want the Kings to win the series. I usually root for Golden State. The Kings are up 2-0. And you look at tonight, even if the Kings lose, like think about the Kings lose. If you're the Warriors, that should give you more proof that you don't need Draymond anymore.

And then, if let's say the Warriors lose the game, this is another moment where he screws you in the playoffs. So it's kind of amazing still, Hickey, that with this long record of things, even with success, but then just these bad instances, that the Warriors continue to not address the issue and continue to just make excuse after excuse or put the blame somewhere else when it comes to dealing with Draymond Green. Yeah, it's not really surprising at this point, which is why anything that they said today is not really shocking. That's been their MO. They let Draymond beat Draymond. They don't try to reel him in whatsoever. So it makes total sense that they are blaming more the league and are upset at Adam Silver and Joe Dumars more than they're upset at Draymond Green.

This has been their MO since day one. And like you said, earlier this season when you punched Jordan Poole in the face, all you need to know and how they handled that, all you need to know about how they viewed Draymond and how, whether it's scared, whether you don't want to not let Draymond beat Draymond, whatever it may be, they let him have free reign. Let's get to Dylan Brooks. You go from Draymond to Dylan Brooks. This is Dylan Brooks, who let me just remind everyone, LeBron James, who's the second greatest player of all time, against Dylan Brooks in 11 games.

I saw this via StatMuse. LeBron's averaging 25.2 points per game, 8.4 rebounds and 8 assists in 11 games versus Dylan Brooks. You know, Dylan Brooks is a nice player. He is not even close to even being in the category of a LeBron James. But let's hear what Dylan Brooks have to say that he's not intimidated by LeBron.

People out there that say maybe you shouldn't do that with one of the better players in the game. I guess what were you thinking? I don't care he's old.

You know what I mean? I was waiting for that. I was expecting him to do that game four, game five. I don't care he's old. And then he also said he only respects people that end up putting up 40. Do we have that cut, Hickey?

Play that one, too. He wanted to say something when I got my fourth foul. He should have been saying that earlier on. But, you know, I poke bears. I don't respect no one until they come and give me 40.

Until they give you 40. So you can't respect LeBron James, a top two player of all time, top five, whatever you want to put him, because he hasn't scored 40 on you. Just because he had 34 points in one of the matchups up against you. Dylan Brooks is a clown. Let's just call it for what it is. And you know what's weird? This Memphis team used to be really likable.

And I thought the whoop that trick stuff was awesome, all that stuff. But this year you want to talk a team that has turned teal and a team that is just so unlikable. I know it started last year a little bit, but they're biting off more that they could chew. And I hope LeBron, who is greatness, and Dylan Brooks, who's not even a pimple on you know what, when you look at LeBron James, I just hope LeBron destroys Dylan Brooks and the Memphis Grizzlies. Now, I'm annoyed with the Lakers last night because they had a chance to really make a statement and go up 2-0 with Ja Morant out there. And I know the Grizzlies have had a really good record without Ja Morant. But for the rest of this series, and I'm not telling you that I usually go out of my way to root for the Lakers, but in this case, go Lakers. I hope the Lakers embarrass them. I hope LeBron James in their next game out, he goes not only for 40, I hope he goes for 50.

And you know what's interesting here, Hickey? We have never heard really anyone say that LeBron James is getting old. You know, his body is breaking down a little bit with all the injuries that he has suffered. He's still 38 and puts up ridiculous numbers. This past year averaged almost 29 points per game, 8.3 rebounds, and 6.8 assists. So even when LeBron's body is quote unquote breaking down, he's still putting up these marvelous numbers. Numbers that Dylan Brooks won't even be able to ever come close to averaging when you look at the totality of what LeBron James brings to a basketball team. There's just no respect from Dylan Brooks. If he would have just said I'm not intimidated by anyone, that's fine. When you start to say that he's old, and when you start to say that you only respect people that put up 40, like as Mraz would say, take a lap.

