THE HERD - Hour 1 - We have a new face of the NBA, Aaron Rodgers returning to the Steelers

Summary

The Herd with Colin Cowherd (Hour 1) – May 19, 2026

Episode Focus: The New Face of the NBA, the Rise of Victor Wembanyama, and Aaron Rodgers Returns—Plus Reactions to Major NBA and NFL News

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Overview

This episode of The Herd is dominated by a passionate discussion about the transformative emergence of Victor Wembanyama (“Wemby”) as the face of the NBA, following a historic playoff performance for the San Antonio Spurs. Colin draws bold comparisons with NBA legends and forecasts the start of a Spurs dynasty. The hour also covers Aaron Rodgers’ “mysterious” return to the NFL (with the Steelers), inside takes on MVP voting and team dynamics, key NFL storylines, and candid athlete soundbites.

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Key Segments & Discussion Points

1. Victor Wembanyama: The NBA's New Centerpiece

[03:08 – 13:06]

• Historic Spurs Win & Wemby’s Performance

  • Spurs win Game 1 in double overtime on the road.
  • Wemby posts 41 points, 24 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 blocks—drawing “Wilt Chamberlain” comparisons.
  • Colin declares “mark the date” as Wemby’s official rise to NBA face:

    “Last night—May eighteenth, 2026—last night Wemby officially became the face of the league. He did.” (Colin, 03:20)

• Unique Skill Set & Dynastic Outlook

  • Wemby is described as combining the shooting of Steph, blocking like Wilt, alley-oops like Shaq, and overall dominance.
  • Spurs’ supporting cast: Dylan Harper (historic rookie guard, “best since Magic”), Stefan Castle, all under 22 years old.
  • Colin:

    “I feel like I’m watching a galaxy form—it's beginning to orbit around Wemby’s gravitational pull. It’s just crazy.” (04:47)

  • Discussion of dynasty potential if Wemby stays healthy, likening him to LeBron's ironman qualities.

• Impact on the League & Other Teams

  • Rest of Western Conference feels “inconsequential”; Lakers, OKC, even LeBron and Steph now seem secondary.
  • The question: “When does the dynasty start, and can Wemby stay healthy for twelve years and become the greatest basketball player of all time?” (04:28)

Quote Highlight

• “I don’t know how many more boxes he can check—we’re creating new ones. I’ve seen a unicorn; I’d never seen a Wemby.” (Colin, 03:48)

Wemby Soundbite

“A game like tonight is the best way to get experience. We paid five quarters so we're learning...we want to win everything and we have the chance to have people above us in the organization that know how to do that.”
(Victor Wembanyama, 08:37)

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2. The SGA MVP Debate & Oklahoma City Analysis

[09:02 – 18:11]

• MVP Voting Critique

  • Colin questions SGA’s MVP worthiness compared to Wemby.
  • Emphasizes Wemby’s gravity: Spurs lead league in corner threes because “you have to collapse on Wemby.”
  • Calls OKC “more entertaining to watch than the defending champs” and sees their roster as deep but lacking star power impact.

• Opponent Analysis

  • Discussion on OKC’s resistance to guarding Wemby with their big men (Holmgren, Hartenstein), resulting in smaller defenders like Alex Caruso on him.
  • “Wemby played Rudy Gobert off the floor...Are we getting to a point nobody can even make Wemby work for it?” (Colin, 10:50)

• Team Chemistry & Leadership

  • Wemby's confidence (not arrogance) and team adoration contrasted with historical "combustible" star pairings.
  • “There’s no animosity. There’s no jealousy. ... Sometimes in life folks, it’s the—I mean, look at him. They love this guy.” (Colin, 11:36)

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3. Aaron Rodgers Returns—“Mysterious” but Exciting

[13:06 – 15:18]

• Rodgers' Persona
  • Steelers linebacker Alex Highsmith says: “He’s a mysterious guy, so having him back is awesome...we’re really excited to have him back leading our group.” (13:18)
  • Colin jokes: “I’d prefer my quarterback not be D.B. Cooper and JFK and Satoshi—just me.” (13:23)
  • Contrast with Tom Brady’s singular focus—Rodgers now “fascinating, interesting, but not someone you rely on weekly.”
  • Steelers' schedule is workable, and Rodgers is back at practice:

    “Aaron is officially back, just nobody quite knew where he was until he put the helmet on and walked out to the practice field.” (Colin, 14:17)

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4. NBA Eastern Conference Finals Outlook

[25:38 – 27:59]

• Preview of Knicks vs. Cavs with Jalen Brunson as a matchup nightmare for Cleveland.
• Knicks called “a great story,” with comparisons to “teams in the East that pop” every playoff cycle (e.g., Pacers, Heat).
• Colin and Joe believe Knicks are the fun watch, while OKC remains “not a good watch.”

