The Jason Smith Show with Mike HarmonJason Smith and Mike Harmon tell you if the Pacers win Game 7 with Haliburton for a full game. The real reason the ratings so high. And did the Rockets give up too much capital for Kevin Durant?
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You're listening to Fox Sports Radio. Ronald gives this a ride to center field. How far is it gonna go?
To? Ma?
Get tune and nothing has done it again?
That kid that made that really great play out there in the outfield is faith need to throw back?
The fans call on him to keep that baseball. Greetings and welcome inside. Happy Monday. It is the Dickey love Lady Show with my bas friend Dickie love Lady.
Look, I'm gonna do things my way, and my way is terrible.
I think I'm gonna go through that the rest of my life with that moniker. See how that plays out for me. For over forty years, tire.
Racks Man helping customers find the right tires for how, what and where they drive. Shipped fast and free backed by Free Road has a protection with convenient installation options like mobile tire installation. Tirerac dot com is the way tire buying should be. Yeah, Bray's Ready network. Blah blah blah, brais beat the Mets. Blah blah blah blah blah. There's no baseball tonight.
I hate But Steve de Seger gave you the positive.
What was a positive note?
You guys hit his seventeenth home runner a year.
When it didn't matter, leaving out the fact that he struck out with the tying run at you tying runs on in the bottom of the eighth inning, waving at a breaking pitch that I told you was gonna happen. Did I did not say. He just he just threw a fastball and Sodo just missed it. He's gonna throw you a breaking pitch outside this strike zone, lay off it. What does he do? He waves at it for strike.
Yeah, but you were speaking to him like you were the little voice in his head, like you were the great Kazoo, you know, talking to Fred Flintstone, going hey, I like that that gleam in your eye. You're staring him down after just missing one, and then you missed it by two feet.
I would. I tell you a lot of baseball players be better if they can hear my voice in their head before that. Okay, so you just threw you the fastball and you just missed it. It's three and two. You think you're gonna see another one? Or is he gonna throw your breaking pitch off the plate and outside of the I'm just saying what you think because you know, you make seven hundred and sixty five billion dollars and I don't. But I know what's coming and you didn't. All right, Ronald here with his ninth home runner. Yeah that's great, yeah, bra Yeah, brah, that's great. Brave who's got the best record in baseball? Not the Braves. It doesn't matter. I mean, I'll one up here. Nothing to the diamond back. We're still nine games ahead of the Braves. That's fine, It's really not fine. And it's just now Chris Sales hurt. So I mean that helped? Yeah, yeah, I didn't. Doesn't help tonight, doesn't matter, no, but makes no difference on the grand spot. We have Dicky love Lady. I mean, come on, man, the Mets sign reliever Richard love Lady today. It was like, okay, and he made some headlines when he first came up a few years ago. I was the name Richard Lovelady is a big deal. And then you look. I look today and I see why is Dicky love Lady trending? Yeah? And I see it and I go, oh, what oh? Because he says, I'm now gonna go by my my childhood nickname of Dicky. When he said he was Richard, like when he first now I'm Richard, you can't know, But now he's Dicky love Lady.
This is the guy who is now realized how much money there is in trading cards and signatures because it made his old signature sucked.
This guy, I was.
I looked it up just to see, all right, how did he use to sign his name? You couldn't tell if it said Richard.
Now it's gonna be you're gonna get every letter.
Man.
I think I want to I think I want to put the emphasis on a different syllable. Like if you say Dicky love lady, okay, But then if you say Dicky love lady okay, then it's a completely different donation. La go love lady, okay. All right, God, that's better than.
Dicky love lady. Love Lady, Dick He love Lady, Dicky Love love Lady. Love Lady, Dicky Love Lady, Lady, Dickey Love Lady, Dicky Love Lady, Dicky.
Late dangerously close lats play like Dickey Love Lady. Right stop. Well, I hope he was gonna. I thought he's gonna pitch tonight. I thought we get to see him tonight, at least if they didn't live, didn't play, well, we get to see Dicky love love Lady.
What is his interest music? Is it like shot a, like smooth operator, like Rick Rude? No, no, no, I think it's gonna be uh Barry White, Barry.
Going on.
I like that, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah that that's a that's a song. Yeah no, no, no, no, I don't know. Can't good enough for your love?
Mixing up every one version and there you go.
He kind of just dances in. It's like it's a four minute entrance.
The guy goes, he's got a sprawling red carpet coming down from.
This is better than Narco. Oh, here it comes.
Hologram. Barry White on the sea.
Wasn't on the Simpsons. When Barry White was on the Simpsons, he was in his Love The Love square. I already come down to my love square. Everybody's square. It's really big. Oh, yes, Happy Monday. We're off Dicky Love Lady, New met Superstar. There we go. At least if they lose, they have Dickie Love Lady. You may lose something, but we have Dickey Love Lady. Always gotta have.
A consolation prize, and there's there's far worse to be had.
Uh Now, obviously a big headline today following Game seven of the NBA Finals, Yoklahoma City thun to win, and we get confirmation of the news that we thought was happening yesterday during the game, because you know, ESPN showed the replay five hundred thousand times, just in case case you couldn't tell. Here's Tyres Halliburton blowing his achilles. Case you missed the first five. Yeah, you see it right there. Yeah, Okay, you got it. God has got it.
But to their credit, I mean, they recognize that people suddenly realized that Game seven was being played.
Yeah, and you know, if they're gonna trumpet all.
Of those viewers, yeah, they're always tuning in, the audience continues to change after time out.
Hey, in case you missed it, this is where we stand now.
