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Speaker 2: Welcome in What's Right with Nick Great Episode two thirty one,
Speaker 2: after one of the best nights of basketball in recent
Speaker 2: NBA history. Also, you know, not shockingly, probably I was,
Speaker 2: you know, feel in some type of way this morning.
Speaker 2: That's a gut wrenching law. There are two teams in
Speaker 2: the NBA that I have a personal connection to, the
Speaker 2: Sixers and the Lakers, where I have a real personal
Speaker 2: relationship to either people on the team or running the
Speaker 2: team or involved in the team. And they both lost
Speaker 2: last night in excruciating fashion. So not shockingly, if you
Speaker 2: know me, little trouble sleeping. Had those those dreams that
Speaker 2: you have typically when like you're kind of at least
Speaker 2: for me, when you're you know you're making bad decisions
Speaker 2: in life, or your life is like spiraling out of control,
Speaker 2: or you're worried. It might be like you're driving a
Speaker 2: car and you don't have control of the car and
Speaker 2: it just keeps accelerating. I used to have those dreams
Speaker 2: all the time when I was a maniac. I didn't
Speaker 2: have those exact dreams. Instead, I had like the adult
Speaker 2: version of like super angsty, hard to sleep dreams. Because
Speaker 2: I love sports, there are a couple of teams I
Speaker 2: really root for on a personal and professional level, and
Speaker 2: they both had their gut ripped out last night. So
Speaker 2: we'll get into all of that, but I want to
Speaker 2: say something to you, the listeners, because I got a
Speaker 2: smile this morning when I walked in to Trentage where
Speaker 2: we do the podcast, and someone had slipped through the
Speaker 2: grate of the you know the gate a letter. I
Speaker 2: thought it was a letter. It says I'll hold it
Speaker 2: up right here. It says Nick Wright, Trentage with the
Speaker 2: address of the store, and it's a letter from Dallas
Speaker 2: from I guess I'm not going to give their last name,
Speaker 2: but Trey and Dalon or Dylan, I apologize. I think
Speaker 2: it's Daylan and what it is, and I'll cover up.
Speaker 2: The important info is a wedding in vatation to a
Speaker 2: wedding in Dallas that is in a few weeks that
Speaker 2: they know I can't go to because I said months
Speaker 2: ago I'm the best type of person to invite to
Speaker 2: your wedding because I won't go, but I'll send a gift. So,
Speaker 2: Trey and Dalen, when you get those air tags that
Speaker 2: were on your registry, they're from your buddy Nick, right.
Speaker 2: I saw the nice little four pack of air tags.
Speaker 2: They actually I even did same day delivery they're getting.
Speaker 2: You'll get them today and it's awesome. Pro tip if
Speaker 2: if I don't know Trey and Dalen, because I don't
Speaker 2: know you people, if you have a dog or a pet,
Speaker 2: get for their collar an air tag holder and put
Speaker 2: the air tag on it. Because micro chipping dogs is
Speaker 2: not gpsing dogs, it's just micro chipping them. Someone still
Speaker 2: got to find the dog, so you don't ever afterwards.
Speaker 2: So if you ever years from now, your dog away
Speaker 2: and you're able to find him, it'll be because you
Speaker 2: listen to my advice for months ago, which was, hey,
Speaker 2: invite me to a wedding if I'm you know, in
Speaker 2: a good mood, or even just you know, feeling like
Speaker 2: I want to do something nice, or lost enough money
Speaker 2: betting on the Lakers money line last night, my first
Speaker 2: bet since the Super Bowl. Then I'm like, ah, what's
Speaker 2: another one hundred bucks, Go ahead and do it. I
Speaker 2: was so confident the Lakers are gonna win. I'm out
Speaker 2: here buying demand's great seats to tonight's Clippers MAVs game.
Speaker 2: Wish I could rescind that transaction. I'm feeling they're up twenty.
Speaker 2: I'm like, I got this at plus two eighty. Oh
Speaker 2: my god, I don't need the points. The Lakers got this,
Speaker 2: and it was all going according to plan, until, of
Speaker 2: course it wasn't. So we'll get to that. We'll get
Speaker 2: to the sixers, and we'll get to what is a
Speaker 2: legitimate changing of the guard in the NBA, which I
Speaker 2: think is actually the most interesting thing happening in this postseason,
Speaker 2: and I don't think anyone has quite explained how stark
Speaker 2: it is. We'll do that here in the next twenty minutes.
Speaker 3: Or so.
Speaker 2: But first, here's what missed the cut Ben Stiller dresses
Speaker 2: is Kelly Hubray, Tom Brady's getting roasted on Netflix, and
Speaker 2: Travis Kelcey evidently has two songs on the new Taylor
Speaker 2: Swift album I'm not Fit Listen. I love Travis. I'm
Speaker 2: happy for him and Taylor. I don't know enough about
Speaker 2: music to know anything about Taylor Swift's new album. But
Speaker 2: that's fine, demons. Let's get to the actual, you know,
Speaker 2: events that matter here.
Speaker 4: Yes, the Lakers threw everything that they had at the Nuggets.
Speaker 4: He got great minutes from Anthony Davis and Lebron James
Speaker 4: D'Angelo Russell started off the game five for five from
Speaker 4: the three point but still came down to a final
Speaker 4: shot from Jamal Murray. Unfortunately, with all the premature gloating
Speaker 4: that you did, do you think you feel partly responsible
Speaker 4: for their loss?
Speaker 2: No, So before we get to anything else, let's talk
Speaker 2: about why the Lakers lost. So let me on the
Speaker 2: front end say the biggest reason the Lakers lost. The
Speaker 2: biggest reason the Lakers lost is because and I understand
Speaker 2: some folks now get get no, listen, Ruey had a
Speaker 2: rough game. That's not it though I'm not gonna do that,
Speaker 2: and I know some folks feel like I'm not even
Speaker 2: like allowed to have this opinion because of my previous opinions.
Speaker 2: But if you can't be presented with mountains of new
Speaker 2: evidence and then change how you feel about things, then
Speaker 2: why exist in the world? Then why you know to
Speaker 2: watch things, read things, learn things whatever. The biggest reason
Speaker 2: the Lakers lost.
Speaker 3: That game.
Speaker 2: Is because Jokich is that dude.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 2: I thought Anthony Davis played an awesome game and Joker
Speaker 2: damn near had a thirty twenty and ten. Uh, you
Speaker 2: look disconcerted by what I said, demanse the org.
Speaker 4: I mean definitely, he definitely is, and he just does
Speaker 4: some some stuff that that you've never seen before.
Speaker 2: There's just no and right because I was like, oh, ads.
Speaker 4: Threw off the glass like to his teammate, and I
Speaker 4: think it was totally planned.
Speaker 2: I don't know, So I don't that part. I don't
Speaker 2: think was planned, but I think he was smart enough
Speaker 2: to know I've got to just get it up and
Speaker 2: then see what happens. Like nothing worse is gonna happen.
Speaker 2: So there are so the A one reason is right now,
Speaker 2: the like the Nuggets have the guy. And when you
Speaker 2: have the guy, even when Jamal Murray going into that
Speaker 2: final shot is eight of twenty three, even when d
Speaker 2: lo is cooking, even when Ad is having a great
Speaker 2: game and Lebron is having an old school Uh, an
Speaker 2: old school. And by the way, I evidently texted, I
Speaker 2: sent the wrong text to I sent a text to
Speaker 2: the group chat, uh that I didn't oh the oh
Speaker 2: never mind, I didn't send her text to the group chat.
