Wembanyama Hype Too Much? (Hour 4)

Zach Yelp's show CBS Sports Radio is coming up. Twenty minutes from now, Alex Myers will join us as we will preview the PGA Championship. But I saw something during the break that made me laugh. Now Hickey, if I were to tell you that we were going to talk about a Fox Sports Radio show, and it is The Odd Couple, which is on pretty much the same time we're on.

I think we're on an hour more than, I think they're only on for three hours and we're on for four. But if we were going to talk about The Odd Couple with Chris Broussard and my BFF, my best pal in Rob Parker, if we were going to laugh about something that one of them were saying, you would assume, right, it would be me bringing up a Rob Parker point just because I've had it out with Rob Parker before. I tossed him a few beers at the Super Bowl and told him to cool off with all of his just horribly wrong Tom Brady takes throughout the year.

Correct Amundo? Yes, because he's a big Patriots hunk, just like yourself. You know what, just keep it simple stupid. Okay, I asked you an easy question.

Just give me an easy answer. He is a patriot hater. He's a Brady hater. But it was not Rob Parker. Chris Broussard said something.

And it's just absolutely crazy what he just said. And let me say this, I like Chris Broussard. I've talked to Chris Broussard a bunch of times when I was doing local AM radio in Princeton, Trenton, New Jersey, that area. He would come on all the time.

I've always enjoyed my conversations with Chris Broussard. But this Victor Rambunyama hype is so ridiculous. Now, I'm not saying he can't be one of the all time greats.

I haven't seen the guy play enough outside of YouTube highlights. But last night, we know what the hype is. Congratulations, the San Antonio Spurs, because everyone believes that you're getting a generational talent. But when you have woes saying this is like the biggest prospect of all time, the greatest prospect, I'm like, we just went through LeBron. LeBron's high school games were blasted all over the country on television. But for Victor Rambunyama, when you also factor in not just what a guy like Adrian Rosenowski is saying, who obviously carries a lot of weight in the sport, but when you get Steph Curry and Giannis Antetokounmpo and LeBron James praising Victor Rambunyama, when Steph said he's a cheat code and Giannis said he's never seen anyone like him, and LeBron called him an alien. Yeah, I understand why the hype is where it is. But listen to the three players here, Hickey, that Chris Broussard said, and I guess this is earlier this morning, on First Things First.

Or maybe that's not in the afternoons, because Cardin's on in the mornings on Fox. But whenever First Things First airs, Chris Broussard said if Victor Rambunyama is Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant, or Hakeem Olajuwon, that's a disappointment. Think about that standard. Now, for the Anthony Davis part, who's a great player, top 75 player of all time, he's on that NBA 75 team. He's never won an MVP. Yeah, he's never won a finals MVP as well. He's been an eight-time All-Star, NBA champion. You know, great defense player, great two-way player. But when you talk about Hakeem Olajuwon, who won a league MVP, two finals MVPs, two championships, and then Kevin Durant, who's also won two championships, two finals MVPs, and an MVP award, if Victor Rambunyama becomes Hakeem Olajuwon or Kevin Durant, that's now a disappointment.

Think about where that bar is being set. Now, I'll give you Anthony Davis, even though if you get Anthony Davis, you're not in a bus category. He's a great player. He's going to be a Hall of Famer. But when you look at Hakeem Olajuwon and Kevin Durant, Hickey, that would be a disappointment for Victor Rambunyama?

That's crazy to me. I'm not saying that's my standard, but the way the hype is, I think Chris Broussard's 100% right. The way people are talking about Victor Rambunyama, and you have Adrian Wojnarowski saying that he's the greatest prospect in team sports history, and you're saying he's a better prospect than LeBron James. Him turning out then to be LeBron James by defacto is a failure. This guy better, the way the hype is... You think if he's LeBron James, he's a failure? I'm saying if you are typing this guy, I'm saying he's the best prospect, even better than LeBron James. Just because Woj said it? But it's been like, that's been a common talking about. This is like the greatest prospect ever.

If you are that elk... So he has to be Jordan then? That's what I'm saying.

It goes back to the conversation yesterday of setting him up to fail. The hype is so outrageous that it's impossible for him to live up to these expectations. But the hype train is out of control, where if he's being declared the best prospect in team sports... Then it's the dumbest conversation we've ever had. Not just the NBA, by the way.