I'm gonna say this because I generally, I generally don't feel that when a guy is injured, you look at a game and say, Okay, this game would have gone differently, This game could have done this way because obviously Halliburton getting hurt in the first half, the Thunder go on to win. And the big question, obviously the first one is Okay, if Halliburton hadn't gotten hurt, right, if Halliburton played able to play the whole game, is it a different outcome yesterday? And generally when cometimes, I say, well, it doesn't matter because this is what happened, and the Thunder one and they do. But I look at that game yesterday. I was just so unimpressed with the thunder closing this game the way they did in game set. It was one of the worst game set. I don't know what team has won a Game seven with the worst performance than the Thunderhead. They shot poorly, they they didn't They didn't really look really sharp offensively at all. SGA had a horrible game shooting, almost like the nerves got to them. They tried to close out Game six, didn't have it, tried to close out game seven. It just so happened that the Pacers are playing a game. Now, Okay, now you've taken one of our top two best players and a guy who's gonna have the ball the majority of the time away. What's going to happen. This should have been a game where when Halliburton goes out, it should have been a ten point lead at halftime. For Oklahoma City, it should have been a twenty five point lead, and it should have been middle of the fourth quarter. Everybody's telling at each other on the bench, and reserves are hitting three. But they were just so unimpressive. And this is the worst part for the for the Pacers because they have to see that and go, man, if he didn't get hurt, what would happened. I'll tell you. If Halliburton stays in the game, the Pacers win, the Pacers of the World Champions. Because that game was going a very PACER's way, right. You were at halftime still even without Halliburton. At the end, it's a one point game and the Pacers had the lead. The Pacers, this is kind of what they did the entire playoff. No matter what happened, they are always able to stay close enough to reel you in before they could they could get at you in the third and fourth quarter, right, because that's really what the Pacers would always do, right, Their pace would get to you. The Stars would tire in the fourth quarter, and by the time you got to middle third, fourth quarter, guys are a little bit more open for their threes, a little bit more. Offenses flowing a little bit more, And we've seen that the entire playoff. That's what would have happened if Halliburton hadn't gotten it. Yes, you had a big night from from Madarin off the bench. Of course we've seen that big from McConnell off the bench, but it's a different flow to the offense when Halliburton is running things in his helter skelter way and being able to get in and come back out and find players. This game was going the PACER's way. They were keeping it close, they were playing their pace, they were imparting there well. On the game. They started out shooting threes pretty well. They wind up not being able to hit anything in the second half, but this game was really going the Pacers way. And then at halftime, Okay, the Thunder come out in the third with a big run but at this point, it was, all right, what are the Pacers really going to do? We know that you're limited, and without this happening, we know you're not going to hit your threes. We know you're not gonna you know, as good a player as McConnell is, he's not going to be someone who finds finds players wide open shots like Halliburton does. That's not going that's not going to be a part of what this offense is in the second half. So yeah, in the third quarter, they go out and Okay, they're up big, and then the Pacers come back and they make it a close game midway through the fourth quarter. I mean, I'm watching this, I'm saying, if Halliburton's here, this game goes a different way. And as the second half goes on, the game would start tilting towards the Pacers and their pace of play, and you would see the Thunder getting tired and suddenly it's a big question mark and a little bit of choking going on. Hey, we're not closing out this game at home. We have the best home court advantage in the NBA. SGA is not making shots. This game would have gone the Pacers. We'd be talking about the most improbable NBA championship that we've seen, probably since the Pistons beat the Lakers back in two thousand and three. Like that two thousand and four too soon? Oh sorry, man, sorry, this would be talking about that if Halliburton didn't get hurt. That's how that game was going to day.
No, that's it watching that game unfold, and certainly something we talked about a lot with Haliburton and the injury and thresholds for pain discomfort and how serious it was in terms of minutes played and how he looked going back to game six and he comes out like a house of fire and nails three three point shots very early. The running joke in the Twitter verse immediately was like, wow, he's already cashed the over for all the people with their three point prop bets. McConnell great at getting his own shot, not a great distributor.
For the game.
Nemhard is your leader with six assists, so not a lot of moving the ball around to the open man once Haliburton's out of the game, so certainly it bogs down there. For the thunderside of things, Yeah, he shot forty percent, So Indiana's defense did his job, missing a number of wide open looks. I can't tell you the number of times you're throwing your hands up going he's standing by himself. He's basically he could pull out any type of scientific implement to calculate angles, and he's still missing the shot. That's how much space you had. Lou Dort the most accounted for participant in that regard, but all of it to say, right, Chet Holmgren finally played a big game for them, came up with a number of blocks, defensive stops, but it did feel like the game was still there to be had if you could have made one stop here. He kept Sga off the foul file stripe, right. He got to the line twelve times over the course of the game, and that's where he imparted.
Part of your prediction did come true, and that he lived at the pre throw.
Line at times. But for Indiana and for Carlisle, there are only so many strings he could pull. Once Aliburton went down, you got big efforts from McConnell. I mean, Alex Crusoe had to be stopped in the interview, Hey how do you stop TJ mcconnoy. Did you ever think you'd get that question, Yeah, how do you stop TJ? How do you stop TJ? McConnell ye, and the lookout of fans like wow, okay, and Matherin showed up in a big way. He'd had seventeen points combined his prior three games, right, So all of that that, you got that effort, but in the end, it's just not enough, and Oklahoma City walks away with the title. And it's funny because all throughout the playoffs through the regular season it became a Wow, look at the They've got the blueprint and all this, and now we're watching them walk away with the title, going I'm not impressed. And we watched a lot of their games, right, so like they were on a lot and we got a lot of windows. But you come away going, wow, they had a lot of issues that could have been exploited if you had your playmate.