Speaker 2: A group chat found the wedding website for the people
Speaker 2: I sent the but we'll keep that private. The so
Speaker 2: as I was saying, even when Lebron I thought had
Speaker 2: a great game and paced himself well, like to where
Speaker 2: he was just distributing early so he had more in
Speaker 2: the tank late, Uh did all of that? When the
Speaker 2: Nuggets cut it to two, Lebron hit back to back threes,
Speaker 2: then had those big time drives at the end of
Speaker 2: the game, and it wasn't enough because Yo Kitch's greatness
Speaker 2: kept in the game. And then this So the first
Speaker 2: reason is something the Nuggets did employ Nikolejokic. The second
Speaker 2: reason is, and this is this is when if you
Speaker 2: had bet on the Lakers, if you're rooting for the Lakers.
Speaker 2: If you were being honest, you were nervous. That's second
Speaker 2: half of the third quarter was utterly disastrous again, second
Speaker 2: straight game. They got annihilated in the second half of
Speaker 2: the third quarter, stopped running offense after it seemed like
Speaker 2: that Lebron a d high pick and roll, there was
Speaker 2: no answer for it. They went away from it, and
Speaker 2: after the Lakers went up seventy four to sixty five
Speaker 2: at the seven point fifteen mark, here are the Lakers
Speaker 2: offensive possessions. Ruey missed three, a D missed three, a
Speaker 2: D turnover, Ruey missed dunk, AD missed putback, d Lo
Speaker 2: missed three, Lebron missed two, AD turnover, gab Vincent missed three,
Speaker 2: AD missed jumper, AD offensive foul turnover, which was the
Speaker 2: key moment. So from that seven minute mark to two
Speaker 2: forty mark, the Lakers had eight possessions maybe nine. There
Speaker 2: got zero points, and at the end of it, Anthony
Speaker 2: Davis picked up his fourth foul, which then made Ad
Speaker 2: have to go to the bench, and then Jokic did
Speaker 2: literally whatever he wanted, and so even then the Lakers
Speaker 2: were able to score at the end of that quarter
Speaker 2: because Lebron came back in Delo hit a three, Lebron
Speaker 2: made some free throws every possession, Nuggets had their scoring
Speaker 2: because when Ad went to the bench, Joker was unstoppable.
Speaker 2: So instead of it being a sixteen or eighteen point
Speaker 2: lead at the end of the third, it's only ten.
Speaker 2: And then one other sequence and then we'll get to
Speaker 2: Lebron's complaints about the officiating. One other sequence that is,
Speaker 2: you know, it's just what basketball is, but man, oh man,
Speaker 2: it can be painful. Lebron has the steel burst dunk,
Speaker 2: which is one of the dopest plays and old guy
Speaker 2: in sports has ever made a guy his age at
Speaker 2: that point in the game, one point game, minute and
Speaker 2: a half left, sniff out the pass, have the burst
Speaker 2: get there. I thought he might be gonna be get
Speaker 2: hung on the rim. Guy's thirty nine year twenty one
Speaker 2: and was on fumes.
Speaker 3: Got it.
Speaker 2: And then and I tweeted out this clip Joker. Then
Speaker 2: the the game footage doesn't get you right back in
Speaker 2: the play. But by the time you see back in
Speaker 2: the play, Joker is trying to draw a three point
Speaker 2: three shot foul and just kind of chucks it at
Speaker 2: the rim, doesn't get the call, and the ball is
Speaker 2: careening out of bounds, and Aaron Gordon saves it falling
Speaker 2: out of bounds and hits MPJ, and MPJ hits the three,
Speaker 2: and all of a sudden it's a tie game. So
Speaker 2: that you know, those those that sequence right there.
Speaker 3: If just.
Speaker 2: That ball goes out of bounds, the Lakers win the game.
Speaker 2: If they only get a two instead of a three,
Speaker 2: everything's different. So I understand, yes, Lebron missed the three
Speaker 2: to go up three. If anybody on television, radio, podcast,
Speaker 2: anything is taking anything away from that game in relation
Speaker 2: to Lebron's play, we can talk about his comments in
Speaker 2: a moment that's like, oh, didn't come through. Then you're
Speaker 2: you either don't understand the game of basketball or you're
Speaker 2: actively trolling. You can pick which side you want to
Speaker 2: be on, but that's that's not a viable opinion. You
Speaker 2: can't watch that game be like, oh, Lebron blew it.
Speaker 2: Lebron was great in the fourth. Thing is the Nuggets
Speaker 2: are better. And what's frustrating for me is people are like, Nick,
Speaker 2: you pick the Lakers win. I picked the Lakers to
Speaker 2: win the series because a lot of my series analysis
Speaker 2: actually was correct, and it just hasn't mattered yet. I
Speaker 2: said that Lebron would be better in fourth quarters than
Speaker 2: he was in the first series. Just that one fourth
Speaker 2: quarter last night alone was better than all his fourth
Speaker 2: quarters combined. I said Jamal Murray was not going to
Speaker 2: average thirty to a night on fifty five forty splits.
Speaker 2: Jamal has had his struggles. I said that d Lo
Speaker 2: was not going to be thirteen percent from three. He
Speaker 2: hit seven last night and it didn't matter. I mean,
Speaker 2: it mattered, but it didn't matter. And so it is.
Speaker 2: It is a painful loss for the Lakers, and it
Speaker 2: is really interesting to see what their mind frame is
Speaker 2: going back to La because had they won it, they're
Speaker 2: now like, don't have to win there again. Win er
Speaker 2: two at home, punt game five, go win game six.
Speaker 2: Now the path is either, and it is a winnowing path.
Speaker 2: Beat the Nuggets, who have beaten you ten times in
Speaker 2: a row, four straight games. Or beat the Nuggets four
Speaker 2: out of five, including a game seven in Denver. Win
Speaker 2: games five, six, and seven. I'm sorry, Game six and
Speaker 2: seven are one day apart. That's a very very thin path. Now,
Speaker 2: do I think that were the Lakers to get past Denver,
Speaker 2: they could win the title. I actually do. If Denver
Speaker 2: is the best team, the Lakers are going blow for
Speaker 2: blow with them. But sometimes that happens, man, and I
Speaker 2: I was incredibly and I still am retroactively as a
Speaker 2: sports fan, incredibly frustrated by the existence of the KD
Speaker 2: Warriors because there were a lot of things I thought
Speaker 2: that kind of robbed from sports fans. I think Lebron
Speaker 2: versus Steph going toe to toe in those finals year
Speaker 2: after year should have been kind of the story of
Speaker 2: that little mini basketball era, and there's a lot of
Speaker 2: part of it. And I also think Steph versus Durant.
Speaker 2: I think, like those three guys, an aging Lebron, a
Speaker 2: peaking Steph and at his Apex Durant, those three superheroes,
Speaker 2: all kind of leading their own crews should have been
Speaker 2: the story of the NBA. It didn't en it to me,
Speaker 2: made the league less exciting for a few years. I
Speaker 2: don't feel that way at all about Denver because Denver
Speaker 2: doesn't feel unfair. Denver doesn't feel like, Ah, you had
Speaker 2: a salary cap spike and you gained the system, and no,
Speaker 2: Denver did it the way it's been done in NBA history,
Speaker 2: which is guess what we got. We were fortunate enough
Speaker 2: to either win a draft lottery or in their case,
Speaker 2: have one of the greatest developmental stories in sports history,
Speaker 2: this mid second round pick turn into this goliath. We
Speaker 2: were smart in how we filled the team out around him,
Speaker 2: and he's the apex predator of the league right now.
