# The 1st Round Of The NBA Play-In ELECTRIFIES Gil's Arena

An episode of [Gil's Arena](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1689097415), 15 Apr 2026, 1 h 56 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/895dfae1-64b0-4981-adea-b4b300f0d0f6/61ece822-6425-47f4-bce7-b4b3012a4046/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=d110bf8d-fc65-45fb-856f-b4b300f0d117

The 1st Round Of The NBA Play-In ELECTRIFIES Gil's Arena as Gilbert Arenas, Skip Bayless & The Gil's Arena Crew react to the opening round of the NBA-Play In where the Charlotte Hornets took down the Miami Heat in an instant classic and the Portland Trail Blazers stunned the Phoenix Suns on the road. They tip things off by reacting to the Hornets' overtime victory over the Heat despite off shooting nights from LaMelo Ball and rookie sensation Kon Knurppel and give their takes on the controversial play from LaMelo Ball that forced Bam Adebayo out of the game. They also discuss what's next for the Miami Heat after their elimination from the NBA Playoffs and debate if Heat Culture is cooked if the team is unable to land a superstar this offseason. Next, they break down a stunning upset in the Western side of the play-in tournament as the Trail Blazers took down the Phoenix Suns and debate if Deni Avdija solidifed his status as a star in the NBA with a 40 point outburst in his first NBA Playoff action. They then highlight Jrue Holiday & interm head coach Tiago Splitter as unsung heroes for the Blazers during their improbable run to the NBA Playoffs and preview their upcoming series against Victor Wembanyama & The San Antonio Spurs before reacting to Brandon Jenning's viral tweet trying to start the conversation on Devin Booker. Finally, they give their take on Kevin Garnett returning to to Minnesota to reunite with the Minnesota Timberwolves and break down the NBA's potential new laws to curb tanking. PLEASE give us a LIKE and SUBSCRIBE!! Today's Gil's Arena Crew : Josiah Johnson, Skip Bayless, Swaggy P, & Rashad McCants Gil's Arena premieres every Wednesday & Thursday at 11:30am PT / 2:30pm ET. Compete Against The Gil's Arena Crew in Underdog's NBA Playoff Bracket Battle - https://play.underdogfantasy.com/bp-z... Sign up for Underdog HERE with promo code GIL and play $5 to get $50 in bonus funds or bonus entries https://play.underdogfantasy.com/p-gi... Help protect your family with life insurance through Ethos. Get your instant, free quote at ETHOS.com/arena SUBSCRIBE: / @thearena0 Read Rashad's Blog - https://rawrashad.com/?blog=y Join the Underdog discord for access to exclusive giveaways and promos! / discord Must be 18+ (19+ in AL, NE; 19+ in CO for some games; 21+ in AZ & MA) and present in a state where Underdog Fantasy operates. Terms apply. Concerned with your play? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit www.ncpgambling.org; NY: Call the 24/7 HOPEline at 1-877-8-HOPENY or Text HOPENY (467369) 2 Min Timer 0:00:00 Show Start 0:01:57 Hornets Win An OT Thriller Over Miami 0:06:07 LaMelo Ball's Dirty Play 0:19:34 Flagg or Kon: More impactful Rookie? 0:41:21 Blazers Stun The Phoenix Suns 0:53:36 Deni Avdija Emerged As An NBA Superstar 1:06:06 Jrue Holiday Is The NBA's Most Underrated Player 1:15:24 Should NBA Be Happy With The Play-In? 1:26:50 Kevin Garnett Returns To Minnesota 1:33:52 Play-In Preview 1:48:29 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:03] Speaker 1: Welcome back to Gil's Arena presented by Underdog. Hump day
[0:09] Speaker 1: here in the arena. Also tax day. Which is like
[0:15] Speaker 1: Halloween for black people. We gotta dress up. There's a
[0:26] Speaker 1: buzz in the air, ladies and gentlemen.
[0:29] Speaker 2: Oh wow. Yeah! That was your high school uniform? That's
[0:36] Speaker 2: like a 17X. Uh-oh.
[0:38] Speaker 1: Coming through with the Cleveland Cavs. Cleveland High School. It's
[0:42] Speaker 1: a beautiful day.
[0:45] Speaker 2: We got a lot to get into, ladies and gentlemen.
[0:46] Speaker 1: We are sorry for being late, but like I said,
[0:47] Speaker 1: it's tax day, and you know people are ducking, but
[0:49] Speaker 1: this is Gil's Arena.
[0:51] Speaker 2: Presented by Underdog.
[0:52] Speaker 1: I'm your leader host, Josiah Johnson. We got NBA champion
[0:56] Speaker 1: of the world, arguably the greatest player in the history
[0:59] Speaker 1: of Cleveland High School, Swaggy P, Nick Young.
[1:06] Speaker 2: There's some other names in that mix.
[1:09] Speaker 1: Seated next to Swaggy, we got one of the biggest
[1:11] Speaker 1: legends in the sports media game, Skip Bayless.
[1:13] Speaker 2: Back on the couch. It's my turn!
[1:18] Speaker 1: Last but not least, the man they call Cemetery Larry.
[1:21] Speaker 1: Longtime Charlotte Hornets fan, NCAA champion of the world, Dr.
[1:24] Speaker 1: Rashad McCants, PhD.
[1:27] Speaker 2: Back here with.
[1:31] Speaker 3: Us. So wait a second.
[1:32] Speaker 2: That was easy. Yeah.
[1:34] Speaker 3: Are you celebrating that? That last night? That robbery last night?
[1:40] Speaker 3: Come on, man. You got to wait.
[1:44] Speaker 2: Oh. Shout out on the phone. What's up?
[1:52] Speaker 4: What's up?
[1:54] Speaker 2: Gilbert. Where you at? I think he picked the horn
[1:59] Speaker 2: in his suit off. Where you at? Where is everybody at?
[2:04] Speaker 2: I see his bobble hat. I guess we duck and
[2:07] Speaker 2: smoke today. I guess we duck and smoke today. It's
[2:12] Speaker 2: tax day. Get your returns in. I guess we duck
[2:15] Speaker 2: and smoke today. But two.
[2:21] Speaker 1: Very well played playing games. Shout out Adam Silver. Y'all
[2:24] Speaker 1: were clowning the plan yesterday here on the couch. But
[2:27] Speaker 1: they delivered with two high level games, which we will discuss.
[2:32] Speaker 1: We got a lot to get into. Here's what's cracking
[2:34] Speaker 1: in Gil's arena today. So the Hornets won their first
[2:38] Speaker 1: home postseason game in a decade to keep their hopes alive.
[2:41] Speaker 1: Will Charlotte make their first playoff since 2016? That's the postseason?
[2:46] Speaker 1: It is the postseason. That's why I get the regular
[2:47] Speaker 1: season over. This is the postseason. These games don't count.
[2:50] Speaker 1: Playing games don't count.
[2:52] Speaker 2: Relax. But they mean something to us. Enjoy it.
[2:56] Speaker 1: Bam Adebayo had his season prematurely ended after a questionable
[2:59] Speaker 1: move from LaMelo Ball. We assessed the situation and potential ramifications.
[3:04] Speaker 1: Not the first time LaMelo and Bam I found themselves
[3:06] Speaker 1: in a situation like this. And the Blazers stunned the
[3:09] Speaker 1: Suns and Phoenix to snatch the seventh seed. Will Portland
[3:12] Speaker 1: be a problem for the Spurs? But before we get
[3:14] Speaker 1: into all that, this episode is brought to you by Underdog.
[3:17] Speaker 1: Underdog available in most states, including Texas, California, and Florida.
[3:20] Speaker 1: New customers get $ 50 in bonus entries when they play
[3:22] Speaker 1: just $ 5. And to celebrate the start of the NBA playoffs,
[3:26] Speaker 1: Underdog has launched a special offer. where if you play
[3:29] Speaker 1: $ 50 on NBA playing games, you will receive a 50%
[3:33] Speaker 1: boost token. To get started, just use code GILL when
[3:35] Speaker 1: you sign up, and it'll load instantly. Underdog, make picks,
[3:38] Speaker 1: win money with code GILL. And the GILLS Arena Bracket
[3:41] Speaker 1: Challenge is back, this time for the NBA playoffs. Make
[3:44] Speaker 1: sure to go onto your Underdog app and join the
[3:47] Speaker 1: GILLS Arena group to enter your bracket. Top three places.
[3:50] Speaker 1: will win some great prizes. We have the link pinned
[3:53] Speaker 1: in the chat right now, so go join. Compete with
[3:55] Speaker 1: us on the couch and enter your bracket now. And
[3:57] Speaker 1: if you can't watch the show live, what's on YouTube?
[3:59] Speaker 1: We have audio versions available on Apple, Spotify, wherever you
[4:02] Speaker 1: get your podcasts. I'm just so overwhelmed. So overwhelmed by
[4:04] Speaker 1: these tremendous playing games. So let's get right to it.
[4:08] Speaker 1: Playing tournament started with a bang as the 10th seeded
[4:11] Speaker 1: Heat pulled up to Charlotte to take on the 9th
[4:12] Speaker 1: seeded Hornets. Heat won the season series 3-1, but the Hornets'
[4:16] Speaker 1: lone win came by way of a 30-point blowout In
[4:19] Speaker 1: their final meeting March 17th, the largest crowd in Spectrum
[4:22] Speaker 1: Center history was on hand as Charlotte looked to move
[4:25] Speaker 1: one game closer to making their first playoff since 2016. Miami,
[4:28] Speaker 1: without Bam Adebayo for most of the game after a
[4:31] Speaker 1: very questionable move by LaMelo Ball, which we will discuss
[4:34] Speaker 1: in depth shortly. Hornets overcame terrible shooting nights from three-point
[4:38] Speaker 1: league leaders Conn Knipple and LaMelo Ball, who were combined
[4:41] Speaker 1: two for 22 from long range, with Conn getting benched
[4:44] Speaker 1: in crunch time. We pick up the action late in
[4:46] Speaker 1: the fourth quarter with the Hornets down three. with just
[4:48] Speaker 1: under 13 seconds remaining. Let's take a look at what
[4:52] Speaker 1: we got. Trade deadline acquisition. Kobe White came through with
[4:54] Speaker 1: the biggest shot of Charlotte's season, nailing a corner three
[4:57] Speaker 1: to tie the game. White finished with 19 points and
[5:00] Speaker 1: 26 minutes off the bench, including a stretch where he
[5:02] Speaker 1: scored 11 straight to end the third quarter. He'd had
[5:04] Speaker 1: a chance to win a regulation. Tyler Hero missed the
[5:07] Speaker 1: three as time expired. But Hornets tried to pull away
[5:11] Speaker 1: in overtime. LaMelo ball hit Brandon Miller for a lob
[5:14] Speaker 1: to go up three. Charlotte's next possession, Miles Bridges. Came
[5:19] Speaker 1: through with the reverse layup. Put the Hornets up five.
[5:22] Speaker 1: Then Melo hit that one to put the heat and
[5:25] Speaker 1: put the Hornets back up five. Tyler Herro hit the
[5:26] Speaker 1: corner three. The cut to lead the two on the
[5:31] Speaker 1: ensuing possession. Melo, errant pass stolen by Pell Larson. Larson
[5:35] Speaker 1: found Herro. Herro tried to put up the game winner.
[5:38] Speaker 1: Melo fouled him on the attempt. Herro made all three
[5:46] Speaker 1: free throws. With the game on the line, Charles Lee
[5:49] Speaker 1: put the ball in LaMelo's hands. Hit this clutch layup
[5:52] Speaker 1: with 4.7 seconds remaining. He did not have a timeout.
[5:55] Speaker 1: Davion Mitchell tried to go the length of the court,
[5:57] Speaker 1: but Miles Bridges came through.
[5:58] Speaker 2: With a two-handed block. That UCLA defense, man. To seal
[6:03] Speaker 2: the win.
[6:03] Speaker 1: So LaMelo Ball finished with 30 points and 10 assists
[6:06] Speaker 1: on 12 of 31 shooting. Miles Bridges added 28 nine
[6:09] Speaker 1: boards and three blocks. He was 5 for 10 from deep.
[6:12] Speaker 1: Brandon Miller had 23, 5, and 5. And Moussa Diabate.
[6:15] Speaker 1: had a team-high 14 rebounds, including eight on the offensive side.
[6:18] Speaker 1: Hornets won their first postseason home game in a decade,
[6:22] Speaker 1: will now face the loser of the Magic Sixers game
[6:25] Speaker 1: for a chance at the AFC shot.
[6:27] Speaker 2: We will start with you. Been rocking with Charlotte all season.
[6:31] Speaker 1: Very early on in season four of Gills Arena, presented
[6:33] Speaker 1: by Underdog Woo Woo, you said that the Hornets would
[6:37] Speaker 1: have a better season than the Milwaukee Bucks. That proved
[6:39] Speaker 1: to be true. Now the Hornets, one game away from
[6:41] Speaker 1: reaching the playoffs for the first time in a decade.
[6:43] Speaker 1: What are your biggest takeaways From the Hornets, play and
[6:46] Speaker 1: win over the Miami Heat.
[6:48] Speaker 2: Josh Radomis strikes again. And again.
[6:51] Speaker 5: And again. Tombstones in the chat. Full circles in the chat.
[6:56] Speaker 5: We do this for a living. We really know ball.
[7:00] Speaker 5: You look at the matchup between the two, even in
[7:03] Speaker 5: the regular season, records don't really show what the progression does.
[7:08] Speaker 5: I think LaMelo, this was a statement game for him.
[7:11] Speaker 5: This was a statement game for Miles Bridges. This was
[7:13] Speaker 5: also a rivalry game for Brandon Miller. But Kobe White
[7:16] Speaker 5: was the savior. Kobe White stepped up in ways that
[7:19] Speaker 5: you can't really fathom. When you talk about North Carolina,
[7:23] Speaker 5: you talk about Charlie, you talk about him leaving Chicago, coming.
[7:27] Speaker 2: To a place where he's familiar.
[7:29] Speaker 5: He played one year at Carolina, but he also knows
[7:31] Speaker 5: that culture well, and he knows the fan base, and
[7:33] Speaker 5: he knows how much they can rally behind you. So
[7:36] Speaker 5: understanding that energy in that arena was the thing that
[7:40] Speaker 5: held them together.
[7:41] Speaker 2: And I think.
[7:43] Speaker 5: You know, LaMelo, he took a lot of shots, and
[7:46] Speaker 5: he needed to, you know, for them to keep putting
[7:49] Speaker 5: pressure on Miami's defense.
[7:51] Speaker 2: Davion Mitchell, he showed up.
[7:52] Speaker 5: I think Khalil Ware showed up in certain.
[7:56] Speaker 2: Aspects of the game.
[7:58] Speaker 5: And then you look at Andrew Wiggins, you know, we
[8:00] Speaker 5: haven't seen him really show up and show out the
[8:03] Speaker 5: way he did for the Heat. I think Tyler Hero
[8:06] Speaker 5: showed out late. It was a little too late for that,
[8:09] Speaker 5: but he did make statement shots. But at the end
[8:11] Speaker 5: of the day, Charlotte did exactly what I knew they
[8:13] Speaker 5: could do. Go in there, make a statement game, take
[8:16] Speaker 5: the game, and hopefully they're facing the Sixers because I
[8:19] Speaker 5: think that the Magic, they have a lot of turmoil.
[8:22] Speaker 2: Going on right now.
[8:23] Speaker 5: And you look at that particular matchup, Sixers, Hornets, with
[8:28] Speaker 5: the momentum that's.
[8:29] Speaker 2: Going, no Embiid. No Embiid.
[8:31] Speaker 5: You're looking at the Hornets really– What, 10-year decade?
[8:38] Speaker 2: 2016 was their last playoff appearance.
[8:40] Speaker 5: I think that's a celebration for them and a proud
[8:43] Speaker 5: moment for LaMelo Ball. I think him really trying to
[8:48] Speaker 5: get the rally behind of being a leader and a
[8:52] Speaker 5: great point guard for his team. I think this is
[8:54] Speaker 5: starting to show what he can actually do there.
[8:57] Speaker 2: You talk about the offshoot tonight for LaMelo.
[8:59] Speaker 1: LaMelo historically struggled in playing games, but game on the line,
[9:02] Speaker 1: Charles Lee draws up the play.
[9:04] Speaker 2: Yep. I mean.
[9:07] Speaker 5: I didn't mention Con Canepa because he's a Duke guy
[9:09] Speaker 5: and I expected him to struggle. So you had to
[9:13] Speaker 5: draw the play up for somebody like LaMelo because he
[9:16] Speaker 5: felt like in the press conference or after the game,
[9:19] Speaker 5: he felt like he didn't play well. And he needed
[9:22] Speaker 5: to win the game for him despite whatever happened during
[9:25] Speaker 5: the game. And I think you go to the guy
[9:27] Speaker 5: who's going to end it or take you to the
[9:30] Speaker 5: next level. So I think that was a smart play
[9:32] Speaker 5: from Lee and it showed confidence.
[9:34] Speaker 1: All right, let's shift over to this side of the couch. Skip,
[9:36] Speaker 1: I know you were watching that game.
[9:37] Speaker 2: You want to go? Let's go, Swaggy. You want to
[9:39] Speaker 2: kill him, you can kill him. Cleveland High School. You
[9:42] Speaker 2: know you're not going to kill him. You know you're
[9:43] Speaker 2: not going to do nothing.
[9:44] Speaker 1: Let's go to a Cleveland High School legend, YUP Nick Young,
[9:48] Speaker 1: San Fernando Valley.
[9:50] Speaker 4: Last night, I loved the way Melo Ball played, but
[9:57] Speaker 4: still he got a glimpse of immaturity, you know. the
[10:01] Speaker 4: 24-hour fitness shows, the lunchtime baller shows, what he.
[10:05] Speaker 2: Did for Bam. That was crazy. That was crazy.
[10:10] Speaker 4: It was a dangerous play. Do you get suspended for
[10:15] Speaker 4: the next game?
[10:16] Speaker 1: League is reviewing the play. We'll announce the punishment before Friday.
[10:20] Speaker 1: It would have been a flagrant one at the end
[10:21] Speaker 1: of the day.
[10:22] Speaker 2: You see how hard he fell? One leg in there? Well,
[10:24] Speaker 2: it's not about how hard he fell. It's just the play.
[10:26] Speaker 2: The play would have been a flagrant one. Or ejection.
[10:30] Speaker 2: So if he's ejected, it's not a suspension.
[10:32] Speaker 4: That's why I feel like the league wanted some new blood, mellow,
[10:37] Speaker 4: and the Hornets is playing well.
[10:39] Speaker 2: They look exciting, so they just let it pass.
[10:42] Speaker 4: But you take somebody's star player out the game, that's
[10:46] Speaker 4: That's tough. Another thing I was wondering what happened to
[10:51] Speaker 4: Norman Powell, why he was coming off the bench and
[10:54] Speaker 4: not playing as many minutes as he started. He's still
[10:57] Speaker 4: averaging 20-something, but I don't know what's going on there.
[11:02] Speaker 4: But it's good to see the Hornets playing well. They
[11:04] Speaker 4: look like a team that's ready to finally launch off
[11:08] Speaker 4: and be not a contender, but a force to be
[11:12] Speaker 4: messed with.
[11:14] Speaker 2: And it's good to see Melo. He looks like he's
[11:17] Speaker 2: trying to take it serious.
[11:18] Speaker 4: But he got to get rid of those little young
[11:23] Speaker 4: incidents like yesterday.
[11:25] Speaker 2: That's the only thing.
[11:26] Speaker 4: He take those out the equation, I think the Hornets
[11:29] Speaker 4: are going to be a great team to mess with.
[11:31] Speaker 4: Kobe White should be a starter somewhere for sure.
[11:35] Speaker 2: Huge addition by the Hornets. Huge addition.
[11:38] Speaker 4: They should play him and Melo together more instead of subbing.
[11:42] Speaker 4: One out and keeping, you know, subbing Melo out to
[11:45] Speaker 4: bring White in. You could play both of them together.
[11:47] Speaker 4: That could be a dual threat. And I like Brandon Miller.
[11:52] Speaker 4: Brandon Miller is going to be an all-star in this league,
[11:55] Speaker 4: I believe so, for sure.
[11:57] Speaker 2: So Hornets, 19-63 last season. Charles Lee, first season with
[12:00] Speaker 2: the team.
[12:01] Speaker 1: Obviously, Charles Lee got championship experience during his time as
[12:04] Speaker 1: an assistant coach. 44 wins this season. Finished ninth in
[12:09] Speaker 1: the Eastern Conference. Skip, let's move on to you. What
[12:10] Speaker 1: are your biggest takeaways? From the Hornets, play and win
[12:15] Speaker 1: over the Miami Heat.
[12:16] Speaker 3: Doctor, Mr. McCants, I think I heard you say this
[12:23] Speaker 3: was a statement game for LaMelo Ball. Did I not
[12:27] Speaker 3: hear those words? Did I misconstrue?
[12:30] Speaker 2: Statement.
[12:33] Speaker 3: He shot two for 16 from three. Let's start with that.
[12:37] Speaker 2: 14 times.
