Speaker 1: Hell, we are back. All Star Weekend came and went,
Speaker 1: was a lot of fun. We're ready for the playoff push.
Speaker 1: What should be a fundraise in both conferences, I'd say
Speaker 1: we'll get into what to expect in the second half
Speaker 1: of the State of the Utah Jazz with desiret news
Speaker 1: beat writer and podcaster Sarah Todd on today's episode, I'm
Speaker 1: Jack O'Brien and I'm Jabari Games and this is Miles.
Speaker 1: I got my boosties and Jack, see you two as well. Man.
Speaker 1: Sarah Todd, welcome back to the show. What a joy
Speaker 1: it was to have you the first time, and what
Speaker 1: a pleasure to have you returning, isn't it. Also the
Speaker 1: co host of the Unsalvageables podcasts, formerly covered the Sixers
Speaker 1: and Warriors. So you're you're in Utah. You were there
Speaker 1: for the for All Star Weekend. I was there for
Speaker 1: twelve hours of All Star Weekend because it is my
Speaker 1: four now five year old's birthday on Sunday, So I
Speaker 1: just came for a brief ten hours to do a
Speaker 1: little panel shout out to Steve and the NBA folks.
Speaker 1: But it was a blast. What a joy the NBA
Speaker 1: All Star Game is. But what's it like when the
Speaker 1: NBA All Star Game comes to you takes over your town. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was a lot, honestly, what they You know, there's
Speaker 1: a lot about All Star that I love, and especially
Speaker 1: when it's not in the city of which I cover
Speaker 1: the team that's hosting. Yeah, but it's just I mean,
Speaker 1: it's NonStop coverage basically all year and then weeks of
Speaker 1: pretty intense coverage leading up to the All Star break,
Speaker 1: and when they're setting up for the All Star break,
Speaker 1: like in Utah, that means that the team has to
Speaker 1: be on the road that week before. And so like,
Speaker 1: I finished out a game in Memphis on the tail
Speaker 1: end of a four game road trip, drop maybe an
Speaker 1: hour and a half of sleep, got on a flight
Speaker 1: back to Utah, landed, got some stuff together, and then
Speaker 1: immediately went over to a T and T crew availability
Speaker 1: and like did interviews and just immediately started as soon
Speaker 1: as I got into town on Thursday. Yeah, And so
Speaker 1: Thursday through Sunday night, it was just NonStop, and so
Speaker 1: I honestly could not wait for it to just be
Speaker 1: Monday and to sleep in. All that being said, though,
Speaker 1: like once it gets to All Star Saturday night, it
Speaker 1: does like you just remember, like why this is such
Speaker 1: a fun event, you know, because the skills competition and
Speaker 1: seeing Jordan Clarkson, who was just absolutely imbibing for most
Speaker 1: of the weekend, and watching watching just like trying to
Speaker 1: trying to slog through the skills to competition, and Walker
Speaker 1: Kessler and Colin Sexton are hilarious and so just funny
Speaker 1: to watch that whole thing. Three point contest. Damian Lillard
Speaker 1: wins it. He's a former Weaber State star and so
Speaker 1: he has roots in Utah, and so that was bad weekend.
Speaker 1: Had no clue that Weber State was in Utah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm honestly most don't. When I moved to Utah took
Speaker 1: this job, it took like four months before I learned
Speaker 1: that Weber State was in Utah. So absolutely excused that
Speaker 1: you didn't know. And then the dunk contest, I mean
Speaker 1: that just got me so excited because I've had conversations
Speaker 1: with like people within the League office leading up to
Speaker 1: All Star and I was like Mac McClung, is your guys,
Speaker 1: like that's who you're announcing is going to be we're
Speaker 1: going with? And then I absolutely blew everyone's pants off.
Speaker 1: And so that was just very fun. And then All
Speaker 1: Star Night. I know I've see a lot of people
Speaker 1: that are like, what are we going to do to
Speaker 1: make this game more competitive? Like nothing, We're probably gonna
Speaker 1: be doing nothing to make a game more competitive, But
Speaker 1: please more of this I want. I think it's a
Speaker 1: good a good time for people to be trying out
Speaker 1: new new wrinkles, such as Damian Lillard pulling up from
Speaker 1: half court, like behind half court, pulling up casually. We're
Speaker 1: now seeing like Zapruder film analysis of like how his
Speaker 1: shot works because he like has the ball in his palm. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the the entire for the entirety of his shot, which
Speaker 1: is very strange and like it doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1: But it does also like his shot and his range
Speaker 1: doesn't make any sense, so I guess we should we
Speaker 1: should accept that. But it's he needs to start doing
Speaker 1: that in games. And thank you to the All Star
Speaker 1: Game for making it possible. If you want to watch
Speaker 1: a competitive game, like, there are what eighty two times
Speaker 1: thirty mini games that you could go and watch to
Speaker 1: watch something more competitive. Yeah, go watch those. This is
Speaker 1: what the All Star Game is about. It's about watching
Speaker 1: Damian Lillard pull up from beyond half court, right, jeemie,
Speaker 1: honest car a seven point lead at the half, just
Speaker 1: a kid, do it seventy. He did not even cross
Speaker 1: out for it any His facial expression did not change,
Speaker 1: Like this is an expectation and we have to be
Speaker 1: honest about this. I saw a lot of people complaining
Speaker 1: about it on Twitter over the weekend, when the reality is,
Speaker 1: if you're a forty something year old dude like myself,
Speaker 1: the game's not necessarily you know, targeted at me, Like
Speaker 1: I'm not the target audience while I may not be
Speaker 1: first in line for a post Malone concert or whomever
Speaker 1: you like. Did the halftime folks were it was good,
Speaker 1: It was entertaining. It was it was, it was. It
Speaker 1: was something that was very clear the NBA is trying
Speaker 1: to make it a more inclusive experience. And you know,
Speaker 1: I to me, most of the complaints just rang, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of sounded like the old guy yelling at the clubs. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: And I mean you're not in a regular game, Like
Speaker 1: you're not going to get the chance to like not
Speaker 1: only watch you know, weird lobs and weird dunks that
Speaker 1: wouldn't happen in they other game. But then there's a
Speaker 1: few minutes section where it kind of everyone just sort
Speaker 1: of cleared out and it just became a Jason Tatum
Speaker 1: versus Jalen Brown content one on one. Yeah, that's exciting.
