Speaker 1: You're tuned into Heat Check with Trista Quick.
Speaker 2: On this episode of the Heat Check, the playing tournament
Speaker 2: is almost done, babe, and we are this close to
Speaker 2: having a very full playoff schedule. Four teams already headed home,
Speaker 2: two more are on their way. We also get into
Speaker 2: some news from around the league, including the Kuzma Dinwitty beat. Actually,
Speaker 2: I think it's only two teams that have headed home,
Speaker 2: and then two more are headed home. Owaiianis almost retired
Speaker 2: early and the latest on Damian Lillard. It's more of
Speaker 2: the same bullshit, but we're gonna get into it because
Speaker 2: it's the news. Happy the playoffs are here, Nick my man,
Speaker 2: so do me a favor. Drop that generic gas beat.
Speaker 2: You should be Rihanna. It is the end of the
Speaker 2: season and at this point we're all pretty much playing hurt.
Speaker 2: Someone I met today, an insider friend of show, Jake Fisher,
Speaker 2: told me, I sound like I have been smoking two
Speaker 2: packs of cigarettes for the last two weeks at night,
Speaker 2: so sounds like my voice is starting to go on me.
Speaker 2: But the show continues. The show continues because we got
Speaker 2: some things to do. Let's start first before we break
Speaker 2: down on what happened the first playing games. I have
Speaker 2: a gripe to get off my chest. Hey Adam Silver,
Speaker 2: can you use your hammer of justice to officially make
Speaker 2: the playing games count as playoff games? Can we get
Speaker 2: some stats? Can those stats count for something? Because what
Speaker 2: most people don't know that stats from playing games don't
Speaker 2: count towards the regular season. They don't count towards the playoffs.
Speaker 2: They're just lost. They're just gone. They count for nothing,
Speaker 2: They're gone forever. Even Basketball Reference, which I couldn't live
Speaker 2: one day without, doesn't even have play in stats when
Speaker 2: you call up a player's season game log. So what
Speaker 2: do you have to do? You have to go into
Speaker 2: the individual games themselves. Do you remember when Jason Tatum
Speaker 2: put up fifty on the Wizards in the twenty twenty
Speaker 2: Playing Game? Good luck finding that, good luck seeing that
Speaker 2: it was real. Jason Tatum's gonna tell his son that
Speaker 2: Duce Tatum when Duce Tatum's like ten years old, and
Speaker 2: then Duce Tatum's gonna be like, prove it to me.
Speaker 2: You can't do those stats count towards his career totals?
Speaker 2: Who the fuck knows? I don't know. Fix this. Otherwise
Speaker 2: people are gonna think that the playing game is an
Speaker 2: exhibition game because finding summer league stats I think is
Speaker 2: easier than find stats for the play in games. I digress.
Speaker 2: Fascinating things happened in the first playing games. Mostly they
Speaker 2: have to do with the teams that lost though, So okay, Miami,
Speaker 2: they were the number one seed in the East last year,
Speaker 2: might not make the playoffs this year. The Pelicans one
Speaker 2: of the most exciting teams coming into the season this year.
Speaker 2: They were at one point this season the best team
Speaker 2: in the West. They were number one in the West
Speaker 2: before if a Zion got hurt, we were all excited
Speaker 2: about what they would do. They took Phoenix to the
Speaker 2: brink last year. And you know what, They're gonna watch
Speaker 2: the playoffs from the couch. Three two one can coon,
Speaker 2: so it goes. The Wolves were considered to be one
Speaker 2: of the best young hot teams. They made the move
Speaker 2: for Rudy Gobert so that they could win right now.
Speaker 2: And you know what they're doing. They are hoping upon
Speaker 2: all hope that they can they can beat the OKC
Speaker 2: thunder tomorrow or tonight. And the Raptors. The Raptors were
Speaker 2: so exciting. The Raptors. Everyone had these huge expectations for them.
Speaker 2: You have multiple players to play defense, and you know
Speaker 2: what you do, You get cooked by DeMar DeRozan and
Speaker 2: Zach Lavine. You don't make the playoffs, and now you're rebuilding.
Speaker 2: All of these teams have had success recently, had high expectations,
Speaker 2: and now they're at the crossroads. You're gonna probably either
Speaker 2: see roster rebuilds or coaching changes in all of those scenarios.
Speaker 2: That's the thing. That's the thing about expectations. If you
Speaker 2: perform ahead of schedule and then you take a step back,
Speaker 2: oftentimes you pay a price. People are like, what are
Speaker 2: we doing? What's wrong with Toronto? What's wrong with the Pelicans.
Speaker 2: It's like, I don't know, like CJ McCollum, Torres Labram,
Speaker 2: I don't know. His thumb also torn, like Brandon Ingram
Speaker 2: was insane, Like Herb Jones can't shoot threes, Like have
Speaker 2: you seen a three point shot? It's a push shot.
Speaker 2: It's a ten year old girls push shot. And probably
Speaker 2: even worse than that, What are we doing? And now
Speaker 2: we've got issues. Right onto the games and their implications.
Speaker 2: Hawks won sixteen one oh five to the Heat. I
Speaker 2: thought there was no chance for the Atlanta Hawks. None
Speaker 2: Hawks pulled a major upset to the fact that all
Speaker 2: seventeen ESPN commentars picked the Heat to beat them. Dejon
Speaker 2: Tay Murray tweeted the jokes on you when he heard this,
Speaker 2: because the reality is, the joke is on all of us.
Speaker 2: It wasn't because we underestimated the Hawks. It was because
Speaker 2: we overestimated the Heat. The Heat fucking suck. Okay, we're
Speaker 2: gonna talk a little bit later about how Brian Windhorst
Speaker 2: thinks that Damian Lillard's going to the Heat. And to
Speaker 2: that end, I say, for who for who do we want?
