Speaker 1: You're tuned into Heat Check with Triste Quick on this
Speaker 1: end of year episode of the Heat Check. It's our
Speaker 1: special New Year's resolution episode, and I am here to
Speaker 1: give my resolutions for a whole bunch of players teams
Speaker 1: from the Atlanta Hawks and the Brooklyn Nets to Rudy
Speaker 1: Gobert and Grayson Allen. Oh yeah, we gotta talk about
Speaker 1: this too. The greatest regular season NBA performance of all
Speaker 1: time maybe from Luka Doncic, probably the second best, but
Speaker 1: I'll get into that. Also almost twenty twenty three, Nick,
Speaker 1: So do me a favor and drop that generic ass beat.
Speaker 1: So twenty twenty two is about to be history. And
Speaker 1: let's just say it's been a year to forget for
Speaker 1: a lot of people. Robert Sarver for one, Kyrie Irving another.
Speaker 1: List is probably pretty long for the people who would
Speaker 1: rather forget that twenty two existed. But we're not here
Speaker 1: for all that. We're here to do something different, and
Speaker 1: that is to spread positivity and to spread joy, because
Speaker 1: that is what is my resolution personally for twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: And with the new year comes a whole bunch of
Speaker 1: new opportunities, new opportunities to be better, new opportunities to
Speaker 1: be nicer, and that is why we'll call this episode
Speaker 1: and end this episode with our annual NBA New Year's Resolutions,
Speaker 1: where we peer into the crystal ball and divvy out
Speaker 1: resolutions for players and teams that could, let's face it,
Speaker 1: use a little positivity right now. But before we get
Speaker 1: into that, let's go over some of the recent news
Speaker 1: that's been popping around the league. We have to do it.
Speaker 1: We have to talk about this Dallas with Luca Doncic.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I folks, I was at dinner. Did
Speaker 1: you think like it would have made any sense to
Speaker 1: cancel dinner plans to watch the Dallas Mavericks take on
Speaker 1: the New York Knicks. Did anybody think that they needed
Speaker 1: to stop everything in their life for that game? No?
Speaker 1: I didn't. So I didn't get to see Lucas game.
Speaker 1: It's a confession. I didn't see it live. I had
Speaker 1: to watch it back after the fact. I had to
Speaker 1: see it on Twitter trending. My phone's blowing up, and
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm sad. I'm sad about it. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna live to regret it. I'm gonna know It's one
Speaker 1: of those where were you moments? I'm gonna know. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I was at AOC in Los Angeles, California, eating dinner
Speaker 1: with a friend when Luca dropped sixty plus twenty one
Speaker 1: and ten. There's you got thoughts. You're trying to do
Speaker 1: some research and you're making that all happen, and then
Speaker 1: you're doing it on the fly, and all of a
Speaker 1: sudden you look up and someone else has already had
Speaker 1: the same take. There's probably nothing worse than that, truthfully,
Speaker 1: to be a take artist, a flamethrower, or an opinionist.
Speaker 1: You look up, you research, you prep, you're right, you're
Speaker 1: about to talk, and then all of a sudden, Nick
Speaker 1: fucking Right, First Things First comes through and drops one
Speaker 1: right down on your head. So I'm not written Nick
Speaker 1: right hater. I actually like Nick Wright a lot, but
Speaker 1: damn I did not see Nick Wright coming in and
Speaker 1: pickpocketing me. Like his name is Luka doncic on Luca's take,
Speaker 1: so what he said was exactly what I wanted to say.
Speaker 1: Sixty twenty one to ten was a top five regular
Speaker 1: season performance in the entire history of the NBA, not
Speaker 1: just the last generation. Since the birth of the NBA,
Speaker 1: Luca's performance on that night when I was at a
Speaker 1: random restaurant against the New York Knicks. Was a one
Speaker 1: of the greatest top five performances ever.
Speaker 2: But I'm going to give you a couple of reasons
Speaker 2: why Luca's game yesterday is the best game any of
Speaker 2: us have ever seen. First of all, the context of it.
Speaker 2: His team's down nine with thirty five seconds left. In
Speaker 2: the last twenty years, thirteen eight hundred and eighty five
Speaker 2: teams have been down nine or more with thirty five
Speaker 2: or less seconds left. You know how many of them won?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 2: One now it was zero. Now it's one second reason.
Speaker 2: He's the only guy in league history that could have
Speaker 2: done that, that could put up that. That's that line.
Speaker 2: It's not just that he's the only guy that has
Speaker 2: don to sixty twenty ten. He's the only guy that
Speaker 2: Colt so I had.
Speaker 1: Done all the research. Right, Yes, Nick got that zero
Speaker 1: for thirteen thousand, eight hundred and forty four stat line
Speaker 1: from Sam Quinn to and now I have to give
Speaker 1: Nick as props and say, yup, Luca. Luca's performance was
Speaker 1: one of the best regular season games in nearly twenty years.