I'm telling you, And that's added heartbreak. If Halliburton was healthy and he played a regular game. Yet we're talking about the Pacers being the champions that it would have happened that way.
I just wanted to see what kind of defensive structure Carlisle would have had for the fourth if you had all five of his normal.
Starters exit out about a Fresca exit Swollen Dome. The Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon. If you're ready to lose weight, get the expert help a PhD weight loss, No injections or prescriptions, fast weight loss results. They work for me and Mike, they'll work for you. Call and schedule a consult today. Visit my phdweight loss dot com. That's m y phdweightloss dot com. We'll have more from the NBA Finals. The ratings are in for Game seven. Wait do we tell you about that? But coming up next all the big news from the NFL. Jason lockinfora stops by with everything you need football wise from the weekend and on. Keep it here Jason and Mike Fox Sports Radio. I think it was like twenty million people, Jay twenty two.
Oh.
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Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon. Ready for a new job, Let Express Employment professionals help. While Express helps people in all industries, fine work, our sweet spottles, logistics roles, and Express never charges job seekers a fee. Go to expresspros dot com. We'll have more from the NBA coming up in a few minutes, including way do we tell you what the final numbers were for Game seven ratings wise. Oh my goodness is that it's gonna surprise you. But first, joining us now in the hotline for all lit us news in the NFL longtime NFL Insider Odyssey one O five seven the Fan in Baltimore, The Washington Post. Check them out on one on a bet as well. It is Jason Locke and for it, Jay, what's happening man?
How are you going on? Guys?
Did they get a lineup?
We're gonna get a line on the Dodgers Dodgers, Dodgers, Dodgers. I don't care who they're picking. Can we get a line on that game? I want Dodgers run line. I don't really care who. How they packed it together anyway.
Well, Frostburg will see what he can do on that, since he's waiting for the Dodgers too. Uh No, But I wanted to ask you, so, so you want to bet Frostburg cash with Trevor Rodgers Earlier? He said, so he's good?
Oh good for him?
Yeah, well done. Uh Now, I saw want to bet you actually have your first bet of the nfls you had their first week one bet? Ready to go for Week one?
What is it? I made it over the weekend. I grabbed uh the Cardinals laying four and a half at New Orleans and this thing opened at three and some places already have it at six. And I think once we see the atrocity is too strong a word, but I'll use it anyway. That is the Saints quarterback situation, and as they have to start, you know, showing what they have and don't have through the course of the preseason. I just don't think that that four and a half is going to do the trick. I think the Saints of the worst team in football. I think the Saints don't really have much of a strength from a roster standpoint. It's a coach who may or may not be ready for this. It's a GM who's really left that thing rot with no real checks and balances from ownership. And I'm not a big Kyler Murray guy, and I don't like to back Kyler Murray as a favorite. But again, I think the number I'm getting here by the time we get the opening day will look pretty damn good. And that's a Saints team that you go back to twenty twenty two and look at the Saints at home outside the division. The only teams worse against the spread Atlanta and the Patriots, so the third worst team in those situations. And Kyler Murray week one has been damn good. Ted touchdowns, three interceptions, seven yards per rush. You know, he usually comes out shot out of the cannon. The problem is, want to get some bumps and bruises around Week eight, week nine, That whole thing tends to crumble. But I think Arizona's defense will be you know, adequate. Their they're fringy ish playoff team for me. And again, I think the Saints are there with the Browns as the worst team in football.
There you going week one firing already.
The Saints are the worst team in football. Last year, right before and then they beat the Cowboys. They was like, oh, look good the Saints remember that.
Wow, it's a lifetime ago, isn't it.
No, Chickens came home the ruse pretty quickly, but they did have They were fun for a couple of weeks in September.
That's true.
I mean, I'm looking at the rest of the Week one slate. Now you got me salivating because that Steelers Jets game. You're looking at a two and a half or three point spread there, Jason Jet getting points.
Our buddy Eric Tacilius is on that one, and he likes the under in that game, specifically Jet under the team total, and I get that as well. I mean, Tomlin's defenses usually start the season pretty well.
I think taking the Jets in the I think taking the under in Jets games the whole season is going to be a thing, Like, I think you can run that every week. Jay taking the under in Jets games, I think that's a week one.
Yeah, and I'm doing Tomlin on the road as a dog or as a small favorite. You can just play that money line and you'll do pretty well. And he obviously knows fields incredibly well. And I think they'll get this Watt thing taken care of and whatever Aaron Rodgers has. I guess we'll see the best of it there. So yeah, there were like four games that kind of stood out to me, and those were two of them.
Yeah, if nothing else, we know that Rogers doesn't think much of the Jets in their run game.
I guess you shouldn't because it completely went reverse once he got there, so he probably, Yeah, I guess you shouldn't.
Jason Locking for our guest The Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmon live from the Fox Sports Radio studios. All right, so Jays, as we get here now and we're getting set now, teams are going away sign and see what they have before we start camp. There's some big unsigned players that we're still waiting to see drop. We've heard rumors of guys like Amari Cooper and other players, like do you see anything happening in the next few weeks as far as Hey, some of these free agents that we expected to have jobs, big names could wind up signing somewhere. They're gonna have to wait to left the camp starts.
