The Dan Patrick ShowDan talks to Devin McCourty who explains why Eagles RB Saquon Barkley may be the offensive player of the year. Combat sports insider Ariel Helwani previews tonight's fight between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul. And NBA insider Brian Windhorst discusses the Lakers plan for Bronny James.
You are listening to the Dan Patrick Show on Fox Sports Radio.
Devin mccordy Football Night in America Studio analyst three times Super Bowl champ Big Game Sunday Night, Chargers and the Bengals. It feels like every game for the Bengals is hey, this is their elimination game. But they're still alive here and I think they have the best odds to still make the playoffs of the teams that have losing records here.
What do you make of this matchup, Devin, Yeah, it should.
Be a fun matchup, and I grew which I think each week they play, I think we're all expecting to see like this coming out game where they just blow somebody out of the water, or they get a big game and they keep fall ashore. So it makes us say this team they won't make it, they have no shot. But then when you go and look at the standings, you realize they might have the best shot out of anybody to get into that six or seventh spot and get into the playoffs. So I think this will be a big game for them against the Chargers, specially because they have to play Pittsburgh twice before the season ends. But I won't say they're finished even if they lose this game, but I think winning this game will propel them to definitely lock down one of those last spots in the playoffs.
The other LA team plays against your Patriots. Like, this is a weird game for the Rams, Like they have to win this game. It just like if you said most must win game of the weekend, I would include this because if they all of a sudden drop out of playoff contention, I don't let's look big picture. Is Sean McVay going to be back there next year? Is Matthew Stafford? Like do they do anything in the offseason. I don't know if it's that important right now, but it certainly is a weird game coming off a home game where you lost to the Dolphins.
Well, especially when you think back to a few weeks ago, right before the trade deadline, it was there's a chance Matthew Stafford gets traded to the Vikens.
It's the chance Cooper Cup gets traded.
Then they win Thursday Night against the Vikens, and all of a sudden, it's they're alive the playoffs and all of these things. So I gotta imagine if they don't make the playoffs and this season doesn't end in a way that they feel good about. I got to imagine they make a lot of changes there and they start to move to the next wave or the next team of the of the Rams and what they want to do. When me and Mike Florio talked about it on Pro Football Talk, with the seventh spot in the playoffs, there's a chance the Patriots are looking like, if we get this win, why not us?
Why not?
Why can't we jump back in and getting this hunt? So I think the Rams are being for a tough game in Foxboro early on Sunday, not a normal thing for them traveling from the West coast.
Is it just a coincidence that we're seeing you got the Lions, you got the Ravens, you got the Eagles. They run the football, they're very successful. Is it just a coincidence or do you start to see that teams are going to rely on the run a little bit more than we have in previous years.
I think so.
I think especially how we talked about how the season started with the low scoring and not many pass attempts and passing touchdowns. You know, in the last few years, all we've heard about is devalue to running back. We can get a running back anywhere. And we see these teams who have invested in their running backs, how big of a role they're playing, Sakuha Barkley. You look at Jacobs in Green Bay, You look at Sonic and Knuckles, Montgomery and Gibbs and Detroit, like, these teams feature these running backs and they're coming through. They're playing the big games, they're making a big play. So yeah, you know, playing in New Wingan for thirteen years, Coach Belichick, you so always say running the football is the formula in the playoffs. It's how good teams become championship teams. And I think we're seeing that first hand with a lot of these good teams in the NFL right now.
But also you buy into play action now. Play action really does mean something and makes these quarterbacks even better. Let me start with what Saquon Barkley is doing, because we can make an argument that he's had a better year than Derrick Henry. And I don't think people were gonna say that a couple of weeks ago, but it feels like that.
Offense is going through Saquon Barkley in Philadelphia.
Yeah, I mean even how the season started. Remember he's out in Brazil against Ring Bay three touchdowns to start off his Eagles career, and all he's done since that is set up everybody else. So no matter what his numbers look like, at the end of any game, when you watch the game, he is setting up the throws to aj Brown, the throws of DeVonta Smith. They're jailing Hurst one yard runs, you know, on the goal line. So this team has revolved around Saquon Barkley and you saw last night as he gets going in any any given moment in a game, he can make one or two cuts and he's gone that play making ability from the running back position, running and catching the ball.
