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Welcome back to Hit Sports. I'm your host, Carter. We are back after a quick hiatus. Sorry about that. We uh had church camp. Sam had church camp. Uh they're actually in Maton Rouge now, and so uh I couldn't wait any longer. And so here we are. Got a lot of sports to talk about. Coming up on today's episode, USA advances after beating Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-0. NBA is in the middle of the offseason and big things are happening. I have an NFL hot take that is going to blow you away. And we're going to recap the rest of the World Cup. All this and more on Hey It Sports. Alright, guys. Let's just get right into it. Uh preface by saying this is being recorded at 8 o'clock on Thursday, July 2nd. But currently, Portugal is up 2-1 on Croatia in the 110th minute. And so yesterday, again yesterday, as this is being recorded, the USA advance. They do something they haven't done since 2002. They advance in the knockout stages of the World Cup. And it's hard to not say we're on Cloud 9 right now. Um, just getting right into the game. There's been a lot of discourse about America, right? The the tides are changing. And we've gone from this underdog to this favorite. Now, obviously, we're not favorites in the grand scheme of things, like in across the whole tournament. But this is the best USA's ever looked in my lifetime, I'd say. There's a lot to be excited about, especially after what happened last night. And so we're gonna get into it. So USA wins 2-0. Um Flo Balogun with a nice shot, and then Malik Tillman with a free kick goal. By the way, first free kick goal for America in a competitive game, which means like a not a friendly game, since 2017. Like LeBron was still in the calves back then. Well, we got to talk about LeBron later too. Almost forgot about that. Just everything going right for America right now. The the defense is holding up a lot better than we thought. The midfield is is playing with the best of them. And for the first time since maybe like 2015, we have a competent goal scorer in Flo Balogun. I say all the time, in big tournaments like this, World Cup, whether it be the Euros, the Copa, you have a goal scoring problem until you prove that you don't. Right? Like you can have the best goal goal scorer in the world, but until he can prove that he's not in a slump in tournaments like this, he's in a slump. And man, he has come out and just put the ball in the net. He's had like two goals taken off for uh offside calls, but three goals that count, and all three of them, man, just absolute bangers that as American fans we're not used to seeing. And so it's a very exciting thing to see um Christian Polisic playing out of his mind. He hasn't scored, but that's not what he's been asked to do. He's asked to create chances and maintain possession, and that's exactly what he's done. No way. No way. Croatia just scored in the 112th minute. Are you serious? Oh my gosh, no way. Live reaction. Unbelievable. Ronaldo is in shambles. Is this his last World Cup game? We may find out by the time this episode's over. We'll see. On the last kick of the game, Croatia ties it up. Oh my gosh. Oh, poor Ronaldo. Wow. Going extra time, folks. Stay tuned for that. But anyway, um, but yeah, Polisic. Obviously, we're not playing it 100%. We we knew that coming in. We talked about that. But you know, he um he's doing everything that he's been asked to do. Oh no. Was he outside? He was outside. Oh no. It's not gonna count. It's not gonna count. Oh wait, no, he didn't touch it. Oh my gosh. What is happening? Okay, we'll we'll we'll get back to that later. Pulisic, great. Uh Tyler Adams, great. Chris Richards, great. Playing all tournament team level talent right now. Weston McKinney, absolute dog. Matt Freeze, doing what he has to do. Tim Reem, not sucking. And you know what, Tim Reem, that's all we need from you, just to not suck. Tim Reim actually led to our first goal last night. He had a pass up to McKinney. McKinney played it up to uh Balo, and Balo put it behind the behind the goalie, or actually through the goalie through his legs. It's just it's just a different culture right now. And you ask, what has that led to, or what does that come what do you accredit that to? I have to give it to our coach, man. You talk about an absolute culture shock for Mauricio Pochettino. This hard nose, like work hard, um, just just everything earned, nothing given, kind of mindset. That obvious it sounds very like okay, here's the ruling. Hang on. Here we go. We got the ruling. The referee is talking, he's offside. Absolute heartbreak. Absolute heartbreak for the Croatians. Oh no. Oh, that stinks. Luka Madric. Oh man, I hate that. Anyway, I know that that kind of mindset shouldn't be like the most groundbreaking thing, but I'm telling you, the way that things used to be ran, it just wasn't that. It was nepotism. It was we're we're okay with as long as we barely lose, like, especially to European teams. That's not the case anymore. We're not satisfied with anything but winning. And something like that, where you can get the players motivated, it it speaks volumes to what they're able to do. I mean, honestly, we haven't played the greatest competition yet. Again, I think we have met our expectations up to this point, and our first real test will be Monday night in Seattle against a Belgium squad. That, you know, they're they're they're their guys a little bit older, but they have all the experience, all the all the talent in the world that it's gonna push us harder than we've been pushed up to this point. And so I'm excited to see how we uh how he rides to the occasion, how we uh respond to a better a team that's better than us. This is the first team we've played that I would say is like just far and away better than us in the World Cup. And so we'll see. Uh unfortunately, we will be without Balo. And so with around 25 minutes left in the game, 35 minutes left in the game, um, absolutely egregious red card on Balogun. He raked the guy's ankle. And look, if you if you play in slow-mo, if you if you hold up the screenshot, like yeah, it was a bad bad play. But in the context of the full game speed, that was that was ridiculous. He did not even look at the guy. The guy came behind him, stuck his foot out in front of him, and Balogun stepped on his ankle and boom, red card. And so not only did that kind of obviously that sent him out for the rest of the game, but we had to play with man down, but we had to that he's gonna miss next game as well. And the the deeper in the tournament, obviously the harder it gets, and the more you need your your goal score. I don't know