I think some it'll probably be really close to camp at this point. Like I mean a lot of people this is their only time of year to actually spend time with their family and have a couple of weeks at the beach and all that. So not that you can't make a phone call here and there, but it's not real pressing, I think as we get closer to teams reporting. But yeah, I mean there's interesting names out there for sure. I mean Simmons, uh, you know, Zadarius Smith, Matt Judon, you know those are some guys you know on the defensive side of the ball who you know, I think will certainly be playing football somewhere this year. Jadaveon Clowney, Right, I mean, if you really dig in on his numbers, like he did not have a horrible season by any stretch of the imagination of a Panthers team that you know, doesn't really play to his strength. He's a bit of a front runner, right him on a team that was underachieving even by those their lowly standards early in the year and the quarterback change and all that. But you look at his past rush win rate, you know, you look at his percentage of pressures per pass rush, you look at you know, some of his metrics. They they were wasn't what he did the year before in Baltimore, probably his best season ever. But like that, he ended up back with the Ravens. I mean, I I don't think that's out of the question. So, yeah, there's there's some there's some interesting guys out there, but this is kind of the duldrums right now.
Jason.
Let's go to the fun and exciting world of the AFC South, go to Indianapolis. Anthony Richardson is saying his shoulder injury isn't even a bump in the road, but Daniel Jones just might be. What do we think about that'll set up?
I just don't truck the durability of either of those guys, you know. I mean, they played the game one way and it hasn't worked out real great for them. Leslie Richardson, who's missed more time than he's played. I do think their defense could be interesting, your quasi interesting. I guess this is Chris Baward's last hand. It certainly should be. I think Daniel Jones is gonna end up being the guy now does that guarantee much?
Know?
Because we know that his play can oscillate pretty wildly and generally tends to be not great. So I'm sure they'll get a look see, you know, both of these guys. I'd be surprised if Daniel Jones doesn't find a way to go in there week one. It's just such a bad division. Like I, I don't think the Texans are the juggernaut that people make them out to be by any stretchack figure they win that division. I kind of like the Colts to finish second, because again, I think the defense could be interesting and keep them in some games. Jacksonville defense was such a train wreck. I don't think that coaching staff is fixing it overnight. I think the quarterback is what he is. The Tennessee might take some baby steps, but they've obviously got a huge hole to crawl out of. So I mean, I could see the Colts being the second best team in this division, but I don't think that's going to be worth a whole lot.
Jay let's stay in the AFC. The Shador Sanders situation last week, the two traffic violations that came out. The Browns really didn't have a comment on it. Big deal for him, you know these two things that happened. Or will this be Hey, they we'll hit reset when camp starts.
Well, look everything with him, it's different, right, I mean, it's a big deal. His fall in the draft was as big of a deal as I can remember, Like a story like that dominating all three days in the draft. It just doesn't really happen. Everything about his dad is outsized, so now everything about his last name is outside so it's not going to be normal. Nothing about that quarterback competition and the four or five headed monster that it is is going to be normal. I don't think it's going to like Linger. I don't think people rough preseason are going to be like, oh, let's because of the traffic stuff. I just don't, you know, I don't think there's going to be a corollary or draw there. It doesn't mean some people won't try to draw it. But I mean he's a young person, you know, and he's in limelight, and people tend to slip up for one degree or another. I think if he's given a chance, if that becomes or is something of a fair fight, then again, I don't know that he's not the next guy up after Flacco and after that runs its course, however quickly that is. And guy I hope man. I hope he's got some sort of polymer or like Michel and manned stuff wrapped around him, underneath the pads or on top of the pads, because I think he's going to take a beating. But yeah, I mean, I don't know how they're going to divy up all their reps. I don't know how everybody's going to get enough work. They're going to have to different days. You know, it's going to have to be one guy getting the cheft a little bit. How much do they think black on the you know, needs to run stuff like he's been there before. But you know that's like two play callers ago, so how much of that is still there? I mean, it's the Fancy's offense. So I mean I wonder if at a certain point you have to kind of just say, internally, if not externally, flackos our guy. He doesn't need a ton of reps, right, He's been really good coming in cold as a backup for years. Like let's let's, you know, give these developmental reps and these evaluation reps to these kids so we can figure out our pecking order and get somebody out of here or maybe two guys out of there, and then you know, put our football team together.
End with going back to Jason's Jets thirteen eleven and fourteen.
That was Crystal Palace's record.
Well, Woody Johnson's attention to Crystal Palace allow the Jets to thrive.
Oh, I mean, I'm trying to what was their record when he was in London.
I'm trying. It's not been over a decade.
I don't think it was great. Yeah, I just feel sorry for supporters of Palace really that's like, you know what I mean, Like we've got to send tentacles out all over the world for Woody Johnson crushing fan bases Like that's a shame. That's that's that's too bad. Yeah, I don't know, keep them away from center bacha basketball or whatever. I don't know.
Yeah, he's on Twitter at Jason Locking for that is at Jason Lock and for Wanta Bed as well. Hey, Frostburg, frost will give you whatever update you need on the Dodgers. Jayson just just.
I'm checking all these books. Somebody give me a line before I go to sleep if you want to hit that.
Now Frostburgardy said they're up five to nothing. Again. Information from Frostburg on the Dodgers. Sometimes it's true, sometimes it's not.
Just so tomorrow I'll take it.
Yeah, all right, very good, take it easy, Jay. No, the Dodgers do not play till no, it is an off day after a very long Would they have twenty three games in twenty four days or.
Something like that, Yeah, which is why we kept seeing Keith Aarnanda's pitch and everybody here in Los Angeles. It's the worst thing that's ever been done in the history of the sport.
You know who did play today?
Though?
Who's at the mats and loss?
Yeah, that's okay, it's all right. Are you ever gonna beat the Braves? Hey?
Did?
