- 13 minutes ago
Willard and Dibs debate which Bay Area athletes and coaches are the most underappreciated in the Bay Area.
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00:00We're getting a lot of text messages about the Sharks, and go Sharks, and they play tomorrow.
00:05Yeah, we're very, very excited about that on this show.
00:08Best young team in hockey.
00:09We'll see where this season goes.
00:12415 says the Sharks, Kyle Juszczyk, and 95.7 the game.
00:18Those are the three most underappreciated things in Bay Area sports.
00:22I have one of those three on my list.
00:25You do?
00:25I wrote down four, but one of them, like two of them probably don't qualify.
00:31One of them will stay.
00:33One will go.
00:33But one of them was something that that person just texted in.
00:39And it wasn't the Sharks, and it wasn't 95.7 the game.
00:42Kyle Juszczyk.
00:43Correct.
00:43Yeah.
00:44He's a great player.
00:46But I do think that he's underappreciated because of everything that we've heard.
00:50And, you know, Greg Cosell coming up in 45 minutes.
00:53And I don't even know what they call that motion.
00:55I've heard people call it the cheat motion where he lines up and he slashes back at a 45-degree
01:01angle.
01:01And on the snap, then he immediately slashes back forward into whatever gap you need him.
01:06I mean, like, he touches the ball once or twice a game, maybe.
01:10And other than that, he's an offensive lineman.
01:13Right.
01:13He's just a moving one.
01:15And do you know what you have to do to be appreciated as an offensive lineman?
01:18You have to be otherworldly.
01:21Like, the number of offensive linemen who have been appreciated in the Bay since the teams of the 80s with
01:28Randy Cross and that whole group.
01:32Just Sapolu.
01:32Sapolu.
01:33The whole group.
01:34Phenomenal, phenomenal offensive lines back in the 80s.
01:37But since then, it's probably what?
01:40Staley and Trent.
01:42Anybody else?
01:43I mean, you had the brief era of Mike Yapati and you had Davis and Yapati.
01:50I think they drafted them all very high.
01:52And they actually went to the Super Bowl with, you know, the Kaepernick-Harbaugh days.
01:55They did.
01:56I don't know that those guys were appreciated or even all that well-known.
01:59Like, sure, the people who are super-
02:01If you're a Niner head.
02:01Yeah, if you're a Niner head.
02:03Right.
02:03And I think that, like, Dominic Poonie right now is in that same category of if you watch it and
02:08you're a Niner fan,
02:09well, then, yeah, you'll appreciate them at that certain level.
02:13But certainly beyond that, and, you know, we'd have to go to Alex Boone and John Feliciano, friends of the
02:19program.
02:20They got to count, right?
02:22Mongo.
02:23But you're right, I think, in terms of the offensive line part of it.
02:27But for me, the use check piece goes beyond just the fact that he's a six offensive lineman.
02:33He's a glue guy.
02:34He's somebody you can actually throw the ball to at times.
02:37He can play tight end if you need a tight end.
02:40You can move him around to different spots.
02:42So, for me, he becomes a critical piece of what you try to do on 60% of the snaps.
02:48So, hit me with your three now that we know that Juice is one of them.
02:52Yeah, my number two one.
02:55Two.
02:55And I was going back and forth between Fred Warner and Logan Webb.
02:59But I thought, you know what?
03:00It's Logan Webb because your Giants team has been mostly bad ever since Logan Webb's been here.
03:08But Logan Webb gets the ball every five days, almost always.
03:11He goes out and gives you at least six or more.
03:15He keeps the ball down.
03:16He keeps you in the game.
03:18Logan Webb on another team I think would be appreciated a lot more because he's on a team that hasn't
03:24been very good.
03:25So, I wanted to give Logan Webb a little bit of a nod because going into next year, he's going
03:30to have to pitch every game, Mark.
03:34He's going to pitch 162 times.
03:36It's funny.
03:37It's funny.
03:37Like, right now, if you had to say, okay, how many pitchers on the Giants are you super sure are
03:44going to be on the team next year?
03:47Two.
03:48Who is it?
03:49Logan and who?
03:50Duvall.
03:51Nice.
03:53Duvall.
03:53I just threw out Duvall.
03:54Duvall.
03:56No, I don't know that he's going to be on the team.
03:57I have no idea.
03:59I actually think, look, Randy Rodriguez, we forget about him.
04:02Okay.
04:02And maybe he gets first crack at the closer role because he had it before he had Tommy John.
04:08And he's about ready to roll.
04:10And so, I think Logan Webb, Randy Rodriguez, and I have no idea.
04:15Like, that's, so Logan's on my list too.
