False Starts, Second Chances

Episode 56 of Rice on the Mics is all about second chances, redemption arcs, and the false starts that make sports so good. Ian breaks down the Maxx Crosby trade chaos and what it means for the Raiders, Ravens, and the fans caught in the middle, then gets into Geno Smith’s return to the Jets and why this version of Geno deserves to be judged differently than the first one. The Giants are making real moves too, but are they enough to make fans fully buy in?

From there, Ian dives into the Knicks’ latest concerns, the pressure around Mikal Bridges, the bench questions, the Giannis shadow hanging over everything, and Bam’s ridiculous 83-point explosion. Then it’s over to the WBC, where Team USA got a much-needed wake-up call, plus Mets and Yankees talk with Lindor trending toward Opening Day, Carson Benge making noise, David Wright helping Bo Bichette at third, and the Yankees still trying to sell a familiar blueprint as something new.

False starts. Second chances. Same sports world, different chapter.

Transcript

Second Chances Set The Theme

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We got a quick question for you. How many times in sports do we watch somebody get a second chance and then immediately act like the first version of the story never happened? Because that feels like the whole week right there. Fresh starts, false starts, redemption arcs, awkward reunions, teams trying to sell you on a new chapter, players trying to win the room back, and the fans sitting there with their arms crossed, like, yeah, okay, impress me first. Welcome back to another episode of Rice on the Mics. Thank you for tuning in as always. Boy, oh boy, do we have a lot to get into today? We got Max Crosby doing the football version of storming out, getting halfway down the block, and then walking back into the house, acting like nothing happened. We got Geno Smith back with the Jets, which is either a smart grown-up football move or the most Jets thing of all time, depending on how damaged you are. We got some Giants moves that half the fan base loves and the other half is waiting for the big ticket item. And as for the Knicks, well the Knicks have the fan base doing what the Knicks fan base always does at this time of the year. Pacing around the living room, talking to themselves, and trying to decide if they should be concerned or very concerned. Bam dropped 83, by the way, which apparently now requires a debate because people just can't like greatness breathe for five seconds. And on the baseball side, Team USA and the WBC learned a very important lesson this week. Do not start counting the money before the blackjack dealer has flipped the other card. You lose to Italy, you get humbled real quick, and suddenly the whole tournament feels very different. Mets have a Lindor conversation worth having, and the Yankees are still trying to sell this whole run it back thing with a straight face. And somewhere in the middle of all that is the real theme of this episode. Because this week, more than anything, was about second chances. Redemption. What do you do when the story goes sideways and then somehow life, sports, fate, whatever you want to call it, cracks the door back open for you. Do you waste it? Do you run from it? Or do you step through it and make it count? So crack a beer if you're drinking, turn the volume up if you're walking the dog, lock in if you're working out, and let good old Uncle Rice tell you about this week in sports. Let's do it to it. Lift off and the clock is started. Instead of opening up with the Jets and Giants like we normally do, we kick things off today with Max Crosby because that story is just too good and too weird to not open with. So unless you've been living under a rock, uh the long of the short is the blockbuster deal gets announced. Max Crosby to the Ravens, two first-round picks, group chats are blown up. Max puts out a video saying goodbye to Raider Nation. Talking like a man who already had one foot out the door and looking for a whole new chapter in Baltimore, looking to go sack Joe Burrow against that terrible Bengals offensive line. Then the next minute, the deal gets blown up. The Ravens back out, and now he's right back in Vegas posting on his Instagram like none of it ever happened. Quote, I'm a raider, I'm back, I'm all in. My brother in Christ. That's not a normal week. That's this is the NFL putting out a telenovela with shoulder pads on. And what makes it great is that nobody nobody really comes out of this looking all the way clean. I mean, Baltimore says they've had concerns with the physical. Fine. Trades are contingent on that stuff. You you're allowed to protect yourself. If you think the knee is a problem, especially when you're talking about a player who you're about to one pay and two give up a real amount of draft capital for, sure. I get it. You don't just exactly smile and wave and hope that it works out. That part is fair. Still, once you get all the way down the road and then just pull the car over at the last possible second, people are gonna look at you sideways. Max Crosby did not just wake up with a surgery scar yesterday. He didn't just wake up with some scar tissue. Everybody knew the meniscus thing was part of the deal. Everybody knew there was some risk involved. So if you get all the way to the point where he's talking like a raven, the Raiders are moving on like he's gone, fans are reacting like he's gone, and then you just pull the plug, yeah. Now it feels a little bit bigger than just a medical issue. Now it feels messy. Now it feels like cold feet, buyer's remorse, sticker shock, whatever label you want to put on it. And that's where this story gets juicy because now the Ravens have people around the league looking at him like, hold on, what changed this late? And then you immediately pivot to Trey Hendrickson. Talk about throwing gas on an open fire. I mean, that move makes total football sense if you want to defend it. Hendrickson costs no picks, he he still gets after the quarterback at the same rate, he's a little bit younger. Baltimore needs the pass rush help. Fine. I understand the pivot. Still, doesn't stop it from feeling like they got spooked and went to plan B real fast. I mean, if someone in your fantasy league pulled this move, there would be grounds to throw them out of the league. Eric DeCosta, the GM, is out there saying he's gutted, and I guess that's a fair human response, but the story still smells like a bad smell. I mean, if you were that close, if you wanted him that badly, then what happened between, you know, we got our guy and eh, actually, uh never mind. He's claiming that the plan the whole time was to pair Max with Trey Hendrickson and have a dominant one-two pass rush, but I don't know. It still seems pretty convenient to me that you got rid of one because of the draft capital and immediately signed the other. And the Raiders is the Raiders side of it is a whole different kind of funny. Like Jets level funny. I mean, they move on from him there, and they already started spending like Crosby was off the books. Vegas was moving around free agency like the check had already cleared. They're handing out money, adding pieces, building out the defense, reworking the roster, acting like they had this whole thing lined up clean. But then the trade falls apart, and Crosby's cap hit comes home faster than a boomerang. That's the front office nightmare. Welcome to being an owner, Tom Brady. So now