Speaker 2: Come get him, and I the and folks can say
Speaker 2: that I make too many things or focus too much
Speaker 2: on Lebron. I I think that what Lebron is doing
Speaker 2: right now is one of the most remarkable things any
Speaker 2: of us will ever see in sports. And we'll talk
Speaker 2: about why that is when we get into the passing
Speaker 2: of the torch. But this guy at this age, in
Speaker 2: the biggest game of the year, saying all right, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna go vintage Lebron, run, point, control every aspect of
Speaker 2: the game, play great defense in the There was a
Speaker 2: spot at the end of the first half when Ad
Speaker 2: had two fouls and the Lakers didn't want to risk
Speaker 2: Ad picking up his third, and Lebron for four straight
Speaker 2: possessions just said, all guard joker. The fact that that
Speaker 2: guy is guarding that guy at this stage of his career,
Speaker 2: We've never seen anything like it. We won't ever see
Speaker 2: anything like it again. And yeah, I would have liked
Speaker 2: if they had gotten the win last night, but it's
Speaker 2: sports man, it doesn't always like there's the storyline you
Speaker 2: think you deserve and then there's the one you get,
Speaker 2: and such is life. And Ties typically go to the
Speaker 2: team with that dude. For a long time, that meant
Speaker 2: they went to Lebron's team. Not anymore. Ties now go
Speaker 2: to jokers team because he's that guy and he's just
Speaker 2: he deserves it all right. Now, demon's we can get
Speaker 2: to the officiating.
Speaker 4: Yes, so yesterday, no, Lebron basically said that he didn't
Speaker 4: like the officiating in this game or the last one
Speaker 4: that they played in.
Speaker 3: Do you think he's being a sore loser? Is there
Speaker 3: actually something there?
Speaker 2: Well, so let's listen to Lebron's SoundBite, and he also
Speaker 2: talks about the Philly game, I think, not his last game,
Speaker 2: but the previous the game earlier in the night. Let's
Speaker 2: hear it.
Speaker 5: Delo clearly gets hit in the face on a drive.
Speaker 5: Do we have a replay centered this? This is going
Speaker 5: to go that doesn't It doesn't make sense to me,
Speaker 5: makes no sense to me. And then I just saw
Speaker 5: what happened with the Sixers nickname too.
Speaker 3: What are we? What are we doing?
Speaker 2: Okay, so here's the deal. There's gonna be a lot
Speaker 2: of tweets about, oh my gosh, the Lebron complaining about
Speaker 2: the officiating. Here's a graph that shows you free throw
Speaker 2: differential the last two years and the Laker. Okay, just
Speaker 2: some pure facts. The Lakers did not lead the NBA
Speaker 2: in free throw attempts this year. They didn't. Okay, Orlando did,
Speaker 2: I think? Let me check to make sure, Yeah, Orlando did.
Speaker 2: The reason the Lakers have a massive free throw differential
Speaker 2: is they defend without fouling better than any team in
Speaker 2: the league but Boston. Okay, So they they get a
Speaker 2: bunch of free throws because they don't shoot a ton
Speaker 2: of threes, they don't foul a lot, because of their
Speaker 2: style of defense, and because to be honest, Lebron is
Speaker 2: as still to this day, either really not defending or
Speaker 2: just a smart defender, and ad in my opinion's the
Speaker 2: best defensive player in the league. So that leads to
Speaker 2: the discrepancy when you actually look at Lebron, when you
Speaker 2: look at the facts on players who get you know,
Speaker 2: x amount of points in the paint or have x
Speaker 2: amount of drives per game. Lebron, by that metric, gets
Speaker 2: one of the worst whistles in the league. Now, was
Speaker 2: Austin Reeves a bit of a foul merchant? Do the
Speaker 2: Lakers have guys that are not a game? It's sure,
Speaker 2: but Lebron has not gotten the benefit of a whistle,
Speaker 2: at least according to the data, ever since he's been
Speaker 2: with the Lakers. So what is Lebron's frustration? So I'm
Speaker 2: gonna give you the Micro and then I'm gonna give
Speaker 2: you the Macro, and I promise you no one else
Speaker 2: in the world is gonna bring up the macro thing.
Speaker 2: But I have should I say this, Yeah, okay, I'll
Speaker 2: say this. I have in the last six months talked
Speaker 2: with Lebron personally about this scific play that I'm gonna
Speaker 2: bring up here in a moment. That's the Macro, But
Speaker 2: the Micro is this. I didn't understand those reviews either,
Speaker 2: to be totally clear, I when I the first review,
Speaker 2: Lebron was daring them to review it. He's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: review it, and I tweeted like, well, okay, you're gonna
Speaker 2: lose this review. I was shocked they won it. The
Speaker 2: second review, D'Angelo Russell does get hit in the face.
Speaker 2: That's undeniable. Now what they said is he got hit
Speaker 2: in the face after the shot had been released. That
Speaker 2: is flatly right or wrong an adjustment, and how they
Speaker 2: have been calling that. Then over the course of the year,
Speaker 2: the and mate, you can argue.
Speaker 3: That should be the right that's after the shot.
Speaker 2: That's after the shot. But that's like to protect your ankles.
Speaker 2: But the point that I'm making is this Demanse, neither
Speaker 2: of those reviews have any chance of being successful during
Speaker 2: the regular season. Neither now during the playoffs. They are
Speaker 2: like the re so be it Lebron's real frustration and
Speaker 2: he didn't mention it was on not on the dunk,
Speaker 2: but on the layup he hit to give the Lakers
Speaker 2: the final basket of the game for the Lakers, I
Speaker 2: think then, or was that let me look at it.
Speaker 2: What was the final basket of the game for the Lakers.
Speaker 2: Was it the DiAngelo bucket or was it Lebron's layup? No,
Speaker 2: it was yeah, it was the Lebron's layer. He gets
Speaker 2: hit in the head and he is screaming, demanding an
Speaker 2: and one. He gets hit in the head and doesn't
Speaker 2: get it, so he's pissed, and yet all of that matters.
Speaker 2: All of it matters because if going into the final possession,
Speaker 2: instead of it being tied, the Lakers are up one,
Speaker 2: they do everything different. So I understand the general frustration,
Speaker 2: but calls do tend to even out right. The Sixers
Speaker 2: are gonna say they don't because of how the game ended.
Speaker 2: I stand that, But let me talk to you about
Speaker 2: the replay center thing for a moment. This is the macro.
Speaker 2: What is Let me ask the room. I don't want
Speaker 2: to put I want to ask the production room. Not
Speaker 2: the most important. The most important game Lebron's ever played
Speaker 2: is the forty five to fifteen and five game six
Speaker 2: before he'd won a title. Down three to two, the
Speaker 2: Blueprint game in Boston, he had thirty in the first half.
Speaker 2: They had just lost three straight. It was coming off
Speaker 2: the MAVs series. From that moment, that is the line
Speaker 2: of demarcation of Lebron's career. It could have gone one way.
Speaker 2: He played one of the greatest games ever played, and
Speaker 2: the most important game of his career came through. And
Speaker 2: from that moment forward he went title title thirty six,
Speaker 2: thirteen and ar I'm sorry. Title Title Finals loss to
Speaker 2: the Spurs thirty six, thirteen and nine in the finals,
Speaker 2: loss three to one co back Finals finals against Katie's Warriors,
Speaker 2: injured title. That's what he did after the forty five
Speaker 2: to fifteen A nine. What is the best game Lebron
Speaker 2: has ever played in his career? Anyone want to grab
Speaker 2: a mic and say what it is, because one game
Speaker 2: should stand out above all else. Any if anyone wants
Speaker 2: to guess, and I'll give context on why I'm saying
Speaker 2: this in a moment. Daniel, You're I know you're reveling
Speaker 2: in the Nuggets fandom. I'm putting you on the spot.
