Welcome in to the newest edition of the Justin Tom Sports Podcast.
I am your host, Justin Jackson.
And in Season 5 Episode 8, we'll be discussing the NBA and what's going on with the NBA
playoffs and some offseason stuff.
We'll have the WNBA as they're roaring its opening day today.
We will have the NFL offseason, some news there, and we will have Jax Hot Tape.
Now, as always, don't forget to like, rate, and subscribe to the Justin Tom Sports Podcast
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hit the button, hit the subscribe button.
Make sure you guys run that up.
It's greatly appreciated.
That way you can see my face and get some kind of not as in depth.
This show is pretty in depth due to so the little lighter we're usually on with Jai from
Hey Jai.
So that is something for you to see just in time for a different light.
But as always, don't forget to sit back and get ready.
Justin Tom Sports.
Look, this is just a town sports.
Come and get your weekly text.
His opinion from the heart.
He can never show you fake.
If you win it, you lose it.
He won't tell it to you straight.
How we talking basketball without a Jordan.
If you got the hottest date, she better come and make it.
If you win a couple of games, he might even show you great.
So every platform, we go to adaptation numbers going up the charts.
We create the separation.
Louisiana to Lada is where I'm from.
I can't replace it.
So people miles off to spy like to be adjacent.
Given my opinion, like I'm Nick, right?
Or I'm Jason.
Yes, we get better watch out because I'm coming for the spaceship.
We even tweeted on Twitter.
You can meet us in the spaces.
I like sports news.
Yeah, you got it.
Embrace it.
We never had it easy.
We just came from the pavement.
I might be controversial, but I like to make my statements.
This is just a time sports.
Come and get your weekly takes.
His opinion from the heart.
He can never show you fake.
If you win it, you lose it.
He won't tell it to you straight.
This is just a time sports.
Come and get your weekly takes.
He won't tell it to you straight.
This is just a time sports.
Welcome into the show on a Tuesday, almost noon.
It's clock just struck 1125.
We get one of our rare insta release shows.
So for those of you who are fairly new into the program, fairly new into the show, first
of all, welcome to the Justin Time Sports family.
I am glad that you are here.
The show is partnered with IMS productions.
It is produced.
Well, the audio show by me, but the YouTube show by IMS productions.
We are excited that you are part of the Justin Time Sports family.
Again, welcome.
But this is a rare, what I call an insta release show.
So sort of like how you would see like when people do the TV show, like Undisputed, First
Take, First Things First, those shows, they will do the TV show and then within a couple
hours put the audio of the TV show on podcast.
So that way if you can't watch the TV show, you can get the podcast, you can get the audio
version on podcast and networks.
It's a very easy way to make more money because you don't have to re-record anything.
You don't have to re-edit anything.
You just take the audio track, it's recorded and drop it on the podcast and server divided
by hour in the first safe case.
Take all the commercials out in First Things First case and you drop it on audio and it's
an easy way to get more engaged and more streams.
That's effectively an insta release show.
You record it and within a couple hours it hits whatever, it hits the airwaves.
Great, right?
Cool.
Most of the time podcasting however, unless it's a live recorded show like Nightcap is
an insta release style show, unless it's a live recorded show that you didn't put out,
usually podcasting is a day or two ahead, maybe a week ahead, a couple of weeks ahead
depending on scheduling of people in the show and then it will come out a couple weeks later.
For instance, JJ Reddick and LeBron's Mind the Game pod, they record I believe episode
6 like two weeks before because LeBron goes 0.30 in the playoffs.
So they recorded that episode like two weeks before, three weeks before it came out.
LeBron lost early in the playoffs so they were able to get back to more current episodes
but he goes 0.30 in the playoffs so they weren't going to record a pod during the playoffs,
he's focused on the playoffs.
So therefore they recorded two weeks in advance.
Right.
This show typically has about a 12 hour return.
Usually the night before I record or the late afternoon before I record and put it out the
next day.
So, away from the behind the scenes stuff, the insta release show is I'm basically recording
and then putting it out.
There's no real time between.
Like again, I'm recording this, it's 11.27 now.
I'm recording this, it'll be out at 2pm local time, central standard time.
Right.
So it's a fairly insta release show.
No breaking news should break in the maybe hour or so in between.
If so, of course, as always, you know it'll be all over the Just In Time Sports social
media.
You won't have to worry about that at all.
You will know as early as I know.
You just may not hear my breakdown on the pod.
So that may be the only difference between that and Just In Time Sports social media.
But unlike a regularly scheduled show, I don't have to do a lot of saying, oh but this game's
going on so this could change in two hours or this could change tonight or I'm recording
before the games, this is going into the games.
Because if this show has been recorded, no games are happening.
It's 11.28 in the morning.
Like no games are happening.
Anything I say, even when the pod comes out, will apply to future.
You won't have to worry about, oh, I can give this amazing point on how I feel like Dallas
goes up 3-1 hypothetically last night before the game.
They blow it and then now the 10 minutes after that, it effectively doesn't exist.
So I don't have to worry about that with this show.
I love these shows.
They're pretty rare just because I have a full time job outside of this.
Like I coach, I teach.
So I don't have the time, all the time to do instant release shows.
Want to get into them more in the summer.
You know, the pods that are coming out at 9am, 10am, they start coming out around 2
or 3.
So I can't do instant release shows.
Like on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I can just come in from practice, come right to you guys,
drop a show and then you guys hear it sort of thing.
So that's what I'm looking forward to more in the summer.
And that's kind of the benefit of the summer.
My schedule is a little laxer.
I can do a little bit more of the pod stuff.
So on and so forth.
Anyway, now that I've gotten through all that behind the scenes stuff that I hope didn't
bore you guys to sleep or have you turn off the pod.
Let's get into the NBA.
So we're going to start off in the West because the West took center stage last night.
We're going to start off with the West.
The West to me is taking center stage in the playoffs in general.
But the West took center stage last night.
I spoke about it about 45 seconds ago.
Dallas blew it.
Of an epic proportion.
Dallas had a chance to put OKC on the ropes.
Oklahoma City, as we guys, you all know, is the youngest team in the NBA.
Like by far they're the youngest great team in the NBA in a very long time.
Their average age is younger than the University of North Carolina's average age was last year.
Like they're really young and they're going to get younger and younger because A, they're
going to start paying these guys for stripping parts off.
But B, they got all these draft picks.
So Oklahoma City was a really, really young team.
They went into that game and to me laid an egg.
Like they played poorly.
Dallas should have won that game by 15, 20 points.
Especially with a guy like Kyrie.
Especially with a guy like Luca who has that experience.
That should have been an easy 15 or 20 point Dallas is up 3-1 and the young upstart Oklahoma
City Thunder just aren't ready yet.
You know and all the narratives change from oh they're this great young team and they're
going to be around for a long time.
So they're not ready yet and now what do you do contractually?
You know it's all this media stuff will start to change in Oklahoma City.
I know personally if I would have did this podcast today in Oklahoma City's down 3-1
I would have had a ton of stuff about the salary cap, about the salary cap table.
What do you do?
You're not that far from a J.W. extension.
What do you do about Josh Giddy?
What do you do about building around Shea Gilda's Alexander?
What do you do about building around with Chet Holmgren?
Like you just start going down he's like how do you get a vet win?
How do you do this?
What do you do with Lou Dort?
Etc.
Like there was so many different storylines that Oklahoma City was going to have to deal
with over the next few days if they would have lost game 4.
