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Just In Time Sports, come and get your weekly
takes Come and get it, he gon' tell it to you
straight, to you straight Welcome into the show,
welcome back The Just In Time Sports Podcast
is back. Our first show since October 8th. It's
been over four months. Sorry about that, guys.
Sincerest apologies. We're going to get back
to our regularly scheduled shows. We're going
to come back to you every week. However, a lot
of things happened. Great football season ended
up coming in second in the state. the holiday
season and just a lot of stuff happened. And
then when football season was winding down, my
football season was winding down. There was so
much to go on. I missed a lot. I missed a lot,
which I would have been able to talk about with
you guys at the time. As far as the NFL season
and kind of breaking down what happened towards
the end and kind of my excitement for that. The
transfer portal was insane being an LSU guy.
I think the last time we talked, I think Brian
Kelly was still the head coach of LSU. Obviously
that is no longer the case. The NBA hadn't even
started yet. Women's college basketball was not
even a thought process. The WNBA actually had
hoped to start their season on time. A lot of
things occurred in the four months we've been
away. But I am back. I am excited to be back.
This is, of course, your owner and host, Justin
Jackson, coming to you from the JTS studio. This
is Justin Time Sports Season 7, Episode 1. I'm
excited to be back with you guys. Coming to you
locally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I don't
think I've ever mentioned that. I think I've
mentioned, like, the state or whatever. But coming
to you locally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the
heart, of course, of LSU football. Of course,
South Louisiana. Of course, I keep my eye on
the Saints because I'm a Patriots fan. For those
of you who are new, some of you could be new
to the show, kind of want to get our bias out
there in Front Street. I'm a huge Patriots fan.
I'm a huge LSU fan. Those two topics would never
be unbiased on this show. I don't care if I say
in future episodes, hey, guys, this is going
to be an unbiased moment for me regarding LSU
football or regarding the Patriots. It will never
be unbiased regarding those two topics. Now,
LSU basketball, LSU baseball, LSU women's basketball,
if track and field comes up on this show, obviously
those will be a little more unbiased. Not a whole
lot of unbiased, but they would be a lot more
unbiased than LSU football. LSU football would
never be unbiased on this show ever in life.
Let's just get that out of the way. Now, the
New England Patriots topics. I think I'm a fairly
unbiased fan. However, I always think it depends
on the team expectations. For instance, I wasn't
on for four months, but I feel like I would have
been very unbiased regarding. the Patriots this
season because I didn't have a ton of expectations
for us. So I thought, I said going into the season,
you guys remember, I said going into the season,
let's fight for a playoffs fight. Bills are going
to win our division. Okay, that's fine. You know,
that's probably one, maybe two more years of
them doing that where they'll be, to me, clearly
the best team in the division. One or two more
years is kind of their Super Bowl window. So
they're going to be clearly the best team in
the division. That's fine. We're not fighting
for that right now anyway. We're in year one
of a head coach, year two of a quarterback. Like,
we're fine. This is the first year to me of the
rebuild. The Gerard Mill year didn't count. Kind
of how I felt about the Urban Meyer year in Jacksonville.
Kind of how I felt about another one -year dud
somewhere. I didn't even count towards that rebuild.
Like, it didn't count. To me, Raheem Morris with
Atlanta last year was like a lame duck coach.
That almost didn't count. But Gerard Mayo and
Urban Meyer's years were like, oh, Pete Carroll
in Vegas. That didn't count. Like, it was a stopgap
year. The intent was there. The intent was fine.
It's just the intent didn't come through. It
felt like a stopgap year, right? So, to me, in
New England, this is year one of the true post
-Bella checking era. Gerard Mayo was almost,
didn't count, kind of got scapegoated, kind of
got sent out, you know, to kind of take the brunt
of the blame. I truly think, along with how he
acted at the head coach, a lot of reports came
out. We're going to have to re -talk about that
and re -discuss that. I truly think what happened
to him was that last game of the season. As far
as winning that Buffalo game, losing the number
one pick. And then, now, granted, we ended up
with Jack May. So, it all worked out in the wash.
But, having the control of the number one pick.
Or do we have Drake May already? No, we had Drake
May already. We lost to the number one pick.
We were going to trade it because a set man played
Milton. We were going to trade it and have control
of the draft and didn't end up falling back.
Again, it worked out in the wash anyway, but
having the control of the pick would have been
a lot better situation. Regardless, I look at
it kind of as, again, I look at this year as
our first year of our real post -Belichickian
era. I say anything over nine wins in the playoff
spot I'm good with. Then I kind of said, okay,
the only playoff game I expect to win is the
Chargers game because I knew what we did well
on defense was send pressure. I knew what they
didn't have was off its line. So we beat them.
I said, okay, anything after that is lame. I
knew about Houston's defense. Then I knew about
Denver's defense. Even though with Jared Stidham,
I said, they have an amazing defense. And then
I knew what Seattle brought. Right? And so. Super
Bowl loss, I'm perfectly fine with. I was good
with. So this is probably the most unbiased of
seasons you will ever see from me as a Patriots
fan. And none of you heard it because I wasn't
on for four months. But I am back. Enough of
what you missed. Enough of what I could have
talked about. Because I had an NFL topic in here.
And I'll discuss kind of the NFL season as a
whole really quickly at a certain point in the
show. I kind of touched on it a lot there, kind
of talk about how I felt regarding several people.
However, let's actually get into what we are
not talking about. The JTS Quick Touch is our
new segment. So anytime we have a new kind of
a overview of topics kind of going around the
sports world, I think you guys may want to hear
about. I will do the JTS Quick Touch. What that
means is we'll just quickly touch. on any of
the variety of topics that are out there. The
number one, of course, being the Winter Olympics.
We're not going to talk about the Winter Olympics.
