Colin reacts to a wild night in the WNBA where Caitlin Clark was on the receiving end of hard fouls in the Fever’s win over the Sun
LeBron James' recent comments on his podcast have people thinking he's being a hypocrite to protect his legacy
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Oh, here we go, it is O Wednesday. It's a Caitlin Clark Wednesday. How grateful are we? How lucky are we in June? You know, this industry is football season and waiting for football. That Caitlin Clark has become a leading source of content. All we could talk about Aaron Rodgers. I am for Caitlin Clark. Jmac texted me last night, the gift that keeps on giving. I do think the media, the media is prone to do this. You know, the media tends to be very reactionary, and the fans generally get it more than the media. So I want to start with this, j Mac. The WNBA has arrived. Caitlin Clark's gotten really good, really fast. It's like the end of year one for Michael Jordan or year three for Michael Jordan. She's gotten really good, really fast, and you got to put a body on her, or you got a double teamer, or she's gonna embarrass you. She's shooting thirty three footers and what happened last night's a byproduct of that. This is what happened to MJ. She's number one and two in every offensive stat. She's hitting more threes this season than Steph Curry did in his first MVP season, and her game embarrasses you. So like men's basketball, J C. Sheldon had the task of stopping stopping the latest superstar in her basketball league. And this thing was chatty. In the second quarter, it was chatty. They've got history. It was trash talking. And then in the third quarter, Sheldon poked her in the eye. Again, this is something we see all the time. They were on each other, they were talking. It was trashy, the superstar like MJ unstoppable poker in the eye and that's a flagrant fowl and it should have been a flagrant foul. And then Marina Maybray this is inappropriate, came over, knocked her over. Minnie dug she should have been thrown out of the game. Well, she got it. She didn't get a technical it's a little bad Boys Pistons with MJ. For the record, Caitlin Clark got up, she wasn't hurt. She did more trash talking, she hit more threes. She remained remarkable, just like all the great You know, if you respect women, stop pandering. She's tough, she's feisty, she likes to taunt and talk, and nobody quite knows what the hell to do. I mean when Candace Parker ten years ago, Candace Parker led this sport WNBA and assists with six a game. Caitlin Clark's not only the best guard, the best shoe hitting thirty three footers. They're flashy and kind of embarrass you. She's averaging nine assists the game. She's changed the entire tempo of the sport. Forget the merchandise, that's another segment. So they don't know what to do. Hack a shack Mike Dunlavy coach and the Blazers, we can't stop him. And we have our Vitas Sabonis Steph Curry's first couple of years in the league. Thank God for Draymond Green. And by the way, this league, they knew what they were getting into right like, and I'll get to this in a second. But they brought Sophie Cunningham over in a trade for a reason. She's the youngest black belt in the state of Missouri's history, six years old. They brought her over to protect Caitlin Clark because they saw this puppy coming. The league doesn't quite know what to do, but the fever did. And so again, you got to put a body on You got to get physical. If you go look at the history of basketball, high school, college, WNBA, NBA. If there's an offensive player and there's humiliating you steph shack, MJ. Caitlin, what do you do. You can't trap her, She'll dribble through it. You gotta put a body on her. You got a double teamer. You try to get in her head with trash talking. It's not working at all. It's the ultimate compliment in my opinion. But take a deep breath. Caitlin bounced up the eye. Couldn't have been gouge that violently because she could see just fine draining jumpers after. Do I think it crossed a line? Yeah, that's why we had a flagrant foul and a technicol And do I think the officials are trying to figure out how quite the officiator. Yes, I was at the Blazers Lakers series in Los Angeles. I know where I was sitting behind the basket when Kobe hit Shack for the slam dunk, and I looked over at Bob Whitsitt at the time, the GM of the Blazers, and thought we had our venus of bonus with the Blazers. We couldn't stop him. They didn't know how to officiate him. This is what happens when the superstar emerges and here is the coach of the fever after.