Speaker 1: But before we get deeper into this, Welt Chamberlain holds
Speaker 1: six out of the ten highest scoring games in history
Speaker 1: and fifteen of the top twenty five, and he did
Speaker 1: this mostly before TV, so he is we have to
Speaker 1: put Well Chamberlain in a category of himself. Someday I'll
Speaker 1: probably drop a video about this on what everyone gets
Speaker 1: wrong about his one hundred point game. But not today, folks,
Speaker 1: I got too much time. I got a reservation in
Speaker 1: about forty five minutes. So today is about Luca to
Speaker 1: understand why he did what he did was insane. What
Speaker 1: are the greatest ras ular season game performances in NBA history? Well,
Speaker 1: number one, Denver's David Thompson put up seventy three, seven
Speaker 1: and two on the Pistons on April nineteenth, or on
Speaker 1: April ninth, nineteen seventy eight, excuse me, on the day
Speaker 1: of the NBA season. Thompson was once called by Bill
Speaker 1: Walton the perfect basketball player. He was locked in a
Speaker 1: battle at that point for the scoring title with George Gervin,
Speaker 1: so he needed a huge game, and he went out
Speaker 1: and scored thirty two points in the first quarter, thirteen
Speaker 1: to fourteen, shooting six or six from the line. The
Speaker 1: only problem was that it was the final game ever
Speaker 1: in Detroit's Cobo Arena, and they wanted him to go
Speaker 1: out a winner, so they legit through the kitchen, sink
Speaker 1: at him and held him only twenty in the second
Speaker 1: half the pit. This guy could add hundred points. The
Speaker 1: Pistons even managed to pull out a win, and Thompson
Speaker 1: fell just short of the scoring title despite shooting seventy
Speaker 1: four percent from the floor. Why because George Gervin went
Speaker 1: off for sixty three on the same day. Insane, unreal,
Speaker 1: just really something for the masses there. On March twenty eight,
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety, Michael Jordan mj Airness dropped sixty nine nice
Speaker 1: eighteen and six on the Cavaliers. The game's probably the
Speaker 1: closest one to Lucas performance because MJ put up eighteen
Speaker 1: rebounds to go with four steals and a block. That's ridiculous.
Speaker 1: More incredible, he went twenty three for twenty seven from
Speaker 1: the field, and in MJ style, the Bulls ended up
Speaker 1: really outlasting a good Cavs teams one hundred and seventeen,
Speaker 1: one hundred and thirteen. Probably the greatest regular season performance
Speaker 1: of all time, that's what people say. At least I
Speaker 1: was like four. So do did I do? I remember
Speaker 1: it off the top? No? I don't. David Robinson seventy one,
Speaker 1: fourteen and five on the last day of the nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety four season. He won the scoring title over Shack.
Speaker 1: In that game, he faced double and triple teams all
Speaker 1: night and he still managed to shoot sixty three percent
Speaker 1: from the field. He scored the first eighteen Spurs points
Speaker 1: of the game, and uh oh yeah. He ended up
Speaker 1: winning the scoring title with twenty nine point six points
Speaker 1: per game because Shaq only had thirty two in that game,
Speaker 1: So that was a sick performance. Ridiculous seventy one points
Speaker 1: like seventy one points the next day. Very important day.
Speaker 1: Probably one of my favorite. I think this is my
Speaker 1: personal favorite. January twenty second, two thousand and six. Kobe
Speaker 1: drops eighty one. Uugh, let me say it again. Kobe
Speaker 1: drops eighty one, six and two in forty two minutes
Speaker 1: of action. What an absurd stat line. He was twenty
Speaker 1: eight for forty six in the field, perfect Kobe non
Speaker 1: efficient type performance, including going seven for thirteen from three.
Speaker 1: The craziest thing about this game, though, the Lakers were
Speaker 1: trailing by eighteen in the third quarter, and from that
Speaker 1: point on, Kobe put up fifty one points and the
Speaker 1: Lakers absolutely curb stomped the Raptors, beating them by almost twenty.
Speaker 1: He had fifty five points in the second half. That
Speaker 1: is Kobe, you think you have me and you do
Speaker 1: not have me. Bonkers. So Luca's crazy stat line twenty
Speaker 1: one freaking rebounds, I don't know what that is about.
Speaker 1: And he probably could have twenty assists as well his
Speaker 1: as we know, he doesn't have a lot of help
Speaker 1: out there. Spencer did when he hit a couple of
Speaker 1: huge shots down the stretch. But the fact that Luca
Speaker 1: put up this number sixty twenty one to ten and
Speaker 1: they came back, it wasn't just the stat line. Is
Speaker 1: that they came back and won when they were down
Speaker 1: nine points with what a minute left to go, thirty
Speaker 1: seconds left to go, thirty five seconds left, ended up
Speaker 1: setting the game to overtime. And it's not just that
Speaker 1: he scored sixty. He had fifty last week. But he
Speaker 1: scored sixty and had ten assists, and he probably could
Speaker 1: have had twenty one. Well, like all the Maps, couldn't
Speaker 1: hit an open shot to save their life. He was
Speaker 1: so good in every aspects of the game. He had
Speaker 1: two steals, he had one block. It was just disgusting.