You guys often don't care about the Winter Olympics.
The most interesting story about the Winter Olympics
so far has been the condom shortage. You guys
generally don't care about the Winter Olympics.
I like certain events. For instance, I fall in
love with curling for two weeks every four years.
I don't understand it. I don't get the scoring
aspect. I don't understand what a foul is. Apparently,
that was a cheating scandal. Apparently, they
did the same cheating scandal previously. I don't
understand it, but it's a very fun thing to watch.
I feel like there's always some new death -defying
ski event that's always interesting. I used to
be a huge Winter X Games fan, so the X Games
events that are in the Olympics, I'll watch.
So, Super Pipe, Big Air, Any of the racings,
of course. Ski and snowboard, I'm pretty much
in. If you have skis on your feet or a snowboard
on your feet, I'm pretty much in. I'm out on
the skating. I'm out on the figure skating. I'll
watch the hockey a little bit. Most of the events,
I'm out, right? Because there's a lot more of
what the Summer Olympics has for gymnastics,
they have for skiing, I mean, for skating. I'm
just not interested. I don't get the bobsledding.
I don't get what makes you fast. It's a very
simple concept to me. Whoever gets down the hill
fastest. Very simple concept to me. I don't understand
the techniques. I don't understand what makes
you fast. I just don't get it, right? I don't
know what it is. I'll also quickly touch on men's
college basketball. We're not going to get into
it today. However, there will be a topic that
will come up. March Madness is around the corner.
The conference tournaments are four to six games
away, depending on your schedule. The men's college
basketball games. There are a lot of talented
players in it. A lot of, lot of talented players
in it. We've got A .J. DeBansta. We've got Darren
Peterson. Caleb Love at Carolina. I messed up
by naming players. I'm going to have to get people.
But there are a lot of, I mean, it feels like
every day somebody else is going for 40. I mean,
there's a lot of talented players in it. I think
NIL is helping. And we'll actually talk about
NIL regarding college football later in the show.
So I don't want to dive too far into it because
I'm sure I'm going to tie it all together. But
there's a lot of talented college basketball
players in there. And college baseball is starting
as well. So if you're a big college baseball
fan, as obvious as an LSU graduate, there is
an atmosphere that beats the box, maybe besides
Omaha. But out of the box stadium and Tiger Stadium
is already up and running. Jay Johnson on his
title defense. Again, I probably won't be very
biased to them either. Or very unbiased to them
either. It is what it is. College baseball is
back. But let's get into the actual show. You
guys have been here 11 minutes, and so far what
you've heard is an amazing intro song by B -Roy,
a good friend of mine, a rapper out of the Northeast.
Check out his stuff on Apple Music. I feel like
he's always dropping some heat every few weeks,
it feels like. But amazing rapper out of the
Northeast. uh philly area uh b -roy is his name
and we'll link uh his album in the episode description
or his project music episode description um and
you've heard what i'm not talking about in kind
of updated life but you are here for my commentary
on a variety of options on a variety of topics
the main topic happening of course right now
is the nba so let's get right into the nba and
the big thing was the all -star game so There's
been a lot of different commentaries on it. The
All -Star game has been, I kind of feel like
I've seen the peak of the All -Star and I kind
of feel like I've seen the death of the All -Star
game all at one time. To me, I feel like I've
seen the peak of All -Star weekend and I've seen
the death of All -Star weekend. So let's talk
about the peak. To me, the peak was 2016 to 2020,
give or take. 2016, of course, to me is the greatest
slam dunk contest of all time. That is Levine
Gordon 1. That is where Levine does windmill
from the free throw line, the lob from the free
throw line, and the between the legs from the
free throw line. He also does the between the
legs backwards. That is Aaron Gordon's sit -down
dunk, the 360 catching windmill off on the mascot,
the double pump. Levine Gordon 1. To me, it's
the greatest dunk contest of all time. Easily
the best. I mean, to me, there's mystique behind
like Jordan Dominique, where Dominique does the
from vert to overhand windmill. Jordan freaks
online, dunks it for the first time, and creates
the Jordan logo. Like, you know, there's mystique
contests. But as far as quality of dunks, there's
nobody beating Levine Gordon one. And then I've
seen amazing three -point contests. Three -point
contests, to me, just the shot go in. Like, it
was the Clay, Damon, Steph three -point contest.
It was insane. To me, that always is to do the
shots go in. If the shots don't go in, it doesn't
matter. But then the all -star, I remember the
celebrity all -star games used to be, like, fun.
Like, Bieber, Terrell Owens, Kevin Hart, Monet
Davis. You'd get, like, active senators and congressmen,
like, actively playing in the game. Like, it
was a fun game. Obama almost played that one
year. And somebody was like, who's going to guard
the president? Because you filed the president
as a threat to national security. Like, you know,
the All -Star Game used to be a fun thing. Or
the Celebrity All -Star Game, rather. It used
to be this fun event that kind of you looked
forward to on Thursday night or whatever they
did. Because it was like enough celebrities.
You knew the celebrities. You knew the people.
The WNBA would be the only players on the floor.
But they were, like, jogging. Because they weren't
even in season, you know. Or, no, they're not
even in season. They're an all -star. They're,
you know, a month or something before they even
go to training camp. So they're on the floor.
They're jogging. They're laughing. They put a
couple moves on people and go to the rim, kind
of laughing and joking. And then the all -star
game itself. I remember the all -star game in
Jerry World, you know, where they had the all
-star game. And then, of course, to me, the peak
of the all -star game was the Kobe Memorial all
-star game. Right after Kobe Bryant had died.
The numbers, each one team wore 24 for Kobe.
The other one wore two for Gigi. And it was the
first year of the Elam ending or the target score.
They can't use Elam ending because that's from
the basketball attorney that did have that trademarked.
