Speaker 1: No team. Is that a bigger crossroads right now?
Speaker 2: Well? Maybe I don't know if that's actually true, but
Speaker 2: the Chicago Bulls are at an impassed The Bulls currently
Speaker 2: nineteen and twenty one.
Speaker 1: They're currently ninth in the East. But here's the little
Speaker 1: wrinkle that.
Speaker 2: Kind of makes it more interesting. They've also won seven
Speaker 2: of ten, so they're the second hottest team in the
Speaker 2: Eastern Conference behind Brooklyn.
Speaker 1: So what do you do? What do you do if
Speaker 1: they're the Chicago Bulls?
Speaker 2: Do you try to salvage the rest of the season
Speaker 2: in hopes of maybe trying to make a play in
Speaker 2: tournament like seven or eight seed?
Speaker 1: Do you cut bait? Do you rebuild?
Speaker 2: Do you hope that a Lonzo comes back fully healthy
Speaker 2: next year? I don't even know if the Bulls know
Speaker 2: what they want to do, honestly, I don't. They keep
Speaker 2: making these statements, keep doing one thing, saying another. But
Speaker 2: everyone seems to be on the trade Balark right now,
Speaker 2: derozen Levin, Crusoe, Vooch all rumored to be on the move.
Speaker 1: That's a lot of players that are superstars or stars.
Speaker 2: So Caruso I would consider to be a very high
Speaker 2: valuable piece Derozen was leading in clutch field goal percentage
Speaker 2: for most of last year, had MVP buzz. Levine is
Speaker 2: obviously a certified bucket. Vouch is a guy who can
Speaker 2: get you ten rebounds, doesn't play a lot of defense,
Speaker 2: but he can score his ass off, and all are
Speaker 2: rumored to be gone.
Speaker 1: What might seal the deal though?
Speaker 2: On this are the rumors courtesy of the Chicago Sun Times,
Speaker 2: is that there might be big trouble with team chemistry.
Speaker 2: You say it ain't so, say it ain't so. A
Speaker 2: growing rift between Zach Levine and Billy Donovan. Could not
Speaker 2: have seen that coming whatsoever, According to the Sun's Times
Speaker 2: reporter Joe Cally, who Levin Billy Donovan player relationship player
Speaker 2: coach relationship remained somewhat strained in the wake of a
Speaker 2: November eighteenth late game benching in which Donovan chose to
Speaker 2: ride out the final minutes minutes against Orlando with Leavin
Speaker 2: out of the game. I remember this like it was day,
Speaker 2: Like it was just yesterday. Why is Levin not playing
Speaker 2: in the fourth quarter? It became kind of a thing.
Speaker 2: Leavin expressed his displeasure. That's one way of putting it right.
Speaker 2: He was pissed with Donovan's decision immediately after the game, stating, Yeah,
Speaker 2: that's Billy's decision. He's gotta lay with it. They lost
Speaker 2: that game, He's gotta lay with it. Do I agree
Speaker 2: with it?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: I think I can go out there and still be
Speaker 2: me even if I miss some shots. That's his decision
Speaker 2: and he's gotta stand on it.
Speaker 1: Woo woo whoo. November eighteenth, guys checks notes. It's coming
Speaker 1: up on two months ago that I happened.
Speaker 2: He's still upset about this, Yeah, apparently so. The trouble, though,
Speaker 2: of course, is that both of them just signed long
Speaker 2: term deals like just last fall, Donovan in secret in
Speaker 2: like September. Levine sign a max contract in June or
Speaker 2: July that pays him through the twenty twenty six twenty
Speaker 2: twenty seven season. He will where he will make a
Speaker 2: shocking forty nine million dollars per year.
Speaker 1: This is like a very side road.
Speaker 2: I don't think secret extensions should be a thing. That
Speaker 2: does not make sense. Why are we signing Billy Donovan
Speaker 2: to an extension in secret because they know nobody is
Speaker 2: for it, you know, and you know you're gonna get
Speaker 2: heat for that. Do not try to sneak this in
Speaker 2: on a slow news day, do not anyway, Levigne obviously ballin.
Speaker 2: He's a bucket, but he's battling injuries. He's averaging twenty
Speaker 2: three game his knee I think is gonna give some
Speaker 2: team's pause. I do good enough probably for someone to
Speaker 2: take a chance, because he's just that good at scoring
Speaker 2: if the Bulls actually choose to shop them. But that's
Speaker 2: the big question. The trade deadline is a month away.
Speaker 2: If the Bulls fade or go through a slump, he
Speaker 2: actually could be on the move. If they play well,
Speaker 2: he'll probably stay. They might actually be buyers at the deadline.
