Marveling at Leo Messi making history last night with another multi goal game. Comparing his career with LeBron and how both are passed their prime but still playing at the highest level.
00:12And he made some history with those two goals, by the way.
00:15First player in league history to score multiple goals in four consecutive MLS league matches.
00:21Wow.
00:22So he's still got it.
00:24You know, we had Whittingham on with us yesterday.
00:26And one of the questions I had for him, we just never got to it.
00:28You saw the goal that Messi scored.
00:31I think it was against Montreal.
00:32That was like, I mean, everybody looked like a wizard.
00:36He looked like a wizard and he was freezing guys with his mind as he is.
00:43He still like, like, like, I don't know what we do with LeBron.
00:48LeBron is LeBron a top 10 player in the NBA.
00:51Yes.
00:52He is currently.
00:53He used to be one.
00:55He was one for a decade.
00:56One by a mile.
00:58Yeah.
00:58Now he's in the nine, nine, 10 range.
01:00In other words, if you were drafting an NBA team from the entire talent pool, you think
01:05LeBron would go as one of the first 10 picks?
01:10Ooh, the age, the age is the question.
01:14The talent is there.
01:16Well, you're just doing it for one season for one.
01:18Like, this is really, you think I'm not certain one year.
01:23Just, just 2025 NBA season and you have a whole pool of draft.
01:29Yeah.
01:29You're taking LeBron in top 10.
01:30I think, I think, I think you're taking one year.
01:32I think you're taking LeBron in the, in the top three.
01:35Really?
01:36I still think here's where I'm at with LeBron.
01:38When you ask, is he a top 10 player in the NBA?
01:40If we're talking a full season's worth of games, including playoffs.
01:45No, I don't think he is because I don't think he can sustain top 10 play every single game.
01:51I don't think he should do that.
01:53But if you're telling me I have one game to win.
01:55No, no, no, not one game.
01:57No, no.
01:57I know.
01:57But I'm telling, I'm saying like, if you told me today, go, you have one game to win.
02:03Who do you want in the league?
02:05I'm still taking LeBron.
02:06I like, I don't know what people are doing where they're just dismissing.
02:09But one, one game is one game is different.
02:11I would still take Michael.
02:12I would still take Michael Jordan today for one game.
02:14I think Michael Jordan could will himself to a victory for one game over anybody.
02:19Just name, just quickly, just name the people going before him.
02:22For a season?
02:24For a season.
02:24You're taking Jokic.
02:25You're taking SGA.
02:27You're taking Giannis.
02:28Right.
02:28There's, I mean, that to me is like the, the three.
02:31And then I got to start to, I got to start to think about it.
02:34Are you taking Giannis?
02:36Yes.
02:36I think so.
02:37For one season?
02:38If it was like future, it's not even a question, but one season, I don't think I'm taking Giannis
02:43over LeBron right now.
02:44Why?
02:46Because LeBron has a lot less.
02:49LeBron has a lot less skills.
02:53Skill, talent, skill wise, for sure.
02:56Still.
02:57Still more than, than Giannis.
02:59Giannis is, is more physical now.
03:01Obviously he's in better shape now.
03:03Stamina, like all the, all the physical stuff.
03:06He still has LeBron, but I don't think it's by that much.
03:11No, that's, that's the thing.
03:13That's why the amazing thing about LeBron, LeBron's he's outscoring some of his young man numbers
03:19at 40.
03:21Right.
03:22No, understood.
03:22He plays the game cerebral now.
03:24Far from being washed up.
03:26I just don't know if, like, I, I think if you, well, I guess if LeBron and Giannis were standing in front of me
03:34and I was picking teams, I'm not certain it's as easy as I'm making it sound.
03:37Jokic, SGA, Giannis are top three in my mind.
03:43Would Wimby go over LeBron?
03:44No, we just don't have a, uh, we don't have any kind of a history of work to say yes.
03:52Like you'd think, but Luca, Luca, Luca's going over LeBron for one season.
03:59No, he's not.
04:00LeBron's probably top five.
04:01I think we're arguing the same direction.
04:04LeBron might be a top five guy still in that scenario.
04:08Anthony Edwards.
04:08I think you take a flyer on him just because of who he is and how unbelievably gifted he is.
04:15And we're talking one season.
04:18I think.
04:20Steph Curry?
04:22Maybe.
04:23Steph, Steph before LeBron.
04:24Steph's game is a lot more sustainable than LeBron's game.
04:28Jimmy Butler?
04:30Hell no.
04:31Norman Powell?
04:33Aitlin Clark?
04:34Norman Powell.
04:38But no, my question was, is Leo Messi, because two goals last night, you just had a record.
04:45What was it?
04:46Multi-goal games, four in a row in MLS.
04:49What I saw against Montreal.
04:51But I don't know if he's doing it against scrubs or he's still legit one of the world's best soccer talents.
05:01I think he is still one of the world's best soccer talents.