But target score, that was the first year of
the target score too. It was whatever the highest
team plus 24. And that game was amazing. It ended
anticlimactically because it ended with Anthony
Davis getting fouled and shooting free throws.
And that's how he got the target score. It wasn't
a buzzer beater. I think LeBron had the first,
like, real shot to end it. But, you know, we
had, I mean, there's iconic photos from that
game. LeBron walking down, you know, and Giannis
is in front of him, checking him up. And you
see Spike Lee and the Migos and everybody standing
up in the background, like, basically leaned
over the court like some big -time AAU or high
school local basketball game. Everybody's on
their feet and leaned over the court. Because
Giannis got a chance to win it. I mean, LeBron's
got a chance to win it. Giannis is guarding them.
And it was just the spirit of competitiveness
was at an all -time high because they were basically
playing for Kobe. You know, and they always,
you kind of go back and reference that Kobe's
the reason why these events were as competitive
as they were. Kobe brought USA Basketball back
because the first person Jerry Colangelo and
the Colangelos went to to fix it was Kobe Bryant.
Which, of course, led to a lot of players like
LeBron, D -Wade, so on and so forth. Don't have
to re -talk about that either. But what I mean
is that All -Star game had the spirit of Kobe
all through it because they were basically playing
for Kobe. They were playing in honor of Kobe.
And then the next year, I believe it was a LeBron
fadeaway game winner. And then it trailed back
off. It was almost like that spirit of Kobe one.
Everybody was going hard. I mean, people were
sweating, fouling at the end. Like, the collar
took a charge. Like, people were playing basketball.
And then the next one still had that remnants
of the target score, and then it faded back off.
And then the last couple years, I mean, literally,
they've been walking into, like, consecutive
possessions of just walking down the court, side
of the half court, shooting a three. Walking
down the court, seven -half court, two to three.
Walking down the court, seven -half court, two
to three. Somebody's going to steal. They wouldn't
even do the big charter for the big boom dunk.
They would, like, land the ball casually. You
know what I'm saying? Like, it had lost all the
flair. It lost all the juice to the point people
were talking about, man, let's not even stop
doing it. They haven't even done any full all
-star game in about three years. They've done
these mini -games. But the problem with the mini
-games is, like, LeBron played two minutes and
checked out. Like, I know there's a COVID one.
lebron didn't really play because it's supposed
to be in somewhere they moved to atlanta and
lebron barely played and it was you know you
get these excuse me you get these moments do
it all so the past three years been a joke anyway
they introduced usa versus world the reason why
this is a good timed idea i think the timing
was impactful i don't know if it works next year
well it might but I'll start off with, the timing
was respectful because we just had the Olympics.
The Summer Olympics were, we just had the Paris
Olympics in 2024. So the Olympics kind of remnant
was kind of still on it. Because this is the
first all -star, really, that you implemented
USA versus the world aspect. Well, what's coming
down the pike is 2028. So you're at 2024, you
just had LeBron, Steph, and KD on the court for
Team USA. Beating France, in France for the gold.
You kind of come with that 2028 Olympics is coming.
It's in LA now. It's in the USA. It's in that
building. The feeble tournament will be held
in the Intuit Dome. So, you kind of, again, the
remnant is kind of still on you from 2024. The
build -up 2028 is still kind of hanging in there.
So, because of which, that USA versus world is
kind of, okay. Because for instance, if you're
looking, if you're an international player, the
Americans are in trouble. 2028 will not have
LeBron James. 2028 will not have Stephen Curry.
2028 will not have Kevin Durant. Well, the three
main players on the USA team won't be there.
So you think about it, take them three off, keep
the nine that were there. At that point, you
add maybe a Derrick Queen, a Jaden Duran, and
A .J. DeBansta might be a 2028 squad. You know
what I'm saying? Like, it's going to be a very
young team as far as 2028. And that's not even
saying like a Tyus Halliburton doesn't again.
But Halliburton, who will actually be an important
player this year, he wasn't at first in 2024,
but he'll be the important player this year.
Like, Tatum didn't really play much. You're going
to need him in 2028. So there's a lot of stuff
happening with Team USA. But anyway, that kind
of – And then who have been winning, who's been
dominating the awards? International players.
I told you to list the top five players in the
NBA. At least four of them are foreign. The MVP,
Shea Goods Alexander, is from Canada. Giannis
is Nigerian by way of Greece. Jokic is Serbian.
Luka is Slovenian. So four of the top five players,
at minimum, are foreign -born players. And the
best player in the Young Bucks, to me, is Wimby.
He's French. The best Young Buck American is
Ant. But I'm saying, like, so as far as that
trajectory in two years, the best, it might be
the best five players in the world could be foreign.
You know, Giannis' health and so on and so forth.
But the best five players in the world could
be foreign with Ant fighting to be in the top
five. Team USA versus the world gets announced.
You know, each team has a pool. USA will be divided
into squad stars and stripes in the world. We'll
have their team, and then the round robin style,
whatever. I think two things matter. When Benyama's
effort, he came out and blocked somebody's shot
early. Like, let him know, like, because when
he's been talking, like, I'm going to bring the
competitiveness back. Or I'm going to embarrass
you. Either I'm going to dunk everywhere and
block your body shot and whatever. or you're
going to play basketball. And I still might do
it, but you're going to try. And he came out
early. It was block, dunk, three. And his team
kind of went, oh. He was serious and ain't even
said it after the game. Like, no, it was him.
It was Victor. Like, Wimby made me play. Because
when Wimby was coming so hard, I had no choice.
