Speaker 1: On this episode of The Heat Check. It's been an
Speaker 1: emotional a couple of days. Honestly, it's a sobfest for me.
Speaker 1: Last night and this morning when we started to go
Speaker 1: back towards the legacy and the time that it has
Speaker 1: been watching Damian Lillard in Portland. He returned two nights ago.
Speaker 1: I will explain why it's been a sob fest. The
Speaker 1: sixty five game rule is now causing havoc across the league.
Speaker 1: I think everyone except for Magic Johnson is fucking pissed
Speaker 1: about it. I will get into some news from around
Speaker 1: the league, by the way, like Magic's tweets are not
Speaker 1: him right, Like that's that's Ai, that's Chad gbt anyway,
Speaker 1: news from around the league, including Darvin Ham and whether
Speaker 1: he's gonna get fired, whether his seat is hot right now.
Speaker 1: And we, of course, because it's Friday, get Trist's killer
Speaker 1: crazy ass stat of the week, which is a wild
Speaker 1: one this time around. Gotta fix these fucking my Rain's
Speaker 1: Anthony so my man dropped that motherfucking beat.
Speaker 2: It should be Rhianna.
Speaker 1: I thought about this all day yesterday, two days ago.
Speaker 1: I guess because you're getting missed tomorrow in the future,
Speaker 1: as I was fighting off a migrant. It's confusing. It's
Speaker 1: something that's been on my mind for a while since
Speaker 1: the trade happened as a lifelong Trail Blazer fan, and
Speaker 1: it hit me again as I watched the press conference
Speaker 1: and I watched the opening tribute video and all the
Speaker 1: fanfare around Dame's return is like, Damn, I miss I
Speaker 1: missed Dame.
Speaker 3: I do.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to say it out loud. Kind of
Speaker 1: makes me a little bit of a bitch. I miss
Speaker 1: everything that I had with Dame Lillard. I don't miss
Speaker 1: the lack of defense, I guess, but like everything else,
Speaker 1: the hard pound, jab step step back three, I missed
Speaker 1: that guy in my building. All the feelings came washing
Speaker 1: over me again. Wednesday night, Damian Lillard returned to Portland
Speaker 1: for the first time since he was traded this past season.
Speaker 1: He didn't even know where the fucking visitor's locker room was.
Speaker 1: That was heart wrenching, Like I really miss him, I
Speaker 1: really miss knowing there's a moment where this man couldn't
Speaker 1: put up seventy on my for my team, in my building,
Speaker 1: in my po dunk city on the water, in that
Speaker 1: rivertown that's industrial as fuck where it rains like nine
Speaker 1: months of the year. And you know what, that man
Speaker 1: gave his all for my shit city. I love portl
Speaker 1: I love Dame, and no one loved it like he did.
Speaker 1: I miss Dame time, I miss the ticking of his
Speaker 1: finger on his fake watch in the game. But it's
Speaker 1: no more, no longer a Blazer. He's off in Milwaukee
Speaker 1: doing his thing, and as a Dame psychologist, a Damologist,
Speaker 1: as they would say, somebody actually whose whole career, my
Speaker 1: career has coincided with Dame's career. My first year covering
Speaker 1: the league was Dame's first year in the league, and
Speaker 1: obviously he's the most intriguing player of my career, of
Speaker 1: my lifetime. He's the best Blazer of all time, and
Speaker 1: so coincided with my rise in the business. He says
Speaker 1: he's happy in Milwaukee. He does, but outside, like when
Speaker 1: you start asking him about the like non basketball elements
Speaker 1: of the job, I would say he's not very stoked
Speaker 1: basketball park quite stoked playing with Gianna's bunch of vets.
Speaker 1: Outside of that, not super stoked, body language, demeanor's lack
Speaker 1: of full smile when they he smiles the biggest when
Speaker 1: they ask him about Portland. That's when he goes ear
Speaker 1: to ear. Hey, Dame, what's it like to be in
Speaker 1: the visitor's locker room? Was it weird for you? Cheez
Speaker 1: smile ear to ear, Yes, it was. I don't even
Speaker 1: know where I'm supposed to go. He wishes he was
Speaker 1: still hooping in Portland, no doubt. He wishes he was
Speaker 1: with the family. He brought his whole family to the compound.