04:18Logan made my list too.
04:20So, we've got a little overlap there.
04:21Good.
04:22Logan Webb.
04:22I get bothered that people, there's a little Brock Purdy thing going on there.
04:28Like, you won't, for years, Brock Purdy could not be a badass franchise QB because he was small and a
04:36seventh rounder.
04:36And because Logan Webb doesn't throw the ball 98 miles an hour and he doesn't look like an alpha dog
04:45on the mound, sometimes even the Giants fans refuse to say that's a badass number one starter in the bigs.
04:54Like, bad ass.
04:56He led the league in strikeouts last year.
04:59So, how can he not be, you know, like that kind of alpha dog?
05:04Before this year, he led the league in innings pitched three consecutive years.
05:10Yep.
05:10His number of starts since 2021, 26, 32, 33, 33, 34, 27.
05:18Like you pointed out, the dude is almost never hurt.
05:21And until this year, it was one, two, three, four, five consecutive years where his ERA was under 3.5.
05:31Um, and, and is often well below that back in 2022, it was below three, actually.
05:38Um, he has been an all-star three years in a row.
05:41Um, he, again, led the league in, uh, in strikeouts just a year ago.
05:46I don't know why he's not talked about the same way.
05:50Um, I don't know.
05:52Give me another name who'd like, you know, he's not Mizrowski.
05:56I get that.
05:57But do you know what I mean?
05:59Like he's every bit of a Chris sale or, or, or someone like that.
06:04Like a team's absolute clear dog, number one starter.
06:09And this year you mentioned before that they had 71 or 72 different giants actually be giants this year.
06:15I think it was 71, yeah.
06:16Right.
06:16And so Logan Webb threw in 27 starts and honestly, he probably could have gone a little bit further
06:21had the season not gotten out of hand, but he's always there.
06:25You mentioned three straight years of leading league in innings pitched.
06:28And even when he goes out there, he's going to give you six and he doesn't overwhelm you,
06:32but he will almost always keep you in the ball game.
06:35And yet I don't think that we appreciate him at the appropriate level because they as a team have been
06:41so bad.
06:42All right.
06:42So you, you got a Logan Webb, you've got juice.
06:46What was the third thing you came up with?
06:48My third guy, uh, unlike Logan Webb also has a Z in his name and, uh, you can go ahead
06:55and get something to throw at me
06:56because, uh, well, boy, as I look at my list, Austin and San Jose, three white guys.
07:01Go ahead and triple eight, nine, five, seven, nine, five, seven, Austin.
07:05No, I do because he's done it before.
07:07I know, but he said to me, yeah.
07:09So fine.
07:09So forget it.
07:10It's Pads.
07:11It's Brandon Pajemski.
07:12Pazemski.
07:13The Pajemski kid.
07:15Pajemski kid.
07:16He's not.
07:18That's my favorite one.
07:20Pazemski.
07:21Pazemski.
07:22Pazemski was scrappy.
07:23Pazemski.
07:23Pazemski.
07:24Pazemski was, yeah.
07:26Pazemski.
07:26All of it.
07:27I still think we should do something with Pazemski.
07:30Like they put Chris Stops and Brandon on a poster together that you can, you know, you can,
07:35it can be like that old Pacific sock exchange thing when we were kids.
07:39You get a poster, put it up in your room and it's, uh, it's Pazemski.
07:44Anyway, go ahead.
07:45He plays every game he did last year, 82, and he's not ever going to be your best player.
07:50If he is, you're probably going to go 15 and 67.
07:52But I think that the appreciation for him falls short of what he actually contributes
07:58because we look at an older team and a team where most of the guys on your squad don't
08:03play every game.
08:04He plays every game.
08:06Is he the most dynamic player?
08:08No, but he is a certainly sturdy player and he goes out there and I think he contributes
08:12night in and night out.
08:14Okay.
08:14Somebody just hit me with a text that we need to discuss.
08:16This is going to be a brief, not terribly quick, but a brief aside.
08:22So 530 texts in, and I want to test you on this, especially Grandy and pasta.
08:29Let's see if you can nail this.
08:30This is an awesome reference.
08:32530 just texted in because we talked about Logan Webb being a badass.
08:37I see pride.
08:38I see power.
08:40I see a badass mother who don't take no crap off of nobody.
08:46Do you know what that's from?
08:48One more time.
08:50I see pride.
08:52I see power.
08:53I see a badass mother who don't take no crap off of nobody.
08:59What's it from?
09:01Who knows?
09:03Who's got that one?
09:04Because 530, I am feeling you.
09:07And you know it.