Speaker 1: Who?
Speaker 2: The Blazers want? No one, no one on that god
Speaker 2: forsaken team. There is real trouble brewing in Miami, and
Speaker 2: it might end up that the roster all together just disintegrates.
Speaker 2: Eric Spolstra might end up having to find a new job.
Speaker 2: I was asked before the BETMGM show, my betting show,
Speaker 2: on a scale of one to ten, one being zero
Speaker 2: and ten being very confident, how confident are you that
Speaker 2: the Hawks can pull up an upset against the Heat,
Speaker 2: And I said one. I said one. There is no
Speaker 2: chance the Hawks suck. The Heat missed fifteen layups I
Speaker 2: think it was like saran wrap was around the rim.
Speaker 2: You had Quinn Snyder coaching his little ass off out there.
Speaker 2: You spoe, look and shook. They out rebounded the Miami
Speaker 2: Heat by a gajillion. I think Capella had twenty one rebounds.
Speaker 2: The high low action between Bam on Bam and Lowry
Speaker 2: it was like mouse and the house, Mouse in the house.
Speaker 2: It was one of those scenarios where you're like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: like it's never really close. He can make a couple
Speaker 2: of runs and Atlanta just keeps extending said lead. You
Speaker 2: could see the riding on the wall as it went on.
Speaker 2: You can see almost the future of the two teams
Speaker 2: in front of you playing right. You're like, oh, like, actually,
Speaker 2: the future is kind of bright for the Hawks. I
Speaker 2: can see what they're trying to do, Like, oh, I
Speaker 2: see guys moving without the basketball. I see it, and
Speaker 2: you see Miami and you're like, oh god, Miami, I
Speaker 2: think is done. Kyle Lowry, where's he been? Came out
Speaker 2: of retirement for this game. He played. I think he
Speaker 2: played all the minutes. I think he went on a
Speaker 2: fast for the he had over thirty. It did not matter.
Speaker 2: Trey played well. Dejonte played well on Yeka Akongu was
Speaker 2: incredible five for six, twelve points twenty minutes plus seven.
Speaker 2: Sidik Bay was everywhere. That team looked good. It was
Speaker 2: really cool too to see how the Hawks moved without
Speaker 2: the ball. It's exactly the type of offense that Quinn
Speaker 2: Snyder wanted to run in Utah. It's just like so
Speaker 2: simple a change. I don't know, is it weird to
Speaker 2: say that, Like when you move without the basketball, when
Speaker 2: and just continue to do it and pass to those
Speaker 2: people who are moving that it's like hard to get
Speaker 2: open shots. It's weird that people just don't do that.
Speaker 2: They just stand around the perimeter and hope that they're
Speaker 2: gonna get open. It's like very obvious and simple that, Hey,
Speaker 2: when you don't have the ball, why don't you cut,
Speaker 2: cut to the lane, cut away from the lane, literally
Speaker 2: instruments some sort of motion offense, and then pass to
Speaker 2: the guys that are moving like that. That's what it was.
Speaker 2: Bay was everywhere looking like Gary Payton the second cut
Speaker 2: into the basket, deflecting balls, hitting timely three. He's like,
Speaker 2: oh wow, like Cideique Bay, get him out of Detroit,
Speaker 2: get him with a real coach and Jesus Christ sidek
Speaker 2: ba's pretty good. Now, the Hawks take on the Celtics,
Speaker 2: and I'll just say this, the Hawks already have dismantled
Speaker 2: one franchise in the East. You better watch out or
Speaker 2: Jalen Brown's gonna go somewhere else. I'm not saying that
Speaker 2: the Hawks have a chance to beat the Celtics. I'm
Speaker 2: just saying that they're not going to roll over. And
Speaker 2: Quinn Snyder's for real. Quinn Snyder is coaching this team
Speaker 2: much better than Lloyd Pierce or Nate McMillan ever did.
Speaker 2: This is what a real coach looks like. Let's see
Speaker 2: how Rob Williams looks, because Capella and a Coongwu are
Speaker 2: coming for him. If his knee isn't right, we'll have
Speaker 2: to see. I'm really excited too to see Trey Young
Speaker 2: versus Marcus Smart. Trey averages twenty six, eight and three
Speaker 2: against Boston in his career. He's already had thirty one,
Speaker 2: four and eleven this year. And then outside that in Miami,
Speaker 2: the nails in the coffin, they're already dead. The bulls
Speaker 2: are gonna slice them and dice them and eat them
Speaker 2: for breakfast. No chance. It's time for South Beach to
Speaker 2: go on vacation. It's been an incredible year, an incredibly
Speaker 2: bad one, and it's time for them to make some
Speaker 2: choices moving forward. Lakers won o eight Wolves one oh two.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, what was that game? The game stunk.
Speaker 2: It was the most It was the most dramatic and
Speaker 2: bad fourth quarter I think I've ever seen. I think
Speaker 2: that the Wolves put up twelve points in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 2: Lebron James was a freak. He played forty five out
Speaker 2: of the fifty three minutes, including all of overtime. AD
Speaker 2: chipped in. Oh yeah, by the way, Lebron had thirty
Speaker 2: ten and six with the steal and two blocks. Anthony
Speaker 2: Davis was really good twenty four, fifteen and five. He
Speaker 2: had two steals, three blocks. And listen, the problem for
Speaker 2: Minnesota and for Karl Anthony town is that Karl Anthony
Speaker 2: Towns is just not that guy. You can't have him
Speaker 2: be the tone setter. You just can't because when he's
Speaker 2: setting the tone, he's fouling guys and getting into trouble.
Speaker 2: He had I think two fouls in like two minutes.
Speaker 2: All of a sudden, he's sitting on the bench because
Speaker 2: he's got three fouls in the first half or something
Speaker 2: like that. You have to figure out a way to
Speaker 2: stay on the floor, Karl Anthony Towns, that's the point.