Speaker 1: I think there's like forty people living there, plus his kids.
Speaker 1: He misses them after shoot around, after practice, after his lift,
Speaker 1: like he gets to go and, as he would say,
Speaker 1: get full from his people. But no, now he's probably
Speaker 1: in some random one bedroom palatial condo in the middle
Speaker 1: of Milwaukee with like nobody. If you listen to what
Speaker 1: Dame said before his return, here's some of the quotes
Speaker 1: that I thought, were you get some sort of feeling
Speaker 1: of Catharsis or closure by playing in this game, like
Speaker 1: sort of checking the box off of playing here as
Speaker 1: a visitor.
Speaker 4: No, I wouldn't. I wouldn't say that. I think.
Speaker 2: My my relationship to the city and the fans here,
Speaker 2: the organization, I think is just it's never ending, you know.
Speaker 4: I don't look at it as closure or anything like that.
Speaker 2: I just I just know that it's something that you know,
Speaker 2: is it doesn't happen often, you know, to come into
Speaker 2: a city as a draft pick, to be able to
Speaker 2: have so many accomplishments, to have a good relationship with
Speaker 2: the fans, a good relationship with the organization, to experience
Speaker 2: a lot of success, you know, a lot of the
Speaker 2: things that I experienced here.
Speaker 4: I know that it is is gonna always be a
Speaker 4: part of me.
Speaker 2: You know, it's gonna be it's gonna be a huge
Speaker 2: part of my legacy and what I've been able to
Speaker 2: accomplish as a man, as an athlete.
Speaker 4: So that's not something.
Speaker 2: That I'm that I'm ever gonna say, oh, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: have closure on it. You know, it always be a
Speaker 2: part of me, because everything that I've said, you know.
Speaker 4: How I felt about my time, I'm in it.
Speaker 2: So it's not you know, it's no reason to say, oh,
Speaker 2: this is closure and putting it behind me or anything
Speaker 2: like that. You know, it's it's a huge part of
Speaker 2: my journey, and it's an important part of my journey.
Speaker 2: So I'll you know, I'll always appreciate that and I'll
Speaker 2: always you know, hold that close to me, and I
Speaker 2: don't think anything other than that is necessary.
Speaker 1: No closure necessary because the chapter is not closed. Dame,
Speaker 1: any chance you'll come and play for Portland again because
Speaker 1: of how I feel about Portland, how I feel about
Speaker 1: the organization here, in my time that I spent here.
Speaker 1: In my mind, I always felt like that's how my
Speaker 1: career would end. Yeah, blah blah blah. I'm in Milwaukee now,
Speaker 1: I'm focused on the present blah blah blah, contending for
Speaker 1: years to come searching for a ring. But I do
Speaker 1: see a day we're all be in a Trailblazer's uniform
Speaker 1: again before I'm done. This isn't a relationship that he
Speaker 1: wants closure on. This is like when you date somebody
Speaker 1: and you guys have to go off and do your
Speaker 1: own thing. They've got to go to law school. You're
Speaker 1: changing careers, you're following your passion. Maybe you were an
Speaker 1: accountant and now you want to be I don't know,
Speaker 1: like a general contractor for a design company. I don't know.
Speaker 1: You guys got to go your separate ways, but in
Speaker 1: the end, you want to make each other, you want
Speaker 1: to get back to one another. That's Dame in Portland.
