Speaker 1: Welcome in. We'll driving Nick Great Episode three point fifteen.
Speaker 1: After a eventful and somewhat exhausting weekend from New York
Speaker 1: to Memphis to Vegas, landed back here yesterday morning. That's
Speaker 1: why we were not able to be on the air Tuesday.
Speaker 1: Little programming note, however, a couple programming notes. Actually, let
Speaker 1: me see if I can straighten this out a bit
Speaker 1: for you guys. There we go. That should be better.
Speaker 1: My apologies. Tomorrow morning. A bonus show to make up
Speaker 1: for Tuesday, talk Lakers, Warriors, Instant Reaction, anything that should
Speaker 1: be up and live first thing in the morning, and
Speaker 1: if you're on the West Coast, probably while you're still sleeping,
Speaker 1: so that'll come tomorrow Tuesday, our annual way too early
Speaker 1: NFL over Under show. Normally we would have done that
Speaker 1: this past Tuesday, however, we weren't on the air, and
Speaker 1: so our friends at DraftKings have released the full slate
Speaker 1: of NFL team win totals, so we will take our
Speaker 1: first bite at that on Tuesday. However, we got to
Speaker 1: get right into it. I thought I knew where we'd
Speaker 1: be starting the show, given you know, the Internet over
Speaker 1: the weekend, But then the Internet over the last forty
Speaker 1: eight hours, I was involved in a different piece of
Speaker 1: the internet. So that's in what missed the cut, But
Speaker 1: it didn't actually miss the cut. So here's what missed
Speaker 1: the cut. Demons. Great to see you, Tyreek Hills Stokes
Speaker 1: trade rumors again, whatever he wants the attention. I love Tyreek,
Speaker 1: but we know what's going on. Greatest player in Syracuse
Speaker 1: basketball history, one of the greatest Olympians ever, one of
Speaker 1: the best pure scores of his era, a no doubt
Speaker 1: first ballot Hall of Famer, Carmelo Anthony. And then there's
Speaker 1: this the headline from People magazine. Dude trap Vis Kelsey
Speaker 1: and his quote sports friend have beef. So I was
Speaker 1: playing Demonse in a poker game in Vegas when this
Speaker 1: got sent to me, and now it's everywhere on the internet,
Speaker 1: and I cannot believe I need to address this. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's on People, it's on I think, that's Al Jazeera,
Speaker 1: it's on US Weekly. It's so I am so incredibly
Speaker 1: oddly frustrated by this because I think it is so
Speaker 1: recklessly unfair to Travis Kelcey. So let me reset exactly
Speaker 1: what happened, not restate, not clarified, because everything that I said,
Speaker 1: Demanse was totally one hundred percent clear the recreation of
Speaker 1: this in the headlines. I didn't misspeak, I didn't misrepresent
Speaker 1: has but the headlines to me are so this is
Speaker 1: what happened. So New Heights with Travis and Jason Kelsey
Speaker 1: shouted me out after I invited myself on their show
Speaker 1: to be their salary cap expert. Right, that's that's what happened.
Speaker 1: And Travis said, I offten love Nick Wright, and I said,
Speaker 1: as an aside, I was like, you know, I actually
Speaker 1: haven't spoken a lot to Travis since he and Taylor
Speaker 1: got together. With the timeline being I said, we don't
Speaker 1: really talk during the seasons. We always, you know, we
Speaker 1: have a kind of annual event of being able to
Speaker 1: get together at the Chief's Super Bowl Parade, But two
Speaker 1: years ago at the parade was cut short by a
Speaker 1: tragic shooting, and this year the parade was canceled by
Speaker 1: the Philadelphia Eagles. So those two times we didn't talk.
Speaker 1: And then the one off seat where that you know,
Speaker 1: where normally there might be and again I Travis, I
Speaker 1: am dear friends with Adam Lefko, who is an actual
Speaker 1: dear friend of Travis's. They I think one was at
Speaker 1: the other's. Yeah, I think left I think Travis was
Speaker 1: at left Goo's wedding. When the when Travis and Taylor
Speaker 1: were in New York City for a Yankee game and
Speaker 1: they did a live shot at Travis and Taylor, I'm like, Hey,
Speaker 1: that's Lefto and his wife sitting with them. They're dear friends.
Speaker 1: Trav and I have a great relationship, but we don't
Speaker 1: hang out. We you know, I don't. We've never talked
Speaker 1: on the phone, might text or DM occasionally, but I
Speaker 1: leave him alone during the season and then the last
Speaker 1: offseason he was the busiest man in the world. So
Speaker 1: that's what I said. So I said, yea, So this
Speaker 1: being like represented so unfairly up to an including in
Speaker 1: the Times of India that as if Travis has cut
Speaker 1: off people in his life or gott in Hollywood. It's
Speaker 1: just total horseshit.
Speaker 2: I feel, like you said, I've been passing as well,
Speaker 2: Like I remember when you said it, like I remember
Speaker 2: the tone and everything.
Speaker 3: It's definitely a reach.
Speaker 1: You know, Listen, anyone, if I felt like I had
Speaker 1: screwed up, I would apologize. But anyone that watched the
Speaker 1: show or saw it got the exact right read of it.
Speaker 1: Where I feel badly is I don't expect, certainly Taylor
Speaker 1: or Tailor's people to watch the show. They're welcome to,
Speaker 1: and I don't expect Travis to watch this show. And
Speaker 1: if it's represented as if someone is trying to you'd
Speaker 1: be like like, oh, we used to be super close.
Speaker 1: And then this guy like, that's not what it was
Speaker 1: at all, And so I got I know that this
Speaker 1: was I think the producers when they first like brought
Speaker 1: it to my attention and pitched me on it. I
Speaker 1: probably the tone of this was supposed to be this
Speaker 1: is hilarious, and it would be if I knew all
Speaker 1: the parties involved. Also we're on the exact same page.
Speaker 1: But I just I do feel that it is a
Speaker 1: level of fame. When I texted Wild's the People headline
Speaker 1: after Daniel texts it to me, and I said, I
Speaker 1: really think Taylor Swift might be the most famous person
Speaker 1: in the world. Like, I truly think she might be
Speaker 1: the most famous person in the world if just someone
Speaker 1: at my level whatever that is of notoriety having an
Speaker 1: aside about her boyfriend friend and the last time we talked,
Speaker 1: if that touch is enough if her fame gravity is
Speaker 1: so great that People magazine and the Times of India
Speaker 1: are like, this will get us some foot traffic on
Speaker 1: the website. It's incomprehensible that level of fame. And so
Speaker 1: maybe maybe there maybe when you're that level of famous,
Speaker 1: you're just used to things being so kind of out
Speaker 1: you know, misrepresented her out of whack, but it is
Speaker 1: that was an insane and an insane realization of the
Speaker 1: reach that a true global icon has, of which Taylor
Speaker 1: Swift is. So there's the not even clarification, but the
Speaker 1: true story. And then you got a question for me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, do you think you're gonna start a rebranding now
Speaker 2: in light of these events?
Speaker 1: Because I was called not my name but his sports friend.
Speaker 1: What's right with sports friend? Okay? I mean yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean that's the other thing. It's also a kind of
Speaker 1: confusing headline because it would it would appear like if
Speaker 1: you just read the headline, it sounds like they're talking
Speaker 1: about another professional athlete rather than me, because sports friend,
Speaker 1: I would think that you're talking another professional athlete. So
Speaker 1: that was, you know, one kind of brush with the
Speaker 1: media machine associated with the world's most famous people. Odd
Speaker 1: forty eight hours because it was my second brush with
Speaker 1: that of the week and demons go ahead.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so over the weekend you saw Memphis and Lakers
Speaker 2: face off. You happen to be court side. Bakers showed out,
Speaker 2: they got the dub. But the bigger piece of this
Speaker 2: story was like what happened after the game.