who's gonna score for us in the next game. I I don't believe in Pepe, if I'm being completely honest. I think he's a good player. He's just not at the level of some of these other guys. Um maybe Tim Wea. I don't think he's really a striker, though. It's gonna fall on Pepe. Maybe even Haji Wright coming on as a sub. But that honestly makes me very nervous. You're in a slump until you prove and that you you're not. And he hadn't proven that yet. He hadn't really made the most of his minutes. He hadn't had the most opportunity either, to be fair, but I don't know, man. It just this is not the time to be throwing somebody in there the way that we're we're gonna be forced to. And uh Belgium has one of the best goalies in the world and Courtois. He plays at Real Madrid. He has been a solid goalkeeper for probably about a decade now. And so getting getting it past him won't be the easiest thing. He um can't have the greatest World Cup, but I mean at any point, you know, he can he can turn it back up and be a top three goalie in the world. And so when you're in an America squad that is down their top striker, that is down the goal scoring, you know, that definitely rises concern for the Americans. But I believe in Pochettino, I believe in our guys, I think we're gonna get it done, and we'll wait to see. If we win this, we'll play Spain, most likely. Either Spain or Portugal. And obviously, right before the tournament, we lost to Portugal, didn't look very good against Portugal. Uh, and then Spain, we'll talk about them later, but looking like one of the favorites to win at all. So we'll see, man. I uh, you know, Sam and I we and Henry, we talked about, you know, who are these who are who's gonna step up for the Americans. Uh a lot of guys have, but we're gonna have to lean on some more with Balogun being out. You know, hopefully that's not it for his World Cup because he's had a great showing so far playing in his two games or his uh we'll say two and a half games now, as Portugal beats Croatia. Man, the end of an era. Luka Madric is done, some other guys for our team, they're probably done. Uh, but what I want to talk about America is the absolute just 180 that our country has put on for soccer. It has been so cool to see, like, because obviously, like, you know, I'm a big soccer guy, Sam and Henry, they're big soccer people. We we've been on the World Cup, like we knew it what was coming, but to see the reaction of like the general public, the general sports audience, the way that this is uniting our country, man, you listened to that that World Cup game last night, and the when they played the national anthem for America, and every single soul in that building was singing. I haven't seen that in a long time. Like these people are on fire for soccer, and I hope that the momentum can continue past this World Cup. I think a lot of it is gonna depend on how well USA does going forward. I mean, soccer could so easily pass hockey in terms of popularity in America. I think it could even pass baseball, honestly. Baseball's on the decline. It's it's amazing to see. You know, again, hopefully USA can keep that momentum going. Not just the national team, but US, the like American in general, can kind of keep that momentum going and kind of elevate soccer to something it's it's never been before. Um we've got the team to do it, and so it'll be interesting to see for sure. As far as our chances against Belgium, you know, I I really see it going either way. I think it really is just gonna depend on what Poach can do to um create chances for us uh strategically, and then how well our players can execute. Uh Weston McKinney, I think he's gonna have to move up a little bit. You know, he's been playing midfield a little bit more on the defensive side, but he's gotten up as well. But I think he's gonna have to push up into more of a um an attacking midfielder. And then Dest. I love Sergio Dest, I do. He is playing not in his position, but considering that, I think he's played as well as he can. Uh he's he's normally a defender, like a fullback, but he's playing, he's played like right wing pretty much the entire time he's he's been on the field. And he just his crosses aren't where they need to be. His he hadn't really hit his shots. He can he can get the ball down the field, which is great, but then once he gets in that final third, it's just kind of you know, hopefully he can drop it back and switch it or else he's gonna be in trouble. Uh Chris Richards, man. Chris Richards, he did not miss a pass in his first two games. And that is un like over a hundred straight passes he completed. You know, having that security on the back line, especially when he was next to uh look, I've I've uh dogged on Tim Reem a lot. Tim Reim has played very well. Uh again, against maybe what some people may consider weaker competition, but he is playing well. But having Chris Richards there to kind of back him up, for lack of a better term, like support him, it's been very good. And obviously Anthony Robinson, who's honestly may have been he may have been our best player over the past few games. Um, the left back, the number five, just creating chances, getting all over the field. He is his talent is world-class. He's finally playing with people that um can complement his game well. And when you have him and Polisic next to each other, or you know, stacked on top of each other, it is something else to see. Something that we haven't seen in America in a very long time. And yeah, like that's that's something that's really helped Polisic a lot too, is is is Robinson taking pressure off of him. And even having uh Malik Tillman, like let me tell you, Malik Tillman loves a back heel pass. And if you know, you know, like he has hit so many back heel passes that have been so fun to see. And that's another thing too, man. Like America, they're playing with this like confidence level that again, I I keep saying this, but I just I've never seen it before. And it it relates to um success and obviously, like I said, confidence and just fluidity. Like, that's such a big deal in soccer, is being fluid and not not um being rigid and being uh simple-minded and being flexible in your game plan and your pass pass chains and all that. And USA's had that. You know, they forced a lot of own goals, they've they've gotten the ball down in the sides and squared it very well, and and they've taken care of what they need to take care of. As far as Belgium, they're kind of like the Warriors if you're a basketball fan. Um you know, 10 years ago, they were in their golden era. They had the they had the Curry, they had the Clay Thompson, they had Kevin Durant. Uh, and now, you know, they