Welcome into the newest edition of the Justin Time Sports Podcast.
I am your owner and host, Justin Jackson.
In this week's episode, we'll be discussing the NFL, what's going down there.
We'll be having some NBA talk as the offseason is roaring towards training camp.
And we will have a rebranded live segment called Jack's Hot Take.
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And as always, sit back and get ready to learn something.
Welcome into the show.
Excited to be back with you guys one day later than normal.
So by the time you guys hear this, it will be Sunday mornings.
I'm recording it Saturday evening.
Welcome into the Justin Time Sports Podcast season for episode 22.
We've got a small bit of rebranding with our last segment, if you heard in the intro.
Instead of we are going to officially retire, best for last, and we will have Jack's Hot
Take.
And we'll talk about that more whenever we get to Jack's Hot Take in general.
But before we get into the show, again, I want to thank you guys for the appreciation
and love.
We're getting a lot of social media interactions, some brand new followers over this past week.
Shout out to you guys who are just joining.
Hope you guys are streaming to the podcast, going into the pod, sharing it with your friends.
As our numbers for our downloads and stuff is starting to go up, we're starting to creep
up.
We're starting to pop more in Germany.
Shout out to you guys.
I'll say hello to y'all.
We're popping more a little bit in more in Europe, more Western Europe.
So shout out to y'all as well.
And of course, my fans in Asia, hello to you guys as well.
But we're going to jump into the show now.
We're going to get started in the NFL.
Of course, it is the preseason.
We're in full swing.
This is the first real week of preseason football.
Of course, last week was the Hall of Fame game is basically like I called it week zero
in college football.
Like it doesn't really matter.
This is officially week one of the NFL preseason.
So if you're the Packers on the Browns, you have the old school four preseason games because
you played in the Hall of Fame game.
If you are everyone else in the league, the other 30 teams, you get the new modern era
of three weeks, three games.
And you get that last week as a bye week.
It's an off week for the entire league with teams have to cut down to 53, et cetera.
It's really the more tenuous week and then the NFL preseason.
Because if you're a guy, you pretty much look around and say, okay, there's 12 receivers
in the room.
I go with third team.
I'm probably not going to make the roster.
All right.
But if you're a guy that's okay, I go with second team all the time to team, they're
going to carry six defense or eight defensive backs.
I'm usually in that second rotation consistently.
You're nervous that last week because that roster goes from 60, that roster goes about
70 to 53 and then they call you and they call you back for the practice squad, which is
where the practice squad is now.
So there's 65 total roster spots.
That's pretty nervous week.
But we are officially in NFL preseason football where the rest of the league, like I said,
if you aren't the Packers or the Browns, finally gets to see their team in their jerseys.
Yeah, practice footage is great.
I think during practice footage is the best in preseason purely because it's one V ones.
It's twos V twos.
It's guys mixed in everywhere and they're competing.
That's the only time Aaron Donald's going to see the field all preseason is in joint
practice.
That's the only time Joe Burrow will do the injury.
Josh Allen, I guess.
Aaron Rodgers.
Russell Wilson, I believe, played a little bit in the Broncos game.
Yeah, he did actually.
He took a beating.
We'll talk about that a little later.
Yeah, man, that's your rookie quarterback.
Like they start, Derrick Henry is not going to play in the preseason, but he's going to
play in joint practice.
You know what I'm saying?
So during practice footage this time of year is the best footage.
It's the best time to go if you want to cover a sport.
If you're a fan of a team, you want to see your guys early, you want to go to joint practices
because that's the best opportunity for you to see your stars.
It's what I said to one V ones ones versus ones back up versus back up.
This third stringers this point of the year still trying to make the roster.
They have an opportunity to play.
They mix in with some twos.
They make sense of threes.
You know, it's an opportunity for guys to be seen all over the field.
But there was action today as a couple of more games tomorrow.
We're going to jump into what everyone cares about in the preseason, which is usually the
rookie quarterbacks or quarterback on a new team.
But usually the rookie quarterbacks, Bryce Young, the number one overall pick, CJ Straub,
the number two overall pick and Anthony Richardson, the number four overall pick were all in action
over the past 24 hours or so.
CJ Straub going Thursday night, I believe.
So that's 48 hours or so.
Guess we start off with the number one pick, Bryce Young for the Panthers had an up and
down debut.
Kind of wasn't his fault.
And he had some moments where he looked great.
He had some moments where he looked like a rookie in his first NFL action on the field.
Office flying struggle, which won't be a surprise.
The Panthers tried to sell us a story that, oh, the old line is going to be fine.
No, you're not.
You were a bad football team last year.
Ask Baker Mayfield, ask Sam Donnell, ask PJ Walker.
Hell, ask K.M.
Newton.
That offensive line is not good.
And they're going to struggle at all times this year.
Pretty much if you want a good game of sacks and a good game of quarterback pressures,
you got to hope the Carolina Panthers are on your schedule because they're going to
cause Bryce Young to have some difficulties.
Right there this season.
So up again, up and down kind of game.
You guys know how I feel about Bryce Young if you've been listening to the show.
If you haven't, I don't believe in him because you ask a guy to be one of one part two.
It's already hard to ask somebody to be one of one.
Asking them to do asking them to be the part two version of the one of one is even harder.
And Drew Brees is his comp.
Drew Brees is a one of one.
As far as Drew Brees himself failed in San Diego, which is how Phillip Rubis got on the
team.
That's how he ended up in New Orleans.
And then no one in the league touched him.
Sean Payton took a chance on him because Sean needed a guy he believed in his tape enough
in San Diego to bring him to New Orleans.
Probably as a bridge guy.
Now, OK, Drew comes in, we go three and that time three and 13, four and 12.
You may trace him.
I said, get a top pick and get our guy.
You know, but he comes in and he's off to the races the first year they show up during
the NH title game in Chicago with a chance to play Peyton Manning in the Super Bowl a
few years earlier than when it actually did play Peyton Manning on the Super Bowl.
And so that was kind of what happened with Drew Brees.
And of course, it's all these records.