Speaker 1: They want to get back to one another. So do
Speaker 1: you need closure? Do you need that last final call
Speaker 1: to be like, where did it all go wrong? No,
Speaker 1: nothing went wrong. I want this, you want that. We
Speaker 1: can't do it together right now. We'll see each other
Speaker 1: in like five years. And then you ask him, like,
Speaker 1: what's it like in Milwaukee. Of course he's like, I
Speaker 1: love playing with the honest, But first, it's been a
Speaker 1: massive transition, he said. It has been a very tough
Speaker 1: struggle to be without all the things that I like,
Speaker 1: being around my family, my kids, my house, my commute,
Speaker 1: the facility that I was used to. All of those
Speaker 1: things had me crying in the club. You listen to
Speaker 1: Dame again and I just get immediately a little teary eyed,
Speaker 1: a little stuffed up. It's sad because there's like only
Speaker 1: one player in my lifetime I've ever seen love a
Speaker 1: city ever this much. It's like not the same with
Speaker 1: every athlete. They get drafted, they come and do their job.
Speaker 1: They probably force their a trade somewhere else when they're unhappier,
Speaker 1: they don't get what they want. The only player that
Speaker 1: comes close to the Dame scenario is Kevin Garnett. Wanted
Speaker 1: to stay in Minnesota, felt like he couldn't get it
Speaker 1: done there. Wanted to own the team, felt absolutely gutted
Speaker 1: when they would not say him. The team went back
Speaker 1: to Minnesota to finish his career. It was like the
Speaker 1: final abort button that was in glass, encased in glass,
Speaker 1: encased in Moore glass. Did not want to push the button,
Speaker 1: had to push the button, did not want to what's
Speaker 1: crying when he pushed it? Dame said to Brook Oldenholzer.
Speaker 1: She asked him like, and he said, listen, there are
Speaker 1: sometimes decisions you must make that even you hurt yourself
Speaker 1: in making in the process. You can see the pain
Speaker 1: on this man's face. Not even Damon Stodemeyer. David Startmer
Speaker 1: grew up in my little town, my little Rivertown, played
Speaker 1: for the Blazers. He didn't give a shit about our team.
Speaker 1: You didn't care. We had him come to our middle
Speaker 1: school to say stuff to us. He showed up. I
Speaker 1: think late, like by days. Do you think Dame Willard
Speaker 1: doesn't No, Dave as Milwaukee Bucks comes back to Harriet
Speaker 1: tub in middle school right now. In fact, he is
Speaker 1: so important to city, so important as a player that
Speaker 1: Adidas named a building after him in Portland on the
Speaker 1: week that he came back for the first time, and
Speaker 1: they've never done that in the history and their entire building,
Speaker 1: like the entire business. That's Dame. They played a two
Speaker 1: minute video they did Laditas did it, and then the
Speaker 1: Blazers did it, and it made me a wreck. It
Speaker 1: was every moment that we remember. It was rip City
Speaker 1: after he hit that big shot against the Houston Rockets,
Speaker 1: it was the Bye Bye wave, it was his whole team, Mobbingham.
Speaker 1: I remember every moment that those were and where I
Speaker 1: was in the process. I remember walking around the streets
Speaker 1: of Nashville, Tennessee before the NFL Draft, waving by bye
Speaker 1: to everyone I saw. I thought that was gonna be
Speaker 1: the year. Are we going to be able to stand
Speaker 1: up and punch Golden State in the fucking mouth and
Speaker 1: win a championship. I felt like we could do anything.
Speaker 1: The Game seven against the Denver Nuggets, where I was
Speaker 1: in Bali, Indonesia, I had to set my alarm for
Speaker 1: like three or four in the morning just so that
Speaker 1: I could watch that. Fell back asleep. Had to buy
Speaker 1: a VPN because they won't let you watch it over there,
Speaker 1: just so I could listen to Evan Turner go fucking crazy,
Speaker 1: knowing that they would trade him, CJ going nuts, Meyers
Speaker 1: Leonard going nuts. Then going back to Portland after BALI
Speaker 1: just to see him in the Western Conference Finals in
Speaker 1: my fucking city with all my people who helped me
Speaker 1: get to that place in my career, where I could
Speaker 1: come in there with the media pass. That was game
Speaker 1: anyway to the game, because that's what's important too, Right,
Speaker 1: How did he play? How did the Blazers play? The
Speaker 1: game ended pretty fucking exciting. Blazers took a ten point
Speaker 1: fourth quarter lead. I think we were like fifteen point
Speaker 1: dogs to the Milwaukee Bucks. Something crazy. I mean, they
Speaker 1: should have been eat our ass, right, should have beat
Speaker 1: their ass. And the Bucks cut into it in the
Speaker 1: final minutes until Day made a steal, threw an alley
Speaker 1: oop to Giannis dunked for a one point Bucks lead.