Dort played like crap.
Josh Giddy played like crap.
Chet Holmgren wasn't good for the vast majority of it.
SGA was a baller.
J.W. was a baller.
But some of those guys offensively played like absolute amateurs and like that would
have been a problem because you would have kept bringing in these high drafts, kept bringing
in this talent, kept bringing in all these guys and the guys you had on the team didn't
deliver.
It would be SGA and guys and that's a hard way to live.
SGA and guys is a hard, hard way to live.
I asked Luca when it was pretty much him and Brunson who was not the Brunson we see now.
It was Brunson.
Brunson was a regular guy.
He was a pretty good 6 man but he wasn't the superstar level guy we see now.
It was a lot of work when you ran against a team.
So again man, Oklahoma City laid an egg.
They were bad.
It kind of reminds me of the Pelicans games where like two of them, Oklahoma City would
break 100.
And if the Pelicans had half decent offense, the Pelicans would have won game 5-2-2 and
who knows what happens.
But instead Dallas blows it, shoots awful from the free throw line.
Like at one point they were 10 of 20.
Like late in the 4th quarter they were 10 of 20.
I think they were finishing right above 50%.
They were awful from the free throw line.
In the game they lost by single digits, you missed 11-12 free throws.
Luca missed a couple of coming down the stretch.
You know like they were bad.
Kyrie Irvin was bad offensively by his standards.
And it's not like the Oklahoma City defense was like that.
Yes, they have Luke Dort who is allowed to play football on the basketball court.
I saw it in the round with Brandon Ingram.
He basically defended Ingram out of the city of New Orleans.
I'm seeing it now with Luca, it's not so bad that Sam God is grabbing on Luca pregame.
To kind of get him used to it.
You're going to get grabbed, you're going to get pushed, you're going to get hit.
You're going to get battled.
It reminds me of when the Heat basically went layup or foul or to go the other way.
When the Ravens of the 2000s were just knocked out of the game.
I'm going to go old as the new.
So Ravens 2000s basically dared the refs to call the flat.
Let's tell you what the leads in the boom did.
We're going to hit you harder, we're going to hit you high, we're going to hit you late,
we're going to grab you, we're going to pull you, we're going to PI, we're going to do
everything you can.
We're going to make the ref call it every single time.
Because the one time you don't, we're going to capitalize on it.
And so we're willing to eat three to four personal fouls a game because we're going
to play such everybody's going to do it on our defense to where either the ref gets these
exercise or he just literally you can't call that many penalties.
It's sort of like with Shaq complained to the late great David Stern about how he doesn't
get the calls.
He said I get beat up.
And David Stern was like, dude, if we gave you every foul of the game before ours, like
you would shoot free throws all game.
So because of which you get an advantage if you just say screw it.
I'm going to play hella physical and I'm going to make them call the fouls.
Because I know you're not, not all of them.
And then the ones you don't, I'm going to take advantage of.
And so he's beating on Luke, he's hanging on Luke and Luke do it is and it's just like
he's getting really physical with him.
Luke is a bigger body than Brandon Ingram.
So he's accepting a little bit better.
He's also a better ball hand and a better shooter, better player.
He's a little bit more accepting of the physical play that Lou Dortz employing.
His body's a little bit better built for it.
And it's just they play PJ Washington was playing out of his mind again.
You had Derek Lively flying all around the gym.
Sam Hardaway had a couple of big ones.
Kyrie played poorly and Luke missed free throws on the stretch.
And Oklahoma City escapes.
Like there was no way entering that fourth quarter.
I was thinking, yeah, Oklahoma City's going to win this game.
They were playing awful, right?
And even when they felt like they got momentum, Luke would hit a three.
PJ Washington would hit one.
Like somebody would do something and be like, okay, no, no, no.
Like not yet.
Like, you know, I see what you want to do, but not yet.
Right.
And at no point would my brain have accepted the fact that Oklahoma City's going to win
that game, but they did.
So huge kudos to them.
Now that has a major problem on their hands.
They've lost home court.
Now they got to win another one of Oklahoma City, which people tell you all the time is
a bad place to play.
And if anybody, if you're a fan of a team that's had to go through them for something,
you know what to know.
Like you know Oklahoma City's a pain in the butt to win a game.
And so now you're Dallas.
You have to go in a game in there again.
Do I think Luke and Kyrie can get it done?
Yes.
Do I think Luke and Kyrie will get it done?
Yes.
Do I think they end the series in six?
Yes.
I think I just did a better team, but it would not shock me when Oklahoma City went in seventh
and seventh because now they can sit on their home court.
You know, now I can lean on my start.
I can lean on my fans.
I can lean on my support.
I can lean on whatever.
Because I know for a fact, I got two of the three home games.
I got two or three games at home.
I know that.
I don't have to win a game outside of the building, the rest of the playoffs on the
West.
I don't have to win a game outside of Oklahoma City.
I'm good.
And so that is something that has to be eating at Dallas.
It's the kind of loss, it's the kind of monumental loss that you don't sleep after.
That you just sit up all night thinking, hey, what just happened?
What did we do?
And how does this affect us?
And your brain just plays it over and over and over again because you were supposed to
go to bed.
You're supposed to fly back to Oklahoma City.
On the jet, smiling and laughing, we're up 3-1 and we're a game away from the Western
Conference finals.
And those young guys over there are panicking because they went from never losing a playoff
game 4-0 to they lost 3 of their next four.
Like they're panicking, all right?
And they're enjoying their private playing going, what the just happened?
Like all the momentum is in Oklahoma City now.
All the mental fortitude is in our KC now.
If I'm, what is it, Mark Dagonal, I'm basically saying, look, they threw their haymaker at
us.
We threw a, I wouldn't even call it a jab.
We threw a range check punch.
Just like when you throw the hand out, just check the range.
We connected and now we're tied 2-2.
It's just insane that game itself and Dallas absolutely blew it.
So Dallas lose the series, you can point to this game 4 as the deciding point in the series.
Shifting over to the Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Temple walls, there's a phrase, right?
This is a popular phrase in basketball, in the NBA.
It's an older phrase, but my basketball heads wouldn't know it.
They'll recognize it.
The series doesn't start until someone loses at home, right?
That's when the series starts.
That's when the NBA, something like that, everybody that holds home court, kind of who
got home court last.
Like it's a series, but you know, kind of who got home court last.
You steal the game, oh, now it gets interesting.
Because now you got to steal at least one back in order to get it back.
It gets interesting at that point.
But the phrase is, the series doesn't start until someone loses at home.
Question.
What happens when everybody loses at home?
Because so far, the Denver Nuggets Super Bowl series, everybody's lost at home.
Every single game the road team has won, all four contests in their series, the road team
has won.
Minnesota went into Denver and won games one and two.
Then Denver went into Minnesota and won games three and four.
I don't think I've ever seen a series like that.
Or if I have seen it, like if I was alive for it, I don't remember it.
Really mean I didn't follow it closely.
Like this is insanity.
And it's not like they were buzzer eaters.
Like you knew with like two minutes left.
Road team won.
Like Denver smoked Minnesota in game three.
Goal and Timberwolves smoked Denver in game two when Gameman Gobert missed for his kid.
Like it was insane.
But I'm thinking and it just hit me.
I don't have this written down.
It just hit me.
Remember the mind the game podcast I spoke about earlier?
I watched that and I watched it right.