The guy's phenomenal.
And you know, credit to him of all to talk about him not being the same. He gets to a new spot and shows his value and I mean arguably could be, you know, the offensive player of the year playing running back the way he's played this year.
And in fairness though to the Giants, I know they didn't bring him back.
I would have brought him back.
If I'm bringing Daniel Jones back, I have to have Saquon because Daniel Jones needs Saquon. But Saquon wouldn't be doing this for the Giants this year. He's with the perfect team. Derrick Henry wouldn't be doing this for the Titans of the Cowboys.
He's with the perfect team.
So I think, you know, everybody's going to bang on the Giants to say, how could you let him go? They should have let Daniel Jones go. And if you want to let Saquon go and then do a complete rebuild, I think that's where they made the mistake here.
What do you think?
Yeah, And I think I think one of the biggest things. And you know, it's some situation for them, because once you let hard knocks in, we get to see everything. And I think the way they value Saquon Barkley, if you if you value a guy around the market and you understand, hey, we might be losing them for this price, and it felt like they thought they would lose him possibly for like ten million dollars a year, when realistically a year ago they offered him more money than that. So I think if we would have taken this back a year ago, they would have matched that offer and they would have paid it. But coming into this offseason, they just think anybody else would pay him. And I think that's what stings the Giants fans as you watch hard knocks and them sitting there saying, well, no one's gonna pay him that. And then you find out Houston's willing, Philly's willing, and then you're seeing the impact even Joe Mixon what he's doing at Houston. You're seeing what these running backs are doing for their teams. But then the Giants fans take a breath and realize what you just said. Dan, even if he was there, you might win one more game, maybe two more games, but he wouldn't be the Philadelphia Eagles Saquon Barker that we're seeing now.
He's Devin mccordy.
You can see him on Football Night in America's studio analysts won three Super Bowls with the Patriots. There's been a lot of talk about Aaron Rodgers. Aaron Rodgers led when he was on the field. He's not a leader, vocal leader off the field in the locker room. You played with Brady, so Brady led by example, but he seemed to be very vocal in the locker room. Can you give us an idea of maybe what Brady did as opposed to what Rogers is apparently doing or not doing.
Yeah, I'll speak to Tom. I think the best part about Tom's leadership came from he's this old guy in the locker room. At some point he was the guys, you know, the guys on our team, the young guys. He was the same age as their dads, and he made sure that they all felt welcome. He made sure that they felt like he was just a friend. And I think that enabled him to be one of the guys. And then from a leadership standpoint, yes, he was gonna come in early, he was gonna do all those things. He's gonna go play great ball on Sundays, but when things weren't going right, he was gonna let everybody know it was unacceptable. There was a standard that needed to be met, not just on Sunday when people would see him slam the surface or yell at guys. This would happen in practice. You start a period off in the first three plays, feedback coach Belischik sometimes wouldn't even have to say anything. Tom would start cursing, cursing everybody out and say start the period over. This isn't good enough. And when you get a player that does stuff like that, everyone right away takes a step back and says, oh, like I need to step up. And that was Tom every single day. And I think you saw that. Even though I wasn't in that locker room when he went to Tampa, everybody else's level went higher to try to meet his. One of the best leaders. I got the opportunity to be around just day in and day out, leading guys by example, but also being a voice if he felt like that's what the team needed.
Did you play in the sunshine in Dallas? I did?
I did. Danny am Mondola twenty fifteen. He has a really cool picture standing back waiting to catch a kick, and I know he couldn't see the ball, but there's the photo that they got him with the sun hitting. It should be somewhere hanging in his house. It was beautiful, but definitely couldn't see the ball.
Did he catch the ball? The let the ball go over it?
Couldn't see it.
But is it a home field advantage? In fairness to Jerry Jones? Should this?
Is this a home field advantage for the Cowboys?
No? I mean, listen, you can know the gonna hit and you can try off the coin tossing all that of figuring out which quarter you want the sun, but which which play in the game is gonna be the play that decide the game. That's gonna be the big Like you can't determine only the fourth quarter matter. So we're gonna do the sun that way. Like you can't do that in a game. And I think we saw that with Ceedee Lamb as he's running across and he's open, but he can't see the ball like that touchdown matters. You can't pick and choose that. So yeah, there's some things that to me become a home field advantage because you can practice in it. When we were in New England, we practice in the cold every single day. The cold was an advantage for us. You really, like, it's hard to practice the sun beating in your eyes and saying, hey, I'm gonna throw the ball at you full speed, memorize how it's coming and catch, Like you really can't do that.