Speaker 1: Then Anthony Simons did his best Damian Lillard impression drove
Speaker 1: down into the lane for a floater hit the go ahead.
Speaker 1: The Bucks took it over with seventeen seconds left. The
Speaker 1: best that they could come up with was a Brook
Speaker 1: Lopez thirty footer which missed two free throws. Later, the
Speaker 1: Blazers had a three point lead with five point one
Speaker 1: seconds left, the Bucks were out of timeouts. Blazers bailed
Speaker 1: them out, calling a timeout, And this is where we
Speaker 1: get Doc Rivers. This is where the Doc Rivers character
Speaker 1: comes right into the plotline. He had plenty of time
Speaker 1: to call a play, and you would think anybody, I mean,
Speaker 1: you just heard a whole soliloquy about Dame. Who does
Speaker 1: the ball go to when it's Dame time? When it's
Speaker 1: Dame time, who does the ball go to? Yannest? No,
Speaker 1: it goes to Dame. But what did Doc do? Doc said,
Speaker 1: when they zig zag, Dame takes the ball out of
Speaker 1: bounce and gives the ball to Janice. Yes, Jannie, the
Speaker 1: guy who can barely make seventy percent of his free throws.
Speaker 1: That man needed to hit one hundred percent of his
Speaker 1: first free throw in order for this plan to work.
Speaker 1: After the game, they asked Doc, why'd you fucking do that?
Speaker 1: And this is what he said, what about that man?
Speaker 5: Yeah, four seconds you know, we anticipate they're gonna file someone.
Speaker 5: We actually if we could get Giannis make the first
Speaker 5: one and then his ability with no one in front
Speaker 5: of him to miss the second one. We liked our
Speaker 5: chances on a misfree throw because that's what we're going
Speaker 5: to look for.
Speaker 4: Doc.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh, Doc, no oh, we liked our chances. We
Speaker 1: knew he could. Like, we're hoping he makes the first
Speaker 1: one and then gets his own rebound for the second
Speaker 1: one when there's guys behind the three point line that
Speaker 1: are gonna be crashing the glass to get that rebound.
Speaker 1: You really believe that, Doc? That's the most hair brain
Speaker 1: Doc Rivers thing. What this is like kind of a troll, right,
Speaker 1: Doc doesn't really believe that. He will never say, you
Speaker 1: know what, that was a bad call by me. It
Speaker 1: made no sense. This is coming on the heels of
Speaker 1: Doc Rivers saying that he wouldn't wish coaching this Bucks
Speaker 1: team on anyone. I can tell you that just from
Speaker 1: a day and a half, this is gonna be a challenge.
Speaker 1: What you mean the team that's number two in the East,
Speaker 1: second best record in the NBA. You mean that team?
Speaker 1: You think you wouldn't wish that challenge on anyone? No, No,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't wish that challenge on you, sir. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: wish you to have that job. This is the worst
Speaker 1: possible situation for Dame. Someone good enough, with enough pedigree, enough,
Speaker 1: with enough reputation high enough to not be fired despite
Speaker 1: his mediocrity, and not anywhere good enough for Dame to
Speaker 1: win a chip and come on home. And you know
Speaker 1: this man, you know this, which is fine. I guess
Speaker 1: Dame's gonna be looking to get out of Milwaukee at
Speaker 1: the same time, Shadon and Scoot and AFRENI, you are
Speaker 1: gonna be heading to the finals. That's my team, right
Speaker 1: dere every but he's going down. My team's on to
Speaker 1: come up. And then Dame will be like thirty seven,
Speaker 1: he plays twenty five minutes a game like Carmelo Anthony
Speaker 1: did in his final years, and then he will get
Speaker 1: a chip in the one place that he actually wants
Speaker 1: to win it more than any other place. Portland, Oregon.