Speaker 2: You have no center. Rudy Gobert is nowhere to be found.
Speaker 2: He's been sent away from the team jettison, and that's
Speaker 2: all you have is you. It's crazy. The Wolves still
Speaker 2: had a chance to win. Even with all that, they
Speaker 2: still had a chance to win. Mike Conley is really good.
Speaker 2: You see why they brought him in. Anthony Edwards was
Speaker 2: again nothing. He was dealing with the shoulder issue. I
Speaker 2: think he was zero for nine from three, continued to chuck.
Speaker 2: Wasn't aggressive, It didn't use his athleticism at all. It
Speaker 2: was just one of those scenarios where you're wondering, where
Speaker 2: is the guy that shows up in these big moments.
Speaker 2: Will the fighting frenchman o huh, Rudy Goldbert, oh monjour Rudy.
Speaker 2: Will he be a factor in this next game? We'll
Speaker 2: have to see. As for the Lakers, man, you gotta
Speaker 2: give him a gritty win for that. They look like
Speaker 2: they were on the ropes, They look like they were dead,
Speaker 2: and now they take on a Memphis team without Steven Adams,
Speaker 2: without Brandon Clark, and a Jaron Jackson who's just basically
Speaker 2: like Karl Anthony town is a guy who's a undersized
Speaker 2: five who should really play four, who's always in foul trouble,
Speaker 2: and the backup is Xavier Tillman. So it's not really
Speaker 2: a great scenario. Is Anthony Davis going to eat these
Speaker 2: boys for lunch? Probably as long as Anthony Davis is healthy,
Speaker 2: the Lakers should win this series. A d Loo was
Speaker 2: a massive disappointment against the Grizzlies last year in the playoffs.
Speaker 2: How will he redeem himself. We're gonna have to see.
Speaker 2: But he's up for a contract, and if he doesn't
Speaker 2: play well in the playoffs, I don't know that the
Speaker 2: Lakers want to extend him. To me, the X factor
Speaker 2: has been a shooter. He was incredible in that game
Speaker 2: against the Tea Wolves. Everywhere he was pretty much the
Speaker 2: only guy that you could rely on to hit timely shots.
Speaker 2: He was deflecting balls, he was defensively everywhere. It's gonna
Speaker 2: be interesting. It's probably the best matchup for the Lakers
Speaker 2: that they could ask for, because why because the Grizzlies
Speaker 2: can't shoot threes and neither can the Lakers. That's pretty
Speaker 2: much it. You saw Darvin ham go away from all
Speaker 2: the guys that he traded for, which I thought was hilarious.
Speaker 2: They were all sitting their asses on the bench and
Speaker 2: it was just the normies. Austin reeves, we need to
Speaker 2: have a big series for them. If there is an
Speaker 2: upset in the first round that happens, I think that
Speaker 2: this is it right here moving forward, Bulls won on
Speaker 2: nine Raptors one O five. What a fucking game that was.
Speaker 2: Raptors get out to a massive lead. Credit to the Bulls.
Speaker 2: They do not give up. They turn their season around.
Speaker 2: Everyone thought that they were dead. All they did was
Speaker 2: pick up. It was just Pat Beverly, wasn't it. It
Speaker 2: was just him. All of a sudden, there are one
Speaker 2: of the better teams in the East since the trade deadline.
Speaker 2: This team is now dangerous. They upset a Raptors team
Speaker 2: that most people thought would have very little problem winning
Speaker 2: this game. I think the Raptors closed as six and
Speaker 2: a half point favorites. Midway through the third, the Raptors
Speaker 2: were up fifteen points and then the Bulls just locked in.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, you can't let Zach Lavine slice you
Speaker 2: like a hot knife through butter. I think he had
Speaker 2: what fourteen fourteen in the third quarter. Can't you You
Speaker 2: can't do that. You cannot do that. That's the problem
Speaker 2: with fucking around with a team with a couple of
Speaker 2: superstars and a couple of gritty defensive dudes. Levine had
Speaker 2: almost forty, had thirty nine points, DeRozan had twenty three.
Speaker 2: You had those two things together, and that's hard to
Speaker 2: compete with. They missed eighteen of thirty six free dos.
Speaker 2: Why what happened? Well, Demart de Rosen brought his nine
Speaker 2: year old daughter there and she screamed blood curdling, bloody
Speaker 2: murder in the six in Toronto. He brought her to
Speaker 2: Toronto so that she could scream murder every time that
Speaker 2: a Raptor went to the free throw line. Now, it's
Speaker 2: a long offseason for the Raptors. Just like Kylie Anderson said,
Speaker 2: you've got a lot of decisions to make during the summer.
Speaker 2: Nick Nurse probably gone, Pascal may be gone, Og may
Speaker 2: be gone, Fred van Fleet for sure gone, Gary Trent
Speaker 2: probably gone. So we could have just the Scottie Barn
Speaker 2: summer and that's it. It might just be a rebuilding
Speaker 2: team and a bunch of draft picks. OKAC one twenty three.
Speaker 2: New Orleans Pelicans won eighteen. Man, man, oh man, was
Speaker 2: that a good one? Okase He's a gritty, little fun team,
Speaker 2: aren't they. Lou Dort was incredible. He was hitting threes
Speaker 2: upon threes. He was making your reign. The Pelicans were
Speaker 2: containing Shay and you had to say to yourself, at
Speaker 2: some point, he's going to be able to break through.
Speaker 2: And you know what, Giddy and Dort went off thirty
Speaker 2: one for Giddy, twenty seven for Dort, and then Shay
Speaker 2: still figured out a way to get thirty, a quiet thirty.
