After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 4

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Subscribe to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast today. Search for NCAA March Madness right here in the Odyssey app to get started. Call them what you will, but the NCAA tournament, the men's first four, is tonight. What means it's tipped off tonight on TruTV in Dayton, Ohio. Southeast Missouri State versus Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, those are both 16 seeds, and then you've got a pair of 11 seeds. Pitt against Mississippi State, two of the last two teams to get into the field of 68. So it begins tonight. It all begins right here. And don't forget, I know you haven't forgotten, and I get annoyed when people use that phrase with me, but sorry.

Good morning, is what I meant to say. We usually see a team from the first four, a survivor from the first four, end up winning a game. Come the main bracket, the first round, whatever you want to call it, we almost always end up seeing a team that survives from either Tuesday or Wednesday also win a game in the main field, in the main bracket. Now we give you those in the After Hours Bracket Challenge so you don't have to pick the first four games, but you do have to have your brackets submitted and saved by Thursday when it all tips off. Producer Jay is right now even working toward posting the link on both Twitter and Facebook so that you can join the After Hours Bracket Challenge. The top three finishers will win After Hours swag.

Trust me when I say you will get noticed everywhere you go with the After Hours swag. It's a Tuesday morning. For a good portion of our listening audience in the Northeast, the storm is headed right for you. It's my mom's favorite term, a nor'easter, from all of our years living in New Hampshire and then I've lived in New England, did live in New England for a long time. Nor'easter, it's a catch-all for any type of a massive storm generally producing snow.

This one is rain and wind and snow. It's going to be a big old pain in the rear for a lot of people, millions of people on the path of the storm. So if that's you, please be safe.

Please be careful. Often when we have storms, whether nor'easter or a different kind of storm, we also see an increase in our listening audience because there are a lot of people out plowing that are listening overnight. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio, on Twitter, ALawRadio, that's me.

Our show Twitter is After Hours CBS and we do have a poll up that we want you to vote in. Please participate. You know you get extra points, actually I'm going to make sure my Syracuse students know that part of their grade is participation. Not only showing up to class, attendance is one thing, participation is something completely different. Is that fair, Producer J? Because at first I thought maybe attendance and participation should be the same thing and should be combined together as a percentage of their final grade.

But I actually divided it up. There are only four classes, so I need you to be in every single class. You can't skip a class without missing 25% of what we're doing, including some of the assignments. So if you miss a class, you get docked. But I separated attendance and participation because I also want them to speak up, answer questions, take part in the weekly assignments, which a lot of times are going to be out there for the whole class to hear. And then I want you to ask questions too.

I think that's fair. I think showing attentiveness and, you know, and... What's that word? What's the word I'm looking for? Attentiveness? Attentiveness.

I'm looking for another word, like being engaged and being involved in the class. Intentionality? No, that wasn't your word.

That wasn't it, but I like that. I'll use that. I'll steal it. Okay. Yeah, I think it's important.

I mean, you can just go to the class and sit in the back and not do anything and not get anything out of it. Oh, heck no. No, I'll call on you specifically. Oh, you're one of them?

Oh, yes, I am one of them. Absolutely. This is an evening class.

There's no excuse for you being half asleep in the back of the room. You know, and I know some, you know, some people, like, I always love raising my hand in a classroom setting. I'd rather, but if you show you do the work, you know... No, you got to speak up.

You have to speak up. No, it's a class. First of all, there are only 10 students. That's how Syracuse designed its broadcast classes, is that you have one professor, maybe a TA, but the classes are smaller. We're not talking about huge lecture classes. We're talking about interactive. Maybe that's the word you're looking for, the I word.

Yeah, I think it was. Okay, so this is a class where I'm going to know them, all of them, and we're going to contribute to each other's weekly assignments, meaning we're going to critique one another because that's what radio is. You have to be prepared for people to be criticizing you, whether you agree with them or not. You have to be ready for that to come back if you're going to be a public media forum. And so it's part of getting them accustomed to not only critiquing their fellow man or woman's work, but also hearing it themselves.

So yeah, they definitely have to speak up. I don't care. And first of all, that's important to me is that you are participating. But second of all, if you aren't willing to talk, why are you in a radio class? That's a good point.

Thank you. That's going to be the first thing I say to them. If you can't talk in class, how are you going to talk on the radio? Yeah, I mean, a 10 person class, a small intimate setting like that.