Speaker 2: Do you have a guess?
Speaker 4: Honestly, I'm hearing different things in here, but Game four,
Speaker 4: when he had forty points last year as old man,
Speaker 4: Lebron is the most impressive I've seen.
Speaker 3: I know that's not what you're looking for, though.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's not what I'm looking for. It was, go, Matt,
Speaker 2: do you have a guess? Go ahead? Game one of
Speaker 2: the eighteen finals fifty points. That is correct. It's not
Speaker 2: only the greatest game Lebron's ever played, It's arguably the
Speaker 2: greatest game anyone's ever played in NBA history. It was
Speaker 2: Lebron Jr. Smith injured Kevin Love against the APEX Golden
Speaker 2: State Warriors. Lebron in that playoffs prior to that game,
Speaker 2: had seven forty point games in the playoff run, had
Speaker 2: just come off back to back forty eight minute games
Speaker 2: against Boston down three to two. He had two buzzer
Speaker 2: beaters in that postseason to one to beat the Pacers,
Speaker 2: one to beat the Raptors. It was a Pex somehow
Speaker 2: Lebron at in twenty eighteen, so in year fourteen or fifteen,
Speaker 2: whatever it was, had channeled something he had never channeled before.
Speaker 2: And that game against Golden State, which is forever remembered
Speaker 2: as what the Jr. Smith game? He had controlled every
Speaker 2: aspect of the game. So why am I bringing it up?
Speaker 2: And again, I'm not trying to betray confidences, but this
Speaker 2: is something and I never talk about this on the show.
Speaker 2: I think it's the first time I've ever even acknowledged this,
Speaker 2: But it is something that I actually discussed this play
Speaker 2: with Lebron personally. And don't by the way, social media
Speaker 2: folks don't clip out this certain moment. If somebody else
Speaker 2: aggregates it, that's fine. I'm not trying to like clout
Speaker 2: Chase off that I just want to give you. I
Speaker 2: want to give the audience contract Chase and the play,
Speaker 2: and the play is this, Okay, there is, and I'm
Speaker 2: trying to find the exact moment in it. But anyone
Speaker 2: that saw the game, the situation is this that Warriors
Speaker 2: are up one with a minute left. Lebron drives to
Speaker 2: the basket, gets fouled by two people, makes the layup,
Speaker 2: makes the free throw, and all of a sudden, the
Speaker 2: Calves have the lead with thirty with forty five seconds left,
Speaker 2: and they just got a hold on and Lebron takes
Speaker 2: a charge on Kevin Durant. They call it a charge
Speaker 2: and it is going to be Calves ball thirty six
Speaker 2: seconds left, up one, the best game of Lebron's career,
Speaker 2: the best playoff run of Lebron's career against arguably the
Speaker 2: greatest team ever. He's going to steal home court. And
Speaker 2: the referees go to the review center to see if
Speaker 2: Lebron was in the restricted area. He was not, and
Speaker 2: they verify that he was not. But because they went
Speaker 2: to the review center to review that, they then opened
Speaker 2: up the Pandora's box to review anything, and they said, oh,
Speaker 2: he was moving slightly, which was not a challengeable play
Speaker 2: and was not an auto review. But because they went
Speaker 2: to review something erroneously, they then were like, well, let's
Speaker 2: look at this, and they switched charge to block, and
Speaker 2: Katie hits both free throws, and then by the way
Speaker 2: you know it, then Lebron makes a layup steph hit,
Speaker 2: gets an hand one, George Hill makes a free throw
Speaker 2: miss free throw Jr. Time out, whatever overtime loss. That
Speaker 2: was right when the NBA was really embracing replay. And
Speaker 2: that is a six year burr in this guy's saddle.
Speaker 2: So now once again he plays being he feels used improperly.
Speaker 2: It's driving him crazy. And so say what you will
Speaker 2: about that game. I don't think I'm blaming the refs.
Speaker 2: I actually don't think Lebron is specifically blaming the refs.
Speaker 2: Embiid was very mad at the refs and was obviously uh,
Speaker 2: but that is the context for that conversation there. And
Speaker 2: so you know the short version of this, demonse I said,
Speaker 2: Lakers in six, and in order for the Lakers and six,
Speaker 2: they gotta lose twice. So I'm halfway to a correct prediction.
Speaker 2: Let's get to the.
Speaker 3: Next game, all right.
Speaker 4: So, any other day that the Lakers weren't playing the
Speaker 4: Nuggets in their first round of the playoffs, this would
Speaker 4: have been.
Speaker 3: The first topic. But here we are. The Sixers are
Speaker 3: struggling with the Knicks.
Speaker 4: It came down to a final shot by Brunson or
Speaker 4: a final shot by DiVincenzo, and they obviously have been
Speaker 4: dealing with injuries. So is it time to finally listen
Speaker 4: to the Bodega man and believe in this scrappy Knicks team?
Speaker 4: Or is this more of a six Ers album?
Speaker 2: Listen? That was a that's a great photoshop this way
Speaker 2: people should watch on YouTube. That was Actually I'm more
Speaker 2: worried about the Sixers recovering emotionally than I am the
Speaker 2: Lakers for two reasons. One is the Lakers. At no
Speaker 2: point did it feel like that Lakers game was over.
Speaker 2: Even up twenty. It was too early, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean for any NBA game these days, up twenty,
Speaker 2: you know, is up twenty in the fourth, you know
Speaker 2: it's over. But up twenty with a quarter, you know
Speaker 2: with early in the third that game is not over.
Speaker 2: And at the end of the Lakers game, it was
Speaker 2: clearly in the balance, right. It was back and forth,
Speaker 2: back and forth. I did think when Lebron hit those
Speaker 2: back back threes to go up eight that they were
Speaker 2: in real good shape, but at no point where the
Speaker 2: Lakers certainly won. When you're Philly and you're up five
Speaker 2: and the ball is loose on the ground and there's
Speaker 2: less than thirty seconds remaining, you feel like you've won
Speaker 2: the game. And then the confluence of events of Brunson
Speaker 2: front rims of three and it goes in that you know,
Speaker 2: and this is where sports can be cruel, and this
Speaker 2: is where I feel sick for my pal Daryl Morey.
Speaker 2: The last big time playoff shot that I saw get
Speaker 2: front rimmed and bounce in was Kawhy's game winner against
Speaker 2: the Sixers and Darryl and now Brunton hits that. But
Speaker 2: even there, okay, you're up two, You're okay, And I
Speaker 2: I know Nick Nurse was like, I called time out, man,
Speaker 2: I've watched the tape. Nick Nurse does this thing, the
Speaker 2: old do I want it? Do I want it? And
Speaker 2: then pulls it back when he thinks it's getting inbounded,
Speaker 2: and then when he does start definitely calling time out,
Speaker 2: the ball's loose. Now, did MAXI get his jersey pulled?
Speaker 2: Did he get held? Should there have been a foul? Sure,
Speaker 2: but that happens, and it was.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: You gotta not let the foul and get the ball
Speaker 4: to your teammate instead of looking for the foul there.
Speaker 3: Huh.