This is what happens, right, This is what happens. You've got competitive women who are the best in the world at what they do, right, and when you allow them to play physical and you allow these things to happen, they're gonna compete and they're gonna have their teammates backs. It's exactly what you expect right out of out of fierce competition. So I started talking to the officials in the first quarter, and we knew this was gonna happen. They got to get control of it. They got to be better. They got to be better.
Can you specifically detail what you mean might get control of the game, just to be, in your words, get.
Control of the game.
Is called the fouls that are actually.
Happening on the floor. Okay, so and again let's go to the next level on this, so everybody's going to be okay. There was a technical, there was a flagrant, and the officials of the WA are kind of figuring out, how do we how do we officiate this thing? Okay, they've never out of Caitlin Clark. How do we officiate this thing? How do we officiate Shack? How do we officiate Curry when they're coming after him? How do we efficient bad boys tackling? What's legal? Finally the NBA stepped and said no hand checking, No, you know, forearm in the back like this stuff is a work in progress. And so the first year Caitlin Clark was in the WNBA, they were Hazinger. They're not Hazinger anymore. They're just trying to figure out how the whodle stopper. It's not hazing, it's all right. Traps pressure. So the Fever saw it coming. They went and got Sophie Cunningham, six year old black belt. This is what the Bulls did with Charles Oakley to protect Michael Jordan, and I said this last year several times. The WNBA is not a vertical league. Their players can't jump over each other to score like the NBA. It's a horizontal, chippy league. And you didn't watch the NBA for the last ten to twelve years. It is always been physical and ohways been chippy. You get into a lot of collisions because they don't There's no Jah Morant here, there's no Aunt Edwards. They don't jump over. It's a horizontal physical league. And in Caitlin Clark now is like Kerosene to the physicality flame. So you have physicality in this league. And now you get this slashy player and they don't know how to officiate her, they don't know how to defend her. But I would say when I hear this, Colin, Colin, Colin, the NB the w NBA, Colin has got to do something. Yes, they do understand. This is the arc of a new superstar in your league. It'll start with hazing, it'll go to physicality, it'll go to flagrants, it may go to technicals. You'll eventually have to get a Sophie Cunningham, er a Charles Oakley. I mean Wayne Gretzky did this for years. They figured it out in hockey. How do you stop Gretzky? Oh, we can't. How do you stop MJ We can't. How do you stop Caitlin Clark? You guys understand this is the worst she'll ever be. She's getting better and they can't stop her. And so, but I also want you to watch this because I've always said this, the media may overreact to stuff. The fans in American public usually doesn't watch the retaliation later by Sophie Cunningham. And again, this is inappropriate right now, It's what happens in basketball. But I want you to watch as this scrum's going on. Watch the fans behind Sophie Cunningham. Watch them. They're smiling, they're engaged, they're happy, they're not horrified. The Indiana fans understand what they're seeing. It's part of the process. They went those people in Indiana, they've gone to the Nick games and Spike Lee and Reggie Miller. They watched the heat. Look at the look at the fans. They're grabbing their phones, they're taking pictures. I'm thinking the whole night, did Nick Kahn take over the WNBA? We got a little WWE going on here, and the fans get it. The media, in my opinion, the media does a disk service sports media, political media by overreacting to everything. And the Indian fans are like, this is fun, this is real. The WNBA, now you go to those games. There are nights the Fever out drew the Pacers. Facers are in the finals. So the fans here are not freaking out, They're booing. Honest to god, it feels like a little you know, sports isn't terrible if it's got a little WWE in basketball, like international soccer has always been personality in star driven and when new stars emerge. I can remember Christian Poolisic his first World Cup and some of the quote friendlies, they were tackling him and an American can do that. He'd played in Mexico, maybe Canada. What do you do when a star emerges. You can't stop them. Their game is flashy. It goes from hazing to physicality to flagrance to ejections. It's part of it. The only good thing about getting old, and I'm not that old, but I'm kind of old is you've seen all this stuff before. I've seen this like eight times. I saw it in Honckey with Gretzky. So listen, if you watch Gordon Ramsay the greatest chef in the world right or one of them, it gets toxic in that kitchen, John Taffer and Bar Rescue, it gets toxic change. People don't like change, but intensity and heat creates steel. This will only make Caitlin Clark a better player. It will only make the fever more championship ready, and the Indiana fans, good for you. You're gonna have the great watch of the next fifteen years because they're never trading her. She's the Steph Curry. They're never trading her. She starts here, college here or near here. And by the way, that whole scrum and that retaliation and the delays in the game that everybody's freaking out over, Caitlin Clark's like, can we got back to playing?