Speaker 1: So you're okay, yeah, we can play it if you're
Speaker 1: just listening on YouTube, or if you're just listening to
Speaker 1: the podcast and not watching on YouTube. What you're seeing
Speaker 1: right now is the like NBA cameras close up of
Speaker 1: Lebron and I dapping up after the game. And then
Speaker 1: my favorite part is your mom just standing there like
Speaker 1: fixing her hair like that cut out the full video
Speaker 1: which somebody got from the crowd, which includes the Lebron
Speaker 1: hug to your mom, which is just one of the
Speaker 1: coolest things you know ever. And also you know who
Speaker 1: I thought about when I saw that this video because
Speaker 1: this happened Saturday night and it all these videos came
Speaker 1: out Sunday, you know what I mean. I didn't publish
Speaker 1: any of these, I didn't amplify, but it somebody somebody
Speaker 1: put out this far form video Sunday morning. And then
Speaker 1: the other videos came out and caught fire. I gotta
Speaker 1: tell you, and I know this is not what probably
Speaker 1: is smart podcasting. They're like, you're bearing the lead, but
Speaker 1: I don't care. I what I thought about when Lebron
Speaker 1: went in for the hug to your mom right after
Speaker 1: a hard fought basketball game and she reciprocated and gave
Speaker 1: him the hug. I only thought about.
Speaker 3: You, thank you, thank you. Oh my god. Yes, yes,
Speaker 3: I was litering.
Speaker 2: To Somebody brought this up at work and I was like,
Speaker 2: my mom would never hug me if I was in
Speaker 2: that state.
Speaker 3: Ever, go ahead, what do you know?
Speaker 1: I agree with you. This isn't a hypothetical. We saw
Speaker 1: it happen a hundred times. A hundred times Demonse had
Speaker 1: an awesome either AU or high school basketball game, or
Speaker 1: when we came out to San Diego and watched you
Speaker 1: play in college and you had your career high twenty
Speaker 1: nine or whatever.
Speaker 3: It was not a full like that.
Speaker 2: Maybe a side one maybe.
Speaker 1: Maybe That's all I could think about was you. I
Speaker 1: was like, oh man, this is unbelievable, and it's so
Speaker 1: funny that you said the same thing. Okay, So I
Speaker 1: don't even know what or how people and then I
Speaker 1: want to talk about the actual game, even though no,
Speaker 1: I don't think anybody cares about it right now? What
Speaker 1: are how people want me to say about this? Like
Speaker 1: I what did I say the other week? One of
Speaker 1: the benefits and this is not my quote, obviously one
Speaker 1: of the benefits, and never lying is never having to
Speaker 1: remember anything. I have never once ever misrepresented in over
Speaker 1: or under exaggerating my relationship with Lebron. It's always been
Speaker 1: well I should, I mean relationships of all, but it's
Speaker 1: the audience has kind of been on the journey. I
Speaker 1: consider Maverick Lebron's right hand man and one of the
Speaker 1: smartest business people I've ever met, a good good friend
Speaker 1: because of my really and I have a something of
Speaker 1: a business and something of a personal relationship with Rich.
Speaker 1: Because of those relationships, I have a secondary relationship with
Speaker 1: Lebron where you know, the occasionally were in the same circle,
Speaker 1: very occasionally. It's happened a couple times, and so it was.
Speaker 1: I said on this show repeatedly when I knew we
Speaker 1: were going to Memphis, and when I knew that I
Speaker 1: had gotten, and when I knew I had gotten when
Speaker 1: I purchased the courtside seats that that interaction was certainly
Speaker 1: on the board. Now it was going to be one
Speaker 1: hundred percent conditional on the Lakers winning, because anybody that's
Speaker 1: watched Lebron throughout his career knows if they win, he'll
Speaker 1: he usually has a postgame interview, he'll linger a bit
Speaker 1: on the court, and if he has friends or colleagues
Speaker 1: or whomever courtside other pro athletes, he'll stop by dap
Speaker 1: them up. If they lose, it's straight to the locker room. Now,
Speaker 1: what didn't get caught was the pregame interaction when I
Speaker 1: was standing with John Morant's dad, T and Lebron came
Speaker 1: over and said hello to both of us, and then
Speaker 1: he and Tea had a brief conversation. I don't know
Speaker 1: what it was about. It was private, but I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't. I was not as shocked by that as
Speaker 1: I think the audience was. The Internet, I should say,
Speaker 1: and this is where maybe my ego can get the
Speaker 1: best of me. I was a little offended is too
Speaker 1: strong of a word. I'll go nonplussed by the number
Speaker 1: of people who were asserting what a life changing event
Speaker 1: this this was for me or the oh Man finally,
Speaker 1: you know, after all those years of good pr finally
Speaker 1: gets his acknowledgement. That's not what it is either, However,
Speaker 1: I do. I am a die hard sports fan. It
Speaker 1: is why I do what I do for my entire life.
Speaker 1: The NBA, up until really Mahomes got drafted, it was
Speaker 1: the NBA was a clear number one in my personal
Speaker 1: sports fandom, with the NFL a all by itself but
Speaker 1: a clear number two. The last half decade of the
Speaker 1: NFL has kind of changed it to where now if
Speaker 1: I'm asked, I say, the NFL regular season is my favorite.
Speaker 1: The NBA playoffs are my favorite. Like my favorite sport
Speaker 1: to watch over the course of the year is the NFL.
Speaker 1: My favorite two months of the year of the NBA playoffs.
Speaker 1: But with all that said, I for the majority of
Speaker 1: my life my favorite sport in the world was the NBA.
Speaker 1: My favorite athlete ever is Lebron and so yeah, it's
Speaker 1: super dope that he and I have even that level
Speaker 1: of I don't know if you want to call it
Speaker 1: relationship whatever it is, mutual acknowledgment respect. I'd call it
Speaker 1: mutual respect, Yeah, is how I would is the way
Speaker 1: I would put it. And I also think for him.
Speaker 3: It was.
Speaker 1: Bent. It was good timing in that because of everything
Speaker 1: that he has been involved in in the last month,
Speaker 1: it was a reminder to the audience. I don't I'm
Speaker 1: not anti all an everyone in the media. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, I'm not. I don't think
Speaker 1: that everybody. It's there's certain there's one person in particular,
Speaker 1: and then maybe a handful of unnamed but we know
Speaker 1: who they are retired athletes in the media that I
Speaker 1: have a problem with. But otherwise, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Like there can be a level of and the other
Speaker 1: thing about Lebron's relationship with the media is if you
Speaker 1: ever see any of his pregame interviews, which are almost
Speaker 1: always done with the local media that covers the Lakers
Speaker 1: and then whatever team they're playing, he has seemingly real,
Speaker 1: not just cordial, but incredibly friendly relationships with a lot
Speaker 1: of those guys. Mike Trudell, who covers the Lakers. There
Speaker 1: was the video of him giving Trudell a hard time
Speaker 1: because he was wearing I think a man you sweatshirt,
Speaker 1: and Lebron owned is a Liverpool guy because he either
Speaker 1: owns or owned a piece of it. He had when
Speaker 1: he was with the Calves. Maybe still a really good
Speaker 1: relationship with Ali Clifton will host road tripping with Channing
Speaker 1: Frye and Richard Jefferson. So I think that's all there.
Speaker 1: But yeah, so I knew once that clip, once the
Speaker 1: first like far away clip came out, I knew this
Speaker 1: was going to be something that in some capacity was
Speaker 1: going to be addressed. But I was probably not as
Speaker 1: shocked by as everyone else. What I really was thrilled, though, Demons,
Speaker 1: even though I knew you probably would take it personally
Speaker 1: as you should have that Lebron who has met your
Speaker 1: mother once before, recognized her the and you know, acknowledged her.
Speaker 1: So that part, that part was pretty cool. And then
Speaker 1: we can get to the game.
Speaker 2: Go ahead to though, wait so wait or do you
Speaker 2: want to get to the game or do we There's
Speaker 2: actually one more piece of video that we have not shown.
Speaker 2: It actually has audio. We're gonna show you guys.
Speaker 1: Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: is this the one? Is this the one your mom
Speaker 1: sent to the group, to our family group chat.
Speaker 3: It's a little yeah, one hundred percent, it's a little
Speaker 3: bit more up close.