Speaker 2: So here's the thing he was trying to He didn't.
Speaker 2: I'm done out before they inbounded it. When they're passing
Speaker 2: it to him, he gets his jersey pulled, so he's
Speaker 2: not looking, you know what I mean, Like, he gets
Speaker 2: his jersey pulled, which is just you know, that can't
Speaker 2: happen though, But that's also why you probably just call
Speaker 2: time out right after they make the shot. Calm everything down,
Speaker 2: we're up to we can inbound from half court. We
Speaker 2: can all you can always get it inbounded from half
Speaker 2: court as you can go on the back court. Let's
Speaker 2: calm down.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: And they didn't, and that is an excruciating loss. And
Speaker 2: the Knicks man that I that was. I honestly think
Speaker 2: that might have been the best win in the Garden
Speaker 2: since Larry Johnson's four point play, which, by the way,
Speaker 2: believe it or not, I had a framed Getty image
Speaker 2: picture of that on in my house growing up and
Speaker 2: in our first house we ever lived together. The Larry
Speaker 2: It's like an overhead shot at MSG when Larry Johnson
Speaker 2: has the four point play. I think that was probably
Speaker 2: the best moment in Madison Square Garden in a big
Speaker 2: spot since then. And and it is you feel sick
Speaker 2: for Philly. Embiid is playing on one leg and still
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't even know how to like put
Speaker 2: in context what Embiid's doing because he is clearly injured,
Speaker 2: he clearly doesn't trust his leg, and yet he has
Speaker 2: you know, thirty four, ten and six and so and
Speaker 2: MAXI played out of his mind the knicks man.
Speaker 4: And would get in his head a little bit to
Speaker 4: not take that last shot. I think given that the
Speaker 4: turnover the block layup, I get embids the guy. But
Speaker 4: I kind of felt like Maxie should have taken it
Speaker 4: three there, But that's just I don't know, he gave
Speaker 4: it to him beating the kind of nasty spot. I
Speaker 4: think he had enough space or created space when he
Speaker 4: drove down. But I.
Speaker 2: Don't disagree with you, but it was also here's the
Speaker 2: other thing on that there is a weird psychological thing
Speaker 2: going on when you're down three and you know the
Speaker 2: other team might want to foul down three, which is
Speaker 2: like you all, like you, I'm not describing this properly,
Speaker 2: but you can't run a normal frenetic offense because you
Speaker 2: don't you're not totally just focused on let me get
Speaker 2: to the best spot possible, because it's almost like you're
Speaker 2: playing a game of tag. Like I need to make
Speaker 2: sure I don't get close enough right for someone to
Speaker 2: foul me. And so if I take time to try to,
Speaker 2: you know, get to my spot and gather, they might
Speaker 2: foul me. So I go and then pass it quick
Speaker 2: like it's a weird thing. On the up three, I
Speaker 2: don't want to get fouled. I know the other team
Speaker 2: might want to foul, So those spots are brutal. If
Speaker 2: those spots are absolutely brutal. Where MAXI it's hard to
Speaker 2: say he's screwed up, but the play he wants back
Speaker 2: is the full court layup down one. Yeah you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. When they give it to him, he
Speaker 2: has a full versus speed. Hartenstein, to his credit, drag
Speaker 2: the shast down and great play. Great play by Hartenstein,
Speaker 2: and so uh I I don't think Philly's dead. I
Speaker 2: want to make this clear. You're never dead. The only
Speaker 2: time game two is a must win game is if
Speaker 2: you are the home team and you lost game one. Okay,
Speaker 2: you can't go down O two at home. That typically,
Speaker 2: not always, but typically is a death knell in this league,
Speaker 2: down one on down oh two without home court. Right now,
Speaker 2: we have had eleven in NBA playoff games held home
Speaker 2: teams are eleven and zero. And so if you can
Speaker 2: get over the emotion of how you lost game two,
Speaker 2: if you're the Lakers or the Sixers, you go home
Speaker 2: win game three. And then here's what does happen when
Speaker 2: you fall down oh two. You then all of a
Speaker 2: sudden have back to back must wins. Right like you are,
Speaker 2: You have back to back must win games, which is
Speaker 2: a tough shot to be in. And so I think
Speaker 2: that here's what I think. I think that we are
Speaker 2: going to know from the Sixers by the end of
Speaker 2: the first yeah, by the end of the midway through
Speaker 2: the second quarter in Game three, whether or not this
Speaker 2: thing is going to be to two going back to Philly,
Speaker 2: or whether or not they're gonna get swept if they
Speaker 2: look like a team that is emotionally drained and the
Speaker 2: Knicks punch him in the face early they could fold
Speaker 2: up shot.
Speaker 4: Embiid looks shot after that game, Hey, yeah, he's looking
Speaker 4: he did.
Speaker 2: And and I also listen, I think there's a level
Speaker 2: of if you're Embiid and you're an injured player, or
Speaker 2: if you're Lebron and you're the oldest guy in the
Speaker 2: League of Man, I only have so many all out
Speaker 2: effort games in me. I need to steal a game
Speaker 2: and then give myself a margin of error, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean, and have a I don't want to
Speaker 2: say a coast game, but a game where hey, if
Speaker 2: we get hot from three, awesome, but if not, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna recharge the batteries here, you know what I mean
Speaker 2: type of spot And now they don't have it. Like
Speaker 2: my guess is, had the Lakers one that game, what
Speaker 2: you would have seen is game three, because you have
Speaker 2: two days of rest, another all out effort Game three
Speaker 2: to go up to one if you're Los Angeles, and
Speaker 2: then game four for Lebron. The day between a little
Speaker 2: bit of a margin of error, a big distribution game, right,
Speaker 2: you know what I mean? Like, Hey, if we steal it,
Speaker 2: we steal up three to one. Amazing. If not, we'll
Speaker 2: take two to two with Denver in Bead's a little
Speaker 2: different because he's not orchestrating the offense. But I want
Speaker 2: to see al embiid emotionally recovers because he was beside himself. Also,
Speaker 2: you got to keep this in mind for Himbead. I mean,
Speaker 2: the guy's never been passed round two, So like these are,
Speaker 2: it is hard to putting context of, like, oh, it's
Speaker 2: only game two of round one, Like he hasn't played
Speaker 2: a ton of games as crazy as the sounds bigger
Speaker 2: than the one last night. So I do worry about
Speaker 2: a Philly a bit. All right, let's quickly get to
Speaker 2: Luca and then we're gonna do uh the We're gonna
Speaker 2: change torch passing stuff.
Speaker 3: Yep. Uh yeah.
Speaker 4: So your large Slovenian son filled up the stat sheet
Speaker 4: but could not get the job done in game one. Also,
Speaker 4: this is a Kohilas Clippers team. So is Luca as
Speaker 4: good as you as you say he is or is
Speaker 4: something going on there?
Speaker 3: He also has carrier tea.
Speaker 2: That was a bad game by the MAVs, There's no
Speaker 2: doubt about it. It is amazing to me how many folks,
Speaker 2: all of a sudden think that the Clippers are dangerous
Speaker 2: now because they're like, oh man, if this is the
Speaker 2: James Harden they get moving forward, it won't be guys.
Speaker 2: It is James Harden has the playoff reputation. He has
Speaker 2: not because he's bad in every playoff game, but because
Speaker 2: he is unspeakably bad in the biggest spots, not because
Speaker 2: he doesn't have a few great game ones or where
Speaker 2: he can look great. I don't believe in the Clippers.