He's Brady out literally just outlasts him and has the career records.
You know, Brees saw these accuracy records, all these rating records.
He is the New Orleans Saints records book as far as passing.
But you Brees, the thing was that he was small.
I'll never forget Drew Brees head craned up as he looks through like the bars of his face
mask seal over his offensive lineman.
He was small, did not have the biggest arm, wasn't fitting a ball in some of these tight
windows we've seen like the famous big throw.
He fits it between three bears.
Some of the stuff my home's put the ball through.
Even guys like Justin Herbert and Josh Allen fits balls and gaps.
Drew Brees can't get that ball in.
It's just the Lawrence perspective was not very athletic, although he did dunk a goal
post in Miami.
Sometimes just straight line speed, you know, but he was insanely accurate.
He's the most accurate pass of the football that has ever played in the NFL.
And I don't think it's close.
And then of course, his preparation, his routine of the workout videos are famous of even when
it's a one V one or even when it's a one on one route, he calls the play and then tells
the receiver the route.
And after he throws the ball, he's working through where the other routes would be.
Even if it's on air, he throws a pregame warmup, he throws the pass and then he's shuffling
his feet to the other routes.
His pregame warmup and stretches and speeches have been legendary.
But now you're asking Bryce Young to do that.
All right.
That's hard because it was a perfect storm in New Orleans.
You were indoors for one, you were in the NFC South for two.
So at minimum nine of your games, nine of your 16 games at that point were indoors.
You had a very, very offensive head coach, A'Shaun Payton, who wanted to throw the ball
down the field.
You had a ton of weapons.
You had a great offensive line.
You got a hell of a defense for the first few years.
He just throws it off at the end, but then it's a gun show by the time that you get to
that point because the weapon is built up on offense.
You have a weaker quarterback division.
People talk about what the advantage that Brady had in the NFC East was just teams in
general.
Who was the best quarterback from 09 to 2020 besides Drew Brees in the NFC South?
Cam Newton.
At that point, during that time, Cam Newton wins in the MVP, gets into a suit ball, ultimately
loses to the Broncos, but it's Cam Newton.
Nobody else is stable at quarterback.
James Winston is probably the best Buccaneers quarterback.
The best Falcons quarterback is Matt Ryan.
He gets to a suit ball during that time period as well, loses to Tom Brady.
But that was a one-off year to me with Kosh Anahan, and he ended up being the MVP of
the league.
Other than that, Cam Jordan, who plays for the Saints, has the NFL record for the most
time sacking one player.
It's Matt Ryan for the Falcons.
That's one of those situations where Brees had a weaker quarterback division.
Like I said, Matt Ryan at one point wins the MVP, and at one point he was benched.
Cam Newton at one point wins the MVP, and then he was released.
So it's kind of like you had a peak of a quarterback here and now, but then they were pretty average
to below average for the rest of their careers.
And he had the advantage of a situation that the coach needed him to be successful.
Once Drew Brees became a success, him and Sean Payton were linked at the hip.
They spoke a lot, they talked a lot, their minds worked a lot.
It was a perfect storm.
I don't see that with Bryce Young and Frank Wright.
I just don't.
And so I've always doubted Bryce Young, and I noticed the conversation kind of went off
the rails a little bit.
But I always kind of doubted Bryce Young because I said you're asking him to be one-of-one
historically, part two, and that's a hard thing to ask of anybody.
But again, up and down day for him.
Number two overall pick, CJ Stroud.
Flipped it back a few days ago.
Through a bad pick in his game, other than that, he looked pretty poised.
What I saw at Ohio State, I saw a little bit of it at Houston.
Now I'll talk about that a couple points later.
I saw a little bit of that in Houston.
I saw the arm talent.
I saw the accuracy.
I saw the mobility and the athleticism.
I didn't say it, but I saw a bad pick.
Now it was the veteran got him.
Jalen Mills got him.
He's playing for his job right now.
But that was a pretty rough pick as far as he had really no business throwing that ball
at all.
And he got intercepted even against a base Bill Belichick defense though.
Maybe he saw something.
Maybe Jalen Mills read something.
I'm not sure.
But it was a pretty bad interception on him.
Probably the worst interception I've seen of the rookies, just because Anthony Richardson
also threw one, which I'll talk about in a second.
But it was more of a miscommunication pick.
I think CJ Stroud just didn't see Jalen Mills breaking on the ball.
And even if he didn't break on it, I think the person behind Jalen Mills picks it.
It was one of those throws where he shouldn't let the ball go.
Kind of how I talked about last week with Kellen Maughan against the Jets in the Hall
of Fame game throwing it right to the linebacker.
It wasn't as bad.
The guy Jalen Mills had to make a hell of a play on it.
But it's still a ball he probably shouldn't have let go.
Probably a ball he gets to at Ohio State, but it just doesn't make it through in the
NFL.
And then Ayrton Richardson, kind of similar to Bryce Jensen.
He kind of had the game in between the game.
He didn't have the high of CJ Stroud, but he didn't really have the roughness of Bryce
Young.
He showed his athleticism for sure.
Threw a bad pick himself.
Wasn't as bad as CJ Stroud's pick.
His pick was more of a miscommunication.
But he hit the defender in the chest with it, so it did not look great at all.
But it was the defender behind the intended target.
So maybe if the routes run correctly, the intended target catches it.
And we're not probably not even mentioning this right now.
But he himself did throw an interception as well.
But I've seen good flashes from him.
I believe Ayrton Richardson is a boomer bus prospect.
I said it before the draft.
Well, I said bus before the draft.
But as far as in the league, he's a boomer bus guy to me.
He's either packed in my homes with more athleticism, as far as that ceiling.
Or he's either the Cam Newton, but accurate.
Or he's Cam Newton in 2022, where it's like, okay.
You know, it's just the athleticism's there, but we don't see anything else.
And so that is something we're gonna have to watch out for Anthony Richardson.
And just some quick hitters as far as the preseason in general.
Justin Fields had a very stat blowing day, but an overrated day.
At one point, he was 3 for 3 for a 129 and two touchdowns.