Baseball, football, hockey. He called him the greatest prospect ever. Which means, yes, if you are not the best player then at the end of your career we've ever seen in the NBA, it's a failure.

I'm sorry. That's just ridiculous. It's ridiculous. If this guy goes on to be Kevin Durant, who for a while surpassed LeBron James... And had that tag for a little bit as the best player in the sport, out of active players... If that's considered a disappointment, it's going to be nearly impossible then for this guy to be a success.

That is just jackassery to me. That if this guy goes on to be Hakeem Olajuwon, who's won MVP, who has won finals MVPs... And the same for Durant, that's a disappointment, then this kid can't succeed. And I know that even you said this yesterday, so let me be clear. I'm not yelling at Hickey, I'm just yelling at the dumb conversation. But Hickey even said it yesterday, it's almost as if people are setting this kid up to fail. Because you know how our society is, Ryan.

We live in a world where it's, what do you do right away? And there are guys that have had great careers for 10 years, they have won season. And you have morons saying, oh they're done, they're cooked, oh they've fallen off a cliff. Their career's over, blah blah blah blah blah. I don't even know what this kid could do in year one in the NBA to make it a success. He's got a what, rookie of the year obviously.

That's bare minimum at this point, the hype. That's what I'm saying, what else does he have to do? The fact that you... The one part that I just can't wrap my head around is anyone agreeing that if he's Kevin Durant... Or a key malizer on that his career will be a disappointment.

That's ludicrous to me. You tell me he goes to San Antonio, a team whose roster stinks right now. And he wins two championships, two finals MVPs, and a league MVP. That's a failure? That's disappointment? I'm with you that those standards are ridiculous and I would, if it was my team, kill for a Kevin Durant 2.0.

We agree there. The hype is insane though where it is. The way people talk about this guy, yeah you're not giving him a chance. Because like you said, I think Chris Broussard is actually believing it more. He's actually telling you, if he's Kevin Durant, I think he's a failure. I'm saying the hype around this kid is telling you, with the way people talk about him. If he is Kevin Durant 2.0, people would view that as a failure.

It's absurd. But they're setting him up for failure. He used the word disappointment.

How that's a disappointment. I can't say being Kevin Durant or a key malizer on is a disappointment. But it almost stinks that he didn't go to college in America and he's coming over from France. Because remember the hype around Zion Williamson? Outside of Lebron, up until now Victor Wambunyama, I don't remember a prospect ever being as hyped up in the NBA as Zion Williamson was. And look at Kevin Durant, he went to college and he wasn't even the first overall pick in the draft.

He ended up going 2. Imagine if Victor Wambunyama last year went to Duke or UNC, wherever. He just played college basketball for a year and people actually got to see this kid play. If this is the hype with most of us not being able to play. If he's as good or could be as good and I have no reason to believe that he doesn't.

Because of what Steph, what Lebron, what Giannis has said. Imagine if we actually got to see this kid play last year. If this is the hype with most people not seeing him play, imagine what would happen if he's that good and we got to see him play in college.

That would be, think about the hype would be times 50 of what it is right now. Do you think this is, let me ask you a question. Obviously you have to be viewed as a heck of a player to have the hype like this. But do you think that this just speaks more to our society right now? In terms of in the moment, everyone's got to have an opinion.

We got to say, oh, this guy's going to be the greatest and this guy's going to be a GOAT. Like that stuff that we make fun of in Sports Talk Radio, at least our show. But I kind of feel as if, if this was happening like 30, 35 years ago, just with how many outlets are, how many different opinions there are, social media, all that stuff. It makes it easier for these conversations to just take off on a life of their own, Hickey.

Oh, without a doubt. I mean, anyone and everyone has a platform. Every single listener has a platform, whether it's on Twitter, other social medias. So it's like people's voices are heard.

The more outrageous ones are the ones that get traction. That's the one that starts conversations. And that's the one where, yeah, we can compare and have a real discussion. You know, maybe it's a stupid point of if Victor Wenbanyama is Kevin Rand 2.0, would that be, you know, would the Spurs get their money's worth? Should they be disappointed? Like that's when you have when everyone has a voice and a platform that can be heard.

Those are the conversations that shouldn't develop, but do. And also, I know a lot of people are complimentary of Zion, but I've never seen anything like this where guys like Steph Giannis and LeBron, you could argue the three best players in the league. Right. Or three of the best players in the league.