Speaker 2: And now you've got Kadie out for a month. At least,
Speaker 2: you got the Celtics in disarray. Other teams are struggling
Speaker 2: at various times. He obviously have been okay recently, but
Speaker 2: not really good period, and I.
Speaker 1: Think it's probably gonna take a big time falling out
Speaker 1: for the Bulls to give up on the season.
Speaker 2: So you're looking at all these other teams that are
Speaker 2: struggling and you're saying.
Speaker 1: This is our opportunity. I mean, until then, the Bulls
Speaker 1: are a team to watch closely.
Speaker 2: And people will say like, which one do you choose
Speaker 2: if there is a big time rift like Nate McMillan
Speaker 2: and Trey Young, do you choose Billy Donovan or do
Speaker 2: you choose Zach Lavine?
Speaker 1: For me, it's very simple. It's actually like should have
Speaker 1: been done only to neither neither.
Speaker 2: I don't want either of these guys. Zach Lavini one
Speaker 2: of the most ball dominant dudes in the NBA with
Speaker 2: one knee. He's had multiple arthroscopic surgeries. Like this guy
Speaker 2: is getting paid fifty million dollars. He can't play defense.
Speaker 2: He's going to eventually slow down in terms of getting
Speaker 2: separation to the rim, getting buckets on his own. They
Speaker 2: both make way too much damn money because they are
Speaker 2: not affecting winning in any way, considering that this team
Speaker 2: is hoping to be a playing team. Billy Donovan's a
Speaker 2: classic college coach like Yukon's head coach Dan Hurley, where
Speaker 2: it's like he's yelling at players. He's a control freak.
Speaker 2: He's just absolutely benching dudes for no reason. Both of
Speaker 2: these are trash. Both these are trash decisions for the Bulls,
Speaker 2: And lately we saw it, We saw it happened today
Speaker 2: Arizona Cardinals gave up on Cliff Kingsbury less than a
Speaker 2: year after extending him. He gets fired to day, so
Speaker 2: neither should have been extended. If the Bulls want to rebuild,
Speaker 2: they blow it all up. They get rid and they
Speaker 2: get rid of de Rosa, they get rid of Donovan,
Speaker 2: they get rid of I guess you get rid of
Speaker 2: Caruso because you're gonna get a lot for him, get
Speaker 2: rid of Bouch. Literally, just rebuild it all up. You
Speaker 2: gotta ditch both bad contracts for sure. Send Levine off,
Speaker 2: probably can get two first round picks for him, Send
Speaker 2: Billy back to some college team like maybe like some
Speaker 2: other version of Iona.
Speaker 1: And you know, take those picks and rebuild that team
Speaker 1: from the bottom up.
Speaker 2: So there was some news recently that someone in the
Speaker 2: NBA wanted to beat the shit as Skip Bayless. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that doesn't shock me. There's no sports media comment earth
Speaker 2: that has had a worse week than Skip Bayless. There's
Speaker 2: plenty of people who have had worse weeks than Skip
Speaker 2: Bayless outside of that. In the week wait though, of
Speaker 2: the Monday night game between the Bills and the Bengals,
Speaker 2: Skip obviously tweeted a bunch of dumb bullshit about how
Speaker 2: the game needs to be played.
Speaker 1: It was not really well worded.
Speaker 2: He took a bunch of heat for from the Fox execs.
Speaker 2: Shannon his co host, didn't show up. As you can imagine,
Speaker 2: everyone was mad at Skip Bayless. Shannon short Sharp was mad.
Speaker 2: They got into an argument. As it turns out, according
Speaker 2: to Matt Barnes on All the Smoke, he had to
Speaker 2: hold back an NBA player from losing his shits on
Speaker 2: Skip Bayless.
Speaker 1: This is what Matt said. I have personally had.
Speaker 2: To diffuse two situations, one with a coach and one
Speaker 2: with an NBA player. They wanted to fuck Skip up.
Speaker 2: One was this year, one was last year. Luckily cooler
Speaker 2: heads prevailed. But it's just gone too far. In my opinion,
Speaker 2: Does this shock anyone?
Speaker 1: I don't think so. Skip is the king of saying shit.
Speaker 2: He does not mean that degrades and dehumanizes people in sports.
Speaker 2: These personal biting attacks. Remember the Richard Sherman back and
Speaker 2: forth that happened in Richard Sherman's like second or third year,
Speaker 2: somebody's gonna end up hurting Skip. I think now, I
Speaker 2: don't wish pain and suffering on anyone, but if your
Speaker 2: Skip Bayless, you probably want to ratchet down those takes
Speaker 2: you do when you're doing things like questioning why teams
Speaker 2: would pay someone when you have that big of a microphone.
Speaker 1: This is probably not gonna end.
Speaker 2: Well.
Speaker 1: The question that I have is like who is the player?