Speaker 2: But man, he didn't have a free throw in the
Speaker 2: first half. Starting five for OKC, all under the age
Speaker 2: of twenty three, all five played thirty two minutes or more,
Speaker 2: with Shay, Giddy, Dort all playing an average of forty minutes,
Speaker 2: scoring eighty eight points combined. Look Out, OKAC now moves
Speaker 2: to play the Wolves, and this is a matchup nightmare
Speaker 2: for the Wolves. Denver waits. Both Okasee and Minnesota could
Speaker 2: be trouble for that team in different ways. We're gonna
Speaker 2: find out how good Denver is soon. Enough, we got
Speaker 2: some tea, some news popping from around the league, and
Speaker 2: it is some hot hot tea. Spencer Dinwity. This it's
Speaker 2: just so great. I just love it so much. It
Speaker 2: was just I have been thinking about it and talking
Speaker 2: about it to friends all day. Guard for the Brooklyn Nets,
Speaker 2: Spencer Dinwittie who also used to be a guard for
Speaker 2: the Brooklyn Nets and was traded. So Kyle Kuzma, former
Speaker 2: Laker wing champion, currently exiled in Washington with the Wizards,
Speaker 2: have officially reignited their beef. Did you see this? There
Speaker 2: is there's a lot to get into, right, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: give you my thoughts. I'm gonna explain it. But for
Speaker 2: those who don't remember, let's give you a little backstory. So,
Speaker 2: Dinwitty and Kus were teammates right for a hot second, well,
Speaker 2: because Dinwitty was added to the Wizards when Russell Westbrook
Speaker 2: asked to be traded, right he was included in that
Speaker 2: like fifteen person trade and then moves to Washington. Dinwitty
Speaker 2: was just coming off of ACL surgery and the Wizards
Speaker 2: needed a point guard and during his very short tenure,
Speaker 2: because he was traded from the Wizards to Dallas for
Speaker 2: Kristavs Porzingis. It was the Kristaps Porzingis trade, so he
Speaker 2: was there for like a few months. And apparently in
Speaker 2: those few months, Dinwitty and Kus fucking hated each other
Speaker 2: pretty much did not vibe at all. Dinwitty was traded
Speaker 2: before the season finished. Uh. And then when the MAVs
Speaker 2: played the Wizards before Spence was later included in the
Speaker 2: Kyrie trade back to Brooklyn, Spencer decided he was going
Speaker 2: to take a low key shot at the Wizards franchise,
Speaker 2: and if you're in the know, took an under the
Speaker 2: radar shot at Kuzma. This is what he said. They're
Speaker 2: not playing for nothing for real. For them, it's just
Speaker 2: a showcase. They're over there just trying to get paid,
Speaker 2: not trying to play winning basketball. Oh my god. Kuzma
Speaker 2: took to Twitter and then said, funny thing is they
Speaker 2: the MAVs don't play winning basketball either. Game on. Remember,
Speaker 2: Kuzma thinks he's like different because he already won a ring.
Speaker 2: He thinks that whatever he's going through and doing does
Speaker 2: not apply because he's already won. So he feels like
Speaker 2: he sealed his legacy. So then Spencer Dimwittie goes on
Speaker 2: fandual TV and they're like, hey, did you see that
Speaker 2: Kuzma's comments about you? How come he didn't like clap back?
Speaker 2: And he's like, yeah, I wanted to respond to that
Speaker 2: Kuzma tweet, but my agent told me to stand down,
Speaker 2: that we had bigger fish to fry things to do
Speaker 2: get to the playoffs. You know now that I'm not
Speaker 2: in that environment. I'm in the playoffs and he's not.
Speaker 2: Oh boy. This, of course was after the Nets made
Speaker 2: the six seed the Wizards failed to make the play
Speaker 2: in tournament. So then Spence took it even further and
Speaker 2: decided to say the quiet part out loud, life.
Speaker 3: Fame, all that stuff that we could see that you know,
Speaker 3: his priorities tend to vary, right, Like, that's why dressed
Speaker 3: the way he does. He you know, approach basketball the
Speaker 3: way he does, the comments he makes, and like I
Speaker 3: said with the Draymond quote, insecurity is loud, like you
Speaker 3: know that you're there, you know, shooting shots to try
Speaker 3: to get a contract. You're probably not even a third
Speaker 3: star really on a good team, because if you were,
Speaker 3: the Lakers would have kept you. Right, part of the
Speaker 3: reason you left was to try to make more money,
Speaker 3: Like these are all things that are facts, and so
Speaker 3: at the end of my career, one thing that I
Speaker 3: want to be known besides a guy that did whatever
Speaker 3: it took to win in whatever spot he was at,
Speaker 3: is a guy that was also very honest. And so
Speaker 3: like my complete response to you know, coups and all
Speaker 3: the other stuff to address it directly, I mean, I
Speaker 3: played with the guy, you know what I mean, we
Speaker 3: know what the priorities were, and you know a lot
Speaker 3: of times people thought I was talking about Brad or
Speaker 3: whatever anything like that. I look at Brad in the
Speaker 3: same night as like a Dame. I think he's Lord
Speaker 3: of d C. I think, you know, probably on a
Speaker 3: championship team, he's probably got to be paired with like
Speaker 3: a Yiannis. He's probably one B, which is no shot.
Speaker 3: I know, on a championship team, you know, I'm probably
Speaker 3: the third guy, kind of like a Drew Holliday with
Speaker 3: a Chris Middleton and you know, Jannis or whatever. I'm
Speaker 3: very scared with who I am in my career. I'm
Speaker 3: I knowing a really good team, I can be a
Speaker 3: number two kind of like we are right here with
Speaker 3: the Brooklyn Nets. We got Micheale, We got me. We're
Speaker 3: still a playoff team. We're able to keep the ship right.