All right? Dylan Brooks, like go take a lap, go take a hike, and talk to me when you actually accomplish something in the NBA close to what LeBron James has accomplished. Heck yeah, I don't know about you, and I know that you like to root against the Lakers because then you get to poke fun at your buddy Stu Kovacs from Aggie and Perloff who's a big Lakers fan. Go Lakers. I want LeBron to open up a can of whoop-ass on this Memphis Grizzlies team. I love it.

I give Dylan Brooks a lot of credit. Oh, you loser. It takes a lot of stones to say that. It takes a lot of stones to call out LeBron James.

Anyone back it up. And you know what? Let's see. LeBron's been, you know, to Dylan Brooks' credit, last night hit a few big threes late to ice the game away. No one's saying that Dylan Brooks is anywhere near LeBron James level, but that is who the Grizzlies are. For, you know, love it or hate it, they are a confident bunch.

They went out there to their credit yesterday and backed it up, and they won a game without John Moran, and they played really well defensively. I have no problem calling out LeBron James. Call, do what you got to do to get yourself in the right space to win. If you lose, you get clowned. Fine.

Then you know what? They better then go to the finals. If they're going to do this much smack talking, and they're going to talk like champions, you better be Western Conference champions in a Western Conference that is wide open for the taking. And I don't think there is a prayer that they, I might even say, get to the NBA finals. I don't think there's a prayer that they get to the Western Conference finals. I don't think they got a shot. And they were talking about a team that's the number two seed in the NBA. But they are now public enemy number one. Go LeBron, go Lakers.

Kick the crap out of the Memphis Grizzlies. You know Twitter is really insufferable today, Hickey. So most of the blue check marks, unless you paid for them, have disappeared. So my account was verified I think all the way back since 2017 or 2018.

Now I am no longer verified. But today I thought it was a very insufferable day on Twitter. Because everyone that had a blue check mark that got it taken away starts tweeting over and over and over again. Like this is the worst thing in the world to ever happen.

And I get it. You want to make sure that the accounts that you're looking at are verified if you rely on these accounts for news. But this doesn't impact my life in any way whatsoever. And I kind of then made a tweet about it because everyone's tweeting about it. When everyone's tweeting about something I feel compelled to tweet about it. And my tweet was, do I have to tweet about losing my blue check mark? Seems like everyone is tweeting that right now.

So here is my tweet to be like all the other cool kids. My thoughts and prayers to Peter Schwartz. I know this is a tough day for him. Because you know Peter Schwartz made a public call to try to get his account verified. Then finally did get it verified within the last year.

And that was a big moment for Peter Schwartz when he caught himself in some hot water. When he was taking shots left and right around here saying this person's verified. This person's verified.

I've been around longer. I'm more accomplished than this person. The levels that Peter Schwartz did go to to try to get verified. And eventually Twitter did award him a blue check mark.

But this has got to be a tough day for Schwartz on sports and Mr. Peter Schwartz. You know, unless Elon Musk goes out of his kindness to pay for Peter Schwartz to be verified. There's no way he's digging into his pockets to go pay eight or nine dollars, whatever it is a month. Like we would need to start a GoFundMe for Peter Schwartz in order to get his verification back. I don't agree with what Elon is doing and making you pay for a blue check mark. Allowing anyone that wants to pay that right to have one. With that said, to your point, I don't care.

You know actually what bothers you the most? Did you have a blue check mark? No, I did not.

And if I did, I would not pay for it. So you're one of those regular folks? One of the regular folks that was unimpacted. But what bothers me the most is that a month ago when this came out. This story came out that they're going to, you know, this is the date they're going to wipe all the blue check marks away. Everyone goes, oh, well, OK, like, you know, who cares? It doesn't bother me.

I'm not paying for it. And then today, on the day that it happens, everyone's tweeting about it. Don't say you don't care about it.

And then also when it's gone, tweet about, oh, it's gone. I can't believe it's, you know, this is, see you later. You know, you can, you're allowed to be upset if you liked or you felt better about your status of being verified. You felt more important. You felt like a douche. A verified douche.

You know what? If you want to feel that way, you have the right to feel that way. If you are upset about it, OK. Don't try to act like macho tough guy of, I don't care about this verification. You know, I could care less. And then when it's, when the blue check mark's officially gone. Oh, my, I can't believe this is official.