05:05It doesn't mean he's best player in the world.
05:07But, like, if you put him on PSG, he wouldn't look like an old guy out of place.
05:14Yeah.
05:15Not that he'd look out of place.
05:17He could still play.
05:18Because, like, LeBron with the Lakers and Luka and young guys, he doesn't look out of place.
05:22He doesn't.
05:23But there are nights, right?
05:24There are certain nights when they're playing a certain matchup where maybe it comes to the fourth quarter.
05:29LeBron doesn't have any gas left in the tank in February on the second night of a back-to-back to drive to the rim 18 times in a game.
05:38So he's pulling up for jumpers.
05:39He's breaking some jumpers.
05:40Like, remember when the Lakers came down to Miami last year early in the season in November?
05:44And the Lakers, or early December, the Lakers, it was that stat where LeBron hadn't hit a three in, like, four games.
05:50And we're like, uh-oh, is this the start of LeBron looking old?
05:53There's, like, stretches where LeBron just doesn't look like LeBron anymore.
05:58There's stretches of it.
05:59Even in the playoffs.
06:00But in other words, you watch a season and you go, yeah, LeBron's still doing his thing.
06:03It's not embarrassing.
06:05Because sometimes you get to that age, you know, and you're like, wow, that's embarrassing.
06:08Messi, you're saying, if he was on PSG, would not look embarrassing or out of place.
06:13He would look like a star soccer player.
06:15There would be moments where you'd say, oh, my God, he's still the best player in the world.
06:20There would be moments where you'd say, they have to sub that guy off.
06:23He can't withstand a full season's worth of games.
06:26But, Hawk, just to put it into context, because people will say, he's doing it because MLS defensemen are scrubs.
06:33That may be the case, right?
06:34Like, the level of MLS defense is not the level of a European defense in any major European league.
06:41That's true.
06:42However, there's still professional athletes.
06:44Everybody on the field, every defenseman that Leo Messi plays in the MLS knows,
06:49don't let Messi get the ball on the right side of the field and cut back to his left foot.
06:56Because if he does that, he's going to score.
06:59Everybody knows this.
07:01There isn't a single person in the world.
07:04And guess what?
07:05He's still capable of doing it.
07:08He still does it every game.
07:09That play against Montreal, the idea that anybody in the world can dribble down the middle of the field and then cut back to their preferred foot and score, it doesn't make sense.
07:22It's not that these guys are scrubs.
07:23It's that he is still that talented.
07:25By the way, I don't know if you saw that play, Crowder, but look it up on Twitter.
07:29Messi goal against Montreal.
07:30No, but I guess speaking of or elaborating on what you just said, Salon, he couldn't do that against PSG.
07:40Like he scored four in one game, two in the next game.
07:43That PSG game, he couldn't even get close to the net.
07:46So remember yesterday, we're talking about how PSG dominated the game and it looked embarrassing.
07:51Whittingham's going, hey, but look, they're doing it to Real Madrid.
07:54Listen to this stat.
07:55Inter-Miami had more possession, 33.4%, which is terrible.
07:59Versus PSG in that game that they look completely outmatched than Real Madrid did yesterday, who only had 31.9%.
08:08Leo Messi specifically created more big chances.
08:12So these are like one-on-one opportunities or clear opportunities on net.
08:17He had one against PSG.
08:19Then Real Madrid's entire squad, a $100 million payroll.
08:25couldn't create one big opportunity, one clear chance against PSG yesterday.
08:32Not one.
08:33Leo Messi had one.
08:36He could still be a star on one of them big European teams.
08:41He won the World Cup in 2022.
08:43If you put him on Real Madrid yesterday in that game against PSG, you could extrapolate out.
08:49If he was able to do what he did with Inter-Miami teammates, if he was on the Real Madrid squad yesterday, you'd think that they would do even better.
08:57Like, maybe for a length of time.
09:01He just can't play at that pace anymore.
09:02Right.
09:03Like, what Messi will do, like, in the World Cup next year, in 2026, what Messi will do is, maybe he'll start a game or two, but in big games, they may not start him.
09:14They'll save him for the second half.
09:15Bring him in, 30 minutes left.
09:17Let him play 30 strong minutes, right?
09:19Because he probably can't withstand, at that level, the PSG level, the Real Madrid level, playing 90 minutes day in, day out.
09:26It's different in the MLS.
09:28Is it like Toto in concert?
09:30Still, 2025, they can still rock out for a few songs, but some songs are going to sound a little weak.
09:36Boom.
09:37Like, when they play half the songs we listened to yesterday, but when they play Africa, oh, are they going to bring it?
09:44Then it comes together.
09:45That's Messi going to the left.
09:47Boom.
09:48It's Hawk's sex life.
09:49If he used to be all night, now he just got a little five minutes.
09:51I don't think I ever had a Messi run.
09:55You never had a Messi run?
09:56I'm not necessarily certain that I ever had an All-Star Pro Bowl run in my sex life.