Speaker 3: But in DC, if you got three Max dudes for
Speaker 3: Zengis Brad and KU's like, how you missed the playoff? Like,
Speaker 3: he doesn't. None of these things make sense, you know
Speaker 3: what I'm saying. Unless your priorities.
Speaker 2: Aren't in order, Unless your priorities aren't in order. Oh
Speaker 2: my god, Oh my god. He he absolutely ethers Kyle
Speaker 2: Kuzma in the span of three minutes with straight facts.
Speaker 2: So then, of course, because Kyle Kuzma didn't have a
Speaker 2: place to talk on FanDuel TV, which would have been incredible,
Speaker 2: he goes ape shit on Twitter and he says, the
Speaker 2: Wizards and I have so much real estate on din
Speaker 2: shitty Island. This guy got signed by a team for
Speaker 2: sixty mills and was traded before the season. Over, what
Speaker 2: in the world have you won in this league? You've
Speaker 2: been bounced around like a basketball, My boy, Kuzma, you
Speaker 2: can thank Kyrie and KD for spearheading the thirty four
Speaker 2: wins before the All Star break. You're eleven and thirteen
Speaker 2: after the break for your playoffs. Oh, you think you're
Speaker 2: a second option? More like a second point guard. My man,
Speaker 2: I watched you for two months at the end of
Speaker 2: your wizard's tenure, being the second option averaging eight four
Speaker 2: and four sounds good, but I'm glad you're hooping now. Last,
Speaker 2: but not least, The only way you'll ever be worth
Speaker 2: your contract is if the NBA finally gives you your
Speaker 2: wish of being paid in crypto. Check the markets downward arrow,
Speaker 2: my lord? Did that escalate quickly? So? Of course today
Speaker 2: Spence responded and he said, did you see Kuzma's tweet?
Speaker 2: The funny part about it is that there are a
Speaker 2: lot of contradictions. He resorted to name calling dinshitty things
Speaker 2: like that, which I haven't heard since I was probably
Speaker 2: ten years old, things of that nature. I think at
Speaker 2: the end of the day, the biggest piece here was
Speaker 2: like a theory from eight Mile, the way Eminem approached
Speaker 2: the final battle. If you approach it with the truth,
Speaker 2: what do you have to hide? There's nothing there, right,
Speaker 2: So that's probably the last time I'll address because I
Speaker 2: want to focus on Philly, the team and what we're doing.
Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, I spoke truth
Speaker 2: and I got rebutted with a ten year old insult.
Speaker 2: He said, what have you done in this league? If
Speaker 2: we're gonna talk about my career and the things that
Speaker 2: I've done that are unique and possibly different. I led
Speaker 2: a team to the playoffs when their max players were
Speaker 2: hurt back in twenty twenty, averaging over twenty a game,
Speaker 2: So I won a lot of games there. I've been
Speaker 2: to the Western Conference finals with Luca and the MAVs
Speaker 2: been to the playoffs every year for the last five
Speaker 2: or six years. And then on top of that, I
Speaker 2: would say people are blessed to be in situations. We
Speaker 2: don't get mad at Rick Fox for winning a championship
Speaker 2: with Kobe and Shack like some people are blessed and
Speaker 2: that's great, but we can't act like Rick Fox led
Speaker 2: them to a championship. Let's not do that, goddamn real quick.
Speaker 2: Rick Fox and Kyle Kuzma averaged the same amount of
Speaker 2: points ten in the playoffs on those championship teams for
Speaker 2: the Lakers. That's incredible. So now that you're caught up,
Speaker 2: why is it like this between them? Here's what I've
Speaker 2: gathered and here's what I believe. Spencer Dinwoodie is what
Speaker 2: I call a tree shaker. He comes to situations and
Speaker 2: he assesses, he asks questions when things are not operating properly.
Speaker 2: The Washington Wizards do not, as you guys can see,
Speaker 2: operate properly. They don't make the playoffs. They're not a
Speaker 2: very good franchise, and they've kind of been sitting there
Speaker 2: in the middle of the doldrums for a very long time.
Speaker 2: The Wizards are not the most organized, winning franchise in
Speaker 2: the NBA. Spence got there with I think Baby Holiday.
Speaker 2: I believe it was justin or Aaron. I think it
Speaker 2: was Aaron Holiday, and they were like, Yo, this place
Speaker 2: is fucked up. Can we all get some roles? Can
Speaker 2: we figure out what our roles are? Hey, like, I
Speaker 2: don't even care what my role is, just can we
Speaker 2: get one? And not in Washington, my boys, No, we
Speaker 2: don't have a winning culture here. You don't get roles,
Speaker 2: you don't get an organization, you don't get direction. You
Speaker 2: just go out there and hoop. We're gonna win thirty
Speaker 2: two games this year and we're gonna be in the
Speaker 2: lottery and we're gonna pick up I don't know, some
Speaker 2: random kid, Johnny Davers from Wisconsin. Kuzman didn't want roles,
Speaker 2: what did he want? Kyle Kusman wanted to hit shots.
Speaker 2: Kyle Kuzma wanted to take shots to the tune of
Speaker 2: twenty five of them a game, first to be a
Speaker 2: fashion icon and second to chuck so much that Beale
Speaker 2: and his other teammates were regularly pissed at him for
Speaker 2: ball hogging, and Ruey Hachimurray was supposed to be the guy,
Speaker 2: but Ruey Hachimura had his own mental health issues and
Speaker 2: they couldn't build around RUI. So what do they do?
Speaker 2: They said, I guess we'll take this cous guy. KU's
Speaker 2: got mad at Spencer Dinwoodie, from what I can gather,
Speaker 2: did some snake stuff started spreading rumors to the media
Speaker 2: like Kevin O'Connor, and before you knew it, Kevin O'Connor wrote,
Speaker 2: the Wiz want to move in Wittie because he looks
Speaker 2: like a shell of himself and his teammates don't want
Speaker 2: him here. Holy shit, shell of himself. I am no sleuth,
Speaker 2: I am no inspector gadget, but it does feel like
Speaker 2: the organization and the people who were at a deficit
Speaker 2: by accountability wanted to basically get the tree shaker gone.