[12:40] Speaker 3: Your team went down, and he jacked it up and
[12:42] Speaker 3: missed it, and it's an empty possession that just takes
[12:45] Speaker 3: the home crowd more out of it and more and
[12:48] Speaker 3: more and more out of it until they're finally saying,
[12:51] Speaker 3: what are you doing? And meanwhile, his running buddy, who
[12:56] Speaker 3: made the most three-point shots during the regular season, Con Canipple,
[13:00] Speaker 3: is going 0 for 6 from three. And LaMelo, who
[13:04] Speaker 3: made the second most threes in the entire NBA in
[13:07] Speaker 3: the regular season, is is missing 14, two for 16.
[13:13] Speaker 3: And then maybe I got to get a new TV,
[13:16] Speaker 3: but last 12 seconds of the game, I saw your
[13:20] Speaker 3: man LaMelo. And by the way, I root for him.
[13:23] Speaker 3: I met him when he was a sophomore at Chino
[13:24] Speaker 3: Hills and LaVar told me he's going to be the
[13:27] Speaker 3: best of the three by far. And that is true.
[13:30] Speaker 3: He is by far the best of three and his
[13:33] Speaker 3: future is unlimited. but there's still a lot of little
[13:37] Speaker 3: spoiled brat stuff going on because he was the baby
[13:40] Speaker 3: of the family, and he got it all, and they
[13:43] Speaker 3: handed it to him in silver spoon. Okay, but with
[13:47] Speaker 3: 12 seconds left, he turns it over at midcourt. It's
[13:51] Speaker 3: a huge turnover, and then he goes right down to
[13:53] Speaker 3: the other end, and it was a questionable foul call.
[13:56] Speaker 3: I will give you that on the three-point call, but
[13:59] Speaker 3: he did that, and he didn't really fight it that hard.
[14:03] Speaker 3: I think it's like, God, I did it. And you
[14:06] Speaker 3: know what Tyler Herro is going to do because he
[14:08] Speaker 3: is clutch. And he goes swish, swish, swish. And all
[14:13] Speaker 3: of a sudden I'm saying, God, LaMelo just blew the
[14:17] Speaker 3: entire game. And then for reasons inexplicable, after Eric Spolstra
[14:22] Speaker 3: had gotten his team back in the game by going
[14:25] Speaker 3: to their 1-3-1 zone, which really flummoxed LaMelo and Khan
[14:29] Speaker 3: and everybody else outside. They were having a hard time
[14:32] Speaker 3: finding a shot. until Kobe White saved him. And Brandon
[14:36] Speaker 3: Miller made one big late three that was just guts, man.
[14:39] Speaker 3: It was just like, he just went straight up beyond
[14:42] Speaker 3: the top of the circle and just ripped it. But
[14:46] Speaker 3: you go to the one, three, one, and all of
[14:48] Speaker 3: a sudden you wind up with Mr. UCLA, Jaquez, trying
[14:51] Speaker 3: to get in front of LaMelo and he can't. And
[14:54] Speaker 3: LaMelo just turns the corner on him and just basically
[14:57] Speaker 3: wins the game with the layup. So if that's a statement,
[15:00] Speaker 3: you got me. Now back to the play of the game.
[15:04] Speaker 3: the most outrageous uncalled play in any playoff game. I've
[15:09] Speaker 3: been racking my brain all morning trying to think of
[15:11] Speaker 3: a worse call in a playoff game than what transpired.
[15:16] Speaker 3: And Eric Spolstra, who's not prone to blowups after games,
[15:22] Speaker 3: he's very contained and controlled, and he made it very clear,
[15:26] Speaker 3: I'm not making an excuse here, but you have to
[15:30] Speaker 3: throw him out of the game for that, which would
[15:32] Speaker 3: be flagrant too. And Spolster's point was that he called
[15:38] Speaker 3: out Curtis Blair, the official who was right, he was
[15:41] Speaker 3: on the baseline.
[15:42] Speaker 2: Looking down.
[15:43] Speaker 3: He's looking down. He actually has to jump back a
[15:45] Speaker 3: little bit because obviously Bam's going to fall back toward him.
[15:49] Speaker 3: But what happened to me was Lomelo drives it and
[15:52] Speaker 3: it's awkward and gets caught off balance. And that kid, Fontecchio,
[15:58] Speaker 3: who played six minutes last night and scored zero points,
[16:01] Speaker 3: comes all the way across the lane and blocks Lomelo's shot.
[16:04] Speaker 3: And it just infuriates him. And as he falls backward,
[16:08] Speaker 3: he hits his head a little bit on Cal Brenner's
[16:12] Speaker 3: sort of his chin. And then he's just going to
[16:17] Speaker 3: throw a little tantrum because he's still got a lot
[16:20] Speaker 3: of little kid in him. And he looks, and he's
[16:24] Speaker 3: got high basketball IQ. And he realizes that Bam is
[16:28] Speaker 3: already off balance because he's trying to catch the carom
[16:31] Speaker 3: of the block. And he's trying to control it going
[16:33] Speaker 3: back out of bounds. He's trying to hold it here
[16:35] Speaker 3: with his hand. And by the way, if you look
[16:38] Speaker 3: hard at it, I think his heel is out of bounds.
[16:42] Speaker 3: I think he's already out of bounds. So Curtis Blair
[16:44] Speaker 3: is missing two things. He's missing an out-of-bounds call, and
[16:48] Speaker 3: he's missing the most blatant, outrageous trip of somebody who's
[16:54] Speaker 3: already doomed. Like he's already going down, right? And now
[16:58] Speaker 3: you flip him up. And what do we call?
[17:00] Speaker 2: You got no balance. Okay, yeah. You just.
[17:03] Speaker 3: What's band 6925? 40, 50, I don't know. And now
[17:08] Speaker 3: you got all that going backward and he can't stop.
[17:12] Speaker 3: And he's a tough guy, man. I don't know if
[17:14] Speaker 3: there's anybody tougher. And he hits so hard, he is gone, gone.
[17:18] Speaker 3: For the rest, I thought, I'll just shake it off.
[17:21] Speaker 3: Surely he's got a bruised butt. But I hope he's
[17:26] Speaker 3: going to, I hope he didn't break something, you know, like.
[17:29] Speaker 1: Well, let's take a look at that video. We have
[17:31] Speaker 1: the playing question. It was hard to see during live
[17:35] Speaker 1: game action. But obviously replays told a different story. Lomelo
[17:44] Speaker 1: appearing to deliberately swipe. Look at this though.
[17:50] Speaker 2: I have a specific rebuttal for both of your statements, right?
[17:54] Speaker 5: You said statement game for Lomelo, right? How could it be?
[18:00] Speaker 5: When you're a player, you're struggling. One thing you don't
[18:04] Speaker 5: do You don't stop.
[18:06] Speaker 2: You don't stop. You don't stop being aggressive. Understood. You
[18:09] Speaker 2: don't stop doing what you do best. Okay. What has
[18:11] Speaker 2: he done best all season? Make threes. He does.
[18:15] Speaker 3: Second most in the league.
[18:16] Speaker 5: Second most behind Khan. What did Khan do? Khan as
[18:19] Speaker 5: a rookie, you know, we're not going to put you
[18:20] Speaker 5: in that spot.
[18:22] Speaker 2: Right?
[18:22] Speaker 5: Mello's been here. So that's why he shot 14 of them, right?
[18:26] Speaker 5: So you look at the end of the game, eight
[18:27] Speaker 5: seconds left. How do you redeem yourself to make it
[18:32] Speaker 5: a statement game?
[18:32] Speaker 3: Well, he did do that.
[18:33] Speaker 2: To make it a statement game. Okay. Okay.
[18:35] Speaker 5: To say, listen, I played bad, but we fought through
[18:39] Speaker 5: the badness and made it a good night.
[18:42] Speaker 2: We made it a celebration for the city. Even as
[18:45] Speaker 2: the city was, what are you doing? Guess what? This
[18:48] Speaker 2: is what I'm doing. This is what I'm doing. Taking
[18:52] Speaker 2: it home.
[18:52] Speaker 5: Listen, I'm going to get there. You say this particular incident.
[18:57] Speaker 5: Have we seen it before? We have seen LaMelo do that.
[19:00] Speaker 2: Not LaMelo. Have we seen it before? Okay, tripping?
[19:04] Speaker 3: Well, I've seen lots of tripping.
[19:07] Speaker 2: Draymond Green. Is he immature? Is he immature, though? Y'all
[19:14] Speaker 2: call him immature?
[19:15] Speaker 5: Draymond has done things like this on numerous occasions.
[19:20] Speaker 2: No doubt. Right?
[19:22] Speaker 5: So for us to make it a thing, like it's
[19:25] Speaker 5: end all, be all, let's end the world on this, right?
[19:29] Speaker 2: Now, and the circumstances are high. I get it.
[19:32] Speaker 5: This is a play in. It's Bam out of bio, 83.
[19:36] Speaker 5: He was going for 83, wasn't he?
[19:37] Speaker 2: I don't think so. I think he had 19 or
[19:39] Speaker 2: 15 in the first.
[19:42] Speaker 3: He had made all three of his shots.
[19:44] Speaker 2: He was three for three, okay yeah six points yeah
[19:47] Speaker 2: six points in 11 minutes right that particular fall usually
[19:51] Speaker 2: we had a little butt pass on usually if you
[19:55] Speaker 2: ain't wearing them if you ain't no you got the
[19:57] Speaker 2: pad right there for your tailbone oh then if you
[19:59] Speaker 2: don't wear them you'll wear them right now that's not
[20:02] Speaker 2: forgiving mellow for what he done it is an immature
[20:05] Speaker 2: play it is something that you can either get a
[20:08] Speaker 2: flagrant one or an interjection for.
[20:11] Speaker 5: That still doesn't say that we don't do what we
[20:13] Speaker 5: need to do to win the game. We don't do
[20:15] Speaker 5: what we need to do to be in the game.
[20:18] Speaker 5: Kobe White propelled that surge at the end. Miles Bridges
[20:23] Speaker 5: hit big shots to propel that particular scenario. And then
[20:27] Speaker 5: you look at a guy like Brandon Miller who was
[20:30] Speaker 5: relentless and he didn't shoot bad from the field. He
[20:32] Speaker 5: was actually ready for the moment and I think Malcolm
[20:37] Speaker 5: Lee did eat Charles Lee. Charles Lee. Charles Lee actually,
[20:42] Speaker 5: you know, he was engaged in understanding what needed to
[20:45] Speaker 5: happen next and to be able to get LaMelo the
[20:47] Speaker 5: ball for his statement moment in that game. It was
[20:50] Speaker 5: special for me to see because now, you know, he
[20:52] Speaker 5: can actually go get it and go get it done.
[20:55] Speaker 5: But for the actual play in the BAM situation.
[21:00] Speaker 2: It's unfortunate. It's a part of the game. It happens.
[21:03] Speaker 5: And regardless if they got it right or got it wrong,
[21:06] Speaker 5: We've seen it before in different occasions where a guy
[21:09] Speaker 5: kept playing. Guy didn't get ejected from the game, got
[21:11] Speaker 5: a flagrant one, stepping on a guy's chest, tripping a guy,
[21:15] Speaker 5: kicking a guy in the balls.
[21:16] Speaker 2: We've seen this kind of stuff before.
[21:18] Speaker 5: So for me, I'm looking at it like, all right,
[21:21] Speaker 5: this erases all of LaMelo's prior immaturity, prior bad shot taking,
[21:27] Speaker 5: all the lunchtime baller stuff that he's saying. And then
[21:29] Speaker 5: you take it and you say, go win the game
[21:30] Speaker 5: for us. Go win the game for us. Put us
[21:33] Speaker 5: in a position where we can actually make the playoffs
[21:35] Speaker 5: for the last 10 years. And I think he's done that.
[21:37] Speaker 3: Okay, and as Lamel said in his on-court interview immediately
[21:40] Speaker 3: after the game, I fucked up and I knew I
[21:43] Speaker 3: had to go win it for us, and he did.
[21:45] Speaker 3: So I give you that. But I also give you this.
[21:48] Speaker 3: I don't know if you remember this game this year.
[21:51] Speaker 3: It was February 27th at Oklahoma City, Denver at Thunder.
[21:55] Speaker 3: Do you remember what Lou Dort did to Joker? They
[21:59] Speaker 3: had just inbounded the ball there in the backcourt. And
[22:02] Speaker 3: Lou Dort has his back to Joker and just takes
[22:05] Speaker 3: his right foot and sticks it out and trips him.
[22:07] Speaker 3: Now he's running forward, so he was able to put
[22:10] Speaker 3: both hands down and he rolled and so he wasn't hurt.
[22:13] Speaker 3: But they immediately blew the whistle and stopped play and
[22:17] Speaker 3: they took a look and they threw his ass out.
[22:20] Speaker 3: This is 8.30 left in a close game, Denver versus
[22:23] Speaker 3: Oklahoma City. And he is gone-gone because he should be.
[22:27] Speaker 3: You just, you can't do that.
[22:29] Speaker 2: Who is, who are we talking about?
[22:31] Speaker 3: Lou Dort.
[22:31] Speaker 2: Okay, and who's the other guy we're talking about? Joe.
[22:35] Speaker 2: LaMelo Ball. But it's Bam Alabaio. Yeah.
[22:39] Speaker 5: So it's two top players. And then you're mentioning Lou Dort.
[22:44] Speaker 5: We don't need you.
[22:45] Speaker 2: Watch out. If that was SGA....
[22:49] Speaker 3: Okay, it's fair.
[22:52] Speaker 2: If that was SGA, we look at it.
[22:55] Speaker 3: Plus, Lou Dortch is kind of a shady operator.
[22:58] Speaker 2: He's a Draymond Greener. He does shady shit.
[23:01] Speaker 5: So it's like you got to look at the optics,
[23:04] Speaker 5: even if Melo has done it before.
[23:06] Speaker 2: Immature-wise, he's tripped somebody before. But why put yourself in
[23:10] Speaker 2: that situation? Because I'm frustrated and I'm playing bad. That's
[23:13] Speaker 2: why he's light-skinned it. Yeah, and he's like... That's a
[23:16] Speaker 2: dangerous combo. Game on the line. You know you could
[23:18] Speaker 2: really get kicked out. I mean, yeah, you're saying game
[23:20] Speaker 2: on the line as far as just the game. Yeah, yeah, game.
[23:23] Speaker 4: This is like you... Melo kicked out. I don't think
[23:26] Speaker 4: they win. I don't think they win. Let's take a
[23:30] Speaker 4: look at... Bantam play, I don't think they win.
[23:31] Speaker 2: Well, no, I don't agree. What's the record? How much
[23:36] Speaker 2: Bantam average against the Hornets? Probably 20.
[23:41] Speaker 3: 20?
[23:41] Speaker 2: You need that, though.
[23:43] Speaker 3: You do.
[23:43] Speaker 2: But guess what your other 20 was, though? They won
[23:46] Speaker 2: three out of the four games. Yes, but where was
[23:48] Speaker 2: your other 20 at? What was your next man up?
[23:53] Speaker 1: So two games against the Hornets in the regular season,
[23:54] Speaker 1: Bam averaged 29-9 rebounds, three assists.
[23:56] Speaker 2: Come on, man. Norman Powell is sitting there. But 29-9. Yes.
[24:01] Speaker 2: Norman Powell is your other guy. Three for three in
[24:04] Speaker 2: 11 minutes? I'm just saying. All right, well, let's take
[24:07] Speaker 2: a look. Good point. I ain't refruiting. 29 is a lot, right? But,
[24:11] Speaker 2: you know, it's one of those things where next man.
[24:13] Speaker 5: Up, and you do got a next man sitting there,
[24:15] Speaker 5: and it's on the bench.
[24:16] Speaker 3: And by the way, Kalal Ware had 19 rebounds, so
[24:19] Speaker 3: he stepped into the void.
[24:20] Speaker 2: And played big. I do, too. I like that.
[24:23] Speaker 1: Well, let's take a look at the play one more time. Obviously,
[24:25] Speaker 1: like I said, a little hard to see in real time,
[24:27] Speaker 1: especially on the game view, pre-technical difficulties.
[24:31] Speaker 2: Damn.
[24:32] Speaker 1: So like we see, LaMelo grabs at the leg. Like
[24:36] Speaker 1: you mentioned, ref right there. Here's him looking at the situation.
[24:39] Speaker 1: Maybe just got a lot of Bam's back, though. I
[24:41] Speaker 1: don't know if he was able to see from that vantage.
[24:43] Speaker 2: Look how he's looking down. He's looking down.
[24:44] Speaker 1: But from where he's looking down at, I don't know
[24:47] Speaker 1: if he's going to be able to see LaMelo's hand.
[24:48] Speaker 1: He might just see a lot of Bam back. Obviously,
[24:50] Speaker 1: Spalter Matt right there. Like you mentioned, play was not reviewed.
[24:54] Speaker 2: No, nothing.
[24:55] Speaker 1: The Heat lost their three-time All-Star. Bam did not speak
[24:59] Speaker 1: to the media after the game, but LaMelo Ball didn't
[25:02] Speaker 1: have this to say.
[25:03] Speaker 2: I apologize on that one.
[25:04] Speaker 6: I mean, I got hit in the head and didn't
[25:06] Speaker 6: really know where I was, but I'm going to check
[25:08] Speaker 6: on him and see if he's okay and everything.
[25:11] Speaker 3: LaMelo, it kind of looked like on film that you
[25:13] Speaker 3: might have grabbed his leg.
[25:14] Speaker 2: I mean, did you intentionally grab his leg? I haven't
[25:18] Speaker 2: even seen.
[25:18] Speaker 6: Like I said, I got hit in the head, didn't
[25:20] Speaker 6: even know where I was, but just playing basketball. But
[25:24] Speaker 6: like I said, sorry, and I'm going to check on him.
[25:26] Speaker 1: So, LaMell said he got hit in the head. Did
[25:27] Speaker 1: he know where he was? I think it was later
[25:29] Speaker 1: asked if he felt like he had a concussion. Said
[25:31] Speaker 1: he didn't know where the concussion was either.
[25:33] Speaker 2: Just saying. He knows what he knows. He does what
[25:36] Speaker 2: he does. That's some shit you would do. That's why
[25:39] Speaker 2: the kids love him. That's some shit you would do.
[25:41] Speaker 2: That's why he's a fan favorite. I don't even know
[25:44] Speaker 2: what that shit is. Leave me alone, man. Right?
[25:48] Speaker 1: Crew Chief Zach Zarber was asked why the play wasn't reviewed.
[25:51] Speaker 1: Had this response. Zach said, play wasn't whistled in real time.
[25:55] Speaker 1: Play continued with a fast break. And because play wasn't
[25:58] Speaker 1: stopped immediately and there was no whistle on the play,
[26:00] Speaker 1: the window to review the play was closed. Play was
[26:03] Speaker 1: stopped after a change of possession and then a timeout.
[26:06] Speaker 1: So by our rule, our window to review the play
[26:09] Speaker 1: then is closed. Not the first time that LaMelo has
[26:14] Speaker 1: done this to Bam. Video surfaced of a play in 2024.
[26:16] Speaker 2: Take a look.
[26:19] Speaker 3: And he's going to reach out for Bam and try
[26:21] Speaker 3: to tie him up.
[26:22] Speaker 2: Why are you doing that to Bam, though?
[26:26] Speaker 5: I think he wanted to get a foul right there, though.
[26:29] Speaker 5: I think that was a take foul for him because
[26:30] Speaker 5: he was upset.
[26:31] Speaker 2: He didn't get it. Yeah, it looks nasty. Why are
[26:34] Speaker 2: you doing it to Bam, though? You're in my way, man.
[26:37] Speaker 2: Get out of the way.
[26:39] Speaker 3: Apparently, he's not afraid of it. I would think he
[26:41] Speaker 3: would be.
[26:42] Speaker 1: Where was the rest of the heat in this situation?
[26:45] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[26:45] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[26:47] Speaker 2: Somebody got to get a flavoring on LaMelo after that.
[26:51] Speaker 3: I was surprised. But play kept on. They scored, then
[26:55] Speaker 3: came back here and scored. But, again, if Curtis Blair
[27:00] Speaker 3: just sees it and blows the whistle immediately, then I
[27:05] Speaker 3: think we're going to have an altercation because I think
[27:08] Speaker 3: some of the heat are going to rush to the
[27:09] Speaker 3: defense of Bam. But Blake went all the way the
[27:13] Speaker 3: other end and came all the way back before it stopped.
[27:15] Speaker 2: Oh, no, man. I think it happened too fast. I
[27:17] Speaker 2: think you look at the highlight. It happened.
[27:20] Speaker 5: It literally happened where he and Melo He did it
[27:24] Speaker 5: so fast. Like he said, he didn't know what, like,
[27:26] Speaker 5: that's what it looked like from what he's saying.
[27:28] Speaker 2: He was trying to help Mello right now.
[27:30] Speaker 5: No, it just looked that way. It looked fast. Now,
[27:32] Speaker 5: when you slow it down, when you slow it down,
[27:35] Speaker 5: it looked like he looked at his ankle.
[27:36] Speaker 2: Like, who is this? It was like he planned it, right?
[27:41] Speaker 2: So that's slow-mo, though. That's like he really looked like, man,
[27:44] Speaker 2: I'm about to fuck you. Already one leg up. All that. Yeah,
[27:48] Speaker 2: but when you speed it up. You end up getting
[27:50] Speaker 2: like this in the air. Yeah, ain't nothing going to
[27:53] Speaker 2: help you. Ain't nothing going to help you. But when
[27:55] Speaker 2: you speed it up, it don't look.