Speaker 1: That's done. Just let them work it out. It's like
Speaker 1: wait when like somebody holds people back and it's just
Speaker 1: like now they need they don't hold anyone back. Um. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Like the other moment that really stands out to me
Speaker 1: is the lebron lob off the backboard where it like
Speaker 1: hits the corner and is flying in the wrong direction.
Speaker 1: He still catches it and dunks it. It was one
Speaker 1: of the cooler things, one of one of my favorite
Speaker 1: dunks in All Star Game history. In the books, people
Speaker 1: are just, I don't know, bored by it. I feel
Speaker 1: like the All Star Game is underrated at this point
Speaker 1: because all the hoops heads are like there's no defense
Speaker 1: and I'm just like I don't care, like in the
Speaker 1: whole different thing. Yeah. My co host for my podcast,
Speaker 1: Greg who Jubari knows and loves. Greg made a great
Speaker 1: analogy because he was able to go to the All
Speaker 1: Star Game. He got tickets from a friend who got
Speaker 1: tickets and didn't have to pay for him so excellent
Speaker 1: stuff because it's incredibly expensive and stupid that regular people
Speaker 1: can't go. But that's a different conversation. Anyways, Greg made
Speaker 1: a great analogy. He was like, I don't go watch
Speaker 1: a action like a dumb action movie, because I think
Speaker 1: there's gonna be great acting and it's gonna win, it's
Speaker 1: gonna win Academy Awards. I go because, like I want
Speaker 1: to sit back and like watch stuff blow up and
Speaker 1: like have some fun. And that's the All Star Game.
Speaker 1: You're not going because you think you're gonna see one
Speaker 1: of the greatest performances ever. You go because it's fun.
Speaker 1: Like that's why you watch it, right, It's fun. Also,
Speaker 1: the picks, like the team picks on the court pregame,
Speaker 1: that's that's fun. That was a blast. It was hilarious
Speaker 1: to see Janis forget that John Morant was a starter. Yes,
Speaker 1: just like open mic literally literally getting like primary process
Speaker 1: of like Jannis and Lebron's brains working in like live
Speaker 1: and you know, getting the dead jokes from Lebron, getting
Speaker 1: to see who the real MVP is of of the
Speaker 1: NBA with who went first out of the starters? Was
Speaker 1: that who went first? I forgot that's right. Was wait,
Speaker 1: who was it them first? Who who embi It was
Speaker 1: mbad right, that's right, it was Joel Embiid And so
Speaker 1: that's who Lebron thinks is the best player. But you
Speaker 1: probably know more about basketball than Lebron uh NBA writer anyways,
Speaker 1: So that was cool to see. I don't it's not
Speaker 1: like I enjoyed that for selfish reasons or anything. It's
Speaker 1: a blast, though, it's like a long party. I wish
Speaker 1: that they would have been like a little bit more
Speaker 1: like feisty about the picks. You know, like as soon
Speaker 1: as Janice let out that John Morant was going to
Speaker 1: be like his starter pick. Yeah, so then when him first, yeah,
Speaker 1: it got his starters and that was not who Yannis picked,
Speaker 1: and so it was like, oh, Lebron, you gotta take job.
Speaker 1: That's who he wants, right and didn't he should have
Speaker 1: done it? Yeah, but yeah, it is it's like being
Speaker 1: in a fantasy draft with people who like are playing
Speaker 1: fantasy for the first time, just like had no strategy.
Speaker 1: We're just like picking the wrong people. Uh. It was.
Speaker 1: It was a mess, but it was it was fun
Speaker 1: to see, and like, I don't know, real heartbreak as
Speaker 1: Yokich gets picked second to last and then has to
Speaker 1: like select himself, like walk up to make sure Lebron
Speaker 1: doesn't pick market In. Well he what happened was? I mean,
Speaker 1: if you were to believe this, and I actually do,
Speaker 1: because Yogi was a apologizing to market In after the game. Wow,
Speaker 1: Yoga was kind of like Caddy corner like diagonal sitting
Speaker 1: in front of marketing In and didn't know marketing In
Speaker 1: hadn't been pick. He didn't know. He thought he was
Speaker 1: the last one on stage, and so when that's why
Speaker 1: he just walked to Lebron and and like he was
Speaker 1: cut down because he thought he was last. And then uh,
Speaker 1: and so we we will never know. Probably if if
Speaker 1: Lebron was actually going to pick Lowry, I mean, that
Speaker 1: would have been a statement. That would have been a
Speaker 1: huge statement, if he was like, yeah, we don't think
Speaker 1: you should be the MVP for a third year in
Speaker 1: a row and therefore, um, but anyways, we'll never know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we'll never know, Sarah. I know, I know it was
Speaker 1: in your backyard. I know there were all types of asks,
Speaker 1: but where did anything go on beyond the you know,
Speaker 1: behind the scenes that the cameras might not have been
Speaker 1: privy to any any interesting stories or funny stories. There
Speaker 1: was a lot of stuff that was very funny, just
Speaker 1: seeing sort of the Jazz people that I that I
Speaker 1: know that we're working behind the scenes, and how like
Speaker 1: strapped for time and how crazy everything was with it.