Speaker 2: So they besmirched his name. So the comments made from
Speaker 2: the Wizards pretty bad, pretty bad, could have damaged his
Speaker 2: entire reputation, could have cost him his career, damn near
Speaker 2: ruined his career. If it wasn't for his time for
Speaker 2: with the Dallas Mavericks, he might not have gotten a
Speaker 2: real opportunity. And I get that Spencer can sometimes say
Speaker 2: some crazy shit, and I get that he can be
Speaker 2: his own worst enemy. Sometimes we all can be. He
Speaker 2: recently said he has the petty side. He takes joy
Speaker 2: in the Mavericks collapsing because he has friends on the team.
Speaker 2: And you know what, they traded him and he didn't
Speaker 2: want to be traded back to COO's. I'm not sure though,
Speaker 2: that Kus is an honest guy. This Kus want to win.
Speaker 2: Who's want to get paid? This KU's want to be
Speaker 2: the man. Well. He recently discussed this when he was
Speaker 2: talking about free agency. Here's what he said. It's not
Speaker 2: about the money I'm gonna get paid regardless of where
Speaker 2: I go here in DC too, but it's about where
Speaker 2: I work every day and where I can be the
Speaker 2: best version of myself aka, where I can chuck the
Speaker 2: most amount of shots that I possibly can. I can
Speaker 2: wear crazy outfits in the tunnel and I can be
Speaker 2: the guy. So good luck Cou's, good luck in Detroit,
Speaker 2: good luck in Indiana, good luck in DC, good luck
Speaker 2: on a place where winning is not the first and
Speaker 2: foremost issue or priority. You'll make your money, you'll chill,
Speaker 2: you'll look good, and you'll take eighteen shots a game.
Speaker 2: And here's the thing that people won't talk about is
Speaker 2: that these rivalries have two sides, right, one with the
Speaker 2: most social clout Coups and Spencer Dimwidie, who's kind of
Speaker 2: a weirdo. Everybody wants to take KU's side because Kus
Speaker 2: has a huge following, YadA, YadA, YadA. But eventually the
Speaker 2: truth comes out. And the question than I have is
Speaker 2: if Dinwiddie was such a bad teammate and such as
Speaker 2: shell of himself, like, why would Brooklyn want him back?
Speaker 2: Why would they trade for him again? Why would they
Speaker 2: ask for him to come back in that trade? Why
Speaker 2: would coach Vaughn speak so highly and reverently about Dinwiddie's leadership.
Speaker 2: Why can't you find anyone in Dallas who will say
Speaker 2: anything but good things about Spencer Dinwidie. Why is it
Speaker 2: the only place that has labeled him some sort of malcontent,
Speaker 2: some sort of cancer, some sort of shell of himself.
Speaker 2: Is the one of the worst franchises of modern NBA.
Speaker 2: Mint Memory Why like, think about it, think about who's
Speaker 2: really at fault, think about what's really going on. I'm
Speaker 2: telling you, if it was like San Antonio who came
Speaker 2: out and said Spencer Dinwiddy he was a cancer and
Speaker 2: he's a shell of himself, or like Miami, he'd be like, Okay,
Speaker 2: I get it. When Sam prest he's out here saying, yeah,
Speaker 2: we had trouble communicating with this guy, I would sit
Speaker 2: up and listen. But when it's the Wizards, the Wizards
Speaker 2: and it's Kuzma, come on now, side I'm giving you
Speaker 2: the side eye. I am skeptical. People see through it.
Speaker 2: As Barkley said, there's a reason most of the same
Speaker 2: teams are in the lottery. You're in and you're out.
Speaker 2: It's a culture thing. And when someone comes in and
Speaker 2: tries to shake the branches and try to change the culture,
Speaker 2: that toxic culture comes for you because they don't want
Speaker 2: people who point out problems. If you point out problems,
Speaker 2: you're the problem. And now Spencer Dinwood, he gets that
Speaker 2: and hopefully has learned from that too. So like everybody's
Speaker 2: got stressful lives, I've got stressful life, You've got stressful life.
Speaker 2: Then you realize that your favorite NBA player probably feels
Speaker 2: and has that same stress right, only multiplied by ten thousand,
Speaker 2: two thousand. The pressure of being or being a pro
Speaker 2: basketball player got so bad that Yannis onto Takupo, one
Speaker 2: of the nicest guys in the NBA, recently told Laurie
Speaker 2: Nicol of the Milwaukee Sentinel Journal that he nearly gave
Speaker 2: it all up. Then he nearly retired. Excuse me, what
Speaker 2: did you say, he retired? Yes. The article explains it
Speaker 2: like this, Being Yannis means something he never envisioned when
Speaker 2: he became the best player in the NBA. Beingy honest
Speaker 2: is a spectacle. It's noisy. It's an approach, a wave,
Speaker 2: a hello, a camera in his face. It's someone on
Speaker 2: the side asking for a moment of his time when
Speaker 2: he doesn't have a moment to spare. He's always courteous
Speaker 2: and polite and still wildly approachable. Jannis himself was more succinct. Everybody.
Speaker 2: No matter where I am, everybody is watching me. I
Speaker 2: don't think I have the time to turn it off
Speaker 2: and be myself, kind of just be me and all
Speaker 2: of that. The stress of being Yannis led him to
Speaker 2: almost quit the game in twenty twenty during the bubble. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Johannis almost retired before he got started in twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: I was ready to walk away from the game. I
Speaker 2: had that conversation with the front office, he says. Can
Speaker 2: you imagine that conversation with GM John Hurst. It's like
Speaker 2: fring ring ring ring, Hey John Jannis online one, Oh hey,
Speaker 2: y honest, Hey, what's going on? Yeah, hey, John, love you.