So I do.
I do not see that as a home field of Vanish for Dallas.
But you so you have to embrace the cold. You may not like the cold, but but you so, if Tampa was coming up or the Dolphins were coming up. Why can't they embrace it? Why can't they get acclimated to that?
You can try mentally, but the truth is science. Your body is used to being in seventy five eighty degree weather, and as soon as you step off the plane you're the win. Everything hits you like whoa. It was the same way when we would go to Miami in December and January. We would go inside our indoor, crank the heat up, make it super hot, wear a sweatshirt. In practice, when you stepped off that plane in Miami and that sun hits you, we knew right away it felt like we had walked into a sauna. It just your body has to try to actimate right away and it never works out the way you want. You can fight through it being mentally tough, but it's an adjustment that's not easy to make whenever you switch those climates.
Okay, but you had to see guys come on the field. Teams come on the field in New England when it's cold, and just see it on their face.
Right.
Oh, when you see guys out there in pregame and they got five hoodies on, they got the gloves.
A hat and they're over there and the hands are.
Going like this NonStop. We would sit on the sideline and it was like got them, We got them, like they're they're done, they have no shot today. So it was it was always fun knowing if we could play at home in the playoffs and get a warm weather team, we felt pretty good about that.
Good to talk to you. We uh, we'll be watching Sunday night. Thank you, Devin, no problem, Good to see you.
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Dan Patrick Show weekdays at nine am Eastern six am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Ariel Helwane, host of The Ariel Helwane Show, executive editor of the new Combat sports hub Uncrowned dot com, and a reporter for Mike Tyson Jake Paul Fight tuned in. All of a sudden, I see my guy on stage. He's there asking questions Jake Paul and Mike Tyson Ariel Helwane joining us on the program. Uh, let's start with the slap. You're reaction when you saw it?
Well, first of all, thank you so much.
Dan.
I can't believe I'm one of your guys. This is a massive honor for me. It's always great to talk to always a huge thrill. And yeah, I was there yesterday at the at the Wayans. You know, there's been a lot of talk about who this version of Mike Tyson is, what we're gonna see tonight, what this is all about. You've been around for a long time, You've seen the many different versions of Mike.
That was.
That was nineteen nineties version of Mike. You know, he may be fifty eight, but that demon, that beast never goes away. And when Jake walked up to him like that, and as we found out later stepped on his toe, that guy comes back. He cannot control it. That was not scripted, That was not fake, That was not any of that. And I'll tell you this, the look on his face as I was trying to interview him afterwards, and I was I was standing, you know, as far away as possible, like I was holding a piece of meat trying to feed a lion. I have never seen that look on a human being's face. Forget fighter, I have never seen that look on a human beings face. For I've never been in a Tyson broadcast before. That was terrifying stuff.
But also you have a lot of people are skeptical about this. Is it real? You have Mike who's thirty years older than Jake Paul. Jake Paul, is you know, I guess a professional boxer. When will we know this is a real fight that will put to rest that you know is scripted.
This is one hundred percent or real fight. And look, I'm not a part of the promotion. I don't work for the promoter. I have the great opportunity to work for Netflix tonight. It's a huge deal. It's probably going to be the most watched combat sports event of all time by the time everything is said and done. Mike Tyson doesn't do fake he doesn't play fight. In fact, afterwards, I spoke to his son, Amir Tyson, who's part of the broadcast as well, and the look on his face was so telling as well. He kept he was pacing back and forth because this is the first time he really get to see his father in this sort of light and on this platform. He was so young when Mike was fighting. He said, people don't understand he doesn't do YouTube boxing. He doesn't do this fake stuff. This is a different type of human being. He is wired differently. There's a demon inside of him that he just can't switch off regardless of his age, and so ultimately, look, I will be honest. When I first heard about this, I felt the same way, and I still feel the same way as everyone else. A fifty eight year old historically does not fight and shouldn't be sanctioned to fight. I have no idea what we are going to witness, what this is all going to look like, but Mike Tyson isn't coming to play. It may mean that he lasts thirty seconds in there, but there is nothing scripted about what we're going to see tonight.