still have all those guys, but they're far past what they used to be. Lukaku, he's kind of getting older, he's slowing down. De Bruynes still very good, but there's just not a lot around him. Courtois, like I said, the goalie, he's he's very good. Um, they got Jeremy Doku on the left, left wing, he'll give us some problems, I'm sure. Uh, but other than that, that's really all they have. Like, obviously, they have some other players, but those are kind of the only the big noteworthy names, in my opinion. It's gonna come down to if our defense can hold. You know, we we we're gonna have to score probably two or three goals. And if we can score three, I think we're gonna win. If not, we may be in trouble. Maybe looking at extra time, maybe looking at penalties, and then you know, it's 50-50 from there. So all eyes point to Monday night in Seattle. No, we don't have a huge stocker following, and so we're gonna switch over to some basketball. Basketball offseason has really got going. We had the draft last week. Free agency has started, some trades are being done, and so we're just gonna hit some of the uh some of the highlights here. So we'll talk, we'll start off with probably the biggest name that's been moved, and that is Giannis Anteta Cumpo from the Bucks. Giannis traded to the Heat for Tyler Hero, Khalelware, Ami Haquez, Kasparis, Yacusionis, and three first-round picks. Look, Giannis, great player, top five player in the league. He's 31 years old. In the Heat, you're trading three first-round picks on top of pretty much your entire core. Like, who do you have? You still have Bam, you lost Norman Powell, you picked up Bobby Portis in this trade, Andrew Wiggins, and then a bunch of just meh. Honestly, look, Giannis, great player. I hate the Bucks. I don't hide away from that. I do like Giannis. This feels like a lateral move in my opinion, because yes, you get Giannis, yes, you get the best player in the deal, but you just you lost so much, and now like you have no depth and you have no future to build depth with. You know, you got like you're starting Davion Mitchell, you're starting Tim Hardaway, probably, and then like literally one, like three other bench guys, like they're they're second stringers, I've never even heard of. Like, who the heck is Ryan Conwell? Like, he like a second round pick from last week. Who the heck is okay, Pele Larson? Who the heck is Drew Smith? Like, who who are these people? These are people that are gonna be getting meaningful playing time for the Heat. The Heat have no cap room. They have they can't they're stuck. They're they're literally in the exact position that the Bucs just traded out of. I love this return for the Bucs. I mean, Tyler Harrow, Kelel Ware, Jaime Hawkes, and three first-round picks and a second round pick. Like, golly, man. Like, I haven't really looked at this. I was at camp whenever this trade happened, so I didn't super look into it, but now that I'm really looking into it, like, what are we doing? This is terrible. You got you got Giannis and Bam. Like, who who the heck is shooting the ball on this team? I don't like this trade at all. I'm gonna I'm gonna go out there and say it. Don't like this trade for the Bucs. Love it for the Heat. Um, I mean, I love it. I don't like this trade for the Heat. I love it for the Bucks. The up the Bucs kind of reset. They're gonna maybe try to do their own little version of a uh Thunder rebuild. They're gonna just acquire draft picks and hopefully they can hit on those picks and just kind of reset. I mean, hey, it worked pretty well for them. So if they're able to replicate some of that success, I think that that bodes well for them. I'm gonna grade this a B for the Bucks and like a D for the Heat. Like, again, Giannis is great, but we just watched Giannis on a team with a bunch of nobodies. It doesn't work, right? Like, Bam Audio isn't isn't eons better than Miles Turner, so that's kind of a lateral move. I don't know. I don't I don't like it. I don't like it. We'll see. Um I I could definitely be proven wrong, but big L for the Heat there. The Nets acquire Julius Randle in a three-team trade. So the Nets acquire Julius Randle from the Timberwolves. Nick Claxton goes to the Bulls as well as some picks. Um sure, why not? You know, the the Nets kind of in the middle in no man's land at this point. I like what uh the Bulls have done. I like that they've got picked up Norman Powell. I like that they've um acquired Nick Claxton, getting Caleb Wilson in the draft. Good moves for the Bulls. Uh the Timberwolves, man, questionable moves themselves this offseason. So they obviously they trade Julius Randle. They re-signed Io Desumu for a $112 million contract over five years. Io Desumu is making like $20 something million a year. Are you kidding me? That's insane. For a backup guard. Oh my gosh, that's terrible. What are we doing? Ugh. Again, I was at camp when all this happened, and so I haven't super dove into it, but now I'm looking at it, it's like, what are we doing, man? The Timberwolves made another trade last week. They traded for LaMelo ball, and I saw this on paper. I was like, ooh, I kind of like that. And Lamelo teaming up. But then I looked at the uh what the wolves had to give up. Nas Reed, a first round pick, three pick swaps, a first-round draft pick, and three first round pick swaps. So basically with that, a pick swap is like I'm going to tentatively trade you my first round pick. And so either swap best or swap worst. If you swap best, so the the wolves and the the Hornets. If the Wolves have a better draft pick in the next year, then the Hornets, then the Hornets get their pick, and the Hornets send their pick to um Timberwolves. If the Hornets have the better draft pick, then they keep it, and the Wolves would tag a draft pick on the end of this deal. Um honestly it's just kind of something to make GMs feel better about trading all these picks. The the Hornets are probably gonna have a better draft pick than the Wolves. Actually, I don't know. I don't know. We'll have to see about that. But anyway, so the Wolves trade Julius Randle, the Wolves trade Nasreed. It's now you're stuck with Rudy Gobert as your big man. And who else do they have? Jaden McDaniels, who's kind of a small ball for my opinion. Um, and obviously no bench depth there because they just traded all their pieces. And so now you have Lamelo Ball and Anthony Edwards and Iodasumu. Iodasumu is 6'4, and he's gonna play small forward. I I don't think so. Two very ball-dominant players. Lamello needs the ball to be successful. You're definitely not taking the ball at Anthony Edwards' hands. And so we're gonna have to see if Lamelo can play alongside a