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It was a cheap shot. It was an unnecessary shot. It was a beneath Kevin Durant's dignity shot. And what struck me about a Kevin that I've had my many battles with is, why Kevin? Here we go. This is
is the Skip Bayless Show, episode 123, because there's only 123. I'm talking about the one and only, the original Michael Jeffrey Jordan. You know it and I know it. But before I proceed, a quick guest cameo from my daughter, Hazel. She wanted to say hi today. She happened to be in the neighborhood.
Say hi. Look pretty today. She looks very pretty. Thank you, Hazel. She would like to contribute today, but I think she is ready to go to sleep because it's time for her afternoon nap. But this, as always, is the undisputed. Everything I cannot share with you during Undisputed. And by the way, just a quick aside before I proceed, because my memory got jogged by one, two, three, the one and only.
I just get so offended every time I see LeBron do the pregame powder toss. I was most offended watching the Olympics, the first two games. He does it at the Olympics. It just seems wrong. He stole it from the one and only 23. He had the audacity. He was presumptuous enough to say, I will carry on the tradition. No, you won't. No, you haven't. You've got to stop.
especially in the Olympic stage, the international world stage. It's sacred. This comes across to me as, dare I say, blasphemy, but this is episode 123. And today, speaking of the Olympics, I will tell you why I don't think Team USA today would have any chance against that Team USA, the dream team, 1992's Jordan's dream team. And today, today,
I will delve into the maddening, frustrating, perplexing psyche of one Kevin Bleepin Durant. And today...
I will tell you why I am applauding all those mini-Cowboy fans who are not going to their training camp out here in Southern California in Oxnard. And today, I will answer several of your probing, provocative questions, including, would I rather coach football or basketball? That's a good question. And also...
My favorite cereal? Yep, I'll answer that question. And I will end today with a spoiler alert. Beware. If in fact you want to watch Presumed Innocent on Apple TV, the eight episodes that have now officially dropped, I'm going to spoil the ending because I'm going to tell you to end this show, my problems with that show's ending.
But up first, as always, it is not to be skipped. I'm going to start with the question. I'm going to start with Alan from the Bronx, as in New York, who asks, if the Dream Team played this Olympics team, who would win? All right, it's a fair question. It's a looming question. We're now only two games into this team's run, two games of group play, followed by one more game of group play, followed by, we all hope,
Three medal round games, quarters, semis, final. We all hope Team Gold does win the gold medal. So, Alan, I must admit, as I tape this, I'm fresh off watching the second Team USA game in group play. The one I just watched was against South Sudan. Obviously, in a practice game 10 days before, South Sudan took...
This Team USA to the buzzer had two shots at the buzzer to win it, at or near the buzzer. Anthony Davis completely bothered one of those shots, and Winyon Gabriel could not get up the shot before the buzzer went off after he got the rebound off the miss. I figured that today's game would be a rout, would be a mismatch, would be Team USA taking the
South Sudan so seriously that it would be an annihilation. The spread opened at 30 plus points. I think it finished at 28 and a half points. My man, Paul Pierce on Undisputed gave me Team USA minus 20. I gave Paul South Sudan plus 20 points. And here's what happened. Team USA was up 20 in the second quarter.
Team USA was up multiple times, 20 in the third and the fourth quarters. And Team USA won by a grand total of 17 points. So I lost my dinner to Paul Pierce that we had bet. We're now even in our dinner bets for the year. Do you know what the Dream Team would have done up 20 in the second quarter to South Sudan? Do you know what Jordan's team would have done? Magic's team would have done? Larry Bird's team would have done?
Charles Barkley's team would have done. Patrick Ewing's and David Robinson's team would have done. Chris Mullins' team would have done. To South Sudan, it would have been an annihilation. The Dream Team did not face the level of competition this team will face this year. Obviously not. But the Dream Team won by an average score of 117 to 74.
117 to 74 was the average score. We're talking about 40 plus points margin of victory a game. I'm sorry. My man Paul Pierce has made the case on Undisputed that this year's team is so deep in talent that it would, and I'm going to use Paul's word, dominate the dream team, the 92 dream team. Paul, I'm sorry. You're dead wrong on this one. This team this year
could not break open a 20-point lead in the second quarter. This team this year struggled in practice games that I watched against Australia late, against South Sudan, and against Germany. All I need to tell you, Alan, is I'll boil it down for you. One team had Michael Jordan, and the other team, this team, does not have Michael Jordan. And sometimes I need, I feel, to refresh everybody's memory of
on just how dominant Michael Jordan was. And I'm talking about physically, mentally, emotionally dominant. For all of you younger viewers and listeners out there, I just need to refresh your memory on what a force of nature he was. The ultimate force, the ultimate cold-blooded, the coldest-blooded basketball killer who ever walked.
To me, Jordan was the coldest-blooded competitor in any sport, in any era. I covered him. I got to know him a little. Not that I'm great friends with him, but I got to know him. I got to be around him. Never seen anything like him. If you had given Michael Jordan's team a 20-point lead in the second quarter, they would have won by 40-something just the way they did against the Angolas that they played back in their run to the gold in 92.
