LeBron Retiring? Plus Max Kellerman

the ending Poland show got to go after this everything we got bigger than a come with everything they got started on by saying on board and broken up by the ending Poland show on ESPN 6 30 starts right now and I may be a little bit scratchy today I'll explain that in a second we're going three hours Tony's off today so we're on till noon talk of course about the sweep by the Denver Nuggets last night with another sweep possibility tonight we'll see if Miami can finish it off and boy it'd be a long haul till the finals because they don't start until next Thursday so you're talking an over a week off for at least the Nuggets and possibly for the Miami Heat tonight we'll see what happens there also we'll talk about the sale of the commanders I don't think there's any surprise what came out of the owners meetings yesterday we knew there was not going to be a vote taken there was not and Jim Ayers say made some comments Jerry Jones made some comments and reading between the lines it seems to be well we still have to vet all these partners that are coming along but we expect this to get done and likely it's gonna work out the same way it did last year with Denver they'll have a special meeting in August July whenever it is and certainly the season will not start with Dan Snyder as the owner so we'll get to all of that and more Max Kellerman will join me at 10 20 as he does most Tuesdays and one of the things I want to ask Max about with Boston now facing 03 and the only team in baseball to have ever come back from 03 was Boston who beat the beloved Max Kellerman New York Yankees I want to ask him you know what that was like as a fan watching your team now the Yankees have had a lot of success and if you're in that situation in the championship series many times the odds are you may face that situation but they are the only team to blow a 3-0 lead and I'll ask him if you were a fan of the Miami Heat could there be any empathy with New York Yankee fans who saw that lead evaporate I think it was 2004 2003 was the Aaron Boone home run that beat the Red Sox and I think 04 was the year that the Yankees imploded after the after the 3-0 lead in the series but before I get to all of that let me tell you why my voice is a little scratchy last night I went to Tom Laverro's annual I think it's called cigars and curveballs and he has it at Shelley's Backroom which is right downtown 13th and F and it's a place where you can go and smoke cigars and have dinner there was a time when I would smoke a cigar to a year I don't really like cigars I don't like the way it makes my mouth taste after it's over so last year I probably smoked my last one when you go on the door for this fundraiser and you pay some money to go in there's appetizers and there's a you know a bunch of people that you know including Mike Rizzo because Tom always scheduled this on a day off for the Nats and last year Davy Martinez was there as well so you get to schmooze with with those guys and other guys from around town some people in my industry some people who are fans of sports radio and people have worked in television and things like that and newspapers and so forth so we sat around schmooze raised some money and had an auction they auctioned off a bunch of stuff including a Mark Mosley signed jersey at Joja Kobe signed jersey some books and they even auctioned off Tom and Kevin's podcast where people could sit in I think that raised close to a thousand dollars so it was great event this is a great thing that Tom does he does it for the DC Grace it's a wooden bat baseball team that's they they have this every summer it's called the Cal Ripken League and there are a bunch of teams from the area there's the big train which has been around for a long time they play a Shirley Povich field in Bethesda it's a wonderful place to spend a summer evening they play just June and July they're college baseball players who play their sport with a with an aluminum bat but in the summer they play with wooden bats and some of them go on to the major leagues and there've been some well-known players for the Grays over the years including Dusty Baker son who's now in the Nat system and and you know it's just a great great thing for baseball in DC not just the Nat's but to grow the game it's the participation by kids in the District of Columbia is very low and the Nationals are attempting to do something about that and they've been very supportive of Tom's event they've been supportive of the DC Grays and and I think for the whole whole area it's it's really meaningful for baseball to matter again in Washington DC so that was that was really nice and that's why my voice is scratchy I had to talk really loud because there were a lot of people there Tom did a great job of bringing people out so there's a lot of noise a lot of yacking and when you're talking with some people you got to make yourself heard and you wind up with the scratchy voice but I did make it home in time to see the end of the game last night and I get to that in a second but one other quick thing here Rex Mintern is here today and last Friday was ride your bike to work day and there was a time when I worked in the afternoon and it worked for me ride your bike to work day is is set up throughout the DC area and they have various pit stops where on your way to work you can stop and get some refreshments they give you a t-shirt when you register and I really enjoy the whole the whole thing I get to you know talk with other bikers at the pit stops and so I take the day off now that I work in the morning because the pit stops don't open until seven o'clock and just wouldn't work for me to ride to work so I took the day off and I went on a ride so about I don't know 10 30 11 o'clock I'm on Old Georgetown Road not far from NIH and I'm practicing good safety habits I'm at the stop light waiting for the walk signal to go so that I can get on my bike and continue my ride and turning left is Rex in his car and he yells out and I give him a old man wave you know like that and he goes on his way and and I get home and I see a text from him and I will read you the text verbatim as he wrote it to me last Friday he said you're far from home which was true I live in Germantown so I'm in Bethesda at that point it's another what 15 miles or so and yes I was in fact far from home but between the lines is the message hey old man you might drop dead on your way home that's a long way for you to be riding and I texted back when I got home on my way back from Georgetown I'm old but I'm not dead now a year out of college if I saw somebody my age on a bicycle knowing how far he was from home I might have the same reaction was am I accurate in depicting how you felt when you saw me on Old Georgetown Road I almost crashed I was shocked yeah right but I was impressed yeah well yeah I mean again it's it's use it or lose it so as you get older if if you're not you know doing things that they keep you active it's it's gonna fade away it it is it's so yeah I've I really have enjoyed biking guys as you know I had a pretty bad accident about four years ago but I'm fully recovered from that I always wear a helmet I wore helmet that day and that saved my life and I try to be as safe as I can but I really enjoy the whole experience of riding and it's a beautiful ride the one thing about riding to