Besides the money. What is Jake Paul gain by fighting Mike Tyson?
A lot of fame, a lot of attention. Jake Paul likes to be the heel and if you don't know what that term means, that's a pro wrestling term, the bad guy. He likes the idea of everyone saying, poor Mike is being you know, fed to the lions. He's being led to slaughter. Oh he's fifty eight, how dare you Jake Paul talk about knocking him out in the year twenty twenty four and saying that you're now the baddest man on the planet. You're not the baddest man on the planet if you knock out a fifty eight year old Mike Tyson. But he loves that heat. He wants that heat, and he's got grandiose plans after this fight. He wants to fight Canelo Alvarez. And by the way, I'm not going to say that that's not gonna happen, because every step of the way people have been saying these things aren't going to happen, and they're happening because of the money that's attached to Jake Paul right now, because of the platform. Netflix is getting into this because it's Jake Paul versus Mike Tyson, not just because it's the Mike Tyson Show. It's the two of them. And look, I have kids who are twelve and ten. They think, and I try to explain to them, they think Jake Paul is Muhammad Ali. To them, boxing is Jake Paul. And then there's my age who are like, please tell me, Mike is gonna shut this kid up. And so what makes this so fascinating is the generational clash between the forty fifty sixty year olds and the ten twenty year olds.
I've been telling my audience that I met Mike in nineteen eighty six. I was there for Marvus Frasier. I was there for Michael Spinks. I think I saw between six and eight of his fights. And the look when he comes into the ring is the look that you're talking about. It's my car is running. I'm going to kick your ass and then I'm going to leave and go party. And Mike had that moment yesterday. I didn't know if he was capable of that. During the commercial, we play archival footage and interviews and Mike in twenty seventeen, I talked to him and I said, who do you want a piece of? He goes, Oh, I don't want to fight anybody anymore. But I don't know what it took to get him financially.
Is he is?
He?
Okay? Ariel?
My understanding is yes, the turnaround in his life. You know, there was a period pre Hangover and all that where he was obviously in a tough spot.
I think the way Hangover the movie yeah, yes, okay, excuse.
Me, yes, the movie did Wonders. I mean, we forget that this man went to prison, convicted rapist, and it's just been sort of forgotten about, like the transformation and the comeback is remarkable, and I think a lot of that credit goes to his wife, Kiki, who helped get him back on the right path, so to speak. And so he's fine, and he's making a boatload of cash.
He will be okay.
There's one moment in that Countdown series that aired on Netflix that I can't stop thinking about. He's watching Jake Paul call him out after his last fight, and he looks to the camera and he goes the difference between me and him is that he's a manufactured killer. TV made him into a killer. I'm a natural born killer. And I get chills just saying that. Because you know Mike better than me and better than most. This guy's different and to see that version of him in twenty twenty four, I'd love to ask you, if I may, how do you feel about this? You saw Mike in his prime fifty eight. You shouldn't be fighting, but he's a different kind of cat. Do you feel some sort of way about it? Do you feel uncomfortable? Are you excited? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Yeah.
I just don't want him embarrassed. I just don't want that because then you're gonna have a whole generation of going, what's the big deal about this guy? You know he's thirty years older. This guy is in his prime. I even asked Mike, I said, how would this go if you were twenty seven? And he said it wouldn't go well for him. Now we know that't get in If they were both twenty seven, Jake Paul would be in a corner, hiding and probably in a fetal position.
I just don't want Mike to be.
You know, when Buster Douglas knocked him down, and we see this with a lot of people. Once you get defeated, and certainly in UFC and in boxing, if you lose that one time, you lose that invincibility, like it's gone now. And when Mike got knocked down by Buster, all of a sudden, he wasn't the baddest man on the planet. And the longer that you had him in the ring, the more susceptible he was. Because he's not a great boxer, he's an unbelievable you know, Puncher and Holyfield could beat him, and Lennox Lewis can beat him. You know, all these guys, I'll string you out. But Mike, when he got in the ring and what he did when he got in there was unlike anything we've ever seen. And I just hope worst case scenario Ariel is it goes the distance and he loses, know by decision Like if that happens, great, Now, don't do it anymore, Mike, because I'm worried he's going to be calling out Lennox Lewis and go Hey or holy Field again, like I don't.
