Podcast
The Sporting Tribune Today
Hosted by The Arash Markazi Show · EN
Welcome to The Sporting Tribune Today hosted by Arash Markazi, and Grant Mona. Markazi spent over 15 years as a sports columnist at the Los Angeles Times, ESPN and Sports Illustrated. The podcast will be published Monday-Friday and will focus on the biggest sports stories in Southern California, Las Vegas and Hawaii.
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Episodes
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Why the Lakers' Record $12.5 Billion Deal Raises Questions
5d ago00:49:19Tap to summarizeThe Los Angeles Lakers are changing hands again. Just 14 months after Mark Walter agreed to purchase the franchise at a $10 billion valuation, Josh Kushner and former Disney CEO Bob Iger have reached an agreement to buy the Lakers for a record $12.5 billion. Grant Mona and John Browner examine the timing of the stunning sale, why Walter would move on from an appreciating asset so quickly and why the franchise apparently never reached the open market. Could another group have offered more? Why did Kushner and Iger pivot from pursuing an NBA expansion team in Las Vegas to buying a franchise that nobody knew was available? The conversation also covers the federal and SEC scrutiny surrounding Walter’s business empire, Kushner’s previous sports investments and the potential questions created by Iger’s longstanding connection to Disney, ABC and ESPN. Grant and John also wonder why Magic Johnson apparently wasn't given an opportunity to assemble a group, compare the private sale to the Lakers’ acquisition of Luka Dončić and discuss why the NBA will face pressure to examine every part of the proposed transaction before approving it. Finally, John explains his theory about how the Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard investigation could affect the attention surrounding the Lakers’ ownership change. This episode includes commentary and speculation based on publicly reported information. Mark Walter hasn't been charged with wrongdoing, and the proposed Lakers sale remains subject to NBA approval. The Sporting Tribune Today airs on KIRN 670 AM in Southern California, The BET in Las Vegas and Hawaii Sports Radio Network. Directed & Produced by: Grant Mona Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcribe →Rams Camp Concerns, the Raiders’ QB Plan and Kawhi Trade Clues
6d ago00:49:11Tap to summarizeGrant Mona and Arash Markazi reunite for a throwback edition of The Sporting Tribune Today, covering the biggest questions surrounding Southern California and Las Vegas sports. Arash shares his firsthand observations from the Rams’ joint practice with the Dallas Cowboys in Woodland Hills, including the secrecy surrounding the session, Puka Nacua’s injury scare, Myles Garrett’s lingering knee swelling and Stetson Bennett’s difficult performance. With Matthew Stafford entering another championship-or-bust season, do the Rams have a backup quarterback they can trust? The conversation then moves to Las Vegas, where veteran Kirk Cousins enters preseason as the Raiders’ starting quarterback ahead of No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza. Grant and Arash discuss why Mendoza may benefit from waiting, what could force the Raiders to play him and how much progress would make Klint Kubiak’s first season a success. They also examine the Chargers’ ceiling, whether Mike McDaniel can unlock the best version of Justin Herbert and why regular-season success will no longer be enough for Jim Harbaugh’s team. On the NBA side, Grant and Arash react to the opening-week and Christmas schedules, LeBron James returning to Los Angeles as a member of the Philadelphia 76ers and the start of the Luka Dončić era with the Lakers. Grant believes the rebuilt Lakers can finish as high as third in the Western Conference, while Arash questions whether the roster has a true championship ceiling. Finally, the latest Kawhi Leonard clues lead back to the stalled Clippers-Raptors trade. Kawhi has continued appearing around Toronto, while another curious image from the Clippers’ facility has Grant wondering if both sides are already preparing for the deal to be completed. The Sporting Tribune Today airs on KIRN 670 AM in Southern California, The BET in Las Vegas and Hawaii Sports Radio Network. Directed & Produced by: Grant Mona Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcribe →Aaron Donald’s Rams Return, Kawhi Trade Chaos and Tarik Skubal’s Dodgers Arrival