Georgetown on a weekday Friday as opposed to like a Saturday or Sunday the Crescent Trail which goes from downtown Bethesda right to the waterfront in Georgetown I think it's about eight miles if you get on that like nine o'clock on a Saturday or Sunday morning forget it it's like the LA freeway I can imagine yeah it's just it's just packed with people and and to be able to do this on a weekday was nice and the weather was perfect it wasn't it wasn't anywhere near hot and was cloudy which is good so the sun's not beating down on you and and a good time so so let that be a lesson to you as you get older keep doing what you're doing otherwise you're gonna wind up in what most young people think you should be doing sitting in a rocking chair watching TV which which I am not quite ready to do so so I ride along and encourage everybody to and I you know sometimes I see people out on the trail that are much older than me and I'm always impressed by that and you know my goal is my granddaughters actually turning ten months old today so my goal is to go on a long ride with her someday and so I got a figure that's gonna be another maybe 12 13 years something like that before she could you know ride of any distance I'll get her tricycle ride around the neighborhood a little bit but yeah that's what I'm that's what I'm shooting for all right let's get to the game last night LeBron you know gave it all he had especially in the first half he had 31 points he gave the Lakers 40 but he only had nine in the second half and they had the ball with four seconds to go down to everybody in the arena knew that LeBron was gonna get the ball and he drove to the basket and he really didn't even get the shot off right right he didn't eat you was the long bird grabbed it yeah just just put his arms around the ball Murray really you know Murray for him didn't have a great game he he had 25 points but he disappeared in the fourth quarter he really did not have a big scoring fourth quarter when they you know we're looking to put it away but that was a huge defensive play at the end of the game and LeBron now is swept out of the finals I will get to his reaction in a moment because this is what I think everybody's talking about today who is he gonna retire is he gonna retire I'll have thoughts on that in a second but this is Mike Malone who until you know a month ago was virtually unknown by people who are casual fans of the NBA he said at the all-star game and he was a hundred percent right he said it's a disgrace what what this is now this is not basketball that they're playing so good for him but he gets his team in and and the world is now recognizing Nicole the yokech who actually won two MVPs and didn't win it this year you know it's ironic that the year he doesn't win the MVP that Joel and Bead wins it the people started to notice like hey this guy's really good and he's averaged a triple double throughout the playoffs did it again last night 30 points 13 assists 14 rebounds a spectacular player just doesn't really look the part you know kind of doughy but he's seven feet tall he can handle the ball he can shoot the ball and he got off a couple of shots at the at the at the shot clock buzzer which were just terrific last night and so Mike Malone now can can revel in the fact that for the first time since the Nuggets joined the NBA in 1976 from the ABA where they were coming off losing in the finals I believe it was the New York Nets that won in in 76 he's now got his team in the NBA finals it's a surreal moment first Western Conference Championship in Nuggets history and I could not be more proud to represent the Nuggets great players on our team high character and this is for all of our fans back in Denver and we're not satisfied I think that's one message that's coming out of a locker room right now there wasn't a big celebration back there we understand that we're heading to the NBA finals and we have four more games to try to win we've heard that messaging from you since since game one of this series it's been a bit of a countdown and now we've heard you say now it is four more wins how have you gotten this group of players to buy into that mentality well started back in September and October you know we went to San Diego for training camp and our goal this year wasn't just to win the Western Conference Championship our goal was to win the first finals championship and then and nuggets history and something that we talked about all season long middle of December we wind up taking over first place in the West held on throughout and I think the Minnesota series the Phoenix series and now this Western Conference finals against the Lakers first sweep in nuggets history as well our guys have believed along the whole the whole journey that we've been on but as I mentioned our players are hungry they're not satisfied and they understand whether it's Miami or Boston we have much more work to do coach we've all known for a while now how great Nico Leo can choose Jamal Murray now healthy we know what he was capable of he's back to that level talk about the acquisitions that you have made here over the last couple of years to round out this team when you bring in an Aaron Gordon and a KCP and a Bruce Brown this year who was vital to your team just talk about that process and what you guys need it and the way you addressed it by rounding out this team and adding those players well I think it's a really important point you know nobody can win a championship by themselves and we understand how great Nicole is a two-time MVP averaging a triple double in these playoffs after three rounds which is just insane we know about Jamal's resurgence coming back from the ACL injury but you know Michael Porter coming back from an injury just as important and you mentioned the acquisition of a KCP you mentioned the free agent signing of a Bruce Brown you got to give a lot of credit to our front office Calvin Booth took over for Tim Conley I've had the pleasure and you know to work with tremendous front office people who have made sure we added the right players to the puzzle it's not just about talent talent is a given in this business it's all about character and identifying guys that are gonna buy into our system our best player is completely selfless a huge part of our culture and we have a lot of guys stepping up this is not just on one player and coach I want to quickly ask you about that best player that selfless player as you call it this is a scary proposition for the rest of the league but makes Denver fans giddy everywhere at 28 years old a triple double machine how much better can Nicole Yokich be well you know what he he challenges himself to get better every all season like all the great players in the past he never wants to come back as the same player his IQ is off the charts his greatest skill is to make everyone around him better he steps up in big big moments he's a clutch player but what I see the the main areas that he continues to grow in is his leadership and his voice and when he takes over a huddle or he speaks up in a locker room or a film session the impact is just tremendous on our entire group and that's the area where I think the call has grown the most getting comfortable with his voice and the leadership role that he has to have with this team because everybody listens to him everybody loves him and everybody respects