Speaker 1: Who was it?
Speaker 2: I need to know. I don't know who it was.
Speaker 2: I need the tea, I need Matt Barnes to tell me.
Speaker 2: Let me know who you think it is. I need
Speaker 2: to know is it. I could see it being like.
Speaker 1: A Pat Beverly. I could see it being.
Speaker 2: Like like a Boogiey Cousins. Man.
Speaker 1: Boogie Cousins would smash Skip Bayless. All right, quick update.
Speaker 2: Remember our episode before Christmas about the Dallas Mavericks. I
Speaker 2: went on record saying that of all the moves that
Speaker 2: the mass could make, signing Kemba Walker, probably the most
Speaker 2: inexplicable move made no sense. According to people on social media,
Speaker 2: I should just get into the kitchen, let the big
Speaker 2: boys talk. But the who was I really the question?
Speaker 2: Mark Cuban, the MAVs for an office, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 1: Guess what.
Speaker 2: Guess what, folks, I have an update for you. The
Speaker 2: MAVs just waved Kemba Walker after three dismal weeks for
Speaker 2: two way guard McKinley Wrights, just days before Kemba Walker's
Speaker 2: salary was guaranteed.
Speaker 1: Are you guys kidding me? You see what I was saying?
Speaker 1: They waved him three weeks is all. It took three weeks.
Speaker 1: Color me stunned. Stunned folks.
Speaker 2: I could not have possibly seen how that was gonna
Speaker 2: go sideways. I could not have possibly seen how that
Speaker 2: was going to be an impossibility for them to be
Speaker 2: good in any way with someone who does not play defense,
Speaker 2: with bad knees, who's undersized on a team that needs
Speaker 2: buckets and defense.
Speaker 1: Listen, I am.
Speaker 2: Really floored that Facundo Composo and Kemba Walker weren't the
Speaker 2: answers for the mass.
Speaker 1: I just thought it couldn't see it, couldn't see it.
Speaker 2: Jalen brunts and leaves and yeah, that's a hole that
Speaker 2: Fakundo Composo and Kemba Walker can fill.
Speaker 1: This is wild. He's a legend. I love Kemba Walker,
Speaker 1: but he's broken. He's broken. And for people to say, oh,
Speaker 1: you don't know what you're saying, our eyes tell us
Speaker 1: everything we need to know.
Speaker 2: Just know that our eyes see everything, and the and
Speaker 2: the key to life is to not allow other people
Speaker 2: with bad eyes to tell you your eyes don't work.
Speaker 1: That's the key, because they will gaslight you.
Speaker 2: And sometimes people with perfectly good eyes try to tell
Speaker 2: you your eyes don't work when they see I'm talking
Speaker 2: to you, famous LOKs. Talking to you got into my
Speaker 2: comments section of Jordan Poole being an absolute disaster. There
Speaker 2: are people who try to gaslight you that see exactly
Speaker 2: what you see, and they will tell you in a
Speaker 2: quiet moment that they see that. But on the Internet
Speaker 2: they tell you you don't know what you're talking about,
Speaker 2: you don't know basketball, and you're seeing something that no
Speaker 2: one else sees. Yeah, don't let them do that. Never
Speaker 2: let them do that. As an addendum, Jason Tatum is
Speaker 2: lobbying to bring Kemba Walker back to Boston, as if
Speaker 2: the Celtics have any more reason to add drama to
Speaker 2: their plate. Kemba Walker in Boston made Brad Stevens never
Speaker 2: coach again.
Speaker 1: Literally, he gave up the game. He was like, you
Speaker 1: know what, this isn't for me, This isn't for me.
Speaker 2: Xies and O's leader of men, kemb is leading a
Speaker 2: revolution in the locker room. There's a coup happening, don't
Speaker 2: I mean, don't sleep. Kemba was leading a revolution in Boston.
Speaker 2: Joe Missoula is gonna need a new.
Speaker 1: Set of prayer beads. What are those called? The rosary beads.
Speaker 2: He's gonna need a new, brand, new, spanking set of
Speaker 2: rosary beads to try to handle Kemba Walker, Brogden and
Speaker 2: Mark Smart in the same Walker room. If that shit
Speaker 2: were to go down, that's absolutely bonkers. That's just something
Speaker 2: that needed to be said that there's really no news
Speaker 2: there other than hey, the MAVs wave Kemba Walker.
Speaker 1: But that's this podcast. Finally, let's move on. We've covered Kyrie.
Speaker 2: A lot, because, let's face it, he's just a walking
Speaker 2: soap opera and that's just lovely. His entire tenure with
Speaker 2: every team, not just the Nuts, the Celtics, the Calves,
Speaker 2: all that, since though, what was it anti semitism gait,
Speaker 2: Kyrie has been absolutely insane, quietly balling the fuck out.