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5. NFL Quarterbacks & Team Circumstances

[28:30 – 32:36]

• Las Vegas Raiders QB Situation

  • Raiders rookie coach/OC Andrew Janocko praises Fernando Mendoza’s curiosity and adaptability. (28:30)
  • Joe and Colin agree Raiders should start rookie Mendoza from Week 1 over veteran Kirk Cousins.
  • Miami’s gutted defense offers a “layup” opening matchup. Colin: “That’s about as—and that crowd’s going to be crazy in Vegas by the way.” (29:58)

• Cincinnati Bengals' Soft Schedule

  • Bengals and Packers cited as big beneficiaries of the 2026 NFL schedule.
  • Projected “ten or eleven wins,” prop bet value on last undefeated team.

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6. Bill Belichick's Philosophy on Sustaining Dynasties

[33:51 – 36:39]

• Belichick shares his perspective on “balancing the scales” by providing internal criticism amid widespread praise:

  “I didn’t want—they heard how great they were, but at some point you gotta hear you suck. Well, here’s how we can do better.” (Belichick, 34:28)

• Colin relates this to why some dynasties don’t last (egos, loss of “hunger”) and credits Belichick for managing New England’s extended success.

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7. LeBron, Honesty in the Media, and the NBA City “No Trades” List

[40:18 – 46:49]

• LeBron’s candid PGA soundbite about not wanting to play in Milwaukee or Memphis:

  “Random Tuesday in Milwaukee standing at the—at forty-one years old, you think I want to do that? Being in Memphis on a random ass Thursday? ... their only chance was in 2003 if they would have won the lottery and I might have pulled an Eli Manning and not showed up.” (LeBron, 41:33)

• Colin defends LeBron’s authenticity and references an NBA player poll naming Memphis the No. 1 “no-trade” destination.
• Larger conversation on athlete authenticity, media reactions, and the challenge of honesty vs. PR-safe answers.

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8. NBA MVP Ceremony & Wemby’s Motivation

[46:49 – 50:57]

• Colin criticizes the timing/format of NBA MVP award presentations, which may motivate those overlooked.
• Wemby after watching SGA receive MVP before the game:

  “Yeah for sure. Everything you just said. I still got a lot to learn and I want to get that trophy, you know, many times in my career.” (Wembanyama, 47:00)

• Joe Mack highlights Wemby’s defensive impact and the “farce” of the MVP result, especially given his playoff dominance.
• Colin: “Wemby just has much more gravity than SGA ... it’s got an A.I. feel to it. It’s like, here it comes, not much you can do ... we’re not sure how it’s going to end but it’s going to be team, GM, player, All-Star, title displacement—we know what’s going to happen.” (49:04)

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Notable Quotes

• Colin Cowherd
  • “We’re watching ... potentially the blooming, the beginning of the greatest basketball player we’ve ever seen. He’s not there yet ... but I feel like I’m watching a galaxy form.” (04:19, 04:47)
  • “The rest of the Western Conference feels so inconsequential ... Wemby...and this is the bottom of San Antonio’s powers.” (05:12)
• Victor Wembanyama:
  • “[Games like this are] the best way to get experience ... we want to win everything.” (08:37)
  • “[On SGA winning MVP] For sure—everything you just said. I still got a lot to learn and I want to get that trophy ... many times in my career.” (47:00)
• Joe Mack:
  • “[OKC] have won four out of five and Wembanyama is unstoppable. There is nobody who can guard him.” (15:21)
  • “SGA, he's not getting to the mid-range anymore ... his superpower’s getting to the line, and if he’s not getting to the line …” (17:34)
• Bill Belichick:
  • “At some point you gotta hear you suck. Well, here’s how we can do better.” (34:28)
• LeBron James:
  • “Random Tuesday in Milwaukee ... at forty-one years old, you think I want to do that? Being in Memphis on a random ass Thursday?” (41:33)

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Timestamps for Major Segments

| Segment | Timestamps | |---------------------------------------------------|----------------| | Spurs/Wemby Game, NBA Face Ascendant | 03:08–13:06 | | SGA MVP Critique, OKC Analysis | 09:02–18:11 | | Aaron Rodgers Returns: Steelers | 13:06–15:18 | | Knicks/Cavs Preview, NBA East Perspective | 25:38–27:59 | | Raiders, Mendoza as QB; NFL Early Takes | 28:30–32:36 | | Bill Belichick on Dynasties | 33:51–36:39 | | LeBron, NBA “no trade” cities, athlete candor | 40:18–46:49 | | NBA MVP Ceremony, Wemby’s Motivation | 46:49–50:57 |

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Tone & Style

• Colin’s tone is emphatic, visionary, and sometimes playful—oscillating between awe-struck admiration for Wembanyama and sharp, candid critiques of league structures, MVP voting, or individual athletes.
• The episode is loaded with metaphor (A.I., galaxy, superhero analogies) and brings historical context to modern events.