you're sitting there trying to honor all these moves, trying to keep the book straight, trying to act like everything is under control, while your best player just reappeared after basically saying his goodbyes. That's a trust story more than anything going forward. I mean, Raider fans are happy that he's back. Of course they are. He plays like a raider, he looks like a raider. He feels like one of those few guys on the team who actually understands what the fan base wants that jersey to represent. Mean, violent, intense, always playing hurt, always revved up, all of it. So naturally, yeah, fans are happy to see him back and say, cool, let's go. Party's back on, the keg is still here. Still, the part that everybody's glossing over right now matters. Don't forget Raiders fans, he wanted out. The relationship got to that point. The Raiders wanted to move him. He was ready for a new chapter. That happened. And you don't exactly get to wave a magic wand or put a towel over it and pretend that it never did. Now, sure. I understand why he got there. The Raiders shut him down at the end of the season last year when he wanted to play. And I get why the team did it, but I also get why he hated it. Both sides can still make sense there. Still doesn't change the fact that he wanted to leave. That's what makes this feel like a redemption setup right now. He doesn't need to redeem himself as a player. Nobody doubts the player. The man can rush the passer with the best of them. The redemption arc is the emotional side. Can he win the room back? Can he win the fan base back fully? Can he come back after looking ready to move on and make people feel like this thing was still real? That's the challenge now. Can he look those other 51 guys in the face and say, yeah, I know I want it out, but I'm here now, so let's go win. And the mailbag was screaming the question, same question all week. I mean, you guys wrote in and all of it was pretty much about Crosby. What do the Raiders do with him now? Is he really staying? Can they still trade him? What are the repercussions? They're over the cap. They already spent half the money. Now what do they do? These are all great questions. And honestly, I I'm pretty I'm pretty interested to see how it turns out. Because you can you can post on Instagram and make everything sound nicey nicey, but I think I think this is more of an intermission for him than the final act. I mean, I see the I'm back caption, I hear the public facing repair job that he's trying to put out. I know how this works. But still, one hot start from the Raiders, maybe everybody forgets it. Maybe everything's all good. Maybe he comes out, has three sacks in four games, or four sacks in three games. But on the other side of it, one bad month and the whole thing opens right back up again. That's the kind of story that this is. And it's gonna be super interesting to watch play out. Then you get to the Jets, which somehow might be even more fascinating in a completely different way. Geno Smith, good old West Virginia, country roads, take me home. Geno Smith back with the Jets, starting quarterback for 2026, full circle, nine years later. Same franchise that drafted him, messed it up, watched him leave, watched him grow, watched him become a decent starting quarterback somewhere else, and now they bring him back. That is either football poetry or the funniest thing the Jets have done in a while. Maybe both, to be honest with you. And the poll results was what I expected. 29% said smart reunion, while 71% of you said same old Jets. That is a fan base talking from scar tissue. I understand it. No notes here, man. Uh Jets, Jets fans have earned the right to be skeptical about literally everything this franchise does. The franchise does not get grace points. Not from me, not from you, not from anybody who's watched them for more than 10 minutes of the last 15 years. Still, I think a lot of people are making the mistake of judging current Gino by old Gino. That's lazy. Old Gino was a young quarterback, dropped into a weird spot. Yeah, the Rex Ryan chaos, Mark Sanchez leftovers, second round slide on draft night, unstable building, unstable expectations. The whole thing just felt all from the jump. He was supposed to be the savior that I don't know. Didn't have much expected of him. This version is not that version. This is a grown man now. Okay? He's more accurate, he's a little calmer, a little steadier, less frantic, more realistic about who he is and what he can be. So hear me out here, Jet fans, and call me delusional if you must. But I don't hate the move. Look, this is not some savior swing, okay? That's the key here. The Jets did not bring him back to be Superman, to be no pun intended here. They did not bring him back to be Sam Darnold to the Seahawks. They brought him back to stop the room from feeling like amateur hour. And again, that's what matters. That's what they've been doing. That seems like what Muji has been doing the past couple months. Competent football, watchable football, adult football. All that matters. This is why, again, kill me if you want. I I still have some faith in Aaron Glenn. Because he was brought in to change the culture of this team and franchise. And he got rid of the guys that weren't buying into his way. You know, Quinn Williams and Sauce Gardner were probably rolling their eyes when Aaron Glenn came in being the tough guy. And then as soon as he traded them both, or as soon as he told Muji to trade them both, the defense the next couple weeks stepped up and it looked like guys kind of finally bought in. So I don't subscribe to tanking and I won't listen to any arguments for it. Please, just please miss me with that trust the process crap. I mean, the Sixers turned that into their religion in a sport where one guy can legitimately turn your franchise around. They got him, and look where they they ended up. I mean, they they have a big man who is great but can only play 50 games a year, and they had three top three draft picks who aren't even in the NBA anymore. Culture first, product first. That's how it is and how it always will be. Get the actual football right first. That's how you build something people believe in. Back in the day working in the restaurant, I had a boss who was great at business, and he always told me food comes first, everything else gets solid later. And what he meant by that was that people will drive out of their way for the best burger they've ever had. They will come, they will overlook the dingy bathrooms, the ugly boots, the bad parking, the chip paint on the walls, all of it. If the burger is incredible, then once the place cleans itself up a little bit, now all of a sudden people start noticing the nice little details. They see that new paint job, they they notice the better staff and word of mouth travels. And then more people start wanting to come in and see what everything is about. But the opposite of that will never be true. Nobody is going out of their way for nice decor and bad food. Nobody. My answer is simple. What's the real difference if you've got the ammo? If Gino wins you six games instead of three and you wind up picking eighth, seventh instead of fourth, or third, so what? If you have multiple first round picks next year, you can move. You can go from eight to three. You can go from eight to two. You can go get your guy if you really want him. What matters more to me is whether this team finally puts something respectable on the field and