Yeah, everyone needs to be engaged. I would agree with that. Participation would be huge in that one. They have to call me Professor Lawrence. Professor L. I feel like I could do an entire class on the psychology of Aaron Rodgers. You could probably do a full year. Oh, no, thank you.

I'd be bored out of my mind. That is not something I'm signing up for. But for now, he is still making himself the center of attention. And I will say this. I'll apologize to Aaron Rodgers if we find out that he's grappling with this decision, that he's so torn up, that he's on the fence literally between retiring, going to the Jets or playing out his career with the Packers. If he honestly is wrestling with it, it's keeping him up nights. He doesn't know what to do. That's a bunch of B.S.

That's a bunch of B.S. Nothing about his tone of voice, about his playfulness. Nothing about the way that he has answered questions and made jokes about this whole process indicates that his sense of urgency or lack thereof is tied to an angst over the decision.

How could you possibly say that? He does not seem like a man who's anxious over this decision. Nah. He just seems like a man who is watching and waiting to see how things play out with the Jets and isn't in a hurry to do any favors for the Packers.

Come on now. I know that this is going to be billed as partly Aaron's decision. The Packers want him to be party to this. They do not want to do what they did to Brett Favre. It looked bad.

It was bad PR and it turned fans against them for a while. If you don't remember, in 2008, I remember it vividly, Favre retired after a painful loss. He knew the Packers were angling toward bringing on Aaron, of course.

I mean, the irony in this situation is so rich. He knew the Packers wanted to move on to Aaron. He was not only emotional over the way the season ended, but he was emotional because he knew the Packers wanted him to retire. So he acquiesced. He agreed in his emotion and then realized he made the wrong decision. I have no problem with that. I don't think you should ever make decisions in very emotional moments.

Trust me, as an emotional girl, I've done that before. Not a good idea. Very often, you have to walk them back. And so Rogers was waiting in the wings. The Packers desperately wanted to get him on the field.

They needed to because he had already sat for three years behind Brett. So they push. They push Brett out the door. What happens?

He changes his mind. They trade him to the Jets. He becomes the sentimental favorite around the NFL. Not as much with the Jets, but when he got to the Vikings.

Oh, man. It was all of a sudden the Vikings, the most popular team in the NFC North, if not the entire NFL. The Packers want this to be Aaron's decision.

That's what they're waiting for. But don't tell me for a second that Aaron isn't a little bit peeved by this whole thing. How dare you?

You think that kid's going to be better than me? I don't care what amazing compliments he gives to Jordan Love. He has. He's never said a negative thing about Jordan. He certainly had negative reactions to the way the Packers didn't tell him and moved up to grab Jordan in the first round of the draft three years ago. But he's never said a negative word about Jordan. He calls him a good kid. He's constantly paying Jordan compliments. I'm sure they've worked together, although Aaron's not going to give him all of his secrets. You're not going to have my number.

Jordan Love, you're not part of his inner circle. Aaron Rodgers remembers every single team that drafted another player ahead of him in the 0-5 draft. You all remember that, right? If you don't remember 0-8, do you remember 0-5? I remember it vividly. It means I'm old-er.

I'm old-er than you, some of you. He sat in the green room while all of these players, dozens of players, in fact, two dozen players, were drafted ahead of him. Finally, the commissioner allowed him and his family to go back into his personal office because it was embarrassing and it was hard to watch his face as teams drafted, and he sat there. And to this day, he will tell you he remembers every single team that drafted someone else, including the San Francisco 49ers drafted Alex Smith, number one overall.

If he carries that chip on his shoulder, just know, as much as he's all about peace, love, and my fellow man, and ayahuasca, and harmony, and all of that jazz, this is not the way he wanted to leave. And the Packers don't want to push him out. They would rather it be Aaron's decision, which is why we hear from Connor Hughes of SNY, so it's an outlet that covers the Jets, Connor covers the Jets.

We hear that actually there's a reason why this is taking a few extra days, or weeks, or months. There is no official trade between the New York Jets and the Green Bay Packers for Aaron Rodgers. The thing that this is all contingent on, and we've talked about this over and over and over again, is Aaron Rodgers going to the Green Bay Packers and saying, hey, I want to play for the New York Jets, trade me to the New York Jets. And once Aaron Rodgers says that to Green Bay, then the Jets and the Packers can put the finishing touches on a trade that they've been talking about, dating back to the Super Bowl, and send Aaron Rodgers to New York to quarterback the New York Jets. As of right now, and this is, again, a very, very fluid situation, so as the time that I am saying this right now, Aaron Rodgers has not told the Packers, I want to be traded to the Jets, so the Packers and the Jets have not finalized a trade.