[27:57] Speaker 5: Like it was intentional when you speed it up. It
[27:59] Speaker 5: just looked like it all happened.
[28:01] Speaker 2: He got blocked. He was upset.
[28:02] Speaker 3: No, it was real intentional.
[28:03] Speaker 2: Real intentional.
[28:04] Speaker 1: LaMelo also intentionally punched Hugo, the Hornets mascot. I don't
[28:08] Speaker 1: think that was intentional either. You in the way. You
[28:11] Speaker 1: went away at a celebration.
[28:12] Speaker 2: I have to write up the game.
[28:13] Speaker 1: But according to Chris Haynes, NBA is reviewing the play
[28:16] Speaker 1: with a ruling expected before the Hornets' final play-in game Friday.
[28:20] Speaker 1: So this side of the couch, I believe this was
[28:22] Speaker 1: the dirty play shot. You said when it slowed down,
[28:25] Speaker 1: it had the potential to be a dirty play. What
[28:27] Speaker 1: do we expect the league to do in regards to
[28:30] Speaker 1: this situation? Obviously, Hornets on the precipice of making their
[28:32] Speaker 1: first playoff since 2016.
[28:34] Speaker 2: It's over now, I feel like. They can't do nothing.
[28:36] Speaker 4: You want the Hornets. I feel like the NBA want
[28:39] Speaker 4: the Hornets. Absolutely. They would love a Hornets, Pistons.
[28:42] Speaker 2: For sure. And it's good for the city and everything. So, yeah.
[28:47] Speaker 3: And let me say to you that you were way
[28:51] Speaker 3: ahead of this curve. And this is the most fun
[28:55] Speaker 3: team to watch in the league right now.
[28:57] Speaker 2: For sure.
[28:58] Speaker 3: And I hated it that that happened and marred. what
[29:01] Speaker 3: was just a wildly entertaining game all the way to
[29:04] Speaker 3: the end. I mean, it's one of the, best playoff
[29:08] Speaker 3: games I've ever watched, even with just a play in.
[29:11] Speaker 3: It worked, man.
[29:12] Speaker 2: I thought Miami had it.
[29:13] Speaker 3: They was up.
[29:15] Speaker 2: They was. I started watching. Yeah, me too. I was like, oh, fuck.
[29:19] Speaker 3: So now since early January, your team is 34-15 on
[29:23] Speaker 3: that roll, 34-15. And in that stretch, they went to
[29:27] Speaker 3: Oklahoma City and destroyed the Thunder, and they beat San Antonio,
[29:31] Speaker 3: and they beat Boston, and they beat the Lakers, and
[29:33] Speaker 3: they beat the Knicks, and they beat Denver. They keep showing.
[29:38] Speaker 2: You legit, legit.
[29:40] Speaker 3: More legit, way more legit. And I was reading an
[29:45] Speaker 3: ESPN.com story yesterday in which Miles Bridges and so on
[29:49] Speaker 3: were talking about they were texting during the finals last
[29:53] Speaker 3: year watching the Pacers come out of nowhere to get
[29:55] Speaker 3: to the finals, and they're texting each other saying, hey,
[29:58] Speaker 3: We could do this. Well, they just lost 60 games.
[30:00] Speaker 2: We can do this.
[30:01] Speaker 3: Yeah, we can do this. Well, they can't. I'm looking
[30:04] Speaker 3: at this box score. Man, there's firepower out here. They
[30:08] Speaker 3: can all.
[30:09] Speaker 5: Compare that to that team. Let's compare that to the
[30:12] Speaker 5: Indiana team, right? I think this is me. I think
[30:16] Speaker 5: Melo's better than Halliburton.
[30:18] Speaker 3: I'll buy that.
[30:19] Speaker 5: You look at Neesmith, you look at Matherin, you look
[30:22] Speaker 5: at all the guys that they had that were playing Pascal.
[30:26] Speaker 2: Let's match up Pascal or Miles Bridges. I'm taking Miles.
[30:30] Speaker 5: Even though Pascal can do a lot more, he's a
[30:33] Speaker 5: little bit more versatile when it comes to doing... I'm
[30:37] Speaker 5: taking Miles just because I know what Miles can do
[30:40] Speaker 5: as far as getting involved in the game, especially late.
[30:44] Speaker 5: Then you got Brandon Miller. He's a star. He's a star.
[30:47] Speaker 5: He's on the brink, right? And he was on the
[30:49] Speaker 5: brink before we get his contract. You look at Brandon Miller.
[30:52] Speaker 5: He's better than Neesmith and Matherin to me. Both of
[30:56] Speaker 5: those guys.
[30:56] Speaker 2: Pascal is the only winner they got for me. So
[30:59] Speaker 2: then you look at Kobe White, TJ McConnell, or The light-skinned. Light-skinned.
[31:06] Speaker 2: What's his name? Neem Hart. Neem Hart, yeah. Neem Hart,
[31:09] Speaker 2: Kobe White. All right, good matchup. I'm taking Kobe because
[31:12] Speaker 2: he's moving.
[31:14] Speaker 3: Kobe White, two years ago in a playing game, scored
[31:17] Speaker 3: 42 for the Bulls.
[31:19] Speaker 2: 42.
[31:19] Speaker 3: So he's got firepower.
[31:21] Speaker 2: Yes, Kobe White. And he's going to Carolina. Almost career.
[31:24] Speaker 2: Like you said, back home. It means something to him. Yeah. Yeah.
[31:30] Speaker 2: He's got to show and prove.
[31:31] Speaker 5: And like you just said, he can be a starter
[31:34] Speaker 5: in this league for a team.
[31:36] Speaker 2: Yeah. He can show. Go to Minnesota or somewhere like that.
[31:38] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[31:39] Speaker 2: Point guard. Yeah.
[31:40] Speaker 1: Skip, like you pointed out, Hornets had six 15-plus point
[31:44] Speaker 1: road wins back in January. Thunder, Magic amongst that mix.
[31:48] Speaker 2: They did.
[31:48] Speaker 1: Could potentially play the Magic. Could potentially play the Sixers
[31:51] Speaker 1: without Embiid for the AFC.
[31:54] Speaker 4: I think their problem was just the maturity.
[31:56] Speaker 2: Like, the talent is there. I was going to say
[31:57] Speaker 2: that too. Maturity.
[31:59] Speaker 4: Like, A bunch of talent. And from all five spots,
[32:02] Speaker 4: it's just the mindset, the maturity. I think once they
[32:05] Speaker 4: catch up with their talent, I think they're going to
[32:08] Speaker 4: be unstoppable. And now it's starting to show once you
[32:11] Speaker 4: win and like winning and get confidence and understand what
[32:15] Speaker 4: it takes to win.
[32:16] Speaker 3: Yeah, Charles Lee is a stud to me. And he
[32:19] Speaker 3: was first assistant on those staffs that, you know, Milwaukee
[32:23] Speaker 3: and Boston, they won championships. He's been there and done that.
[32:26] Speaker 3: He knows what it smells like, what it looks like, right?
[32:29] Speaker 5: And I was about to be critical of him when
[32:32] Speaker 5: he was having his class with LaMelo, bringing him off
[32:35] Speaker 5: the bench.
[32:36] Speaker 2: But that was a tactic.
[32:39] Speaker 5: When you're a player and you know, you've seen that
[32:41] Speaker 5: before where the coach is picking on that one player,
[32:43] Speaker 5: but that one player is the good player and he's
[32:46] Speaker 5: trying to get through to him some way, somehow. Like, hey, listen,
[32:49] Speaker 5: I need you to show up. You're not playing well
[32:51] Speaker 5: with the starters. Let's see how you play with the
[32:54] Speaker 5: bench guys. Now I need your firepower so you can
[32:57] Speaker 5: last longer because you've been turning the ball over early.
[33:00] Speaker 5: You've been in foul trouble early. You're not really disciplined.
[33:03] Speaker 5: And he didn't even show that this last game. I mean,
[33:05] Speaker 5: his defensive lacks in the game. He was getting backdoored.
[33:09] Speaker 5: He was getting blown by a few times. But even
[33:12] Speaker 5: that late-game foul, which I don't think is a foul,
[33:14] Speaker 5: I think he knew right away not to even argue
[33:17] Speaker 5: with it because he made a mistake. And that's a
[33:18] Speaker 5: late-game mistake of inexperience and immaturity of just not knowing.
[33:23] Speaker 5: But you can't ignore Khan Kanepa being the rookie of
[33:26] Speaker 5: the year, being consistent all year long. And then you
[33:29] Speaker 5: got to look at Diabate, who's been solid.
[33:32] Speaker 2: All year long.
[33:33] Speaker 3: God, he's just like a monster.
[33:35] Speaker 5: I mean, he goes in, he does his job, right?
[33:38] Speaker 5: And then the consistency of everybody else buying into the
[33:41] Speaker 5: chemistry of the team, buying into we can do something
[33:45] Speaker 5: for the city. I think that's the most important thing
[33:48] Speaker 5: for the Charlotte Hornets fans is the state of North Carolina,
[33:51] Speaker 5: and even for NBA.
[33:52] Speaker 4: I mean, you look at underdog stories. Sometimes it goes
[33:55] Speaker 4: the other way when coaches pick on us.
[33:57] Speaker 2: Yes, 100%. With the wrong guy, when you pick the
[34:00] Speaker 2: wrong guy. But Melo has a father that actually is
[34:03] Speaker 2: going to take the same charge as Charles. And it's
[34:06] Speaker 2: like his dad probably is like, hey, I told you,
[34:09] Speaker 2: he's doing exactly what I'm trying to do your ass
[34:11] Speaker 2: for the last five years. So, yeah, yeah, don't talk
[34:14] Speaker 2: back to him. Do exactly what you're supposed to do. Yeah.
[34:17] Speaker 3: And I don't know how closely you follow Jeff Peterson,
[34:19] Speaker 3: but he's another stud. They're GM.
[34:21] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[34:22] Speaker 3: And I'm going to take this on myself because you
[34:25] Speaker 3: and I have gone back and forth about Jordan the goat.
[34:29] Speaker 2: Listen, he's like.
[34:31] Speaker 3: The runaway goat, Jordan, to me. But I've said this
[34:34] Speaker 3: from the start. When he tried to GM it, when
[34:38] Speaker 3: he tried to pick the players, it was the all-time
[34:41] Speaker 3: worst in the history of sports. I can just show you.
[34:46] Speaker 3: just swing and miss, swing and miss, down through the drafts,
[34:49] Speaker 3: all the way back to Adam Morris. And I'm going, what,
[34:51] Speaker 3: what are you doing, man?
[34:53] Speaker 2: You can't. A legend. A legend. He was averaging 28.
[34:58] Speaker 2: He was averaging 28 a game with Gonzaga. No deodorant
[35:02] Speaker 2: and no showers. He got the Clomade treatment. He got
[35:05] Speaker 2: the Clomade treatment from Jordan. He did. He got the
[35:08] Speaker 2: Clomade treatment.
[35:10] Speaker 3: But all this turnaround started. I wrote down the date
[35:13] Speaker 3: last night. August 3rd, 2023, Michael finally said, I give up,
[35:18] Speaker 3: I sell. He got $ 3 billion for his majority stake
[35:21] Speaker 3: in that franchise. And it started to turn around. And
[35:26] Speaker 3: you got real people in there. And this is the
[35:28] Speaker 3: classic case of greatest performer, greatest player ever to me
[35:33] Speaker 3: in any sport. But he was so great that he
[35:36] Speaker 3: can't really see that. Oh, that's why he's good, but
[35:42] Speaker 3: he's not. Jordan's just saying, well, I can do it.
[35:44] Speaker 2: It's easy.
[35:45] Speaker 3: We can all do it, right? I was the best.
[35:48] Speaker 3: He can do it just like I can. No, he can't.
[35:50] Speaker 2: No, he can't. And he can't do it either.
[35:53] Speaker 3: And it just got worse and worse. And if you
[35:55] Speaker 3: look at the playoff record or lack thereof, it's just
[36:00] Speaker 3: they've been held hostage in Charlotte for it feels like
[36:05] Speaker 3: 20 years.
[36:05] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[36:06] Speaker 3: And this is beautiful to watch. So I'm rooting. I
[36:09] Speaker 3: just didn't like what he got away with last night.
[36:12] Speaker 1: Let's look at the Hornets this season. It remains to
[36:14] Speaker 1: be seen if they can make the playoffs. But you're
[36:16] Speaker 1: talking about a squad, obviously 44 wins this season. Their
[36:19] Speaker 1: core intact for next year. Kobe White will be a
[36:21] Speaker 1: free agent. But they've got like $ 30 million, $ 40 million,
[36:24] Speaker 1: I feel like, in salary cap bread to play with.
[36:26] Speaker 1: You mentioned that they resemble that Pacers squad that made
[36:29] Speaker 1: the finals run, became within a Tyrese Halliburton injury away,
[36:32] Speaker 1: potentially winning the championship. The future seems very, very bright
[36:36] Speaker 1: for this Hornets crew, and they can bolster this roster
[36:38] Speaker 1: and bring in even more talent.
[36:40] Speaker 5: I almost had a full-sucker moment when Steph Curry was
[36:42] Speaker 5: thinking about going to Charlotte.
[36:43] Speaker 2: But then I was like, hey, listen, watch out. Watch out.
[36:48] Speaker 2: Watch out. Watch out.
[36:49] Speaker 5: I know your dad hearing everything, but look, I think
[36:51] Speaker 5: LaMelo sees something in this particular franchise. Now turning it around,
[36:57] Speaker 5: being able to try to finally feel what it feels
[36:59] Speaker 5: like to be in the playoffs. For him specifically, I
[37:02] Speaker 5: think that'll be a turning point of his mentality saying,
[37:06] Speaker 5: let me stay here. Let's build something around me. Let's
[37:09] Speaker 5: get us some more pieces. We got a good chorus.
[37:12] Speaker 5: And you look at how they played together, I think
[37:14] Speaker 5: that lineup that they had.
[37:16] Speaker 2: One of the best starting lineups in the league. One
[37:17] Speaker 2: of the best starting lineups. You look at that, right?
[37:19] Speaker 5: And I always say a Diabate is good, but if
[37:21] Speaker 5: you get me somebody that can actually score down there
[37:25] Speaker 5: instead of just rebound and block, you give me somebody
[37:27] Speaker 5: that can be a threat, they change. Even beside him. Like,
[37:31] Speaker 5: you got Miles Bridges who played a four. He can
[37:33] Speaker 5: stretch this three.
[37:34] Speaker 2: But if you got LaMelo, Khan... Brandon Miller, Miles Bridges,
[37:40] Speaker 2: and a stud-type, Zach Eady-ish type of big guy? Oh, no, no.
[37:48] Speaker 5: They're going to be something really hard to deal with.
[37:51] Speaker 5: So I've seen that potential early on. When you know who,
[37:55] Speaker 5: it's easy to pick the winners because you see the grit,
[37:58] Speaker 5: you see the the testimony behind each player.
[38:02] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[38:02] Speaker 5: Conker nipple has something to prove this year because the
[38:06] Speaker 5: guy he played with at Duke and getting all the
[38:09] Speaker 5: favoritism in front of him. And he feels like when
[38:11] Speaker 5: they were at Duke, I was the guy I was
[38:14] Speaker 5: making all the big shots. They was coming to me
[38:16] Speaker 5: and he got all the cleanup stuff.
[38:18] Speaker 2: Even if they both, I think he averaged 17 con,
[38:22] Speaker 2: maybe 17 a game and Cooper averaged 19.
[38:26] Speaker 5: So you look at that whole dynamic and, It wasn't
[38:28] Speaker 5: that Khan couldn't play. It was that I'm deferring to
[38:32] Speaker 5: the guy that they expect to be here. And now
[38:34] Speaker 5: you look at Khan and he's like, I'm playing with
[38:36] Speaker 5: guys who want to give me the ball because I
[38:38] Speaker 5: can play. And they don't mind letting you get off
[38:41] Speaker 5: for 20 a game. Brandon Miller's not tripping because I
[38:44] Speaker 5: can do my thing. lamello ball can say i can.
[38:46] Speaker 2: Get 13 tonight but i'll have 15 assists and give
[38:49] Speaker 2: me seven rebounds and we'll still win the game and
[38:52] Speaker 2: then you got mouse bridges who's already proven before all
[38:56] Speaker 2: of these other guys got here like i'm worth that
[38:58] Speaker 2: money i messed it up for myself i gotta reevaluate
[39:02] Speaker 2: my talent and show them that i'm really deserving of
[39:04] Speaker 2: the next contract this is a bunch of young guys
[39:07] Speaker 2: who really are just hungry for it and i.
[39:09] Speaker 1: Love it So, Sean, just to your point, you got
[39:12] Speaker 1: Conor Cooper-Flagg, roommates together at Duke.
[39:14] Speaker 2: He never get a year, though. Yeah. You got him
[39:17] Speaker 2: over Cooper-Flagg?
[39:18] Speaker 1: Yes.
[39:19] Speaker 2: Consistency, bro. And he's not getting 30 shots a game.
[39:23] Speaker 2: They're not tanking. Everybody off the floor. Clay Thompson, how
[39:28] Speaker 2: y'all move? Just give him the ball. I know.
[39:30] Speaker 5: Not saying that Cooper's not deserving of it. He does
[39:33] Speaker 5: what he does. He's very talented. But I think Khan,
[39:36] Speaker 5: consistent all year, bro. consistent, never wavered.
[39:41] Speaker 4: This is the only game he's really only wavered in.
[39:44] Speaker 4: That's the type of pressure Cooper Flagg.
[39:45] Speaker 2: Deals with every day. But Cooper Flagg ain't even available
[39:47] Speaker 2: for this type of game.
[39:48] Speaker 1: He ain't even in this type of game. But Flagg
[39:50] Speaker 1: didn't have to deal with that pressure. The Mavs knew
[39:51] Speaker 1: they were ass-head. We're going to let you do everything.
[39:53] Speaker 4: But you've got to deal with the team guarding him,
[39:55] Speaker 4: like the team focused on him.
[39:57] Speaker 2: You're the only guy on the team. But it was
[39:59] Speaker 2: on him yesterday. No, it wasn't on him because he
[40:02] Speaker 2: only took six shots yesterday. because he couldn't go off
[40:05] Speaker 2: the field. It wasn't about that. It wasn't wide open
[40:07] Speaker 2: like it always is. It wasn't hitting. In them playoff games.
[40:10] Speaker 2: This is his first postseason experience of swagging. Think about it, Swag.
[40:13] Speaker 5: If you're not hitting, if you're not hitting, you're one
[40:15] Speaker 5: of the premier guys, you're not hitting. But we got
[40:17] Speaker 5: three other premier guys that could potentially.
[40:20] Speaker 2: Get a good game. You got to take the game
[40:22] Speaker 2: off or be the decoy. Two for 12 in the game,
[40:24] Speaker 2: minus 20.
[40:25] Speaker 1: But Sean, I just want to go back to your
[40:27] Speaker 1: point real quick. You got Khan, Cooper Flagg, roommates together
[40:30] Speaker 1: at Duke. Obviously, sub-quality work at Duke, but Khan kind
[40:33] Speaker 1: of in the shadow of Cooper. With that experience now
[40:35] Speaker 1: coming into the league, seems like he does have a
[40:37] Speaker 1: chip on his shoulder to prove, like, you know.
[40:39] Speaker 2: I could play two. I'm better than you. We're roommates.
[40:42] Speaker 2: I'm just saying, like. And I was better than you
[40:43] Speaker 2: in practice.
[40:44] Speaker 1: I'm tired of playing second fiddle, and we go to
[40:46] Speaker 1: the functions. You're getting all the love, and I'm sitting
[40:48] Speaker 1: here doing everything I'm doing.
[40:49] Speaker 2: He's not better than Cooper.
[40:51] Speaker 3: He's not better.
[40:51] Speaker 2: But he might feel better.
[40:53] Speaker 3: He had more impact this year, I thought, than Cooper did.
[40:56] Speaker 2: I'm trying to win.
[40:56] Speaker 3: For a team that was hot, like a legit.
[40:58] Speaker 2: What? Huh? Huh? Canipo, his game, his totality, what he does.
[41:05] Speaker 2: If you really, you evaluate both of them, you're going
[41:08] Speaker 2: to pick Cooper because of his athleticism. And everything else.
[41:13] Speaker 2: And his size. Remember, they put him at point guard
[41:15] Speaker 2: to try to beef up his ball handling. He's not
[41:18] Speaker 2: one dimensional. He's not a great shooter. You can't put Cooper,
[41:21] Speaker 2: Canipo at point guard. You don't need to. You can't
[41:27] Speaker 2: put Cooper Flagg at point guard. No, you can't. You
[41:30] Speaker 2: can try. You can try. We've seen it. It did
[41:36] Speaker 2: not work. He went back to the four to get
[41:39] Speaker 2: his groove. It did not work. But it worked. It didn't.
[41:43] Speaker 2: It only opened up his confidence. Thank you. So what
[41:47] Speaker 2: Conk and Nipple is doing right now, he didn't need
[41:49] Speaker 2: to dribble the ball. He didn't need to do none
[41:51] Speaker 2: of that. Give me the ball. Let me get open, bro.