Honestly, the review took too long for me. I wanted to get playing basketball again. And that's exactly what I did. At the rest of the third quarter, I made all three free throws and then I you know, it was a tough three. I was excited about a three, and you know, honestly got to give our crowd a lot of credit too. I thought they were tremendous. You know, they're cheering for us, they had our back. And I'm a passionate player. But at the end of the day, like I'm here to play basketball and that's what it is, and my game's going to talk and that's all all that really matters. And I love this game and I'm going to give it everything I have. So I think that's what competitors do. You just step right back up to the challenge.
That's what competitors do. That's what they do. Let's not pander, let's not protect. Let's understand the WNBA. I had been to a couple WNBA games. The league wasn't nearly as good or watchable. Fifteen years ago, people could lead the league and assists with five or six. Now you've got multiple players at nine to ten. People are shooting thirty three footers. Watch a WNBA game, If go watch the highlights on YouTube of this game, look at the passing, look at the physicality, look at the shooting. This league is growing in front of our eyes. Now. Caitlin Clark is obviously the jet fuel. Half the audience goes when she's not there, But that's Okay, it took Connor McGregor to the UFC and John Jones. It sometimes in emerging leagues it takes a superstar and now and now you know, America is all into UFC, but it does take sometimes these special athletes and it can be getting really, really bumpy. But if you really respect all these amazing women's athletes, then take a deep breath. Nobody got hurt Jmac. That was so fun. By the way, if you do go to the YouTube WNBA highlights, they edit out the fighting part. Oh well, of course they do, so you have to go get that separately. But the point is you're old enough to know. I mean, those Knicks teams with pat Riley, those were tackling exercises for years. There's videos of Kurt Rambus being slammed to the floor.
Right.
This stuff was and I think fans know this. You know when that when when Sophie Cunningham comes down and tackles the girl, it's like, hey, I'm protecting my star. And my take was, this is the process we want to make. We're gonna let you know at the end of the game, you're not getting out of this arena without us retaliating that is a message to every other WNBA team. You're going for a driving layup. You treat our player like that. This is how we're gonna treat yours. That may get a technical, but that was a message and that's okay.
So the Lakers Kurt Rambus stuff. In the eighties, the teams didn't like each other. They were rivals, right.
This Colin is different.
This is many players around the league not liking Caitlin Clark or they're jealous of her. Sixth say, you know, I know people tried to make this a racial thing. Well, what happened last night was not racial. That's just hate and just they just don't like Kaitlyn Clark. They don't like the attention she's getting. I mean, the ipoke was so blatant, and the announcer as soon as Kaitlin Clark got knocked over, was like, oh, she's gonna get ejected.
They didn't eject the girl.
Can you believe that?
I say this, I wouldn't have been bothered if she was ejected. I'm not bothered that she wasn't. It's obviously a cheap shot. Yeah, it's a cheap shot. Caitlin Clark, by the way, got right back up. Still, yeah, I just I think in the reality of this is yes, obviously that's a cheap shot.
But what do you think the league wants Colin Kayln Clark splashing thirty foot three pointers or three scrums in the in the sun Fever game.