The problem was a 122 touchdown, something like that.
129 maybe.
The problem was a 62 yard touchdown and a 56 yard touchdown came on screens.
A wide receiver screen and DJ Moore first touched the Bears 62 yard touchdown.
So the Bears, I'm sure, are excited about that.
The Panthers fans probably groaned not having DJ Moore on their team for their young guy
and Bryce Young.
And then the second one was a broken, kind of a broken play.
It looked like a screen to me.
People calling it a check down.
It felt like a delayed screen to me because of how many old linemen was in front of the
running back.
But flips to the running back, the ball travels about two yards in the air.
58 yards later, he's in the end zone.
And Justin Fields first two passes are for 120 and two touchdowns.
But I think he had a very overrated statistical day.
And then turnovers on both sides happen.
He gets pulled out of the game.
His numbers look mind blowing.
But if you watch the tape, it was a very overrated day.
Offense looked a lot more conservative.
I've noticed that with several offenses.
But those deep rocks in the NFL are schemed open.
So I'm thinking that they don't just want to show too many deep schemes on film.
Damar Hamlin returned to the field.
First time he was in tackle football in a game since, of course, his cardiac incident
against the Bills, against the Bengals, sorry.
His cardiac incident, his first time in full uniform on the field in a game.
Now he's been in preseason practice, made a couple of interceptions.
But this is the first time he'd been on the field.
He talked about his emotions after the game.
And so it was good to see him just as a human perspective back on the field doing what he
loves.
Again, hearing about it in practice and physically having to come out of that tunnel into the
crowd is going to be something that is huge for him.
He's gonna do it again, obviously, week one.
And if they had to play at Cincinnati in a playoff game or something, I wonder what those
nerves are gonna be like for him.
It's coming out on the field that where the incident happened.
Just touch on some other news.
Zach Wilson looks like a better football player.
I think the influence and energy is helping.
Despite my slander of Nathaniel Hackett and Sean Payton's slander of Nathaniel Hackett's
effort last season, I think he's a better offensive coordinator than he is head coach.
And so I think his influence on Zach Wilson as well, trying to get some of those bad habits
out of him, trying to get some of those just bad mechanics and bad ideas out of him.
I think he looked a lot better, looked a lot sharper in his preseason than he did last
preseason.
Nothing traveled over 10 yards in the air.
But to me, that showed improvement because he didn't try to force anything.
The first preseason game, he got a nice bone with the sideline.
And if you look at him, he led some scoring drives.
And it just looked a little more poised.
Like I said, took his check downs where he could take them.
Looks like a better football player.
Definitely has some Aaron Rodgers teachings in him.
He's trying to roll like him a little bit and definitely has some Aaron Rodgers teachings
in him.
You can see that in Hard Knocks as well.
Malik Willis, the Titans quarterback pick last season, who pretty much we thought was
gonna be on the outs after the team drafted Will Levis.
We pretty much thought they were gonna be on the outs with Malik Willis.
But through camp, reportedly, he's outplayed Will Levis.
Through this preseason game, he's outplayed Will Levis.
His stock is definitely going up.
If the Titans do decide to release him or move on from him, I expect him to have multiple
suitors.
He looks like he can play in this league.
His talent, arm talent, raw arm talent, suggests that from Jump Street.
But now it's looking like the mental side is catching up and he's able to process information
a little bit faster and to make moves and to be an efficient quarterback at the NFL
level.
So like I said, if he is released by the Tennessee Titans, I expect him to have multiple suitors
fairly quickly.
I can see New Orleans getting them as a back.
Well, they have Jameis already, maybe not New Orleans.
I don't know what's going on in Atlanta.
Oh, they got Des Marritter.
I don't know what's going on in Tampa.
That seems like a disaster.
Vegas could use a young backup in case Jimmy G gets injured.
The Rams, I mean, they dropped this, that's in Bennett, but athletically Malik Willis
is a better player.
I don't see Geno Smith being the long term answer in Seattle.
Maybe Seattle gets involved in that race, although they do have Drew Locke.
Minnesota currently to me has no backup plan for Kirk Cousins.
So there's multiple places I believe Malik Willis could land if and when he is released
by the Tennessee Titans.
The future of the Green Bay Packers, Jordan Love looked good in his debut.
I was going to say great.
I'm going to pull it back, quantify what it is the preseason, but he did have a couple
of great moments there leading his new Green Bay Packers organization, hoping to be the
third in the Hall of Fame lineage as far as back to back to back.
Of course it was Brad Favre, then Aaron Rodgers, and now Jordan Love is up.
And of course they have Bart Starr in there, pretty distant history.
And so he's looking to be the fourth Hall of Fame quarterback to play for the franchise.
And of course the third in the row, which would be unprecedented.
I mean, it's unprecedented to go back to back.
I think the only team to ever do that is Joe Montana and Steve Young.
And now the Packers went back to back with Brad Favre and Aaron Rodgers.
The only difference between Steve Young, the 49ers version, the Packers version, the 49ers
version, I believe has six Super Bowl titles out of it, or five, because Joe Montana won
four and Steve Young got one.
So they won four, they said they won five, and then the Packers have won two.
So that's the only difference in that is the high level winning in regards to the consistent
Hall of Fame quarterback play.
But Jordan Love is looking to be the third one in the row.
He's off to a good start this preseason.
Multiple players have stepped up to defend him when people say he couldn't play, saying
that you haven't even watched him play.
Give him a few games to prove that he can do it.
D'Shaun Watson looks solid in his Browns debut.
I wasn't expecting a fireworks show, but when a star quarterback gets in, he's supposed
to command the offense.
He's supposed to not look flustered.
He's supposed to make a couple of throws that make you go, hmm, and have a couple of reeds
that make you nod your head in approval.
And that's exactly what D'Shaun Watson did.
He did what I would expect a franchise quarterback to do in the preseason.
Kept himself out of trouble, had some good scrambles there.
So good work by D'Shaun Watson.
Then the most interesting to me quarterback battle in the NFL is Baker Mayfield versus
Kyle Trask.
Why is the number one overall picking a quarterback battle with Kyle Trask?