And I watched it to learn basketball terminology.
Like if you watch basketball long enough, you kind of can get different things.
You kind of know what you're looking for, what you're calling something different.
So it's like a basketball head.
They'll say it differently.
You're talking about the same thing.
For instance, the Warriors run a play with Dre Amon and get the ball in the post area
and they'll set like two kind of screens, stagger looking screens and the player come
around and knock it down.
I thought the Warriors played.
Like I knew what it was.
Like Dre would go ball to Dre Amon, a couple screens get set, the player pops up wide open
like in the wing area, bottom foot three.
It was the most annoying thing ever or stuff would run and he ended up at the top of the
key by himself.
Ridiculous, right?
Apparently that's called post split.
Right?
Like, or when LeBron was really good at slashing to the goal from the wing and dunking on the
bags, it's called a slot cut.
Like there's things I'm learning from the podcast, right?
That I would not have known.
Okay, cool.
I say all that to say they spoke about it in the pod and LeBron was saying one of the
things he is that he's gone through, he referenced the Warriors, $100, he's referencing his own
series.
Series where the team loses the game, but they'll gather information and that even in
the loss, they'll win.
Right?
Like even in the loss, even in the loss, they'll win.
So they may, they may lose that individual game, but they'll win the series based on
the info they'll gather in the game.
So like LeBron referenced, LeBron referenced how at the end, it was the Warriors series
with Stefan in first title, where he's basically soloed over, him and Mazzadillo over, shout
out Deli.
Um, they end of game three, they put Igor Dalla in the game.
Igor Dalla had barely played most of the playoffs and I really, he would text the guy for them.
He comes in the game, I forgot why he was in the game.
He comes in the game later in the game.
The game is decided, Cavs are going to win it, whatever.
Igor Dalla slows down LeBron.
Like he doesn't stop him, but at that point LeBron was inhumanly unstoppable.
Igor Dalla made him slightly unhuman unstoppable, but it was enough to where the Warriors closed
the gap like he would.
If it was a 20 point game, the Warriors ended losing by 10.
And it kind of happened when Iggy comes in the game.
Steve Kirk starts Iggy games four, five and six, Warriors win games four, five and six,
there they be a champions, right?
Cool.
LeBron referenced a series where he's gathered information and lost of a series where he
figured out something at the end of a game, game's over, but when they read, when they
installed it in the next game, it completely took over the game and they ended up winning
the series, right?
Rudy Gobert missing game two may have caused the Timberwolves the series.
And you're thinking, what does that have to do with the stories you just told?
Well, I'm glad you asked.
Rudy Gobert, despite the slander I and a lot of others give him, he's actually, right?
He's actually a really, really good defensive player.
Is he four times the first player of the year?
Good?
No.
Should the defense player be a veteran of Victor and Benyama?
Absolutely.
Should Rudy Gobert be considered one of the greatest defensive players in NBA history?
No.
But is he good at his job?
Yes.
He's a great, he's a great help side defender, good run protector, whatever, but he's actually
pretty randy on the perimeter.
And the way they've designed their schemes, what he does, nobody else on the team can
really do.
So here's what I'm saying.
He covers up the gaps.
Like you're so worried about him, but you know he's there.
So you do your best to kind of just don't run right at him.
Like he's still standing there, right?
Cool.
What makes the Timberwolves defense work?
They're hard, but they're defensive and Gobert is help side.
So you can't really find the slots and the angles and the gaps because Gobert is back
side.
So even if you get through it, he blocks it and it's like, oh, well, okay, that's not
really there.
Cool.
Or mentally, is what it's thinking.
When he missed game two, that Rumpit now became Nas Reed or Carl Anthony Towns.
So now those gaps that you think you saw are now really open.
So now you're just getting to the rim at will, you're getting the defense, you're making
a rotate, you're doing everything you need to do in order to be successful.
You figure out ways to beat the defense and the scheme.
So even when Gobert comes back, you take your chances doing it that way because you figured
you can't get to everything, which you can't.
And so the Nuggets, in a game they lost, gathered a ton of information on the Wolves and how
to beat them in a game they lost, employed it, and has beaten them games three and four.
So they were able to gather information.
Really Gobert, I'm not going to belabor or I'm not going to, I'm not going to debate
or comment on the decision of whether he should have played game two juxtaposed to the birth
of his child.
According to the head coach Chris Fitch, he was going to be back for the game.
Travel issues arose and he just said screw it.
But you know, you got guys saying that man there's no way I would have left my team
doing the playoff run and you know, my grandmothers said like, I mean hard up like sucks too,
like I would not have done it.
I won't comment on that.
It's not my place.
It affected on the court, but that's all I'm going to go, I'm not going to go as far as
doing it, I'm not going to, I'm not going to talk about the morality of Rudy Gobert.
It may come up in the JTS after dark, but with Josh from Hey Jai, but it will not come
up on this show.
Right?
Cool.
So, but Gobert missing, however, did allow for the Nuggets to find stuff that previously
they were unable to truly track down and they would have taken advantage of.
And I just want to apologize for the audio issues with having some technical difficulties.
I had a microphone situation happen mid show, so I'm not sure how much of it sounds like
I'm 30 feet away, but because it's picking up off the laptop or microphone and not the
actual mic in my hand, but I believe the issues are solved.
I'm getting a thumbs up from my production team.
So we should be good there, but regardless, right?
Gobert missed and it allowed the Nuggets to find stuff.
Now that they've found stuff, Gobert really can't cover up all the holes they found.
Because of which the Nuggets look like the championship team they did against the Lakers
in most of the season.
They were resilient.
They fought.
They battled.
They went to war.
They did everything they could in order to tie the series back.
Now they send it back to Denver.
They have the momentum.
Excuse me.
They have the momentum.
They have the momentum, the Timberwolves back against the Wall, and they really, I mean,
think about it.
The Timberwolves' first two losses in the playoffs were the last two games.
They won their first six.
They had to be feeling fairly invincible.
And then now you're lost to one you were pretty handled in.
Like, what do you do mentally if you're the Minnesota Timberwolves?
That's going to be interesting.
They're jumping to the East.
I won't spend all the time on the series.
The Boston Seltsks are handling the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Oh, sheesh.
The Boston Seltsks are handling the Cleveland Cavaliers.
They're taking advantage of them in every single way.
Donovan Mitchell's amazing.
He's the only reason they're not a sweep.
And the Seltsks have been on cruise control through most of the series.
Brown and Tatum have been the best two Seltsks with no poisons.
They've made it work without Horford and Dirk White, etc.
But they are handling the Cleveland Cavaliers.
They're up three, two, one.
And lastly, the interesting series in the East, the Boston, not the Boston Seltsks,
the New York Knicks and the Indiana Pacers.
This feels very 1990.
We're going all the way back.
Seltsks and Cavs and Knicks and Pacers.
This is giving 1995 in the NBA, right?
And so when you look at the Knicks and Pacers series, this is a series that could be 3-1
either way.
To me, the Pacers had their shots in game one in order to win the game and to take command
and lead in the series.
Vice versa.
If Indiana misses that bomb, I think it was Nimhar, but I don't want to quote it, or Naismith,
misses that bomb off the path from Halliburton, the Knicks are up 3-1 right now.
So that is just how close the series has been.
The Knicks are in an all-time battle.
Not an all-time battle, but they're in an elite battle with the team again after the
epic showdown they had with the Philadelphia 76ers in which all six games totaled to a
one-point difference.