Either I'm going to get embarrassed or I'm going
to play. Ultimately, Wimby's team, Didn't win
because two of his teammates didn't play. I mean,
they went into the game down four starters. Shea
Gildas -Alexander didn't play. Luka Doncic and
Nikola Jokic did the old baseball wave your cap
moment and say, oh, I'm in the game. They waved
to the crowd briefly. They played five minutes
in the first game, didn't play in the second
one. And even when they played, they were barely
moving. And Giannis didn't play. So if we look
at it, when I said those five best players in
the world and four of them are foreign, all four
of those four best players didn't play on the
world team, and they lost by a total of five
points in two games, and one of them in overtime.
Like, so, it would have been very interesting,
the level of competitiveness if the world team
was fully healthy. If they ruled that starting
lineup out of Shays, Luka, Jokic, Wimby, and
Giannis. because there was no size on the Stripes
or Starks team, LeBron and the team. And Stripes
only had one center in Jalen Duran. So it would
have been very interesting to see how they would
have made that work regarding the world team
and trying to defend them. But to me, honestly,
the All -Star Game was competitive. The mini
games helped. It was only a quarter. Now the
Vets, old men burned out because they played
three games in a row. They played game two against
the Young Bucks. Then played the basic elimination
game against the world team and then played the
Young Bucks again. They basically played three
quarters in a row. The Young Bucks played three,
but they played one and two set and then played
the third one. So the OG, I think this guy. you
know, tired and legs were dead. But you got three
competitive games. We had an overtime game, a
buzzer beater, and effectively another buzzer
beater in the first three games. And then the
young dudes just, the old guys, the young dudes
had to warm up and the old guy had to re -warm
up. And the young dudes figured it out first.
And when they went up 15 -1 or something like
that, whatever, it was over. But at that point,
they were laughing and running and having fun
and going full speed. And the old guys were like,
look, we ain't got it in us no more. Like, the
point we're proving, we're still better than
the world team. Like, that was almost it. It
was, you know, I listened to a podcast, and I
think it was Vince Goodwill suggested, like,
what if the world USA team has, like, a non -European
group chat? And they were like, no, we got to
make sure they don't win. Like, or some of the,
you know what I'm saying, like, suggested, like,
no. Like, whatever happens between us, we'll
figure it out. They can't win. And that's what
made them play harder. But I think we kind of
fixed All -Star. I think 2027's All -Star would
be very interesting. If we keep the same USA
versus world. Not a lot of the players spoke
about they'd rather East -West. I know LeBron
said he wanted East -West. His last All -Star
is probably next year. So I know LeBron said
he wanted East -West. Kawhi said whatever the
fans want. He's down. Very diplomatic answer
from Kawhi. He kind of said whatever the fans
want, whatever gets them interested, whatever
would have them watch it, he's down. You know,
it's kind of with a general sentiment. Heard
East -West or whatever the fans want. Nobody
really had a suggestion outside of East -West
or whatever the fans wanted. Me personally, I
like East -West with something on the line. I
think East -West allows you to put something
on the line. For instance, the All -Star Game.
is usually made up of a bunch of players on a
bunch of teams fighting for titles. Right? Nobody
on the court played for a losing team. Norman
Powell, maybe. But, like, because the Heat are
already tied. But, like, nobody else on the court
really, I mean, the Pistons had their guy on
the court. He's first in the West. You know what
I'm saying? Like, Spurs had a guy on the court.
So on and so forth. Like, these guys were top
six in their conferences. Something to imagine
with playoffs either. I've always said if you
want a game, either put a bunch of money, like
$8 to $10 million a player for the winning team
and nothing for the losers, or home court advantage
in the finals. Remember they said the MLB All
-Star game used to be a game. A, baseball, you're
pretty safe besides freak injuries. And B, it
was home court in the world. It was home field
in the World Series. So they used to go at it.
Especially the game, like, you know, kind of
early. Like if they had a legend, they'd feed
him one down the middle and let him pop it over
the fence, something like that. But if it's 5
-4 or 3 -2 or 8 -8 in the seventh inning, it
became baseball because they were trying to get
home field advantage in the World Series. Put
home court advantage in the finals up. And with
that game one and that game seven is in the other
team's building now. That matters. You know what
I'm saying? I think if you're going to go east
-west, you have to re -incentivize what is going
to get them to play. Like I said, you know, boatload
of money. The NBA's got sponsorships everywhere.
Have somebody every year. You are the official
whatever, whatever, all -star, blah, blah, blah,
sponsorship. Make it one of them banks. They
give $100 million, and the winning team player
pool splits it. The coach gets $2 million off
top. Every assistant coach gets, you know, $1
million off top, and then the players divide
the rest. That'll get interesting. See what happens
then. Put a whole bunch of money on the line
and see what happens then. Or, like I say, make
it where it's a home court advantage type situation
regarding the NBA All -Star. And then, quickly,
we'll jump through some first half things that
are happening in the NBA so far. So, we have
our title contenders. To me, this is an interesting
year because there's no outright number one.
And you might say, Justin, there's the Oklahoma
City Thunder. And I would push back at you and
say, is there? Is Oklahoma City Thunder the runaway
number one team in the NBA this year? I would
say no. The San Antonio Spurs have a plan for
them, and they have been dominating them. They
beat them three out of four times. Now, am I
saying I'm going to pick anybody from Oklahoma
City to win the title? The answer is no. At this
current juncture, I would pick Oklahoma City
still. What I'm saying is it's not those years
where, We rolled out of bed. I think this is
a very Adam Silver -like thing, unlike David
Stern. We rolled out of bed and said, okay, it's
October 31st. The Cavs and Warriors are going
to meet in the finals. It's 2016. The Cavs and
Warriors are going to meet in the finals. Let's
just find out who they're playing to get there.
Which is the general sentiment. A lot of times
when I grew up, you knew one team. Some years
you knew both teams that were going to be in
the finals. You know, injuries would be the only
thing that would derail it kind of thing. This
year, I have no idea. There's so many different
ways you can go. And just people don't understand.