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Summary

This episode locks in the narrative of Victor Wembanyama’s ascension as the face of a changing NBA, supported by an energetic and creative Spurs team. Colin leverages history, comparison, and humor to underline Wemby’s singular impact on the court and in league culture. The hour also doubles as a fast-paced update on football headlines—highlighting the enigmatic Aaron Rodgers’ return—and examines the ever-present tension between athlete authenticity and media reaction.

For fans pondering whether the NBA has a new era dawning, and for anyone interested in the sports world’s buzziest personalities, this hour is must-listen content.

Transcript

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[Colin Cowherd]

org thanks for listening to the heard podcast be sure to catch us live every weekday on fox sports radio and noon to three eastern nine am to noon pacific find your local station for the herd at foxsportsradio dot com or stream us live every day on the iheartradio app by searching fox sports radio or fsr now let's get this party

[Fox Sports Radio Announcer]

started you're listening to fox sports radio

[Colin Cowherd]

here we go it's a tuesday we are live it is the herd wherever you may be however you may be listening so many thoughts so many angles thanks for making us part of your day spurs take game one on the road double overtime watching that game last night various times i thought it makes everything else in the west so irrelevant really think austin reaves and luka are going to take down wemby over the next five years i mean that is unbelievable mark this date down last night may eighteenth twenty twenty six last night wemby officially became the face of the league he did before the game sga won the mvp motivating him wemby won the night and the game he is now the movie poster for the nba shooting from thirty feet you got a little staff blocks like wilt alley oops like shaq twenty four rebounds humiliating the other bigs like he did rudy gobert the t wolves folks i don't know how many more boxes he can check we're creating new ones i've seen a unicorn i'd never seen a wemby i don't know what the series is going to be eventually i don't think sga my guess won't have the worst plus minus of anybody on the floor you know i took san antonio to win it i think it's going seven but you are watching two things happen simultaneously the beginning of a dynasty and potentially the blooming the beginning of the greatest basketball player we've ever seen he's not there yet i don't think he's fully refined offensively dylan harper his running mate you know magic got kareem gotta have somebody else shaq kobe mj pippin dylan harper's twenty i've never seen a rookie guard this good since magic seven steals twenty four points eleven rebounds he never turns the ball over lightning quick he'll be all nba either by next year or the year after so we've had great tandems in this league dylan harper and wemby is all time stuff the only question for the spurs and you're thinking the same thing i am they're much more entertaining to watch than okc okc honestly feels like they feel like a supporting character as defending champs they do they're just not that entertaining i cannot keep my eyes off san antonio and the only question is number one when does the dynasty start and number two cross your fingers at seven feet four can wemby stay healthy for twelve years and become the greatest basketball player of all time that's one of the magic gifts of lebron dude never gets hurt or brady i mean the rest of the west i'm watching last night the rest of the western conference feels so inconsequential where is giannis going to end up who cares is lebron coming back yeah whatever how long is steph going to play neat feels like a local story wemby stefan castles their bully dylan harper more draft picks pick swaps coming i mean and this this is the bottom of san antonio's powers their three stars are twenty twenty one and twenty two i feel like i'm watching a galaxy form it's beginning to orbit around wemby's gravitational pull it's just crazy he humiliated rudy gobert four time defensive player of the year they don't even want to put holmgren on him put alex caruso on him we don't want to humiliate holmgren it's incredible and i don't think the nba needs a face of the league i never have i don't think there's actually been that many magic and bird felt like it shaq kind of felt like it i don't was duncan face of the league jordan was clearly clearly but boy you get it with wemby good looking stylish cool confident outspoken like he is everything you could ask for we get so lucky sometimes in sports that our best stars look at him pose there is that the best or what look at his teammates they love him there's no animosity there's no jealousy and i'm looking at the numbers this morning since early february if wemby just gives you fifteen minutes just fifteen minutes spurs are thirty seven three what what look at the postseason numbers it's wilt plus in fact last night i looked this up forty one points twenty four rebounds three assists three blocks it's the best game since nineteen sixty two wilt against the celtics i mean last week our government released ufo files and i was skeptical i watched last night and i'm thinking oh they are among us it's wemby here he is after

[Victor Wembanyama]

a game like tonight is the best way to get experience we paid five quarters so we're learning and by the time we get the experience we'll compensate with our effort we want to win everything and we have the chance to have people above us in the organization that know how to do