Speaker 1: Okay, So let me give all right, before we play this,
Speaker 1: all right, this is this is borderline is the wrong word,
Speaker 1: but it's fine. But I also, if we're going to
Speaker 1: play this, I want to I want to give the
Speaker 1: full background here. So there were two guys and you
Speaker 1: see it in the In fact, I don't know before
Speaker 1: we do it, producers tell me, can we play the
Speaker 1: vo close shot again? Because I want to give these
Speaker 1: guys credit. So it was a father and son that
Speaker 1: were sitting next to us courtside, and you see the
Speaker 1: father has his phone out and he's trying to grab
Speaker 1: a picture with his son and Lebron. Uh, and it
Speaker 1: doesn't happen. The child, no, not the small child. Black
Speaker 1: guy with the blue hat and his son right next
Speaker 1: to you see that there, not the little little kid,
Speaker 1: not the redhead. It's black father and son right next
Speaker 1: to your mom. So that guy had his camera out
Speaker 1: recording in case, you know what I mean, he was
Speaker 1: able to get a picture with his son and Lebron.
Speaker 1: He did didn't end up happening. I then asked him
Speaker 1: because of the hug with your mom and Lebron, I
Speaker 1: was like, hey, can you send me that video later?
Speaker 1: You know what I mean? I think it'd be super
Speaker 1: dope to have and so he said yes, And is
Speaker 1: that actually a pain for him? I think he had
Speaker 1: to send it me a drop boxer for so long.
Speaker 1: So I want to shout him out because his name
Speaker 1: is shown Hornbuckle and his son is Tristan Hornbuckle. Uh
Speaker 1: and there on Instagram at shown Hornbuckle and at Tristant
Speaker 1: Hornbuckle too. But so this one is dope because there
Speaker 1: is audio and because you hear what Lebron says to
Speaker 1: your mom, So go ahead and play that, then we'll
Speaker 1: talk about the game. So I don't know how well
Speaker 1: that played on the podcast, but it is such pairing
Speaker 1: if you're listening on the podcast, it's worth going back
Speaker 1: to YouTube. Bron and I dapt I thing kind of
Speaker 1: motion like, hey, there's there's my wife who again they've
Speaker 1: met once before, and his total like disposition changes from
Speaker 1: like you know, the the what's the word kind of
Speaker 1: like affirmative DAP to just like, oh, great to see you,
Speaker 1: and then drops a hey their sweetheart as are a hug,
Speaker 1: which maybe led to you know what we were discussing earlier.
Speaker 1: So that was dope. That was what le see.
Speaker 3: The look on ye.
Speaker 1: That that was that was dope, and you're and now,
Speaker 1: I mean, your mom can send that to her grandmother,
Speaker 1: who's ninety one years old and the biggest Lebron fan
Speaker 1: in the world was.
Speaker 3: Probably a little annoyed too.
Speaker 1: The oh yeah, yeah, absolutely, oh yeah, because well it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter the there was Lakers thunder. Maybe this is
Speaker 1: john because of what happened between Lebron and stephen A.
Speaker 1: That there's I assume there's cameras on Lebron at all
Speaker 1: times every game, but maybe it's like, you know, pre
Speaker 1: and postgame more now posts that because Lakers thunder in
Speaker 1: LA the day after Thanksgiving, the exact same interaction that
Speaker 1: happened this week between Lebron and I happened there at Staples,
Speaker 1: except it was longer, with a longer conversation, and there's
Speaker 1: no video of it anywhere. And so but the reason
Speaker 1: I the reason I bring that up is that happened
Speaker 1: about sixty feet from where your grandmother was sitting. She
Speaker 1: was in like row three, a section over, and then
Speaker 1: I walked back to the seats and she was not joking, adamant,
Speaker 1: why didn't you bring him over here?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Well so yeah, so, but so that was that was
Speaker 1: that busy weekend, fun weekend, I.
Speaker 3: Do you want to talk about? Vegas?
Speaker 1: Went to Vegas to do some commentary for the World
Speaker 1: Poker Tours squid Hunt, which is coming out here in
Speaker 1: a few months, and while I was there lived a
Speaker 1: poker player's dream, which is got invited into the big,
Speaker 1: big mixed game in Bobby's Room and Bobby's Room which
Speaker 1: is the world's most famous poker room inside the Belagio,
Speaker 1: and then ended up wrapping the World Poker Tour stuff
Speaker 1: in time on Tuesday to where the same guys who
Speaker 1: were playing in that mixed game, we're playing the exact
Speaker 1: same format on stream at the pokerhost studio at Aria
Speaker 1: and I played in it. And this is again I
Speaker 1: know some of my poker stuff. You know, the audience
Speaker 1: doesn't understand this. They really, if you're not a poker player,
Speaker 1: won't understand because the mixed games that we played were
Speaker 1: just stick with me here for a second, but doogie
Speaker 1: but doucey drama, ha, deuce to seven, single draw, duce
Speaker 1: to seven, triple draw, uh big oh, and one other
Speaker 1: one I can't even remember what it was. Ras. So
Speaker 1: here's what was so cool for me about that demanse,
Speaker 1: and it was the limits were two hundred four hundred.
Speaker 1: But again it's a limit game. So like if you're
Speaker 1: playing a two hundred four hundred no limit game, you're
Speaker 1: gonna not feel comfortable if you're not sitting with In
Speaker 1: the two hundred four hundred no limit holding cash games,
Speaker 1: you probably need at least two hundred thousand dollars in
Speaker 1: front of you to feel comfortable, and probably more. The
Speaker 1: two hundred four hundred limit games, you could sit with
Speaker 1: ten grand and feel comfortable, and twenty is plenty. So
Speaker 1: they just play very differently. Because no limit you can
Speaker 1: bet any amount at any time. Limit games, if it's
Speaker 1: two hundred four hundred, the most you can ever bet
Speaker 1: on a single one bet is four hundred dollars. Again,
Speaker 1: that part doesn't matter, But here's I'm just giving you
Speaker 1: guys the full context of it. Here's why it was
Speaker 1: so cool. Those games that I just described to you,
Speaker 1: six of the seven as of Sunday night, I had
Speaker 1: played in my poker career zero hands of never played
Speaker 1: any of them. However, because I'm such a poker nerd
Speaker 1: and because I really care about learning the games, I
Speaker 1: have watched the best in the world play them on
Speaker 1: stream hundreds of hours. So it was a real test
Speaker 1: case of how much can like studying learning prepare you
Speaker 1: to actually do. Because normally someone first time they'd been
Speaker 1: playing wouldn't be playing two hundred four hundredy'd be playing
Speaker 1: three dollars, six dollars whatever. But I felt like, no,
Speaker 1: I know how to play all these games. And I
Speaker 1: gotta tell you, I think I played great. We'll see
Speaker 1: it when the stream comes out. I won money. I
Speaker 1: like for the one percent listening Diard poker nerds that'll
Speaker 1: get this. I got Pad's poker Patrick Lennard, who is
Speaker 1: one of the best poker players in the world, to
Speaker 1: break an eight induced to seven triple draw with a
Speaker 1: check Ray's bluff. That was the single best move anyone
Speaker 1: at the table made all night. And it was and
Speaker 1: I made, you know, a few thousand dollars profit and
Speaker 1: more than held my own. And so again, I think
Speaker 1: I made a ton of mistakes throughout the course of
Speaker 1: the night, but that was fine. It was my first
Speaker 1: time doing it, but it was not a it was
Speaker 1: it was it went great. So that was that was
Speaker 1: as thrilling as anything that happened this week, and playing
Speaker 1: in Bobby's room than playing with those guys. Shout out
Speaker 1: one of the guys that was in the game, David Baker.
Speaker 1: He's the two time winner or one time winner of
Speaker 1: the Super Contest. And then one another thing. He's one
Speaker 1: of the best NFL handicappers in the world. He won
Speaker 1: the Westgate Super Contest years ago. And he was in
Speaker 1: the game. Nacho Barbero was in the live game, not
Speaker 1: the streamed game. A bunch of guys. There were three
Speaker 1: knicks at the table. Shout out to the other knicks.
Speaker 1: Everyone was great. And so oh and the guy's whose
Speaker 1: game it was Crazy Mike. It was the Crazy Mike mix.
Speaker 1: And so shout out to all those guys. It was awesome.
Speaker 1: I had such a great time. Okay, now thirty minutes
Speaker 1: into the show to the actual basketball, go ahead.