Don't you win in your beat the streak? Well, it's funny you say that, okay, because all right, I'm invested. I need I need to say yes, we have okay, you want the good Tani no, no, no, no good. Good news is dad took a we got a four game streak in the MLB street all right. Because he said to me, because it's my turn to pick today, said who do you want? And I said Aaron Judge Judge Homer's in the first inning. And I was like, goes, wow, great pick. I go, well, my pick was only Aaron Judge because if he didn't get a hit, I could blame you. He said that tracks. But we should be we should be at six, but we're not. We're at four because remember I told you the first one last week when he put in for Andy, Pa has yeah, and he forgot to put in He goes, oh, we have him the next day instead like how did you not put him in the game is in an hour? How did you miss putting him? In so we didn't like. All right, great, So the next pick, you know that, I picked Otani. Okay, great. He picked Ellie de la Cruz. Awesome, all right, great Ellie Elie de la Cruz gets a hit first time up. All right, awesome. And I'm like, all right, Dad, I'll pick the next day. He goes, oh no, no, somehow I put in Ellie dey la Cruz for tomorrow. I go no, So we didn't get it there, but he got a hit in the next one, so we're okay. And now he's hell's he doing? Hey, who's your pick today? And I said, gim me judge for today. Okay. So now we're at four, we could be at six. Do you start by asking him what day of the week it is when your conversation? This is what This is what I said to him. I said, Dad, okay, so it's the MLB dot Com the streak thing. If you pick someone to get a hit every day, fifty seven days in a row, fifty seven games in a row, you win five point six million dollars. And I said, Dad, here's the thing I can tell you this is that the contest could be just for you, Jason and your Dad, just get a pick in every day for fifty seven days in a row.
Doesn't have to get a hit, doesn't have to get a hit.
Just get a pick in fifty seven days in a row. Okay, we're five days into this already. We would have failed back twice, okay twice, we would have failed back Dad, we got five and a half million dollars. All you gotta do is get a pick it twice. He doesn't get the pick in once because the game had started, said.
Dad, that was a good one. I said, Dad, give me a link.
So now this is this is now, this is now twice that this has happened. I'm like Walter, Hey, Dad, okay, all right, So but the streak is at four. I said, you're up tomorrow, and I said, okay, I go, don't screw it up. And you already told me he's going mookie bets tomorrow. So mookie because I'm gonna go check the site, make sure that picks in. Otherwise, Yeah, make sure. Hey, I got a call MLB Doug yet. Listen. I'm Jason. Yeah, listen, my dad just call me when you don't have a pick.
Okay.
And so you know, people are telling me on social media. Other people and my friends that have done this called you know, you can do two picks a day, and I go, you see where we're at. Let's work up to two picks. Yeah, but get one pick in for one day at a pretty consecutive consistent then we'll work on two picks for a day. An then we'll do that. All right, let's just let's just worry about getting one pick in per day because we're failing at that.
Long road begins with that first step. Yeah, let's go.
Be sure to check out the Fox Sports Radio YouTube channel. Just search Fox Sports Radio on YouTube. You'll see a whole bunch of video highlights from our shows. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss our very best Fox Sports Radio videos on YouTube. Time that to find out what's trending in the wide world of sports. But guy's been called the Walt Smith of Fox Sports Radio. I tell him something involving baseball. He forgets too. It's Steve the Seger.
I enjoyed that story. I mentally, just the record, I get it.
Hey, you just get the picks, not once, but twice. We've already lost. Don't get him started.
On All Star voting. You can do that five times.
No, no, no, so talking on. See, we've got to work.
Up too far man, too far by the way.
In Cincinnati tonight, La de la Cruz three hits, three RBIs, including a homer. The Reds beat the Yankees six to one. But yes, the one was an Aaron Judge home run, his twenty eighth of the year. You want home runs and streaks, cal Raley hit his thirty second home run of the season Seattle one at Minnesota in the game on FS one today eleven to the final. The Twins have lost four in a row. Cal Rally has four straight games with a home run for the first time in career. It's six homers his last six games total. They got the win here and now it's time to take a look at the fact that Johnny Bench had the record most home runs before All Star Break by a guy who's primarily a catcher nineteen seventy. Bench had twenty eight playing over half a season. Cal Rally, in under half a season, has thirty two at this point looking at head, most home runs ever by a switch hitter for a season is fifty four by Mickey Mantle in nineteen sixty one.
This I think he can s a second, he can set most home runs by a catcher all time. Just what he's doing this season. You mean he might get to like four hundred and twelve. He hits a home run every day.
I mean it.
Last year was Anthony Santander, right, pretty much hit a home run every day. Cal Rowly is hitting a home run every day.
So you mean that he's gonna double the home run total on the second half of the same compared to.
Four hundred and fifty home runs, and the Mariners will still just miss the playoffs.
They started multiplying Steed like Rock and Jock.
You know what's gonna happen. He'll get in the home run contest. That'll be it. He'll have ten home runs in the second half, and that's all anybody will talk about. Jason loves the home run contest. Pittsburgh winner at Milwaukee five four, ending the Brewers' four game winning streak. Saint Louis over the Cubs eight to two. By the way Cubs pitchers showed to him and after a strain hamsterring, we'll rejoin the rotation. Thursday, Arizona won ten nothing at the White Sox, but Arizona slugger a u Hennio Suarez left hit by a pitch on the hand. X rays were negative. He just won NL Player of the Week for a third time this year. It was Atlanta three to two over the Mets. The wind to Spencer Schwell in box seven innings of work, Baltimore's Trevor Rodgers eight innings of pitching as the Orioles shut out Texas six nothing. Jackson Holiday three hits, three RBIs the starting pitcher for Boston tonight in Anaheim is ex Dodger Walker Buehler. He allowed five runs in the first to the Angels, including a couple of bases loaded walks and the bases loaded hit batter. It is the Angels five to three over Boston. In the top of the fourth, Bueller is still in there.
