# Bruce Bowen on Rockets Quitting vs. Lakers, Victor Wembanyama’s concussion, Portland's Cheap Owner | 04.22

An episode of [The Right Time with Bomani Jones](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/982639043), 22 Apr 2026, 55 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/370fc844-36bd-4f61-8b8f-b4bb010de39a/13d54267-a46b-4375-ad95-b4bb0113ba3b/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=919a7cbe-003c-4146-b592-b4bb010de3a5

Bomani Jones is joined by Bruce Bowen to talk NBA playoffs, from the Spurs' chances at a title run after Victor Wembanyama’s concussion to whether the Houston Rockets just embarrassed themselves against LeBron and the Lakers. They also hit Anthony Edwards’ rise as a leader, Rudy Gobert’s redemption, and why CJ McCollum is suddenly playing Madison Square Garden villain against Jalen Brunson. Bomani and Bruce get into: • How Wemby has already changed what’s possible on defense, why the paint disappears when he’s on the floor, and how that compares to Tim Duncan never winning DPOY. • The Spurs–Blazers series, Wembanyama’s concussion, and what young teams actually learn in playoff collapses. • The cheap new vibes in Portland under owner Tom Dundon — from coaching salaries to cutting back on arena T‑shirts. • Why the Rockets’ Game 2 performance vs. the Lakers was so disappointing, what accountability really looks like, and how LeBron is still manipulating games at his age. • Anthony Edwards’ force-of-personality leadership, how he lifts guys like Rudy Gobert, and what it means for Denver’s title defense. • CJ McCollum hunting Jalen Brunson, embracing being “that guy” in the Garden, and what separates elite playoff scorers from everyone else. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: Wave.
[0:09] Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the right time. A wave original.
[0:13] Speaker 2: My name is Bomani Jones. Thanks for listening wherever you
[0:15] Speaker 2: get your podcasts. Thanks for watching us on YouTube. Subscribe, like,
[0:19] Speaker 2: rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only
[0:21] Speaker 2: give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are
[0:24] Speaker 2: a hater. It is that time of week where we
[0:26] Speaker 2: have a guest join us, coming to us live from
[0:29] Speaker 2: San Antonio. You know the next line? It's just like Compton.
[0:34] Speaker 2: Bruce Bowen, what's going on?
[0:38] Speaker 1: All is well. What's going on with you, Bomani?
[0:41] Speaker 2: Hey, man, I feel like we do it a little
[0:43] Speaker 2: better over here than you folks are doing in San
[0:45] Speaker 2: Antonio right now. Like, y'all a little nervous after. Look,
[0:50] Speaker 2: I was just telling Ryan before the show, there's only
[0:53] Speaker 2: two ways for that dude to get a concussion in
[0:55] Speaker 2: an NBA game, and that's to hit his head on
[0:58] Speaker 2: the basket or what happened right there. Otherwise, like, how
[1:02] Speaker 2: does he ever get hit in the head? And he
[1:04] Speaker 2: wound up hitting chin first. Victor Wimbanyama, chin first on
[1:08] Speaker 2: the floor and was night-night.
[1:11] Speaker 1: It was, it was a, obviously it's a scary situation
[1:14] Speaker 1: because he didn't have his hands to brace his fall.
[1:19] Speaker 1: By the time he was already heading downward, it was,
[1:22] Speaker 1: it was face first. And these are some of the
[1:26] Speaker 1: situations that take place in the game that people don't realize,
[1:29] Speaker 1: like just in a pulling of the chair, losing your balance.
[1:34] Speaker 1: It's an, it's a variety of things that can happen.
[1:36] Speaker 1: We were just happy that, okay, That was the least
[1:40] Speaker 1: of it. I remember the last time I saw someone
[1:42] Speaker 1: hit their chin. Well, it was more or less their mouth.
[1:46] Speaker 1: And all you saw was a spray of chiclets. Yeah.
[1:50] Speaker 1: And that's what I was hoping. I didn't see him
[1:51] Speaker 1: doing like, oh, there's my tooth over there. There's another
[1:54] Speaker 1: particle over there.
[1:56] Speaker 2: Yeah, like that is the part that I had not
[1:58] Speaker 2: thought about because you're right. I don't know exactly who
[2:00] Speaker 2: that was, but I remember exactly what you're talking about.
[2:03] Speaker 2: That face goes into ground and then it's just teeth.
[2:06] Speaker 2: And you got to go get them. You can't just
[2:09] Speaker 2: leave them out there. There's still a chance to save them.
[2:12] Speaker 1: Right, right. The one I'm talking about, it happened to
[2:14] Speaker 1: be Doc Rivers. And so when that happened, it's already
[2:19] Speaker 1: scary anytime you just that that. That sound, only people
[2:24] Speaker 1: understand that if either hit the back of your head
[2:26] Speaker 1: on someone and you're really like, whoa, whoa, whoa, what
[2:30] Speaker 1: just happened here? And then to see him, this is
[2:32] Speaker 1: where I think not having a lot of experience going
[2:38] Speaker 1: into the playoffs, how a certain scenario can happen where
[2:41] Speaker 1: you're like, hey, this is why you respect your team.
[2:44] Speaker 1: I'm not saying that the Spurs didn't respect Portland, but
[2:48] Speaker 1: this is why you have to talk about things in
[2:50] Speaker 1: a way where Nothing is guaranteed. The playoffs are a
[2:55] Speaker 1: different animal, and we see so many different things that
[2:59] Speaker 1: transpire during the course of that. This was one of
[3:02] Speaker 1: those situations that if the Spurs aren't playing with Victor,
[3:06] Speaker 1: it's only because of something tragic happening.
[3:10] Speaker 2: Yeah, and this.
[3:13] Speaker 2: Concussions in sports outside of football and hockey to me
[3:17] Speaker 2: are interesting because... Those are not great risk of head
[3:21] Speaker 2: injury sports, right? And so we don't think about concussions
[3:24] Speaker 2: in the same way. But in the NFL, we see
[3:27] Speaker 2: those dudes come back after a week in the NFL.
[3:29] Speaker 2: Sometimes it might be two. But I think about a
[3:31] Speaker 2: guy like Justin Morneau in baseball, and you see this
[3:34] Speaker 2: in other spaces. People are typically way more judicious outside
[3:38] Speaker 2: of football about bringing people back from concussions because a concussion,
[3:42] Speaker 2: you know what a concussion is like in the NFL?
[3:44] Speaker 2: It's like a snow day. If you live in Iowa... Like,
[3:49] Speaker 2: we can't be taking off with so much time behind
[3:51] Speaker 2: these snow days, man. We never get anything done. You
[3:54] Speaker 2: know what I'm saying? Like, we just can't be shutting
[3:57] Speaker 2: it down every time.
[3:58] Speaker 1: It's just snowflakes. And to your point, Bomani, yes, football,
[4:02] Speaker 1: every play is some type of head collision. You know,
[4:05] Speaker 1: the helmets hit one another. It's part of their norm.
[4:09] Speaker 1: It's just when it goes to another level that way,
[4:11] Speaker 1: it's like, hey, hey, we have to dial back.
[4:13] Speaker 2: But.
[4:14] Speaker 1: excuse me, in basketball and baseball, all these different sports
[4:19] Speaker 1: where you don't have the collisions quite like that, that's
[4:23] Speaker 1: where it becomes a little more, as you say, judicial
[4:26] Speaker 1: in how we handle these things.
[4:28] Speaker 2: Right, and that's where I'm kind of torn, because on
[4:30] Speaker 2: one level, it's like, hey, let's just be careful, da-da-da.
[4:33] Speaker 2: On the other... Ain't nobody hitting that big motherfucking head, man.
[4:37] Speaker 2: Like his head is the safest head in the history
[4:42] Speaker 2: of professional sports when it comes to being at risk
[4:45] Speaker 2: of somebody hitting him. Ain't nobody clearing no elbow through
[4:48] Speaker 2: and hitting him.