They didn't want this. This doesn't lie. I think. I think everybody's figuring out this jigsaw puzzle and it's it just takes a while. When Michael Jordan came in, I mean, you're you're watching this stuff, and David's turn saying, oh my god, this guy's making our league global. He's selling more shoes than any player in the history of the world. And David Stern's like, we have to protect him. But yet the Pistons tackled him for years and David Stern, the late David Sterns step back, let it play out, didn't protect Michael knew. Eventually they changed some officiating. Michael, by the way, in year two got hurt, broke his foot, so we had year one in year three. So again, we all wantia. The sports can be very similar to politics. We all want answers today, and everything's a process. We prepare for our show. It's a process. You. Ninety percent of sports is practiced, not games, right, We only see the games. You didn't see Michael Jordan punch Steve Kerr. We did see Draymond punch pool because we have phones now. But there's a lot of stuff that happens among teams. Teams fight amongst themselves in camp. We don't see most of that. So we're so shocked when we see that bump. I got news for you. You can find scrums in the WNBA ten years ago. They don't jump over each other. That's not what this leg is. They bang into each other.
Yeah.
By the way, everybody's going to see this. Kayla Clark's Oh when's the next game? Guess where their game is televised on Thursday? Amazon Prime, almost the Patrick Mahomes, Chiefs, Travis Kelce, Taylor Swift Effect, Taylor Clark.
On Amazon Prime on Thursday. So exciting, We've got more, plus Lebron being a bit of a hipocrite. It's the hurt.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and noon eastern non am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
All right, welcome back, Mark Sanchez, by the way top of the hour. So you may think I'm embellishing when I say there's a lot of similarities between Michael Jordan and Caitlin Clark, But think about this. So both were very popular in college. Caitlyn got to national championship, didn't win it, but was sensational. Michael won a title his last two years in college. He didn't but was sensational. Both had flashy games that were different. Before Michael got to the Bulls, they were awful twenty seven to fifty five. First year in. He improved him by eleven games. They made the playoffs. They still weren't great, but he got him into the playoffs. Pre Kaitlyn Clark fever awful after her first year, got him into the playoffs. Still weren't a great team. By the end of year one, though for Michael, we were thinking, is this guy a top three player in the league? By the end of last year outside of Asia Wilson, We're thinking, is Kaitlyn a top three player in the league by year three? Michael got hurt in year two. Year three, Michael MVP year two. For Caitlin, hopefully she doesn't get hurt, will she be an MVP she's our second right now. In odds, these are very similar players. Both sold a ton of merchandise. We fell in love with him and knew him. Michael's at North Carolina went in a title taking the shot facing Georgetown. Everybody didn't even go number one, but everybody's like, who is this guy? Bobby Knight at the time said, most talented guy I've ever seen in the basketball court ever. Caitlyn Clark merch popularity, bad team gets him into the playoffs and by the second full year of playing, are they the best player in the league. They are the MVP of the league. I mean she is the MVP. She may not win the award, she's the MVP of the league. And in both instances, both staffs, coaching staffs and organizations understood that they had to protect their players. The Bulls went out and got Charles Oakley, the intimidator, the enforcer, to protect Michael because they started seeing how people were defending him and fouling him. Caitlyn Clark, they go and get the fever. Sophie Cunningham, as I said earlier, six years old, had a black belt, youngest black belt to this day ever granted in the State of Missouri. She's an intimidator. You saw it last night, the Fever like like the Bulls. The Bulls knew what they had. They had to protect their asset. And in both instances, the early Bulls coaches complained about how their star Michael Jordan was being treated, and the coach of the Fever, Stephanie White, saying the same thing is hey, guys, catch up to the players. The game has changed so much.
Players are faster, they're better, they're bigger, they're stronger. You know, they're as good as they've ever been. There, as athletic as they've ever been. The game is fast now, things are happening quickly. Everybody's getting better except the officials. So we got to find a way to remedy it.
Listen, Stan Albrook, Doug Collins, Phil Jackson were constantly lamenting how Michael was officiated. And again I'm not defending the Connecticut Sun. I when you can't stop somebody, traps don't work, doubles don't work. Connecticut's like, all right, let's get the physicality route. And by the way, nobody ever stops Shack really or Michael or Bird or Magic or Kobe or Duncan or Caitlin Clark or Kandas Parker or Serena will the greats just endure the greats get theirs. But you got to figure out a way to slow down. I mean, the Pacers tried with SGA worked a little bit, and now it doesn't because he's gonna get his So, uh, what a night? How much fun? J Mack with the news.