guy like Ant. If not, then the Wolves just have dug themselves into an even deeper hole. The Rudy Gobert trade is still um haunting them. It seems like they they've put in too much for Gobert and they don't want to give up on that, even if that probably is the best thing to do. I'd rather have Naj Reed than Rudy Gobert at this point, honestly, just because of the versatility. Naj Reed obviously is not the defender that Gobert is, but I think that he has more, I just said, versatility. Uh he can spread the floor a little bit. He's a lot more athletic, he's younger, he's cheaper, but you know, I'm sure Rudy Gobert doesn't have a whole lot of uh draft or not draft, but uh trade stock these days. Lamelo, again, we'll we'll see. I think, especially considering that the the Wolves know, hey, if we want to make it to the championship, we're gonna have to go through Thunder and slash or the Spurs. And you just saw what Wimby did to you in the playoffs, and you trade away all your all your bigs. It just doesn't make make sense to me. You know, Julius Randle was the one who guarded Wimby in the playoff series, and obviously he didn't do a great job, but you know, who who's gonna guard him now? Go Bear cannot guard Wimbenama. I'm sorry. Wimby is too athletic, he's too quick, it's not gonna happen. And so you're telling me Jaden McDaniels isn't gonna block guard Wimby? You know that's like way down the line, but let's even if they don't meet the Spurs, that means they're meeting the Thunder. Like, who the heck is guarding Shea? Who is guarding J Dub? Like, LaMelo ain't playing defense. Anthony Edwards plays deep decent defense, but again, six four IO at the four at the three with six nine Jaden McDaniels at the four. Jaden McDaniels. A great defender. Um, but I mean you put bigger bodies on him, there's not a whole lot he can do. And so I just, man, I just don't like what the Timberwolves did this offseason. I think they kind of panicked. You know, yes, you have a generational player and Anthony Edwards, but you're still nowhere near the top. Like there's a two-headed monster in the West, and it's gonna be like that for the next decade, you know, and so there's only so much you can do at the end of the day. But this just kind of feels like they honestly, it feels like they got back, they went backwards. So we'll see though. As far as far as the Hornets go, I like I like the trade a lot for the Hornets. Uh they basically have said with their moves that they are all in on con Kanipple to be their guy. You trade Lamelo, who has had a lot of in uh injury history as well for Knipple, who I mean, it was just his rookie year, but he looked very good. Uh in a lot of years, he'd have been the rookie of the year, but obviously Cooper Flag was doing his thing in Dallas. And so um, but Kanipple averaging 18.5 points, uh five rebounds, three assists. For a rookie, not bad, especially on a team like the Hornets, where you're gonna get a lot of minutes. He played 81 games, uh, an average about 30 minutes a game. Um, a lot of potential out of him. And the Hornets obviously see that as well as they're all in on him with trading a guy like Lamelo, bringing in a guy like Nash Reed. Uh, who do they get in the draft? Let's see. The Hornets draft Kane Steinbach. I'll be honest, never heard of him, a power forward. I think they need a guard. I think they need a guard. I don't see a lot out of that depth. Let's see. They got Kobe White. I forgot they have Kobe White. I think they actually re-signed Kobe White. Yeah, they re-signed Kobe White to a three-year $74 million deal, so that's kind of expensive, I think. They traded for him with a trade deadline from the Bulls. But he looked really good for them in his in his short time, especially in that play-in game against the whoever that was, the Magic, I think. He he looked really good. And so, you know, having a guy like Khan at the two with him at the one, I I it it opens the floor up a lot. And then uh again, bringing in Najreed, I absolutely loved that for them. Uh, they did lose Mark, no, they lost uh Miles Bridges to the Suns. They uh traded him for a first-round pick. I mean, Miles Bridges for a first-round pick, I don't hate that for the the uh the Hornets either. So, like what they've done this this offseason, uh as great as Lamelo is, he he was injury prone, and I'm sure that gets very frustrating having to deal with that over and over and over again. Uh just asked the Pelicans with Zion. And so just getting rid of that, maybe kind of not restarting, but sort of retooling a little bit, bringing in a guy, Najreed, who's very dependable and uh doesn't take the ball out of Khan's hands. Um, I like it. I like what they've done. The Thunder have offloaded some of their guys. They traded off Isaiah Joe, they traded off um Aaron Wiggins, just a lot of you know, little moves that they had to do just because they have so many guys that they're paying for. They did re-sign Isaiah Hartenstein, which was interesting. A lot of people are kind of saying it was between do you re-sign Hartenstein or do you re-sign Lou Dort? Um, I'm not sure where Lou Dort is at this point in time, but they signed Hartenstein to a three-year, $75 million deal. So he kind of got the same deal that uh Kobe White got. And, you know, Hartenstein, a great not he's not a great center, a solid center. Uh, does what needs to be done. He does the dirty work for the the Thunder on a team that doesn't have a lot of dirty work kind of guys. That's not true. They have a lot of their dirt guys. Pretty much just bringing back all their guys they need. They still do have Lou Dort at this point in time. We're gonna see what the Celtics are doing right now. The the Thunder are gonna have to do that pretty soon because there's no way they can afford all these people that they're they're paying for. You gotta pay Shea eventually. You gotta pay, they just pay Chet. Um, you gotta pay J Dub. A lot, a lot coming for the Thunder. You know, they just keep acquiring draft picks, trading off their end-of-bench guys and saving money where they can, and they'll be right back. I know they didn't uh do as good this year as they did last year, but they'll be right back in it next year. Another big name on the move is Jaw Morant. Jaw traded to the Trailblazers for Jeremy Grant and Chris Murray. I don't like this either. All these big trades, I don't like any of them. It seems what let me read you the Trailblazers guard rotation just real quick. Jaw, Dame, Scoot, Drew Holiday, Shaden Sharp. Like that's five guys. Like, who were you telling to come off the bench in that? Are you telling Drew Drew to come off the bench? Are you telling Shaden Sharp to come