starts acting like a real operation. Something where people start saying, you know, it's kind of a hole in the wall, but man, they have something brewing. That's where I'm actually more with the 29% than the 71% here. Not fully bought in, not starry-eyed, just practical. This was a cheap move. The Jets didn't give up anything. They made the deal before Gino hit the market, which mattered because Minnesota was lurking. And the Raiders are still eating a chunk of his money, even though he's gonna restructure anyway. So you get him for a veteran minimum. I mean, that's smart business. If that's the guy you wanted to stabilize things, go get him. Don't sit around hoping he falls into your lap. Like, do I think Gino is carrying them to the promised land? No. Nobody's saying that. I'm not saying that. I don't even think they're gonna make the playoffs next year. But can he give you decent football and keep the whole thing from looking like a tire fire every Sunday? Yeah. That's a much more realistic question. And I think he can. He can show you just enough that the offense is moving forward. And again, if Aaron Glenn's superpower is calling defensive plays, well, you're gonna have the number two overall pick and probably get the best offensive player in the draft. So with that, with Mika Fitzpatrick, with Demario Davis, the defense should be a lot better. And Pete Carroll back in Gino matters here too. Coaches, coaches who have been around him talk like they've seen the evolution up close. Okay. And that says something. The player has matured, the game is slowed down for him. He became a guy you can put in a room and trust to function like an adult. That's not nothing for the Jets, unfortunately. That's actually a pretty big step for them. As for the Giants, well, they're a little bit of a different conversation. The poll that I put out, which by the way, if you're new here to the pod, uh every Wednesday on the Instagram, I put out mic check polls, midweek mic check polls, let you guys vote on the show, let you guys steer the show a little bit. And the poll that I put out for the Giant was more balanced than I expected, honestly. It was 59% that the Giants were trending upward, and 41% still said that they needed more. That that tells me the Giant fans are not blindly drinking from the fire hose right now, which I think is healthy, by the way. You know, John Harbaugh, a great hire, he's gonna turn the franchise around, of course, whatever. So there's optimism there. But it's cautious optimism. It's more I see the outline, I see the plan, then let's hang the banner right now, we're going to the Super Bowl this year. It kind of matches the offseason they've put together so far, too. They they made some useful moves. I mean, Isaiah Likely is one for sure. I like that because it's it gives him a real movable piece of tight end, nice little security blanket for a young quarterback and someone who's always flashed talent but been behind Mark Andrews and been asked to block. Greg Newsome helps a secondary, or Darius Washington gives you another body back there. Micah McFadden coming back on a prove it type situation makes sense. Look, they're not splashy parade moves. These are let's make the team sturdier moves. Useful, practical. Adults, again. That's great. And the draft angle here is starting to shape a little bit too. Say what you want. Caleb Downs and Jeremiah Love are probably the two best players in this draft. And I personally think Caleb Downs is the best player in this draft. Not just the best safety, the best player. And that's that's serious territory for a secondary, for a tough division, for a pass happy division. Look, if the Giants decide they the board pushes them that way, I say go for it. It's tough drafting a safety top five, but talent is talent. Always get the best players available and build everything around them. And Caleb Downs is absolutely that kind of player who changes the tone out of a defense. So, you know, the Giants feel sturdier right now. They're still not all the way there, still not shiny, still with work to do, but definitely sturdier, which is good. And since we're talking about the Jets and Giants, I gotta talk about Tennessee here. The Tennessee Titans, they are going about an interesting way of building a football team. The Titans are pretty much turning into some weird football blender where the Jets and Giants got thrown in together. Every other day, it feels like they're signing a collective somebody tied to New York. Wandell over there, Ballinger over here, Flott over here, Schlottman over there. It's like they went uh shopping in the tri-state bargain bin. The Tennessee Jet Giants is what is it's what they are now. And look, maybe it works out. Let's see if Salah and Dave all end up with as geniuses, or you know, they could end up both looking like they drank the Kool-Aid of their former teams. It would be fitting that that would happen. But something tells me when you take collective players from two teams who have been terrible for the last ten years and put 'em on your team. Sometimes it's not always addition by subtraction. But uh, let's zoom out and look around the league a little bit here. There was a mountain of free agency moves in the legal tampering period and now with the league new year actually starting, which was Tuesday or Wednesday. I I can't remember which day. But uh mostly it's the quarterback musical chairs going on everywhere. So Tua to Atlanta is something, Tua Tonga Viloa to Atlanta, two lefties, and about 15 different medical problems between him and Penix. So that's a one-year swing with a lot of uh let's see what happens energy. And then Miami cutting him loose, eating I think$99 million worth of money worth of a dead cap hit just tells you they couldn't wait to get away from him. I think at one point there was rumors going around that team they were willing to trade with teams for the cap hit and they would give them their first round pick if they ate the cap. That's insane. Anyway, they go or they turn right around, they grab Marie Malik Willis, which I don't know. It's a very different kind of bet, right? Bigger arm, more mobility, but also more on unknown. A little more upside if things click, but if they don't, well, they find themselves right back into the hole they dug, and he ends up looking like Matt Flynn after he only played three games and got that$30,$40 million contract, whatever it was. Kyler, Kyler Murray, out in uh Arizona, headed to Minnesota. And it's it's kind of one of those moves that we all kind of expected, but it still kind of made me hit the uh open eyes emoji stare for a second. Again, another one year prove a deal, but he walks into a room with JJ McCarthy and Kevin O'Connell not committing to naming a starter. So much for being all the way sold on the kid, huh? I mean, that's not veteran insurance to back up JJ. That's real competition. That's Minnesota saying, yeah, we we like what we have and we were okay with letting Sam go, but uh we're still not about to be naive about things. Makes perfect sense. I get it. Still very funny. You let the guy who won 14 games last season for your team leave, and then he goes and wins the Super Bowl. And now your pivot is Kyler Murray. You think it's tough being a Jet fan? I think it's tough being a fan of any incompetent team. Uh Michael Pittman to Pittsburgh. It's a good move, makes sense. They needed another real body receiver next to Metcalf. Now we're just waiting to see if Aaron