No, no, no.
This is the Herdline News.
You know, I don't have any data to back this up, but you've had this show for what twenty years? The Herd There's no way you've ever opened with twenty minutes of straight wnba.
Ever, that just shows the Kaitlin Clark effect.
Man, unbelieve.
I don't have a research to back that up, but I'm gonna go with your right.
All right, Let's go back to a tried and drew fella on the show, and that's Aaron Rodgers, Colin. I mean, hey went in doubt Aaron Rodgers.
Let's talk about him.
Interestingly, a new report emerged that Pittsburgh came to the conclusion that George Pickens and Aaron Rodgers would not get along well. Obviously, Pickens, very immature, had issues in college, and that's why they traded him before Aaron Rodgers even came on board. Now, I'm not saying this is the level of the Jets playcating Rogers. Hey, what would you like offensive coordinator, wide receiver? Whatever you want, we'll give it to you. But this is starting to show, Hey, Aaron, we're gonna do what it takes to get you on board.
I don't love it, but let's see.
If they draw the line at trading Pickens.
One of the ways I've always defended Aaron Rodgers is Tom Brady had no interest with immature wide receivers. Don't get me Welker, who's in the league. Edelman took years to develop. Get me Randy Moss, and Randy Moss, by the way, was no trouble first couple of years in New England, and he was like like rain Man knowing offense right. Belichick and Brady will talk about that. I'm going to defend Aaron Rodgers. Older quarterbacks don't want to babysit wide receivers. Dak Prescott came in. I defended it, I think privately said listen, Dez is a headache. He's screaming at me on the sidelines, and Dez was a touchdown maker. But Dak, I'm not a babysitter, Brady, I'm not a babysitter. Aaron Rodgers, I'm going to back him one hundred percent here. He didn't have time to schedule a bad time, as Jerry Jones would say, he didn't have time for George Pickens to mature. Let's go get DK Metcalf, who, by the way, little maintenance. But he's an adult, he's been in the league. So I support the Steelers here. I support Aaron Rodgers here. Aaron's gonna play one more year. You don't want to spend nine games having to cool this guy off after he didn't throw it to him on a post route.
Colin, you just bought up an interesting point.
So Aaron Rodgers I don't have time. Do you think Aaron Rodgers in his head thinks, hey man, I could win a Super Bowl or I could compete for a Super Bowl with Pittsburgh this year.
Do you think he believes that in his head.
I'm never going to try to get into Aaron's head. I think all athletes have supreme confidence and generally have higher regards for their Super Bowl chances than reality. I think everybody in September the Atlanta Falcons during camp, coaching staff's going to be telling him you guys can win it all.
Oh no, that's different. I'm talking about Rogers specifically. He could have walked away from football.
Nobody would have believed. I think Aaron Aaron looks at it and thinks, this is easily the best defense I've ever had, easily dk metcalfs are, You'll be the most talented receiver I've had. We got a high end tight end, We've drafted the offense. I mean, Fraser's one of the top three centers in the league now from West Virginia. So I think Aaron looks at it and goes, hey, this is going to be like the Jets without the chaos. And at the end of the year, the Jets were pretty interesting when they didn't have as much chaos. So I think Aaron's talked himself into we can be real disruptors here, and it may be they could be.
I think the word you're looking for is delulu delusional. Anyways, let's move on to the Cleveland Browns. Colin because obviously Shador Sanders, he's the other gift that keeps on giving.
This summer.
Apparently, there's a report out that Shador has been outstanding in the building despite all those pre draft concerns. Further reports indicate that the future Hall of Fame quarterback Shaduor Sanders hasn't worked with any first team offense in practices attended by the media, but that he has made the most of his reps with the reserves and has elevated players in his time under center. I'll let you take this from Big felt.