Like, can you believe this? There it goes. There it goes.

See you later. Now, I don't care, but there it goes. You're 100 percent right. I think this is the best take that you've had in my time knowing you. I thought this was animated. I thought you had just a very thought out take.

It was an unbelievable take. What I will say, though, you were the first person to say this that I remember talking to when this first article came out. And it was on April 1st, all the blue check marks going away. Then April 1st rolls around. Nothing happened. And then you see this other date come up of 420 today.

All the blue check marks going away. And I woke up this morning. I was like, I guess that this is finally going to happen. But when it didn't happen on April 1st, I know it's April Fool's Day.

I gotcha. I'm thinking to myself, maybe Elon Musk is going to keep on doing this. When you have people like that that actually do care, that say they don't care.

And each time this quote unquote threat comes up that you're going to lose a blue checkmark, then maybe you get a few more people to pay for it each time you do this. But this time is like around the afternoon. I'm just sitting around and I pop open Twitter. I was watching Dave, The Little Dicky Show, which I think is hilarious and it's great television. And I was watching Dave.

The next thing you know, once the episode ended, I opened up Twitter. And I see that everyone's blue checkmark has vanished unless you paid for it or Elon Musk went into his own pockets to pay for your blue checkmark because I did see this story. LeBron James, this was on March 31st, tweeted out, Well, guess my blue checkmark will be gone soon because if you know me, I'm not paying the $5. And LeBron James still has a blue checkmark. So LeBron has lied here and there. I'm sorry, Hickey. Your facial reaction when I said LeBron has lied here and there.

Here and there. I like LeBron. I'm a LeBron fan.

Here and there is very kind. OK, LeBron tries to tell you that he always see what was the thing he said the other day? He saw Austin Reeves from day one.

This guy was going to be a guy who was going to get a guaranteed contract. So LeBron may not be the most truthful person in the world. He has his blue checkmark. And I'm like, wow, that's a pretty public way to do it. Now, there are some people have their blue checkmark. I wonder if their company just took care of it.

But this has come out. You were saying, Hickey, that Elon Musk reached out to LeBron and said, No, I'm actually good. I don't want to get verified. And Elon said, well, we're going to keep your verification and he's going to pay for it. I believe that when I actually see it, according to Alex Heath, who works at The Verge, he is verified. So he is paying for Twitter blue. He claims he has confirmed that with LeBron James, that LeBron is emailed by a Twitter employee who is asking LeBron or telling LeBron, hey, you can have your blue checkmark comped on behalf of Elon Musk. And LeBron reportedly turned it down. Now, Elon Musk has responded to that story saying he's paying for a few personally.

So, yes, LeBron is verified and is being paid from out of the pocket of Elon Musk to make, I'm sure, make it seem like Twitter blue is cool, which is pathetic. You want to hear what one of my doofus friends did today? The moment he saw that I lost my blue checkmark? Sure. He actually signed up for Twitter blue so he could write in our friend group chat.

I'm verified. Gel visit, which I thought was funny. And then I responded. Oh, so you could afford Twitter blue.

Now you could afford the fifty five bucks that you've owed me for the last month for dinner. That was an appending Venmo balance. And I guess he just didn't realize it and then eventually did accept my Venmo.

But one of my best friends, he did sign up for Twitter blue today. Just so he could say he was verified and I'm not like I don't give a crap that I lost my verification badge whatsoever. Badge. I like the badge words. Always funny.

I see a lot of people Twitter tweet that out. I guess I look bad. Whatever you want to say, you know, more as a physical item. OK, but whatever you want to call it, I don't care. And there's no way I would pay eight or nine bucks a month for this.

What for? Oh, I agree. I don't think it's worth it at all. I think it's frankly stupid. Now, Elon, you want to go into your own pockets and put the blue checkmark back up. I wouldn't be opposed.

Wouldn't be opposed whatsoever. I just want Peter Schwartz to get his blue checkmark back. Because I think from from a mental standpoint, this could be tough on Peter. It's going to be really tough on Peter Schwartz. Bogusch and I were on the case. We'll see what happens. Zach Gilp shows CBS Sports Radio where we're no longer a verified radio program.