Colin Cowherd (2:45)
With Colin Cowher on Fox Sports Radio. Here we Go. Loaded. Ready to roll. Live in Los Angeles, it's the herd. Wherever you may be, however you may be watching or listening, thanks for making us part of your day. J. Mac, I've got an interesting lead today. There are things that I talked about this all week long. Outside of the NFL, all sports are sickening and that, you know, the Dodgers get Shohei Ohtani and it literally helped the entire revenue sharing. Fox ratings were up. Shohei Ohtani just driving up I5 angels to Dodgers helped the league. NFL doesn't matter who ends up. But there's been a lot of talk about the NBA and they need a face of the league. And I'm going to tell you something right now. The only thing more overrated than face of the league is people that buy gigantic houses and they spend their next seven years yelling at their kids upstairs in a 27,000 square foot house. Whenever I see these rich people buy these huge houses, I'm like, you can't possibly have kids. You screaming constantly to find them. Smaller the house, the more the love in the house. You're around each other, right? And I've always had this feeling about face of the league. The NBA's had three all time. No, no. You think they've had eight, 10. Wilt wasn't the face of the league. He was flaky and weird. Kareem was the best player for over a decade. Stoic. I mean, you watched, you, you watched the HBO series on Kareem. That was very accurate. He was difficult to get along with. And Magic Johnson gets along with everybody the league has had. There's a story this morning. Jayson Tatum gets glossed over or ignored when observers consider face of the league. Hell, he wasn't face of the Celtics in the finals. Jalen Brown was. Marcus Smart two years earlier was taking the ball from him. There's something about movie stars. Tom Cruise is a movie star. John Malkovic is a great actor. Denzel Washington, that's a movie star. Jeremy Irons, you could argue maybe a better actor. Some would say maybe not. But there's a cool and a charisma. Tatum's excellent. He's not. He's not in the same zip code as cool. Zion had a chance to be face of the league, but he ate himself out of playing time. Ja Morant maybe had a chance. He wasn't mature enough. There's been three faces of the league, and I've been watching this league since I was on a bunk bed in 1972 watching Wilton the Lakers. Old Wilt with a Headband. Jerry West, Gale Goodrich. Yes, yes. That's why I got this gray hair. I've watched a lot of NBA in the 70s. The rest of you collected baseball cards. I collected NBA cards. Three faces of the league. Magic, Michael and LeBron. And that is it. Whoa. What about Kobe Bryant? He wasn't as popular as Shaq. People worshiped Kobe's talent. People liked Shaq. What about Steph Curry? He's close, but you can have one face of the league. And in his prime. LeBron was in his prime. And Steph's never really sold shoes. And by the way, you generally have to be the best player on your own team. For several years with kd, he wasn't. And I'm a huge Steph fan. So there's. There's a couple of factors that are really important. First of all, and this is why Steph is close. You have to have an otherworldly talent. We'd never seen anything like Magic Johnson. The smile, the passes. He was a 6, 9 point guard against the Sixers in the finals. He played center and scored 42 points. Michael Jordan, greatest player ever. Nobody played like Michael. He never seen anything like Michael. And LeBron James again walked into the league the first night of the NBA out of high school. He scored 20 points. He was scoring 40 later that year. So you have to have otherworldly talent. You also have to want it. Michael, Magic and LeBron are outstanding business guys. They read the business page before they read the sports page. And number three, it really helps if we're introduced to you early. We're watching Michael Jordan as a freshman at North Carolina. Who is this kid? We're watching Magic Johnson win a natty over Larry Bird national championship. Judd Heathcote, the Spartans. Who's this kid with all the crazy passes? And LeBron James in high school, the chosen one. This is where. This is where, like, Tim Duncan was good enough, but boring. Kareem was great enough, but stoic. Kobe, little moody, little difficult. Shaq was more liked. But it really helps if we're introduced to you early. And that's where it hurts the international guys. None of us. I mean, I'm not. I'm not sitting watching lithuanian basketball on YouTube. Maybe you are. Most people are not. And that's why Zion had a chance. His YouTube stuff blew up in his crazy dunks. And then he goes to Duke. And then there's the shoe deal where it explodes and it's Nike. And you're like, okay, here it goes. And he got a taste of that jumbalaya and that New Orleans food, which I had for a week. And, you know, he went a little sideways. A lot of sideways. So international guys sort of get dropped onto bad teams. And then you look up three years later with Giannis and go, whoo. That guy's amazing. We. We like the journey in America. We love the journey. We want to be introduced to you. The movie Air with Michael Jordan. We want to see a struggle. I mean, Magic Johnson, the personal stuff, hiv. We've seen Magic's journey. We love Magic. If you're at a Laker game and this is the craziest thing, Magic's everywhere in Los Angeles. If you're at a Laker game and Magic Johnson walks into the arena, I am not joking. The crowd stands. It's insane. It's like he's all over town. You see him driving around town. Kareem walks into the arena, arguably a greater player. Nobody gets up. He's an intellect. He's fascinating. I have tons of respect for him. He was the best player when I was a kid. Better than Wilt, for sure. Greater offensive player than Russell, who I didn't see play live. But there is a charisma and a star power. Jalen Brown, isn't it. Nobody's overlooking Jaylen Brown. The only guy that's got an argument, to me, a real argument is Steph Curry. But there's one face of the league, and in his prime. LeBron was in his prime. And so. And I don't think. I don't think sports