Speaker 1: So like Walker Kessler, the Jazz is rookie, he was
Speaker 1: on the Rising Stars team. He was kind of giving
Speaker 1: shoutouts after the Rising Stars game to everybody who had
Speaker 1: helped make the whole thing go and work. And Adam Cloukey,
Speaker 1: who is the equipment manager for the Jazz, he was
Speaker 1: like the equipment manager for All Star and so that
Speaker 1: entails like moving people's stuff from one locker to the
Speaker 1: other when the All Star teams were picked, because no
Speaker 1: one knew which locker room they were going to be in,
Speaker 1: and so like just and then at one point, because
Speaker 1: Cloukey was down on the floor most of the time
Speaker 1: and he's running around taking care and stuff. Jason Terry,
Speaker 1: who's an assistant coach for the Jazz, he walks into
Speaker 1: the arena, but he comes in from the concourse. So
Speaker 1: he's walking down the stairs of the stadium during the
Speaker 1: All Star Game and he gets down to security and
Speaker 1: security holds him up and it's like, you can't be
Speaker 1: down here, Oh no, And I'm watching this happen and
Speaker 1: I'm like, this is very funny because this is Jason
Speaker 1: Terry and the security card clearly does not know the
Speaker 1: situation right, And Jason Terry had to yell over too
Speaker 1: Cloukey the equipment manager to get him permission to go
Speaker 1: down onto the floor. Thanks. So that's it's just a
Speaker 1: it's a funny mess what All Star ends up being. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, the dunk contest did sees the zeitgeist. You know,
Speaker 1: everybody on Twitter was talking about Mac McClung. I went
Speaker 1: to Georgetown, so I was a Mac McClung nowhere prior
Speaker 1: to this. I'm also a Sixers fan, so we go
Speaker 1: way back with him seventy two hours. So it was
Speaker 1: it was exciting, like this is somebody who is a
Speaker 1: like YouTube viral dunker already, so I had a feeling
Speaker 1: something was coming. I loved the immediate attempt of erasure
Speaker 1: for everyone who didn't know who Mac McClung was. Like
Speaker 1: immediately on Twitter, everyone was like, uh, we all knew
Speaker 1: who he was. He was a famous high school dunker.
Speaker 1: It's like okay, yeah, Like if you're in the niche
Speaker 1: community of people who like were on the receiving end
Speaker 1: of that viral YouTube moment whenever that happened, sure you
Speaker 1: knew who he was, but like most people did not,
Speaker 1: right gay subscribe to ball his life, but he came
Speaker 1: with I mean every dunk, like no missed dunks very
Speaker 1: well selected. It's the dunk Countess is weird because like
Speaker 1: I think Trey Murphy the Third did a pretty good reenactment,
Speaker 1: if not an exact reenactment of my favorite dunk of
Speaker 1: all time, the one that like Vince Harder opens his
Speaker 1: dunk contest win with like the reverse three sixty windmill,
Speaker 1: and everyone was just like, yeah, okay, that was like
Speaker 1: those cool. So you have to like do something like
Speaker 1: you're still working with the same ingredients, but you have
Speaker 1: to like combine them in new ways that people feel
Speaker 1: like they haven't seen before. Like so you have to
Speaker 1: be like building on top of like not every dunk,
Speaker 1: because not every dunk like etches itself into the cultural consciousness,
Speaker 1: but like you have to be like, all right, so
Speaker 1: everybody knows Vinca's dunks. Everybody knows like these handful of
Speaker 1: dunks from these dunk contests, and he seemed to do that.
Speaker 1: He seemed to do a pretty good job that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think the problem for Trey Murphy was that,
Speaker 1: you know, he did a pretty good dunk to start out,
Speaker 1: but then mc McClung's first dunk was the best dunk
Speaker 1: of the whole dunk contest. Like he jumped over somebody
Speaker 1: on top of somebody else's shoulders. Yeah, and like not
Speaker 1: only did that at but then kissed the ball off
Speaker 1: the backboard before dunking it. And mc McClung is small,
Speaker 1: and so he's a tiny, tiny man, and so the
Speaker 1: fact that he was able to clear those people and
Speaker 1: it wasn't even like they like really ducked a lot
Speaker 1: to get him the night or that he pushed off
Speaker 1: of them a lot. Yeah, cleared them. He just jumped
Speaker 1: over to humans on top of Yeah. Yeah, that was wild.
Speaker 1: That first dunk would like won it for me. After
Speaker 1: that first one, I was like he could just do
Speaker 1: mid junks from here on out, Like he just won
Speaker 1: the dunk contest, but he didn't. Everyone was really really
Speaker 1: good and like noticeable, not in slow motion, it was
Speaker 1: like noticeably like cool everything. Yeah, that first dunk was
Speaker 1: so cool because because the other ones were incredible in
Speaker 1: real time, the first one was so good because I
Speaker 1: don't think anybody saw him like touch the back the
Speaker 1: basketball off the backboard until they slow it down, and
Speaker 1: then everyone lost their minds because he'd done more than
Speaker 1: he even thought he did. It's like a magic trick.
Speaker 1: Slam Dun Doggian. He was signed this week by the
Speaker 1: seventy six ers to a two week contracts. Congratulations. I'm
Speaker 1: worried about the guy. Hold the other guy at some point,
Speaker 1: I gotta see if he hit the ball. That's any
Speaker 1: rough night in the name on the back. This is
Speaker 1: what are you? This is what you guys need to know.
Speaker 1: Look at the NBA follers, the All Staller, all falls,
Speaker 1: how they are reacting to it, how they know I'm
Speaker 1: not saying it. Jack. I think that's an excellent point.
Speaker 1: It's kind of it's kind of related to both of
Speaker 1: you guys point about the All Star Game in that
Speaker 1: it we I honestly think it's more indicative of us
Speaker 1: being spoiled as consumers, as basketball fans. The fact that
Speaker 1: we can look at what what Trey Murphy did and
Speaker 1: just go like, oh, okay, when in reality it's all incredible.
Speaker 1: Every single every single one of every single one of
Speaker 1: the dunks throughout the contest were pretty incredible. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I will say except for the one who's the guy
Speaker 1: that it was a Jericho Sims that put his arm
Speaker 1: into the net. He lifted himself up with the net. Oh,
Speaker 1: his his off hand raised himself up with the net.
