Show Notes
Robert Horry, Rob, and Harp are back after a Labor Day break that somehow lined up with the biggest week in the NBA all year. The NBA came down on the Clippers hard for the Kawhi Leonard cap circumvention mess — five first-round picks, a $30 million fine for Steve Ballmer, suspensions across the front office, and a slap on the wrist for Kawhi himself. The guys break down whether this is the worst free agent signing in league history, rip apart Kawhi's tone-deaf statement from his camp, and debate what real punishment should have looked like.
From there, Charles Barkley may have let a huge secret slip on Bill Simmons' show: if Ernie Johnson steps away from Inside the NBA, so does Chuck. The crew talks about why nobody in the business could ever replace Ernie, and shares a story about the kind of man he is off camera.
Plus: Jonathan Kuminga finally lands with the Timberwolves, Amen Thompson gets paid by the Rockets, Ben Simmons signs with the Kings, and the guys get into college football's chaotic Week 1 — the LSU vs. SEC drama, Michigan's controversial finish, and Dabo Swinney's rough night in Death Valley — before locking in their Week 2 picks.
Big Shot of the Week goes to a race car driver who stopped mid-race to pull a rival from a burning car. Then the guys close it out with Busted, a game built around the ugliest penalties and scandals in sports history.
00:00 Back from the Labor Day Break
02:55 NBA Hammers the Clippers Over Kawhi
09:08 Worst Free Agent Signing in NBA History?
12:59 Breaking Down Kawhi's Statement
21:01 Charles Barkley's Ernie Johnson Bombshell
25:09 Remembering Ernie Johnson's Legacy
28:52 Kuminga Signs with the Timberwolves
32:03 Amen Thompson's Extension & Ben Simmons to the Kings
34:12 College Football Week 1 Rundown
34:35 Michigan's Controversial Finish
35:32 LSU and the SEC Expulsion Talk
38:47 Dabo Swinney and Clemson's Rough Night
43:47 Week 2 Picks: Oklahoma-Michigan & Alabama-Kentucky
46:17 Week 2 Picks: Tennessee-Georgia Tech & Ohio State-Texas
51:43 Big Shot of the Week
54:06 Busted: NBA and NFL Scandals
More from Big Shot Bob Pod with Robert Horry
NBA SEASON IS BACK!!! And the crew is... mostly back. Harp phones in from the casino floor at Harrah's Cherokee Valley River in Murphy, North Carolina, Robert Horry is squeezing us in before a flight, and Rob Jenners is just glad real basketball tips off tonight.
Episode 280, and B-Dawg is somewhere out on the ocean on a Carnival cruise, so it's Robert Horry and Rob Jenners holding it down. Bob's calling in from Vegas, where he's working the Lakers preseason game for season ticket holders. That gets the guys talking about the new ownership, what it means to be a Lakers legend, and why Bob respects teams like the Rockets that keep bringing back the older guys who never saw the big money. (Also: Bob is never getting on a cruise ship. Jaws, the Titanic, the Poop Cruise and a 6'2" shower for a 6'9" man. Case closed.)
Friday Shoot Around. Harp is somewhere recovering from a week of NLDS parties, so it's Big Shot Bob and Rob. Rob opens by telling Bob he never has to apologize for springing Allie Clifton on him Tuesday, and then it's straight into the story everybody kept asking about: Gregg Popovich marrying Mary Beth Budenholzer. Bob knows her personally, and his take is simple. Love is love, Pop needs somebody right now, and if anyone deserves a roast it's Bud.
Harp is across the street working the Braves-Dodgers NLDS game, so it's Big Shot Bob and Rob this week. Rob had a surprise sitting in the waiting room, though. Allie Clifton jumps on in the middle of her walk to talk WNBA playoffs: the Dream and Angel Reese, Becky Hammon's "play like ass and only lose by 10" speech, and who actually got her MVP vote. Then she reminds Bob he never won Defensive Player of the Year, and the Ohio State vs. Alabama trash talk starts.
Episode 278 gets recorded with a playoff game going on about 500 feet away. The Braves and Phillies are playing the NL Wild Card at Truist Park, so B-Dawg spends the first part of the show downstairs dealing with the chaos before he finally makes it in. It's been a day, and you can see it on his face.