him he's he's an unbelievable player and he's going to be on center stage but he'll have to wait a week more than a week as the finals don't start until June the 1st there are three X wizards who are going to the finals with the Denver Nuggets let's see how good Rex is can you name all three Thomas Bryant mm-hmm KCP yep there's a third this is a tough one he was he's been around the league he is his boss is Smith is Smith yeah who's I think been with thirteen teams at maybe fourteen has he set the record yeah and I don't think he's ever been in the finals before so that's nice for him he didn't play last night and Bryant didn't play either but but there will be some wizards representation in that and and you know cadavers Caldwell Pope he's he's a starter for them I don't know why the hell it didn't work out here you see here what two years ago and it played wizards asking to do too much I guess I mean but he's he's working out fine with them he gave him he gave him 40 minutes last night and 13 points you only had one assists but yeah I mean you know it's odd when you have a big man like a Nicola Yokech who's handing out that many assists so you know guard is who only has you know one assists in the game you know you have to look at that in a different way you know Jamal Murray also had only five assists last night so it's just a different you know the way that basketball was traditionally played when we were growing up I mean people who were older is so different than it is now you know well I mean Will Chamberlain just just to prove a point one year led the league in assists but that was very unusual you know usually it was it was a guard that did it and now you know it can be a big man it just just the way the game is played I want to spend some time on LeBron and and what he said at the end of his news conference last night so we'll get to that next also the NFL and the greed it's just beyond belief we'll talk about that and more as we continue it's the Andy Poland show ESPN 630 the Andy Poland show on ESPN 630 the sports capital great for Tony so roll until noon today Max Kellerman in an hour you hear him every morning here on ESPN 630 with Gishan and J will this is getting a lot of the play from last night and it it kind of tells you where LeBron is on the landscape the story is the Denver Nuggets getting to the finals for the first time it should be anyway but really the story is what now LeBron what's going to happen getting swept out the third time in his career that he has been swept in a series and he's 38 years old and it's it's been assumed that he's going to spend one more year playing for the Lakers as his son goes to USC and wherever Bronnie goes the year after next is where LeBron is going to go well as the news conference wrapped up last night after he had given what he had and and and did not get off the final shot in the two-point loss and the sweep he sounded like he was you know leaning in the direction of at least thinking about retirement and this is how that last question went last night obviously all-time scoring record another season where you essentially defeat father time again on a personal level how would you evaluate the season that you had I don't know I'm I let it play the game I let it compete I let it be out there for my guys my teammates wherever I have that particularly here I think it was special in a in the fact that having a first year coaching first year coaching staff to be able to take you know take them to the West Recompany finals I think that's dope for coach ham and his coach staff going forward it's pretty amazing for me I mean I just you know it's all about availability for me and keeping my my sharp and things of that nature being president of the floor being president you know locker room and bus rides and playing rides things of that nature just challenging challenging you know for short it was a very challenging season you know for me you know for our for our ball club obviously you know we know we went on early on or whatever case may be but it was a pretty cool pretty cool ride but I don't know I don't know I don't know I think it's okay I don't I'm like to say as a successful year because I don't play for anything besides winning championships at this point in my career and I don't I don't get a kick out of making a conference appearance I've done it a lot and it's not fun to me to not be able to be able to be a part of you know get to the finals but the way it's it let's see what happens going forward I don't know I don't know I got a lot to think about to be honest I got a lot to think about to be honest and just for me personally going going forward the game of basketball I got a lot to think about he was asked after the news conference he was asked when when you say you've got a lot to think about what thread should we be pulling on that and LeBron said if I want to continue to play as in next year yeah you would walk away I got to think about it now realize this is 10 minutes 15 minutes after he's just been swept out of the Western Conference finals so he hasn't really had time to reflect on this he's really down I think he came into this game especially the way he played in the first half that ain't no way his team was going to be swept and they were and so now he's he's got a contemplate an off season where he's got the finals that he's not going to be involved in and you know this is again all raw nerves right after the game week from now it it may be different he may be thinking in a different direction here is what's on the table if he plays next year he's got one year left on his contract with the Lakers and then there's a player option so that allows him you know if he wants to go play with Brony he can opt out in the final year but next year he's due 46.7 million dollars and 50.4 million the following year she's almost a hundred million dollars on the table over the next two years and he's made a lot of money you know it's like when when Jerry Seinfeld was asked why he didn't do one more season of Seinfeld when he could have made another a hundred million dollars he said well I had made some money before and LeBron has and he may even be a billionaire with all of his investments and all of his companies but the question is what's going to happen next now it's been assumed that he wants to play with Brony he said that he said that's my goal I want to play with my son but he's kind of backpedaled with that a little bit he was asked in February as he was passing cream of duels or bars the all-time score you know what what is he what does he have left to accomplish and he said I got to play with my boy but recently he said I've done what I've had to do in this league and my son is going to take his journey and whatever his journey however his journey lays out he's going to do what's best for him and as his dad and his mom Savannah his brother and sister we're going to support him and whatever he decides to do so just because that's my aspiration or my goal it doesn't mean it's his and I'm absolutely okay with that you know maybe Brony has said to him you know there's a lot of pressure here dad you know I got to go to USC as a freshman and I got to perform well enough that I'm going to be taken in the NBA draft because everybody assumes that that's the plan and maybe he wants to release a little bit of pressure on him the other