There was only one Jordan, and I don't see anybody Jordan-esque on this squad. I love Kevin Durant. I'm about to delve deeper into his psyche in just a moment. But I'm never sure about cold-blooded killer in Kevin. I'm never sure about it because off the court, as I'll get into, the man has had burner accounts. Really? Cold-blooded killer? I'm not sure about that. Great player. Arguably the most unstoppable shooter ever.
in the history of the world. Greatest score for Team USA in our history. Unbelievable shooter. Came into this game today in 23 Olympic games, making 52% of his threes. I give you all that. But when push comes to shove, cold-blooded basketball killer. On the level that Jordan achieved, that Magic achieved, it's just a tiny notch below
Jordan, whoops, sorry, that's Hazel. She still wants to be a part of this. Larry Bird was on his last legs at age 35, had a bad back, did average eight points a game, but just his near presence as a coldest-blooded basketball killer on that team gave it a psyche, a mentality,
that had the insiders talking about the only real games they played were against each other because it got nasty and it got violent and it got extremely physical. Those were the real games for that team. I'm sorry, just on mentality, just on approach, just on we're going to slit your basketball throat. There was nothing like that collection of forces, of wills, of wills,
that I don't feel on this team. LeBron James has now played two group play games and he's had six turnovers in each game. He is trying his damnedest to win the MVP. He is trying with all of his might to win a third goal, to cherry pick a third goal as the leader of this supremely loaded team, this heavily favored team, so that he can say in the end he had three goals to Jordan's two.
Six turnovers against Serbia, six turnovers against South Sudan. It gets ugly. He's forcing the issue. He's trying to win the MVP. They haven't had an MVP.
for the duration of the Olympics, there was no MVP to be won in Jordan's day, or he certainly would have, I believe, in 92, even though he wasn't the leading scorer. Barkley was slightly higher as a scorer. I think Michael would have been the MVP of that team, and I don't think it would have been a unanimous vote, whoever would have voted for it. But we've only had an MVP since the 2020 Olympics, played in 2021 because of COVID, and Durant won that one, and maybe he'll win it again.
But Steph Curry, I know it runs hot and cold with Steph, but I just watched him go one for nine from the floor and 0 for six from three. He was better against Serbia. He's getting up there in age. Just remember, this team, USA, has its three top players are all older than the oldest member of the 92 Dream Team. That would be Larry Bird.
Steph is older than Larry Bird was in 92. Kevin Durant is older than Steph was in 92. LeBron is obviously much older than Larry Bird was in 92. So we have an aging team, and maybe it runs out of some gas. Maybe it doesn't quite have the legs to finish off a South Sudan when you have them down 20 in the second quarter. It should have been a 40-point blowout.
And I had to watch a fourth quarter. And again, my pride's on the line. I'm losing a dinner to Paul Pierce, but I had to watch South Sudan refuse to lose, to quit. They fought and they scratched and they clawed and they made a couple of late threes and LeBron had a couple of late turnovers and they hung in and hung on to a 17 point deficit. I just wasn't impressed. I just know what would happen psychologically
If you put LeBron and, hypothetically, Michael Jordan on the floor at the same time, Michael would be talking the whole game. Michael would be whispering in his ear, watch what I do to you next. I just watched early in this game today, and I'm taping this on Wednesday, I just watched LeBron get blown by and dunked on in the first quarter. Would Jordan have allowed that at age 29? No.
the 92 dream team Jordan? No, there's no way. Listen, he won a defensive player of the year. Do you understand? He was a defensive player of the year at six feet, six inches tall. LeBron used to be a very good defender, an all NBA defender, not anymore. I'm not sure Steph was ever much of a defender, but he's definitely not anymore.
Because I saw Steph have problems today with the Jones kid for South Sudan, who was the G League MVP a couple of years ago, but played this past basketball season in China and Serbia, Harleek Jones. And he's blown by Steph in the fourth quarter again and again. And I'm out of my mind because I'm losing a dinner. I'll be the first to admit. But come on. Defensively, Patrick Ewing and David Robinson protecting the rim. I love Anthony Davis.
Is he made of that kind of stuff? No. I love what Bam has. Bam is made of that kind of stuff. He's a little undersized, plays his guts out, plays his heart out. He led the team in scoring today. I love that about him. But is he supremely talented? Could he measure up in just sheer size and length to David Robinson and Patrick Ewing? No, he could not. I'm sorry. Joel Embiid didn't play today. I don't know what's up.
He's not in good shape. He doesn't seem to care. You want to talk about lack of killer will? Joel said the other day at the Olympics, he's having a blast. He's having fun because the pressure's off. He's playing with all these great players and nobody expects anything of him. And he's happy to defer having the time of his life because the pressure is off. Would Jordan have ever said that? Stop. Magic? Bird? Seriously?
That's the psyche. Joel is the most supremely talented player we have, and I could make a case as talented as anybody on the floor, potentially, of the 92 Dream Team, because obviously at whatever Joel is, 7'1", when he's right, he is really right. He's not right right now. He's had his knee issue. He doesn't watch what he consumes.
what he eats, what he drinks. He looks like he's, I don't know, 15 pounds heavy. I'm sure his knees are barking at him. It's psyche. It's will. It's not there for this team the way it was for the 92 Dream Team. No, the competition wasn't nearly as fierce as they're facing now when they do meet Canada. I still like Canada. If you give me Shea Gilgis, Jamal, R.J. Barrett, Nimhardt,
I like that team. They can shoot it. If they have a hot night, I don't know how it's going to shape up, the matchups in a quarter, semifinal. Give them a shot against Team USA. Just because I question the psyche of LeBron and the psyche of Kevin Durant. Kevin Durant, or I should say his teams, are crazy.