need to have a face of the league. I mean, Ohtani is the face of baseball with Aaron Judge. Both appear to be great guys. One in New York, one in la. Do you have to have one? I mean, to me, in baseball, it's more about what teams are winning. If the Yankees are winning, if the Dodgers are winning. Atlanta Cubs viable, maybe the Mets. Baseball's fine. Phillies help as well, and that's why they're good. But this talk about face of the league, there's been three in my lifetime. It's not just about productivity or. Jeremy Irons would be the face of Hollywood. Denzel's been that. Tom Hanks has been that. Tom Cruise has been that. There's a. There's a. There's a. There's a formula for all this stuff, and that's why it's so damn hard. Some of the guys don't want it. I'm not sure Wemby wants it. I think Ant, by the way, if Ant played in Los Angeles, I think you'd have a shot. If Wemby was in New York International, maybe a shot. But there's a lot of components to this stuff, and I don't think Jason Tatum, and this is not disrespectful to his game. But when I watch the finals, I mean, they shipped Marcus Smart out of town, a defensive guard, because he was taking the ball out of Jason Tatum's hands. Nobody took it out of LeBron's hands, including Kyrie Irving and D. Wade. Nobody took the ball to Michael's hands. And Kareem, you run the show. There is an alpha, There is a formula. Jason Tatum's a great player, but he's closer to Duncan in personality than Magic. Just think about this. Close your eyes. Unless you're driving and listening on radio. Let's close our eyes. Close our eyes. Think about Magic Johnson. You can see the smile. Think about Michael. You can see that cocky grin. Think about LeBron. You can see the imagery pre game chalk. You can close your eyes and there's images with stars. Close your eyes now and do it with Tatum. I don't see anything. 26 a night, I don't see anything. Close your eyes and do it with Duncan. You see a rebound. I'm not being harsh here. I can close my eyes and I see Magic Johnson smile and laugh. I see Michael Jordan in the documentary. He see his intensity, his brooding intensity, but his likability. LeBron James say what you want. I close my eyes. I can see his game running down the floor, blocking things. There's a formula to this stuff. I don't think the NBA needs it, but we've had three all time. That's it. Okay, I got one other thing I want to touch on, and I may have been rambling there, but, you know, I feel strongly about that. So I've said this before. I'm divorced. When you get a divorce, you got to be a grown up. Okay, guys, if you're gonna get a divorce, you have to realize she may date somebody that's better looking than you, much more successful than you. Are you comfortable with that? Grass is always greener. Are you comfortable with that? So when the Dallas Mavericks made that trade, what we're finding out, they're now bad mouthing. The X. Stories are now leaking on Luca. Here's one of the stories that is leaking on Luca. Athletic had a story. According to Sam Amick, the people who witnessed Luca's last days in Dallas call him lazy. They talk about the weight issues. They mention the social habits. The Athletic has reported on such a Taste for beer and hookah. That ain't the only thing they smoking in the NBA. I'm just saying. And if you've been in New York, go to a hookah bar. It's a good time, folks. Michael Jordan smoked cigars, drank wine, played 36 holes on days of playoff games. He's the go. Shaq came into the season out of shape. I mean, right now, pot is wine in the NBA. It's fine. The bottom line is they weren't ready for this divorce. They thought this divorce was all about Anthony Davis and getting the lazy guy out. They had no idea how much it would tick off Dallas fans, and now they're reeling. I saw a story this morning, and by the way, all those bad work habits got Luka five time, first team all pro. Okay. And hurt him that much. It didn't hurt Michael that much. He was playing late night games, smoking his 17th cigar in four hours, leaking stuff makes him look bad. The Mavericks ticket prices have fallen 40%. And you know what? Luke is now dating somebody that's more successful. Got a lot of trophies, crypto arena, bigger brand. And they didn't think about it. They just didn't think about that. This was all about getting him out. They had no idea how big the Lakers brand is. They had no idea that it would create this incredible LeBron James joy and energy. And they're not here for it. So they're just leaking stuff to make him look bad. First of all, none of this stuff is a surprise. There's a piece of video. Years ago, Luca, after winning or getting to a championship level, somebody takes a beer out of his hand. The other thing is, kids drink earlier in Europe. Kids are drinking wine with their parents when they're 15 years old in Europe. Go there, more people smoke. It's just a different lifestyle. It's a very relaxed lifestyle. Long lunches, lot of cigs, lot of wine for kids, little chill afternoon siestas. So this, this is a team that. That thought they were ready for the divorce. And Luke upgraded and. And by the way, in the same conference, just moved down the street, drives by the house all the time, and you don't like what it feels like. All right, a lot of stuff today. J. Mac got some NFL combine stuff. Do you see the report cards out? I did, I did. Some of this stuff's actually funny. Do you see the Bengals got an F on food? They might want to call. How do you get an F on food? They don't give their guys three meals a day. That's crazy. I mean, some of the stuff out there is bad. By the way, you mentioned a hookah lounge earlier. Met my wife at a hookah lounge in New York City. Yeah. Now it starts as a hookah lounge, and then late night, it gets into, like, a vibey lounge type spot where. Yeah, they move the hookahs to the side. But hookah lounges are great. Have you done that? I've done that. I took Ann to a hookah lounge in New York, and we had. We did a lot of hookah in Luke. Hookah. Is it a verb? Is it a we? We just had a very good time. Hookah. Yeah. I still can't get to, like, text or. It's just text.