The National is not doing well. If he's goal is to get back to the Dodgers at the trade deadline.
No, they're still calling Bueller Washington. With four runs top of the fourth, it's now a four to one lead at San Diego. In the bottom of the fourth, Toronto's vladimiric Irrera Junior now leads the All Star voting at first base ahead of the Yankees Paul Goldschmid in the American League. Pacers guard Tyrese Halliburton is reportedly having surgery tonight for his torn achilles from last night. He could miss next season. And yes, Oklahoma City's Game seven drew amazing ratings. Guys, the series had been averaging about nine million viewers, largest NBA audience last night since the twenty nineteen Finals over sixteen mil. In fact, over the past year, the top non football events are the World Series clincher Dodgers Yankees last year and the March Madness Final. We're about eighteen million viewers each Kentucky Derby seventeen million. This was up close to that. Very impressive, especially considering again how low the first six games were.
Thank you Steve Oh, Jason Smith, Mike Harmon Lot from the Fox Sports Radio studios. Coming up next, we got the play of the day and the real takeaway, the real thing to know about. Why Game seven's ratings were so much higher, the highest Game seven in year years. Why this blew out the ratings the rest of the series because Nicks, We're I'm playing No, dude, that would be a ratings record.
Oh.
Why, We'll tell you next Jason and Mike Fox.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific.
Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon. Big take on the NBA Finals coming your way. But first we have the Play of the Day, brought to you by tire Rack. For over forty years, tire Rack's been open customers find the right tires for how, what and where they drive. Shipped fast and free backed by free Road, has a protection with conveniencestallation options like mobile tire installation. Tirerack dot Com is the way tire buying should be. Well, let's see, there's two real choices for Play of the day. Yeah, let me just mentally put out there. Don't be the one I think we're gonna play, play the other one.
Ronald gives this a ride to center field. How far is it gonna go?
Get tune and nothing has done it again?
Is that like nine out of ken loss for weeks?
Yeah?
That kid that made that really great play out there in the outfield is faking to throw back.
The fans call on him to keep that baseball. Yeah yeah, Brains Radio Network on the call.
Hope, it's not a strategy.
Smith, they're not playing that shit. No, it's not happening. They're not.
I got the full chance and bounce going. It almost lines up well with the MLS game we're watching.
Like good terms of the bounce.
Yeah you know what, Hey, Luis Suarez was gonna be the play of the day. But now Miami was up to nothing and now it's tied two to two.
Two going into the ninetyeth minute.
They've given up two goals in the least ten minutes to tie the game.
This is where we need the lip reading accounts to really get after what Messi had to say. Yeah, no, Messi not Jason. Let's be honest. The Braves do own City Field. Well right right now, they've beating the Mets.
For the Braves are staying in their season because they've been able to beat the Mets the last two times they've played. I'm not happy, but okay, it's still June. It's all right.
Ronald Lecunya Junior has one hundred and wanted bats on the air already, fourteen extra base hits.
Braves.
Let's talk about ratings because the NBA Finals. Ratings for Game seven came out and they are terrific. I mean, I know we talked about the Raids all the first few games the NBA Finals. People aren't watching. It's Indiana, it's Oklahoma City, blah blah blah. Told you Look, ratings stories, when you talk about low ratings are generally irrelevant. Right, Generally that's the way because people are watching many different ways. People are still paying attention. But yeah, okay, you're watching fewer traditionally, you're watching more other ways. But here's a good story. Because Game seven the highest NBA rated game Finals in six years. They average nearly seventeen million people watching on ABC and ESPN, plus the audience peaked at just over nineteen million people during the second half. Right, first time we've seen those numbers since the Raptors beat the Warriors in six games in twenty nineteen. Right, the first time they've had more than sixteen million. It's a great story now to talk about this, to want to have a really constructive ratings conversation about in the NBA. And all ratings are up here, ranged down here comes back to the old you do who like it? Don't want?
Right?
Right, there is you don't like to watch Kevin Durant, which we'll get to. But we have become a we watch when it matters society in sports because we get because seasons are so long and there's so much we are we are generally over served for sports, particularly in the NBA, which asks a lot of you. In the playoffs, Hey, come with us all the way through this journey in the playoffs, and then the NBA Finals are gonna take eight weeks to complete. We're gonna take four days off between games. They ask a lot of you, and people generally know, Okay, I can unplug for these games. Right if you are just an average NBA fan and hey, here's Game one with the Pacers and the Thunder. Okay, I don't know that I really need to get to the television for Game one, in Game two, But as a series goes on, Hey, game five games, well, it's Game seven, it's the NBA Finals. I'm gonna watch the game. And that's why you get the numbers up because the average fan I know when to tune in. I can skip the grid most parts of the first six games. I can tune at the end of a game. I don't need to watch the very beginning. I can just keep track of the game. Oh, there's five minutes ago, because there's other things I have going on in my life. Are the things I'm doing. It's dinner, it's dancing, it's drinks, it's a movie, it's putting the kids to bed. It's all these things. And because we're so overserved, we now know, okay, I can pick my spots, and so people are picking their spots. They picked their okay games out of the m It didn't matter who was could have been Indiana and Oklaho City, could have been the Knicks and the Lakers. People were gonna go to Game seven because it's game seven.