Where you have all three of those guys. Not only praise Victor Wenbanyama, because usually a pro athlete's not going to. Talk negatively about a young up and coming player. But the fact that like Steph saying he's a cheat code and LeBron saying he's an alien and Giannis, who most people have never seen anything like Giannis is saying that they've never seen anyone like Victor Wenbanyama. It's it's almost the perfect storm now with the media climate as well, where the expectation is going to be so high.

That I really do wonder what the first two, three years are going to look like for Victor Wenbanyama. It's great for the game. It's great for the sport.

It's great for the Spurs. And, you know, unless your name is Peter Schwartz, you're going to care about this. And people bury his head in a bucket of ranch and will be like, oh, you know, I don't know who this guy is. I've never heard of him.

And it just shows how stupid that comment was yesterday. But I think just from a coverage standpoint, these next three years. Right now, heading into next season. Is there a better storyline?

Like, there's nothing that that to me. Is going to be more covered than what this guy is going to be able to do, like LeBron's been in the league forever. That's been in the league forever. Giannis has been in the league forever. Nicole Jokic, if he wins a championship, that puts a lot of that storyline away. Jason Tatum, right? We've seen him. We all know how good of a player he is. This is going to be the most covered story, I think, next year in basketball and the most intriguing story in basketball, because a lot of us have not seen Victor Wenbanyama play. And I just would like I actually saw LeBron play his first year in the league.

My whole family. We did a trip to Boston to visit other family. And we went to to to the garden for for Celtics and and Cavaliers. And I like my sister was like, not a big sports fan. She was like, I can't wait to see LeBron play.

Because all you did was you heard about LeBron James and we got to see him play his rookie year. I'll tell you, when when Victor Wenbanyama is in town next year, I definitely want to go see this kid play in person. It's going to be marvelous to see how this thing is covered next year, because it's right now. It is the biggest story entering next season that I could think of in the NBA. I cannot wait to see him play. I hope his body holds up in the woes report, too. Not only did he say that, according to the sources he had and scouts, that it was the greatest prospect ever, he also said that he believes Wenbanyama will be the best offensive and defensive player in the league in three years.

So, again, the bar is very high and the development is expected to happen extremely rapidly. We should come in and if you're going to be, according to, again, scouts that wolves are talking to, the best offensive and defensive player in the league in three years, that means you should come in and make a pretty big impact right away. When he comes to town next year, they better not load manage him that night. That's all I'm going to say.

Well, he's barely playing now with France, apparently, so hopefully that doesn't translate over. I would actually take a night off of work next year to go watch this kid play. That's how intrigued I am, just with all the conversation about him. This is Zach Gelb's show on CBS Sports Radio.

Alex Myers, senior writer for Golf Digest, will join us next to preview the PGA Championship. Okay, what's the number one reason you should try Instacart? Shopping over 1.5 million unique products from over 1,000 retailers. And get everything delivered right to your door in as fast as one hour, all in one app. So you can spend more time with the ones who matter most. Visit Instacart.com to get free delivery on your first three orders.

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Donate today at your local CSL plasma center and be rewarded for your generosity. You're listening to the Zach Gelb Show. Alrighty, let's preview the 2023 PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club. And we do so with one of our favorites as a great job senior writer at Golf Digest. He, of course, is Alex Myers. Alex, how you been? I'm doing great. How are you?

I'm doing fantastic. So, really, when you look back at the Masters, a few things stand out. But a big time surprise, obviously, is what Phil Mickelson did accomplish. Now, I haven't seen much of Phil Mickelson since.

I'm not going to lie to you. I have no clue what the heck he's done because he participates in live golf. But what's the vibe with Phil heading into the PGA Championship now? Yeah, I mean, look, that was, no matter what you think about Phil, that was spectacular what he did. Over the weekend at Augusta, particularly on Sunday. But, you know, that's a course, obviously, he's had great success through the years.

It's a course that rewards having, you know, a lot of local knowledge and everything else. So, I don't think this is setting up for him. I'm with you. I haven't seen much of him at all either. Since then, that's kind of the problem with some of these guys.