I don't want that and boxing shouldn't be that like it. When did it dip? When did UFC?
You know, there was an intersection and then all of a sudden UFC took off and then boxing just became a secondary sport.
Can you look back on when it maybe it happened.
It's been a slow build. I will say around the time of UFC one hundred with brock Lesner and whatnot. The UFC really took a big step when they did the deal with Fox and twenty twelve Huge, twenty eighteen, they do the deal with the ESPN Gigantic. The pandemic helped the UFC tremendously.
But if I can.
Offer this, I would love to just say that I hear a lot of people, especially in sports media, and I'm not certainly talking about you here, but I hear a lot of people kind of coming after me and saying this is a referendum on the state of boxing, ruined and soiled by this event. First of all, these people aren't watching a lick of boxing each and every week on Dezone, on ESPN, on Amazon Prime. They couldn't care less about boxing, So spare me your thoughts on the state of boxing. I do have a newsflash for everyone. Boxing is doing actually tremendously well. There is a litany of big stars. We just had an undisputed heavyweight title fight in May, We're getting a second one in December, Tyson Furray, Alexander Ussik, there's not Oya Na in Japan, and Terrence Crawford, and on and on it goes. Boxing is doing just fine, And if you care so much about the sanctity of boxing, please do me this favor watch the rest of this card, because the comin event is Katie Taylor versus Amanda Serrano, the two greatest female boxers of all time, arguably Katie Taylor twenty twelve Olympic gold medalist. They had a fight in Madison Square Garden in twenty twenty two, one of the greatest fights that I've ever seen live in person, male or female, one of the greatest spectacles. They're running it back tonight in the comin event. So if you care so much about boxing, do me a favor and watch them as well, because they deserve this attention platform too.
Yeah, you're gonna get a lot of those people, almost like Caitlin Clark with the WNBA. People never watch the WNBA, and then they're only watching and now they have a referendum on the WNBA. So exactly, I understand what you're saying, who do you think wins tonight?
Well, you know, Dan, I consider myself a broadcast journalist. I'm from the great new House School of Syracuse University, and when you're working a broadcast, you try to abstain from making a pick because I know Mike is a big fan of yours, and I don't want him to be watching this right now and saying, oh, you're the guy who picked against me. As I'm doing the post fight interview in the cage like my or excuse me, in the ring, like my hero Howard Cosell would do back in the day. So I'm going to sit this one out. I will say the winner tonight will be the fans two hundred and eighty million subscribers, most watched sporting event as far as combat sports is concerned, and it's just a massive honor for me to be a small part of it.
And will the sunlight have any effect on the boxing tonight in Dallas?
Well, the main card kicks off part of the on at seventh Central. It's getting dark pretty early these days, Okay, so by the time these guys walk out, it'll be around oh nine, nine thirty or so Central, So I would say not.
Good luck, have fun.
Thank you, Yes, keep keep your question short, open ended, before and after get him talking.
That's what you want.
That means the world to me.
Thank you so much, truly, I really appreciate it, all right, Errol, thank you.
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Dan Patrick Show weekdays at nine am Eastern six am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
He's Brian Windhorst, ESPN NBA writer analyst, host of The Hoop Collective podcast, and he'll be on NBA Countdown tonight. You have the Lakers and Spurs seven thirty Eastern, then Memphis Grizzlies Golden State Warriors at ten Eastern. Wendy, I mentioned your report. It wasn't a report, felt like an opinion on Browning. But you know how it works. You say something, then all of a sudden, people make it a report. And it felt like Bronnie was maybe being a diva the way it was presented that he's not flying, not getting on an airplane. So I wanted to be fair because I was critical of the report or your opinion, I should say, so, I wanted to have you on just so we can maybe better understand what is it that Bronni is doing in the G League and what happens when his team is on the road.