They're not in a series like that this time, but they are in an absolute war with Indiana
just smoking them in game four, the Knicks are a piece of hell.
They're just trying to battle.
Indiana is not supposed to be here, it's supposed to be Philly.
They continue to battle.
Indiana isn't supposed to be here.
It wasn't supposed to be Milwaukee actually, not Indiana.
They are battling at literally every station, every section, every moment, just trying to
keep up.
They are going to war in a situation they shouldn't be in.
Indiana pays their respects.
Kudos to them, Rick Carlisle, Tyrus Halliburton, Miles Turner, Obie Top, and the rest of the
crew as they continue to battle the New York Knicks.
Quick hitters.
The NBA segment is gone 27 out of minutes.
Quick hitters.
Not a Mitchell appears to be done in Cleveland.
There's a whole lot of smoke regarding to this being his last run with the Cleveland
Cavaliers.
LeBron was back in Cleveland last night with Savannah, Everest, Paul.
Could there be an imminent return of Looming?
Could he be returning and keeping out of a measure with him?
What's that all about?
Last time LeBron did a impromptu pop-up in Cleveland, it was before he left.
The Heat went back to Cleveland.
He did it this time again with his wife, Savannah, and agent Rich Paul.
Keep an eye on that situation.
But back to Donald Mitchell, he missed last night's game with the sprained ankle in the
playoffs.
So unless he could barely walk, I don't know why he missed the playoff game.
Unless you decided, I'm done with this, I don't want to prolong it.
Speaking of LeBron, Bronny is going to expect to stay in the NBA draft.
He did his official height and weight.
Without shoes, he's 6'1", 1.5", with 210 pounds, I think 6'7".
However, he did show pretty well in the NBA Combine, including making 19 or 20 for Ivan,
a three-point star drill.
Although his shot is noticeably slow.
He needs to speed that up.
Congratulations, I guess, to the Atlanta Hawks for winning, I guess.
The NBA draft lottery, they had basically no chance of doing it.
Yet they vault all the way up to the number one spot in the weakest draft, arguably ever.
I mean, I'm talking worse than the Anthony Bennett draft, at least Anthony Bennett's
draft at Outer Porter.
It's a rough draft.
It is an awful, awful, awful draft.
And so if you're a GM, I'm a Hawks, I'd trade that pick immediately.
And the Hawks have the choice to make.
You want to try and put somebody on Trey Young, or do you want to trade Trey Young to let's
say Orleans, pick up additional picks?
Like, there's so many options that the Atlanta Hawks have, I think that's why he was celebrating.
He was celebrating the possibility of options, because it definitely wasn't the first pick.
And the Lakers head coach search is being aided by legendary Duke coach Mike Shachewski, and
pretty much to come down to three names, James Borrego, who is on the New Orleans Pelican
staff, Sam Cassell, and JJ Reddick, the co-host of the Mind the Game pod with LeBron James.
So take that as you wish.
But up next, we're going to discuss the Dev NBA as they come to opening down.
Welcome back into the show.
And welcome into the WNBA regular season.
I'm excited.
I'm a fan of the W, legitimately.
I'm not one of these people that showed up.
If you guys listen to my podcast, I talk about the W in season one.
I'm a legitimately a WNBA fan.
I simply say the W. I don't say the WNBA often.
I just say the W. But I'm a legitimate fan of the W. I'm a legitimate supporter of the
W. Whatever coinage, terminology, phrasing you want to use, I'm it.
Right?
I'm a fan.
I invest in the league pass every year.
Like I'm a fan.
I bought my wife custom jerseys.
Like I'm in this thing.
Right?
I'm a little I'm sad because it's the first year since I began watching the WNBA.
I won't have any relation to Candice Parker at all.
I'm sure I'm hoping that the sparks, the sky and possibly the Aces give her a night where
she can kind of bounce around and kind of get her flowers.
Knowing Candice, she probably will say no.
But I'm at least at first.
But I'm hoping that she gets some love this season.
But out with the old and with the new.
Right?
And so the WNBA is entering their 28th season.
I kind of love the WNBA because I was me plus one.
I just turned 27.
The WNBA is turning 28.
So whatever the WNBA, whoever I am, it's me plus one.
Regardless of what the season is going to be.
Whatever my age is during the summer, that's what they are plus one.
It's pretty dope.
It's kind of the same thing as my parents wedding anniversary.
Whatever I am, plus one.
And so the W is entering their 28th season.
It's all kind of great news going on.
And they open tonight with four games all in the ESPN family networks, either on ESPN
2 or on the Watch ESPN app.
Mercury and Aces with the defending champion Aces.
The two time defending champion Aces.
Brittany get kind of an easier intro to their season.
Brittany Grinner is out.
Of course, she missed all of most of last season with the incident in Russia.
And then of course, she's out now.
I think it's wrist surgery that she had to undergo.
She missed the beginning of the season.
Hopefully she's back by the Olympics because we kind of need her in the blocks for multiple
reasons.
But so she's out for the beginning of the season.
Aces should probably roll early in the year.
They're the best team in the league.
They're bet even money to win the WNBA title.
They're the best team in the world.
Miranda's best WNBA GM survey.
They got most of the awards.
They're the best team in the WNBA.
Lynx versus Storm.
Now, the Lynx have rebuilt really nicely during this off season with some key acquisitions.
But of course, everybody's there to shoot the Storm.
Now that means the Lynx have some players, right?
For the WNBA, everybody has some players.
But the Storm, also referenced in the WNBA survey, got a lot of love.
But they have a new big three.
They have Neca Guman, Kay Scott, and Dickens Smith, and Jewel Lloyd.
That is legitimately a big three.
The NBA is kind of leaving the big three era.
The WNBA is in it.
The W's in it full blown, right?
And so the Storm boasts Neca Guman, Kay Scott, Dickens Smith, and Jewel Lloyd.
You have one of the best post players in league history.
One of the most efficient scorers in league history.
Neca Guman Kay, a champion of finals MVP.
You have Skyler Dickens Smith, one of the better point guards in the league.
One of the more controversial people in the league as well.
But she's always a good point forward general.
And you have Jewel Lloyd, one of the best scorers, if not the best scorer in the WNBA.
She's legitimate.
She's crucial.
You see her on the State Farm ad.
The one in the house, she's dribbling.
That's Jewel Lloyd for those who don't know.
She is an absolute bucket.
So much fun to watch.
She's 20 to 23 a night in a league where the average score is around 85, 90.
So she's a legitimate scorer.
She's a bucket to watch.
And her assists, her buckets this year should come a little bit easier with a legitimate
point guard in Skyler Dickens Smith.
And Neca Guman can't hold down the block.
She should have all the space in the world to operate for her shot.
The New York Liberty last year's runner up goes by Sandy Brandello versus the Washington
Mystics.
Kind of a franchise looking to bounce back.
They never really truly recovered from, I feel like I better term it the failed Dele
Don experiment.
So Dele Don was in Chicago.
She ends up in Washington and then she kind of just stops playing basketball.
And so the Mystics never really have recovered from that.
They now have Aliyah Edwards out of Yukon.
So hopefully she could be their catalyst and their call to restart the franchise.
But they're going against the Liberty.
Not the best intro.
You know, like Diana Tarsis and Phoenix probably on her last ride and her intro without her
center and Brittany Griner is the aces, right?