Speaker 1: Shout out to Dame. I love this man, greatest human
Speaker 1: to ever put on a jersey in my city. We
Speaker 1: love you right back, brother, We always will, we always have.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry for all the means. All right, let's move on.
Speaker 1: Last episode, we dug into a new rule in the
Speaker 1: NBA dictating that you must play sixty five games in
Speaker 1: order to be eligible for the major awards like MVP,
Speaker 1: but also all NBA, which is, as you may know,
Speaker 1: tied to many star player contracts. Turns out that the
Speaker 1: worst possible thing that could have happened in the two
Speaker 1: days since that pod dropped Joel Embiid, who at that
Speaker 1: point and still at this point, could only miss a
Speaker 1: handful of games in order to be eligible to win
Speaker 1: the MVP, seems to have I don't know why forced
Speaker 1: himself into a lineup to play against the Golden State
Speaker 1: Warriors in a nationally televised game, probably because of public pressure,
Speaker 1: people saying that he was a pussy and a bitch
Speaker 1: or whatever, you know, whatever mean things people say. And
Speaker 1: guess what, and guess what. It didn't work out well.
Speaker 1: He had to leave the game due to re injuring
Speaker 1: his knee, as I've said so gracefully before.
Speaker 4: Right row.
Speaker 1: After the game, an anonymous Sixers executive told The Athletic
Speaker 1: that Embiide had been dealing with left's knee soreness all
Speaker 1: season and that his late exit from the game, where
Speaker 1: he was clearly not okay all night because he was
Speaker 1: battered and bruised before February even arrived. This is this
Speaker 1: is bad here's the problem. Janni sits. He's duck in
Speaker 1: Superstar matchups. He doesn't want to play against Jokic. He's
Speaker 1: a bitch. All he wants to do is rack up
Speaker 1: these meaningless numbers against these meaningless teams. If he plays
Speaker 1: through injury risks, injuring himself. Oh, he's egotistical. He's chasing
Speaker 1: dumb awards that don't really matter. He just wants to
Speaker 1: get the MVP again. He wants to out best Jokich again.
Speaker 1: He's duck in Jokic and trying to out best Jokic,
Speaker 1: not worrying about the thing that matters most AKA competing
Speaker 1: for a championship. That's a lose lose situation. Brother, and
Speaker 1: B deserves better than this. And B deserves better than
Speaker 1: this dumbass discourse, especially considering that we know that Joel
Speaker 1: Embiid is not like faking it. Joel Embiid has not
Speaker 1: ever been one hundred percent healthy in his entire career
Speaker 1: since he's entered the NBA. How many games has Joel
Speaker 1: Emid ever played sixty five games in his career? Why
Speaker 1: did we think he was playing sixty five games now?
Speaker 1: Just because like someone said, you must, Joel Embiid, you
Speaker 1: must play sixty five games. We will make it so
Speaker 1: like we think that that's just gonna like work. You
Speaker 1: think this man was sitting out for no reason. What
Speaker 1: I mean, you're pushing this man to play past his
Speaker 1: physical limits that we know he has, which is fifty games.
Speaker 1: Joel Embiid's limit is fifty games plus then the playoffs
Speaker 1: where he might end up getting injured, so he's probably
Speaker 1: forty games. Okay, So it's every other game Joel Embid
Speaker 1: should play and be fucking thankful for those games because
Speaker 1: this is the best basketball we've ever seen Joel Embiid play. Also,
Speaker 1: he plays like shit in Golden State, plays like shit
Speaker 1: for two against whoever was before them. And then it
Speaker 1: was like, we're not talking about the pressure being placed
Speaker 1: on him and this dumb ass rule. We're talking about
Speaker 1: how fat Joel Embiid is. Not me. I didn't say that,
Speaker 1: but there's plenty of people on Twitter being like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: if Joel Embiid wasn't just such a fucking fatty, and
Speaker 1: then maybe he would stay in shape and maybe he
Speaker 1: would be able to like stay healthy through these sixty
Speaker 1: five games. They're like comparing Joel Embiid Desigon Williamson, like
Speaker 1: Joel Embiid didn't just win an MVP last year. It's
Speaker 1: absolutely insane. This is, by all intents and purposes, fucked up.