Well, it's anything urgency right, Award shows do well? Why because it happens then in that moment you can get it on Twitter, you can follow it the same way. And for the NBA, that's a lot of the consumption now and something they trumpet while bristling at any criticism about the standard viewing metrics and consumption. Right, it's like you can run with both, trumpet them both. You're still drawing a very large audience on a relative basis. It's just not consumed the same the same way. It was when we were watching the giant ratings for games twenty five years ago.
People are going at it a different way and consuming the product. But when it gets down to a winner, take all. Sure, we watch it in every sport. You get deeper into a series and people come to the table who otherwise would have been just fine to see the headline in the morning paper the next day. Exit at about a fresco exit swollen down. The Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon. We got more in the NBA finals. Come up, But straight ahead, how big a trade did we see yesterday? It was a huge trade? Was it a good trade? That's next? Jason and Mike Fox Sports Radio.
Duit there?
Wearr driver's suit to the move, maybe a helmet.
You don't know. Is that guy part of Daft Punker? Is he an F one driver? I don't know. It's really hot.
I'm gonna puss up, mussel. Just take your helmet off.
No, but it ruins the illusion to keep the helmet up. But I'm zuck fuck man, I'm five foot nothing. I might be Tom Cruise in this fire suit watching this movie.
You don't know?
Take on?
Justrivolant pouring down your face.
How much way did you lose thirty seven pounds and.
All in my head? I lost it all because it was you got like a shrunken head. You'd be like the guy at the end of Beetlejuice that he's sitting next to Hey, long time, what do you wait for it? Okay, that's great. So we'll have more on the NBA Finals coming up in a few minutes. A big reaction to Tyres Halliburton's achilles injury, which is now gonna put him out for maybe most or all of next season. But I gotta think the NBA not quite as happy with the Hey, we got Game seven coming up today. Oh yeah, by the way, we're gonna kind of hit you off the bat with the Kevin Durant trade. Oh you couldn't wait a day, couldn't wait a day to announce it, couldn't wait two days to announce it. I mean, I know you're trading picks and everything, but this morning, the morning of Game seven of the NBA Finals went. Honestly, that was just as big a headline as Game seven of the Finals was.
It was funny.
I was in in studio doing my Fox Sports Sunday Show with Dan Byer when the news broke and he invoked the name of David Stern and I'm like, well, but it was done at Fanatics Fest, which is a huge event being put on Michael Rubn, lots of money, lots of activations, your heavy hitters, hel Victor web Benyama was back from his monastery to go buy some signed Star Wars cards, as well as a number of other luminaries from entertainment sports. Brady buying a two hundred and fifty thousand dollars Lebron James Guard you can says, I'll fix if the money transacts. I don't care how much of it's a k fabe for video only kind of thing, but all of it's the same. Yeah, it was a nice choreographed orchestrated thing with kd Up there. Taylor Rooks had no notes in her hand or a phone for that, she had a note card to ask questions and evidently with the particulars of the deal, as Kevin Durant sat there. So yeah, with a finals that we've lamented or most of the media had. Look, I celebrate all championship runs. They're not all created equal, but we were getting the game seven, they still needed some juice.
I don't think Adam Silver is going to be too mad.
On this one for one of the random occurrences of because you would have been just as mad about the Lakers sale going down last week.
Right, yeah, but I mean certain business things. I kind of understand this was. Hey, you could have waited a day. You could have could announced this Monday morning, right, they could announce it today. Hey day after the fire. Hey, we tried to Kevin Durant like, it's a whole thing. Nobody likes it. Wait, don't We don't do it. We want the game to be the spotlight and be the big event. No, no, no, here's what's gonna happen. Then we's the trade as kind of an appetizer, and then you realize, oh, it's just as big as the NBA Finals.
Wow, where is that?
Well, it did get people fired up on all sides, and I guess that's the point, right if they added a little bit of extra juice, because now you're tuning in also for the commentary of what people think about the trade or whether they're mad that it got because let's face it, you got some of the commentators who have no problem speaking their mind. This is where you needed that zoom room with Barkley and Shack and company just sitting there waiting to pounce on this.
So the Kevin Durant trade goes down and you have I have two big thoughts on the Durant trade. First one is the Rockets gave up way too much to get him, too much to get I mean, I get that it's Kevin Durant, but you can't just look and say, we're getting Kevin Durant and didn't have this vision in your head that you're getting a twenty six year old Kevin Durant. You're getting a thirty seven year old KD who gets his points. Right, We'll get to KD in a second. You're getting a score. You're getting Kevin Durant. You've given up your leading scorer, right, And another great piece of the team that that is a big does a big deal, right. Jalen Green is a stud. He is an ascending leading scorer who had had a career high in threes. He's twenty three years old. This kid is terrific. This is a guy you had to give up. And Dylan Brooks, who is of that Desmond bane mold of. Hey, he's a great piece on defense, he's got attitude, he will also hit his threes. And oh, by the way, here's a tenth overall pick, and then a bunch of drafts like you gave a what team was giving up more than that for Kevin Durant. I mean, really, again, it's Kevin Durant, who is a mid to late thirties got and I get that he kind of seamlessly fits in because you need a guy to be to be, to be someone you can go to at the end of the games. But you gave up your your top scorer, who's tent. I mean that should have been That's way too much, all right. If you just said okay Jalen Green, I say, oh no, no, that's that's too much. Man, can't do that. You got to give up some ancillary pieces here and you got to keep your core instead. You decided, hey, we have enough pieces. I get you have some good players. Yo Shangun is really good and Fred van Vliet is incredibly solid. Look, I like I like you. I like Houston how they built their team. But you're giving away a twenty three year old stud and you're giving away a really good role player who's still in his in his in his mid to late twenties, and the tenth overall. But it's way too much. I think every every NBA team is just sitting around right now looking at that, going oof, all right, Glad we backed out of that. Glad we didn't get involved in this, because that was just way too much. I really want to know what the second best offer was, because I can't believe it was anything close to this. The Rockets, I mean, yes, you want to add Kevin Durant. You don't want to give away part of your championship window, and you we gave Way two starters and good good clue. Again, Jim Green is terrific. I don't get that you you had to give this much up for Kevin Durant and you still did it. Phoenix was desperate. They were desperate to get rid of Kevin Durant. Right. Mark Stein joined us last week and said, hey, they they so want to make this trade before the draft. You could have waited them out when they wanted to make the shrift, but apparently the Rockets were just so incredibly desperate. This is the trade we're gonna make. They give up Way too much for Kevin.