Yeah, I know, we're in this era where you can go on as you know, Dan, you can say something for you know, three minutes, you know, two minutes, and then one paragraph gets pulled out and it's like you lose all the context. That's reality. What I said, and I'll say again, was that I am totally on board with the whole Bronnie James thing with the Lakers. I think it was a smart move to draft him. I think it was a great move to bring him around the team because the fifty to fifth pick in the draft hits a single digital percentage of the time. And if the Lakers can use the fifty to fifth pick on Bronnie James and get a more engaged Lebron this year, I don't care. If it's a single digit percentage more engaged Lebron, it's a good investment and so I've been totally on board with it. And also, it is not unusual for NBA roster players, and Bronnie is an NBA roster player, He's not a two way player. This is a little bit of splitting of hairs, especially if you're a casual NBA fan, you don't really care that much about it. But there's a difference between a two way contract where you're basically signed to spend a lot of your time, if not most of your time in the G League and you don't even get paid a full NBA salary, versus being a roster player, where you get a full NBA salary. No matter what, which Bronni is a full roster player, it is not unusual for full roster players to go down and only play home games for their teams, especially when their teams are so close to the parent club, which in a lot of cases is either in the city or within a very short drive, So in and of itself, it is not special treatment, which is what it sounded like if you only read the tweet, it sounded like that That's not what I was saying. What I was saying was I think it would be better for Bronnie to go spend a bunch of time in the G League, and that this is the first thing, in my opinion that it is a misstep with Bronnie. And not only that. The South Bay Lakers, the Lakers G League team which plays I'm in Los Angeles right now, they just play, you know, fifteen miles from Crypto. They have a great history of producing guys who go play with them. They actually have a great development history. We're talking about like Alex Caruso, Taylor Horton, Tucker, Austin Reeves, a Scottie Pippen Junr who's playing huge minutes right now for the Memphis Grizzlies, was a guy who spent a bunch of time with the South Bay Lakers. Jay Huff also playing with the Grizzlies. And so I was just offering an opinion that Bronnie should go play there and that that should be what happened. I know, you take out one paragraph what I just said, and I said, you know, I don't know if they don't want him to get on an airline, if that's an issue. And also, here's something else I never said, Nor is it true that this was being asked for by Bronnie James or lebron James. This is the Lakers organizational decision. And I never said differently. But again, if you only hear a paragraph, he only read a paragraph. And I understand that social media in a lot of ways programs are world but that's what I said. Then that's what I say now, and I don't change my opinion on that.
Yeah, that's why I wanted to have you on because I wanted context here because it felt like, oh, Bronnie is being a diva. He's not going to get on a United Airlines flight and play on the road.
And I agree with you. He needs to play basketball games.
He needs to have a full schedule so's he's ready to come up, you know, because I guess is it going to be strategic depending on TV games like Christmas?
Is he coming up?
Do you have any idea what the Lakers are going to how they're gonna use Brownie in these situations.
No, and I'm not sure they do either. I mean a lot of it comes down, you know, he's not a rotation player. He's not a guy who's going to figure into what JJ Reddick is doing on a night to night basis. The games that he has played have either been when the Lakers have gotten blown out and he's on the active roster and they just give him basically garbage time, or special moments like when he played in Cleveland. That game ended up being lopsided, but I think they were going to try to get him in that game, and then I was an Opening night he was. He's not a roster player, so their plans for him are not to be a roster player, are not to be a rotation player unless he earns that.
And the way he's.
Going to earn that is not by playing in garbage minutes. He's going to earn that, in my opinion, by going and playing in the G League. And I don't regret saying that, and I do stand by that.
You've been around Lebron for a long long time.
At any point did you all stop being amazed by what Lebron does.
No.
And I also think that while this week for the last couple of days has been sort of focused on, you know, aggregation response on Bronni, I think we're missing the fact that Lebron is playing incredible basketball.
This is crazy, Brian, I mean it is.