Speaker 2: I do believe in the MAVs. The Clippers were the
Speaker 2: home team. Uh Luca was fine but not great, which
Speaker 2: considering he had thirty three, thirteen and six speaks to
Speaker 2: the player is now. Kyrie was extraordinary and we got
Speaker 2: to see what level Kyrie can stay at. But I'm
Speaker 2: not worried about the MAVs.
Speaker 3: All right.
Speaker 2: That was a great forty five minute first block. I
Speaker 2: there is something that might happen in the next ten
Speaker 2: days in the NBA that I don't think folks have
Speaker 2: fully recognized the gravity of. I will explain it. And this,
Speaker 2: unlike the stories I told, this next thing I'm doing.
Speaker 2: I do want us to push out on social in
Speaker 2: long form because I think I think it could be
Speaker 2: the story of this postseason. We'll do that next. Take
Speaker 2: quick break, right back, What's Right? Welcome back in What's
Speaker 2: Right with Nick Wright? All right, so demandse, let's get
Speaker 2: to the changing of the guard part of this, because
Speaker 2: I don't think people understand exactly what could be happening
Speaker 2: in these NBA playoffs.
Speaker 4: Go ahead, Yes, I mean it's still early, but the
Speaker 4: guard is making their mark on these playoffs while the
Speaker 4: older guys are starting to show their age and.
Speaker 3: The younger guys are definitely letting them know about it.
Speaker 4: Is this the final year where the debate over which
Speaker 4: group of guys runs the NBA is still a thing?
Speaker 2: Well, so here's the thing on that, And this is
Speaker 2: the part that I don't think people have fully wrapped
Speaker 2: their minds around. Demonse, what do you consider like really
Speaker 2: old in the NBA? Like, what do you think is
Speaker 2: like wow, like that is an old? Give me an age?
Speaker 2: What do you think really old is?
Speaker 3: Okay, thirty five NBA?
Speaker 2: Really old is thirty five? That is correct? What do
Speaker 2: you think kind of so kind of old?
Speaker 1: You have?
Speaker 2: You know, early.
Speaker 3: Thirties, thirty one, thirty two, you're eight?
Speaker 2: All right, you nailed this, So I am going to
Speaker 2: go through every single All Star, either this year or
Speaker 2: previous All Star in order of descending age. Okay, that
Speaker 2: was active in the NBA this year as a real
Speaker 2: big time player. Okay. The oldest thirty nine year old,
Speaker 2: and I'm just gonna give you their age. Uh, this
Speaker 2: is basketball reference, so I think they sort it by
Speaker 2: their age on January one. Okay, so the some of
Speaker 2: these guys maybe have since turned a year older, but
Speaker 2: their age on January first is okay. The oldest Lebron
Speaker 2: James thirty nine. Well, I don't want it to be true,
Speaker 2: and it's not the pick I made. The odds say
Speaker 2: his season ends in ten days, right or less. Okay.
Speaker 2: The next oldest Chris Paul, He's not playing right now,
Speaker 2: keep going. The next oldest, Kevin Durant's thirty five. He
Speaker 2: might be thirty six now. Again, again, this is their
Speaker 2: ages on January one. Kevin Durant thirty five. His season
Speaker 2: could be over ten days. Steph Curry, he's not playing anymore. Russ.
Speaker 2: Maybe his season keeps going. Maybe not. He is obviously,
Speaker 2: you know, a different version of himself. DeMar DeRozan thirty four,
Speaker 2: not playing. Jimmy Butler thirty four, not gonna play in
Speaker 2: this postseason, James Harden thirty four. By the way, every
Speaker 2: single Clipper is going to show up on this list.
Speaker 2: We'll see Dame thirty three, Paul George thirty three, Clay
Speaker 2: thirty three out of there, Kawhi Leonard thirty two, not healthy, CJ.
Speaker 2: McCollum not even All Star thirty two. And that's the list. Guys.
Speaker 2: You could include Drew Holliday who's thirty three, but Drew
Speaker 2: Holliday is also, like, you know, the fourth or fifth
Speaker 2: guy on that team. Here's the point I'm making. If
Speaker 2: we want to extend it to thirty one or older
Speaker 2: at this as of January one, Kyrie Irving would be
Speaker 2: added to that list. Here's my point. If the Clippers
Speaker 2: get bounced, we are going to be in a spot
Speaker 2: where every single top level player left in the post
Speaker 2: season is either a super young guy, prime of their
Speaker 2: career guy, or just turned thirty guy. All of the
Speaker 2: old guard could be gone Steph Clay, Draymond already gone.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: The Clippers KG or sorry, PG, Kawhi, Russ Harden, I
Speaker 2: think are gonna lose this round. Lebron on the brink
Speaker 2: the Suns, Kevin Durant on the brink, right we are
Speaker 2: it is the NBA I think has done a poor
Speaker 2: job marketing this next wave. But this next wave is
Speaker 2: about to hit everybody in the face. It is about
Speaker 2: to be a Anthony Edwards Sga Niko le Jokic playoffs
Speaker 2: where the old guys in the playoffs after round one
Speaker 2: could be Yannis. Dame is obviously on that list, and
Speaker 2: Dame is, you know, an older guy. He could be
Speaker 2: the oldest relevant guy remaining would be Dame, and then
Speaker 2: after him it would be guys a hell of a
Speaker 2: lot younger than him, Like I don't even know if
Speaker 2: I mentioned again age at January one, Lebron thirty nine,
Speaker 2: down oh two, Chris Paul thirty eight didn't make the
Speaker 2: playoffs or didn't make the real playoffs, Katie thirty five,
Speaker 2: down oh one, Steph thirty five didn't make the playoffs.
Speaker 2: Russ thirty five, we'll see demartros In thirty four didn't
Speaker 2: make the playoffs, Jimmy Butler thirty four injured for the playoffs.
Speaker 2: Harden thirty four, we'll see Dame thirty three, maybe the
Speaker 2: one bastion of it, because he's the one guy who
Speaker 2: got attached to right one of these younger stars, Uh
Speaker 2: Paul George thirty three, Clay Thompson thirty three, didn't make
Speaker 2: the playoffs, Kawhi thirty two injured, and then Kyrie Irving
Speaker 2: thirty one on January first. So think about it like that,
Speaker 2: the playoffs are going to be where Kyrie Irving is
Speaker 2: the elder statesman left and Dame and that's it. A
Speaker 2: league that has just leaned on the And I was
Speaker 2: looking at it via draft classes, which is what's so
Speaker 2: crazy about this, Like so on this list of old guys,
Speaker 2: so to speak, are guys from the twenty twelve draft,
Speaker 2: like Dame, who was the sixth pick of the twenty
Speaker 2: twelve draft. The fact, so if you do it by
Speaker 2: draft classes, this is what you get. Dame twenty twelve,
Speaker 2: twenty eleven, Kyrie and Clay and Kawhi twenty ten, Uh,
Speaker 2: Paul George two thousand and nine, Harden and Stephen Derozen
Speaker 2: two thousand and eight, Russ two thousand and seven, kd
Speaker 2: two thousand and six, Nobody two thousand and five, Nobody
Speaker 2: two thousand and four, Nobody two thousand and three, Lebron
Speaker 2: and so like there. Lebron, by the way, came into
Speaker 2: the draft ten years it's came into the league ten
Speaker 2: years before some of the old guys. Now, Dame's an
Speaker 2: old guy. Lebron came in ten years before Dame. But
Speaker 2: it is the new generation in the NBA's here, man,
Speaker 2: and it's gonna be a weird playoffs. If all these
Speaker 2: guys are out of there, it's gonna be fun like
Speaker 2: it is.