Speaker 2: I really love the Bucks. It's so great to be
Speaker 2: here in Milwaukee. But I am retiring. My father has
Speaker 2: passed away, and I am hanging up my sneakers. I
Speaker 2: think I'm going to retire. Jannis Onto Takoumpo MVP. Jannis
Speaker 2: almost retired has to be maybe one of the most
Speaker 2: terrifying conversations that a GM could have. It would be
Speaker 2: like if Lebron in the middle of his prime retired,
Speaker 2: MBID retired. Probably even worse than that, if you pulled
Speaker 2: one hundred NBA executives and ask him to name one
Speaker 2: guy that would actually retire in the middle of their prime,
Speaker 2: probably on it. I bet they would all say him
Speaker 2: and get this. He had the conversation after signing his extension. Naturally,
Speaker 2: the Bucks were like, hey, you know that, like you
Speaker 2: just signed one of the largest contracts in NBA history, right,
Speaker 2: And he was like, yeah, but you can just take
Speaker 2: that money and shove it in your ass. I don't
Speaker 2: care about that. I care about joy. I'm a joyful person.
Speaker 2: My father didn't have nothing. He had us. He was
Speaker 2: the richest person on earth because he had his kids,
Speaker 2: He had this beautiful family. He had nothing. This to
Speaker 2: me doesn't mean nothing. Also, Jannis counts hiss oreos. I
Speaker 2: bet he doesn't spend any of his money. All he
Speaker 2: needed was one contract and he's good. If he doesn't
Speaker 2: have joy for the game anymore, he's gonna hang it up.
Speaker 2: The level of panic this must have caused the Bucks
Speaker 2: would have been immense. You just signed him to a
Speaker 2: supermax deal and he's already ready to retire. What are
Speaker 2: we talking about here? Are we serious? What's happened? So?
Speaker 2: How did we end up with Jannis actually winning a
Speaker 2: title and staying in Milwaukee? One word therapy? Jannis went
Speaker 2: to therapy. How did he get to therapy. Apparently he's
Speaker 2: this self admitted stubborn, proud guy. Well, he got the
Speaker 2: idea from checks notes Kevin Love. Kevin Love, who came
Speaker 2: out in twenty eighteen with his own mental health struggles
Speaker 2: and helped to destigmatize mental health struggles for the entire league,
Speaker 2: including Jannis, was so inspired by Kevin that he decided
Speaker 2: to seek help himself. With the encouragement of his family,
Speaker 2: he started talking to someone. Apparently it helped a lot.
Speaker 2: He found someone who, he says, put me in a
Speaker 2: place to appreciate all of the things that I have
Speaker 2: that comes with being who I am. To be okay
Speaker 2: with myself no matter what the outcome of the game.
Speaker 2: I understand that I can't control that. I can only
Speaker 2: control my effort, how hard I work, how I try
Speaker 2: to inspire people from what I do. Michael Phelps, Naomi Osaka,
Speaker 2: DeMar DeRozan, Brandon Marshall, A lot of great athletes have
Speaker 2: sought help for their mental health, so Jannis Yannis knew
Speaker 2: he wasn't alone. But the best part of it is
Speaker 2: that he sought out Kevin Love to tell him that
Speaker 2: Kevin Love was so impactful about going out into the
Speaker 2: public sphere and telling everyone how important mental health was.
Speaker 2: He said, I talked to Kevin and I told him
Speaker 2: how he inspired me to open up and help me
Speaker 2: to the kind of better myself. And he was literally
Speaker 2: tearing up when I told him that that's crazy. The
Speaker 2: Milwaukee Bucks should probably give Kevin Love a ring. If
Speaker 2: it wasn't for Kevin Love, Giannis would probably be on
Speaker 2: a beach somewhere in Greece etn French fries or Chick
Speaker 2: fil A or whatever it is. Like, that's crazy. And
Speaker 2: now Jannis has his own foundation that gives access to
Speaker 2: mental health counseling for people who don't or not able
Speaker 2: to afford it. From walking away from one of the
Speaker 2: biggest contracts in NBA history to now leading the charge
Speaker 2: for getting people who can't afford mental health care that
Speaker 2: they need while still playing basketball. Wow, what a winding
Speaker 2: road for your honis. On a personal note, uh, I
Speaker 2: know what it's like to be a little overwhelmed myself,
Speaker 2: so I would encourage everyone to go to therapy. It's
Speaker 2: done wonders for me so many others that I know.
Speaker 2: So you don't have to face your stress alone. If
Speaker 2: you have the ability to do it, do it and
Speaker 2: if you don't go to Jannis's foundation because he uh,
Speaker 2: he's helping folks out again. Moving on, man, here we
Speaker 2: go again. Dame, Dame, Dame, Dame Dame, Why do you
Speaker 2: do it to us?
Speaker 3: Dame?
Speaker 2: Why does Dame continue to toy with the Portland Trailblazer fans?
Speaker 2: I don't know. I'm tired of it. I'm getting texts
Speaker 2: from Sham's people because Sham thinks he's right that Dame's
Speaker 2: not playing in a Portland Trailblazer's uniform again. I'm so
Speaker 2: tired of my guys, Sham's rubbing my face and the
Speaker 2: fact that Damian Lillard might be leading the his team.
Speaker 2: So he went on steven A's World last night, which
Speaker 2: you should not have done because Stephen A put the
Speaker 2: screws to him and he asked them the questions that
Speaker 2: everyone wants to know.
Speaker 1: They know how important it is to just you know,
Speaker 1: be on a competitive team on a on the level
Speaker 1: where we can you know, make a run in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know that just that just has to happen,
Speaker 1: you know, I think we all know that. Is that
Speaker 1: your way of saying the Portland Trailblazers are on the clock.