Speaker 2: Yeah, do you want to you don't want to talk
Speaker 2: about the game right the Memphis.
Speaker 1: No, because we're gonna get to Memphis and later. Yep.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So Jokic has been cooking. He put up sixty
Speaker 3: one against Minnesota the other day. It's his highest scoring
Speaker 3: triple double.
Speaker 2: And to acknowledge he's the best basketball player he's ever
Speaker 2: seen besides besides himself. Yeah, but the big story of
Speaker 2: that game was Russ kind of choking there at the end.
Speaker 2: He got the steals, smoked the layup, and then fouled
Speaker 2: the three point shooter at the end.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And then last night smoked another layout Yeah with a
Speaker 1: few minutes left, and they needed that. They lost to
Speaker 1: the Spurs. So we'll get to Joker in a second.
Speaker 1: I don't I don't take joy in being right on this,
Speaker 1: But of course we were going. Anyone that has spent
Speaker 1: a season watching late stage Russell Westbrook play for teams
Speaker 1: with championship aspirations, all of them knew, and all of
Speaker 1: them thought it would be different for them until they
Speaker 1: realize it's not. I was one of those people once.
Speaker 1: So here's the deal. Russell Westbrook over the last nearly
Speaker 1: full decade has been totally unable to contribute to winning basketball,
Speaker 1: and four contenders have been like, we can change him,
Speaker 1: and all four contenders were wrong. So he he leaves
Speaker 1: the Thunder and they pair him with James Harden for
Speaker 1: a Rockets team that thinks they can win the championship
Speaker 1: just a year and a half removed from winning sixty
Speaker 1: five games and taking the Durant Warriors to a game
Speaker 1: seven in the conference finals, and it of course goes terribly.
Speaker 1: They divorce after one year. He's brutal in the playoffs,
Speaker 1: and then he goes to the one place, the one
Speaker 1: place that the Russell Westbrook experience made sense was Washington
Speaker 1: because Washington's like, hey, man, car keys are yours? We
Speaker 1: would just love to win forty games, and Russ delivers
Speaker 1: averages another triple doubles. It's all Russ all the time,
Speaker 1: gets him into the playoffs, and then in those playoffs
Speaker 1: you're gonna be like, oh, what did you do? In
Speaker 1: the playoffs? He averaged the triple double. In the playoffs,
Speaker 1: he shot thirty three percent from the floor and they
Speaker 1: lost in five. Then the Lakers were like, we can
Speaker 1: change him, and the Lakers missed the playoffs the one
Speaker 1: year he's there in full, have to get off him
Speaker 1: and promptly make the conference finals without him. The Clippers,
Speaker 1: we can change him. And with the Clippers they're like, oh,
Speaker 1: he's better here. He's accepted his role, and in his
Speaker 1: one full season with the Clippers, they make the playoffs,
Speaker 1: and in those playoffs he plays nineteen minutes a game,
Speaker 1: averages six points on twenty six percent from the field,
Speaker 1: twenty three percent from three and they move off him,
Speaker 1: and then the Nuggets, we can change him. It'll be
Speaker 1: different here. And the playoffs are approaching, and you got
Speaker 1: a little sneak preview of what to expect. And again,
Speaker 1: I take no pleasure in this because I have such
Speaker 1: respect for Russell's career and the way he approaches playing
Speaker 1: hard at all times. What I do take a little
Speaker 1: pleasure in is Nuggets fans who got a little chesty
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the year. Demon's a lot of like,
Speaker 1: do a Twitter search for these three nouns Yokich, Lebron,
Speaker 1: Russ and see how many tweets pop up from November
Speaker 1: and December along the lines of, oh, why couldn't Lebron
Speaker 1: get out of Russ? What Joker is?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 1: Why oh oh oh, you know, Russ got blamed for
Speaker 1: everything in LA but put him with a guy like Joker,
Speaker 1: and look, guys, this train is never late. It's never late.
Speaker 2: Russ also has like lost a lot of his athleticism,
Speaker 2: and I think that's kind of like, oh, that's obvious
Speaker 2: he's getting older. But like on that layup that he smoked,
Speaker 2: I was telling Daniel like a few years ago, Russell
Speaker 2: was dunk in that.
Speaker 1: Man, I just yes, that's exactly right. By the way,
Speaker 1: that's the that's another time where the exact take you
Speaker 1: gave was the exact take. And this is a compliment
Speaker 1: that Brew gave yesterday, oh, which is yeah, that that was.
Speaker 1: It might have been wild one of them, but either way,
Speaker 1: it was that used to be a dunk and it's
Speaker 1: not anymore here on this one. And so uh and
Speaker 1: it there what it in life? What awesome is what
Speaker 1: all what often is your greatest asset becomes your great liability.
Speaker 1: Russ going one speed at all times, Russ, you know,
Speaker 1: playing a certain way. Russ's relentlessness is what made him him,
Speaker 1: and now it's what makes him a total liability to
Speaker 1: winning basketball. Also, by the way, that yeah, to winning basketball.
Speaker 1: And it's a disase it The Nuggets aren't deep enough
Speaker 1: to be able to just put them on ice. But man,
Speaker 1: oh man, like, I I don't know, I don't know
Speaker 1: how you can put him in critical playoff games. And
Speaker 1: here's the other piece of it. I thought of that sequence, Demanse,
Speaker 1: the missed layup was the least of the problems. Missed
Speaker 1: layups happened. I thought it was a bigger problem that
Speaker 1: after missing the layup in a one point double overtime
Speaker 1: game with ten seconds left, he stood under the basket,
Speaker 1: arms up, whining for a beat, which then allowed the
Speaker 1: Timberwolves to get the advantage. And obviously the worst part
Speaker 1: of the play was not only did he foul a
Speaker 1: three point shooter, he fouled a three point shooter demonse
Speaker 1: on a fake contest. There was like there was that
Speaker 1: that wasn't one of those Oh man, I I almost
Speaker 1: locked it and instead I hit him. No, I mean
Speaker 1: it was a fake contest. And then I don't know
Speaker 1: if you saw Rob Prez's video then when he's lead
Speaker 1: even the court with the fan, yeah, I mean, buddy, like.
Speaker 2: I feel the russ is. It's unfortunate. Man, Why do
Speaker 2: you need the camera on the man's face for so
Speaker 2: long when they make a mistake.
Speaker 1: Well, that's like the drama. I mean, that's how I mean.
Speaker 1: I get that.
Speaker 2: It's like, this is a guy who messed up. But yeah,
Speaker 2: he's gonna stop chirping the fans. You you screw it up,
Speaker 2: and the fans are gonna.
Speaker 1: Right like now, listen if it comes out the fan,
Speaker 1: you know, dropped a slur then, of course whatever, but
Speaker 1: I but my feeling was it wasn't that.
Speaker 3: Going up there just off of Westbrick.
Speaker 1: Yes, Westbrook, exactly exactly, And so like it's it's a
Speaker 1: tough now, our resident Nuggets fan, Daniel, I still believe
Speaker 1: in Russ. Good luck with that man again Westbrook. This decade,
Speaker 1: this decade, guys, it's twenty twenty five, this decade in
Speaker 1: the playoffs, thirty seven percent from the field, twenty seven
Speaker 1: percent from three, three and a half turnovers a game
Speaker 1: in thirty one minutes. Can't win that way, you just can't.
Speaker 1: And so rough Spot, I know you have some follow
Speaker 1: ups here, go ahead.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, even with Russ, with Russ playing the way.
Speaker 2: He is, could you still consider counting out the Denver
Speaker 2: Nuggets with Jokics being on the team.
Speaker 1: No, So listen, that's the shame of it is Jokic
Speaker 1: has one of the greatest games in NBA history and
Speaker 1: it gets squandered. Now again, I I saw Luca last
Speaker 1: year have a seventy three, ten and seven and then
Speaker 1: all year long before or fifth in the standings and
Speaker 1: be ineligible for MVP. So I'm not doing another MVP thing.