Speaker 1: And then the best part about Luca because I love
Speaker 1: him and he's just so fat and just such a
Speaker 1: regular guy. You look at him and he's just the
Speaker 1: most unassuming, insane basketball player. Like all those other players.
Speaker 1: You look at them, all those other top five performances
Speaker 1: in the NBA. You look at those guys and you go, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's an athlete. Yeah that guy could put that guy
Speaker 1: could put seventy one on my head. Not Luca. Look,
Speaker 1: you look at Luca and you say, uh, is this
Speaker 1: guy my task rabbit? Is he about to help me move?
Speaker 1: That's Luca, Like, Luca looks like he does need a
Speaker 1: recovery beer, because that's what he said, I need a
Speaker 1: recovery beer. And fortunately for all of us, Lasco Brewery
Speaker 1: immediately jumped on the Luca train started launching their recovery
Speaker 1: beer addition. In an IG post, they said, for every
Speaker 1: tired Luca who needs a beer for regeneration, we have
Speaker 1: brewed recovery beer. How do they do that so fast?
Speaker 1: I also need a recovery beer. From watching the highlights,
Speaker 1: I can't imagine what Luca felt in that game. So
Speaker 1: those are my top five regular season games of all
Speaker 1: kind of time. Who am I missing? I feel like
Speaker 1: I'm missing someone, but let me know who. It's almost
Speaker 1: a new year, so I'm gonna turn over a new leaf.
Speaker 1: I've got some resolutions for a number of players and
Speaker 1: teams that I need to give out. So let's start
Speaker 1: in New Orleans where the Pelicans. They have a brief downturn.
Speaker 1: Brandon Ingram's been out, we know that, and I don't
Speaker 1: know when he's coming back, but that's an issue, but
Speaker 1: they're back to their winning ways. Zion the other night
Speaker 1: had forty three and people are calling him exactly what
Speaker 1: he is, which is a football player that plays basketball
Speaker 1: on a very talented team. But I haven't New Year's
Speaker 1: resolution concerning Zion, and I'm not. I'm you guys gotta
Speaker 1: help me stay, stay steadfast to this because I don't
Speaker 1: know it's gonna be easy. You know, New Year's resolutions
Speaker 1: are never really gonna be easy. They they take work,
Speaker 1: they take dedication, and this one's gonna take a lot
Speaker 1: of dedication and an accountability partner, and that is that is.
Speaker 1: I am not gonna talk about Zion's way anymore. I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna I'm not gonna make any more Zion fat jokes.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna say, oh, you know, Zion, where's your
Speaker 1: where's your beignet? Oh Zion, Zion's been eating a little
Speaker 1: extra kreole. I'm not gonna be like ooh Zion, Zion
Speaker 1: had some steak last night, That's why he was a
Speaker 1: little I'm not gonna do any of that. Do I
Speaker 1: regret saying he was out of shape last year? No?
Speaker 1: I do not. I am not going to regret that.
Speaker 1: I am not going to apologize for that. Do I
Speaker 1: regret saying that before anyone else that he was gonna
Speaker 1: miss the entire season last year? No? No, I do
Speaker 1: not regret that. We were right on both accounts. But
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean it's nice. So we're gonna try to
Speaker 1: be nice to Zion because listen, do I regret making
Speaker 1: light of his weight issues when he was going through
Speaker 1: trials and tribulations with his health, Well, I gotta do, actually,
Speaker 1: especially when he said that those kind of comments and
Speaker 1: I never made them to be mean, but he said
Speaker 1: that they really hurt him, not my jokes in particular.
Speaker 1: I'm sure he didn't even listen to him, but you
Speaker 1: know the rhetoric of the media just saying that he's fat.
Speaker 1: He said, hey, that's he goes hey, that's mean, and
Speaker 1: I was like, damn, damn. I should probably stop talking
Speaker 1: about Zion. Do I think he's gonna still have conditioning issues? Probably,
Speaker 1: Like he's he's a big boy. This is like a
Speaker 1: big boy like Shack. Shack has had his own trials
Speaker 1: and tribulations. But I'm not going to say anything about
Speaker 1: Zion being out of shape because he eats too much.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna say anything about Zion getting injured or
Speaker 1: twisting his knee because he's eating too much creole or
Speaker 1: I'm not going to anymore. And if he stays on
Speaker 1: the court and he can't stay on the court, we'll
Speaker 1: cross that bridge when we get there. So down in Orlando,
Speaker 1: let's move on. I've also been pretty harsh on the
Speaker 1: Magic franchise, mostly because people don't really care about them
Speaker 1: and they have no fans and they're losing franchise, and
Speaker 1: their ownership group isn't great and they really don't draft
Speaker 1: the right players, and their pr team is maybe the
Speaker 1: worst I've ever seen in all of sports. And that's
Speaker 1: really saying something. But my newly Ears resolution for them
Speaker 1: is to just not say anything mean about them or
Speaker 1: doubt anything about Paolo ban Carol. I'm not doubting anything
Speaker 1: about him again. The guy is special. He's gonna win
Speaker 1: Rookie of the Year. I saw him play live in college.