off the bench? Are you telling Scoot Henderson to come off the bench? Obviously, they got Dame, he's gonna start. And I I guess Jaw would start, but they just traded all their bigs for all their for all the guards. Like, they had all these cards. Let me say they this was not a position of need. I think this is just the Timber the uh Trailblazers buying low on a guy that has proven to be a very good player. Uh they still got Donovan Klingon, who had a good re good year. Uh Denny Ivdia, who has really come on in the past year or two in Portland. They did re-sign Robert Williams. They still got uh Tumani Kamara, Defensive Player of the Year candidate, if it wasn't for Wimby. So I I don't know, man. Like I feel like they could have been smarter. Like if they were gonna move the pieces they moved in Jeremy Grant and Chris Murray, I think they could have gotten a better fit. Ja's only 26, though. You gotta remember that. It feels like he's been in the league forever. He's only 26 years old. Uh obviously things didn't end well in in Memphis, and that's that's kind of probably uh tainted his uh the how people view him and his ability, but you know, air quick playing with injury and you know, all these things, it it just it it they they had to let go of Ja. It it you know it just kind of had to happen. Robert Williams signed a three-year $44 million contract. Shout out Vivian's finest, Robert Williams. It's interesting. We'll we'll see how that works. Just a whole lot of stuff that doesn't go together, in my opinion. But LeBron James informs the Lakers he is leaving. He's gone. Bye. It's it's it's crazy stuff. So LeBron tells the Lakers people he's gone two days ago, so that is on Tuesday. Guess what happens on Monday? They re-sign Bronny to a contract. It's so LeBron waits for them to sign his son, and then he says, Hey, I'm out of here. That is so funny to me. And the Lakers wasted no time, like boom, boom, boom, boom, signed four free agents right after that. They signed Walker Kessler, Sandrew Mammu, Colin Sexton, and Quentin Grimes. Look, Walker Kessler, his his name is always in trade talks in the NBA because he plays for the Jazz and he's a decent player. I like that a lot for the uh for the Lakers. And then they also signed Sandro from the I'm not gonna try his last name, Mamu Keleshiv Kelloshvili. We're should say Mamu. Sandro Mamu signed him as well to a four-year, $52 million contract. Kessler getting a four-year $130 million contract. And look, that's probably an overpay, but when you got Luka Doncic, you got Austin Reeves, who they also re-signed, you know, you gotta do what you gotta do. Quentin Grimes on a pretty cheap contract, about $15 a year, and then Colin Sexton on a two-year deal. Solid moves to Lakers. I don't think this moves the needle hugely. Uh, but obviously the the biggest draw with that is LeBron, and where does LeBron go? We're gonna he's gonna take his time. Uh he's not gonna make it, he's not gonna rush his decision. He's gonna wait to see who what teams want him, what they're willing to give him, and who he can play with. You know, obviously this is gonna be his last stop, most likely. Uh he plays, I'm gonna say he has two years left. I think he's not gonna retire this year. I think he retires next year. Uh he's gonna do his full retirement tour and all that jazz. I think the favorite right now is the Warriors. Man, how crazy would that be if LeBron joined the Warriors? Like, obviously, that was a long time ago, but you talk about a full circle moment. I think it's between the Warriors and the Cavs, like which team is he joining? Like, and for it to be against those two teams, those two teams will forever just be uh fighting each other over everything, it seems. Yeah, that that's that's definitely the biggest headline in sports right now is where's LeBron gonna go? He should go somewhere that he he can compete. I don't think the Warriors offer that, even if they do pick him up, because they were gonna go for Anthony Davis too, but I don't think Anthony Davis is moving. I think he's staying in DC. Uh the Wizards just drafted AJ DeBonsa. And so I think AD stays put alongside Trey Young, who also got re-signed recently. So yeah, they they signed him to uh close to a max before the draft, even. So we'll see what happens there. I don't think LeBron's not going to DC, um, but I think Canthie Davis is staying. And I mean, you know, it's it's interesting. We'll we'll see what happens as far as uh where he goes, but it it it's one of the biggest things in sports. It's like when if if uh Tom Brady, when Tom Brady left the Patriots, like we thought we thought LeBron was going to retire as a Lakers, and then here we are, he's looking for a new home. The Raptors, come on now. The Raptors trade for Kawhi Leonard, and man, I told the story about my fandom and how I used to be a Raptors fan. Kawhi Leonard means a lot to me. I I uh I dug through my my old jerseys this week and tried to see if I had a Kawhi Raptors jersey. I never bought one. I guess that was before my jersey phase, but they they acquired Kawhi for Brandon Ingram, Grady Dick, two first round picks, and two second round picks. It's just such again another full circle moment. Like eight years ago, we we traded for him and we won a championship. Now I don't know if we're quite championship level. Look at me. I don't know if the Raptors are quite championship level now, uh, but it's just really cool to see. You know, they got Scotty, they got RJ, they got Emmanuel quickly, they still got Jakob Purdle, Colin Murray Boyles off the bench. This is gonna be a fun team, man. This is gonna be a fun team. And Kawhi, no one really knows what Kawhi has because it feels like he hadn't been playing full speed since like 2023. Um, but if he still has some in the tank, the Raptors can make some noise. But don't forget they were a five seed last year. They they took the Cavs to seven, and the Cavs ended up making it to the conference finals. Kawhi certainly raises their ceiling higher than Brandon Ingram and Grady Dick. I mean, Grady Dick wouldn't even play in hardly. He went he was getting DNP coaching decisions. Uh two first round picks is pretty steep for a 30 uh 35-year-old Kawhi Leonard, but hey, I mean, you're gonna be drafting at the end of the first round anyway. What are those picks really gonna do? I I love it for the Raptors. Uh Kawhi Leonard, again, just so cool to see him uh coming back to the North. I'm staying true to my pacers, but I'm gonna be a closeted uh Raptors fan this year. I'm not gonna lie to you. And then we also have Kyle Lowry retiring. Uh man, just uh I love Kyle Lowry so much. One of my favorite players of all time. What he did