[41:53] Speaker 2: But it's like putting Clay Thompson at point guard. Okay.
[41:56] Speaker 2: You can't do it. Yes, you can. Because what is
[41:58] Speaker 2: Clay is going to do at point guard? He's going
[42:00] Speaker 2: to pass it to Steph Curry. Handle the rock. You
[42:03] Speaker 2: don't need to handle it. In the playoffs, you ain't
[42:06] Speaker 2: going to be able to get the wide open three.
[42:09] Speaker 2: You don't need him to do that. Draymond Green. Why
[42:11] Speaker 2: would you play Draymond Green at the point guard? You're
[42:13] Speaker 2: not going to get the wide open three. But why
[42:15] Speaker 2: would you play Draymond at the point guard? Like yesterday's show,
[42:17] Speaker 2: you got to be able to catch him. No, he
[42:20] Speaker 2: do all that. No, he do that and he's showing
[42:22] Speaker 2: it all season. It ain't about what he was doing
[42:24] Speaker 2: yesterday that wasn't effective. It's about the team need in
[42:28] Speaker 2: that moment.
[42:28] Speaker 5: We see that you're not on. We have to move
[42:32] Speaker 5: on from you. We have to in order for us
[42:35] Speaker 5: to win.
[42:35] Speaker 2: You can't move on from Cooper Flag though if he's
[42:38] Speaker 2: not hitting you. Because he's the only motherfucker out there.
[42:40] Speaker 2: He wasn't hitting, but you can't move on from Mello.
[42:43] Speaker 5: Alright, so if D'Angelo Russell's playing, Anthony Davis is playing,
[42:49] Speaker 5: And you got Klay Thompson out there playing.
[42:52] Speaker 2: Cooper Flagg is going to get shit off the glass.
[42:58] Speaker 2: He's getting shit off the glass. We might go to
[43:02] Speaker 2: him every now and again, but he's averaging 13 a game.
[43:06] Speaker 2: He's figuring it out. Concomitant ain't got that problem, though.
[43:09] Speaker 2: He's in there with LaMelo, Brandon Miller, and Miles Bridges,
[43:15] Speaker 2: three guys who established. He's getting off the glass. He's
[43:17] Speaker 2: going to figure out another way to win the game. Who,
[43:21] Speaker 2: you talking about Cooper? Yes.
[43:23] Speaker 5: Listen, because he's 6'9, and he's playing next to Anthony Davis.
[43:28] Speaker 5: Your advantages are your attributes as far as your.
[43:31] Speaker 2: Size and your athleticism.
[43:33] Speaker 5: When you talk about conca nipple, I can come down
[43:36] Speaker 5: off pin downs, flare screens.
[43:38] Speaker 2: I can do two dribble pull-ups, one dribble pull-ups. I
[43:40] Speaker 2: can do transition threes. And I can go to the basket. No,
[43:44] Speaker 2: he can't. No, he can't. No, he can't. He can't
[43:48] Speaker 2: come off a down screen and shoot a three? Yes,
[43:50] Speaker 2: everybody can, but can you make it? What are your percentages?
[43:53] Speaker 5: His percentages ain't conquer nipple. You're not number one in
[43:57] Speaker 5: the NBA in threes made.
[44:00] Speaker 2: Flag shooting 30% from three this season.
[44:02] Speaker 3: Come on, bro.
[44:03] Speaker 2: That's not my all be all to my game. 30%?
[44:06] Speaker 2: My game is not focused on down screen. You know
[44:08] Speaker 2: what we say? If that was the case, I wouldn't
[44:10] Speaker 2: be number one pick. You know what we saying? Sag.
[44:14] Speaker 2: I wouldn't be the number one pick. Sag. Sag off that, Nick.
[44:17] Speaker 2: I'm just saying. When he take a shot, you know
[44:18] Speaker 2: what we saying? He with us. I ain't. Rebound! Rebound!
[44:23] Speaker 2: He shoot, it's rebound. Hey, box out down there. When
[44:27] Speaker 2: he shoot, box out. He's going to get better at that,
[44:29] Speaker 2: but he ain't no conca nipple. Conca nipple ain't no
[44:33] Speaker 2: Cooper flag. Of course he's not. They're two different players.
[44:36] Speaker 2: Are we talking about efficiency? 40, 50, 90? What's this, 40, 50, 90?
[44:39] Speaker 2: How old is conca nipple? 40, 50, 90s?
[44:44] Speaker 3: It sounds like you decided rookie of the year off
[44:47] Speaker 3: last night's game, which doesn't count on rookie of the year.
[44:50] Speaker 2: Cooper Flagg been my rookie of the year. Okay. Because
[44:52] Speaker 2: he got to do more.
[44:53] Speaker 3: Okay, but remember, Cooper Flagg averaged for the whole year 21,
[44:57] Speaker 3: Knipple averaged 19. And not until the end of the year,
[45:00] Speaker 3: the last three games that he played before he turned
[45:03] Speaker 3: his ankle. But he had been averaging 15 shots. And
[45:06] Speaker 3: in the last three games, he took 27, 29, and
[45:09] Speaker 3: 30 shots. And all of a sudden, the explosion, he
[45:12] Speaker 3: closed at the wire. And then everybody said, well, there
[45:14] Speaker 3: he is. There's the rookie of the year. And Conn
[45:17] Speaker 3: Knievel's team has gone 33 and 15 since January the 1st.
[45:21] Speaker 3: And he can create his own shot. For sure. And
[45:25] Speaker 3: LaMelo pushed for them to take him, what was it,
[45:28] Speaker 3: fourth overall.
[45:29] Speaker 2: We need another shooter.
[45:31] Speaker 4: If Tom Nippel was in Cooper Flagg's situation here, he
[45:34] Speaker 4: wouldn't average nowhere near that.
[45:36] Speaker 2: He would have put Tate Thompson on the bench. Tate
[45:38] Speaker 2: Thompson would be over there like, hey, let's shoot. We'll
[45:42] Speaker 2: average nowhere near that. What you mean? All them wide
[45:45] Speaker 2: open shots. All them wide open shots Tate Thompson did.
[45:47] Speaker 2: He needs somebody to pass it to him. No, he don't. No,
[45:50] Speaker 2: he don't. He can bring it up. He can do it.
[45:52] Speaker 2: He can facilitate. He needs a pass. He's a hooper.
[45:54] Speaker 3: Man, it's hard to lead the league in threes made.
[45:56] Speaker 2: Bro, he's a hooper. 273 made threes. That means Cal
[46:00] Speaker 2: Cooper better than Daniel Cooper. We've seen Steph Curry do it.
[46:04] Speaker 2: He's not no Steph Curry. All right, now we are.
[46:07] Speaker 2: We've seen Steph Curry do it. Now he's saying anything now. Why?
[46:10] Speaker 2: Did Steph do it this year? I'm just saying he's
[46:14] Speaker 2: saying anything now. Dame Leonard was second, third. Now he's
[46:16] Speaker 2: Dame Leonard. Why he can't be up there? He led
[46:20] Speaker 2: the league in threes made. These guys got their own team.
[46:24] Speaker 2: That's not an easy thing. You got your own team.
[46:26] Speaker 4: You're comparing it to somebody that's the fourth man on
[46:29] Speaker 4: the team.
[46:29] Speaker 2: It's crazy. Cooper Flair has his own team. Why does
[46:33] Speaker 2: he have his own team, Nick? Because the motherfuckers are tanking. No,
[46:37] Speaker 2: they're tanking. Because he's that good that he traded Anthony
[46:41] Speaker 2: Davis for him. Bro, you get Anthony Davis out the way.
[46:45] Speaker 2: You get all these guys out the way because he's
[46:47] Speaker 2: that good. They're trying to move the team. They're trying
[46:50] Speaker 2: to do all this other shit. They got rid of Uka.
[46:52] Speaker 2: LeBron comes in. You get rid of everybody. Ricky Davis.
[46:57] Speaker 2: Darius Miles. Get rid of all of them. LeBron's here. Now.
[47:00] Speaker 4: You got somebody like that. Yes, you do reflect But
[47:04] Speaker 4: I'm saying.
[47:04] Speaker 2: When you got somebody like that and you're tanking you
[47:08] Speaker 2: don't get credit for going out shooting the ball every
[47:11] Speaker 2: fucking time getting 40 you don't get a bunch of
[47:14] Speaker 2: credit when you're you literally got the green light to
[47:16] Speaker 2: do what you.
[47:16] Speaker 5: Want Cuz I am the system Why you not winning system?
[47:24] Speaker 2: I'm 19. No, you're going to go back. You was
[47:26] Speaker 2: against the age shit. You're going to use it? You
[47:29] Speaker 2: just used the age shit you've been against the whole time.
[47:32] Speaker 2: Did you hear this nigga?
[47:33] Speaker 5: Did you hear this motherfucker saying that he's 18, 19?
[47:36] Speaker 5: He used to sit on his couch.
[47:38] Speaker 2: And say, man, I'm tired of y'all using the age.
[47:41] Speaker 2: Was they in their last place? Was they in their
[47:44] Speaker 2: last place? Yeah. Come on. They made the playoffs bronze
[47:49] Speaker 2: third year. Third year. Come on, man. So y'all think
[47:53] Speaker 2: Superfly won't make it by his third year? Make what?
[47:55] Speaker 2: The playoffs. That's possible.
[47:57] Speaker 1: They're going to tighten up a little bit so I
[48:02] Speaker 1: can give him the resources that he needs.
[48:04] Speaker 5: The Dallas Mavericks are projected top 16 preseason in their
[48:09] Speaker 5: 13th now.
[48:11] Speaker 2: Finished 13th with your number one guy leading the charge.
[48:15] Speaker 2: He's young. Now he's young. Guess who else is young?
[48:20] Speaker 2: Contributing at 20 points a game. I'm just saying. Contributing
[48:24] Speaker 2: at 20 points a game. Young, just as young.
[48:28] Speaker 4: They got a good thing going over there. You need
[48:30] Speaker 4: to open the floor. You get a lot of looks
[48:32] Speaker 4: when you got Melo and Brandon Miller and all them guys.
[48:36] Speaker 1: So, Con, obviously terrible by our standards. First postseason game.
[48:41] Speaker 1: Hooper Flagg will not be in the postseason this year,
[48:43] Speaker 1: but Con, 2 for 12 in that game, 0 for
[48:44] Speaker 1: 6 from 3. They have another opportunity now against the
[48:47] Speaker 1: loser of the Magic or Sixers game.
[48:49] Speaker 2: So, we'll see. If it's a trend or.
[48:51] Speaker 5: There's no shade on Cooper. No shade at all. He
[48:55] Speaker 5: is a hell of a talent. He does what he's
[48:57] Speaker 5: supposed to do. But when I'm talking about comparing him
[49:00] Speaker 5: to somebody who has to show up every single night
[49:03] Speaker 5: to prove that he deserves this position, Khan Knievel did that.
[49:07] Speaker 2: He did.
[49:08] Speaker 3: But long term, if you could choose between Khan and
[49:12] Speaker 3: Cooper for your team going forward for the next 10 years,
[49:15] Speaker 3: wouldn't you go Cooper?
[49:17] Speaker 2: No.
[49:18] Speaker 3: Boy, I would.
[49:19] Speaker 2: Man, that's what I'm saying.
[49:21] Speaker 3: Okay, I would on that. I'm just talking about rookie year.
[49:23] Speaker 2: You need a specialist. You got to be special.
[49:26] Speaker 5: You can be good and solid at all the little
[49:29] Speaker 5: small things, and you can be great at dunking and jumping,
[49:32] Speaker 5: but outside of dunking and jumping, what does he do
[49:35] Speaker 5: that stands out?
[49:39] Speaker 3: You know, it's funny. In the ACC, at Duke, he
[49:43] Speaker 3: was a really good three-point shooter. He was 40%. And
[49:46] Speaker 3: then you move it back a touch, and all of
[49:49] Speaker 3: a sudden, he's 29%. It's just under 30.
[49:52] Speaker 2: His game will progress. He will get better.
[49:54] Speaker 5: But I don't see him as like, we're going to
[49:57] Speaker 5: go get me this. He's a guy that does a
[50:01] Speaker 5: lot of things well. But this guy right here, he's
[50:07] Speaker 5: a sniper. I'm hiring him to come in to get
[50:10] Speaker 5: me these things.
[50:11] Speaker 2: I'm hiring him.
[50:12] Speaker 3: Plus, I know he had a terrible game. It's his
[50:15] Speaker 3: first ever playoff game. But he comes from a family.
[50:17] Speaker 3: They know ball. He's not going to shrink. He's not afraid.
[50:24] Speaker 3: He'll bounce back. He'll come back and have another big game.
[50:27] Speaker 1: All right, well, let's keep this thing moving. You know
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[51:37] Speaker 1: may vary. Well, let's shift over to the Western Conference.
[51:40] Speaker 1: So the playing Tuesday nightcap featured the eight-seeded Blazers pulling
[51:44] Speaker 1: up to Phoenix to take on the seventh-seeded Suns, with
[51:47] Speaker 1: the winner getting a chance to take on Wimby and
[51:49] Speaker 1: the Spurs in the first round. This game was back
[51:52] Speaker 1: and forth with the Blazers taking control early with some
[51:54] Speaker 1: hot shooting leading by as much as 14, but Phoenix
[51:57] Speaker 1: responded in the second half and led by as much
[52:00] Speaker 1: as 11 in the fourth quarter and we're up six
[52:02] Speaker 1: with under three minutes remaining in the game. We pick
[52:05] Speaker 1: up the action late in the fourth quarter if we can, please. So,
[52:09] Speaker 1: Jeremy Grant came through with two big three-pointers. That was
[52:13] Speaker 1: the first one right there to cut the lead to three.
[52:16] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[52:18] Speaker 1: Blazers got it done on the defensive end and then
[52:21] Speaker 1: Portland down one. Grant hit another three. Then you had
[52:26] Speaker 1: Danny Avdia doing his thing. Going to the cup, getting
[52:30] Speaker 1: the bucket. Suns responded. Jordan Goodwin got the layup to
[52:37] Speaker 1: put Phoenix up one. Game on the line. Danny Avdia
[52:42] Speaker 1: went in his bag, said, oh, take this for me.
[52:46] Speaker 2: Hit the dice.
[52:46] Speaker 1: It's isolated for the A1 to put the Blazers back up.
[52:48] Speaker 2: Suns' final possession.
[52:50] Speaker 1: Devin Booker A chance to win the game, opted to
[52:52] Speaker 1: pass to Jalen Green, who missed the three-point attempt. Blazers
[52:56] Speaker 1: stole the rebound. Jeremy Grant all alone for the game-sealing
[53:02] Speaker 1: dunk for the win. So Danny Abdi had one of
[53:06] Speaker 1: the best games of his career. The man known as
[53:08] Speaker 1: Turbo finished with 41 points, 12 assists, seven rebounds, and
[53:11] Speaker 1: two blocks. He was 15 for 22 from the field.
[53:14] Speaker 1: Drew Holliday, a name we discussed a little bit yesterday,
[53:16] Speaker 1: and we will talk in depth today, added 21-4-4. Jeremy
[53:20] Speaker 1: Grant had 16 points off the bench in 19 minutes,
[53:22] Speaker 1: going four for eight from deep. Jalen Green led the
[53:25] Speaker 1: Suns with 35 points and five boards. Devin Booker added
[53:27] Speaker 1: 22 on seven of 17 shooting. Debook was also eight
[53:31] Speaker 1: for 13 from the free throw line. Dylan Brooks had
[53:34] Speaker 1: 20.7 rebounds and four steals before fouling out in the
[53:38] Speaker 1: fourth quarter. Blazers secured their first trip to the playoffs
[53:41] Speaker 1: since 2021.
[53:43] Speaker 2: Skip, we will start with you.
[53:45] Speaker 1: What are your biggest takeaways from the Blazers' play-in road
[53:48] Speaker 1: win over the Suns?
[53:50] Speaker 3: Now we can talk about a statement game.
[53:53] Speaker 2: Uh-oh.
[53:56] Speaker 3: Denny Avdia made the All-Star team this year for the
[53:59] Speaker 3: first time and went 25-7-7 for a team that finished
[54:04] Speaker 3: 42-40 quietly, sort of snuck in. And in his first
[54:10] Speaker 3: playoff game of his career, he goes for 41 at Phoenix,
[54:15] Speaker 3: making 15 of 22 shots. And he threw in seven
[54:21] Speaker 3: rebounds and 12 assists on top of that and completely
[54:25] Speaker 3: outplayed Devin Booker in every way, shape, and form in
[54:28] Speaker 3: Book's house. And even in the fourth quarter, Joe mentioned
[54:35] Speaker 3: the leads, but with 6.24 left at Phoenix, Phoenix is
[54:39] Speaker 3: ahead 100-89. So they're up 11 with six and a
[54:42] Speaker 3: half minutes left. And Devin Booker ends up making zero
[54:46] Speaker 3: field goals in the fourth quarter. He did make three
[54:49] Speaker 3: free throws for three total points. And Avdija had 14
[54:54] Speaker 3: points in the fourth quarter. And they do call him
[54:58] Speaker 3: turbo because he just goes all out every dribble, every game.
[55:02] Speaker 3: And he led the NBA in drives, basket attacks. Nobody
[55:07] Speaker 3: drove it. Even SGA drives a lot, but he didn't
[55:10] Speaker 3: drive it as much as this guy does because he
[55:12] Speaker 3: just puts his head down and says, try to stop
[55:16] Speaker 3: this at 6'8. And he's the energy of this team.
[55:23] Speaker 3: They just feed off him. And I got to say
[55:26] Speaker 3: this about Drew Holiday. You want to talk about a
[55:30] Speaker 3: leader and a basketball player. He's from out here in
[55:32] Speaker 3: Southern California and basketball family. Everywhere he's been, good to
[55:37] Speaker 3: great stuff happens. Rings happen in Milwaukee. Rings happen in Boston.
[55:42] Speaker 3: And I'm not saying they're going to win a ring
[55:43] Speaker 3: because they're going to have to deal with the San
[55:45] Speaker 3: Antonio Spurs, but he's like a foundation of that team
[55:51] Speaker 3: where you just, you look in the locker room, you say, oh,
[55:54] Speaker 3: Drew's on our side, and he's going to show you
[55:57] Speaker 3: how to do this. And they were just the better team, really,
[56:01] Speaker 3: all night long to me. And in the end, it's funny,
[56:06] Speaker 3: they kept showing Dame over on the bench, Sivis, and
[56:10] Speaker 3: And the bench is just going crazy. Abdi would make
[56:13] Speaker 3: another crazy drive shot. Everybody's jumping up and down. And Dame,
[56:17] Speaker 3: he's a little too cool for that. So he's just
[56:19] Speaker 3: kind of doing this, right? But I'm thinking Dame is
[56:23] Speaker 3: going on 36 years of age, and he's gone back
[56:25] Speaker 3: to be the big fish in the pretty small pond
[56:28] Speaker 3: in Portland. Well, next year, I don't know. Is there
[56:30] Speaker 3: a new sheriff? Is it like– I'm thinking– Those two.
[56:34] Speaker 2: For sure. Hey. No. For sure.
[56:38] Speaker 3: Doesn't it feel like it's his team?
[56:42] Speaker 2: He's just there to be like... Shoot the three. Shoot
[56:44] Speaker 2: the three. Yeah, okay.
[56:47] Speaker 3: Well, is Dame going to love that? Is he going
[56:49] Speaker 3: to be cool with it? Is he going to be comfortable?
[56:51] Speaker 3: Because Dame was the man for a long time in
[56:55] Speaker 3: that little pond.
[56:56] Speaker 2: Up there, right? So.
[56:58] Speaker 3: In the end, I just, it just killed me that
[57:02] Speaker 3: I'm a big Devin Booker guy, and that's just, that's unacceptable, man.
[57:06] Speaker 2: Yeah. Right? Yeah.
[57:08] Speaker 3: To have that kind of game and that kind of moment,
[57:10] Speaker 3: and you're favored at home? Come on, man.
[57:13] Speaker 2: That's Phoenix to me, though. Okay. I feel like they
[57:15] Speaker 2: always do that. Yeah. I'm happy to see.
[57:20] Speaker 4: Portland playing well, and Jeremy Grant is in, like, a
[57:23] Speaker 4: winning situation.
[57:24] Speaker 2: I feel like he's been over there in Portland just
[57:27] Speaker 2: rotting away.
[57:28] Speaker 4: He always could have been like a player on the
[57:31] Speaker 4: contender team for me, but they got something special over there.
[57:35] Speaker 4: Them against your team, the Spurs, it's going to be
[57:39] Speaker 4: a good matchup. That's not no cakewalk. Portland is playing well.
[57:45] Speaker 4: They're on both sides. They're not afraid. I didn't even
[57:49] Speaker 4: know Sharp was coming off the bench.
[57:52] Speaker 2: Yes, bro. They're averaging 20 coming off the bench. Oh,
[57:55] Speaker 2: they got killers. That's crazy. And Grant came off. I'm saying.
[57:59] Speaker 4: And they got length to deal with the Spurs. Is
[58:03] Speaker 4: that the reason why the Hornets, I mean, Houston traded
[58:08] Speaker 4: Green in for that situation?