Speaker 1: I've seen him play live in the pros. I've seen
Speaker 1: him play live in the Summer League. And I'm damn
Speaker 1: near ready to say that Palo could take the reins
Speaker 1: from Lebron James for the first time. I'm ready to
Speaker 1: say if it's anyone, it will be him. He pad
Speaker 1: turns his game after Lebron. That's what he said. The
Speaker 1: person that I pattered my game off the most is
Speaker 1: Lebron James. And you can see it in his passing.
Speaker 1: You can see it in terms of how bald dominant
Speaker 1: he can be, how he can do many things, and
Speaker 1: he's very dynamic on the basketball court. But good lord,
Speaker 1: Powo is balling out just absolutely insane. Only one player
Speaker 1: in NBA history has had more twenty point games before
Speaker 1: Christmas their rookieyear. That's and his likeness is on half
Speaker 1: of the shoes in the league. Michael Jordan and Powell, Polo.
Speaker 1: That's it, Michael Jordan and Powlo. Powlo probably is gonna
Speaker 1: make the All Star Game. He might make All NBA thirteam.
Speaker 1: He probably won't, but he is. He is just a treasure.
Speaker 1: And he's turned a team that didn't make any damn sense,
Speaker 1: a team with misfit spacing, a team with too many
Speaker 1: players of the same position, and he's helped unlock Bull Bull.
Speaker 1: He's unleashed Franz Wagner. I mean, I've spent so much
Speaker 1: time talking about the magic because of Powlo. He has
Speaker 1: transformed this franchise like Lebron James transformed the Cavaliers. Ban
Speaker 1: Carro is actually better than advertised. He should have probably
Speaker 1: gone first when he was seventeen, Like Palo ban Carro
Speaker 1: could have gone first in twenty seventeen, and I think
Speaker 1: it would have been the right call. Like this is
Speaker 1: like when he was when he was fifteen years old,
Speaker 1: eating Captain crunch for breakfast, lunch and dinner. He probably
Speaker 1: could have been a proven So I'm not questioning Palo
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty three at all or beyond, because there's
Speaker 1: frankly nothing that he can do to surprise me. Anymore.
Speaker 1: Does Palo need work? Absolutely, does he need to be
Speaker 1: a better ball handler? He's six fucking ten, Okay, Like, yes,
Speaker 1: does he need to learn that part of the game.
Speaker 1: Does that need to increase in his dynamic ability? Sure?
Speaker 1: But he's six ten, two sixty and just an absolute
Speaker 1: wrecking ball. Lots of shit happening in Atlanta. That that
Speaker 1: leads me to my next resolution. My new year's resolution
Speaker 1: for the Hawks is just really to put my thinking
Speaker 1: cap on and my inspector krik had on and find
Speaker 1: out what the fuck is actually happening down there. Because
Speaker 1: if you think the beef between Trey and coach Nate
Speaker 1: is bad, if you think that was weird, like a
Speaker 1: little spooky, things just disintegrated. Because now the Hawks have
Speaker 1: taken another incredibly bizarre step of firing their fucking GM
Speaker 1: before Christmas, the same GM that almost won GM of
Speaker 1: the Year like less than eighteen months ago. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I am going to sink my teeth thin, make some
Speaker 1: calls and find out for y'all what is happening. The
Speaker 1: Hawks are on the verge of becoming a dumpster fire.
Speaker 1: To be honest, I didn't see it coming when they
Speaker 1: went went to the Eastern Conference Finals, did you guys?
Speaker 1: I don't know if anyone saw it coming. I don't
Speaker 1: think I'm alone, but it is toxic down there. Has
Speaker 1: a GM ever been fired before Christmas when it didn't
Speaker 1: involve like some sort of allegation he didn't do anything wrong.
Speaker 1: He's just been in that. Like, I can't overestimate how
Speaker 1: rare and unusual move this is. Teams, especially ones just
Speaker 1: eighteen months from an Eastern Conference Finals team does not
Speaker 1: do that. Schlank himself, who's still on staff, but not
Speaker 1: the GM, which is also weird as well, Like they
Speaker 1: just are like, well, we have to pay you no
Speaker 1: matter what, so fucking get our coffee, bitch. That's basically
Speaker 1: what they're doing to travish Lank right now. They're like,
Speaker 1: we can't if we fire you, we have to pay
Speaker 1: you and you're unemployed, so we're just gonna keep you
Speaker 1: on staff. We're gonna make you do some bad shit,
Speaker 1: put the Yellowstone brand on you so you can never
Speaker 1: fucking leave and tell our secrets anyway. This is what
Speaker 1: Travis Schlank said himself and his exit presser. He said
Speaker 1: throughout the season, Hawk's owner Tony and I had and
Speaker 1: multiple conversations about how I have been feeling in the
Speaker 1: new year, Tommy has suggested I take a step back
Speaker 1: prioritize my family. WHOA so he's officially an advisor, but listen, yeah,
Speaker 1: one of the hottest in the league, a guy who
Speaker 1: signed in a lucrative extension, is now essentially out of
Speaker 1: a job. And the reason is the dysfunction in the
Speaker 1: Atlanta Hawks organization. All the things that they did wrong,
Speaker 1: all of the contracts that they extended, extending John Collins,
Speaker 1: going out and giving more money to Clint Capella, making
Speaker 1: that de Jonte Murray trade. The lists over and over
Speaker 1: and over of what he has done has been very suspect.