Speaker 2: The question, though, is why Kyrie was asked the recently
Speaker 2: and told Brian Lewis, a reporter for The New York Post,
Speaker 2: is what he said, well, if basketball is a very
Speaker 2: simple art for him, so if I don't bring all
Speaker 2: my extra distractions or anything that I'm going through mentally
Speaker 2: into the game, that's something that I've taken responsibility for
Speaker 2: on my own end, just to be positively reinforcing what
Speaker 2: we can do to win games no matter what's going on.
Speaker 2: Dare I say Kyrie Irving is Ben Matrind say it ain't.
Speaker 1: So he continued just.
Speaker 2: Being mentally prepared, using a lot of sessions in the summer,
Speaker 2: challenging myself to be ready for these moments where I
Speaker 2: don't have to be swayed emotionally. I'm in control of
Speaker 2: my emotions, in control of my thoughts. Listen, He's always
Speaker 2: said he's a mental warrior on the court, and I
Speaker 2: think this is very in step with that philosophy. But
Speaker 2: it's really not always worked. People can say that they
Speaker 2: control what they can control, but let's be honest, the
Speaker 2: mind is a dangerous place to let play out. And
Speaker 2: right now he's doing what he says he's gonna do.
Speaker 2: Since his suspension at Kyrie Irving is averaging twenty six,
Speaker 2: five and five and the Nets have just won every
Speaker 2: single game. It feels like eighteen of twenty there's nothing
Speaker 2: you can do to stop them. Fourth quarter scoring Banana's
Speaker 2: just like first quarter. His poise is elite, His calm
Speaker 2: demeanor is even making Kevin Durant absolutely.
Speaker 1: Gush over him.
Speaker 2: And yet yet the big Kyrie news this week is
Speaker 2: that he wore a pair of shoes that said free
Speaker 2: all oppressed people. It's probably an old pair of shoes
Speaker 2: that he just forgot had.
Speaker 1: That on it Sunday in his game versus the Heat.
Speaker 2: You know, they won, same game where Kevin Durant went
Speaker 2: down with an MCL's brain. Of course it made news.
Speaker 2: But again, like I said, are this old pair of shoes?
Speaker 2: I've had these for a while. You know, I'm not
Speaker 2: trying to make any new statements. I've had these sins,
Speaker 2: you know. October of twenty twenty one. Who is he
Speaker 2: speaking of? Who is he speaking of these oppressed people?
Speaker 2: Is he talking about, you know, just the collective, just everyone,
Speaker 2: like the wigurs in China? Is he talking about the
Speaker 2: Native Americans indigenous people who lost their land? Is this
Speaker 2: a continuation of this hotep message about the original black Israelites.
Speaker 1: I have no idea. I don't know.
Speaker 2: I'd like to know he probably won't say because he's maturing.
Speaker 2: But the fact is, the two days previous, Kevin Durant
Speaker 2: wore a pair of shoes that read free all of
Speaker 2: My people in a game against the Pelicans, and no
Speaker 2: one said anything. The reason is because Kyrie Irving says
Speaker 2: a lot of dumb shit and everyone's waiting for him
Speaker 2: to say something dumb again. That is maybe the right thing,
Speaker 2: maybe the wrong thing. I don't know, but in these
Speaker 2: quiet moments when shit is not hitting the fan, you
Speaker 2: have to say the Brooklyn Nets and Kyrie are one
Speaker 2: of the greatest shows on the court and I love
Speaker 2: watching him play basketball. I need more of it, please
Speaker 2: and thank you. Because we know what's gonna happen. There's
Speaker 2: gonna be another cairierving controversy, and his play is gonna diminish.
Speaker 2: He's probably gonna step away temporarily, and before you know it,
Speaker 2: you just kind of have to enjoy the sunshine before
Speaker 2: the next bomb cyclone comes and drops another tree on
Speaker 2: a house. So that's all. That's all the time that
Speaker 2: we have for the heat check. We will be back Friday.
Speaker 1: Within all new episodes.
Speaker 2: Check the feed for past episodes. Many episodes would drop
Speaker 2: every single day. Follow the heat Check in twenty twenty three,
Speaker 2: Please follow us on social to grow the social account
Speaker 2: so again we can continue making this beautiful product. Me
Speaker 2: and my amazing producer, Nick Berlanski aka Burlow. Follow us
Speaker 2: on this heat check, follow us at tri just to
Speaker 2: Creek on TikTok. Burlow's on the heat Check on TikTok
Speaker 2: now too. Find him Nick Berlanski. He's not posting any clips,
Speaker 2: but he's awesome.
Speaker 1: That's all the time that we have. We'll see you
Speaker 1: guys next Friday.
Speaker 2: M HM