I still do not know.
But Baker got the start in game one.
He got the advantage in game one.
Now Kyle Trask is already scheduled to start in game two.
So it'd be very interesting to see how Kyle Trask looks with more of the ones as opposed
to the number twos.
But their practice video has not been the most encouraging if you're a Buccaneers fan
because they've missed very, very easy throws in just in drill work and practice work.
So if I am the Buccaneers, I am a little bit nervous about being forced to trot out either
Baker Mayfield or Kyle Trask for week one.
Especially because Baker Mayfield, if he hits, he's going to want to get a big contract
from you.
You may end up losing more weaponry.
Who knows how your salary cap can even take that.
And if you end up with Kyle Trask, now you've got a really, really cheap quarterback option
for the next couple of years before you even end up having to extend Kyle Trask.
But to me, Baker Mayfield shouldn't even be in this debate.
He's in a very, I do mean very dangerous spot from being like kind of like a more sober
Johnny Menzel story.
And so we're going to keep our eye on that situation.
I think Baker ultimately wins the job.
I don't know if he keeps it all year.
I think some of the organization really love Kyle Trask and want to see him get a shot.
But of course, when Baker Mayfield is there, it's hard to overshine that, which is pretty
much impossible if you are not a Baker Mayfield to overshine Baker Mayfield.
So that is what's going on in Tampa.
But one note on the preseason I want to talk about before we move on out of this block
is that a lot of times fans and I talk to different fans all the time, they always want
to see their team dominate.
I want to see my team dominate.
Oh, show me this new scheme everyone's talking about.
First of all, most people on the field are not starters.
Start off with that.
Second of all, if you want scheme, look at enjoying practices.
That's the best scheme you're going to get.
Third of all, offensive line play in the preseason is horrible.
They don't have a lot of padded practices.
You got starters mixed in with backup guys.
You have no slide protection.
You have barely any protection changes because you're trying to keep all this stuff off film.
You have blitz shows coming from random locations because DC is just throwing random things
at people because they want to see how they react and respond to different scenarios.
It is a madhouse for an offensive line.
You got a quarterback there that you're not normally dealing with.
You got people next to you on the O-line.
You're not used to having to work with, team up with, things of that nature.
The play calling is sporadic.
It's more of conceptual execution and situational execution.
The play calling is sporadic.
The O-line play is usually awful because they're not in pads enough for one.
And number two, they don't usually work with the person next to them.
If they work with the person next to them, they're under strict instructions not to
show a whole bunch on film.
So they're not necessarily doing their proper technique or they're doing their proper checks
in the event of they feel, see, and or hear the rush.
So teams that struggle with offensive line, it's normal.
It's very stereotypical actually.
Everyone in the preseason just struggles with the O-line.
However, if you're struggling with your D-line, you should be nervous.
Defensive back struggles, usually you can blow those off too because those guys don't
really get an opportunity to open up and run too much even in joint practices.
So there's different position groups that show the health of a team.
Receiver for sure.
Linebacker for sure.
But the rest of the positions, like I said, O-line play usually scares people.
Those guys don't work together.
If you had all first unit guys up there, maybe it looked a little different, but you've got
maybe one first unit guys, three second unit and one third unit guy.
Everything's on one and they don't adjust to anything that the defense is throwing at
them.
So they're at a disadvantage most of the game.
But up next, we're going to shift to the NBA and talk about what's going down there.
Welcome back into the show.
And now we're going to jump into the NBA in a rather interesting off season.
Of course we've already had the Dame Lillard.
Well, mid Dame Lillard saga, I guess.
And we're working with the James Harden situation, which we will give an update on.
See the update I posted update on about two or three hours before this recording.
What's going on with James Harden?
And of course, right now, as I'm recording this, the Hall of Fame class of 2023 is being
inducted.
Of course, highlighted by Greg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs, who's still coaching.
It's one of the weird things about the Hall of Fame.
You don't have to retire from coaching.
I think after you get a certain amount of wins or something, once you meet certain benchmarks,
you're eligible to go into the Hall of Fame, even if you're coaching still.
I know Coach K went in while still coaching.
Bobby Knight, I think, went in while still coaching.
Greg Popovich is in while still coaching.
I think once you hit certain benchmarks, you're eligible to go in.
I think John Calipari is coming up soon.
I'm sure he's going to go in.
He's got a college national title, a bunch of wins.
He's got a lot of NBA players.
He's built three programs.
I'm sure Cal is going to go in while coaching as well.
Tony Bennett is going to be in for Virginia.
He's done coaching, et cetera.
Anyway, but Greg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs, who just signed a contract extension
actually to continue working with the Spurs and to Coach Victor Wimbenyama, Powell Gasol
of the Memphis Grizzlies and Los Angeles Lakers, Tony Parker of the San Antonio Spurs.
I'm not even going to mention the others.
The opposite at the end.
Current Los Vegas Aces head coach, Becky Hammond.
She's going to go in as a player and a coach.
I was just going to go in as a player for sure.
I don't think she's in as a coach yet, but she's going to go in as a player.
She's currently the Aces head coach.
Then the big two, in my opinion, these guys separate themselves from the rest.
There's always one or two guys in every basketball and NFL Hall of Fame class to me that's just
separated.
For the NFL to me was Derell Rivas and Joe Thomas.
Those guys were in a different world to me than the other Hall of Famers.
Rivas has a case, one of the best shutdown corners ever.
Joe Thomas has a case for one of the best left tackles in 30 years.
So, as I said, those two guys, it's a wild Joe Thomas story about Peyton wanting him
to do whatever he could to get out of Cleveland to come block for him in Denver.
It means Joe Thomas has got a ring, got a chance to experience winning.
Who knows what that would have done for him personally, but he loves Cleveland.
That's what it is.
Back on topic, Dirk and D Wade.
Dirk Nowinski, of course, 21 years, 20 years or whatever it was in Dallas, has a statue
already outside the building, has one of the greatest shots ever.
People always talk about Kareem has the only unblockable shot.
I think Dirk's one foot fade.