Speaker 1: And of course number one on that list is Trey Young.
Speaker 1: And whatever is going on with Treyng and the people
Speaker 1: that Travishlank hired to interact with Treyjung is not good.
Speaker 1: It either is Trey Young or it's everyone that Travish
Speaker 1: Flank hired. And you know what, now we're gonna find
Speaker 1: out who it really was. His short career, he's already
Speaker 1: killed one coach, he's threatened to kill another. He's buried
Speaker 1: a GM that we thought might be executive of the year,
Speaker 1: and now the franchise might be shook as well. So
Speaker 1: maybe with a new GM, Treyjung will find someone that
Speaker 1: makes him happy. So yeah, my resolution is to look
Speaker 1: into the Atlanta Hawks, keep my eye open, keep both
Speaker 1: eyes open, and find out what's happening with this dumpster
Speaker 1: fire and report back. I really, really seriously pondered whether
Speaker 1: my next New Year's resolution should be to not talk
Speaker 1: about the Lakers again until they break five hundred. But
Speaker 1: then that would mean no Laker talk on the heat check,
Speaker 1: wouldn't it. So I realized that would maybe make no
Speaker 1: sense for us, and then it would maybe mean no
Speaker 1: Laker talk until they actually have their first round pick
Speaker 1: of their own and maybe become a team that can
Speaker 1: actually compete, and that's probably twenty twenty nine. So I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna make a commitment to do to not talk
Speaker 1: about the Lakers until you know, I'm damn near forty
Speaker 1: years old. I can't do that. I'm more than forty
Speaker 1: years old. Instead, my New Year's resolution is just simply
Speaker 1: to enjoy the Lake Show, because there's nothing more pornographic
Speaker 1: than to know that the Lakers have let go of
Speaker 1: the rope. Truthfully, like to know that they have given up,
Speaker 1: and that new reports rob Polinka coming out and saying, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, we might just stand pat the new reports
Speaker 1: or the Lakers are considering doing absolutely nothing again at
Speaker 1: the trade deadline. That is two years in a row.
Speaker 1: If you're keeping a track that is just that is
Speaker 1: just enough for me to subside on for decades. According
Speaker 1: to The La Times Dan Wolkie, the Lakers are seriously
Speaker 1: considering to just say fuck it and ride out the
Speaker 1: season with the status quo. That means no trades, no
Speaker 1: major deals, no desperate plays at the deadline for a
Speaker 1: player who's going to further burden this team, and no
Speaker 1: trading of their own two first rounders left in this decade.
Speaker 1: I know your first question is the same as mine.
Speaker 1: How do you think Bron's gonna feel about this? Well?
Speaker 1: Not great as it turns out. This is what Broun
Speaker 1: said in the Pressure the other day. I'm a winner.
Speaker 1: I want to win, and I want to win and
Speaker 1: give myself a chance to win and still compete for chips.
Speaker 1: That has always been my passion, That has always been
Speaker 1: my goal since I entered the league as an eighteen
Speaker 1: year old out of Akron, Ohio. I know the steps
Speaker 1: it takes to get there, do you, though, Braun? Do you?
Speaker 1: But once you get there and know how to get there,
Speaker 1: playing basketball at this level, just to be playing basketball
Speaker 1: is not in my DNA. Pause. If you don't want
Speaker 1: to play basketball anymore, just to play basketball anymore, then
Speaker 1: you have two options. One leave the LA Lakers, two
Speaker 1: retire because it's not happening anymore there. So then he says,
Speaker 1: this is not my DNA, So we'll see what happens
Speaker 1: and see how fresh my mind stays over the next
Speaker 1: couple of years. That seems like a guy who is
Speaker 1: trying to push on the leverage button. Yeah, I could
Speaker 1: possibly just take my ball and go home. I could
Speaker 1: just andrew luck this bitch because he doesn't want to lose.
Speaker 1: That's why he deleted a tweet from a year ago
Speaker 1: recently about how he'll never miss the playoffs again in
Speaker 1: his career. He knows that was bullshit, bullshit. He knows
Speaker 1: what the future in LA looks like. And folks, it's
Speaker 1: not great. It's not being five hundred, it's not making
Speaker 1: the playing team, and it's certainly not making the fucking
Speaker 1: playoffs and contending for a championship. So I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: go out of my way to stoke the fire, but
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna poke the Laker bear anymore than I
Speaker 1: have to. But I'm just gonna get my marshmallows, am
Speaker 1: i Hershey Bars extra dark, and get ready to make
Speaker 1: s'mores over the dumpster fire that is the La Lakers.