With the best coach and the best player and the best point guard and all the other stuff
they won in the WGM survey.
That's an awful way to begin.
Right?
And so the Liberty and the Mystics trying to reboot their franchise get the Liberty.
That's an awful way to begin.
Right?
Like you get Sandy Brandello on the bench with Sabrina Yanescu, Brianna Stewart and
John Quayle Jones.
You know, it's the big three coming in town.
That's an awful way to start your season.
And of course, the game everybody's waiting on.
The game is going to it's already sold out.
It's on ESPN2.
People are saying it could be finals like coverage with the amount of media and cameras
and attention and broadcasting and pregame show and on location.
And it's the Caitlin Clark show is arriving into the NBA finally full fledged.
Her first regular season game.
She goes against the Connecticut Sun, who's got some players.
The Connecticut Sun has some players.
They have the one about her.
They have Alyssa Thomas.
You know, they have several other players.
Where John Quayle Jones came from.
They had John Quayle Jones, who is the MVP of the league.
They trade her to the New York Liberty and they don't really miss a beat.
So that kind of tell you what the Connecticut Sun are all about in terms of they are legit.
Like I said, Don't wanna buy a Brianna Jones.
They have Alyssa Thomas.
They have Dijonay Carrington.
Like they are they have a squad.
Mariah Jefferson, Tiffany Mitchell.
Like they can play.
That's one of the things I like about the W about the W. Everybody on the roster can
play.
But you're not really gonna get people who are just bad.
You're gonna get people who can ball.
And so love that for the W. Katelyn's gonna have to ball her first game.
She has not done it so far.
Which is not what the media would like you to believe.
And I'm a huge WNBA fan so I follow these things.
I'm not just looking at her box score of 21, 6, and 4.
I'm looking at the fact she shot 5 of 13.
I'm looking at the fact she shot 4 of 12.
She's shooting awful.
She's making 3 or 4 3's a night but she's shooting 12 or 13 of them.
And so in like her first game she shot she made her first 4 and then she finished 2 of
11.
I think she ended up going like 6 of 17.
And then in the second game she goes like 4 of 12.
Like she's not shooting very well at all.
She's shooting around 35ish percent from the field.
Like that's not gonna work.
Now she's shooting so much and the fever has kind of capitulated to her playstyle.
Her shot in the miss is better than somebody else's shot in the miss.
Especially from the perimeter.
But she's gonna have to get way more efficient.
And have a counter move.
Like she wants to go left.
And I say that when she's in college.
Dawn Staley beat her because in the end of the first quarter Raven Johnson was switched
onto Katelyn Clark and sat on Katelyn Clark's left hand.
I don't care about that screen.
I don't care about nothing.
I'm making you go right.
You're not gonna go left.
And Katelyn Clark was way more efficient.
She wants those fading bombs from 3 to going left.
She prefers to go left.
If you make her go right she's either a drive artist or she's even a cis person.
At that point you're very normal.
And there was even a clip that was showing where she went right and stopped.
Like completely stopped.
And basically shot a set shot from the midrange.
It went in.
But you could tell it was an incredibly uncomfortable moment.
She didn't jump into it.
Like she literally stopped and like flat footed shot a shot basically.
And then it goes in.
Good shot.
But it's not gonna work in a game.
In a full speed game situation.
But you know I am not.
And my friends have called me a hater.
It's fine.
Call me what you want.
I watch this game.
Right?
I watch this game closely.
People call Diana Tarassi a hater.
And Stu a hater.
And all the older WNBA players.
The legends.
The walking statues.
That were saying oh she's gonna have a rough time when she comes.
She is.
Like people had no problem talking about Angel Reese is gonna struggle in the WNBA.
Because oh she's 6'4".
She's only 6'4".
And she has no jump shot.
And the bigger WNBA players are gonna really bother Angel Reese.
And she's gonna struggle.
That's why she fell in the draft to number 7.
Blah blah blah.
Even though the WNBA.
Even though the WGM say that was the best value pick in the draft.
Angel Reese at 7.
You got Angel Reese at 7.
People had no issue slandering Angel Reese and saying that she was gonna struggle with
her shot.
And her efficiency.
She's not gonna be able to just get all those rebounds.
Because the WNBA is bigger and stronger.
And it was a women.
Instead of 18, 19 year old girls she's playing women.
That was never a problem.
That was never an issue.
Which in fact her game has translated incredibly well.
She's still getting those rebounds.
She's still chopping people.
She's still talking trash.
She's still blocking shots.
She's still laying up through contact.
Her game hasn't changed much.
Right?
Like.
Now she's showed in off season workouts she can shoot a little bit.
But her game is her game.
Right?
It hasn't changed much.
Because she finished playing college basketball in the March.
She's playing her first program in the middle of May.
Right?
So she hasn't had a lot of time to really change the game.
You know?
But yet when veterans and people who watch the game and pundits and the occasional fan
dare to say, Katelyn won't just be able to abuse a 5 foot 4 guard who's never gonna make
it to the WNBA or even play professional basketball.
She's not gonna just be able to take 30 shots.
Like she won't just be able to just say, oh I shot 2 for 10 in the first half so I'm gonna
shoot 20 in the second half and shoot myself out of it.
Like that's not gonna work.
Right?
But when anybody said that we were immediately like, oh y'all hating.
No one's ever seen anything like her.
She's gonna be the female GOAT.
Blah blah blah.
Like Brianna Stewart who won 4 national championships and 3 player of the year awards had to adjust.
Maya Moore had to adjust.
Brittany Greiner had to adjust.
Like I'm not saying Katelyn Clark won't ever be good.
I'm not saying she won't come in an average 18'6 and 7.
You know what I'm saying?
And just, and fever lose but in any fish in 18'6 and 7.
Like you could just, like I'm not saying that won't happen.
What I'm saying is she won't walk in the door and be one of the best 30 players in the league.
Like okay.
Alright alright alright.
She won't be one of the best 25 players in the league.
Like she's not the best player on her own team.
That's Aliyah Boston.
Like she wouldn't be the best player on any WNBA team right now.
Maybe the Mystics?
Like if she wants to be the Mystics she should be the unquestioned best player.
But like she would not be the best player in Phoenix.
Let's look at the teams that plays today.
Like let's not even worry about you know teams that don't play today.
Look at the teams that play today.
Like I'm looking at the Mystics roster.
She'd be the best player on the Mystics.
Because the only other person I think of that would challenge her.
Aliyah Edwards who I think she's better than.
Maybe Ariel Atkins.
Okay so she'd be the best player on the Mystics.
But the Mercury.
Dan Atross is better.
Brittany Griner is better.
Kaliyah Copper right this second.
She'd be better.
Las Vegas Aces.
Let's move on.
They have Asia Wilson.
The Minnesota Lynx have Nafisa Kalia.
I'm gonna take Nafisa Kalia.
The Storm have Nneka Sky and Jewel.
I'm gonna take Jewel and Nneka.
The Liberty have Sabrina Stewart and Jon Quill.
I'm gonna take all three.
The Mystics okay.
The Fever Aliyah Boston is better.
And Connecticut Alyssa Thomas is better.
At least.
So when you go through these teams.
That's the team that's playing today.
She's already at 13-14.
And the leagues only have 144 players.
You know I'm not thinking about the Sparks.
She's probably the best player on the Sparks.
I think Cameron Brink does more.
Like I'm not saying she won't be good.