There is no contract, Jets contract with Aaron Rodgers' name on it. There is no faxed over trade that's signed by all parties that makes this official. It is not officially done yet. And until it is official, it's not going to be.

I love that, where Connor Hughes, we kind of cut it off a little bit there. We'll hear more from him, but we had to stop at least that sentiment. It's not official until it's going to be. It's not official because it's not official.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. Again, this is not personal with Aaron Rodgers, but we know he and most other elite quarterbacks have giant egos. They have to. That's part of getting to where they are, is that you believe you are the best damn player on the field, if not the entire league. And Rodgers has been for a good portion of his career.

The numbers speak for themselves, the awards speak for themselves. There is no part of him that thinks Jordan Love, while he may be a great kid, is a better option for the Packers at quarterback. That has to be eating at him. It would eat at me. It's always hard to be replaced. It's always hard to, regardless of whether or not you know it's a business, it's always hard to recognize that your employer thinks that they can find a replacement for you, who whether or not that replacement is better, they would rather have him or her. I've been there. It's not easy. It stings. It's humiliating.

It's embarrassing. And no doubt, there's part of Aaron that feels it. So the Packers would prefer that he goes to them and says, okay, trade me to the Jets. They don't want to be the bad guy here.

And I understand that. Now, ultimately, they have to agree to make the trade, which tells you so much of what you need to know. They gave Rodgers permission. Mark Murphy has indicated that we're looking for a resolution that works for both sides.

Just the term sides indicates they're not together. They're not going to resolve this as one unit. A divorce is coming. The Packers want Rodgers to be the driving force so that it doesn't happen again. So that they can avoid a little bit of the backlash from last time, although I kind of feel like the cat's out of the bag. Sometimes divorce is good.

I guess it depends on what we're talking about, but it definitely is a means to an end sometimes. Connor Hughes goes on to say, he thinks there's one particular reason why we haven't heard from Aaron yet. Across the NFL on Monday with the start of the legal tampering period is a lot of player to player talking, a lot of agent to player talking, and what there have been legitimate rumors and murmurs of is that Aaron Rodgers is beginning to talk to other perspective free agents or unrestricted free agents about joining him in New York with the Jets. But again, those talks might indicate that Aaron Rodgers is headed to the Jets, but as of right now, because there has been no official statement from Rodgers, there has been no official trade worked out to this point. What I can tell you is that there is legitimate optimism that this is going to get done. All signs are pointing in the direction that this is going to get done, but as of right now, it is not officially done, so we continue to wait a little bit longer.

I like it. Heart murmurs. Aaron Rodgers is having heart murmurs of a different sort. The whole thing has become comical. I heard people joking about the fact that it's been two months, which the Super Bowl was only a month ago, so I don't know how it could have been two months. Of course, the Packers didn't make the playoffs, but it's not quite been two months. It's been, what, two months since the season ended, I guess, the regular season ended.

We knew he wasn't going to make a choice right away, nor should he. It was an emotional end of the season for the Packers, too. So the Packers are waiting to try to give him the final say, if you will. Interesting that Connor Hughes, and that was on SNY, says Aaron may be recruiting players. There's a lot of player-to-player communication. Did you see some of the Jets' tweets on Monday?

They're giddy. So remember we saw the video, we shared the audio of the video. That sounds funny. We shared the soundtrack of the video of sauce gardener, Breece Hall, Garrett Wilson, three rookies from last year with the Jets, who were burning a cheese head.

They were turning a cheese head into cheese sauce. In the hopes that that would give them good juju and attract not juju, but Aaron. Those guys were all tweeting back and forth about speaking it into existence. I told you, we told you. So there is a lot of player chatter that this is a done deal. We even had reports from the likes of my former colleague, Trey Wingo, that it's a done deal. But according to Connor, it's not official until it's official. Oh. And until it is official, it's not going to be. I love that. I'm sure I've said dumber stuff on the radio, so I can't even make fun, really. But I don't mind if people laugh at me, so I'll laugh at him. Until it's official, it's not going to be official.