for Toronto, the greatest raptor of all time. Uh him and Damar will always be some of my favorite sports memories. Just the way they played together and the friendship that they had. Uh I remember him in the bubble just pouring his heart out against the Celtics. We lost that series. Uh, frick you, Kyle. Kyle's not listening. But anyway, um just I remember that and being like, man, he gave everything he had. And then he he left and moved on. It's weird to think of him having a career before the Raptors, but he played for like three teams before that. He played for the Grizzlies, played for the Rockets, maybe something else. I don't I can't remember off the top of my head. But shout out Kawhi. I keep saying Kawhi. Shout out Kyle Lowry, the greatest raptor of all time. Uh enjoy retirement. I think he's probably gonna go into uh sports media, uh broadcasting somewhere. Happy for him. And thanks for the memories, Kyle. Celtics make some moves. The Celtics signed Mitchell Robinson to a $47 million contract over three years. They signed Uncle Mike Conley, who is 38 years old. It's a one-year contract, probably a bet minimum. They do lose Nikola Vusevich. Uh, but I mean I honestly replacing him with Mitchell Robinson is a is a plus, in my opinion. I think that's gonna go down as one of the more underrated signings. Uh Robin Mitchell Robinson, one of the key pieces for the Knicks and their championship run. The Knicks trying to void trying to avoid the second apron, much like the Celtics, which is why they traded Jalen Brown. Boom. The second biggest name probably traded this offseason. Jalen Brown traded to the 76ers of all people. What the heck, man? You just traded to the your biggest rival. Are you serious? You traded your second best player to your rival that just came deck came back from being down 3-1, and you said, Hey, you take him. And what they gave up was so ridiculous, man. Jalen Brown for Paul George, Paul George and the big two six, 36-year-old Paul George, two first-round picks, two second-round picks. Like it was no secret that the the Celtics were trying to trade Jalen Brown. Uh I think they kind of panicked when they couldn't get Giannis. Like, I think they were really hoping for Giannis and uh Tatum to be paired up. But once that couldn't happen, they kind of scrambled. And I guess it was the best they can get. But we're trading Paul George for Jalen Brown. Are you serious? I I okay. Let me explain the separate second apron real quick to those that may not know. So in the in the NBA, you have the the the um salary cap, right? Like that's the most you can spend on your team. And then if you spend more than that, you go into what's called the luxury tax. And then after the luxury tax, there's the first apron and there's the second apron. And so this is really meant to keep teams like in these big markets from just spending all the money and paying all the extra fines because that ruins parity, right? And so this has really been an effect since since like like the first team I can think of to really be kind of screwed over by the second apron was the Nuggets. I'm not saying it wasn't a thing before then, that's just kind of my earliest memory of it. And so essentially, once you get to the first apron, you get penalized, like your team gets penalized, and and even more so than the second apron, like you lose draft picks, you're not allowed to access the buyout market, all sorts of things like that to where it's it makes it so much harder to build a team. And I mean, obviously it's possible, you just keep spending money on free agency, but like you can't make you can only make so many trades. Like it's a lot of very um big things that that are hard to overcome. And so the Celtics, they just paid Jalen, Jason Tatum, um, they paid Peyton Pritchard, they paid all these people. Uh they did pay uh Jalen Brown, and Jalen Brown was due for an extension. He was due for like another three, two or three years, like 150 something million. And they just they just flat out couldn't afford it, and so they had to move on. Um just another instance of the second apron killing teams. I am a fan of it, the second apron. I think it's good for parody, especially as a small market Indiana Pacers fan. Um, but it does suck for teams like the seven the uh the Knicks, teams like the um the Celtics. You're gonna see it in Oklahoma City pretty soon. There's no way they can afford to keep all their guys. I talked to my my my uh Celtics fan, Celtics fan friend, and he hates it. He's very disappointed. Uh again, shout out Kyle, who's definitely not listening, but it's okay. You know, you miss out again, you miss out on Giannis. I guess the second, I guess consolation prize is Paul George, which is a really tough place to be. Now, as far as the Sixers go, Tyrese Maxie, BJ Etchcomb, Jalen Brown, Joel Embiid, that is solid. Look out for the Sixers next year, man. I I like it a lot. I think they they got a great team now. So the the Celtics, Derek White still, uh uh Paul George, Jason Tatum, Mitchell Robinson. That's kind of their their their three or four, and then Peyton Pritchard as well. Um but uh just just absolutely gutting for for the Celtics. The Sixers, on the other hand, the Sixers are looking at again, Maxie, Edgecombe, Brown, Dean Wade, Joel Embiid, with Anthony Simons off the bench and Bona off the bench. Very, very solid 76ers team. They did lose Tobias Harris. Tobias Harris signs with the the Spurs. So the Spurs signed Tobias Harris and they re-signed uh Champagne too. And so the Spurs are improving. There's a lot of teams getting better. It's gonna make for an exciting season. Pacers, I'm just gonna talk about it because they're my team. Uh, we didn't do a whole lot. We signed Kelly Ubre to a two-year, $17 million deal. Uh, we kind of made all our all our deals in season, trading for Zuboc and all that, trading our training away, Ben Matherin. Ugh. Makes me so upset. I do not think we should have done that. I think that was kind of a panic move in my opinion. But we'll see what happens. I don't think uh I don't think Zubotch is all that. I think he was pretty good a few years ago. I think uh if there's anybody who can get it back out of him, it's Halle. Don't get me wrong. Uh I'm super excited for Halliburton to be back playing basketball again. We still got Siakam, uh, Nimhard, Obi Toppin, Nees Smith. The East is is all of a sudden getting very stacked. You see some teams dropping, some teams falling. We'll we'll see what happens, man. Um I think that's pretty much it for the NBA. Uh still a lot to be done. Obviously, still waiting to see where um LeBron signs. That's kind of what everybody's waiting on, right? Um if you can