[4:51] Speaker 1: It's intentional if he getting elbowed in the head.
[4:54] Speaker 2: It requires somebody to like, you remember that time that
[4:57] Speaker 2: Chris Paul tried to knock the ball out of DeAndre
[4:59] Speaker 2: Jordan's head?
[5:01] Speaker 1: You know, okay, I was going to Isaiah Thomas with
[5:05] Speaker 1: Rick Mahorn. Yes. And Isaiah, you know, he's, and Rick
[5:11] Speaker 1: is like, stop it, man.
[5:12] Speaker 2: Rick said he had pillow heads. but it's like if
[5:19] Speaker 2: you're like a kid like hey give me give me
[5:21] Speaker 2: give me give me that's what it's gonna take for
[5:23] Speaker 2: you to hit that dude in the head the other
[5:25] Speaker 2: part of it is though he is the franchise in
[5:28] Speaker 2: a way that nobody is the franchise.
[5:32] Speaker 1: So this is where players don't always like how they're
[5:38] Speaker 1: handled I remember a time when Manu Manu did something
[5:43] Speaker 1: and Pop was like that's it nope you're done and
[5:47] Speaker 1: And no, Manu's a competitor. Same, Victor's a competitor. But
[5:52] Speaker 1: because of your value and you never want a player
[5:57] Speaker 1: to ever feel like you all don't value me. You
[6:01] Speaker 1: guys put me out there too soon. We've heard many
[6:04] Speaker 1: stories like that. With this situation and what he's able
[6:09] Speaker 1: to do for the organization, yes, it's about his health
[6:14] Speaker 1: first and foremost. Now, I'm sure After a couple of days,
[6:18] Speaker 1: Victor's going to be like, all right, let's go. I'm ready.
[6:20] Speaker 1: And they're like, hold on. We need to make sure
[6:24] Speaker 1: you are okay because it's not just for right now.
[6:29] Speaker 1: We're talking about future. Yeah.
[6:32] Speaker 2: Let me tell you, I had this observation about him.
[6:34] Speaker 2: They gave him the defensive player of the year trophy
[6:37] Speaker 2: before the game on Tuesday, right? You played with, for
[6:41] Speaker 2: my money, the best defensive player of that era. of
[6:47] Speaker 2: Tim Duncan, right? The best team, I don't know if
[6:49] Speaker 2: anybody ever affected team defense quite like Tim Duncan did
[6:52] Speaker 2: from the second he showed up in the league to
[6:54] Speaker 2: the second that he left. Tim Duncan never won defensive
[6:58] Speaker 2: player of the year. I have no idea when anybody
[7:02] Speaker 2: else is going to win defensive player of the year
[7:04] Speaker 2: with Victor out there, just because nobody's going, nobody defense
[7:07] Speaker 2: go look like that ever. Did you see the shot
[7:09] Speaker 2: chart from like what happened after he left while he
[7:12] Speaker 2: was in the game?
[7:13] Speaker 1: They lived in the paint. They lived. Hey, Hey, Hey,
[7:17] Speaker 1: guess what y'all he gone. Let's go. That's, that's what
[7:21] Speaker 1: it was. The equivalence of, you know, you just made
[7:24] Speaker 1: a statement talking about Tim, never getting the defensive player
[7:27] Speaker 1: of the year. I, I, didn't like how at one
[7:31] Speaker 1: point it was just given to a guy who rebounded
[7:35] Speaker 1: the basketball. When I believe Marcus can be guided one year.
[7:41] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[7:42] Speaker 1: Are you kidding me? Now people don't say, Ooh, he
[7:46] Speaker 1: throwing shade at Marcus canopy. No, because I look at defense,
[7:49] Speaker 1: not as a rebounding deal. I look at, at you
[7:53] Speaker 1: limiting someone that's really good at a position. And, There
[7:59] Speaker 1: was no, I didn't look at Marcus Camby at that
[8:02] Speaker 1: time as a stopper. It was a time when Ben
[8:06] Speaker 1: Wallace was getting them, but you could validate that with
[8:11] Speaker 1: what he was doing. He guarded Shaq by himself a
[8:14] Speaker 1: couple of times during that series in 04. So he's
[8:20] Speaker 1: playing defense. He's blocking shots. We talk about Victor and
[8:26] Speaker 1: what he's able to do. But, Bonnie, he can stand
[8:29] Speaker 1: in the paint and get a good contested three-point. Somebody
[8:35] Speaker 1: shooting a three-point, he can contest it from the closing
[8:39] Speaker 1: out from the paint. We've never seen something like that.
[8:43] Speaker 1: When he extends his arms, it reminds me of that
[8:48] Speaker 1: running Reb team with that Amoeba defense. They were so long.
[8:53] Speaker 1: Stacey Augman's arms long. Ackles long. Butler long. So when
[8:59] Speaker 1: we start talking about how someone impacts a game, it's
[9:05] Speaker 1: not just the fact that he's blocking shots. It's the
[9:08] Speaker 1: fact that every time you get in the paint, you
[9:11] Speaker 1: don't know where he's coming from. And it's almost like,
[9:16] Speaker 1: it's like, okay, go, go gadget arms. And he's, he's still,
[9:20] Speaker 1: they try to get into his body. It's hilarious because
[9:23] Speaker 1: now he understands like, huh? When they try to feel
[9:28] Speaker 1: where I am, they have a better opportunity and maybe scoring,
[9:33] Speaker 1: but when they can't get into my body, They don't
[9:35] Speaker 1: know where I am. And that's what you see him
[9:38] Speaker 1: doing a lot when it comes to ball going in
[9:40] Speaker 1: the paint. He's just there. He creates so much havoc
[9:44] Speaker 1: on the defensive side. It will be hard to not
[9:46] Speaker 1: necessarily say, all right, who's going to get second this
[9:50] Speaker 1: year in defensive player of the year votes? Who's going
[9:53] Speaker 1: to get second?
[9:56] Speaker 2: I don't see any way anybody can be more impactful
[9:59] Speaker 2: because he's also had his slide his feet with dudes
[10:01] Speaker 2: on the perimeter. What are we supposed to do?
[10:04] Speaker 1: I saw him sliding them puppies one time and I
[10:07] Speaker 1: was in my house like, get him! It's such a
[10:13] Speaker 1: pleasure to see because when it comes to the technique
[10:16] Speaker 1: of it, he stayed in the defensive stance. He never
[10:20] Speaker 1: allowed his feet to come together. He didn't open his
[10:24] Speaker 1: hips and give way to the basket. All these little
[10:27] Speaker 1: nerdy thoughts I have when it comes to those types
[10:30] Speaker 1: of moments, that's what I can recognize on the fly
[10:35] Speaker 1: and just marvel at it because of his size. Yeah.
[10:39] Speaker 2: Now, I also think this. I think even without him,
[10:42] Speaker 2: they still win this series. Like, I mean, they had
[10:45] Speaker 2: that game in the fourth quarter and then just kind
[10:47] Speaker 2: of gave it away as it went. And Portland, Portland's
[10:50] Speaker 2: not a bad team, but Portland's not a good team, right? Like,
[10:52] Speaker 2: I think San Antonio without Victor, and that's the biggest
[10:55] Speaker 2: change from the beginning of this season to now, is
[10:58] Speaker 2: that before, this looked like a lottery team without him.
[11:01] Speaker 2: Now they look like a team that wins this series.
[11:03] Speaker 1: Yeah, I believe they were 12-6 without him this year.
[11:06] Speaker 1: And What do you get a chance to learn in
[11:13] Speaker 1: this moment, Bomani, for a young group that some of
[11:17] Speaker 1: your key contributors don't have that experience? They can only
[11:23] Speaker 1: get the experience by having the experience and going through
[11:26] Speaker 1: whatever it is. This was a game where Mitch will
[11:30] Speaker 1: go back in that film and say, fellas, look at
[11:32] Speaker 1: what we're doing. We're up 14 with six minutes to go.