Being that he was seven foot tall, but still pull out the one foot fade.
And then I hadn't seen anybody getting blocked yet.
And then Dwayne Wade, Wade County is the spearhead behind the big three in Miami because he convinced
Bosch to choose Miami over Cleveland, which means Dwayne Wade stays in Miami and LeBron
goes to Miami instead of LeBron trying to get them to come to Cleveland for obvious
reasons.
If they go and they go to Cleveland, they win three, four titles in Cleveland.
You know, that's LeBron city.
He never leaves.
He gets all the credit who, I, who, right.
But he, of course, the heatles and all the other stuff that happens in Miami happens
due to D Wade spearheading the situation in Miami.
Ultimately, D Wade ends up in Chicago and Cleveland at some point anyway, but he finishes
off in Miami, in which I'm sure he's going to go in as a Heat.
Dirk's going to go in as a math, Parker as a spur, Papa as a spur, Powell I believe is
going to go in as a Laker, which means once he's in 16 goals in the rafters, it's standard
Laker procedure because, because Jeannie bus can think of her name for a second raise.
Holy hell.
When she mentioned that LeBron is going to get his number retired and they were debating
six or 23 or both going into the rafters for the Lakers because she said standard procedure.
If you're a Hall of Famer and you're a Laker, you're in the rafters.
It's just standard.
So Pogasaw is number 16, number 16 will go into the rafters probably sometime next season
to have Pogasaw night and we still raise 16 into the rafters and no one will be able to
wear it in like a little ever again.
Um, without his permission, his family permission, whatever.
And then of course, six or 23 is going to go up.
I don't think both.
I think both will be strictly Kobe thing.
Um, eight and 24 because he played 20 years, 10 as eight or something like that in 10 and
24.
And they're both Hall of Fame careers.
The numbers basically match up even.
I mean, they're an all star game off here or a ring off there from being the exact same
career.
And of course, Kobe Bryant's tragic passing is going to be, I think there, I know she
mentioned that off the off chance they might do both.
I don't think Lakers fans will let her do both.
Like LeBron, thems going to the rafters.
That's fine.
Whatever.
He got a title for the team.
He's going to be a player with three jersey retirements, whatever.
Fine.
I think six going up in Miami.
I know 23 is going up in Cleveland.
And so either six, 23 is going up for the Lakers.
That's fine.
I just think fans will riot if they try to give LeBron a double jersey retirement considering
that the only person to have it is Kobe.
But anyway, back on topic.
So what I love about this Hall of Fame class is how intertwined it is because this is the
first class and okay, past few classes, but this is the first class I can vividly remember
all of your moments.
Like I remember Dirk D Wade battle in 06.
Who was the head coach?
I mean, Dirk D Wade battle in 06.
I remember D Wade against the Spurs in those finals.
When he was with the Heat when the big three was in town, I remember obviously Pop coaching
Tony Parker.
I remember Pacasol versus the Spurs when Powell and Kobe was battling Pop, Duncan, Parker,
Janobli, all those Hall of Famers going at it with a Dirk sprinkling in.
I remember Dirk going through everybody to get his title in 2011.
Yeah, he went there right on the list.
Actually, he goes through Tony Parker and Pop.
He goes through Powell.
He goes through Wade.
He goes through everybody to get his title in 2011.
Maybe he doesn't beat the Spurs, but whatever.
He goes through everyone in 2011 to get his ring.
Of course, I remember Becky Hammond being an assistant coach for Popovich at one point
being deemed as his coach in waiting, but then she jumps on the Las Vegas Aces opportunity
and she's dominating over there in the WNBA.
This class is so connected.
Everyone has a story to pretty much everybody else.
Of course, Tony Parker with Pop, the Spurs connects to the same, so I'm not even going
to devurrentiate, but Tony Parker with Pop and Becky, those were his coaches.
He battled with Powell for the West, Dirk for the West, D-Way for rings, and I went
through everybody else's situation as well.
There's a pretty amazing Hall of Fame class.
Actually, Popovich is, you can argue, the greatest coach ever.
He's got five rings.
He's got all these wins.
I think he's the winningest coach ever.
He's got five rings.
He's in one spot.
It's not like a Phil Jackson where he was broken up where he had eight years with Michael
and then another 10 years with Kobe, basically.
Then he had that weird stint in New York.
He was never the coach in New York, but he had a weird stint in there somewhere.
Pop's a Spur.
Pop came in as a president of operations, fires the head coach, but he names himself
the head coach, has been the head coach ever since.
He rebuilt it.
He had the David Robinson, Tim Duncan era.
Then that David Robinson walks away.
Then he rebuilds it with the foreign guys with Janobli and Boris Deow and Tony Parker.
He gets the defense top, Bruce Bowen.
He pieces all these pieces in while basically being de facto GM.
Now, he had a hell of a GM his entire time.
I can't think of the guy's name.
They give him so much credit.
RC Buford.
He's a hell of a GM, especially internationally.
He landed, he found Parker and Janobli.
Those guys never played in America collegially.
That's before international players like now, a guy's international.
He's international.
He is what he is.
Four of the best five players on planet earth are international guys right now.
But then when he was getting those guys in early 2000s, international players were seeing
it behind the curve.
They were seeing it slower.
They were seeing it less athletic, just not as good as a collegiate American born prospect.
The fact that RC Buford and Grape Hopovich went out on the limb with those guys, found
those guys and won titles with those guys, dynasties with those guys, of course, and
Kawhi Leonard in the middle of the first round, all credit to Grape Hopovich there.
But just absolutely amazing Hall of Fame class.
One of the memories that stick out for me, Dirk, in 2011.
He went through the OKC Thunder.
He went through Kobe and Powell.
And I believe, I think he goes through the Spurs.
And I know for a fact he beats the Heedles in six.
In the series that Skip Bayless swears that LeBron has a effectively an F-U list ready
to go.
After game one, or after game three, when they go up to one, LeBron's having a great
series at this point.
But they go up to one and LeBron has an F-U list.
And at the top of the list is Skip Bayless.