Speaker 3: They got to show a level of urgency or else.
Speaker 1: I mean, I ain't gonna I'm not even gonna it
Speaker 1: ain't a thread. I'm not you know, I ain't gonna
Speaker 1: say I'm putting them on a clock. I'm just saying,
Speaker 1: you know, if those things can't be done, you know,
Speaker 1: we can't do something significant like that, then you know
Speaker 1: we won't We won't have a chance to to you know,
Speaker 1: compete on that level. And then not only will I
Speaker 1: have a decision to make, but I think the organization
Speaker 1: will too, because at that point it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: are you going to go young or are we going
Speaker 1: to get something done. I think we just kind of
Speaker 1: been on the with, you know, fully committing to either one.
Speaker 1: And I just think, you know, we at that point
Speaker 1: down where everybody, everybody wants to win it. You know,
Speaker 1: they like they believe that I deserve that opportunity.
Speaker 2: Wow, Yes, swing for the fences, Portland, because otherwise it's like,
Speaker 2: what are we doing? Damian Lillard needs a chance to compete.
Speaker 2: In order to do that, You're gonna need to swing.
Speaker 2: You need to make sure we get pieces that make sense.
Speaker 2: Otherwise he's gonna go somewhere else. I get it. That's
Speaker 2: been the approach. It's really hard to get stars though.
Speaker 2: It's really hard for stars to go to Portland. You
Speaker 2: only have so many pieces that you can trade. You
Speaker 2: only have so many draft picks that you can trade.
Speaker 2: So unless it's Victor Wambiama or Scoot Henderson, it's gonna
Speaker 2: be really hard to get Jalen Brown. It's gonna be
Speaker 2: really hard to get Pascal Siakam. It's gonna be really
Speaker 2: hard to surround Dame with guys who can play defense
Speaker 2: on the wing. I am so officially tired of talking
Speaker 2: about this. I'm so official, Like, just leave, Can you
Speaker 2: just leave? This feels like when you're with somebody for
Speaker 2: a really long time and it's like, hey, I know
Speaker 2: that I've said I've wanted kids, and like you've said
Speaker 2: you'll think about it, but I'm thirty four and like,
Speaker 2: at some point I'm not gonna be able to have
Speaker 2: kids anymore. So if you don't want them, we gotta
Speaker 2: kind of figure out whether it makes sense for me
Speaker 2: or you, because neither one of us are gonna be
Speaker 2: happy if we're not on the same page. And now
Speaker 2: Brian Windhorst is pitching that Dame is gonna go to
Speaker 2: Miami and that trash ass roster has enough trash ass
Speaker 2: pieces for Portland to trade Dame. They don't, they don't like.
Speaker 2: In order to get Dame, you're gonna have to give
Speaker 2: me Bam out of Bio. You're gonna have to give
Speaker 2: me Tyler Hero or you're gonna have to give me
Speaker 2: Jimmy Butler and Bam. And then Dame's not gonna go
Speaker 2: to Miami for no state income tax just to go
Speaker 2: to the same whack ass situation he's been in. No chance.
Speaker 2: I'm out on that. Dame's either going or he's not.
Speaker 2: I'm tired. He's not going anywhere. Just lock it, book it,
Speaker 2: write it down. I'm done with this, not talking about
Speaker 2: it ever again until he gets traded. Let's move on.
Speaker 2: John Morant has countersued the teenage hooper he got into
Speaker 2: an altercation with this past summer. The reason Josh Holloway,
Speaker 2: the teenager who sued him due to the fight, has
Speaker 2: damaged his reputation and the teen throwing a basketball at
Speaker 2: him could have been career ending pause pause pause pause,
Speaker 2: career ending A basketball thrown at Jahn Morant's head could
Speaker 2: have been career ending, a ball check, literally a ball check,
Speaker 2: an air inflated rubber ball at Jaw could have been
Speaker 2: what are we doing here? What are we doing? Jaw? Jaw, Jaw.
Speaker 2: The deeper substance of the suit is that Jaw claims
Speaker 2: the Holloway lied to the cops about Jaw bringing a
Speaker 2: gun into the altercation, and that Holloway leaked details and
Speaker 2: violation of a court order. It's all too much for me.
Speaker 2: All of this Jaw stuff needs to go away. I
Speaker 2: want one month to go without a Jaw drama. Even
Speaker 2: the Washington Post just recently dropped something that I didn't
Speaker 2: even talk about about Jaws Summer of discontent, and they
Speaker 2: discovered that, in addition to the multiple incidents being reported,
Speaker 2: that the local police buried all of these accounts. They
Speaker 2: didn't interview any of the people. They concluded that multiple
Speaker 2: departments failed to ask basic questions, interview key witnesses, didn't
Speaker 2: follow up with alleged victims. Like it's bad stuff. It's
Speaker 2: bad stuff with Jaw. Hopefully Adam Silver put the fear
Speaker 2: of God into them, but let's face facts, Jaw needs
Speaker 2: a good long playoff run for no other reason than
Speaker 2: it will shorten his off season and all the time
Speaker 2: that he has to get into Shenanigans. What do they say,
Speaker 2: idle hands are the Devil's workshop. We gotta get Jaw
Speaker 2: out of trouble. That's all the time that we have
Speaker 2: for the episode of the Heat Check. Check back Monday.
Speaker 2: We are going to be on the road. Do not
Speaker 2: forget to check the feed. As an aside, I will
Speaker 2: be from the West Coast. We will be out there
Speaker 2: for the first four games of our Dubs versus the Kings.
Speaker 2: Check the feed. Please follow the Heat Check. The playoffs
Speaker 2: are here, download subscribe, Tell your friends. Follow us on
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