[11:36] Speaker 1: What transpires after that? is where coaches love to break
[11:40] Speaker 1: the game down as far as showing the players their
[11:43] Speaker 1: flaws or how they didn't continue on with whatever the
[11:48] Speaker 1: play was. Get to the end of the play. Now
[11:51] Speaker 1: that you don't have Victor, it's no longer about a
[11:54] Speaker 1: quick shot. Now it's about making sure you can attack
[11:59] Speaker 1: from certain areas on the floor and stay disciplined to it.
[12:04] Speaker 1: During the regular season, you can skip steps and sneak
[12:07] Speaker 1: out with a win. During the playoffs, it's not about
[12:12] Speaker 1: skipping those steps. It's about really focusing on the part
[12:17] Speaker 1: of who are we going to attack right now and
[12:20] Speaker 1: stay diligent in that and stay diligent to what you do.
[12:25] Speaker 1: The biggest thing for me is that this younger group
[12:29] Speaker 1: learned a valuable lesson of how important it is to
[12:31] Speaker 1: stay locked in defensively because you got a lead and
[12:35] Speaker 1: then all of a sudden you lost the lead and
[12:38] Speaker 1: It wasn't about necessarily the shots. It's about them getting
[12:43] Speaker 1: to the basket. Now we got to stay in front
[12:45] Speaker 1: of folks. These are things that it's just so hard
[12:48] Speaker 1: to do on the fly. They're accustomed to having Wimby.
[12:51] Speaker 1: They're accustomed to that. Oh, he's good. We got help there.
[12:55] Speaker 1: Now we need to guard the yard a little bit more,
[12:57] Speaker 1: do a better job of the rotations, and just understand
[13:02] Speaker 1: that even in the midst of things right now, it
[13:05] Speaker 1: is a learning process. And it's so important that they
[13:09] Speaker 1: absorb all of this, which they are, but it's just
[13:12] Speaker 1: even more important that you realize that playoffs are different
[13:16] Speaker 1: from the standpoint that you don't pack it in, you
[13:20] Speaker 1: fight till the end. And if there's ever been a
[13:23] Speaker 1: team that they can look at and say, wow, look
[13:25] Speaker 1: how they kept fighting was last year's Indiana's team. The
[13:29] Speaker 1: fact that every game they were down, they beat the
[13:32] Speaker 1: Knicks coming back from a deficit of 20 plus points.
[13:36] Speaker 1: So it's still about the fight.
[13:38] Speaker 2: Let me tell you this. I can't wait to see
[13:40] Speaker 2: game three. And it's actually only minimally related to the
[13:44] Speaker 2: Spurs because it's going to be weird vibes in Portland.
[13:47] Speaker 2: Have you been reading these stories about their owner?
[13:50] Speaker 3: No.
[13:50] Speaker 2: Okay. So for people who do not know this, they
[13:53] Speaker 2: were just bought by this dude named Tom Dundon. He
[13:57] Speaker 2: is the owner of the Carolina Hurricanes, right? He's a
[14:00] Speaker 2: billionaire from Texas. He is worth Four and a quarter
[14:03] Speaker 2: billion dollars. And John Canzano has already written the column
[14:07] Speaker 2: asking whether this dude is trying to set it up
[14:09] Speaker 2: to have the team leave Portland. Right. And it's because
[14:12] Speaker 2: he's doing things like this. your man Splitter, interim coach, right?
[14:17] Speaker 2: This should be a feel-good time for the Trailblazers. Let
[14:19] Speaker 2: us not forget, their beloved head coach was indicted by
[14:24] Speaker 2: the feds earlier this year, right? They picked it up.
[14:27] Speaker 2: They made the playoffs. The word is out that their
[14:30] Speaker 2: owner wants to see if they can get a head
[14:32] Speaker 2: coach for between $ 1 and $ 2 million per season. And
[14:38] Speaker 2: They are currently looking for other coaches while their season
[14:44] Speaker 2: is still going on. Now, now, now, hold up, hold up.
[14:47] Speaker 2: I got more for you, right? That's the vibes when
[14:51] Speaker 2: you're just talking about what might be going on around
[14:54] Speaker 2: the team, okay? I was told that with the Hurricanes,
[14:57] Speaker 2: you know, the hockey team in Raleigh, that he has
[14:59] Speaker 2: been heard complaining about the five-star travel requirement in the
[15:02] Speaker 2: collective bargaining agreement, for example. Like, he is the guy that,
[15:06] Speaker 2: believes you can put a number on everything and that
[15:09] Speaker 2: putting a number on everything includes the number for the
[15:13] Speaker 2: t-shirts in the arena. So in San Antonio, where they
[15:16] Speaker 2: did the whole thing, where it looked like the old
[15:18] Speaker 2: logo and the colors were going all around, brother, they
[15:20] Speaker 2: ain't even giving the people t-shirts. I'm dead serious. They
[15:27] Speaker 2: are not giving the people t-shirts. And look, it's one
[15:30] Speaker 2: thing in LA where they don't even want to wear
[15:32] Speaker 2: the t-shirts. You know what I'm saying? Baby, this is Portland.
[15:35] Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying? Everybody going to have them
[15:38] Speaker 2: t-shirts on. They could not put the money on the t-shirts.
[15:43] Speaker 1: Wow. That's, you know, it's unfortunate because I think if
[15:48] Speaker 1: there's anything you can be doing, especially right around this
[15:52] Speaker 1: time right now, is really Marketing how great of a
[15:57] Speaker 1: job Tiago has done. Marketing how great of a group
[16:03] Speaker 1: they have in Portland. You got Dane Lillard back. You
[16:08] Speaker 1: got this vibe within the young culture there of guys
[16:13] Speaker 1: doing their work and spending time in the gym and
[16:16] Speaker 1: getting the extra shots. On top of that, we just
[16:20] Speaker 1: had come out on Netflix the whole jailblazers thing. So
[16:26] Speaker 1: why not really take this time to promote what his
[16:31] Speaker 1: club is doing right now? Obviously, we don't know what's
[16:36] Speaker 1: going on in his head, but it's a sad sight
[16:42] Speaker 1: if the team is able to leave or if he
[16:46] Speaker 1: gets rid of the team out of Portland because we
[16:48] Speaker 1: went through that in Seattle. And Seattle was a beautiful
[16:53] Speaker 1: place to play. Just the atmosphere. I mean, they were
[16:56] Speaker 1: champions years ago. They've been to the finals in Gary
[17:00] Speaker 1: Payton's era. Don't start, I guess, it's not me, but
[17:07] Speaker 1: it's like, don't start screwing up things that were implemented
[17:11] Speaker 1: from a long time ago just to satisfy yourself. Think
[17:16] Speaker 1: about others in the process.
[17:18] Speaker 2: Duh, he just cheap. Like it's just, it's flat.
[17:22] Speaker 1: One to 2 million. What is I, what I'd like
[17:24] Speaker 1: to know is what's the average yearly salary for NBA coaches,
[17:29] Speaker 1: head coaches.
[17:29] Speaker 2: I think it's now in the neighborhood. Like, I don't
[17:32] Speaker 2: think you can get a coach, any coach now for
[17:34] Speaker 2: less than $ 6 million.
[17:35] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[17:38] Speaker 2: Like you can't get a college coach for $ 2 million.
[17:40] Speaker 1: And, and yeah.
[17:45] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[17:47] Speaker 1: It just sounds like to me, you need to have
[17:49] Speaker 1: some people in, in your organization or some, some confidants
[17:54] Speaker 1: that will help him understand that this isn't what, this
[17:58] Speaker 1: isn't what you want to do.
[18:00] Speaker 2: Yeah. Like this is, I just, I look at the
[18:03] Speaker 2: league on this because this man gets down like this
[18:06] Speaker 2: with his hockey team also. Now you can make the argument.