Speaker 1: For a long, long, long time. Since I've spent so
Speaker 1: much of the last three years talking about the Brooklyn Nets,
Speaker 1: it only seems fitting that my New Year's resolution be
Speaker 1: about Ben Simmons and being nicer to him. Really, it's
Speaker 1: sort of simple. The things that Ben Simmons did that
Speaker 1: drove me insane are mostly in the past. He's a
Speaker 1: product of other people trying to fit a square peg
Speaker 1: into a round hole. And you know what, that's not
Speaker 1: what the Nets are doing right now. They're using Ben
Speaker 1: Simmons like the type of tool he is. Since he
Speaker 1: got back onto the court, Ben Simmons has been, let's
Speaker 1: be honest, like very good, very good, like great, kind
Speaker 1: of great, and he's a huge reason that the Nets
Speaker 1: are the hottest team in the NBA right now, besides
Speaker 1: Jacques Bond. How good is Ben Simmons been of late?
Speaker 1: He has the Nets best net rating on the team
Speaker 1: plus twenty one point seven. He has the best defensive
Speaker 1: rating on the team one oh six point six. And
Speaker 1: get this, folks, Ben Simmons, Ben fucking Simmons. This is insane.
Speaker 1: I had to check and recheck. Has the highest offensive team,
Speaker 1: highest offensive rating of any starter on the Nets one
Speaker 1: twenty seven point nine, highest total rating, highest defensive rating,
Speaker 1: highest offensive rating. Do you remember that this team has
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving and Kevin fucking de Rant. The question is houseway.
Speaker 1: How lee it to Kyrie to explain it? He said,
Speaker 1: I think he could probably answer that better. But it's
Speaker 1: me as a teammate just seeing him smile, have fun,
Speaker 1: be competitive, that's him being himself. So anytime he could
Speaker 1: just be himself and trust that we have his back,
Speaker 1: I feel like that's the best version of himself. And
Speaker 1: you know what, Thanks, Thanks Ben. I'm going to make
Speaker 1: this resolution. I'm happy for you. I'm happy for Ben
Speaker 1: and when Ben is playing like this and more importantly,
Speaker 1: is healthy, because that's important as well. The next team
Speaker 1: could be very dangerous. They could be very very hard
Speaker 1: to be moving forward, and I've been okie doked by
Speaker 1: them before, but I think this is a real team.
Speaker 1: I think this is a team that could actually compete
Speaker 1: for a chip. I think everybody in the East is
Speaker 1: very vulnerable, even in the Boston Celtics. We saw them
Speaker 1: lose the Orlando Magic twice. And you know what. My
Speaker 1: New Year's resolution, my biggest one, really is to be
Speaker 1: happy for Ben Simmons and to be nice to Ben Simmons,
Speaker 1: and to find reasons to praise Ben Simmons, because why,
Speaker 1: this is a man who's broken and he needs every
Speaker 1: piece of help that he can get, and this is
Speaker 1: a version of Ben we can get behind. My final
Speaker 1: New Year's resolution is aimed at two players, Rudy Gobert
Speaker 1: and Grayson Allen, two least like players in the NBA.
Speaker 1: Most likely my resolution, you're gonna say, Trista, are you
Speaker 1: gonna be nice to them? You're gonna be is your
Speaker 1: resolutions to just say nice things about them, find things
Speaker 1: that they do well, Fuck no, it's to point out
Speaker 1: every time these fuckers do something stupid, because I feel
Speaker 1: they get the benefit of the doubt way more than
Speaker 1: they do even though no one likes them. This year,
Speaker 1: I resolved to absolutely positively not change my mind on
Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert. Everyone tries to tell me he's a defensive
Speaker 1: player of the Year. Everyone tries to tell me he's
Speaker 1: actually a nice guy. He just made a mistake during
Speaker 1: COVID times. Everyone tries to tell me, you know what,
Speaker 1: he's just not being used well. Everyone tries to tell
Speaker 1: me that Donovan Mitchell is a problem. But you know what, no, no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: it is Rudy Gobert. Rudy Gobert fucking sucks. Everything about
Speaker 1: him sucks. His face sucks, his hair sucks, his body
Speaker 1: makeup sucks. His defensive although he plays okay to perimeter defense,
Speaker 1: He's just not that guy. He is not worth the money,
Speaker 1: He is not worth the trade value. He is just
Speaker 1: not really worth the breath that's coming out of my
Speaker 1: lungs right now. But you know what, I'm doing it for, y'all.