And for all I know she could go out tonight and have 27-7 and tennises hit you know 8
of 12 threes and it's just this bonanza.
She hits a 40 footer.
Like it could be an absolute show tonight on ESPN2 in front of the world.
So would our crowd.
Everybody's watching.
It could be a show.
And she could also get 15-4 and 5 on 5 of 18 shooting and then get a lose by 20.
Because again the Sun is a good team.
Like I just want stuff to be rational.
I just want stuff to make sense.
The Caitlin Clark coverage is not making sense.
We're not making sense.
Because what you say about one you don't say about the other.
You say that Angel is going to struggle translating.
People wonder about Camila Cordoza not having those games.
People wondered about Cameron Brink being scared.
Like everybody had a worry except Caitlin Clark.
Who didn't beat any of them.
So it would be remiss of me to just simply say oh she's going to walk in the league and
tear it up.
That's the common phrase.
Number one, number two it's not necessarily true.
Number three even the highlight package they show you every time they put up the old box
score everybody go Kyah, at least she shot that.
They made it on TV look like she didn't miss.
Exactly.
Charles Bark is told by the double club Shea Shea.
How he did it in reference to Rudy Gobert gets slandered.
But it was kind of like in a two hour game the highlight package is one minute.
So whoever the star is is going to get 40 seconds of the minute.
Whoever the star is.
So for the Timberwolves Anthony Edwards and Kat are going to get 45 seconds of the highlight
reel.
So the other 15 seconds is sprinkled in with Gobert dunk a big block maybe a pull up three.
Like that's the highlight package.
For the Nuggets a lot of Yolkits a lot of Murray a lot of Michael Porter Jr. maybe Aaron
Gordon dunk.
That's the highlight package.
For the Fever if Katelyn Clark made six shots five of them are going to be in the highlight
reel.
Aliyah Boston is going to be mentioned and that's the highlight.
So when she shot full for four early bang bang bang I'm like okay she came in hitting
and then she finished two of 11.
So and people were talking to me like man I thought she didn't miss.
You would have thought that living in the highlight package.
And I'm not a Katelyn Clark hater I'm a Katelyn Clark realist.
I spoke about her inefficiency in college and people came at me.
And I'm saying I'm not just thinking about I see the number but I watch the game and
I'm noticing when she's not going left she's horrible not horrible but she's not nearly
the player that hey she's hyped to be she's like that either.
But that she is going left going left you get the 35 foot bombs you get the 30 foot
bombs you get the come around the screen over somebody shot because she's comfortable going
left she's really comfortable going left.
Going right yeah so that is something I noticed and looked at and I was called a hater.
So guess what and I said she's going to have to deal with the WNBA.
I said most teams in college don't have the personnel.
They just don't and that's why I like men college basketball stars sometimes a good
bit of time don't make it in the NBA because a lot of times they're either just physically
more gifted or they have a way better coach.
That's not the case in college she's a six foot guard in college who can move dribble
and shoot 30 foot threes.
That's something that especially when giving the ultra green light it's hard to stop in
college.
Most people don't have WNBA level players.
Guess what in the WNBA they're all WNBA level players.
Like she's going against her son Alyssa Thomas going to have some shots at her.
I want to bond her and have some shots at her like she won't just be able to just walk
herself into these shots and the two teams that she played in her first couple of preseason
games and didn't play all that well weren't necessarily locked down teams.
They weren't like they weren't teams that was just oh my god they're going to lead
the league in defense.
Like probably not like Dejane Cain is going to have her shot at her.
Rachel Barnum is going to have her shot at her.
Tiffany Mitchell is for sure going to have her shot at her.
Tiffany Mitchell is one of the best defensive players in the W. And when you just look at
that light you're going to have to work in the W. You're not going to just calmly jack
up 30 shots.
You're not going to get 30 shots anyway against a professional basketball team.
Like you're going to have to go to work there.
Kailin Clutton will have to prove herself.
I think she'll be a good player.
I think she'll make a lot of all-star teams.
I think she'll make a couple of all-NBAs, a couple of all-W teams.
Like I think she'll be a legitimate number one pick.
I do.
I don't see her being a bus.
But I will say that she's going to have to deal with a lot of scrutiny if you look up.
She's inefficient which I believe she will be.
And Indiana's 7-17.
What do you do at that point?
The coach probably gets fired.
The GM might not be far behind.
If Leah Boston not putting up big numbers, going to be looking at Leah Boston.
Oh, Kima Clark will need more help.
She got that bum on Leah Boston.
So now how does Leah Boston feel?
There's a new franchise opening up.
I am sure the Valkyrie would love to have Leah Boston.
Me and my wife were talking about that earlier.
What if Indiana succumbs to public pressure or whatever and lets Leah Boston be unprotected
in the fantasy draft?
Is Leah Boston a Valkyrie?
You know, like, is Leah Boston a Valkyrie?
They're going to have the number one pick I believe is how the WNBA are doing it.
They're going to drive Paige Becker's.
So if the Valkyrie can show up with Paige Becker's and Leah Boston, they're immediately
legitimate.
Like, so, that's, you know, a lot of stuff's got to happen and it's a long WNBA season.
Longer than normal.
They have the Olympic break.
We'll talk about that when it gets closer.
How that kind of works with them.
It's kind of like the bubble break but much shorter.
Like a super long all-star break.
Like for three, for two weeks.
Or I think it's three weeks I think.
The season just pauses.
Like I said, it's like a super long all-star break.
Because I think they fly out.
I think the whole basketball tournament in the NBA is, the Olympics is 10 days, 14 days.
So for like two and a half, three weeks, the league just pauses and then they come back
and the season picks up.
Odd thing.
But, whatever.
But we're definitely keeping our eye on the Katelyn Carr game tonight.
I will be watching.
Everybody's going to be watching.
I will be watching it closely.
Very, very closely.
And you will hear my thoughts on it probably right after the game.
We'll definitely see what happens on X.
I'll keep your eye posted on my social medias.
And I mentioned them already.
Expansions coming to the WNBA.
The Golden State franchise that was announced a while back have their name and their colors
and their logo.
They will be the Golden State Valkyrie.
Valkyrie is mentioned in Marvel.
Tess Thompson's Valkyrie.
But traditionally in Norse mythology, Viking mythology, they are the choosers of the dead
basically.
Or the guiders of the dead.
Their whole job as the Valkyrie is to carry the good people up to Odin.
And the land, wherever the Viking word is.
But Viking heaven basically.
Up to Odin.
That was the Valkyrie's job.
Ushered the soul up.
And so that's what they're named after.
But also in more modern times, you see that in Marvel, they're deemed as warriors.
Like the Valkyrie's fight.
Female warriors.
The Golden State men's team called.
The warriors.
It's very, it's very, like you see that a lot of times with teams that are linked together.
That they'll name kind of off the other team.
For instance, the Los Angeles Sparks started into these Showtime Lakers.
Um, there's Seattle.
Oh, it's not somebody else.
Somebody else is linked in.
Whoa.
In the early days, it was the Charlotte Sting was the Debbie Mae franchise or the Charlotte
Hornets.
Um, man, I'm trying to think.
It's another one too.
And I'm drawing a blank.
And it's upsetting.
But it's, oh, the Minnesota Lynx.
Lynx is a kind of a softer term for wolf.
You know what I'm saying?
Like these teams are kind of linked in together for those of them who are partnered up.