Speaker 1: And I but I'm absolutely guilty of what you're talking about,
Speaker 1: Jabari Like as it was going, I'm like live tweety,
Speaker 1: I'm like Trey Murphy mid like, and I famously could
Speaker 1: get net when I was at my peak athletically, so
Speaker 1: I probably could have done that dunk. So that was
Speaker 1: probably that that probably gotten the way of my enjoyment
Speaker 1: of it. But you have the course pull yourself up
Speaker 1: with what Yeah, of course the next question what strike that?
Speaker 1: From the rick? Um? So a fun All Star weekend.
Speaker 1: We're heading into it. Let's take a quick break, we'll
Speaker 1: come back. We'll talk about where we're at at, where
Speaker 1: we're headed, some exciting new team members, and just who's
Speaker 1: hot who's not. Um it sounds like a burn book
Speaker 1: or something, but well, we'll talk about it all. We'll
Speaker 1: betternot dot Com after the break and we're back, and
Speaker 1: I mean, Dame, let's just real quick. I mean, because
Speaker 1: the real reason I want to talk about it is
Speaker 1: just continuing to be impressed by Like I think, you know,
Speaker 1: they're in twelfth in the Western Conference. Doesn't seem like
Speaker 1: it's happening for the team. Maybe they start letting damn
Speaker 1: pull up from backcourt. I'm just saying it's it's a thought. Um.
Speaker 1: But so they're five and five over the last ten,
Speaker 1: but his numbers over the last eleven are sixty point,
Speaker 1: thirty points, forty two, forty two, twenty nine, twenty eight,
Speaker 1: thirty three, thirty eight, forty thirty nine. Like, it's insane, man,
Speaker 1: that's not fair. It's just like my favorite human to
Speaker 1: watch when he's locked in, like just yeah, it's he
Speaker 1: knows what's about to happen before. One of the things
Speaker 1: that I said to Jabari when he was on my
Speaker 1: most recent podcast episode is that the Trailblazers like they
Speaker 1: tried to like up their defense. They got motist tyble
Speaker 1: at the trade deadline, a couple other teams in the West,
Speaker 1: like the Lakers, were making moves to trying to improve
Speaker 1: and get some depth, and there's all these teams in
Speaker 1: the West, they're like trying to do stuff. And then
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant goes to the Suns, and if you're any
Speaker 1: Western Conference team, you gotta be like, just stop, just stop, right,
Speaker 1: why would you do that? And so if I'm Dame,
Speaker 1: I'm absolutely pulling up from half course at this point,
Speaker 1: you can do it every Yeah, yeah, I mean the
Speaker 1: Nuggets currently have a four game lead in the lost column,
Speaker 1: one game off the pace for top record. Overall, it
Speaker 1: feels like they're ending up in first, right if Hils
Speaker 1: like Denver is probably going to be the team that
Speaker 1: any other team faces in the Western Conference finals, Like
Speaker 1: they're the team to beat at this point. But the
Speaker 1: West is so weird and the Suns have Kevin Durant now,
Speaker 1: so like, who knows what can happen. I don't know
Speaker 1: if Tyree and Luca are gonna go crazy and the
Speaker 1: Mavericks are gonna like shoot up the standings. I don't
Speaker 1: I don't know what's going to happen in the West.
Speaker 1: It's very strange. Yeah, I didn't hear you mentioned about
Speaker 1: the Lakers shooting up, But that's okay, I know, I
Speaker 1: did not. I know you were thinking, it's no, I'm
Speaker 1: just looking at the dock here. So we have in
Speaker 1: the in the section, so like top of the Western Conference,
Speaker 1: top of the Eastern Conference, and like all the other
Speaker 1: teams that are mentioned have a justification. Milwaukee one, twelfth straight,
Speaker 1: Philly second hottest team, Cleveland fourth, Nuggets, four game lead
Speaker 1: in the last Calm Grizzlies. You know they're struggling a
Speaker 1: little bit, but Clippers currently occupy the fourth spot. Lakers.
Speaker 1: That's it. It's just like, remind me to talk about
Speaker 1: the Lakers. That's what people need to hear is they
Speaker 1: are the team that I'm watching because I care about
Speaker 1: my good friends Miles and Jabari. I care about the
Speaker 1: health the happiness of the town that I live in,
Speaker 1: and I'm always rooting for Lebron first after the Sixers.
Speaker 1: But I don't know that it's happening this year for them,
Speaker 1: and it feels like people are like, yeah, they're gonna
Speaker 1: make up the ground. They'll be there, they'll be there,
Speaker 1: and I just don't know. Sarah already burst my bubble
Speaker 1: on her show Why not do it? Here your assessment
Speaker 1: of your assessment of the new Lakers players Sarah. I'm
Speaker 1: well documented at this point of not being a believer
Speaker 1: in either Jared Vanderbilt or Malik Beasley, but but especially
Speaker 1: Jared Vanderbilt, because I think that you know, when you're
Speaker 1: selling that bill of goods to a fan base, what
Speaker 1: you're selling is like high energy. He's a rebad wounder.