6-14 in their last 20 playoff games. Last 20 times Kevin has played an NBA playoff game, his record, his team's record, is 6-14. Do you remember when Brooklyn got swept by the Celtics? Ime Udoku Celtics? Remember that one? Kevin shot 23% from three in those four games. Remember what happened a year ago against Denver? It went six games. Kevin had a horrendous shooting record.
six games and that was 26% from three in those games. And then Kevin's team, obviously, the Suns got swept by Minnesota in this year's playoffs that just ended. I don't know. Killer Will, Jordan Ask, I don't know. Kevin is extraordinary in international games. I'll delve more into that in just a moment. But I'm not sure when push would come to shove against the dream team,
that Kevin would be trusted against Jordan and Bird and Magic. This team got out-rebounded by South Sudan, 41-36. Seriously? Dream team? Ewing, Robinson, Charles Barkley, one of the great below-the-rim rebounders, the round mound of rebound, as they called Charles back in the day. I don't know. I haven't seen it yet from this team. Maybe I will. Maybe I'll reflect back after the gold is won.
and the deed is done, maybe I'll say, okay, now I see it. But right now, Paul Pierce, dominate the dream team? Are you serious? Right now, the dream team would turn this team into a bad dream. Trust me.
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All right, speaking of Kevin Durant, as my man Keyshawn Johnson on Undisputed did a couple of days ago. Keyshawn loves Kevin Durant. Keyshawn has raved about Kevin Durant repeatedly for days on end on Undisputed. But as we got into a debate battle, Keyshawn made the point that if Paul Pierce, sitting at his left elbow, had gone
to join forces with Steph and Clay and Draymond in Golden State in 2016, the way Kevin did on July the 4th, if Paul Pierce in his prime, his Boston prime, had done that, that Paul could have done what Kevin did on that team, that dynastic team. And I couldn't argue. Look,
Will Paul's career prove to be better than Kevin Durant's? No, but Paul was really, really, really good. He was the truth. Top 75, Hall of Fame. Paul Pierce was something to behold. Paul Pierce had the clutch gene.
Paul Pierce could score it on anybody. Paul Pierce gave LeBron James all he wanted on both ends of the floor. Paul Pierce at 6'7" could guard and bother LeBron James. I'm not saying he could shut him down. He could bother him. He did not back down from LeBron. And he definitely could score on LeBron when he was a first or second team All-NBA defender. That's how good Paul Pierce was. So I didn't think it was an outrageous statement.
certainly not one that would set off Kevin Durant over in Paris. And it did. It detonated. I guess Kevin was bored. I guess he was sitting in his room, scrolling, maybe saw the clip from Undisputed, Keyshawn saying what Keyshawn said. And Kevin probably didn't think about what he was typing and hits in and fired back at Keyshawn with the conclusion that
that Kevin said, "I hate hypotheticals." So he threw a hypothetical back at Keyshawn, who went first overall in the 1996 draft. And I won't go into the gory details, but Kevin looked up the '96 NFL draft and said, "What if he had gone? What if he had gone? What if he had gone first? What if he had gone first? Would they have been better, better, better, and better?" Okay, you could certainly argue, but Keyshawn was really good.
Keyshawn did win a ring as an important member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It was a cheap shot. It was an unnecessary shot. It was a beneath Kevin Durant's dignity shot. And what struck me about a Kevin that I've had my many battles with is, why, Kevin? Why would you stoop to take that shot at that moment at Keyshawn Johnson, an NFL player talking about the NBA, way over in Los Angeles?
many, many time zones away from you in Paris, where, by the way, Kevin, you had just pulled off one of the great scoring displays, scoring surges I have ever witnessed with these two eyes. I wasn't sure Kevin Durant could play in the opening group game against Serbia, a fairly dangerous opponent. I just wasn't sure they would clear him to play because we all remember what happened
In the 2019 finals, when Kevin had a calf issue and he pushed it and he tried to play and he looked great for a while, looked like he could surge to MVP there. And then we all know what happened. His Achilles gave and ruptured. And that cost him not only the rest of that finals, but the whole next season was lost. And I'm sure that was eating at Kevin's psyche as he tried to decide, is my calf fully healed enough that I can push off
full force with supreme competence and not threaten my Achilles tendon. Well, Kevin played, as you remember in game one, but he did not start, which surprised me. I thought a starter by trade, by birth, Kevin would say, well, start me and play me for three or four minutes and then let me see how it feels. No, no. Kevin came in late in the first quarter as the 10th man off the bench. And you know what happened.
In little more than one quarter against Serbia, Kevin Durant scored 21 points. He made all eight of his shots. He made all three of his threes before halftime. 21 points, and he flipped that whole game on its head. Serbia was up 20-14, and then suddenly Serbia was down nine at halftime. Serbia went 0-9 from three in the third quarter, and it turned into a blowout thanks to Kevin bleeping Durant.
the international man of mystery, the Austin Powers of the NBA. On the international stage, never seen anything like him. Averages 20 a game. I just mentioned in the previous topic, just the 23 Olympic games. Well, let's throw on the nine FIBA games. So 32 international games Kevin has played. He shot 50% from three. That's impossibly great for a seven footer, especially for any footer.
for a five footer, it's impossibly great. What? 50%? He's taken 210 threes in international competition. That's a lot. He's made 105 of them. That was going into today. Wow. So Kevin, you just gave us one of the great scoring displays ever in international play for Team USA. You saved the game. I'm not sure that Team USA would have beaten Serbia
without Kevin Bleepen coming off the bench. I'm just not sure about it. I have grave doubts about it. Kevin, you could argue, saved the Olympic run. What if they lose to Serbia? Group play. What if they get in trouble? What if they're reeling against South Sudan and they're not sure they get in trouble against South Sudan? What if we don't make the medal round? No, Kevin saved that day. So coming off that, that exhibition, that performance,
that that spectacular display of supreme shooting ability unlike any we've ever seen for a seven foot man you can shoot it up so high over his head that nobody can can even bother it coming off that international glory and you stoop to take a shot at keshaun johnson what have i said about kevin from the start he's
He's impossible to explain. He's a seven-foot oxymoron. He's an unstoppable conundrum. He is so strong and yet so weak because Kevin Durant is the most insecure superstar I have ever closely observed who is big game clutch. Insecure, big game clutch, oxymoronic.