Speaker 1: Shay's team might win seventy games, He's gonna win the
Speaker 1: scoring title. He's were we are if we want a
Speaker 1: retro act. Here's the deal, Nugget fans. If you make
Speaker 1: up this petition, I'll sign it. If you would like
Speaker 1: to retroactively give last year's MVP to Luca so Joker
Speaker 1: can win this year, I'm all for it. But last
Speaker 1: year the argument against Luca was Jokers team has the
Speaker 1: best record, even if he's averaging. You know, Jokers averaging
Speaker 1: damn near. His numbers are great, even if they're not
Speaker 1: quite as good as Luca's, but it's contributing to winning more.
Speaker 1: And last year Joker was the better defender than Luca.
Speaker 1: It's gotta be Joker and Luca in with four first
Speaker 1: place votes. You can't then use all of your Joker
Speaker 1: arguments from last year this year and not end up
Speaker 1: with Shay. The logical consistency of the last two years,
Speaker 1: voting will would either go Luca last year, Joker this year,
Speaker 1: or Joker last year Shay this year. Joker already won
Speaker 1: last year, so it's Shay's now. Is Joker the best
Speaker 1: player in the league? Yes, is Joker the only person.
Speaker 1: And this is what Nuggets fans should take pride in.
Speaker 1: Is Joker the only person you could put on that
Speaker 1: Nuggets team and they would have any chance of winning
Speaker 1: the championship. Yes, he's the only guy in the league,
Speaker 1: and they do have a chance. Not a good chance,
Speaker 1: but they do have a chance. The standings are we
Speaker 1: gonna get to the standings later in the show. No,
Speaker 1: So I'll do it here. Those two losses, however, because
Speaker 1: they lost the last night, now they sat everyone. By
Speaker 1: the way, I should have put this out. Our friends
Speaker 1: at DraftKings might have been annoyed me, but I should
Speaker 1: have put it out. I gave it to Hubbs yesterday
Speaker 1: at one pm. The money line for the Spurs were
Speaker 1: ten point dogs and they were plus three eighty on
Speaker 1: the money line, and I said to Hubbs, I was like,
Speaker 1: this line is acting like Joker is gonna play. I
Speaker 1: don't think he is. He's played fifty three minutes the
Speaker 1: night before, like and Joker then got announced is out.
Speaker 1: The line dropped to damn near a pickham and the
Speaker 1: Spurs won. So shout out to anyone who sniped that,
Speaker 1: because that, to me, I just couldn't be We knew
Speaker 1: Jamal Murray wasn't gonna be playing. I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 1: But here's the standings implication. Denver's now the four again.
Speaker 1: Some time left, not a lot though, five games left
Speaker 1: Houston sitting at twenty seven losses the Lakers, and at
Speaker 1: this point in the season, guys just count losses. You
Speaker 1: can make up wins, you can't make up losses, So
Speaker 1: don't talk about games back any of that. Count the losses.
Speaker 1: That's what matters. Oklahoma City pretty comfortable with twelve losses, unbelievable.
Speaker 1: Houston's at twenty seven and clinched their playoff spot last night.
Speaker 1: The Lakers are at twenty nine, the Nuggets are at thirty,
Speaker 1: the Warriors are at thirty one, Minnesota is at thirty two,
Speaker 1: and the two play in teams that are good the
Speaker 1: Clippers and grit well, I don't know if they're good,
Speaker 1: but that are above five hundred. The Clippers and Grizzlies
Speaker 1: are at thirty two. So Houston safe from the play
Speaker 1: in barring well, no safe from the plane entirely because
Speaker 1: they clinched their division. That keep you safe from the plane,
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure it does. But here's what I will
Speaker 1: say about Houston. Houston's next five or last final five Demanse, Thunder, Warriors, Clippers, Lakers, Nuggets.
Speaker 1: So anybody that has some doubts is Houston. Well it's
Speaker 1: all the teams they could play in Round one of
Speaker 1: the playoffs, except for the Thunder obviously can't play them.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean we're gonna find out over these
Speaker 1: next five. The Lakers right now would give anything demonse
Speaker 1: to freeze the standings because well, yeah, Denver Golden State
Speaker 1: play each other in Round one and the winner plays
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City. If you froze the standings, the Lakers side
Speaker 1: of the bracket would be Minnesota and then Houston or
Speaker 1: I guess maybe the Clippers, like the Lakers would love
Speaker 1: that road. I don't know that they'll get it, but
Speaker 1: it would absolutely love that road. You too, the Daniel
Speaker 1: asking if I would you know, like to face the
Speaker 1: size of the Timberwolves. I again, the West is a
Speaker 1: monster and there's no you know, no easy outs right
Speaker 1: now except for Memphis. But they're you know, Memphis is
Speaker 1: gonna in my opinion, up the eight seed. So you're
Speaker 1: not gonna be able to get Memphis. And yeah, I
Speaker 1: would take my chances. I don't want to face any
Speaker 1: of the I don't want to face Denver or Golden
Speaker 1: State immediately, and I love the idea of being on
Speaker 1: the opposite side of OKC. Like again there. I think
Speaker 1: the Lakers can win the whole thing, but it doesn't
Speaker 1: mean all paths are created equal. Here's I'll tell you
Speaker 1: who Denver doesn't want to face. Denver be fine with
Speaker 1: the Warriors. I think they've beaten the Warriors nine straight games.
Speaker 1: Denver doesn't want to face Minnesota, who has now beating
Speaker 1: them six games in a row, swept them this season,
Speaker 1: and then beat them game six and seven of the
Speaker 1: playoffs last year.
Speaker 2: Would you give them beef? Doubt they if they were
Speaker 2: in a series year taking Minnesota.
Speaker 1: I take it you have to pick Minnesota, all right?
Speaker 1: Those one six straight, they've won six straight against them.
Speaker 1: All right, Let's talk Lakers Warriors.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so Steph is looking good. He's had a few
Speaker 2: games back since his injury. The other day he dropped
Speaker 2: fifty two. I had twelve three pointers. So the Warriors
Speaker 2: are looking pretty good, which is bad for your Lakers,
Speaker 2: who they played at night, and they could also be
Speaker 2: potentially playing them in the playoffs. Ye, how do you
Speaker 2: feel the Lakers got them? But they're coming off of
Speaker 2: a lot of rest.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So I think the Warriors are everyone's making this
Speaker 1: Warriors eighteen and two with Jimmy eighteen and five since
Speaker 1: the trade about Jimmy, it's about what it's Let Steph
Speaker 1: go back to being Steph. Before the Jimmy trade was
Speaker 1: twenty two a game. Since the Jimmy trade's at twenty
Speaker 1: eight a game. On better efficiency popped off for fifty
Speaker 1: two the other night. I if you are getting close
Speaker 1: to prime Steph, you're a threat when you have And
Speaker 1: it's also a reminder if you have one of the
Speaker 1: greatest players of all time, you have an obligation to
Speaker 1: always be all in. You can't throw seasons away because
Speaker 1: you might go another fifty years in your franchise and
Speaker 1: not have a player nearly as good as Steph Curry. Now,
Speaker 1: I think both teams desperately need this game, which is
Speaker 1: what makes it so fascinating because of what I was
Speaker 1: saying about the standings the Lakers. If the Lakers win
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, they have twenty nine losses, Golden
Speaker 1: State has thirty two, and by the way, the Lakers
Speaker 1: have the tiebreaker over everyone beneath them in the standings,
Speaker 1: every single team. So you would a win tonight for
Speaker 1: the Lakers essentially eliminates any concern of falling into the
Speaker 1: play in And it doesn't lock up a top four seed,
Speaker 1: but it essentially does. And if for the Warriors, if
Speaker 1: they lose, they're at thirty two losses. Memphis and the
Speaker 1: Clippers have thirty two losses, they're the seven and the eight.
Speaker 1: Minnesota's thirty two losses, they're at six. But the flip
Speaker 1: side of that applies as well. Golden State wins Demanse,
Speaker 1: the Lakers are at thirty losses, Golden State's at thirty one,
Speaker 1: and Golden State could potentially forget hitting in the play
Speaker 1: in end up with home court in Round one. I
Speaker 1: the Lakers this year, it's one of the honest things. Ever,
Speaker 1: they are dominant against the Western Conference, So the Lakers
Speaker 1: in the Thunder have almost the same record against the West.