09:08Not only do I know it, I just texted that to my son this morning.
09:12So I got to tell you that story.
09:15The same thing.
09:15The same quote.
09:16Wow.
09:16It's got to be Oasis then.
09:18No.
09:20No, it's from a movie.
09:21It's from a movie.
09:22Ah, gotcha.
09:23It's from a movie.
09:25Yeah.
09:26Anyone?
09:27Rocky?
09:28No.
09:28No.
09:29It's going to be newer than that if Mark has seen it.
09:31No.
09:32No.
09:32It's not new.
09:34Here, I can look up the year.
09:35Nope.
09:36Nope.
09:36Nope.
09:36Nope.
09:36Nope.
09:37Nope.
09:37Nope.
09:38Nope.
09:38Nope.
09:38It is from a movie that came out in 1993.
09:451993.
09:47Grandy doesn't even want to venture a guess.
09:49Yeah, I got nothing.
09:50Feel the rhythm.
09:52Feel the rhyme.
09:54Get on up.
09:55It's bobsled time.
09:57Ah, wow.
09:58Cool runnings.
10:00Okay.
10:01Okay.
10:02Dude.
10:03Um, my kid, thank you, text lines all got it.
10:07My, like, my kid is a little bit of a golf slump.
10:11And I told him a week ago.
10:12The younger one?
10:13No.
10:13The older one.
10:14Yeah, Abe.
10:16He's in a little bit, like, for him, a slump.
10:17Like, oh, God, I made a bogey.
10:19But anyway, a little bit of a slump.
10:21And I texted him over the weekend.
10:23And I go, go back and watch videos of yourself.
10:26You're overthinking it.
10:27You're putting the weight of the world on your shoulders.
10:29I want you to remember, you're a stick.
10:32You're a badass.
10:33I want, take the result out of it.
10:36Walk to the damn tee and know you're a badass.
10:41And his next round with his team was today.
10:44And I got a video of him jarring one from 130 yards out.
10:48Wow.
10:48Like, he played the best round he's played since he's there.
10:50I'm not taking credit for it.
10:52But as soon as it was over, I texted him that line.
10:57I go, remember, you're a badass mother who don't take nothing off of nobody.
11:02And I texted him.
11:03I go, have you ever seen Cool Runnings?
11:05He's like, no.
11:06Right.
11:06I'm like, go watch it.
11:08Go watch it.
11:09Because you have no idea.
11:10So that just hit me in the muscle when somebody just texted that in.
11:14I just said that to my son two hours ago.
11:17That's perfect.
11:18Oh, my God.
11:19Full circle.
11:21All right.
11:22So pods, huh?
11:23Pods.
11:24I mean, I think that, you know, you talk about underappreciated.
11:28I think that he gets more of a bad rap from fans than what he actually deserves.
11:32Because we always talk about the number one ability is availability.
11:36And he played in all 82.
11:38And he is there.
11:39And, you know, he does his level best.
11:41And sometimes he scores.
11:42Sometimes he makes bad turnovers.
11:44He takes charges.
11:45He commits fouls.
11:46Whatever he does, he's out there.
11:48And his team needs somebody to actually play basketball really, really badly.
11:52So that's my third.
11:54I have two others.
11:55I'm going to just kind of tuck one under the rug because it's going to feel like pandering.
11:59But I thought it'd be fun to throw this out there.
12:01It's Brock Purdy.
12:02No, it's not.
12:03It's actually not one person.
12:04Oh.
12:05It's this area.
12:06And I want everybody to take this from somebody who has done this work in L.A.
12:13I have done this work in San Diego.
12:17This city, this area, the Bay Area, is by far and away, it is the best sports city western half
12:30of the United States.
12:31That, like, and I feel like that's underappreciated.
12:34And that's why I hate it when people do the old, like, oh, West Coast fans, everybody shows up late
12:39and leaves early and nobody really cares and all of that stuff.
12:43I was thinking about this.
12:45You know, Chicago's a wonderful sports city.
12:48Minneapolis is a wonderful sports city.
12:50You start to go west of Minneapolis and Kansas City, first of all, there's not that many of them.
12:55But professional sports cities, I think Seattle's a great sports city.
12:59Isn't that Denver?
13:00Denver's a wonderful sports city.
13:02L.A. has its spots where it's great and it has its spots where it's terrible.
13:07And San Diego, like the East Bay, has been ripped of so much of its sports.
13:14But it's here.
13:17This is the most passionate, tapped in, and dialed in sports area in the western half of the United States
13:26based on my travels and experiences.
13:29For sure.
13:30I just want to say that because I don't know, I don't know if we hear that or feel that
13:35enough.