We talked a lot about the I mean, we use it all the time on the show distress properties, right, not to you want to be a ghoul, But where's your best opportunity. Something bad has happened in a marketplace that allows you to come in, usually referred to.
In the housing market.
Oh, there's a divorce, there's a loss of job, there's a death in the family, all these negative things. But it creates a window whereby suddenly a property it becomes available, maybe at a lower price because there is a need to move it here I get the draft is Wednesday. And in the end, Jalen Green was a guy we'd heard his name that they didn't want to keep him around for a long time, right whatever, his scoring acumen is first through third quarter, getting better as a three point shooter, at the end of game situations, problematic defense at times lost all of that.
You want and you've already paid wanted Kevin Durant for the end of Gay but you still need, you still need the rest of the game.
No.
But but that's the thing, though, is that you know it goes.
Back to it and I liken it to the trade when de Aaron Fox goes to San Antonio, one of the teams that was also rumored to potentially be in the mix, but they evidently thought they could get cajole them for the number two pick, which really didn't make a whole hell of a lot of sense.
But remember what dearon Fox got dealt.
We looked around and goes, well, they didn't really have to give up a whole lot to get him, right, They kept all of their pieces, their top picks, all of that, and here like here's here's a bunch of second round picks. Who cares number ten pick outside of Cooper Flag? Is anybody he like really captivated anybody.
The asset of a top ten pick? Me, it's you're getting it.
I get it when you look at that, you know, the the chart value of what you gave up for. I mean, I want to see one of our I want to see one of those NFL chart values of Jimmy. This is what we have here, But look at when apply it. You know, we need you know, we need like like the Dynasty Football trade calculators, which are awesome, right uh, where you type in what what a what a trade you want to make in Dynasty and they calculate the overall value of a player for not just this year, but their career, and it tells you, hey, you are trading a player with a value of seven thousand and you're getting back a player of four thousand. Or you're trading a player of four thousand, you're asking for a players value of like nine thousand, right like you need to. If they did something like that, the Rockets will go, oh, wow, we're getting a player of seventh thousand. We're giving up like sixteen thousand worths of of instead of that. That's all we're getting, is Kevin Durant like it's it's just way way too much for for for k. This is one of those Hey it didn't work, let's make the money work and you move on from a contract you don't want to pay out. This is how it goes in the NBA. And instead it's all, no, we got we got incredible value like this deal. This was. This was the Rockets came to the to the Sun's rescue and just said here and the Sun said, oh my goodness, we can rebuild our team right now. We rebuild our team right now, right away.
With all of them.
Now, the curiosity as we get towards the new league year. What is that the sixth of July when everything has to be finalized and we jump into the new year. That Jalen Green may not be a member of the Phoenix Suns by time we actually get to that point, right, because you already have Bradley Beal who has famously said I'm not going anywhere.
I have a new trade now.
Oh yeah, and if nothing else, he's holding that up as a badge of honor.
It's just me and Lebron.
Yeah, me and Lebron, that's all.
We're the only two guys.
That have this.
I'm not gonna accept the trade because I want to be able to say I still have this.
And then you've got Devin Book. They got three guys that are kind of the same. Yeah, right, so it's it's not gonna work. So one of those guys is like they're gonna be be all most likely to really, we can't. What do we have to do to get you out of that?
No?
Tracks, right, he might still committed fire a couple of the shots for sure.
Feathered hair, well, he's always going to be sunburn Roja Belle. They have him too nice, that's good. He never recovered from that inbound pass pass. Oh yeah, that way.
That's too bad.
But all of that to say, Jayleen Green may not be a member of the Suns before it's done, so we might see other other pieces and and and additions to this because the silly season has just commenced.
Yeah, the distressed.
Property part of it to me was, was it like five picks plus the tenth pick. Dylan Brooks, great agitator, great protector, all of those kind of things. And then you look at Green, who I think for three years we've been waiting for him to become that guy, and at times he has. But with Houston, their big problem was they didn't have a.
Go to guy.
We asked, you know, all all of our NBA experts, who's the guy to take the final shot? We got multiple answers as well as a bunch of I don't oh, And that's exactly what you saw that series right as to why they get bounced. So you go in and whatever you're getting out of Kevin Durant at this point, you know what he is. He's a sharp shooter, still the best jump shooter in the game, all of those things. You have to monitor his minutes and keep him clean into the playoffs. But you've got enough depth because that was the bigger part, is like, all right, Dylan Brooks, older guy, been around a minute, Okay, fine, Jalen Green a guy you were seemingly more than okay with getting rid of based on having already paid him, right that you paid him for what he was going to be and he's not there again, he's twenty three.
Yeah, so you and I like, there's that part of it. Twenty three slightly good man, Okay, but.
You got to keep the rest of your depth, I guess is what the win part for Houston is.
And you were the number two seed and now you have the closer on board. In theory, in theory,