[58:11] Speaker 2: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
[58:13] Speaker 5: I mean, I think we ought to be honest. I mean,
[58:17] Speaker 5: as the number one ducker of smoke. I was one
[58:23] Speaker 5: versus four yesterday. I was the only one who picked
[58:27] Speaker 5: the Blazers.
[58:28] Speaker 2: Yeah. Somehow, someway, Shostradamus always comes out picking 100%.
[58:33] Speaker 5: He did it again. He did it again and again. And,
[58:37] Speaker 5: you know, guys don't want to show up.
[58:38] Speaker 2: I get it.
[58:39] Speaker 5: I'm a little bit hasty sometimes. I'm the most hated
[58:44] Speaker 5: for a reason.
[58:45] Speaker 2: Hate, hate, hate, hate, hate.
[58:47] Speaker 5: But when you really watch the game, you can just
[58:48] Speaker 5: see why people hate me because I was break the
[58:51] Speaker 5: game down. I actually watch the games and I do
[58:54] Speaker 5: scouting reports with every single team. And the scouting report
[58:58] Speaker 5: with Portland was, let's look at their roster.
[59:02] Speaker 2: First, we talked about Drew Holiday yesterday. I raved about
[59:05] Speaker 2: Drew Holiday.
[59:07] Speaker 5: He is a guy that when you talk about playing basketball,
[59:10] Speaker 5: I want him on my team.
[59:11] Speaker 2: He does it all. What did he do in the
[59:13] Speaker 2: first quarter? He set the tone. He really came out.
[59:17] Speaker 2: He hit shots. He created space. He gave Denny a
[59:21] Speaker 2: lot of the opportunities to do his thing. Everybody was ready.
[59:25] Speaker 5: Kamara, when you talk about those guys over there, how
[59:28] Speaker 5: Tiago has them actually ready to play and engage, you
[59:31] Speaker 5: forget who's on the team.
[59:33] Speaker 2: Scoot Henderson is on the team. He is. He played well.
[59:37] Speaker 2: You look at Jeremy Grant. You look at Shaden Sharp.
[59:41] Speaker 2: Cling him. Yeah. Donovan Klingham. Mr. Offensive rebound. Mr. Seven foot.
[59:48] Speaker 3: He led the league in offensive rebound.
[59:50] Speaker 5: You got guys doing things out there that you don't
[59:53] Speaker 5: really look at. Then you got Denny who's actually taking
[59:57] Speaker 5: advantage of being the underdog, being underrated, having guys look
[1:00:03] Speaker 5: at him like Dylan Brooks looking at Denny like, you
[1:00:06] Speaker 5: ain't all that.
[1:00:07] Speaker 2: I'm going to lock this up.
[1:00:08] Speaker 5: All right, take this foul and sit your ass on
[1:00:10] Speaker 5: the bench.
[1:00:11] Speaker 2: He did. Six of them.
[1:00:13] Speaker 1: Much favorable whistle. A lot of people have complained about
[1:00:15] Speaker 1: that as well.
[1:00:16] Speaker 2: Six of them. He's crafty. Denny got one of the
[1:00:18] Speaker 2: best whistles in the world. He's called a European. A European?
[1:00:21] Speaker 2: Call him a European.
[1:00:22] Speaker 3: Okay.
[1:00:23] Speaker 2: He out there doing what Europeans do. Luka, Joker, and him.
[1:00:28] Speaker 2: He is all NBA. He is all NBA. 25-7-7. This year?
[1:00:35] Speaker 2: This year. Don't talk about all NBA. Remember we talked
[1:00:39] Speaker 2: about who you got to move in, who you got
[1:00:41] Speaker 2: to move out, who's available, who's not.
[1:00:43] Speaker 5: Denny should be in there. This should have proved it.
[1:00:46] Speaker 5: His first playoff appearance, 41-12-7.
[1:00:48] Speaker 2: Yeah. On Devin Booker, we talk about having a conversation
[1:00:53] Speaker 2: about Devin Booker, right? I think what happened yesterday was
[1:00:59] Speaker 2: an identity change. Who took 28 shots for the Suns?
[1:01:07] Speaker 2: Jalen Green.
[1:01:08] Speaker 3: He did. Scored 35 points.
[1:01:11] Speaker 2: On 28 shots. 29, actually. So, if you're looking at
[1:01:17] Speaker 2: the game, it didn't look like the Devin Booker show. No,
[1:01:20] Speaker 2: it didn't. Right? Because he had Holiday on him, though.
[1:01:24] Speaker 2: Not even that. Because Devin Booker does Devin Booker things.
[1:01:28] Speaker 2: And when you look at how many shots Jalen Green
[1:01:31] Speaker 2: took and how he took those shots, it's coming off
[1:01:32] Speaker 2: the snake screen at the top of the key. He's
[1:01:35] Speaker 2: coming off and he's just taking those threes. Right? I'm
[1:01:38] Speaker 2: looking at Devin Booker and I'm like, yeah, he missed
[1:01:40] Speaker 2: five free throws, right?
[1:01:41] Speaker 5: Missed five. How much did they lose by? And a
[1:01:44] Speaker 5: lot of those free throws he was upset at. Lost
[1:01:46] Speaker 5: by four points.
[1:01:47] Speaker 2: But the coach for.
[1:01:49] Speaker 5: The Suns is not taking into account that Devin Booker
[1:01:52] Speaker 5: is an all-star elite player that deserves the best. Much
[1:01:58] Speaker 5: needed attention in a series like this or in a
[1:02:01] Speaker 5: game like this. You got to give him the ball,
[1:02:03] Speaker 5: get him high early. You got to get him involved.
[1:02:06] Speaker 5: You got to make sure that the defense adjusts to
[1:02:08] Speaker 5: what we're doing for Devin. Now, I think truly that
[1:02:13] Speaker 5: the management has told Jalen.
[1:02:15] Speaker 2: Green that this is going to be your team.
[1:02:16] Speaker 5: Because there ain't no other reason why you're taking 28
[1:02:20] Speaker 5: shots in a game like this and we got Devin Booker.
[1:02:24] Speaker 1: But if you're Devin Booker, obviously Suns franchise player, how
[1:02:27] Speaker 1: are you allowing that?
[1:02:29] Speaker 2: Did you see what he did at the end of
[1:02:30] Speaker 2: the game? I'm just saying. What was that last shot?
[1:02:32] Speaker 5: Did that last shot look like I'm Devin Booker to
[1:02:35] Speaker 5: dribble jump? I'm going to shoot this regardless. No, that
[1:02:37] Speaker 5: did not look like that. That looked like the play
[1:02:40] Speaker 5: is Devin. You're going to you're going to draw two
[1:02:42] Speaker 5: and you're going to kick it to Jalen. And that
[1:02:45] Speaker 5: looked nasty to me.
[1:02:46] Speaker 1: But if you're Devin Booker and you see that play drawn,
[1:02:49] Speaker 1: do you say, okay, coach?
[1:02:50] Speaker 2: Man, imagine how he feels. Now, you know this feeling.
[1:02:55] Speaker 2: You know you deserve to play.
[1:02:58] Speaker 5: And he's not even looking at you. The coach is
[1:03:01] Speaker 5: not even looking at you for the play. He's like,
[1:03:03] Speaker 5: this is what we're going to do. Hey, Devin, you're
[1:03:04] Speaker 5: going to get it. You're going to drive it. You're
[1:03:06] Speaker 5: going to kick it to Jalen. I'm going to do what?
[1:03:09] Speaker 2: He did it. He did it for that reason. I
[1:03:12] Speaker 2: don't think they get it. They might not make the playoffs.
[1:03:17] Speaker 2: Who they got next? The loser of the Warriors-Clippers game. No,
[1:03:20] Speaker 2: they won't. They won't. The Clippers, they're not making the playoffs.
[1:03:23] Speaker 2: Either one of them. Even play the Warriors. Steph come
[1:03:25] Speaker 2: back for the Warriors. It's tough.
[1:03:27] Speaker 1: So, Sean, you talked about Denny. Let's talk about Denny
[1:03:30] Speaker 1: Aubrey real quick. A man known as Turbo. Made his
[1:03:33] Speaker 1: first All-Star game this season. Put up career highs in points, assists,
[1:03:36] Speaker 1: and minutes played. Average 24-7 in 7-66 games. Like you mentioned,
[1:03:42] Speaker 1: stuffed the stat sheet in his first career. postseason action.
[1:03:46] Speaker 1: And I'll give you a little nugget here. Neither here
[1:03:48] Speaker 1: nor there, obviously, they take on the Spurs in the
[1:03:49] Speaker 1: next round. He averaged 32 seven rebounds and eight assists
[1:03:53] Speaker 1: in three games against the Spurs. But Wimby did not
[1:03:55] Speaker 1: play in any of those three games. And the Blazers
[1:03:57] Speaker 1: won in two of those. But when you look at Danny, obviously,
[1:04:00] Speaker 1: first All-Star game, you think he's solidifying himself as a
[1:04:03] Speaker 1: star in this league?
[1:04:04] Speaker 2: I do. Underrated, underdog, for sure. He was overlooked with
[1:04:09] Speaker 2: the Wizards.
[1:04:11] Speaker 5: They give up. In the NBA, they'll give up on
[1:04:12] Speaker 5: you early. before you can prove yourself. And I think
[1:04:16] Speaker 5: the Blazers gave him another opportunity to try to, you know,
[1:04:20] Speaker 5: reemerge and reinvent himself as a player, give him an opportunity.
[1:04:24] Speaker 5: I believe it was Chauncey that gave him his first
[1:04:27] Speaker 5: real look and seen something in him that he can
[1:04:30] Speaker 5: do multiple things. And if you think about it, back then,
[1:04:34] Speaker 5: when he was drafted with the Warriors, Luka was just
[1:04:36] Speaker 5: now coming into his own as far as being a
[1:04:40] Speaker 5: three-dimensional player can do this, this, and this.
[1:04:43] Speaker 2: Right. It's not a lot of guards that was really
[1:04:45] Speaker 2: doing that.
[1:04:46] Speaker 5: And so they didn't really believe that Denny was going
[1:04:49] Speaker 5: to be like a Luca. And so fast forward, I'm
[1:04:52] Speaker 5: not saying that he is a Luca, but he got
[1:04:54] Speaker 5: Luca ish in him. He got, he's got talent. He's
[1:04:58] Speaker 5: got talent. He can shoot it. He can draw fouls.
[1:05:02] Speaker 5: He can finish, you know, um, They all don't play
[1:05:05] Speaker 5: no defense, so we get that part. But he actually rebounds.
[1:05:09] Speaker 5: He passes the ball well. And I love his grit.
[1:05:13] Speaker 5: I think that's the one thing I see in him
[1:05:15] Speaker 5: that I don't really see a lot in Luka, in Joker,
[1:05:19] Speaker 5: and a lot of the other European guys is he's
[1:05:22] Speaker 5: got a certain fire to him that makes it– like
[1:05:26] Speaker 5: it's not intimidating to the other guys, but it shows that.
[1:05:29] Speaker 2: He come here to play. He come here to fight.
[1:05:31] Speaker 2: He not just going back down.
[1:05:33] Speaker 5: And I think– Getting an all-NBA nod, getting an all-star
[1:05:38] Speaker 5: nod this year, it set the tone for him getting
[1:05:40] Speaker 5: respect in the league where when you see the scouting report,
[1:05:44] Speaker 5: it ain't no regular scouting report for him.
[1:05:47] Speaker 2: You better do this or he's going to kill us.
[1:05:51] Speaker 2: You better pay attention to this. You better deny this.
[1:05:55] Speaker 2: If he gets it over here, we need to come.
[1:05:57] Speaker 2: We need to double. All of these things now happen
[1:05:59] Speaker 2: when he's playing the game, and I think that's important
[1:06:03] Speaker 2: for a player like that in Portland.
[1:06:05] Speaker 5: We have the conversation about what is Dame going to do?
[1:06:07] Speaker 5: How is he going to respect this decision for this
[1:06:09] Speaker 5: to be his particular franchise now? I think you just
[1:06:12] Speaker 5: need to get on the bus to see where it
[1:06:14] Speaker 5: goes at this point because.
[1:06:15] Speaker 2: We've been on the Dame train before. And so right
[1:06:19] Speaker 2: now it's like, all right, what are we going to
[1:06:20] Speaker 2: do now that we got a new driver? We're going
[1:06:23] Speaker 2: to hoop this, you know, what was the exhibit show?
[1:06:27] Speaker 2: Pimp my ride. We're going to pimp this ride.
[1:06:30] Speaker 5: 36 as a key we used to know. Yeah, and
[1:06:33] Speaker 5: you can't get on that bus no more. It ain't
[1:06:34] Speaker 5: the same bus. We know you like fish, so we
[1:06:36] Speaker 5: put a fish tank. Put a fish tank in the
[1:06:38] Speaker 5: back seat. So, yeah, I like Denny and everything he's doing, man.
[1:06:42] Speaker 4: But it shows that the Wizards don't know what they're
[1:06:45] Speaker 4: doing as an organization. What are the Wizards doing? You
[1:06:49] Speaker 4: didn't see this in this guy?
[1:06:51] Speaker 2: Anthony Davis has that same question at this very moment. Yeah, man.
[1:06:59] Speaker 4: And it started like, I like that these teams are
[1:07:01] Speaker 4: now having respect because even with the Hornets, like you
[1:07:05] Speaker 4: see the Hornets on your, oh, it's just the Hornets.
[1:07:08] Speaker 2: Portland is same old, but.
[1:07:09] Speaker 4: Now you got to get up for these games or
[1:07:11] Speaker 4: they're going to, you're going to end up having 40
[1:07:14] Speaker 4: on your head. So it brings the, it brings the
[1:07:18] Speaker 4: NBA up when these teams, Small cities or whatever you
[1:07:22] Speaker 4: want to call it, teams are in the playoffs and
[1:07:26] Speaker 4: they're playing well.
[1:07:27] Speaker 2: It's exciting.
[1:07:28] Speaker 4: And they're like on the same boat as the Hornets.
[1:07:31] Speaker 4: They got a lot of talent over there. A lot
[1:07:34] Speaker 4: of talent. And they starting to figure it out. And
[1:07:38] Speaker 4: for Dane, you don't want him to be the guy
[1:07:41] Speaker 4: to mess up the ship.
[1:07:44] Speaker 2: Because it's only going to be bad for him. I
[1:07:46] Speaker 2: don't think you would get rid of a Demi.
[1:07:48] Speaker 4: for Dame right now. So, this is Dame. And I
[1:07:54] Speaker 4: think next year, they're going to have more confidence. You
[1:07:58] Speaker 4: just got to look out for Portland.
[1:08:00] Speaker 2: For real.
[1:08:02] Speaker 3: So, to me, to your point, of all those Euro-type players,
[1:08:12] Speaker 3: Avdija is the best athlete He's better athletically than Luka
[1:08:16] Speaker 3: or Joker.
[1:08:17] Speaker 2: And he plays more American athlete style, right?
[1:08:27] Speaker 3: Luka and Joker play some out of rhythm kind of
[1:08:30] Speaker 3: in the lane, and it's genius because it works, but
[1:08:33] Speaker 3: you can't time it.
[1:08:34] Speaker 2: Yep, because they ain't got no lift.
[1:08:37] Speaker 3: You grow up, and when you're playing defense in high
[1:08:41] Speaker 3: school and college, this is the way it works. The
[1:08:45] Speaker 3: rhythm of the game is like this.
[1:08:47] Speaker 2: It's like boxing. You know the one, two, three. You
[1:08:49] Speaker 2: know the count.
[1:08:50] Speaker 3: And maybe you get in the lane, and you do
[1:08:52] Speaker 3: one up fake, but then you shoot it, right? Okay,
[1:08:56] Speaker 3: and you can time it and with Luka, I don't
[1:08:59] Speaker 3: know what he's doing in the lane, but it works,
[1:09:02] Speaker 3: you know, obviously. But he doesn't have real foot quickness.
[1:09:05] Speaker 3: Abdi has foot quickness. He can blow by people and
[1:09:10] Speaker 3: play with strength and athletic ability and defend with athletic
[1:09:15] Speaker 3: ability that these guys can't. And All I know is
[1:09:20] Speaker 3: that they, I know Wimby didn't play, but they did
[1:09:23] Speaker 3: go to San Antonio on January the 3rd, and Avdija
[1:09:29] Speaker 3: had 29, 10, and 10. So we had a triple-double
[1:09:32] Speaker 3: at San Antonio, but no Wimby, I got it. It's
[1:09:34] Speaker 3: Luke Cornett trying to.
[1:09:36] Speaker 2: No, no, it's Castle and those guys out there trying
[1:09:38] Speaker 2: to guard. They're tough. It's them. Yeah. I noticed it
[1:09:42] Speaker 2: when they was cooking the Clippers the last two games. Yeah.
[1:09:45] Speaker 3: But that playoff spot, they was- Hey, and- And the
[1:09:49] Speaker 3: other thing about Portland that you point out is that
[1:09:53] Speaker 3: they went seven deep during the regular season in double-digit scorers.
[1:09:58] Speaker 3: Because that Caleb Love comes in the average 10 a game.
[1:10:01] Speaker 2: I forgot about Caleb.
[1:10:02] Speaker 3: Okay, so.
[1:10:03] Speaker 2: What the hell?
[1:10:04] Speaker 3: So it is kind of Charlotte-esque.
[1:10:06] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[1:10:08] Speaker 3: Maybe not quite the star power that Charlotte has, but.
[1:10:12] Speaker 2: I think it's more San Antonio-esque. Okay, yeah. They have
[1:10:17] Speaker 2: from school to Caleb.
[1:10:18] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[1:10:19] Speaker 2: To Drew, to Shaden, to Jeremy, to Kamara, to Klingham.
[1:10:27] Speaker 2: I haven't said Denny yet. This is all the background players.
[1:10:31] Speaker 2: They have some guys that can. Then Williams. You can't
[1:10:34] Speaker 2: forget Williams.
[1:10:35] Speaker 3: He's there.
[1:10:36] Speaker 2: He's there. He does his job. He does. And they
[1:10:40] Speaker 2: show up. Yeah. Okay.
[1:10:44] Speaker 3: And look, I'm a Chauncey fan. He gave them their foundation,
[1:10:49] Speaker 3: and I wish he was still there. But I know
[1:10:52] Speaker 3: Tiago Splitter, and I'm happy for him. And it's intriguing
[1:10:56] Speaker 3: that he was obviously a former Spur for five years
[1:10:59] Speaker 3: and did win one championship with the big three there
[1:11:03] Speaker 3: in 2014. And it's funny to me that he's going
[1:11:07] Speaker 3: back to San Antonio as the coach of the Portland Trailblazers.
[1:11:10] Speaker 3: That's crazy.
[1:11:11] Speaker 2: He was a top pick for them, for San Antonio.
[1:11:14] Speaker 2: He was, for a while, a great prospect. Yeah, yeah.
[1:11:17] Speaker 2: Taking over all the turmoil, obviously Chauncey.
[1:11:20] Speaker 3: Yep.
[1:11:21] Speaker 2: But put on leave after the federal game. They're making
[1:11:23] Speaker 2: you forget about all that. I don't know. They're making
[1:11:25] Speaker 2: you forget, yeah. Yeah. They're playing. And if they.
[1:11:30] Speaker 5: Can show up, let's just say. It could be a
[1:11:32] Speaker 5: good series. It's my team. I want to be biased
[1:11:35] Speaker 5: because I know what they can do. And it's not
[1:11:38] Speaker 5: a lay down series by any means. When you say
[1:11:41] Speaker 5: they were 1-3, I mean 1-2. 3, it was 3.
[1:11:45] Speaker 5: So you look at that particular series and you say,
[1:11:48] Speaker 5: no Wimby. But he's at, what you said, 32, 10
[1:11:51] Speaker 5: and 10?
[1:11:52] Speaker 2: 29, 10. 29, 10 and 10.
[1:11:53] Speaker 3: No, I mean.
[1:11:56] Speaker 5: And I'm looking at, all right, no Wimby, but you
[1:11:58] Speaker 5: still got Castle Vassell. You still got Johnson and Carter,
[1:12:03] Speaker 5: Carter Bryant. And still defenders. Still guys who, hey, Denny's
[1:12:07] Speaker 5: coming in town. We're going to Denny's. He's trying to eat.
[1:12:12] Speaker 2: But Wimby will be here. And we're going to clean
[1:12:15] Speaker 2: it up.
[1:12:16] Speaker 5: They have to change their dynamic as far as what
[1:12:19] Speaker 5: I see the Spurs do against them.
[1:12:21] Speaker 2: It's cut off all angles with Denny. Make him a passer.
[1:12:25] Speaker 2: Make all of those guys who may have shot the
[1:12:29] Speaker 2: ball well last night. Yeah.
[1:12:31] Speaker 5: But I think they shot the ball well because Phoenix
[1:12:33] Speaker 5: is such a terrible defensive team.
[1:12:36] Speaker 2: They are.
[1:12:36] Speaker 5: And you look at the Spurs and how they cut
[1:12:40] Speaker 5: off angles and then they get back out to shooters.
[1:12:42] Speaker 5: They close out. They force you to put the ball
[1:12:44] Speaker 5: on the floor. You got Shaden Sharp. You got Jeremy Grant.