They come and go. And, you know, I don't think we're getting much, many positive vibes that he's going to be able to replicate that. That being said, you know, he's proven us all wrong before. But, again, I think that was a pretty special one-off moment for him. Also, when you look back at the Masters, we know Rory hasn't won a major since 2014.

And it's crazy that it's been that long. I thought that he was going to go out there and dominate at Augusta, and I was dead wrong. He missed the cut. How much concern is there about Rory entering this week? Yeah, I mean, certainly, you know, not only the missed cut there, then obviously withdrawing from the next event. And, you know, costing himself $3 million or whatever it is, the 25% of his PIP bonus. Coming back, admitting that maybe, you know, the last year it's finally gotten to him. And then missing, or not playing well, he made the cut, but, you know, T47 or something at Quail Hollow, which is a course that he absolutely owns.

You know, it's not a big sample size, but certainly something to worry about. And then his comments yesterday, his press conference, you know, he was a little more abrupt than normal with some of these questions, particularly about, you know, anything lib related or anything about, you know, the future of the game or anything like that. He's kind of, you know, taken on the role of being the tour's spokesperson in the past year. And it looks like he's finally maybe going to cool off on that.

And, you know, I don't blame him. I mean, he gets asked a lot of the same type of questions every time he does an interview like that. And he kind of has to keep coming up with, you know, these eloquent things that he says.

And, you know, he's done a great job in that role for the most part. But I think he's kind of tired of it. I think it's, you know, taking a toll on him. And I think that could benefit him down the road. I don't know if he could flip the switch and, you know, get back on top this week.

But it will be interesting to see how he goes forward and if he kind of changes the way he answers some of those questions. Talking Alex Myers right now, we all know what John Rahm is capable of. Two-time major champion, hasn't won the PGA Championship yet, is the number one golfer in the world. When you win the Masters, you know how tough it is to win another major that calendar year. But I wouldn't put anything past John Rahm right now, Alex Myers. No, without a doubt.

I mean, yeah, I think that's a trap that everybody falls into. Oh, he won the Masters. You know, he can't win the next one.

Well, I mean, he's starting from scratch again. And, you know, if you had to pick anybody and, you know, put your life on the line, I don't know how anybody would ever pick against him with the way he's played. I mean, certainly he's having an incredible season. And when you start to talk about winning more than one major in a season, plus all those other wins that he has, we could be looking at a historic season here. So, you know, he said back last fall, if I putt decently, I could win nine times in a year. I mean, he's on pace to do that.

So he kind of knew this was coming. You know, again, a chance to win multiple majors. You know, he's going to have three chances to win multiple majors. I mean, heck, he could win this week and we could be talking about the Grand Slam at the U.S. Open.

So I'm with you. I'm definitely not putting anything past him. I'm actually surprised that he's kind of like in the co-favorite status with Scottie Shepler. You know, no disrespect to Scottie, he's been otherworldly as well the past couple seasons, but I just think Rahm deserves to be the favorite. And yeah, I mean, he's the guy.

He's the guy to beat right now. Now, I make three bets outright winners each and every major championship. I didn't take John Rahm just because of what we were saying. I won the Masters. If I'm going to take one of the top dogs, then I'll go with the other one and Scottie Shepler.

OK. Yeah, well, that makes sense. To me with Rahm, it's just so hard when you're talking about 7 to 1 odds or whatever it is against a field of 155 guys. It's tough.

You know, the margins are so small, you could have one bad hole, it could cost him the whole tournament. So, you know, I'm not betting on Rahm, but again, if I had to, you know, if I had to pick one person, period, I mean, it's hard not to pick him for sure. Alex Myers here with us. I'm back on the Patrick Cantlay train. I knew it.

I knew you were going to say that. So as I told you before, I bet him each and every major. I didn't bet him for the Masters this year.

I said, enough, I'm done. And then he really put the Zach Geld push on. He follows me on Twitter and then I love Joey LaCava and he hires him as his caddy. So how can I now go against Patrick Cantlay's up to fourth in the world? Hey, I don't blame you for that.

That's a lot of good karma right there. And, you know, it's got to happen at one of these points. And obviously, you know, I'm actually not the biggest caddy guy, but I will say, I do think it's kind of like that when a team, especially an NFL team, switches a coach.

It doesn't even matter who the coach is. It's just you get that fresh, you know, motivation, fresh set of eyes, fresh perspective, whatever it is. And, you know, we saw what Ted Scott did with Scottie Shepler. We've seen other changes like this work, at least like right away, bones with JT right away.

