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SportsTranscript
00:00Zach Gelb is on the Toyota of Hollywood Hotline.
00:03He hosts the Zach Gelb Show on 365 Sports.
00:06He's the studio host for NFL and college basketball on Compass Media Networks.
00:11You will hear him hosting shows on a bunch of Odyssey stations,
00:15including right here on WQAM, WFAN in New York, EEI in Boston.
00:20You should follow him on social media at Zach Gelb, Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B.
00:26And I have to begin.
00:28I said this when I got back on the air Monday from my two-week vacation.
00:32I watched some of the segments that you did where you filled in for me a number of times
00:36over the shows that I missed.
00:38But even on the text line right now, people are talking about how great you did on the air.
00:46I have heard nothing but universal praise.
00:48I gave you universal praise.
00:50You are a fantastic radio host, and you are a pleasure to have as a fill-in host when I'm
00:55not here.
00:56Well, I appreciate that.
00:57I'm sure there was also a lot of texts that were like, F this guy, get him off.
01:01That was from Solana.
01:02That was Solana just texting me on my phone.
01:05Right.
01:05Because when you said universal praise, Hawk, are you forgetting our conversation?
01:09Yeah, I was discounting you.
01:10Now, I will say, because I listened to your open, all those years ago when the decision was happening,
01:14you were on vacation in Atlantic City.
01:17You were also away.
01:19Giannis gets traded to the heat.
01:20I think you should go on a hunger strike or at least a vacation until LeBron comes back to Miami.
01:25And I could use the money if I'm being honest.
01:27I mean, honestly, I go away and crazy things happen.
01:31And it's like, and Gelb had texted me.
01:34I was on the airplane flying to Zurich.
01:37And when Giannis, when it was known that he was coming to Miami, Gelb texted and he's like,
01:42hey, you want to come on the show tomorrow from Switzerland?
01:47Like, what did you say?
01:49You know, you're big when you're a guest on your own show when you're on vacation.
01:54And I said, yeah, I'll talk to you on July.
01:56Quickest no I ever got in my life.
01:58I've been at bars trying to hit on chicks and I've got longer no's than that one before.
02:03The quickest no I've ever got was Hawk.
02:06Yeah, I'll talk to you guys in two weeks.
02:07No chance am I coming on the air.
02:09Had Burger King announced those new long chicken sandwiches,
02:12then I would have carved time out of my vacation.
02:15Which, by the way, let me not bury the lead.
02:18Screw Giannis, screw LeBron, screw Brady Kachuk.
02:21I had my first ever pub sub over the weekend.
02:24Yeah, I saw this.
02:25So you were in where?
02:26North Carolina?
02:27Yeah, Oak Island, North Carolina.
02:29And you had a pub sub.
02:32You know, people down here, we love our pub subs.
02:35And everybody raves about the chicken tender subs.
02:39And you ended up having one.
02:41Now, here's my only caveat.
02:42Is a pub sub in North Carolina as good as a pub sub in South Florida?
02:47It is.
02:47It is?
02:48Yeah, I can attest to it.
02:49I've been to Publix's in North Carolina.
02:52I went to a Publix in Georgia.
02:55And I dabbled in a little pub sub action just to compare.
02:59Kind of test the waters.
03:00And it hits just the same.
03:03All right.
03:03There's a person on the chat.
03:05Gelb was terrible.
03:06Yeah.
03:07Another dope.
03:09Okay.
03:10So, give us the review.
03:11You watch.
03:11I don't do radio.
03:12No good things happen in Miami.
03:14I got you Brady Kachuk and Giannis Antetokounmpo.
03:16You say, thank you, sir.
03:17May I have another, you a-hole.
03:20Now, back to the pub sub.
03:21I took the Solana special, but I made one change to it.
03:25So, Solana said, get the chicken tender hoagie.
03:29Chicken tenders, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, provolone, and hot sauce.
03:34Good job on the hot sauce, because my girlfriend the day prior got a pub sub.
03:37I thought it was a little bit dry.
03:39I added blue cheese crumbles.
03:41Wow.
03:42Very good.
03:44You know, I still like a traditional make-it-home, like, beach sandwich just for the beach, but
03:49I ate it on the beach.
03:50Very tasty.
03:51I give it, like, a 7.8, 7.9 out of 10.
03:557.8?
03:56How does it, I mean, if you go by the Portnoy scale, that's a good rating.
03:59I think that's fair.
04:00Like, maybe the highest I go is an 8.2.
04:02What would you give the White House in Atlantic City?
04:05Oh.
04:06Now, different kind of sandwich.
04:10I would say that's, like, an 8.5, 8.6.
04:14Dino's and Margate?
04:16I like White House better than Dino's, but it's in the same ballpark.
04:19I'll go Dino's 8.2, 8.3.
04:22Yeah.
04:22Have you run into Jalen Brunson in Margate this summer?
04:25I did not.
04:26It was, we were a weekend off.
04:28The weekend after was, he heard Gelb wasn't in town, so he'll come down and do his big
04:33Brunson bash, but Rick Brunson was there.