thing that's a possibility is that he could sit out next year he could not play go to the LeBron James or Brony's Brony's I guess he's LeBron James Junior Brony's games and and and watch him play and then just wait for the draft and wherever Brony winds up sign with that team you know and and play one more like ceremonial year I guess he would you would go for the championship but the reality of what the Lakers are facing right now is I don't know how much of this team they can even bring back and and how much they're going to be able to add to it with the money that they're going to be due to pay LeBron plus Anthony Davis Austin Reeves is a free agent you're gonna have to pay some money to bring him back D'Angelo Russell well he was a big disappointment so he's gone he's off the books things like that but in order to add another piece to make him title worthy and and that's what he says he's he's playing for you just heard him say it's not playing just to get to the conference finals he's he's playing for championships does he want to go through that next year probably miss some of Brony's games you know the leverage that he has with the Lakers he can just tell him I'm not playing tonight because Brony's got a game even if it's on the road he'll just fly there he's got all those things at his option but that that would be something that I think would be something he would consider he would consider doing that and you know maybe that's that's the best way for him to to go out he said you know he's dealing with a lot of injuries he's got a foot problem that's I think it's ligament and he managed to play through it he said he heard it pop against Dallas on February 26th he saw a bunch of professionals some recommended surgeries he finally found somebody who he described as the LeBron James of feet and he was assured that he could rehabilitate and get back on the court which he did but he's still facing the possibility of off-season surgery which I think you could have so you know even at you see 38 so even if he plays one more year at 39 and you got this you know cool traveling show with LeBron and Brony I think that might be might be fun from now he asked to also weigh the the idea of ending his career with four titles you know if you want to get into the all-time greats conversation they kind of weigh that you know Jordan had six Kobe had five you know is he is he going to want to have that fifth championship that much I don't know but but again because of the the way the Lakers are hamstrung here it seems unlikely that they can put together a championship team next year and you just heard LeBron say that's really all he's playing for at this point so retirement I think is is not going to happen but it's it's it's interesting to hear him at least entertain that notion and the old Bill Parcels pal Parcel's line is if you're thinking about retirement you're retired that's more for football but you know maybe maybe after 20 years realize it's 20 years since LeBron came into the NBA 2003 so a year off and one more it might make some sense coming up next hour we'll get to more on the sale of the commanders what Jim Erase said what Jerry Jones said all that is we continue with the Andy Poland show ESPN 630 the Andy Poland show we got to go after this everything we got bigger they're gonna come with everything they got started our by saying I'm bored I'm broken I'm back the Andy Poland show on ESPN 630 starts right now sometimes this is the halfway point and sometimes we're only a third through the show like today Tony's off so we're going till noon Max Kellerman coming up in 20 minutes the NFL owners had their meetings yesterday in let me pronounce the name of this town it's EAGAN I guess it's Eagan Minnesota which isn't far from where the Minnesota Vikings have their headquarters and so forth I don't know why they chose that it's I guess it's middle of the country right Midwest so good place to have it convenient for everybody to fly in their private jets you know you know you don't have to worry about connecting flights if you're an owner but they got together there Tanya Snyder not there Dan Snyder not there he's apparently checked out Jason Wright represented the team and they did not take a vote and we did not expect them to take a vote on the deal that's in place deal that reached in principal with the Josh Harris group and the question is how soon is this going to get done I don't think I mean it would be absolutely shocking if the commanders open up the season and Dan Snyder is still the owner I just cannot imagine this and there's no other deal on the table now Brian Davis the former Duke player popped his head out of the ground with some cockamamie lawsuit yesterday claiming he's got a seven billion dollar offer to buy the team which is just absolute nonsense so he's he may be coming up the works a little bit they're gonna have to just you know slide this mess out of the way eventually but the owners right now are considering this this Josh Harris group which again as Seth Wickersham reported last week at ESPN if the owners weren't so anxious to get Dan Snyder out the door this wouldn't be approved part of it is that they have so many partners there's there's 17 minority partners in this and traditionally you know owners have you know one or two partners Snyder at one point had three other partners which he eventually bought out and and and I think led to this because that the fact that he had to pay off the debt waiver by 2028 is I think a big reason that this sale is actually happening but it's not happening just yet the hope that this could be done and approved at the owners meetings yesterday is is obviously not going to happen it could happen later this summer the one one guy who's been the most outspoken about this is to say the owner of the Colts who said back in October that there is merit to remove Dan Snyder as the owner and that got a lot of people up in arms including Snyder who released a statement who said oh you know once Jim finds out the facts here he's going to realize that that's a big mistake well it's it's not he's they're finally getting the Snyder's out the door which is a a good thing and something that has to happen but it's not going to happen yet this was here say yesterday this deals been put together and I think you know all three parties the league and the Harris group and you know the commanders they they want to see this deal get done it's just you know being on the finance committee and being representing the ownership you know there's certain criteria that has to be met I mean I mean that's just the way it is you know and and it's not there you know but it doesn't mean that it can't get there it's it's you know it's it's it's complicated put it that way you know I could explain it you wouldn't tell you anything because you would say what did you just say you know but um so but you know it's not too complicated to kind of really get to the wake of it make sure you know that we get a deal that you know complies within the league rules and we're trying to do everything we see and to make the deal work no the big hold up is is the amount of money that it's on the debt to 1.1 billion dollars which they're uncomfortable with again the big thing is with the escalation of the values of these teams that the rules they have in place are probably gonna have to be amended