Skip swears by it that that was going to be, I guess, the one and only time he ever addressed
Skip was going to be that moment, kind of the ultimate end to the Black Hat year.
And of course, Dirk snuffs him out the next three games.
Tony Parker, I remember his final MVP for the Spurs.
Dope moment there.
Pop curmudgeon interviews, the one time he smiled at the interview, like broke the internet.
But of course, Pop just in general.
Powell-Gassau, some of the epic moments he's had with Kobe, when they were speaking Spanish
to each other on the court.
The time when Kobe runs through his chest in the Olympics.
Some of the great moments of Powell getting dunked on by Blake Griffin.
Not one of his best moments.
But just great moments in Powell-Gassau hitting big jumpers in finals games.
I said the back screen, the famous, him and Kobe speaking Spanish for a second, he spins
back and catches a lob.
That was a great D-Wade.
What isn't popping in my mind, dunking on Anderson Barrett-Gile.
The big three years, flying all over the court in the 08 Olympics.
He has the most dunks double anybody else in history for the most dunks for a player
six foot four shorter in NBA history.
The greatest small attacker of the basket ever.
By small, I mean basically six foot four under.
Six-five and under really.
He's the greatest attacker of the basket ever at that height.
Because Tony Parker, I think at one point led the league in points in the paint, which
is insane as a six foot guard.
But D-Wade would just go in there and consistently dunking everywhere he can dunk.
Absolutely spectacular by him and then Becky Hammond.
She was a great WNBA player.
She's a great assistant coach, greatest coach for the Spurs.
Now she's the best coach in WNBA and it's not close.
So kudos to her as well.
Kudos to the entire Hall of Fame class, even the ones I didn't mention.
Congratulations to you guys joining the Naismith Hall of Fame.
All right, touching on some FIBA news.
A couple of NBA stars with injury situations.
Luka Donchus set out against the United States in the warm up game due to a quote unquote
injury.
I think it was more of an avoidance.
It was a warm up game for one.
For two, I think that he just didn't want to play the US.
Not because he was ducking the US competition like some, I'm gonna say ignorant fans are
saying.
I just think that he may have had a knick.
It was a warm up game.
He looks pretty warm and you're going to get a team that's going to hound you.
So if he is having any kind of injury, now he's better than anybody on the US team, but
multiple of them, no real help in Slovenia.
If he's having any sort of injury history at all, they're gonna arrest him because they
need him for the knockout round.
Because I'm being honest, they have him, they have a chance at this thing.
It's like Serbia has Jokic.
They have a chance at this thing.
Now Greece is out, for all intents and purposes, because Janis is out.
Janis pulled out.
He played early.
I don't think he felt right.
I think he played against Jokic.
Jokic had a crazy one foot fade over him.
I just think ultimately Janis put NBA season over Fever World Cup.
If he damages things worse and puts this season, he mentioned the Olympics of 2024 into jeopardy,
he's gonna feel horrible.
So he pulled out of the Fever World Cup and he's gonna focus on the NBA season getting
himself all the way right because the NBA season will bleed right into the 2024 Olympic
Games.
And then Team Canada actually got most of their commitments.
Team Canada has a bad history of they'll get a lot of guys committed and then they'll
all pull out.
But that team could be really good.
Shea Gittes Alexander, Sharon Jackson Jr., I mean Sharon Jackson Jr.
Shea Gittes Alexander, Dylan Brooks, Andrew Wiggins, RJ Barrett, just to name a few of
the guys who are Canadian eligible.
So I'm sure they'll be loaded up for the Olympic Games and they also have a chance at winning
the Fever World Cup.
It's pretty wide open.
It usually is for Fever World Cups because America doesn't send the A-Team.
So it's pretty wide open getting a World Cup victory.
It's very possible because again America hasn't sent the A-Team since 2006.
And even then that wasn't the A-Team.
That was the final straw of the rebuilding of USA Basketball.
And so as what happens in Fever, that is your Fever International News.
Then a few quick hitters.
James Harden's trade discussions have been ended by the Philadelphia 76ers as they have
pretty much decided that they're not going to trade him and that they're going to ensure
that he comes to training camp with the team.
They've had preliminary, I won't even venture to call them preliminary.
They've talked to the Clippers, which is Harden's preferred destination, about a trade for Harden.
Those trade negotiations rather have gone nowhere.
And I kind of figured they wouldn't.
There's multiple things holding it up.
One, James Harden is not under contract past June 30th.
Which means whoever trades for him has to effectively pre-agree to a contract extension
ahead of time.
Because if I'm an organization to get James Harden, it's going to require a lot of assets.
And that's not a situation where I'm going to trade James Harden for a handshake agreement
that I'm going to just re-sign for a big contract in pre-agency.
That's not worth the risk.
Especially that James Harden's already on the wrong side of 30.
So he should be looking at extending anyway.
And so you kind of have to trade for him with the handshake agreement in place.
Like, yeah, I'm going to come and I'm going to sign a four-year max when I show up.
You know, I'm going to sign a three-year max upon arrival.
I'm going to agree to a three-year max extension.
You know, then I'm on the contract for four years.
My last big contract in the NBA.
I'm going to try and win a ring on this contract.
Also for the Clippers.
Why would I do that?
I already have an issue with Kawhi's injury history.
Paul George's injury history isn't pretty, ever since he broke his leg playing for Team
USA.
Russell Westbrook's on the team.
That's a personality.
Ruston Harden didn't really work in Houston because Rust didn't take Harden's unprofessionalism
too well.
And so putting him back with Rust seems like a bad idea.
And Harden himself has not been the healthiest person on planet Earth.
You know, as we all know, he's had up and down weight situations.
And he's going to be coming in.
If he doesn't have a contract extension signed when he shows up, potentially disgruntled.
And if his contract negotiates and goes south, you could be looking at a guy who himself
goes south.
It's a joke around Twitter, social media, but fat suit James Harden.
Like he just gains a bunch of weight, lets himself go, doesn't give effort.
And then eventually you either have to give him what he wants or trade him.
And that's not a spot I'm sure the Clippers want to be in, especially when they're trying
to win a title and keep some sustainability for the future.