Uh so, like, let's just be honest about where Lebron is. His explosion is not where it used to be. He can't get by defenders like he did in his prime years, and he has morphed that reality Dan by developing into somehow a very good three point shooter. Last year he shot over forty percent on threes. I think he had done that one other time in his career when he was with the Heat, and it was like back when he would take two or three threes a game. It was not like to where guys take six, seven, eight. He hadn't shot over he hadn't shot that well in a decade. And then last year he all of a sudden started shooting well from three. And this year and I realized, we're I think eleven or twelve games in for the Lakers, he's shooting forty six percent on threes. Now, maybe that won't quite stay that high. Maybe he'll come back down. But if you watch his shot, it looks terrific, and so he's mitigating that he can't maybe be as explosive get into the basket by just being a much better outside shooter. You know, it's it's it's kind of like Jordan later in his career. Jordan developed all that great footwork and that and that turnaround shot in the mid range. Lebron is developing this three point shot in his late thirties. I mean there were years Dan where he was in the low thirties. I mean, obviously on three pointers, it was the game plan. Make Lebron shoe threes. Right now, making Lebron shoe threes is a losing enterprise. The other thing is he's averaging nine assists a game. Uh you know, you may remember that about four or five years ago he led the league in assists. He was a Lakers point guard, and he actually led the league in scoring, led the league in assists like something like twelve or thirteen years apart. It's one of the great Lebron stats that you just hear and just you can't believe. It's so wild. But in the last few years, you know, Lakers have had other guards and he has he's sort of had the ball less in his hands. Well, this year with JJ Reddick, they've put the ball in his hands more. And the guy's averaging nine assists a game. He's averaging eight. He is averaging twenty something points on forty forty six percent three points, shooting nine assists in eight rebounds. He's had three consecutive triple doubles. Like to me, Lebron's performance right now is honestly one of the stories of the NBA, and the Lakers are in pretty good position despite having a pre disastrous five game road trip because Lebron, I mean, Ad has been excellent too, but because Lebron has been frankly carrying their offense in recent games.
I mentioned this might have been Monday or Tuesday where I said, you know, enjoy this moment with Durant, Curry and Lebron. And I said this during the Olympics in that final game, those three on the floor, and I was trying to think of another time in NBA history where you had these three. They've all changed the game. All three of these players, certainly Steph and Lebron have kd with what he's doing at his size. But I don't know, do you go back to Magic and Larry and Michael. Is there another trilogy that you could look at that those three guys at.
The same time and what they meant to the NBA.
So I know this is an extremely unpopular position to take, and I can't really defend it. In nineteen ninety two, I was in eighth grade. I was with the Olympic team. This year, I was with them in Abu Dhabi. I was with them in London, I was with them in Lele, I was with them in Paris. I don't think there's ever been anything like that. I know that it's like the third rail to ever talk about the Dream Team, And it's an impossible comparison because the world were was in awe. Now they tried to you know, it's not a comparable. It's almost a different sport. Larry Bird was on his he was soon to retire. Magic had already retired, okay, and had come back because of the terrible thing with the HIV. Wasn't like he was past his prime, but he had already retired and come back. Jordan was absolutely, you know, at the peak of his powers. But and I just will tell you, like being an Abu Dhabi, seeing the way those fans treated those players. You know, there was this game in London against the South Sudan Dan South Sudan exhibition game. Okay, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that this was a huge thing on the calendar. The US was in danger of losing. There was twenty thousand fans at o To Arena in London. There's never been a basketball crowd like that, frankly in Europe, certainly in London, and Lebron like scored the last ten points of the game and the entire arena had goosebumps. Lebron was totally into it. There's no way you attended that moment and not have a lifetime memory of watching. And I know it was the South Udan, I understand. I'm not arguing that, you know, it was like going up against the eighty six Celtics, But there's no way that moment isn't relevant to all those people who took it in in Lelle, where there's thirty thousand fans there. They played it in a soccer stadium that didn't even have air conditioning, A pump in air conditioning. Kevin Durant makes goes eight of nine against Serbia in the opening game. Durant has never been like more amped up because he had just come back from this cafe injury. He wasn't sure as we all play, Like Durant's having this moment in front of thirty thousand people, Steph Curry with those three pointers in Paris Saturday night, last Saturday night the Olympics. You know, that is a moment. I'm sorry that if you were a part of you're not gonna forget. So these guys at this age delivering these moments and that's just a summer you know. I mean I was started calling them the first ballot trio, you know, because they're just sort of in a class by themselves. Obviously there's a lot of people get in the first bout. It's not like it is necessarily in baseball. But I'm sorry, this is a moment. And like being an opportunity to be a part and be around that Olympic team was one of the great privileges of my now twenty three year career covering the NBA was amazing, and like that was the thing, Like people were on Steve Kurr's backside because of his decisions he was making with the tenth eleventh man. And I was like, are you paying for the same thing I was talking about with le Bron and Lebron? What about the amazing thing that's happening with these other guys? Like I was not. I was overseas Dan, so I didn't have a feel of what people were saying back here, But like, were people understanding the incredible moments that are happening. It's like, I just think that this is what we should be celebrating in the NBA. We should be celebrating, Like tonight is an ESPN game, Victor Weinberyam against Lebron James. Lebron is playing this incredible Victor is coming off a fifty point game. I understand that we are in the NFL season and we've got big college football tomorrow. This is the potentially a terrific game, and I'm not trying to sell it. And I just think that we don't pay enough attention to that. We pay more attention to stuff that gets tweeted, you know, gets aggregated out of a podcast about whether a guy's going to play in the G League, instead of talking about Oh my god, one miyam is going up against Lebron tonight, Like, sorry, if that makes them I could sell like an old man.