[Colin Cowherd]

that i mean the whole mvp thing is so absolutely crazy i love sga sga only led the league in one category free throws i mean the bottom line is everything moves around wemby you could say well the defense does do you realize the spurs led the nba in corner threes you have to collapse on wemby he changes the calculus of everything everything everything they do offensively you have to account for wemby that's why stefan castle dylan harper these guys are going to get open jumpers for the next decade man if you're a shooter get to san antonio do the heels go get a go get a mike miller and a shane battier and a ray allen go bring on these bring a veteran who can can't do much but hit threes hey steph curry play a couple years in san antonio i get an idea where you could go after that i mean it it it and i like sga a lot he didn't lead any major category i mean they subbed him out late they didn't want him on the floor defensively and i'm not picking yeah i'm not taking sides here but wemby is so good so refreshing so fantastic so likable so confident i mean i just never i'm sitting there thinking to myself if you're a team like the lakers and you're the new dodgers owner you have to be thinking the only only thing we can do to compete we got to go get giannis that's it that's all we can do and that'll help us for two years i mean i'm sitting there watching all these teams and i'm like if you're in the west i mean forget oklahoma city and again oklahoma city may win the they may win the series right i mean they're so deep i mean they have like they go ten deep but hartenstein and holmgren i mean they put caruso on wemby it's like yeah we're not even we're not even gonna try to put a big on him rudy gobert was four time defensive player of the year they took he basically wemby played rudy gobert off the floor i mean don't get me wrong gary payton couldn't stop mj but he made him work for it are we getting to a point nobody can even make wemby work for it i mean that was wilt everybody goes oh bill russell eleven rings wilt dominated russell i mean fifty rebounds it just didn't matter that's what we're looking at here i mean it's just crazy what we're watching and he seem i mean i really like he he does a really good job he toes that line between confident and arrogant he's not arrogant he is confident you can tell the way his teammates rally around him they really like him they really appreciate him and that's not always the case we know the shaq kobe thing was that thing was a combustible dynamic that's not going to happen with wemby we know the celtics loved loved bird we knew the lakers loved magic but you get into these these dual star combos it's not always great you can really tell a lot about wemby by how that picture of him posing and all his teammates like laughing and they love this guy sometimes in life folks it's the i mean look at him they love this guy you know who else loves him adam silver i can't take my eyes off him oh oh eight teams eight teams started their otas yesterday michael pittman said of aaron rodgers arriving quote yeah he never told me anything i learned from twitter and alex highsmith said

[Ian O'Connor]

this it's awesome having him back you know he's a he's a mysterious guy so having him back is awesome seeing him in the building today so yeah it's awesome it's great so he was out there obviously getting a lot of rest with the guys and whatnot so really we're really excited to have him back you know leading our group he

[Colin Cowherd]

said he's mysterious i'd rather have my mystery in my latest netflix series i'd prefer my quarterback not beat db cooper and jfk and satoshi just me but i will say this aaron rodgers about six years ago in green bay changed course and whereas tom brady's football career was singular winning super bowls aaron suddenly was divergent he wanted to be known for more than football mission accomplished mysterious curious controversial lost his endorsements fascinating interesting i can take my eyes off him but not everybody chooses the same path and when i think of aaron i think of a lot of things and i think of football with brady and manning i thought of football that's okay he's become sort of that great friend you have who's a great hang and interesting disappears for a while you're not going to rely on him but you love being around him every couple of years where you been i haven't heard from you i would prefer my quarterback not be that but that's what he is early schedules very workable for the steelers aaron is officially back just nobody quite knew where he was until he put the helmet on and walked out to the practice field j mack i don't mean to gush and i don't know who's going to win that series but i had so many thoughts watching the game i think that was a really tough game you got the defending champs with a lot of experience older players maybe the best gm in all of professional sports and it just the spurs kept coming back and back and back and you're just sitting there thinking is this the year it's going to

[Joe Mack]

start right yeah two things jump out colin first listen we've now got five games of data okay the last regular season game the guys didn't play and the spurs own them right now okay they've won four or five and wembanyama is unstoppable there is nobody who can guard him you you mentioning chet not guarding is chet afraid of him like chet holmgren had eight points took seven shots he was invisible in that game why wouldn't you put him on on

[Colin Cowherd]

what is it what does it tell you what does it tell you that oklahoma city a brilliantly coached and run and owned team is like one of their great assets is they have two legit bigs hartenstein and holmgren and they're like let's put alex caruso on i mean michael jordan as great as he was you know you'd go put your best guard gary payton on him you'd put a guard on him you you can't even it does you can't even put a big on him yeah so

[Joe Mack]

putting by putting the guards on him wemby's not just settled he took two three pointers last night he's like oh caruso on me i'm just going to go inside and catch lobs and it was game over and colin i know you don't want to bang on sga i've been yelling about this for months he is not built to handle castle and i didn't think harper was that

[Colin Cowherd]

good castle's giving him problems major harper

[Joe Mack]

had seven steals seven he was everywhere so if he can't get by those guys by the way sga one for five in both overtime periods blew a