Speaker 3: Go ahead, Demanse, No, I don't think.
Speaker 4: I don't think any of these guys will retire over
Speaker 4: the next I think there's a conversation for two seasons
Speaker 4: from now.
Speaker 3: Because I don't see any of them.
Speaker 4: I mean, you're obviously more savvy with the stuff than
Speaker 4: I am, But I don't think this is the year.
Speaker 4: I think not next year's playoffs. With the playoffs after that.
Speaker 2: I don't think they're retiring.
Speaker 3: You're saying is skill level?
Speaker 2: My point is. My point is this, we have to
Speaker 2: recognize where we're at right now. The Celtics have a
Speaker 2: middle of his meaty, part of his prime, late twenties
Speaker 2: superstar Tatum, great team around him with another late twenties wingman,
Speaker 2: the Nuggets middle of his prime, late twenties superhero with
Speaker 2: another middle of his prime, late twenties guy as his wingman.
Speaker 2: The two kind of X factor teams, right, the Sixers
Speaker 2: and the Bucks. They're X factors because they have injuries
Speaker 2: to their superstars late twenties or in Bead's case, I
Speaker 2: think just turned thirty, you know, prime superstars. Uh, the
Speaker 2: I'm leaving somebody out. That's it's gonna bother me. That
Speaker 2: I just thought of, but now I can't. The Oh,
Speaker 2: the Knicks middle of it mid twenties entering his prime,
Speaker 2: butting star, the Timberwolves in OKC early twenties not yet
Speaker 2: to their prime future superstars. That's who. That's who's here now.
Speaker 2: And it is a miracle that Lebron still being here
Speaker 2: is insane. Take Lebron out of it. That the point
Speaker 2: I almost wanted to make is because Lebron's thirty nine,
Speaker 2: it skewed everyone thinking that Steph and Katie and Kawhi
Speaker 2: and Harden and Russ are younger than they are. They aren't.
Speaker 2: Those are the really old guys.
Speaker 4: Is forcing those guys to stay in the league a
Speaker 4: little bit longer than they might have intended to.
Speaker 2: Well, it is gonna be like there is a level
Speaker 2: of like when you look at it when I was
Speaker 2: going through these draft classes like it is, and then
Speaker 2: we can kind of speed run through the rest of
Speaker 2: the show. But it is funny to think about, like
Speaker 2: Lebron's draft class, which was an old timer, like how
Speaker 2: long has it felt that Carmelo, Bosh, and d Wade
Speaker 2: have been gone? Because those were picks three, four and
Speaker 2: five from bronze class. The class after four, it was
Speaker 2: Dwight and Iguadala were the last men standing. I mean,
Speaker 2: but that also just to give some context, you know
Speaker 2: who also was in that draft class, lou All Dang, Like,
Speaker 2: how when was the last lou All Dang came into
Speaker 2: the league one year after Lebron the five draft class,
Speaker 2: Chris Paul still hanging on for that draft class, but
Speaker 2: the second best player in that draft class, second and
Speaker 2: third best players were Darren Williams and Andrew Bogant and
Speaker 2: Andrew Bidam. Think of the last time you thought of
Speaker 2: Bogan or Bien Williams. Oh, I mean Williams exactly. Darren Williams,
Speaker 2: who was awesome, is been out in the league since
Speaker 2: twenty seventeen. It's twenty twenty four. That's the five draft
Speaker 2: class six, the best players from the six draft class.
Speaker 2: All right, so Kyle Lowry hanging on. But you know
Speaker 2: who else was in the six draft class, Demonte, This
Speaker 2: will bring a smile to your face. Man, your favorite player,
Speaker 2: one of your favorite players, Rondo or Rondo? Rondo? Rondo,
Speaker 2: Rondo was the six. Rondo came into the league years ago. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but he really left a while before that, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean. Like Rondo's last Rondo technically played for
Speaker 2: the Cavs in twenty twenty two, but his last super
Speaker 2: relevant season was with the Celtics. I mean he did
Speaker 2: help the Lakers. I mean, he did help the Lakers.
Speaker 2: I give him credit, but but the he's three. Rondo's
Speaker 2: three years after bron and one year before Durant. Like
Speaker 2: Durant's contemporaries are Al Horford, who is an old man,
Speaker 2: Mike Conley, who's having a nice role, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean with the Timberwolves, and Joe kim Noah the
Speaker 2: same draft class as Kdi Joe kim Noah. So it's
Speaker 2: just the old guys have held on way longer than
Speaker 2: to be expected. This is where mind everyone Michael Jordan's
Speaker 2: final playoff game with the Chicago Bulls. He was thirty
Speaker 2: five years old. He was younger than Steph is right now.
Speaker 2: He's the same age Durant is right now. Kobe Bryant's
Speaker 2: final playoff game with the Lakers, he was thirty three
Speaker 2: years old. This is not a mid thirties league man,
Speaker 2: never has been. All Right, real quick, Demons, let's talk
Speaker 2: about this Athletic player pole, and then we'll try to
Speaker 2: do a very fast NFL draft thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So the Athletic did their annual and NBA Anonymous player
Speaker 4: poll and it was very juicy.
Speaker 3: So a few takeaways.
Speaker 4: The Nuggets and Celtics hold ninety percent of the votes
Speaker 4: for the team most likely to win the title. Wimby
Speaker 4: was voted both number one player to build by, sorry,
Speaker 4: number one player to build around, the best defender Lebron
Speaker 4: Inch closer to stealing the goat crown from MJ among
Speaker 4: active players, what stood out to you the most?
Speaker 2: Okay, so that's the answer. So this is where I
Speaker 2: just tell everyone, uh, sorry, guys, I won. Sorry, but
Speaker 2: I won. And by I one, I mean kind of
Speaker 2: the face of the media side of this campaign. This
Speaker 2: poll was done five years ago, Demonse. It was seventy
Speaker 2: three percent, Michael eleven percent Lebron five years ago. Poll
Speaker 2: was done last year fifty eight percent, Michael thirty three
Speaker 2: percent Lebron. Massive gap polled on this year forty seven
Speaker 2: to forty three. And sorry, Mike, but you know, winning
Speaker 2: those NASCAR races ain't gonna close the ain't gonna spread
Speaker 2: out the gap much. And so folks can say it's crazy,
Speaker 2: count Thers. All this time marches on and as Lebron
Speaker 2: keeps writing his story. And this is the tweet I
Speaker 2: had this weekend which smart people understood what I was doing,
Speaker 2: which was when Michael won his first title, it had
Speaker 2: been twenty two years since Russell won his last title.
Speaker 2: Think about that. When Michael won his first title, we
Speaker 2: were twenty two years removed from Russell winning his eleventh ring.