Kevin Durant is the thinnest skinned superstar I have ever closely observed and studied. Yet he went to Golden State with the weight of the NBA world on his slender shoulders, and he won back to back finals MVPs. He is the greatest US player ever in international play. That thinnest skinned superstar who has been caught with burner accounts.
so he can anonymously fire back at people who dare to question anything about him. Thinnest skinned superstar ever. Never seen anything like him. Why, Kevin, why? You're so much better than this. Usually when you're insecure and you're thin skinned, it translates into unraveling in big basketball games on big stages. Not for Kevin. Nope, it's just the opposite.
Never seen anything like it. The more thin skin that Kevin gets, the better he tends to be in big games on big stages. Again, lately in the playoffs, ever since that game in 2021 at Brooklyn, the infamous toe on the line game, that was the essence of Kevin. Those games, that was game five and seven of that series against Giannis in Milwaukee.
That was Kevin Durant at his greatest apex in those two games. They were both masterpiece games, except for game seven's overtime when Kevin just flat out ran out of gas psychologically and physically and hit the wall. But he hit the shot, which I thought was one of the great clutch shots I'd ever witnessed. I fell off my chair and rolled on the floor when it went in, and I did not catch anything.
at first glance, that his toe was barely touching the three-point line. If it had not been Brooklyn wins, instead, overtime, and really Chris Middleton took over, not Giannis, Chris Middleton took over for the Bucs in overtime, as he is wont to do. He is big game clutch, Chris Middleton. Kevin disappeared in overtime because he sort of shot himself in the heart,
with that toe barely touching the line those giant feet of his if they could just been a quarter of an inch shorter we'd be having a different conversation but ever since that night kevin bleepin has been pretty bleeping bad in the playoffs he just has he shot it poorly from three he's looked older he sort of looked his age against boston when they got swept they did beat the clippers without kauai
I think that was out without Paul George. I think it was just Russ was left that series. But then Denver, I thought they had Denver. And then Chris Paul pulled his hamstring right on schedule again. And Kevin was no good as they lost in six. Very disappointing. Did not live up or play up to Kevin Bleepen. And then this year against Minnesota, numbers weren't bad, but he was never that guy at that moment taking over that game the way he took over the Serbia game.
Kevin just drives me crazy, but he has from the start. I've told the story before, I'll mention it again. I was the biggest Kevin Durant fan when he was at Texas. I raved about him in my first year on cold pizza on ESPN2 out of New York City. I raved about him. I ventured out to the end of the limb. I said, "That kid, that string bean down at Texas, I don't like Texas. I'm an Oklahoma fan. I hate Texas. I hate everything orange."
That guy, I said on cold pizza, is going to win multiple NBA scoring titles. Finally, after I got laughed off the set by Woody Page and Jay Crawford, some days passed, we had Bill Self on, the Kansas coach, and Bill interrupted Jay Crawford to say, hey, tell Skip he's right about Kevin Durant because Bill Self knew what was coming. He saw it up close. Kevin Durant was coming back.
Kevin Durant in his MVP season went 50, 40, 90, 50% from the floor, 40% from three, 90% from the free throw line. Can he ever shoot free throws? Kevin bleeping. And what happened? Biggest fan, me, tried to love the Oklahoma City Thunder, but I was having a hard time getting my arm around Russell Westbrook. Didn't see him coming out of UCLA. Didn't see it at all. He was there for two years. I couldn't see it. Sam Presti saw it.
And here came the younger brother, quote unquote, Russ, to Kevin Bleepen. And all of a sudden we're into 2011, I believe it was. And I'm watching night after night and Russ starts taking more shots on a nightly basis than Kevin Durant. And I could not take it. And I began to talk about it on first take on ESPN.
Word gets back to Kevin. And one night he calls over the reporter for the Oklahoman, the paper I grew up reading in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He calls over the beat writer and he unleashed on me and said, pardon my language, I don't know shit about basketball. So wait a second. I was defending Kevin against Russ, but Kevin said I didn't know what I was talking about.
biting the hand that's trying to feed you. I know he's defending his little brother and his teammate. I got it, but I didn't get it. And the next day on first take, I went off on Kevin Durant. I went in on Kevin Durant because I was angry. I was offended. After all that I'd done to defend him and support him, you do that to me? I don't know shit about basketball. Still haven't quite gotten over it.
There have been multiple other times. He was in Brooklyn, I don't know, this is three years ago maybe. It's one random night. I'm raving about a Kevin Durant performance for the Nets. I'm raving about it. And he ats me, tags me, he at real Skip Bayless's me and says, and I quote, I hate you. You hate me? For what?
I don't know. What did I do? I raved too hard? Did I put too much pressure on you? Help me out, Kevin. I don't know because I don't. I don't get it. That's Kevin Durant. Perplexing, but captivating, frustrating, but unstoppable, maddening, but bleeping great. It just seems like at some point, Kevin would relax into being Kevin Durant and accept just how all-time great he is. A lot of people already have him in the top 10.
I'm not there yet. I need to see how it all finishes, how it all concludes, how these Olympics conclude for that matter. But I got to tell you, Kevin Durant routinely drives me crazy. If you Cowboy fans want to tune out, tune away. I've seen two recent reports that say you are tuning out out here in Southern California at Oxnard at Cowboy training camp. Two reports that say
The stands at the practice field have been shockingly, embarrassingly empty. I know it's a small sample size. It's still pretty early in camp, but it's a big deal. Maybe I helped set this tone. I'll take some credit for it, but not by choice, just by heart, just by sheer, cannot tell a lie, honesty. I've helped set this tone. I know what those training camps used to be like. I went to cowboy camps for...