[18:08] Speaker 2: And as Dundon does that, that team has been good
[18:12] Speaker 2: since he got there and the results have improved. But
[18:14] Speaker 2: this ain't the NHL. You know what I mean? Like,
[18:16] Speaker 2: you can't play this game over here like this with
[18:19] Speaker 2: the NBA. My guy Joe Giglio made that point. He's like,
[18:22] Speaker 2: unless you're going to draft a superstar, you're going to
[18:24] Speaker 2: need to sign a superstar. You're going to need to
[18:26] Speaker 2: do the things that make players want to play on
[18:28] Speaker 2: your team, especially if you're Portland.
[18:33] Speaker 1: There was an attraction in Portland other than Nike.
[18:38] Speaker 2: Yes.
[18:39] Speaker 1: Was the owner's plane.
[18:41] Speaker 2: Yes.
[18:42] Speaker 1: And I remember my first year in the NBA was
[18:46] Speaker 1: with Miami Heat and we had our own plane. I
[18:49] Speaker 1: went to Boston the next year and I was like, well,
[18:53] Speaker 1: where's our plane? They're like, oh, we have the team charter.
[19:01] Speaker 1: And man, when I tell you my heart was hurt
[19:04] Speaker 1: the first flight I took, and it had nothing to
[19:07] Speaker 1: do with the amenities because it was fantastic. It was just,
[19:13] Speaker 1: they were a little more special on Miami's plane. That's
[19:18] Speaker 1: all it was.
[19:20] Speaker 2: How far did you feel for West Fresno when you
[19:23] Speaker 2: started complaining about the play?
[19:25] Speaker 1: Oh man, shoot. I rode that gray dog, bruh. So, hey,
[19:31] Speaker 1: let's not forget, I played in the CBA when you
[19:35] Speaker 1: saw the pilots going out there on them little crop
[19:37] Speaker 1: dusters testing the, I looked out the window and I
[19:40] Speaker 1: see a guy doing this. to the propeller, I'm like, mm, mm, okay. Well,
[19:47] Speaker 1: I used to ride buses and now I'm like, I'm
[19:50] Speaker 1: on a pilot doing this to the propeller. Oh Lord,
[19:54] Speaker 1: you got something in store for me. I don't know
[19:56] Speaker 1: what it is, but I'ma stay steadfast. No, no, no.
[20:01] Speaker 2: I was just saying, because this happens to people. I'm
[20:03] Speaker 2: sure there's somebody that's out here listening being like, oh,
[20:05] Speaker 2: you complained about the private play. And you're like, yeah,
[20:08] Speaker 2: but things change. As your life changes, things change.
[20:14] Speaker 1: You know, I love the NBA. I love what it
[20:19] Speaker 1: did for me. I love the places that I've gone
[20:22] Speaker 1: because of the NBA. And, you know, there was a
[20:26] Speaker 1: time of mine where some teams didn't stay in Ritz-Carlton's
[20:31] Speaker 1: in four seasons. They were still at them holiday inns.
[20:38] Speaker 1: And there's nothing wrong with that, but I'm glad that
[20:40] Speaker 1: everybody seemed to have received the memo about you want
[20:45] Speaker 1: to be able to order room service sometimes at 2 a.m.
[20:48] Speaker 1: and it's not a sandwich.
[20:50] Speaker 2: Hey, man, that's what LeBron was trying to tell people.
[20:53] Speaker 2: Nobody wanted to hear it, though. Like the hotel in
[20:58] Speaker 2: Memphis is not befitting of a man of my stature.
[21:04] Speaker 1: Oh, boy. That is kind of tough in Memphis. It's
[21:07] Speaker 1: kind of tough, baby. I remember one time. So to
[21:13] Speaker 1: your point, like when teams lay the towels out or
[21:17] Speaker 1: the T-shirts, well, in Memphis, one year when they were
[21:21] Speaker 1: still playing at the Pyramid where the University of Memphis
[21:24] Speaker 1: would play, they had these towels. And so they're like,
[21:27] Speaker 1: come on, everybody, throw those towels. Man, when I tell you,
[21:33] Speaker 1: I don't know where they got those towels from, but
[21:35] Speaker 1: all the little lint particles that were floating during that game,
[21:40] Speaker 1: you just see somebody do this. Is it a mosquito? No,
[21:46] Speaker 1: it's from the towel. So it's all about the quality sometimes.
[21:50] Speaker 2: Hey, let me give you a fun fact. Do you
[21:52] Speaker 2: know what the pyramid is now in Memphis? No. They
[21:55] Speaker 2: turned it into the world's largest Bass Pro Shops. I'm
[21:58] Speaker 2: not lying. It's Bass Pro Shops.
[22:05] Speaker 1: That's... Yeah. I'm going to text you back on that one. Yeah, yeah.
[22:12] Speaker 2: Right, Faz, though, before we get this break, I want
[22:14] Speaker 2: to ask you, Boston lost to Philadelphia by 14 points.
[22:17] Speaker 2: To me, it just feels like this is what happens
[22:19] Speaker 2: when you decide to shoot 53s and you're not making
[22:21] Speaker 2: them that night. Am I missing it? I mean, edge
[22:23] Speaker 2: comb was great, but that seemed to be the biggest
[22:25] Speaker 2: part of it is this is just going to happen
[22:26] Speaker 2: when you play ball like this.
[22:28] Speaker 1: Well, part of it is, yes. We saw it last year. Remember,
[22:32] Speaker 1: especially in the Knicks series, they went on one of
[22:35] Speaker 1: those cold sprees. But the other side is that you
[22:39] Speaker 1: still got to play defense. And, you know, a couple
[22:43] Speaker 1: of times I saw Pritchard isolated with Maxie or Edgecombe.
[22:49] Speaker 1: And like, you got to know, we got to rotate
[22:52] Speaker 1: on that one. Those two, man, I tell you, I
[22:57] Speaker 1: used to hate stopping on a dime because, you know,
[22:59] Speaker 1: your feet moving, your shoe, you're creating friction. The corns
[23:04] Speaker 1: are starting to act up. And when I see Tyrese
[23:09] Speaker 1: Maxey and he get to the hole and he do
[23:12] Speaker 1: that snatch dribble because he stopped like, skrrt. And I
[23:17] Speaker 1: feel like others are like dogs hitting that corner and
[23:20] Speaker 1: they be like, k-k-k-k-k-k. They can't recover. So you got
[23:25] Speaker 1: to understand when those two have the ball and they
[23:27] Speaker 1: get in those iso modes, you got to send somebody
[23:30] Speaker 1: at least try to make it where you got Drummond
[23:34] Speaker 1: shooting the ball or something. Those two, they quick with
[23:38] Speaker 1: that ball.
[23:39] Speaker 2: I forgot Andre Drummond was in the NBA until I
[23:42] Speaker 2: looked up and watched him play the other night. And
[23:44] Speaker 2: that's crazy because he's like 32.
[23:47] Speaker 1: Well, we just sometimes we need a program to get
[23:54] Speaker 1: guys in better shape.
[23:57] Speaker 2: Well, also. The game evolves on dudes. Like, you remember
[24:00] Speaker 2: Roy Hibbert went from being a great defensive player to
[24:03] Speaker 2: being unplayable for the whole league in three years?
[24:09] Speaker 1: And I think sometimes in those scenarios, Bomani, part of
[24:14] Speaker 1: it is the communication and what exactly can I do?
[24:18] Speaker 1: Because I think there was a place for Roy before
[24:22] Speaker 1: he was out of the league. There was a place
[24:24] Speaker 1: for him. It's just a matter of how do you
[24:27] Speaker 1: figure it out? Or for Roy's case, how do you
[24:32] Speaker 1: continue to add to whatever skill sets you have? We
[24:37] Speaker 1: saw Brooke Lopez.
[24:39] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[24:41] Speaker 1: He got to Milwaukee, and next thing you know, he
[24:45] Speaker 1: was no longer on the block. He worked on the shot.
[24:50] Speaker 1: He could do other things as well as just shooting.
[24:54] Speaker 1: He could clog the paint. He could rotate. He could
[24:57] Speaker 1: switch out to guys. You have to reinvent yourself now.