[Colin Cowherd]

layup at the end of regulation sga is not michael or kobe he's not going to jump over you he's also not physically going to bully you so it's like a running back adrian peterson remember the great running back for the vikings he he could run over you run past you right he had like walter payton could do that walter payton could make you miss could bowl over you could outrun you best back i ever saw that's what made michael so great michael could maneuver around you he was quick he was vertical he could also bully you charles barkley had that he could run you over run past you for a forward wimby can do multiple things sga he's got kind of a singular dimension game which is he's quick and he's kind of long but you can he's physically not a terribly strong player you can bully him and that's that's kind of what stefan castle is a perfect remedy for sga what's

[Joe Mack]

sga superpower colin and don't give me the mid range because he's not getting the mid range anymore we've seen it for three years the guy's known not

[Colin Cowherd]

to jump he's got he's got good timing good touch yeah that's not a

[Joe Mack]

superpower his superpowers get into the line and if he's not getting to the line maybe he is alex english like you said yesterday not to diminish him but he looked like the best player on the on the thunder he's more

[Colin Cowherd]

like batman he doesn't have a superpower he's got a good teammate and he's got good gadgets around him yeah alex

[Joe Mack]

caruso hits eight threes the best game of his career by a mile and they lose without de' aaron fox on spurs in four no i'm kidding that

[Colin Cowherd]

that's a bit much all right so okay and you think i'm crazy saying wemby is the face of the league i'm going to give you i said last night is the beginning of wemby being the face of the league i'm going to take you back to the lebron night where he became face of the league we'll talk about that next

[Fox Sports Radio Announcer]

be sure to catch live editions of the herd weekdays at noon eastern nine am pacific on fox sports radio fs one and the iheartradio app hey it's

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[Public Investing Disclosures]

holdings brokerage services by public investing member finra sipc advisory services by public advisors sec registered advisor all investing involves risk of loss see complete disclosures at public

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[Colin Cowherd]

for all dot org innovation is what

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[Colin Cowherd]

of the voluum podcast network foreign there eastern conference finals tonight ian o' connor two hours away great new york sports writer nick wright top of the hour victor wembanyama is twenty two years old i said last night he officially became the face of the league i think there's only been four or five i think we overstate that he's the face of the league does anybody remember the first lebron moment when he officially had no peers i would argue lebron was twenty two years old just like wemby it was the eastern conference finals two thousand seven like wemby lebron had battled older teams in the playoff like washington and the nets and then he met like wemby a number one seed it was the pistons forty eight points two overtime win just like wemby on the road just like wemby scored the last twenty five points in the game it's one of the greatest basketball efforts i've ever seen in my life again twenty two like wemby on the road like wemby facing a number one seed like wemby and lebron was exhausted after the game from that point forward he was a class of one there were no peers didn't mean he'd have great games every night didn't mean he'd win every playoff series i mean he left cleveland because he couldn't get a running mate that's why he left went to miami running mate michael jordan didn't do anything till pippin wemby's got his guys dylan harper and stefan castle but i remember that night because i remember watching it and thinking okay you've just done something even your predecessors who were all timers could not do twenty five straight points he blew past people he jumped over people he beat them down the floor he knifed through traffic he used his left hand he dunked with his right hand he hit threes he hit mid ranges they trapped him they double teamed him you could not stop lebron i'm showing the video just insane insane how dominant he was against a great defensive team oh that's interesting wemby faced a great defensive team last night on the road and humbled them lebron was exhausted here's wemby after

[LeBron James]

do you feel like especially after this game that you're the best player in basketball

[Victor Wembanyama]

do i feel like it right now i feel tired but it's not a question i'm wondering right now we'll see you know the world is eight billion people so it's eight billion opinions

[Colin Cowherd]

that was something else that was a good night by the way i was watching sabres canadiens it was a good sports night on a monday night j mac with the news

[Victor Wembanyama]

no no no turn on the news

[Fox Sports Radio Announcer]

this is the herd line news all

[Joe Mack]

right colin let's start with tonight's nba action knicks hosting the cavs in the eastern conference finals and good news for knicks fans og anunoby according to multiple multiple reports is expected back tonight will play in game one they're probably going to need him somebody's going to guard donovan mitchell somebody's going to guard james harden it probably will be og and mikhail bridges kind of toggling between the two they've also got josh hart and of course jose grand theft alvarado coming

[Colin Cowherd]

off the bench i don't think i honestly do not know how cleveland stops jalen brunson like he's he's going to score thirty four a game he's going to have his way there are other things they have dynamically but i think jalen brunson's going to completely control this series they don't have anybody they can

[Joe Mack]

put on him i agree remember vj edgecomb of the sixers was supposed to do that he had no chance he cooked him the rookie however however some of the cavs guys who were trying to pump up the series did note that brunson shot thirty four percent against the cavs this year which was terrible and then the stat that blew me away so dean wade the kind of taller white guy who guarded cade cunningham last round pretty he did a good job he's not an offensive guy at all he defended brunson this year great brunson shot are you ready for this one for sixteen this season when being guarded by dean wade now that stat blew me away you know i don't expect the knicks to struggle but oh okay that's interesting wade really a non shooter so you don't really have to guard him i don't know how much