Rodgers wants to play quarterback for them. Mike Evans to San Francisco is one of those under-the-radar kind of evil moves where you look at it and you just go, yeah, I hate how good that is. Him and McCaffrey and Kittle in the red zone, they're gonna they're gonna score at record pace this year. Kenneth Walker to Kansas City kind of falls under that same category too. I mean, the Super Bowl MVP goes to the hated Kansas City Chiefs, I guess. Something that they've needed, a team that they've needed a running back for how many years now? And unfortunately, if you listen to last episode, completely ruined the fun little Transey, Transity, fun little trade fantasy. There we go. I had for the Jets last week with the Chiefs, so thanks for that. And then swapping, Pacheco goes to Detroit, which is also interesting. I mean, him and Gibbs in the same backfield has potential, I guess, for sure, but they also are both touted to do the same thing. But Gibbs does the that thing clearly better than Pacheco does. I mean, David Montgomery worked with Gibbs because he was a bruiser. And correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't Casey dug up Kareem Hunt these past three years to help Pacheco in short yardage situations? Gonna be interesting to see how that uh that works out over in uh Detroit. I don't know, man. I hate to say it for them, but I think they might just be a flash in the pan from how they once were. But yeah, that's the NFL now. That's where we're gonna leave it at least. Uh Crosby is back where he started. Their relationship is muddy to say the least. Gino is back where he started too. Only now he looks like an actual kind of grown-up quarterback. So the Jets better look like an actual grown-up organization. And the Giants, the Giants are building in a way that makes sense. Even if nobody's ready to throw the confetti down uh the canyon of heroes just yet. The league is selling fresh starts this time of year. Some of them are real, some of them are nonsense. That's the game that gets played in the offseason. Now, let's get to the next hard courts up next. Keep it right here. But after this week, this is where the New York Knicks fan brain starts doing laps around the living room. The poll pretty much told me the whole story before I even opened my mouth this week. Sixty-five percent of you said that the biggest problem right now is not is the hot and cold three-point shooting, while 35% said the bench still gives you nothing. Then the level of concern slider that I put out right behind it landed at a right about 65%, which is the perfect Nick's number. Not full panic, but not peace. Just that very specific New York sports anxiety where you keep checking the stove even though you know you turned it off before you left the house. That's where this team is sitting right now. Not dead, not broken, not some hopeless mess. Still, you can feel the old playoff nerves creeping back in. You can feel the fan base looking at this thing and asking the same question over and over. Is this just a rough patch or is this the part where the flaws we've been side-eyeing all year start showing up at the worst possible time? The three-point thing is the easiest place to start since that's where most of you landed and what this podcast has been bitching and moaning about the past, I don't know, two, three weeks ago. I mean, one night the floor opens up, the ball is flying around, everybody looks dangerous. It feels like the offense has a serious, real knock you out punch. And then the next night, they're bricking open looks. They're getting sticky, they're forcing passes, they're turning it over. 20 turnovers, I think, last week. And suddenly every possession just feels like it's a it's a root canal. That is not a championship rhythm. That's the kind of rhythm that gets you through January and gets you sent home in May. That's the part that drives people nuts. It's not just missing the shots. Teams miss shots. It happens. The problem, the problem is the personality of the offense keeps changing with the shooting. When they hit, they look free. When they blow teams out, they blow teams out. But when they miss, they look heavy. You can see the whole body language shift. The ball stops popping, guys start overthinking, everyone wants the perfect look instead of the right look. That's the danger zone. That's how you turn one bad quarter into one of those, oh, here we go again, nights. And then you get into the bridges part of this, and that's where Knicks fans, Nick fans are really starting to spin themselves in circles. I mean, early on, a lot of the noise was about Kat. Still kind of is. Get him more involved, get him the ball, why are they not using him enough? Why does he disappear for stretches? Now, Mikhail has some cold nights, some quiet stretches, some games where he doesn't look like he's grabbing the moment the way people want. And that conversation starts drifting over to him, too. You know, the head coach says play with the go, play with the flow basketball. You know, we we don't really call plays, we just we feel it out. Fine, I get that. That's the golden state way. Sure. Still, the fan base wants to know when does the flow actually start? I mean, at what point do we stop talking about the concept of flow and start seeing actual reliable offensive structure? That's my issue. Great teams do not just hope the flow shows up. I mean, great teams have counters. Great teams know where the ball is supposed to go when things get ugly. Great teams have an identity they can return to when the pretty stuff dries up. The Knicks, the Knicks still feel like they're searching for that at times, right? Like, which is it's crazy considering how much talent is in that room. And and Mikhail is a big piece of that too. And people should be able to say that without it turning into some grand indictment of him as a player. He's good. He helps. He's great defensively when it matters. He pretty much won that Boston series for his last year in the playoffs. But he's also one of those guys where the eye test gets fans worked up fast. Look, when he's moving, cutting, getting to his spots, knocking down that mid-range that is lethal for him, taking pressure off Brunson and Kat, the whole thing feels smoother. But when he when he fades into the background, everybody feels it immediately. That's why the frustration is louder with him right now. Knicks fans aren't asking him to be a passenger. They're asking him to grab a little bit more of the wheel, honestly. A stat that's been floating around this past week that you might have heard over the past four games, he hasn't been to the free throw line once. Not once. I don't care who you are or what kind of game it is you play in the NBA. In today's NBA, that's almost impossible unless you're looking to stay on the outskirts of every play. And then you get to the bench, which was the other side of the pole. And that's been its own headache for a little while now. For weeks, it's kind of felt like, you know, every time the second unit checked in, the energy dipped down, the offense got muddy, and we were just waiting for the starters to come back in and settle things down and you know, take the lead a little bit more. That's not how you survive this time of year. April and May are about the small margins, and small margins expose shaky depth in a hurry, right? McBride being out kind of has a lot to do with that. I mean, you definitely have felt his absence since he's been gone. He when he's