Yeah, I think he'll be fine. I would say Chador's a little sillier than I love his personality. It's a little silly sometimes that's not my cup of tea. I like serious people, serious quarterbacks. I like Jalen. I've told you before, Jalen Hurts is the perfect personality to be a quarterback. I swear to god, he's got a briefcase. He's an accountant. You'd think he owns the team. I like that stoicism for quarterback. I don't want highly emotional. Sometimes I think is a little silly. Sometimes it shows his age. But I think he's going to be fine. I don't think he's disruptive. There's a big difference between being disruptive. Johnny Manzel was disruptive. Sometimes Cam could be a little over the top and just being a little silly. I think I think he needs to grow up a little bit. I thought the legendary draft room, It's like, bro, have some self awareness. This is not a good look. You come from wealth. Nobody wants to see this. But I don't think he's a disruptive force. I don't think it Colorado, I don't think anything.
Yeah, this points ultimately the thinger more at Dion is the reason he's that should do or dropped because Dion kept saying stuff as opposed to anything should do or did right. It's kind of unfair, but maybe I'll make the most of it.
Final story coms to.
The NBA, where the Pacers are going to try to force a Game seven by winning tomorrow night. It's so weird that this series has extra days off all over the place. We're still waiting on word from Tyrese Halliburton's MRI on his calf strain. Rick Carlisle says he'll be a game time decision. Miles Turner says the series is far from over. He did he did say that. I'm curious do you think it's far from over?
No, I think once Halliburton got hurt, it's done. Yeah, I think that's fine. What are they have? Six? What is the line, by the way, six seven and a half right now? Yeah, I think Oklahoma City's probably the bet tonight at six and a half. I think it's I think Indiana's going to give you a great home punch. I think they're going to play their butt off. Carlisle's a great coach, but there are limitations to what they can do. I mean, you got to play McConnell a ton in this game because he's our best ball handler arguably, I mean Turner, and you can see Oklahoma City's defense without Halliburton on the floor. Is it feels like it's another level of disruptive. We kept saying in the first part of the series, the first four games, Indiana's getting their looks. Have you noticed at the end last game and the end of the previous game, when Halliburton's not one hundred percent, it's totally disrupted. If they don't have If you didn't have Magic Johnson, nothing against Byron Scott, Michael Cooper, if you were pressing the Lakers, Magic make it a magic made it. Okay, Well, you couldn't press the Lakers too much because of magic. He would burn you. Halliburton burns you. You take him out, Okay, See coaches more aggressively. It's like a quarterback that doesn't read the blitz Brady, Brady. You can't blitz Mahomes. You can't blitz rookie quarterbacks. You blitz more because they can't handle it.
So you think it.
Let's say Halliburton's out.
You think the move is to start McConnell.
I think he is able to ensure a certain tempo. I think there's a he will not turn the ball over. He is probably as good as ball handler as they have off Halliburton. Because just think what OKAC is thinking. They're looking at that last game and they're liking and they're thinking, we totally took the Pacers out of their game when Halliburton wasn't on the floor. Well, Halliburton's not gonna be on the floor. You're gonna go right back to that. Okac is going to be hyper aggressive. Let's seize the moment. It's like we're a boxer and all of a sudden, there's a flurry and the guys on the ropes. You get hyper aggressive to finish it. Oklahoma City, he wants to finish this final in the first quarter. They want to take the crowd out of it. They want to take I mean because that crowd there is something else, so that okac's game plan. Let's eight minutes into the game. We want the crowd to be out of it, a non factor.
McConnell is like the fan favorite. He checks into the game, he gets like a saving ovation. I would bring him off the bench. I would start Ben Matherick Colin. I know it's a little off the board. I think Nemhar can handle point guard bringing the ball up duties. And you need a scorer because without Haliburton scoring, they're falling behind by twenty. I think matherin could start, give you twenty and then you still get the McConnell pop off the bench, and I would much prefer McConnell facing backups and facing those starters like I don't want to see Lou dort On TJ McConnell.
I like McConnell.
That ain't gonna be pretty.
Yeah, I think it's a competitive game, though, I think Indiana's too prideful, too well coached too many good levers to pull. But I think no Halliburton against that defense is trouble. That is trouble. J Mack with a.