15, 18, I don't know, maybe up to 20 straight years. I went to cowboy camps out here in Southern California when they used to be in Thousand Oaks. It's just short of Oxnard as you drive away from LA. In the Roger Staubach Super Bowls era, I went to cowboy camps in Thousand Oaks. I know what those fans were like. It was a daily chaotic rock concert.
during the Troy Aikman Super Bowl dynasty era in the 90s. I went to cowboy camps at St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas. Year after year, it was mayhem. It was lunacy. It was as loud at practices as games were at the old Texas Stadium. I was there. I felt it. I stood on the sidelines for practice after practice. I know what it looked like and it felt like and it smelled like.
championship caliber. I know because I grew up lifelong diehard Cowboy fan and now I think there are a whole lot of me's out there. A lot of hardcore Cowboy fans who are just having a hard time getting re-excited for another Cowboy season. Jerry Jones and company are killing our hope. I've just gotten to the point where I'm embarrassed enough
This is all about bragging rights in the end. That's what we do. It's why we're talking right now. It's about we choose a team. We're loyal to a team. We buy the merchandise, wear the jerseys of that team. We live for that team. We die with that team. But we brag when we win bragging rights. That's what it's all about in the end. Bragging rights. Jerry and Company
Keep giving the haters laughing rights, laughing at us, laughing at our embarrassment in a home playoff game in which we fell behind 27 to nothing as the two seed against the seven seed. That happened. And I'm worn out. I'm tired of trying to defend the Dallas Cowboys because they're indefensible. It was 27 to nothing for
before halftime of a home playoff game against a first-year starter at quarterback in Jordan Love, who I now would take any day, any night, any Sunday, Monday, Thursday over Dak Prescott. I've seen enough of Dak. I've seen enough of Jordan Love. 27 to nothing on the way to down 48 to 16 early in the fourth quarter at home, and nobody paid for it. Nobody paid.
Jerry Jones acted like it did not happen. It was the single most embarrassing home playoff loss I can ever remember in all my years of covering playoff games all over this country. NFL playoff games in all my years in Miami, Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, New York, San Francisco. I've covered playoff games for lots of teams.
In lots of cities, I have never seen a more embarrassing home playoff loss than that one suffered by my team in my stadium. What? 27 to nothing? And no heads roll? No price gets paid? Nothing happens. Jerry did nothing. Except, of course, utter his now historic proclamation of
"I'm all in," he said at the combine. "I'm all in." And pretty soon, I tweeted and I said right here on this show, "All in my ass." I called Jerry on it pretty early on because he was all out. He fooled everybody into thinking he was all in to fix that broken team of his. Did he fire the coach? No. The coach is still there. The trade Dak? No. He very well might resign Dak for five more years.
Did Jerry Jones go out and plunge and take over NFL free agency? No. He paid a grand total of $3 million for the immortal Eric Kendricks, a linebacker from Minnesota, to be reunited with Mike Zimmer, our new defensive coordinator who coached him in Minnesota. And Jerry paid a grand total of $2 million in free agency for what's left of Ezekiel Elliott. If this were 2016, you got me. No. Nope.
It's 2024 and Zeke's performance and productivity has gone down, down, down. Every year of his career, down, down, down, down, down, down, down. And now he's our lead dog? Really? He's our number one back? We have the worst running back room in the National Football League right now. All in? My ass.
So did Jerry go get a running back in the draft? No, he left Blake Corum on the board. Watch what he does for the Rams this year. He left USC's Marshawn Lloyd on the board. I liked him a lot. I watched him a lot because I was watching Caleb Williams. Left him just sitting right there. Two rookies will start, it looks like, potentially in the offensive line for the Dallas Cowboys at left tackle and center, very possibly. Yet, I remind you,
That left tackle that he took out of my school, the University of Oklahoma school I grew up rooting for. I went to Vanderbilt, but school I rooted for Oklahoma. Watched Tyler Guyton year after year. Project. I like him 6'8". Like him as a pass blocker. Not sure about the run blocking. Maybe we'll throw 70 passes a game. I don't know. But I'm going to remind you that Jerry traded back to take Tyler Guyton at 29. Was at 24 and left 20.
Two potentially better offensive linemen sitting on the table for the Green Bay Packers, who had us down 27 to nothing. Jordan Morgan, another left tackle, left him for Green Bay. They said, thank you very much. We'll take him. Gutekun said, I got him. Snapped him right up after Jerry traded back to 29 in that Graham Baxter kid center out of Duke. By all accounts, he's just ready to plug and play.
and go right on to the Pro Bowl. The Bucs said, thank you, Jerry, we'll take him. We lost Biotis to Washington. I don't know. Jerry, I don't know what you're doing. I just don't know, which brings me to C.D. Lamb. I keep saying we got one baller on this team, one player I love, trust, believe in with all my heart and soul.
We got one player who is, to me, the best player at his position. I know this era is loaded with great receivers, but I'll take C.D. over. You name it, Tyreek or Jefferson or Chase. I'll take C.D., who's somewhere other than Oxnard right now because he doesn't have a deal.
Jerry won't pay him, not yet, and the meter just runs and runs, and the clock ticks and ticks. Remember, CD and Dak had an issue in the first quarter of that Green Bay playoff debacle. They got into it. CD went and sat at the end of the bench. We need wavelength. We need timing. We need to get back on the same page, and they're not even in the same time zone probably right now because...