on the court, he gives him pace, he gives him defense, he gives him a little bit of an edge, a little bit of order when things start drifting, can handle the ball when Brunson's not in. And he also gives you a dagger three-pointer to get him back in the game when they need it. And without him, that bridge has gotten awfully thin. And, you know, you get to the Alvarado conversation, which is a little more complicated. You know, it's GTA 5, everybody loves him. He's a hometown favorite. Look, he's a good competitor, he's an annoying as hell defender, just a straight up pest. Brings the juice, no question. But playoff basketball, playoff basketball asks for more than a little bit of juice. It asks whether I can trust for seven straight chess matches when every single weakness is going to get hunted. I mean, that's kind of why Thibodeau got bounced, right? I mean, besides him playing too many guys, he got out coached last year by Rick Carlisle. You know, good coaches in the playoffs are going to be able to take your best guy or take your best weapon or whatever it is, circle it and say, Yeah, we're that's not happening anymore. And I got to give Clarkson a little bit of a shout out, too. I mean, Clarkson gave them some real life off the bench against Utah after weeks of DMPs. You know, credit with credits too. Again, he changed the feel of that game. Coming back to his old team, he had a real scoring punch, a real veteran bucket getting real like uh, you know, give me the ball. I'll calm this down. We're down 18, just I'll start jacking up some threes. I'll make them go in. That's great. But it still leaves the bigger question hanging out there. When the lights get hotter, do you actually feel good about this bench as a whole? That's the question. And that's really where the Knicks conversation lives for me right now. It's it's a whole bunch of things. It's not one giant fatal flaw. It's layers of unease. It's the shooting coming and going, the bench feeling unreliable until suddenly it doesn't, you know? The ball can get sticky, Mikhail can drift. Big cat doesn't show up, but then he does. And then, you know, you're waiting for every few games Brunson walks in, being the adult in a room and reminds everybody that he has the juice and he drops a 40 spot. And that's the that's the bridge to him and Kat. And look, I don't really want to live here too long, but it does matter. I mean, Brunson is still the guy that makes the room breathe normal again when they have to. He settles things, he organizes things, he he doesn't just score, he means he calms people down, he facilitates. And Kat, you know, as hard as I've been on him, he deserves a little bit of love here too. Every time there's a little bit of a wobble, I guess, in town with this team, Kat is the first one to get blamed. But the long of the short is the guy is still giving you production. I mean, he's still helping keep the offense from completely freezing over. I mean, he he still does draw attention, he's still making life easier for other people, even when the fan base wants to scream about something else, you know? He's still pretty good on the boards, still averages about 18, 20, 25 points. You know, imagine if he wasn't here. And I can't believe I'm saying this. I didn't really want him here in the first place, but he still is that guy, you know, to get it done, I guess, sometimes. Look, it doesn't mean he's above criticism for sure. It just means that criticism can't be lazy. You gotta give credit where credit's due sometimes. So that's uh that's where I'm at with the next, right? Concerned, sure. You'd be insane not to be at least a little bit concerned. But burial mode, no, I'm I'm not there. I'm not throwing in the towel and saying this team can't do anything. The slider sitting around 65% feels about right. That's the emotional neighborhood. This isn't blow it up concern. This is show me something stable before I give you my full trust concern. And yet, still, the thing hanging over all of this, whether people want to say it out loud or not, it's Giannis. That shadow is there. Every time the Knicks look a little shaky, every time the offense looks a little clunky, every time the playoffs start feeling like a test they may or may not pass, there is the fan base licking their chops to blow this team up and make the trade package for him. And unfortunately, the only way that conversation ever really dies is if the Knicks win the whole thing. That's it. A deep run helps, a good series helps, but winning the championship is the only real way to shut the door and deadbolt it. Anything short of that, and people are still gonna peek through the window, wondering if there's like a bigger move out there. And that look, that's not me saying they should panic. That's me just saying that New York never stops looking around the corner once it thinks a superstar might be available. That's the market, man. That's the pressure, that's the reality of this town. You can hate it, but you can't pretend that it's not that it isn't true. Now, Knicks aside, let me get to BAM. Because this was kind of one of my favorite sports debates of the week, just on principle. So, again, if you're sleeping under a rock and not paying attention to the NBA, Bam Atabayou of the Miami Heat drops eighty-three points. Wilt, Bam Autabayou, Kobe Bryant. A number, a number so stupid it almost doesn't sound real when you say it out loud, to be honest. In fact, I I didn't even know it was going on when it was happening. And my buddy texts me, he goes, so Bam had 83 tonight. The sports book must have been going crazy. Then, naturally, what happens? Because what always happens? The reaction splits exactly how you would expect. Of course. Of course, we can't just let greatness sit there for five seconds without somebody trying to put a little ast trick on it. My stance on this is simple. You get a chance to do something that might literally never happen again in your life, you go do it. You do not apologize, you do not scale it back to make other people feel comfortable. You do not say, well, you know, out of respect for the opponent, maybe I should stop at 72. Stop. Stop it. This is pro sports. The object is greatness. The object is history. The object is to walk through the door when it opens. And that's the line that I keep coming back to. When the universe opens the door for you to do something that'll never happen ever again, step through it. Don't stand in the doorway asking if it's rude or asking for permission. Don't hesitate and let the moment pass. Don't get cute with it. I mean, God, walk through the door and be great. People do this thing where they act like ambition is tacky once it gets a little too obvious. They'll praise greatness from a distance, then get uncomfortable when they watch somebody actually reach for it in real time. That's nonsense to me. Nobody apologizes for history later. Nobody puts 83 on the graphic 10 years from now and goes, yeah, but he should have had he should have let off the gas a little bit and should have relaxed in the fourth. No. They don't. They remember the number. They remember the moment. They remember where they were when it happened. And the wizards part of the conversation is funny. I get it. It's low-hanging fruit. It's an easy target. You know, bad team. I don't care. It's still not enough for me. Plenty of guys play on play bad teams. Plenty of stars get hot. They're professionals too. Very few people ever get to touch something like that