[1:12:48] Speaker 5: They're not mid-range shooters. They're not those type of guys.
[1:12:51] Speaker 5: And then you got a guy like Drew Holiday. He
[1:12:53] Speaker 5: can shoot the three, but he would much rather set
[1:12:56] Speaker 5: his teammates up. Denny would love to catch and shoot
[1:12:59] Speaker 5: and have easy shots, but I think it's going to
[1:13:01] Speaker 5: be a tough game, tough series for them. But they
[1:13:04] Speaker 5: got potential to push it to at least six.
[1:13:07] Speaker 3: I was going to say, they could win a couple games.
[1:13:09] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[1:13:09] Speaker 1: And Denny said that after the game. He said, look,
[1:13:11] Speaker 1: they don't have playoff experience. We don't really have playoff
[1:13:13] Speaker 1: experience either. It's up for grabs.
[1:13:15] Speaker 2: It is.
[1:13:15] Speaker 1: We're going to come in hungry, ready to go. But
[1:13:17] Speaker 1: let's talk about Drew Holiday. We talked about Drew yesterday,
[1:13:20] Speaker 1: his impact with the Bucs and kind of him leaving
[1:13:22] Speaker 1: Milwaukee and that team starting to spiral. Holiday won a
[1:13:26] Speaker 1: chip with the Bucks in his first year in Milwaukee,
[1:13:28] Speaker 1: got traded to the Blazers for Dame, then immediately shipped
[1:13:31] Speaker 1: to the Celtics, helped Boston win a chip in his
[1:13:34] Speaker 1: first season with the team, went on to sign an extension,
[1:13:37] Speaker 1: became the fourth player in league history to get a
[1:13:38] Speaker 1: $ 100- plus million extension at age 33 or older, then traded
[1:13:43] Speaker 1: back to the Blazers for Anthony Simons this past offseason,
[1:13:46] Speaker 1: helped guide Portland to their first winning season and playoff
[1:13:49] Speaker 1: appearance since 2021, despite dealing with injuries in the season. Played,
[1:13:53] Speaker 1: I think, around 50 games. Also just one of three
[1:13:56] Speaker 1: players to win multiple titles in the 2020s. And won
[1:14:01] Speaker 1: titles with two different franchises. One with KCP and Alex Cruz.
[1:14:04] Speaker 1: So the other players will do that. So when you
[1:14:06] Speaker 1: look at Drew, does Drew Holiday deserve more credit for
[1:14:09] Speaker 1: his impact on the court?
[1:14:10] Speaker 2: 100%.
[1:14:12] Speaker 5: 100%. I just loved his post-game presser. So much humility.
[1:14:22] Speaker 5: So much passion. you can see that he was focused
[1:14:26] Speaker 5: on getting the job done. And I think that that
[1:14:28] Speaker 5: showed from opening tip. He was ready to go. He
[1:14:31] Speaker 5: was engaged. His attention to detail as far as knowing
[1:14:35] Speaker 5: where to be to stop these guys.
[1:14:38] Speaker 2: We talked yesterday briefly.
[1:14:39] Speaker 5: About him being the guy that would do certain things
[1:14:42] Speaker 5: defensively that are uncommon to the naked eye in the
[1:14:46] Speaker 5: audience that don't know why he's over here. and not
[1:14:49] Speaker 5: over there guarding this guy. He clogs the lane. He's
[1:14:52] Speaker 5: got so many deflections and strips during the times where
[1:14:57] Speaker 5: Jalen Green over-penetrated. Devin Booker thinks that he's got his
[1:15:00] Speaker 5: two-dribble pull-up.
[1:15:01] Speaker 2: There's Drew Holiday.
[1:15:03] Speaker 5: Nobody on that Blazers team got taken advantage of because
[1:15:06] Speaker 5: you have a rover.
[1:15:08] Speaker 2: I call it the rover. A rover in Drew.
[1:15:12] Speaker 5: Holiday who's always kind of in the way when you
[1:15:15] Speaker 5: think you've got a one-on-one situation. And we talk about
[1:15:18] Speaker 5: winning pedigree. Drew has shown over and over again, even
[1:15:23] Speaker 5: when he was playing in New Orleans, I think that
[1:15:25] Speaker 5: that passion was overlooked based on all the injuries that
[1:15:29] Speaker 5: they had down there and the changes. And it just
[1:15:31] Speaker 5: being New Orleans, he goes to Milwaukee, he gets a
[1:15:35] Speaker 5: bona fide killer that he gets to play with, and
[1:15:38] Speaker 5: he gets other players who understand how to play the
[1:15:41] Speaker 5: game of basketball.
[1:15:41] Speaker 2: When you play with basketball players, it's so easy.
[1:15:45] Speaker 5: To play the game because you don't have to overindulge
[1:15:48] Speaker 5: and overdo things. You don't have to go average or triple-double.
[1:15:52] Speaker 5: You do your job what you actually love to do.
[1:15:54] Speaker 5: And Drew loves to play defense. He loves to play
[1:15:56] Speaker 5: the point guard position traditionally. Let me get here. Let
[1:16:00] Speaker 5: me figure out who's hot. Let me figure out where
[1:16:03] Speaker 5: your spot is. What do you like?
[1:16:05] Speaker 2: And I think he has so much talent with Portland
[1:16:08] Speaker 2: where he has his pick of the litter.
[1:16:10] Speaker 5: I can go do my thing when I'm ready, but, man,
[1:16:13] Speaker 5: I got Satan Sharp for the alley-oop.
[1:16:15] Speaker 2: Man, I got Kamara who can shift this three. I
[1:16:18] Speaker 2: can do so many things.
[1:16:19] Speaker 5: So you go back to Boston, you win a championship
[1:16:23] Speaker 5: with guys who got close.
[1:16:25] Speaker 2: But didn't know how to take it over the top.
[1:16:26] Speaker 2: Let me show you guys what we need to do.
[1:16:28] Speaker 2: We need to sit on this nail. We need to,
[1:16:30] Speaker 2: you know, Jalen, you go do your thing. I got
[1:16:33] Speaker 2: your back.
[1:16:34] Speaker 5: Hey, Tatum, we need defensive rebounds. You need to be rebounding.
[1:16:38] Speaker 5: Don't be hanging out in the three-point line.
[1:16:40] Speaker 2: Go get the boards. And I think that veteran leadership
[1:16:44] Speaker 2: from Drew man.
[1:16:45] Speaker 5: It spreads like wildfire. And it showed last night. And
[1:16:49] Speaker 5: like you said, they're not going to win a championship.
[1:16:52] Speaker 5: But three, four years from now, his leadership is going
[1:16:55] Speaker 5: to spread. Whether he's on that team or not, it's
[1:16:58] Speaker 5: like a CP3. Once you get a dose of what
[1:17:01] Speaker 5: it's like to be around the basketball mind, you don't
[1:17:05] Speaker 5: forget it. And it sticks around. So I love everything
[1:17:08] Speaker 5: Drew's doing, man. Kudos to you, bro.
[1:17:13] Speaker 4: I think Drew is like, He is best at being
[1:17:18] Speaker 4: like the fourth, third, fourth guy. When you try to
[1:17:23] Speaker 4: make him the star of the team, that's when it's,
[1:17:26] Speaker 4: that's not.
[1:17:27] Speaker 2: His, I think his, his niche.
[1:17:30] Speaker 4: He got a lot of Rondo in him, as in
[1:17:34] Speaker 4: the captain, the leadership, the anchor, the defense and all that,
[1:17:39] Speaker 4: how to run a team. I think early on when
[1:17:43] Speaker 4: In Philly and New Orleans, when you were trying to
[1:17:46] Speaker 4: make him the all-star and star of the team, I
[1:17:49] Speaker 4: don't think that's his lane. But you get players, like
[1:17:53] Speaker 4: he said, basketball players around him. Like right now, he'd
[1:17:58] Speaker 4: be a perfect fit for Minnesota or something like that.
[1:18:02] Speaker 4: People that need that one piece away. But he's a,
[1:18:09] Speaker 4: for sure, what he's doing, I Drew, he changed the game.
[1:18:15] Speaker 4: He changed his teams. He's a captain. He's a leader.
[1:18:17] Speaker 2: He talks.
[1:18:20] Speaker 4: He knows how to give players confidence. He's there to,
[1:18:26] Speaker 4: like Demi, he's there uplifting these guys, giving them confidence.
[1:18:30] Speaker 4: That's the confidence.
[1:18:31] Speaker 2: That's it.
[1:18:33] Speaker 4: So you would love to have a guy like him
[1:18:35] Speaker 4: on your team for sure. San Fernando Valley legend.
[1:18:39] Speaker 2: He is.
[1:18:39] Speaker 1: Was the manager of the tennis team at Campbell Hall
[1:18:42] Speaker 1: High School.
[1:18:43] Speaker 2: Wow. People may not know that. Wow. Was manager of
[1:18:45] Speaker 2: the tennis team. What is your job for that? Just
[1:18:48] Speaker 2: make sure to... sure the ball machine's on? Work with
[1:18:51] Speaker 2: the coaching staff, make sure the rackets are, you know.
[1:18:55] Speaker 2: Water boy.
[1:18:57] Speaker 1: Make sure the hydration, make sure the tennis balls are
[1:19:00] Speaker 1: fully loaded.
[1:19:01] Speaker 3: You know, he's never been a superstar, obviously. But I
[1:19:06] Speaker 3: think you could qualify him as a star.
[1:19:09] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[1:19:10] Speaker 3: As a star, his intangibles are the highest on the
[1:19:15] Speaker 3: star level I've ever seen. I'm talking about all the intangibles,
[1:19:19] Speaker 3: the unteachables, the uncoachables. You use the word anchor. He
[1:19:26] Speaker 3: just anchors teams with his leadership and all the rub
[1:19:33] Speaker 3: off on everybody because everybody trusts him and And he's
[1:19:38] Speaker 3: the timeliest big stage player I think I've ever seen
[1:19:43] Speaker 3: because he picks, like you said, he just controls the game.
[1:19:45] Speaker 3: He's going to pick spots. We need a bucket here.
[1:19:48] Speaker 3: I'm going to get it. I will figure out how
[1:19:51] Speaker 3: to make a shot now. Or I need to get
[1:19:54] Speaker 3: Denny the ball where he needs to have the ball.
[1:19:56] Speaker 3: And he has no ego that I can detect at all.
[1:20:00] Speaker 3: Like no ego. And you just don't see no ego
[1:20:04] Speaker 3: in a player of that magnitude anywhere. with those credentials
[1:20:08] Speaker 3: and those rings. He doesn't handle himself, all his interviews,
[1:20:12] Speaker 3: it's total humility. And it rubs off because he's just
[1:20:16] Speaker 3: showing all those kids, this is the way, this is
[1:20:19] Speaker 3: how you do it. Didn't that feel good last night? Yeah,
[1:20:21] Speaker 3: that felt good.
[1:20:22] Speaker 2: Yes.
[1:20:24] Speaker 3: Oh, that's how you do it.
[1:20:25] Speaker 2: Okay.
[1:20:26] Speaker 3: And they are so blessed to have him.
[1:20:29] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[1:20:30] Speaker 3: As their anchor, and I wish they could, now they're
[1:20:33] Speaker 3: just running into the behemoth, so I'm afraid the buck
[1:20:38] Speaker 3: stops here, so to speak.
[1:20:40] Speaker 1: But you guys think the Blazers can steal a few
[1:20:43] Speaker 1: from the Spurs squad and end the series.
[1:20:45] Speaker 2: A little bit? It's going to demand some focus.
[1:20:46] Speaker 5: The way they played last night, they're going to have
[1:20:49] Speaker 5: to lock in. It ain't going to be an easy,
[1:20:51] Speaker 5: like we was talking about yesterday, like the easy road
[1:20:54] Speaker 5: if If we take this easy road.
[1:20:57] Speaker 2: And ain't no easy road in the playoff. Ain't no
[1:21:01] Speaker 2: easy road, right?
[1:21:02] Speaker 3: You know, the crucial one is game one because it
[1:21:06] Speaker 3: is Wimby's first ever. And Portland's going to go in
[1:21:10] Speaker 3: there on rhythm. Like they're starting to catch real fire.
[1:21:17] Speaker 3: If they could steal the first one, then you have
[1:21:19] Speaker 3: to play uphill for a long time, right? So that's,
[1:21:23] Speaker 3: I think it's, isn't it Saturday, Josiah? I think it is.
[1:21:26] Speaker 2: Yep, Saturday. Yeah.
[1:21:27] Speaker 5: And I'm going to wing and piggyback off of Iman Shumpert,
[1:21:32] Speaker 5: who said a lot of these championships come on the
[1:21:36] Speaker 5: back of your role players.
[1:21:38] Speaker 2: Oh, for sure. And how well your role players play. Yeah.
[1:21:41] Speaker 5: And so if Denny is your star, if Wimby is
[1:21:44] Speaker 5: your star, and we talk about let's cancel them out,
[1:21:47] Speaker 5: they're going to show up or not show up.
[1:21:50] Speaker 2: The game is going to be decided.
[1:21:53] Speaker 5: By the Dylan Harpers, the Castles, the Shaden Sharps, Scoot Hendersons,
[1:22:02] Speaker 5: the Clinghams.
[1:22:03] Speaker 2: They got to win one or two games for them.
[1:22:06] Speaker 2: They have to show up.
[1:22:07] Speaker 5: So that's going to be the balance sheet is going
[1:22:09] Speaker 5: to be who outplays whose bench.
[1:22:12] Speaker 2: How our bench plays.
[1:22:14] Speaker 5: The coaching style of how you sub. And who's going
[1:22:18] Speaker 5: to be those matchups? Because we talked yesterday, like, oh,
[1:22:20] Speaker 5: your individual matchup. No, man, it's the team scouting report.
[1:22:24] Speaker 5: It's how the teams actually coach this game, the style
[1:22:28] Speaker 5: that they actually match up with. How often is Wimby
[1:22:31] Speaker 5: going to be matched up against Williams? And is that
[1:22:34] Speaker 5: a good matchup for Wimby? And if Klingham is against Wimby...
[1:22:39] Speaker 5: He's trying to push him under the rim to get
[1:22:40] Speaker 5: offensive rebounds the whole game. That's going to be a
[1:22:42] Speaker 5: bang-em for him. That's not just a cakewalk for Wimby.
[1:22:47] Speaker 5: You got on the other end of the floor, though,
[1:22:49] Speaker 5: Wimby's going to be, I'm going to be handling this ball.
[1:22:54] Speaker 5: But look, we got six fouls to give up.
[1:22:56] Speaker 2: I got fouls to give up on you, Wimby. We're
[1:22:58] Speaker 2: cool with this. I can beat you up, you know.
[1:23:01] Speaker 2: But it's going to be one of them games where
[1:23:03] Speaker 2: the deciding factor is going to be the role players.
[1:23:05] Speaker 1: And you feel like Wimby will probably be able to
[1:23:07] Speaker 1: shut down a lot of then the obvious penetration to
[1:23:10] Speaker 1: the cup, those guys are going to have to step up.
[1:23:13] Speaker 2: He will. Vegas, the cup. The NBA cup. Yeah, when
[1:23:16] Speaker 2: New York, Clarkson, and what else? That's going to be
[1:23:21] Speaker 2: the difference, though. Yeah, driving, kicking, making sure Wimpy stays
[1:23:25] Speaker 2: in the paint.
[1:23:26] Speaker 5: But if you're going to have Klingham down there, it
[1:23:28] Speaker 5: ain't going to help you because I can actually help
[1:23:30] Speaker 5: and get back to mine. But if you got Jeremy
[1:23:33] Speaker 5: Grant playing the four, stretching it out, And Williams, I
[1:23:37] Speaker 5: don't know if he's shooting threes or not like that,
[1:23:39] Speaker 5: but you can't play traditional big in the box, big
[1:23:42] Speaker 5: in the doghouse and.
[1:23:43] Speaker 2: Try to beat the Spurs with Wimby down there.
[1:23:45] Speaker 5: You need to bring him out of the paint where
[1:23:47] Speaker 5: they're actually driving the ball and playing to their strengths.
[1:23:50] Speaker 3: And then most teams now are playing Wimby with a
[1:23:54] Speaker 3: mid-level guy, like a 6'6 guy, like Caruso plays him.
[1:23:58] Speaker 3: Because he's going to play outside a lot. And you
[1:24:02] Speaker 3: need somebody who can get up in him, but... But
[1:24:06] Speaker 3: the height doesn't matter.
[1:24:07] Speaker 2: Drew Holiday.
[1:24:08] Speaker 3: Maybe.
[1:24:09] Speaker 2: I think he takes that challenge. Yeah, he would. Just
[1:24:12] Speaker 2: to keep him on the board. Jeremy Grant would. I
[1:24:15] Speaker 2: think Jeremy would challenge it. Kamara, though. I think Kamara
[1:24:18] Speaker 2: is actually their defender.
[1:24:20] Speaker 4: Anyway, it would be better than Phoenix. If Spurs were
[1:24:24] Speaker 4: playing Phoenix, I think they would have.
[1:24:25] Speaker 2: Phoenix laid down. Yeah, that would be four or five
[1:24:28] Speaker 2: out for sure. That's a sweep. Yeah, that's a sweep.
[1:24:31] Speaker 2: That's why I picked the Blazers because I knew it
[1:24:34] Speaker 2: was going to be a good series for them not
[1:24:37] Speaker 2: only to go and win the game, but the next
[1:24:39] Speaker 2: series is going to be San Antonio Blazers. That's going
[1:24:43] Speaker 2: to be a sleeper. It's going to be a sleeper series.
[1:24:47] Speaker 2: All right. Well, let's keep this thing moving. So you guys.
[1:24:52] Speaker 1: Had some negative opinions on the play-in to start yesterday's show,
[1:24:56] Speaker 1: but I think we can all agree that those two
[1:24:59] Speaker 1: games last night, extremely, extremely entertaining, but went down to
[1:25:03] Speaker 1: the wire.
[1:25:04] Speaker 2: They had some negativity. I'm with it.
[1:25:09] Speaker 1: So including just a fourth overtime game in play in history.
[1:25:13] Speaker 1: There was an issue, however, with Amazon Prime experiencing technical
[1:25:15] Speaker 1: difficulties during a portion of overtime in the Heat-Hornets game.
[1:25:19] Speaker 1: That was a little frustrating, but they did have a
[1:25:21] Speaker 1: nice technical difficulty screen. I didn't mind the nice music
[1:25:24] Speaker 1: overlay with it. But League has been taking a lot
[1:25:27] Speaker 1: of heat, a lot of criticism as of late, despite
[1:25:31] Speaker 1: viewership increases in the first year under the new TV deal,
[1:25:34] Speaker 1: also setting attendance records for a three-year span. But I'll
[1:25:37] Speaker 1: ask you first, Skip, because you were not here yesterday.
[1:25:39] Speaker 1: How are you feeling about the plane?
[1:25:41] Speaker 2: Are you a fan of it?
[1:25:42] Speaker 1: And do you like Adam Silver for introducing this additional
[1:25:45] Speaker 1: postseason basketball?
[1:25:46] Speaker 3: I'm a fan after last night. I'm still prisoner of
[1:25:51] Speaker 3: the last night moment. Those were really highly entertaining basketball games.
[1:25:58] Speaker 3: But the format is still gimmicky to me and Mickey
[1:26:02] Speaker 3: Mouse-ish to me. And I don't love it. I don't
[1:26:07] Speaker 3: know what was wrong with it before. I know you
[1:26:10] Speaker 3: want to get a little more bump, but then it's
[1:26:14] Speaker 3: these one and dones after 82 games.
[1:26:16] Speaker 2: I don't know.
[1:26:17] Speaker 3: I didn't get to watch yesterday. So I'm not, I'm
[1:26:19] Speaker 3: not exactly sure what you guys said. Were you both
[1:26:21] Speaker 3: on yesterday?
[1:26:22] Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
[1:26:23] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[1:26:24] Speaker 5: It was just more of a, are you a fan
[1:26:28] Speaker 5: of a team like the sons being a seven seed?
[1:26:33] Speaker 3: And then, and now, yeah. Well, it's, it's, It's the
[1:26:38] Speaker 3: baseball syndrome of, okay, you're going to play 162, and
[1:26:41] Speaker 3: then you're going to play one game for all the
[1:26:43] Speaker 3: marbles to get to advance. And I just don't love it.
[1:26:47] Speaker 3: I don't get it, but I can't argue with last night.
[1:26:53] Speaker 3: But it's weird to me. Now, wait, Phoenix still, oh,
[1:26:57] Speaker 3: they get another chance to be one and done, right?
[1:27:01] Speaker 3: But it's working, and to your point about The ratings,
[1:27:05] Speaker 3: if those are to be believed with the Amazon Primes,
[1:27:09] Speaker 3: they just blew it out this year. It's the best
[1:27:13] Speaker 3: overall ratings they've had in, I think, I just read this.
[1:27:16] Speaker 2: Like 24 years? 24 years.
[1:27:18] Speaker 3: It's just hard to quantify ratings now because they're across
[1:27:22] Speaker 3: all these platforms.
[1:27:23] Speaker 2: We're up 86% from last year.
[1:27:25] Speaker 3: 86%, that's hard to believe. But maybe it's just the
[1:27:29] Speaker 3: scope of all the platforms. You're reaching more eyeballs.