13:36But it is that, in my opinion.
13:38I've been to games in all of those cities.
13:41And am I biased?
13:43Probably.
13:44But I feel that.
13:46I think that and I feel that.
13:47So that's one of your underappreciated things is the fact that the Bay Area is a better sports area than
13:53what most people think.
13:54Yes.
13:55And then my last one is Steve Kerr.
14:01I've never understood this.
14:03I don't get it.
14:06I've been trying for years to come up with a comp of a coach that wins four championships.
14:17And it feels, I don't know if this is totally true, I know the whole social media of it all,
14:24it feels like there is this large portion of the fan base that is just like, you want, want him
14:32gone.
14:34And you can't even figure out why he chose to still be here.
14:39And I'm thinking of other people that have achieved what Steve has achieved.
14:43Do you know what I mean?
14:44Like Greg Popovich, it's like they've got to wheel him out of there.
14:49And nobody has a drumbeat for somebody like that.
14:55Or I go down to Miami where Eric Spolstra feels like he's just got a lifetime contract and everybody's like,
15:03he's an amazing, amazing coach.
15:05And he's still riding basically what happened with LeBron like over a decade ago.
15:15I don't understand and I'm open to it.
15:19I'm trying to hear people.
15:20I don't understand why Steve Kerr doesn't have more of a sort of minted, untouchable kind of a reputation in
15:31this town.
15:31I don't get it.
15:33I think the sense is that he has ridden on the coattails of Steph Curry and, you know, before that,
15:39Clay and KD and Draymond and whatever.
15:41And so now that Steph has declined a bit and Draymond as well and KD's not here and Clay's not
15:47here.
15:48Now it's people looking at Steve Kerr like, OK, now let's see what kind of a coach you are when
15:53you've got lesser talent as if he can suddenly like take what they had last year and coach them into
15:5950 wins.
16:00The NBA doesn't work that way when you've got, you know, health issues and an older team.
16:04So I think that there are people out there who were already prone to like saying that Steve Kerr was
16:10not the reason for any of this.
16:12And now you need him to be the reason for this.
16:15And he's not that guy.
16:16And that's why people, I think, sometimes come down on him.
16:18OK, but what like, OK, let's go to your first point.
16:21He's he's potentially riding the coattails of his great player.
16:24Now, give me the example of the great coach.
16:28Some of the other examples I just threw out there where that doesn't apply.
16:32Popovich wasn't riding the coattails of Tim Duncan and Kawhi Leonard.
16:35I mean, Phil Jackson's a great example.
16:37Phil Jackson was not riding the coattails of the greatest player who ever lived, followed by a couple of the
16:43other next greatest players who ever lived.
16:46And the Lakers, I don't think they won every title with magic under Pat Riley.
16:51I think that they had somebody came in after.
16:55I don't know if it was Westfall or Del Harris, but I thought that there was somebody else who came
17:00in on the tail end.
17:01But to the point of Phil Jackson, what happened to him in Chicago?
17:05He got basically shown the door before the last year, which was the last dance.
17:11Championships.
17:12Championships.
17:13Yeah, you must be that Paul Westhead had one in 1980, but that was pre-Riley.
17:18OK, before Riley.
17:19Once Riley got there, 82, 85, 87, 88, and then no more until Phil.
17:27So, yeah, they weren't all Riley.
17:30But same thing.
17:31Great.
17:32Pat Riley.
17:32There's another one.
17:34So does that like, OK, I'll hear that on Steve Kerr.
17:38But doesn't that apply to every championship coach in the NBA?
17:42Doesn't it?
17:44Like, great, great, great, all-time great players.
17:48So why does that, why does Steve not get the same vibe that a Phil or a Pop or a
17:59Pat would get?
18:02And there's something about it.
18:04I don't know what it is.
18:05There's something about it.
18:06I think a lot of it is the Kaminga piece, where if you thought that Kaminga was a guy who
18:11deserved better from Kerr,
18:12and you look at why Kaminga didn't play, and you put that on Steve Kerr, that could be a demerit.
18:18And, you know, the James Wiseman piece, I know he's in New York trying to make their roster with Mike
18:23Brown.
18:23And so I don't know if that's going to be something you ascribe to Steve Kerr.
18:27But for me, a lot of it comes down to that false notion of Steve Kerr doesn't like to play
18:32young people.
18:33And part of that was Jonathan Kaminga.
18:35And now Kaminga is a starter in Minnesota?
18:40I mean, who knows?
18:42That was the other weirdest tweet of the year, along with Adam Schefter's Puka Nakua tweet last week.