ever. So to me, the fact that the pole was almost split down the middle actually makes it even better. It means people felt the tension of it. One side saying that's absurd, salute it, and the other side saying, come on, look who he was playing. Fine. But my side is pretty clear. If you have a shot at sports immortality for a night, go grab it with both hands and deal with the commentary later. Who cares? That's part of the larger point, too. Other people will always try to put limits on what greatness is supposed to look like. They're always have a reason to shrink it a little bit. Wrong opponent, wrong moment, wrong style, wrong whatever. Who cares? That has more to do with their comfort level than yours. Don't apologize for success. Don't dim the lights because other people can't handle how bright the room got. You know, our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. That's what that poem is talking about. Don't be afraid to go get them, you know? Anyway, let me get off my soapbox here. That's the NBA temperature check right now. I mean, the Knicks uh the Knicks have everybody doing concerned math in their head, trying to decide whether this is uh turbulence or a warning sign or what. I don't know. Mikhail has been a little become a little bit of a the pressure point here, and the bench still feels like a little bit of a question, even after showing some pulse. But at the end of the day, Brunson is the adult in the room. Cat still matters, but the panic merchants can't wait to ship them off for Giannis. But yeah, that's that's the league. That's kind of where I'm at right now. Couple other stories around the league, but the Knicks are our main concern on this podcast. You know what else we're concerned about? We're concerned about WBC baseball and team USA almost blowing it. They had themselves a week. Keep it right here. I'm about to get into all of that. Diamond Talk Up next. Cold beer, hot dogs, cold beer, hot dogs. Soon enough, the sun will be shining. We will be in major league baseball parks, yelling at ball players, hearing that around us, talking to the guy next to us about why he shouldn't have stolen or not. But unfortunately, we're not there yet quite yet. It is March. It was snowing on my way home. I have opening day tickets for March twenty sixth, so good, I guess. get it out now, but baseball. Oh baseball this week uh baseball reminded you why baseball it's hard not to be romantic about. I mean this week felt like one of those moments where you know a team starts acting like the party had already started and then everybody looks around and realizes that nobody brought the beer. The team USA lost to Italy was a good punch in the mouth. And honestly maybe they needed it. Not the loss itself. Nobody enjoys that part. The reminder was the useful part. You do not start talking like you've got the thing wrapped up when the math still says you got work to do. That was my issue with the whole DeRosa thing. Sure you might have misspoke you might have thought you clinched already whatever. But it kind of came off of like hey of course we're gonna beat Italy. Yeah we clinched we're all good. That's how it came off to me at least and you cannot be up there sounding like the team has already punched its ticket when they very much had not that is asking the sports gods to embarrass you. They hear that stuff and they take it personally so what happens? Italy goes out there and does exactly what teams like that are supposed to do in tournaments like this. They play loose they play free they don't care about the names they don't care about the payrolls they don't care about the logo on the helmet. They just go play which anyone who has ever played baseball knows that is exactly how you win games team USA got caught in that moment where you realize the other side did not read the script the whole vibe changed real fast. Swagger was gone the margin for error was gone and everybody's suddenly looking around a little tighter. That's why this tournament works when it works it gets emotional fast. It gets uncomfortable fast it punishes lazy assumptions. I mean one minute you're you're talking like you basically got it in hand and then the next minute you're staring at the standings and trying to figure out who has to beat who and how many runs do they have to score just so you can stay alive. That's good stuff. That's not bad for the sport that's great for the sport the poll I put out to told the story too 45% of you said that they were locked in on the WBC while 55% of you gave me the no USA no care treatment. I get it. I get it that tracks a lot of people still experience this event through Team USA window first right you know baseball is a regional sport I'm a big Mets fan there's a lot of big Yankee fans the Tri-St area there's a lot of good Kansas City Royal fans there's a lot of good you know Dodger fans there's a lot of Cleveland fans but it's all kind of localized team USA is the window to get everybody to watch this still once you actually sit with the tournament for a little bit it does get a little bit bigger than just the American angle if you actually do enjoy the sport of baseball I mean you watch Puerto Rico you watch Dominican Republic you watch Venezuela and it hits you right away those teams are not treating this like some novelty little side quest they are fully in it the crowd is in it the dugout is in it the players are in it there's pride all over the place the energy jumps to the screen you got guys pimping home runs pimping double plays I mean you can feel the difference it feels louder more personal more alive that's what gives the WBC its teeth. It's not polished in the neat little regular season way it's emotional. It's got metal spikes on it coming up spikes high sliding into second and actually honestly for me at least that's where the team USA getting embarrassed turned into kind of a good thing for this tournament they needed a little dirt on the jersey they needed to stop looking like the team that thought I could just sleepwalk into the next round. And of course baseball does what baseball always does and crack the door back open for them anyway. You know it's hard not to be romantic about baseball you get embarrassed by Team Italy. Italy beats Mexico the standings flip and now team USA harder path is right back in it with another life. So there's your second chance angle the theme of the episode you blew the clean path you made it harder than it needed to be but the baseball gods look at you and they say yeah alright alright man we can't keep judge and harper and all these guys out of the tournament here here's another shot now what are you going to do with it I mean that's a way better story than them just rolling through the competition. Yes smooth easy wins are fine but a team getting humbled and then having to gather itself again that's where you find out what you actually have. Now all of a sudden you got Canada in front of them they got everybody paying closer attention and they got a little scar tissue instead of a little bit of swagger. Good. Go earn it. And the fun part is too now you know you got a little uh you got a little hockey mix in this too you got a little Jack Hughes wrinkle supposedly the story is that uh Jack Hughes and team USA hockey sent over a little bit of love in the form of USA hockey jerseys before the Canadian USA matchup and I love it. It's exactly the kind of crossover nonsense that I love. You know a little USA Canada attention a little