[1:27:33] Speaker 2: Good for them.
[1:27:36] Speaker 5: I mean, play in to me is yesterday's conversation was
[1:27:43] Speaker 5: kind of like, well, why should we play? Because we've
[1:27:46] Speaker 5: been doing this the whole season. So you got one
[1:27:49] Speaker 5: more game to do this. What's stopping you from doing
[1:27:53] Speaker 5: it one more game? Like if you are this good
[1:27:56] Speaker 5: to deserve seven or deserve eight, We putting this extra
[1:28:01] Speaker 5: game in to make sure. Maybe it's a tune-up game
[1:28:03] Speaker 5: for you. This is a little tune-up.
[1:28:05] Speaker 2: Don't have an off night. Don't have an off night.
[1:28:09] Speaker 2: I did all this tonight. And my other thing was...
[1:28:13] Speaker 2: The refs can dictate the game. Oh, man. The free
[1:28:16] Speaker 2: throws can dictate the game.
[1:28:18] Speaker 1: Yes.
[1:28:19] Speaker 5: Shit, a bad pizza can dictate the game. A motherfucker
[1:28:23] Speaker 5: trip you up can dictate the game. So it is
[1:28:26] Speaker 5: a lot of wild cards in there, but it's like
[1:28:29] Speaker 5: if you're talking about viewership, you're talking about entertainment, why
[1:28:32] Speaker 5: not throw the wild.
[1:28:33] Speaker 2: Card like baseball? We got a wild card game. Boom.
[1:28:38] Speaker 2: Just like football. You got that. Got the wild card.
[1:28:42] Speaker 2: You got to win this game.
[1:28:43] Speaker 3: I know, but you're only playing 17 to start with.
[1:28:46] Speaker 3: You're not playing 82.
[1:28:46] Speaker 2: Hey, you got 83. Bam's 83. The 17. He was
[1:28:49] Speaker 2: on 83. Bam, bam, bam. Bam tapped out on 83.
[1:28:51] Speaker 2: It should be 8-9. It shouldn't be the 10th seed.
[1:28:54] Speaker 2: I could I can see the seventh seed already, and
[1:29:01] Speaker 2: you play one game out of eight or nine. So
[1:29:03] Speaker 2: just eight, nine teams play? To get that eighth spot. Yeah. Because, what,
[1:29:07] Speaker 2: the Warriors won 37 games?
[1:29:09] Speaker 4: Like, you don't really have to win that many to
[1:29:13] Speaker 4: be in 10th spot.
[1:29:14] Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't like that for God. Yeah. Like the Warriors.
[1:29:17] Speaker 2: And what is the case? Now Curry come out. And
[1:29:20] Speaker 2: you see he ramped up in the end because he
[1:29:22] Speaker 2: know we got a chance to play in. I didn't
[1:29:24] Speaker 2: like that. Yeah. How bad was the injury, bro? Was
[1:29:28] Speaker 2: you really injured or you were just waiting to the end?
[1:29:31] Speaker 5: I didn't like that at all. And then there's like
[1:29:33] Speaker 5: a guy like Kawhi. Like he's been trying. Like they
[1:29:36] Speaker 5: came back from this particular scenario to being able to
[1:29:40] Speaker 5: be in contention to play.
[1:29:41] Speaker 2: Six and 21 starts. Now we got to play against
[1:29:44] Speaker 2: these guys that are just trash. Y'all trash. Why are
[1:29:47] Speaker 2: we playing y'all? But now, if we just do what
[1:29:49] Speaker 2: we're supposed to do, ain't no excuse. Just come in here,
[1:29:53] Speaker 2: take this game, take the next game, and solidify my spot.
[1:29:57] Speaker 2: Right now, it's all or nothing. Eat what you kill.
[1:30:03] Speaker 2: Or don't eat it all. You got a potential seven
[1:30:06] Speaker 2: seed that really was a seven seed could be out. Out.
[1:30:10] Speaker 2: Die out. Because you didn't deserve to be seven. But
[1:30:13] Speaker 2: that's what's showing it. But no, because I've lost one.
[1:30:17] Speaker 2: How many times have the Suns beat Portland this year?
[1:30:20] Speaker 2: I feel like. Are they two and two? They might be. Yeah.
[1:30:25] Speaker 2: But you look at that. You look at the Suns
[1:30:27] Speaker 2: and you're like, ew. Ew. Two and one against the
[1:30:31] Speaker 2: Blazers in the regular season. Now two and two, even
[1:30:33] Speaker 2: though it's playing.
[1:30:34] Speaker 5: And they've been out with Dylan Brooks was out with
[1:30:36] Speaker 5: the wrist injury.
[1:30:38] Speaker 2: Jalen Green was out. We don't even know what the
[1:30:40] Speaker 2: hell was wrong with him. Hamstring or something. All that,
[1:30:43] Speaker 2: we still won more games to beat. Man, seven seed.
[1:30:47] Speaker 2: But then you go up against a guy that's hungry.
[1:30:51] Speaker 2: Catch him on a 41 point. Come here. Come here.
[1:30:55] Speaker 2: Come here. Your star post to show up and take
[1:30:58] Speaker 2: this game. You don't supposed to let us come in here.
[1:31:01] Speaker 2: I thought it showed up for 82 games to get
[1:31:04] Speaker 2: us in the 70s. Yeah. But you got one more.
[1:31:07] Speaker 2: That's why I don't like. That's the only thing. You
[1:31:09] Speaker 2: got one more. I can see eight times. At home, too.
[1:31:11] Speaker 2: We made sure it was comfortable. You get two home ones. Dude,
[1:31:15] Speaker 2: we made sure it was comfortable. You should be able
[1:31:17] Speaker 2: to clean sweep, home court advantage. You got your fans. Look,
[1:31:20] Speaker 2: you can actually just take a nap and come to
[1:31:22] Speaker 2: the damn arena. You ain't got to fly nowhere. You cool.
[1:31:25] Speaker 2: Ain't no jet lag or none of that. Two more
[1:31:27] Speaker 2: games to get one win to ensure that you make
[1:31:29] Speaker 2: the playoffs. Yeah, it's tough. It's tough, but they wasn't seven.
[1:31:34] Speaker 2: They've been struggling all year. They've been struggling all year.
[1:31:38] Speaker 2: They've been struggling all year, man. Melo just put the
[1:31:41] Speaker 2: nail in my eye. It ain't even hot in Miami
[1:31:43] Speaker 2: no more. We're going to send you home in the
[1:31:45] Speaker 2: first quarter. For sure. Go on ahead. Go home, man.
[1:31:50] Speaker 1: All right, but let's keep this thing moving. So Wolves
[1:31:53] Speaker 1: didn't have much to play for in their regular season
[1:31:55] Speaker 1: finale against the Pelicans, but they did welcome back the
[1:31:58] Speaker 1: biggest legend in franchise history for Fan Appreciation Night. Let's
[1:32:01] Speaker 1: take a look. So Kevin Garnett made his return to
[1:32:05] Speaker 1: the Target Center for the first time. Since 2018, greeted
[1:32:09] Speaker 1: with a tribute video standing ovation from the Wolves faithful.
[1:32:13] Speaker 1: As the Hall of Famer made his entrance with current
[1:32:16] Speaker 1: owners Alex Rodriguez and Mark Laurie, KG and Ant-Man shared
[1:32:20] Speaker 1: a moment before the game which led to a temporary
[1:32:23] Speaker 1: delay in the action. You see Ant cheesing. I wonder
[1:32:27] Speaker 1: what words were exchanged. But Garnett had a strained relationship
[1:32:30] Speaker 1: with previous owner Glenn Taylor, with Taylor allegedly reneging on
[1:32:33] Speaker 1: a spoken agreement with KG to give him an ownership
[1:32:36] Speaker 1: stake and role in managing The franchise, but the big ticket,
[1:32:39] Speaker 1: has reconciled with the team and their new ownership. Garnett
[1:32:42] Speaker 1: will work with the Wolves and Lynx in a new
[1:32:44] Speaker 1: all-encompassing role involving business, community, and fan engagement efforts, as
[1:32:48] Speaker 1: well as content development. KG will also join the late
[1:32:51] Speaker 1: Leek Sealy as the only players to have their jerseys
[1:32:54] Speaker 1: retired by the Wolves. That ceremony is expected to happen
[1:32:57] Speaker 1: within the next two seasons. So KG started and ended
[1:33:00] Speaker 1: his career with the Wolves, spending his first 12 seasons
[1:33:02] Speaker 1: in Minnesota after being picked fifth overall in the 95
[1:33:05] Speaker 1: NBA draft. During his time with the Wolves, 10-time All-Star,
[1:33:08] Speaker 1: 8-time All-NBA, and All-Defensive Election, four-time rebounding champ. Led the
[1:33:13] Speaker 1: team to eight straight playoff appearances, including their first trip
[1:33:16] Speaker 1: to the Western Conference Finals back in 2004. Franchise all-time leader, points, rebounds, assists, steals,
[1:33:21] Speaker 1: and blocks. The only NBA player to ever lead a
[1:33:24] Speaker 1: franchise in those five categories, in addition to being the
[1:33:28] Speaker 1: only MVP in Wolves history. So, Sean, when you look
[1:33:31] Speaker 1: at that, You started your career with Minnesota. It's good
[1:33:34] Speaker 1: to see KG and the Wolves reuniting. That's how I
[1:33:37] Speaker 1: feel about the Wizards. I have to comment.
[1:33:43] Speaker 2: Right? It's like he asked me some shit. Former Minnesota Timberwolves.
[1:33:50] Speaker 2: Before you became a doctor, PhD.
[1:33:53] Speaker 5: I try to take my own experiences out of it
[1:33:55] Speaker 5: and just enjoy the moment.
[1:33:58] Speaker 2: It's good for KG. It's good for the city.
[1:34:01] Speaker 5: Um, I think they would be a lot more excited
[1:34:03] Speaker 5: if he stayed, tried to win a championship there. The
[1:34:08] Speaker 5: fact that he's able to come back and still get
[1:34:10] Speaker 5: the welcome that he has and that he's gotten and
[1:34:13] Speaker 5: seeing the franchise propel itself forward without him, regardless of
[1:34:20] Speaker 5: the promises that.
[1:34:21] Speaker 2: Were made for him to be part of.
[1:34:24] Speaker 5: The ownership group or executive or GM or what have you.
[1:34:27] Speaker 5: I think that he put in the work, you know,
[1:34:30] Speaker 5: 10 plus years, Blood, sweat, and tears, passion, grit, determination, discipline.
[1:34:38] Speaker 5: The two years that I spent with them was some
[1:34:41] Speaker 5: of the best years that I was able to get
[1:34:43] Speaker 5: out of playing in the NBA next to one of
[1:34:46] Speaker 5: my second to third favorite player ever.
[1:34:50] Speaker 2: One of the most complete players to ever play the game.
[1:34:54] Speaker 5: We had a lot of similarities, so we got along
[1:34:58] Speaker 5: quite well just because of the understanding of intimidation and
[1:35:03] Speaker 5: really just taking people's heart out and going out there
[1:35:05] Speaker 5: and really not caring. I think his passion for that
[1:35:09] Speaker 5: city shows, you know, he was able to show his
[1:35:12] Speaker 5: daughter the fanfare and the fan support that comes along
[1:35:16] Speaker 5: with greatness and the preparation behind it. So when you
[1:35:20] Speaker 5: look at KG, you say his name is the big
[1:35:22] Speaker 5: ticket and that's the ticket you want to go pay
[1:35:24] Speaker 5: to go see. And he left it on the floor
[1:35:27] Speaker 5: every night. A lot of people didn't like the way
[1:35:30] Speaker 5: he did things. A lot of people, you know, rubbed
[1:35:33] Speaker 5: him the wrong way, the way he was out there
[1:35:35] Speaker 5: on the floor and the way he competed, but he
[1:35:36] Speaker 5: got it done. And he was unapologetic about it, and that's.
[1:35:40] Speaker 2: What I loved about him. He didn't give a fuck.
[1:35:42] Speaker 5: And so everything is well-deserved on his part with the city,
[1:35:46] Speaker 5: and a proud moment.
[1:35:49] Speaker 1: When you see KG coming back to Minnesota after a
[1:35:52] Speaker 1: strained relationship with the team, obviously new ownership.
[1:35:55] Speaker 2: I love it.
[1:35:57] Speaker 4: KG's By far one of my, if not my favorite big.
[1:36:03] Speaker 2: In the game. The mentality, the grit, everything he brings.
[1:36:07] Speaker 4: And I honestly feel like that's when Minnesota's at their best.
[1:36:12] Speaker 4: And I can see a little bit of Ant-Man in
[1:36:15] Speaker 4: like KG. That's why I can see that bond. I
[1:36:18] Speaker 4: can see him talking to him. I can see him
[1:36:20] Speaker 4: passing a torch and all that. And it's great for
[1:36:24] Speaker 4: Minnesota because when you think of the Timberwolves, you still
[1:36:27] Speaker 4: feel that KG feel. You think of them times. But
[1:36:32] Speaker 4: then to bring him back, I really thought his jersey
[1:36:36] Speaker 4: was already retired.
[1:36:37] Speaker 2: I'm not going to lie to this.
[1:36:38] Speaker 1: I don't think he was supportive of it. It should
[1:36:41] Speaker 1: have been retired, but I'm not rocking with y'all right now.
[1:36:43] Speaker 2: Leave me alone.
[1:36:44] Speaker 4: But they need to do that probably first game next season.
[1:36:48] Speaker 4: What KG done for the game. When he brung to
[1:36:53] Speaker 4: the game, he's one of the greatest to do it,
[1:36:57] Speaker 4: for sure. Straight out of high school, skinny kid. Nobody
[1:37:03] Speaker 4: thought he was going to be what he is, and
[1:37:05] Speaker 4: he took the lead by storm, the big ticket. Got
[1:37:09] Speaker 4: in people's face, barked whatever he had to do to
[1:37:12] Speaker 4: get it done. He got it done. Was a unicorn
[1:37:15] Speaker 4: when he came in, dribbled the ball, passed the ball,
[1:37:18] Speaker 4: played like a guard at 6'11, 7 feet. Man, the kid,
[1:37:25] Speaker 4: you got to give him all his flowers.
[1:37:27] Speaker 2: Well-deserved.
[1:37:28] Speaker 4: I'm glad everything is working out, but his journey should
[1:37:31] Speaker 4: have been retired a long time ago.
[1:37:33] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[1:37:34] Speaker 1: So, Skip, you see KG return to Minnesota. Good to
[1:37:37] Speaker 1: see that reconciliation.
[1:37:41] Speaker 3: I agree with Nick. When I think of the Timberwolves,
[1:37:44] Speaker 3: I think first of him. Not yet, Ant-Man. I just
[1:37:49] Speaker 3: think of Kevin. But sometimes for the right, And wrong reasons.
[1:37:55] Speaker 3: But it was a long run. And you saw the last, what,
[1:37:58] Speaker 3: two years of it? But it was 12 years.
[1:38:02] Speaker 2: Man.
[1:38:03] Speaker 3: And he made 10 all-star teams.
[1:38:06] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[1:38:07] Speaker 3: And he was the MVP of the league. And yet,
[1:38:12] Speaker 3: the first seven times they made the playoffs, they lost
[1:38:16] Speaker 3: in the first round because they just didn't have much.
[1:38:18] Speaker 2: It was just. It was just by themselves. Yeah, yeah.
[1:38:21] Speaker 3: They had Starberry for a while and Wally Zerbiak and
[1:38:27] Speaker 3: Joe Smith and Chauncey was there. for a minute.
[1:38:31] Speaker 2: Chauncey was there?
[1:38:32] Speaker 3: And then Rashad came.
[1:38:35] Speaker 2: I wasn't even. Not yet.
[1:38:39] Speaker 3: You weren't quite ready. But the year after he left,
[1:38:43] Speaker 3: you had a.
[1:38:45] Speaker 2: Pretty good. Green, Joe Green. Yeah, yeah. Al Jefferson and
[1:38:48] Speaker 2: those guys. Yeah.
[1:38:50] Speaker 3: Not bad, but he had to go to Boston to
[1:38:53] Speaker 3: make it happen. And anything is possible, and it was,
[1:38:59] Speaker 3: but not in Minnesota. And yet, this felt like an
[1:39:05] Speaker 3: A-Rod special to me, an Alex Rodriguez PR move, because
[1:39:09] Speaker 3: he just said, let's show this city, we need this
[1:39:12] Speaker 3: for basketball, and we need to lift our current team
[1:39:16] Speaker 3: up as the sixth seed. Let's Let's have a moment
[1:39:20] Speaker 3: here because none of the starters were playing. It's the
[1:39:23] Speaker 3: last game. Let's just do this. Let's do it right.
[1:39:26] Speaker 3: And they did it right. And that felt like his
[1:39:28] Speaker 3: jersey got retired on that day, right? It just felt
[1:39:31] Speaker 3: like we had a full circle closure moment, right? Love that.
[1:39:39] Speaker 3: And it felt good to me. And I just hated
[1:39:43] Speaker 3: for that city that he didn't have any help. He
[1:39:47] Speaker 3: had a little help from you, maybe at the end.
[1:39:49] Speaker 2: Hey, I brought the bags. I brought the PlayStation. I
[1:39:53] Speaker 2: brought the Xbox. I got the donuts. I brought the donuts.
[1:39:56] Speaker 2: What was it? Marbury wanted to be the star? Nah,
[1:40:01] Speaker 2: he didn't like, he almost died going to the game.
[1:40:05] Speaker 5: Yeah, he, the ice, the roads are always icy. So
[1:40:10] Speaker 5: he got a big scare. Going to the game one day,
[1:40:12] Speaker 5: and he was like, get me the fuck out of here.
[1:40:14] Speaker 2: Leave New York, fool. Nah, it's not like, nothing like,
[1:40:17] Speaker 2: nothing's like Minnesota, bro. Get the same contract as KG. Nah,
[1:40:21] Speaker 2: it wasn't that. It wasn't that.
[1:40:24] Speaker 5: Nah, Steph was one of the guys, like, even though
[1:40:26] Speaker 5: it was cold in New York, but it was one
[1:40:28] Speaker 5: of those situations where they literally, bro, the roads are icy.
[1:40:33] Speaker 2: They everything still goes.
[1:40:35] Speaker 5: Nothing stops like they do the ice salt on the
[1:40:39] Speaker 5: roads and they tell you to put the chains on
[1:40:40] Speaker 5: your tires and you better be here at three.
[1:40:44] Speaker 2: You better be here at 10. Ain't no excuse. Ain't no. Hey, man,
[1:40:47] Speaker 2: my road. I can't get out of my driveway. Get
[1:40:50] Speaker 2: the shovel. We were expecting to see. He didn't like.
[1:40:54] Speaker 2: It was a young Starberry, too, so he didn't like
[1:40:57] Speaker 2: none of that. He wanted to get out of there.
[1:40:58] Speaker 2: He said he almost died like five or six times.
[1:41:00] Speaker 2: It was 7 p.m. in Brooklyn.
[1:41:01] Speaker 1: He said he almost died five or six times trying
[1:41:03] Speaker 1: to traverse the icy roads in Minnesota.
[1:41:05] Speaker 2: Black ice. Black ice, too. That's the difference.
[1:41:09] Speaker 5: Yeah, they had opportunities, but Wiley and those guys wasn't
[1:41:13] Speaker 5: going to get it done. But, you know, Sprewell and
[1:41:15] Speaker 5: Sam was the closest thing that they got in that
[1:41:17] Speaker 5: Sprewell thing.
[1:41:18] Speaker 2: Kevin McHale kind of fucked all that up. He did
[1:41:21] Speaker 2: a lot of bullshit for that. What's the cover for it?
[1:41:23] Speaker 3: Mm-hmm.
[1:41:24] Speaker 2: That was their last hurrah. That really hurt.
[1:41:27] Speaker 3: No, they lost to the Lakers, right?
[1:41:29] Speaker 2: Oh, to the Lakers.
[1:41:30] Speaker 3: Didn't they lose to the Lakers in the conference? And
[1:41:32] Speaker 3: then the Lakers lost to the Pistons.
[1:41:35] Speaker 2: That hurt KG. Oh, that would have been a good one.
[1:41:37] Speaker 2: That would have been a good one.
[1:41:39] Speaker 1: Sean, like you mentioned, you got to spend some time
[1:41:41] Speaker 1: with KG during the height of his superstardom. What are
[1:41:45] Speaker 1: some of your favorite memories from playing with KG on
[1:41:48] Speaker 1: the Wolves?
[1:41:50] Speaker 5: Oh, man, just being able to Soak up all of
[1:41:55] Speaker 5: his advice. You know, he took me under his wing
[1:42:00] Speaker 5: and I had his sister as my bill pay person
[1:42:03] Speaker 5: after I had got robbed my rookie year. And it
[1:42:07] Speaker 5: was like a family thing. The sister was doing the
[1:42:11] Speaker 5: bill pay. Her husband found my crib. His manager became
[1:42:15] Speaker 5: my manager. I was always at the crib, had the coat.