[25:02] Speaker 1: You really do. If you want to continue to play
[25:04] Speaker 1: the game, it's not, no, what I do is I
[25:07] Speaker 1: get on that block. They're like, no, that block's for Giannis.
[25:10] Speaker 1: What are you going to do? Okay. Well, if he
[25:13] Speaker 1: develops a touch shooting, now he forces a big outside
[25:17] Speaker 1: of the paint. And now Giannis has the operating area
[25:20] Speaker 1: of the paint and it works. But to his credit,
[25:25] Speaker 1: He continued to evolve. He changed his game to become
[25:29] Speaker 1: something different, something that can be utilized on a team,
[25:34] Speaker 1: whether it's in the East or the West. Now with
[25:37] Speaker 1: the Clippers, able to do stuff. Now, I don't know
[25:41] Speaker 1: how old he is, but he's getting up in age.
[25:43] Speaker 1: But it's been a long time since I seen him
[25:46] Speaker 1: on the block like he was in Brooklyn.
[25:49] Speaker 2: Brooke Lopez just finished his 18th season in the NBA.
[25:55] Speaker 2: And let me explain to you how long Brook Lopez
[25:57] Speaker 2: has been in the NBA. First of all, you may
[25:59] Speaker 2: not know this, but this is one of my favorite
[26:01] Speaker 2: trivia factoids in the NBA. Brook Lopez is the all-time
[26:05] Speaker 2: leading scorer in the history of the Nets.
[26:09] Speaker 1: He was there that long?
[26:10] Speaker 2: No, he was there that long, and he's been gone
[26:12] Speaker 2: from there for nine years. Ooh. Like, that's how long
[26:16] Speaker 2: Brook Lopez has been in the NBA. Long enough to
[26:19] Speaker 2: become the all-time leading scorer in a franchise's history, and
[26:23] Speaker 2: he's been gone for nine years.
[26:26] Speaker 1: And how many years was he there? Nine. Okay. So
[26:31] Speaker 1: you know where he's from, right? Fresno. Come on now.
[26:37] Speaker 1: It's part of that water. That's that central San Joaquin
[26:40] Speaker 1: Valley water. Yeah.
[26:42] Speaker 2: See, I got another thought on Brook Lopez that I
[26:44] Speaker 2: will talk to you about also on text rather than
[26:47] Speaker 2: on this show. But coming up next, I'm going to
[26:49] Speaker 2: talk with Bruce about the Lakers Rocket Series because I
[26:52] Speaker 2: got a feeling I know what he has to say
[26:54] Speaker 2: about the Rockets. Find out coming up next. You can
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[30:03] Speaker 2: We are here with Bruce Bowen, who had to pull
[30:05] Speaker 2: himself together after I gave him my observation about his
[30:08] Speaker 2: Fresno brothers, the Lopez's. But Rockets, Lakers. We'll get to
[30:13] Speaker 2: LeBron in a minute because I just think what he's
[30:15] Speaker 2: doing is incredible right now. But I think personally that
[30:19] Speaker 2: this is embarrassing for the Rockets in every year, in
[30:22] Speaker 2: every way. And it looked kind of like they quit.
[30:24] Speaker 2: a bit in that game. Like, I could not believe
[30:28] Speaker 2: that the Lakers could just walk through the lane so
[30:30] Speaker 2: consistently and nobody even seemed to be trying to get
[30:33] Speaker 2: in front.
[30:35] Speaker 1: The, you know, it goes back to the youth. I'm
[30:39] Speaker 1: going to say the youth again, Bomani. You look at
[30:43] Speaker 1: where they were during that playoff series last year or
[30:51] Speaker 1: year before last against Golden State. Was it year before last?
[30:56] Speaker 2: I think it was a year before that.
[30:57] Speaker 1: Okay. So you look at that time and you say, ooh,
[31:02] Speaker 1: they're on the cusp. They're on the cusp. And then
[31:06] Speaker 1: Fred goes down, Van Fleet. The importance of a floor general.
[31:16] Speaker 1: You just can't make somebody a point guard. We talked
[31:19] Speaker 1: about this at the beginning of the season when they
[31:22] Speaker 1: played OKC. They played OKC. And the last so many minutes,
[31:29] Speaker 1: KD didn't even get a shot. A floor general recognizes
[31:33] Speaker 1: when that boy that can score in his sleep, they
[31:38] Speaker 1: recognize that he needs a shot. Now you try different
[31:41] Speaker 1: pieces there. And what it just seems to boil down
[31:45] Speaker 1: to is that this era of basketball where we're talking about, oh,
[31:52] Speaker 1: he's a two-way guy. I'm sick of that term. This
[31:55] Speaker 1: ain't football. A player should be able to play offense
[31:59] Speaker 1: and defense. Maybe not as grand as others, but you
[32:03] Speaker 1: should never be solely out there just for one aspect
[32:06] Speaker 1: of it. So you have a big man that can
[32:11] Speaker 1: score like it's nobody's business, but it's the other part
[32:16] Speaker 1: of the game that you worry about. Where were the
[32:19] Speaker 1: defensive rotations when LeBron drives by KD? I didn't see any.
[32:25] Speaker 1: He's 40 years old doing a reverse.
[32:31] Speaker 2: Yes. Not on a breakaway. In the half court.
[32:36] Speaker 1: In the half court. This is where I say sometimes
[32:43] Speaker 1: teams give in. They don't look like they're happy with
[32:48] Speaker 1: one another. You can tell team camaraderie expressing adverse situations.
[32:54] Speaker 1: These situations sometimes it's like you think going back home
[32:58] Speaker 1: okay now we're going home for two we're going to
[33:00] Speaker 1: get to no all it takes is game three for
[33:03] Speaker 1: you not to come out the right way and it's
[33:06] Speaker 1: disappointing because what we've seen with emay as a coach
[33:12] Speaker 1: i heard perk talking about emay got out coach i
[33:16] Speaker 1: have this thought process is that when players are not
[33:20] Speaker 1: accountable and they're being held accountable usually what they do
[33:24] Speaker 1: is pout. The first thing they do is pout when
[33:28] Speaker 1: they're held accountable instead of being coachable. Being coachable is
[33:34] Speaker 1: still listening to what a coach's constructive criticism is and
[33:40] Speaker 1: going out and executing what it is that he has
[33:44] Speaker 1: given you words of wisdom to do. But when you're
[33:49] Speaker 1: not coachable, Now your mind is somewhere else. Now you
[33:54] Speaker 1: all of a sudden forgot to rotate. And when this
[33:58] Speaker 1: guy that's been in the NBA for 40 years, I
[34:01] Speaker 1: mean 20-something years, is driving to the lane. And I
[34:04] Speaker 1: mean not just one time, Bo. It was multiple times.
[34:09] Speaker 1: Finished with the left. One stretch dunk. It's like, come on, fellas.
[34:14] Speaker 1: What's going on here? This is where I hate to
[34:16] Speaker 1: say when coaches no longer have an ear to the players,
[34:23] Speaker 1: this is what they do, but others blame coaches. They're
[34:27] Speaker 1: going to blame Ime who has been to the finals
[34:31] Speaker 1: and they're going to blame Ime who had a team
[34:35] Speaker 1: against a veteran team, Golden State, take them down to
[34:38] Speaker 1: the wire. It's not the coach. We need to start
[34:42] Speaker 1: talking about the players and their ability to be held accountable.
[34:46] Speaker 2: Now, I'm interested in hearing you say that. you play
[34:49] Speaker 2: with EMA in San Antonio, right? Like what worried me
[34:53] Speaker 2: about that in terms of coaching is, What he may
[34:57] Speaker 2: is going to give you no matter what your expectation
[35:00] Speaker 2: when you hire him is these dudes are going to
[35:02] Speaker 2: play hard.
[35:03] Speaker 1: Right.
[35:03] Speaker 2: Like he's the accountability guy. That's what everybody loved about
[35:06] Speaker 2: him in Boston. It's like that idea. I have questions
[35:10] Speaker 2: about like schematically off his. To be fair, the teams
[35:13] Speaker 2: that we've seen him coach with primarily have not had
[35:15] Speaker 2: point guards.