Speaker 1: Think about that. So the Thunder are thirty five and
Speaker 1: eleven against the West, which means they are thirty five
Speaker 1: and eleven twenty nine and one. No, is that right?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Twenty nine and one against the East. The Thunder twenty
Speaker 1: nine and one against the East, thirty five and eleven
Speaker 1: against the West. The Lakers are thirty two and thirteen
Speaker 1: against the West, the second best record of the Thunder
Speaker 1: by a mile in the Western Conference. Thirty two and
Speaker 1: thirteen the Lakers are against the West, which means the
Speaker 1: flip side to that is they are fourteen and sixteen
Speaker 1: against the East.
Speaker 3: Role this year. Say it again, they're bad on the
Speaker 3: road this year?
Speaker 1: Correct?
Speaker 3: Really?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, so the Lakers have been an awesome home team,
Speaker 1: a bad road team. But you're West and East. You
Speaker 1: pay you know, you play half your games against the
Speaker 1: East at home, half on the road. So the Lakers
Speaker 1: are at home. They need it. They're playing a good team.
Speaker 1: I like the Lakers. The tricky thing to the Lakekers
Speaker 1: is for when you look at their final five games,
Speaker 1: you can't do what you can do with most of
Speaker 1: the good teams, which is be like, oh, oh, and
Speaker 1: the Lakers don't have five left. Hold on, Lakers have
Speaker 1: seven left. That's right, because they have the fire games. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but regardless most teams you'd be like, oh, well, chalk
Speaker 1: up a win against the Pelicans and Blazers. Lakers liable
Speaker 1: to lose to any bad team, but they also are
Speaker 1: excellent against the good teams. Uh so I'm really excited
Speaker 1: to see the night it Also, it could be a
Speaker 1: playoff preview. If it is, I hope it's not Round one,
Speaker 1: not because the Lakers would have, you know, couldn't beat
Speaker 1: the Warriors. But I just don't want a guarantee that
Speaker 1: one of the two is out of there. And round one.
Speaker 1: There is a team that I am certain is out
Speaker 1: of there and round one. It's the team I saw
Speaker 1: in person on Saturday. Go ahead, demanse.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so they've been struggling over the last few weeks.
Speaker 2: They've won two of their last ten games. The Grizzlies.
Speaker 3: Nine games left to go.
Speaker 2: They fired their head coach, and now they're at risk
Speaker 2: of falling into the play and Jahn Morant's holding up
Speaker 2: the finger guns. I think they're doing an investigation on
Speaker 2: him right now. But yeah, let's talk about the state
Speaker 2: of the Grizzlies.
Speaker 1: Okay, so just literally a minute ago, Shams tweeted, let
Speaker 1: me read it to you exactly. Uh sorry, hold on,
Speaker 1: NBA issued warnings but no further penalties to Grizzlies, Jamorant
Speaker 1: and Buddy healed along with the teams for the gestures.
Speaker 1: League ruled the celebrations were not intended to be violent
Speaker 1: in nature, but inappropriate and should refrain. All right. I
Speaker 1: want to make this clear. I don't care about the
Speaker 1: gun part of this. That's a different discussion. The pantomiming
Speaker 1: guns and the it that distracts from the point. Here's
Speaker 1: what I care about, demands any type of taunt or
Speaker 1: celebration when there's ten seconds left in a game, your
Speaker 1: team needed that. You let the other team's guys score
Speaker 1: fifty and you just lost to continue a four game
Speaker 1: losing streak, days after you fired your coach, and you're
Speaker 1: being a goofball. That's what I care about there. I
Speaker 1: And like I said, I talked to Tea at the
Speaker 1: Grizzlies game. I like Josh Dad. I like him historically,
Speaker 1: I've liked John. John this offseason needs to decide who
Speaker 1: do I want to be in this league? Because you've
Speaker 1: gone from your numbers have gotten worse over each of
Speaker 1: the last four years, your health has gotten worse over
Speaker 1: each of the last four years. Your team has gotten
Speaker 1: worse over each of the last four years. You just
Speaker 1: fired your coach and you're out here being a goofball,
Speaker 1: like and that was go ahead.
Speaker 2: So you're talking about John Ranty in the face of
Speaker 2: the league a year ago, correct, like maybe maybe a
Speaker 2: little over a year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, gun stuff, but yes, of course. And and even
Speaker 1: when the stupid gun stuff was happening, nobody questioned his
Speaker 1: skill how good he was? Right, So like that's the nobody.
Speaker 1: Nobody was wondering how great he is. He's never got
Speaker 1: better as a shooter. In fact, he maybe has gotten
Speaker 1: worse from three misses forty of the games with injury.
Speaker 1: Doesn't seem to take winning seriously, the hell's going on?
Speaker 1: Twenty five years old? And the to me, the most
Speaker 1: notable piece of the entire incident between he and healed
Speaker 1: was the look on Steph Curry's face, because Steph Curry's
Speaker 1: face was like a look of honestly, like a disappointed parent,
Speaker 1: like what are you doing? Like like, what what are
Speaker 1: you doing? The the reason I'm saying I'm not focused
Speaker 1: on the gun piece.
Speaker 3: Of it is.
Speaker 1: If the if the Grizzlies had just hit free throws
Speaker 1: to go up seven with ten seconds left and John
Speaker 1: did that celebration, I would feel totally differently, which means
Speaker 1: I know. For me, it's not about the gun piece
Speaker 1: of it, and again gun in quotes finger guns like
Speaker 1: it's about being ready to party when your team's falling apart.
Speaker 1: It's pro sports man, it's the playoff push. You just
Speaker 1: fired your coach. You just it was four straight losses
Speaker 1: against the four teams most likely to stand between you
Speaker 1: and a championship. They lost to the Thunder, then they
Speaker 1: lost to the Lakers, Then they lost to the Celtics,
Speaker 1: then they lost to the Warriors, and you're being a goofball.
Speaker 3: Like.
Speaker 1: I just I don't like it. I don't like it
Speaker 1: at all. Finals are here, and the only thing for
Speaker 1: sure is it's the last time you're gonna have a
Speaker 1: chance to bet on college basketball this season. It's been
Speaker 1: an amazing ride to get here, an unprecedented run to
Speaker 1: this point, with four of the four best teams, including
Speaker 1: four of the best teams in recent college basketball history,
Speaker 1: getting there. Maybe there will finally be a shocking outcome,
Speaker 1: or maybe we're just going to keep seeing the best
Speaker 1: show you why they're the best. More on that in
Speaker 1: a second. Get in on all the action, expected and
Speaker 1: unexpected with DraftKings Sportsbook with live betting, exclusive content, promos
Speaker 1: and barlays. DraftKings is the ultimate college basketball destination four March.
Speaker 1: Ready to make your first bet, check out the matchups,
Speaker 1: and pick a team to win. It's that simple me personally.
Speaker 1: You guys know, I was in on Tennessee. It didn't
Speaker 1: work out. Now we pivot. We got it, We pivot.
Speaker 1: Thus far, this has been a tournament where the best
Speaker 1: team wins. The best team is Duke. I personally like
Speaker 1: Duke minus five and a half tonight at even money.
Speaker 1: It's not tonight this weekend. I also personally like Duke
Speaker 1: to win the championship at even money. So Duke minus
Speaker 1: five and a half in their game on Saturday at
Speaker 1: even money, Duke plus one hundred to win the whole
Speaker 1: thing at even money. Better late than never. It's what
Speaker 1: I'm going with now that Tennessee's gone. Lines and odds
Speaker 1: subject to change first time. Here's something special just for
Speaker 1: you new DraftKings customers. Bet five dollars to get one
Speaker 1: hundred fifty dollars in bonus bets. Instantly bet the unexpected
Speaker 1: with DraftKings Sportsbook. Download the DraftKings sports Book GAFF and
Speaker 1: use code right. That's code right for new customers wrighd
Speaker 1: to get one hundred fifty dollars in bonus bets when
Speaker 1: you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings. Gambling problem
Speaker 1: call one eight hundred. Gambler in New York call eight
Speaker 1: seven to seven eight hope in why, or text hope
Speaker 1: in why, which is four six seven three six nine.