they just don't work that well because you're asking somebody on a six billion dollar deal to put down close to two billion in cash nobody has that people have big money they don't have that sitting in their checking account so they have to take on partners they have businesses that are worth a lot of money I mean Josh Harris among other things owns the devils and he owns the 76ers and he's not gonna liquidate that to make this happen it used to be you know the NFL had a rule and this is why Jack Kent Cook when he owned the Lakers and the Kings was not running the Redskins Edward Bennett Williams was the president of the team but I don't know how much ownership he had it was it was Cook's team the problem was at the time the NFL said no no no you you can't water down your ownership you can't have ownership of other teams that has since changed and with that changing that makes Josh Harris a candidate because he does own those other teams he's not planning to sell them in fact he's in the process of building a new arena for his basketball team in Philadelphia or trying to get that through trying to get that approved so that this is not you know what it was back in the in the 80s this is this is a different ball game now now reportedly the finance committee met for about an hour and a half yesterday with Roger Goodell about that and they've raised issues according to the post related to the structure of Harris's deal the committee believes the deal in its current structure is well above the NFL's 1.1 billion dollar debt limit for team acquisitions again that's that's a number that's probably got to be massaged a little bit because it again it doesn't really work as these franchises climb in value to now over six billion dollars Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt the chairman of the committee has vowed to continue to work with the Harris deal according to people familiar with that and that was kind of corroborated yesterday when Jerry Jones spoke to the media well I would anticipate being done is there a timeline at all no I don't have one but there is not I don't want to simplify a lot of people's a lot of work but these are outstanding qualified owners and not just their several handful of qualified owners here certainly the significance we read about are very qualified and that always rules the day with getting structure right and it's too important to important have right structure for them coming in because they'll benefit from the way it's been structured for everybody else and come as structures important be interesting to see what the financing was when Jerry Jones bought the cowboys in 1989 because he paid at that time of believe it was a hundred and eighty nine million dollars and if you've read his accounts of what what he went through he was he was maxed out he was gambling you know he was he was a guy who made his money in in oil and you know that's a gamble as it is where you're drilling you're spending money to drill hoping you're going to find oil but you don't necessarily find it that's when you know you talk about the glory hole that's that's what it is when you see the oil gushing and that's what this this was at the time I mean he was advised oh like hundred and eighty nine million what are you doing well this is the cowboys is the jewel franchise I'm gonna make this work and he was he talked about you know maxing out all of his credit cards there were there were some you know rocky times there but I never heard anything about partners now it's a whole different ballgame so that you can in fact according to lead rules take on as many as 25 partners this is 17 but I guess it's territory that they haven't been through in in a while because the Walton family bought the Broncos last year they don't have to worry about partners in that and and the deal that was made before that was was a third of this it was to something when David Tepper bought the Carolina Panthers and he was able to buy them himself so this it's sort of new territory for him but it shouldn't really be that scary as Harris has said he said that the the partners that he has combined with with his wealth it's worth over a hundred billion dollars it's it's not going to fold so I don't I don't see this as as being anything that should be this much worry about but there I guess trying to fit it in with league rules and and how it all works and you know I guess if if Dan Snyder hadn't been such an embarrassment to the league that they would say to Josh Harris well you know you're really over leveraged here and the way this deal is put together and with this incentive thing that you've worked out with Snyder to get the money over the the six billion dollar mark we're really not comfortable with that so you know come back in a year when you got your financing together but because there is embarrassed by Snyder as we are as fans by what he's done to this organization that they they want to make sure he's out the door and and I think also they're looking at the stadium situation they want to be in Washington DC you know all this this nonsense and reportedly Harris had it in his prospectus to try and attract investors that Virginia is promising a billion and a half for a new stadium I think that's complete nonsense and I think the NFL even if if there were financing available for Virginia they wouldn't want it they want to be in Washington DC when this franchise was a jewel franchise it was in the nation's capital it had a couple of good years at FedEx field but it never really had the home field advantage that they had at at RFK never had that feel never was was anything like that even when they had some pretty good teams there and he wants the league wants and you know once they want to be in DC and the influence that they were having Congress and and and all the other things that go along with being the the monster corporation that they are they want to be in the district of Columbia and and the longer this stretches out that the less chance it happens by the time there leases up at FedEx I still think they're probably gonna wind up staying at least a couple years after that I think it's gonna take a while to get that all done but that would be the goal that happened there I talked about the the flexing of the games that now from weeks 13 through 17 you can flex a Thursday night game flex out and put in one of the Sunday games into that I think that's that's really awful but it's gonna mean more money for the league more more leverage for them with Jeff Bezos who reportedly is paying a billion dollars a year to put those Thursday night games on prime John Mera who's in I'm not really a good guy he's he's he's on that competition committee and he's the one that that led the way for for Washington to get screwed out of a situation where they would have had some salary cap room to to build around Robert Griffin the third and they lost all of that because remember in the uncapped year of 2010 they plowed in the money from D'Angelo Hall and and Albert Hainesworth to to it was an uncapped year and you could do that they were told they could do that and then once I was over the go no you violated so there was a there was a cap penalty and that really hurt them he's not a good guy but he does at least have a little bit of empathy for the fans and he's and he was he said when he was asked about it in March when this