And so obviously, the Golden State franchise owned by Joe Lake of and crew are partnered
up with the men's franchise.
So the warriors now have their sister team, the Valkyrie.
Um, dope logo.
I post all of social media if you want to see it.
Um, then the Toronto Debbie Mae franchise don't have their branding, don't have their
name, but they've been awarded a franchise in 2026.
Kathy Engelbert wants to go to 16 teams by 2028, which means that is kind of the sweet
spot number she's thinking 16.
I say the sweet spot number is 18 or 20.
Um, because 16 teams play about twice 30 games and then kind of randomized the last six games
over 36 games.
18 teams play about twice.
That's 34 games.
And then you have two teams who play twice 36 games or you get like 20 teams.
You play everybody twice.
That's 38 games.
And you un-conference the playoffs like it is now.
And you don't have to go by none of the nonsense.
You can go by whatever.
Um, and then there's reportedly 20 viable cities wanting to host teams anyway.
So give everybody a team, expand kind of a pop expansion.
It'd be crazy draft, but give everybody a team, pop expansion and see where it goes.
But she's smartly, she's getting good ownership, she's getting good cities.
She's doing one at a time.
So we're going to get UC in the goal and save Valkyrie.
Then we're going to get UC in the Toronto whatever's and then we're going to have two
more teams, one in 27.
I assume one in 28.
Maybe we got another one.
I know she want to kind of keep it even.
So she's doing a great job as commissioner.
I've had my issues with Kathy Engelbert in the past, but I'm starting to kind of learn.
It's not really her, it's kind of the old ownership groups, not really allowing her
to maneuver the way she probably wants to as the commissioner.
So it does work however for the owners, which is something that NFL fans still haven't quite
figured out.
But up next we're shifting to the NFL and touching on what's going down.
Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait.
I almost forgot about the WNBA survey.
I was like talking so much, I almost forgot about the survey.
Okay.
It's weird on my notes.
So the WNBA had a GM survey that all the sports leagues do it, but some interesting things
that went down.
So by position, I don't really, best small four is irrelevant.
But best center was Asia Wilson followed by John Corleone Jones and Brittany Greiner.
Best powerful was Rihanna Stewart followed by Asia Wilson and Satu Sabale.
Best point guard was Joe Chelsea Gray who cares who was second.
Best shooting guard was Joel Lloyd, again who cares who was in second.
The best total off season was the end of the Seattle Storm.
Remember I spoke about that is the team that ends up with Nneka Gumake, Skyler Diggins
and Joel Lloyd.
I mean that's ridiculous.
That's insane, right?
That's insane.
For those of you who want to know the best small four was Satu Sabale, but she only won
25% of her vote.
That's why I said the other positions were kind of more solidified.
Satu only won 25% of her vote, but she is deemed as the best small four in the W.
Best coach was Becky Hammond and then most improved team was the Indiana Fever basically
because of Kaelyn Clark.
But the aces, the aces kind of swept, not swept, they dominated the awards.
There was some other stuff like who won, well I would say the aces dominated the awards.
For instance the aces won best offensive team, most fun to watch, most efficient team, best
home court advantage.
Chester Gray wins best point guard, best passer, best leader, best basketball IQ and the person
who will make the best head coach someday.
Asia Wilson wins the preseason pick for WNBA, Kia MVP, best center, best defender, best
interior defender.
So they won a lot and then of course they won, Becky Hammond won best coach.
And then Asia came in second too, if you were starting a franchise today who would you sign?
And Kaelyn Clark got number one, that's for a lot of reasons, that's for marketing and
basketball.
Asia Wilson got number two, Elia Boston got number three.
So if you are the Indiana Fever, you gotta be thinking, well actually the Indiana Fever
did win 100% of the vote for the best young court, which was the Fever.
Because they have two of the three best, they have two of the three players the GM's would
sign as starting their franchise.
There's 16 teams, that's 14 teams.
So Kaelyn Clark got seven votes, Elia Boston got one vote and Asia Wilson got the other
six.
So the core you want is the Fever core, you got the back to back number one overall picks
on Indiana.
So they're going to be very exciting to watch.
And now up next to the NFL and talk about what's going down with the shield.
Welcome back into the show.
And now we're going to jump into the NFL rather, just rather quickly, about what's going on
down there.
Schedule releases slowly, networks are slowly telling us our big opening games.
We're kind of getting bits and pieces of the schedule.
I think the big schedule releases either today or tomorrow.
We'll get everybody's schedule full schedule, all 17 games for every team.
And then of course, a few months from now, I'll do my annual sit down, where I spend
way too much time.
But I sit down and pick every single record.
And I know there's a soft whack to put that in.
But I sit down, I print the whole schedule out and I sit down with a pen and paper, two
pens and paper, and I do every single game and every single record and who does what.
And I go to the playoffs and it's a whole thing.
It's nerdy for a lot, but it's fun for me.
Right.
And I enjoy it.
It's a fun time.
So schedules are leaking out, quote unquote.
Right.
And the Chiefs have back to back big weeks.
The Chiefs open the season Thursday night opener with of course, the other defending champs.
They open up the NFL season on Thursday night at home and they draw the Baltimore A-Roll.
So they get an AFC title game rematch.
Game one.
Let's go.
Let's do it right now.
Let's go.
They're going to decide.
They're going to go.
I mean, they may lock up home field advantage by week two.
Why?
Because week two, they host the Bengals.
So they're in a position where they can lock, they can put a chokehold on home field advantage
by week two.
If they beat the Bengals and the Ravens, that means that's two people in their thing.
They don't have to worry about, which means they have the Bengals and the Ravens.
They have the AFC North as their conference, as their division this year.
That ain't great.
Well, no, because you draw a cross.
It ain't been random.
I don't know.
But regardless, they got the Ravens and the Bengals to open up their season.
So they can put a legitimate chokehold and stranglehold on the AFC home field advantage
by week two.
And they knock out the Bengals and the Ravens.
Conversely, they could be staring at football near impossibility if they go down, if they're
down 0-2 after week two.
The Ravens get them, then the Bengals get them.
They could be 0-2.
And 0-2 teams traditionally don't make the playoffs.
It happens, but it's rare.
And so that'll be something to definitely keep our eye on, is the Chiefs opening up
with those two games.
Of course, Friday, you have the Eagles hosting in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Just the coolness of that, like go play football in Brazil.
You know what I'm saying?
So I know always going to be in Brazil hanging out, and then they get to go play a football
game in Brazil, which is something that no football player ever dreams of, because who
plays football, who plays American football in Brazil?
Literally no one.
So that's pretty cool for the Eagles.
And I forgot who they're playing.
I think it's the Packers, I want to say.
But I forgot who they're playing, but they're going to play their opening game in Brazil.
That's pretty dope.
And then of course, the NFL full slate.
Tom Brady's first game will be a Dallas Cowboy Cleveson Brown game.
That'll be his first game as a broadcaster as part of his 10-year, $325 million contract
to be the lead guy for Fox.
So that'll be his first game, of course, almost the lead guy for CBS.
The Niners open up Prime Time, I think Sunday night football, Prime Time, against the Jets.
So they will host the Jets.
Aaron Rodgers comes back on Prime Time.
Last time was Aaron Rodgers.
He was in Prime Time on 9-11.
He ran out in New York, well, New Jersey, but home in New York, holding the American
flag.
It was a big moment.
It was everybody was cheering and crying.