get LeBron, you you win the offseason kind of thing. Even if he is 47 years old. Let me know who who uh what NBA team has has made the best moves in your opinion, who's who's made the worst moves? I think the Timberwolves and the um Celtics lose in the Heat. I think those are my biggest losers. Two teams involved in two of the biggest names, and they're our biggest losers. So we'll see though. I think it's I think it's gonna be interesting to see. Still got a lot of off-season to go for sure. Alright, I tease this at the at the start of the episode. There's one NFL team in particular, and I'm not gonna go deep into the NFL because it's it's the dead dog days of off-season. Training camp starts in about a month. We'll we'll talk about football then. But before I just completely write off football, a very, very big trade happened since we've last uh or since I've last talked about football at least, and I want to talk about it. So the Rams trade for Miles Garrett, they give up Jared Verse and a first round pick and a second round pick and a third round pick. I think this is a bad idea. I do. The Rams have had the most confusing offseason. They they've made moves to say that we're in a win now mode, and they've made moves to say we're building for the future. They trade for Myles Garrett, they trade for uh Drew Tranquil, they they basically give up all their draft, their draft picks over the next few years, but then they draft Ty Simpson. You have an MVP quarterback who is most likely on his last year in the league, and you trade and you draft his backup. I just I don't like it. I don't like what the Rams are doing. You know, F them picks, they say that, and they have they have done that. You gave up a lot for Miles Garrett, who is admittedly probably the best defensive player in the league. You're gonna have to pay him now a hundred something million more dollars than you have to pay Jared Verse. And so you have Jared Verse, who is $150 million cheaper, like 10 years younger, and top 10 in his position. And you gave that up for the best player at his position, um, but at what cost? You know, I love I like this a lot more for the Browns than I do for the Rams. And again, I know there's probably a hot take. I just want to get it out there because you know, coming off season where he had the most sacks in infield history, look, it is a very much so a win-now move. But what do you do after the now? You know, they they traded Von Miller, they traded for Von Miller and they won a Super Bowl, but then you know, what happened after that? They kind of had to reset for a few years because they had given up so much for an aging edge rusher. And I think part of what have what would have made Miles Garrett so good with the Rams is the fact that you had a Jared Verse on the other side taking taking pressure off, but you gave that up. And so the Browns, obviously, you're not going to do anything with Miles Garrett other than win three games a year. And so drafting a guy like Jared Verse, or not drafting it, but trading for a guy like Jared Verse, who was so much younger, kind of helps he fits in their timeline better. Um you know, they had the great draft class from last year that played so well. They had some, they made some good moves this year. I just don't like what the Rams have done. I think a lot of people have them as the biggest winners of the offseason, but man, you have dug yourself in a hole after this year. Drew Trank was gonna be a lot of money. Miles Garrett obviously a lot of money. He just signed an extension, or he just re-signed a contract with the Browns that's now owed to the by the Rams. And then you're gonna have to extend them after that. Again, probably a hot take, but I just wanted to get my thoughts out there on that because I didn't get to when it happened, um, but we'll see. I I again like as far as like right now goes, like it's a great, great move, but you got to take the blinders off of just one year or two years. You know, a lot of people say, Oh, Aaron Donald's gonna come out of retirement. I don't think that's gonna happen. This does probably make the Rams Super Bowl favorite, and I guess if you go out for a Super Bowl, I guess it's worth it. But again, I just don't see the the long-term plan in this. All right, before we go, kind of want to talk through some more World Cup stuff. So we already hit pretty heavy on the USA, um, but there's a lot more going on, obviously. Some teams have rose to the occasion, some teams have kind of fallen. We're gonna we're gonna cover it all pretty uh pretty swiftly because we're running out of time here. The first thing I'm gonna talk about is kind of who. Has exceeded and fell short of expectations. Again, I'm recording this Thursday night, and so the the uh the Portugal Croatia game just finished, and so anything that happens after that I can't speak on because it hadn't happened yet. Uh biggest shock of the tournament probably uh would be the fact that Cabo Verde makes it out of the group stage. This is their first ever World Cup in a group with Spain and Uruguay for them to come second in that group. Shout out to them, man. No one saw that coming. Uh their goalie, he's like 40 years old, but he has played out of his mind and become like one of the biggest stories in the World Cup, Vizinha. Uh and so for them to finish ahead of Uruguay, a team who, if you remember, I was pretty high on as a sleeper team, but Uruguay just did not come to play this World Cup, and Cabo Verde took advantage and they're in. Also have Congo. They actually lost in their first round game to England, but man, they led that game for a long time. And another another team that they hadn't scored a goal in the World Cup in like 50-something years, obviously won a game in 50-something years, and so for them to come out and just really exceed expectations was very cool to see. They did come third in their group, but they did they did enough to make it over uh some other third-place teams. Another team would be Bosnia and Herzegovina, a team that hasn't made it in a long time, in like almost 20 years. Bosnia, another third place finisher, and put up a fight against USA, man. Like a team that a lot of people didn't really know a lot about, not a lot of expectation. They came out and uh and put out a solid match against America. They obviously lost because USA, but still, they exceeded expectations, in my opinion. And then one more kind of I can say this because they've played their um first knockout game as Paraguay, knocking out Germany. Man, I wish Sam was here. Y'all know how high Sam was on Germany. He that he was he was picking them to win the whole thing, and they go out on penalties