Speaker 1: The discourse around Joel Embid is unbelievable. He one hundred
Speaker 1: percent needs to sit out until he is one hundred
Speaker 1: percent healthy again, but these stupid rules made him feel pressured.
Speaker 1: And not just the rules, the people saying, oh, you know,
Speaker 1: Joel Embid, you're not gonna be able to get win
Speaker 1: an MVP and you're playing so well and like blahlah
Speaker 1: blah blah, and like yo doesn't only miss one game,
Speaker 1: and you are a pussy, so you need to play
Speaker 1: through this game. What? Like? No, Joel Embiid is now
Speaker 1: being reported that his ability to be at his best
Speaker 1: from here on out is in serious question. You motherfuckers
Speaker 1: are the reason that we're not gonna be able to
Speaker 1: see Joel and be put up seventy three again. You
Speaker 1: fuckers are the reason that we're not gonna be able
Speaker 1: to see Joel andb splash middies all day every day
Speaker 1: and me make money betting on him to score forty
Speaker 1: You guys, you dummies, You magic lauding the sixty five
Speaker 1: game rule, and and let's be honest, Adam Silver, you're
Speaker 1: at fault. You're at fault, money grab feeling like the
Speaker 1: economics don't make sense. The people who you're talking to
Speaker 1: and negotiating right now for these rights deals, they want
Speaker 1: the sixty five games because they think that the sport
Speaker 1: is being wided down because they don't like load management.
Speaker 1: Ah so if you put this rule in, you're gonna
Speaker 1: like squeeze an extra few billion dollars out of Apple TV. Congratulations,
Speaker 1: Now you get to watch Julia McLoughlin, who exactly Also
Speaker 1: Tyree Aliburton seems to hate these new rules as well.
Speaker 1: He says, I think it's a stupid rule, like playing
Speaker 1: the guys in the league, But this is what owners want.
Speaker 1: So as players, we got to do our job and
Speaker 1: playing sixty five games if we're able to. So that's
Speaker 1: what I gotta do. Got to take care of my
Speaker 1: body to be able to play in these games. And
Speaker 1: I think you're seeing other players in the league kind
Speaker 1: of face the same thing. As long as the owners
Speaker 1: are happy, right whoo. As long as the owners are happy, right,
Speaker 1: shots fired. Even Draymond Green is upset. I mean, he's
Speaker 1: probably always upset, although he's mistake games due to not injury,
Speaker 1: mostly the Tom foolery. Here's what he had to say
Speaker 1: on his podcast.
Speaker 3: Joel playing tonight felt very much so because of the
Speaker 3: sixty five game limit, where I think it's actually quite bullshit.
Speaker 3: Guys didn't face those rules before. But those same NBA teams,
Speaker 3: those same MVP awards, list defensive Player of the Year,
Speaker 3: those lists are the same. I once lost a Defensive
Speaker 3: Player of the Year award to Kawhi Leonard, and.
Speaker 4: I think he played fifty one games.
Speaker 3: In turn, you get Joel who comes out there tonight
Speaker 3: and he forces it and freak play with him and
Speaker 3: JK diving for the ball. But maybe it's not as
Speaker 3: bad if the knee isn't already banged up. I don't
Speaker 3: really bang with it. And now we got one of
Speaker 3: our premier faces in this league, the MVP of our league,
Speaker 3: possibly hurt for an extended period of time because he's
Speaker 3: forcing it.
Speaker 1: Because he's forcing it, not a good solution to this.
Speaker 1: Players are always gonna want to do what they think
Speaker 1: is necessary to avoid being injured, which I mean, let's
Speaker 1: be honest, it's not just the fact that these guys
Speaker 1: are missing time. It's the fact that they're in a
Speaker 1: lot of pain and aren't able to be I don't know,
Speaker 1: mobile like a normal human being. Owners in the league
Speaker 1: won't always do what they need to do to have
Speaker 1: their star players on the floor as much as possible.