CD is holding out without a deal and I just don't get it. DJ Moore signs, gets some record bears extension, meter runs, clock ticks. Jerry, what are you doing? I don't know what he's doing. Gave his State of the Union the other day at Oxnard. I've never heard so much double talk. I have never been more baffled by things Jerry said and
I spent hundreds of hours literally around Jerry Jones for the three books I wrote through the 90s on the Cowboys. Hundreds of hours. Never heard him babble like this. It was so uncomfortably inexplicable, so unintelligible that we kept playing long sound bites of Jerry on Undisputed so that we could try to pick them apart and explain them. And as they played,
I'm with Keyshawn and Paul Pierce at the desk and we're laughing out loud watching the sound bites. That's how bad they were. They were laughably bad, inexplicably laughably bad. I couldn't quit laughing and yet it's not like I'm laughing until I cry. I'm laughing crying because I'm actually crying. Seriously, I'm not laughing so hard that it makes me cry. No, that's not what's happening with me. I'm laughing until I cry.
Because I love this team. Heart and soul love this team. What has happened to my team? What has happened to my owner? I mean, seriously, if Jerry Jones represented a political party and he was running for a big office, there would be an outcry within that party to replace him. That's how bad that state of the union was from Oxnard, where very few fans are turning out to watch Jerry's Cowboys.
I think Jerry said something within his State of the Union about he needs to see more from Dak. That actually got me excited. I've said again and again, I'm done with Dak. And I should be done. And if you're a lifelong diehard like me, you should be done with Dak. He's just not good enough. Say it again. CeeDee's mom tweeted the ultimate bingo quote about Dak. "Dak ain't it." That's what she tweeted after that Green Bay nightmare. Dak ain't it.
The Athletic had several quotes from anonymous GMs, personnel directors around the league talking about Dak. And every quote was about something's missing. He does all this in the regular season, but something is missing. He's two and five in the postseason because he just ain't it. He's not Roger Staubach. He's not Troy Aikman. I've said before, I don't think he's even Danny White. If you long timers know Danny White, taking this team to three straight NFC championship games, lost all three games.
Played very well against Joe Montana in the catch game, the Dwight Clark game at San Francisco. But he wasn't quite Roger Staubach. A little better than Dak? Yeah. It's gotten so bad for me with Dak that I have pushed to you the conspiracy theory that I thought had a lot of plausibility. That it feels to me, if I still have any faith and trust in Jerry, that maybe he's trying to sabotage Dak.
He's setting him up to fail by surrounding him with such questionable mediocrity. I mean, after Seedy, Brandon Cooks, Jalen Tolbert, really? No running back, two rookies potentially starting in the offensive line. Maybe he's setting up Dak to fail. Maybe Jerry, I said, I speculated, is tanking for Shadur, as in Sanders, as in maybe if they could figure a way
to be bad enough to get high enough to even then have a chance to trade up to get Shadur if he's going to go one or two wherever he's going to go. He'd go one in my book for a fact. Then maybe you could lure Dion to coach his son in Dallas. That would work. Happy days here again. But it's come to this. I need to try to convince myself that the only hope, the only way out of this nightmare is to tank for Shadur. Can you blame me?
Keyshawn and Paul Pierce keep looking at me across the table like, what are you talking about? Dak Prescott can play. Yeah, he can in the regular season. He finished second in the MVP voting. They look at me, as Keyshawn says, like I have frogs on my face, like I have three eyes. No, I've got two eyes and my eye test is telling me Dak's just not good enough. I know what Roger Staubach
Felt like I was there. I got to know him. I got to feel of it and see it and sort of, if you will, taste it. I know what championships feel like. We haven't even been back to an NFC championship game in 29 years. It's absurd. And Jerry, I trust, no, not anymore.
And then I have to read Stephen Jones is saying, oh, we've started to engage in talks with Dak. I'm thinking, no, not again. I thought Jerry wanted to see more. I thought Jerry was going to at least make Dak play out the final year of his contract and show us, take us to a Super Bowl, at least take us to an NFC championship game, take us to a Super Bowl, then break the bank for Dak. That's fine. Ain't going to happen. Not with this team. Feels sabotaging to me. But
Let him play it out, but let him walk. If he's going to walk and somebody's going to, as Adam Schefter reported the other day, somebody will give him a record contract. What, $65 million? Could he get to $70 million a year? Buyer beware. God bless you. It's Kirk Cousins all over again. Atlanta gave him 50 and 50 guaranteed for the next two years and immediately got such cold feet that they drafted Michael Pennings. Okay, I got it.
Kirk Cousins ain't it. He's not the answer. I don't think Dak is the answer. If we're talking about glory days, if we're talking about Staubach-Aikman days, Super Bowl championships, Dak ain't it. And now, I guess under pressure from the outside, they've engaged in talks and they're amicable, said Stephen Jones, Jerry's son. Keyshawn keeps text taunting me.
The other day, Jordan Love signs his big new deal. Tua signs his big new deal. I get text taunted, text taunted. And you know what I wrote back to Keyshawn? 27 to nothing. That's it. Hit sin. 27 to nothing. No. I mean, have you watched what the Eagles have done? They're way better. Howie Roseman won the offseason. He won free agency. He won the draft. They're way better and way better than us.
Washington scares me because it's on the rise. I'm sure Jaden Daniels is going to be very good. I know their coach. He's pretty good. He was up 28-3 on Tom Brady in a Super Bowl game with Stan Quinn. I know their owner. He is really sharp. He's going to be so much better than the ex-owner in so many ways. They're on the rise. Heck, even look at the Giants. I think they're almost as good as we are now. Maybe. Let's come to that.