And now it's kind of cool off. But, you know, yeah, getting Joey LaCava on the bag. I mean, who knows? Maybe that is what it takes for him to not only win a major, but actually contending in a major. I mean, that's just the problem with him. That's why, you know, I know he and Xander are kind of in that same boat. They're right around the same in the world ranking. They have about the same number of wins and everything else. They're best buddies. I'm going with Xander instead, but it's not that I don't believe in Cantley.

And, no, I support that for you. I mean, again, both those guys, it just seems hard to imagine them not winning a major at some point in the next couple years. Nah, it would be nice if Joey tells Patrick to pick up the pace of play because that was so slow for the Masters. That would be nice. We could use that.

Everybody could use that. Now, my last pick here, and this is my long shot pick. Okay. Do you know who Furby is, just wondering?

The nickname Furby. I don't. I don't know what that means. I have to play you this clip. I just found this today.

Joaquin Niemann. This is him talking about a nickname he was called growing up. Listen up.

Okay. There is another one that is Furby Boy. That's the funny one. He started calling me Furby because I was too small and I talk a lot and say, like, I need food, give me food.

And those stuff that the Furby do, they say, like, feed me, feed me. That's why I'm going with Joaquin Niemann. That's my analysis. Is it a good bet? $30 to win $2,010. I think it's a good bet. I was actually just eyeing him.

I was doing one final run-through. I don't think I'm going to bet him to win. But I might bet him, you know, top 10 or top 20. I do think it's a good bet. He's a great player.

I think a lot of these, you know, live guys are a little underrated right now. I got Cameron Smith at 50 to 1 last week. I've got DJ at 30. I've got Brooks up near 30.

Those are kind of my three bets I'm starting with. So Niemann, what, is he in that 70, 80 to 1 range? That's, I mean, I think that's pretty good. I bet him at the Masters last year. I've got a lot of faith in that young guy.

So Burby, I still don't get it. I don't know anything about it, but hey, that's good analysis right there. Yeah, when I was doing some of my research, that video just came up and I go, that's absolute gold.

I've never heard that story before. Alex Myers here with us. You just mentioned Brooks.

Obviously, it stunned a lot of people. Just crazy to say because he was so dominant for that two, three-year run. Is Brooks back? I know it's another Liv golfer where we look at Brooks and it goes, okay, out of sight, kind of out of mind.

I think he is back. But yeah, there is definitely that element to it. And we were talking about before the Masters, do these guys still have the competitive edge and everything else? Obviously, they do. They should prove that the Masters.

That being said, if Liv goes on for a few years, will that keep up? He'd be one of the few guys I could think that maybe would be able to because we always know how much more important he put in place on the majors than the regular event. So, he was always able to rise to the occasion in the majors.

Clearly, he did that. Still kind of stunning that he didn't win except for the fact that it was Jon Rahm chasing him down. But he looked great. He looked healthy. This course is a beast.

It favors a left to right ball flight. He's got that. I think he's the major guy again. I think he's the guy we're going to be seeing up there on the leaderboard. We can expect to see this, especially when it's at a major where the conditions get tougher, which everybody is kind of expecting this week at Oak Hill.

When you get to Liv Golf, and I know this may sound like a stupid question. How big of a story is it still? Because at this point, I'm kind of just reached Liv Golf fatigue where what happened happened and those guys are playing the majors, so it doesn't really impact a lot of the golf fans because a lot of them are casual golf fans. Yeah, I think there was such a bigger buzz. A, because it was the Masters and it was the first major of the year.

But B, it was that first major with the full Liv assemble coming back. And now that it happened once, now that it was kind of a mixed bag and some guys played poorly, but some guys like Brooks and Phil played great. I think people are kind of, you know, there's not as much mystery around it this week. So yeah, I don't, I don't think that it's as big of a story anymore. I think we've all seen, you know, there weren't any fistfights at the Champions Dinner or anything like that. You know, everybody saw the picture today of Phil, you know, glass of red wine in hand, chatting Kala Morikawa's ear off, you know, these guys are mingling again. You know, there's even rumors today about Liv hiring someone to try to, you know, make peace almost with the tour. We're going to have to see what's happening with these things. But definitely it's not as big of a storyline and I think, you know, we all kind of expect at least those big guns to play like they used to.