was on the table he said the plan was not friend fan friendly and asked about it again yesterday he said I feel the same way and I do 100% this is not this is not good not necessarily for the people who are flexed out of the Thursday night game though they may have to make alternate plans as well like for example this won't happen for the commanders because it doesn't fall in that 13 to 17 week window that that that five week period but the commanders are playing Chicago in week five I have cousins that are Bears fans they're coming in to see this game and you know what if I told them after they've made their their reservations oh yeah it's it's not a it's not a Thursday game anymore they flexed it to Sunday they have a Sunday morning flight back to Chicago that that could happen to some people later in the season because of this and I don't think that's right the owners did ratify a proposal to allow each team to designate an emergency third quarterback on game day they had this for a while and they stopped it and then what happened last year in the playoffs yeah Brock Purdy gets hurt backup gets hurt and here they are I think it was Josh Johnson right Josh Johnson hurt Josh Johnson by the way Josh Johnson signing with the Baltimore Ravens that guys been with everybody and it's his third tour of duty with the Ravens it's unbelievable and it just highlights this and so stop picking on Robert Griffin the third well once again RG3 who said that he was very excited about his talks with the Harris group and and seemed to lead everybody to believe that he was going to be a part of it have you heard his name mentioned you know all these different partners names that are coming up you would think somebody as high profiles he is no nothing it was just him just just trying to insert himself into into the news and so he did this interview yesterday about his TV career and by the way he's going to be a star he's great on TV and I look him and it is as great on TV in the same way I do as Alex Rodriguez great on TV and baseball now Rodriguez had a much better career in baseball than Griffin did obviously and would be in the Hall of Fame were not for the steroids but but but Griffin is as they say fake sincerity about as well as anybody but he's also you know does his homework knows the game and expresses himself very well gives opinions I don't necessarily agree with all his opinions but he said in this interview he says I haven't retired yet at all I tell everyone that asked me the question that I train every day and I'm prepared to play if that call comes I've had some talks with teams over the past two years but nothing has come to fruition I would like to know what the definition of talks is is that hey this is this is RG3 yeah you remember me I was really good and in 2012 and you know not not so good afterwards and I got hurt a lot and I was a backup with Baltimore you remember me yeah I'd like to play let me get your name and number Bob and we'll get back to you that's probably what the talks were all about so so Josh Johnson who's who's the ultimate NFL tumbleweed and in a situation where he needed to stay healthy to give the 49ers any chance to get to the Super Bowl couldn't do it he's he's with Baltimore he's back and RG3 is not so you know enough of that already that he's gonna play again that's that's not gonna happen but now they will have the third quarterback available so when they when they get the players dressed this will be a player who can only play if the other two get hurt he cannot come into the game and once he comes into the game he the other two quarterbacks can't come back in like if you got a player banged up and the backup comes in the third 13 guy comes in the other two can't re-enter the game but it it seems like a no-brainer especially now that you're playing 17 games you know I mean why not and and the owners don't want to do it because it's it's more money it's more their precious dollars they have to spend but I think they need to expand the rosters I think you have to have more players available for every game because it's just it's just a war of attrition and as the season goes on you know we had we had for many years it was 14 games and 14 games seemed about right then they went to 16 and 16 at least was an even number and seemed now there's shoe warning in that 17th game and believe me the 18th game is coming they have the option to do that and they've always been able to get the players to do what they want but just throwing more money at them it's it's sunny corleone with the photographer they breaks the camera and throws down some dollar bills and and it just goes away and that's what's that's what happens here with the NFL so they you know this is the start I think whether they're able to get it through I don't know because they have all the leverage against the players but at some point I think they need to expand the rosters to more than what they have available for every game so what you'd have is the 53 plus one which would be 54 I would think that it might make sense to go to 60 you have the players they're on the practice squad you might as well do it coming up talk to Max Kellerman about a variety of things and also later this hour it was five years ago today that the NFL instituted a national anthem policy which is now completely outdated we'll get to that and more as we continue it's the Eddie Poland show ESPN 630 the Andy Poland show on ESPN 630 the sports capital here Max Kellerman every morning here with Keishan and Jay Will he's on in the afternoon on TV this just in max on boxing and has identified himself as a baseball fan first do I have that correct well my first love as a team sport was baseball yeah that was my first love for a team sport but I like do I actually care about what's happening in baseball outside the Yankees unlike most baseball fans I care about the team I mean yeah well this is actually Yankee specific so you have the fire away okay see yeah you have the you have the Boston Celtics down 3-0 and the one time in baseball that it's happened that a team has blown a 3-0 lead was your beloved Yankees losing to Boston I believe it was it was 2004 and and of your sports lifetime is there a more painful memory than that lead collapsing here's the truth you know I hate to take it this way but you asked me a direct question my brother Sam we're 15 months apart was actually murdered in 2004 and I found out about it I guess it was the ninth inning Mariana Rivera was on the mound Yankees were up three games so nothing you're about to sweep the Red Sox that's when I got the news and I don't remember anything after that I didn't see anything after that yeah yeah so so like as far as I was concerned the Yankees are about to win again you know they're about to move another world series right and you know like that all I could think of after that was Sam at least you didn't have to live through that you know what yeah yeah yeah yeah you find any kind of left you can and in a tragedy like that and I hate to bring you down but that's the truth no I guess it's a more interesting answer than yes it was the most painful sports yeah yeah I yeah obviously your perspective is completely different with what happened but but I wondered too about about the the fans of the Miami Heat now I mean they are they're really doing something that's historic right I had has