It's not going to be. Actually, Connor's been on the show. Big fan of his work. I would laugh if he was here, too. I don't take myself or this profession very seriously, right? It's supposed to be entertaining. So if you laugh at my ridiculous mistakes, well then, I hope it was entertaining.

I'm not a dumb jock. Jay loves his Aaron Rodgers drops. When are we going to get the big montage, the production over music, like we have with Mike Tomlin? That's up to Aaron. No, no, no. That's up to you. You have so much material.

You don't need more material from Aaron Rodgers. I need him to make a decision so we can honor him with playing it. Oh, okay.

Honor him? Yeah, maybe I shouldn't use that. It's a verb. In that particular.

It's a verb right now. Not that I need to call you out on national radio, so sorry about that. I appreciate it.

That sounded very snippy of me. Getting better. Making me better.

Oh, I like that. You make me better, too, Jay. Okay, we've got lots of football stuff, lots of linemen getting paid on Monday, and it's just the first, well, getting promises of being paid on Monday. It's time to tamper.

We also know we're now hours away from the start of the NCAA tournament. If you missed my conversation with Miami coach Jim, well, it's not Larinaga, just so you know. Jay, did you leave that part in the conversation? I didn't, but I think I wrote it back in.

Oh, you don't have to. It's just, it's funny. If you missed it, I asked him because I've heard his last name pronounced but a bazillion different ways. Come to find out, he's got six siblings.

They all pronounce their name different ways, and the way that we say it is not the official pronunciation or the way that it was intended to be pronounced. So he's really funny. He's got great passion and personality, and it was great to catch up with Jim again on the show.

Out of the ACC, Miami, a five seed. Yeah, good stuff. We've enjoyed our conversation so far. Jalen Swassup, this is what happens when I'm tired and when I start talking too fast. So you know what, Connor Hughes, you can make fun of me to be sure.

I have zero problems with that. Jalen Slauson, I should remind myself it's like coleslaw. Jalen Slauson, the Southern Conference Player of the Year. He was also on the show, and you want to talk about a good talker.

I'm not sure I've ever encountered an athlete who tells better stories. Our entire show podcasted. The link is every weekday morning posted on Twitter and Facebook. Right now we've got a Jimmy G poll.

Do you believe that Jimmy Garoppolo is an upgraded quarterback over Derek Carr? It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. Let's see, where are these teams that have earned the right to play in the best national tournament in the country? Number 5 seed in the middle. We are very, very excited to have won the ACC regular season title and now be moving on as the 5th seed. We're going to prepare ourselves to be excellent on Friday.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Coming up on Friday in Albany, New York, the 5 seed Miami out of the ACC. Reaching the semis of the ACC tournament because of a key injury. Maybe they would have gotten farther, could have taken out Duke. Ultimately, Duke goes on to win the tournament title.

But Miami, part of that regular season championship out of the ACC. Taking on the 12 seed Drake Bulldogs who won the Mizzou Valley Conference. By the way, we will have Darren DeVries, the head coach of Drake on Tuesday night's show. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Really cool to catch up with Jim Laronega, the head coach of the Miami Hurricanes for a while now. He's a lifer in college basketball. He's a great personality.

He has incredible passion. So we want to bring back a portion of the conversation. But not the part where I ask him about pronouncing his last name. If you did not hear that, the story is priceless. You will laugh out loud.

Please grab it on the podcast. But we're picking up here where I ask him about the ACC being in a down year. He's a big fan of the ACC going back to when he was a kid. How does playing an ACC schedule prepare the Hurricanes for what's next to come? Now the one thing that I think is very, very different than some of the other leagues.

Every coach in our league almost has a different style. And you've got to prepare for that next team one game at a time. You might be playing Jim Boeheim, Syracuse' team that's playing the 2-3 zone. And then next night be playing against Tony Bennett's pack-line defense.

Or that next weekend play Kevin Keats' pressure man-to-man. So every game preparation is different and your players have to adjust to that. Our league now has 20 games, 10 at home, 10 on the road. It's a grind.

It's a marathon. And I'm so proud of our guys for winning with co-champs with Virginia for the regular season title. Our guys did a great job. Just quickly before we move on, you mentioned Jim Boeheim. There have been a couple of very high profile exits of Hall of Fame coaches from your conference in the last couple years.