I mean, Cameron Smith is the reigning Open champ and again, I got him a 50 to 1. It just seems nuts to me. I mean, it's not like these guys lost their game or anything. It's just bizarre. And I guess the next big story just by the coverage this week is how many Liv golf guys are going to be in the Ryder Cup, I guess.

I've seen a lot of stories this week. Yeah, so that's definitely still the big question. You know, the European side has definitely taken a harsher stance. I mean, obviously it's tough to take a harsher stance and stripping your captain of his captaincy like they did last year with Henrik Stenson.

They bring in Luke Donald. Obviously, you know, these other stars, Westwood Garcia, they all, Poulter, they all submitted formal resignation to the European tour, now the DP World Tour. So they are out of the Ryder Cup unless something crazy changes. On the American side, however, there's still hints of, you know, it's the PGA of America running. It's not the PGA Tour. We know the PGA Tour would ban these guys at the first chance that they got. But the PGA of America, it's a different story. And there's different ways to qualify.

There's points lists. Now, again, you'd have to play really well at majors to be up on those. But obviously, you know, Brooks Koepcke with a runner up this year, you know, it's going to be tough if someone actually qualifies through the points for them to keep them off, especially because we all know it waters down the event itself. And we saw it at the President's Cup. A lot of, you know, the Aussies and some of the, you know, DJ and those guys not being there.

It just, it makes the event weaker. We all know these guys are capable of playing on the team. So it's going to be very interesting to see as we get closer to September, if the PGA of America comes out and makes any sort of statement or changes anything, because that's, yeah, it's going to make a big difference on who makes these rosters. The reigning champion, the defending champion Jordan Spieth, I mean, Justin Thomas, excuse me.

It's crazy. I haven't heard anything about him leading into this one. No, nothing. I mean, other than he roused to do his champion's dinner, which and then apparently didn't eat it because he's on this crazy diet now. So, look, I give him credit. He's obviously willing to try anything to win. He's, you know, you listen to his comments versus Rory McIlroy and there's such a stark contrast. Rory McIlroy said, if I don't win again, my career is a success. Justin Thomas is saying, I'm kind of bummed. I only have two majors and 15 wins by this point in my career.

A little different perspective there from those two guys. So I do give JT credit and, you know, that he wants to win. He'll do anything to win. But yeah, he has just not been winning and he has not been playing well this year. And frankly, he, last year's PGA, I mean, it's about the luckiest win in the history of golf. He was eight shots behind with 10 holes to go. He shanked the ball on the, on the front nine. He wasn't even playing well. And then, you know, he made a little run and then obviously we all know what happened to Mito Pereira, uh, just falling apart at the end.

So, um, if it weren't for that, we'd be saying, good Lord, it's a two year winless drought for this guy in the middle of his prime. So yeah, I'm, I'm staying away. I know the odds.

It's fallen to the point where it's almost tempting me. He's around like 28 to one, 30 to one, I think he's a couple of weeks ago, you, he was down to 14 to one, but yeah, I'm just staying away right now. There's just a lot going on with him and, um, you know, not a lot of success on the course.

Speed is 45 to one he's looking for the career grand slam. All he needs is the PGA championship, your evaluation of his game right now. Yeah, I mean, he, you know, this wrist injury came kind of out of nowhere last week and you knew it had to be serious for him to withdraw from the Byron Nelson, which, you know, for anybody else withdrawing from the Byron Nelson, not a big deal, but that's the, that's the tournament that speak played in as a high schooler. Um, you know, obviously it's his local home tournament. Um, and so for him to miss that you knew it was kind of a big deal or even questioned if he was going to attempt to go to Rochester, but he is there.

Sounds like he is going to try to eat up tomorrow, but yeah, his eyes plummeted. I believe he was in that 15 to 16 to one range a week or two ago. And now we, like you mentioned all the way down to 45 to one. So clearly the books don't have much faith in him because you know, everybody wants to bet on him.

Um, and the fact that they're laying that number out there makes me think it's probably going to be a short week for, for speed. Unfortunately, on the way out with Alex Meyers, I know we talked about Joey LaCava, uh, going to the bag of Patrick Cantlay for tiger woods. He had successful surgery on the ankle and we know how close Joey and tiger are throughout the years. Uh, so it speaks to this, the state of tiger woods right now.