[Colin Cowherd]

he'll play cleveland's got donovan mitchell harden jared allen they can score points evan berkeley they're going to win a game at home in this series i i just think the matchups to me favor new york after watching last night i feel like i was just watching a different galaxy of talent but i think the knicks are a great story every year we have a team in the east usually the east that pops miami a couple years ago eight seed got to the finals pacers last year with halberton i that's what the knicks are they have tweaked their offense they're fun to watch i'll argue that all day long okc is not a good watch i love watching the spurs i love watching the knicks play they're a fun

[Joe Mack]

watch you see on the screen there seven and oh in their last seven games just bludgeoning teams however i will point out okc had been doing that as well eight wins six of them by double figures and they lose at home unfortunately cleveland does not have victor wembanyama all right let's move on to the nfl and the vegas raiders interesting team this year although they got no primetime games fernando mendoza your quarterback he's been hard at work learning kubiak system here's what raiders new oc andrew janoco

[Andrew Janocko]

had to say he's asking questions that you might not have thought about in a couple years working with some more veteran guys but now you have a guy that's fresh into the league that has some different questions and what it does is it makes you be on your toes for everything but it also makes you evaluate everything and hey maybe we could get better if we did yeah i know we've had some success doing it one way but we could do it another way and be even

[Colin Cowherd]

better i can't wait to watch well

[Joe Mack]

i don't know if you're gonna have to wait a month or not because you know he had hasselbeck and some others coming on saying yeah you gotta start kirk cousins i think you and i are in lockstep here i'm going mendoza from week one play the kid

[Colin Cowherd]

miami at home come on it's a

[Joe Mack]

layup miami's defense is gutted they got

[Colin Cowherd]

nobody no they're going to start i mean miami could start eight rookies from the draft and it wasn't a good draft they don't have i mean honestly i mean it's not like it was a great draft and they got i mean cleveland went and got really good players the jets like there are certain teams in the nfl that got like really high end starters cleveland got four that'll play day one the dolphins draft was eh remember they kind of reached on a tackle and then it was an inside linebacker and it was they took a receiver first receiver they took it was one of the weaker draft selections in that round so i think miami new staff new offense new everything that's that's a that's about as and that crowd's going to be crazy in

[Joe Mack]

vegas by the way fox game obviously we'd love but look at the schedule for the raiders so you got dolphins chargers have a good defenses on the road back to back road games against the saints but after that chiefs patriots bills rams like if you start kirk cousins for the first three he's probably going to play the first seven games i don't want that i mean jets at week eight is probably the next good win for the raiders but i'm starting mendoza week one i don't think there's any barring injury or catastrophic in the preseason and he can't tie his shoes and run at the same time like i don't know i i just can't envision a scenario where mendoza is not the week one starter all right let's go to the final story con that's joe burrow and the cincinnati bengals very excited for a return to the postseason got that cushy schedule and burrows out there saying we have everything we need i'm seeing as many as six seven new defensive starters obviously the dexter lawrence edition is a big one well

[Colin Cowherd]

they needed seven new starters up front

[Joe Mack]

couldn't stop anybody remember there was a lot of chatter at the end of last season about burrow you know demanding a trade and being unhappy we might have to put that on the shelf for a little bit because this schedule and the new talent they've got on the defensive front they sh if they don't win ten games you know zach

[Colin Cowherd]

taylor give it come on yeah i mean i think i think people look at the bengals as and the packers as two teams that kind of benefited from the schedule they don't they don't have a lot of back to back toughies again jaguars tough then you get miami ravens are tough you get a buy i mean then you then you go to kansas city's tough but you get them at home and the raven you get them at home this this is screaming eleven wins i mean it really is sometime we said this last year the two easy schedules new england there's no question at bed infinity new england they got a home playoff game yeah cincinnati is going to be a new england they're not really a top four or five team but they're going to win ten or eleven games i think the overs in play here simply because of the schedule go find one two game stretch i mean one two game stretch i mean again texans week two at houston rough maybe that's a host get a host tampa before it and they you know play steelers after

[Joe Mack]

it so you know we love prop bets on the show you could bet in vegas one of these props last undefeated team now the bengals first five you face houston was a playoff team pittsburgh jags people are going to be like no but i'm just telling you this offense those those teams are not going to be able to hang with burrows offense so i might take a flyer on bengals last undefeated team not all the odds are up yet but they could be interesting this year yeah