Speaker 2: This year we are twenty six years removed from Michael
Speaker 2: winning his last ring. So whatever, folk, whatever, if you're
Speaker 2: old enough to remember the nineties, whatever you as a
Speaker 2: kid thought of the Bill Russell era of basketball, you
Speaker 2: were closer to to that, then we are right now
Speaker 2: to the Jordan era of basketball. And while the other
Speaker 2: guy's still out here playing and competing, it's not going
Speaker 2: to end here's the other thing that's going to end
Speaker 2: up happening for the next twenty years. Every big accomplishment,
Speaker 2: every postseason record, every time a guy has x amount
Speaker 2: of anything, and they show the all time list on
Speaker 2: all these categories, it's going to say number one Lebron James.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, but MJ's not going to be on that
Speaker 2: those lists because he didn't play long enough. And people
Speaker 2: are gonna see, oh wow, look at Kevin Durant. He
Speaker 2: just moved into X place on the all time playoff
Speaker 2: scoring list, and first will be Lebron. It's like, oh wow,
Speaker 2: look at Chris Paul. He just moved into X place
Speaker 2: on the all time playoffs steals list. It's gonna be
Speaker 2: first place Lebron. It's gonna be like, oh my goodness,
Speaker 2: look at Wimby in eighteen years. He just moved. He
Speaker 2: just played his two hundred and fiftieth career playoff game,
Speaker 2: and in first place is gonna be Lebron. And so yeah,
Speaker 2: this is probably the last pole that.
Speaker 4: We need to have parentheses like nick right on the
Speaker 4: outside of the like the graphics.
Speaker 2: This will probably be the last pole that is taken
Speaker 2: where the Jordan has elite and them's the break show.
Speaker 2: All right, I'm gonna pull call an audible all of
Speaker 2: these NFL draft questions. Let's do Thursday morning. Thursday morning
Speaker 2: is the draft, you know what I mean? The the
Speaker 2: So keep all of this and the graphics we've built
Speaker 2: for it, will do those Thursday morning. Let's take quick break,
Speaker 2: come back and answer some listener questions before I get
Speaker 2: out of here. What's Right? All right, welcome back in
Speaker 2: What's Right with Nick Wright. Let's get to some listener
Speaker 2: questions to want to day before we get out of here.
Speaker 4: Connor Walterman said, why didn't Darvin Ham use a challenge
Speaker 4: on the Lebron foul on Murray late?
Speaker 3: And why take two timeouts? Home with you?
Speaker 2: I definitely would have challenged the foul on Murray, if
Speaker 2: not to win the challenge, but because you had two
Speaker 2: timeouts and I thought at that point in the game
Speaker 2: resting would advantage the Lakers, and I felt like it
Speaker 2: was a questionable call. I also would have taken a
Speaker 2: time out before that final possession just so Lebron and
Speaker 2: Ad could get a breather. I'm not going to kill
Speaker 2: him for it. It seemed like the Lakers were on board.
Speaker 2: With it. I definitely would have challenged. So I agree
Speaker 2: with that, but because because now maybe they didn't want
Speaker 2: to let the Nuggets make a defensive adjustment, but I
Speaker 2: don't think they were going to, So I agree with
Speaker 2: that critique. All right, go ahead.
Speaker 4: Caleb w asked, with the assumption that Jokic wins this
Speaker 4: year's MVP, could you make an argument that he's a
Speaker 4: top five center of all time?
Speaker 3: Got a photoshop?
Speaker 2: Oh, we have a photoshop? Okay, you definitely can make
Speaker 2: the argument. So the right now, let's say Yokic didn't exist.
Speaker 2: The five best centers ever are Kareem Russell, Wilt, Akeem Shack,
Speaker 2: and the Akeem Shack. Some people would have Shack Akeem
Speaker 2: Akeem Shack if Yokics didn't exist. Number six on that
Speaker 2: list is definitively Moses Malone. And then after that, it's
Speaker 2: kind of a pick your poisons the wrong word, but
Speaker 2: pick your favorite. You know, David Robinson has a case.
Speaker 2: I don't really want to do. George Miken, but George
Speaker 2: Mike and I guess you know, we want to go
Speaker 2: real old time has a case. How do you can
Speaker 2: what do you consider? Bill Walton? You know those are
Speaker 2: the that's now the waters you're swimming in. H. Then
Speaker 2: you get to ewing and those waters and things like that. Uh.
Speaker 2: Jo Kich has passed Moses already. My opinion, you passed
Speaker 2: him this year if I don't think winning this year's
Speaker 2: MVP is enough for him to pass Shack or a
Speaker 2: Keem even though they each only have one MVP. Winning
Speaker 2: this year's MVP and the championship, you got to start
Speaker 2: to have some real conversations about it. Now. I'm in
Speaker 2: a Keem over Shack guy. I know a lot of
Speaker 2: people are a Shack over a Keem guy, but Jo
Speaker 2: Kich is now uh in the in the discussion. Oh,
Speaker 2: here's the uh. Here, here's the Jokic photoshop. It's uh,
Speaker 2: it's actually yeah, I think Jokic should do more media stuff.
Speaker 2: I think he's funny, all right.
Speaker 3: Next uh uh.
Speaker 4: Blaurin asked what are your thoughts on late draft On
Speaker 4: late drafting teams trading out of the first round of
Speaker 4: the NFL Draft Thursday, an example on Iiners, Kansas City,
Speaker 4: et cetera.
Speaker 2: I think it depends on how it falls, but yeah,
Speaker 2: there's almost always value and it's all almost always smart
Speaker 2: to trade back if you can. I did my official
Speaker 2: mock draft four point zero uh, yesterday on the show.
Speaker 2: People can check it out on Fox Sports, uh dot com.
Speaker 2: All right?
Speaker 4: Last question, Austin tap asked, just having a radio background
Speaker 4: instead of a print instead of a print background make
Speaker 4: any difference of getting an MVP votes everyone on TV
Speaker 4: who wants to have a vote. Uh, everyone on TV
Speaker 4: who wants to have a vote does if they have
Speaker 4: had a column?
Speaker 2: Yeah? So yeah, the print it is greatly slanted to
Speaker 2: like print. Print journalists were kind of god fathered into
Speaker 2: the voting system, which is fine. Listen, I don't you know.
Speaker 2: Fox is not an NBA partner, so it's gonna be
Speaker 2: hard for me to get a vote. Now you know
Speaker 2: they're they're the Ringer, which does great work. They're not
Speaker 2: an NBA partner and they have multiple votes, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean for that outlet? So do I think
Speaker 2: I deserve a vote? Sure? Do I care at this
Speaker 2: point anymore?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 2: Like, it just is what it is. And then what's
Speaker 2: the last question? Demise?
Speaker 4: We just Alaska keys, Keys, I've been married for two years.
Speaker 3: Can we still get a gift?
Speaker 2: Uh? I don't know. I mean you can send Uh,
Speaker 2: you can send a request to the store of a
Speaker 2: probably not and by like this was you just caught
Speaker 2: me on the right day, Trey and Dalen. I hope
Speaker 2: you enjoy those air attags. All right? I got Colin today,
Speaker 2: then I have the TV show, Uh Busy Week Demons. Uh,
Speaker 2: you do have really good like not how do I
Speaker 2: say this?
Speaker 3: You have?
Speaker 2: If I were sitting in the seats you're in for
Speaker 2: Clippers MAVs, I'd be pissed, but I think you're gonna
Speaker 2: love it. So they're really there. So I got you
Speaker 2: really good seats given I think different expectations, but your
Speaker 2: your uh sideline lower level. They're good seats.
Speaker 3: Let's go.
Speaker 2: They haven't shown up in my inbox yet, but but
Speaker 2: they're purchased. So you and I will talk, but go enjoy.
Speaker 2: Who are you rooting for in Clippers MAVs tonight?
Speaker 4: Honestly, I gotta say, like, I'm pretty fifty to fifty
Speaker 4: on both teams I like, I don't I don't dislike
Speaker 4: either team.
Speaker 3: Okay, root for Loca.
Speaker 2: You're rooting for Luca. Okay, thank you. I appreciate that.
Speaker 2: All right, talk to you guys later.
Speaker 3: What's right?
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