1w ago00:49:04Tap to summarizeGrant Mona is joined by Arash Markazi, John Browner and Josh Tariff for a packed edition of The Sporting Tribune Today. The crew breaks down Aaron Donald’s latest workouts with the Rams and whether the future Hall of Famer is really preparing to come out of retirement. They also debate what Donald could add to an already loaded defense featuring Myles Garrett and whether the Rams should be viewed as clear Super Bowl favorites. Then, the conversation turns to the investigation surrounding Kawhi Leonard and the stalled trade that would send him to the Toronto Raptors for Brandon Ingram. Could Leonard end up back with the Los Angeles Clippers? What happens to the trade if the investigation stretches into training camp? The panel looks at the difficult decisions facing both organizations and why Clippers fans may quickly welcome Leonard back if he remains in Los Angeles. Arash also discusses the excitement surrounding Tarik Skubal after the reigning back-to-back Cy Young Award winner joined the Dodgers, while Grant explains why he isn't ready to panic over the team’s recent struggles. The Sporting Tribune Today airs on KIRN 670 AM in Southern California, The BET in Las Vegas and Hawaii Sports Radio Network. Directed and Produced by: Grant Mona Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcribe →Aaron Donald Hits the Transaction Wire, John Snaps on the $250 Pistons Tryout & the Tua Intervention
2w ago00:48:20Tap to summarizeGrant, John Browner and Beav open with the worst-kept secret in football getting one step less secret: a defensive tackle named Aaron Donald, out of Pittsburgh, officially appeared on the NFL's workout transaction wire for the Los Angeles Rams. John torches the Adam Schefter drip campaign — tweet by tweet, "he just wanted to feel a helmet on" — while Beav shares what he's been saying all along: Donald's been in that facility more than anyone realizes, he won't play Week 1, and the Rams will save him from himself with a plan built for January. Add Sean McVay's all-time terrible poker face ("best workout I've ever seen — I hope the kid makes the team") and the crew agrees on the Calvin Johnson-Barry Sanders theory of why he left, and why he stayed ready. Then the rounds: Stefon Diggs to the Commanders and why it doesn't move the needle for Jayden Daniels, real concern for Brandon Aiyuk — Beav says take his mental health seriously — the Odell-Malik Nabers workout video that should terrify Giants fans, and the Giants as "the most unbuttoned organization" in football. The show turns serious on Tua in Atlanta: John makes the full case that the commissioner should step in, guarantee the money, and end it, and Beav backs it with his own concussion story. Then it swings all the way back: Justin Herbert got engaged, and the great LOVE debate erupts — Beav wants no-love, hate-home Tom Brady; John defends work-life balance with a full roster of romance rules. And in the post-show, John absolutely snaps on the Detroit Pistons' G League affiliate charging $250 for open tryouts — the shorts, the socks, jersey number 182 — before Beav declares for the Windy City Bulls and drops the note Clippers fans have been waiting on: the Kawhi train is stopping everybody, and Peyton Watson is still coming. New episodes drop nightly. Follow the crew on X. Directed & Produced by: Grant Mona Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcribe →The 49ers' Substation Curse Claims 9 More, the Nuggets Are Wasting Peak Jokic & Dodgers Panic Season
2w ago00:50:47Tap to summarizeIt's a two-man Tuesday — Grant and John Browner — and it ends in the funniest place in football: the 49ers' training camp, which sits next to an electrical substation and has produced nine injuries in five practices. Mike Evans' quad, Ricky Pearsall done for the year, hamstrings and calves and ribs everywhere — and the internet has responded by drawing the substation bigger, and more evil, with every new pull. John's verdict is harsher than the meme: the Niners are cheap, the practice field looks like a prison yard, and — in the night's instant classic — children are like sponges: you can only squeeze out what you pour in. Before the curse: a Dodgers panic check. They're 13-15 since July 1, swept by the Red Sox, dropped a series to the Cubs — and still up big, with Skubal's six-inning debut wasted by zero run support. John's message to the freak-out crowd: look at the division lead, this is September spring training, and the Phantom IL is working as intended. Plus the Padres winning John back exactly as promised on his own show, the Rutschman-to-Boston deal that shames the Skubal package, and a wide-open AL where the Rays have the best record and nobody can name the favorite. Then the NBA block: why the Spurs standing pat is the smartest move of the summer (Dylan Harper starts, Castle is 6-8 now, and the Harper-Castle war for a $400M contract is coming), John's prediction that De'Aaron Fox leaves on the first thing smoking, and a full teardown of the Nuggets wasting peak Jokic — cap hell, the homegrown-love disease, and the Jamal Murray trade to New Orleans that John would make tonight. New episodes drop nightly. Follow the crew on X. Directed & Produced by: Grant Mona Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcribe →Skubal Is a Dodger, the Padres Go Shopping & Did Myles Garrett Pull Aaron Donald Back