I think Kevin Durant was on Twitter, you know,
a while back. And I won't go into Kevin Durant's
Twitter activity on this show. But Kevin Durant
was on Twitter recently on his actual account.
And he was discussing some of my title contenders.
And, you know, one of the famous things that's
always happened to Kevin Durant's career is what
happened. happens if his toes are on the line
now people have romanticized it and even i did
a little bit that that shot would have put them
in the finals that shot was a second round series
shot to go game six to go to the next game to
then try to go to the conference rounds to then
try to go to the finals in my head that shot
has been romanticized in a lot of people's heads
romanticized to If his toe is the inch behind
the line, that shot puts them in the NBA Finals.
Kevin Rambe says, dude, we were cooked. Kyrie
was out with the hamstring or something. And,
or with a foot, with something lower body. And
then Harden was out with the hamstring. So he
was like, the odds of us winning Game 7 and then
turning around and winning the Conference Finals
was almost impossible. I mean, people have romanticized
the shot as if they were going to win the title
after that. They lost to Milwaukee, who the Milwaukee
turned around and beat Phoenix. If Giannis doesn't
go for 50 in game seven, Phoenix beats Milwaukee.
You know what I'm saying? And Chris Paul retires
with a ring. Shout out Chris Paul. First battle
Hall of Famer. Retired recently. But New Orleans
Hornets legend. I mean, I couldn't call it a
public legend, but Hornets legend. You know,
they were going to, you know, Giannis, it's like
Giannis having one of the greatest game sevens.
might be the greatest Game 7 in an NBA Finals
individual performance ever to beat Phoenix in
that Game 7, including guarding both halves of
a lob late. I mean, like, so, what I mean by
that is, you know, KD talks about, and my point
of this is, KD talked about how hard it is to
win series, how hard it is to win the first round.
Okay, well, it's exponentially harder. to win
the second round. Well, it's even harder to win
the third round. And it's nearly impossible to
win a Finals game, nonetheless a Finals series.
He's been on both ends of it. He got beaten five
as a young man by the Big Three Heat for LeBron's
first title. He's beaten LeBron in four. You
know, he swept LeBron out as a member of the
Warriors. He's been on both sides of the coin.
Here's how hard it was to even win a game in
the NBA Finals. And that's what makes this year
so interesting in the NBA because who's won a
title in Detroit? Who's even gone far in the
playoffs as a key contributor in Detroit? Nobody.
Okay, let's take a look at Cleveland. Harden
has been there. He's been there a couple times.
He's been there in the finals as a young man
on that Thunder team. He's a hamstring away.
potentially from being back in the finals with
Houston, not even his hamstring, Chris Paul's
hamstring, go away, from being in the finals
with Houston. And even then, if they don't miss
27 straight threes, they might still get in the
finals. Who knows? They win because, again, Harden's
hamstring was gone. They probably lose to LeBron
and so on and so forth. But, I mean, Chris Paul's
hamstring was gone, and they probably lose to
LeBron. It doesn't matter. Donovan Mitchell,
I think he's been to the finals maybe once. And
that's it. Look at Boston. They're very, very
experienced. They just won, right, two years
ago. A lot of that core, that one is still there.
You don't have Porzingis, obviously. But a lot
of that core is still there. But they don't have
Jason Tatum yet. But if Tatum comes back, that's
probably my pick. That becomes my pick. If Tatum
comes back, he's 85 % of what he was. That's
my pick. And then I look at San Antonio. I love
Area 51. However, I just don't see it. The only
way I don't see it is who on that team, again,
is a key contributor, has had a long run. Is
Harrison Barnes still there? If Harrison Barnes
is not still there, then the answer is nobody.
Especially your two main players, being Castle,
Fox, three of your main players, Castle, Fox,
and Wimby. None of them have made that long run.
Wimby has done it internationally with France.
He's not done it in the NBA. Fox has never done
it. And neither has Tafon Castle, obviously.
So, I don't, the only team with a boatload of
experience, which is why a lot of who was picked,
that'll be them in the playoffs start, that are
in that kind of that mix, is the Cavs. Not the
Cavs, OKC. They just did it. We just saw it.
We got to hypothesize, can they? We just saw
it. It is the rare year where there's not two,
three, or four groups that have done the conference
final run like the Lakers. If they got their
act together, could. You've got Luka, who's been
to the finals. Lost to Boston. That Boston championship,
actually. Luka's been to the finals. LeBron,
of course, has been to the 10. You know, those
two guys alone, if you can get them there, would
be a menacing sight to see on the other side.
However, no one else on the team has done it.
Aiden, no, Aiden was in the finals, the Giannis
finals. Aiden's been there. Aiden was there in
the Giannis finals. He was half of the play that
Giannis blocked. You know, but Austin Reeves
has not been, Jake LaRavia has not been, Luke
Kennard. not as a key player, at least has not
been. J .J. Redick, as a coach, has not been.
He's been there as a player on the Atlanta 19
and lost to Kobe, but he hasn't been there as
a coach, obviously. So as far as experiencing
groups and just that discussion of it's really
hard to win playoff games, it's really hard to
win playoff series, and it's almost impossible
to win titles. Oklahoma City would have to be
the primary contender just because of the experience
factor. They've done it. They've got one of the
best five players on the planet. And the whole
group they have just did it last season. So that
would probably be the early pick. Early MVP,
I don't know. It's all over the place. I'll talk
on this quickly. Kind of all over the place because
of the 65 game rule. I don't know. Yoke is probably
going to be ineligible. Shays are going to be
getting close to the limit. It might be Jalen
Brown or something. You know what I'm saying?