And then four plays later, he's being stretched it off for the Twenton Achilles and it's over.
So hopefully we don't have that.
And he goes at San Francisco to open it up.
So that's going to be intriguing.
And so that's kind of the games we have leaked out so far.
With Devil Keeper got updated on more leaks, if and when they were to occur.
Also some news, contract news, big dollar news.
The Detroit Lions continue to pay people.
They agreed to a four year, $212 million contract with Jared Goff with a $170 million guaranteed.
$212 million is the largest contract given in Detroit Lions history.
It is the second largest per annual value contract in the NFL.
And the $170 million guaranteed is the largest guaranteed contract by long margin with the
Detroit Lions franchise.
So they continue to pay.
They pay Peney Sewell, they pay Amara, they pay Peney Sewell high in the market.
They pay Amara high in the market.
Now they're paying Jared Goff high in the market.
I don't think there's any top contracts, but they're all right there.
And so congratulations to the Lions for locking down this core.
And then the Buccaneers, of course, they continue to spend as well.
They paid Mike Evans, they paid Baker Mayfield, they paid somebody else.
I can't think of who it was right now.
And Carlton Day are think out of bag.
And now Antoine Winfield gets his bag.
Four years, $84.1 million.
It is the biggest ever for a safety in the history of the NFL.
He also gets the most guaranteed money.
He gets what is most dollars for a DB in the history of the NFL and he gets the most guaranteed
dollars for a safety in the NFL history.
So another big contract in Tampa, because they've been spending a lot of money this
off season, but they are trying to make sure that they do not fall off a map and they keep
their good core together as well.
And then my last one, the NFL is an anonymous coach for the Bears.
They came out slandering Justin Fields saying that it was bad football to watch and Justin
was trying to see everything at once and saw nothing and just a bunch of slander and stuff,
right?
And it goes back to what I was saying about Caleb Williams, a little bit about Katelyn
Clark and Justin Fields in previous podcasts.
It feels like a concerted effort to make Katelyn Williams look good and Justin Fields look
good.
It feels like they're going out of their way to say, okay, Caleb is the guy.
We're going to give Caleb all the weapons.
We're going to give Caleb the system.
We're going to give him a coach.
Oh, why do you get Justin Fields?
Well, Justin Fields sucks.
So there's that.
Like it's kind of the environment that they're giving and they can say this, especially when
no one ran to trade for Fields.
He went for like a conditional, like I said, conditional six.
Like it's not like the lead beat down the door of the, beat down the door of the Bears
like please trade with Justin Fields.
It didn't happen.
So now you're in a kind of a power position where you can say and do almost whatever you
want regarding his time in Chicago because you're back by the market.
So that is definitely, I don't think it's okay.
If you're kind of jacked up, I think if you're going to say it, put your name on it.
I know I've always felt that way about anonymous bashing votes.
Like you're bold enough to say it, put your name on it, bro.
Like period.
But that is definitely something to keep your eye on there.
But up next, we're going to go to Jax Hot Take, which is going to be college football.
It's going to be the best it will be in years.
Welcome into Jax Hot Take.
And my take simply is that college football will be the best it has been in years.
Period.
Regardless of how you feel about college football, this is going to be the best it's been in
years.
Last year was the year the quarterback play.
This is going to be the year, this is the realignment year, people.
This is the year of realignment.
This is the year that we get all the alignment news and all the hoopla that we talked about
and all the noise that we heard for years.
Again, I'm old enough to remember the Pac 16.
Like I remember that when the Big 12 was supposed to die.
I remember how the Pac 12 died.
I remember it.
Like the Big 12 was supposed to die.
It got to the point where it was like the incident blade basically stepped in.
Like you can't kill a powerful conference.
Like figure it out.
Like you're not doing that.
And that's when the Pac 12 of the Mountain West started doing stuff and it got tricky.
Right?
Like this time, out of school said, that's that and that's you.
We're gone.
And so the Pac 12 is dead.
And so you get stuff like USC, UCLA and Oregon are now in the Big 10.
Whoa, Colorado's in the Big 12?
Wait, wait, Texas and Oklahoma's in the SEC?
Wait, the ACC could be the thought?
Wait, what's happened?
Like that's not how it's feeling.
It was like a whole summer of just pew, pew, pew, pew, pew, where everybody's going everywhere.
All these Pac 12 schools jetted.
Like there's two Pac 12 schools in the ACC.
So that cross conference trial is going to be, cross cut trial is going to be insane.
You know, like a local time California team maybe in a conference game on the East Coast
and playing at 9 a.m.
Like it's going to be wild.
Right?
And it's going to be so great.
It's going to be amazing like Texas and Oklahoma's in the SEC.
Like I don't think you understand.
Like that's insane.
Georgia, Alabama, LSU, Texas and Oklahoma are in the same conference.
Like just listen to those brands again.
Georgia, Alabama, LSU, Texas and Oklahoma are in the same conference.
That's not even including what Texas got money wise.
The sleeping giant that is Florida, Auburn's right there.
Arkansas every four to five years was on a good team.
Missouri's never awful.
They're bouncing up.
Like that's a conference.
The Big Ten, Michigan, Ohio State, Michigan State, Iowa, USC, UCLA and Oregon are a conference.
That's ridiculous.
Like so every week in the Big Ten, every week in the SEC, you're going to have to go to
war to get out.
Plus there's a 12-scene playoff.
The first round of the playoffs are in home sites.
Are you kidding me?
Are you telling me that LSU could host Michigan?
That's you say in the first round of the playoffs in Tiger Stadium at night in November?
Are you kidding me?
Or December really?
Like that's ridiculous.
Alabama could have to go on the road to USC late December in LA for the playoffs.
Texas hosts of two loss Oregon.
Let's say Oregon has an off year.
Two loss Oregon goes down to DKR Memorial in late December around Christmas time.
It's snowing sideways because it's Texas.
Like this is insanity what this could be.
And so just the endless possibilities, the fun, the drama, the opening weekend is great.
You got North Dakota State and Colorado.
You've got USC and LSU.
You've got Florida, Miami.
You've got Notre Dame and Texas A&M.
Like the brands and the beauty and the pageantry and the awesomeness.
And you've got two more teams chanting SEC and you've got the Big Ten saying no we ain't
bowing down to nobody.
And it's just like Chip Kelly left UCLA as the head man to go OC Ohio State.
And now they're in the same conference.
What is this?
A&M goes to the SEC to escape the shadow of Texas.
Now they share a conference with Texas again so all their managers are gone.
It's wild.
It's insane.
And I cannot wait for it.
This is going to be the best college football has been in years.
I'm trying to think of a good time to put it in.
Late 2000s, early 2010s, at least 10 years.
It's going to be so much fun.
Every single week with these matchups and I cannot wait for it.
But that is all I have for you guys today.
I hope you guys enjoy this Insta release show.
This is one of my rarities that I get although they probably come a little more frequently
just because it's going to be summertime.
So I have a little more time on my hands with school winding down.
So I'll be able to talk to you guys a little bit more on the Insta release style Tuesday
after practice kind of thing.
Or Wednesday after practice kind of thing.
You'll get a Baker High football update and you'll get your usual sports updates as well.
So I hope you guys enjoyed this pod.
It's one of our long goals we've had in a while.
A little over an hour and 15 minutes.
But it was well worth it with all the content we packed in.
But that is all I have for you guys today.
This is your host Justin Jackson signing out.