I said Dallas would go eight and nine this year. And now I'm thinking at best. Now I'm thinking that's the cockeyed optimist in me. A year ago, just a year ago, I sat right here and predicted Super Bowl. Here we come. We went out and stole Brandon Cooks. We stole Stephon Gilmore. I love those moves for later round draft picks. Oh, bingo, bingo. Touche. Eagles, touche. Giants, here we go. Super Bowl, here we... No.
27 to nothing, 48 to 16 early in the fourth quarter. And now for my Dallas Cowboys, hope springs infernal, not eternal, infernal. That's what it does, infernal. Fans are staying away from cowboy camp in droves. And I applaud them because maybe that's the only way those pictures of those empty stands surrounding the practice field during the workout, maybe that's the only way
to embarrass Jerry Jones enough that he wakes up. This is Dennis from North Carolina who asks, "Would you rather coach basketball or football?" Okay, confession. I do think I would be a very good football or basketball coach. I do believe that, heart and soul. I think I could be a leader. I think I could be a high-risk, high-reward plunger in the right moments. I think I would be cool under late-game fire.
And I think I could figure something out on the fly that would win a game. I just believe that. Just me. So as simple as this question sounds, it's very complex to me. And I love this question because it really made me think and it really tested me and it pushed me right to my edge. Because the truth is, I would have more fun coaching basketball. I don't, I just would. There's something about it.
As much as I love football and as much as my career has been tied to covering National Football League games, there's just something about the sport of basketball that lights my fire. I don't know. Was I a little better basketball player than a football player? I stopped playing football and it's my only regret athletically. I don't know why. At our school, it's the biggest school in the state of Oklahoma called Northwest Class and they pushed you to pick two out of three
My best sport was baseball by far. But my first love, my deepest love was basketball. And I don't know why. Nobody in my family played it. But I was really good when I was young. And then I had a hard time with my high school coach. But it's still stuck in my heart and into my soul. So I love basketball. I played football up through eighth grade.
And I played on a ninth grade team and I was a co-starter, a friend of mine named John Corey and I alternated at quarterback, but I was pretty good. And our team was really good until we got to the city finals against the South side bears featuring Daryl Porter. Look him up. He was a world series MVP, but he was also really good quarterback and a really good basketball player. My age, we lost 40 to nothing.
I was terrible. I also played cornerback. I did intercept Darryl Porter on a two-point conversion pass. That was my claim to fame. That night, we lost 40 to nothing, and that was the end of my football career. I don't know why. I should have played. I should have played in high school, but I didn't. But the point is, when I look at football coaching, it's about your leadership. It's about being a commanding officer. It's about setting a tone and creating a culture
Nobody ever created a better culture than Jimmy Johnson did. He was a literal hurricane from Miami force of nature. It's about building an environment, an ecosystem of supreme confidence with discipline and dedication. You can do it by fear or love. Jimmy was by fear. Tom Landry before him was by fear. Bill Walsh, I got to know so well. I still think greatest coach ever in San Francisco.
did it more by love. He loved Joe Montana and Dwight Clark, ultimately Jerry Rice. So in the end, I think I would be happier coaching football, even though my happy place is basketball, because I'm going to boil down basketball coaching to the famous or infamous proclamation issued by Doc Rivers. Remember what Doc said about just the game of basketball?
It's talking about the NBA, but it's really, it's the game of basketball. Doc said of the NBA, it's a make or miss league. And it is. In the end, the ball either goes in or it does not. And some nights it just won't go in for whatever reason. And you can't coach your team out of it. You can only watch. You can try to push different psychological buttons. You can try to do this different or that. You can try to teach differently during the week, but
If you're cold, you're just cold. There's nothing really like that in football that you just can't control at all. Your quarterback's going to have some off days or nights, but not like this where you just go cold and you can't buy a basket. And I can't get out of my head. I did pick Dallas to beat Boston in the NBA Finals, and I thought they had a great chance because Luka was making threes in ways he'd never made threes before.
Against Minnesota, he made 43% of his threes, and he made that late shot, as you remember, at Minnesota. He was just extraordinary, just pumping in threes right and left. And then against Boston, his last 24 three-point attempts, he made three, three of his last 24. What do you think is going to happen? Dallas is going to lose in five games, and they did, and I was wrong.
And I think about coaching basketball, and if my star had a three of 24 stretch from three, I couldn't fix it. I wouldn't know what to do about it except just to watch it as my guts churned. And I just think, for me, coaching basketball, make or miss league, put me in an early grave. This is Jordan from Iowa City, Caitlin Country. Do you bet or gamble on sports?
I've said this before. I did in college, Jordan. I had one bad experience. I had one great weekend. I'm betting money I didn't even have. It was just my mom at that point. I was on full scholarship at Vanderbilt. I barely had any spending money. My mom was barely making it. And I'm betting ridiculous amounts of money forever.
for what I didn't have in my pocket. And I had one huge weekend and the next weekend, I bet it all right and left on this game and that game and this game and that game. And I went to cover the Vanderbilt at Ole Miss game. It was my junior year of college. On a late Saturday afternoon, I wind up standing on the field with my press pass at the back of the end zone rooting for my Vanderbilt Commodores with the backup freshman quarterback in the game.
to drive down the field and score a touchdown to backdoor cover a 14-point spread, and they did on a last-second touchdown pass to a friend of mine, a tight end I knew. I was down on both knees, all but, not that I would pray for that, but I was all but begging the man upstairs to please just let me escape.
And it taught me such a level, a lesson that I never bet again. I never bet again because if my Vanderbilt Commodores don't score that late touchdown, I would have to call my mother and say, well, you won't believe it, but... And I don't know what she would have done because I'm not sure she would have had that kind of money. She'd have to, in those days, wire it to me. I don't know. Would somebody have broken one of my legs or arms for it? Maybe. And that cured me. So now...