It might have been Jalen Brown or Cade Cunningham
or Wim Benyama might get one earlier than he's
supposed to because it's just a 65 -game rule
knocking out so many of the top guys from being
able to get it. But that is all I have regarding
the NBA. Now we're going to jump into college
football. Welcome back into the show. I hope
you got your fill of basketball there. I hope
you got your fill of basketball as we entered,
exited the first half of the season. That pre
-All -Star and coming down the stretch into post
-All -Star. But now we're getting to college
football. So college football a lot of times.
Obviously, congratulations to Indiana. I want
to say that. Indiana wasn't on when Indiana won.
Congrats to Indiana. Congrats to Chris Ignetti.
Pulling off the greatest turnaround. arguably
sports history but definitely college football
history i mean indiana was the losingest program
in the country indiana was routinely a laughingstock
of the college football world and now the kings
of college football and look like signetti ain't
slowing down um and because of which congratulations
huge congratulations to indiana for that however
Coming out of that season, we got a lot of discussion
about the calendar. So the Cosmo Ball National
Championship game for the next couple years,
date has been released. It's like January 26th
and 27th. It's ridiculous. We've somehow added
even more time to this dumb calendar. And if
I get impassioned about this ahead of time, this
shouldn't be a 30 -minute segment, but if I get
impassioned about this ahead of time, I'm sorry.
I'm a little more aggressive than what you guys
used to hear me talk. This calendar is stupid.
All right, let's figure this out. Let's figure
this out. Let's everyone put on our adult pants
here. Let's everybody figure this out together.
Okay, I feel like we're adults. I feel like we
have the ability as adults to put this thing
together as a collective. I feel like we have
the ability to do this. Because right now, this
is stupid. You want to know how I know it's stupid?
You want to know how I know it's dumb? I know
it's dumb because no one in any suggestions about
the calendar said, hey, let's keep the calendar
the exact same way it is now. No one said that,
which means it's stupid. Even bad ideas at a
certain point get support. Awful ideas at a certain
point get support. Plain and simple. Even really,
really bad ones get support. So primarily what
Cotswold will tell you is the reason why the
calendar gets so long at the end of the year
is because they're basically ducking the NFL.
That they do all this maneuvering, hee -hawing,
and so on and so forth in order to try and dodge
the NFL. And they will tell you that openly.
They'll tell you, like, I mean, pretty much the
NFL steals our Saturdays. And so we aren't able
to really and truly take control of our calendar
because we lose the ability to have Saturdays
in December because the NFL jumps on and they
start taking NFL Saturdays for playoff games,
so on and so forth. Okay, fine. Here's what you
do. You either. work with the NFL, or you shorten
this thing down. Talk to me about it. The NFL
plays 17 games and they have one bye week. College
football plays 12 games and there's like three.
You don't play week zero or week one. There's
another bye week somewhere in the conference,
and then every conference gives you a bye week.
So typically you have three bye weeks and the
Army and Navy are going to back in. So there's
15 weeks. Week zero is a week. So 16 weeks to
play 12 games, you have four byes. Army and Navy
week, unless you're Army and Navy. But if you're
Army and Navy, you get an extra week in there.
Week zero or week one, you're non -conference
buy and you're conference buy. You end up with
four buy weeks. You end up with a month of not
playing football, regardless. Okay, so here's
my calendar fix. Okay, so let's mark it down.
Let's talk about producers. Let's get this segmented
out. I'm going to fix this thing, and I'm going
to fix it in the next probably three minutes
or so. So we're going to mark it down at 40 minutes
and 50 seconds of when I fix the calendar. I
fix gospel ball in general in the next five minutes.
Pay attention. Calendar's stupid. First of all,
you start week zero. You mythically made a week.
Week zero. You tie it into week one. Week one
this year, unaffiliated starts August 29th. Okay,
no week zero, sign everybody up. So everybody,
that bye week no longer matters. We're going
to fix it from the end of the season to the start
of the next season. So pay attention. Week one
starts August 29th. So that weekend, everybody
plays the game. Week one. I'm taking away the
non -conference bye week. So that's two weeks
we've now made up. Army, Navy, you no longer
have your own week. Sorry to be the bearer of
bad news. You no longer have your own week. So
that's three weeks we've now made up. So now,
instead of the playoff game, the championship
game being January 27th, We've slid it three
weeks up to January 6th. We are already much
better. I have done nothing but take away week
zero, slide week one up, tie the whole calendar
up, take away Army -Navy, and take away the non
-conference buy. That's all I've done. You still
have your conference buy week. Okay? There is
also a week gap between the playoffs starting
and the conference championship game. Which is
the reason why, and we've seen historically,
the bi -week teams that sit the bi -week, the
automatic bi pretty much, then the first round,
they sit like 21 to 30 days between games, they
lose. That week is gone. So in my calendar, it
goes week 14, Army -Navy, the Army -Navy week
no longer exists. They get a prime time slot
on either Friday, Saturday, Sunday, they can
pick. When nothing else is on, Army, Navy. They
play that game, week 14. Where week 15 used to
be, it's conference championship week. The next
week is the first round of the playoffs. The
very next week. And you know what I got to do
with the NFL. The beautiful part about college
football is you can play that sport on a Thursday
night. And it's going to be packed on college
campuses. You can't tell me it isn't because
I've seen it all season. Thursday, Friday, they
will play conference championship game. They
will play the first round. So if you're worried
about the NFL destroying you on wild card weekend,
I don't think at that point wild card weekend
would even exist yet. I think actually you'd
still be in an exclusive window. Let's double
check. I'm pretty sure you'd be though. Bowl
week starts December 12th -ish. Somewhere in
there. I'm almost positive you would still be
exclusive righted by the NFL. But let's say you
are not. And I'm looking this up now as we speak.