News, Well, that's the news, and thanks for stopping by the Herd Line News.
I don't if you went back to every in my entire career of talking about Lebron James and let's say they're a been, I mean a thousand segments. I think I've been positive on nine hundred, maybe nine to seventy five. But he did something the other day and I think, my job, your job, if you do this for a living. We got to call people out, and I got to call it Braun out for something, and I don't do it very much. I called him out a lot his first year in LA when he seemed to be more fascinated with business lunches and business deals than basketball. That's probably the hardest I ever was. But and he doesn't car either way. But he did something recently and it's like time out, time out, you're projecting time out. I'll get to that in a second.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd Weekdays and noone Easter, not a Empacific.
The Road to twenty twenty six continues with the Gold Cup tomorrow as the Stars and Strikes face off against Middle East powerhouse Saudi Arabia.
No Easy Path, No Second.
Chances tomorrow, nine Eastern on FS one.
Good Good, Good night tomorrow. NBA Team USA, what you know, what I know, it's June J Mack. We're getting good sports. There's a lot to talk about. So I think I'm overwhelmingly uh positive with Lebron. I think most of the greats of all time very positive with But but there are times where he kind of plays the victim. I think he spends too much time on his phone sometimes. But here's a prime example. So he has a podcast called Mind the Game with Steve Nash. Now it used to be with JJ Reddick and uh he said something and it just it's just projecting, and so let's let's go to the clip.
I don't know why I was discussed so much in our sport, and why is the all be all of everything, Like, Okay, you weren't a great player, if you never won a championship. It's like you sit here and you tell me. You know, Alan Iverson and Charles Barkley and Steve Nash, you know, you know, wasn't unbelievable, like, oh, they can't be talked about or discussed with these guys. Is because this guy won one ring or won two rings or one like is this weird to me?
Okay? Nobody says Charles Barkley is not amazing. Nobody says Alan Iverson's not amazing. Nobody says Dan Marino's not amazing. But Barkley is an MJ. And Marino's not Brady, even though he was more talented. And the reason is the trophies, and Lebron knows that Lebron has no chance to win a trophy with the current Laer roster, so now they don't matter. He spent his entire career pursuing titles. You think he went to Miami to land the beach. He went there for Riley and Spolstra and a better owner and a better roster. He didn't go west. He stayed in the week East to keep getting the finals. Lebron pursued finals and Michael six for six For years He's talked about idolizing Michael. What's the stat? What stat do we talk about with Michael? If I said to you how many total points did Michael score. You don't know how many division titles did Michael win. You don't know how do you do in the finals? Six for six? That's his number, right, that's his number and so and he's been doing this for years, playing this angle. It's projecting its straw man arguments. And I love Lebron, I really do. I like the people around Lebron. But let's go back to years ago. So Lebron's saying the rings are overrated. No they're not. And nobody's saying you have to have them to be great, to be the all time great, you gotta have them. So here's Lebron with another guy like Rich Paul on More Than an Athlete podcast. This was after he had won that ring, the only one in Cleveland.
That one, right, that made me the greatest player of all time. For some fels, I was super super ecstatic the win one for Cleveland because of the fifty two year drought. Like I was ecstatic, like obviously I saw that. The first wave of emotion was when Syall everyone saw me crying like that was all for fifty two years, everything the sports have gone on in Cleveland. And then after I stopped, I was like that one right there made you the greatest player of all time?