Yeah, it's load management. It's too many three. I mean, this is this is what we seem to be focused on, and I just remind the audience that this doesn't happen. I mean, this is this is an incredible moment to watch players play this well at this age and do it on a consistent basis. And you know, I it's not lost on me because I was trying to search through history to is there anything that's comparable to that, and there probably isn't. But I know you're busy. I appreciate you coming on and clarifying that as always. Now, when you go in to the arena tonight, does Lebron say anything to you, Well.
The game is in San Antonio and I'm going to be in La R Studios tonight, but I will.
Say much work when you see him that.
You know, it was tremendous to be with these guys this summer. One of the amazing things that happened this summer was that just to take you behind the scenes a little bit, because ESPN doesn't have Olympic rights. As you well know, we can't do individual interviews with them on Olympic property. I can't do an interview for Sports Center with Lebron or Kevin Durant or Steph Curry in the arena, so we have to do it elsewhere. So USA Basketball being extremely welcoming allows ESPN to come to be with the players off the away from the arena. And what was so special about being able to do that. And by the way, this also held true for the women's team because the women's team was there, and I I'm telling you it was so enjoyable to cover the women that the master at which they play the game is incredible, the way they share the ball, I so enjoyed it. I defy you to watch Breonna Stewart play basketball and tell me you don't appreciate it and you wouldn't want your children to play like her and Asia Wilson's master of the game. But I don't because I don't want to short change them because it was with them too. I did this for them too, to be around the players and their families. I'm telling you that night after they beat Serbia, when they came back, I've been with all of these guys. I've been with Lebron when he's won championships. I've been with Durant when he's won championships. I've been with Steph when he's won championships. I'm not saying was exactly the same, but the euphoria that they were with their families, you know, I don't think that people. I think with Timsa especially, it's just seen as a given and the only time they get attention is when they struggle. I'm telling you those days after and being with them and their families after they won the gold medal. It was very late in Paris, and Macron had come to the game, and so there was this big traffic jam to get out of the arena. Long story short, it was like one or two in the morning. There's a thousand people on the street. Steph is walking up and down the street with a cigar, you know, celebrating with the American fans who came. Lebron and his family are there and like, you know, you know, I've been there when they've had these moments and like for you know, one of the things that happened. I'm sorry, I'm rambling. I'm probably pushing you past your break. Let me just tell you, like one thing I'll never forget. Because of the Olympics and all the security, the players can't be with their families after the game. It's not like an NBA game where they can come back down. So they've won the gold medal. It's amazing. It's a historic moment for everybody there. It is now one in the morning. At this hotel in Paris. They lined up all of the children, all of the players children. Some of their players' children are in their teens, and in the NBA, some of the players' children are toddlers, and they lined up all of their children so that when the came off of the bus into the hotel, that they first thing that they saw with the gold medals around their neck were their kids. And so to see all of them be able to scoop up their children and celebrate in this moment, I mean, it's all you know. They had cameras there. You can go see it. It exists. It is one of the most purest, truest moments that I've seen of celebration, despite having been in many championship locker rooms over my career. So I'm sorry I rambled there it was a wonderful thing. I've seen Lebron in many, many wonderful moments with his family over the years. This was just another wonderful one. I'm not going to rank them, but they was there.
Great to talk to. You have a good WEEKND.
I have you too.
Thank you, Brian