04:36Jalen Brunson was there.
04:37They had the Larry O'Brien trophy.
04:39That's what happens, Solana, when you win an NBA championship, if you forget.
04:41Oh, that's right.
04:42Yeah.
04:43Actually, when you win three, you don't even throw a bash for it.
04:46When you win one, I get it.
04:48You do the world tour.
04:48You just throw a, after you win one, or you're trying to win some, you just throw a big event
04:53and you promise all these Larry O'Brien trophies and then really under the liver, you know?
04:57So where, where were you for LeBron's decision 16 years ago?
05:01Do you recall?
05:01Cause you heard my story, but I was on the Atlantic city boardwalk, which I would never
05:05be on with my, my young kids nowadays, but on the Atlantic city boardwalk, watching it
05:10at rainforest cafe.
05:12So interesting connection here.
05:14And I kind of told this a little bit to Solana when you were out, but I'll add more to
05:17the
05:18story.
05:19So my dad went to the same sleepaway camp as Leon Rose.
05:22I went to the same sleepaway camp as his kids, pine forest camp and LeBron's agent at the
05:27time was Leon Rose.
05:28So I'm at that sleepaway camp going into 11th grade and the 11th graders, they take like
05:34college tours and stuff like that.
05:36You know, they get you out of the camp a little bit.
05:37So we're in Washington DC.
05:39We're out for lunch at an Applebee's.
05:42Then we go to a movie and then coming out of the movie, everyone's like, we got to watch
05:47the decision.
05:48Well, the group leader is obviously over 21.
05:52All of us kids aren't.
05:54We go back to that same Applebee's to try to watch the decision.
05:57They go, you need IDs.
05:59You need to be over 21 at night to go into this Applebee's.
06:02The group leader goes, kids, fend for yourself.
06:05He goes in, watches the decision.
06:08And we're all outside the Applebee's looking to see where LeBron James was going.
06:13Now, the extra part of the story that I'll add is, you know, the guy that ran the boys
06:18side of camp was a massive Cleveland Cavaliers fan.
06:21And Leon's wife, Donna, worked at the sleepaway camp for a bunch of years.
06:26So when we got back from the trip, Leon sent this guy, Dan, who's no longer alive, unfortunately
06:33passed away, who's a massive LeBron fan, massive Cleveland Cavaliers fan, assigned LeBron James
06:39jersey from the Cavs to try to cheer him up that he lost the guy that was going to save
06:44his basketball.
06:45You remember what movie you saw that night?
06:47I do not.
06:48That that's interesting to me.
06:50That's the stuff that interests me.
06:51That's the stuff that, you know, that's the kind of thing that would make me break off
06:54my vacation to carve out a little time for the radio show.
06:58Let's say the heat don't add anyone of note.
07:02They don't add DeMar DeRozan, Bradley Beal's been talked about.
07:06Your guy.
07:07It's not that I dislike Bradley Beal.
07:10I dislike that we have had a conversation for almost a decade about him coming to the Miami
07:16Heat.
07:17I'm bored with that conversation.
07:18I just want to move on.
07:20I'm tired of it's just nonstop every offseason while they could get Bradley Beal, they could
07:26get Bradley Beal.
07:27I feel like we're going to have that conversation in 2036, like enough already with kind of Damian
07:32Lillard like if, but Damian Lillard was like a one year conversation.
07:36This Bradley Beal conversation has been non stop.
07:40It's never ending.
07:41Let's say they don't get him.
07:42They don't get DeMar DeRozan.
07:43They just, this is their roster, right?
07:46It's Giannis, Bam, Andrew Wiggins, Portis, Tim Hardaway Jr.
07:52Yovic, Davion Mitchell, Larson, Larson.
07:56They are what in the Eastern Conference?
07:59I would say top five seed in the Eastern Conference where maybe they could get as high as like two
08:03or three.
08:04Like Giannis and Bam are phenomenal.
08:06I like the signing of Tim Hardaway Jr., even though his dad was a liar to us on the radio.
08:12Wiggins bringing him back was smart, but like that was the point I said to Solana and Solana
08:16obviously agreed.
08:17It's a rare time that we were both in the same team on this one.
08:21You know, LeBron could go to the Sixers.
08:23He could go to the Cavs.
08:24And I get the nostalgia of why you want to go to the Cavs.
08:26And it'd be fun to see him wrap his career up there.
08:28The team that needs him the most are the Miami Heat.
08:31And there's an immediate need for him to kind of handle the ball and be the star in that
08:38backcourt because, you know, down low, they're going to be fine with Bam and Giannis.
08:41But the LeBron stuff with Miami is interesting because at first I thought it was like 30%.
08:48Then I put it down to 18.
08:50Now it seems like Golden State is out.
08:52You know, I'm not going to count out the Sixers, but it does feel, at least from what I saw
08:56from Windhorst this morning, that it's either going to be Cleveland or Miami.
08:59The fact that a lot of these moves were made of guys that were rumored, like Middleton
09:02dealt the other day.
09:04You had Anferty Simons signing in Philly.
09:07I'll be curious to see how the Heat fill out their roster if they don't get LeBron James.