inner sport pride a little extra juice I mean I get it look it's not the Olympics okay it doesn't carry the same weight as winning a gold medal and people can poo poo it all they want but again the DR team isn't taking this tourney lightly. The Japanese team isn't taking this tournament lightly hell even the Italians aren't taking this tournament lightly. So again don't be afraid of greatness go after what you want bring that WBC title home to the United States after you lost to Japan last year. That's how this tournament starts feeling like a little bit of an event instead of just a bracket exhibition and the school bull conversation plays into it too a little bit here it's one that I think people get a little touchy about and I I understand why I mean again it's I I know it's not the Olympics right and I understand it's at an awkward time of the quote unquote baseball season. You know it's their spring training it's when guys are supposed to be ramping up so you know the pitchers' arms aren't quite all the way there the batter's eyes aren't quite all the way there and you know maybe going forward they you know they switch it up a little bit I I wouldn't be if against this being the all-star break every every three years and you know a little two week all-star break and guys are in midseason form that would be awesome but I understand guys not putting their bodies at risk I mean you've you've basically waited your entire baseball life to get to this moment of free agency where you can make generational money you know don't blow it on getting hurt in the WBC happen to Edwin Diaz happened to a bunch of players careers matter money matters long-term health matters club obligations matter all of that is real still with Scooba I don't know man I feel like you gotta pick a lane and that's kind of where I land I mean if you're gonna be in be in if you're gonna step back step back that halfway space always feels a little weird to me you know you want the glow of the event the pride of the event the emotion of the event but you don't really want the full risk attached to it you came in and you pitched a game fine thanks for the contribution but don't look for the woe is me of oh man I really wish I could stay and you know after being here I feel it's different dude it's all good we get it you don't have to drag it out you came you contributed you left I mean Cody Bellinger is not in participating in the world baseball classic Kyle Tucker's not participating in the world baseball classic they both just got paid but I'm sure they owe their clubs a little bit of obligation of yeah I won't go over there and get hurt last thing for the WBC here too is uh the Cal Riley Randy O'Rosa Reina story I don't know if you saw it so when USA played Team Mexico Randy O'Rosa plays for Team Mexico Cal Riley is the catcher for Team USA Randy when he came up the bat went to go dap up Cal and he was like nah I'm good I'm good and initially people thought it was because of like oh you don't want to get Pintar on the ball whatever whatever no Cal was like nah man we're in competition I don't want to dap you up and then he thought that was all good and afterwards Randy did not take it all good and cursed him up and down in every Spanish language possible as his teammate after the WBC is over they gotta go play in the same team in Seattle tell me that locker room's not gonna be fun but that's kind of why this piece fits in here in a larger way Cal seems to understand the urgency of the moment better than some of the people that are in charge of the team USA team that's what made the whole thing feel off I mean players know the pressure players know that every run matters in a weird tie break setup like that but then your manager sounds like he thinks that this thing is already buttoned up and ready to go that disconnect is where the irritation comes from with people I mean Cal and Judge and Harper like all these guys are taking it super seriously that doesn't bother me. That part felt right acting like the work was done before it was done yeah something something tells me if and when baseball goes back to the Olympics they're not gonna be hiring uh just any little manager to handle the players but anyway enough about the national teams let's get to the uh the locals and we're gonna start with the Mets there's a couple a couple little headlines here I want to touch on Lindor is the headline uh I put out the poll 55% of you said that the lineup needs him 45% of you said he's ready when he's ready that split makes kind of all the sense in the world I don't know I want him in as fast as possible but the fans know fans know what he means to this lineup the team looks more serious when he's in it more professional more stable his presence changes the temperature of the group nobody has to explain that to Mets fans but rushing him just to win opening day optics would be pretty stupid too I I think people know that that's why the vote wasn't a landslide the lineup needs him yes of course obviously but the body still comes first yes of course obviously right both of those things can be true at the same time that's really all the Lindelor conversation is we want him back but don't force the clock pretty simple uh Carson Bench might be the starting right fielder might not be the starting right fielder that was the plan and now it looks like they said they're gonna send him down they're gonna start in the minor leagues well you know what he's making it real hard for them to send him down you know every camp has that uh that one guy I guess who starts making people a little uncomfortable in the best kind of way and the front office again thought maybe the timeline was one thing but player shows up and starts nudging it forward with his play those are good problems Mets fans those are the kind of problems that every team should want and last but not least for the Mets David Wright making a little appearance in the dugout making a little appearance in the team you love to see it and guess what he's there for he's there to help Bo Bachet learn third base a little bit better. That's the culture that's the guy whose number we retired. You know there's a couple memes floating around about Bo having some bad games at third and making some errors yeah he's never played third man but he's a shortstop I mean Arod took some time to learn third right I'm not calling Bo Bachet A-Rod but it's a learning curve with David Wright teaching him that's one era of the franchise reaching over and helping to shape the version of the next version of it you know it's stuff like that that gets dismissed and shoved under the rug until all of a sudden the team starts winning and both starts playing pretty good and everybody wants to talk about leadership and tone and institutional memory blah blah blah blah that's the part that matters right helping Bachette isn't just a nice little human interest note that's how a healthy baseball operation how a healthy baseball franchise is supposed to look and well as for the Yankees it's uh it's kind of the same old story yet again that's been circulating. I mean there's not much to report on the Yankees everybody's waiting for Cole to get healthy everybody's waiting for Radon to get healthy they're hoping Schlitler does well what's going on with Volpe what's going on with Gian Judge is killing it in the WBC so really the the only conversation that the media can keep perpetuating is the run it back conversation with Cashman and it's funny because