I bet and gamble on television with my pride constantly, constantly. For seven years, I bet Shannon Sharpe, and I think I wound up 52 cases up on him of Diet Mountain Dew, Breakfast of Champions, Nectar of the Gods. 52 cases up. So that scratched my itch. Paul Pierce and I are even now in dinner bets through the NBA playoffs and now into the Olympics.
because i was up one and just got through watching it's now wednesday afternoon but i just got through watching this team usa game i gave him south sudan and 20 points and team usa was up 20 in the second quarter what do you think should happen to that point spread it should get annihilated and as i spoke earlier it did not that's damn that's why i don't bet
The right way to go in that game was Team USA. I don't care what you say. You always say there's a right way to bet even if you lose. The right way to go was Team USA. And yet, I lost my spread. It was a 17-point game, and I needed it to be a 21-point game. That's how close it was at the end, and that's exactly why I do not bet. This is Ian from Santa Barbara, California. Two-word question. Favorite cereal?
Favorite cereal. I love this. So I did grow up eating cereal. I think it's a pretty useless food. Tastes good. I didn't know any better as a kid. In the morning, it was sort of all I had was a box of this or a box of that. But I do remember the last time I ever ate cereal was I was actually in a summer before my senior year of college at Vanderbilt living with my mom.
And I was working at the Oklahoman as an intern and they were letting me do everything. So I covered a lot of games late at night. I'd come home at one o'clock in the morning and I would just sit by myself in the kitchen and eat cereal. I didn't know any better. And I'll boil it down to my two favorites were raisin bran, those little raisins just covered in sugar and sugar pops, literal sugar pops.
And I think I will give the edge to sugar pops as my all-time favorite cereal that I have not had since the summer before my senior year of college. I used to pour a bunch of milk in the bowl for the first batch of sugar pops. And then I would eat all the sugar pops and there would still be milk and I would just keep pouring in sugar pops. So I would sort of eat down the milk to the bottom. Loved them. No nutritional value that I'm aware of, but...
If today I had to eat a cereal, I would eat sugar pops. And that's the truth. I will end today with a spoiler alert. If you would like to watch Presumed Innocent, the eight-part series on Apple TV, please stop watching or listening to this. Spoiler alert. I did watch it, all eight episodes, with my wife, Ernestine, and my quote-unquote daughter, Hazel. And I enjoyed it.
She more than me. But I had read the book back in 1987, I believe it was. I saw the first full-length movie of Presumed Innocent. I think it was in 1990. This was Jake Gyllenhaal as Rusty, the prosecutor who's accused of murdering his girlfriend who just happened to be pregnant with his baby. I won't go into the gory details here.
peter sarsgaard plays a rival prosecutor who is then trying to nail rusty for this murder peter sarsgaard real life obviously married to jake's sister this presumed innocent it wasn't bad held my interest i looked forward to the conclusion just to see what david kelly would do with the the conclusion as opposed to the book or the first movie which pretty much followed the book so in the end
Rusty, Jake Gyllenhaal is acquitted. We have one final scene that you knew was coming in which he goes into sort of an exercise room at home. His wife has just gotten off the exercise bike and he tells her, I knew that you killed the girlfriend, Carolyn. And the wife is shocked and says, no, no, I have no idea what you're talking about. And Jake confesses, no, I happened to go back to Carolyn's home, her apartment, and
After you were there and you killed her with the poker battering her brains out and I covered for you because I knew you had done it by tying her up and making it look like some serial killer did it. She said, no, I have no idea what you're talking about. And I
The first problem I had with the plausibility of this was I thought all along through the eight episodes that it was clear that the wife did know of the affair originally, but that the affair ended and that Jake's character, Rusty's character, had rekindled the flames and then had gone completely crazy and was actually stalking her, but the wife didn't know anything about any of that. So why would Rusty, after he walked back in,
leap to the conclusion that his wife killed her. I don't know. Why couldn't it have been some random psycho who killed her? I don't know. So now he's going to make it look like a psycho killed her? That lost me and was completely implausible to me. And then on stage left, walking into the exercise room, is the daughter. I don't know how old she is, probably 17 or 18. And suddenly she admits she killed the girlfriend, that she was the one who was there.
And when the girlfriend said she was pregnant with the father, Rusty's child, the daughter snapped and took the fireside poker and battered her to death. Huh? Really? The daughter did it. And then there was another plot twist of during the trial, SARS guards home gets broken into and the poker gets left on his kitchen table with an FU note on it.
So, you're telling me that the daughter actually went to the lead prosecutor's home and broke in through the window and left the actual murder weapon, obviously cleared of any fingerprints, but left the murder weapon on the kitchen table with an FU note. Why? That would get you weir. They thought that Jake's character, Rusty, had done it.
I don't get it. So I'm lost on all counts. I don't know why Jake would suddenly leap to the conclusion, oh, my wife did this, but she doesn't even know you've rekindled. Why would you think that? So once again, I dedicated X amount of time, eight episodes worth, and I get to the grand finale conclusion and I'm lost. None of it makes sense.
And yet, I think it was wildly popular and I think a whole lot of people watched it. And I hope you enjoyed it because in the end, it left me shaking my head. Didn't get it. That is it for episode one, two, three. Thank you for listening and or watching. Thanks to Jonathan Berger and his All Pro team for making this show go. Thanks to Tyler Korn for producing. Please remember, Undisputed is every weekday, 9.30 to noon Eastern. The Skip Bayless Show.
every week.