Why do you continue to do it? Well first of all, those guys are legendary. They're Hall of Famers like Mike Krzyzewski, Roy Williams and Jim Boeheim. But for me, there's been so many changes in college basketball with the transfer portal, with NIL, with teams and programs, jumping leagues. But I've said this all along.

Just tell me what the rules are. I'm just going to follow them. And we'll do the best we can because I love coaching. I love being with my players. I love practice. I love hanging out with the guys. Today we finished practice and half the guys just stayed and were shooting and having fun.

And I just stayed to watch them enjoy themselves. So, you know, I enjoy my job. I like the day-to-day activity.

And I don't have a lot of other hobbies so I'm not planning to retire anytime soon. How much does experience matter when you get to the tournament? Yeah, well, I'd like to say it requires a lot and it's really valuable except the team we're playing has so much of it.

Their point guard is like 25 years old. We know from our past experiences that having older guys, veteran guys who have played in the NCAA tournament before can be very beneficial. But really, what I tell my team, it doesn't matter who we play or where we play. What does matter is how we play.

Do we execute our game plan better than our opponent executes its game plan? And when you're in the NCAA tournament, everybody is really good. Drake has a great team. We've got a great team. It'll be a great matchup come Friday night. These three weeks where, as a nation, a lot of fans live, sleep, eat, breathe basketball.

Of course, the schools do as well. I don't know, coach, there's always talk about expanding it, changing the tournament. To me, it feels like the perfect three weeks in sports. Well, I think we can keep it the same three weeks in sports, but we should really expand to 96 teams. It doesn't make any sense to me that so many of these good teams, teams with very good records in the league, like a Clemson, like a Wake Forest, are left out of the dance.

Because once you get in there, depending on your matchup, you can go on a roll. And I always thought the NCAA was about giving student athletes a great life experience. And so few of the 363 Division I teams make it. There's only 68 out of 363. That's only 18%. If you look at football going to bowl games, half of the football programs go to a bowl. We don't even come close to half. We've got 18% going. I think we should expand to 96.

And I don't think you even have to add a day. You just do what we've been doing. Instead of the first four, you have a whole other round. I've suggested already that first round should be the 64 at-large teams match up and play each other.

And then the 32 teams that survive play against the 32 champions and then move on. Miami head coach Jim Larranaga has been around a long time. Incredible personality, a fun character. I don't happen to agree with his theory and his proposal for expanding the NCAA tournament. I like it exactly the way that it is.

But he makes a great case. I don't think I need to see half the teams in college basketball also in a tournament. I think the format is perfect the way that it is. I look forward to these three weeks because of how it's packaged and because of how quickly we go from the field of 68 down to the Sweet 16.

I love it. Yes, it's an awesome experience, but it's still one that can be elusive. It's still one that represents a dream come true. It's still one that you cannot take for granted. And to me, that makes it even more special. It is still a big dance. It's still March Madness. It's still an incredible achievement and accomplishment. Not like making the NBA playoffs where, you know, the majority of teams get in with this gimmicky play-in tournament.

I mean, it's about as gimmicky as putting a runner on second base when you get to extra innings. Flid League, we have to help you score. That wasn't actually part of the whole Jim Larinaga conversation. I just wanted you to know. Shaking his head at me.

Getting my blood boiling in here. All right, we'll do a little football slash NBA coming up. There was a fight, fight, fight. I don't think Trey Lyles wants to fight Brook Lopez.

I could be wrong. Also, did you notice what Giannis was doing when the fight was breaking out? Anyone?

Anyone? Milwaukee and Sacramento, actually a very high-profile game on a Monday night. A huge night for Klay Thompson, but the Warriors were at home.

They need to be able to do this on the road. The USA rebounds at the WBC. Crickets? Crickets? It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence.

You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. Let's go. Giannis gets. Wow. Lyles comes right after Giannis.

Oh, look at this. He just punched Lopez. We got a scrum going. Trey Lyles was pushing Giannis, and Lopez did not take kindly to it. Got right in his face, and Lyles punches him.

Dummy. Well, Lyles is going to be gone for some time. That was unprovoked, really. And we'll see what they do about Lopez here.

That's going to be the interesting part. Because Brook was coming to the defense of Giannis, as a good teammate does. Lyles came right up to Giannis while he was trying to dribble the clock out, shoved him twice. And Lopez did not take kindly to it.