[35:16] Speaker 1: Right.
[35:16] Speaker 2: But it gets you know, we've seen offensive slow down
[35:19] Speaker 2: with him, all of those things. Kevin Durant is too
[35:22] Speaker 2: hurt to really be playing. Like, no matter, like, the
[35:25] Speaker 2: nine turnovers, that seemed to be because nobody else is
[35:27] Speaker 2: moving without the ball as much, you know, getting to
[35:30] Speaker 2: places where he could help. But where LeBron went by
[35:33] Speaker 2: him and did that reverse dunk, Durant couldn't move. And
[35:36] Speaker 2: that's not because Kevin Durant isn't trying, right?
[35:38] Speaker 1: He really, really clearly.
[35:39] Speaker 2: is trying hard to play when I don't know if
[35:42] Speaker 2: he is able to. But I was stunned by the
[35:46] Speaker 2: way that those dudes just didn't seem to be playing
[35:48] Speaker 2: hard in that moment. And they're going to come home,
[35:51] Speaker 2: they're going to mess around and get swept. And that's, ooh,
[35:55] Speaker 2: that's a bad look for everybody.
[35:57] Speaker 1: It's a bad look for everyone. It's not just, oh,
[36:00] Speaker 1: E-May did this. Like, the athletes on that team, you
[36:06] Speaker 1: mean to tell me that The best option was a
[36:11] Speaker 1: player who's coming, who didn't play in the first game,
[36:14] Speaker 1: Gungar LeBron. Come on. You made a statement about E-May
[36:21] Speaker 1: and his, the first thing they said, guys are going
[36:23] Speaker 1: to play hard for him. One of the most frustrating
[36:26] Speaker 1: things in life is, as a coach, is when you
[36:31] Speaker 1: realize that athlete may not be able to shoot. When
[36:38] Speaker 1: he was attacking in transition, I'm talking about when you
[36:43] Speaker 1: get these guys that can finish above the rim, but
[36:46] Speaker 1: when it comes to a basic play, like a catch
[36:49] Speaker 1: and shoot, or in order for them to be successful,
[36:52] Speaker 1: someone has to dominate the ball so the ball's not moving,
[36:55] Speaker 1: which in essence allows the defense to be set. In this, Dan,
[37:01] Speaker 1: is you want to create movement. You have to create
[37:03] Speaker 1: movement And in that movement, you want whoever has the
[37:07] Speaker 1: ball to be a threat and the team has to
[37:10] Speaker 1: adjust to that. But if they don't have to adjust,
[37:13] Speaker 1: they'll just pack the paint. That's where frustration truly sets
[37:17] Speaker 1: in in a head coach's perspective because he's not working
[37:21] Speaker 1: with pieces that can necessarily benefit what he wants to do.
[37:25] Speaker 2: They lost to a team that played Luke Kennard for
[37:28] Speaker 2: 42 minutes. in a playoff game. They had 85 combined
[37:33] Speaker 2: minutes between Luke Kennard and Rui Achimor. And that's not
[37:35] Speaker 2: to say those guys aren't NBA players, right? It's not
[37:38] Speaker 2: to say that they're bad, but they're not supposed to
[37:41] Speaker 2: be playing 40-something minutes in an NBA playoff game, one
[37:45] Speaker 2: that you win.
[37:47] Speaker 1: And one that there was no doubt. But, you know,
[37:51] Speaker 1: they're having their way out there. During the course of
[37:55] Speaker 1: the game, Luke Kennard, you know, this is where I
[37:59] Speaker 1: think about these moments where guys aren't necessarily given a
[38:02] Speaker 1: lot of credit that don't play a lot during the
[38:04] Speaker 1: regular season or because someone got hurt, he needed to
[38:10] Speaker 1: step up. This is where you start the process of saying, hey,
[38:15] Speaker 1: that's a professional NBA player because a professional NBA player
[38:19] Speaker 1: just wants the opportunity. When his number is called, he's
[38:23] Speaker 1: not going to come in and blame, oh, well, I
[38:26] Speaker 1: didn't get reps. I didn't get this. I didn't get that.
[38:28] Speaker 1: He's doing a tremendous job of staying ready, even though
[38:33] Speaker 1: now practices in the NBA are not at a level
[38:37] Speaker 1: of college and high school. So you have to figure
[38:40] Speaker 1: out a way to get your win right. And for
[38:42] Speaker 1: him to play all those minutes, Bomani, it just shows
[38:45] Speaker 1: you that he was prepared for this moment.
[38:48] Speaker 2: Yeah. I'd also make this point, too, that get off
[38:50] Speaker 2: my Dickerson, the account that people say may or may
[38:53] Speaker 2: not have been the Kevin Durant account. get off my diggers.
[38:59] Speaker 2: It's a criticisms of the Rockets appear to be quite present.
[39:02] Speaker 2: Just about everything that account was saying is coming to
[39:05] Speaker 2: bear in the playoffs. All of it.
[39:09] Speaker 1: But are you really surprised with, with the way that
[39:14] Speaker 1: they're handling the adversity from what we've seen from what
[39:18] Speaker 1: we've seen this season from the Rockets? No, no, no.
[39:20] Speaker 2: There was a line once way back when about the Yankees,
[39:23] Speaker 2: one Yankees team that said, 25 players, 25 caps.
[39:28] Speaker 1: Right?
[39:28] Speaker 2: Like that was the impression of that team. And that
[39:31] Speaker 2: seems to be the case here. And especially with what
[39:35] Speaker 2: I find interesting about that is it's with really young guys.
[39:40] Speaker 1: Right?
[39:40] Speaker 2: And not just young guys, a lot of them lost together.
[39:44] Speaker 2: And my buddy Vinny always makes the point because he
[39:46] Speaker 2: covered the Pistons a lot when they were terrible. And
[39:48] Speaker 2: he was like, winning teams, everybody's got somewhere to be
[39:50] Speaker 2: when you're winning, right? You hide over here, you hide
[39:52] Speaker 2: over here. But losing teams are normally the ones that
[39:55] Speaker 2: are hanging out and playing PlayStation all the time. You know, like,
[39:58] Speaker 2: not even so much to say that the losing gives
[40:00] Speaker 2: them a bond as much as it creates circumstances where
[40:03] Speaker 2: they spend more time around each other. These dudes look like,
[40:06] Speaker 2: they look like they just met, like they shot for teams.
[40:09] Speaker 1: Yeah. And even the welcoming of Shepard, we knew he
[40:18] Speaker 1: wasn't a point guard when he first got there, right?
[40:22] Speaker 1: And this is a guy, he has a skill set
[40:26] Speaker 1: that you can utilize. Sometimes it's about, hey, well, if
[40:31] Speaker 1: I'm not getting this from this individual, let me do
[40:34] Speaker 1: this with him just to give us something from an
[40:38] Speaker 1: from a threat perspective of shooting because I don't remember
[40:45] Speaker 1: exactly what they shot from the field in this game,
[40:49] Speaker 1: but that's the biggest thing that stands out to me
[40:52] Speaker 1: is that ball dominance and where's the outside shooting coming from. Right, right.
[41:00] Speaker 2: The Lakers, I mean, look, I'm sure there are lots
[41:03] Speaker 2: of things to talk about.
[41:04] Speaker 1: In the end, it is.
[41:06] Speaker 2: LeBron James, like, let me get the keys. Nobody has
[41:10] Speaker 2: ever been able to get more out of other dudes.
[41:13] Speaker 2: For him to be so excellent as he has been
[41:16] Speaker 2: for his career, but then having that other superpower, nobody's
[41:20] Speaker 2: winning playoff games with these dudes that way but him.
[41:25] Speaker 2: And he's doing it, and he's damn near my age.