Speaker 1: Fuck Rudy Gobert. Part of that is the reason that
Speaker 1: he tries to spend so much time trying to change
Speaker 1: our mind that he's not a jerk. He is. There's
Speaker 1: a full blown documentary about him not being a jerk,
Speaker 1: And you know what, when you do that, that shows
Speaker 1: you are said jerk. Recently, Donovan Mitchell as we know,
Speaker 1: gave his views on Rudy, and let's just say, what
Speaker 1: this like. He's doing everything he can to keep the peace,
Speaker 1: but he doesn't like Rudy Gobert either. No one does.
Speaker 1: One of the reasons. I like Donovan Mitchell very very
Speaker 1: very very nice but very honest guy. And then, of
Speaker 1: course after he said like, yeah, it was all about COVID,
Speaker 1: that's when I really started to not like him. Gobert's
Speaker 1: PR team went into crisis mode again, got him a
Speaker 1: feature article on the New York Times. What got Did
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell get a feature article on the New York Times?
Speaker 1: No CAA CIA is Donovan Mitchell's agency. He couldn't get
Speaker 1: a feature article in the New York Times, even though
Speaker 1: he's having an MVP caliber year. But Rudy Gobert, toiling
Speaker 1: away in Minnesota with one of the worst trades in
Speaker 1: NBA history, just doing absolutely god nothing, gets a feature
Speaker 1: article in the New York fucking Times. I digress. It
Speaker 1: was the fluffiest of fluff pieces. Here's what Rudy says.
Speaker 1: A lot of people celebrate my failures. A lot of
Speaker 1: people celebrate my failures. It's kind of a mark of respect.
Speaker 1: For me just to have people that wait until I
Speaker 1: do something wrong or until my teams start losing, then
Speaker 1: they become really, really loud, and when my teams do well,
Speaker 1: it's quiet. Again. Pause hold up, stop the press right now.
Speaker 1: People shit on you all the time. Even when you win,
Speaker 1: they're shitting on you. No one likes you when you're winning,
Speaker 1: because you can't win when the lights are bright. Rudy,
Speaker 1: that's why we don't like you. Continue, he says. He
Speaker 1: embraces that because it's part of the external noise that
Speaker 1: comes with all the success that we've had in Utah
Speaker 1: over the last few years in his career. Once I
Speaker 1: start to have success, when I started winning Defensive Player
Speaker 1: of the Year All NBA, begin an All Star, brag,
Speaker 1: brag brag, When my team when we started winning like
Speaker 1: fifty and stuff, the people on social media are always
Speaker 1: the loudest. Pause. Pause again, you're saying all I hate
Speaker 1: stems for your success and not because I don't know
Speaker 1: you shut the league down, your stance on COVID, the
Speaker 1: fact that you liked of Elon must tweet about your
Speaker 1: pronouns being prosecute, fauci, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, back to the
Speaker 1: point we finally get to the entire point of the
Speaker 1: fluff piece, which was to address how Donovan Mitchell told
Speaker 1: the truth about Rudy, and Rudy says this, I think
Speaker 1: it was a tough situation for me in Utah, just
Speaker 1: like it was a tough situation for him. Things happen,
Speaker 1: and sometimes people can do things to you that can
Speaker 1: hurt you, a lot of times it's out of fear,
Speaker 1: you know, So you just have to grow through that
Speaker 1: and see past that. Rudy was then asked, yeah, you
Speaker 1: mentioned people do things that will hurt you, do you
Speaker 1: mean Donovan Mitchell and he goes, I mean generally that's life, right, right, right, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: just psychoanalys just the general society when we're talking about
Speaker 1: Donovan Mitchell shitting on you in the most classy way. Okay, victim, Rudy,
Speaker 1: Rudy's the victim. Everyone hates Rudy for no reason. We're
Speaker 1: just all being gas let that Rudy's just this an
Speaker 1: awesome guy and that everyone doesn't like him for no
Speaker 1: fucking reason. Okay, Okay, So my resolution is to never
Speaker 1: take the boot off of his neck, because you know what,
Speaker 1: he's gonna do everything that he can to weasel out
Speaker 1: of all the bad things that he does and try
Speaker 1: to spin it into something good for Rudy. Which brings
Speaker 1: me to Grayson Allen, maybe the other person in the
Speaker 1: league that I like less than Rudy Gobert. He's probably
Speaker 1: in the running for top two least like player in
Speaker 1: the NBA by fans, by players, all of it. So
Speaker 1: in a game this week against the Bulls, Grayson Allen
Speaker 1: did Grace and Allen things when he always does it
Speaker 1: against the Bulls. He's a fucking relentless menace against the
Speaker 1: Bulls because remember he almost hurt Alex Crusoe last year
Speaker 1: and Alex Cruso had to make a whole thing out
Speaker 1: of it, and then he didn't shake Alex ccruzo's hand,
Speaker 1: and then he didn't apologize. You guys remember this. But
Speaker 1: he's doing something against and against the Bulls. So Grayceon
Speaker 1: Allen did Grayson Allen things and cheap shot at de
Speaker 1: mar de rozen in they in the head. Are you shocked?
Speaker 1: I am just absolutely shocked. I am beside myself. You
Speaker 1: could just flip me over with a feather right now.