So excuse me if I don't have it in front of me
right this second. Wild card round was January
7th to the 13th. Okay, perfect. So we're avoiding
the NFL entirely. Great. And I thought I was,
but I was making sure. So wildcard weekend was
January 7th to January 13th. That was wildcard
week. Remember, I've already slid the national
championship to the sixth. So with no other adjustments,
we're not running to the NFL, which means we
still have our Saturdays to us. Perfect. First
round play, Friday night into Saturday. How do
I do it now? They play that first game on Friday,
and then they kind of run them straight through
on Saturday. Perfect. The NFL's not there yet.
Run them through on Saturday. That next week,
there's only four games now. Same concept. One
Friday, and then you can run them through on
Saturday. The next week, you run. You only have
two games, 4 .30, 7 on Saturday. You have that
time off for Christmas, and then you play January
1st in the Rose Bowl every single year. College
football calendar is fixed. I have just fixed
it. I have just fixed it. And it took five minutes.
And it took no other complications. Get rid of
week zero. Slide everything up a week. Because
you need four weeks. Get rid of week zero. Slide
everything up a week. There's your first week.
Get rid of Army Navy week. There's your second
week. Get rid of the bye week in the non -conference
schedule. Every major conference has one. Get
rid of it. There's your third week. So now your
regular season has gone from 16 weeks to 13 weeks.
And then get rid of the week between the conference
championship games and start the first round.
There's your month. And you play January 1st.
Whenever January 1st falls, you play January
1st in the Rose Bowl. College football is fixed.
And you are done. Because guess what? The transfer
portal window will not open until January 2nd.
I don't care. It is a two -week window from January
2nd to January 16th. So now, You're done. Oregon's
coordinators are not working two jobs trying
to recruit Ole Miss coordinators and Ole Miss
office staff. It's not coaching in the Sugar
Bowl, and instead of going to the bus, instead
of going on the plane to Oxford to the right,
to the east, they're getting in black SUVs and
going to LSU for Ops to the west to go to Baton
Rouge and start recruiting for LSU because their
season would have been over before Christmas.
They would have already been introduced to LSU
staff, and when the portal opens January 2nd,
They're only at LSU colors already. Lane Kiffin
wouldn't have had to make a choice of finishing
for Ole Miss or coming to LSU. The season would
have been over already. It is done with the easiest
of changes. It takes all of five and a half to
six minutes to fix the calendar. It does. You
do nothing else. You're out of the NFL's way.
The NFL has football exclusivity starting January
2nd, which is right in time when that wild card
weekend hits anyway. the only thing you run into
is that week 18 and your championship game weekend
will be right around the same weekend oh well
seven prime time jay went prime time new year's
day in the rose bowl cosplay national championship
every year simple it is really easy and that
way the rose bowl still is the rose bowl because
remember that man if you move the calendar around
you may lose the rose bowls prestige or whatever
no you don't the rose bowl is a national champion
every single season and you rotate the others
simple it is easy peasy lemon squeezy the national
championships in the rose bowl every year january
1st transfer portal opens up january 2nd it goes
january 16th it closes most school enrollment
dates about january 20th so it closes you go
from then Then you shift. You have spring ball.
Spring ball doesn't change. Run and change. The
portal opens up again because college semester
ends a little weird. The portal opens up again
the day after all colleges are out of school.
It opens up again for one week. So now you know
position battles. It opens up again for one week.
You have a week to enter. In order for you to
be eligible, For the 2026, say, and it gets enacted
this season, in order for you to be eligible
for the 2026 season, you must be enrolled in
your school for the fall semester by July 1st.
Meaning, you got about two months to find a home.
And then you're not playing college football
in the next season. You have to be enrolled in
university by July 1st. Easy. And then you go
right into the New Year calendar, and everybody
is fixed, and nobody is complaining, and no one
is crying, and no one is boo -hooing that their
coordinators are working two jobs, or that the
players are stressed, or the portal window is
in the wrong spot, or none of it. All you did
was compress the regular season, take out some
unnecessary bye weeks, make two official portal
windows, and end this bad boy on January 1st.
It's simple. It fixes the portal. It fixes the
calendar. Oh, and by the way, with the NIL stuff,
people coming by the NIL, easy way to fix that
too, guys. Sign freshmen to multi -year contracts.
The buyouts are here. So if we're going to play
in the buyout era, where a guy signs a contract
and then he can't transfer because he has to
be on the buyout line of his new school, some
schools are doing it. But, like, I know Francis
DeMond Williams was coming to LSU. Can almost
guarantee that. He was a Washington Husky coming
to be the quarterback at LSU. He signed with
Washington, and then a week later, he was like,
oh, I'm going to the portal. They were like,
no, you're not. And they could have had they
bought him out of his contract for like $4 million.
Excuse me. And they paid him another $5 million
to come to LSU. He wasn't worth $9 million. LSU,
they'll be getting the same amount for five and
a half. Whatever. But if I want my freshman to
stop getting in the portal after one year and
chasing him back, I'm going to sign my freshman
to a two -year or three -year deal. where at
least the new school's got to buy me out. You
know what I'm saying? At minimum, they got to
pay the money back. If they want me to go into
the portal, something. You know what I'm saying?
Like, I'm not just going to just allow my, I
develop a kid, develop two kids. Like, especially
out of Southeastern. When we were in Southeastern,
for example, I went there, graduated there. They're
an FCS school, pretty good one. If you don't
want, you know, Jalen Dominique, I think it was
his name, then I'm going to Wisconsin to leave
you. When he walks on campus, make sure he's
on a two -year or three -year deal. So now at
least Wisconsin's got to pay you a little bit
for him. Something. You get compensation. Maybe
you get cash considerations or something. Like,
you know, the guy don't just walk out of your
building after you develop into an all -conference
receiver. So I think that's the way to fix the
NIL stuff. Man, sign him to a deal. At that point,
it's any other business. It's any other professional
business. It's no different than when in the
NBA, Player X gets traded to the Cavs, and the
Cavs, they agree to a buyout, and then he signs
with the new team. Perfect. You know, whatever.