has there ever been a an eight seed maybe even recent years it's happened I didn't come to mind but has been an eight seed that's actually were an eight yeah the Knicks were an eight seed when they went to the finals which was what the heater trying to do I it wasn't a sweep as I recall but that was the Marcus can be seasoned you know Patrick you right hurt but the the next had a lot of talent that you they actually had the supporting cast Patrick you and needed in the 90s you know in the mid 90s in order to win a championship they finally got it he got hurt and they were beaten by the Spurs but that was the shortened season so it's kind of like it's looked at like the bubble year there's something about you know just kind of a normal season that I think people view differently yeah in terms of in terms of getting credit and this is a kind of normal run-of-the-mill season that goes you know a full 82 game schedule and the he's playing the playing game and have to play another playing game right because they lost yeah Jimmy Butler has just been unbelievable yeah yeah yeah but but it's not just Jimbi Butler I mean they had a embarrassing blowout for Boston the other night Butler had 16 points that they're getting contributions they're getting contributions from guys who were under after you I saw this nine undrafted players on the heat nine it's incredible well listen this is you want to really talk about what's going on in Miami it's Lakers southeast yeah you know Pat Riley I saw David Oliver and Chad this that 24.7 which is 25% yeah Pat Riley has participated as a player poacher executives in 25% of every finals ever played in NBA history think about that for a second right yeah so what's going on there really it's a Pat Riley organization Eric Spolstra is from the Pat Riley tree he is the best coach in basketball it is fair to say you know in fact it's undisputed at this point right he was in the conversation he's top five years that air supposed to best coach in basketball he's the guy you know he's number one and I was saying Ty Lew until recently the look what Spolstra's doing with this group and Jimmy Butler is the perfect Pat Riley Eric Spolstra player right in tents to the point of insanity and and you know this is there was a trying to remember the author's name a really interesting book called the captain's club or something like that yeah and the idea was that when you have a captain of a team who was an extension of the coach on the field of play Tom Brady to Bill Bellis Derek Jeter to Joe Tory Tim Duncan Greg Popovich that's when you get dynasties right and and I think it's I think it's fair to say that Jimmy Butler is an extension of Eric Spolstra and Pat Riley you know in spirit right the same kind of maniacal the word Jay Will uses about him all the time maniacal animal you know and and when the heat got Jimmy Butler's like look I don't know if they're gonna win a championship but that's the right guy for that franchise no no no question but I would just say this about Riley's past championships they've been with Kareem and Magic Wade and Shaq you know the Jimmy Butler is a star but we don't put him in the same category as those guys and the fact that they're doing it yeah and the fact that didn't start that way we didn't start but but in the regular season if you're suggesting to most basketball fans oh yeah Jimmy Butler's you know right there with the all-time breaks what does people say you're nuts playoffs different story and like I say he's doing it with guys like Duncan Robinson you know that that we're not even drafted it's it's it's to me I think an incredible story and and I've also on to your point I think it it tells you what an incredible winner Pat Riley is you know anything he touches player coach GM president whatever it is they win and they win championships they do but I would say about the previous statement you just made if you look at Pat Riley's resume and I don't want to gloss over Eric's full school I just get Pat Riley and Eric's full school so they said best coach in the game he's got the crown but but they haven't won a championship yet they've been to a finals they're about to go to their second finals um Pat Riley took a Knicks team with Patrick viewing as a centerpiece true who was perceived during the regular season above Jimmy Butler but in fact when their careers are over I would anticipate they're perceived as more and less on the same tier of player um the second best player of the team was John Starks yeah you know talk about the you know bagging groceries same kind of guy right that you see on the heat roster and they got to within you know if if a lot of one doesn't get his finger tip on Starks is three in game six at Houston mixed win in six games and as it was came close to beating him anyway right like it took Starks missing every shot yeah for them to to lume game seven on the road so he's done something similar even when he had now hard away in morning were highly you know uh drafted and thought of very well but they weren't white you know top five type of players right top 10 and maybe outskirts of the top 10 and even though they used to get knocked out in the first round every year they were a powerhouse like the way they competed was a lot like the way this heat came competes true so it's he hasn't quite done this before but also like let's see what happens in the final like if Jimmy Butler figures out a way to beat these nuggets all bets are you know retired the prize yeah exactly yeah that that would be one of the all-time stories that we're talking to Max Keller and let me get you on the on the Boston angle a different way and uh and that's Joe Missoula uh i don't think you know even if they if they lose tonight by like three i think he can he can exhale a little bit but do you think in many ways he's he's coaching for his future in Boston in that this game does not resemble game three that that he's got to make it so it's at least it's not an embarrassment because if it does resemble game three max i don't know how he can come back next year yeah i agree with that um he look Emmanuel Stewart one of the greatest trainers of all time in boxing made mistakes in his first couple of you know super fights with a fighter right because he hadn't been there before that you know everyone needs experience i don't care even the greatest of all time player and coach and so i think Joe Missoula has a promising career it may not be right now for the Celtics if they get traced tonight right i agree with that but that means he's not a good coach or can't be a very good coach but i would agree it wouldn't be with this Boston team yeah yeah i think that's that's exactly right there there was a cap's coach named Cassidy which Cassidy whatever his name is and he and he was a disaster here he's young he hadn't had any experience he got Boston to the finals you know so you're right i think it can happen for him someplace else but i don't think the players can look at him and it was pretty clear they didn't have any confidence in him and then to compound it to come out and say it's my fault i didn't have this team ready i i don't know how you can how you can do that how you can instill any kind of confidence when you're telling the world and your players i can't do this job well i don't see it right i mean i at least what i liked about it is he was being