Speaker 1: In Connecticut. Help is available for problem gambling. Call eight
Speaker 1: eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven, or
Speaker 1: visit CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of
Speaker 1: Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas twenty one plus age
Speaker 1: in eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Bonus betts
Speaker 1: expire one hundred and sixty eight hours after issuance. For
Speaker 1: additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see DKNG dot co
Speaker 1: slash b ball. All right, demanse, let's rapid fire through
Speaker 1: the rest of these if we can.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Aaron Rodgers was seen working out with his new teammate
Speaker 2: DK Metcalf in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 3: Are you excited to see that Tatum next year? Nah?
Speaker 3: I'm kidding.
Speaker 2: He hasn't signed yet. What's going on with Aaron Rodgers?
Speaker 2: What's going on there? Guy's taking his time.
Speaker 1: I don't understand why the Steelers. Here's the deal. I
Speaker 1: understood why the Steelers were letting him dictate the terms
Speaker 1: when he had a bunch of options. He could go
Speaker 1: to New York. Maybe Minnesota was interested. He's out of options.
Speaker 1: The Giants signed two quarterbacks, Minnesota's not signing him, Tennessee's
Speaker 1: drafting their quarterback. Pittsburgh, you're the Pittsburgh Steelers. Call Aaron's
Speaker 1: agent and say, we need to know within the week
Speaker 1: or we're out. The leverage has shifted back to you.
Speaker 1: He wants to play for you, So why hasn't he signed.
Speaker 1: My guess is he doesn't want to either he doesn't
Speaker 1: want to be on the hook for the full off
Speaker 1: season program, or more accurately, he wants to be able
Speaker 1: to potentially pressure you into not spending your first round
Speaker 1: pick on a quarterback, be it Shador if he slips,
Speaker 1: or Jackson Dart if you love him and he thinks
Speaker 1: if he hasn't signed yet but has made it clear,
Speaker 1: oh I'm going to sign that. You guys won't draft
Speaker 1: a quarterback because it could upset it. Don't let him
Speaker 1: run things. He has nowhere else.
Speaker 3: To go, and if they do draft a quarterback. What's
Speaker 3: he gonna do.
Speaker 1: If he if he hasn't signed yet, then maybe he
Speaker 1: just won't sign. Okay, you know what I mean? Like
Speaker 1: maybe then he will you know, retire or wait for
Speaker 1: to see if there's an injury somewhere or whatever it is.
Speaker 1: But you can't let a guy who's never played for
Speaker 1: you and hasn't been in good for been good in
Speaker 1: four years dictate your draft plans and your offseason plans.
Speaker 1: The damn owner of the team came out yesterday and said, yeah,
Speaker 1: we thought it'd be done by now. I've never seen
Speaker 1: a team that has no history with a player when
Speaker 1: the player is not still awesome jump through these hoops.
Speaker 1: It's just baffling to me, all right.
Speaker 2: Next, Jerry Jones still hasn't come to closing a deal
Speaker 2: on Michael Parson's actually taking a shot at his agent
Speaker 2: during the process. He said, the agent is not a
Speaker 2: factor here or is something to worry about. And I
Speaker 2: don't know his name, and so my point is, I'm
Speaker 2: not trying to demean him in any way. But this
Speaker 2: isn't about an agent. Why would Jerry Jones say something
Speaker 2: of this sort.
Speaker 1: So here's the deal, and I actually think this is
Speaker 1: a real story, because there's only two possible truths here. Okay,
Speaker 1: one truth is he forgot the agent's name or doesn't
Speaker 1: know it, David mulla Getta. If that is the case,
Speaker 1: David's not an obscure agent. He negotiated with Sean Watson deal.
Speaker 1: He negotiated Malik Hooker, who's a cowboy, his deal. If
Speaker 1: your general manager does not know the agent's name for
Speaker 1: your best player, then it's time to take the car
Speaker 1: keys away from him. And people are like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: he wasn't He definitely knows his name. Okay, that's fine.
Speaker 1: That's door number two. Door number two is he does
Speaker 1: know his name, and he's being unnecessarily and intentionally disrespectful
Speaker 1: and combative with someone you have to work with. That
Speaker 1: ain't good either, you know what I mean. Like, either
Speaker 1: he's telling the truth and that's a problem, or he's
Speaker 1: just saying it to piss the guy off and that's dumb.
Speaker 1: Like there's there's no there's no win, there no win whatsoever.
Speaker 1: And it really Jerry Jones, for a long time was
Speaker 1: one of the best things that Cowboys had going for them.
Speaker 1: He has quickly become their single biggest impediment to winning,
Speaker 1: and for a franchise with that history and a brand
Speaker 1: of that caliber, it's just it's just unfathomable that they
Speaker 1: are the worst run team in the league, but right
Speaker 1: now they appear to be the worst run team in
Speaker 1: the league.
Speaker 3: Let's seem like a gay.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it doesn't. It's just an Yeah. I
Speaker 1: certainly didn't seem like you know that we'd be going
Speaker 1: to the same parties. All right, let's do mock drafts.
Speaker 2: Demonse, Uh so, yeah, you're one of the top mof
Speaker 2: mock drafters last year. You haven't said too much about
Speaker 2: it this year. Do you have a mock draft for
Speaker 2: the folks out there Monday?
Speaker 1: First things, First, mock draft one point zero. I think
Speaker 1: I had the world's eighteenth most accurate mock draft last year.
Speaker 3: Wow, yeah, I remember eighteen. I didn't know that was the.
Speaker 1: Might have been twenty one, it was somewhere. It wasn't
Speaker 1: in the top fifteen, but it was in the top
Speaker 1: twenty five. I remember that. I'll have to look it up.
Speaker 3: Double digits.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was. There were I mean there were hundreds
Speaker 1: and hundreds done by media member Schrager crushed. Schrager had
Speaker 1: the most accurate. Uh so, yeah, Monday on the TV show,
Speaker 1: the first mock draft gets revealed.
Speaker 2: All right, next, all right, so yeah, Cooper Flags looked
Speaker 2: like the real deal throughout the tournament and obviously throughout
Speaker 2: his short college career.
Speaker 3: He'll be eighteen when he hits the NBA. Do you
Speaker 3: think that he's.
Speaker 2: Gonna be a real deal or he's going to be
Speaker 2: more of a bust or flame out?
Speaker 3: I mean, obviously not a bust, but well, no.
Speaker 1: You can't say obviously. I mean, the only way you
Speaker 1: can be a bus is if you're a super high
Speaker 1: draft pick, and the only be a super high draft
Speaker 1: picks if people think you're gonna be awesome. But no,
Speaker 1: I think he's good. I am not. So you guys know,
Speaker 1: I'm not, you know, watching a ton of college basketball
Speaker 1: during the regular season, and so I hadn't It's not
Speaker 1: that I hadn't seen Cooper Flag, but I had, you know,
Speaker 1: not watched him as closely as the people who are
Speaker 1: college basketball diehards. To me, he's been better than advertised.
Speaker 1: I thought his game against Arizona was spectacular, and you
Speaker 1: guys just hurting the DraftKings read I'm in on Duke
Speaker 1: I mean, he has just been. He's so far and
Speaker 1: away the best player in college basketball. And here's the
Speaker 1: crazy thing, Demonse, he doesn't turn nineteen until December, so
Speaker 1: he's gonna be the same age. He's gonna be the
Speaker 1: age Lebron was when he came into the league. Like
Speaker 1: he reclassified so he should be a high school senior.
Speaker 1: But he's a college freshman. He's tall, he's strong, shoots
Speaker 1: it well enough good, IQ can defend. No, no, no, I
Speaker 1: now do I think he's gonna be like a super uperstar.
Speaker 1: We gotta wait and see that. But he is the
Speaker 1: no doubt obvious number one pick. All right, let's go
Speaker 1: to the final four. Before we get to the listener questions.
Speaker 2: Uh So Saturday, Florida and Auburn face off before Duke
Speaker 2: and Houston face off in the final four.
Speaker 3: Do you have any predictions for this?
Speaker 1: I'd like Houston to win because I like Kelvin Samson
Speaker 1: and you know we used to live there. But the
Speaker 1: tournament has been chalk, and I am going to stick
Speaker 1: with chalk. Duke over Florida and then Duke wins it all.