09:12Yeah, it's funny.
09:13Like Chris Middleton, everybody was just assuming, oh, you'll get him for nothing.
09:16Because he wants to play with Giannis and Bam.
09:18And he signs a three-year extension in Washington, of all places.
09:22Gelb, this is something Hawk and I talked about at the start of the show.
09:24And I just wonder, the first time LeBron comes to Miami with the decision, the backlash is
09:30like unbelievable at the time.
09:32And I realize a lot went into it.
09:34His comments about not one, not two, not three.
09:37The decision in general was just a bad look.
09:39But if LeBron chooses Miami again this time over Cleveland, because it does feel like those
09:45are the two teams, would there be a similar backlash?
09:49Would there be any backlash at all from the NBA community at large?
09:53I think if he goes to Cleveland, everyone would understand it.
09:57If he goes to Miami, you know, it's weird to say that it's not a super team.
10:02But I think LeBron in his, you know, 40s now, it's viewed differently.
10:08Bam, even though we respect him in Miami.
10:10Wait a second, though.
10:11Wait a second.
10:11You put LeBron even in his 40s with Bam and Giannis.
10:16They're the favorites in the East, no?
10:18I can't say they're without a doubt the favorites in the Eastern Conference, no.
10:22I think they would be.
10:24Like, in terms of odds?
10:25Absolutely.
10:25Why not the Knicks?
10:26I think they're the favorite in the East.
10:27I just think that Giannis, Bam, and LeBron, and Andrew Wiggins, like, you add in the little
10:36ancillary pieces that they have.
10:38I don't see how they don't win the East.
10:40I think they'd be top three.
10:42I think Philly's going to still get a lot of love after the Jalen Brown deal, you know,
10:46assuming they don't trade Joel Embiid.
10:49You know, Celtics are going to take a step back, but that's a team that's still going
10:52to win 50-something-plus games.
10:54Like, hey, they'll be a top three team in the East.
10:57I can't say they should be, without a doubt, though, the favorites.
11:01And this is what I'm saying, just the view nationally, is that, like, LeBron is obviously
11:05older at the end of his career.
11:07Giannis is a superstar.
11:09Bam has gotten more respect.
11:10We all know how good Bam Adebayo is, but I still don't think nationally the respect
11:15is fully there with Bam that people would be saying, oh, that's a super team.
11:20And if he goes to Miami, I think it's fine.
11:21If he goes to Cleveland, I think he's fine.
11:22The only blowback I think he could get is if he goes to Philly, because that one kind
11:26of came out of nowhere, and then maybe people would think that that is more ring-chasing.
11:30But I really don't care, you know, in terms of being mad about it.
11:34Like, hey, where I would be saying F LeBron.
11:37Any of these destinations really don't rub me the wrong way.
11:40I would say, even if he does go to Philly, like, the notion of him ring-chasing is like,
11:47who cares at this point?
11:48He's proven himself.
11:49Like, it's not like the, you know, I believe we'll always have the discussion about Kevin
11:54Durant with the only two rings coming with an established championship team.
11:59We'll never have those conversations about LeBron, because he did it.
12:02And not only did he do it, but he went back to Cleveland and won.
12:06And did it with a team that probably shouldn't have won.
12:08Like, if LeBron didn't go back to Cleveland and win that ring, I think the LeBron conversation
12:13is different.
12:13But since he did that and then went to L.A. and people thought that wasn't ring-chasing,
12:17it was just like setting himself up for life after basketball, and he won a ring there.
12:21I think we're all kind of past that conversation.
12:23But he has us all by the cojones right now, as we wait to see where he's going to go.
12:29And it doesn't matter how old he is, and I know people say he's not the best player
12:32anymore in the sport.
12:33He is still, outside of Wemben Yama, the biggest star, and the guy that still is the straw that
12:40stirs the drink, because everyone's waiting to see what's going to happen with LeBron.
12:43I'd argue he's still the biggest star in the NBA, even more so than Wemben.
12:47I understand talent-wise, right now.
12:50Yeah, but LeBron's the biggest star in the NBA.
12:54I mean, look at what he's doing in the league right now.
12:56I think if Michael Jordan came back this season, he's the biggest star in the NBA.
13:01Oh, Hawk finally saying MJ's number two and LeBron's number one.
13:04Breaking news there.
13:04Oh, no, I said MJ's number one in the league.
13:07MJ is always going to be.
13:08I don't know.
13:09I think there was a slip-up there by you, Hawk.
13:10MJ one, Boozelis two, LeBron three.
13:13Who would you rather have right now for this Heat team, LeBron James or Michael Jordan?
13:16Michael Jordan.
13:20Everybody with me?
13:21I'm with you.
13:22Knock on wood if you're with me.
13:25All right.
13:26Follow Zach Gelb on social media, Z-A-C-H-G-E-L-B.
13:30We love you, Gelby.
13:31You got it.
13:31Thanks, guys.
13:32Be well.
13:33There you go.
13:33Zach Gelb.
13:33We'll take a break.
13:34We'll take a break.
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