Speaker 1: He's like Dennis Rodman light out there. He's all over
Speaker 1: the place. He knows the angle and he just doesn't
Speaker 1: that's not true. I think I'm pretty sure that if
Speaker 1: you go back and look like defensive rebounding percentage for
Speaker 1: every team that he's been on has been worse. When
Speaker 1: he's on the floor, he's the kind of offensive rebounder
Speaker 1: where he kind of crashes in Troy Palamalo style from
Speaker 1: beyond the three point line for an offensive rebound that
Speaker 1: he doesn't have a chance at getting, and then he
Speaker 1: ends up on the floor and then the rest of
Speaker 1: the team is running back, and then he's not playing defense,
Speaker 1: and so then you're just playing five on four at
Speaker 1: that point. Like he's very good at doing that one
Speaker 1: and he dies on every screen. He's really bad at
Speaker 1: making contact when he's setting a screen, and so if
Speaker 1: they're hoping to get This is je Vader about the
Speaker 1: one that everybody was like, we got some defensive toughness
Speaker 1: coming from all of us. We're excited about this is
Speaker 1: her saying, not just the wet blanket. You know, I
Speaker 1: want to hurt your childhood memories too. She didn't John
Speaker 1: just want us said in the future. She wants us
Speaker 1: to be retroacting, said, I feel like anytime someone is
Speaker 1: described as selling a bill of goods, it's not usually
Speaker 1: a good thing for them. No, that's because he's a
Speaker 1: fraudulent out player, like a competence man. Just Yeah, the
Speaker 1: evidence that you need is that three teams who were like,
Speaker 1: we need to think about getting better for the future
Speaker 1: have now traded Jared Vanderbilt and Milik Beasley together. Rice
Speaker 1: the Denver Nuggets were like, oh, we're building something good here.
Speaker 1: We need to get better. Let's get rid of Jared
Speaker 1: Vanderbilt and Milik Beasley. The Timberwolves were like, we're going
Speaker 1: all in. We got to do something. We gotta go
Speaker 1: with Aunt and Rudy go back. We need good pieces. Yeah,
Speaker 1: who cares Jared Vanderbilt Mileek Beasley send them on their way.
Speaker 1: The Jazz are like, oh, We've got a really good
Speaker 1: foundation here, our rebuild might be a lot shorter. We
Speaker 1: need to start making room for better players. Well, let's
Speaker 1: get rid of Jared Vanderbilt and Mileik Beasley. H Jabari
Speaker 1: is currently doing the blinking white guy meme. No, I'll stay,
Speaker 1: I'll stay. Drew scan I believe is the person Drew
Speaker 1: Scanlin reaction is another name for it don't know your meme,
Speaker 1: but colloquially known as blinking white guy. I mean, I
Speaker 1: have a legitimate answer to this. My honest answer is
Speaker 1: much like sometimes a matter I am always you know,
Speaker 1: it sounds like you got it locked and loaded, man, really,
Speaker 1: because I'm because I'm measuring my words, because I'm measuring
Speaker 1: my words here, but I'm always in the I can
Speaker 1: save I can save them. So my my opinion is,
Speaker 1: while you know, cinnamon and sugar may not be the
Speaker 1: best option in a chicken dish, they're gonna go well
Speaker 1: in the cake that we're baking over. They're really good
Speaker 1: at oatmeal. The ingredients may not have worked well in
Speaker 1: the previous respots, but here in Los Angeles, at least
Speaker 1: so far through like what two games worth of action? Okay,
Speaker 1: and I'm going to be that's statistically significant, so I
Speaker 1: think we can count it as a win. I think
Speaker 1: it's a great point that, you know, if you have
Speaker 1: something as bland and sad as oatmeal, then adding cinnamon
Speaker 1: and sugar probably seems really exciting. Smari. You saw the
Speaker 1: first half of the later season, right, Yeah, I mean everybody,
Speaker 1: Wiggins really gave us all hope that like, you just
Speaker 1: bring somebody in who's been like a man for other
Speaker 1: teams and fan bases and then suddenly, yeah, suddenly he's
Speaker 1: an All Star and you're winning a title. So let's
Speaker 1: see it. Can't wait to eat my words with cinnamon
Speaker 1: and sugar. Yeah. So Milwaukee one twelve in a row
Speaker 1: heading into the break, tied with the Celtics, and the
Speaker 1: lost column tiebreaker head to head is March thirtieth in Milwaukee,
Speaker 1: Philly second highest team heading into the break, oh and
Speaker 1: two versus the Celtics this season, I'm still feeling second
Speaker 1: round ish for them, but I would love for that
Speaker 1: not to be true. Um. I feel like Cleveland could
Speaker 1: make noise. I really do. For some reason. I'm just
Speaker 1: like they they have that like under the radar end
Speaker 1: up in the Eastern Conference because I feel like it's
Speaker 1: not going to be Milwaukee Boston because just these past
Speaker 1: few years, it's never like the two teams that everybody's
Speaker 1: expecting heading into the playoffs. And I I could really
Speaker 1: see Cleveland matching up with either a Boston or a Milwaukee.
Speaker 1: We'll see. Yeah, it feels like Cleveland is kind of
Speaker 1: the Memphis Grizzlies of this season, where the last couple
Speaker 1: of years that everyone was really excited, like, oh, it's
Speaker 1: a fun young team. They're all happy and like they're
Speaker 1: playing fun. It's it's great to watch. That feels like
Speaker 1: Cleveland because now with the Grizzlies, it's like everyone's kind
Speaker 1: of over Dylan Brooks and and like the shine has
Speaker 1: worn off on John Morant kind of being like the
Speaker 1: young upcoming guy. I think I think everyone just expects
Speaker 1: him to be great at this point. Yeah, and so
Speaker 1: now it's like, oh, well, what's Jared Allen gonna do?
Speaker 1: And like Donovan Mitchell with Darius Garland, like that's fun.
Speaker 1: And so I think that there's a lot more fun
Speaker 1: expectations for Cleveland. They could they could make noise. You
Speaker 1: always they're just shutdown defenders. They're shutdown, like they're they
Speaker 1: have five of the top eleven defensive players in the league,
Speaker 1: which is wild. So they're gonna be They're gonna be dangerous.
Speaker 1: They don't have Kevin Love anymore, So all right, Brian,
Speaker 1: can we go back and just cut out the whole
Speaker 1: Cleveland thing? So Miami's coming out is what she's saying. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but we did talk at the beginning of the season.