The New York Knicks and Josh Hart agreed to a four year, 81 million dollar contract.
It gets 20.25 million a year.
It's not a flat rate deal, but it gets a little over 20 million dollars a year on average
annual value.
A guy who I believe was a second round pick or a late first round pick got tossed in multiple
trades.
He got tossed in the trade for Anthony Davis to go to New Orleans.
He ends up in Portland in the trade.
In the trade there for CJ McCollum from Portland.
He gets in a trade for Cam Reddish.
So now he finally lands a home in New York except for 81 million.
Does he play the four years in New York?
I think not.
I think 84 million is an incredibly traded, I think 20 million dollars, an incredibly
tradable contract.
I said it when he signed his extension in New Orleans.
I was like 11 million dollars a year or 12 million dollars a year, whatever it was.
That's incredibly tradable.
It's a very tradable number.
I think 20 million dollars is going to be the new 12 where it's higher than the mid
level exception, but nowhere near a mass contract.
You can put that in some other pieces and get a mass contract guy like the guy from
Cleveland who they call Spider.
You know, in a situation where if a big star comes open signing trade deal, Josh Hart is
in that deal.
He's a good player, he works hard, hella block room guy, and his contract's very managed
to move forward in New Rosa to take on.
It's also incredibly tradable if you want to immediately bounce Josh Hart out for something.
So I don't think he plays the four years in New York.
Hope he ran it and didn't buy.
And then one of the interesting things that happens during the summer is NBA guys pull
up on either summer league basketball or they have open runs, most popularly in Chris Berkeley's
gym.
Chris Berkeley's gym, Black Ops basketball.
They have runs in there which are always fun to watch.
An interesting part is when guys who don't really play in the NBA goes for like 60 in
a pro run.
Like for instance, Jonathan Kamenga is at the crossover in Seattle which gets pro guys
in the crossover, the Drew League, the Miami Pro-Am is the three popular places, and of
course Black Ops with Chris Berkeley.
These are three popular places where pro guys will get running, with O'Kyrie's dunking
one hand alley-oop somewhere.
But Jonathan Kamenga went for 60.
Bo Champ, I can't think of his first name right now, went for like 80 in the crossover.
Isaiah Thomas went for some absurd number.
He was I think in Miami, no crossover.
He goes for like some ridiculous number.
Tyler Hero in the Miami Pro-Runs nails everything and is tying the game up.
Like Kyrie gets a triple double in the cross in the Drew League.
We all know that when LeBron went in the most packed Drew League game ever.
You know, it's just like you get these guys, Bones Highland had his summer league highlights,
you get these guys where it's kind of pick up basketball, it's open floor, it's a gym
that you know, pressures off.
Like I'm used to playing in front of millions of people if you count the people in front
of the TV, and even if people stream this game, you might get a thousand consistent
streams and there's two thousand people in the gym.
You know, it's just like being back home playing around just in the park.
It's just a lot of pressure off these guys.
But it also showcased the difference between an NBA player and a regular and a really good
player.
So a good basketball player who can go into the Drew League MVP and an NBA player.
There's a couple of guys in these runs that could probably play in the NBA.
Franklin Sessions being one of them, which he's long stated the politics of the NBA is
the reason why he's not in.
And him not wanting to play a role is the reason why he's not in the NBA.
Because he went overseas and started winning immediately.
But you know, there's a couple of guys who maybe can play in the NBA.
Kenneth Fareed still dominates these runs.
He hadn't been in the NBA in years.
There's a couple of guys who can play in the NBA.
But for the most part, you get a guy like Tyler Hero, who's six foot six and six foot
seven.
His whole job is to shoot in the NBA.
He's going to shoot the lights out of the building, especially when they can't NBA scheme
him off the line.
He's going to shoot the lights out of the building.
Isaiah Thomas, who's put up 50 pieces in the NBA at five foot nine.
He's going to kill the average five foot nine guard and just walk around the program.
Jonathan Kamenga, who sucks compared to the NBA players, just put up a 60 piece in the
crossover in a pretty good program league.
I think the Drew Lee is probably the best league.
Miami Pro runs in the crossover is probably second and third.
Venice Beach has a pretty good league, although it's outside.
Most stars don't ever play in it.
He just put up a 60 piece.
Like, it's levels to this.
Yes, you're a really good six foot seven player in the crossover.
And so the six foot eight nine NBA players shows up and gives you 60.
But it's just it's different in the NBA.
And I kind of enjoy the fact that these guys started doing this more of Seattle has a good
run.
I can't think of what Seattle's run is called, but they have a good run too, because LeBron
popped in and how he hurt Chet Hongren's foot.
It's not the crossover.
It's another one up in Seattle where they have two good runs.
Yeah, shout out to them.
And of course, UCLA's infamous runs.
It's not an official league, but people go to UCLA all the time and play.
But I kind of enjoy that these NBA players go to these leagues and just destroy people.
I mean, like to rip people apart, like just annihilate people because it's kind of like
even if they don't go for 100 or 60 or 50, like LeBron, I think went for a pretty efficient
37 or something like that again in the jewelry.
Kyrie Irvin went to the Drew this summer and Uncle Drew went to the Drew and had a 20 point
triple double.
You know, these guys just go and show like there's levels to this.
DeMar DeRozan is a constant jewelry player.
James Harden goes a lot too.
Like there's levels to this.
You're nowhere close to an NBA player.
You're a good player.
You can play basketball.
I can see that, but you're not an NBA player.
And I enjoy that they go to these leagues and kind of crush people to kind of calm the,
oh, that guy could probably be in the NBA.
So the NBA player shows up and then you're like, oh, nevermind.
And he's playing probably 70% of effort because it's for free.
He's trying to not get hurt.
He's really not in shape.
He just trying to keep, keep some good basketball running with guys who play pretty solid basketball.
And so kudos to those guys, like I said, for going and show people that there's levels
to the difference between being a good neighborhood player or whatever and being an NBA level
player.
What up next, we're going to have our new closing segment, Jack's Hot Take.