[1:42:20] Speaker 5: to the crib, go over there anytime I wanted to,
[1:42:24] Speaker 5: spend time in the summer. So the advice he always
[1:42:27] Speaker 5: gave me was to soak up all of the pleasantries
[1:42:30] Speaker 5: that come along with the league, but also prepping. He
[1:42:33] Speaker 5: gave me his massage therapist where the same lady that
[1:42:37] Speaker 5: was doing all of his little pregame treatments and rituals
[1:42:40] Speaker 5: and all that kind of stuff, I got to soak
[1:42:42] Speaker 5: up what it was to be a real pro. And
[1:42:44] Speaker 5: I think that was the best mentorship that I was
[1:42:47] Speaker 5: able to get As far as stories and things that's happened,
[1:42:50] Speaker 5: it was just like we were on the road.
[1:42:52] Speaker 2: KG didn't really go out that much.
[1:42:53] Speaker 5: But when we did, come on, young, we're going to dinner.
[1:42:57] Speaker 5: Don't never pull out your wallet when you're with me.
[1:43:00] Speaker 5: I take care of everything. Summertime, we're going to Barbados.
[1:43:05] Speaker 5: We're going to Miami. He brought me along as a
[1:43:09] Speaker 5: young fella and really taught me the ropes. And so
[1:43:12] Speaker 5: for those two years, I was definitely beyond grateful to
[1:43:15] Speaker 5: see that. And to go into my year three as
[1:43:18] Speaker 5: the captain of the team and to take from what
[1:43:21] Speaker 5: he gave me and said, ain't no way nobody's going
[1:43:23] Speaker 5: to step in front.
[1:43:24] Speaker 2: Of what someone just passed to me.
[1:43:27] Speaker 5: And regardless of who it was that was coming over,
[1:43:29] Speaker 5: it was like I already got the blueprint of how
[1:43:30] Speaker 5: this goes. And so that helped me with the next
[1:43:35] Speaker 5: group of guys coming through and being able to be
[1:43:38] Speaker 5: a locker room guy and be able to be the
[1:43:41] Speaker 5: guy that can show guys, look, this is.
[1:43:43] Speaker 2: How we do it, man.
[1:43:44] Speaker 5: Regardless of the winning and losing, let's all have.
[1:43:47] Speaker 2: Respect for each other. Let's show up as professionals type shit.
[1:43:50] Speaker 3: I liked what you said about he taught you intimidation
[1:43:55] Speaker 3: because he goes to Boston and wins Defensive Player of
[1:43:57] Speaker 3: the Year, and it was about intimidation, imposing will on opponents.
[1:44:04] Speaker 3: And he did that at the highest level, talking and
[1:44:09] Speaker 3: performing well. and swatting.
[1:44:11] Speaker 2: My first game.
[1:44:13] Speaker 4: As a rookie was against that Boston team, and when
[1:44:16] Speaker 4: me and Andre Blass checked in, it was at the
[1:44:18] Speaker 4: foul line. I mean, he's looking at us. He looked
[1:44:23] Speaker 4: at Andre Blass' front jersey, then looked on the back,
[1:44:26] Speaker 4: who is this motherfucker in the game? He ain't supposed
[1:44:29] Speaker 4: to be in the game with guard. I mean, what's
[1:44:30] Speaker 4: your name? I'm like, damn, this is what the NBA
[1:44:32] Speaker 4: is about?
[1:44:33] Speaker 2: Yes.
[1:44:35] Speaker 4: That's the game when they was losing by 20 already,
[1:44:39] Speaker 4: then they blamed us.
[1:44:40] Speaker 2: Oh, Gill and them. It was our fault.
[1:44:43] Speaker 4: They was down 15, then we came in, they went
[1:44:45] Speaker 4: down 20. That's when Gill was, motherfuckers not ready, don't
[1:44:50] Speaker 4: put them in.
[1:44:50] Speaker 2: That was your first NBA game? It's the big three
[1:44:53] Speaker 2: in Boston. Wow. That's crazy. Man, it was crazy, too.
[1:44:57] Speaker 2: I was nervous. In Boston? In Boston. How did you do?
[1:45:01] Speaker 3: What happened?
[1:45:03] Speaker 4: Well, we didn't really do too much. They was already
[1:45:06] Speaker 4: up by the time we got in.
[1:45:08] Speaker 3: Did you score?
[1:45:09] Speaker 2: Yeah, I scored. I scored. Who was guarding you? Ray
[1:45:12] Speaker 2: or Paul? Ray. Ray. Chasing him off screens. I'm like, man.
[1:45:15] Speaker 2: No way. Tired as fuck. Check in. KG. What's y'all move?
[1:45:19] Speaker 2: I don't even know his name. He can't guard me.
[1:45:21] Speaker 2: I don't even know his name.
[1:45:23] Speaker 5: So your first game was Ray Allen. My first game
[1:45:25] Speaker 5: was Ray Allen in Seattle.
[1:45:27] Speaker 2: So that was your second. Oh, second.
[1:45:29] Speaker 1: So you guys lost to the Pacers in overtime from
[1:45:33] Speaker 1: your first game. You had three points that game that
[1:45:34] Speaker 1: you played. At Boston, I got smacked by 20 like
[1:45:37] Speaker 1: you mentioned. You did have five points in the game, though.
[1:45:39] Speaker 3: Five?
[1:45:39] Speaker 2: That's pretty good. Three for four from the free throw.
[1:45:43] Speaker 2: Three for four? Nice five. Okay, okay. But Gil blamed
[1:45:47] Speaker 2: me for that. You were a plus four in the game, too.
[1:45:48] Speaker 2: I don't know why he's aiming at you. So he
[1:45:50] Speaker 2: left you in more. Left me in more.
[1:45:52] Speaker 3: How did Gil do in that game?
[1:45:54] Speaker 2: Gil, let me take a deeper dive. Gilbert Arenas. Ooh, interesting.
[1:46:00] Speaker 1: Five for 19 from the field, low for five from three,
[1:46:02] Speaker 1: but 11 for 14 from the free throw line. Had
[1:46:05] Speaker 1: 21 points, five rebounds, three assists, and two steals.
[1:46:08] Speaker 2: 14 free throws. Wow. 21. He still got 20. Still
[1:46:11] Speaker 2: got 20, though. Five for what? Five for 21? Five
[1:46:15] Speaker 2: for 19. Five for 19? He's shooting that bitch. Oh,
[1:46:21] Speaker 2: y'all had Darius N'Gala on that day? Yeah. Oh, I
[1:46:23] Speaker 2: remember that. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That was my thought. Legendary moment.
[1:46:26] Speaker 2: All right.
[1:46:27] Speaker 1: Well, our last segment before we wrap up for the day.
[1:46:30] Speaker 1: Play-in tournament continues tonight. So throughout the playoffs, we will
[1:46:34] Speaker 1: be making team picks using Underdog's prediction markets, which all
[1:46:38] Speaker 1: of you can do as well. So we'll keep a
[1:46:41] Speaker 1: leaderboard of the Couch's picks throughout the entire playoffs. Let's
[1:46:44] Speaker 1: take a look at the updated standings after night one.
[1:46:47] Speaker 2: I pick Miami. So we see at the top. Who's
[1:46:52] Speaker 2: at the top? Josh Radames. Come on now. Don't do that.
[1:46:55] Speaker 2: I guarantee I'm about to catch up now. Don't do that. Orlando.
[1:47:00] Speaker 2: Can't do that. Oh, no. Swaggy, we're not there. Kenyon Gill, Mr. B,
[1:47:04] Speaker 2: both one and one. Swaggy, as you mentioned, Owen, too.
[1:47:07] Speaker 1: I like how the photos really match how you got
[1:47:10] Speaker 1: the feeling in that moment.
[1:47:10] Speaker 2: I'm just saying, man. See, Skip don't know.
[1:47:13] Speaker 5: Cam Newton voted me as top three most hated podcasters.
[1:47:19] Speaker 2: Really?
[1:47:20] Speaker 3: Top three?
[1:47:20] Speaker 2: Top three. Jason Whitlock's number one. Stephen A. Smith's number two.
[1:47:25] Speaker 2: And now I'm number three. So I got to keep up.
[1:47:27] Speaker 2: I got to keep up. You know what I'm saying?
[1:47:31] Speaker 3: Well, you keep backing it up.
[1:47:33] Speaker 2: I got to keep pissing people off. I got to
[1:47:36] Speaker 2: figure it out. But I think pissing people off means winning.
[1:47:40] Speaker 2: You know, showing up with the... All right, so who
[1:47:42] Speaker 2: you got today? Who you got today? So let's shift forward.
[1:47:46] Speaker 2: You backed out of the back. Because the Clippers not
[1:47:49] Speaker 2: playing the Spurs. It ain't my fault. The Clippers should
[1:47:52] Speaker 2: have won more games, huh?
[1:47:54] Speaker 1: So Magic are in Philly to take on the Sixers
[1:47:58] Speaker 1: in the 7-8 matchup in the East. 76ers have a 54%
[1:48:02] Speaker 1: chance to win. Magic's odds are at 47%. Joel Embiid
[1:48:06] Speaker 1: dealing with the appendicitis. Not available, but still have Tyrese Maxey.
[1:48:11] Speaker 2: So you want to bet on this? What you want
[1:48:13] Speaker 2: to do? Who you taking in Magic Sisters? What's the
[1:48:16] Speaker 2: second game? Warriors Clippers. Warriors Clippers. I got Clippers. Magic
[1:48:20] Speaker 2: Sixers first. Oh, I got hmm. They're going to fire
[1:48:26] Speaker 2: Jamal right after the game. Jamal Mosley, apparently on the
[1:48:29] Speaker 2: hot seat, according to reports. Yeah, they're going to fire
[1:48:31] Speaker 2: him right now. A star player on the team. I
[1:48:33] Speaker 2: don't know if the players are willing to play for him.
[1:48:35] Speaker 2: That's the thing. I don't know if they're willing to
[1:48:37] Speaker 2: play for him. But then there are players out there
[1:48:39] Speaker 2: that actually are players. They're going to play regardless. But
[1:48:42] Speaker 2: then you got Philly. Is this 7-8? This is 7-8. Yeah. Oh.
[1:48:46] Speaker 2: This is Philly, Philly.
[1:48:47] Speaker 5: Like, Maxie, I don't think Maxie going back down. I
[1:48:50] Speaker 5: think Vijay going to show up. It's going to be
[1:48:52] Speaker 5: a guard game. Drummond going to have to do something.
[1:48:57] Speaker 5: So I'm going to go with.
[1:49:01] Speaker 2: Philly. You're going with the Philadelphia 76ers. Swaggy. Sixers magic.
[1:49:07] Speaker 2: Turmoil in Orlando. I'm going to see. If I'm Philly.
[1:49:12] Speaker 2: I mean, if I'm Orlando, I'd rather play Detroit. I'm
[1:49:16] Speaker 2: going to go Philly. You're going to go with the
[1:49:18] Speaker 2: Philadelphia 76ers. I don't think they want to win tonight.
[1:49:22] Speaker 2: I don't either. You don't think the Magic want to
[1:49:23] Speaker 2: win tonight? I don't think they want to play. So
[1:49:27] Speaker 2: if they lose, they play.
[1:49:32] Speaker 5: No, if Magic lose tonight, they play the Hornets. I
[1:49:40] Speaker 5: got the Magic, actually. I got the Magic.
[1:49:43] Speaker 2: I got the Magic. That's good. That's good. Multiple levels
[1:49:46] Speaker 2: of Magic. Oh, so you 0-2. That means you're just
[1:49:48] Speaker 2: going to keep going.
[1:49:49] Speaker 1: What do you got in this Magic Sixers game tonight?
[1:49:52] Speaker 3: You know, I have a pretty good source in Philadelphia
[1:49:56] Speaker 3: who told me that Embiid is actually cleared to play,
[1:50:00] Speaker 3: but has chosen not to play.
[1:50:01] Speaker 2: Get the fuck out of here.
[1:50:04] Speaker 3: That it's an appendicitis, but it's fine.
[1:50:06] Speaker 2: It went well.
[1:50:08] Speaker 3: These days, they can just go in quickly and pretty simply,
[1:50:14] Speaker 3: and he could play if he chose to.
[1:50:16] Speaker 2: What?
[1:50:17] Speaker 3: Now, that's like turmoil, locker room kind of turmoil. Wait
[1:50:21] Speaker 3: a second, big guy. Yeah. Can you play?
[1:50:24] Speaker 2: Yeah, I didn't know that.
[1:50:27] Speaker 3: Man, this is a real– I didn't factor in the
[1:50:33] Speaker 3: Jamal part because that's big. But what I like, when
[1:50:38] Speaker 3: I looked at it last night, Orlando on the road
[1:50:40] Speaker 3: this year was really good. They were 19 and 20
[1:50:43] Speaker 3: on the road, and Philly wasn't very good at home.
[1:50:45] Speaker 2: Yep.
[1:50:46] Speaker 3: 23-18 at home. So they lost 18 home games, and
[1:50:50] Speaker 3: people are in and out and in and out. But
[1:50:53] Speaker 3: I'll go Orlando.
[1:50:54] Speaker 2: I'll go Orlando. Oh, shit. Orlando want to play Boston.
[1:50:56] Speaker 2: They got like a little thing for Boston to play off. Okay.
[1:51:00] Speaker 1: So let's move over to the West. 9-10 matchup goes
[1:51:03] Speaker 1: down in L.A. with the Warriors taking on the Clippers.
[1:51:05] Speaker 2: No.
[1:51:05] Speaker 1: Winner of this game gets to face the defending champion Thunder.
[1:51:09] Speaker 1: Clippers are a sizable favorite in this matchup. Five and
[1:51:12] Speaker 1: a half points with 67% chance to win on the
[1:51:15] Speaker 1: money line. Warriors 34% chance to win on underdogs prediction markets.
[1:51:21] Speaker 2: Pazinski and all. Yeah, I'm not rolling. Burn in the house.
[1:51:24] Speaker 2: Let that bitch burn down. Let it burn. Shit. Fuck that.
[1:51:30] Speaker 1: I'm going Clippers too. I'm going Clippers. Going Kawhi and
[1:51:33] Speaker 1: the Clippers. How about yourself, Clippers, Warriors? Steph Curry might
[1:51:36] Speaker 1: be on a minutes restriction.
[1:51:38] Speaker 3: I think he is, and so is Porzingis, and so
[1:51:40] Speaker 3: is Al Horford. I think they're all on minutes restrictions.
[1:51:43] Speaker 3: And burn it down.
[1:51:44] Speaker 2: Burn it down. They want to get a lottery pick.
[1:51:47] Speaker 2: They don't want to play tonight. Yeah, I feel that.
[1:51:50] Speaker 3: And Kawhi quietly had his career year this year.
[1:51:53] Speaker 2: He really did. His best year as a club, I
[1:51:55] Speaker 2: feel like. He did.
[1:51:56] Speaker 3: And, again, if you think they would cause trouble for
[1:52:01] Speaker 3: San Antonio, they're in line to play Oklahoma City also.
[1:52:05] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[1:52:05] Speaker 3: Would you go Clippers-Oklahoma City?
[1:52:09] Speaker 2: No. Okay, so you got too much. But they can
[1:52:11] Speaker 2: get two games. I think it goes six. You don't
[1:52:13] Speaker 2: think it goes seven? I think it goes six. Six. Okay. Six.
[1:52:21] Speaker 2: It's a good matchup. Mm-hmm. But, yeah, remember what they
[1:52:25] Speaker 2: did to Denver last year? Mm-hmm.
[1:52:28] Speaker 5: Especially if you put, like, well, because Kawhi, ain't guard SGA.
[1:52:35] Speaker 2: That's the only thing.
[1:52:37] Speaker 5: They going to put the fouls on Kawhi unless it's
[1:52:40] Speaker 5: a second-half matchup. You save his fouls for second half,
[1:52:43] Speaker 5: you could shut him down in the second half.
[1:52:45] Speaker 2: I don't know where Garland be at in the playoff.
[1:52:47] Speaker 2: I don't know where he be, period. Yeah, so I'm not.
[1:52:50] Speaker 2: That's the only thing. You're told I hurt no more. Yeah.
[1:52:54] Speaker 2: You got to get over that shit. You got to
[1:52:56] Speaker 2: show up now. You in L.A. Yep. Ain't no more
[1:52:59] Speaker 2: Cleveland shit. You in L.A. now, bro. We watching. We
[1:53:03] Speaker 2: see the shit. It's clear. You got a hoop. I
[1:53:06] Speaker 2: like the kid from Indiana they got, too. Matherin.
[1:53:09] Speaker 5: Yeah, Matherin. Chris Dunn could show up. Hey, we need Brooke. Brooke, Brooke, listen, man.
[1:53:15] Speaker 2: All them damn threes and shit. We need you to
[1:53:17] Speaker 2: beat Brooke that was in Brooklyn. They got Collins. They
[1:53:19] Speaker 2: got a little squad. They got solid. They do have it.
[1:53:22] Speaker 2: Our own Luke. Treadmill. Get on that, motherfucker. Make us
[1:53:26] Speaker 2: feel like you in shape. Make us feel like you're
[1:53:28] Speaker 2: doing some shit. You know what I'm saying? Make us
[1:53:31] Speaker 2: feel good. Yeah. Serve the coach. Yeah. Coach got to
[1:53:36] Speaker 2: look like. Yeah. Yeah. He look a little ultra. You
[1:53:40] Speaker 2: know what I'm saying? Tap on the show. Tap on
[1:53:42] Speaker 2: the show. Hey, come on. Get in this treadmill, baby.
[1:53:44] Speaker 2: Come on here. Do some red light therapy around that waist.
[1:53:48] Speaker 2: We'll see if tonight's games live up to what Tuesday
[1:53:50] Speaker 2: night gave us.
[1:53:51] Speaker 4: I don't think the Clippers-Warriors game is going to be.
[1:53:56] Speaker 4: That good, I think it's going to be.
[1:53:57] Speaker 2: You want to bet on the Clippers' thunder? How far
[1:54:02] Speaker 2: it go? Yeah. I think it goes seven. Wow. I
[1:54:06] Speaker 2: would love for it to go seven because I would
[1:54:08] Speaker 2: like the Clippers to. I think they push them past five.
[1:54:15] Speaker 4: I think it goes the same amount as the Blazers' Spurs.
[1:54:20] Speaker 2: We're getting them out of there in five. I think
[1:54:23] Speaker 2: they get them out there in five. Both of them
[1:54:25] Speaker 2: go six, I bet. So, Swaggy, do we have an
[1:54:31] Speaker 2: agreement here? No. No. All right, we got OKC's Clippers.
[1:54:36] Speaker 2: I go six. You go seven. Bet. Bet.
[1:54:40] Speaker 1: Swaggy, before we go, we'll possess you to put your
[1:54:43] Speaker 1: high school jersey on for you.
[1:54:44] Speaker 2: Oh, shout out to Nick.
[1:54:45] Speaker 4: He gave it to me yesterday at our kids, you know, training.
[1:54:50] Speaker 4: You know, we got a little AAU team. Shout out
[1:54:53] Speaker 4: to the Cavs. So he said he had my jersey.
[1:54:56] Speaker 4: He was like my freshman on the team.
[1:54:59] Speaker 1: He kept your jersey after all these years.
[1:55:01] Speaker 2: Wow. Just chilling at the crib. He just gave it
[1:55:04] Speaker 2: to you. He didn't want to iron it or nothing.
[1:55:06] Speaker 2: It was in a bag, though. It was in a bag. Here, Nick,
[1:55:09] Speaker 2: wear this. It was in a bag, sealed. Wow. That
[1:55:13] Speaker 2: motherfucker look like he wore it yesterday. He ain't got
[1:55:15] Speaker 2: no drawstring. That's how you know. That's how you know
[1:55:17] Speaker 2: it's authentic. I just told a short song with no drawstring.
[1:55:20] Speaker 2: No drawstring on the short. Late to the mall by
[1:55:22] Speaker 2: the 30 minutes late. No drawstring.
[1:55:25] Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, this is... This is what you come
[1:55:28] Speaker 1: to expect here.
[1:55:29] Speaker 2: At Gil's Arena. And the jersey was just in the car.
[1:55:31] Speaker 2: He didn't come out the house with the jersey on.
[1:55:34] Speaker 2: He was like, I got something here I can wear.
[1:55:35] Speaker 2: Everything was still in front of practice yesterday. There's something
[1:55:38] Speaker 2: here I can wear. Let me wear this. I said
[1:55:40] Speaker 2: Gil called out. I said Gil. I said the same shit.
[1:55:46] Speaker 2: Hurry up, Nick. Ain't nobody showing up. It's just you inside. Goddamn.
[1:55:52] Speaker 2: Skip is pissed. He's sitting on the couch stretching. Honorable man,
[1:55:56] Speaker 2: very patient. Gil was ready to cook today. Ain't nobody
[1:56:02] Speaker 2: showed up. Nobody to his right.
[1:56:05] Speaker 3: I'm just glad Gil wasn't here. You wouldn't have heard
[1:56:07] Speaker 3: the end of it about Gil.
[1:56:09] Speaker 2: Oh, for sure.
[1:56:11] Speaker 1: That's how things go. But shout out to everybody in
[1:56:14] Speaker 1: the chat. Shout out to everybody on this couch. This
[1:56:16] Speaker 1: has been another episode of Gil's Arena presented by Underdog.
[1:56:22] Speaker 2: We'll see y'all tomorrow.

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