Speaker 1: I forget Jabar. You probably remember which guests brought it
Speaker 1: up that we haven't had the same four teams, haven't
Speaker 1: had a single team repeat in the conference finals of
Speaker 1: the past like a few years. I could see that
Speaker 1: happening again this year. I could see, you know, Nuggets
Speaker 1: wouldn't be surprising then, you know, because it's probably not
Speaker 1: gonna be Golden State and it's probably not gonna be
Speaker 1: the MAVs at West or it could be, but I
Speaker 1: think it would be surprising, and for different reasons than
Speaker 1: it was last year. I'm absolutely pulling for the Sacramento
Speaker 1: Kings to just be really real weird. Yeah, light the
Speaker 1: beam in the playoffs, get them to a Western Conference finals,
Speaker 1: just make it fun for them, and then the Nuggets
Speaker 1: can shut them down from there. All right, So I
Speaker 1: got you guys both covered Nuggets, Kings out West Philly
Speaker 1: Cleveland in the East. I'm not done. I'm not claiming Philly,
Speaker 1: but you're not confident. My weird superstition is the like
Speaker 1: I just go in pre disappointed and then everything's gonna
Speaker 1: be okay. Yeah, it's been great for getting them to
Speaker 1: the second round every year. But there was a hat
Speaker 1: that I was wearing up until last year that it
Speaker 1: seemed to coincide with them losing in the second round.
Speaker 1: So I've stopped wearing that hat. I now have a
Speaker 1: Dodgers hat, and they lost in disappointing fashion the playoffs,
Speaker 1: so I think the jinx might be off them. We'll see.
Speaker 1: But this is the sort of in depth basketball analysis
Speaker 1: you get on Miles and Jack cut mad Boosties. In
Speaker 1: my preseason prediction, I'm just looking back here, which it
Speaker 1: always makes me laugh because inevitably I am just incredibly
Speaker 1: wrong on so many things. So I'm fine with laughing
Speaker 1: at myself about this. But I've got Sixers over Bucks
Speaker 1: in seven. Oh wow, So you didn't know about the
Speaker 1: hat yet at that point. Yeah, I'm sorry to say, unfortunately,
Speaker 1: which Boston like. When the Sixers play the Celtics, it
Speaker 1: like just doesn't appear to be very close, Like they
Speaker 1: just don't. Yeah, the two teams like that that it's
Speaker 1: just such a bad matchup. So if you're assuming they
Speaker 1: have to go through the Celtics at some point, I
Speaker 1: just I don't love it for them. Now, if Milwaukee
Speaker 1: goes ahead and kindly knocks them off, then I do
Speaker 1: think we have a better chance. But we shall see.
Speaker 1: They're just so quick and I think they give a
Speaker 1: lot of teams trouble. The Celtics, I think they're a
Speaker 1: good young ball club that has a bright future. I
Speaker 1: don't know. If you saw a couple of their players
Speaker 1: in the All Star Game that was wild, that's I mean,
Speaker 1: it's cool. I guess it's not cool, all right, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say it. It's not cool to score fifty five
Speaker 1: in an All Star game. Run it up. I am
Speaker 1: that person where if someone gets to like even if
Speaker 1: it's against my team, like the other like last week
Speaker 1: before the break with Dame had thirty in the first half,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm I'm of the you know it gets six,
Speaker 1: go ahead if you're you know, they had the option
Speaker 1: to go out there and stop them kind of Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean that's a record, right, nobody's ever put up
Speaker 1: more than fifty five in an All Star Game. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's what the NBA was saying. It feels weird that
Speaker 1: that's actually the case, considering the scores that are at
Speaker 1: All Star games. But yeah, that he is the single
Speaker 1: game All Star record holder because back when he played,
Speaker 1: Wilt Chamberlain just played with his feet during the All
Speaker 1: Star Game and they don't count those points exactly feet. Yea, man,
Speaker 1: I got the Wilt poster behind me. There it is
Speaker 1: Nate McMillan was let go by the Atlanta Hawks. Bad
Speaker 1: news there, I don't know. Oh, also, we we do
Speaker 1: just we we have to recognize Lebron. The photograph of
Speaker 1: Lebron's business decision in the All Star Game. I think
Speaker 1: it is it who's dunking and Lebron is just has
Speaker 1: his whole body oriented in a different direction like it is.
Speaker 1: I think Lebron is a boost. He's listener, first of all.
Speaker 1: I mean that's I probably don't need to say. I
Speaker 1: think that he's clearly a boost. He's listener, and he
Speaker 1: recognized that we've been talking about business decisions. But we
Speaker 1: didn't have the photograph that was the perfect illustration of
Speaker 1: the business decision. And he he did it for a
Speaker 1: It's his body is oriented like he's saying, hey, look
Speaker 1: over there, as somebody's dugging on him because he's just
Speaker 1: like gone completely out of his way. Yeah, it's Tatum
Speaker 1: one of his fifty five points. Um, let's take a
Speaker 1: quick break. We'll come back. It is time for the
Speaker 1: fastest segment in podcasting. We'll be right back, and we're back,
Speaker 1: and Sarah Todd, it is time for the rapid fire
Speaker 1: round of questioning. Just the first answer that comes to
Speaker 1: mind on these especially if it's wrong, you know, go
Speaker 1: wrong and strong. We we love just speed and we
Speaker 1: just love to have the pace just too. You know,
Speaker 1: I love being wrong. So this is great. Jabari, you
Speaker 1: want to go first, you want me to go first.