the fans the fans have heard some version of this forever and that's kind of why the it lands that the way it has been landing lately. Look it's not even about the one quote about oh we're running it back we're not running it back it's bigger than that. And Yankee fans look at the team and feel like they have watched variations of the same movie for years now. Big expectations big names strong enough to matter flawed enough to make you uneasy and that's where the frustration comes from right I mean cashman says it's different says the says the roster has evolved say the the outside criticism is too simple they don't know what's going on some of that's probably fair right but the bigger question still hangs there what exactly is the blueprint what do the Yankees want this team to be when it gets pressed that's the part that fans are always measuring. Not the March headline not the optimism speech the actual shape of the team once the weather gets colder and the games start feeling heavier so when Cashman who's been here for 30 years looks the fans in the face and says yeah we're running it back but we're not running it back you know they have no choice but to laugh and say what are we doing here? Quick last note I want to touch on too there's two Yankees that are approaching the 400 home run mark and that would be Judge and Goldschmidt now Goldie getting to 400 feels like a you know classic late career milestone. Great player long run plenty of gold gloves nice clean number only 28 home runs away from 400 beautiful way to cap off and decorate the resume Judge well judge is a whole different animal judge only being in the league for how long he's been in being near 400 feels almost unfair to compare it that way. I mean again you know Goldie hitting 400 great cap to his career but if Judge hits 400 he's 38 36 I think the number was to hit 400 if Judge only hits 400 home runs in your career in his career you're looking back and saying oh God what happened? I mean this is a guy who has realistically potentially to hit 600 550 home runs in his career one guy getting there feels like a finish line the other guy getting there feels like the beginning of a much bigger number if everything everybody stays healthy. So yeah that's that's where I land on baseball side of things. Team USA team USA got caught peeking ahead they got embarrassed and now has to prove it can actually do something useful with the second life it was handed. The Mets have a uh Lindor conversation that should stay smart not desperate and the Yankees are still trying to prove the version of the plan is not the same old, same old in the next uh week or so we're gonna go over some MLB futures for players and teams some over under win losses some player home runs stolen bags all that stuff we got to bring back rolling the dice with rice segment so we're gonna have some gambling picks for you next week probably and also little uh little march madness tournaments right around the corner college baseball to be totally fair it's like hieroglyphics to me but I think I got a guy or two I can bring on or at least get some information from to uh feed the people the information they need but yeah let's close this thing out thanks for sticking around well another week down and another episode in the books that's gonna do it for this one and this episode really did uh come back to one thing more than anything else that was the theme that we set for the week and it was redemption. It was fresh starts it was you know whatever version of that you want to call it I mean Max Crosby getting sent right back to the same place he was trying to leave. Geno Smith circling all the way back to the Jets after nine years, ten years after he was drafted only to come back as a different man. The Knicks trying to remind everybody that one rough stretch doesn't have to define the whole story. And Team USA getting punched in the mouth but getting another life anyway. Hell even Bam in his own way stepping through that little opening when history tapped him on the shoulder and said hey this might be your night that's the part that I keep coming back to. You know a lot of people want a fresh start. A lot of people say they want redemption they want they want to talk about turning the page but there's very few people that are actually ready for what comes with it. And that's the part that takes humility that takes honesty the part that takes being able to look at the first version of the story and admit yeah you know what that one wasn't good enough. I uh I need another crack at this and this time I I better do something with it. You know sports sports is great like that. Sports gives you that mirror all the time sometimes you earn the second chance sometimes it just shows up on your door anyway. But sometimes the door cracks open for you for a half a second and you got the choice of either stepping through it or standing there and looking at it until it closes. But that's where the good stuff lives not in the perfect run, not in the clean script not in the everything going exactly how you drew it up in your head. The good stuff lives in what you do after the plan goes sideways. And life is like that too if we're being real not every false start means you're finished not every you know bad week means the whole thing is broken. Not every setback is a sign to just pack it in and give up sometimes it's just the part of the story where you get tested a little bit sometimes it's the part where you figure out whether you actually believe in yourself when things stop feeling easy. It's the part where you grow up you settle down you sharpen up and you become the version of yourself that was never coming out unless the first plan failed anyway so whatever lane you're in right now whether things are rolling for you or whether life feels like a little sideways just stay with it. You know keep showing up keep working keep your eyes open when opportunity swings back around and when it does don't freeze. You know don't play small don't apologize for wanting more step through the door and make it count. As always I uh I appreciate you guys for hanging out with me for another episode of Rice on the Micks thank you for tuning in this week and thank you for riding with the show. And honestly thanks for Interacting all week on the Instagram too. I mean, this week's mic check gets really good juice, and that stuff doesn't go unnoticed. So please keep it coming. Make sure you're following along on Instagram, on X or Twitter, or all the socials, Facebook, whatever you got. It's at Rice on the Mics. Rate the show. Review the show. You know, subscribe wherever you can. Tell a friend to tell a friend. Send it to your group chat. Do what you do. Next week, uh, next week, I think we're getting back to a little roll in the dice with rice, a little baseball season uh around the corner. So we're gonna have some fun with that. Little over-unders, win totals, player, home run totals, stolen bags, the whole mess. So make sure you come back for that one. Don't miss out on it. As always, we always end the show with this. Be positive in this world, spread some good energy, be a little bit nicer to somebody, hold the door a little bit longer, you know. It's really easy to be negative, it's a lot harder to be positive, but positive energy goes a long way. And make sure you tell someone that you love them. I am Ian Rice. This has been episode 56 of Rice on the Mikes. And I'll catch you guys next week. Same time, same place.