Well wait, why would that be? I mean it was just another game, right, it was just another win. I mean why would that take you from great to the greatest player of all time? Oh? The ring? So back when he was he knew he had a chance to win several more, the ring mattered. See he was still back then, Hey can he surpass Michael and get the six seven eight? Now he can't. Now rings don't matter. Rings absolutely are the difference. D was bigger, stronger, and more talented than Brady. Brady got the trophies. That's the difference. Farv was more athletically talented than Brady. Brady got the trophies. Aaron's probably more gifted. Josh Allen is Brady's got the trophies. Nobody's saying that Marino or Josh Allen aren't talented. I think Josh Allen's the most talented football player in the world. But Mahomes has the trophies and we can contextualize it why they matter. I'm not a huge brock Purty fan, but if he had two trophies, I'd have to acknowledge he's a different player. He's just better than I think. So it does matter, And Michael and Lebron knows it matters. He himself is saying, yeah, when I won that that final, that took me from best player in the league, maybe greatest of all time to greatest of all time. Just that ring, so that let's not create straw man arguments. We all know the greatest quarterbacks of all time, and a couple of them have no Super Bowls or won, right right, But you talk the all time greatest, it's Peyton, and it's Brady, and it's Montana. Montana was a third round pick, third or fourth. He wasn't the most talented guy. Some of it was Bill Walsh and Jerry Rice. It doesn't matter you get him. I mean, Eli Manning was never a good regular season quarterback. He's gonna get into the Hall of Fame because he beat Brady and Belichick twice in Super Bowls and made two of the most iconic throws. Otherwise, how many Pro Bowls, how many great regular see the difference between Philip Rivers a really good regular season quarterback, and Eli Manning not so hot. But two rings is the trophies, so it obviously matters. I got so many. I want to go back because I got some Dodgers padres. That series is that series, that Dodger podre series. It is not. So I'm going to talk about the Top of the Hour. And also Lamar Jackson wants to get more money, which which I'm not bothered by. But j Mack's I want to talk about I want to go back for a couple of minutes to Caitlin Clark and so one of the things that I think makes America really special. The Dodgers recently had a national anthem singer decide, you know, during the ice raids, I'm going to do my version of it, not not are the American version of it? And it was dissent on display. And whether you agree with that or not, it's allowed. The next day she woke up and it's fine and she's not being placed in a prison or worse. What makes America great is the discomfort that is allowed and the dissension and the protests. Saturday, my daughter and I were in downtown Chicago. There was a Palestinian rally. There was a No King rally. I mean, it was organized. It was four hours, a little bit disruptive. The traffic downtown not walk or workflow, but a little disruptive. But the great thing about this country is dissent is not only possible, it's often encouraged. And in sports, we don't have that level of descent right the league's control stuff, but we do see things in real time. And often one of the truest observations of this, or illustrations of this, is when you get a star into a league and the employee slash. The athletes don't like how they're treated and don't like how they're changing the direction of the league. So Michael Jordan made the NBA Global and Gretzky won eight straight MVPs, and what happens, by the way, Muhammad al LEI, my dad didn't like him. He like Frasier. I was only Caitlin Clark is essential. The Caitlin Clarks, the Michael Jordan's, the Christian poolisic saying I'm not gonna go and play. It is essential to American sports. These disruptive figures who just don't always either told the company line for the GM for the drives us crazy. To scent drives us crazy. But Caitlin Clark is basically saying, yeah, I'm gonna score, I'm going to change the tempo. I'm going to do a little trash talking. I'm gonna have my tongue out, and here come the rivals, here comes retaliation, and this is essential for the growth in this league. It's weird.
I mean, I kind of agree with that, But Colin, I don't think it's anything Caitlyn Clerk's doing that has everybody jealous and angry about her in the league.
I think it's that.
The league says, we've been playing basketball. This league's been around for twenty years. We've been here forever. Why is the media Why are you guys only now showing up with microphones in our face because of Caitlin Clark. Well, I think a lot of this is media driven, Like players are angry seeing Kaitlin Clark highlights all over social media.
You know what, you never had a Moses Malone fan club? Why? Because he scored on layups under the basket. Stylistically, Moses Malone was a dominant player, but he wasn't a polarizing player. He didn't create animosity. Do you remember? Because style? Stylistically, Curry got attention, Michael got attention, Magic got attention. Caitlyn's getting attention. The style does matter, not just point Karl Malone boring, Moses Malone great, but boring. They didn't create that kind of uproar. When your style is flashy and can humiliate other players, that's when it gets personal. That's when you send the bullies after him to send the message. And I do think Caitlin's style is it rubs people, sometimes the wrong way. I love it, You love it.