I don't think any coach would tell you they'd want anything other than what Lopez did right there for his teammate. Just unfortunate. And, you know, I think it was a great game. A lot of good things happened. It's so, you know, impressed by Sacramento and the way they played. And, you know, good for our guys to fight back in the second half. And I'm really not going to say anything about what did, didn't happen. It was just, to me, it was unfortunate.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. My boot and holster takes the high road and reserves comment. Brook Lopez and Trey Lyles both get ejected. But if you watch the video, or even as you hear it there with Dave Cain on Buck's radio, it's clear that frustration boils over for Trey Lyles. He absolutely pushes Giannis after this little contact. Now, this is when they're running out the clock.

They're 15 seconds to go. And he's trying kind of half-heartedly to reach around and make a steal. Trey Lyles is not going to steal a ball away from Giannis half-heartedly. And so, he pushes Giannis.

I'm watching it right now. He pushes Giannis. And Brook Lopez says, ah, ah, ah, ah, and goes after him. Now, Trey happens to be about chest level. His eyes are about chest level with Brook Lopez.

And so the best thing he can do is kind of put, he really does this. He kind of slams him with his arm, but then grabs him around the throat. Not like choking. It wasn't a full choking motion. But that's where he reaches up and gets a hold of Lopez. Both guys get ejected. And Butenholzer is very vague about the whole thing.

Not so for Kings Head Coach Mike Brown. I don't know what happened, but we ain't taking no s*** from nobody. Trust me on that.

And they all going to have each other's back in there. That don't mean we going to go out there and start something. We're not. But we going to stand up for ourselves. So here's the thing.

I'm a big fan of Mike Brown and what he's done in Sacramento. But don't start your phrase with, I'm not sure exactly what happened. Or I didn't see what happened. And then say, well, we're not going to start anything. Because that's actually what happened. That don't mean we going to go out there and start something.

We're not. What do you think his reaction was when he found out that Trey Lyles did in fact start something out there? We ain't taking no s*** from nobody. Now that you know that it was totally Trey who started the whole thing, just listen to how he begins. I don't know what happened, but...

I don't know what happened, but we're not going to start anything. Ruh-roh. Going to have to walk that back.

Do you think when he did see it, he gets in Trey's face as in, you just made me look like a fool. Trust me on that. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Is it possible to talk a little Warriors Day because it's Steph Curry's birthday? What do you think today? Steph Curry's 35th birthday. OJ, you're catching up to him.

No. Pretty soon we're going to be celebrating your 35th birthday. Actually, Jay told me not that long ago that five years down the road, he would not still be working on this show.

Then he tried to... Don't even make that face. You know you said it. Admit it right now, you little liar. So out of context. That is not even remotely true.

So out of context. Okay, first of all, I'm the one who's the elephant that remembers everything. You remember nothing, and for you to try to change it now and say that you didn't actually say that, I made the statement that five years down the road, could you imagine yourself doing the same thing, and your exact response was, I hope not. No. Stop. Jay, are you acting like Mike Brown right now? No, no. I mean, I didn't see it, but...

I don't remember it, but I'm sure I'm not. Happy birthday to Steph Curry. I love to watch Steph hoop. He is ridiculous. Now, it was Klay Thompson who kind of stole the thunder in the first half last night for the Warriors against the Phoenix Suns. He had eight triples, 33 points in the first half, but yeah. Steph Curry also fairly ridiculous. I just need one play from Steph.

That's it. I don't even need montages. I just need Steph. If you missed it, as an ode to the end of his 34th year on Saturday night against the Milwaukee Bucks, he had 16 points with two minutes to go in the fourth quarter.

He finished with 36. Go back and watch the YouTube highlights if you haven't seen it because it was ridiculous. It's one of the things that Tim Roy, the Warriors play-by-play voice, loves to use when it comes to Steph.

Ridiculous. Jay's giving me the pause. You put together a montage that includes Steph Curry, so I feel like you must have a Steph highlight in there somewhere. No? I don't know if any of those were Steph. I thought the last one was. Whatever.

It doesn't matter. Steph was talking. This is after a win over the Suns.

First one this season. Steph was looking ahead to today, his 35th birthday. 35, still trying to play at this high of a level.

This might be the last birthday I start counting for a while. Just definitely blessed. Thank God for the ability to be healthy, to play with the great teammates, play in front of an amazing fan base for 14 years. Definitely a lot more to come. Oh yeah, for sure.