2w ago00:48:00Tap to summarizeHours after the trade deadline, Grant, John Browner and E Lamb sort through a changed baseball world. Tarik Skubal is a Dodger — a two-time Cy Young winner joining the two-time reigning MVP — and E Lamb answers as fan and journalist at once: he loves it, and he's also putting on the conspiracy hat, arguing the league is letting the Dodgers stack talent to guarantee the hard cap it wants. John isn't buying it: the lockout was coming regardless, Skubal told the world he wanted LA, and no team was giving up a real haul for a two-month rental. From there it's the fight underneath every deadline move — John's case that a cap is really about raising the floor (more teams sit under the projected floor than over the cap), E Lamb's "get your weight up or sell" capitalism sermon, and a genuinely great disagreement about what failure means: E Lamb doesn't celebrate second place, John explains why a Padres playoff berth is the greatest run the city has ever had, and Grant gets caught in the Clippers-fan crossfire. Then the NFL hypotheticals: should a six-months-post-ACL Patrick Mahomes really start Week 1, how many Kirk Cousins starts before sitting No. 1 pick Fernando Mendoza becomes malpractice (John: zero — play him against the shambolic Dolphins immediately; E Lamb: sitting is how you save a quarterback), and what it says about Minnesota if Kyler Murray beats out JJ McCarthy. The post-show goes to the uncomfortable place: John and E Lamb on why JJ McCarthy went that high while Shedeur Sanders fell to the sixth — "we don't have to talk in code." And E Lamb closes with real beat intel: if Aaron Donald returns it happens before the Australia trip, the Myles Garrett trade had — said with confidence — a significant influence on him contemplating it, and don't rule out Vita Vea joining him. New episodes drop nightly. Follow the crew on X. Directed & Produced by: Grant Mona Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcribe →The Kawhi Trade Might Happen in 2027, Luka Flies the Whole Team to Slovenia & Deebo's Back in Red
3w ago00:48:49Tap to summarizeFive deep tonight — Grant, Tim Parker, David Bloom, Mykell Mathieu and E Lamb — and the Clippers news is grim. Baxter Holmes of ESPN reports the Aspiration investigation could bleed into 2027, and Grant has had it: as he puts it, it's the year 2085, Bronny James Jr. the Second is in the league, and the investigation still isn't concluded. He torches the recycled reporting cycle — everyone re-breaking that the Raptors don't want the penalties, which the show covered three weeks ago — while E Lamb plays the adult in the room and lays out the actual endgame nobody else is explaining: findings, the Clippers' right to push back, then arbitration or court. His warning from July 4 stands — the longer this lingers, the worse it gets — and if it isn't concluded by the trade deadline, there is no trade. Mykell just feels bad for Toronto, where Kawhi was supposed to retire, and for Brandon Ingram, stuck on a team that already tried to ship him out. Before the doom: Luka Doncic is flying the ENTIRE Lakers roster to Slovenia on his own dime for a four-day August mini-camp, and the panel splits on what it means — Mykell calls it everything the last era never gave the fans, E Lamb contrasts it with a certain someone working out in another team's facility, Tim (crediting the "vanilla Lakers") says team bonding doesn't move a seed, and the crew fights over what year one of solo Luka has to look like: Western Conference Finals or bust? Plus Deebo Samuel returns to the Niners with Ricky Pearsall likely out long-term, Tim declares the Niners cooked while Grant — the self-described biggest Niners hater alive — explains why the cockroach always survives, and E Lamb announces the TST Fantasy Football League. New episodes drop nightly. Follow the crew on X. Directed & Produced by: Grant Mona Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcribe →LeBron Is a Sixer: Philly Euphoria and a Third Company Enters the Kawhi Mess