[41:30] Speaker 1: Great statement. I think about 07. He took a team
[41:35] Speaker 1: to the finals. Oh, let's go. Before we get to
[41:37] Speaker 1: the finals, let's say that game in Detroit when he
[41:40] Speaker 1: scored 25 straight.
[41:41] Speaker 2: Yes.
[41:43] Speaker 1: You know, you had a bunch of role players out there.
[41:47] Speaker 1: Not a bunch, but Boobie Gibson. Boobie Gibson was not
[41:50] Speaker 1: a household name.
[41:52] Speaker 2: Right.
[41:52] Speaker 1: You know, they had Eric Snow on that team. Touche.
[41:55] Speaker 2: Jeff McGinnis was the backup point guard.
[41:58] Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. You had Big Z. You had Boozer.
[42:06] Speaker 2: No, he had run that game on them by them.
[42:10] Speaker 2: I think it was an old Ben Wallace that was
[42:12] Speaker 2: on that team. No.
[42:14] Speaker 1: Ben was on that team?
[42:16] Speaker 2: I think he had left Detroit. But if he wasn't,
[42:20] Speaker 2: it was that caliber.
[42:21] Speaker 1: He was coming. Yeah. But you look at what he's
[42:25] Speaker 1: been able to do. He's not out of practice. This
[42:30] Speaker 1: is not out of character. This is what he's been
[42:33] Speaker 1: accustomed to dealing with. okay, this player is good when
[42:39] Speaker 1: he's in this spot. Let's make sure I have him
[42:42] Speaker 1: over there where he can succeed. That player is good
[42:46] Speaker 1: in the pick and roll. I can set things up
[42:49] Speaker 1: where Guyton looks really good right now. And I think
[42:55] Speaker 1: that's the beauty of what LeBron has been able to
[42:58] Speaker 1: do for his career is not just be the dominant
[43:02] Speaker 1: person of just scoring, but really galvanizing a group to
[43:07] Speaker 1: make sure that they can have looks, they get out
[43:10] Speaker 1: in transition, all those things that are necessary to build
[43:14] Speaker 1: victories within a group and also to build them up.
[43:18] Speaker 1: Because this is very different than when Luka's on the floor.
[43:23] Speaker 1: Luka's going to have the ball quite a bit because
[43:26] Speaker 1: he's special that way. But look at how they can
[43:29] Speaker 1: make this change. And now LeBron has the ball, but
[43:33] Speaker 1: he's dominating the ball to get others involved. Right.
[43:37] Speaker 2: And by the way, it was not old Ben Wallace.
[43:39] Speaker 2: He got there the next year. But Drew Gooden, Drew
[43:43] Speaker 2: Gooden was big man on that team.
[43:45] Speaker 1: I knew it was someone like him.
[43:47] Speaker 2: The particulars honestly didn't matter at that point. It was
[43:50] Speaker 2: some cats that was in the NBA, and they put
[43:52] Speaker 2: them in calf suits, and LeBron made that happen. I
[43:56] Speaker 2: want to switch up, though, to a series. We talked
[43:58] Speaker 2: earlier this year, and you talked specifically about, like, jokic
[44:04] Speaker 2: and leadership right they're playing against minnesota and it is
[44:07] Speaker 2: very clear that minnesota hates their guts right that um
[44:11] Speaker 2: that that that quote from jay mcdaniel is about him
[44:13] Speaker 2: we're going at all their poor defenders all of every
[44:16] Speaker 2: single player like he went too far but year 11
[44:19] Speaker 2: jokic is looking like more of a defensive liability than
[44:22] Speaker 2: before but i wanted to talk about the leadership that
[44:25] Speaker 2: i don't think gets enough credit which is they keep
[44:28] Speaker 2: giving Anthony Edwards all these guys that other people don't
[44:32] Speaker 2: really feel like fucking with, right? You give Anthony Edwards
[44:35] Speaker 2: Carl Anthony Towns, then you switch him out for Julius
[44:38] Speaker 2: Randle in a trade where I think both teams concluded
[44:40] Speaker 2: that you couldn't win with that guy, and they switched
[44:42] Speaker 2: him off to the other squad. Rudy Gobert, right? The
[44:46] Speaker 2: least respected player that good in the history of anything
[44:50] Speaker 2: And whenever they play against Denver or just anybody else,
[44:54] Speaker 2: they go. And it is clear that that guy, by
[44:57] Speaker 2: force of personality, raises the level of all these other dudes.
[45:01] Speaker 2: And they have a chance to win this series when
[45:03] Speaker 2: the other team has the best player in the world.
[45:07] Speaker 1: Also, the dynamic playmaking skill of Ant.
[45:13] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[45:14] Speaker 1: You know, that's the part. Whenever you have that guy,
[45:18] Speaker 1: we've seen it with Jordan. I mean, Jordan had, no,
[45:24] Speaker 1: he didn't have contact. He had cart ride. He had
[45:27] Speaker 1: cart ride for quite some time. And, you know, if anything,
[45:32] Speaker 1: he learned to get out of his way on them
[45:34] Speaker 1: driving lanes. Yes. But the beauty of Ant, I feel,
[45:40] Speaker 1: is that that time off that he had with the
[45:44] Speaker 1: knee issue, that time off allowed him to rejuvenate. It
[45:49] Speaker 1: allowed his body to rest and heal a little bit.
[45:53] Speaker 1: And he was already an individual that we're well aware
[45:56] Speaker 1: of in his work ethic and figuring out other ways
[46:01] Speaker 1: to score the basketball. It takes me back to the L.A.
[46:06] Speaker 1: Clipper game when he doesn't make the pass. And then,
[46:09] Speaker 1: you know, coach is saying, swing it, swing it. And
[46:12] Speaker 1: he ends up taking the shot with two guys on
[46:14] Speaker 1: him and he makes it. This is what I do.
[46:19] Speaker 1: I think media made more of that what coach is
[46:22] Speaker 1: saying because he's going to ask someone during the game
[46:25] Speaker 1: to make that next pass. So this is only him
[46:28] Speaker 1: holding Ant accountable to the same standards of everyone else. Now,
[46:35] Speaker 1: Ant is special. So that's why you didn't see the
[46:38] Speaker 1: coach going back and forth with him because that is
[46:41] Speaker 1: what they want from him. But now that he's had
[46:44] Speaker 1: this time to heal, this time to rest up and
[46:48] Speaker 1: get better physically who who's going to like a lot
[46:53] Speaker 1: of times we like to cancel out who cancels out
[46:55] Speaker 1: someone well okay rudy gobert cancels out somebody from that
[47:01] Speaker 1: team uh jamal um murray cancels out someone from that
[47:07] Speaker 1: team but now once you start doing that who cancels
[47:10] Speaker 1: out anthony ant-man There's not even someone that you can
[47:17] Speaker 1: necessarily say, okay, he gives him a hard time scoring.
[47:22] Speaker 1: That's the part. When a player understands that you guys
[47:28] Speaker 1: can try whatever you want, but you won't stop us,
[47:31] Speaker 1: that's when you're in trouble. And Rudy, as much as
[47:37] Speaker 1: we see the meme of him being choked by Draymond,
[47:42] Speaker 1: he's effective there. And Ant appreciates him. Him. Because of
[47:47] Speaker 1: what he does.
[47:49] Speaker 2: What I love about Edwards is he looks at a doula.
[47:51] Speaker 2: You remember that year where they had the pickup draft
[47:54] Speaker 2: for the All-Star game and LeBron, and I can't remember
[47:56] Speaker 2: who was the other guy, where nobody wanted to take Rudy,
[47:59] Speaker 2: and they just clowning him basically on national television. And
[48:02] Speaker 2: at every turn, Anthony Edwards is like, no, man, you
[48:05] Speaker 2: cool with me. We need you, dog. And Rudy, I
[48:08] Speaker 2: don't know if he'll ever admit it out loud. You
[48:09] Speaker 2: can tell he needs that. You know what I mean?
