NBA Lie Detectors, Duren’s Future, Tomlin’s TV Splash, and a 2026 Sports Media Check With Kirk Goldsberry and Bryan Curtis

Key takeaways

• The Jalen Duren situation has turned unusually ugly for a 22-year-old coming off an all-NBA-caliber regular season: Goldsberry argues Duren should simply take the Pistons' 5-year, $200 million offer given the league's hard-cap economics, noting only six centers make $35 million-plus and most of those contracts are regretted. Simmons counters that Duren's on/off splits collapsed in the playoffs (Detroit was better without him) and floats Atlanta's Okongwu-and-Daniels package as the trade that makes sense for everyone, especially since Atlanta also just added Lu Dort.
• Simmons and Goldsberry run through a "Do You Believe This?" bit on media day quotes, landing hardest on Ty Lue's "I wouldn't want to be at any other place" (rated a flat zero given Kawhi's partially torn Achilles and the Clippers' disarray) and Darius Garland's "the vibe is immaculate" claim in Cleveland despite losing their owner, GM, and getting a hobbled Brandon Ingram in return.
• Nikola Jokic telling reporters he'll sign an extension "next year if they want me" is flagged as the biggest actual news of media day, given how private he normally is and how much speculation had been building about his future.
• Mike Tomlin's NBC halftime work is praised as a rare broadcasting success: paired one-on-one with Maria Taylor instead of a crowded panel, he delivers specific coverage breakdowns (citing Cowboys' umbrella coverage, Commanders' play-calling) that sound like actual football-podcast analysis rather than empty studio filler. Both hosts agree he should get a test drive in a three-man booth with Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth.
• On the broadcasting landscape, Tirico is called the best play-by-play voice in football right now (Curtis recounts watching him reference a backup defensive tackle's exact snap count from memory), Tom Brady has loosened up considerably in year two, and JJ Watt/Robert Griffin-type analysts still lack the "big moment" instinct that made Tony Romo's exclamations work despite Romo's decline.
• Baseball broadcasting remains stuck: neither host can name a current national color commentator they're excited to hear, with Ron Darling and Lou Merloni mentioned as solid-but-unspectacular options. They trace the gap to networks never finding someone who bridges old-school storytelling with modern stats the way NFL analysts like Greg Olsen and Collinsworth do.

Notable moments

• Simmons on the Red Sox' Game 1 ALDS loss: "This was a pretty limited Red Sox team that couldn't score... their only chance in this series were one nothing, two to one, those type of games."
• Goldsberry, deadpan: "I think this young man Bill needs to take the money. Five years, $200 million."
• A hot-mic quote read aloud from an anonymous reporter at media day calling Ben Simmons "cringe" and saying Zach LaVine's personality "fucking annoys me"—Simmons jokes only the Kings could produce this.
• LeBron's line "I didn't come here to lose in the second round" gets picked apart as a pointed dig at Embiid's playoff history.
• Simmons on Michael Porter Jr.'s stated goal to be "the best off-ball player in the NBA" while playing alongside Cam Thomas and Michael Brown; "Does he realize what's going to happen with Julius Randle?"
• Curtis recounts a baseball broadcaster telling him flatly, when asked which color analyst to get excited about this postseason: "the reason you can't think of anybody is because there's not anybody."
• Discussion of Herbstreit's NFL Thursday night gig lands on him seeming like "a college guy who also kind of seems like he's following the NFL"; with a pointed jab at his new pop-up dog merchandise stores as a "heat check."

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