3w ago00:48:42Tap to summarizeGrant, John Browner and Tim Parker finally get to the biggest story of the offseason — and they could not disagree more. Tim has never been happier to be wrong: he had LeBron going to Cleveland, then Golden State or Miami, and instead he got the biggest thing in Philadelphia sports history. Xfinity Mobile Arena is MSG now, Broad Street is Broadway, and anybody who lived through the process — Ish Smith, Evan Turner, Thad Young, Henry Sims — has earned this. John pours cold water: he's 42, the best player on the roster is Jaylen Brown, and nobody on that team knows this offense yet. Then John opens the curtain on something fans never see — what an NBA practice actually looks like after training camp ends, why teams won't let you watch it, and why LeBron will not take a full practice rep all season. From there it's a full autopsy of the fit: does Tyrese Maxey get unleashed or buried at number three on the call sheet, is this 1988 Magic or 1991 Magic, and the one argument that finally scares Tim — every champion is a top-12 defense, and this team can't guard anybody. Plus Tim's line in the sand ("no Eastern Conference Finals and LeBron feels a wrath he hasn't felt since The Decision"), the East hierarchy sorted into regular-season good versus playoff good, Charlotte as the dark horse, and the Anthony Simons war that will not die. Before the break, a Kawhi update: a third company has entered the Aspiration investigation, ESPN reports it could bleed into 2027, and John explains why — the league isn't investigating anymore, it's negotiating the punishment behind closed doors. John opens the show with a tribute to his friend and former 1090 colleague Billy Ray Smith Jr., who died Wednesday at 64. The post-show takes on WNBA All-Star weekend, where the off-court coverage swallowed the basketball, and closes with news: the TST Podcast Network is officially happening. New episodes drop nightly. Follow the crew and catch the post-show on X. Directed & Produced by: Grant Mona Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcribe →E Lamb's Rams Camp Report: Stafford for Back-to-Back MVPs? + Full NFL Division Preview
3w ago00:49:04Tap to summarizeThe wait is over: LeBron James is a Philadelphia 76er — reportedly for peanuts — and the crew (Grant, John Browner, Beav and E Lamb) spends the night sorting through the wreckage. The biggest casualty? Golden State. Grant cooks on the Warriors wasting Steph Curry's last prime years: the roster of exploded knees and 39-year-olds, the front-office exit that says everything, and the report that they're already "building for the next era." So the GM war room opens: do you do the unthinkable and trade Steph? John's play — you don't take calls, you MAKE them: San Antonio, four firsts, and take the De'Aaron Fox contract off their neck. Beav pitches Orlando and a Houston KD reunion; Charlotte with Kon Knueppel gets a "little Klay" nod. Before all that, E Lamb files a live report from Rams camp at LMU: Matthew Stafford looks like a back-to-back MVP candidate, Puka Nacua made a one-handed catch right in front of him, rookie CJ Daniels turned every head at practice, and Konata Mumpfield is "baby DeVonta." Plus the full training-camp tour: the Jalen Hurts identity-crisis debate returns, E Lamb sends Jacksonville to the AFC Championship, the crew rules on Travis Hunter's future (full-time corner, Canton-level ceiling), John is officially over Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen gets the Jim Kelly treatment, and the Mahomes-isn't-bouncing-back theory built entirely on Travis Kelce's decline. New episodes drop nightly. Follow the crew and catch the post-show on X. Directed & Produced by: Grant Mona Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcribe →MLB's Lockout Doomsday & NBA Contract Controversy
4w ago00:47:26Tap to summarizeGrant Mona, John Browner and Tim Parker close out the week with a show that gets realer as it goes. John opens the vault on the Kawhi investigation: he thinks it's already done, the league is sitting on it, and the punishment lands soft — 10 to 15 games, Uncle Dennis takes the fall, and Kawhi's cooking by Christmas anyway. Before that, it's MLB doomsday prep: the August 3 trade deadline is a mirage (the Dodgers' IL is their trade deadline), John wants to see how big the monster can get with a Tarek Skubal heist before the salary cap lands, and his research says the lockout math is brutal — sixteen teams under the projected spending floor, six over the cap, and in John's words, there will be NO season at all. The fix? The union should learn from the Savannah Bananas and the 2011 NBA lockout, when Rucker Park and the Drew League kept the players untouchable. Then the post-show goes nuclear: the Rich Paul roast — the daily pod, the economy-flight bit, Grant's courtside story about seeing him in the same outfit as that morning's episode — and John's instant-classic rant on millionaires crying broke. The $5M-isn't-a-lot discourse, the JJ Redick quote, the Nas line, and why Bam Adebayo and Giannis never talk like this. The ticket takers don't care about your tax bracket. New episodes drop nightly. Follow the crew and catch the post-show on X. Directed & Produced by: Grant Mona Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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