[48:11] Speaker 2: You can tell because he's always, nobody want to give
[48:13] Speaker 2: me the ball, right? All that sort of stuff. And
[48:17] Speaker 2: And it's kind of like, man, just give him the
[48:18] Speaker 2: ball right there. Yeah, yeah, cool, man. Give him the ball.
[48:20] Speaker 2: I'll talk to him after, man. We'll be fine. We'll
[48:22] Speaker 2: be fine.
[48:22] Speaker 1: Hey, but that's what the greats do. The greats understand
[48:26] Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. There were times Tim could have
[48:29] Speaker 1: shot the ball, but he passed it to me because
[48:33] Speaker 1: he knew it was a higher percentage shot. I mean,
[48:36] Speaker 1: he knew that I needed a touch. Yeah. But no,
[48:40] Speaker 1: in all seriousness, that is the beauty of leadership as well.
[48:44] Speaker 1: Recognizing what someone does and what they do well for you.
[48:49] Speaker 1: If Ant was on top of Rudy Gobert that way,
[48:53] Speaker 1: as far as being negative, then they wouldn't be able
[48:56] Speaker 1: to utilize his skill set. And at the end of
[48:59] Speaker 1: the day, say what you want, he still controls that
[49:02] Speaker 1: paint and he's not afraid to get dunked on. He
[49:07] Speaker 1: is going to battle. And unlike some of the other
[49:10] Speaker 1: French guys that played in this game, he got a
[49:14] Speaker 1: little hard.
[49:16] Speaker 2: That was his best Jokic performance ever because Jokic used
[49:18] Speaker 2: to eat his ass up. That fourth quarter, he played
[49:22] Speaker 2: better against Jokic than I think I've ever seen him
[49:23] Speaker 2: play against Jokic.
[49:26] Speaker 1: And it makes you wonder, too, you know, the makeup
[49:29] Speaker 1: now of it's just so interesting, Bomani, when a certain
[49:34] Speaker 1: coach leaves. When there's a new coach or new ownership,
[49:41] Speaker 1: things change because that voice is gone. They won an
[49:47] Speaker 1: NBA championship. Now, I get it. This coach was on
[49:52] Speaker 1: the staff then, but it wasn't about what he was doing.
[49:56] Speaker 1: It was what the head coach was doing. Now that
[49:59] Speaker 1: he's gone and he's at UNC, now it's a different voice.
[50:03] Speaker 1: It's a different swag, you know. I remember one time
[50:06] Speaker 1: I was talking with him and I said something and
[50:10] Speaker 1: he went straight to accountability. He was like, Bruce, you know,
[50:15] Speaker 1: I don't want to talk to agents because one of
[50:18] Speaker 1: their players got in their feelings because I looked at
[50:20] Speaker 1: them funny at practice. He said, but when you keep
[50:24] Speaker 1: it straight, it becomes a lot easier for that player
[50:28] Speaker 1: not to want to pick up the phone and more
[50:31] Speaker 1: or less have a conversation. Yeah.
[50:35] Speaker 2: I want to get one last thing with you before
[50:36] Speaker 2: we get out of here. Did you have CJ McCollum
[50:40] Speaker 2: being the Madison Square Garden villain on your bingo card? Like,
[50:44] Speaker 2: you tell me if I'm wrong, but it looks very
[50:46] Speaker 2: clear to me and it would not surprise me. CJ
[50:49] Speaker 2: McCollum is like, explain to me why Jalen Brunson is
[50:52] Speaker 2: better than me. Like, tell me what the difference is
[50:55] Speaker 2: between me and Jalen Brunson. Because one thing I know
[50:57] Speaker 2: is Jalen Brunson can't guard me. Right, and he said
[51:01] Speaker 2: that basically after the game. And they're like, are you
[51:03] Speaker 2: targeting him? What do you think? I'm like, no, hey, hey, CJ.
[51:08] Speaker 2: I ain't know you had it in your game like that,
[51:09] Speaker 2: big dog.
[51:11] Speaker 1: Really? Yeah, Bomani, CJ has been special with that rock
[51:17] Speaker 1: a long time, man. He just happened to hit a
[51:20] Speaker 1: growth spurt, I believe, late high school. And then at Lehigh.
[51:26] Speaker 2: Yeah. So.
[51:29] Speaker 1: His ability to get to spots on the floor. His
[51:31] Speaker 1: brother played overseas. So his brother would come back home
[51:35] Speaker 1: and they would get to work. They would get to work.
[51:37] Speaker 1: And he's always had that. What became an issue was, okay,
[51:43] Speaker 1: who's going to be the person to start this and
[51:46] Speaker 1: finish the game between him and Dame Time, Damon Lillard,
[51:51] Speaker 1: when they were in Portland. It was a great one-two punch.
[51:54] Speaker 1: But then CJ wanted his own. And that's when he
[51:57] Speaker 1: departed for New Orleans. But this is not anything that
[52:03] Speaker 1: I'm surprised or shocked by. It's you got to have
[52:07] Speaker 1: someone that's creative in an elite level because he's an
[52:12] Speaker 1: elite scorer. Before, who was a player in the playoffs
[52:19] Speaker 1: years past against the Knicks that you would have worried
[52:23] Speaker 1: about when it came to Jalen Brunson guarding them? It
[52:27] Speaker 1: wasn't Halliburton really. He wasn't necessarily, I don't remember that
[52:33] Speaker 1: matchup so much, but it was someone else that was
[52:36] Speaker 1: guarding Halliburton. And so it took the onus off of that. Now,
[52:41] Speaker 1: it's not to say that Jalen can slide his feet,
[52:46] Speaker 1: but he hadn't had the chance to guard someone quite
[52:50] Speaker 1: like CJ in the past. Because remember, Jalen went to Villanova.
[52:56] Speaker 1: They play defense at Villanova. So it's there. I'm just
[53:00] Speaker 1: saying it's never been isolated like that, like a searching, like, oh, no,
[53:06] Speaker 1: here you go. Here's the one we want. And he
[53:09] Speaker 1: went to work when he had them. He got busy,
[53:11] Speaker 1: got downhill real quick.
[53:15] Speaker 2: There's my man, Bruce Bowen. San Antonio, you know what
[53:19] Speaker 2: I'm saying? Jet light car. Okay, he got poses. All right,
[53:22] Speaker 2: I see you. You ready for your close-up. That's what's up.
[53:25] Speaker 1: I feel you. West Fresno.
[53:26] Speaker 2: See, I got, you notice I got West Fresno right
[53:28] Speaker 2: this time.
[53:29] Speaker 1: Yeah. Look, hey, Bomani, you've wronged me so many times.
[53:33] Speaker 1: I just, you know, I want to keep it going.
[53:37] Speaker 1: I want to keep this relationship the right way. Because,
[53:40] Speaker 1: you know, I know a lot of people that enjoy
[53:42] Speaker 1: us getting together the way we do. So I'm just
[53:45] Speaker 1: trying to keep that going and not allowing something as
[53:48] Speaker 1: as as as tacky as you know he didn't say
[53:52] Speaker 1: west fresno he didn't say it right you.
[53:55] Speaker 2: Know we good baby my brother i appreciate you babe.
[54:02] Speaker 1: Same here baby you enjoy this this playoffs and lastly
[54:06] Speaker 1: last thing i'm gonna say is that uh it's the
[54:10] Speaker 1: right time.
[54:11] Speaker 2: See I see. There we go, man. We'll talk to
[54:13] Speaker 2: you again soon. And ladies and gentlemen, thanks so much
[54:15] Speaker 2: for joining us here on The Right Time. We do
[54:17] Speaker 2: this four days a week. Ryan Brumley handling everything behind
[54:20] Speaker 2: the scenes. Thank you, sir. Hit the voicemail line 323-596-7767. Remember,
[54:25] Speaker 2: follow The Right Time. Subscribe, like, rate us, review us,
[54:28] Speaker 2: give us five stars. You only give us four stars.
[54:30] Speaker 2: I'm inclined to believe you are a hater. We'll talk
[54:32] Speaker 2: to you guys in a couple of days. Take it easy.

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