Speaker 1: This is what he said. This is what DeRozan said,
Speaker 1: I felt a hit. I felt like it went across
Speaker 1: the middle. I felt like I went across the middle
Speaker 1: in a football game and tried to catch a slot route.
Speaker 1: So he cheap shots him in the back of the head,
Speaker 1: straight from Grayson's playbook, and DeRozan, of course he was pissed.
Speaker 1: So after the game he said, yeah, it's his track record.
Speaker 1: If it was Boban, I probably wouldn't have done. Nothing.
Speaker 1: Can't tell you how much I love tomar de Rozan
Speaker 1: simultaneously just slamming Grayson Allen and praising Boban. I love Bobon.
Speaker 1: We all do. He's just like an absolute treasure. Zach Levine.
Speaker 1: By the way, Tim McMahon is now attaching to a
Speaker 1: possible Mavericks trade, so you file that away in your
Speaker 1: tickler file. Well, Zach attacked the entire He watched the
Speaker 1: entire charade. He said this, Ah, yeah, we know Grayson
Speaker 1: Allen this track record. Pat got the foul, but Tamar
Speaker 1: got elbowed in the back of a head. Tamarrow responded
Speaker 1: the right way. The next twenty minutes, you saw what happened. Yep,
Speaker 1: Bulls came back. They won the game in part because
Speaker 1: they were pissed about Grayson. Allen. Grayson out there cost
Speaker 1: in bucks wins they very much need right now because
Speaker 1: the bucks don't look very good. Right. What did Grayson
Speaker 1: have to say? Probably nothing if you included the If
Speaker 1: your answer included the word bullshit. Yeah, just not taking
Speaker 1: any accountability, because that's Grace and Allen. Yep, here it is.
Speaker 1: You go, Grayson, tell us what you said. It was
Speaker 1: exactly what the video showed. I went to set a screen,
Speaker 1: got bumped into Jamorrow, and when you get bumped into somebody,
Speaker 1: you put your arm out to stop yourself. I didn't
Speaker 1: try to run him over. I mean, he was upset
Speaker 1: he got blindsided by his screen. Dude, you're using the
Speaker 1: word blindside to describe a basketball play. You are at
Speaker 1: fault when you get when you hit someone in their
Speaker 1: blind spot. That is a one cheap shot by you.
Speaker 1: And then he says this. They asked him, Hey, did
Speaker 1: you apologize to like like you were supposed to do
Speaker 1: Alex Cruse last year, And he was like, why I
Speaker 1: was trying to He's talking to somebody else at the time.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean, I just just never spoke of them.
Speaker 1: I just don't know what happened. It has never spoke
Speaker 1: of them at the play. So the answer is no, no,
Speaker 1: you did not speak to him. There's another Grace and
Speaker 1: Allen making an excuse about why you didn't take accountability,
Speaker 1: why he didn't apologize, Why isn't his fault. It's just
Speaker 1: are they not? Is Rudy Gobert and Grace and Allen
Speaker 1: just not the same person? They are the worst? They
Speaker 1: are the worst. What's that song like? This is why
Speaker 1: you suck? This is why you suck? Like this is
Speaker 1: one of those situations where Grace and Allen just needs
Speaker 1: to go trade him. Even the bulls Collar commentary was like, Yeah,
Speaker 1: nobody deserves a one to two punch more than Grace
Speaker 1: and Allen. Just give him a two piece chicken nugget
Speaker 1: meal and get this chink thing out over with. And
Speaker 1: that's my final resolution for this New year's edition of
Speaker 1: He Checked. My final resolution is to always cover these
Speaker 1: random kind of stories because I think this is what
Speaker 1: the NBA needs. I think this is what makes the
Speaker 1: NBA so fun, so interesting to There's always a great play,
Speaker 1: of course, there's always Lucas sixty. There's always drama like
Speaker 1: Travis Slank getting deep six by the Atlanta Hawks. And
Speaker 1: there's always gonna be guys that we all hate. We
Speaker 1: want to find ways to just affirm our amount that
Speaker 1: we hate them, so love and love and happiness and
Speaker 1: hate kind of New Year's Resolution episode. And there's always
Speaker 1: gonna be cheap shot artists like Grayson Allen, And when
Speaker 1: they do Grayceon and Allen things, I'll be here to
Speaker 1: call them out. That is all the time that we
Speaker 1: have for the heat Check. We will back Monday. I
Speaker 1: don't know if we're gonna be back Monday, maybe Tuesday
Speaker 1: for an all new episode. Check out the feed for
Speaker 1: past episodes and many episodes which drop almost every single day.
Speaker 1: Do not forget to follow us in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: Trade deadline is just around the corner, folks, and the
Speaker 1: All Star Game, which I need to get my credentials for.
Speaker 1: Do not forget to download subscribe. Please tell your friends
Speaker 1: and follow us on social at this heat check and
Speaker 1: interest to crick on TikTok. Thank you guys, and I
Speaker 1: will see you back in studio next Monday