Speaker 3: What is Duke Kevin? I think I've been hearing it
Speaker 3: all week.
Speaker 2: I've not asked anybody when you say chalk the context
Speaker 2: clues meaning that it's linear, like what is it?
Speaker 3: Like? What does it mean?
Speaker 1: Same favorites? Wind?
Speaker 3: Okay, chalk means.
Speaker 1: It goes the way. I don't know, so a good
Speaker 1: I've always no, that's that you're thinking of?
Speaker 3: What?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's got none to do with that. I I
Speaker 1: don't know. Let's find out together. Why Why is a
Speaker 1: favorite winning called chalk? Daniel says it's horse racing, but
Speaker 1: I want to know the So here we go from
Speaker 1: vocabulary dot com. The history of chalk dates back to
Speaker 1: the old days of horse racing, when bookmakers would set
Speaker 1: the odds for each horse by riding them on a
Speaker 1: chalkboard at on track gambling stations. The odds would change
Speaker 1: during the pre race betting period depending on the amount
Speaker 1: wagered on each horse, so the book makers would often
Speaker 1: need to erase the post odds and chalk up new
Speaker 1: ones uh before beginning of the race. The bookies at
Speaker 1: the track had to be skillful with the chalk to
Speaker 1: keep their slate boards up to date with las ods.
Speaker 1: In reporting on horse racing around the turn of the
Speaker 1: twentieth century, sports journalists often referred to bookmakers with such
Speaker 1: flowery appellations as the lively Nights of the Chalk and blackboard,
Speaker 1: or more simply knights of the chalk. Chalk gradually came
Speaker 1: to stand for the bookmakers and their odds making through
Speaker 1: the process through the process of matonomy, defined by the
Speaker 1: Visual Thesaurus as substituting the name of an attribute or
Speaker 1: feature for the name of the thing itself. For instance,
Speaker 1: a racing column in the October fifteenth, nineteen oh three
Speaker 1: Atlantic Constitution reported the first race. The chalk figures made
Speaker 1: it look like five injuries and six favorites for the event.
Speaker 1: Those who followed the odds put up by the bookmakers
Speaker 1: could thus stay loyal to the chalk and bet on
Speaker 1: the favored horses, or they could look for an entrant
Speaker 1: with long odds that could potentially get a bigger payout.
Speaker 1: A quote from April twenty seven to nineteen oh seven
Speaker 1: Washington Post encapsulates the ambivalence that betters felt toward the
Speaker 1: chalk of the bookies. Chalk scares many a turf speculator.
Speaker 1: Let him pick a horse to win, and if he
Speaker 1: thinks he ought to be the favorites and the bookies
Speaker 1: laid a big price against him. Nine times out of ten,
Speaker 1: the horse won't be played.
Speaker 3: All right, listeners, I made a mistake.
Speaker 1: No, I'm fascinated by this. Uh and all right, so
Speaker 1: now we know. So that's great, so that I respect
Speaker 1: that you weren't afraid to ask the question. Um, and
Speaker 1: I've always known what chalk meant. I didn't know it.
Speaker 1: That's where it came from. So chalk just means all
Speaker 1: the favorites winning. So when you're filling out a bracket,
Speaker 1: picking all one seats make the final four as a
Speaker 1: chalk bracket. It happened though this year, the first time
Speaker 1: it happened since two thousand's fault. Yeah, let's see what
Speaker 1: happens next year on it. All right, Let's do a
Speaker 1: few listener questions before we get out of here.
Speaker 2: Logan, Nick, why do you still not have an NBA
Speaker 2: Awards vote? What is the process in order to get
Speaker 2: a vote? And do you think you could get one
Speaker 2: in the future. You seem like you'd be a pretty
Speaker 2: good voter.
Speaker 1: I would have thought, so, I don't know, And so
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 3: Maybe it's your relationship with Lebron.
Speaker 1: No, I don't I don't know who the It's fine.
Speaker 1: I really really wanted one a few years ago, and
Speaker 1: I tried to get one and I didn't. I think
Speaker 1: Kendrick Perkins got it instead, and I it just is
Speaker 1: what it is. So Zach Lowe gave his away, or
Speaker 1: gave his back. Shout out to Zach by the way
Speaker 1: for being back. Shout out to Simmons, congrats to him
Speaker 1: for getting Zach with the ringer. Oh, speaking of awards voters,
Speaker 1: there there's a young woman who covers the Lakers who
Speaker 1: I've never met, but she she asks Lebron some of
Speaker 1: the most kind of the question she asked Lebron leads
Speaker 1: to some of his best answers. She asked him a
Speaker 1: few weeks ago, if you guys saw the viral clip
Speaker 1: of someone asking Lebron about why he's compared basketball to
Speaker 1: music or jazz, and then he went on a nice
Speaker 1: little soliloquy about how basketball is like listening to jazz
Speaker 1: or different music. And then just the other day, she
Speaker 1: asked him about why it was important for him to
Speaker 1: bring back mine the game, and he gave a really
Speaker 1: interesting answer. Her name, and I apologize if I'm mispronounced,
Speaker 1: it is Claire Delone. She just tweeted she got an
Speaker 1: Awards vote, So that's awesome. Like, those are people that
Speaker 1: are at games and watching games and really covering teams.
Speaker 1: I'm totally cool with them having Awards votes. I listen.
Speaker 1: I shouldn't act like I'm not cool with other people.
Speaker 1: I since they have expanded the pool to include people
Speaker 1: that talk about the sport, commentators and stuff, I would
Speaker 1: have liked to have gotten one. I don't have one.
Speaker 1: It's fine, Bru's got one and Brew, you know, so
Speaker 1: first things first is covered. But Brew has one from
Speaker 1: back his days, you know, as a writer, and he's
Speaker 1: had one forever. All right, let's do a couple more.
Speaker 2: Uh, Brandon, do you think we'll look back on Giannis
Speaker 2: like we do Wilt, as in, how did someone so
Speaker 2: dominant not win more titles?
Speaker 1: Well, Joanna's got a long ways to go to we
Speaker 1: think of him as Wilt, But I do think Giannis,
Speaker 1: you know, Dame's injury in the Buck's future, like Giannis's
Speaker 1: ability to compete for championships despite being one of three
Speaker 1: best players in the league is very murky in the
Speaker 1: short term.
Speaker 2: Next, Uh, Jacob Santa Cruz local here, Nick, what is
Speaker 2: your favorite food spot in Santa Cruz. Would you would
Speaker 2: you love to try out a new spot. My suggestion
Speaker 2: to you is see bright DELI love your brother.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you, Jacob. I don't know much about Santa Cruz.
Speaker 1: People have seen me wear the Santa Cruz hoodie. It's
Speaker 1: because Demands's sister, our older daughter. My older daughter goes
Speaker 1: to U see Santa Cruz. But I you know, I've
Speaker 1: only been. I haven't spent a ton of time out there,
Speaker 1: just you know, moving her into college, picking her up
Speaker 1: stuff like that. So I don't know, but I will
Speaker 1: try seabright Delhi, all right? Last one?
Speaker 2: Uh bear if nick I was in New York City
Speaker 2: a couple of weeks ago and I got to and
Speaker 2: I got to stop by Trentage. Nice to see entrepreneurial
Speaker 2: ship runs in the family.
Speaker 1: Yeah, shout out to Trentage. Danielle Store is doing great.
Speaker 1: Former home of this podcast. All right, great job, everybody.
Speaker 1: I gotta get to TV again. Reminder we'll do a
Speaker 1: quick show tomorrow morning recapping Lakers Warriors. So set you know,
Speaker 1: subscribe like rate review. That really helps. By the way,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've looked demon say let me
Speaker 1: try to pull it up real quick quick. We are
Speaker 1: approaching two. We're at one hundred and ninety four thousand
Speaker 1: and change, so almost two hundred thousand subscribers. It'd be
Speaker 1: sick if we could somehow get to two hundred thousand,
Speaker 1: you know, early in the NBA playoffs and then maybe
Speaker 1: pop a big number during a playoff reaction show. Add
Speaker 1: some subscribers, so subscribe on YouTube, iTunes, Spotify, all that stuff.
Speaker 1: See you guys on TV in a few hours. What's right,