People get bought out of contracts all the time.
The issue is you've got to have a system in place
to where the buyouts are how they move, and they
can't just enter freely and set free agency whenever
they want, which is kind of where it sits now.
And so that's kind of how you fit college football.
I fixed the calendar, I fixed the portal, and
I fixed NIL, and it took me 12 minutes. I'm not
sure the problem is by the big wigs outside of
control. Your 12 -team playoff is still there.
My model even allows a 16 -team playoff because
it's the same amount of games. We're not doing
24. But, like, you can even do a 16 -team playoff.
First round's on campus, and you go into the
bowl system. Between the sugar, the peach, the
cotton, and the orange, those are your bowls,
and then the Rose Bowl is your natty. Like, it's
really simple. I just, it's really simple. But
I guess I'm the smartest guy in the room. And
that tends to happen. You know, it tends to happen
when it comes to these things. I guess because
I have a vested interest in what works and not
what necessarily makes a whole bunch of money.
Which, by the way, having your sport on every
single week would make a whole bunch of money.
That's just me. Especially knowing that, you
know, like Lane Kiffin finishing this thing off
at LSU, at Ole Miss, before even going to LSU,
would have been a story for the ages. You know,
like. So, I think, you know, in the interest
of this sport, it would be a 2025 National, or
this year, 2026 National Champion gets crowned
on January 1st, 2027. And so that person is the
reigning champion all 2027, and the new champion
gets crowned in 2028. And so on and so forth.
You're out of the NFL's hair early. Like, you
got exclusivity in some parts of the calendar.
It's perfect. Would college football do this?
Of course not. But it is perfect. But moving
on to our last topic we're going to get into
today. We're not going to do a sound break, just
a typical sound break. Just going to, you know,
segment it out. Kind of already talked about
the NFL and their offseason is really just getting
started. So we'll bring them up next episode.
But what I really wanted to get into. Today,
just quickly, is women's college basketball and
women's basketball in general. Obviously, the
WNBA is going through their CBA negotiations,
which has led to some high -intensity action
with Unrivaled. Unrivaled being a three -on -three
league with a smaller court, and it's a bunch
of scoring, and it's really, really dope. It's
all player -owned, like Nafisa Collier, Brianna
Stewart, the main two owners of it, along with
their partners. And then, like, Paige Beckers
has a piece, and, like, I think Angela Reese
has a small piece in it. I think Juju Watkins
has a small piece. Flagey Johnson has a small
piece. Like, it's very player -owned kind of
thing, and they're going to start throwing over
the country soon, whatever, right? But the WNBA
is in their contract negotiations and their CBA
negotiations, and what makes it contentious is
the fact that the players have power. Any time
that the labor, I don't want to sound harsh,
but the labor, being the players, have power,
it makes the labor negotiations contentious.
The reason being is they're the product on the
court making all these decisions, so therefore,
they are going to put into play what they have.
I mean, Sadler thinks you're going to go $240
,000 max north of a million. We just seen how
hard the players win the Unravel 1v1 tournament
because $200 ,000 was the prize. Everybody competing
there made less than that in the WNBA season.
So, You know, the max salary is going to be north
of a million dollars. And they're going to get
all these different cares. And they're going
to get league pass free. And they're going to
get all this different stuff that they didn't
get before. But it's not enough in the sense
of they just want a similar revenue structure
to the NBA. Who knows if they get it? We're going
to find out. It's going to be a very contagious
labor negotiations. Because their calendars,
speaking of calendars, is going to get very compressed.
Because they started being free agency by now.
Or right about now, free agency. Or deep into
free agency. There's no labor. And 90 % of the
league is for agents. There's two teams coming
in that needs expansion drafts. Like, this is
going to be very interesting. The next couple
of months, even get the WNBA started on time,
because they usually get started in late April,
May -ish. They start playing games, and it's
like, it's middle of February, and they haven't
gotten there yet. So, we're going to see. What
I want to touch on is the women's game primarily.
And I want to focus specifically on the SEC.
We spoke about the SEC a lot in terms of football.
And I'm in SEC country. Like I said, I'm in Baton
Rouge. I'm in SEC country. This is going to be
the greatest conference tournament in women's
basketball history. And the only thing I'm not
saying in college basketball history, because
some of those Big East tournaments were insane,
like Kimba's run with the UConn. There's like
eight ranked teams in the SEC. There's South
Carolina. There's Tennessee. There's LSU. I'm
going to forget people. There's Ole Miss. There's
Vandy. There's Texas. Georgia's ranked. But there's
going to be like seven or eight ranked schools
in the conference tournament. It is going to
be a bloodbath in the conference tournament.
To even survive the SEC tournament, that's going
to be harder than winning a tournament game,
probably the Elite Eight. Unless you run into
another SEC school before that. It is going to
be downright brutal. There are teams in the SEC
with four losses, and the only losses are to
other SEC schools. It is going to be insane,
this conference tournament the SEC ladies are
going to put on. I personally cannot wait. I
mean, you have Kim Mulcahy who's trying to get
over the Dawn Staley hump. You have Dawn trying
to keep her eye and grip on the conference. You
have Coach Yo putting on a show now at Ole Miss.
You've got Texas, what they're doing over there.
You've got Georgia. You've got Vandy, what they're
doing over there. I mean, there is a lot of talent.
I'm sure I missed somebody, and I apologize ahead
of time if I did. But there's a lot of talent
in the SEC. It is going to be a show in that
conference tournament from round two on. It is
going to be an absolute show in the conference
tournament. But that is all I have for you guys
today. We'll get into some more, a lot more in
the next few weeks. Happy to be back. JTS Season
7, Episode 1 is a wrap.