Speaker 1: We'll be questions. You'll be responding, okay unless okay, no, no,
Speaker 1: I don't care. Got to be little. That was weird
Speaker 1: like you guys. That was quick about something before. Okay,
Speaker 1: that was a test. That was a test. Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm ready. Um, all right. So the Jazz, the Utah Jazz,
Speaker 1: the Jazz of Utah have eight first round picks over
Speaker 1: the next four drafts. So we're going to give you
Speaker 1: the option between the guarantee of getting Wemby as the
Speaker 1: top pick this year and then forfeiting all of those picks,
Speaker 1: or you don't get Wemby and you get to essentially
Speaker 1: build out an entire roster with all eight. It seems
Speaker 1: like a pretty straightforward I'm taking yeah, like that's the
Speaker 1: right answer. But I am wondering, like if there is
Speaker 1: a like mathematical or like statistical thing where people are like, actually,
Speaker 1: you could use all those eight picks. But yeah, no,
Speaker 1: that's the right that's the right answer, right. I mean,
Speaker 1: they've got fifteen picks over the next seven years, so
Speaker 1: you give away eight, you still got seven to work
Speaker 1: within deals. Taken with it, answer is yeah, they answer
Speaker 1: is Wemby. This was a dumb question that I wrote
Speaker 1: into the dock. So you're welcome keeping it going, Sarah.
Speaker 1: And again, you gotta keep us in line. You know,
Speaker 1: as soon as you answer that question, you should be
Speaker 1: asking for the next one. I'm not trying to chastise you,
Speaker 1: but it is your fault, all right, keeping it going.
Speaker 1: Jalen Rose recently said that men should be spending a
Speaker 1: minimum of one hundred dollars on a haircut, and look
Speaker 1: that's gonna that's a little bit out of you know,
Speaker 1: that's a little bit too steep for my taste. But
Speaker 1: what is the one single item for routine maintenance that
Speaker 1: you're willing to pay top dot? I spend like three
Speaker 1: hundred dollars on my hair every time it gets done,
Speaker 1: and so I completely understand. At the same token, dudes
Speaker 1: can get their haircut for thirty five bucks. I don't care.
Speaker 1: It's so easy. Go to sports clips, no one cares.
Speaker 1: Not Nextari can't get three ninety nine for a big raise? Yeah,
Speaker 1: and is Jalen Rose's hair too good to be true?
Speaker 1: Don't care? All right? Jobari back to you. You heard that,
Speaker 1: she said. Yes. I would also like to say paying
Speaker 1: for my hair is making me broke constantly, so I
Speaker 1: wait a very long time to do it, all right. Uh.
Speaker 1: You can go back in time and watch any single
Speaker 1: NBA game from throughout history. Which game you choose, Oh,
Speaker 1: I've got this one. Uh, when Larry Bird takes the
Speaker 1: floor the day after Magic Johnson announces that he's HIV positive,
Speaker 1: that's the one that I'm watching because that's the one
Speaker 1: that makes me most emotional every single time I think
Speaker 1: about it. Wow, what what? I actually don't know the
Speaker 1: story of that game. So the story is that I
Speaker 1: know the story of right. But Larry finds out and
Speaker 1: he talked to Magic and he just, you know, they'd
Speaker 1: become friends over the years, even though they're like a
Speaker 1: friend of me is basically you know. And he he
Speaker 1: said that every morning he used to wake up and
Speaker 1: like look at the scores and see what the night before,
Speaker 1: Like what did Magic have? What do what do I
Speaker 1: have to go against? Like he was always comparing himself
Speaker 1: and trying like that was the competition, even if they
Speaker 1: weren't playing a game against each other. And so the
Speaker 1: next day he goes out into the court and like
Speaker 1: every time that he is in a time out or
Speaker 1: there's like a moment of stoppage, like Larry basically starts
Speaker 1: crying because he's realizing that like the person that who
Speaker 1: has motivated him the most is just no longer a
Speaker 1: part of basketball, and he like doesn't see the point
Speaker 1: of being out there. Wow, that's beautiful. Look I can
Speaker 1: tell you where I was no giber seven nineteen Yeah,
Speaker 1: I can too. Um wild, that's a great answer, all right,
Speaker 1: and you know what, I'm not even going to complain
Speaker 1: that it was a little bit slow. All right, boy,
Speaker 1: I have to play the Miles role in honor of
Speaker 1: all right. What is your boldest postseason or even play
Speaker 1: in prediction for this year? Uh? My boldest play in
Speaker 1: prediction is that the Warriors are in the play in
Speaker 1: and they get knocked out? Oh wow? Are they like
Speaker 1: putting anything together right now? I don't know if I
Speaker 1: believe that this is supposed to be fast? Why are
Speaker 1: we talking right now? Oh? Wows right, I'm something. I'm sorry, man.
Speaker 1: What do you get better on any fan base making
Speaker 1: arena challenge? If you Sarah Ca bet on any fan
Speaker 1: base to make the inn arena challenge, shots, lay up,
Speaker 1: free throw, three point or a half court? Which fan
Speaker 1: base would you bet on? Oh? My god? Detroit? Oh wow,
Speaker 1: I bet you. I bet you. There's more ballers Detroit
Speaker 1: or Atlanta. There's more ballers down there than than there
Speaker 1: are in some of these other like small markets. Now
Speaker 1: I'm going to come in and add the jazz to
Speaker 1: the mix. I got to travel to the All Star
Speaker 1: Game briefly to do a panel. I had to get
Speaker 1: back for my son's birthday. As I mentioned, but so
Speaker 1: I missed like the main events, but I did get
Speaker 1: to witness like the shooting booths at the crossover events,
Speaker 1: and there was a lot of wetness on display. And
Speaker 1: I don't know if it is the Jazz fans or
Speaker 1: if that was people traveling there for the All Star Game.
Speaker 1: I also noticed it would have been easy for me
Speaker 1: to say Jazz fans because there there's this phenomena church ball,
Speaker 1: and a lot of the Mormon churches out here, like
Speaker 1: almost all of them have basketball courts, and so like
Speaker 1: kids really do grow up, Like there are pickup games.