[Colin Cowherd]

j mack with the news well that's the news and thanks for stopping by the herd lie news listen belichick bill belichick's had a pretty rough last several years and i've said one of my criticisms even in his heyday is at the end last seven eight years in new england i thought he had too much control of the draft and they drafted very poorly especially on offense and he's grumpy and the hoodie and i you know like a lot of you i was such a brady fan i was always like can you give tom a hug can you occasionally just pat him on the back and i thought bill belichick said something really instructive and really smart and it was i never heard him say this and i it's not that i turned on belichick because i didn't know how it was going to work in college but in the end i was like come on you're naming a defensive coordinator an offensive coordinator and you're treating cam newton better than you treated tom brady the last year and it just didn't sit right with me but again i was a brady a little bit of a a brady fan right but belichick was on the sean hannity podcast and i thought he made a really really great point that some of it was a little performative

[Bill Belichick]

we won almost every game we were favored in almost every game everybody expected us to win every game and so externally everybody talked about how great we were or how great we were going to be and it was all you go to the store go get gas go do and if you know you're great you're great you're great you're great you're great and so i always wanted to have balance and i didn't want they heard how great they were but at some point you gotta hear you suck well here's how we can do

[Colin Cowherd]

better it's not as good as i

[Bill Belichick]

didn't mean it that way no that's

[Colin Cowherd]

the truth that's really smart i mean young rich talented men probably don't need more affirmation and praise so bill belichicked their ego and it's the first time i've ever heard him say that you know i mean bill was not going to open up a lot with the general boston media but i it was the first time i had really heard bill explain like this is this is what i was doing and he is so right everywhere you went in the new england region it was dunkin donuts and the patriots are great not all the bruins teams were or celtics teams were and i mean and i'll say this is i've always wondered why didn't the legion of doom legion of boom win another super bowl was it ego shaq and kobe should have won five kd and the warriors should have won six how come jimmy and jerry and the cowboys didn't win more and they won a lot a lot of times a lot of times it's like you win a championship maybe two and everybody's like we've arrived and bill's take was no we're not going to do that you're getting praise everywhere not in the building and let's be totally clear with belichick he's been an assistant with a great bill parcells he's coach lawrence taylor brady and gronk like the greatest of the great matt slater best special teams player ever so the fact that you come in and have a two touchdown playoff game bill's not blown away by it so i mean you know part of what ends dynasties is you don't sustain it you don't feed it you don't grow you don't everybody wants a car commercial everybody wants a book everybody wants affirmation and praise and bill came out and said yeah i went twenty years of pushing back and balancing the scales you've seen that scales of justice bill's like i had to wait the other side i thought it was really really smart and i'd never heard him say it he kind of explained the grumpiness in chicago it's the herd be

[Fox Sports Radio Announcer]

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[Joe Mack]

network the greatest spectacle in racing is coming it's the one hundred tenth running of the indianapolis five hundred don't miss the pageantry and tradition of the biggest race in motorsports coverage of the indy five hundred begins at ten am eastern with the green flag at twelve thirty

[Colin Cowherd]

sunday on fox you know the the the media want open honest answers right that's what they tell you but a lot of times when you get an authentic reaction or an authentic moment the media which has its lowest approval rating ever i mean like lower than congress and one of the reasons is they ask questions and they want predetermined answers or they take what what somebody says on a podcast and they're being totally vulnerable and honest and they hammer them and so lebron james who has now fallen in love with golf the end is near anytime he gets invited to play he's like let's go especially you know you have an off day on the road sometimes well lebron had this moment you know he's all over golf now and he's he's around some friends and he's you know he's holding court and he's making everybody laugh and he got drilled for this that he was insensitive to memphis milwaukee because he was saying at his age there's just certain cities he'd rather not go to random

[LeBron James]

tuesday in milwaukee standing at the stand at the at forty one years old you think i want to do that being in memphis on a random ass thursday i'm not like the first guy i even talk about in the nba like we all like you guys have to move go over to nashville you got the you got vanderbilt over there you got the nascar you got a stadium don't they got a hockey team too yeah they know their only chance was in two thousand three if they would have won the lottery and i might and i might have pulled a eli manning and not showed up it's

[Colin Cowherd]