Welcome into the show, into our brand new last segment, which we are rebranding away
from best for last and moving into Jack's Hot Take in this situation.
It may not be a new topic.
It may not be a new sport, but I'm going to say one hot take a week that it may not just
be some, something simple as, oh, I think this team is going to upset somebody or it
may not be something as simple as, oh, I think Justin Fields is going to throw 400 yards Sunday.
Like, you know, something off the way.
It may be, it may be that simple, but it may not be, it may be a little more complicated.
My hot take this week is about college athletic realignment.
And we spoke about it for a long time last week, so I'm not going to rehash into it.
No major news is broken this week anyway, which is why it wasn't his own topic in the
show.
Even if it was, it might have still been the hot take.
But I'm not going to dive off too far into what's happening with the movie Shakers, who's
going where, what and why.
What I will discuss in my hot take stems around this topping point, this talking point.
What about the volleyball players on a Tuesday night that's got to travel from Los Angeles
to Ann Arbor and then go to class Wednesday?
What about the travel costs for softball to have to go from UCF to Boulder, Colorado on
a Wednesday night and then class is Thursday?
Hot take.
You don't care.
Full take.
You've never cared.
Softball has never made money.
Neither has women's college basketball, except for UConn, LSU these days, Stanford, Tennessee,
there's a few programs that make money.
Most of them are severely in the red.
You don't care about the softball travel.
You don't care about track travel.
Update for those of you who've never played college athletics, especially Division 1 level.
From Los Angeles to Seattle on a Tuesday night to go from USC to the University of Washington,
play a volleyball game at seven o'clock, finish at 830, get back on a plane for 930, fly two
hours back down the coast, land at 1130, by the time you get out of the facilities, out
of the shower and wind down for the night, especially if you win and go out, you're
1 30 in the morning.
Guess what?
You're not going to the 8 a.m. class anyway.
I took classes with athletes.
A lot of them.
I worked with Division 1 athletics.
I've seen it.
I know what happens.
Guess what?
When that softball team plays on a Tuesday night and you got 8 a.m. class at Wednesday
morning, they rarely showed up when they had home games.
So I'm sure if the team went from South Asians and Hammond and they went to Incarnate Word
in the middle of Texas when they got back, they got back and they said, we'll get our
stuff from the tutor or get our stuff online.
We'll have somebody record the lecture.
Things happen.
Division 1 athletics have been making concessions for people for a very long time.
They always have and they potentially probably always will.
It happens.
So I don't want to hear about what about the volleyball team?
What about the softball team?
What about the badminton team?
What about the track team?
You don't care.
You never have.
Honestly, you really don't.
College athletics realignment is driven by two things.
Football and money.
Plot twist.
In college athletics and honestly in the real world, there's the two most synonymous things
together.
You want to find the most money?
You find the football.
Literally.
In the NFL and college athletics, they tell them high school, the money was out with whoever
gets the ball.
That's how it works.
Why did the Big East die?
Because of football.
They pulled four schools away into the ACC that played football.
The Big East is dead.
It's coming back a little bit, but it died.
It didn't no longer have your Georgetown's and your Syracuse's and your St. John's and
all this stuff.
The great Big East conference.
Greatest basketball conference in the country besides the big, besides the ACC died effectively
overnight.
Why?
Because of football.
Football killed it.
Want to know why college athletic realignment is just a major topic?
Football.
Football killed it.
Hardly ever in these college athletics videos that they show and they talk about, oh, Colorado
is going to the Big 12.
I haven't seen them show basketball, baseball, track, softball, or volleyball once.
I see a whole lot of Coach Prime.
Oh, USC, UCLA are going to the Big 10.
I see a couple of basketball highlights.
And that's really when they're playing a Big 10 school so they can show what it would look
like on the court.
But it's a lot of football highlights.
Oregon and Washington is going to the Big 10 as well.
My God.
I haven't seen that beautiful Oregon court at Mud Swamp Court once.
I haven't seen a UW baseball highlight.
Seeing a bunch of football.
You don't care.
You've never cared.
Flying on a plane from Eugene, Oregon to Ann Arbor and flying on a plane from Eugene, Oregon
to California or Eugene, Oregon to Tempe, Arizona.
What's the difference?
It's because it's non-traditional.
It's because the facts got in the way of your feelings.
It's because the future got in the way of your tradition.
That's the only reason you're raising holy hell about women's volleyball.
You could care less.
Honestly, most 95% of America could care less about the effects on the track team.
They have to travel a while anyway.
On the effects of the volleyball team, their schedule sucks anyway.
On the effect of the softball team, I'm positive that flying from Eugene, Washington to Tempe,
Arizona on a Tuesday night pretty much predicated they weren't going to class Wednesday morning.
If at all Wednesday.
There's no difference for going from Eugene, Oregon to Columbus, Ohio.
It's probably the same flight time and you might actually get better luck as far as weather
because through the winter, sitting volleyball is a winter sport, you might struggle more
getting out of Columbus, Ohio than you would Tempe, Arizona.
That's about the only difference.
You may have a little worse travel, but guess what?
They weren't going to class the next day anyway.
I don't want to hear about this.
It's a mute point.
My high take is that you don't give a care.
You don't at all.
Any man ain't better had a take, but you don't care.
It's a strictly football related.
Yes, it is.
I know.
That's what the money is.
So guess what?
If you honestly don't care, which you don't shut up.
That's the take.
Shut up.
You don't care about women's volleyball.
You don't care about the softball team.
You honestly don't care about the baseball team.
You probably barely care about the basketball team.
Don't want to hear it.
Don't want to hear any more complaints about it.
It's a mute point.
But that is all I have for you guys today.
I hope you guys enjoy the show.
As always, don't forget to like, rate and subscribe to the Just In Time Sports podcast,
wherever you get your podcasts.
And don't forget to follow and turn on the post notifications on your social media for
all your breaking news, highlights and updates.
Congratulations once again to the Hall of Fame class of 2023 for the NBA or basketball
Hall of Fame.
I'm sorry.
As always, this is your host, Jesse Jackson.