Speaker 1: Turns out like we're diametrically opposed, when really the players
Speaker 1: want the same thing that the owners do. I just
Speaker 1: want to be healthy so that I can play the game,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. The problem is, and nobody's
Speaker 1: talking about this. Tyrese Haliburton is on the cusp of
Speaker 1: losing a lot of money too because of games messed.
Speaker 1: He only has three more games that he can lose,
Speaker 1: and he'll miss out on forty million dollars because he's
Speaker 1: not eligible for all NBA status. The solution, obviously is
Speaker 1: stopped tying contracts to awards, stop tying awards to games played, honestly,
Speaker 1: but that's a discussion for another day. For now, we
Speaker 1: just simply cannot have star players getting hurt just because
Speaker 1: they want to be eligible for this dumb mass award.
Speaker 1: He gets' paid more money. Ugly shit in an ugly game.
Speaker 1: Moving on, trade deadline's coming up fast. We're gonna have
Speaker 1: Jake Fisher on the podcast Monday to talk about that.
Speaker 1: But for now, the rumors are are that the one
Speaker 1: team everyone and I mean everyone thought would be like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, sound like a Carnival Barker. There you are,
Speaker 1: apparently standing pat. All the signs point to the fact
Speaker 1: that the Chicago Bulls are not going to make a move.
Speaker 1: They're not gonna make one move. Chicuggo Bulls, this team,
Speaker 1: what the fuck? According to the Athletic, if the Bulls
Speaker 1: swing a deal before the February deadline, most will be surprised.
Speaker 1: It's not that the Bulls can make a trade, but
Speaker 1: there's a prevailing belief that the front office won't commit
Speaker 1: to something substantial. That means no Zach Lavine on the move.
Speaker 1: That means no Demartin Rosen on the move. That means
Speaker 1: no Patrick Williams, not even Alex Crusoe. All of the rumors,
Speaker 1: all of the time that we've had those rumors, none
Speaker 1: of them are gonna come to fruition. Just a good
Speaker 1: old fashioned cock ts is what we have here, folks.
Speaker 1: Are the Chicago Bulls the new Toronto Raptors. Cock teas
Speaker 1: and trades, never pulling the trigger. Mark Eversley is now
Speaker 1: out there just Missillou's you'ering the whole league, the bit,
Speaker 1: except for we want these players less than we wanted them,
Speaker 1: so it's like weaved crazier. The biggest question is like,
Speaker 1: what the fuck are the Chicago Bulls doing. There's not
Speaker 1: anything left for the season to salvage. They're not good.
Speaker 1: They're twenty three and twenty six or in ninth place.
Speaker 1: There maybe had a fifty fifty percent chance to make
Speaker 1: a playing game. It is as bizarre. They're nowhere good
Speaker 1: enough to win, not committed in the least to rebuild,
Speaker 1: least in Toronto, they eventually became sellers. We're gonna have
Speaker 1: to see how this Chicago situation develops. Moving on, man,
Speaker 1: our guy, Darvin Ham, he's on the hot seat. Producer
Speaker 1: Anthony Irwin is out here leading the charge. Get him,
Speaker 1: fucking get him. No, the Lakers are shit show. As
Speaker 1: we know, everyone including Lebron James, is tired of Darvingham.