guys on a golf course for the record nashville just got the super bowl in twenty thirty nashville is the place to be in that state great city my daughter lives there it's a great city so here's what's interesting nba just had an anonymous player poll that was released what's the first team on your no trade list over three times more than second place washington almost four times as many players would rather play in sacramento memphis number one lebron was speaking for the league memphis in a runaway vote and i thought i thought you know it'd be sacramento i actually think milwaukee's underrated i really i think their downtown is pretty cool arena is great but again when athletes are honest and it's off the cuff and can we be honest about guys on a golf course i mean you're smoking cigars you're having a good time you're on a roll you're telling funny stories guys are laughing i mean it's and i know people say well colin it didn't land right no it landed like the truth does harshly creating some discomfort for somebody yeah i mean you could be jay leno or letterman or colbert when people do their monologues to start a show somebody's offended but there's always a little bit of truth in the joke or it's not funny so if you you know the media is trying not to get boring repetitive predictable answers so they ask probing questions sometimes you're not going to like the reaction and sometimes it's at a podium sometimes it's on the floor sometimes it's out but you know lebron was basically speaking for the league these these rich dudes they they want their glossy miami hotel louisiana hotel scottsdale hotel like i get it and i don't i like it's not the end of the world but i and and you know the the heat maybe lebron's a little tone deaf tone deaf okay i mean you know maybe guilty as charged but you know my take is there's a reason the nba does an anonymous poll because a lot of times people don't want to put their name on it because they get hammered i'm guilty of this i've tried to change over the years where even if i said this about aaron rodgers is that a lot of times i think he's ridiculous and a little odd but he is giving me content and i do talk about him a lot and he lost all his endorsements so he's mission accomplished he's always discussed he's not winning the big games anymore he doesn't have his endorsements but you know he's interesting you fill a segment on the show you're interesting so i don't know how many of you thought this so when i watched the nba and i was talking about the nfl when they released their schedule i said i think the nfl is a very well run league but i feel like this year is the first year that the nfl got their holiday and international schedule right i mean the international games for years were jacksonville and the colts it was so bad and then you know christmas it was like god because they used to have a rule everybody's got to be on national tv at least once and finally the nfl cleaned that up and i thought in my lifetime this was the first year that i looked at the thanksgiving eve thanksgiving black friday christmas new year's nfl schedule international schedule i went wow it took them a long time they nailed it first time ever i didn't see a single boring game often they were the best games of the weekend so i understand that it takes leagues time to figure out schedules nfl's always been very intentional the nba has got to do something with the mvp award anybody watch that last night before the game sga looked uncomfortable adam silver was smiling but i'm not sure how comfortable he was and wimby is watching the proceedings wimby is watching sga when the you think sga for the next five minutes wants to do this in front of the spurs they have got to figure out a time to they've got to figure out a time to hand out this award and they asked wemby about sitting and watching this ceremony here's what he said just curious

[Interviewer]

if that was in your mind at all knowing that shea had got that award and you were in the top three for it and you know did any part of tonight feel personal some of your facial expressions kind of look like you were really really going for

[Victor Wembanyama]

it yeah for sure everything you just said i still got a lot to learn and i want to get that trophy you know many times in my

[Colin Cowherd]

career so sga i'm always like the heisman award you could give it to anybody right but the most valuable player award what are the spurs without wemby they're not thirty seven and three since february and i love stefan castle but i always said this about jokic you take him off the floor are they a playoff team you take sga off the floor and i believe this i think their bench in the eastern conference would be a playoff team i think if i think you could take okc's first five guys off the bench and they would be like a fourth or a fifth seed i'm not joking in without sga without homegren lou dort i mean they they make the playoffs well that's an advantage you're not as valuable when you get beat and you've got two bigs i mean they took him off the floor last night defensively i'm not denying he's great given the scoring championship is he most valuable that's the downside to playing in a stacked roster is we don't rely on you as much and i mean the spurs would be interesting without wemby but they did thirty seven and three i'm sorry so i i it was almost you know what it felt like to me it was pre voter fatigue it was like we know he's going to win seven of these we're going to be exhausted in about four years usually remember when jokic kept winning them and they gave one to embiid and it was like well voter fatigue this was pre mvp voter fatigue as everybody in the world knows he's going to rattle off so many of these but wemby just in my opinion the word the title is most valuable player wemby just has much more gravity than sga he they lead the nba in corner threes because you have to collapse on wemby you don't have a choice you don't have to collapse on sga i mean they put stefan castle on him he's not done particularly well he's been off his game i mean they literally give up the league gives up defending wemby they put smalls on him i mean that is so i mean it's you know what you know what it's like you know what wemby is wemby is ai we all know we're doomed it's just a matter of when like with ai it's like they're going to be job losses when does that start and i feel like with wemby it's like he's going to run the league for about nine years does it start now or does it start in one calendar year that's how i feel it's got an ai feel to it it's like here it comes not much you can do we're not sure how it's going to end but it's it's going to be team gm player all star title displacement like we know what's going to happen j

[Joe Mack]

mac yeah so i'm looking at for your sga take the ai stuff is great by on wendy that that's is that your work or is comedian writer that's good stuff when sga was defended by castle and harper some of the tracking data says he shot four of thirteen okay there's a guy who shot fifty five percent he gets to the midi it's automatic he didn't even want to shoot it because wemby was patrolling the lane he's settling for threes i'm just telling you the mvp that was a farce and did you see the video of wemby on the bench when they're giving it to him head down locked in and then he came out and dropped forty one and twenty four he was laughing at sga at one point in that game it was awesome i was loving that oh my gosh

[Colin Cowherd]

and we still like sga it's just wemby's different

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[Andrew Janocko]

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[Colin Cowherd]

a live lab where users post instant reviews of the latest trends download tiktok and check it out

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