to Paraguay. Congratulations, Paraguay. You now get France. So those are my uh biggest surprising teams, biggest disappointments. Uh man, Turkey should have easily beaten our group. They were in the USA's group, but they lost their first two games. They lost to Paraguay, lost to Australia, and they beat America, but that was kind of uh like America wasn't trying because they had already won the group. Uh very disappointing for Turkey. Ecuador, man, they they advanced, but barely. Uh this is one of the hottest teams coming into the tournament. They were like second in uh South America rankings. That means they were ahead of uh Argentina, and then they just kind of pooped it, pooped their pants, honestly. They couldn't score. Uh they got embarrassed by Mexico in their first knockout game, and so they're going home. Uruguay, I mentioned not playing well. And then uh Algeria, another team that the the pan this panel was pretty high on. They didn't really play well. They were super hot coming into the tournament, and then I mean they got dropped a hat trick on Messi. I guess that kind of does something to you, but not a great outing from Algeria. They do advance, they play Switzerland tonight. They're actually the next game as this is being recorded, and so we'll see what happens there. Reactions to the first few games of the knockouts. Germany falls in penalties. Germany has just once again not done what they should have done at the World Cup. So they won it in 2014, and they haven't made it past the round of 16 since. They got grouped one year, and then they've lost their first knockout games a couple times. Not good from Germany. Shout out Paraguay. Again, you're you're win your prize is France. Speaking of France, France has to be the best team in the tournament so far. No one can match their talent, and when they are firing all cylinders, playing well as a team, good luck, everybody else. You got Michael Olysse just doing everything, man. If you if you are looking for a player to watch, that's not the flashiest, not the uh all the highlight plays, watch Olysse, number 11 for the for France. He is he's the one putting the ball in the place for Mbappe, for M Dembele, for Barcola. Just lighting it up, not on the scoreboard, but on the um hidden, what I call hidden stats, uh Olyse. Canada squeaks past South Africa. Um pretty boring game, honestly. Not much to talk about there. And then my biggest gripe so far, the World Cup. Netherlands versus Morocco. Two teams that could have very easily met in the quarterfinals and the semifinals, and you pair them in the first round. How do you let this happen? I don't know how they decide who plays who in the knockouts. For the Netherlands to win their group and then have to play Morocco in the f in the round of 32, that's ridiculous. Like if we're gonna keep adding teams to the tournament, we've got to figure something out. There's absolutely no reason these two teams should be playing in the first round. You could say the same about Portugal and Croatia, you could say the same about um Brazil and Japan. It's just ridiculous. We we've got to figure something out. That's been the biggest failure, in my opinion, for this World Cup is the seeding of um knockouts. I mean, you look at the bracket, the best team Argentina has to play before they make a hypothetical final is Colombia. You have USA, Spain, Portugal, Croatia, Netherlands, Morocco, France, Germany, England, Mexico, all on the same side. Like, that is insane compared to Colombia. Argentina, okay, Mexico and England are on the other side. Never mind. But still, like, it's crazy. Like I'm not gonna get into a conspiracy theory of or anything, but it almost feels like something's going on here where they're trying to help Argentina. I love Argentina, I love Messi. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna say that with any sort of weight behind it, but it's just interesting to think about, man. Like if because they're they're talking about expanding it even more in the next few World Cups. Like, we they're they're gonna have to figure out something. Some sort of reseeding, some sort of something to where these teams aren't having to play the such high quality opponents in the first round. And like obviously, like I get the the stance of like, well, if you're gonna win, you have to play them eventually, but like I would rather the best eight teams be in the quarterfinals than see a quote upset Cinderella run because this ain't this ain't March Madness. Like only eight different countries have ever won the World Cup. And so if you want to see the best competition, you need to you need to make it to where the best competition lasts to the end for the games that really matter the most. The last thing we'll talk about is the golden boot race. Golden boot goes to the highest score. And so you have Mbappe, Messi, Holland, uh Dembele, all these Harry Kane. There's a lot. Vinny, there's a lot of guys in the running for this, and it's very fun to watch. So you have Messi and Mbappe with six. Mbappe has played an extra game. Uh Harry Kane and Holland with five, and then Dembele and Vinny with four, and then a bunch of guys with three. Man, it's it's it's heating up. The record for most goals won the World Cup is 13. I think it's possible we see that get broken this World Cup. Obviously, they all get an extra game if you make it to the finals, and so it's it makes it easier. Um, but another interesting thing to watch is Messi and Mbappe are one and two in all-time World Cup goals. Messi is up by a few right now, and so if Mbappe, I don't know if he passes him this World Cup, but he will pass him eventually. Just another fun thing to watch for. Um, but yeah, still a lot of exciting soccer ahead. If Argentina, Cabo Verde tomorrow, as well as Colombia, Ghana, and Australia and Egypt. So I'll tell you what, I'm gonna predict the rest of the World Cup. So we've got France, Paraguay, give me France, Morocco over Canada, Spain over Portugal, America over Belgium, uh give me Norway over Brazil, England advances over Mexico, Argentina, uh, Egypt, Algeria, Colombia, then give me Colombia, Argentina, uh, England, Spain, France. And so my final eight, final four, it's France, Spain, England, Argentina, France, Spain, England, Argentina. Give me France, no, give me Spain, gimme Spain, give me Spain, give me Argentina, and Spain gets it done. I'm sticking with my guns. I think that um I think that Spain gets it done in the end over Argentina. That's my prediction. So still a lot of football to be played. Be sure to check us out on socials, uh, follow us wherever you get your podcast. This has been Had Sports, sign off for Carter. Go USA.