What do you tell golf fans about your expectations moving forward for tiger woods? Yeah, I don't know how, if you're a tiger woods fan that that would not have been pretty devastating news, obviously the surgery, but, but LaCava leaving. And again, it's not, it's not that, Oh man, tiger needs Joe LaCava. It's that it's a clear sign that, uh, we're not going to see much of tiger. Not that we were seeing much of him anyway in these past couple of years, but to kind of go ahead and, you know, this is a guy who said, I'll wait for 10 years, 20 years or whatever for tiger to come back, which he did.

He did wait through Packers injuries and now he's moving on. Um, which again is obviously the smart move and you know, it sounds like he got tiger's blessing and he should, but yeah, I think it's a, it's clearly a bad sign. Uh, you know, tiger wanted to at least play in the majors and maybe another event here or there. And, um, you know, maybe with, maybe this will take over the, apparently this procedure takes away a lot of the pain he'd mentioned at Augusta that he's actually having more pain than previously. And that was kind of a bad sign. So you know, we're going to have to see, I, I, I, but I just can't imagine he's going to play, um, this season of course, certainly not at any of the majors.

And um, again, yeah, saying goodbye to, to LaCava is long time guy and you know, not just as caddy, but clearly one of the closest guys in his life, uh, is kind of a sad sign, uh, for, for tiger fans everywhere. Last thing I'll ask Alex Meyers, I give you three picks, give me the two guys you're most confident in and then a fun one, uh, who would your three picks be? Okay. So I did bet that live trio, but again, that was mostly because I got great odds in them. My two big picks, um, and I won't say Ron, I'm going to say Xander.

Okay. I'm going to say Tony Fino, who has finally started to win and all the advanced stats are there this year. Um, and this is just such a big course. I really, I really think it's about time for him as well with, with Xander and Cantley. And then the long shot guy, you already mentioned Neiman.

So I'll say, um, well, let's call him by the proper name. I will say Gary Woodland, um, a former U S open champ. He's played very well at some PGA champs as well. Again, long course, um, left to right ball flight, Peter green, he's up there with anybody. It's just the putting is it, you know, we could probably putt as well as Carrie Woodland. So, um, I think though, again, if this is really going to be as tough as it, they say, I mean, some player today was at the end saying he could see four under winning. I don't know if I'd go that far, but if it's even six, eight under, um, that, that helps a guy like Gary Woodland, you won't have to make so many birdies.

Um, and he can just kind of rely on this T to green game. So I'm, I'm definitely betting in top 10, not sure about outright, but he'd be the guy in the back of the pack, 80 to one 90 to one, even a hundred, one, um, that I I'd have confidence in him seeing his name up on the leaderboard, at least at some point, by the way, my, my source may be wrong here, but did you have closest to the pen at the traveler's media deck? I did that.

The rumors are true. Uh, I almost don't want to say what club I hit, but I'm telling you it was the 16th hole there, uh, over the Lake. Uh, it was one 62, but it was dead into the wind. I mean like 15, 20 mile an hour wind and I hit a five iron and I smoked one.

And as soon as they hit the green, the Pete, we were the last group that guy goes, you want to close to the pin, no one's even come close today. So I said, woo. And um, I got this great, uh, replica trophy. I mean, it's like a heavy duty silver trophy, traveler's trophy and the kids love it.

I'm letting them alternate who gets it in their room every night. So yeah, it's a, I got off to a nice start this year, Zach. And your group won, right? No we didn't win. Okay.

Gotcha. Cause my dad was playing in it and he finished second and, and he goes, some guy named Alex Meyers was closest to the pin and I, and he said that you guys won the entire thing. And I go, Alex Meyers, he comes on the show all the time.

He's like a great golf dude. What are you talking about? Some guy named Alex Meyers. I was annoyed. I had no, well, I appreciate that. I had no idea. Wow. Your dad was there.

That's crazy. There was some group that shot like a 50, you know, there's always one group, right? The guy with the big belly was my father. Well, we, we thought we'd put up a pretty good score, but there's always one or two groups.

And your dad was one of them that puts up a 50 something and you say, how the heck is that? It was a shot. He cheated. Yeah, yeah, probably. No, but no, we, we unfortunately we didn't, but, uh, I got the closest to the pin and I won some other lottery.