Speaker 1: All the players are throwing him under the bus subtly,
Speaker 1: not so subtly. Jason Tempt of Hoops tonight tweeted, I
Speaker 1: can't remember a team under treat and achieving relative relative
Speaker 1: to talent and health like this Lakers team. How bad
Speaker 1: are the Lakers? Well, when the starting lineup for a
Speaker 1: Thursday's nationally televised game against the Celtics was announced, a
Speaker 1: game where Ad and Broun were scratched early, very early,
Speaker 1: because Ad was hurt and Broun was held back, Chris
Speaker 1: Wood simply tweeted, lol. Well. They also mentioned that Christian
Speaker 1: Wood was going to be coming off the bench. Christian
Speaker 1: Wood thought he was going to be starting. Darvin Hamm responded,
Speaker 1: We're constantly looking for balance with our lineup, and it's
Speaker 1: not a popularity contest. We're looking at how to mix
Speaker 1: and match our players that will be most effective in
Speaker 1: helping us get a win. Also, they asked Christian Wood, Hey,
Speaker 1: what was that loll about? Was that about you not
Speaker 1: starting and you thinking that Jackson Hayes starting over you
Speaker 1: was an absolute joke show? And he said, oh no,
Speaker 1: my bad. I meant to quote tweet something. I just
Speaker 1: I just accidentally tweeted it without the quote tweet. And
Speaker 1: that is a lie. That is a lie. Lebron James
Speaker 1: is out here tweeting emojis of what are those things
Speaker 1: called sand those sand time things? Hour Glass out here,
Speaker 1: tweeting emojis of the hour glass tick tick times running out,
Speaker 1: I am out of here. I thought that might have
Speaker 1: been the announcement that he was partnering with the DraftKings
Speaker 1: for his new NFL Pick show that he's doing, which
Speaker 1: is absolutely wild. But no, he's like, yo, you guys
Speaker 1: need to make a move. It's a shit show. Producer
Speaker 1: Anthony Irwin says he thought for a while the season
Speaker 1: could be salvaged by firing Ham, but I don't think
Speaker 1: he's sure of that either. Check out his podcast by
Speaker 1: the Way Lakers Lounge for more details. But for now,
Speaker 1: Darvin Ham's gotta be getting fired. Lebron Jada tweeted, like
Speaker 1: I said, this hourglass making lots of people speculate he's
Speaker 1: gonna be gone after this year if they don't make
Speaker 1: a move. Moving on, it is time for Trista's crazy
Speaker 1: ass killer stat of the week, and holy shit, it's
Speaker 1: a wild one. Roger Sherman tweeted the following, which I
Speaker 1: had to fact check because I did not believe it.
Speaker 1: Ryan Archie Diacono Kano, which I've tried to say like
Speaker 1: a million times. You're just gonna live with it, okay,
Speaker 1: Like I tried to say as many times as I
Speaker 1: said to a tug of Ioloa before he fucking won
Speaker 1: the national title of the New York Knicks. Is in
Speaker 1: his eighth season, part of the bench mob, fourteenth or
Speaker 1: fifteenth mini on the squad. As as such, he's expected
Speaker 1: to play mop up minutes, and he's done that this
Speaker 1: year twenty times. But incredibly, unbelievably, I did not know
Speaker 1: this was real. He's not scored a single point this season,
Speaker 1: not one. He's played nearly forty six minutes this year
Speaker 1: across twenty games, not made a single shot. My man,
Speaker 1: Ryan Archie Diacano is Archie dia No, No, because he's
Speaker 1: not making shit. He's zero for six from the field,
Speaker 1: all three pointers, he's grabbed eight wards and dished four assists.
Speaker 1: Why is this noteworthy? There is not a player in
Speaker 1: the history of the NBA that has gone more than
Speaker 1: ten games without scoring. My man said, you know what,
Speaker 1: take that, I'll double it absurd. All I know is
Speaker 1: when this happens, the Knicks bench is gonna go absolutely
Speaker 1: ape shit. But who knows how many more games it's
Speaker 1: gonna take For him to score a point. That's all
Speaker 1: the time that we have for this episode of the
Speaker 1: Heat Check. Come back Monday for an on new episode.
Speaker 1: Check out the feeds for past episodes of many episodes
Speaker 1: which drop unexpectedly, like the beat in a screw like song.
Speaker 1: Do not forget to follow the Heat Check the rest
Speaker 1: of the season. That means download, That means subscribe. That
Speaker 1: means tell your friends. Even that woman who comes over
Speaker 1: to tell you about how there's yoga for migrains coming
Speaker 1: over unannounced when you might be in a dark room
Speaker 1: because you have a migraine. I don't know, maybe not
Speaker 1: pop it on her anyway, Hey tell her yo, thanks
Speaker 1: for the help. But also if you want to help
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