Please don't go away anytime soon. I can't believe he's 35. To me, he takes great care of his body. I know he's had a few injuries.

Those are more freak things. Since early in his career when he had the foot issues, he's been tremendous. And he's, if not the greatest shooter the NBA has ever seen, he's definitely in the top three. In traffic, finds Looney, bounce pass to Draymond, deflected away. Curry gets it back, dribbles to the corner, and hits a three! Ridiculous! I told you! Jay, come on now.

You waited until I took a pause and then dropped it in there. Yep. Yep. I don't remember. I don't remember.

It's totally taken out of context. What we've seen from Steph Curry has just been awesome. He is in the top 40 in the NBA's all-time scoring list, but he's not even played 900 games yet. He is closing in on 30,000 minutes in the NBA. And so, with the minutes comes the points. He's also closing in on 22,000 points in his NBA career.

Gosh, it's so much fun to watch him. And between he and Klay Thompson, back to being the Splash Brothers, the Warriors in general, their run over the last, the majority of the last eight years has reminded me why I fell in love with basketball in the first place. Now, here's the big, the big dig. Here's the big dig for the Warriors. They hit the road for a five-game stretch. They're abysmal on the road, as in, bleh. No, they're terrible on the road. They are 7-26 on the road this season, which means they've got to get their act together if they want to spare themselves a worse fate in the NBA playoffs. Right now, they're sitting in a dead heat with the Clippers in fifth place. They're trying to avoid that 7-10 tournament, but they're so bad on the road, even though they've won seven of their last ten away from home, it's like they forget how to play defense.

So, happy birthday to Steph Curry. Hit the road, Jack. Hit the road, Steph. I love to watch them play regardless, but it is strange that a defending champion would be that bad on the road.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. The Dallas Mavericks are going the wrong way. Speaking of teams that are going the wrong way, no Luca or Kyrie last night in a loss against the Memphis Grizzlies.

They only had 88 points. Here is Jason Kidd's assessment of their injured roster right now. This is what we have. This is the cards we're dealt, just like anybody in this league. We've got to play with the cards that we had tonight, and we played a good half of basketball with a young backcourt that's learning how to play the NBA game.

And then, just to put that in perspective against a very good defensive team. And so, just so you understand, we're getting better. It's just a matter of can we be healthy in time to make a stretch run. And if we're not, that's just the season. No one's dying. You hope.

You hope no one's dying. It's just a weird thing to say at the end of a press conference where your team is, you deal for Kyrie. You trade, and it's not him that did it, but the team trades away two very valuable pieces.

They've become worse, actually. And I know injuries are a big part of it, but they've not won since Kyrie got there. They only have him under contract through the end of the year. And I'm sure Mark, I forgot his last name, Cuban, thank you. Oh my gosh, don't tell him that.

Mark, it slipped my mind for a second there. Mark Cuban loves to hear his head coach, who's very well paid, say, eh, it's just the season. No one's dying.

Kyrie's likely not to return, but you know, whatevs. No one's dying. Oh, heavens to Betsy.

By the way, that was courtesy of producer Jay. He found that. Team USA is back in the win column at the WBC after getting crushed by Mexico. They take out their frustrations on Canada.

The last I knew it was 12 to 1 or something like that. So, you know, there's that. Mike Trout is having the time of his life at the WBC. The group of guys, the atmosphere, you know, the coaching staff, just everything that comes along with this, it's been unbelievably fun. You know, I just had a conversation with Wayne on a dugout, and he said the same exact thing. It's the best time he's had in a while in his life, he said.

And, you know, he's been through a lot as well. So, you know, it's just special to put the, you know, USA across your chest and go out there and play for your country and, you know, compete against other countries as well. Now, see, I appreciate that because I would love to represent the red, white, and blue.

That would be a dream for me, too, as an athlete. But do you think he would say it's the time of his life if he'd been in the playoffs since 2013? I feel like I can't remember the last time that Mike Trout was in the postseason. It's been a decade since we have seen the player that many consider to be the best that baseball has to offer, or at least he was. It's been a decade, and they've never won a playoff series with Mike Trout as an angel. There's times throughout the major league season where I forget he's even a player, which is a shame.

The time of your life would be winning a playoff series in October. Call me crazy, but I'm glad that he's happy. I really am. We'll do a lot more of the tampering in the NFL coming up, and NCAA Tournament starts tonight. We'll talk to you after. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. Boom!