Speaker 1: If you ever ever want to find a pickup game,
Speaker 1: there is one every single day of the week in
Speaker 1: Utah to find. Yes, and so they they they do
Speaker 1: be putting up shots. Are those courts carpeted? And the
Speaker 1: reason why I ask is because I played, I played
Speaker 1: against I played in some Mormon establishments and non Mormons
Speaker 1: establishments that have carpeted basketball courts. I'm sure that some
Speaker 1: of them are. I mean, the two that I have
Speaker 1: seen have not been carpeted, but I'm absolutely certain that
Speaker 1: some of them are. Yeah. Also, do people in Utah
Speaker 1: not have cold receptors? On their skin, because I did
Speaker 1: witness a lot of people just walking around in shorts,
Speaker 1: and it was in the twenties. Was that you were
Speaker 1: you were just watching dumb people. It's fine, okay, yeah, alright,
Speaker 1: fair enough, all right, coming up to it and shout
Speaker 1: out to our listener at Blunt Doctor, he actually responded
Speaker 1: to its rapid fire questions from last week, and he
Speaker 1: says he would go with the Knicks because he thinks
Speaker 1: they're all knowledgeable, but the problem is they all wear
Speaker 1: suits and he can't trust someone in right. I think
Speaker 1: that's the like, that's the point you were making about Lakers,
Speaker 1: is that like when you get like, if you're picking
Speaker 1: from courtside, you're going to get a lot of people
Speaker 1: who are like venture capitalists, that's like warriors new fans, Like,
Speaker 1: you can't go and make a half court shot if
Speaker 1: you're trying to take a picture with an iPad from
Speaker 1: the stands. Yeah, So, I mean you definitely have to
Speaker 1: be pulling from the upper part of the arena, but
Speaker 1: that that's still inbounds. So I think that applies to
Speaker 1: all all teams, all fan bases you got, you gotta
Speaker 1: just not be pulling from Although Masson square gardens got
Speaker 1: good seats everywhere, So maybe maybe it is all suits
Speaker 1: never knew. All right, Sarah, the last one. You're down
Speaker 1: to the last one. This is the biggest question in
Speaker 1: the biggest topic that we've we will have discussed throughout
Speaker 1: this out. Jack or Jabari m oh no, that's real,
Speaker 1: this is real. Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry. Uh, I've just
Speaker 1: known Jabari longer. What is we have? We have reclaimed
Speaker 1: Black History Month? With this result, we are back. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Time time equals blood and blood is thicker than water.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's great, makes sense. Take that. Sorry, I'm just
Speaker 1: have mad boosts Sarah and Jabari got mad boost Mac.
Speaker 1: Take that Mac like Joe Biden would say if you
Speaker 1: just owned someone. Uh, just call me black Mac McClung
Speaker 1: right now, because I just don't joint you. Oh take
Speaker 1: that black klunk all right now? I got you. I
Speaker 1: thought I thought it was like a Joe Biden style.
Speaker 1: Take that back, No, I get it. Yeah, So reclaiming glad,
Speaker 1: glad to take the l if if that's what's required
Speaker 1: to Yeah, all right, Sarah, as always, what a pleasure
Speaker 1: having you on the show. Where can people find you?
Speaker 1: Follow you? All that good stuff? They can find me
Speaker 1: on all the socials at NBA Sarah, and you can
Speaker 1: read all of my stuff at desiret dot com. There
Speaker 1: it is. And do we think that was a they
Speaker 1: didn't like misspelled desert and just kind of stick with
Speaker 1: it there. Yeah, I know that's what we actually meant.
Speaker 1: We meant desiret. Yeah. If you want some fun facts, uh,
Speaker 1: desiret um. I guess And I'm probably getting this totally wrong,
Speaker 1: so apologies to the LDS community, but I think that
Speaker 1: that word has some roots in LDS scripture, and before
Speaker 1: the state was named Utah, it was actually named desiret. Wow.
Speaker 1: Sounds like a smaller desert, like a cigar cigarette type
Speaker 1: of thing. But I like it. It's the it's the
Speaker 1: sorbet of deserts. There it is. And if she got
Speaker 1: that back wrong, she's canceled. Guys. That's right. I've been
Speaker 1: canceled so many times it doesn't matter, all right. Tweets
Speaker 1: of the week from within the NBA, somebody pointed out,
Speaker 1: you know, Michael Jordan funding the Make a Wish Foundation
Speaker 1: at a record breaking was it? How much was it?
Speaker 1: It was the most anyone's ever donated to Make a
Speaker 1: Wish Foundation? And the tweet was a picture of him
Speaker 1: and it said fund them kids, Fund them kids. But
Speaker 1: no clue what that's in reference to, no idea. And
Speaker 1: then you know, for our Boosty's listeners of the week,
Speaker 1: we asked them specifically for their favorite all star dunk contests,
Speaker 1: and the Twitter pool results were fifty four for Levine
Speaker 1: versus Aaron Gordon, thirty two for Vinsanity, voted for Nik
Speaker 1: versus MJ in nineteen eighty eight. Yeah, all right, I'll
Speaker 1: allow it. I mean, if we if we're going to
Speaker 1: say that the dunk contest is progressive, and you know,
Speaker 1: the vinsanity thing was a moment, but maybe maybe it's
Speaker 1: one of those moments he kind of had to be
Speaker 1: there for. But that that was the one that blew
Speaker 1: my mind when it happened. But yeah, if you if
Speaker 1: you independently take the Levine Gordon dunks, they're probably a
Speaker 1: little bit more impressive built on top. I do independently
Speaker 1: take them, you do independently take them as individual dunks.
Speaker 1: That's probably fair. Then and Arbusi's listener of the week
Speaker 1: was at Big Swinging Dial, who quote tweeted and responded
Speaker 1: with nineteen eighty six spud Web versus MJ, which was
Speaker 1: was also a whole vibe. One spud explode on the
Speaker 1: scene a little bit like one Mac McClung, but the
Speaker 1: spot was still pretty wild. Shout out to Bake, Swing
Speaker 1: and Dill for just a's a heck of a name.
Speaker 1: That's right, so make sure you give us a follow
Speaker 1: on Twitter at mad boost fees. That is going to
Speaker 1: do it for us this week. We are back next
Speaker 1: week with more NBA action by