That's what he might've. I won some rap. Okay. Gotcha.

And, uh, they got some, you know, some shop credit as well. So yeah, I made out pretty well that day. Good, good start. I haven't gotten to play much this year, but that was definitely a nice start.

Hopefully not the last trophy I'm holding. I got my big golf trip at the end of next month, but hopefully this is a precursor of things to come with this closest to the pen. Make sure you cover them all throughout the rest of the week and the weekend senior writer golf digest. He of course is Alex Meyers. Alex really appreciate it. Thanks Zach. Anytime.

Take care. You're listening to the Zach Gelb show, Zach Gelb shows CBS sports radio 10 point game in Boston in favor of the Celtics with 10 18 to go in the third quarter. Uh, so the second half is just underway.

I was reading the story actually during the break Hickey and I don't want Peter to come after me. So I am not making a joke about this whatsoever, but if I was a bird, I would not be flying anywhere near an Arizona Diamondbacks player. We all remember years ago or I think Randy Johnson, what he did was on Seattle, right? Mariners.

Yes, sir. It was on the Mariners. So if I was a burden, I'd be flying around anyone that has any connections to the Diamondbacks organization, whether it was some of that played in Seattle, then Arizona or just plays with Arizona. Cause we all remember that video of Randy Johnson pitching and the bird going into a thousand pieces when he got hit with a Randy Johnson fastball Diamondbacks pitcher Zach gallon was warming up the other day. And I think this was actually in Oakland where there's probably more birds in the stadium than actual fans with the Oakland athletics. And he threw a curve ball in the outfield while warming up. And unfortunately it hit a bird and the bird is no longer. So that's kind of wild Hickey that you had Randy Johnson did with the Mariners. We all know what Randy Johnson accomplished in his career and ended his career or, or, you know, won a championship with Arizona. And then you have Zach gallon of the Arizona Diamondbacks out of all people, just warm it up and boom hits a bird. And that might be the most impossible task to complete. If you were asked if someone for whatever reason, Hey, go hit a bird with a baseball and just to have it happen, you know, and happen since it's it's like, that's like a true one. Like I forget one of the million that's like one in a billion.

That's like when Randy Johnson, you never thought you'd see that again. Which was, that was, I mean, that was the craziest thing maybe I've ever seen. No. Okay. Made out of the crazy. It's one of the craziest things we've ever seen. Yeah. Like you need everything to go perfectly right. That bird is flying six inches higher, lower it left even a half second or maybe even a split second from the perch or whatever it was.

Never happens. I actually, I think Randy Johnson was, was actually with the Diamondbacks when he did that. Oh one? Oh one. Yeah.

He's with the Arizona Diamondbacks then. Is it that 2001 when it happened? I believe so. Yeah. I can picture him like in a manager's jersey, but maybe I'm wrong. I don't know.

No. Cause they won the world series in 2001. And so if it was an old one, he had to be at the Arizona Diamondbacks, it was in a spring training game. So maybe they were in different, different uniforms or it's always a grainy video when that happened because it was that long ago. Oh, that was actually spring training. I didn't realize that. Yeah.

I'm watching this right now. It's weird. It doesn't look like it is a mariner's jersey, but it's, it's 2001.

Oh no, you do see some, some purple. So that must've been with the Arizona Diamondbacks. So yeah, my, my initial statement was okay.

If you're a bird and you see an Arizona Diamondbacks picture, I'd be flying in a, in a, in a, in a different direction. So that's all on the show today. It is the Zach Gilb show on CBS Sports Radio. It's now 71 to 68, Boston in favor of the Miami Heat and Hickey has a lot riding on this series. Your credibility is really on the line cause I'll take Hickey put out there heat over Celtics and six. I don't get this consensus thought that the C's will roll Miami. Do you actually think that after letting up against the Hawks and squeaking past the Sixers that Boston will play consistently against Miami? I don't. Unlike Atlanta and Philly, Heat will make them pay.

That's what I love about you, Hickey. Everyone's saying the Celtics are going to win this series and you go Heat and six. It went from 12 to two in the span of two minutes. Here come the Heat. We'll see. We'll see who wins the series. You said Heat and six. We'll see if you ended up being right. Miami's very upset with you though, with that, uh, prediction. We out. Bye bye.