honest you know um what i but the issue was not in his response but in the truth of the matter you know it's good i think it's a good sign that he was not denying the truth he had lost his team basically but uh but but why did he lose his team why did he lose his team and maybe part of it is look they were just in the finals i get it but they did they did uh lose and their best player didn't play very well and part of it may just be that cadum and jaylin brown while both terrific players and you can see the Celtics make a deeper playoff run every year but while both three players don't make each other better i think that's a legitimate criticism not that they make each other worse but they don't make each other better and ideally you'd like a team to be more than the sum of its parts mmm let me hit you with uh with labron and carmello before i let you go uh labron kind of hinting at the idea that he's going to retire i look at it as a guy who just was swept in the finals the emotions are raw it's 10 15 minutes after the game i don't think he's thinking as clearly as you may be in two weeks but do you think that there is any real possibility that uh we've seen him play for the last time i don't i think he'll play again um is there a possibility he doesn't play next year no i i don't think that's a good possibility either but better than that he doesn't play ever again right um if he played his last game for the Lakers again improbable but that's probably a better chance than either of the first two scenarios you know i just touched on so so no i i would agree it's highly unlikely that labron james is done it's right after a loss you look at the last play of that game labron james drives you know poorly designed play by darvin hann no space for labron he drives into the teeth of the defense jimal murries riding him hand on the ball the whole time aran gordon's in front of him he's a leaper who's six nine or whatever he's labron tries to will it anyway he's on a bum leg he's in year 20 um he played 48 minutes and uh he tried to jump over a leaper and the leaper blocked his shot by the way yokech was waiting for him under the basket if he you know if he did get any closer so in that moment labron left it all on the court he just didn't have enough given the circumstances of that moment to bring the leakers at least one win but they got damn close and they were in every game yeah i i think when he has a chance to think about it too and and and there's also the brawny factor you know do you want to put that much pressure on brawny like hey this this path is already set for you you're going to play with dad in two years and you're going to be in the nba well you know maybe brawny doesn't doesn't develop as quickly as as as some hope that at USC needs another couple of years there you know so you you i think i think i think this sort of releases some pressure on him as well and i think that was a that was a pretty smart move by him last night uh last thing is is car mellow and and wondering about his legacy we always talk about guys who don't have rings and car mellow only three times in the playoffs did he get his team past the first round but he led Syracuse to the one national championship that they got under Jim Beheim and he won three gold medals so when obviously he was a great player obviously a great score number nine all time but as a winner how do we judge him overall with those other numbers we have first of all i remember i was it was my year on around the horn i was the original host on around the morning this is like 2002 maybe and um everyone was telling me tj Ford is the best player in the country and they're going to win and i so you know i'm watching these guys early this season and the entire time i like no Syracuse is going to win they have car mellow Anthony right i thought of him as a winner and a clutch player because he showed that all season he had jerry macnamaro was huge in that final sure but like they had they had car mellow Anthony wins the national title i think he had the sheen of you know being a winner and a funny thing happened to him and it happened to a couple other players where the league changed from out from under his feet and the the player that he had developed to become his entire life the isos score with every single move in the book right that guy suddenly was not so valuable as he used to be and a guy with that skill set who wasn't like a point forward would you know give it his giving car mellow size was expected to three and d more than really he was capable of but even the the idea that he could have become a kind of more efficient player who could operate in the flow of an offense that's not centered around him he was late to recognize how much things had changed and how much he needed to change i think and that slow recognition i think hurt his legacy in the long run because i do think it was possible to win a championship with car mellow Anthony as one of your two best players and and your first option on offense right i that would have been possible it just never quite broke that way for him and part of it is James dolan when they when the when car mellow made it clear you have to trade me to the next right so it chased away other potential landing spots who don't want to trade a lot for a disgruntled star doesn't want to be there James dolan in typical bumbling James dolan fashion the owner of the next you know cut out his gm's legs and and you know insisted on giving the nuggets everything they asked for so love car mellow went to a depleted roster yeah you know it so it just didn't quite break right for him to win a championship but you know in a parallel universe he's won a couple of titles right right now i think i think the olympics should count and i think what he did at syrukis should count and uh you know had he come along a few years later he did come out in the same class as LeBron same draft class but he would have been able to maneuver himself into a position like LeBron has been able to do with Miami and and the Lakers toward the new Detroit yeah yeah if the Detroit doesn't draft our yeah right they out they got too cute you know yeah clever by hash yeah if they just draft car mellow he probably get at least one with those they were champs they were defending champs yeah they would have lost a little defense with car mellow but they would have picked up a whole bunch of offense no question and you know i think there's a good chance he's the leading scorer on another or one of the real offensive weapons on a championship team early in his career then he has the patina of being that championship winner and and you can maneuver with that you're throughout your career a little differently and maybe things would have been different big series tonight oriles and yankies best of luck i'll talk to you next week good talking to Andy thanks that's max kelerman you hear him every morning here on esp on 6 30 anyway uh what i think max kelerman for joining us today as he does most tuesday is one of the recs mintern for running the show and thanks to all of you who listened tony's back on his regular schedule this week so that means a show tomorrow and a show on friday looks like the weather's holding up so that's a good thing uh and uh and enjoy it enjoy the rest of the day and i will see you back here tomorrow in my regular spot right here at nine a.m.